OP Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, but I do own my OCs.

He was dying.

Really, honestly dying. It was an inescapable fact. He'd just had a hole punched through his chest. There would be no more sailing the seas, no more skirmishes, no more… Anything.

And damn it if he didn't still feel like he was being watched. He never had found out why that was.

He leaned into Luffy, blackness slowly clouding his eyes. He breathed his last.

Something was shining into his closed lids. He coughed.

He was lying down in something… A coffin? What? Oh, that's right, he died… Wait, so why was he awake?

He looked down. There was no trace of the wound that had killed him, except skin that seemed a bit shinier than it should have been.

'What the hell…' He muttered to himself. There was dirt piled around the coffin. So he'd been… Dug up? And there was…

'Oh crap.' A girl next to the coffin. Dead, by the looks of it, sporting the same wound that had killed him. Did that mean Admiral Akainu was here?

He stepped out of the coffin, carefully avoiding the body sprawled beside it, and saw the grave to his left.

'Whitebeard…' His captain. His father figure. Gone. What would become of the Whitebeard pirates without their captain? They'd probably put Marco in charge. Well, if they'd managed to escape the marines.

He heard something shift beside him and whirled, searching for a foe.

'Ow…' The girl he had thought was dead growled. She looked down at the hole in her chest. It was healing.

Ace turned white. She should be dead. How was she healing? What was going on here?

She looked at him with piercing emerald eyes, and shrugged a lock of violet hair over her shoulder. 'I imagine you have a great many questions.' She sat up with a grimace. 'Ask away.'

Ace opened his mouth, closed it, thought for a moment, then opened it again. 'How am I alive?'

The girl stood up. 'You are alive because I brought you back from the dead. I ate a Devil Fruit, the Life Life fruit. It allows me to give life to those who have died recently by transferring whatever it was that killed them to my own body. It cannot kill me, of course. My Devil Fruit prevents such an eventuality.' She examined the wound on her chest that was now almost completely healed. 'You certainly took a beating, Portgas D. Ace. That is the most painful wound I've suffered through to bring someone back so far. Congratulations… I think.'

Ace leaned against his coffin, folding his arms. She didn't seem to be a threat, but she was certainly odd. 'Why me?'

Again she fixed him with that piercing stare. 'You did not deserve to die, nor did you want to. You are one of the rare people that deserve a second chance at life, rather than deserving to have been given no chance at all. You now have that chance.'

She motioned for him to move away from his coffin, and pushed it back into the grave, filling it over once more. 'Cannot afford to let the whole world know you're alive, now can we?'

Ace reached for his knife and hat, but she stopped him. 'Leave those ones. While I understand the sentimental value they hold for you, they must remain here as testament to your death. I will find you some that are as identical as possible.'

'But…' He protested, but she silenced him with a glare. Clearly she disliked her advice being ignored.

'Fine.' He sighed. 'Also, I don't think we've been formally introduced.' He held out his hand. 'Ace, as you know.'

She held out her own hand. 'Seraph D. Demeter. Pleasure to finally meet you.'

Ace quirked an eyebrow. 'Finally?'

'I've been watching you for some time.'

That would explain that feeling, of always being watched. 'So that was you! Why? Little creepy, don't you think?'

Demeter began to walk away, beckoning for him to follow. Which he did, though he had no idea why he was being so compliant with someone he'd just met.

'Creepy? I can see how it could be perceived that way. Why? Because I knew your time would end prematurely. I can see the threads of life and death, and I can follow them all. I can see when they should end, and when they will end. Sometimes it is later than they should, sometimes earlier. I was interested to see whether your thread deserved to be cut short, so I watched your progress, and determined that you deserved a longer life.'

There was silence for a few minutes, until they reached the shoreline. Anchored not far off was a ship. It looked abandoned, derelict.

'I should warn you, Portgas D. Ace, that your Devil Fruit power will have changed. You died, so it left you and entered another fruit. I brought you back in the state that you were upon death, so you retain the power, but it will feel different and will act differently. The power will be confused, and you must learn to control it once more.' She walked towards a small rowing boat that was pointed towards the abandoned ship.

