Omigoshi'msodead. I always feel horrible when I post months later, but I can't help it! T_T I'M SORRY! But as I said I'm going to get this story done!I'm estimating around 6 more chapters before this story ends. Then depending on how I'm feeling I may end up creating a sequel which would just kill me.
However for sure once I'm done, I'm going to take a break and work on other stories. Such as the new KHR one I started, and maybe I'll post even more new stories. Somebodystopandshootmenow. However I have a lot of fun thinking of stories and stuff and it makes me feel even better to know that people are reading it and actually enjoying it.
So thank you to those who have kept with me from the beginning! (Though I bet those people totally gave up on me because of how long I take to update. But if you're still here, you're awesome and I love you.)
ZabuzasGirl: Hahahahaha... note the hollow laugh because it says you sent this review in March and now I finally post in freakin August. I'm so very sorry. I don't even know if you'll get this message but I really am! T_T
LunaAngel-Eclipse: A post in April! -another stab to my heart- WAHHHh I'm sorrryyyyy! But thank you for your review! I feel as if I took that fresh air I gave you with the meeting and ripped in away! Thank you so much if you're still reading this! You're awesome!
Sleepyreader319: A post 2 months ago... well... they are cute. hehehehe. Thank you! If you're still here, you're also awesome.
amerdism: Haha, don't worry, she's not getting kidnapped anymore... at least I don't think so. As for your fair share of marines in the story I hope the next few chapters will be to your liking. :D
I don't own One Piece except for my OCs.
"This is the final room here, this better be the prison or I swear I'm going to go on a rampage looking for it." Ace whispered to himself as he opened the door. He winced at the creaking sound the door made and put on his guard. A loud sound was made to his left and he whipped his head in the direction.
Holding his breath, Ace walked through the doorway while keeping an eye on the snoring guardsman. He propped the door open and made his way over to the cells. He heard and saw the prisoners beginning to move, their shadows restless against the light of the lantern lit on the wall. He even heard some sniffling come from them, 'What have these guys been through?' Ace thought.
Finally a brave soul came forward to see who had come through the door, the face of a pirate came into Ace's view and he recognized it to be one of the captured ones of Klitos' crew.
"F-Fire Fist?" The pirate whispered in surprise. Ace could hear the others behind him also whispering among themselves.
"Shhh." Ace motioned and they began to quiet down. Ace looked over his shoulder at the still snoring guardsman.
He went up to the cell door, "The keys are on the guard's belt." One of the pirates whispered. Ace just grinned, lit his hand on fire and burned the lock off. "Or you could just do that..."
Ace opened the door and motioned for them to move. They did as they were told and began filing out from the cell and out the open door. One of the pirates however stumbled, landing harshly on the floor. The large pang echoed throughout the ship and the guardsman woke up suddenly. The guard looked at the fallen pirate for a moment, "Crap. Run!" Ace said as the guard realized what was going on. The pirate got up as the rest of his friends and Ace began running down the hall.
"Fire Fist! Do you know how to get out of here?" One of them asked as they ran next to him.
Ace nodded looking behind him as the guard pursued, shouting after them awaking other marines. "Yeah, but first we need to find Rikku!"
"Rikku?" The pirate gives Ace a confused look before finally realizing. "The marine girl?" Ace nodded in response. "Why don't we leave her? She'll be fine without us! She's with her people now." The pirate tried to persuade.
Ace though wouldn't have any of it and shook his head. "I'm not leaving without her, you guys can go on ahead, but good luck getting off without me and your hands cuffed like that."
The pirates looked down at their still cuffed hands and let out a frustrated sigh, "Then we better find her soon."
Ace grinned at his answer and picked up his running speed. He turned the corner of the intersection and he suddenly ran into something, however he didn't stumble backwards. He looked down to see what had run into his chest only to be met with a crop of brown hair. It moved and a face looked upwards at him while rubbing their nose. "What in the world?! Why's your chest like a friggen rock? What do you do? Eat rocks for dinner?"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny. I train if you care to know... but now is not the time for that." Ace smiled as he placed a hand on her head and rotating it to face the same direction he was in.
"What? Why? Did you free them already?" She asked curiously, trying to turn around and look behind them, though unable to as Ace still held her head in his hand.
"Stop right there, pirates!" A voice shouted from behind them.
Rikku stopped attempting to turn around as she registered what was going on, "Oh no." She said. "No you didn't." She turned to look at Ace.
