Disclaimer: For the umpteenth time, I don't own One Piece. Surprised?

"Long story cut short," Portgas began, taking a deep breath as he tried to shove down the worry that was becoming stronger by the minute, "I went to pick up Luffy, and when I saw him he told me something bad happened to Ace, and so we ran home to find the apartment looking like this." He gestured to the mess that littered around them. "If what Luffy saw was correct, Blackbeard kidnapped him."

Luffy was perched on the large cotton lump that was once the couch, his trademark straw hat tilted so they covered his eyes. He had been silent the entire time as they waited for the arrival of Marco, except the incessant tapping of his feet and the absent-minded drumming of his fingers. It was obvious that the younger was very worried for his brother.

Marco rubbed his cheek. "Hmmmmm…" he mused, deep in thought, "This is just another thing that doesn't make sense. Why would Luffy know what was going on?"

"I have no idea," Portgas said, shrugging, "It's like last night. Somehow he can see stuff beyond. Like he's got creepy clairvoyance."

"Clairvo-what?" Luffy said suddenly, raising his head confusedly.

"Clairvoyance. It means to see the future. Or see beyond," Portgas explained. "And I think you might be developing that for some reason. And we all know strange things have been happening."

With that, the rubber teen sank back into his position on the mangled couch, silent once more.

The first commander was still deep in thought. "Right now, we've got three mysteries that we can't quite solve, right?" he confirmed, "How you got here, the possibility of Ace and your abilities transferring to each other, and Luffy's precognition. They have to somehow be related with each other, I'm sure, and with what's going on with Blackbeard, as well. We can't rule that out."

Portgas nodded, motioning with his hands for Marco to go on.

"Therefore, our first step would be to get Ace back. I will be assuming that these events will reflect upon what had happened in your world, Portgas," he continued. "So, Blackbeard's current step would be to turn Ace in to the government, and we have to stop that from happening. Then we can confront Blackbeard, and hopefully that'll give us a lead on all the other things that's been happening."

"And how does that exactly work?" the former pirate questioned.

"My current theory is that you came into this world because of the Blackbeard in your world. My suspicion is that his Yami Yami no Mi powers triggered some dimensional warp or rift, which somehow ended up tossing you over here. And something like that would disrupt the natural balance, and would cause other strange things to happen, although the extent of the damage would be unknown. That might be how your brother got his precognition, but this is all resting on a theory over a theory. And that same effect caused Ace's abilities to be transferred onto you, because the two of you are the same. Obviously this is just a vague idea of mine, and it might be completely wrong for all I know. Even if this has nothing to do with Teach, we still have to track them down anyways to save Ace before they send him off to Impel Down."

"Even if he does end up in there," Portgas said, his voice sounding more optimistic, "we have better odds of breaking him out than last time. Luffy did it alone with the help of a small rag-tag team, since his crew was blasted across the world everywhere."

At the sound of his name, Luffy perked up again. "What about me?"

"I'm just saying that we probably shouldn't be too worried about Ace's safety right now," Portgas explained. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He's pretty strong, even if he's sick as hell right now… err… that sounds awfully conceited of me…"

Marco cracked a small grin. "Anyhow, I'll contact the old man and we'll see what stuff we can pull up, eh?"

Luffy leapt up, looking more energetic. He took off running to the door, and right before he vanished through, the teen yelled, "I'm gonna go to Zoro's! See ya!"

"You've got one flighty brother. Well I'll be off as well," Marco commented, taking a step forwards, then stopped when he thought of something. "Don't you dare do something stupid while I'm gone! If you're anything like Ace, you'll go off to search for Blackbeard, and the last thing I want is two Aces with their asses handed by that traitor."

Portgas stuck out his tongue cheekily. "Love you, too."

