Yes, i am continuing this. I'm so sorry and thank you for staying and tuning in.

Just before we started though, the way this fic developed seems to have some spoilers…. at least to those who hadn't catch up to Fishman island. Which ended like… what, 5-6 year ago manga wise? And please note while there are still some elements of this story that will follow the manga (specifically how merfolks works) there will be some… major changes, like some characters not existing, how things works, etc. I mean, it is an AU, just that it took the same universe as the canon because i'm not very creative.

Anyway, please enjoy the butchering of the canon plot to fit this entire fic and i hope you'd enjoy!


If there was ever any doubt he was in some sort of other world, then all of it disappear the minute he took to airborne.

Flying above these strange waters had been an experience indeed, when instead of just the great expanse of blue underneath him, Marco could see rainbow like gradients blanketing the entire ocean top, which later on he found to be schools of fishes and, much to his surprise and consternation, the occasional sea kings swimming along by Ace's side, thankfully in a docile and benevolent manner. The waters almost had no ripples, disturbed only by these movement, and even the breeze felt different up in the air, denser and forcing him to fly lower than he usually would.

Before they started this journey, Ace made a point that he'd be swimming closer to the surface so Marco could follow him from above, and since their first mile, Marco couldn't look away from him for a different reason. Amongst the colourful water surface, reflecting the bright sunlight above, Ace's fins, both at the end of his tail and by his waist looked almost ethereal, fanning wide and in such an elegant motion it was as if he himself was some sort of a aquatic avian. His tail sways expertly and fluidly, the darker colours emphasised even more by the shimmers of the water, and the light blending in almost like a camouflage.

Likewise, however, he had the feeling Ace was intrigued by him, if the way he would sometimes glanced up for a while wordlessly seems to be of any indication.

Right now, they're supposedly about halfway to 'The Gate', as Ace had called it, and going by the speed they had, they should arrive tomorrow before the sun sets. He had wanted to push on, but decided not to risk it again, and they both ended up landing in a small coral islet - though considering that just by sitting allows him to see one end to another, he'd call this more of a 'rock' - to rest for the day.

He hadn't even landed properly on the gravely surface when another odd wonder happened; the same school of fish, closely resembling trouts, that had appeared and swam along with Ace pooled by the shores and surrounding the young merman. With curiousity, Marco watched him seemingly communicating with them - which apparently what he was doing - before plucking one of the calmly swimming fishes out of the waters and turning to the half transformed zoan, "Dinner?"

Marco blinked, looked down to the waters and nearly jumped out of his skin because in an almost trained move, all of the fishes turned towards him, their big, round eyes staring unblinkingly. There has never been a more unsettling display that he ever come across in his life.

"Do they, do they follow you around to," the blonde gulped, trying to calm his racing heart down and only focusing on looking at Ace instead of the unnerving fish eyes from under the waters, "to offer themselves as food?"

Ace looked sheepish, "Well, um," he mumbled lowly, lowering the fish in his hand down to his lap - or whatever a merfolk's equivalent of a 'lap' was, "I guess… in a way?"

The fish in his hand squirmed out of his hand but stays on his lap, flopping a little to bounce over colourful tail.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Marco decided he's not only in different waters, he's in a different world altogether right now, a world where apparently, your food comes to you willingly. If he thought about it that way, it seems more pleasant and less aneurysm inducing.

Besides, he is feeling a little peckish after flying all day.

"Okay, sure, dinner it is,"


"So what's Raftel like?"

At his question, immediately, Ace stopped humming - which is too bad, because whatever Merfolk song that was, it sounded quite nice - and regarded him with a look of suspicion, "You don't have to tell me about where it is or anything," Marco quickly added, before the merman can say anything, "I was just… curious. Even the seas here seems so different than the ones on, uh, on human seas,"

Yeah, for one, the fishes doesn't actually form a queue waiting for you to eat them. After the initial school that follows them were diminished to nothing - Ace eats a hell lot, and he's scared for the population of fishes everywhere to know if that's a Merfolk trait or an Ace trait - another suddenly appeared, this time much longer and larger than the last ones and bore close resemblance to pike fish.

