*Enters with sliding dogeza* Please forgive me! I'm truly sorry for the long wait my wonderful and patient readers. It has been many, many long months in which I have kept you waiting but your patience has finally been rewarded. I honestly cannot apologise enough for having such a long break between chapters, thank you so much for not giving up on me, you are truly the best readers on the internet!

Chapter 11

Luffy sat cross-legged on the figurehead of the Moby Dick, it had been over a month and a half since she and her brothers had come aboard the pirate ship seeking refuge from the Marines. In that time the three siblings had managed to integrate themselves into the crew and become close friends with the division commanders. Ace enjoyed mercilessly teasing Marco and so made a great friend of the forth division's commander, Thatch. Soon after, the two had their head together plotting various pranks on the other members of the crew. Sabo being the curious and intellectual sibling had befriended the fishman, Namur and commander of the eighth division. After a few tentative questions and a bottle of sake stolen from one of the storage rooms Namur was happily answering Sabo's barrage of questions about fishmen and their home island 10,000 metres under the sea.

Luffy leaned back, supporting herself on her hands as she went from staring at the sea to the sky as the occasional sea gull flew by, her straw hat shielding her eyes from the sun. Little by little Luffy had been breaking her mask of apathy and slowly regaining showing her emotions. While her brothers were obviously her biggest supporters, surprisingly the whole crew had joined in. Thatch would often ask Luffy to taste test his new culinary experiments while regaling tales of the pranks that he had played on the crew. Izo often dragged Luffy, and Haruta into his room to talk about make-up and fashion, while Namur taught both Luffy and Sabo about navigation and had even started teaching them fishman karate, after Sabo had endless bugged him to show the siblings his fighting style. Luffy's lips twitched into a small smile as she recalled the story that on Christmas eve Thatch had decorated Vista's moustache with tinsel, baubles and even flashing Christmas lights while he had been asleep.

Some days when Luffy wasn't helping out the different divisions she would sit on the arm rest of Whitebeard's throne and the two would exchange stories and information, that Luffy had picked during her time in the Marines. Lost in her own thoughts, Luffy started to hum to herself completely unaware that Marco had arrived and had sat down at her side. The Zoan Devil Fruit user had just come back from scouting from the air when he had spotted Luffy sitting on the figure head staring blankly ahead. Not wanting to disturb her peace he had simply sat down to keep her company but when Luffy had started humming Marco closed his eyes to enjoy the soft pitches of her voice. He vaguely recognized the tune so when Luffy started to softly sing under her breadth that he closed his eyes and laid back hands behind his head, to full enjoy the quiet moment together.

"The ocean sees the beginning of the world,

and the ocean knows the end of the world.

Thus, it calls us towards the way we must take.

Thus, it leads us towards a proper world.

Enveloping pain and suffering,

greatly and kindly wrapping them up.

The ocean sees the beginning of the world,

and the ocean knows the end of the world.

Even if I were to disappear,

The omniscent ocean leads the way.

I must not fear, because you are here.

I must not be timid,

because my comrades wait for me.

We must advance towards the blue horizon."*

Hearing Luffy finish the song Marco opened one of his eyes to look up at the teenager, "Where's the song from?" he questioned, "It sounds familiar but I can't remember where I heard it before-yoi."

"Are your years finally catching up with you?" Luffy teased the blonde pirate, with a smile.

Marco couldn't help a small twitch or irritation at the not so subtle jab at his age, but chose to stay silent as he watched her with one eye.

"It's a song that my former teacher taught me, some years ago." Luffy finally answered.

Marco raised an eyebrow at this news, he hadn't heard that Luffy had had a teacher, he had simply assumed that her brothers had taught her how to fight since they often sparred and had talked out how they had trained together when they were young.

Seeing Marco's silent raised eyebrow Luffy continued to explain, "Sensei always said that he hated the song. He said that a song for Marines that have died doesn't excite him, but sometimes when he felt the time was right he would sing it."

"It's a Marine song-yoi?" Marco asked wanting clarification.

Luffy nodded, "It's a song that is commonly sung as requiem for Marines that have died in battle. Sensei learnt it from his master who was a former Admiral, and I picked it up from him in the several years that I spent training under him."

