AGAIN:-
Before reading this chapter, remember that is is an AU world. Meaning it is different form the original. Here your favorite characters can be evil ones and the evilest characters and be the good guys. Plus this will have spoilers if you are not up to date with the manga.
Read at you own risk. Because I am going to cook a story you would never see coming.
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Eris's head snapped toward her son, her eyes wide with surprise that he spoke so plainly, but then her face softened into a knowing, loving smile. She knew her son. She knew that quiet sigh and those few soft words held the entire world of his emotion.
ASTER'S POV
And I knew it, because that whole, tiny world was suddenly full of him.
The man. The giant who was laughing and holding my mother like she weighed nothing.
My mother who was my entire world. My mother, who was the strongest person I knew, who could silence the entire island and push away the monsters. And this man… he just arrived. He swam the sea that was supposed to be death, he scared a monster bigger than our house with just a feeling, and now my mother was crying and laughing at the same time.
My name is Aster. My mother calls me her "little warrior." I didn't know I had another name, but in that moment, as I looked at the man who was now crouching in front of me, I knew my full name. I was Rocks D. Aster.
I knew this because I remembered him.
It wasn't a real memory, not like the memory of breakfast this morning. It was a memory from before I could walk, before I even really knew my own hands. It was a flash of a huge, impossibly wide grin splitting a dark, shadowy face. It was the sound of a laugh so loud it shook the walls of the cottage, a sound like thunder that didn't scare me, but made me feel… big. It was the brief, safe feeling of being held in hands so large they covered my entire body. Then he was gone.
Now he was back.
He was wet, and he smelled like the deep, cold ocean and something metallic, like lightning. His black, spiky hair was dripping onto the sand, and his eyes were... they were too much. They were wild and bright and looked at me like I was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. He touched the white streak in my hair, his scarred finger rough but surprisingly gentle.
"Aster," he said, and his voice was a deep rumble, like rocks grinding together. "That hair… Eris, what did you do to my name? And what is this?"
My mother, Eris, came to stand beside me, putting her hand on my shoulder. Her hand was warm. It was always warm. "I named him well. And you didn't give me much choice, did you? You weren't here." She wasn't angry. It was just a fact, like the sky being blue. She nudged me. "Aster, this is your father. I told you about him."
I nodded. My grip on the wooden axe was still tight. "You said he was strong."
I looked from the axe, to my mother, and then back to the man. My father. I had to know. It was the most important question.
"Are you stronger than Mom?"
My father's face froze for a second. Then it cracked open. He threw his head back and roared. It wasn't just a laugh; it was a storm, a force of nature that blasted the quiet of the Calm Belt to pieces. It was the thunder-sound from my memory, and it made the air vibrate. My mom winced, but she was smiling, shaking her head like she was used to this.
"Stronger than your mother?" he boomed, finally catching his breath and scooping me up.
I was suddenly high in the air. The world tilted. He held me with one arm, effortlessly and securely, and I was looking down at my mom. I'd never been this high.
"Kid," he said, his manic grin now right in my face, "let me tell you a secret. Nobody is stronger than your mother. Not me, not the Admirals, not those bubble heads, not the whole damn world. She's the strongest."
This was confusing. But he had scared the Sea King.
My mother laughed, a real, bright sound I hadn't heard before. "Stop feeding him nonsense, Xebec. I'm just… stubborn."
"She's stubborn!" he agreed, turning to me. "And she was just unlucky enough to be the only person in the world who caught my eye."
"Unlucky is the right word," Mom sighed, but she was still smiling. She reached up and touched his face. "You idiot. You absolute, reckless idiot. I knew you'd come."
"Of course I came!" he yelled, as if it was obvious. "I'm Rocks D. Xebec! I go wherever the fuck I want!"
"Hey!"
The shout was so loud I flinched, my hands tightening on the fabric of his wet shirt. My mother was glaring at him.
"Rocks! Language!"
My father looked at me, his wild expression faltering. He saw me flinch. But the sound... it was just so... loud. A small, strange noise bubbled up out of my chest. It felt like a hiccup, but it was a giggle. I'd never done that before.
The sound was tiny, barely a whisper in the sudden silence, but both of them froze. My father's wild eyes widened. My mother's hand flew to her mouth, her own eyes bright. They looked at me, and then they looked at each other. A long, silent look passed between them, a look that was so full of… something… that it made my chest feel warm and tight. It was the same feeling I got when Mom hugged me after I fell, but a hundred times bigger.
My father's grin returned, but it was different now. It wasn't wild. It was just… happy. He settled me on his hip and gently plucked the wooden battleaxe from my hand. It looked like a toothpick.
"This is a good start," he said, testing its weight. "Who taught you the grip?"
"Mom," I said.
He looked at her, and that soft, proud look was back. "Of course. A genius. But you'll need a real weapon soon. This thing will splinter." He tossed it, and it landed with a soft thud on the sand.
My mother sighed, the overwhelming joy settling back into practical reality. "Inside. Both of you." She looked him up and down. "You need to eat. You haven't eaten in days, have you?"
My father's wild grin returned. "Food? I just swam the Calm Belt, Eris! I could..."
