Again some warnings (skip to the line, if you don't wish to see my notes!):
1) This chapter contains no fighting (I will also try to avoid it in the future whenever possible)
2) The pacing has (in my eyes) slowed down considerably. This chapter focuses solely on Sabaody and how the characters interact with each other. Sorry if you think it's too dragged out.
3) Same as before: If there should be any romance it will be boys love. (No, Ace and Luffy will NOT be together, even if they hug each other! It's bromance!)
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Thank you to all my reviewers! I didn't think so many people would take the time to reply and encourage me. I probably wouldn't have written more nearly as fast, if it weren't for all of your replies.
So a huge thank you to: Jennifer Wilson, OnePieceeFan, weeaboolover, StarliteOracle, ceciimanassero4, Mariachanne, lostdog200, Guest, Jisca, Ginshi-chan, TheSuperMario, Darth Zanitos, Mr. Soze, coolgamer, OctaveTea, DMCP, The Amol
Thank you also to all the people who favorited this story and who decided to follow it! Hope I won't disappoint you!
Disclaimer: One Piece and all characters (so far, I doubt I will add any) belong to Oda! I just came up with this plot!
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Breakout – Chapter 2 (Sabaody and meeting Rayleigh)
With the Vivre Card Luffy had insisted Jinbe should follow, the escapees arrived at Sabaody in good time. Ivankov and Inazuma had decided to stay on the ship, in case something would happen on the Island and they'd have to run away again. The other reason they stayed was that none of the smarter ex-prisoners trusted Buggy and his followers to stay in sight of Sabaody and not take their ship and leave.
Their best option for the moment was to see if Rayleigh had still coated the Straw Hat's ship, so they could escape to the New World and hopefully meet up with Whitebeard before the old man engaged in battle with the Marines.
Luffy also hoped to meet up with his crew, he was already late, so the others might have gotten back to Sabaody already. He was worried about Zoro. The swordsman was in bad health even before the fight with Kuma, so hopefully he would be back save and sound.
Only a small group would actually leave the ship. They were covered with hoods, so they couldn't be recognized as easily. The only ones who'd make the trip were Luffy, who was already telling Ace about Shakky's bar on grove 13 and how her fridge had been filled with food, Ace, who had gotten hungry from Luffy's talking, Jinbe, Crocodile and Daz Bones.
With those plans made they left in good confidence, only to come face to face with one major factor they hadn't taken into account (in their defense, aside from Ace none of them could have known yet… not really). The moment the ship had docked Luffy, impatient as always, rocketed away, following the direction of the paper.
"LUFFY!" came Ace's angry shout the moment he had realized his younger brother had left before he too took off after his brother. With a deep sigh at their irresponsible behavior Jinbe also followed swiftly and beckoned the last two of their group to join them as well.
They weren't surprised to see a small group of Marines lying unconscious on their way, neither were they surprised by the sight of some bounty hunters. More surprising was the fact that there weren't more beaten bodies lying around.
"RAYLEIGH!" Luffy yelled when Shakky's bar came into sight. The Vivre Card had indeed lead him to the bar and he laughed with joy as he ran through the door.
"Luffy!" exclaimed Shakky completely surprised. "I didn't think I'd be seeing you again this soon when Kuma told us about what happened."
"Rayleigh, Shakky!" he cheered before proceeding to ask about his crew.
"N-"
"Luffy!" Ace yelled again as he finally caught up with his brother and hit him on his head. "You idiot! Your wound hasn't healed yet, stop running around!"
Rayleigh's expression at once turned serious as he took in the two brothers who were joined by Jinbe as well as Crocodile and someone neither of the two recognized (though they were sure they'd seen him on some wanted posters before) a moment later.
"So this is what happened." Rayleigh muttered more to himself than anyone else. "It appears that you're in even more trouble than the last time I saw you. And you're quite heavily wounded."
"Doesn't matter! Ace is my brother! They wanted to kill him!" was all the explanation he gave, and it really was all that needed to be said too. The boy truly resembled Rayleigh's old captain a lot.