At this point, Marco was full and honestly tired of saying 'thank you' and feeling conscious about every other fish he was about to eat, so he simply sat back on the edge of the rock and watched Ace in the waters underneath tore into the last of those pike-like fishes, sharp incisors ripping through skin, meat and bones alike. Which was both fascinating and rather terrifying at the same time.

Hence, the attempt to start a conversation.

Ace was still watching him through narrowed eyes, but eventually lowered the half eaten fish down and gazed to his side, "Well, Raftel's one big kingdom," he started, "It spans hundreds and hundreds of miles, and in the centre of it was Castle Oro Jackson, where the royal family lives,"

"Like the king, queen, prince and princesses?" Guess even that sort of hierarchy stays even within the Merfolk society. Marco snorted derisively, wondering if there is also an equivalent of the World Nobles behind that and hoped for the sake of this seemingly peaceful seas that there isn't.

"King, queen, and…and a prince," at the mention of the prince, Ace's face furrowed, his lips thinning almost in dislike.

Which Marco noticed and found intriguing, "You don't like them?"

The merman shook his head, damp hair swaying gently with the motion, "No, everyone loves the king and queen. King Roger's kind of silly at times, but he's a good ruler and the strongest amongst all Merfolk," a small smile made it to his lips then, as he took another bite and swallowed after barely chewing, "Queen Rouge is the kindest mermaid you'd ever meet. Mo— The queen's often spend time exploring Raftel, talking to the citizen and she knew basically everyone by name,"

He sounded genuine enough, but Marco noticed he missed one, "And the prince?"

At this, Ace's face grew sullen, "The prince is sheltered. He always has to have guards with him, he can't leave the castle most of the time, because 'the outside world is dangerous'," he sighed, taking a rather impressive bite out of the fish in his hand and within two bites, finally finishing it. Marco looked away briefly, horrified and slightly sickened, "All he wanted was just to explore, to see new things in life. There's got to be more beyond the gold plated walls of Oro Jackson, beyond the tall walls of Raftel, even… even beyond The Gates,"

His melancholic tone, coupled by how he said his last sentence made it sound like he was talking about himself instead of someone else, something that piqued Marco's curiousity and suspicion.

One of the pike fish, from what few who was still left, swam closer by Ace, seemingly nipping and butting its head against his tail. It almost looked like it was trying to comfort him, and to prove Marco's guess, Ace placed one hand on top of the fish, caressing over its impressive length. Kind of weird that the fish was still willing enough to do that after watching its brethren consumed in an amazing speed by the same merman, but what does he know about the dynamics of fishes and Merfolks?

"Now's my turn to ask," with a splash, suddenly Ace was facing him, leaning his upper body against the edge of the rock while his tail sways calmly on the water to keep him afloat, "What's the human waters like?"

"Uh," was all Marco could say while faced with the sudden enthusiastic interest, "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," the freckled merman grinned freely, before he suddenly turned rather serious, "I also need to know what to expect on my travels to take back what the human pirate stole. I only ever heard bits and pieces about human waters from old Crocus, but everything that he told me came from a time when he was still much younger, so his story is always so confusing and it's probably a lot different now out there,"

He then paused, and mumbled lowly, low enough that Marco could barely hear him, "Well, before Mom and Dad forbade him from telling me more, anyway,"

It never really occurred to Marco till then, but, "Wait, are you telling me you're planning to chase for someone out in a world you have never seen or have been to, didn't know anything about, and probably also without direction? That's… that's really thoughtless of you. Thoughtless and reckless,"

A deep flush quickly made their way to Ace's face, turning the serious gaze to become flustered, as the young merman started blustering, "W-who are you calling thoughtless and reckless?! That's why i'm asking you now, aren't i?! And i'm not really without direction! I know exactly where to find that human pirate, i just don't know anything about the place he'd be in!"

