(A/N) This chapter was Beta'd by the exceptional Aliahra, thank you!
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, I am not Oda.
YES I'M ALIVE! Sorry this took so long, uni saps the life out of me, and I was unfortunate enough to choose two subjects this time with weekly assignments….. Yippee -_-
WARNING: This chapter mentions death and suicide. (However, I tried to make it less dark by trying to make it amusing.)
I'm not sure if I got Ace's character right in this chapter. So sorry if it's a little OOC.
Thanks for over 100 reviews and 30 000 views!
Previously: The fight is finally over; Luffy, Ace and Sabo are together with the rest of Luffy's crew on the Sunny. Everyone had a laugh at Sanji's misery and Ace and Luffy got up to mischief whilst waiting for Sabo to get better, after which Law decided to mess with Luffy. Garp found out about Ace being alive, but will that be a permanent arrangement?
Candle Heart
Chapter 21- Ace's Dilemma
"Ace! Get up!"
Ace opened his eyes to see the image of his younger… older…. brother sitting on top of him. He rolled over, pushing Luffy off of him.
"Breakfast time!" Luffy yelled running off.
Ace smirked, but it quickly disappeared when a stabbing pain assaulted his abdomen.
What is going on?
He never took more than a day or so to recover from a fight, so why did he feel so tired... and cold.
He never feels cold.
It had been three days since leaving the golden city; the revolutionaries had sailed off trusting Chopper and Trafalgar Law to look after Sabo. Marco was still around, he tended to just perch on the mast and fly around looking bored. He had told Ace he thought he should give him some space and time with his brother.
But he didn't leave. He was waiting. For Ace to leave with him.
But he couldn't leave Luffy and Sabo, not yet at least, the three of them hadn't been together since they were kids, and Sabo was still bedridden.
Ace walked out into the hall, he crossed paths with Sanji who had a cigarette in his mouth and was reaching for a lighter in his pocket.
"Let me get that," Ace said lifting his finger up to the cigarette.
His finger produced a small flame.
"Hey, thanks! Want me to make you something?"
"Nah I'm good thanks," Ace said walking off.
Ace began to sweat; he walked around the corner and slid to the floor. Producing a flame had never been hard before.
He didn't want to eat, he couldn't sleep properly. Maybe something was wrong. He walked to the infirmary.
"Sabo," he greeted walking in.
"Yo!" Sabo replied.
Ace sat down next to his younger… older… brother and leaned back.
"Feeling better?" Ace asked.
"I'm fine; Chopper just insists I should stay in bed."
Ace smirked, "He's a good doctor."
"Says the one not confined to his bed." Sabo scoffed.
Ace laughed, and asked what had been plaguing him, "So what's the Mera Mera been like for you?"
"Good, until a few days ago."
Ace perked up, "What do you mean?"
"It hasn't been working normally since you came back."
Ace's mouth dropped, "Yours too?"
"Two of the same devil fruits aren't supposed to exist at the same time, it's unnatural," Sabo said shaking his head.
"But why does yours exist? I never died."
"I've been thinking about that, if we had not of gotten sick, I would have assumed they could have been an exception to the single devil fruit rule, like twin devil fruits."
"Or devil fruits of the same kind but different class? Like the cat Zoan cat types, lion or tiger?"
"Yes, I thought of that too, I even potentially thought mine could have been a manmade devil fruit, seeing as I found it in Dressrosa during the time they were making them, but those were only Zoan type, Vegapunk hadn't made Logia types."
"So what do you think now?" Ace asked.
"I think perhaps that you being gone for so long, just automatically reset the devil fruit."
"Wouldn't Luffy's and Yume's reset too?"
"No to Luffy, yes to the girl."
"Why?"
"Luffy took Yume out of her time, like he took you out of yours, but whenever Luffy went, he was still alive during that time."
"So there was his younger version and this times version."
"Yes, meaning there was never a long period of time when he didn't exist, but perhaps if he stayed in the time where there were two of him, he would have gotten ill like we are."
"Why does this have to be so confusing?" Ace said rubbing his temples.
Sabo laughed in response.
"So how do we get better?" Ace asked.
"If one of us dies I assume the other would get better," Sabo answered.
Ace's eyes grew dark, "That's stupid, what will happen if we don't do anything?"
"I think we'll just continue to get worse till we both die."
"Then I will die, I'm not supposed to be alive, you are," Ace said.
