Maldea: I made stuff so sad for them, Ace especially. I do love making him suffer emotionally through many, many of my stories lol.

angelsXdemons: I'll just say things with Teach in this one are different than my other stories lol.

Wishfull-star: Thank you!

WhiteyWolf26: Don't worry there are happy things that happen to Ace, just not so far.

Ace sat on a log in the sand on the island full of shitty people, his head in his hands. Their ship was gone. And they sure as hell didn't have the money to buy another one in the New World, where ships were extremely expensive. And from what he'd seen, this island was not a shipbuilding one.

He had a feeling whoever did it was not out of anger. They'd spared everything inside. Even the pictures hanging on the walls. Nothing fragile had been broken. Whoever did this wanted to force them to stay with the Whitebeards, for some reason. He didn't understand who could do this, something so wicked and heinous.

Apparently there were also no shipbuilding islands near. None of those on the log pose pointed to one they needed. Was their pirate career over? It was the Whitebeards' fault! If they hadn't kidnapped them, this wouldn't have happened!

But… even those who hated him, he couldn't see them having a reason for doing this. The yonko crew had said they'd return once Ace agreed to join, to get their belongings. Tears gathered in Ace's eyes. That ship wasn't just a ship. It was his home, their home. Their safe haven, full of memories. And now it was gone. He was glad he got to spend one last night there, but his crew didn't.

They were all around, on other logs, on the sand. All depressed. It wasn't just Ace's home, it was theirs too. Many of them had come from terrible backgrounds, and that ship had been their reprieve and safe space. Now it was gone. They had sorted everything into piles of what belonged to who. The furniture had not been spared. Beds, couches, tables. Nothing.

But everything else was there. Every last book. Everything. It had to have taken quite a while, so who wouldn't have noticed it? He thought there were lookouts, those that had seen him come out of the water and onto the ship. They saw that but not a ship on fire, with the flames reaching high up. The mast wasn't short.

Marco arrived quickly, and landed in front of him. He saw Ace's tears, and Ace saw that Marco was crying, too. Why? He walked to Ace and hugged him. Ace didn't hug him back, uncomfortable. "I'm so, so sorry Ace." It wasn't a guilt apology, not like he was sorry they'd done it. He was just sympathizing.

Any pirate would know how horrible it would be for their ship to burn down. Well, maybe not every pirate, but the majority, no doubt. Marco looked at the remains of it. All that was left was some of the keel, but nothing else. He also saw all of their belongings, and frowned. It wasn't a cruel act, it had some other motive.

"C'mon, let's go see," Marco said softly. Finamore and Ducky Bree offered to stay and guard their things. Ace thanked him, and the other Spades and Marco went back into town. Marco went straight to the town hall and walked inside, his presence commanding. If Ace was a normal person, he would have been scared of this Marco.

"Who did this? Who burned down that ship? I will know if you lie. You know, this is a betrayal of the Whitebeard pirates, right? We asked you to keep looking out over it, but instead you burned it into nothing. Now, who. Did. This?" Those inside were shaking, very worried. Ace didn't think Whitebeard would abandon the island, he seemed too nice, so Ace wondered what the price would be for this sin.

He waited, glaring with his arms crossed. The villagers fretted. "Do not lie to me. The rest of the crew are on their way." They all cringed. It was scary news for them, having a yonko angry like they should know he was. Marco waited with a commanding presence.

Deuce broke into a candy machine and reached inside for some. The others but Ace ate them, too. They burned down their ship, they couldn't complain about a broken candy machine. Finally, they spoke. "It wasn't all of our decision!"

"It is collectively everybody's fault for not reporting it the moment it happened," Marco replied coldly. "Now, tell me. I will not ask again." They floundered. Finally one of the women spoke. She said that it was nobody in that town. The person lived in the woods and they rarely saw him.

"Yeah fucking right. Why would you care so damn much about them if they're in the woods and you never see them?" Ace demanded. She blanched. Somebody walked in from the entrance behind them. It was a little kid, maybe eleven. He looked worried. He walked to angry-Marco with shaking legs.

Ace wondered if it was this kid, and he felt fury build inside of him. "I-I know who it was," he confessed. "It was old Zenny. He's senile, but probably did it on purpose," the boy explained. Ace was furious. Even a senile old man should fucking know better than to burn down somebody's ship.

It didn't matter if he didn't know who the Spades were, he still burned down a ship! And why did he spare all of their belongings? Marco told the boy to lead him there. He wasn't waiting for Whitebeard to arrive to meet the arsonist. Ace was asked to stay somewhere else. He demanded to know why.

