He saw there were floating islands, with rivers falling over them and into the sky. The water didn't dissipate, but formed rivers in the sky. He realized he was in his dragon body quickly, though maybe a little bit too slow. He was just in shock. All the scents were unfamiliar, and he didn't see the guild at all anywhere. There also weren't any other people around.
With no idea where he was, he attempted to flap his wings and get to one of the nearby floating islands, but it just wasn't happening. He had no training with flying, and couldn't just pull it off out of nowhere. He continued to fall until he saw the ground approaching. The floating islands were high, high in the sky by now, far above him.
He landed in a large body of water, breaking his fall for him so he didn't hit the ground hard. He didn't know if he could get hurt that way. He swam to the side of the lake and got out, finding he was surrounded by strange plants and animals. Something he noticed was the amount of magic in the environment was odd. There wasn't much, but of what was there, it was very strong. That's what made the rivers defy logic and physics.
He looked for anybody to ask help from, having no clue where he was or how to get home. But as far as he could see, there was nobody around. Just strange animals, small critters and lots of colorful plants. The water was a bright blue, and the sky was a teal color, not baby blue like at home. He was sure this wasn't his world, but he also didn't know if he was under a spell tricking him, or if he was hallucinating.
It was scary and uncomfortable, being alone again. It had only been a week and a half since he returned, and he was already separated again. While he was walking, he was in dragon form and unable to change back. Scared to do so here and not anywhere that could give him magic medicine.
"Hello?! Is anyone there?!" he shouted, his voice deep and booming, causing the little critters to flee. He sighed when he heard no answer. And there wasn't much to block his hearing. No trees or mountains in the immediate vicinity. He decided to just keep walking, looking for any sign of humans.
He couldn't feel any magic coming from him, so he had no idea if he could convert any to turn back into a human. And with no way to defend himself otherwise, it was better to stay as a dragon right now. He came across a chasm, and did a running jump, leaping across it and landing heavily on his front legs.
Walking back, he looked over the side, and called out again. A bunch of bats fled the cave, and he left with a sigh. No humans. How annoying. He finally came to someplace other than flat land, but found it was hard to cross. It was a series of little cliffs, surrounding by empty space. Pillars of stone. He wasn't confident that he could cross. He could be too heavy and break them off.
He sat down, sighing dramatically. Where was everyone else? Were they okay? Was he worrying them? He decided there was probably nothing down here in the area. No scent of humans or their life styles. He couldn't smell buildings or food or anything related to civilization. The real paces were probably on those floating islands. It was worth trying there.
Standing up, he walked to an open space a bit away from the place he'd given up crossing. His only real chance was to fly. So, Ace started practicing, flapping his wings while sprinting. Running on all fours was easy after walking for awhile. He was okay at swimming, better than he was when he was drowning in the northern seas. Swimming out of the lake had been easier.
He flapped his wings aggressively, trying to find a good rhythm before he shot off of the ground, rocketing up, high in the sky. He was terrified of falling, but he had to trust himself or he could trust noone. He flew up the way he'd come, finding the floating islands quickly. He took in deep whiffs of air, finding the scents were different than on the ground, but still no humans. Maybe finding people would also not be great since he was as a dragon and all. But when he was on his way up, he did smell something familiar. He made a beeline for that place, and found a huge tree trunk full of human smells.
He recognized Natsu and Wendy's, and landed outside. He wasn't too big to fit inside, but he definitely would feel crowded. He peeked around the corner and through a window. There were all of the guild members, at least many. But they smelled and looked different. He assumed they had all changed clothes, maybe were in disguise there. It was someplace strange and unfamiliar after all.
But he saw Natsu and Wendy looked normal. Some really went in the other direction, and even changed their hairstyles. Surely they couldn't have been there for more than a few hours. The sun hadn't even set yet. He pulled the front door open, and went into the sight of all the humans. "Ahh! What is that!?"
"A dragon!"