"No way!" Sabo yelled, sitting up.
"Like hell I'm going to let you die!" Ace began to feel like spicy hot chocolate was coursing through his veins.
"Stop being so stubborn! I'm not going to let you just go and kill yourself," Sabo said, his brow becoming progressively more and more furrowed.
"I can kill myself if I want to! You can't stop me!"
Sabo's expression relaxed, "Ace we'll find another way to fix this, neither of us have to die."
"Have you ever heard of anyone getting rid of a devil fruit before?"
"Well no..."
"Even if there was a way for one of us to remove our devil fruit, it would take us too long to find it!"
"We can always tr-"
"No!" Ace almost screamed. This reminded him way too much of what was only several days ago for him; when Luffy and the Whitebeard pirates decided to be idiots and tried to save him from the execution platform.
I will not have anyone else die because of me!
"Ace the alternative is insane!" Sabo tried to explain.
"We don't have time! Neither of us are healing properly, and although I can survive with this broken rib for a while, you can't last much longer with your injuries."
"I'm fine Ace!"
"No you're not!" Ace said standing up.
"You really want to put Luffy through all that again? Do you know how hard he worked to get you back?" Sabo asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You weren't around, no one was. We left Luffy alone. You have no idea what he went through. You can't leave him again, it's selfish!"
"Luffy became stronger be-"
"Luffy was always going to be strong. But you can't die again, neither of us can."
Ace leaned against the infirmary wall and lowered his head. Blood dripped down his hands from where his nails had bitten into his palms from clenching too tightly.
"Sabo-"
"What's going on?" Trafalgar Law asked walking in.
"Nothing," the two brothers replied with a grunt.
Law lifted an eyebrow but shrugged and walked out.
"Well Sabo, that was a nice chat, I'll talk to you later!" Ace cheekily exclaimed before running out the door.
"ACE! Come back here, don't you dare do anything stupid!" Sabo got up and limped after Ace.
Ace followed Law out into the hall, "Hey Law!"
"What is it, Firefist- ya?"
"Can you stop Sabo from following me?"
"Why?"
"He's supposed to stay in bed!" Ace said continuing down the hall and heading out onto the deck.
Nami leant over and picked out another weed.
How was it possible so many weeds could grow near her tangerine trees?
Granted she hadn't pulled any out for quite a while. She blamed Luffy, she never had enough time to do anything, since she always had to make sure he wasn't doing something stupid. This was taking forever though, and her arms were getting sore.
She went and got a small shovel, this would make it tonnes easier. She started digging up the weeds.
"What the hell!?" Zoro exclaimed.
"What?" Nami asked before turning around to look at a dirt covered Zoro. He was rubbing his eye.
"You've put enough dirt in my eye to plant a new garden," he grumbled.
"Sorry," she said sweetly.
"He's only got one eye left Nami, imagine how lost he'd get if he lost that one too," Usopp chuckled climbing down the mast.
Zoro snarled at him and walked away to clean himself.
Nami continued her digging.
"You really are spraying that everywhere," Usopp said.
Nami gave him a glare.
"But that is perfectly o- What the?"
Ace ran out onto the deck closely followed by Sabo.
Ace jumped for the railing at the edge of the boat but Sabo tackled him at the last second.
"Baka!" Sabo yelled.
"Get off me!" Ace yelled back.
"No!"
"Shishishishi," Luffy chuckled before jumping on top of his two brothers.
"Luffy get off!" they both yelled in unison.
"Doggy pile!" Luffy yelled out with a huge smile.
Hearing the commotion the rest of the crew came out from inside.
"Luffy! Ace!" Chopper yelled in hysterics, "Get off of Sabo!"
"But we're having fun," Luffy pouted.
"You're the only one having fun Luffy," Ace grumbled.
"What the hell is going on!?" Nami yelled.
Ace and Sabo grunted.
"Ace is sick." Sabo piped up.
"I am not!"
"He should be confined to the infirmary."
"Tattle tale!"
"Ace is sick?" Luffy asked tilting his head.
"They're both sick," Law said walking onto the deck.
"What?" Luffy asked.
"They both have a fever and neither of them are using their devil fruits properly."
"Sabo will be fine," Ace said shoving Luffy and Sabo off and standing up.
"No way!" Sabo grumbled.
Nami rubbed her temples; she never wanted to be in the presence of these three again, her sanity couldn't take one let alone three.