'Does that mean someone else may have it by now?' Ace asked with trepidation.

'They do not. Not yet. But it will likely be eaten by someone in the near future. I am unsure what effect that will have upon you, whether you will lose your power completely, or whether it will do nothing.' Demeter hopped delicately into the rowing boat, Ace following suit, and she moved to take the oars, but he wouldn't let her.

'Gentlemanly of you.' She commented drily.

'I wasn't raised to be rude.' He replied.

She merely raised an eyebrow at him. 'Yet you became a pirate.'

Ace laughed. 'That I did. I don't remember seeing a rule about pirates having to be rude.'

Demeter smiled slightly. 'That is true. I suppose there are well-mannered pirates out there. Red-Haired Shanks comes to mind.'

'You know Shanks?' Ace was surprised, but Demeter shook her head.

'Not personally. I know of him. He is another I have observed.'

They were silent as Ace continued to row towards the ship. Demeter looked out to sea, eyes occasionally flicking backwards to the Fire Fist, as if she had to remind herself what he looked like. Or perhaps it was more basic than that. He wasn't wearing a shirt, after all. When viewed in that light, her restraint was rather admirable. A large proportion of people who encountered him were unable to tear their eyes away at all.

Ace followed her gaze uncertainly. He noticed every time her eyes flicked back, but chose not to say anything.

Soon they reached the ship. Demeter whistled the beginning of a tune that seemed vaguely familiar, and a rope ladder was dropped over the side of the hull. They climbed up, and upon reaching the top, one of the crew on the ship scurried down the ladder to bring up the rowboat.

'Welcome, Portgas D. Ace, to the ship of the damned.' Demeter's voice was almost sad.

Ace looked around him. A thin layer of fog drifted across the deck, though the day was clear. It was colder than it should have been.

'What do you mean, ship of the damned?' He asked Demeter as she walked towards the helm, crewmates nodding to her as she passed.

'Well, her real name is Styx. This is the ship of the people I have brought back from the dead. They're my crew now. I'm afraid that, while I give them the choice, often reintegrating into the life they once had is nearly impossible. You and I have much to discuss, and you're not going to like most of what it is I have to say.' She took the wheel, ordered the anchor to be pulled up, and began to steer away from the island.

'Wait, you're the captain here?' Ace looked surprised. She merely raised an eyebrow at him and turned back to sailing the ship.

'How are you feeling?' She asked him suddenly.

He looked at her with a questioning look. 'What do you mean?'

'Your captain, Whitebeard, is dead. You just came back from the dead yourself. You are now on a ship full of people in the same situation. I imagine it is difficult for you. How are you feeling?'

Well, now that she mentioned it… 'I feel starving. Do you have any food?'

That elicited a laugh from Demeter, something that caused the whole crew to look at her. Clearly she didn't laugh often.

'Yes, we do have food. I shall take you to the kitchen. Rhior, take over, will you?'

A tall man with a mess of dark blue hair and a tattoo of what looked like an avenging angel on his shoulder nodded and took the wheel.

Demeter led Ace down into the depths of the ship. They passed a few crew members here, and Ace noticed they all had that same tattoo. It must have been their symbol. Some waved or nodded to him, seeming to be quite the polite bunch. Others ignored him. To them he was probably just another of the corpses their captain chose to bring back.

'That man you asked to take over the wheel for you, is he your first mate?' Ace asked, not liking the silence.

'Rhior? Yes, he is. He was one of the first people I brought back after eating the Devil Fruit.' She led him through the first two decks of the ship, eventually arriving at the galley, free of crewmen but filled with tables and chairs.

'How many people have you brought back?' He asked as he grabbed a basket of fruit that was sitting on one of the tables.

'One hundred and four, including you.' She asked, stealing one of the fruits from the basket and biting into it.

His eyes boggled. That was a lot of people to be brought back from the dead. 'Are you sure that's wise?'

She held his gaze, eyebrows raised. 'I am fully aware of the possible repercussions of my actions, Portgas D. Ace. I have the power to give life, and also to take it away. I have exercised both powers equally.'

