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Encounters

Chapter X

The nurses left Ace alone with Lazue, only checking up on her status every once in a while. Ace didn't know if this was a normal practice or if they genuinely thought Lazue was a terminal case and couldn't be saved, but it unnerved and even angered him. Other members of the village came in and out of the home, allowing Ace to discover that it served as more of a clinic than anything else, and they often stared fixedly at the foreigners.

Later in the day, when the sun was high in the sky and the light streamed through the windowpanes onto a quilted bedspread that covered Lazue, a man came in and pulled up a chair next to Ace. After a minute of perplexed staring, Ace finally remembered that he was the same middle-aged man that he'd run into when first stepping foot on the island.

"Is she going to be alright?" the man asked gently. He had placed his own chair farther down the bed near Lazue's feet so as not to appear too imposing.

Ace merely shrugged his shoulders, his face sullen. "I don't know." He wanted badly to say yes, Lazue would wake up and that would be that, but the women's foreboding words rung loudly in his ears. She wouldn't make it.

The man beside him sighed and said, "The storm got you two, didn't it?"

"Yes," Ace mumbled. Usually he could always find something to talk about and he even thought of himself as something of a conversationalist, but today his spirit had oddly left him for dead. He tried to summon it back but couldn't find it in himself to entertain the man who waited for him to elaborate.

"That ship sitting out on the docks is in pretty bad shape. I have no idea how you managed to moor it without any sails. Was there anyone else aboard with you two? Did they perish in the storm?"

"No, just us," Ace replied hastily. He really wasn't in the mood for a chat.

"That's dangerous, taking a sloop only manned by two out on the Grand Line."

Ace kept his mouth shut, not wanting to tell the man that Lazue hadn't the faintest clue about seamanship. He knew that taking the sloop with only himself as a crew was unthinkable by any sane man and for a moment he berated his idiocy. Perhaps if he had forced that bartender Tool along as a second pair of able hands this wouldn't have happened?

No, he couldn't think about the 'what if's'. He had sworn to live his life without regrets, so he couldn't just go back in the past and imagine what could have been. He could only push forward from here.

"Can I…look at your face?" the man asked at length.

Ace turned to him, giving him an odd, irritated look. The man's face scrunched up as he studied Ace. "Why?" Ace enquired stiffly. He could feel himself growing tense. He certainly didn't want to be recognized as the 'Fire Fist' here, not with Lazue in no shape to make a run for it. He had left his hat behind on the sloop and put on a shirt just to keep eyes off of him. He didn't think he had left any more distinguishing features unchecked.

Unless…had the old man looked at what was onboard the ship?

The man nodded a bit to himself, then said, "I feel as though I've seen you before, but I know we've never met. It's so strange. What's your name?"

Ace froze up, unsure of what he should say. To lie or not to lie? His silence didn't go unnoticed by the man.

"Ah, how rude of me to ask for your name and then not give my own first. I'm Portgas D. Bleu, this small hamlet's mayor and fearless leader." He offered up a small smile, knowing that anything larger than that would not be appreciated given the circumstances.

If Ace was startled before, it couldn't compare with how he was feeling now. Jaw slackened, he stared wide-eyed at the man, who laughed rather roughly at Ace's discomfort.

"What, you don't think I look like much of a mayor?" His voice feigned a hurt tone.

"N-no, that's not it at all," Ace said, finding himself unable to think deeply enough to come up with something wittier to reply with.

He was in shock, his mind working overtime. Portgas? How could it be that this stranger and he shared the same surname? Not to mention the 'D' of which he'd yet to find an answer for. His eyes looked the man up and down; he had light, greying hair that seemed to have a tinge of strawberry blond mixed in and certainly looked to be quite strong if his muscular build was any indication.

But what Ace noticed the most was the sprinkling of freckles across the man's face and down his neck, growing both darker and blotchier until they disappeared under his clothes.

Those were disconcertingly familiar.

Ace badly wanted to ask about his mother, as that was her maiden name, but knew it might not be a good thing to reveal his connection to her so soon. After all, his father's blood ran just as strongly through his veins. And besides, perhaps Portgas really was a common name after all? Or perhaps this was merely some far-off cousin of an ancestor his mother had never known about?

"I'm Ace. And this is Lazue."

The man smiled and didn't press Ace for his full name, much to Ace's immediate relief.

"Well then, it's nice to meet you. I'm sure my wife Violet will take good care of your Lazue, don't you worry. She's the best when it comes to patching things up! She's the midwife around here."

Ace said nothing, recounting the midwife and the nurse's words for the thousandth time today.

