"What do you mean you blame me?"

You swallowed back the hurt feeling. You hardly remembered Atticus but from what you knew, you cared for him deeply. There was no way you'd land him in here. Not on purpose.

"You're the reason I'm stuck in prison for life." He snapped before taking a deep breath and regaining a cool composure. "Let's start with what you already know. Fill me in."

You nodded hesitantly. "There's not a lot yet but I remember bits and pieces of you and a kid, Leo. I think he's my brother."

You tugged the ever present locket out from under your shirt and saw the flash of recognition in his eyes.

"I've got both yours and his picture in here. I don't know his details, not yet at least. But I know the three of us were living together and were on the move often. Past that...."

"Whatever you don't want to talk about, I already know about. Just spit it out." He grumbled.

None of your memories of Atticus could have ever told you how gruff and harsh he could be. You weren't a fan of it.

"Besides that I remember parts of a time when I was a slave to a celestial dragon. When I got my mark and what they put me through."

No one had heard about this besides Law. You hadn't found the courage to talk about it yet but you said it so easily for Atticus. Maybe it'd be easier with the crew now too. You'd waited long enough to talk to them.

"That's it?" He asked curtly.

"That's it." You sighed.

"Alright. Let's start with the boy." He jabbed a finger towards the locket. "Leo is your brother and I'm guessing since he's not with you, you don't know where he is."

He studied you for a moment, gauging your reaction carefully. You were excited to know you had family and from the sounds of it, he was probably still alive somewhere. That alone made this trip worth it.

"He's a sweet kid, about six years younger than you and smarter than most people. He ate a devil fruit when he was younger, around the time he was five, and got the ability to turn into a snow leopard. Now if you're going to want to find him, you're going to have to look into your past and that locket a bit more. Chances are, Leo left you a hint for where he was heading."

"O-okay." You squirmed around on the floor a bit, ready to leap to your feet and do everything you could to find your forgotten brother. "Why'd we separate in the first place?"

"For the same reason I'm stuck in here." Atticus growled. "Shit hit the fan."

You waited for him to continue, raising an eyebrow at him expectantly.

"It started with how we made our living. We all came from rough backgrounds so I took you kids in on the condition that you'd learn to do some work for me. And you did, quite well actually. Much better than I expected."

His hard exterior gave way to a softer expression as he eyes gained a distant look. Impel Down made him rough but below that, he may still be the man in your memories. Atticus cleared his throat and continued.

"We were smuggling supplies from one country to another during a war at first. Medical herbs, food, sometimes weapons if the pay was good enough. Once that died down we moved on to other odd jobs that were considered unsavory by Marines. I didn't care too much about what the work was, as long as the pay was decent but eventually they started to catch on to who was behind it and no amount of island hopping kept them from figuring who we were. You and me at least. Leo stayed out of the work so he managed to avoid pissing them off."

"So the issue was we were doing things that were technically illegal?" You asked to sum things up so far.

"Not always. Sometimes it was just us interfering with other countries' problems, kinda like how that revolutionary army does. Except what we did didn't always benefit everyone exactly."

"So why'd we do it? What was all the money for?"

He smiled, but it was aggressive. All malice and anger.

"I owed someone money and a lot of it. Funny thing, that's one thing you never asked me. You decided I was too good of a guy to get myself into any real trouble and assumed the money all went somewhere else. Of course you kept a cut, but you always made sure the majority of whatever was made went towards what I owed. It was sweet really. You really had me caring about you and the boy with that winning attitude of yours. I really wanted to treat you like my own kids."

"Wanted to?"

"I did for the longest time." He said with a sigh.

He'd been going back and forth between showing you hints of the affection he used to have for you and complete blame for the situation he was in. It had you more confused than ever. The more answers you got the more you weren't sure about your past. This was supposed to be clearing things up and it wasn't working as well as you'd hoped.

"When I picked you kids up, you were about 10, toting around Leo like your life depended on his safety. I think I had you two for about 11 years and I've been stuck behind bars for a couple more at least. That's quite a lot of time wasted on you two."

You ignored the spite in his voice as more questions popped up in your head. "Do you know where we were in life when you got us?"

"You were pretty tight lipped growing up. All you ever told me was you left home to keep Leo safe. Said something along the lines of avoiding him getting beat like you were."

Tough childhood, alright.