"Ace, this person burned down your home. You are livid, and with reason, but a moment of losing control could be bad for you. It's still a villager on our island. We have to protect them and I won't have to protect them from you," Marco explained firmly.

Why did they even care? Ace left! They should just forget about him! He had a feeling he knew what would happen. The only thing that could happen. They would offer the Spades to come back, and they'd take them to get a new ship built. Only they'd try to convince Ace to stay this time. He wasn't going to. They treated him like shit, why would he stay with them? But there was no other choice.

Probably. Unless they could hijack another ship. Ace could go looking for another pirate ship and bring it back to the island for them to go out on. But, was stealing one forever and burning it down the same thing? He was conflicted. They needed a ship, but Ace honestly didn't wish others to feel this.

And he knew there were decent pirates out there. Luffy wanted to be a pirate, he was decent. Shanks was decent. What if we stole the ship from good people? He was conflicted, but knowing he'd be leaning towards returning, even if he really didn't want to. Marco turned into phoenix form and flew into the mountains, into the forest. They went back to the beach to the other two, who were just fine and watching their things. Nobody had come. Ace hated looking at the ship's remains. She should be brought out to sea. "I'm taking her out to sea," Ace said suddenly. It was deep enough for him to be able to grab the remains and bring them out where they belonged. "Make sure nobody is around."

"Aye, captain," they said. Ace looked around and saw that no ships or people were in sight. He went into the water and shifted. His belly was on the sand, but he managed to get it out, holding his breath as his nose was in the air. He carried the wood backwards as he shimmied deeper until he was at the drop off, where he brought the pieces out.

He let them drift away. They'd become driftwood and wash up somewhere else eventually. It would live on, even if it was like this. His big slitted eyes had tears coming from them. He swam to the cliff area near the beach and climbed up, in human form. He ran back to his crew. "It's done. She'll live on somewhere else someday," Ace said, emotion in his voice, but no tears.

-x-

Marco found the house described to him easily. It was shitty, but it was an old man that lived in the woods. He landed on the roof and then dropped down. It really was poorly made. And there was a huge herd of goats just hanging out around the sorry excuse for a house. There wasn't even a front door.

He didn't wait to walk inside, not knocking or making any warning that he was there. "Zenny?" he called. All he heard were the goats outside. He looked around, but sensed nobody. Not there or in the vicinity in the forest. He found a ship there, impossible to be sailed safely. He looked around, but found nobody.

Finally, he entered the inside of the ship and found Zenny. He was dead. Recently died, very recently. Marco scowled. While he didn't like the man died, Ace would be pissed with no revenge, no answer as to why his home was gone. Why it had been taken from him. He walked back out and flew down to town. He'd have the villagers deal with the body he put a blanket over.

He landed on the beach, seeing the Spades gathered in the circle, sitting on blankets from their ship. Even rugs had been thrown out. How had a short old man on death's door do this? Was there an accomplice? Well, they'd probably never know. Ace was asleep on a blanket, no doubt a sleep attack from his narcolepsy.

"Who was it?" Deuce asked.

"It was the old man, alright. But he's dead. Recently died, as in hours. You'll never know why he did this or get any sort of revenge. I'm sorry, it's very unsatisfying," Marco explained. They glanced at Ace, frowning. Marco knew Ace would not be happy with this outcome. Not at all. Zenny got away with it completely. Faced zero consequence or backlash.

Marco couldn't bring himself to care about the man's death. He hurt Ace when he was already hurting. Marco sat on one of the blankets and sighed. "What do we do now?" Aggie 68 asked. "We don't have nearly enough money to buy another ship, and there are no islands around here that even build ships."

Marco said, "We'll buy you a new ship, bring you to an island that sells them. She was only burned down because you weren't here with her. We took you away from her, so we should be the one to fix it. We can't replace her completely, but your journey isn't over." Deuce didn't look surprised. He glanced down at Ace.

"You put him through so much misery, Marco. Maybe not you directly, but everyone else. He doesn't want to go back," Deuce said and sighed. "But we have no other choice. What happened after we left?"

Marco leaned forward and said that Pops had been really upset and angry at everyone. "Disappointed. Really disappointed. He told everyone they were never to treat anyone else how they treated Ace. He wanted Ace to be part of the crew and family. Obviously, it didn't work out. Everyone looked a bit guilty, but I don't know if it would actually make them change."

Deuce said, "Don't think of this as a second chance." Marco honestly said it would be hard not to. He still really liked Ace and wanted him to stay. "Not just because he's fascinating?" the Spade's first mate said, a cold look on.

