Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or Fairy Tail
...
Jet and Droy casually walked down the beach, missing their temporary sparring partner in Ace. He had been gone for over two weeks now, far past the length of time he was meant to have spent upon the mountaintop. Yet neither of the two members of Team Shadow Gear dared search the summit for Ace, knowing that the temperature would be almost unbearable, let alone having to search while vicious creatures attempted to feast upon your body.
"Hey, is that..." started Droy pointing towards the foreshore. Jet followed his line of sight and his eyes went wide with excitement as he recognised the members of the guild who had vanished for nearly three months.
"Everyone, we got tired of waiting for you," said Jet as he and Droy ran close to where the nine guild members stood.
"The Grand Magic Games are only five days away," Droy told them. "I bet you guys have been training your hearts out." Both Jet and Droy had expected Natsu to respond boisterously, exclaiming how much stronger they had gotten over time. When none of the guild members spoke up however, they got slightly worried.
"It's over," said Erza, her voice calm and collected before she Natsu and Gray collapsed into the sand beneath them. Wendy soon followed suit, dropping to her knees and started crying.
"Give us back our time!" shouted Lucy, screaming to the heavens above.
"What...what did we just miss?" asked Jet of his partner who looked equally confused of the situation at hand.
...
Ace walked casually down the side of the mountain, running his fingers through his hair. Atop the summit, the population of the natural wildlife had dwindled dramatically, Ace having managed to feed his inhuman hunger on more than one occasion. That however was the positive side to his venture.
Ace's ears perked up as he heard the sound of screaming coming from nearby. Altering his course, he started sprinting towards the faint sound, skidding across the steep slope on a rough patch of ground but managing to regain his footing before anything bad had happened. As he got closer, more voices chorused the fears that coursed through his body as multiple people cried out in agony.
Bursting into a clearing, Ace managed to find a small house hidden within the trees near the beach which he quickly barged in to, therein he found his fellow Fairy Tail guild members laid across the ground, red markings adorning their bodies. "Wendy!" shouted Ace as he spotted the young blue haired girl, his concern immediately falling towards the youngest member of the group.
"Don't worry," said Erza calmly standing nearby, watching over her comrades protectively.
"Don't worry, my friends are being tortured and you tell me not to worry," said Ace riling up a bit.
"They are undergoing a powerful strengthening magic to help boost the magical abilities," explained Erza which made Ace calm down a bit.
"If you're all undergoing this torment, I trust that your training in the spirit world didn't go smoothly," said the former pirate.
"I'd...rather not go into it," said Erza avoiding eye contact. "How about you, Wendy asked Jet and Droy where you had gone to and they said you'd gone on a solo voyage up the mountain. Did you manage to get much training done?"
"To an extent," said Ace, his voice lacking the usual enthusiasm Erza was used to. Erza opted not to pry Ace for details as she turned her attention back towards her fellow guild members.
"When everyone is able to move again, we're heading straight back to the guild," she explained. "Jet and Droy explained that they got a message from Master a couple of days ago explaining that everybody was to return in order for the guild to select who would represent Fairy Tail in the tournament."
"Do you know when everyone will be ready?" asked Ace.
"I was told that everyone will be at full capacity come mid morning tomorrow," answered the sword mistress.
"Well I'll be catching the earlier ride," said Ace sparking Erza's attention. "I need to tell Makarov something beforehand."
"Very well," said Erza, slightly irked that the fire-man had called the leader of their guild by his first name rather than by his title.
"Tell everyone that I'll meet them back at the guild," said Ace as he turned back towards the door, the moon glowing over the water's edge. Erza bade him no farewell as he walked out of the room, no words needing to be spoken as she turned her attention back towards the members of the guild who were screaming out in pain. Outside, Ace walked across the beach feeling the sand as it seeped in-between his toes. His mind went back to the moment before they had ventured out on their training quest, back to whatever it was the Luffy was about to blurt out. He knew that there was an unspoken plan going on within the competition, he figured that the idea had originated from either Nami or Robin as he guessed that Luffy's sole and only plan was to charge headstrong and forget about the other rules. With his mind deep within the clouds, he headed back to the hotel where the guild members had been staying at and started to look forward to a decent sleep where he didn't have to fear being attacked in the middle of the night.
...
