Title: Reunion's Ain't For The Faint of Heart
Summary: When a strange woman approaches Ace in a bar, Marco knows trouble is soon to follow.
Parings: None/Canon
Warnings: Potential ch 794 spoilers, Always a Girl!Sabo, swearing, Possible Out of Character moments due to a lack of appearance of characters in Manga as I don't watch the Anime. Head canon galore. Not Canon Compliant. Set sometime after Ace is promoted to 2nd Division Commander whenever that is.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. One Piece and its characters belong to all of their respective owners. I have simply borrowed them for your and my own amusement.
Author's Note: So apparently when I say I'll have a new One Piece story soon, I apparently mean a few months. This story is the conglomeration of my own headcanon, the belief that One Piece needs more badass lady characters and my continued denial of Ace's death. This story was also indirectly inspired by Man Makes Plans by MaiKusakabe, because it totally gave me the headcanon that Sabo and Ace would totally end up fighting if they ran into each other. This story was actually written about halfway through the Dressarosa Arc, almost just after we learned that Sabo was still around and had very little to base his character off of, which is why he may seem a bit out of character. For that I am sorry, but I hope that you enjoy the story anyways.
Reunion's Ain't For The Faint of Heart
It was rather noisy in the bar, with people conversing, yelling and laughing all at the same time. Someone had even found a couple of instruments and several people were adding to the cheery cacophony by attempting to play them. Yes it was nice, Marco mused, to see everyone so joyful after a hard weeks work. The partying group was not overly large, but it did contain the majority of the commanders and some senior members of the crew all celebrating their active participation in an operation for once.
A week ago, when the group had arrived, the island was a mess. Those present had immediately gone about preventing slavers from raiding and taking care of the immediate issues plaguing the residents. The later half of the week had been spent explaining exactly what being a part of Whitebeard's territory meant. All in all it had been smooth sailing with no random mishaps, strange twists of fate or sea king attacks. In fact, things had gone so smoothly someone had wondered aloud if they had somehow left the New World, the Grand Line or both. It had been a good couple of weeks that had everyone agreeing that they definitely deserved a celebration. A body eased into the bar stool next to him, snapping Marco out of his thoughts. He glanced over at the shirtless black haired freckled youth who hailed the bartender then turned and seemed to be observing the same group he was.
"Having fun Ace?" Marco asked. Though the younger man had been the Second Division Commander for a few months, there hadn't been any major issues and this was his first time out as a Commander rather than serving with his division as the advance guard.
"Yeah!" Ace said, albeit a bit breathlessly, as the bartender came over with his drink.
Marco smirked, "Not tired already are you?"
"Who me?" Ace shot back. "Never!" He smiled and continued, "Just thought I would sit down and keep an old bird company for a bit."
Marco quipped back with his customary "Not a bird, yoi" but it was halfhearted at best and the two fell into a companionable silence as they nursed their drinks and enjoyed the sight of their family celebrating.
They sat like that for a while as a few more people straggled into the bar. One, a tall girl in a top hat, drew Marco's eyes immediately though he wasn't quite sure why. She wasn't wearing anything special, black boots and loose dark grey pants held up by a belt. The cream colored halter tank top had a series of ruffles down the front giving the appearance of a cravat combined with gloves and some sort of decorative armband that adorned her upper left bicep made for an odd combination but it wasn't aesthetically unpleasing. The over-sized hat somehow did an excellent job of hiding her eyes but couldn't quite manage to hide the scar that covered the upper left portion of her face or the slight smirk she was wearing. Her wavy blond hair hung just past her shoulder blades, held together by a blue ribbon in a low ponytail. The clothes and her features should have made her stand out but, in a bar full of the peacocks that were his brothers and sisters in piracy, she fit right in.
The girl didn't appear to pay much attention to anyone but Marco's gut told him she, whoever she was, knew exactly how many people were in the bar, what they were armed with and most probably the identities of most of them. The Whitebeard Pirates were not the most inconspicuous people and normally that was enough for most to leave them alone yet it did not appear to be the case here. Marco sighed to himself as the woman made a beeline for the open spot at the bar on the other side of Ace. The girl was going to be trouble and given the varying states of inebriation of the others, it was up to him to deal with it.
