Kitsune here! OMG I am SO SORRY that this took longer than anticipated. I have a really really good reason. Ready for it?

I got bit by my iguana.

No really. My 6 foot iguana, Wasabi, bit me on the left index finger down to the bone on the middle knuckle and almost to the bone on the top one. I needed a stitch, and antibiotics (after the x-rays, cleaning out, and all that fun stuff)... I'm left handed too. It was very hard to do anything. I'm sorry. I honestly couldn't write for a while. And then only in short bursts….now I can though!

Question of the chapter: "Ever want to read something but not sure what it is?" All the freaking time. Then I end up reading 6 things at once and am still not happy.

Ace flinched back from his double, the sudden loud noise taking him off guard. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously when the man they had introduced as Law just sighed. "Ace, for the last time you can't blame Luffy for every odd thing that happens. Even if he usually has something to do with it."

"Not always!" The teen protested, eyes fixed on the needle in his arm as blood slowly flowed.

"To be fair, Lu, you have this knack for getting into trouble." Sabo - and there was no way it wasn't Sabo, he couldn't lie to himself- smirked. "But in this case I've got to agree with Law. I don't think Lu's responsible for this. Whatever this is...or whatever you think it is…."

"Are you sure? Because Lu's the physics expert and isn't dimensional shit physics?"

"That's profiling!" The youngest shouted over his brother.

His double moaned, rubbing his face with his hand before giving Ace a pained grimace as the youngest continued to babble on about profiling and why it was wrong. All of which Ace could agree on. Then he started to talk about false conviction rates and Ace was lost. The other must have seen it on his face. "Yeah. He's been talking to Abby and I'm not sure if she counts as a good influence or a bad one. On the one hand, he listens to her. On the other… he never uses it in context."

"Who's Abby?" was the only thing he could think to say to that.

He watched as his double - and he needed a better thing to call him, at least in his head- dragged over a stool and sat, crossing his arms. He looked more relaxed than he had earlier, having apparently figured out whatever was going on. "Don't know an Abby in whatever weird ass dimension you're from? She's this woman we met last summer when some bad shit went down. Nice enough for a Navy Cop. Lu adores her as you can tell."

"Navy?" He tensed, "You're Marines?"

"Hardly." Spade- that's what he was going to call him for now- snorted before giving him a hard look, tense once more. But it was a different kind of tense. The kind where you were expecting a blow. Ace knew the look of a man who'd been through hell, so he wasn't surprised when Spade spoke. "Lu and I were mixed up in some major bad shit. It got… really bad." He sighed. "I ended up getting my fiery ass arrested, which ironically happened to be the best thing to happen to me in a long time. If your Luffy is anything like my Lu, you've probably got an idea of how well he took to seeing me arrested right in front of him."

Oh, he had a good idea alright. His eyes slid over to his own little brother. Once more taking the shape he was in because of Ace's stupid and reckless decisions. No, he couldn't regret Luffy coming to save him. That would be throwing it all back in the kid's face. But he hated himself for letting it come to this. He didn't deserve a brother like- a hand collided with the back of his head and he startled. "What was that?!" He half whined and half growled at Sabo.

The blond smirked down at him as he snapped on some rubber gloves. "Gibbs slap. You were doing the whole 'I'm a horrible rotten person. Luffy'd be better without me. I don't deserve to live.' Thing, weren't you? You had the same face this idiot gets. So I slapped you."

"I do not get that face!" Spade protested sullenly. "I'm less…. eye crinkly about it."

"Eye crinkly?" Sabo snorted, "It's your face. Even if I don't agree that Luffy had something to do with this, I'll buy the rest. It fits. Which means it's your bloody face, mate." Carefully he began cleaning out some of Ace's wounds with amazingly steady hands.

Spade pouted. "...I hate you."

"Sure you do. Because I'm right."

"You are not right all the time."

"I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong."

"Gahh you're annoying." Spade threw up his hands, "Tell me yours isn't this annoying. And Bo, for the record, Tat's is on my side."

Ace, who had been listening feeling a bit bemused by the whole thing offered Spade a bittersweet smile. "Sabo - my Sabo - is dead. He died when we were kids."