"What?" Luffy repeated.
"Ace and Sabo are sick because they both have the same devil fruit. They believe if one of them doesn't die they will both die."
"WHAT?" Luffy yelled.
He looked to his brothers.
"Sorry Luffy," Sabo said with a weak smile.
"What do you mean sorry?"
"One of us has to die Luffy, and it's going to be me!" Ace said.
"I told you we can work this out without anyone dying Ace!" Sabo argued.
"NEITHER OF YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!" Luffy yelled, suddenly serious.
"Luffy I'm not even supposed to be alive."
"No, I just got you back." Luffy choked. "You don't know how hard Yume and I worked to get you back!"
Sabo gave Ace an 'I told you so' look.
Ace responded with an angry glare.
Baka, he thought to himself.
"Is there something we can do?" Brook asked.
"Chopper can fix it!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Lu- Luffy, I've never seen anything like this before." Chopper said sadly.
"But you can fix them!" Luffy said.
"I'll help Chopper find a way," Robin said patting Chopper's head.
Chopper exhaled, "Thanks Robin."
"So until we find a cure, these two should be confined to the infirmary." Law said.
Chopper agreed.
"This is all your fault," Ace grumbled.
"You shouldn't have tried to jump off the edge of the ship," Sabo huffed.
Ace growled and tried to turn his head to glare at his brother, but he couldn't.
Luffy, Chopper and Trafalgar Law had gone to every extent to make sure neither he nor Sabo could move.
Thus, they were completely tied up and taped from head to toe, to their beds in the infirmary.
"If you two hadn't of been reckless, I wouldn't have to babysit you," Zoro said with a grumble from the other side of the room.
"Sorry Zoro," Ace said.
Zoro crossed his legs and leaned back against the wall.
"Maybe he'll fall asleep," Ace whispered.
"Maybe you should go to sleep," Sabo grumbled.
Ace decided to lay in wait and luckily for him, within a few hours both Zoro and Sabo fell asleep.
He snickered quietly. It was time for plan B.
Plan A hadn't been so successful, granted he hadn't properly thought it through, even if he had made it to the water, Luffy's crew would have dived in and rescued him. And trusting Luffy, they probably had plenty of practice at it.
Ace strained his body and managed to turn it into flame, enough that he could escape his bindings.
Part one of plan B, successful.
He creeped downstairs.
Surely Luffy had some sort of sea-prism stone on his ship. What if they had a logia prisoner? Yep surely he had some.
He just had to find it.
Maybe it would be extra pointy!
He rubbed his hands together with glee. He never thought he'd be so eager to die. But here he was excited at the thought.
Sorry Luffy, Sabo, Marco; but it was for the best.
He didn't want to break his promise to Luffy twice. But some things were more important than keeping promises.
He tiptoed down stairs.
Did the Sunny have a hold?
He walked into what must've been Franky's workshop; he looked around to no avail. Until he found a safe. He lit his hand on fire and melted the lock.
BINGO!
It wasn't sharp but the sea-prism stone handcuffs would do. He grabbed them and instantly felt weaker. He took them upstairs to the deck, and placed them on the ground. Now what should he do? He walked around them, tried banging himself on the head with them. But nothing really worked; it just made him feel sick.
Maybe there was some sort of devil fruit ritual he could do?
He glanced around and seeing no one he placed them around his neck. He had heard of some rituals from some of the islands he'd visited. He decided to try one of the simpler ones he'd heard of.
He sat down cross legged and began humming silently.
This is stupid.
He went back downstairs and grabbed a hammer; he very lightly tried to bang the handcuffs into a pointy shape.
Nope. Maybe a little harder.
BANG BANG BANG BANG.
Why wouldn't they break? Oh…. they're harder than diamond… Ok, plan C.
He climbed up the mast.
Rope. Yep surely he could hang himself, a bit drastic but maybe...
THUMP.
Plan C doesn't work. He thought to himself on the deck of the Sunny. Why couldn't his body stay solid?!
Plan D!
He heard a chuckle.
"What do you plan on doing next?"
He looked up to see Robin leaning against the door trying very hard not to laugh.
"Back to bed."
He walked towards the door.
"You won't die Ace."
Ace lifted his head, "What?"
"Your heart isn't in it; you're just trying to stall time."
"I won't let Sabo die."
"But you won't let Luffy down either."
