Dear Reader,
This is first of all a Marco/ Ace fanfiction.
Another thing is, that it is AU. I really love Oda's work. But a part of me cannot (and never will) accept the death of Portgas D. Ace. I just can't live with it...
This story is about Ace coming back from the dead - you have been warned.
Two And A Half Years Later is not one of my most amazing pieces of writing. But I really like this baby.
I will not try to make perfect descriptions of surroundings or people. I'll concentrate no short moments, described in the same short way a person may live through them.
Disclaimer: Ace, Marco and all the other's belong to Eiichiro Oda.
And now: Enjoy!
When Ace opened his eyes, he could only see darkness. He blinked a few times but the darkness remained. The only result he got was dust in his eyes. Brilliant.
He vaguely remembered being dead and immediately wondered why the particles in his eyes itched so much then. Slowly the memories returned and he started to remember what happened in Marine Fort. "Teach.."
He was so going to kill that bastard.
Carefully he tried to move his fingertips. He touched cold humidity and dirt. Where the fuck was he? Fire... He needed light. Concentrating he turned his consciousness inwardly and reached for his devil fruit power. Heat began to raise as he alight his fingers and then his hand.
The darkness still remained, only disturbed by a faint red glow at the edge of his vision. While trying to think of where the hell he was, he noticed that the air grew thinner. He could barely breathe anymore. Cursing silently he thought of the only thing he actually could do. Apparently he was buried in some kind of earthy ground.
Carefully he heated his whole body up until the ground around him became a slimy liquid mass. He forced his fiery self upwards through the earth until he reached fresh air. Making sure he really was free, he called back the flames and looked around.
What he saw made him shiver. He was sitting on a grave, surrounded by flowers. Some of them burnt, a damage obviously caused by his inattentive escape from... well... His own grave.
Beside his gravestone stood a much larger one. Ace swallowed audibly. "Pops..."
With trembling limbs and tears in his eyes he stood up and stepped away from the graves. Before he could decide what to do next or where to run, he stumbled over a half empty bottle of sake and a newspaper.
Picking up the latter, he immediately recognized his younger brothers grinning face. Mumbling to himself, he read the headline above the Wanted Poster. "Strawhat Pirates alive!"
Ace' eyes flew over the words as he read about the sudden disappearance of his brothers crew after what happened at Marine Fort. What disturbed him the most was the fact that Whitebeard's and his own death lay two years in the past - at least.
When had that newspaper been dropped here? Who had dropped it here? A small smirk crossed Ace' features: "Marco, of course."
Looking around, the devil fruit user decided to search the island in the hope of finding some hint of where he was the current date and all these other unimportant things. And then of course - Food! His stomach audible rumbled in demand. So fare, he seemed to be ok.
After wandering around for what seemed like hours to him, he returned to the graves. Sitting down in front of Whitebeard's gravestone, Ace grabbed for the bottle of sake. Taking a deep gulp of the liquid, he started talking.
"Ya know... Even if I don't have a clue what happened after I died. Or how in Davy Jone's name I made it back into this world... I wish I met you on the other side. I never got the chance to properly thank you for all you've done for me.."
"I hope the others are ok. I'll have to find them, just to check... They're our family after all, right?" With another sip from the bottle, Ace grinned.
"I'll be back, old man - promised."
So, this already was the first chapter. As I said, nothing long...
Please Review - Thanks!
