Ace was pissed. No, scratch that, he was LIVID! And if it hadn't been for the sea stone bullet in his leg and the sea water drenching him he would have litterally been fuming with anger.
Mostly he was mad at himself for getting into this situation, which no matter what angle you looked from, was very, very bad. He had let his guard down and now he was paying the price for it.
The storm had come out of nowhere which was to be excpected when traveling on the grand line, but the storm was bad, and Ace who was alone managing the small ship had to work his ass of so it wouldn't sink.
But that wasn't what made the situation so dire, oh no.
Somewhere during the midst of the storm, and enemy pirate ship had managed to sneak up on him and before he knew it the ship had shook terribly, he had tried to stay on his feet, but the deck was slippery from all the water and he slipped and fell hard onto the deck.
He cursed and was about to stand when he was grabbed from behind and thrown forcibly into the railing, hitting his head.
It didn't take him long to get his bearings back, but when he did it was already too late, he was surrounded.
He was exhausted, hungry, surrounded by the sea in the middle of a grand line storm on his own, and was completley out numbered. Ace growled as he looked around him, he didn't stand a chance and he knew it, but he wouldn't go down without a fight.
Ace sprung up and aimed a kick at the guy standing the closest, he felt more than heard the ribs crackign as his foot conected with the man before he aimed a punch at another. The fight didn't last very long. Suddenly Ace felt a sharp pain in his left thigh and fell, it didn't even take a moment for the men to be over him.
x.x.x
Ace growled silently as he glared at the leader of the group that had ambushed him. The wound in his leg hurt horribly, and his whole body ached after the beating he got. He would be very surpriced if he didn't have any cracked bones anywhere, and Ace cursed the sea stone bullet in his leg for making his devild fruit imobile.
Also, the leader looked way to pleased with himself for Ace's liking.
"So, what are such a young marine boy doing out here by himself huh"? He said with a smirk that made Ace want to vomit, it only made his fat face look even more disgusting in Ace's oppinion
"None of you god damned buissnies scum" Ace spat out, he excpected a kick, or maybe a punch, but all he got was a very creepy laugh in return.
Ace frowned as the man turned around and started walking towards the door leading to the dungeons.
Ace's heart froze, he had almost forgot about Marco. When the ship had shook, it had been because of a cannonball hitting the ship. Ace didn't know exactly where, but it meant that Marco would be in great danger if he wasn't taken out of the cell, he could, WOULD most likley die!
"Hey! where do you think you are going you fucking assface, get the fuck back here"! Ace shouted, but the man must have heard the desperation in his voice, hell, even Ace himself could hear it, because he only laughed as he walked through the door.
Ace trashed and cursed, trying to shake of the hands trying to hold him back, yelling at them to let him go.
The second the man came back through the door, Ace was screaming at him, demanding to know what he did to Marco, the man only laughed as he walked towards his ship, signalizing for his men to follow.
"The man was already dead, drowned!" He laughed out, And Ace felt like his heart stopped.
"You are lying! I know you are" He screamed, but deep inside he wasn't so sure, what if Marco actually was dead? No, he couldn't think like that. Marco was alive, he HAD to be. He couldn't die, it wasn't possible.
"When the boss wants someone dead, they'll die, commander or not" The man yelled over the storm.
Ace gasped in shock as the ship shook once again, and he could hear the loud booms from the cannons as they fired into the hull of the ship.
Ace felt the panick rise, the ship was built with an extra layer, it made it a little slower but more sturdy than a normal ship, but at this rate the lower deck would be water filled within minutes. If he wanted to make it out of this alive, he would have to act fast.
x.x.x.x.x Warning for blood and self harm.
Ace quickly checked the ropes that bound him, they were tight and he knew he wouldn't be able to break them with force alone, but they had been stupid when they bound his arms along his sides instead of securing them behind his back, escaping would be hard, but it was possible.
He was caught of guard as a large wave sent a load of water over the railing bringing him with him, for a moment, he thought that it would bring him with it into the ocean, but his side hit the railing and when the water dissapeared he coughed and he took in deep shaking breaths, he shifted a little, but stopped when he felt something in his left pocket, trying not to get his hopas up, he desperatly shifted his leg upwards so he could reach it with his hand. He almost cried when he realized what it was. It was the knife his brothers had given him when he set out to be a marine. Sabo had carved the blade and Luffy decorated the sheet, In Ace's oppinion it was the most beautiful knife on earth.