Marco shot up from where he had been lying down, "Your teacher's master was an Admiral!" he practically yelled, "Just who the hell was your teache-yoi?!"

"Admiral Aokiji." Luffy answered with a small grin, enjoying the pirate's shocked expression.

Marco couldn't help but gape at the girl sitting next to him wearing the biggest shit eating grin she had ever had.

"T-then your teacher's master..." Marco stuttered desperately trying not to faint.

"It was Admiral Zephyr. He served as an Admiral with my grandpa and Sengoku before retiring to become an instructor for new Marine trainees."

Marco's brain was doing mental gymnastics, "I never thought I would agree with Thatch about something but you come from a family of monsters-yoi. Your brothers are renowned throughout Paradise and are well known in the New World, your grandfather is Garp the Fist, and your teacher was Aokiji-yoi." Marco held his held his head in his hands. "I dread at the thought of finding out who your parents are, my poor nerves won't be able to handle it-yoi."

Luffy's mouth twitched in a barely suppressed smile, "In that case, I'll spare you having a nervous breakdown."

Marco raised an eyebrow, "That bad?" he asked, his voiced filled with wary resignation.

"That bad." Luffy agreed with a nod.

Marco was spared from having his brain explode from a shout from one of the crew members ringing across the deck.

"Luffy-san! You've got a call on the den den mushi!"

The two looked at each other before standing up and making their way to the pirate who was standing by Whitebeard's throne. The man himself was also watching the exchange with interest as he sipped on cup of ale.

"Who is it?" Marco ordered.

The pirate shrugged, "No idea, Commander Marco." He answered, "All I know is that I answered the den den mushi in the main meeting room and the guy on the other end refused to give his name or anything else till he talked to 'the former Rear Admiral, Monkey D. Luffy'."

Marco and Whitebeard exchanged glances, both knew that whoever had called them not only knew their den den mushi number but that Luffy was alive and hiding on their ship.

"Whitebeard-san." Luffy's voice broke the two pirates out of their own thoughts, "Can you and the other division commanders gather in the main meeting room? If my suspicions about who the caller are correct then it would be best that you also hear what they have to say."

"Who do you think it is, brat?" Whitebeard asked.

Luffy shook her head, "It'll be better to wait and see if I'm right then guess and be wrong. On that note, I'll grab my idiot brothers, if they missed out on this they'll never let me hear the end of it." Luffy left the two pirates behind as she headed below deck.

Whitebeard chuckled and Marco sighed as they both started to make their way to the meeting room. Once they entered the room and took their seats the other division commanders started to trickle in until finally the only ones missing were the three siblings. The room was filled with a heavy silence as each of the commanders kept glancing at the den den mushi that was sitting innocently in the centre of the table. The silence was eventually broken by the sound of heavy footsteps as they got closer to the meeting room.

Luffy entered the room flanked by a scowling Ace and a stiff Sabo. All three looked like they were about to head to their own executions. Luffy had once again hidden herself behind her mask of cold formality and indifference.

"What's wrong with you three?" Thatch spoke out, not being able to stand the oppressive tension, "Did Ace finally give into his teenage hormones and groped Luffy's cute butt?" Both raven haired siblings blushed, Ace's being more pronounced that Luffy's, while Sabo couldn't help the smirk that twitched at the edges of his lips.

"What the hell did you just say you dirty old man?!" Ace yelled out, "Why in the name of the four blues would I feel up Luffy's b-butt?!" Ace couldn't help but stutter at the end of his sentence at the thought of touching his sister in such a way.

"I don't know..." Thatch drawled out "You came in all serious like, so I thought you have finally forgone your sibling relationship and decided to take a step onto the road of adulthood."

Flames started to lick at Ace's shoulders as he glowered at the smirking chef. Thatch couldn't help but feel smug, he had successfully dispelled the tension in the room and managed to make Ace look like an affronted cat. The cook couldn't stop his smirk widening which only infuriated Ace more.

Sabo laid one of his gloved hands on Ace's head and squeezed, "Alright Ace, calm down. Or do you want to find out just how hard headed you are?" Sabo emphasized his point with an extra squeeze, causing the flames on Ace's shoulders to go out as he tried to wriggle out of his blonde brother's grip.

