It was like he was back in Foosha, climbing up and leaping from trees to trees, hunting with tracks left behind by animals and non-animals. As he climbed up a fairly large birch to take in his surrounding and see how far away he had gotten, Ace half expected to look down and find Luffy and Sabo by the tree's base, shouting for him to tell them what he had seen up there and which way they're supposed to go next.
But there weren't two head of blonde and raven, merely a stack of leaf falling from the tree, a dirty ground, and the concerning mark against the bark that made him climb up here in the first place. He recognise that mark as a sign of scuffle, and unless the animals in this island differs incredibly from anywhere else, he highly doubt even the biggest tiger could make a scratch that deep.
It's a mark left behind by a sword, and it was still fairly fresh, barely a day old.
Adjusting the handkerchief in front of his mouth, Ace glanced to the other direction from where he had been staring and found the telltale sign of smoke and a clearing in the midst of the thick rainforest, a sign of habitation and where he knows the village he had ran away from was. He hadn't heard anyone pursuing him for at least an hour now, but that didn't stop Ace from becoming wary. Haruta and Namur are excellent trackers of their own rights, and while Ace is confident his upbringing and experience in this sort of environment gave him advantage, it was only matter of time that they found him. The entire forest might be vast, but it's not infinite.
He sighed, the front of the handkerchief turning damp by his breath. Shouldn't they be spending more time looking for Marco instead of trying so hard to stop him? Don't they all have the same goal in the end?
If only this stupid fruit…
The raven haired commander shook his head, and climbed back down with ease. He doesn't have time for this. That sword mark on the base of the tree and the scuffles around the ground told him that someone else other than the Whitebeard Pirates are out here. He recalled the article mentioning about 5 Vice Admirals and Thatch telling him that all of them had been taken care of by Marco, but that doesn't mean no one could be out here.
Dammit, he could've known the situation better if his own nakama didn't turn out to be a problem.
Once his feet finally landed on the ground, Ace observed the blade mark again before unsheathing his dagger and making his own right next to it. In any other situation, he would've carved in a cross with a curve going through it, as per the signal between the Whitebeard Pirates to let each other know which area has been investigated by a different division and subsequently also a landmark for said person or division to know that they had passed the area before. But right now, considering the circumstances, he supposed it's only right he signed it differently.
The mark that he carved in was made out of a swirl of lines, one of the few choice of lexicon he had remembered distinctly from Marco's note in his language. He might have no idea what it actually means, only that it had been something repeated quite often in one of the smaller footnotes and it had stuck with him.
And he's pretty sure that with no one in this island actually knowing what it was aside from Marco and himself, Marco will know it was him should he ever come across one.
He found blood, and he heard himself gasping in the eerie silence of the forest.
It wasn't even a small amount, more like an entire pail of it, as if someone had dumped it down on the ground. It smattered the leaves and dried land, sending all the herbivores away with the scent alone and seemingly inviting the predators to them. Ace found them after catching a group of canines licking and sniffing around it, all which has now lay dead on his sides after they tried to attack him.
He could eat, like he always did whenever he killed something so it won't go to waste, but despite his principles and his loudly grumbling stomach, Ace found himself not hungry. Food is the last thought in his mind now, especially if the blood on the ground belongs to who he thought it might be.
A few steps away from there found a fallen tree, the barks cuts clean and there were even more blood and an even more obvious signs of scuffles and a fight. Whoever was bleeding ran away, he presumed from the trail of blood that began to go to lead somewhere even deeper to the forest, while the attack seems to have stumbled. There's a deep handprint on the ground next to a suspiciously circular hole and a deep, slim indent, and if years of living and fighting for his life told Ace anything, that is the presence of someone with a sword of sorts who had just been knocked down, probably by someone they are pursuing.