He carfully slid the blade out of the sheet in his pocket, carefull so he couldn't cut himself on the sharp blade and looked down on it. He knew what he had to do, but he wished he could use a different knife, any knife except this one, not that it wasn't good for the perpous, it was actually perfect, but it was given to him by his little brothers, and they would raise hell on earth if they knew what he was thinking.
But that didn't matter right now, if he didn't do this, he and Marco would die. He would cut his own leg open, Using his most precious posession.
Ace changed his possition, sitting with his back against the railing with his injured leg resting against the deck to relax it. He would have to make an incision from the hole where the bullet went in to about an inch up, and it had to be deep so that he could use the knife to go under the bullet to push it upwards, but not too deep, he didn't want to bleed to death after all.
As he positioned the knife, the thought of how crazy all this was hit him, but he shook the thought away and after a deep breath, he started.
The pain hit him at once, it was sharp, excruciating, and Ace felt tears fill his closed eyes and he had to bite his lower lip hard to stop himself from crying out in pain. when he was about half way he had to stop and gasped for breath and he sobbed cuietly. the only thing he could think of was how much he wanted to be back with his brothers on Dawn, to get away from here, the pain, the marines, everything. But he knew he couldn't think like that right now. He had to be strong, so after a few deep breaths he put the knife against the pulsating wound and braced himself before cutting into it, this time, Ace did scream, if making the wound had hurt, cutting into the fresh knife wound was pure turture. But he didn't stop, he continued even when the amount of blood scared him, when the tears made his vision blurry and the snot ran down his face he only cut deeper.
He could now feel the tip of the bullet, only a little more. He drew in a breath of relife when he could feel the tip of the knife going under the bullet, he was almost there. He took a few more breaths before pushing upwards. He had to do it slowly, he didn't know what state the bullet was in, and it would be very bad if evel the smallest piece was left inside of him.
pushing upwards didn't hurt as bad, but it was still extremley uncomfortable and the second the bullet popped out of the wound and fell onto the deck, Ace slumped in reliefe, breathing hard. He sat there for a few seconds taking calming breaths, watching as the blood washed of the knife in the rain, his blood.
Ace quickly sat up straight and jumped to his feet, cursing as he put too much weight on his injured leg, he had to get out of the rain so he could use his powers to burn the ropes of, it rained to heavy outside for him to do that, but as soon as he stepped foot inside he felt his fire returning and made quick work of the ropes as he ran through the corridoor to the prison cell.
When he reached the small stair he gasped, the whole floor was water filled, it would reach him to the waist if he went down there.
"MARCO!" He yelled out, terrefied that he would get no answer from the male.
"Ace"? A tired voice answered and Ace felt like he would start to cry again when he heard Marco's voice.
"Yeah, it's me, are you alright?" Ace asked
"Define 'Alright'" came the answer and Ace had to snort. Of course Marco wasn't alright, he was probably soaked.
"I'll be right back" Ace yelled and ran up the stairs. There was no way he could walk down in to the water and make it back up again, he was completley drained, he would have to get the cell door key to marco, and he would need something that would float. When he reached the door to the kitchen he quickly opened it and went inside, walking directly towards the cabinets. He took a hold of one of the cabinet doors and ripped if straight of it's hinges before running back towards the prison.
"Marco?" He yelled and took a relieved breath as he got a groan in response, it mean he was alive at the very least.
"I'm going to send over the key, can you make it to the cell door"? He asked as he checked the room over, there was a large hole to the right of the stair making a perfect current of water towards Marco's cell.
A low thud from Marco's direction told him that Marco had probably made it to the cell door
"Okay, i'm sending it over, be ready" Ace said before putting the cabinet door in the water and the key on top before letting go. It wasn't long before he heard the clang on the cell door open and a wave of reliefe washed over him as he watched Marco wade over towards him, colapsing as he reached the part of the stairs that wasn't covered with water. Ace ran over and dragged him up the stairs as he cursed.
"Fuck it Marco, you can't collapse now, fucking shit if we dosen't get out of here we will sink together with the ship"
When Marco didn't answer or got up, Ace looked down and cursed a string of curses that would have made the most awful pirate blush when he realised that Marco, had passed out.
He continued to curse as he dragged Marco through the corridoor and up the stairs to the deck and into the storm that was still raging on. He slipped a few times on the wet deck, but soon he had made it to the railing. when he hauled the passed out pirate onto his shoulder, he realized that he still held the knife he had used only minutes earlier, and put it back into his pocket for safe keeping before jumping onto the railing. As he stood there, watching the raging ocean, the adrenaline started to leave his body, and as the impact of everything he had learned, excperienced and done finally hit him, he closed his eyes, and jumped.