Until now, Sabo who had been thoroughly enjoying the sight of his blushing and embarrassed brother but in the end had decided to step in so that they could finally find out who the mystery caller was that they had been called in for.

Seeing as all the people in the room were now focused on the current issue Luffy addressed the room, "Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to come here. The reason that I have called you all here is that earlier an unknown man requested to speak with me. He refused to give out any details about himself until he did. What we have figured out from this short exchanged is three things. The called is male, most likely in his late thirties to early forties judging from the pitch of his voice. Secondly he has accessed to information that is not only hard to obtain since he knows the den den mushi number for Whitebeard's main ship which I'm guessing only his close allies know. Finally he knew I was alive, which means he has either knowledge or experience with D's. D's are extremely hard to kill, we have a tendency of standing up again after taking blows that would usually kill hardened fighters. Whether our ferocious life force is genetic or not is unknown but the very fact that our caller knows this point to the fact that he himself is someone that is not to be messed with. Are there any questions that you would like to ask me before I call back?"

The rest of the commander could only sit in astounded silence as they were given an experience of why the young girl in front of them was giving the position of Rear Admiral at the age of eighteen. With a bare few scraps of information she had given a cold analytical report that was broken down who their opponent was but with an air of power and cold superiority that put the coldest winter islands to shame. They could only mutely shake their heads, the person in front of them was not their new pirate sibling. She was not the pirate who they had all taken turns to get to smile by either, pulling pranks, telling jokes or regaling tales of their pasts mistakes.

No in front of them was Fleet Admiral Sengoku's successor, Rear Admiral, Monkey D. Luffy. And what all commanders could agree on was that they did not like the person their sibling had been when she was in the Marines. They all knew that had she not defected to their side then she would have been a formidable enemy.

Luffy picked up the receiver, "This is Monkey D. Luffy. To whom am I speaking to?"

A dark chuckle rang across the silent room, "Is that really the first question you want to ask? I was under the impression that you already knew who I was."

Luffy's brow formed a small crease, something her brothers knew was her version of a frown, "Very well I shall rephrase my question. Why are you calling me, leader of the Revolutionary Army, Dragon?"

A few commanders gasped in shock and stared at Luffy with wide eyes, why was the most dangerous criminal in the world calling their sibling. Ace and Sabo stood closer to Luffy, brushing their shoulders against hers, silently supporting her while waiting with baited breath.

Another dark chuckle followed Luffy question, "Judging from the noise just now you aren't alone are you?"

"You knew I was on Whitebeard's ship, did you really expect them not to be present when a suspicious man tried to call a former Marine who had just been adopted into their crew?" Luffy's tone was condescending as she looked down at the smirking den den mushi. Whitebeard couldn't help a small twitch of his lips as his youngest daughter gave as good as she got, to the man whose reputation was equal to his own.

"I have some information that I felt you should know since you have changed sides. It should be apt payment for you sending me all the information about Cipher Poll 9's agents. Knowing the names and abilities of the World Government's most secret killers is most beneficial to our cause."

Luffy snorted, "Don't try to silver talk me Dragon. Our relationship is purely exchanging information, didn't you tell me that when you had one of your spies leave your letter on my desk the very first day I became a Marine. You use the information I give you to strike the World Government and weaken their power, I use the information you gave me to ensure my brothers and I stayed safe no matter where we were. To you, I simply a pawn for you to use until I am no longer useful."

"You undersell yourself. Even if you can no longer supply me with confidential mission reports from the Marines you are still a force to be reckoned with, Monkey D. Luffy."

"Indeed. You would do well to remember that, Monkey D. Dragon."

A few beats of silence passed before the room exploded. The whole room felt like the world had just tilted on its axis. The most dangerous criminal in the world had the same name as Luffy, and since Luffy had the same name as her grandfather, Dragon must somehow be related to Garp the First as well! The only two members of the Whitebeard pirates who sat in silence were the captain and the first division commander. Poor Marco's mind was a mess as he recalled their previous conversion on the ship's figurehead about who her teacher was and the mystery of who her parents were.

"I thought you said you would spare me having a nervous breakdown." Marco muttered to himself as he held his head in his hands, in the desperate hope that it wouldn't explode.