"You can eat," she interrupted, grabbing his huge arm. "It means you are still an arrogant idiot, and it means the world is about to get a lot more complicated. But first, food. Now, come on. Let's show your father the pantry."
My father laughed again, that thunder-laugh, and let himself be dragged toward our cottage. "Aye, aye, Captain!"
The day was… loud. My life had been quiet, defined by the sound of the wind (when it rarely blew), the scraping of my axe, and my mother's soft voice. My father was not quiet. He was a walking explosion.
I watched him sit at our small table, his knees practically at his chest, and devour a mountain of food that was meant to last us a week. He ate five whole fish, a pot of soup, and half a loaf of bread, all while talking. He told stories about places I couldn't imagine, islands of lightning, seas of fire, men made of magma. He talked about "Newgate," "Linlin," and "Kaido," names that sounded like crashing waves. I didn't understand the words, but I understood the feeling. He was chaos. He was an adventurer.
My mother just kept putting food in front of him, her expression a mix of fond exasperation and pure, unfiltered joy.
Then, the bickering started.
"Why, Xebec?" she asked, pouring him more water. "Why can you never just arrive like a normal person? In a boat?"
He slammed his mug down, water splashing. "A boat? Eris, a boat is boring! The sea needs to be reminded who's boss! Besides, I am Rocks D. Xebec! I don't use boats if I can help it!"
My mother rolled her eyes so hard I thought they'd get stuck. "You're a child." She suddenly leaned in and sniffed his coat. Her nose wrinkled. "Ugh. Is that... is that the same coat you were wearing when I left? Three years ago?"
"It's iconic, woman!" he bellowed, puffing out his chest.
"It's disgusting," she shot back. "When was the last time you washed it? Or yourself, for that matter?"
"I just swam an ocean! That counts!"
"That's saltwater, you moron! And what about your money? Don't tell me you gambled away everything I saved. Again."
"It was an investment!"
"Was it? Or did you just lose it all to Newgate in a drinking contest?"
My father's indignant sputtering was answer enough. My mother started hitting him, her fists thumping against his massive shoulder. "Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"
He just laughed, catching her hands and pulling her close. I watched them, fascinated. This was… family. It was loud and messy and strange.
Later, he came outside to watch me with my axe. I had retrieved it, feeling the need to show him. I gripped the handle, braced my legs, and used the form Mom taught me. The twist from the hips, the power from the ground. I heaved, and the axe head swung in a wobbly, heavy arc, thudding into the sand.
I looked at him, waiting.
He was quiet for a long time, just watching me. The wildness was gone, replaced by that same sharp, clear focus he'd had on the beach.
"Your mother taught you well," he said, his voice low. "She taught you form. She taught you control."
He crouched, getting on my level. "But form is a cage, Aster. You don't want to lift the axe. You want to tell it to move. You're the boss. Not the wood."
He tapped my forehead. "The power isn't in your arms. It's not even in your legs. It's in here. It's a feeling. A will. You want the axe to swing, so you make it. You command it."
I didn't understand. "How?"
His grin returned. "You get angry."
I stared at him. Angry?
"No, not like that," Mom said, walking over with a cup of water for me. "Don't teach him that. Not yet."
My father shrugged, standing up. "It works. Strength is simple, Eris. You want something, you take it. You want to move, you move. You want to win, you win."
"That's your philosophy, Xebec. It's not his," she said softly, but with a steel edge.
He looked at her, and his expression softened again. "Right. Well. He's got you to teach him the hard way. He's got me to teach him the fun way." He ruffled my hair, his huge hand covering my entire head. "You're a good boy, Aster. You'll be stronger than all of us."
The sun began to set. The sterile blue sky turned into a fire of orange, pink, and deep purple. The Calm Belt became a perfect, flawless mirror of the sunset, making it look like we were floating in a painted sky. It was beautiful, but the silence was different now. It wasn't empty. It was full.
I was exhausted. The day, the excitement, the noise... it was more than I'd ever experienced. I felt my eyelids getting heavy.
My father scooped me up again. "Time for little warriors to sleep," he rumbled.
He carried me inside, my mother walking beside us. He placed me in my small bed, but I was already mostly asleep, buried in the overwhelming scent of salt and power that clung to him. I felt my mother pull the blanket over me and kiss my forehead.
My last thought, as I drifted off, was a new one. The axe, the training, the need to be strong... it was all still there. But it wasn't the only thing anymore.
Being with... family. It's not bad. It's... good.
I slept.
THIRD PERSON POV
Aster slept. The deep, heavy sleep of an infant who had spent the day processing a world-shattering change. The small cottage, usually filled with a simple, peaceful quiet, was now almost suffocatingly silent, weighed down by the presence of the sleeping child and the man who sat opposite Eris at the small table.
Eris watched her son's chest rise and fall, a small knot of tension in her jaw. Finally, she looked at the man.
"He's asleep? Really asleep?" she whispered.
Rocks D. Xebec, the man who roared at the sea, was perfectly still. His manic energy had evaporated, replaced by a deep, sharp clarity. He closed his eyes for a long moment. When they opened, they were cold and perceptive.