"Okay, so, Marines started catching on to us and our bullshit we were doing to pay your debts. What happened then?" You wanted to get back on track.

"They put bounties on our heads, what else?" He scoffed. "And my debt collectors were breathing farther down my neck the longer it took me to pay them back. So we started taking on more high risk jobs, ones that went from just aggravating the Marines to having them clamoring to have our heads on spikes. It all came to a head when I was offered a way out of it all. Just had to steal an item from a Celestial Dragon and the remainder of my debts would've been forgiven."

"That's pretty risky."

"That's what you said when you heard about the job too. Still, you decided to take it on after I asked you to."

"Wait, you asked me to do that kind of job to clear your debt?"

"I told you, you didn't ask about what I did and I didn't offer to tell. You were willing to do just about anything to help me out since I was the one that took you in." He shrugged like it was no big deal. "Either way, the job was a set up that went wrong for everyone involved. The Celestial Dragon agreed to work with the Marines to catch us, knowing we were taking on similar work at the time. I don't know how they convinced him to help but they did. It probably cost them a pretty penny. On top of that, they found out about my collectors and even roped them in to it all."

He closed his eyes and sighed, suddenly looking very tired.

"You know, I haven't talked to anyone like this in a long time."

"Addi I really need you to finish filling me in."

"I know." He snapped. "We took the job, you went out to do it, and actually succeeded. But you weren't supposed to. The Marines were more than ready to catch you but you'd always been slick with your get aways, this time was no different. It was much higher security, but nothing you couldn't handle apparently. I thought that was great at the time, still thinking the deal was real but because they failed to catch you, it was called off."

"What was I even stealing?" He never said what was so important that it'd be able to make his debts completely null and void.

"A devil fruit, one that was supposed to be able to allow the user to turn whatever they wanted into gold with just a touch."

You let out a low whistle. That would be one hell of a fruit.

"Turns out it couldn't do that, someone got their fruits mixed up." He chuckled. "Ended up being a zoan type fruit that turned the user into a fucking parrot."

"So it sounds like we didn't keep the fruit for long?"

"No. I didn't realize how sketchy it was at the time for the deal to get called off right after we got the item. So I tried to work something else out with my collectors. The Marines saw their second chance at catching us and agreed to a meet up. I went and fell right into the trap they'd set."

"So they caught you and then....?"

"Kind of. They wanted you but weren't able to find you. So we worked a different deal, I would avoid execution by turning you in."

"But I thought you cared for me."

"I did, maybe I still do." Atticus crossed his arms and set his mouth in a small frown. "But I wasn't about to die for you. I wasn't there to see how they got you but I know it took some time. You avoided them and eventually you and Leo split up so he wouldn't get dragged into this mess. When they finally got a hold of you, the Celestial Dragon took a liking to you and decided to keep you as a slave. And I got thrown in here for life."

"What?" You blinked a few times and struggled to grasp what he said. "That's....that's it?"

"Well yeah. I'm still here, you somehow escaped your situation, and Leo's still missing."

"So you turned me in and ruined mine and Leo's lives after all we did to help you?" You got to your feet and felt anger building up unlike any you've ever felt before. "And then you have the audacity to blame me for you being in here?"

Atticus stood up as well, face contorted into a snarl. "If you would've failed that job, they would've had you and I wouldn't have ever been stuck in prison."

"If you wouldn't have been such a fucking spineless idiot, none of this would have happened!" You'd come to a realization that you probably never came to before with him. "You're just a coward who's too afraid to face the consequences of his actions. I can't believe I ever looked up to you."

"I may be a coward." He stepped closer to the bars, grasping them tightly. "But that fear has kept me alive."

"Well I hope you enjoy the rest of your life here, where you belong. I'm going to find Leo." You turned and left, afraid if you spent any more time there you'd beat him within an inch of his life.

"How do you know everything I said wasn't a lie!?" He yelled after you.

"I came to fill the gaps, I'm sure I'll remember more and figure out what's truth and lies later."

"Come back! I can tell you more!" Panic filled his voice. Atticus didn't want to be left alone but it was about time he learned actions have consequences.

(A/n)
In all my stories with Atticus he's always played the part of the coward in one way or another. I think it makes him more interesting of a character since he can go from super sweet to completely twisted real easily.

Also, Leo is technically another one of my own personal characters~ while I have his eye color matching the readers, his eyes are normally blue and he can take the form of a snow leopard, hence the white hair.