"Some things are more important."
"You have time, why don't you just go back to your normal polite self? We can handle this," she said sweetly.
"No, I need to fix this now."
"Alright, keep up your charade, I know you won't die."
"What makes you say that?"
"Even sick logia users can make themselves solid. You may have been prepared to die all those years ago, but now that you've seen the world now, with both of your brothers alive. You won't give up so easily."
Ace didn't reply, because even he knew that was the truth. Instead he walked past her, and headed back to the infirmary; slightly bummed, but not defeated.
Cause he had plan D, DEATH BY NAMI!
Before everyone woke up he creeped into Nami's room. This time he wanted to be caught in the act. He looked through the draws, ignoring underwear and such, until he found a stash of money.
BINGO!
He stomped his feet.
Nothing.
He banged some pots together he had brought with him.
Nothing.
These girls sleep like logs.
Well at least Nami did, he had a feeling Robin was awake and was trying not to laugh.
Defeated he began to walk outside, money in hand, when he felt a bang on the back of the head.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"
Abort! Abort! Plan D was not a good idea.
"Shut up," Ace growled.
"You look like an eggplant!" Sabo laughed.
"NAMI! You could have killed him!" Chopper whined bandaging Ace's head.
"He tried to steal my treasure." Nami replied without a touch of guilt.
Usopp winced from the doorway, "That was not a smart move, Nami's a monster."
Nami turned around with a growl.
"I think I just came down with 'get away from the infirmary disease'," Usopp yeeped, before running away.
"Zoro you were supposed to watch him!" Nami yelled.
"I was asleep," he yawned.
Nami's fingers twitched in a neck choking fashion.
"I'll watch them tonight," Law said clutching his forehead.
"Geez these brothers," Nami complained walking away.
"Room."
"No!" Ace yelled struggling.
Law's sword came down over Ace's legs.
"Trafalgar!" he yelled.
"There Strawhat- ya. Now he can't go anywhere."
"Thanks Tra-guy!" Luffy said from the end of Sabo's bed.
"All done!" Chopper said finishing tying up Ace's bandage. "I'll get you a drink of water." He walked outside and Law followed him.
The three brothers were now alone in the room.
Luffy grabbed the edges of his hat and pulled down on them.
"Sorry Luffy," Ace said quietly.
"You're both going to be fine," Luffy said getting up from Sabo's bed.
"Of course we are Luffy," Sabo agreed.
Ace stayed silent.
"I'm going to get some food." Luffy said walking out.
"Get me some too Luffy!"
"Baka," Sabo scoffed.
Sabo looked at his sleeping brother's form.
"I'm sorry Ace," he whispered, "but Luffy needs you much more than he needs me."
Sabo knew they were dying. He had felt himself get progressively worse and worse as the day progressed and what he felt he could see reflected in Ace.
They would die, and the rate they were deteriorating was getting faster and faster. Even though he had spent the day with Robin, Chopper and Trafalgar studying different ways to get rid of devil fruits, and calling people to see if anyone knew anything; they had found nothing.
By what he could tell, he and Ace would be dead by morning.
He would not lose his brother again.
He took out his bag from the drawer next to him. He was the one who ate Ace's fruit, this situation was his responsibility and he knew of one sure and quick way to die.
He pulled out a devil fruit he had recently found.
No one could survive eating two devil fruits. Except in the case of Blackbeard. But he didn't believe that would happen with him.
"I'm sorry Luffy, Ace, Koala, Dragon."
He lifted the fruit to his mouth and took a bite of the foul fruit.
(A/N) Hope you enjoyed! This is not my favourite chapter, I reckon I'll like the next one much more. Hopefully it'll be the last one.
Guest Reviews: (Rest via PM)
Wow: Yes, yes I did :p
Really? I don't think I liked that last chapter much, I didn't like this one either, I've kind of stopped watching OP so I can binge watch later, so I feel like the characters are a bit off, I feel like I'm trying too hard to make funny interactions between characters. I liked chapter 5 or 6… the one where Law was introduced. 3
That will be next chapter. (I seriously thought this would be finished by chapter 18.)
I will probably mention that in the next chapter too.
Thanks for your review; I hope it hasn't been too long since I wrote anything that you've lost interest!
Lolita: YEP, Spot on!
Matt: Here you go!
Thank you all for being so patient with me! TATA!
UmbraAurumDragon OUT!