As the door slammed close for the final time, he poked his head out of one of the still intact windows to see Marco hurrying along the sidewalk. Once the older had fully disappeared from his vision, Portgas dashed to his other self's room. Lucky for him, the computer was still intact and on. He keyed in a few words in Google and pulled up a map of one of the districts, grinning.

Did Marco honestly expect him to listen?

Portgas had a vague idea of where Blackbeard would be in, if everything was going according to what had happened in the other world. The first thing he would've done would be to transfer Ace to where their transport would be waiting in, in the underground, where laid a gigantic sewer-like water system that the mafia and Marines utilized to get around faster than above ground like the oceans back in Portgas's world. He speculated that their ship would be in the approximate area of where he and Teach had faced off, and would be steadily heading towards Impel Down at a fast pace. Like he had guessed, the maps were nearly identical to his navigation maps, although set as cities, not islands.

The former pirate quickly located the island that he was captured on, tracing a route to Impel Down. He pulled out the iPhone from his pocket and enabled the GPS, setting the course he'd take. The transportation was a problem. Portgas didn't dare to take Stryker the motorcycle, since he didn't know how to ride one, and he wasn't sure if his counterpart also had Stryker the raft.

Regardless of that obstacle, he headed downstairs anyways for the nearest entrance to the underground, breaking into a sprint. The more time he lost, the harder it'd become to catch up, and by then Marco would be at him like there was no tomorrow. On a second thought…

He ran back up again and scribbled a small note, tacking it on the door.

To say Ace felt like utter shit would still be an understatement in his current situation. On top of his already sick self, there were now several bloody injuries and bruises, not to mention some broken bones thrown in. Blackbeard had roughed him up pretty badly, then threw him into a small cell in the man's ship reinforced by seastone. He couldn't do much other than wriggle around because of his tightly shackled wrists and feet. There was even a collar on his neck attached to the wall, like they expected him to bite them or something. Those bastards went overboard with trying to restrain him.

He swallowed the bile rising in his throat. If he was going to puke, it was going to be all over him, and he didn't need to feel worse than he already did.

That damned traitor.

Ace should've tried to contact Marco in some way, or ran when Teach had broken into his house. He had completely forgotten about the powers of the Yami Yami no Mi because of his disoriented mind. Or actually, if he had actually listened to his other self, he wouldn't have gotten into this big mess in the first place because he wouldn't have been too weak to do shit.

However he thought of it, everything seemed to boil down to his fault and his stupidity.

He shook his head vigorously. He seriously needed to stop wallowing in self pity or self hate and instead, focus on somehow escaping this hellhole. He scanned his little cell and referenced to the view he had of the ship as he was dragged through. First things first, he needed to get rid of the restraints somehow, but there were no tools available for him to pick the locks, let alone move. And if he achieved that feat, there was a small window in the cell, but was too high to get just by jumping, and the seastone cut off all of his powers.

Another problem with the climb-out-of-the-window thing was that he was definitely going to hit the water if he somehow managed to get out, and thanks to his Devil Fruit powers, he couldn't swim and would just drown. If by some other miracle he swam to safety, his captors would notice and he'd get dragged back to his prison all over again, making the effort useless.

Was it possible for him to climb out the window, maybe, a hanging structure on the ship? He could cling to it and judge his jump…

Ace's plotting was disturbed by heavy footsteps that thumped down the stairs, further confirming that he was in the most bottom layer of the ship, which also meant he was technically under water. Filing that information in, he promptly crossed out the option of smashing through the walls.

The door swung open creakily, then slammed shut with a loud clang. "Enjoying ourselves, commander?" Teach said in a smug tone. A ring of keys dangled noisily from his belt. Ace eyed them, wondering which one was the key to his cell.

To ignore or not to, that was the question. Hmmmm… Ace went with don't ignore. "Everything's so nice here, and the shackles are so very comfortable," he replied, his voice thick with sarcasm. Usually what he said would be wittier than that, but with his tired mind, that was the best he could think of. "But I don't understand the collar."