Retracting his hand from the ground, Ace sighed, watching the blood trickles and the handprint. His stomach felt churning at the mere thought of what happened here, and the conclusion that the pursuer couldn't possibly be the one injured. He couldn't even trick himself into thinking that the person who had fallen could be Marco instead, because unless he stole a weapon somehow during his escape, Marco would hardly be carrying a sword.
Standing up, he made another mark on the tree nearby, side stepping around the dead wolf.
Please be okay, he chanted not for the first time since he found this clearing, please be okay. I'm coming to find you, Marco, please be okay.
He ran, but his conviction slowly drops with every step he took.
It was after 2 more hours of climbing and running did Ace finally saw him.
Even if him proves to be a very different person than the one he had been looking for.
The man was large, robust and beefy, almost the size of Kingdew and Blenheim mixed together with half of Atmos' bulk. A large, empty sword sheath was strapped on to his back with the sword gripped tightly in one hand, and the flash of yellow of his hair that Ace originally had mistaken to be Marco reached down to sturdy shoulders wrapped in a bleached white and slightly stained marine uniform. The epaulettes on his shoulder told the world - or well, just Ace - that he ranked the same as the men Marco had thrashed during his escape.
He walked with the gruffness of an angry bull, stomping and sending small animals running away from his arrival. The man kept grumbling and murmuring while staring at something he seems to be carrying in his other hand, spatting angrily, "—When i get my hands on that bastard, i'll tear him even more, limb from limb, skin him alive and make sure he can't heal himself before handing him over to Sengoku. Embarrassing me in front of my men like that—"
It left no doubt in Ace's mind as to who he was talking about and what he's wandering around for. Before the man can walk any further, Ace slowly followed him from behind, hiding behind the foliages provided by the jungle.
"—Told that idiot Franqois that we should make our move to Impel Down as soon as we can but the fucker just won't listen, would he? Just because he gets to lead this whole sting, arrogant fool. 'He's got seastone on him, he won't be a trouble'," the Vice Admiral kept saying to himself, pitching his tone high mockingly and tilting his head back as he did, "Absolute fool, if a guy can be stopped just because he's chained down with seastone, he won't be worth nearly 1 billion belli, now, would he?"
Is that what he looked like because of this fruit?
No wonder those crew members said they were freaked out.
Ace had only managed to stifle a brief laugh when the Vice Admiral suddenly chuckled eerily and turned slightly, revealing the sword in his hand, exposing it directly to Ace's line of sight. The mild amusement that began to grow inside of the young man instantly died when he saw the amount of dried blood crusting the entire length of the blade, and his own blood ran cold the moment the man also lifted the item he had been holding in his other hand.
It was severed arm, encased in torn purple sleeve splattered by copious amount of blood.
Ace could feel his entire body turning cold and warm at the same time, shocking coursing through his system and freezing his brain with a mix of various emotions. He felt like his breath had been taken out of him, leaving him breathless and his head light, his mouth behind the handkerchief shaking with every word and his tongue felt stiff. There's a ringing in the back of his head, one that made the corners of his vision white, and it wasn't until he felt short of breath did Ace learn that what he felt was tremendous fear.
Fear for Marco's life, for his fate, for his unknown whereabout.
Fear for the possibility of his death.
The marine continued on chuckling, "Still, no matter how strong someone can be, no one can live that long with blood loss. Birdie better not die yet before i can take his other 'wing'"
He sees red.
How dare he.
How dare he!
Ace let out an angry, guttural, and primal screech that left his throat could not even be muffled by the handkerchief, his mouth opening so wide that the material slipped between his teeth and ended up bitten between them. As a sudden unknown force made the Vice Admiral buckled down all of the sudden, frantically inspecting his surrounding warily, Ace pulled his dagger out of its sheath and jumping out from his hiding spot to rush the man before he can even turn around.
