A/N Thank you for the reviews everyone, how will Natsu survive in a land full of boats? He will struggle heh. Here we go, chapter fourteen!

'How the hell did this happen?'

One minute he was telling the old geezer to shut up, for having the nerve to ask him to join his crew. The next, he was waking up in a cabin that was not his own, surrounded by things that were definitely not his.

After finding out from one of the crew members that he had passed out cold at their captain's feet, they had carried him on board the Moby Dick and set sail.

Before he could slice off the guys head for kidnapping him, a familiar voice caused his dagger to slip through his fingers and clatter to the floor. "Calm down, they invited us too."

Samson appeared from behind the Whitebeard pirate that was known as Thatch and smiled reassuringly at him.

"They're not bad guys, they want us to join their crew and I think we should listen to what they have to say."

'Join their crew?'

Ace shook his head as he continued to stare at his first mate. "You want to actually abandon the Spades and join them? Are you kidding me?"

The hurt was evident in his voice as he turned away from the two men and collapsed against the bed frame. Clearly his body still hadn't recovered from all the trauma it had received from the long fight with the damn warlord.

He couldn't blame any of his fatigue on Whitebeard. As he twisted his body slightly, a blinding pain radiated from the side of his abdomen.

Thatch winced as he grinned down at Ace.

"Yeah, about that. The cap got you real good before you fell and ate dirt. I've been keeping it clean for you but you probably don't want to be moving around too much."

Ace glanced down at his side, he could clearly see the wound that he was referring to. A large jagged wound stretched from his rib cage to the middle of his back. He was glad he hadn't been conscious to feel the full extent of the injury as it had been healing. From the looks of the wound, he had been unconscious for three, maybe four days.

"You've been out cold for four days." Ace looked at Samson who he had now noticed was carrying a huge tray full of different kinds of food.

"Is that for me?" Laughing, he placed it in front of Ace and took a step back. "It can be if you want it to be, just be sure to thank Thatch, he's the one who took the time to make it for you."

'Why is he being nice to me and making me food? I want to kill his captain.'

"Yeah." Ace scratched the back of his neck and glanced up awkwardly at the Whitebeard crew member. "Thanks."

This seemed to be more than enough for the man and he slapped Ace solidly on his back, soon remembering his mistake and apologizing profusely as Ace bent over in crippling agony from the jolt to his wound.

"Sorry buddy, forgot you were wounded, oops."

'This man is an idiot.' He thought as he glanced up through his hair at the pirate. But he seemed, happy? A lot happier than any of the pirates in his own crew did. What was Whitebeard doing that he wasn't?

"I want to see your captain, right now." Swallowing his pride was something that Ace had never been all too good at doing but if it was the right thing to do for his crew who were like family to him, he would choose it every time. He knew that it was his own pride that was stopping him from wanting to join the Whitebeard pirates.

Who wouldn't want to join the most notorious group of pirates to ever sail the seas?

'What was that saying, if you can't beat them, join them?'

If he couldn't beat the strongest man in the world, he would learn what exactly made the great pirate Whitebeard great. He would learn how he stood as an equal with his own father, the pirate king.

Once he had done all this and grown in himself, he would be able to face Lucy and the rest of the world.

"Sure kid, he's waiting for you." After Thatch had led them to his captains quarters, he turned to face Samson and pulled a face.

"Probably be best if you could wait outside. He wants to talk to Ace, captain to captain." Samson looked over at Ace, for confirmation that him going on alone would be okay.

"That's fine, I'll be okay Sam. I doubt Whitebeard would be as dishounarable as to strike down an injured guest onboard his own ship." And with that, Ace disappeared behind the wooden door and entered the lions den.

"He'll be fine, Captain sees something in him, in all of you. He wouldn't just invite anyone to become part of the crew." Samson looked warily at the door his captain had just vanished behind, Thatch's words made sense to him but if this Whitebeard was so fearsome, why would he want a bunch of misfit pirates to join his esteemed crew?

"I know what you're thinking." Thatch had a warm smile on his face as his eyes stared off into the distance. "Why would he just invite a bunch of people aboard his ship when they had previously wanted to collect his head? He's a fearsome man but still a man after all. You gained his respect."

Samson couldn't help the stupid smile that spread across his lips. The spade pirates were respected by the world's most feared man? That would be enough to make any pirate happy.

His eyes flickered to the closed door that the two captains were being kept behind. It all depended on how Ace handled the situation now and if he could swallow his pride, for every ones sakes, he hoped so but he wouldn't blame him if he couldn't.

Taking a step further into his room, all Ace could hear was seriously heavy breathing and the whirring of machines. His eyes widened at the sleeping form of Whitebeard before him.

He was hooked up to various types of machinery that he could only assume was for his health. Taking another step forward, his breath caught in his throat as the man's eyes cracked open.

"Gonna take me up on my offer kid? Want to become a part of my family?" As no words were willing to leave his lips, he simply nodded his head ever so slightly but this was enough for Whitebeard to re close his eyes and let out a rough sigh.

"Welcome, my son."

"I hate you." Lucy mumbled as they bobbed along the water's surface. With her legs dangling across Natsu's back, she was sat high on his shoulders as she tried to support both their weight and swim towards the land that could be seen in the distance.

"Love you too Luce. Can we switch now and you swim with me on top?" She simply ignored his request but slid off his back and began to swim alongside him.

"You might get stuck here Natsu, I don't fully understand the rules of the tear, are you stupid or-" Shaking her head, Lucy let out a maniacal laugh and smacked the water around her.

