Prologue:

"I made it, but…" the straw hatted boy fell to his knees on the sand, his posture defeated. The open mouth of the cave of pirates stood before him and in its wake, the ghost of Gol D. Rogers stood staring back at him.

"You, who have found the one piece… you truly have suffered much getting here."

Luffy looked up at his hero, the former Pirate King. Tears and snot ran from his face as he continued to kneel in the sand. "Yes!" he cried.

Gol D. Rogers smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. Luffy stared at it. Most would have wondered how it could be possible the legend could touch him considering the man was a ghost of all things, but Luffy didn't think that way and continued to stare up at the man before him with a hint of awe.

"The one piece is a treasure that allows the finder a single wish. This wish can be anything, except that it cannot bring back the dead."

Luffy dropped his head to the sand, his body shaking. "Then what good is the one piece!" he shouted, throwing sand behind him in anger. "My nakama, my treasures, are dead!"

Rogers nodded. "I understand, but just because it cannot bring back the dead, doesn't mean your problem can't be resolved, but only if you are willing to start over."

Luffy sniffed and looked up. His face was a mess, but Rogers hardly cared. The boy's eyes were burning as he stared up at his hero.

"How?" he asked in a whisper.

"It won't be easy, Monkey D. Luffy. Your wish, if you so choose to use it, can send you back to the past in a different timeline before your heartache and struggle to become the Pirate King began. A chance at a completely new beginning."

Luffy stared at him, his eyes wide. "Then I can save my nakama…"

"Yes, but it comes at a price. To use this wish, it will require you to do two things."

Luffy listened in silence and Rogers knew that meant keep talking.

"First, you would be giving up your wish once you found the one piece again. There are no second wishes after all."

Luffy responded without hesitation. "I'll do it."

Rogers smiled at how immediate the reply had been but continued.

"Second, and this will be the hardest young pirate, you will remember everything that happened in this life. Every death, every suffering you ever faced, and yet, none of the strength you currently carry nor the powers you possess will transfer with you. Only your memories of them and the scars you bore because of them."

"So, I will have to train to save my nakama, if I want to get back to the level I am now?"

"Indeed."

Luffy thought for a moment, but there was no question as to his answer. He would do anything for his family.

"Then I guess I will just have to get my butt in gear and train," he grinned through watery, haunted eyes.

The former pirate king bellowed a laugh as he looked upon this young man sitting before him. He could see the shadows of loss in his eyes and though the boy would go back to a time before those losses, he didn't think the boy understood just how much that suffering would continue to haunt him without his memories being wiped. Still, to save his nakama, his memories would be required.

"Then, Monkey D. Luffy, Pirate King. Is this your wish?"

Luffy stood and dusted off his shorts as he stepped in front of Rogers.

"Yes, please, help me save my nakama."

Rogers met the boy's eyes with both pity and understanding. "Then so be it."

Chapter One: "Rebirth of a King"

Luffy didn't know when his eyes had closed, but quickly he snapped them open and felt his body lurch at the sudden fear that aroused within his mind. Had it all been a dream?!

Standing up, he was startled and nearly collapsed when he tumbled out of the bed he had been placed within. He blinked at the height of it, which stood several inches above his head.

'What a tall bed', he thought to himself with a frown before hurrying downstairs.

It was only upon reaching the stairs, that he paused and took in the scene before him. Makino's bar. He was… home.

"Luffy," Makino suddenly appeared, a gentle smile on her face, "did you sleep well, darling?"

Luffy nodded numbly and reached up for his hat as a comfort, only to find it gone! Suddenly frightened, he looked all around until boisterous laughter had him freezing. He knew that laugh. He knew it well.

A red-haired pirate and his crew made their way into the bar. Makino greeted them with smiles as the captain turned and spied Luffy who stood staring at him, eyes seemingly troubled.

"Luffy? What's wrong?" Shanks asked, his gaze searching. For Luffy, that was his undoing.

Crying, he ran to Shanks and hugged the older man. Not knowing what else to do, Shanks held the child to him and awkwardly pat him on the back as the others stared on in silent concern.

"Shanks!" Luffy cried into the man's shirt, his voice shaking. "Shanks!"

The sound of a commotion outside had everyone turning to look as a gang of bandits came bursting into the bar.

"So, these are the pirates?!" a man laughed, "What a stupid looking bunch. Oi, girl, get me a drink!"

Makino nodded. "R-Right away." She hurried to get it for them as they stepped further inside.

"We are bandits. We are not here to destroy the bar. However, I suggest you get us our drinks and give us whatever valuables you have laying around!"

The men grinned with a predatory gleam. Shanks watched them, Luffy still curled up against his chest. He didn't know what was going on with the kid, but he didn't want to put the child in harms' way by taunting them.

"We are pirates. We don't have anything of worth currently on us, but I do have this bottle of sake, if Makino is out. Come, drink with us, we will share what we have with you. We…"

He was cut off as the fist of a bandit suddenly destroyed the bottle, spraying sake all over Shanks who moved just enough to not allow any to fall on Luffy who continued to stay unmoving in his arms.

"I am worth 8 million bellis! Do you really think I would drink with no-name pirates!" the other bandits began to laugh.

"Aw, now the floor is wet," Shanks sighed. "Makino, do you have a mop?"

Makino stared at him before shaking off her stupor. "I got it, don't worry about it…"

"Looks like you enjoy cleaning the floor, pirate. It is where you belong," the man laughed as he shattered several more dishes that were sitting on the bar.

Shanks didn't move as the bandits laughed.

"Waste of time, this place. Let's go men!"