But despite being downed and having such a big bulk, the Vice Admiral was agile enough to side step, avoiding a full contact with the tip of Ace's dagger and instead getting away with only a gash on his side. He let out a deep pained yell, eyes bulging angrily when he caught sight of Ace, "I knew someone was following me! So, the Whitebeard Pirates has arrived with more reinforcements?" Before he can say anything else, Ace ran towards him again, brandishing his dagger again and make for a stab, if his hand wasn't stopped and he felt himself being flung easily to the side by the same hand that grabbed him.
His fall was stopped by a well timed roll, stopping his momentum and leaving the young, enraged commander with barely any harm other than what he knows would be a bruise on his side. Ace stood up, grabbing for his dagger again, glaring at the Vice Admiral.
Instead of taking him seriously, the man laughed, cackled even, and than sent even more blood rushing through Ace's veins, "What is this? Whitebeard's trying to get his First Mate back by sending, what, a boy? Hmph, your 5 hundred million bounty is barely worth my time, Fire Fist, even if you managed to catch me off guard with Haki somehow. Why don't you run along, now? Little boys shouldn't—" Again, Ace charged at him, this time catching the man off guard mid-sentence and managing to kick the man's air out of his lungs. He used his leg against the Vice Admiral's stomach as a leverage for a flip, kicking the buff man's on his chin to send him staggering and feeling brief satisfaction over the grunt of pain that was heard.
His satisfaction runs short, however, when the same leg that kicked the Vice Admiral was suddenly grabbed again by the ankle, this time with a bruising and contemptuous grip that yanked him so hard Ace's let out a choking noise of surprise. The same hand lifted him up by his leg, leaving him dangling in the man's hold. Ace looked up, meeting furious glare aiming down to him as he was left dangling in the man's mercy. He met the man's glare with his own.
"You little rat, i told you you're not worth my time," The admiral growled, bringing his other hand into Ace's view and still in its hold, Marco's severed arm. Blood was drained out of his face at the sight, as fear and mortification grips him once again, "Hmm? What is this then? A seastone handcuff? Ha! I was wondering why you haven't burned me yet, seems like you're even weaker right now! What a joke,"
The Vice Admiral squinted his eyes, focused on the handkerchief on Ace's mouth, "And what could this possibly be doing? You tried to bite the person who put yo—Aaagh!"
In the middle of his speech, Ace used the chance to swing himself forward and slash the man's middle, inflicting a larger and deeper injury than the one he had put before. He was immediately dropped, narrowly avoiding landing on his head while his opponent cursed him to high heavens. Ace stood up, adjusting and tightening the knot on his handkerchief gag once again when all of the excitement had caused it to get a little loose.
Being wounded seems to have angered the admiral even further. The Vice Admiral let out a roar befitting of a wild beast, his face red and veins on his neck taut as he screamed, "You'll pay for that, you brat!"
The man picked up his sword, and during that split second, Ace ran towards him again, his entire body feeling like a taut spring being sprung into action. It has been a long time since he has fought barehanded without the assistance of his fire, but he hardly ever needs it. With every powerful swing and punch he managed to deliver, there's his anger and fury mixed behind it, and with a single swipe of the sharp dagger, a dagger Marco had given him, it gave the man yet another cut, purposefully aimed at his sword arm.
It didn't cut through it the way Ace thinks he deserved, not after what he did to Marco.
It was a sense of bloodlust that kept driving him on, leaping and dodging away from the sharp sword while getting close enough to cause harm to a man bigger than him. The adrenaline that drowning his every senses, so much that he forgot that he was worn down by seastone, that he had no ability to avoid a hit by dissipating away into flames. Yet, when the Vice Admiral's blade grazed his side, there was barely any pain, and Ace barely paid it any mind as he simply gripped the side of the blade to push it away and brought their distance close enough for him to swing and take a wild stab at the Vice Admiral's shoulder, staining white marine jacket with red.
And in his blind, reckless rage, this is exactly where he made a fatal mistake.
