Chapter 24

A few hours before the war starts,

Raku, a member of the twelfth division of the Whitebeard pirates, was pissed off. How dare someone like the small rookie crew have the gall to challenge his Pops. It was not acceptable to him.

He wanted to see the utter defeat of the pirate crew and maybe when Pops would say that they were really not suitable for joining The Whitebeard Pirate he could keep that as a memory in his mind. So, after talking to his commander, who was feeling similar rage as him, they set up a den den mushi recorder at the crow's nest to perfectly record the battle.

If the crews join them, they could be teased with that or if not, they could laugh their asses at the reckless rookies who were crushed under Pops and would remember the lesson just fine.

Back in the present...

"Cyra!" Ace and Cyane shouted the moment the limp, exhausted body of Luffy fell in their arms. Their little brother was unconscious and by the looks of the weather, and the waves, it was a very very bad thing.

"Ace, go," Cyane said when Ace carefully settled Luffy in his arms. "I'll take care of things here." Ace nodded at once and gave a run, to the other seashore, where people won't be able to see them. He ignored the stunned, worried expression of the remaining Whitebeards who were standing.

The sea was violent. The waves were huge and powerful, crashing against the shore or the rocks with a deafening noise. The dark murky water was asking for its son. The sky was pitch black. It was momentarily glowing with the sparks of lightning which cackled in the dark sky.

"I'm sorry," Ace said once he reached a safe shore finally. He crouched down to let the boy be touched by the waves, which soon engulfed him whole.

.

The violent waves were gone. The dark clouds were moving off the sight, giving way to a clear sky. Marco didn't know what caused the things which had happened, but one thing he was sure of now, the kid was far too dangerous, if Oyaji had stopped fighting and was still looking at the place where Ace had taken the kid.

Cyane sighed, catching his attention from the now calm waves and sky.

"It's a truce then?" He asked confirming Cyra's words.

Whitebeard was not going to get the wrath of whatever entity Cyra was. He doesn't want to endanger his family. So, the only thing he could do was call a truce.

"Yeah," He said, before turning from the fight. The brats did give him a good fight. He wishes that they come sometimes to spar with him. He won't mind that at all. He looked at Marco, who was deep in his thinking. Probably thinking what the heck Cyra even is?

"Marco," He said snapping the blonde's attention. "Tend to the wounded. The war is over."

Cyane took that as a sign to leave. He needed to wake the Spades up and see if they were injured. Well, he should wake Deuce first. With that, Cyane ran to the shore where Deuce was. It took him a while to make him get up, but it worked.

"What happened?" Deuce hissed holding his head as a pain shot through his forehead. It felt like he had drunk gallons of alcohol in a go.

"War is over. We have called a truce," Cyane informed the Spade's doctor and the first mate. "We need to look after the injured and if everyone is going to wake up with that headache, then we need to make some medicine for that."

"Banshee knows to make hangover medicines," Deuce supplied, making Cyane nod and move toward the woman. After a few minutes, the woman woke up and was supplied with the task.

Slowly every one was getting up and was given a glass of hangover medicine making them feel better. But Sabo was worried about Luffy. The power which he had used doesn't seem good. It clearly was taking a toll on his body, even with the half-transformation. The raging seas were the best sign of it.

His work here was over, so, he could join them. Sabo walked past the Whitebeard pirates who also seem to waking up and tending to their injured. Whitebeard seemed to look at him but Sabo didn't mind. He just needs to go for Ace and Luffy. Whitebeard won't break the truce, if he is even a little ounce of what he is been portrayed as.

Once on the shore, he saw Ace sitting on the shore, with his legs close to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. He placed a hand on his shoulder, making Ace look at him.

"How is he?" Sabo asked, looking at the sea where but there were no signs of Luffy. He wanted to take a dip in the ocean to check on the boy, but he couldn't leave Ace right now. Moreover, from the face of Ace, he is blaming himself.

They are to be blamed. They had known that pouncing on Whitebeard, even if they hadn't seen any chance to get a hit on him, was a bad idea. But they couldn't help it.

"Not came out still," Ace said in a low voice. Ace was fearing that the sea won't return her son to them anymore. All 'cause they had injured him. What if the sea really doesn't give them Luffy back? Ace would never forgive himself. Luffy is the little sunshine in his life! He can't lose him. He doesn't know what he will do, but sure, he will crumble if something happened to Luffy or even Sabo.

"He will come soon," Sabo said sitting beside him. After some more silence, Sabo spoke again. "What was that transformation?"