For Ace and Sabo, knowing Dragon's name was old news since they already knew that he was her father. Both however, were very unhappy that their little sister had decided to share their connection. The flames on Ace's shoulders had returned, while Sabo widened his stance so that he was prepared to teleport his siblings away to safety if they were attacked. Both knew that they could trust Whitebeard and his commanders but the self imposed rule of keeping their deepest and darkest secrets to the three of them, had kept them alive for too long for them to simply let go now.

"Quiet!" Whitebeard's order instantly silenced all pirates in the room.

Luffy waited till everyone was settled, "What's the information you wanted to share?"

"Sengoku resigned from the Navy." Dragon answered, "Before he did, Sengoku recommended Aokiji to be his successor of Fleet Admiral since he was very popular among his own men," Marco threw a glance at Luffy, knowing that her sensei had been put forward as a candidate for fleet admiral. "but a lot of people at the highest level favoured Akainu, so he became a major contender." The room scowled in unison at the news. The only ones who was impassive throughout Dragon's new was Whitebeard and Luffy as she watched the den den mushi with a blank gaze.

Dragon continued, unaware of the reactions of the pirates in the room. "Normally, Aokiji doesn't show his passion, but he hated the idea of Akainu becoming Fleet Admiral." Luffy felt herself nod, over the several years Kuzan had taught her she had heard many times what he had thought of his fellow Admiral. Hearing him insult Sakazuki was the one thing she never got tired of since luffy also hated the overzealous Admiral with a passion.

"Ten days ago they stood against each other and the first ever feud between the Admirals erupted into a battle on an island in the New World."

"What is the name of the island?" Luffy interrupted for the first time since Dragon had started talking.

"Punk Hazard."

Luffy nodded, "Thank you, please continue."

"It is said that 'Dead men tell no tales', whoever lost had to withdraw his candidacy, and the winner would lead the Navy. Their struggle lasted for two full days, they were comparable in their strength but when it came to an end, Akainu won."

"Liar!" Luffy shouted out, unable to stop herself, "There's no way sensei would lose to that bastard! Your information is wrong!"

"It's not." Dragon was unmoved by her outburst, "My agent confirmed it less than an hour ago. Sakazuki is the new Fleet Admiral." His declaration caused the room to burst into murmurs as the commander whispered amongst themselves. "Both of them were severely wounded and though Akainu is pitiless, he showed mercy to his former comrade who couldn't even stand." Luffy, Ace and Sabo all snorted in disbelief at the thought of Akainu showing mercy to someone, no matter who they were. Luffy's hand tightened on the receiver at the thought of her wounded former sensei. "Aokiji refused to work for Sakazuki and left the Navy. I have received no information of his current location, but from what I have heard his injuries were serious enough that he will need time to recover. A lot of his men have asked to be reassigned so that they no longer directly work under Akainu. The Government has suffered a huge loss since the Admirals are the Marine's greatest weapons."

The pirates in the meeting room sat in silence as they absorbed the information, "Is that all you wished to tell me?" Luffy eventually asked.

"Yes. You will not be perused by the Marines while they are recovering from their loss, however with the Navy led by Sakazuki it will become an even more powerful to enforce it's law of 'Absolute Justice'."

"I see, thank you for letting me know. If I find out any more incriminating information about the Navy, I let you know through the usual routes."

"Very well." Having said what he had wanted to Dragon hung up.

"Haaaah." Luffy sank to the ground with a long sigh, "I was so nervous, I thought my heart was going to explode." Another complaint froze on her tongue as Luffy looked round the room to see the eyes of every person looking at her as if she had grown another head. "Umm..."

"Luffy..." Sabo's growled dangerously at her through clenched teeth, "Just when were you going to tell us that you were in regular contact with the Revolutionary Dragon?" He squatted down in front of her as tic started in his eyebrow and his mouth was pulled into a tight line, covering his fingers with haki he pinched her cheeks. "I mean, I'm sure you have a perfectly good reason that you didn't tell us, your big brothers, that you were doing something so dangerous. When are you going to get it through that skull that Ace and I are meant to protect you, not the other way around." Ace started to slowly back away from his blonde brother, hoping he could stay out of the firing line. As much as he wanted to rip into Luffy Sabo was on a roll and frankly Ace was too scared to stop him.

