From Blood to Ashes

Chapter 1: Tessa's beginning

"Mommy? Where are we going? Why can't we just stay here? I don't want to leave my robots behind..." 4-year-old Tessa D. Rouge asked her mother sadly. To which the woman picked up the genius of a child as she held her close to her chest. "I'm sorry, little one... But we have to do this to survive..." Tessa holds back her tears, "But why?" Her small and fragile voice rings out in the small, silent room as they grab their few belongings and leave the tiny shelter. Once out of the building, the girl bursts into silent tears as they walk towards the harbor. "Shhh little one...mommy's right here..." The woman says as she consoles her weeping child. This small, fragile girl was about to embark on an adventure that would change her young life. Once they arrive at the harbor, they run towards the ship and get on as Silvers Rayleigh starts to set sail.

"Uncle Rayleigh!" The girl runs towards the man, her right arm spread wide as the left holds her toy robot. The man chuckles as he picks her up, "Hey there, Tess. You better be causing some ruckus for me," The older man chuckles as he ruffles the giggling girl's hair. Her mother bows towards him, "Thank you so much, Rayleigh. We owe you our lives." The man with graying hair laughed as he motioned her to stand up straight. "Vanessa D. Rouge, if Roger ever found out I didn't do a damn thing to help his child and their mother, he would go all out on me. You never have to thank me, Vanny, as far as I'm concerned, you'll always be family." Rayleigh chuckled as they sailed towards the South Blue.

A few weeks later, they arrive at a certain island in the South Blue and Vanessa takes her child and walks towards the town with Rayleigh. "Vanny, I have a few friends on this island. You can stay there until you get back on your feet, ok?" He says as they reach a small town and walk into a little restaurant. Tessa looks around and notices two boys. One with long shaggy blonde hair, and a shorter boy with hair that resembled fire. Just like her, he was carrying a toy robot. "Tessa? Would you like to go exploring while I talk with Rayleigh and his friend?" The little girl looked at her mother, her expression was pure excitement as the adventure was brewing. She nodded quickly as she starts to jump around a little. "Can I? Please?" Vanessa laughed at her daughter's excitement as she nodded. "YAY!!" The small girl starts to run around, "Come on, Isabella! Adventure awaits!" Rayleigh chuckled as the small girl runs off. "You know, she is a carbon copy of old Roger..."

The first place Tessa runs to is the river running through the island. "Look, Isabella! That's a massive fish! Think we should catch it?" The girl looks at the toy as if waiting for its response. "You are absolutely right!" She giggled as she looks for items to build a makeshift fishing rod, but she froze as she felt a presence behind her. "See, Killer, I told you she had a robot toy! And it looks just like one of mine!" Tessa turns around slowly seeing the two boys from earlier. She looked down at Isabella before charging at the two boys. "RRAAAAAHHH!" She yelled as she charged at them, knocking the blonde one down. "I'm not letting you take Isabella!" The redhead child grabbed onto my arm as he stopped me, "Waitwaitwait! We ain't gonna take nothing from you!" The blonde kid sits up, coughing up blood. "Holy fuck! How old are you, kid?" he asked as he regained the breath she knocked out of him. Kid crossed his arms and huffed, "Killer, you know how old I am!" Killer shook his head at the young redhead's statement, "Not you, Kid, I was talking to her."

Tessa stood proudly as she crossed her arms, her head raised high, "I'm only four years old!" The little girl turned around and ran towards Isabella, grabbing her before running back to the two boys. "My name is Tessa! And this is Isabella! I built her myself!" She says proudly while showing off her toy before looking as curious as ever at the two boys. "Who are you too?" The blonde-haired boy chuckles, "I think you mean 'you two' but whatever," He shrugs and raises his right hand as he greets her, "My name is Killer and I'm 10 years old, and this is... well, I'll let him introduce himself" The blonde gestures towards the flame-haired boy who walked in front of the small girl and leans down, yelling right in her face. "My name is Eustass Kid! And I'm gonna be the king of the pirates!"