Blackbeard laughed. "Zehahahaha! There's a word called precaution, my friend."

Ace scowled. "Don't call me your friend. And I actually do have a brain to know what precaution means, unlike a certain fat and idiotic bastard staring right at me." C'mon, Ace, you could think of better insults!

Blackbeard seemed unfazed. "I remember you biting one of the crew before," he stated matter-of-factly.

The flush on his face deepened, and it wasn't because he was feeling sicker. If only he could break free and wipe that smug expression of the traitor off, then preferably drown him and cut his head off… Ace took a deep breath. He had to calm down. "Soooo…" he began casually, as if starting a conversation between an old friend, "we're heading to the Marine headquarters, right?"

There was the slightest bit of surprise and suspicion on Teach's face. "How do you know that?"

Ace couldn't tell him that it was because of his other self, could he? He decided to exploit this factor. "I know exactly what you're planning," he said quietly, hoping to scare his enemy while he had the chance. "And I'll be happy to say that your plan is failing, because I already have backup." The second part was hopefully going to be true. He was going to have to rely on Portgas and the old man to break him out of this ship, because there wasn't any possibility of getting out himself.

Blackbeard was beginning to look horrified. "You don't know that," he insisted, like he was trying to persuade Ace to think otherwise, but more like he was trying to convince himself.

"You originally wanted to get Monkey D. Luffy, but it was hard to get him," Ace said, a grin spreading across his face. "So you settled for me."

"Where did you hear that from?" the other snapped, his voice sharp.

"From a little birdie," Ace replied cheerfully. "And I know that you're doing all this so you could fill the empty spot for the Shichibukai, because of the big bounty on me." He thoroughly enjoyed how creeped out his enemy was beginning to look. "You also have a bigger motive behind all of that. You're only doing this so you have access to Impel Down, where you want to gain new crewmates from."

"That is-" Blackbeard began in heated tone, but was interrupted by a loud crash and the screaming voices of his crew.

Their heads both snapped up to where the sound was coming from. There were slams, crashes, and yelling, giving away the fact that they were fighting someone.

The identity of the intruder was clear when they heard a cry of, "Hibashira!"

Ace should've known his other self would have gone here, and from the sounds of it, he was alone.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard had an utterly perplexed expression. "There can only be one Mera Mera no Mi user," he muttered dubiously. "How is this possible?" He turned his attention back to his prisoner. "Do you know what is going on?"

Ace snorted. "Even if I did, and whether or not I do that's for you to guess, I wouldn't tell, would I?"

Teach growled darkly in frustration. "I'll be back," he said before stalking out of Ace's cell. He didn't get very far when a flying sidekick sent him tumbling unceremoniously back down the stairs. Teach rolled around in pain, clutching his belly where the flaming foot had struck.

The attacker stepped fully out of the shadowed stairs with a big grin on his face. Portgas was decked out in his pirate gear (and that left Ace wondering curiously where he had gotten some of the missing pieces from, and settled with the theory that his other self raided his closet), his fists lit with bright flames. He walked up to Blackbeard, smirking. "Surprised?"

The traitor's mouth hung wide open, and he looked at Ace and back to Portgas again and again. "How?"

"Like hell we'll tell you," they said in unison, and Portgas kicked Blackbeard hard in the head, successfully knocking him out.

Meanwhile, back in Ace's apartment…

Marco was staring at the note tacked to the door in disbelief, his hands clenching together. "What the hell!" he screamed out angrily.

Hey Marco, the note said, I've gone to go save Ace because I have an inkling of an idea of where he is right now. Don't kill me. :P Oh by the way if somehow this fails go to here (an address was inserted), and follow the road to Impel Down. I'm pretty sure that's where Teach is.

Don't kill him? That brat's just asking for a beating. The phoenix muttered a long string of colorful words under his breath, cursing Portgas for his foolish and hotheaded behavior. He had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to end well, and the idiot was probably going to run into trouble. Actually, revise the statement into "definitely going to run into trouble". He always did.