"THE FIRST MASTER MET WITH YOU!" exclaimed Makarov loudly, Ace quickly checking over his shoulder to ensure that nobody burst into the secure location. Knowing that Makarov was likely to react extravagantly, he had first taken Makarov to the vegetable garden outside. Considering a good number of the guild members were either indoors or still returning from their training trips.
"Keep it down will you," said Ace after ensuring the coast was clear.
"I must say, this is highly unexpected, I didn't even know that the first had the ability to leave Tenroujima," said Makarov calming himself. "I must say though, it must have been something very important if she felt the need to come and tell you personally."
"Mavis gave me advice on what I should do to try and improve myself before the tournament," explained Ace to which Makarov took a serious expression.
"If the first wishes you to be in the tournament then so be it, I can't go against her words," said Makarov sounding duty bound.
"No, that wasn't what she wanted," said Ace to which Makarov looked at him, waiting for a continuation. "She directed me to spend nine days up in the cold to try and work out how to unlock my other power at will."
At this Makarov's eyes went wide. "How did your training go?" he asked.
"I spent sixteen days up there and while at some stages I believed that I almost had a grasp on it, I still can't control it," said Ace keeping calm, despite having spent hours upon hours of being attacked by vicious creatures trying to knock them out with his willpower alone. "I know this is something that people from my world took years to control, but I still feel disappointed in myself."
"Don't feel too bad Ace," said Makarov reassuringly. "I can imagine how a power like that would take years to access, let alone master."
"But still..."
"Calm yourself Ace, I had already decided on the teams before you arrived," said Makarov now peaking Ace's interest. "Had you been able to control this latent ability I would have had to rethink the battle plan but as it is, I was not going to have you on the team."
"Let me guess, you were either going to choose me or Natsu, only one fire mage," concluded Ace.
"Well there's three reasons for it," said Makarov scratching the back of his head. "The first is that if Natsu wasn't chosen he would complain about it to no regards. The second is that if there is a teamwork based challenge, I want people who know each other's strengths and weaknesses to be there for one another. Finally, there's this," he concluded as he pulled a letter out of his back pocket, holding it towards Ace. Curiously, Ace took the letter and started to read the contents.
"So that's what's going on," he said with a cheeky smile.
"If it's any consolation, I've selected you to be the sixth member of the squad."
"So I'm the reserve member...better than nothing I guess," he said as he waved the letter in front of Makarov's face. "You know there's only going to be one conclusion to how this turns out if these guys don't see me on the battlefield."
"Hence why you're the reserve member. Anyways, I think I see the rest of your group walking towards the guild," said Makarov as he peered at the front walkway. "Just between you and me, let's keep this knowledge of the first master leaving the island our little secret."
"Done," said Ace as he turned towards where the others were arriving, intent on keeping a couple little secrets until the time was right.
...
"Ace-san, I don't know if Master was right in choosing me," said Wendy after it having been announced that she would be competing in the tournament.
"Hey, keep your chin up," said Ace comfortingly. "You should be proud that Makarov holds you in such high regard."
"But still, someone like you would be a much better person to compete," she said with small tears forming in her eyes, slowly becoming frightened of the task at hand.
"Put it in this perspective; if there was a team competition and you and Lucy were competing and someone managed to land a blow on Lucy that she struggled to recover from, who would be the better person to be partnered with, myself who can't help her recover and will be fighting my own fight, or you who would be able to heal her midway through battle and be able to fight at the same time?"
Ace's words seemed to have done the trick as Wendy's eyes glowed with praise as she felt her self confidence rise dramatically. "Oi Ace," shouted Natsu as he walked over to where his fellow Dragon Slayer and former pirate sat in conversation. "Do you know where that brother of yours is?"
"No idea, we'll see them soon I guess," said Ace hiding a cheeky smirk from the fire mage.
"Hmm, I really wanted to test my abilities against somebody like that before the tournament," said a defeated Natsu.
"You just want to fight him since he fought Master, right Natsu-san?" guessed Wendy, receiving a cheeky confident grin as a response.