He rubbed the back of his head with a cheeky grin on his face. "Sorry, but I did."
Ace ran next to her as they lead the group but as the footsteps behind them began to get louder, and closer he slowed his pace. Rikku noticing this movement also began to slow, however Ace ushered her to keep moving. "Take the lead, I'll be right behind you guys." She nodded and began picking up her pace again. Ace turned to the group of marines headed towards them, "Higan!" He shouted shooting the oncoming pursuers.
Rikku and the pirates ran up the stairs that came into view and were on the second floor on the inside of the ship. "Just a little more!" She shouted to those behind her.
As they ran, Rikku began hearing sounds of running that wasn't theirs. The feet stomped towards them and she let out a frustrated sigh. As the lights of the marines came into sight in the dark corridors, Rikku instantly kneed the lantern holder before swinging her arm out at the next person behind them. She began to notice that more were filling in behind and if she didn't hurry it up, the corridor would be full, and they would be trapped. She dodged an attack before grabbing the attacker and thrusting him at his comrades making a way for them to run through.
She could see the large metal doors that would take them back to the outside world, however it quickly became obscured by marines pouring in from the side doors. Rikku narrowed her eyes, ready for a tiring fight. Slugging the first guy in the face, the metal doors suddenly flung open and torches lit up the entry way. Rikku stopped in her tracks and squinted her eyes at the newcomers.
"Alright guys! Get 'em!" A familiar voice shouted as a mass of pirates came in and began fighting the marines.
The brunette girl grinned, hyped up at this new turn of events. She side-stepped to the left as a sword came down on her and gut punched the soldier. Familiar flames burst behind her, lighting up the whole corridor. She saw a dark red head waving his claymore wildly around as he and his crew made his way towards her and the free pirates.
A group of people stood on the docks next to a pirate ship. A beautiful orange glow began lighting the world and the surface of the ocean caught its fire.
Klitos bit his lips before allowing a small, sheepish smile to grace his features. "Thanks... for everything." He rubbed the back of his head.
The whole rescue team, and the Barrage Pirates were safely back in their part of town. After safely making if off the marine ship, they all booked it back using the night as cover.
"Huh? Is the great Claymore embarrassed?" Rikku couldn't help but tease.
Klitos clenched his teeth and frowned with a very small tint of pink dusting his cheeks. "No!" He denied. "Why would I be embarrassed about giving you guys my thanks?!"
Ace just let out a grin, "It's no problem." His grin faded into a regular, somewhat melancholic smile. "I understand... with a crew like family, its hard when you get close to losing them."
The captain nodded in understanding, "Really though, thank you. To think that there would have ever come a time where I'm in-debt to the great second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates and a Marine girl." He let out a laugh.
"Yeah? Well I never thought there'd come a time where I'd be helping pirates, so there's a first time for everthing."
"Captain! We're all ready to set sail!" A Barrage pirate shouted. Klitos looked up to the crew member who shouted and gave him a nod. He and some of the others who stood on the deck began boarding the ship.
The ship pulls out from the port docks and Klitos and his crew stand by to watch the island they're leaving and to say their final farewells.
"Be careful!" Rikku shouts as she waves to them.
Klitos lazily waves back, "You've got problems beast girl. Telling a pirate to be careful." He said, smiling with the satisfaction of Rikku letting out a string of unintelligible words and waving her fists at him. "If we ever meet on the seas, I would be honored to have a drink with the Whitebeard crew."
"We'll make it a festival!" Ace yells back.
The crew behind Klitos cheers and Klitos just shakes his head before heading inside his ship, and out of Ace and Rikku's view.
The two stand there watching them for a few more second before Rikku speaks, "Hey... Ace?" She asked, and he turned his head to her in response. "What's it like to... lose someone?"
Ace turned his body in the opposite direction of the ship and began to walk and Rikku also began to follow. "Losing someone, huh?" Ace thought about it for a moment. "Well, it's hard to explain, but there's much sadness in it. It's also probably different for everyone."
Rikku furrowed her brows in confusion, "Different how?"
"Well, perhaps different reactions and stuff, but overall its an overwhelming emotion... Do you really think I'm the best person to be asking this too?" He chuckled and looked at her.
Rikku thought about it, was he the best person to be asking this? "How many people have you lost?" She accidentally said without meaning to.
The question caught him off guard and his face clearly showed surprise, "Uhm..." He thought about it, his mother, his father who he doesn't really care about, Sabo, and the latest Thatch. "Far too many close to me." He said as silence enveloped the two.
