Ace's suffering continues...

Chapter 2

Ne Marco-taichou!

"Ace?"

"Look." – Marco turned to him and was met with two closed hands holding something. As Ace opened his hands, the older's eyes widened in surprise.

"Where did you get this?" – he asked curious.

"I took it from one of the pirates I beat yesterday. I thought you would like it. Heh" – his grin made Marco return the gesture.

You want me to have it? – a nod. He raised an eyebrow, but accepted anyway, holding out his hand for the object.

"Thank you, I guess." – his answer was another of the boy's wide grins. As he walked away he waved his hands in goodbye.

Marco's eyes lingered on his tattooed back and then looked down at the pack of cigarette in his hands. It was a special flavour. 'How considerate' – he thought.

The tired commander opened his eyes as the memory stopped playing in his head.

He looked in front of himself and let out a weak "Ace" before he stood up from his resting spot by the door of the infirmary. Hours have passed. No results. Nothing whatsoever. Ace was still on the verge of death and he was sitting around doing nothing. He buried his face in his hands and sighed.

"Oi Marco" – Haruta came running his way with Izou in tow. He knew exactly what they wanted to know.

"Ace, how is he?" – both looked at him concerned expecting a clear answer. Yet Marco was unable to give it to them. He shook his head and told them that the only thing they could do was to wait.

Haruta closed her eyes to stop the tears and Vista's gaze found the floor. Marco felt the same as them but he was supposed to keep the crew calm in bad situations. This time however he might be failing in that. So now the other commanders were also in disarray. Everyone was anxious.

Ace yelled from time to time in pain. It made a lot of strong pirates tear up. It was a rare sight onboard one of the strongest pirate ships of this age. It has been an hour since he came out of the room Ace was suffering in. Marco felt something change. The air. Vista looked at the door as well. They sensed Ace. And then two nurses screamed simultaneously. Marco rushed in immediately closely followed by the others. And they saw that Ace was on fire, or better yet turned himself fire unconsciously as he fought the pain. The restrains burned off him and one of the nurses suffered an at least second degree burn injury on her hand. The other ushered her out to another room and asked Marco to do something.

Ace was uncontrollable. He thrashed around on the bed, the sheets slowly burning under him. Marco turned back to Haruta and shouted: "Haruta, bring Sea Stone cuffs, NOW" then "Vista, stay back" and jumped on the half-fire, half-human form moving around restlessly on the bed.

As his body connected with the fire that was Ace his blue flames erupted from his chest and legs to heal all wounds the red ones were causing him. 'This is really bad' Marco thought as he tried to stop Ace from destroying the infirmary with his dangerous power. In this state Ace could light the whole ship on fire. Marco couldn't let him do that. He held Ace down for about five horribly long minutes. He couldn't see the younger anymore he was almost fully transformed, but Ace's voice was still crying out for help. He was still moaning in what Marco assumed was indescribable pain.

Then as he was trying to get Ace to stay still unsuccessfully the doctor chose that moment to come out holding a syringe in his hand.

"Marco, I have the antidote" – he said enthusiastically.

"Ugh…Stop it Ace. Calm down. Stop this, please." – Marco was too preoccupied and didn't hear the doc at first.

"Where's the goddamn Kairoseki?" – he cursed loudly oblivious to the other's presence behind him.

"Marco. Oi Marco!" - he turned his head halfway and finally saw the familiar face of the doctor. As he was about to ask him what he wanted to say Ace suddenly pushed him off with his flames and a small version of the fire pillar attack Ace used went through the ceiling and burnt the wood to crisps.

Marco's eyes widened in panic and he got up and was back on Ace in a moment holding on for dear life. What if the next involuntary shot went to the side and hit someone. That would be absolutely fascinating, just as the whole fucking night had been so far. He couldn't let Ace injure anyone else.

He shouted to the doctor to wait outside and he complied. They were left alone for a minute and after using that attack Ace transformed back into his human form more or less. He still squirmed and whined but somehow he seemed to be slowly calming down. That was when Marco was able to look at the younger's face. He noticed that Ace's eyes were open. And what he saw in them made his blood run cold. Those black orbs weren't sharp as they used to be, they were teary and had a dull grey colour. As if there was a haze or a fog in them. 'Lifeless' The first word that came to Marco's mind.

He gulped and averted his eyes from the younger's unseeing pair. He realised the reason Ace stopped using his Devil Fruit ability was because he was probably too weak to do that. Ace was getting weaker every second. They couldn't waste anymore time. Marco felt his heartbeat. It was irregular. Marco heard that Ace had trouble breathing. He grit his teeth as he held Ace in an iron grip waiting for Haruta to show up. He didn't know when the tears started to fall unbidden. They were just there, blocking his view as he sniffed.

Haruta arrived a minute later bursting through the door Sea stone cuffs in hand. Marco's features seemed to lighten up for a split second. He asked Vista to help him put it on Ace while he held the other down. Soon Ace was yet again unable to use his fire ability.

The doctor rushed to Ace's side and after applying anaesthetics to his left arm he injected Ace with the quickly thrown together antidote hoping it would miraculously cure Ace immediately. Even though in reality all of them knew it would take some time to take effect.

To be continued...