"How… how does that work? You can't possibly know where he'd be if you don't know where he'll be," Oh boy, he's getting a headache just saying that.

"Well, i can!" Ace insisted, but instead of explaining, he fell quiet, cheeks puffed up slightly still in anger and indignance.

Marco looked at him rather warily, "…How?"

The young merman pressed his lips together, almost looking like he was briefly contemplating something. He seems to finally reach a decision when took a deep breath and finally spoke, "I know because what the human pirate took is a precious artefact, and merfolk royal families resonate with them, allowing us to know their location at all time," his cheeks turned even deeper red after he finished saying that, eyes darting away from Marco and his face the epitome of reluctance, as if he had shared something he hadn't wanted to in the first place.

And that's when Marco realized, and had the sudden need to lay down for the nth time since he first arrived in this strange areas.

That explains his rather personal description earlier.

"W-what now? Why are you sighing like that?!"

"I'm just too old to get so many big surprises in such a short time, is all," Marco answered flatly, "So let me get this straight, you're the merfolk prince, " Ace's face flushed again, and he would've called it adorable if his head wasn't pounding from the inside, "and right now there's a pirate somewhere out there who managed to not only find Raftel, but managed to steal… what, One Piece?" Oh great, so while he's here, away from his own 'waters', someone out there aside from Pops is already the King of Pirates, and probably the world knows already.

Suddenly his dinner doesn't settle well in his stomach, and it's not because he had eaten them raw.

"No, no other human than you had came close to this place, much less Raftel," Ace told him with a shake of his head, frowning, "And no dirty pirates ever came close to One Piece, we'd drown them first before they can. But the artefact they stole was no less important than our kingdom's greatest treasure,"

Well, that's one relief, he suppose, "How'd they steal it if they never even found Raftel?"

"Because Poseidon, the artefact, is not kept in Raftel," Ace bit his lower lips, his tail underwater swiping away and making a big splash left and right, "I don't really know why either, i don't even know what Poseidon is or what it looks like—"

"Oh boy," Marco moaned in despair.

"Will you let me finish!" the merman barred his sharp row of teeth almost threateningly, "Poseidon is kept in a different location, somewhere in the human waters, in a place only scholars and guardians of the artefact can access," with a pained voice, he looked down to his folded arms, fringes falling and covering part of his face, "My sworn brother is one of those guardians. He was accompanying the general on their way for a routine check when these… these human pirates attacked, somehow finding out about the location,"

Ace was upset by this turn in the conversation, that was clear, so Marco pushed away his disbelief over how completely unplanned and spontaneous the merman's journey was and offered, "I'm sorry,"

It earned him a small, genuine smile from the sunset coloured merman, "Sabo's alright now, at least, he seems so before i left. He told me that he himself also never got to see Poseidon and only Dragon, the general was allowed to. That's why i don't know about it, most of the things i gathered before i left were stories from him," he pursed his lips, brows furrowed before continuing, "The other thing that i was told was about the human pirate,"

"What was he like?"

"Dark, curly hair, fat, missing some teeth," Ace said with disdain, and Marco wanted to tell him that plenty of pirates he came across in his life looked like that - hell, he can name at least 5 people who fit that description on board of Moby Dick - when the dark haired male continued and he felt his blood run cold, "And he had this strange power, like he could control darkness itself,"

"Teach,"

"Teach you what?"

"No, Teach. You're describing Marshall Teach, the man that i'm after," he felt like all breath was knocked out of him, head spinning due to confusion and sudden, flaring rage, "The son of a bitch who killed Thatch,"

Ace's dark eyes widened in shock, his tail growing limp as they both stared at each other wordlessly.

What are the odds, truly, what are the odds.