"His consciousness is dormant," he confirmed, his voice a low rumble, stripped of its earlier joy. "He's deep under. We can talk."
Without another word, they both stood and walked out of the cottage, closing the door gently behind them. The twin moons were high, casting a brilliant, silvery light on the white sand of the cove. The air was cool and deathly still.
They reached the edge of the water, the same spot where Eris performed her ritual every night. They didn't stand; they sat on the sand, side by side, looking out at the endless, glassy black of the Calm Belt.
The silence stretched, thick and heavy with unspoken fears. Eris was the one to break it. Her voice was thin, brittle, all the easy power she'd shown during the day gone, replaced by a deep, primal fear.
"Please, Xebec," she began, her hands clenching in the sand. "Tell me it was the Joyboy fruit. Tell me the Sun found you, not... not the other one."
Xebec didn't answer. His huge frame seemed to draw in the moonlight, his usual boisterous energy collapsing into a dark, heavy gravity. He stared at the horizon, his jaw working.
"Xebec. Please."
He sighed, a sound that seemed to steal the air from the beach. "I looked, Eris. For three years, I tore the world apart looking for it. I followed every rumor, every whisper of Nika, every hint of the Sun God. I found… nothing. It's gone. Or it's hiding."
Tears welled in Eris's eyes, spilling over and tracing silver paths down her cheeks in the moonlight. "So... it's true. It's... it's the only one left."
Slowly, as if it pained him, Xebec reached into the deep folds of his heavy coat. He pulled out an object, placing it on the sand between them.
It was a Devil Fruit. But it was wrong.
At first glance, it had the heart-shape of a Zoan, with the characteristic swirls patterning its surface. But that's where any similarity ended. The fruit looked burnt. It was a deep, obsidian black, covered in cracks that looked less like patterns and more like damage, as if it had been pulled from the heart of a dying sun. It didn't reflect the moonlight. It seemed to swallow it.
And it pulsed.
From deep within the cracks, a sickly, crimson-orange light glowed. It wasn't a steady, warm light. It was a rhythmic, breathing pulse, like the bellows of some terrible, ancient furnace. As they watched, the air around the fruit shimmered with heat, and the sand beneath it began to sizzle faintly, tiny wisps of smoke rising into the still night air.
Eris let out a choked, desperate sob. "No. No, I prayed... I begged every god I knew... I hoped the fates would be kind." She looked up at the moons, her face a mask of despair. "It's supposed to be the other one. The 'Warrior of Liberation.' Not... not that."
She stared at the fruit with a mixture of hatred and terror. "I can't change it. I thought I could. By hiding here, by having him... I thought I could break the cycle. But fate is iron."
Xebec's massive hand settled on her back, his touch surprisingly gentle. He pulled her against his side, and she collapsed against him, all her strength gone.
"Shh. It's alright, Eris. It will be alright," he murmured, his voice rough with an emotion he rarely showed.
"How?" she whispered, her voice muffled against his chest. "How can it be alright? You know what that fruit is. You know what it does. It's liberation, Xebec, but not through spreading happiness like Joyboy, but through cleansing the world through destruction. The weilder always goes through suffering."
"It's a tool," he said firmly. He looked down, not at the fruit, but toward the cottage. "Just a tool. He is the one who will decide."
He held her shoulders, making her look at him. "You feel him, don't you? Even in his sleep. The boy is a beacon. He felt my Haki before I even hit the beach. He felt your joy. Eris, he awakened his Observation naturally, at one year old. He can already sense emotions. He is not just 'destined for greatness.' He's destined to be greatness. This... thing," he gestured to the awful fruit, "it doesn't define him. He will define it."
He cupped her face, his scarred thumb wiping away her tears. "We will prepare him. You will teach him your control, your strength. I will teach him... mine. He will be ready."
Eris took a shuddering breath, her gaze falling. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Xebec. I pulled you into this. My bloodline... my name... It's a curse. You should have left me where you found me."
Xebec's eyes flashed, a spark of his wildfire returning. "Mess? Curse?" He pulled her back, his grip tight. "Eris. I have spent my entire life fighting shadows, tearing down lies, trying to find one, single truth in a world built on hypocrisy. You are the truth. This island, this family... this is the only real place I have ever been. Living one day here, with you and that boy, is worth more than a thousand years ruling the 'illusion' those Celestial Dragons call a world. Do not ever apologize for giving me that."
A small, watery smile touched her lips. "You always knew what to say."
"I just tell the truth," he grunted. "Most people are just too weak to hear it."
She leaned in and kissed him, a deep, desperate kiss that was part-love, part-grief, and part-resolve. He returned it, his arms encircling her, holding her as if she were the only thing keeping him anchored to the world.
"Thank you, love," she whispered, resting her forehead against his.
"Always, Eris," he replied, his voice a vow in the dark. "I will always be there for my family."
They sat together on the beach for a long time, two small figures against the vast, dark sea, the twin moons shining down on them and the terrible, pulsing fruit that lay waiting in the sand.
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HOW DID YOU LIKE THE NEW TWIST??? Let me know!!