Ace watch as Sabo started pulling Luffy's cheeks till her eyes started to tear, "Do you have any idea how worried your onii-chan were when you used to go those big Navy meetings, or when you used to lock yourself in your room so you could read the minds of those powerful World Government officials." Sabo's eye's started to tear up as well as he emphasized each point with a pull of Luffy cheeks. "Do you have any idea how much Ace and I hated ourselves for letting them keep you away from us or that you felt you had protect us in that snake's pit? Or that it was your fault that Ace and I got captured?" Tears streamed down all both siblings faces.

"I'm sowwy." Luffy managed to get out through her tears and sore cheeks, "I didn't know what else to do."

Ace came over from where he had retreated to ruffle Luffy's hair, "Idiot. If you didn't know what to do you should have just asked us. That's what big brothers are for, stupid."

Luffy nodded with a sniff, and all three finally looked at the rest of the room, their expressions ranged from serious, shocked to bemused. Thatch tentatively raised his hand "Umm, can I ask, what the hell just happened? We get a phone call from the Revolutionary Dragon who tells us that your sensei Aokiji just got his ass handed to him by Akainu and the magma bastard is going to be the next Fleet Admiral. Not to mention you've been pen-pals with Dragon for years and he has the same name as you. Does anyone else in the room feel like they need a very strong drink, because I certainly do?"

Whitebeard finally decided to speak, "Brat, what is your connection to Dragon?"

"He's my father." Luffy answered

A few eyebrows were raised at her straightforward reply, many had thought she would dodge the question or say he was a more distant relative, such as an uncle or even cousin. The room did notice how Sabo and Ace stiffened and tilted their bodies so they were slightly in front of their sister, already prepared to fight or run if they needed to.

"There is no one listening in and I know I can trust you not to share this information with anyone else. Not even Shanks knows who my father is, considering how badly he reacted when he found out that Garp was my grandfather I dread to think of what will happen if he found out what who my dad was."

"What did he do when he found out who your grandfather was?" Izo asked raising a single elegantly curved eyebrow.

Luffy gave an involuntary smile as she recalled the memory, "His eyes bulged, his jaw dropped and after that he spent several hours ranting and raving. When he finally ran out of things to shout he spent the rest of the day trying to get as drunk as humanly possible."

Quite a few of the pirates laughed, many wishing they had been there in person when Shanks had his revelation.

"Gurarara" Whitebeard laughed "That brat is too easily shocked by things!"

Ace and Sabo started to relax, both of them had been ready to either run or fight when Whitebeard had asked how Dragon was related to Luffy. Ace slung his arm around Luffy's shoulders, making sure he threw a glare a Marco as he pulled her into his side.

"Hey, Luff', what do you say about getting some revenge on Thatch after his idiotic mouth spoke before his brain realized that what he was saying was stupid?"

Sabo grinned, showing too many teeth for Thatch's liking, "What an excellent idea. I do believe that the pastries that Thatch was so diligently working on earlier should have finished setting. I think those should be sufficient compensation." Sabo linked his arm with Luffy's and smiled down at his sister.

"What are we waiting for?" Luffy asked with a fake incredulous expression, "Those pastries aren't going to eat themselves." And without another word all three siblings ran off at a sprint for the kitchen.

"Nooooo!" They could hear Thatch scream from behind them. "Not my Mille-fueille! I spent the last four hours just getting the cream to the right texture!"

The rest of the Whitebeard pirates couldn't help but burst into helpless laughter as they watch their fourth division commander sprint after the three sibling in a desperate attempt to save his French Pastries.

* The lyrics are the translated version of the song 'Kaidou'. It features in the tenth One Piece film 'One Piece movie - Z' I felt that it would be easier to read and understand in English even though I prefer listening to it in Japanese. Please look it up its on youtube!

Phew... Another chapter finished. I cannot apologise enough for long this chapter has taken me. My real life has had a lot of ups and downs that have me left little creative energy. Honestly though, I had practically finished this chapter a while ago. I was just stuck on how to end it. Well thanks for bearing with me, I'll be writing the sixth chapter of 'The Cheshire Cat's Smile' next.

A huge thank you to all my reader and reviews! I LOVE YOU GUYS!