After a few moments of flirting with the bartender the stranger had a drink in hand. She turned and relaxed against the bar surveying the room. The party was still going strong and something about the celebration had apparently caught the woman's attention. She chuckled as she watched the group's antics.
Marco realized with a start that, of the three of them at the bar, she was the only one who was focused on the partying pirates. He was watching her and Ace, well Ace was studiously not looking at anything. In fact he was looking rather tense and strangely pale. Marco frowned. Perhaps he ought to escort his crewmember back to the ship? It might be a good idea to get Ace out of harm's way just in case whatever trouble the woman had brought with her turned violent. Not that Ace couldn't hold his own but he was looking rather strange. Marco had just made his mind to try when the woman spoke.
"Is it true" she inquired in a low honeyed alto without taking her gaze off the party goers, "that your response to being invited to join the Warlords of the Sea was to burn the letter and send them a response that said fuck you?"
Marco raised an eyebrow in surprise. There were very few people who knew that story and no one had ever asked Ace to confirm his part in it. Marco was curious to see how Ace would respond. The response was not what he had expected. Ace, the mostly well-mannered kid that they had come to know and love, let out a wordless snarl of rage and punched the woman through the wall.
Judging by how she hit the wall she had known the punch was coming. Moments before she had spoken she had placed her now empty glass on the bar and angled her body slightly in a protective stance yet she hadn't blocked the hit. That, Marco thought, was interesting. He hadn't expected Ace's response. How the heck had she?
As Marco cogitated, Ace angrily slammed his hat onto his head and stalked out of the hole in the wall he had just made. Shortly after sounds of a fight trickled through the hole although they grew fainter by the moment. Tossing back the remains of his drink Marco glanced at the group of revelers. They were so caught up in the festive mood that they hadn't even noticed the altercation or the new hole in the wall. Marco shrugged to himself. Despite their desire to prove otherwise, his siblings were not children. They didn't need to be baby-sat and would be all right on their own for a while. Besides whatever was happening with Ace was bound to be far more interesting anyways.
By the time Marco made it to the courtyard neither Ace nor the woman were present; yet signs their battle were. Small bits of charred wood littered the ground while several small fires were scattered here and there, and a clear trail of smoke lead to the street. The actual structural damage appeared to be limited to the hole in the bar wall. That in and of itself was a mighty impressive feat. After having seen so many of Ace's fights Marco had a good estimate of the young man's strength. No what really surprised him was that the majority of the courtyard was still intact. Ace, when annoyed, was not the most careful of fighters often leaving a wide swath of property damage in his wake.
Ace and his opponent clearly were not in the courtyard so where could they have gone? He paused to listen and discovered to his dismay that they were not within earshot either. With a sigh, Marco allowed blue flames to engulf him transforming into the phoenix form from which he took his moniker. After a few beats of his wings, he was aloft and began looking for the current location of his crewmate.
Once he managed to get a bit of altitude the pair's location was obvious. A small trail of fires, angry people and the occasional knocked over cart lead straight to the beach. A quick wing-over sent him flying in that direction. He reached the area and landed in a tree that appeared to be outside the battle zone. Marco once again allowed the blue fire to engulf him and looked about to assess the damage which was much more like he expected from a fight involving Ace.
The two had been there for only a few minutes but the damage was impressive. Several trees had apparently been subjected to and failed to hold up to the same treatment the bar wall had received. One tree was on fire, there were several glassy patches littering the sand and something had been incinerated into a smoking pile of ash. From the nature of the destruction Marco came to a startling realization, somehow both Ace and the woman had managed to contain the damage until after they had vacated the town. They'd been holding back but it was clear that now all limits were off. With a slight frown Marco realized what the damage to the beach reminded him of. The last time he had seen damage to this extent was when they first picked up Ace, after he had fought Jinbei to a standstill for five days straight.
The fight itself was interesting. The woman clearly knew how to fight but she wasn't putting up much of one. Instead, she had picked up a long piece of pipe from somewhere and was using it to counter the worst of Ace's attacks. In fact she was only parrying the ones that would permanently injure if they landed or the ones covered in flames. As Marco watched she parried a flaming kick that was simply a distraction from the normal fist flying at her face. The fist connected with a sick crack and she danced back a few feet to get out of range for a moment. Surprisingly Ace didn't follow up. He just stood there and glared at the woman who glared back.
