So here we are with another Story Collection. So I've had so many more ideas that I've wanted to do but I felt like the original 'Portgas D Ace - Story Collection' was getting pretty big (especially because most of them aren't even finished yet or nearly done.) So thought it might be a better idea to open up a new one. I hope some of my collections can become stories one day like the Tangled one did but until that day here are more mini stories!

(So the Blackbeard AU is where Teach doesn't take 'no' for an answer and forces Ace to become a Blackbeard pirate, by whatever means necessary.)


Blackbeard AU

"So, still trying to decide if you wanna be a Devil Fruit user?" Ace raised a brow as he leaned against the railing beside Thatch.

Thatch sighed and held up the purple fruit as if it was the bane of his existence and somehow in reverence as well. It was a strange sight. Ace wasn't really sure what Thatch was thinking at the moment, Ace hadn't hesitated when biting his fruit, he and Deuce had been starving after all. They also, at the time, had no clue what the fruit even was.

"Yeah. This is frustrating." Thatch groaned, slamming his head off the railing.

Ace laughed and patted his back. "You could get an awesome power!"

"Or I could turn into a bar of soap."

"You'd be very clean." Ace grinned.

"Never would have to bath again would I?" Thatch sniggered.

"Izo would be jealous. Looking so clean all the time." Ace teased back.

Thatch blanched. "He might kill me."

"Maybe you'd be too slippery too kill. He'd try shoot you and the bullet would just slide right off you." Ace suggested, shrugging helplessly when Thatch glowered gloomily at him. "What?"

"Then I couldn't ambush people with hugs! I'd slip right off them!"

"Zehahaha, what are you two going on about Commander Ace?" Teach laughed as he approached.

"Oh, hey, Teach." Thatch grinned.

"Hey." Ace smiled. "I'm apparently hurting Thatch with my helpful suggestions."

"They aren't helpful. They're causing me harm." Thatch whined. "I could become a soap man eating this and this punk's telling me I'll slip off everything!"

"You said it not me." Ace shrugged.

"Zehahahaha, well we wouldn't want that now would we?" Teach grinned as Ace turned back to face the night sky. "So what you doing out so late, Commander Ace? I thought you'd be getting an early night."

"Yeah. You shouldn't be staying up so late with you being Narcoleptic and all. The nurses told you to keep a good sleep pattern." Thatch agreed, smirking. "I'm surprised Marco hasn't dragged you back to bed yet."

"Couldn't sleep." Ace admitted. "He dozed off a while ago though."

"You should probably should get back to bed then. Try relax." Teach suggested.

Ace couldn't place it but he could feel that old nagging alarm in the back of his head again. The nagging alarm that developed in him as a child, a very paranoid and weary child. Marco, Thatch and Pops had been working on settling it down but it was coming back with a vengeance, thumping in his head and his gut. He knew he wouldn't sleep until it was settled. It had been lingering ever since Thatch brought that fruit home.

"I think I want to stay up a bit longer." Ace said light-heartedly as he looked around, peering into the dark night.

He could see Thatch eyeing him, looking a bit more concerned but Ace ignored it. He needed to make sure they were safe so he stared out into the distance, trying to search for whatever was setting off his alarm bells.

The storm clouds were still gathering. Marco had said it was going to be thunder and lightning tonight and just like that a loud boom filled the sky. It was the cry next to him that startled him and he spun round, seeing the blood on Thatch's back, staining his white shirt instantly and the knife yanking out his back. A thick, haki coated arm wrapped around Ace's neck and squeezed tight, choking him as he struggled to register what was going on. His body reacted before his mind caught up, an arm jerking out and elbowing someone's side and he swung out with his leg, fire flaring off it and slamming into someone's thick legs making him wince.

He finally registered who he was attacking. Teach was holding the bloodied knife, hand covered in blood and the other hand held a fruit, the very fruit Thatch had been holding. Ace panted and massaged his neck as he risked a glance at Thatch who was gasping and gazing out with hazy eyes.

Ace opened his mouth to scream for help but Teach was faster, slamming straight into him and punching his face and Ace retaliated by head butting him, earning a yelp. Ace spun round and threw up a ball of fire into the sky, letting it explode.

"Shit!" He heard Teach curse.

Ace twisted back round to see where Teach was only to be welcomed with a fist to the side of his head, throwing him to the deck. Ace heard a nasty cracking sound as pain exploded in his head and couldn't help but cry out as a hand grabbed his head and slammed it off the railing, knocking him out cold.

.::.

Ace groaned, his head was pounding, as if he had drunk too much after one of Shanks' visits to the Moby Dick. He reached up to cradle his head to try ease the ache only to hear the clank of chains and winced, opening his eyes.

Did he get captured by the Marines? He hadn't been away from the Moby that long, how could he have gotten captured?

"Awake Commander?" Teach asked and finally Ace's hazy head stopped feeling so cloudy.

No, it just throbbed instead, it felt like his brain was bashing off his skull.