They had seen Luffy's eyes shifting to fiery golden and red sometimes during some of their missions, but they would always take that as a fluke of sunshine shining on his eyes. But today's transformation was no doubt real!

The fact that the name Luffy had told them about his devil fruit was nowhere in any devil fruit books was more of a mystery. But they knew it was a mythical zoan and other than that they didn't know a thing.

"Don't know," Ace mumbled looking at the shore. The water started gurgling, making Ace and Sabo go stiff and pay attention to it. After an agonizing moment, a black mop of hair poked from the water, followed by the pair of brown doe eyes, making the brothers smile widely.

"Luffy!" The brothers said together, grinning in happiness. The said boy soon came out completely from the water.

"Ace! Sabo!" He threw themself on the boys and was hugged by his brothers. Ace and Sabo looked gratefully at the sea and did a full ninety-degree bow.

"Thank you!" They said together, before ruffling Luffy's hair, making the boy giggle.

"Don't scare us that way," Ace said looking at Luffy, who blinked in confusion.

"Huh?" The boy was confused. "What do you mean Ace?"

Ace scowled a little. "The way you fell limp, don't do that again. It scared us." The boy was blinking in confusion again but just shrugged it off. The last he remembered was of fighting with the Birdie and then everything was blank. He doesn't remember what happened, and when he asked his mother, she said that later he will understand, not now. He just accepted that.

"Okay!" Luffy gave his wide D grin at his brothers, who chuckled at him.

"Here," Sabo handed Luffy his cloak and a spare mask. Luffy pouted a little but wore it and kept the mask in his pocket.

"Let's party!!!" The boy said running off in the direction of the beach where everyone was.

"Cyra!!!" Ace shouted while Sabo chuckled at the childish behavior, which his brother was back to.

The little boy went straight to the beach, where Deuce and the other Spades were. Even Whitebeard and some commanders were there.

"Let's party!!!" Cyra's voice bloomed through the listener's ears, making mostly everyone chuckle at the childishness. Whitebeard and Marco were stunned if the way they shared glances were something. They had seen the tense and powerful atmosphere Cyra can create and now this was a whole lot of change.

"Cyra! I said no!!!" Ace shouted, finally getting hold of the energetic boy. Sabo was not going to try to persuade the little ball of energy, 'cause when the boy thinks something, he does it.

"But why?" Cyra spoke innocently tilting his head on his side. "After a good battle, we should always party!"

"I don't want to do anything with them!" Ace grumbled, catching Cyra, "I just want to leave. Come on! We will have our party on our ship!"

"Gurarararara!" Whitebeard laughed seeing the antics of the smallest. He reminded him of Roger, the way they would party after a good fight. "Why not? We can have a beach party or a campfire? What do you think Thatch, Marco, Cyra, Cyane, and Ace?"

"HELL NO!" Ace shouted while Cyra did his little dance of happiness. Cyane stood behind Ace, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You can't stop him when he gets like this."

"Big Girl!!!" Cyra was again running. "We are doing a party!!!"

"See!" Cyane pointed out. "We will leave after it."

"Fine!" Ace grumbled, and Whitebeard laughed.

"I wouldn't mind spending time with you guys, even if you don't become our brother," Thatch said gleefully. Before Ace could reply that he doesn't want anything to do with them, he was gone, supervising his division.

"It's only 'cause, of Cyra, I am here," Ace said with narrowed eyes. "Don't interpret anything!" He grumbled and left after Cyra.

.

When Ruka woke up from the blast of Conqueror's Haki attack, he felt his head splitting in two. It was agonizing but he had understood the capabilities of the pirates before him. But he would not refuse to tell that he didn't like them. They were loud, rude, and arrogant to his Pops. They had refused Pop's offer to join their family. Being a Whitebeard was such a prestigious offer, which they were crushing under their feet.

He sighed. The least he could do is, look at how the war had gone. His head throbbed at the sudden movement he made, but he stood on his feet. He didn't want to believe that they had called a truce. Sure, his Pops might have felt generous and let the brats go away but why? He doesn't understand and his only option is to watch the snail and see what chaos had gone in the shore, which was the only thing he could see.

From the looks of the forest, and broken trees, the fight had gone past to the beach and he wouldn't be able to see that. He sighed once again as he climbed onto the crow nest.

"Hello," He greeted the news coo who looked a bit dazed. Probably it was flying above their ship when the second blast of Haki had been made. Poor bird, he thought.