"You good?" She asked one hand holding the pipe in a defensive position the other gingerly probing at her nose.
Ace frowned but nodded and that apparently changed everything because the girl reaffirmed her grip on her pipe and charged. Marco watched in amusement as it was Ace's turn to be put on the defensive. It was interesting to see the two fight, when both of them were actually fighting as they were now. Blow for blow they matched each other in a way that spoke of long term familiarity. Ace was clearly stronger but this woman had a superior sense of timing and tactics. All in all the pair was rather evenly matched. Marco chuckled to himself as a foot finally slipped past Ace's defense for a solid strike that threw him into a tree.
Marco was close enough to realize that Ace was grumbling about something as he pulled himself out of the wreckage with a wince. The grumbling turned into an angry snarl then finally into a yell "You fucking cracked my ribs!"
Marco was slightly shocked. Ace was generally more temperate in his language than most of the crew of the Moby Dick. Luckily, it didn't appear as if the course language bothered the woman. If anything her smile grew wider.
She bellowed back at him, "Well, you fucking broke my face!"
"Noble Ass!"
"Bandit shit!"
"Yam Brain!"
"Turnip Head!"
Marco raised an eyebrow as the two stalked closer to each other tossing insults all the way. Some of the slurs were clever, others were extremely childish and there were a few that simply made no sense at all. The abuse kept coming and as the two approached one another the name calling got louder, longer and less comprehensible. As they got within arms reach Marco expected the fists would start flying again for round three.
Instead the pair did something completely unexpected. They marched up and stopped about a foot from each other and engaged in what had to be the most intense staring contest Marco had ever seen. He couldn't say how long they stood there. It could have been anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two before they moved again. All he knew was that he blinked once and Ace and the stranger were wrapped around each other in a bone-crushing hug.
The hug relaxed a bit and Marco realized that Ace and the woman were talking as well as hugging. It took a moment for Marco to realize Ace was shaking. No not shaking, crying. Marco had watched long enough, he needed to know what the hell was going on. Now. He was just about to leap out of the tree, when Ace suddenly collapsed. Marco sighed as he recognized the telltale signs of one of Ace's narcoleptic fits. It appeared he wouldn't be getting an explanation from Ace after all.
Judging by the muffled cursing the woman hadn't been expecting Ace to fall asleep but she handled it well enough. Adjusting her grip on the now sleeping man and the pipe she had been using she began to drag/carry him over to the base of the tree Marco happened to be sitting in allowing him to hear her grumbling.
"Stupid older brother falling asleep at the drop of a hat always at the most inopportune times!" she grumped propping Ace up against the base of the tree. "Hey bird-guy" she said a bit more loudly
Marco raised an eyebrow. "Me, yoi?"
"Yeah you. You're with Ace, yeah? I can trust you to keep watch right?" Not waiting for answer, she sat down right next to Ace and leaned against him dropping off into sleep almost immediately.
"I'm Ace's crewmate Marco, nice to meet you and you are?" Marco asked the sleeping woman bemusedly as he stared down at the pair. Sighing he continued with what he had been wondering since she had first appeared "and what the hell was that all about?" Answers, of course, would have to wait until either of the two awoke. Marco settled back in his perch keeping one eye on the sleeping pair below and another on the surroundings.
A couple of hours later, Marco was disturbed from his thoughts by a commotion approaching the beach. Voices echoed across the sand calling for him and Ace. It was Jozu, Thatch, Haruta and Izo. He smiled. Apparently someone had sobered up enough to realize that they were missing from the bar, saw the hole in the wall and had come looking for them.
"Marco!" Thatch called out as he spotted Marco perched in the tree. "Have you seen…"
Marco cut him off with a frown and pressed a finger to his lips signaling for quiet. Thatch raised an eyebrow but complied.
When Thatch was within range Marco said quietly, "Calm down. He's right there." He pointed to the ground where Ace and the woman were still sleeping.
At some point in the past few hours the two had shifted position and Ace was now partially curled up on top of the girl. Both of their faces radiated peaceful contentment. Thatch stared.
