Title: Clipped Wings

Authors: Gryphonshadow, Ujvari

Rating: M

Genre: Angst/Horror/Hurt-Comfort

Characters: Marco, Ace, Thatch, Whitebeard, Whitebeard Pirates

Pairings: None, friendship-centric

Warnings: graphic descriptions of violence, graphic torture, non-con, experimentation, medical descriptions, and other bad shit. (Shameless Marco torture fic- read at your own discretion.)

Summary: Marco disappears after an unexpected battle. When his crew finds him several weeks later there may be no going back to the way things were before. First things first, they have to figure out what happened to their first mate before he slips away forever.

Updates: Every 1-2 weeks

A/N: This crazy fanfiction started off as a series of messages back and forth between user Ujvari and I several months ago after I published "Liston's Advice." We seem to have the same mindset, and thus "Clipped Wings" was born. It has turned into quite a large-scale collaborative project and hopefully you will enjoy the fruits of our labor. It's been a long time coming. (Sorry Ujvari! I'm quite a lazy writer). The two of us write and edit different scenes, and our writing style really goes well together. Hopefully our different styles carry over to the finished project.

It's super dark. I mean it. It is a hell of a lot worse than my other two fics. It's… pretty graphic starting from chapter 2. I don't want to give away too much (Can't ruin the suspense!) so I'm just going to warn you again and again that this isn't a happy read. But for all my fellow sadists out there- enjoy!

**I will likely publish chapter 1 later today, or at the start of next week. I will post new chapters after that every 1-2 weeks to give me and Ujvari time to write and edit. Long chapters + perfectionism = slow updates. Sorry!

***I have written half of chapter 2 of "Some Kind of Joke." I will try to get that out next week as well, though it will likely be the week after that.

Thank you so much everyone who has read, favorited, followed, and reviewed all of my fics! If you liked them, you will like this one, though it is more extreme. Please review and let us know what you liked and didn't like about it- constructive criticism is always welcome.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. I am merely borrowing the characters temporarily from the incredible Oda-sensei and will not be profiting off of it in any way.

Prologue

The sun shone brightly from the clear-blue sky, causing the endless cerulean sea around Marineford to sparkle like millions of brightly polished diamonds. It was a gorgeous day; the sky was so clear that Admiral Kizaru could make out the massive towering Gate of Justice far off in the distance from his spot on the balcony of headquarters. Hundreds of feet below, a brigade of new recruits were training in the hot sun, their silhouettes blurring together in the glimmering heated air.

Heavy footsteps from behind attracted his attention and made him perk up his ears, though he already knew who was approaching. "Borsalino. You're surprisingly hard to find when Sengoku has called a meeting."

The Pika Pika no Mi user turned his head at the sound of the deep voice, to glance lazily at the approaching admiral. "Hoh? Another one?"

Akainu crossed his arms in response, an annoyed expression etched on his stone-like face. His mood wasn´t hard to guess as it radiated off of the broad man in waves of negative energy. He was pissed. It wasn't anything new.

Kizaru took a step sideways to wordlessly invite his friend to join him and raised his hands in a placating manner. "Scary!" He distended, his bored tone betraying the troubled acting. "Maybe I picked the wrong day to play hooky! Kuzan is far less frightening compared to you, Sakazuki."

The red suit-wearing marine grunted. "We have important matters to discuss. Blowing off this meeting can be seen as an act of disobedience."

"Woah, always so serious. You know, if you go around accusing everyone of treason for skipping class, sooner or later we'll end up with an empty organization."

Fed up with his colleague's nonchalance, Akainu ignored him completely and strode closer to the railing to look down at what was happening below. "Trainings have picked up," he commented, hands clenched into fists. "Good. We need more strong men. What happened last week cannot be allowed to happen again."

Here he goes again. Kizaru thought and stared out at the ocean, resigning himself to his fate. Since the Marines' defeat at the hands of the Whitebeard Pirates a week ago, the lava-user would not shut up about it. The battle at Wano had been quite the fiasco; they had lost an embarrassing amount of warships and territory to the Yonko's crew (mostly due to a series of unfortunate coincidences and terrible luck) and were now under harsh scrutiny by the World Government. Having gotten to the battle too late to stop the damage, Sakazuki had taken a lot of blame and was especially angry over the incident.

"Whitebeard has gotten bolder in his dealings with the Government. He thinks he rules the New World. It's disgusting. Do you think it's right that a pirate controls those seas?"

"Hmm," Kizaru replied dispassionately and continued observing the training down below, feigning interest in his fellow admiral´s words.

"It is unforgivable," Akainu answered in his stead. "That old man needs to be taken down a peg and shown that he's not completely untouchable. Sengoku has gotten soft. He won't do anything about it, but I will not stand by and let those filthy pirates get away with making a mockery of us."

"Ehhh, it sounds like you already have a plan," The lanky admiral said slowly. Akainu had that familiar glint in his eye: it didn't bode well for whoever was at the receiving end of his ire. Borsalino didn't really care, either way. But he was bored attending all those meetings for the past week and there was little else to do. "What will you do?"

"Hit him where it hurts," Sakazuki answered without hesitation and turned to regard his colleague with a firm look. "We´ll take one of his sons."

Kizaru raised an eyebrow at that, interest suddenly peaked. The other had obviously thought about this extensively.

"That old fool is far too attached to his subordinates and too trusting of his friends. This will be his downfall. I captured one of his allies not long ago— they have sworn loyalty to the Marines without Whitebeard's knowledge. They will come in useful."

"The Crimson Pirates?," Kizaru stated in a bored tone, remembering when Akainu came back from a patrol with quite a few beaten and chained pirates in tow.

The larger admiral nodded. Allegiance or death. The ultimatum he had offered the hotheaded and spineless captain upon his crew's capture left the man with little choice. Being a recent addition to Whitebeard's extensive list of allies, his loyalty did not run deep and thus he had chosen the wiser option. "They´ll be able lure one of his treasured sons for us without raising suspicion. Whitebeard's commanders are always split apart between different regions. We will bide our time and wait for the right opportunity to present itself. Can I count on your help when that time comes?" Akainu turned to regard his companion expectantly.

"Sure," Kizaru shrugged his shoulders. Why the hell not. It usually made no difference to him who his targets were, but a bout with one of the sixteen notorious commanders might prove to be interesting and would be a nice relief from all the sitting around.

"Good. It's about time those pirates got what they deserve: thorough justice," Admiral Akainu smiled. "Now, Borsalino, we have a conference with the fleet admiral to attend."

A/N: Just a little taste of what's to come. The real fun starts in chapter 1. Don't forget to review!