"No, of course you're stupid, no sane person would follow someone to another land where they might get trapped."

Natsu stayed silent as she continued to rant, they swam until their limbs burnt and the sky turned dark. It had been night the first time she had landed in this strange world and she knew what lurked under these waters, they needed to get to the land and quick. It wasn't far now, they just needed to move faster.

All of her spirits would be useless right now and she couldn't expect them to do the work while she simply sat by and allowed them to carry her. Even though she knew they would all do it, she would never ask them to.

Even if Natsu hadn't of come with her, she would have still landed in the same place and would have had to swim all this way. Even if she was furious with him tagging along, a part of her was happy that he had. It was nice not to be alone.

Maybe Natsu's keen sense of smell would be able to help her track down Ace quicker. Her face dropped at the thought.

'Except, I don't have anything of his to track him with.'

The waves were starting to get extremely choppy as it got further and further into the night, the only light they had was from the moon and since it was nothing more than a sliver, it was minimal at best.

"Lucy hold my hand, I'm going to get us the rest of the way." Placing her wet hand in his, she was surprised at speed he traveled at, just to get them away from danger.

Using every ounce left of his strength, Natsu managed to drag them onto the beach of the island and collapsed, face first.

"Night." Natsu mumbled into the sand.

Walking past his flopped body, Lucy's feet carried her up the sandy bank to an extremely scorched area of land.

'It couldn't be.'

Scanning the area, there was nobody to be seen. Except…

"A giant ship!" Lucy couldn't believe her eyes. Right there, was the Spade Pirates ship. Had the tear gotten her close to where Ace was on purpose?

Her breath came out in harsh pants as she ran like her life depended on it. After climbing up on board, she had a horrible feeling in her gut at the wreck that awaited her.

Everything that could be turned upside down, had been. There was just destruction all around her. But no bodies or blood anywhere to be seen.

'There was definitely a struggle here but why are there no casualties?'

Lucy's body knew this ship well so it knew exactly where to take her to find him. Before she knew it, she was running.

"Nobodies here, except me." As she took a step into the room, she was met with the sight of a huge creature. Staring unflinchingly at him, she continued walking into the room and sat down on the bed that she shared with Ace for that short month.

His scent was everywhere, completely overwhelming her senses. It proved to her that she was close, so close to reaching him.

"Where is Ace?" Lucy's voice shocked her, it sounded strong and so unlike her. "Gone. With Captain Whitebeard, along with his crew. You should get off this ship, I'll be keeping watch over it until they return. You don't belong here girl."

Lifting up her vest, she revealed her spade pirate tattoo and stuck her tongue out at the giant fish looking man. His eyes examined the tattoo and lifted up to her face.

"You're a member of the Spade Pirates?" His voice was gruff but he believed her when she nodded her head, without saying anything more, he rose from his seat in the corner of the room and turned to leave.

"I'm Jinbei, take good care of the ship. I hope you get reuinted with them."

As she watched the strange looking man leave, she tugged on his cloak that he was wearing and peered up at him, somehow her eyes had filled up with tears without her noticing.

"Are they okay? Ace, Samson, Slough?" His eyes softened as he listened to her name off the rest of the pirates.

"They were fine, just didn't want to leave, last I saw they were headed east. The ship they're sailing on is called the Moby Dick. Everybody knows who the Whitebeard pirates are so they shouldn't be too hard to find."

And with that, he disappeared out the doorway and off the ship.

"I'm coming Ace." She whispered to herself.

As she let her body fall against the bed, her hand slipped underneath one of the pillows and felt something tucked in the corner. As curiosity got the better of her, she pulled out the piece of material and all the oxygen left her body. It was one of her t-shirts that she always wore to bed, Ace had kept it with him whilst he slept?

Grasping the pillow, she hugged it against her body and let the tears flow.

"Hey Luce, why are you crying?" Natsu had appeared at some point and was slowly brushing the hair out of her face. As she stared at him, she couldn't help the giant grin that stretched her face.

"We're going to find him with this ship, this is my pirate ship now Natsu. You decided to come along with me so you'll have to deal with the motion sickness."

His face turned a shade of green, as if he hadn't even considered this.

"We're going to be on this ship, on the ocean?"

Lucy nodded her head, her smile now turned sadistic. "Yep. For days at a time."

"Oh no."

With the help of Loke and Virgo, who could do the work of several people at once, they had the ship crashing through the ocean within an hour. They were now on their way.

"East, we need to go east." Virgo saluted her master and got to work on changing the trajectory of the ship. They were all working together to help, except for Natsu. He was crawling on his hands and knees across the deck, looking pitiful.

Lucy leaned over his slack form and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Pull yourself together maggot, get back to work."

Getting to his feet was hard enough but he managed to waddle back over to his station of manning the sails. An easy job for a sea sick fool.

The sea air was heavenly on her lungs and Lucy couldn't contain her happiness.

'Now we just need to find Ace and then find a devil fruit, sounds easy enough.'

"It's the spade pirates, get 'em!"

Lucy glanced sideways and her mouth dropped to the floor. A huge pirate ship had appeared alongside them and were shouting at the ship.

"Oh shit." she muttered. Natsu glanced up from his spot on the floor and just moaned loudly.

"Come on princess." Loke announced, holding his hand out for her to take. "Let's go show these people that that's not how to show respect to the new queen of spades."

'Queen of Spades? I like the sound of that.'