"I don't know, she was hurt really bad in that storm," Ace said quietly, looking over Lazue's pale face. The nurse and midwife had wiped the blood from her, but a touch of pink remained firmly fixated on her skin in some places.

The man punched him lightly in the arm and Ace startled, nearly falling sideways off his chair. "Now, now, don't go saying that. If there's one thing I've learned, it's to never give up on people. A lot of times they surprise you."

Ace stared at this man, who smiled a crooked smile that was in no way filled with bad intentions. He had many laugh lines around his eyes and the sight of the freckles, older and more pronounced, yet so much like his own, made Ace turn away before he stared too intently.

Finally the question on Ace's mind gnawed away at him so much that he had to ask, "Are there many Portgas' on this island?"

The man known as Bleu furrowed his brow. "Well, there's me mum and myself. And of course my wife married into the family. Why do you ask?"

"Ah, no reason really. It's just a nice sounding name."

The man seemed to accept this. "Of course I had a sister too, once. But the sea stole her away from me."

Ace's breath caught and he wondered if it would seem too crass to ask for the name of the man's sister. But in the end his heart won out over his brain. "Her name was…?"

Bleu gave him a perplexed glance but replied quietly, "Rouge. My beautiful baby sister."

Ace focussed his eyes away from the man and at the wall, hoping the man couldn't see his pale face behind his dark head of hair. Soon Bleu pushed the chair back and got up, wandering into the kitchen and then leaving through the front door without another word.

Violet, the midwife, came to check on Lazue more frequently after her husband left and told Ace there was a slight decline in the girl's heartbeat. He relearned that the nurse's name was Mistral, and that she had come to the island over two decades ago on a marine vessel.

He also learned from the woman that the island loathed marines. He didn't question why, but he ascertained that there was something in the history of the people that told him it wasn't just one or two people who felt that way. Two men had been in the clinic when Mistral had casually mentioned her dislike for the marines and Ace had noticed the men's face go black with barely controlled rage.

The third important thing he started noticing was the apparent lack of women on the island. It was mostly men who came into the clinic, some to get herbs that were grown in the backyard, others to get medicine, and some to get an accidental fishing wound patched up. He also noticed the men who went through the clinic weren't the cheery sort. Apart from Bleu who visited earlier, there wasn't a single laugh or smile shared by any. He did, however, receive many curious stares.

There wasn't anyone his age and from what he could see outside the clinic through the window by Lazue's bed there weren't any children playing in the streets, which he thought to be uncharacteristic of a village like this. Perhaps they played around the mountain farther up the island? He figured that if he were a child living here he'd want to be away from all those frowning, sullen faces.

The only time he left Lazue's side during the day was when the nurse offered him something to eat. He was embarrassed to eat like a ravenous wolf but his enthusiasm only made Mistral smile and serve him more. He hadn't the heart to tell her that her hospitality wasn't going to earn her any coins. Though he knew Lazue had brought along a few belis, he also knew the payoff from her days as a barkeep didn't amount to much at all.

Night came and Lazue still hadn't woken up. Ace was beginning to feel tired and stiff from sitting next to the bed. Violet and Mistral had left for some reason or another and he took the time he had alone in the clinic to explore. He found a washroom and stared at himself in the mirror. No, he certainly didn't look like he had any money, so he hoped that those two kind women knew better than to bother to ask for any.

He also rubbed at his freckles, thinking about his mother, whose face had been described to him countless times. If the man known as Bleu really was his mother's blood related brother then the man would be his uncle. The title was foreign in his mind and he repeated it aloud to himself, but it only made him scowl. No, Ace didn't have things like uncles and aunts. And the only father he'd ever acknowledge was Whitebeard himself.

Still, he wanted to know about his mother so badly that it physically hurt an area of his chest. It was always something he'd been curious about, ever since he'd realized that other children had a special person they called their 'mother'. But he didn't want to ask Bleu about her because he'd surely ask him why he'd want to know such things. So he decided to keep his mouth shut. Perhaps it was better this way, to not know anything. Ignorance could be unfulfilling, yet also blissful in the long run.

Ace sat back down in the chair next to Lazue's bed and, before he could think stop himself, he gave in to the familiar drifting sensation of one of his sleep attacks. As he fell into unconsciousness he was dimly aware that he had grabbed Lazue's hand in his own, his fingers brushing against her pulse, just in case.

When Ace next woke, Violet had returned with a newspaper and the sun outside the window seemed to have renewed itself. He watched as she set it down beside him, guessing that he'd slept through the night and well into the next day.

"In case you wanted to read about what's happening out there," she said. "There's only one newspaper that comes for the island and we usually pass it around for a week until another paper arrives on those snazzy carrier seabirds. It just arrived now and the mayor said it'd be proper to let the guests read the paper first." She giggled softly to herself, "Try not to let the mayor's kindness fool you though, because he'll probably ask you to help him out in some way or another. We don't have many able-bodied youngsters on this island as you may have noticed."

