I do not own either One Piece or anything by Tolkien.

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One Hat to Rule them All

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Chapter 1: The One Hat

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This will be a series of one-shots, with the roles and situations portrayed by the characters changing from one chapter to the next. Enjoy!

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The tall imposing figure of the Garp the Grey loomed out of the dark inside the Hobbithole, "Is it secret!? Is it safe!?" he demanded of the pink haired and bespectacled boy. Prodded forward by an unyielding hand, Coby led the wizard to the chest where he kept the strange gift from his eccentric uncle, not noticing how his usually fearless mentor was looking warily about, snapping his focus towards the slightest sound. As soon as Coby found it, a raggedy old straw hat, the giant of a man snatched it from his pudgy hand and threw it on the kitchen table.

With earnest eyes the wizard plopped a piece of cooked meat on top of the hat and stepped back. After a few moments he gestured at his companion, "Pick it up." When Coby hesitated Garp just glared and barked, "Pick it up! It should be perfectly safe." Not reassured, Coby still obeyed, and as he held it up, Garp stood up and stepped away, staring into the darkened house as if he dared not even look at the object of his foreboding. "What can you see? Can you see anything different?"

"Nothing," Coby answered as he turned his uncle's hat over in his hands. "There's nothing." Garp gave a relieved sigh, and smiled for the first time in far too many days. "Wait," Coby corrected himself hesitantly, for fiery symbols were appearing around the red ribbon that encircled the hat, and Garp froze with dread at what he knew what would be said next. "There are markings. It's some form of writing, I can't read it."

Grim resignation clouding his face, Garp forced himself to grind out, "There are few who can. The language is that of the Poneglyphs, which I will not utter here," he continued as he finally turned to look back at Coby, eyes burning with mixed emotions.

"Poneglyphs?"

Towering over his young friend, Garp turned his full authority upon Coby, eyes filled with horror and hate, "In the common tongue it says: 'I will be the King of the Pirates'!"

XXX

Garp was sitting at Coby's kitchen table now, drumming his fingers while Coby poured some tea, constantly flicking his eyes at the hat that was beside him on the tabletop, reassuring himself that it was not doing anything. "This is the Straw Hat. Worn and empowered by the Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy, in the fires of the One Piece. Taken by the Three Admirals from the head of Luffy himself."

"Bilbo found it," Coby breathed out as he started to understand his beloved uncle's past behaviour during his travels, "in Buggy's cave."

His voiced tinged with regret, Garp nodded, "Yes. For sixty years, the Straw Hat lay quiet in Bilbo's keeping, prolonging his life, granting him unfathomable luck, yet also a reckless sense of adventure," he looked askance for a moment, "which in hindsight explains that bit with the dragon…" He shook himself, and then continued as he returned the full force of his gaze upon his host, his tone becoming increasingly earnest, "But no longer, Coby. Evil is stirring in the New World. The Hat has awoken. It's heard its Captain's call."

"But he was destroyed. Luffy was destroyed," Coby argued, speaking with the surety of one raised upon those stories since childhood, but deep down he knew that this giant of a man would not be so afraid –And I've never seen him like this before— if the story had ended there.

Suddenly both pairs of eyes shot back to look at the Hat, neither one wanting to be the one to ask whether the other person had also heard a faint voice whispering from it, as if reacting to the sound of its Captain's name.

Forcefully pulling his attention away after staring for too long, Garp looked back up. "No, Coby," Garp answered with dread. "The spirit of Monkey D Luffy endured. His life force is bound to the Straw Hat, and the Straw Hat survived. Luffy has returned, along with his core crew." Horrified, Coby met the wizard's eyes once more as he learned more and more about the true state of the world with each word that Garp growled out. "His Grand Fleet has multiplied. His ship the Thousand Sunny is rebuilt in the New World. Luffy needs only this Hat to cover all the seas with a second pirate era. He is seeking it, seeking it, all his thought is bent on it. The Hat yearns above all else to return to the head of its Captain. They are one…the Hat and the Pirate King. Coby, he must never find it."

XXX

Tears of terror fell from Coby's eyes as he and Helmeppo backed away from the gathering figures in black cloaks, only the power of the mysterious white-haired man ranger named Smoker keeping them at bay, but it was clear that the man was struggling. The sheer presence of these unholy beings was like a physical force that beat down everyone around them, telling them to submit or perish.

And in desperation Coby put the Straw Hat on his head.

Strength and confidence roared through his veins, the knowledge, the certainty, that he could handle whatever he faced!

The world had become brighter to his eyes, hues of colour and glistening light that had not been there before under the stars and moonlight. For the first time he truly understood what a marvel— what a privilege! –it is to just travel the world and gaze upon its wonders!

And the Nazgul, the crew of the Straw Hat pirates, were revealed before him, showing what lurked beneath their black shrouds. At first they were tall and proud, beings of beauty and wonder, but then they were horrific and alien to behold, shifting between this and more with each passing second. It's like how I view them, as monstrous or inspiring, changes from one moment to the next, as if my very perception of them alters how they appear to me, Coby realized with wonder. As one the Nazgul turned to stare at him, wearing the Hat of their Captain, the fire in their eyes growing, and Coby knew that they were growing stronger for every moment that he wore it. That he needed to end this now! "I'll take them!" Coby roared as he charged forward, even as Smoker desperately yelled for him to stay back, while the lead member of the Nazgul gripped a sword in his teeth.

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"Stupid rookie!" Smoker snarled as he worked to get the injured Coby to Marineford and sanctuary. He had driven off the Nazgul at last, but deep in his heart he knew that they had only retreated because they felt it was unnecessary to continue; that with the wound that the Pirate Hunter had inflicted, Coby would slip evermore into their power if enough time passed without the boy receiving proper medical aid.

XXX

Lord Sengoku turned to address everyone within the council of those allied in opposition of the pirates, "The Straw Hat cannot be destroyed by any craft that we here possess. The Hat was made in the secret fires of the One Piece. Only there can it be unmade. The Hat must be taken to the end of the New World and cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came. One of you must do this."

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"Are you sure about this, Captain?" Nico Robin unobtrusively asked, while some of the other crewmembers looked on in concern.

"Yeah," Luffy answered from his special seat on the Sunny's figurehead, annoyed that without his Hat he had nothing to block out the sun from his face while he was napping.

"Don't worry Robin dearest," Sanji reassured her, "it's a pirate's hat, they won't want to use it as a weapon. Even if they could at that."

"Idiot Cook's right," Zoro agreed, "they'll want to destroy it, and they can only do that here."

"Which means that even if we can't find them first, they'll eventually bring it back to me anyways, shishishishishi," Luffy concluded with a cheerful smile, sitting up to look at the mass of ships that blotted out the sea itself for as far as the eye could see.

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Author Notes:

The part where Coby actually wears the Hat was actually inspired more by Dr. Who with the 11th Doctor.

I wanted to do more with this, but unfortunately there are only so many decent marines suitable for taking on the roles of the Fellowship. Smoker was supposed to be Aragorn and Tashigi as Legolas though.

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