"Ah, by the way, this is Ace!" Luffy, rather unnecessarily introduced his now silent brother. "And Ace, this old man is Rayleigh! Ah… and I forgot Jinbe and Crocodile… and…" Luffy's brows wrinkled before he shrugged and turned towards the fridge.
"Rayleigh… Silvers Rayleigh?" Ace turned towards the right hand man of his father in shock, cursing himself for not realizing it sooner. How many Rayleighs were there on the Grand Line anyway?! Their other companions fared no better, so he felt a bit better about that.
"He helped us before and promised to coat the Sunny for us!" Luffy beamed while grabbing some meat and even handing some food to Ace, which proved just how badly Ace's imprisonment and death sentence hurt the younger brother.
Jinbe coughed to get their attention. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but we really need to get going soon."
"Indeed. I'm sure you have already guessed what is going on." commented Crocodile, who had listened with interest, and turned to Rayleigh.
"Ah. This reminds me…" Rayleigh turned back to Luffy. "I had hoped to meet up with you again soon as I have a suggestion concerning you and your crew, but now is hardly the time to talk. I did coat your ship just in case anyone returned and had to get away from here. Your run in with the Tenryubito has caused quite some problems after all. The only reason none of the Marines have been actively searching for you guys was the upcoming execution of Portgas D Ace. Now that you have obviously freed him, the Marines will send their best after your head. As a matter of fact, it's a wonder none of them are here yet."
"What happened?" Ace demanded, not able to hold back all his questions any longer and forgetting all about the food.
"Now is not the time for that." Shakky reminded them. "Your execution should be in less than three hours and no matter what you did, I am sure they already know that you escaped and are together with Monkey-chan, another notorious pirates that the Marines would love to be rid of."
Ace's expression turned grim as he reluctantly agreed. "Fine… but you will tell me and answer my questions!"
Rayleigh nodded. Portgas D Ace might be known for being a hothead, but he was not stupid and he clearly had his priorities set.
"We should go to the Sunny and meet up with my crew." Luffy said cheerfully.
"You're the only one here right now." Rayleigh informed him and caused Luffy's expression to fall. "Kuma sent all of you to different places so that you could escape. Everyone should be somewhere, where they need to be right now."
"What? This Kuma guy wanted to help us?" Luffy asked unbelieving.
"He let you escape alive. And it was thanks to that, that you managed to meet up with your brother, was it not?" He let Luffy think about it until the teen nodded.
"Anyway, as I said, I still have a plan, but right now we need to leave Sabaody before the Marines appear here again. You're in no condition to fight." Rayleigh stated with finality before Luffy or any of the others (mainly Ace) could claim otherwise.
"You're going then." Shakky asked Rayleigh who nodded, while Luffy waved at her. "I'll see you later then, Monkey-chan."
"Later? Ah! I want to see you again too. I'll come back soon to pick up my crew!" he beamed at her.
…
While Rayleigh led them towards the Thousand Sunny, Jinbe called Ivankov to let him know that they had a fully coated ship and would proceed to the New World with it. Buggy had apparently run after them while his followers hijacked another ship in the tourist area. For some weird reason there were almost no people around the various groves so it had been easily planned and done.
They agreed to meet up, as they had planned before.
"Rayleigh, would you mind telling me why there are hardly any people around?" Jinbe asked once he hung up.
Rayleigh chuckled. "Of course… They set up big screens on Sabaody to show Ace's execution to the world and prove to everyone how mighty the Marine is." He took a sip of Sake from his bottle. "This will be a big hit to their pride, honor and credibility… if Ace manages to return to Whitebeard."
"I will return!" Ace stated.
"Of course you will." Luffy grinned and Rayleigh laughed.
"I was there as well until an hour ago or so. The broadcast started for a bit at 10:30 but stopped due to 'some difficulties with the Den Den Mushi' shortly after. While it was pretty clear that something major must not be right for the broadcast to stop, most of the people are still waiting. I left after I found some nice donators and bought some good Sake."
"That makes sense. People are too stupid to realize the truth, even if it laughs them in the face." said Crocodile bored.
"There you guys are! Buggy suddenly yelled from behind them. "I came to inform you that we saw some battleships approach Sabaody from the tourist area! I took the time to warn y-" Buggy trailed off when he noticed their newest addition.