The Gate, as it turns out, is a large formation of mountains. Which seems surprisingly underwhelming until what happened next.

As soon as they arrived, the rock-like formation actually moved, showing that it was in fact a very large, flaming red sea king emerged from the depths of the sea, its two jutting lower teeth bigger than 3 of Marco's Phoenix form and its long neck. It looked angry, glaring down with its stern eyes at the two of them. A single exhale from the creature blows strong wind against them, disturbing the water surface and almost blowing Marco away from the sheer force.

But as concerned as Marco was of this sudden appearance, Ace looked otherwise, poking out of the waters and lifting both of his hand while cheerfully calling, "Oars Jr.! It's me!"

And Marco knew he's in for a 3rd day full of surprises, because the sea king let out a keening sound as it lowered its head down to the waters, submerging down to his jaw to carefully sniff around the young prince.

Sea kings being docile. He had seen everything there is to see.

Ace laughed, patting the humongous snout poking at him, "Hey, buddy, long time no see!" the sea king cooed, eyes closed and almost looked pleased at the way Ace's hands petted his scales. There's something really odd, seeing what was probably the largest sea king he had ever seen in his life acting like a common puppy to a creature thousand times smaller than itself, because that is exactly what this is. Ace is treating the sea king like a normal, every day domesticated animal, "Aww, guarding this place must be really boring and lonely, huh? Sorry, i wish i can sneak out more often to meet and play with you,"

The sea king, Oars Jr. let out another sad little noise, the sort of noise you won't expect a creature that big to make. It then let out another noise before rolling his slitted eyes upwards, to where Marco was.

"He's a friend, Oars Jr.," the young merman said, "And we both need your help right now. We want to go to the human waters,"

Head bigger than a mountain turned to the merman before the sea king let out a roar, the sound alone disturbing the waters and pushing Marco back yet again, "Please, Oars Jr., you have to help us cross the gate. You know what happened to Sabo and about that human pirate," in reply, the sea king let out a quieter roar, and Ace's expression turned hard and indignant, "Dad can take me back kicking and screaming, i need to do this,"

The sea king turned quiet, letting rumbling noises from its throat.

"Please,"

With one last whine, the large sea king lowered its head again before it opened its mouth, and with a single glimpse, Marco can already guess one of the reason why even if anyone managed to find this place, no one would live to tell the tale. There's three row of teeth inside of the creature's mouth teeth and jaw could unhinged large enough to destroy Pops, Big Mom's and Kaido's entire fleet combined. Even the toughest pirates will have great difficulty beating this particular sea king.

Ace made his way over to the unhinged maw, holding on to the tip of one tooth before he turned around to Marco, "Hop on in,"

Marco could not comprehend.

The merman frowned and, using the same tooth he had been holding on to as a support, leaped into the sea king's opened mouth, "Marco, come on, hop right in,"

The bird blinked hard, looking away from Ace to the enormous pair of eyes looking at him patiently.

"Oars won't attack anyone who is not a threat to Raftel," he heard Ace said again, taking his attention back to the young merman to see a rather amused expression on his face, as if he found Marco's cautiousness about randomly jumping into a sea king's mouth funny, "Hitching a ride with Oars Jr. is the quickest and safest way to get to your waters, so come on. We promised to help each other out in our hunt for this Marshall Teach, right?"

Ace extended one webbed hand, smiling, and Marco relented.

Thatch, the zoan called out mournfully before he warily flew inside of the sea king's mouth, and the large cavern close down around him, looks like i'll be going to wherever you are soon instead of avenging you.


Ya know, after i finished writing out the outline and finished with this chapter, i realized something: Throughout the fic, if you know what was different, and at the same time similar about how things work in this fic and the canon, you can probably already guess how this fic is going to go.

…Which is something i probably shouldn't have said but hey, keep it to yourself if you figured it out *finger guns*

Thanks for reading, please tell me what you think and hope you liked it!