The bird squawked and got away from his reaching hands. It tried to fly again and this time knocked the snail which got knocked out from the crow nest. Before he could move fast, the snail was tucked into the bag of the news coo and the news coo flew off.

"What the fuck," He muttered as he watched helplessly as the bird became a dot on the horizon. Commander Haruta was going to kill him if he knows.

It would be better if he avoids the commander for a few days or when the commander is in a good mood he can say that to him. Yeah, the latter sounds better. He just hopes that he isn't killed.

.

After the food was made for the party, people began eating on the beach. Some Whitebeard commanders were still skeptical that the fight was over and a truce was called, while some just accepted it. Thatch and his division were making barbeques and Banshee with the help of some Spade Pirates was making meat, ordered by the three black holes.

The trio ASL brothers were stacking plates on plates, ignoring the horrified expression of the chefs and the Whitebeard Pirates. The people on the beach felt themselves questioning if the trio will really eat all of those or not.

But what they saw petrified them in their place. The food, the freaking food, which could feed 20 people for a day, vanished in two minutes. The chefs paled and Whitebeard could only watch the kids eat their fill like feral kids. They were fighting for food amongst themselves. He could see the stretch of the limbs and snatching of food by the youngest and how the oldest of the two, protected their food against the other but also allowed him to take it. Also, how the brothers sometimes sneaked veggies in the plates of the youngest when he would be busy eating from others.

It didn't end there, the grabby hands were flying all over the plates of the Spade Pirates, snatching the food off their plates, which they were protesting by stabbing forks if they caught the rubbery limb but also allowing the teen to have some. That amazed Whitebeard. When he thought the kids had enough food, he saw them taking seconds and the chefs, except Banshee the Spade's makeshift cooks, literally fainted in the background. They were blackholes!! They had limitless pits for their stomachs!!

Most of the pirates started betting, after recovering from their shocks, on who will eat the most food and everyone had chosen Ace or Cyane as their best bet, but they were freaking unlucky when it was Cyra who stopped eating at his 59th serving while Ace had stopped at 47th and Cyane at 36th.

"Are you brats D's?" Whitebeard asked Cyra and Cyane, to which he got a nod, as expected, while the chefs and Thatch paled. They knew how much a D can eat and unluckily, they were handling three D's!!

.

The brothers sat in front of Whitebeard with Deuce at Ace's side. Cyra was running around in the middle to play with Stefan and Kotatsu and then Thatch and Haruta. But Ace and Cyane needed to discuss something.

Whitebeard was pouting at the teens who refused to become his sons for the umpteenth time. Well, after the fight, he is gonna accept that they won't be calling him father, but it still hurts.

"Why won't you brats become my sons?" Whitebeard questioned again, which he swore would be the last time.

"Neither me nor my brothers or my brother's crew want to stay here. We have our own ship, crew, and way of life. It's an honor that you would like us to join your crew, but we all decline," Cyane said giving him a cold shoulder and defiance in his eyes.

"If you don't wanna be my son, then become an ally?" Whitebeard half-heartedly asked. He knew that the brats won't be ready to accept this even.

Whitebeard saw Ace glaring at him and trying to get rid of Sabo's hands and lunge at him. "Don't you understand, shitty old man?! I don't want to do anything with you and your crew."

"Now, now, Ace." Cyane was trying to calm Ace down. Whitebeard had learned it well that the firebrat was a hot head and his anger could make him lose, whose very proof he has seen in the fight- which he calls spar and he really enjoyed it- when Cyane was keeping Ace and his anger in check. "We don't want the truce to break."

"Whatever!" Ace puffed and shoved meat in his mouth.

"What about we become friends?" Whitebeard asked expectedly. "We can spar sometimes, just like how Roger and I did." He could see the boy trying to hide his twitching upper lip and that was really a possibility of keeping contact with Roger's brat. He was glad about it. After Roger had died, he had not got a good spar, which the firebrat could give him.

"Only if you do not use your Haki on me again," Ace said glaring at him. Whitebeard nodded and laughed.

"Mr. Whitebeard," Cyane spoke. "It was a fair fight and neither group won nor lost. But if I heard that you kidnapped Ace or any of his crew it won't be good for you." He can see the deadly glint in the eyes of the teen but that was really not enough to intimidate him. But he liked the threat.

"Cyane!" Ace tsked. "If they kidnapped me once more, then don't worry, I will make my come back with my specialty." Ace lifted his hat a bit with two fingers and gave a cocky smirk. Whitebeard felt amused by the fact that the teens were making plans in front of him and Marco. The gall of them! He liked these types of fiery and wild brats.