He felt more then saw the two exchange a look. "Wow, that sucks man." Spade's words might have come off as flippant but he could see the sincerity in his eyes that morphed into guarded humor as he clapped his blond brother on the back. "Want mine to replace him? Good milage on him."

"If you two are done bickering, I'd like to have a word with this other Ace." Law called over his shoulder.

Immediately Ace stood, ignoring how his vision darkened at the edges at the sudden motion. All that mattered was Luffy, and how his idiot little brother was doing. He was worried that the kid had been quiet for so long. "Yeah?"

"Woah, easy there!" A hand reached out to help him as he took a step and almost fell, apparently not quite as steady on his feet as he thought he was. A glance showed him it was Sabo, "I might not be a doctor, but any idiot can tell you're malnourished, dehydrated, and quite a bit banged up, mate."

Grey eyes looked him over at that. The gaze was impersonal, cool to the point of being cold and clinical. While it reminded him a fair bit of the looks he received as a child, it didn't bother him as much as the hate filled looks that the marines had thrown his way. After a moment the man spoke, "Electrolytes, and small meals. The bruising looks mostly superficial, and I doubt A-squared will need stitches if he's anything like Ace. I'm sure you have gatorade in the apartment. Now. As for L-two here."

"Is Luffy alright? He- he stopped moving… why is he being so quiet? He's not-"

A glare cut him off. "As I was trying to explain, he's going to be alright. Someone used some sort of hormone based drug on him. Luckily for him I am a genius and was able to deduce what was wrong quickly. With Luffy's help I was able to introduce blood that hadn't been tainted into his bloodstream while using my own ability to filter out a large portion of the substance." The man stood, expression grave, "I couldn't get it all but it's no longer life threatening. Be aware if someone of my caliber had not been available where you are from your brother could very well have died."

"Steroids?" Sabo asked, pulling a face.

"Similar enough. I've seen many people die on the streets taking the next 'miracle cure' that reminds me a bit of whatever that was floating around in his blood. Nasty mix of hormones that trick the body into thinking it's fine when it's about to go into cardiac arrest or collapse in on itself from exhaustion or starvation." He turned his attention back to Ace, "I catch him on something like that again, and I'll kill him myself and save us all the trouble."

"You'll have to get in line." he growled back. Of all the stupid things his brother had done! Putting his life in such danger just to rescue a worthless brother like him… he ducked the slap to the back of the head this time, knowing it was coming. "He's going to be alright, though?"

"In a few days. He needs to rest now, so I gave them both a mild sedative. I expect them both to be awake and whining for food in a few hours." He pulled off his gloves which vanished in a flash of blue. A dull rustle could be heard across the room and Ace wondered if it had to do with the flash. "The blood in both 'Luffys' is the same. Completely. Impossible to duplicate that even with a Devil-Fruit. As much as I loathe to agree with the matchstick, I believe he's right on where you're from. The why and how we'll have to work out later. I suspect a rogue DF user, of course."

"Of course. Marco's gonna love this…." The door banged open at the tale of Spade's words, "Speak of the devil. Marco!"

Ace turned, blinking in shock at the blond man the resembled the First Division Commander and yet at the same time was so different. For one thing, this man was noticeably angry. Not in the Thatch-dyed-his-shampoo-green way, either. No, he looked ready to murder someone. And when those blue eyes fell on him Ace took an involuntary step back. Spade noticed the look and was quick to step between them, and he admired that brave (foolish) move his other self made. He was surprised when Marco didn't shove the younger man aside, even though it was obvious he wanted to. "Ace. MOVE."

"In a sec, Marc. But, listen!" Spade spoke fast holding his hands up, "They're really us us. Like, from another world or some shit! Same blood and powers and no shitting- and Law'll back me up on this!" He finished with a yelp as he was forced to walk backwards to keep between them.

"It's true. Even if that were not the case I highly doubt they are here to make trouble given the condition they arrived in." Law's smirk was almost as frightening as Marco's glower for completely different reasons. "We have an unknown user on the loose."