"Run!" Levy ran to a machine in the corner and started to fiddle with it. Ace was confused, and said it was him, it was Ace. But he was in shock as the whole building disappeared, with Natsu and Wendy shouting at them to wait. But they ran away, and everyone was gone. Ace felt like he'd been slapped across the face by the Master when he was big.
He began to cry. It was a terrible feeling, but he really assumed they weren't his Fairy Tail. They ran away from him. Surely they would never do that if he was their people. If they were his guild members. But why did they all look the same? He turned around when he heard and smelled someone else there.
"Erza!" Ace exclaimed. But maybe this Erza wasn't his. She also looked at him in that unfamiliar way. Not the warm smile he'd always gotten. She pointed her pronged weapon at him.
"What are you, beast?"
Ace's heart plummeted. This really wasn't his. He flew off in an instant. If it wasn't his Erza, it was a different Erza, and could be his enemy. Or just someone he didn't want to be around. Being in a dragon body sure caused a lot of trouble so far. But he was scared to attempt to change back.
But he listened in to Erza. The world was quiet here. He heard her speaking to someone he hadn't seen yet, as he'd fled quickly from that monster the scary Erza was on. They said Fairy Tail from Earth Land was sucked up and were turned into a lacrima! Were they all dead?! Everyone! Was Marco okay? It seemed Natsu, Wendy and the cats were fine, though.
At least some were. He had to find them again, or at least get help to try and figure out where to go. How to get home, how to find his family. This was a stressful situation and place. He saw Lucy! And it was their Lucy, she smelled the same. "Lucy!" Ace shouted from above. It was in a busy place with plenty of people, but he had to land somewhere, and he would be seen anywhere regardless of what way he chose to come in.
"Ahhh! A dragon! Oh, it's Ace!" she shouted. "Hey, wait!" she cried when Ace slammed into the ground beside her, heavy enough to crack the cobblestone street. Screaming was heard all around, the citizens seeing a dragon there.
"Lucy! I'm so happy I found someone! Where's everyone else?"
"Now isn't the time for small talk!" she insisted. Armed guards started to come, so Ace grabbed Lucy under the arms and took off, flying away as she screamed bloody muder, yelling at him to put her down. He did, landing outside of the city and away from any prying eyes. She sat on her butt, putting her head between her knees, breathing heavily.
Ace apologized. "I didn't mean to scare you. We just had to get away. Do you know what happened? Where we are?" Ace asked in worry, afraid she had no information either. She nodded. They were in a place called Edolas, but other than that, she didn't know much. Mystogan sent her there after the whole city vanished, one of her celestial spirits saving her.
"What about you? You managed to turn into a dragon?" she asked. Ace laid on his stomach and described his time on the surface, and then Fairy Tail running away from him, meeting a scary Erza, and being too afraid to try turning back into a human with no medicine to treat him if it went wrong. "I'm sorry, that must have been really scary," she said empathetically. Ace nodded in agreement. "Do you think you could find Natsu and Wendy? If they are from our world, then maybe they know where we can find everyone else! Then we can gather enough people to save the rest."
Ace nodded, and said he'd try to find them. "Climb on." She was hesitant, but did so, and wrapped her limbs around his neck. Since he was a pretty big size, but still not as big as dragons were said to be, it wasn't uncomfortable for her weight to be on his back and neck. Ace flew away, searching for their friends before he found them. It took six hours of flying and searching before he found the two dragon slayers and their cats.
"Lucy, there they are!" Ace cried, and she cheered, waving her arms and nearly falling off as Ace flew to them. The other Lucy was there as well. "I found you!"
"Ace-san, Lucy-san!" Wendy shouted happily. Happy flew to them, and looked at Ace, telling him not to eat him. "Ace-san, I'm so sorry we couldn't convince them to not be afraid. It must have been so heartbreaking to have us all flee." Ace admitted it had felt bad, and that someone dangerous had come right after they left. A scary Erza.
"Erza is always scary, though," Natsu commented. They ignored this. Lucy asked Wendy if she thought she'd be able to heal Ace if he turned back into a human but was injured.