"What can I say, it'll be a good fight," said Natsu confidently. Ace wondered however just how confident Natsu would be when facing Luffy, recalling the fight that his brother had had against Makarov. He easily remembered Luffy calling out the attack, 'Gear Third' when he had increased the size of his arm to gigantic proportions. If that was the third gear, it was pretty obvious to assume that there was a second gear and possibly even a forth dependent on the level of training done over the course of the three months. In all honesty, it was hard for Ace to predict just what level of skill Luffy would have achieved by this stage, having recalled that Luffy had told him that he had defeated not only one but two warlords of the sea.
"Ace-san, you coming?" asked Wendy as she tugged on Ace's shirt, breaking him out of his thought process. "We're heading to Crocus now, it's going to take us a few days to get there."
"A few days of transportation!" exclaimed Natsu, not looking forward to the journey.
"Let's go have ourselves a little fun," said Ace looking forward to the contests at hand.
...
"All aboard, train to Crocus leaves in five minutes!" shouted the conductor over the bustle of the people boarding the train. All around, people were purchasing tickets and finding a seat on the train for the long journey ahead, many of them looking forward to the spectacle which would be happening within a few days time.
"C'mon Wendy, he's probably already on the train," said Lucy trying to encourage the blue haired girl to join the rest of their guild members aboard the express.
"I haven't seen him get on," said Wendy in a worried tone.
"Trust me, this is Ace we're talking about, he'll be fine," said Lucy reassuringly. Begrudgingly Wendy got onto the train as the whistle blew a final time before leaving the station. As hours went by and the crowds started to dissipate, one man wielding a knife on his belt could be seen sleeping on a nearby wooden bench.
...
"Sir, are you alright?" asked a constructor as he shook Ace's shoulder.
"Wait, what?" muttered Ace as he woke from his snooze.
"You've been asleep for hours, people were starting to get worried about you," stated the constructor.
"Hours...crap, did I miss the train to Crocus?" asked Ace already knowing the answer.
"The last train to Crocus today leaves in ten minutes, if you hurry you can go purchase a ticket," instructed the constructor.
"Much obliged," said Ace as he shot up and sprinted towards the ticket booth. Several minutes passed before he got onto the train, weaving his way through numerous passengers. He was thankful that nobody had decided on stealing his gear he had been carrying in his rucksack while he had slept. Opening up room after room, he asked numerous patrons whether there was room for another person yet no matter how often he tried all of the rooms was full. Coming to the last room in the carriage, he opened it up hoping that the guests inside would be able to make room for him. Looking at the guests inside, a smile spread across his face as he immediately recognised the paying customers.
"Excuse me, you reckon there's room for one more in here?" asked Ace at the four clients, along with five wooden dolls.
"Ace?" questioned Bickslow, the dolls surrounding him repeating the name several times.
"We were informed that you had departed on an earlier train," said Freed in a calculated tone.
"I got sidetracked," said Ace sheepishly.
"Well I guess you can stay but only if you recognise me as the queen of all fairies!" proclaimed Evergreen, holding her fan in front of her face.
"Denied," said Ace in a deadpanned voice, shocking Evergreen slightly.
"He can stay," said Laxus in a commanding tone. Both of the members of Fairy Tail glared at one another, recalling their brief alliance against Master Hades back on Tenroujima, each of them wondering how much the others strength had increased since that time. For the longest of moments the two merely looked back and forth at one another until the train whistle blew and the vehicle began to move at which moment, Laxus began to grow pale in the cheeks as he dropped to his knees, his motion sickness already starting to get the better of him.
"I call top bunk," said Ace as he chucked his rucksack atop one of the bunk beds.
"You cretin, that bed has already been claimed by Laxus," said Freed outraged that the team leaders bed had been confiscated in such a manner.
"Well if he tells me he wants it within the next ten seconds I'll gladly sleep on the floor," bargained Ace as Laxus looked up at him, trying to speak up but not finding the strength to do so as the train began to pick up speed. "I think I'm going to enjoy this ride," he said cheekily as Bickslow stuck out his tongue, looking forward to spending time with the former pirate.
...
Hope you enjoyed.
Rin: Fixed it
99 luffy: Sadly though I can't guarantee fast updates due to the fact that I do not have a computer of my own at this stage. The one I am using at the moment is temporarily on loan so the next update could be weeks away.
Ken Fullbody: If you re-read the chapter, you'll notice that Mavis told Ace that it would be pointless to start learning magic from Macao as their abilities are of a different calibre.
Peace out.