They continued walking in the direction in which Ace had left his Striker. "I'm sorry about that." Rikku quietly said with an unsure voice.
Ace gave her a grin, "Haha. Don't worry about it! If it makes you feel any better there's at least one person who I was close to losing."
Rikku attempted at a smile, "Oh? Wh..." She started but stopped and looked at Ace who also stopped ahead of her, but continued smiling brightly at her.
'R-9' The name echoed in her head.
She froze in her spot as her stomach tumbled and her throat suddenly filled with saliva. She bit her lip unable to find any words to say.
"O-Oh? I-Is that so? Well that makes me feel q-quite relieved." She stuttered and quickly walked to catch up to him. When Rikku had made it, they both had started walking again, and in attempt to change the subject she asked, "So where are we headed next?"
"Next?" Ace questioned and he put his hand on his chin thinking about what they were going to do next. He knew he needed to find Blackbeard again, however... he looked over to Rikku who was sill looking straight ahead as they walked. He sighed, he didn't want to do this, "We should find you a way back."
Rikku allowed the words to sink in, "A way back." It was weird, a part of her knew she had to go back, yet a part of her wanted to stay. She felt different during her time with both Ace and Luffy. If anything, she felt more like she belonged with them than at HQ. Unexpectedly she made a 'tch' sound out of confusion and frustration. However she was once again reminded of a shrouded past she didn't know about and that she was finally given a clue. A clue that she had to follow and it continued back to HQ. "Alright, let's head to the next island. Perhaps there's a base there where I can contact Headquarters."
Just as Ace was nodding in agreement, the two felt a hostile presence and suddenly bullets were fired. Both of them jumped out of the way and Rikku noted that if she had stayed in place, her head would have been blown to bits. She looked at the origin from where the bullets came from, and behind them stood a tall man, with brown hair, holding a rifle aimed at them. Next to him were four other men, a large, broad, muscular one, a pale one with a top hat holding a can, a sickly one riding a horse and a recognizable face with a black beard.
"Zehahahaha! Looks like I've found you Ace!" Blackbeard mocked as he laughed.
Ace narrowed his eyes a glared harshly at him, "Teach..." he hissed with clenched teeth.
Blackbeard smiled, "I've come to finish what we started." Then he looked at Rikku for a while before saying, "Augur!"
The rifleman, Augur aimed his rifle, "Yes sir!" He said before shooting at Rikku.
She got ready to dodge and did so, however the bullets came super fast and scratched the side of her cheek. As Rikku was about to run forward, not minding the rifle aimed at her head, Ace stepped in front of her. More bullets were fired, however as they came into contact with Ace, the bullets instantly melted."She's not apart of this." He stated to Blackbeard.
"What do you think you're doing?" She yelled at him.
He didn't turn to look at her at all, just keeping his focus all on Blackbeard, "I want you to go back to the Striker and meet me there."
"Hah? Are you kidding me? I'm going to stay and fight!" She argued.
Blackbeard's smile got even wider, as if he was getting a kick out of watching the two argue. "Zehahaha! If the girl wants to fight, then let her!" Suddenly, darkness began swirling around his hand and everything surrounding them was being sucked in. They attempted to stand their ground but were both sucked in.
Rikku being lighter was being pulled along much faster, "Aw, shi-" she began as her feet were lifted into the air, knowing that it wasn't going to end well.
"Shinka, Shiranui!" Ace was heard shouting and from behind her came two flaming lances headed straight towards Blackbeard. They hit its mark and the gravitational pull stops, however as the law goes... objects in motion will stay in motion. Rikku also continued flying towards him and as he recovered and saw her coming in, he wound his arm back at flung it at her. She crossed her arms in front of her as his punch hit her forearm, however the force still managed to knock her back and away from him. Her feet hit the ground as she bent her knees to keep her balance during the slide back.
"Rikku!" She Ace's shout from behind her, "Are you alright?" He said, his voice getting louder as he got closer.
She nodded a response, "I'm fine." He bent down next to her to double check for himself that she was alright and gave her a nod back.
As he stood back up he looked at Teach, though his words were addressed to her, "Rikku, run and hide." He bent his knees as fire began forming in a circle underneath him.
She was once again surprised by his words and attempted another argue, "What are you saying?!"