"Oh, no, I'm not comfortable with that," she said, shaking her head and putting both of her hands up. Ace was glad she was honest and wouldn't be cocky and just try it without knowing. "Though it'll be hard getting anywhere with you like this, won't it?" she said sadly. Natsu was surprisingly not telling him to try anyways.
The Lucy from that world, Edolas, looked at him in surprise, mostly because he could speak, since Ace had seen those big animals in the sky that were much more intimidating looking than he was. He was much smaller and less scary looking. But he could speak and have conversation. "Besides, I wouldn't be able to heal you even if I felt I could. We have no magic here."
Lucy - their Lucy - took out her keys, and brought out the weakest one, the little thing with a cone nose. "You have magic!"
"Why only me?!" she asked in shock. "I have no idea why it would only be me!"
"Lucy's the strongest! Puhuhuhu, that sounds so weird to say!" Happy teased. Carla told him it was no time to be playing around. "Sorry," he said quietly. Edolas Lucy said they would have to get moving, but that Ace was dead weight like this. They couldn't sneak anywhere with a big dragon with them. Ace slumped, knowing it was true. He was a burden by being this way,
Lucy had a thinking face on, and said she wanted to try something. She took out her golden key, and called Loke. Ace hadn't seen him, because he had left while Ace was missing. He never got to say goodbye to him, not that they ever hung out or anything. Ace knew now why Loke had avoided interacting with him, maybe thinking that Ace could sense he was different. But he hadn't ever.
"Loke, can you lend magic to Ace? So he can safely turn back into a human?" she asked. Loke thought for a moment, before he lit up both hands, and said he could try. When he pressed his glowing hands to Ace, it didn't hurt at all, and Ace tried to use Loke's own strong magic to transform.
It hurt! But when it was over, he wasn't injured at all. He was a human again, and could still use his senses. Just no magic. But they heard the crack sound, and they all saw the magic circle form in front of Ace's eye. But the magic was weak, and it disappeared before anything happened.
They were all silent for a long moment, before Wendy asked, "Are… Are you okay, Ace-san?" Ace nodded, and Lucy said them having no magic could have just saved them a lot of trouble with the curse. Ace wondered what would happen once they were returned home. If the mystery curse would come back.
He took a deep breath, and realized he wasn't naked, he was in fancy, sparkling clothing. Celestial clothing? Well, he was just grateful to have clothes. "Now we can continue on," Carla said. "One problem is down."
"No way! A dragon would have been super helpful! Only Lucy had magic, that's not nearly enough!" Natsu protested.
"It's a little too late to complain now," Happy commented.
"For now, let's head to the nearest town," Edolas Lucy said. They started their trip back, which was much slower now that they were walking and not just flying. It was hot and Ace wasn't very happy. He was tired, transforming was kind of exhausting. And he was emotionally drained as well, nervous over the curse. He hoped nothing bad would happen to him with it.
-x-
Ace couldn't sleep. They managed to make it to a hotel in a city without trouble. Edo-Lucy was still with them. Ace and Natsu were in the main room, with the girls in the side bedroom. Happy was snoozing by Ace's head, everyone asleep but him. He heard that Lisanna was alive here, but had not been brave enough to ask about Sabo. If he was alive.
The boy wasn't sure if he wanted to know. He didn't want to get his hopes up, only to be heartbroken when he rightly realized it wasn't his Sabo. And he worried over losing everyone else, since they were in a huge lacrima right now. Was Marco okay? What about Erza and Mira and the Master? Was Gildarts trapped?
Were they the only free ones, after all? Ace sighed and rolled over, and heard the sounds of Edo-Lucy moving around. He peeked open an eye, and saw her gathering her few belongings. Ace sat up, and asked where she was going quietly. "There's no way you'll all fix things. I'm going back to the guild. Don't try to stop me." And she left. She had little faith in them, but Ace had to say he wasn't feeling too confident either.
