Abandoned and Lost
Brother Version
Chapter Seven: Impossible Information

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Problems are easily forgotten when you find yourself surrounded by people who love you
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The ship had gone back to normal after Ace woke up. Arguments between the swordsman and cook were popping up once every hour or two, explosions from Usopp's Factory had continued on, the sounds of tinkering could faintly be heard as Franky also worked on new inventions. The navigator continued trimming her tangerines while the archeologist remained in the library looking for a book to read and the reindeer doctor was locked in the sickbay working on new cures and power boosts. Marco wasn't used to a ship being so calm. On the Moby Dick, there was constant chattering, the occasional arguments and fights, drunken songs being sang off key, and worst of all: pranks. With Thatch and Ace, Marco was usually their specified target. Of course, every now and then Marco would respond with his own prank and end up kicking their asses. But this ship compared to that one was so much more peace–

"Dammit, don't you ever do anything else but sleep?"

"Well at least I don't look like some retarded idiot every time I see a woman!"

"Damn Marimo!"

"Ero cook!"

"Shithead!"

"Curlybrow!" The sounds of kicks making contact with swords echoed on the deck and Marco chuckled as Nami started screaming at them to shut up and Luffy came on deck laughing loudly. Now this is more like what he was used to. He was joined by Ace who stretched his arms as they popped and cracked.

"It's different from the Moby Dick, isn't it?" Marco responded with a nod.

"Though it can get just as loud sometimes. So, when are you going to tell him?" Ace blinked, turning towards his friend.

"Huh? Tell who what?"

"Tell your brother the rest of what happened to you." The freckled teen gave a quiet chuckle.

"I guess there's no hiding anything from you." Marco simply shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe after this whole Masure thing is done with." The blond gave a nod.

"Just don't' wait until it's too late. If he finds out at the wrong time, it could really mess with him." The teen simply rolled his eyes as his friend headed for the kitchen. Leave it to Marco to know every single thing about you by only asking a few questions.

Dinner time was crazy on this ship. With stretching arms trying to steal your food or the occasional fire ball to keep those arms away, dinner was almost a nightmare. Ace was stealing Luffy's food and Luffy was trying to steal everybody else's food while trying to protect his own and trying his best not to get a fork stabbed in one of his thieving hands. Marco stared at the archeologist who continued to eat peacefully even though she was in the midst of all the action, slightly wondering how she had managed to keep her sanity on this ship. He had only been on the Thousand Sunny for a day and everything and one except her seemed to be nuts. (He came to this conclusion when they came across a marine ship earlier and in the midst of battling, the crew had somehow managed to get into a big argument and weren't even paying attention to the enemies who just so happened to be stronger than the average marine soldiers.) But then again, he had stories of her morbid and twisted sense of humor and finally concluded that no one on the ship was sane.

Well, except him anyway.

The next morning rolled around and Marco entered the deck as the sun rose over the horizon. The beautiful mixture of colors stained the clouds and ocean, and the water gently lapped against the ship. Marco made his way into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of hot tea and then headed back onto the deck with his steaming drink. The newspaper bird was sitting on the railing waiting for someone to relieve it of duty so it could go onto the next ship. Marco gave fifty beli to the bird and took one newspaper from the bag as Luffy entered the deck quietly. He took a sip from his cup and checked the front page, his eyes widening at what he read.

Well, this was news to him.

As he headed to Ace's room, Luffy paid for one paper too. Nami had made it a rule that whoever was up first had to buy a newspaper. As the bird flew from the railing, the hyper captain glanced at the item. "Let's see… 'Portgas D. Ace, commander of Whitebeard's Second Division is…' Oh. Oh! This is bad." Luffy barged into the guest room as Marco handed Ace the paper. "Ace, I swear it wasn't me!" Ace scoffed lightly and rolled his eyes as he gave a yawn.

"It wasn't you who did what, Luffy?" Then Ace read the headlines.

He burned the paper in seconds.

Instantly waking up, he threw off his blankets and walked onto the deck in obvious frustration where he paced back and forth as Luffy read the headlines aloud.

"Portgas D. Ace, commander of Whitebeard's Second Division is actually the son to none other than the Pirate King Gol D. Roger. An anonymous insider sent us a letter regarding the information. It's been said that the mother, Portgas D. Rogue, held Ace in her womb for an astonishing twenty months before finally giving birth and passing away in the process. A new bounty has been issued by the World Government for this pirate and others are warned to keep their distance from the dangerous abomination."

Luffy pulled out a wanted poster and held it up with a grin. "Look, Ace! Your bounty went up to 600,000,000 Beli!" But Ace paid no attention to it. He still looked pretty pissed about the information going public.