Labouring, Ace could handle. He took the newspaper that was offered and skimmed the headlines. It was something about the marines looking for new chefs and something else about a new medicinal discovery, things that didn't really interest him, but he had nothing better to do.

He thanked Violet politely and she went into the kitchen. He could hear her rattling pans and other things but didn't know if the woman was preparing food or more medicine. His bottomless stomach hoped it was the former and hoped that she might offer to feed him. He still had the provisions on the ship, but he didn't really want to leave the clinic. Not with Lazue like she was. Just in case she…

He shook his head firmly. No, he would not allow himself to think like that.

With a heavy sigh Ace forced himself to look out the window and count the birds that floated by overhead in the soft morning sun. Anything to keep his anxious mind at bay. He supposed during the night Lazue hadn't moved much from when he'd last seen her insentient form. Her breathing was regular and he made himself believe that each breath she was taking was less flaccid than the last.

A pleasant aroma wafted into the next room just as Ace got bored enough to open the supposedly sacred newspaper beyond the headlines on the front page. He skimmed the articles and got about halfway through when he turned to the scraps of paper that were added into the newspaper like flyers. The Government's wanted posters. They sent them out every once in a while when there was a change in the bounty of a notable criminal.

Much to Ace's relief, Lazue's picture wasn't among those papers. He, however, wasn't that lucky. His bounty had gone up by a smidgeon for some reason he couldn't fathom and, before Violet could come back, he crumpled the paper into a ball within his palm.

Then, ever so carefully, he let his palm burn. The smoke that was produced stunk a little but the windows were open in the room and the air would filter the smoke out before too long.

He was glad the paper had been given to him first rather than passed around the island. He could've been easily recognized if his freckles were compared to the picture of the 'Fire Fist'. It seemed his normal, shabby luck was going out of style for now.

When the paper in his palm had become mostly indistinguishable, Ace went over to the washroom and dumped the ashen crumbs in the toilet, flushing the wanted poster away, never to be seen again. Satisfied with his handiwork, he returned to Lazue's side.

Violet came out with a tray of food for Ace and he ate, though he didn't have his usual vigour. Violet checked Lazue's vitals carefully but it seemed, at least to Ace, that the woman was paying more attention to him rather than Lazue. It was unnerving. Plus, he wanted Lazue to get the attention she needed. He was fine and didn't need to be so closely monitored. At last, Ace couldn't stand the silence that came along with those wandering eyes of Violet's.

"You say you're a midwife yet I don't see many women on this island, much less children."

Violet's face grew dark and she looked down at her shoes. Ace immediately regretted that he'd brought up the subject and wished he could've just bitten off his tongue. He didn't want anyone to be annoyed with him.

"That's because a long time ago the marines came and killed all of the women here if they even suspected that they might be pregnant. Not just any wife of a man, but any girl of age to bear children. That's why you see so many morose men out there. They also culled the children under the age of five, and there were not many to begin with, and all were very young."

Ace grimaced as his heart dropped out of his chest. He had heard that story from many people before even though the marines had tried desperately to cover up their actions some twenty odd years ago. He just…had never imagined that one single island could be hit so badly.

He knew now, without a doubt, that his mother had been raised here.

"There was supposed to be lots of children here on Matanza Island, you know. A long time ago, that was the shared ambition of everyone here: to raise a family. Now this island is just a fishing port that sells their wares to the next island over." Violet sighed and replaced the bandage around Lazue's head. When she finished, she looked at Ace with a new conviction in her eyes.

Ace swallowed apprehensively under her inquisitive gaze but didn't dare look away. Finally, Violet blurted out, "How is it that you survived, Ace?"

He made an unintelligible grunt of surprise. He hadn't introduced himself to her yet, despite having had numerous opportunities. Unless Bleu told her, she shouldn't have known his name…

"I know who you are, Gol D. Ace."

"That's not my name," Ace snapped before he could help himself. "It's Portgas. It's Portgas D. Ace."

Violet was taken aback by this and it showed in the way her eyes widened and her hands trembled. She gulped down her surprise as best she could and prayed that no one would come into the clinic to disturb her and Ace until she'd told him everything that she knew.

"So that's how it is. You took your mother's name. Why?"

Ace turned away as a dusting of pink came over his cheeks. "I owe her everything. She made sure I lived."

"She certainly did," Violet said softly. "She risked everything to get to Baterilla because she was convinced it would be the only safe place to give birth to you after her connection to this island was discovered in an intercepted letter. She thought it was the only place out of reach of the World Government. And it was, for a time…"

"How do you know I'm her child? And how do you know where she gave birth to me?"