"R-R-R-R-RAYLEIGH!?" He screeched and jumped back in surprise.
"Buggy!" Rayleigh chuckled. "I see you haven't changed much these past few years. So, did you escaped together with Luffy?"
"I… ah… yes, I helped him out." Buggy coughed.
"Buggy helped me find the staircase to level 2 in Impel Down in exchange for my arm band." Luffy told him.
Rayleigh eyed Buggy skeptically, causing him to turn away. "A-Anyway… The marines are coming for Sabaody, so I came here to warn you. The okama's already left with our ship, only Ivankov is still here."
"What about the other prisoners?" Ace questioned with raised eyebrows.
"They wanted to get a ship for us. We'll meet up with my crew in a little while." Buggy told them a lot more modest, now that his old vice-captain was here. His plans of heroically joining up with them in case something went wrong, when the others stole the ship, wasn't looking so well with Rayleigh around. On the other hand, with him here it would be so much more save than anywhere else. Maybe he should stick around for a while.
"In that case you have my thanks. Ivankov didn't say much on the Den Den Mushi." Jinbe said while walking a bit faster.
"Of course not. We are using Marine Den Den Mushi's, they might listen in on us and gather information that way." Crocodile remarked.
"Isn't it grove 19 that the two of you agreed on? We'll be there in a few minutes anyway." Daz Bones added.
"Not bad. We're heading for grove 23. That's where the Straw Hat's ship is." Rayleigh told them while drinking some more.
…
Laying eyes on the Thousand Sunny again Luffy couldn't keep his cheers in. "Sunny!" He yelled happily and then saw some of the fish riders. "Ah, you guys are here too!"
"Oh… you're back. You're the first one! Young master and the others haven't returned yet. But we kept your ship save!" Duval winked and was promptly ignored by Luffy.
"Rayleigh… do you know if we have any food on board." Luffy asked worried.
"I'm not sure… shouldn't you be the one who knows?" Rayleigh wondered.
"Is that really the time to worry about it?" Jinbe asked exasperated.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON!" Buggy screeched.
"Food is important." Ace agreed with his little brothers.
"Have you forgotten how much those two ate in Impel Down?" Crocodile said drily.
"Still…" Daz Bones trailed of.
"Even if ve don't, we'll just go for a Sea King on the way. Heehaw!" Ivankov yelled and Luffy eagerly agreed.
"Straw Hat?!" a voice asked from behind, causing all of them to turn around.
"Oh, the bear!" Luffy beamed. "Do you want to jo-"
"Don't ignore our captain!" The bear yelled, before bowing and apologizing.
"Captain?" Luffy questioned looking around before his eyes landed on Trafalgar Law. "…"
"He was with you at the auction house." Duval, who had heard them from where he was guarding the Sunny, joined them.
"Ah! … And the guy from the auction house! And the Flying Fish guys too!" He smiled and waved.
"How can you be so cheerful and ignore your wound when you should be unconscious…" The surgeon wondered.
"Eh? I don't feel bad. Though this stings." Luffy commented while Ace's head snapped around.
"What do you mean, he should be unconscious?!"
"… Fire Fist Ace" The surgeon of death murmured. "So that's what's going on. What are you doing with Straw Hat and the others here?"
"Don't ignore my question!" Ace exclaimed angrily.
"With this kind of wound do you really need to ask?" The surgeon sighed. "He's bleeding pretty heavily too and none of you thought to put him on bedrest or something?"
"Straw Hat-boy doesn't notice his wounds because of the hormones I injected earlier. They'll run out soon enough however." Ivankov's voice held a lot of regret as he said that.
"Eh? Iva-chan? I feel good! Why would I need bedrest?" Luffy was confused and prodded at his wound, which actually did hurt, quite a lot at that.
"... Are you an idiot?" Law questioned when the other captain screamed.
"How did you know it would hurt?" Luffy asked swatting his brother's hands away.
"… I'm a surgeon, I'd be a rather bad one if I couldn't see that with your minimal bandages that have fresh blood on them." Law explained before he grinned. "Want me to take a look at them?"
"Why would you help him?" Ace asked standing protectively between him and Luffy.
"No real reason." The other replied.
