Sooooo I'm messing with the timelines here. And the ages. I'm just going to say the the events of One Piece took a hell lot longer than they actually did, and age everyone up about 5 years. Just FYI. I want for the execution to take place after the Tenrou island events, and probably the Grand Magic Games too, because otherwise Ace would have already left the guild be the time Lucy got there, which I do not want. So instead of leaving home 3 years ago Ace left home 8 years ago.
Right now this is the only chapter I have, but if it's well received I might write more. Like how Ace joined Fairy Tail and all that!
It was overcast the day he was meant to die. Too bad, he would have liked feel the sun on his back one last time before the end. He missed it in his cell. The lack of heat, the lack of light, the draining dampness and grey that was all he had seen for what felt like forever.
His knees broke the skin when he was shoved onto the concrete. He didn't know how it wasn't already stained red. One would think, with the executions throughout the years…
He looked forwards, at the broadcasting and the marines gathered before him. Garp was there to, staring at him. Ace was sure he was disappointed that Ace had never joined the Marines like he wanted. Luffy hadn't either.
His thoughts started to drift back, to the years he had spent with his little brother, until his hand started to warm.
Confused, he glanced down. The red mark on the back of his left hand was pulsing softly, heating underneath his skin. He had felt so cold ever since the seastone shackles had been put on, it was like a breath of fresh air.
"Don't say anything."
Ace's head snapped up and he came nose to nose with a little girl. He stared in green eyes only a few inches away from his own face. His mouth opened before he shut it, her words registering. A smile graced the girl's face. She was young. Much younger than Ace was. But no one was ushering the little girl off of the execution block.
"Good. Now, brace yourself. In thirty seconds you're going to be dropped into the ocean, but you won't drown," she sat down in front of him, her fluffy white clothes spreading out. She wasn't wearing any shoes, and her hair touched the ground like that.
He frowned and opened his mouth to argue. He couldn't swim, he would say.
She held a finger to her lips.
"No talking. No one without the Fairy Tail symbol on them can see me, but why give away the game?" her voice was light, teasing.
Ace sat straighter up. He hadn't been a real Fairy Tail member in seven years. Not since the disastrous S Class tests.
Green eyes sparkled and the girl leaned closer.
"Five seconds," she warned, sing song. "Four, three, two…"
Ace tensed and braced himself. Something hard slammed into into his back and small arms slipped under his own, lifting off of the ground and launching him into the sky. He glanced over his shoulder, eyes widening when he saw who had him.
"Lily?!"
The little exceed glanced at him before focusing forwards again.
"We'll explain later, after I hand you off," he said. Ace could only nod, taking a breath and trying to process the fact that Panther Lily was alive. There were four dots ahead of them, he couldn't quite see clearly through the clouds. He looked back at the vanished ground.
"Watch out!" he shouted, twisting in Lily's grasp when he saw the ball of lava shooting up towards them. They plummeted a few yards before the clouds opened up and a massive vortex erupted from within, tearing towards the ground. The magma solidified and tumbled uselessly to earth.
"Wendy's here too?" he would recognize a dragon's roar anywhere.
"I didn't come alone," Lily promised him. They flew closer and Ace was finally able to see who was there. Lisanna, Mirajane, Carla, Wendy, Happy and Lucy all floated in the air before them. Lily wasn't slowing down.
"Hey! You're going to hit Lucy," Ace shouted over the wind.
"Great. You know the plan already," Lily grunted and let go of Ace abruptly.
He shouted when he started falling, thrashing against the wind and the chains on his wrists until a hand grabbed his.
He looked up to see Lucy grinning at him, her hair wild in the whipping wind.
"Ready?" she screamed through the air at him.
"Ready for what?!" he was getting tired of being left in the dark. He didn't want to look down again to see how close they were getting to the sea. Overhead he heard Mira shoot off her an attack and something behind him exploded.
"For this! Open, gate of the Clock Constellation, Horologium!"
Ace grunted when he was abruptly squeezed into a tight space. The pendulum poked into his back painfully and his knee was against his chin. More than that though, Lucy was on the outside of Horologium, still falling, and now holding onto a gold key.
Ace didn't have to guess which one. He exchanged a grin with the blonde one last time before he splashed into the sea, safe inside the body of the clock spirit.
"Hey, Horologium, where are we going?" he asked, trying to change his position to something less cramped. It didn't really work.
"I have been tasked with taking you to the ship," he said simply. The motion of a clock swimming in the ocean was almost enough to make Ace, who had spent most of his life at sea, nauseous. He pushed his face against the glass, looking out at the ocean. A school of fish swam by, flashing silver and red.
Behind them, from the depths, emerged a ship. The Fairy Tail insignia blasted across the underwater sail. He could see the magic circles in the back of it, and the bubble of air around it. He laughed and slumped against Horologium's walls. This was incredible.
The clock popped through the bubble and they fell, landing on deck. Horologium disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Ace sitting in the middle of people he hadn't seen in almost a decade. His eyes stung.
"Everyone…" they were all there. Everyone who had gone to Tenrou island stood around him, looking just like they did in his memories. Natsu was hanging miserably over the rail while arguing with Gajeel when they weren't throwing up.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, looking around. He thought they were all dead, yet here they stood around him. Gray came over and crouched in front of him. All he did was touch the seastone to freeze it. Ace smashed his hands down on the deck, shattering the shackles.
"We saw the newspaper. So Master put together a team to come save you. We weren't the only ones," Gray pointed up. Above their heads a whole fleet was sailing. He Ace could guess who it was.
"We should probably get up there and tell them that I'm safe," he suggested, "Before they start a war without needing to. And Luffy is somewhere too…"
"Lisanna was supposed to fly down and tell them as soon as you were in the ocean, while Lucy, Aquarius, Mira and Juvia distract the Marine's," Erza told him as she walked over from the wheel.
"That doesn't sound like Fairy Tails style," Ace commented. He pushed himself up and clasped arms with their queen.
"I came up with it." Ace jumped and looked over to see that the same girl that had come to him on the scaffolding was now standing on deck, totally dry.
"Oh. hello, I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Portgas D. Ace," he said politely, manners taking over in the face of confusion. It was something to fall back on.
"I'm Fairy Tail's first master, Mavis Vermillion. Likewise. I also came up with the plan to rescue you," she told him.
Ace smiled at her and nodded. "I see. Thank you… wait, first master?!" he jerked upright.
Gray laughed at him. "I know it's weird, but just go with it. She came from Tenrou island."
"I see."
Ace looked around himself, at all the people who had come to save him. At the legal Guild that was risking everything to come rescue his sorry butt from being executed. Unbidden, tears sprang to his eyes. Fairy Tail, Whitebeard, his brother. They had all come for him. For someone like him, a lowlife since his birth.
Erza touched his shoulder and he looked up to see her smile.
"You are one of us, as long as you hold that mark on your hand and our names in your heart, you will always be Fairy Tail," her voice was quiet, laced with passion and a truth that Ace had almost forgotten when he thought they had died. "Now, let's go home."
Ace stood, slowly, letting Gray hold onto one of his arms. The boy was always a little too cold, but Ace was too happy to see him to pull away. Instead, he turned a smile onto the family that stretched out, his heart aching to see the one that waited above the surface.
"Home," he repeated, softly. He liked the sound of that.