His heart sank slightly. She was a killer. 'Why would you do such a thing? And please, just call me Ace.'

She sat, eyes clouding over. 'Because some people are not people at all, but are monsters in disguise.'

Ace sat down too. 'Every person you've killed has absolutely deserved to die?'

She turned her eyes to him again. 'Every person I killed had lived long past their allotted time, and never deserved to live at all. Life is a gift that they abused horrendously. Determining who lives and who dies is my burden.'

Clearly the Life Life fruit wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

'Have you ever lost anyone?' She asked him suddenly.

'Yes, a long time ago. A childhood friend. His name was Sabo.' His tone saddened.

'Was there anything you could have done to save him?'

What an odd question. 'No, there wasn't. His ship was destroyed, I wasn't on it.'

'Hmm.' She seemed thoughtful. 'I see. So true despair is not something you have experienced before?'

He shook his head. 'I guess not, though I don't know where this line of questioning is leading.'

She disposed of the core of the fruit she had been eating, and stood up. 'There are many people on this ship who lost people close to them, and there was nothing they could do. There are an equal number who could have done something, but didn't. You have seen some of those in the latter category. They did not acknowledge you when you passed them earlier, and neither did they acknowledge me.'

He had no idea what she was talking about. He wasn't even sure she was completely sane.

'There is a point to this, Ace. Those who ignore you are trapped in the grips of their despair. I am on a quest to find a way to alleviate their suffering. It pains me greatly to see my crew like this, and I have never been able to find a cure. I am now going to offer you a choice. The offer will always be open. You may leave this ship to find your loved ones, or you can stay here as a member of the crew. As a crewmate, your true loyalty would need to lie with me, and me alone. Do you understand what that means?'

He nodded. 'I do.'

'If you choose to remain with the ship, perhaps one day I will believe that you are loyal. However, there are precious few in this crew who are. The one I trust the most is Rhior. Do you know why that is?'

Ace furrowed his brows as the tone of her voice. 'No. Why?'

'Because he has no loved ones to return to. His family has been dead for years. I could not bring them back for him.'

'What do you mean? Why couldn't you bring them back?' Ace looked at her, a piece of fruit halfway to his mouth.

'They had been killed years earlier, in a raid by the marines. I can only bring back those who have been dead less than twelve hours. Any longer than that and the brain has begun to decay. It does not respond to my power.' She put a hand on his shoulder. 'I can see that you were hoping I could bring your friend back for you. But I fear it is too late. It has been years since you lost him, and there is nothing I can do.'

Ace looked away from her. He had indeed been hoping that she could bring Sabo back. But then, he didn't know where Sabo's grave was, or how to find it.

Demeter looked at him, and the pain on his face seemed to hurt her. She took his hand. 'Come with me. I may not be able to bring him back, but at least I will be able to see the thread of his life, and the kind of person that he was.'

She led him down into the depths of the ship, which was much larger than he had originally realised. Eventually she pulled him into a room with curved walls.

'This room amplifies my power. It shouldn't take too long.' She had asked him to describe Sabo to her on the way to the room, so that she knew what to look for. There were certain characteristics that were unique to each person, and that was how she managed to find their life thread. It had taken years of practice.

Ten minutes later, her brow was deeply furrowed, and she had still not found the thread. She opened her eyes. 'Are you absolutely certain that he is dead? Did you see the body?'

Ace frowned. 'Well, no.'

'Alright. Let me try something.' Rather than sifting through the threads of the dead, she began to sort through those of the living in her mind.

'Yellow hair, dresses like an aristocrat, blue coat? Sound familiar?' She said with a slight smile on her face.

'Yeah, that's him! That's Sabo! So you can see the kind of person he was…' His excitement turned to sorrow.

'Was? No. Ace, Sabo is alive.'

A look of shock stole over Ace's face. Sabo was alive? Truly alive?

He grabbed the front of Demeter's coat. 'Are you sure?'

She gave him a look of disdain. 'Of course I'm sure. I would not have said anything if I wasn't.'

'Can we find him?'

She smiled. 'We can try.'