Eventually, he managed to fall asleep, only awakening to an angry Lucy. Ace didn't say he knew about her leaving last night. It wasn't like he would hold her down and keep her from leaving. It was her choice.
"Now what?" Ace asked. Lucy said she wanted information on this world before they did anything more. "Where are you going to find that?"
"A bookstore, of course!"
"Do you have any of this land's money?" Wendy wondered. Lucy paused, and said there were other ways of getting things.
"Hell yeah, we gonna rob a store?!" Natsu exclaimed. Lucy scolded him, and said that wasn't what she meant. And why was he so excited to do that? "I've never broken the law before, it sounds interesting!"
"You've gotta be kidding me! You break the law all the time, it gets the guild in so much trouble!"
"Lucy-san, let's not argue or fight!"
These people were exhausting. Ace missed Marco as his partner. He mostly stayed quiet, listening to their incessant bickering, just waiting until a plan was formed. Finally, he said they could go get the book or something while he did some looking around. Wendy offered to go with him, and he was fine with that as long as he was away from Natsu and Lucy and their arguing.
Natsu had always been kind of overwhelming and annoying, but Lucy seemed to bring it out even more somehow. And Happy was a major offender in the annoyance. Ace could never be in a team with these people. He and Wendy left to investigate. "Excuse me, when can I see the new lacrima? I'm really excited!" Ace said, faking a smile that hurt his heart.
"You'll have to go to the capital city, boy," the man said. "Sure is exciting, though, you're right! Free magic for ten years!" he exclaimed happily. Ace said he was going to try and get his parents to take him to see it. "Good luck with that, it'll be crammed."
Ace thanked him and ran away, Wendy following. When they were out of view of the man, Ace's face fell and he stopped running. "What's wrong?"
"Maybe I should turn back into a dragon and storm the place? But it seemed that magic does work on me here. Loke used his magic to power me up. So I won't be really tough here," Ace said quietly. "I would be more useful as a dragon, and our group seems kind of useless right now," he added honestly.
He sighed and leaned against the building. "But, going off on your own can't be helpful in the long run!"
"I sure would make a good distraction, though," Ace mused. Wendy frowned deeply, and said there had to be another way. "I miss Marco. We would have figured out what to do by now. I hope he's okay… Did he exist in Fairy Tail here?" Wendy said he'd been really mean. "What about me?"
"No, you weren't there." Ace nodded. "A lot of people weren't there. Erza-san and Gajeel-san weren't there, either, though." He nodded again, and wondered if he was an enemy to himself here. If he was a dragon here, too. He was interested in finding out, but only once things were taken care of, once everyone was saved.
They left the area and met back up with the other two before an airship started to depart, which could take them to the capital if they snuck on board. Ace thought for a moment before he grabbed a torch off of the wall of a weirdly medieval cafe, which had torches on the outside, and threw it on a building to left, which the oil from the lantern spilled and a fire began. The soldiers were distracted by helping with the fire when Ace zipped onto the aircraft, and hid behind a crate.
He looked out the window and waved for the others to get onto the ship, too, while there was a distraction. "The fire is growing! Go get backup!" Ace was horrified when the back closed up, and he alone was taken away, hiding in the cargo area. It wasn't a big aircraft, so he had to stay ultra silent and still.
He was screwed, so screwed. But at least he could work on his own now and not in a group of six, counting the two cats. The ship zoomed over the empty space between islands, and Ace was internalling panicking, externally calm and quiet. He was trying to come up with a plan, wanting to get to the lacrima, to get to his friends and family and free them. But he had no idea how.
And he couldn't change forms without any magic, which he had zero of, and nobody to give him magic like Loke had. He was stuck as a human. And not knowing if there was someone else like him here could be a problem if it was a public figure or well known by others. He finally decided to sneak his way through the situation. Not give himself away. He wished he had some sort of magic, but he didn't. Not that he could use it if he did. It was useless to think about.