Violet smiled, a tiny genuine smile that seemed almost motherly in warmth. "You two share the same facial expressions, especially when you're worried. I noticed it first when you brought Lazue in here. As for the place of your birth…" Violet paused, a far-away look in her eyes. Her whole body was trembling now; Ace could see the vibrations clearly.

"Twenty years ago I was the one who helped deliver you – the midwife. Rouge was always a friend to everyone but she preferred a close knit group of people and valued trust. So, since I was her best friend since childhood, it was only natural that she'd put a lot of trust in me over the years."

A shiver ran across Ace's skin. This was more information about his mother than he'd ever obtained in one shot. Indeed, Rouge was like a phantom – no one seemed to know of her existence. The only stories and descriptions he'd had of her had come from his adoptive grandfather, Garp, and those had been few and far between.

And then…to have met someone who was there when he was born…Ace nearly started shivering himself. But not out of fear or anger, rather a quiet excitement that maybe, maybe he might finally learn something worth knowing about his mother.

"What…what was she really like? As a person?" Ace asked softly. That was one thing he hadn't been able to get out of his grandfather. Every time he brought her up it would stir up memories of Ace's father and he never got anything out of the old man that was unbiased.

Violet knew the boy would ask that question; it was natural. In fact, before Rouge passed she'd even told Violet that if the opportunity would ever arise she should tell her son anything he wanted to know. Rouge had been thoughtful like that, having had ample time to prepare for her own death and to ensure Ace's life. "Rouge was someone who cared deeply for others but sometimes at the expense of her own health. Most people either admired her for this or thought she was quite foolish. I admired her though – almost everyone in the village did. When Rouge left…"

Shaking her head to clear herself of the painful memories Violet left that sentence unfinished.

"You have to understand, Ace, nobody thought you would live long. There was a third person with us when you were born and they took you from Rouge's lifeless hands. It was one of your father's most trusted men, and yet at the same time his most hated enemy. I didn't know where he took you, but he swore to me that Roger had made some sort of agreement to have you adopted into a family."

Ace stayed quiet. He knew the story of how Roger convinced Garp to take him in and raise him. Garp himself had told him that much. From that point to the present, he knew about. But he wanted to know about the past more than anything.

"I didn't know really at the time who that person was. When I found out he was a marine, I knew that I'd done a horrible thing by allowing him to take you away. I figured that he had taken you to be killed for the ambitions of the World Government." She shook her head, her eyelids droopy with tears. "To think, you'd show up here? Alive? Your family has always had strange luck. But perhaps Rouge had the strangest luck of all. Meeting and falling in love with the man who'd eventually become the Pirate King. Lucky or grossly unlucky?"

With a grimace Ace turned his face towards the wall, angled out of sight of Violet's intense eyes. "Definitely unlucky," Ace said gently. "Because I was born to continue his line."

He could hear Violet's faint gasp behind him but he didn't feel any sort of regret for uttering those words because it was something he truly believed. He had known about the suffering others had endured because of his birth. The people of the island would scorn him if they knew he was the cause for their misfortunes. He heard with his own ears how people all over the world cursed his survival and wished he'd been killed the day he was conceived. He was a demon created by a demon and placed inside an unfortunate fair maiden, nothing else.

"You…question your existence?"

Ace didn't reply. There wasn't any need to. The answer was clear on his face and in his heart.

Violet watched the boy take the girl's hand in his own, the sight familiar and yet foreign to her. She knew she'd seen something like this before, this empathy for others at the cost of one's own life. Then it hit her. "You and Rouge…share the same problem. You two both live and lived for other people. Through other people. She always believed other lives were more important than her own."

Thoughts of his little brother, his old crew, the Spade pirates, the family Whitebeard allowed him to join, and other people he truly cared for that he had met on his journeys filled his mind. It was true, what Violet said. He knew he'd sacrifice his life for someone like his brother in a heartbeat. That was the kind of person he was.

And, apparently, Rouge had been the same way.

He sat silently, brooding over the information he'd received while Violet got up and went into the kitchen, unsure of what she should say to Ace. She had thought, should Ace survive, that he would share the same character traits as his father. She hadn't expected to see the kind, caring and selfless Rouge so strongly represented.

Ace, meanwhile, jumped in his chair as Lazue's fingers feebly clutched his hand. He careened forward, just as Lazue's eyes started to open, blinking slowly in the light of a sun not seen for days.

She was awake.

A.N.: Alright! Didn't miss the update this week! Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I value every word said. Some of you are so insightful with your comments, they're truly a joy to read.