"Specialty? Or your pyromaniac behavior?" Cyane rolled his eyes and snickered at Ace, who grinned sheepishly.

Cyane turned to Whitebeard and stared right into his eyes. "I'm not as generous as Ace," Whitebeard could see the deadly smile, "If anything happens to Ace, I will not come after you." Cyane's lips twitched to a feral smile from his mask, "I will hunt down your every ally and kill them first." Whitebeard felt himself tensing. He could hear the clarity with which Cyane spoke and he won't take this in a joking way. But he knows that he won't hurt Ace 'cause he wants to make him his son- which he can't do anymore- but still, it's not his nature to go out of his way to target any brat. Moreover, the other brat was quite dangerous for his crew, so no. He isn't going to take any wrong actions against the Spades anymore.

"They won't know what will hit them. They will be frightened, waiting for their deaths. One by one I will kill each member of the Moby Dick then." Cyane smirked, "But," Cyane shook his head and index finger slowly, "I won't kill you. You will be left alone, praying and begging for your death after your family will be killed and I won't lose my sleep over it."

Cyane's pipe pointed at Whitebeard and he spoke, "So, don't dare to kidnap Ace or his crew again!"

Whitebeard nodded. The thought of losing his children was terrifying. What was he calling on his ship? But he won't regret it. He liked Ace and these two. Many questions lingered on his mind, but he didn't want the brats to feel suspicious of him, but still, he asked one.

"What are you three?" Whitebeard spoke, pointing at them and the brat who was being chased with Thatch by a mob of pirates- Whitebeard Pirates as well as Spade Pirates.

"We have bounties!!" Cyane said rolling his eyes for dramatics. "You really don't know who we are?"

"Pops means if you 3Cs are pirates or revolutionaries?" Marco asked, who was sitting quietly regulating the consumption of alcohol by Pops. Cyane nodded at that.

"Pirates," Cyane said. He didn't want them to think of them as revolutionaries, 'cause that will only call trouble for them.

"Who has the arashi arashi no mi?" Marco asked. He wanted to believe that he was really formulating a good theory on the 3C group.

"We can't give our secrets, but yes someone has that devil fruit among us," Cyane said shrugging. Dad and them had already formulated answers to these questions as it was really plausible for people to ask these questions. And if they didn't get answers then people could get suspicious of them. So, yeah, give them answers and get rid of it.

"But you are not a devil fruit user." Marco glared at Cyane, who burst out laughing at the Phoenix's condition after he had drowned in the ocean.

"Yep! I am not." Cyane said.

"Cyane~! Ace~!" Cyra came running into the campfire side to his brothers.

"What happened?" Cyane asked softly but Cyra's dropping eyes clearly showed what he needed. After the transformation, then the party were he ate and danced and played pranks with Thatch, it was obvious that he would be tired soon.

"I'm sleepy~!" Cyra slurred before falling forward. He was easily caught by Ace, who placed Cyra between him and Cyane. The wind softly caressed Luffy's hair like always and blew off the hood from his face only for the mask to protect his identity.

"Little shit," Ace said fondly making Cyra lean against him. Sabo was about to object when he got the meaning of it. It was not good to sleep in masks, so he placed the hood back on Cyra's head and removed the mask.

The only reason they weren't going back to the Spades ship was due to the fact that there were lots of food still there with free booze and the Spades were gathering themselves.

Whitebeard and Marco were watching the interaction with a fond smile on their face. The brat looked way too harmful but they have seen that they should not take the chance against him. Marco was even formulating the theory that the brat was haunted by someone and its ghost might be coming to protect him. But that sounded the most ridiculous story ever Marco had spun to date.

He looked at the brats and made sure that he is not disturbing their sweet moments, before getting the courage to ask.

"What is he, yoi?" He asked in a low voice, getting a glare instantly from the brothers.

"He is Cyra and our little brother," Cyane said with an icy tone.

"A little menace too," Ace added helpfully with a cocky smirk on his face. Marco could feel the firebrat enjoying to torment him. He was the one to love solving puzzles and here was a puzzle before him, waiting for him to be solved. Only if he could make them their brothers... Maybe he would know more about them. He sighed.

One look on Pops said that he was also curious but he was not speaking, well aware some things should not be asked or something are better asked behind closed doors.

A/n:

We are almost in the ending of the pre-cannon arc! Meaning that in only two or three chapters, we will start Luffy's journey!!! I hope the chapter was likeable! And also, you can look forward to lengthy chapters from now!!!

Have a good reading!!