Marco was offended, but saw his point. Ace had been a brat, but Marco had gotten to like him before learning that fact. Thatch had more than he had. "Of course not. Thatch and I, and Pops, have all seen so much potential in him. And seeing him open up to us just by being friendly and respectful shows he could have done the same with others. If they were willing. They didn't seem willing.

"I can't convey how satisfying it was to see him smile with one of us. Have him tell me personal things. I know his life has been hard. I know why, at least some of it. I won't pretend that I know all about him. There's still a lot we don't know about each other. But seeing him open up made me happy. It's hard to explain." Deuce said he understood what he meant. Ace was special. Likable once you get past the spike studded wall he put up. For multiple reasons, but Deuce didn't really go into detail about the other reasons.

"We'll do our best to not recruit him again. It's his choice, it was wrong of us to trap you there. Try to force you. I won't be able to stop the others if they see the error of their ways and are being nice now. They need to apologize sincerely, like Ace had. He's a freaking dragon with inflated pride and he put it aside to apologize to people who treat him like shit, too," Marco said, grumpy at the end.

The others nodded in agreement, and that conversation was over. They were waiting for the Whitebeards to arrive and take them back. They would need to put their belongings in a storage room. They had more than enough of them.

Marco knew full well that Ace was no longer asleep. Maybe hearing this conversation would do him good.

-x-

Ace heard the whole conversation between Deuce and Marco. He'd been paralyzed but awake, something that only happened when he was very upset. Being upset on the Whitebeards' ship was nothing compared to losing his ship. But after hearing the start of the conversation, he stayed pretending to sleep.

He pretended to wake up after it was over and it was silent besides the lazy lapping of the water on the shore. He yawned, and then apologized for falling asleep. "It's fine," Saber said. "Kind of expected." Ace nodded in agreement.

"So, what happened with the old fucker?" Ace hadn't heard the conversation before the one about the Whitebeards after Ace left. Marco explained that he was dead. Ace scowled furiously, and Deuce pat his back. He put his head in his knees. "This is fucking bullshit. So, nobody will ever know why he had the audacity to burn our ship down? If he was dying, then how'd he have the energy to remove everything before destroying it?!"

Marco said he didn't know, they'd never know. "I'm sorry," Marco said sympathetically. Ace just huffed. "We will buy you all a new ship. It's partly our fault this happened. If you'd been with your ship, you could have no doubt kept some old, dying man from destroying it." Ace nodded, agreeing it was partly their fault. "Will you come back with me?"

"Not like we have a choice," Ace said. "Now we're completely helpless on your ship. You get to trap us, now. We have nowhere to go."

Marco immediately said, "Things will be different this time."

"Yeah, right," Ace grumbled. He hated sneaking off the ship to swim. Hated the effort he put in to not be himself. The effort that was in no way returned. He doubted that a second time would be any different. He was unconvinced completely. Three good people on a crew did not mean the rest of them were good, too.

They waited in awkward silence until Ace's stomach roared. The others got hungry, too. But nobody wanted to venture into town, and there weren't any places to get wide animals. He sighed. "I'm gonna get the food." Marco asked if he had the money. "Why buy something when the whole ocean is here? Hey, what do you guys want?" Ace asked his crew. Deuce said he wanted shark, the others wanted sea king meat. "Majority rules, Deuce. Sorry," Ace said sarcastically. Deuce huffed. Ace took off his boots and walked into the sea, swimming off a bit to be able to fit comfortably before changing shape and size and going for a hunt.

He found a sea king pretty easily. It looked old. It tried swimming away, but Ace easily grabbed it with his clawed hands and snapped its neck. He had his giant hand embedded in it as he swam back to shore. He raised his arm and threw it so it landed in the wake with a big splash, though not big enough to damage any of their things on the beach.

He shifted back and swam to shore, walking out of the water and drying himself off. Mihar came up and easily chopped the sea king into bits, knowing now which parts were the good parts. None of the head, but the abdomen, the long, long abdomen, were the juiciest parts. The rest of the spades hauled the chunks to shore and Ace fried them.

No plates or silverware were deemed important enough to a senile old asshole apparently. Marco went to get some sticks that were sharpened and cleaned into skewers. "I haven't had sea king meat in a while. We usually reserve that for sky dragons in case they come knocking," Marco said.

"Sky dragons are assholes," Ace said harshly. "Fucking dicks."

Deuce saw the surprised look on Marco's face and said, "Ace got in a fight with one once. It went a bit hard." Ace told him to shut it and not tell any stories about him. Deuce said, "Yes, yes. I won't make small talk anymore."