"As nice as it would be, it'd take more time than we have. We're leaving right now. Any more time and all their trouble might have been for naught." Rayleigh informed them.
"What are you doing here?" Luffy asked instead of hurrying up.
"The broadcast was canceled and a Marine Ship approached around an hour ago. It left again already, but a few others are coming closer. We already got into trouble before, I rather not be caught in it again while some of my crew are still recovering." He pointed to their coated submarine that was docked near the Sunny. "We're leaving now."
"And yet you wanted to help us, you're a really nice guy, aren't you." Luffy smiled broadly at him and waved again as they boarded the sunny, leaving a stunned surgeon behind.
"I agree with him, captain is way too nice." Bepo told him and promptly received a glare.
"He's the one you said helped me too, right?" Jean Bart questioned. "In that case I would be glad to help him, too."
"Ah, he's too interesting to die here. He'll surly cause a storm again, if he lives." Law agreed. "And it'll be interesting to see what will happen if Fire Fist truly returns to Whitebeard's ship."
He watched the other's as they released the air bubble of their coated ship. Before the ship sunk however, Straw Hat hugged the clown prisoner and waved towards another ship in the distance before running towards the railing and grabbing on to it while jumping. His arms stretched and they could hear a fearful scream that sounded like 'That's not what I meant.' Before the rubbery captain crashed into the flailing clown and sent him flying (and screaming) towards the other ship while most of the others turned towards the small captain and shouted at him, Fire Fist even hitting his head.
"… If you want to help him, we should better do it soon." Penguin commented, watching the whole scene, not knowing, whether or not he should believe his eyes.
"Who knows, if he doesn't kill himself first." Law deadpanned.
…
After their farewell to Buggy (who had seen his followers in the distance and asked them to bring him there) the fugitives quickly figured out how to steer the Sunny, since the captain apparently didn't know all that much about steering (he did know however how to use their hidden canon, which apparently was inside Sunny's mouth, and how to make the ship fly, something none of the others understood).
The most surprising thing for Rayleigh, who was searching through the sunny to figure out how the other technical aspects worked, was the feeling that the ship was trying to help them. It was a nostalgic feeling that reminded him of his home, the Oro Jackson. Tom's disciples had done a remarkable job when making this ship. It was worthy of housing the small crew of the man whose dream was to become the next pirate king.
He asked Luffy about the barrels and some other stuff and was pleasantly surprised that the boy actually could answer most of his questions.
Finally it was time to set sail and leave Sabaody. "Thanks for the help, Flying Fi-"
"It's Rosy Life Riders!" Duval interrupted with a yell of his own.
"See you soon!" Luffy laughed while being hugged by Ace to keep him from jumping and moving too much.
"Keeping him still seems to be quite the chore." Jinbe pondered as they left and began the sinking process.
"Yes and no… he's constantly moving around, even in his sleep. However if you hug him he'll calm down, unless he's really excited about something." Ace replied.
Luffy grinned. "Ace always complained about that, but then Sabo one night apparently hugged me and I stopped moving. Waking up like that was nice too."
"Sabo?" Ivankov asked as he changed Luffy's bandages once again and cursed under his breath. The wound looked a lot worse and had gotten bigger from all the moving around. If they weren't careful Trafalgar Law's words would turn true and he'd never be able to face Dragon again. He prayed his hormones would soon run out, but he had given him enough to last 24 hours, and it was only shortly after midday.
"Our brother." Ace said quietly. "He died ten years ago, after he was attacked by a Tenryubito." He closed off with those words and carded his hands through Luffy's hair who had turned around and pressed himself against Ace.
"Don't break your promise." Luffy demanded.
"… Sorry… yeah. I won't. But you stay still now and let us handle things, or else you might be the one breaking it."
He didn't say it out loud, but seeing their interaction Jinbe really doubted Ace's words from their time together in Impel Down. Luffy would be anything but fine if something had happened to Ace. It was the devil's luck that had gotten them out of their situation and nothing else.
A few minutes later the rumbling of a stomach could be heard and though everyone turned towards the brothers, it wasn't coming from either. "I could do with some food now." Daz Bones had the decency to blush as everyone turned to him. "Didn't you say something about Sea King?"