Marco took out his phone once more to contact Luffy this time. The kid would probably appreciate knowing where his brothers were.

It ringed once before someone picked it up. "Hello?" a gruff voice answered. It was definitely not Luffy.

"I'd like to speak to Luffy, please," Marco replied politely.

"Oh Luffy. Well uhhh… He's kind of busy right now… I can pass the message for you," the man offered. "What's your name?"

Marco briefly debated over whether to give his name out or not. This man was probably part of Ace's brother's crew, but he couldn't be sure. "Just tell him Marco."

"First commander of the Whitebeard family, huh," the man muttered under his breath, but it was loud enough for the phoenix to hear. Guess he was part of Luffy's crew after all.

"Yes," Marco responded, not as polite as before. "I've got the coordinates for where Luffy's brother is at."

"Oh yeah? T-"

Marco winced as he heard the sound of someone slamming into the wall, and a lot of static because of what he assumed to be the phone dropping. "You know where Ace is?!" was the excited and high pitched voice of Luffy. It would seem that the teen had pushed his crewmate roughly away just to get the phone. Marco pitied the poor fellow who just got to know the wall too well, and then heard a yell of "What the hell was that for, damn it!?" He couldn't help but chuckle.

"Calm down, Luffy," he told the younger. "I'll send a text message to you with the coordinates. Get there fast, alright? There's… a situation going on right now over there."

Then the line went dead. Marco sighed. That kid seriously rushed too much.

Portgas jingled the keys in a frustrated manner. He wondered why Blackbeard would have so fucking many keys on this ring. It was almost impossible to pick out the right one to unlock the cell door, not to mention he also had to find the matching ones to unlock the cuffs. Because of the inlaid seastones in the room, his powers were limited, so he couldn't just melt the cell down even if he wanted to.

"How about the one that's two on the left of the one you just tried? I think that was the key," Ace, who looked worse for wear, suggested tiredly. He kept glancing at the still form of Blackbeard, hoping that he wasn't faking his unconscious state, or he won't wake up soon.

"Aha!" Portgas cried triumphantly, having finally found the correct key. He pushed the rusting door open, ignoring the loud creaking sounds it was making and made a beeline to Ace. "Now…" he muttered, "to find the ones that unlock the stupid cuffs. Gotta say, the collar looks stellar on you."

"If it wasn't for the fact that we're kind of in a rush, I'd bite you," Ace said threateningly.

"Sure, sure," his other self replied, unfazed. He flipped several keys around, settling for a fairly small bronze one. Inserting it into the hole of the collar, he twisted. The lock snapped open.

Ace coughed slightly. "Finally. Enough air. The damn thing was choking me. How did you know it was that one, anyways?"

There was a moment of silence. "Well…" Portgas finally said awkwardly, "I… had one of those on one of the times I was captured by the Marines, and I remembered clearly how frustrated Marco got to find the key for it."

"Oh," was the other's lame response. Another click sounded, springing the handcuffs open. Ace was surprised at how chaffed the skin around his wrists already became, just half an hour after been imprisoned. It must've been terrible for his other self when he had the restraints on for all the time he was captured in Blackbeard's ship and Impel Down.

The final shackles popped open quickly, and Ace immediately stood up and stretched. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet. We still gotta somehow get out of this place," Portgas warned.

Ace grimaced. "Right…"

As the two were about to run up the half broken stairs, a voice behind them said, "Stop right there!" Blackbeard forced himself to a sitting position and was glaring daggers and him, while a hand rubbed the large bruise that was forming on his chest. "You two aren't going anywhere."

"Says you," Portgas shot back. He tugged on his other self's ruined shirt. "Run," he whispered softly, "I'll stop him. You first escape and try to contact Luffy or Marco. They should be on their way here already, if I'm not wrong." Reaching into his pant pocket, he pulled out the iPhone and slid it into Ace's hands.