He saw out the little window he was smooshed against that there was a huge floating lacrima in the sky. He wouldn't be able to reach that place, and didn't know how to undo the spell if he did get there. He couldn't just destroy it and risk killing everyone trapped inside. What a stressful adventure this was.
When the craft did land, it was in the palace city. Ace looked around before he climbed into a crate and put the food goods on top of him, burying him inside. His clothes were dark blue, so not bright, even if they were fancy and attention grabbing when seen closely. He held his breath as the crate was lifted up. He was a kid, so he wasn't too heavy compared to the other crates.
He was taken inside the palace, where he listened for anyone familiar sounding, but found none. He was alone, nobody he knew was here based on his sense of sound. When the crate was set down, a big door slammed closed. He waited for the dreaded sound of being locked in, but it didn't come.
After waiting a few long minutes, nobody came back to the room, and Ace climbed out of the crate carefully. He looked around the dark room, seeing just fine. It was night time right now, the sun had set one the ride over, so he wondered if killing the lights would make things easier for him. He would be able to see everything just fine.
Well, first he had to get out of the room safely. He looked around and found some uniforms, but it wouldn't work for him since he was clearly the height of a child. Unless they hired very short people, he would stick out regardless of what he was wearing. He dug around in some of the other crates and found little bits of lacrima and weapons.
With no idea how to wield the weapons, he opted for the lacrima. They looked different from the huge one he saw, and these smelled like the normal lacrima from Earthland. He took one, but since he had no magic, it did not react to touching him. Crap. Ace had no way to use magic unless he took the weapons, but he also didn't know what they did, since they all looked like children toy junk.
He chose a dagger. It was big enough for him to use and pretty self explanatory, not that he wanted to stab anybody, enemy or not. He put it in his fancy pants and then ripped the fabric out of the other uniform to make a cloak over his very apparent outfit. He took off his boots, too. He was indoors now, and the boots would clack against the stone floor.
He opened the door when he knew nobody else was around. He closed it silently behind him, working hard to do that since the door was big and heavy. After making sure there was nobody around, he chose to go left. Ace was hoping to hear some convenient exposition by heading in circles around the palace. Someone had to be talking about something important, right?
Evading anyone who came his direction by using his sense of sound, he made his way around the building. The dagger was tucked in his pants still, making sure to not having to use that himself by coming across any enemies. He found the main big room he could tell was huge, and the door was thick and sturdy. Maybe this had the king in it.
He looked around and then saw a vent in the ceiling. He did a running jump and pulled himself up inside the stone grate, putting it back in place. He slowly crawled through the passageway, and found this was a great way to listen in.
Ace heard all about heir plan, and how it was going. It seemed like a wasted plan, of both life and magic. They were going to use the Magnolia lacrima to kill those on the Exceed island, which Ace didn't know what it was. When both magics combined, they would rain magic down eternally. Though why did he heard about ten years before? Was it a lie?
They were using some sort of long range weapon to use dragon slayer magic to move the island to Extalia. Ace would thwart that plan, nobody knew he was there, sneaking through the castle undetected. When he did start to hear his guild members there, they were far from where he was.
It was a hard decision, but he decided to focus on his own thing rather than being exposed and becoming a problem. But he didn't need to wait long to hear help on the way. More of the guild had broken out! Erza and Gray were there. Ace paused, but did not hear Marco. He sighed, and kept crawling, heading towards that big weapon.
He tuned out what else was happening to his friends, because it interfered with his task right now. When he found the source of the talk over the main weapon, he was inside the room the king was in. The huge weapon was pointing outside, on a balcony. He had to be careful with it. Leaving that area, he got out of a room a floor above, and opened the window very slowly, making sure nobody around was watching.
He took a deep breath. As far as he knew, Gajeel and Happy were at the lacrima island right now. Breaking it with them on it could be dangerous. It sure did help knowing what was going on without having to be there. So, this weapon would hurt them if it was fired. He opened the window wider, and lifted himself over the edge, hanging on, but not letting his feet dangle.