Ace gave a chuckle as he looked back at her, "As kids you never seemed to listen to me, even in the most direst situations. I was hoping that would've changed when you grew up, but I guess you're still the same as ever." The fire began spreading to become larger underneath him.
Rikku clenched her fists tightly and bit the inside of her mouth as she watched him, "Dai Enkai, Entei!" He shouted as the flames swelled and spread past her on the ground. She shut her eyes thinking she was going to get burned however it swooped right past her and upwards into the air. She opened her eyes, watching in awe as the orange and yellow flames formed a sun in the palm of Ace's hand held above his head. Meanwhile Blackbeard had been emitting darkness from his body and it gathered heavily in the air above him, the size rivaling Ace's sun.
Blackbeard began to laugh, "Zehahahaha! Flames of light, or darkness? There will only be one!"
Ace gave him a serious look, "I will make Whitebeard king."
As the two moved with intent to destroy each other, Rikku knew she could do nothing to stop this and all she could do was watch with every second and heartbeat that passed, the two masses would get closer and closer together. Finally, the two entities collided and exploded onto each other. The force harshly pushing Rikku back, knocking the wind out of her, and severely injuring her. She winced and felt as if she had been kicked in the stomach a thousand times. When her body had stopped moving/flying through the air and finally hit the ground, debris pieces had also fallen onto her. Soon her vision began fading in and out as she tried to control her breathing. She couldn't tell what was going on as many black spots invaded her vision. She moved her arms in attempt to push herself up, however a heavy weight on top of her had her pinned down. She stopped and just focused on her breathing and staying conscious. For a moment, she was doing alright and was beginning to calm herself down, her vision was getting better, however it was still a bit blurry. She saw Ace far away from her standing like usual, Blackbeard across from him.
"Ace..." She began saying weakly, however her eyes widened as he fell to the ground.
Blackbeard walked over to him laughing, "To bad Ace! But it looks like darkness wins."
"Captain!" Voices were heard, and his crew came running to him in the distance to see how the battle ended. They had retreated sometime during the battle, but Rikku was too busy to notice it.
"Burgess! Pick up Ace, and let's get going!" Blackbeard ordered.
Though Rikku was quite far from their location, she could sense somebody staring at her.
"Captain, what about the girl?" Augur asked looking in a direction across from them.
Blackbeard looked in the same direction, "Leave her, she can't do anything."
Rikku bit her lip at those words and dug her nails into the palm of her skin as she watched them walk away with Ace. She couldn't do anything to save her companion, and cursed her weakness. "Ace." She said his name again, though it came out cracked. "Ace." She said again and continued saying his name, as if saying it would bring him back. For some reason other names began pouring out of her mouth, "Luffy. Haruhi. Garp. Chaki." Her eyes shut and her mind went blank.
"Scour the area! Search for any survivors!" A brunette marine woman shouted as she ordered the men around her.
A large man came up next to her wearing a red shirt, with white symbols and an emblem on it. "Goto-san, how does the search go?"
"Sentomaru-san. So far we've found some bodies, but most of the civilians had fled at the sound of fighting." The woman, Goto answered.
Suddenly they heard a cry, one of the men called for help. The two decided to see what was up, when they got to the area they couldn't see what the problem was as a circle of marines were surrounding the area. "What's going on?" Sentomaru asked.
One of the marines turned around to answer, "Sir! Somebody found a woman pinned under debris. We're all trying to help get her out."
Sentomaru's face was impassive, "Move." He simply said and the marines cleared a path for him. He saw the long haired woman lying face down. "Have you checked for a pulse?" He questioned, not caring who answered.
"Yes sir! She's well alive and breathing!" A soldier replied and saluted, probably the one who found her.
In response to his answer, Sentomaru bent down and easily lifted the debris off of her, "Get her out." He simply said as the rest of the marines scrambled to pull her out from under.
When she was safely out, he dropped the debris back down and walked over to her who was getting looked over by Goto. Goto spoke when he got there, "I recognize her face. I think I've seen it back at HQ... what was it... Mi... Mikazuka?"
Vegapunk's bodyguard looked at the woman's face and was surprised at who he saw. "Subject R-9." He said to himself.
Holy shiz bits I rant a lot. I feel like my words of sorry are super hollow and overused, though I really do mean it. Thanks to a good friend of mine who helped give me some ideas of how to continue this story!
And forgive me if there's something that doesn't make sense or the chapter seems a bit rushed. I didn't proofread it cause I wanted to get it out there as soon as possible.
Hope and wish for me to update quicker!