The bandits took their leave and no one moved, all eyes on their red haired captain.

Shanks sighed and his eyes drifted down to where the child still gripped his shirt with curled fists.

"Luffy, are you okay?"

Luffy pulled back, but the kid wasn't crying or angry like Shanks thought he would be. The child merely stared at his role model with an unexplainable expression and then nodded.

The pirates started laughing behind them and even Shanks joined in, his own humor at having been targeted, joining the amusement of his fellow crew members. Luffy continued to stare at his childhood hero. It was so… nostalgic, being with him like this.

'So, this is real,' he suddenly thought to himself, 'I truly was sent back before my journey for the title of pirate king began. Shanks is… real.'

With that logic, he looked up at the small treasure chest sitting above him on the bar. The bandits luckily never noticed it. He wondered how they could have missed it, but he cared very little as he jumped up on the bar stool and turned towards it. With Shanks and his crew distracted, he took the fruit out and stared at it. This was his chance to become Luffy again. His chance to aim once again for the title of Pirate King. Taking a deep mental breath, he opened his mouth and… froze.

'No,' he suddenly thought and put it back down. He didn't want to be Luffy again, he needed to be stronger than the former Luffy ever was. Shoving the small box away, he turned to shanks and waited. When the man didn't seem to notice his patient staring, he spoke up.

"Shanks."

The red-haired captain who had been privately speaking to Makino turned and smiled at the child. "What's up anchor?"

Luffy frowned, his tone serious. "Can I talk to you alone, outside?"

Shanks studied the child a moment before nodding. The two pirates walked outside towards the ocean, both silent in thought. Luffy about what he was about to tell his role model and Shanks about what Luffy could possibly want to tell him.

When they reached the end of the docks, Luffy turned to his friend and father figure.

"Shanks, I'm not who you think I am. At least, not completely."

Shanks blinked. "What?" What the heck is the kid talking about?

"I need to tell you my story and I don't want you to say a word until I'm done, okay?"

Shanks nodded, still curious, but swore he would stay silent until the end.

"My name is Monkey D. Luffy and I swore to become the pirate King 14 years ago."

"Anchor, your five, what…"

"I asked you be silent until I was finished," he glared at the man.

Shanks raised his hands in surrender and Luffy continued.

"During those 14 years, a lot happened…" He told his friend about his training with Garp as a child, shortly after Shanks first left to return to the new world. He told him about his brothers Ace and Sabo and about Sabo's supposed death. He told him about meeting his crewmembers and setting out to find One Piece. He told him about the war of the best at Marineford and the death of his elder brother. He told him about taking on the emperors and warlords. He told him about his father and Sabo's memory. He told him about finding the location of Raftel and then, he told him about how he lost it all before being given a chance to start anew.

Shanks was silent, but his eyes looked intensely at his young friend as he spoke. The man never questioned what he was being told, but merely nodded along in silence, listening instead of speaking.

"They all died, Shanks. I couldn't save them. I was ill with an unknown pathogen that my doctor couldn't identify and if it hadn't been for my swordsman, I would have died as well. He swam me to the island and then was pulled back into the ocean, while I awoke all alone in the sand."

A gentle hand was placed on Luffy's shoulder. He brought his eyes up to his father figure and Shanks could see the depths of his pain hidden there.

"The power that was used to send you back to this timeline, that was the power of the one piece?"

"A single wish granted to the one who finds it, but it can only be given one time, no matter if I were to find it again."

Shanks was silent.

"And I gave you my hat, as a promise between us that you would sail the seas and become Pirate King." More a statement then a question, but Luffy answered anyways.

"Yeah, you told me to return it to you when I had successfully reached my goal," he said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hands.

Shanks hummed.

"That rubber rubber devil fruit you have in the bar, I ate it the first time around."

Shanks blinked. "The one in the chest?"

"Yeah," Luffy nodded, "It turned me into a rubber person. I could stretch and expand my body. Nothing could hurt me aside from sea stone and sharp pointy objects. Later, after the war, I even learned to control all three types of Haki."

Shanks blinked. "You have king's haki?"

"Yeah."

"King's Haki," Shanks repeated. He focused on the child before him and sure enough, just under the surface, he could feel it bursting at the seams of its small container, aching to be freed. "Just understanding it is half the battle, but you could fully use it?"

Luffy nodded. "Thanks to Rayleigh who became my teacher."

Shanks sat down on the dock, stunned. "Dark King Rayleigh?"

"Yup. He's a great guy."

Shanks was silent, deep in thought.

"I believe you, anchor. It may be hard to explain, but I can almost feel the hidden power within you. No doubt your haki is just bubbling to explode after becoming trapped in such a young body."

"You can sense it?"

"Indeed. Tell me Luffy, what would you have me do for you now that I have heard your story?"

Luffy looked Shanks in the eye, not a single hint of hesitation.

"Take me out to sea with you."

The Red-Haired emperor blinked. "Huh? Are you serious?"

"Yes. I know I have the body of a five-year-old, but I am not five. I have the mind of a twenty-one-year-old and the power of an emperor locked within me. I want to go with you and I want you to train me to fight, both with a weapon and with my hands. I have to become stronger than I have ever been before."

Shanks eyed the child before him. "Normally I would say no, but who am I to argue with the pirate king, hmm?" He grinned.

Luffy stared up at his father figure as Shanks laughed heartily. "All hail the king, or should I say, the little pirate princess?"

"P-Princess?!" the kid sputtered.

Shanks blinked. "Well yeah, you're a girl, so it's only fitting, right? So technically it should be Pirate Queen, shouldn't it?"

"EH?!"