Jozu, Izo, and Haruta had apparently noticed that Thatch had stopped yelling and were now picking their way through the mess of the beach to approach the tree. They quickly spotted Marco who again made his shushing motion.
Once the trio was in range Marco asked, "Where's everyone else?"
"We split up to search when we noticed you two were missing" Thatch responded.
"Well, you found us" Marco informed them. "Everything is fine right now"
"That implies everything wasn't fine earlier," Haruta said accusingly to Marco who shrugged in response.
"Yet it's fine now."
"Good" Jozu said before the group could descend into argument over semantics. "Then if this isn't anything to worry about anymore I'm going to go find the rest and let them know we found you two and that everything is ok. That way we can all go back to our drinks."
Marco smiled. "Good idea. You just do that Jozu"
Jozu nodded and left while the other three made themselves comfortable amidst the rubble.
"That's rather cute" Izo remarked quietly looking at the sleeping Ace. "Honestly though, is there anything to worry about?"
"I don't think so" Marco replied. "If there are problems with the girl, together we should be able to handle it."
Izo nodded but frowned. "What caused this mess?" he asked gesturing to the beach.
Again Marco pointed at the sleeping teens. "Their fight."
"They fought?" Thatch whispered incredulously as he looked around. "If the beach is this bad, then how bad is the rest of damage? I haven't seen something this torn up since…"
"Ace fought Jinbei." Marco finished for him. "I know. Property wise, damage appears to be limited to just the hole in the bar wall, some burnt patches of ground and well, the beach. Personal damage-wise Ace was yelling something about a cracked rib and I think she broke her nose. The rest is most likely just bruises."
"That's it?" Thatch asked skeptically. "You sure they were really fighting?"
"Yeah" Marco thought about it for a minute. "Well Ace was at the very least."
"Who is she?" Haruta asked peering at the woman with whom Ace was currently cuddling.
Marco shrugged. "Don't know. Whoever she is, she's known Ace a long time. They have the same habit of insulting people by calling them names, mostly vegetable varieties."
"Our brother started it" came a sleep rough voice from under the top hat.
Haruta squeaked and jumped back, nearly falling over in surprise.
"Your brother?" Izo asked.
"mmmhm." The girl shifted slightly to free one of her hands from underneath Ace.
Removing the top hat from her head, she smiled at them ignoring the sympathetic winces as the entirety of her scar came into view. Shifting a little bit more she was able to free her other arm and sit up a little bit straighter. Humming softly she pushed Ace's hat back and started carding her fingers through his hair.
"That's interesting" Marco commented from above her. "As far as I knew Ace only had one sibling, a younger brother named Luffy. So who are you?"
"That would be our youngest brother. I'm his sister" she said smiling not pausing in her actions. "Name's Sabo. Nice 't' meet 'cha"
"Why haven't we heard about you before?" Thatch asked suspiciously.
Sabo frowned, stopping her ministrations. Finally she shrugged, "Dunno. Ask him."
"Cause you were dead you fucking prick" came an angry grumble from her lap to the shock of his friends. Marco chuckled softly at his brothers' expressions regarding Ace's cursing. Their younger brother certainly didn't look awake but he clearly was, at least enough to be aware of the conversation and make comments. Ace's eyes were still closed and he did not appear as if he was going to move anytime soon.
Sabo ignored their looks and rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't let you know I was alive…" she began addressing the comment to Ace.
"Why didn't you?" Ace demanded suddenly sitting up and dislodging his sister's hands from his hair. "We thought you were dead Sabo. Dogra saw them sink your boat."
"Well that explains why they looked like they had seen a ghost" Sabo murmured to herself, but Ace kept talking.
"Lu cried for days. Hell even Shitty gramps was sad. So why didn't you tell us?"
Sabo looked shocked. "Garp? That Geezer? Our Gramps? That Garp? Sad? You sure you weren't hallucinating Ace?"
The rest of the Whitebeard commanders startled at the name. Marco was so surprised he almost fell out of the tree.
Ace snorted "He was sad. Said no one deserved to die without living. He didn't consider where you were before much of a life."
"Sorry, hold on" Thatch said holding up his hand effectively drawing the pair's attention. "Did you just say Garp, as in Monkey D. Garp, the 'hero' of the marines, was your grandfather?"