"Enough playing around," An enormous hand suddenly grabbed him by the neck, slamming him to the side against a tree. The entire tree shuddered and was even uprooted around the edges at the impact, sending stars into Ace's vision. He grabbed onto the hand around his neck, clawing and pulling at it, but it would hardly budge. It only tightened itself, crushing his windpipe painfully, but Ace won't relent in his struggle, kicking his legs up to get the Vice Admiral away from him.
His dagger was still deeply planted inside of the large man's shoulder, but he doesn't even seem to acknowledge it as he tightened his hand even more and causing Ace to slowly choke behind the handkerchief gag, "I'll make you pay too, you runt. I'll crush you here right now, and i'll finish you right off in front of Phoenix once i get my hands on him. You can be a good side bonus for my superiors after i deliver your comrade's head on a silver platter,"
Like hell Ace is going to let him.
But the culminating anger and fight in Ace's core disappeared in an instant, when the Vice Admiral suddenly reached out and tore the handkerchief away from his mouth. It was an action so harsh Ace could feel blood inside of his mouth, but before he can get rid of the horrid taste, suddenly his jaw was gripped hard and he was forced to turn back and face the sneering Vice Admiral, "What are you hiding in there? You got something in your mouth, Fire Fist? Or did cat got your tongue?" he cackled then, his hand squeezing even harder and cutting Ace's air supply that he was starting to feel lightheaded.
He struggled even harder, but even with his best effort, Ace can tell he was slowly starting to wane from lack of air and his movements had become even weaker. His head felt cold, making him dizzy, and underneath the man's cackling and further taunting, he thought he saw a flash of gold somewhere in the middle of the green foliages.
With his best effort, Ace tried to focus on the shifting golden blur, and widened his eyes when he finally caught it.
It's Marco.
Marco, bloodied and shirtless, with said shirt being used to wrap one side of his shoulder with its arm absent. He was extremely pale and disheveled, and his movement sluggish but he was still blessedly alive, still moving, still with enough fire burning in his eyes to creep silently behind the still ranting and raving Vice Admiral with the look of pure contempt in his eyes. Blue, glazed eyes were fixed upon the man's back, until it shifted and found Ace's own.
Then they widened, and his face turned even paler.
The hand around Ace's neck tightened, making the young man choke and breaking his eye contact with Marco, "Why are you so quiet, brat? Scared, are you?"
Ace tensed up at the question, his jaw suddenly aching in anticipation as he reflexively bit down to his lips, trying to prevent any word from leaving him. Flashes of Marco's warning from days ago, of this fruit effecting him being used as an interrogation device began to flare and alert him, and in his air-deprived mind, he began to panic and hyperventilate. No, no, he was so close, he already found Marco, this can't be happening, where is Marco, help—
But there was nothing.
Ace was still biting his lips, even more so at the pain of needing air in his system and around his neck, but his mouth never moved and no word left him.
Absolutely nothing.
Nothing but a small whimper of surprise, one that sent the Vice Admiral into cackling laughter, "You are, aren't you! Ha, what a joke! I change my mind, why don't you come with me while i find Phoenix and you can make those noises again while i rip him ap—"
A war cry came from right behind the Vice Admiral, when the dagger on his shoulder was suddenly yanked back, pulling the massive man along with the motion and causing him to drop Ace down to the ground to cough and hack repeatedly, catching as much air as he could. The suddenness of both blood and air in his system caused Ace's eyes to get blurry and his head even more dizzy, so much that he almost missed the altercation right next to him.
Still gasping and sputtering, the dark haired male looked up just in time to see two bodies falling on the ground in a struggle, Marco snarling underneath the once again enraged Vice Admiral, swinging his one remaining arm up to push the man off him but barely managing to. A feet away from them was his dagger, having fallen out of Marco's hand.
None of them seems to have noticed him yet, when the Vice Admiral sneered, "Finally come out of your hiding, do you? Just when i was so close to snapping your little friend's neck, and i might just do it later once i'm done with you. You seems close to it anyway,"
"Don't you fucking dare touch him," Marco barked, finding in himself to push back against the large man but only barely so. The Vice Admiral has a point, after all, considering how worn down he looked already, and while the amount of fight he gave was impressive still, he was still bleeding out, and it shows that he barely has any energy left.