Luffy pouted. "I'm not allowed to catch one." "Of course not!" "And also… I came here with my crew, it doesn't feel right seeing this. We traveled together to Skypiea… we also wanted to go to Fishman Island together, so I don't want to see it without them."
"How cute." Crocodile said sarcastically. "Too bad life doesn't work that way. Whether you like it or not, you will see it now."
"That's why I at least don't want to watch until we are there." Luffy didn't rise to his bait. He was much too comfortable sitting on Ace to react to things like this.
"The first time I saw Fishman Island I was together with your father. The fishmen were rather skeptical of us at the beginning but a lot of them became our friends after. Ve also met some friends, who later on joined us. Hack for example." Ivankov told them.
"Hack?" Jinbe smiled. "I've not seen that man in many years. How is he?"
"The last time I saw him he was very vell. He taught our young members fishman karate. Once Straw Hat-boy is better I shall call his father and ask for him."
"A lot has changed since then. There is less hostility towards humans thanks to Whitebeard's protection." Jinbe remembered.
"Ah, I remember when Roger and I came there for the first time ever. There were much less pirates at that time and yet most of them seemed to hate us. The ones who visited often kidnapped both mermaids and fishmen, so it didn't surprise us at all."
"Rayleigh?" Luffy's eyes landed on the Dark King. "Hmm?"
"EH? RAYLEIGH?! Why are you still here?!" Luffy exclaimed causing Ace to facepalm. "He was here the whole time, were you sleeping? He did say goodbye to Shakky."
"I thought that was because he was taking us to the Sunny!"
"… Slow" The rest of them agreed while Rayleigh laughed.
"Now seems to be as good a time as any." Rayleigh said. "I came along because quite frankly speaking none of your crew is ready for the New World yet. Remember what happened on Sabaody before?"
Hearing these words Luffy tensed up as he stared at Roger's first mate, remembering just how badly he had failed his crew.
"Remember fighting just one of the Pacifista's? A lot of people in the New World are a lot stronger. Can you defeat them, as you are now?" Rayleigh held eye contact with the younger captain. He needed to drive this point home.
"But… I…?" Ace's hug tightened around him. "Listen."
"What he says is true, Luffy-kun. Even during our escape we were mostly lucky. If Bentham hadn't opened the gates, if the Marines hadn't mostly focused on Ace, things would have been totally different." Jinbe had to agree with Rayleigh.
"Then what would you have me do?! I'm doing all I can!" Luffy grit out.
"That's why I am here, I have a suggestion for you, though whether or not you accept it, is up to you. Stop here and gather strength. With your involvement in breaking Ace out you and your crew will be targeted by the best. They will not rest, now that they failed to deliver Ace. Get stronger now, before you are in a situation like on Sabaody again."
Luffy swallowed hard covered his face with his straw hat for a moment before staring at him again. "But what about my crew? They will come to Sabaody for sure!"
"They will know where you are at the latest in two days, when the world will find out about how the Marines failed to execute Ace. They will blame it all on you for sure. With a bit of luck all of them will try to call your ship. And even if they don't, I have another idea. Though that idea will have to wait until your wound is better. Also if it has to come to it I will need Ace's help at the very least." He turned to Ace, who agreed at once even without knowing what Rayleigh had in mind.
"You will help my brother train, right?" He demanded.
"Of course." Rayleigh smiled easily enough.
"Then you should know that he unlocked Haoshoku Haki. He used it while we escaped." Ace said, not sure whether or not he liked the idea of Luffy training with Rayleigh. Oyaji could have done it just as well…
"Alright, if you say I can protect them this way, I'll do it. I don't want to lose anyone ever again." Luffy made his decision.
…
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So that's it for now. Sorry for not getting to Whitebeard yet. I tried to pace myself better and not put in too much again (since the first chapter was a lot of fighting and copying from Oda I glossed over a lot of stuff and packed in a LOT).
I'm still trying things and I will probably write certain parts in certain character's POVs in the future, this will probably help pacing too.
I like seeing characters interact, so there'll be a lot of that in the future too.
Is this too drawn out?
Let me know what you think!
Thanks once again to all who reviewed before!