He snapped to attention and gritted his teeth, realising his wrists were chained with Seastone, the seastone chains pinning his hands to his stomach and his ankles were tethered to the small boat's seat. Ace sat up on the wooden bench and bristled. His words came out muffled and he bit down on the gag, his jaw aching at the sudden movement.

"Stop squirming about, Ace. You won't get free." Teach said, smirking as he chewed on an apple. "And I didn't want you waking up screaming at me, hence the gag. Don't fret. I'll remove it when you calm down."

Ace raised a brow at that. When was he known to be calm?

Teach chuckled. "Ah, yes, that's right. You're rarely calm once you're pissed off. There's no point though, Commander. The Moby Dick won't catch up to us. I tossed down some of the lanterns to buy myself some time to get away with you and with Thatch bleeding out I doubt they would have thought of chasing after us."

Ace snarled. He wanted to scream and kick and punch but the chains kept him bound too tightly and the gag was firmly in his mouth, tied behind his head.

Teach sighed. "I'm sorry you had to see all that, Commander Ace. I had hoped you would go back to bed. I wanted to go about asking you in a better way."

Ace tilted his head. Ask him what exactly? If it was how Ace was going to kill him then it was gonna be slow. Slow and painful. Teach moving to his side disrupted his thoughts, looking surprisingly impatient.

"I'll undo the gag Ace, but in return you better not bother screaming. There's no point." Teach said firmly, eyes hard.

It took everything Ace had not to spit and bite as Teach finally slipped the gag out his mouth, the black cloth hanging around his neck instead. Teach threw him a smirk, ruffling his hair.

"That must feel a bit better, right, Commander?"

Commander. The bastard was actually still calling him that.

"That title should only be said by those with respect." Ace snapped, yanking at the chains.

"I do respect you-"

"Like fuck you do-!"

"You're the only one of the Whitebeard Commanders I would ask this of Ace! So of course I do." Teach snapped back, startling him out of his anger for a moment.

Ace blinked and finally forced himself to stop fighting the chains, he couldn't get free of them. Not yet at least. His head was pounding and he was exhausted. They also restrained him too tightly. Teach had obviously put a bit of effort into keeping Ace subdued.

Ace didn't like where this was going. Teach's gaze was intense and Ace had no idea why Teach was doing any of this. He had trusted the man for years and yet this had happened. Everybody on the ship had trusted him.

Ace felt sick. Thatch had trusted Teach. He had his back to Teach at the time after all, content with their 'brother' watching their backs as Ace had searched the sea desperately, worried about an attack. Ace should have watched his back instead.

"I want you to join my crew," Teach revealed.

Ace jerked away, stunned. It was like he had just been slapped in the face and quickly the shock turned to pure, utter fury.

"FUCK YOU! GO DIE IN A FUCKING FIRE YOU BASTARD!" He tried to kick out but Teach ignored his attempts and sighed, looking suddenly tired.

"Calm down, Commander Ace."

"HELL NO! YOU STABBED THATCH AND KIDNAPPED ME! I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF HE'S DEAD OR ALIVE YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"Alright, the gag is going back in," Teach grumbled.

"NO-" Ace tried to squirm away but Teach grabbed a fistful of his hair, twisting it tightly.

Ace hissed at the pain but Teach took the moment to force the gag back in, tightening it as the cloth pinned Ace's tongue down, muffling his snarls and protests. He tried to kick again but the chains around his ankles didn't budge.

"I don't know if Thatch is alive either. He probably had more of a chance since you lit up the sky like that," Teach scowled. "Sure made me had to run like hell. Zehahahaha, I imagine by now they know we're missing from the ship. I wonder if they think we're in on this together!"

Ace faltered. What if his family really did think Ace helped Teach? He was their newest crew member and had started off trying to kill Pops, for months even. Ace shook off the thoughts though, he had never fought any of the crewmembers except Marco, Marco who used to drag him, kicking and hissing, to go eat and sleep somewhere that wasn't a storage cupboard.

Also to treat his wounds. Marco had been rather insistent on that. No matter how much it had pissed off Ace when he did so.

"I doubt it though. You're an honest guy, Ace." Teach said, going back to the ship's helm. "Saying that, they also thought I was an honest son of Whitebeard. Zehahahaha, I wonder what the look on the old goat's face is now!"

Teach threw him a grin. "I bet he's realising he's no longer the 'World's Strongest Man', that he's gotten too old. Ah, if only you could have seen him in his prime, my dear Commander Ace. You would have been awed by his sheer strength and cunning. Now his body is weak and his mind is slow. A shame really, but if helps my plans move swiftly along, just fine."

Ace looked away. He couldn't help but think about his father, how upset he must be. Hopefully Thatch would be alright, Ace wished he could have protected him better, could have made sure to get him to the medical bay where Marco could have healed Thatch's wounds.

Teach had knocked him out though and captured him and he had no idea what Teach was going to do now.

He just had to hope Thatch was alive. That his family were okay.