Ace was about to protest until he caught the look on the former pirate's face. It was filled with hatred and coldness, and his hands had become tightly clenched fists as he stared Teach down, his entire body tensed for battle. Ace understood why Portgas would want to fight Blackbeard so badly, even if the odds of winning were uncertain. His other self would only feel insulted if Ace insisted to stay and fight with him.

For a split second, he felt an overwhelming amount of fury and the thirst for revenge, combined with a dozen other emotions that briefly covered his entire mind. Was that what Portgas was feeling right now? He mentally added that to the growing list of unexplained mysteries since his other self came.

"Good luck," he said before turning around, sprinting up the stairs.

Zoro eyed his captain worriedly as Luffy paced back and forth in the galley, an anxious expression on his face. The teen looked more worried that Zoro had ever seen him as they steadily approached their destination, given to them by the first commander of the Whitebeard Famiglia. Luffy played around with his straw hat absent-mindedly, and for the first time, Zoro missed his loud voice and crazy antics that he usually did at school and when they were doing mafia work.

The swordsman took another large swig of the bottle of sake in his hands, adjusting his seated position in the corner of the wall. The rest of the crew was all in the galley, as well, each of them looking nervous, especially Usopp, who's legs were shaking.

Their complied information of Blackbeard was a fearsome one. He was an individual capable of taking down Luffy's monster of a brother down single-handedly, and had, apparently, indirectly started one of the greatest wars of all times between Marines and pirates in the other Ace's world. Zoro, for some reason, didn't feel all that apprehensive, but it might've been because of all the alcohol he was consuming that made his brain a little numb.

It had been a long time since the Sunny was so quiet.

Zoro ran a hand down one of his blades, tracing the patterns on the hilt, and his ears picked up sounds of explosion coming from afar.

"We're almost there," Nami said, as if on the cue.

They raced to the prow and were greeted with a sight they didn't expect.

A large smoking hole was in the middle of the enemy ship, the edges still burning, like someone dropped a bomb onto it, although the ship should've been blown into pieces. They could hear indistinct voices that sounded panicked and saw flares now and then, combined with the sounds of several guns firing.

Looks like someone already started a fight. Zoro dared to bet all his money that the counterpart of Luffy's hotheaded brother had done so from the fact that the ship was smoking, and he had heard a yell of "Hibashira", giving away Firefist's identity. This was probably what Marco meant by situation.

"Looks like the fight started without us," he commented with a lazy grin, feeling excitement beginning to form. To him, the bigger the challenge, the better. His swords were calling for blood.

"You don't say, shitty marimo," Sanji scoffed, taking a long drag of his nearly spent cigarette, then dropping it onto the ground. He reached into his pockets for another.

"A-are you n-not scared at all?!" Usopp stuttered. Like usual, he seemed like he was going to faint any moment at the prospect of a tough battle, with his body shaking in fear, and his teeth clattering together. Chopper looked equally frightened, although it was more like because he just got scared by some stories the sniper just told him than at the prospect of a tough opponent.

Before Zoro had the chance to reply (he wasn't intending to, anyways), his captain yelled, "Let's go!"

The Thousand Sunny was side to side with their target's ship, with a small distance in between that could be cleared easily with a large leap. Even so, Luffy launched his arms forwards, getting a good grip on the railings, and flew forwards right into the gaping hole that lead to the inside.

With a war cry, the rest followed, leaping over the gap between the ships and into the chaos of battle.

Took me half the time than the last to get this update out, yay me! I feel like it might've been a bit rushed, but oh well. I tried writing in more than one POV so hopefully it wasn't super messy and confusing or anything, because I still tried to keep it organized. Hope you guys all enjoyed it!

I would love it if you reviewed, of course. So if you please… no need for paragraphs. Even just a sentence would be alright for poor ol' me. And you get a cookie again!