They shot him blank looks then chorused, "Yeah. Problem?"
Thatch rocked back and placed his hands behind his back "No. Just surprised." He chuckled and muttered to himself, "That certainly explains a lot."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ace demanded but no answer was given. In fact, after that little surprise the small group of commanders gave up asking their own questions and instead settled for watching wide eyed the conversation happening between the two siblings. They were learning more about their enigmatic crewmate by simply observing than they had after months of persistent questions. Well, Marco mused silently, it showed how much Ace trusted them now. Earlier, there was no way he would have let them listen in on something like this.
"Anyways, its not like I could have let you know I was alive." Sabo was rather matter of fact about it.
"Why not?!" Ace demanded outraged.
Sabo sighed looking pained. She ran a hand through her hair uncovering more of the scar. Everyone could see that it ran up under her hair and covered gods only knew how much of her head.
"Look at me Ace. The stupid dragons almost killed me. I survived only because someone rescued me, but I was in a coma for a little over a year. When I woke up it took me over five years to remember who I was. At that point all I knew was that I had a family who missed me but I couldn't remember them. Of course I'd heard of you at that point, Mr. Super Rookie," she teased with a melancholy smile, "but it wasn't until I saw your newest wanted poster saying you were the 2nd Division commander of the Whitebeard pirates that I actually remembered who you were." She paused then placed her hands on either side of his head, "Speaking of which, why the fuck did you go after Whitebeard of all people? There are much better ways to prove you're better than him."
Ace glared.
His fellow Whitebeard pirates chuckled at the tone but were confused. Who the heck was Sabo talking about?
"Ow ow ow Sabo! I know that now!" Ace unsuccessfully tried to escape Sabo's tugging on his ears.
"Good. You're still a reckless idiot by the way" She commented releasing them.
"We've noticed" Marco said dryly from above them while Thatch, Izo, and Haruta all snickered.
Ace turned his glare at his friends for a moment but turned back to his sister. "I guess I'll forgive you then but who rescued you and what the hell have you been doing for the past few years? I know you didn't become a pirate, 'cause if you had then I would have tracked you down already."
"Ace, I didn't even remember I wanted to be a pirate."
Ace looked skeptical.
"Anyway, if you knew about me then I wouldn't be very good at my job."
"Which is?"
"Hmm" Sabo glanced at the other pirates who were trying and failing to hide their curiosity. "How much do you trust them?"
Ace looked mildly offended, "They're family."
Sabo looked the group over then nodded apparently making a decision. "Right. Well, ironically enough Dragon rescued me."
Haruta blinked. "As in Dragon the leader of the Revolutionary Army?" he blurted.
"Mmmhmm. Know any other person stupid enough to claim the name Dragon?" Sabo asked.
"I know a group of nobles stupid enough to claim they are dragons" Haruta muttered but was ignored in favor for the next question.
"So you're a revolutionary then?" Izo asked.
"Yeah, you could say that."
"Why are you here?" Marco asked from his perch in the tree.
Before Sabo could answer, the sound of a Den Den Mushi echoed into the night. Scowling at her hat, she pulled out a pink baby snail with a small phone attachment on its shell. "Yes?"
"Are you done talking to the hottie you remembered was your brother?" The voice came through loud enough that everyone could hear.
Sabo face palmed, Ace turned beet red and the rest of the commanders chuckled.
"Not yet. By the way he can hear you. How long do I have?"
"He can?" The voice at the other end of the phone sounded absolutely delighted by this news. "Hello Sabo's hot brother!"
"Um… Hi?" Ace offered tentatively.
"Sabo, you have to introduce me someday! Not today though. Boss says you've got little less than an hour to finish up and get back here or we're leaving without you."
"K" Sabo replied. "I'll be back in a bit then." Hanging up she put the snail back into her hat.
"What exactly did your friend mean?" Marco asked as he slipped down from the tree to stand in front of her.
"Nothing bad" Sabo retorted. "So don't go fluffing your feathers at me, mister."
Ace stared at his sister in shock while Marco's eyes widened. He had never before met someone so unconcerned with who he was. Behind him, Thatch and Haruta lost it, while Izo tried to quiet them down but his attempts were in vain. Marco made a mental note, he needed to get them back when they returned to the Moby Dick.