"Abomination?" Ace repeated the world dangerously quiet as he continued to pace. Great, just fucking great. Who the fuck was the insider? Surely it wasn't Garp. Unless this was his way of payback for Ace leaving Luffy nine years ago. But he doubted it. The only other people who knew were Luffy and Whitebeard and he was positive that it wasn't them. So who…? "That bastard," Ace growled. Masure must have found out somehow and published the facts. Now the whole world knew the truth. Ace punched the past to release some pent-up anger. Marco suddenly understood why a year ago Ace had mentioned the whole world wanting him dead. Being son to the pirate king couldn't have been easy on him growing up. Ace's phone rang and he put the phone to his ear, answering it. "What?" He snapped.

"Ace, is it true? Are you really the son of Roger?" Ace pinched the bridge of his nose, using a lot of his strength to refrain from exploding at his friend.

"Thatch, drop it, alright?"

"But I wanna know~. Oh! Is this what you had to tell Oyaji the night before you were promoted to commander? Because you know-"

"Thatch, I said drop it." The fourth commander didn't fail to notice the anger in Ace's voice and dropped the subject. A booming voice was heard in the phone's background telling Thatch to hang up. Ace silently thanked Whitebeard for understanding how he felt.

"Okay, I'm hanging up. Ace? I was going to say it's not a big deal. Just because he was your father doesn't mean that's who you are. Oh, gotta go, Oyaji's coming over–. Wait, no, that's my only cell–!" The line went dead and Ace couldn't help but to let out a small chuckle. If you ever needed cheering-up, Thatch was the one to go to. Still, the world knew the truth now. Before, at least Ace's identity had been kept secret. But now, it wasn't him being paranoid. The world really did want him dead now that they knew the truth. Wonderful. First, his ex sociopathic master who was crazy out of his fucking delusional mind was after him, now the entire world wanted him dead because his father was Gol D. Roger and the World Government announced him as a great danger to the public by raising his bounty by 50,000,000 Beli.

Great. Just fucking great.

How could this day get any better?

"Marine ship off the stern bow!"

Okay, now how could it get any–

"Oh! It's Smokey's ship too!"

…Fuck.

Ace slammed his head into the mast and Marco flinched at the sight. That was gonna hurt later. Luffy sounded the alarm and soon the entire crew was on deck running around getting the ship ready to… fly? Wait, Ace and Marco couldn't have heard that correctly, right? Ships were meant to sail. Sail and maybe submerge. Not fly. Flying was a no-no when it came to ships. Ace made his way to the stern bow and saw Smoker standing on the deck of the Marine ship with Tashigi at his side. The marine's eyes widened slightly before narrowing as he spotted Fire Fist on the Strawhat's deck. "Fire Fist…" Even though they were still a good distance way, he could easily tell Ace wasn't in a good mood. No, the super rookie seemed in a foul mood and Smoker wondered if it had to do with today's headlines. "To think that you're the son of Gol D. Roger…" Now the marine really knew Ace was in a foul mood when a fireball suddenly flew towards the ship. One of Smoker's White Out attacks easily canceled out the fireball and Ace could be heard shouting from the pirate deck.

"I'm really not in the mood for a fight, Smoker!" The marine narrowed his eyes. That fire brat was usually so mischievous and, somewhat, lighthearted, but right now he seemed frustrated and exhausted. 'Must be having a tough week.'

Smoker had no idea how true those thoughts were.

But another thought hit him. What was Fire Fist doing on Mugiwara's ship? He decided to ask. "Portgas D. Ace, why are you with Strawhat?"

"Because he's my little brother! And I won't let you get anywhere near him!" The marine narrowed his eyes once again. That couldn't be right, Mugiwara was son to the revolutionist Monkey D. Dragon. There's no way they were blood related. But then again, you didn't have to have the same blood to call someone family.

"Stand aside, Strawhat is mine!"

"Like hell I will!" Then Marco the Phoenix appeared by Ace's side. What the hell was going on? Since when was Strawhat Luffy good friends with First Division commander Marco? But before anything could happen, the back of the pirate ship started to glow and Ace suddenly turned towards Marco. "They said the ship was gonna fly, right?" Marco gave a skeptic nod and Ace quickly paled. "The Striker!" The two commanders quickly ran to the side where Ace had tied his ship and began to pull it up. "Shit, hurry!" And just as they got the mini ship onto the deck, the Thousand Sunny let out a blast and the next thing they knew, they were flying through the clouds. To say Ace and Marco were surprised would have been the understatement of the month. The freckled teen found himself lifted off the deck as the ship started to fall back to the ocean and he closed his eyes and let himself go.

He wondered if this is what Marco felt when he flew through the sky, and if this is what clouds felt like as they drifted through the peaceful atmosphere. It just felt so peaceful, so quiet. He threw his arms out as he enjoyed the freedom of flying through the air, giving a pure, genuine smile and laugh. The wind in his hair, the smell of the ocean, the feeling of flying. It was just amazing! "Ace!" He heard his brother call out, but he didn't want to open his eyes yet. He wanted to enjoy the moment a little longer. The cool breeze brought goosebumps to his skin and finally he opened his eyes. The Sunny was seconds away from hitting the ocean and fire burst from the bottom of his shoes, allowing him to catch up and land on the ship before it hit the sea. The Striker flew off the deck and back into the water where it belonged as Marco continued to sit on the ground with wide eyes. The crew around him rejoiced and hoorayed that the Coup de Burst worked perfectly. Even Ace, who was found sprawled out on part of the mast and nearly fell, gave a huge smile and laughed heartily.