"Just not about me!" the others laughed, and Ace couldn't help but snicker. "Assholes."

"Yeah, we love you, too," Saber said. Marco looked at them in surprise, at Ace in surprise. He hadn't witnessed this Ace before. The real one. But he was only this Ace with his crew or his brothers. It was like a turtle. An angry turtle. It wouldn't come out of its shell unless it was safe enough to show itself.

One of his most powerful instincts was to never show weakness. He'd done that completely in the whole destroy-Marco's-room incident. But, otherwise, he never let his real personality come to the surface unless he felt safe to do so. On the Whitebeards' ship, he was not safe. He did laugh with Thatch, but that was rare. He was only there for a week or so. Not much laughter with anyone around but his crew.

How could they want him without even knowing him? Or at least, how could three out of 1,600 want him without knowing him? Marco said he liked Ace opening up. He could understand that, but not why they tried so damn hard. All of the pirates tried hard. Marco, Thatch and Whitebeard tried hard to welcome, understand and befriend him. The rest tried their hardest to make him feel like complete shit.

After they ate, Finamore walked to the shore line and looked at something. It was night time by now and there was a bonfire going, and when the pirate came back, he was holding two bottles of sake. The others cheered that some of it was left. "I wonder if that Zenny guy drank the rest of our booze and died from that," Ace said.

Marco said he hadn't smelled like alcohol. Ace refused the drink, letting his crew have it. "C'mon, Ace. You need a drink. You need one, okay?" Ace glanced at Marco and refused again. Deuce frowned, but didn't argue anymore. Ace did in fact need a drink. He needed to get wasted completely.

But not in front of Marco and not on the safety of his own ship. Marco looked guilty at him refusing a drink when it would be appropriate. After the day he'd had. There were only two bottles, so the crew didn't get very drunk. But they were still tipsy. Ace and Marco were the ones who weren't intoxicated.

Ace went looking for something in the piles, and found them. From their vicious dodgeball match they had once. A crate of balls. Not hard balls, but they hurt if thrown at the face. He kept the crate behind one of the piles. Marco was watching him, but Ace wasn't paying attention. He grinned wickedly before he chucked one of them to Deuce's crotch.

"You asshole!" Deuce shouted, holding his pained body parts. Ace sent one flying at Aggie's head, knocking him into the sand. They then had a drunken game of dodgeball that got pretty violent, giving Saber a bloody nose. Ace was hit in the face, too, and fell backwards. He was keeping himself solid so it wasn't totally unfair.

Fifteen minutes later and all of the balls were in the ocean. "You guys are the worst," Ace said, looking at their dodgeballs floating away. They were too small for Ace to grab and he didn't want to go swimming in the dark here.

"You're the one that started it," Finamore pointed out. "We can always buy more dodge balls with a new ship. We can get a bigger deck to play on." Then they all started talking about a dream ship. The tipsy pirates fell asleep first, Ace dragging the ones in the sand to the blankets. It was cold outside, so he put other blankets on top of them and weighed them down on the sides so they didn't blow away.

Marco was still awake, keeping his flames up to brighten the area. The firewood was spent. Ace sat back on the sand, his shoes off long ago and his feet covered in sand. "You're a good captain," Marco said. "They adore you." The partial dragon's face turned a bit pink, though it was hard to see in that lighting.

Ace shrugged. "They're my second family. I pick the good ones."

"What makes them good? How do you know?" Marco wondered.

Ace laid on his back and said, "I can just tell. Like how I can tell bad people apart. It's only with strong ones, though. Teach was strong in negative terms. They're strong in positive terms." Marco asked if there were any on the Whitebeard ship. Ace was quiet for a moment before deciding to tell the truth. "A lot. But experience dictates how I feel more than dragon instincts. Nobody ever made me feel like my instincts were right. So, many, but none at the same time."

Marco winced. "What about me and Thatch?"

Ace shrugged and said, "Only once I got along with you and you showed respect. I hated you guys just as much as everybody else. You tried to steal my life away to be forced into yours."

"I'm sorry, Ace."

"A bit too late, but I accept your apology. I had actually considered joining. Maybe more people would like me, be friends with me. Accept me. But it was just wishful thinking. Didn't end up panning out, clearly," Ace said honestly and then yawned.

He turned on his side to go to sleep. "Would you give us a second chance? To show you you were right about the good ones?"

"I don't know, Marco. I don't want to talk about it anymore." Marco nodded. Ace added one thing before falling back asleep. "If I'm right about the good ones, I'm right about the bad ones, too." He dozed off with Marco keeping watch.