"I'm simply here to pass on some information. It's supposed to officially go to Fire Fist Ace, 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard pirates not to Portgas D. Ace, my brother."
"Right" Ace nodded now all business. "What's up?"
"They know, Ace. The Government figured it out. They're going to be after you again, though they've decided to do it more subtlety than last time. And before you ask, it wasn't the shitty geezer."
The commanders stared at Ace in confusion.
Ace looked thunderous, "Who?"
Sabo shrugged, "I don't know. We only intercepted pieces of the conversation. Some of the information clearly came from someone aboard the Moby Dick." She paused and turned to the rest of the commanders, "Gentlemen, you have a traitor aboard."
Ignoring the other commander's consternation and disbelief at her statement she stood and pulled Ace up with her. Once standing she gave Ace another hug and released him. Fishing in one of her many pockets for a moment she pulled her hand out and pressed a paper into his hand. "This is for you. It's my Vivre Card, and that number is for my personal Den Den Mushi. Loose it and I'll hurt you."
Turning away Sabo replaced her hat on her head and scooped up her pipe. She paused and looked around at the group. "Take care of my brother Feathers!" she addressed a still stunned Marco. "I just remembered I had him." With that she took two steps back towards her brother, placed a kiss on his cheek then spun and strolled down the beach.
She turned one last time and called back, "Bye Ace! See you around!"
There was a stunned silence as the group watched Sabo walk off. Finally the silence was broken as Marco side eyed Ace, and inquired incredulously "Feathers?"
Ace shrugged, "Don't look at me. I haven't seen her in years. I mean, well, you heard what she said. I'm still half convinced I'm dreaming."
Haruta appeared to light up with glee at that statement and shifted closer in an attempt to pinch Ace which Marco stopped with a quick glare. "You're not dreaming." Marco finally said "The damage the two of you did to the beach attests to that."
Ace didn't appear to have heard, as he was still staring after the vanishing figure of his sister. Rather absently, Marco noticed, he curled his right hand around the tattoo on his upper left bicep, the one that never failed to start a fight if someone teased him about not knowing how to spell his own name. Apparently there actually was a deeper meaning to it.
Unaware of his friend's thoughts in light of all the information he had just revealed, Ace continued. "I thought she was dead. We all thought she had died that day. And it turns out she didn't. She's still Sabo, but she's different now."
"Well," Thatch said, slinging his arm over Ace's shoulders and using his free hand to wipe a tear from his eye, "I like her."
"You would" Izou muttered, "come on everyone, I need a drink."
The group turned and headed up the beach and back into town, Ace still turning to look behind him every few moments or so until the figure on the other end of the beach was no longer visible. "What do you mean she's different?" Haruta asked as they walked.
"Well," Ace pondered for a moment, "for one thing she acts more like a girl now."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Izo asked dangerously while at the same time Marco remarked
"Acting like a girl didn't seem to stop her from holding her own in your fight"
Ace laughed, but looked worried for a minute about the glare Izo was currently giving him.. "It… I… Shit, I'm not explaining this right. Look Izo, being a girl never stopped me 'n Sabo from fighting. It never did. But y'see for the longest time, I thought Sabo was a guy."
There was a collective silence as the group stopped and stared at Ace who hadn't noticed and continued picking his way through the destroyed beach whistling a tune.
Marco stared for a minute before voicing his confusion. "He thought his sister was a guy?"
"Well," Izo said with a small shrug and a small smile, "That certainly explains a lot."
"Today's just been full of surprises about that kid" Haruta commented then continued, "That sounds like an interesting story. I'm gonna go see if he wants to share. "
Thatch watched the younger commander run to catch up with their other equally young crewmate. "He allowed us to stay. Do you think that means he trusts us now?"
Marco shrugged. "Definitely more than he did but that warning bothers me."
Izo nodded. "I'll start looking into it later. But as I said earlier, right now I seriously need a drink."
AN: And that's all folks. I hope you enjoyed it enough to leave me a favorite or even a review. Many many thanks to the wonderful Ktwontwo who is my go to beta reader and puts up with all of the random plot bunnies and stories that I send for editing regardless if she knows anything about the fandom or not.