Yep, it was official.

Everyone on the ship was nuts.

But in truth, Marco couldn't have been happier that happened because now Ace seemed relieved of all his worries at the moment. That itself lifted a weight off the blond's shoulders. Ace had been so tense and frustrated lately, so seeing him so happy and worry free was–

"Marco, your face looks so funny!" Ace laughed as he pointed at the blond while laying upside-down on the mast. Marco's soft smile disappeared and a nerve ticked in his temple.

"I hope you fall off the mast," he replied back, only making Ace laugh harder. Which eventually caused the teen to fall. And land. Hard. On the deck. Still laughing. Luffy had no idea but joined in the laughter and laid down next to his brother, causing Marco to sweatdrop. "They're both idiots." In the background, Franky struck his famous pose.

"What a super day today is!"

"I agree," the navigator replied, brushing a few hairs behind her ears. "I don't sense any oncoming storms yet."

The archeologist gave a small smile in return. "Maybe we'll find an island today."

"And if we come across any monsters, I'll wipe them out with one attack! Just like the time I defeated a giant piranha with only a string, a paperclip, and a match!" The small reindeer instantly stopped what he was doing and ran over the sharpshooter to hear the rest of the story.

"Really, Usopp? You did that? Awesome!"

"I can't believe you believe those lies, Chopper." The reindeer turned towards the swordsman.

"Eh? It was a lie?" Zoro nodded before laying down on the deck to nap, only for the cook to trip over him.

"Oi, watch it, Ero cook."

"Shitty swordsman, stop getting in my way! I almost spilled Nami-swan and Robin-chwan's drinks!"

'I should jump ship now while I still have my sanity,' Marco thought. The Moby Dick was usually loud, but at least the people on it had such things called brains. The only way you'd lose your sanity on that ship would be because of the endless pranks some people kept pulling. On this ship, the ignorance of danger was a biggie. Especially for the orange-haired navigator who always pulled her hair out in frustration at the crew whenever they ran off and did something without thinking. Seriously, Robin and Nami were the only ones who were somewhat sane. Mostly Nami though, Marco noticed. Robin tended to give into adventure too whenever it seemed to present itself.

The rest of the day had been great. The two brothers had completely forgotten their worries and spent the hours just joking around and laughing about little things. Like how the lines on the ceiling seemed to move when you stared at them for too long, or how the grass ticked their noses when they watched a bug crawl across the deck. Sometimes some of the crew members would just stop and watch the two brothers for a while, joining in with the laughter quietly now and then.

Lunch was just as lively as it was at dinner time. Maybe even more so in Marco's eyes. He had to defend his food several times from Luffy's thieving hands before the teen finally gave up on his plate. But as he looked down at his food, he noticed a good portion of it was missing and his eyes landed on Ace who was sitting beside him, looking the other way as if he was talking to someone. "The next time you try to steal my food, I'll stab you with a fork." Ace took heed to the dark warning and left the plate alone for the rest of the lunch. When everyone was kicked out of the kitchen so it could be cleaned, Marco found a mail bird sitting on the railing and got a sudden bad feeling that the wonderful day was about to come crashing down.

Ace stared at the letter in front of him. Marco handed it to him five minutes ago and by the handwriting on the front of the letter, he was from Masure. It unnerved him that the man knew to send the letter to the Thousand Sunny rather than to the Moby Dick. But then again, whacko or not, the man was a genius at gathering information. A tinge of fear rang in the back of Ace's mind again, but this time it wasn't as bad. Masure was nothing but a man, and Ace had the power to kill a man without hesitation. He almost killed the man once, this time, he'd make sure to finish the job. Opening the envelope, he pulled out the letter and read it.

'You cannot hide, Ace. No matter where you are, I. Will. Find. You.'

Chills ran back down his spine, but he wasn't as afraid as last time. Probably because he had convinced himself that Masure was just a man. He was no longer the expert torturer, but just a man. A very sick man. Plus, he had Marco and Luffy– not too mention Zoro, Sanji, and Franky if he needed– to back him up if things got out of control. That was more than enough for Ace. And even though he still felt afraid and haunted, he tried his best not to let it get to him. He burned the letter in his hand, a thin smirk on his face.

"Come and get me if you dare, Masure," he spoke darkly, though a hint of cockiness and mischief could be heard. "I'll kill you the moment you set foot on this ship."

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Aaaand, that a wrap! So I hope it was acceptable. If not, *bows* I'm so sorry! Please leave reviews, reviews are my friends. Reviews are nice, very nice. They're inspiring. See that button below this text? Okay, push it. I dare you to