With everything he had in him, Ace ignores his pounding headache and surged for the dagger, and stabbed the Vice Admiral at the back of his neck, so deeply half of the dagger sunk down to the man's spine. The dark haired male pushed it down even more when the man let out a wet choking and gasping noise, and after pushing it down one more time by leaning his entire weight to it, tugged it off with his entire might. A spurt of blood from the man's neck spattered his chest, but Ace hardly cares as he fell down to the hard ground right on his behind.
The Vice Admiral let out a brief gasp of air before going still. Marco pushed him off with another grunt, and when the man fell, it felt like the ground beneath them shook in a mini earthquake. His eyes were open but they were no longer seeing, a few trails of blood dripping down from behind him to his front and then back to the ground.
Ace stared at the Vice Admiral for a second, before uttering his first word within his own control for what felt like an eternity, "What a fucking asshole,"
A cough sounded, before it was followed by a series of raspy laughter, and just as Ace turned his attention back to Marco, the older man suddenly slumped down with a weak groan. Immediately, he sprung to action, adrenaline dying down and all that was left in him was concern, panic and relief, "Marco! Marco, hang in there!" he cried out, reaching the man's side with a single large step and pulling him up. Marco's shoulder was a mixture of wet substance and crisp texture, the shirt almost entirely soaked with blood and what remains of his arm only a mush flesh underneath it.
The younger ignored all of that in favour of letting Marco sat up and lean against him. The blonde let out a groan before he let out a forced, pained laugh, "Damn, after all the investment i put on that dagger, it even came back and save me. So worth the money," he lifted his head slowly, enough for Ace to be able to see the lopsided smile on his lips.
It was the sight of that stupid, stupid smile that made Ace's eyes suddenly heavy with pressure,"You moron, what the hell happened to you?" before he knew it, he found himself screaming, jostling Marco even if he hadn't done it on purpose, "You promised you won't take long! "
Marco only gave him one weak smile, "I did tell you i'm coming back,"
The first fresh tear drop finally fell from Ace's eyes, as he jostled Marco again, ignoring the older man's pained grunt, "Only because i came to get you, stupid! What would've happened if i didn't?!" The older man didn't answer, but the smile on his face was still ever-present. Ace stopped moving, not wanting to hurt the man further but he could help the little sobs that came from him, "You promised that you'll be there to help me! It's been a week! It's been a week and you weren't there when i'm at my wit's end! You kept saying not to make you worry, but now you're making me worry, you stupid hypocrite!"
"Didn't seem like it's going to be a problem anymore, though," Marco chuckled weakly, the sound vibrating against his chest before it died down and his voice gone soft, comforting even with the amount of fragility it was spoken in, "Sorry, Ace. Sorry for making you worry,"
The blonde's voice seems distant, even though his head was just right below Ace's. He's starting to fade, and Ace held him close, pressing his face to the sweat and blood drenched golden crown that is Marco's head, "Please hang on," he sobbed, letting more tears fell on to blonde tresses, "Everyone's waiting close by, please just hang on,"
Marco had gone weak in his hold, his breath slowing down. The wound on his arm was still bleeding, staining the ground right next to him.
"I love you,"
The one remaining arm fell limply on Ace's lap, lifeless.
An excerpt from my conversation with my friend and fic opinion-giver:
Friend: Wait, so you're saying that the fruit stopped because he used Haoushoku Haki unconsciously?
Me: Yeah, i told you, it's an idea of mine i thought was pretty cool, like, since Haoushoku supposedly this really strong thing, it can beat even Devil Fruit effects.
Friend: Huh. You know what i think?
Me: What?
Friend: I think that if that works in canon as well and if Ace can use Haki, he could've survived the magma
Friend: Hello?
Me: *Read at 12:09*