He was crawling along the wall, and then dropped down to a decorative ledge directly below. When he got home, he'd get an earful for doing this. He crouched and made his way along the ledge more, breathing calmly. He was surprised with how calm he was! But remembering what he'd gone through in the ocean, maybe that was why.
When he got to the ledge with the dragon slayer magic projectile, he climbed up it, and slipped inside the tunnel and directly to the inside of the weapon. If it was blasted, he'd be obliterated, but he was calm. It wasn't time yet, he'd heard that plenty of times. He had some time. He took the magic dagger out, and shoved the blade into the lacrima holding the power directly at the base of the shoot.
It cracked, and Ace smelled the burning of the weapon about to explode or be let off. Either way, it was bad news that he was in there. He crawled out and dropped down, managing to grab onto the ledge he tumbled over. He pulled himself up, and was thrown through a window with the force of the explosion.
"What was that?! What happened to the weapon?!" the king shouted. Ace grinned, and left the room, fleeing the area as the man and his advisor screamed about the weapon being broken. The magic started to react, with the whole building evacuating immediately as Ace heard the sizzling and sounds of burning machinery.
He was sprinting as hard as he could before the entire floor blew up, and he was thrown out through another window, and finally screamed as he tumbled down. There were no flying cats to save him, and he landed hard. His face slammed into the stone ground, and he moaned. It hurt, but he wasn't too badly hurt. He was durable here, it seemed.
Looking up, he saw the weapon was still functioning. Well, not how it was meant to function. It was a swirling mass of magic power, having its own climate grow around it. It was freezing around it, and Ace could hear tons of feet and boots running through the palace, screaming. Ace tried to get to a lower story, but pulses coming from the mass of magic were pushing him down every few feet until he finally just started crawling on his stomach.
Maybe it was a mistake to do that, but it was keeping it from attacking the Magnolia town lacrima. As long as his own people were fine, then the loss of life for the other side… he could look the other way. Maybe it was wrong, many of these people were innocent and just doing their job. But there was nothing he could do about it now.
Finally, the dragon slayer magic exploded, and wiped out half of the royal palace. Ace within the blast, too, and felt his body burn from the uncontrollable magic. But it didn't kill him. It decimated everything around him, but he was unhurt. He was naked now, his clothes burned to nothing, but he was safe, alive.
Looking up, he saw it was like a bomb vaporized a chunk of the castle, since everything surrounding that area was in tact. Even pipes were sticking out, like they'd just been cut up, some still dripping water. He coughed, and looked at his glowing body. He could only assume he absorbed some of the magic.
He didn't know how long it would last, but he wanted to be a dragon again, and used this magic to transform himself, then shooting off and away from the castle full of the ashes of many bodies that would never be recovered.
Well, they made enemies of Fairy Tail. He flew away from the site, counting on everyone to make it out. He knew none of his friends and family were caught in the blast. He flapped as hard as he could, and headed up to the lacrima. But then his dragon self disappeared, and he was back as a human, now falling over the side. "Ahhhh!" he screamed as he knew he was heading back down to the surface.
Why did everything have to be so complicated!? But then he was caught in a sticky net, and was sent at the island with the palace on it, stuck to the side of it. He tried getting out, but when he heard it starting to peel, he stopped moving. Oh no. If he moved, he'd unstick and fall. Who knows if he could turn back into a dragon safely? The magic he'd borrowed had disappeared.
He wished things could be constant, but it just seemed his life and situation would be chronically unpredictable and inconsistent. He heard the sounds of running feet, and someone stopped at the ledge ace was stuck against. A hand reached down and pulled him up. Ace had no weapons on him, but couldn't react before the overwhelming familiar scent flooding his senses.
He froze as he was grabbed in a hug. Ace, covered in stick and now naked, gripped him back. "I missed you," Sabo cried. Ace cried, too, and nodded in his neck. Ace wanted to ask if this was his Sabo, since Sabo had died in his world. They had his body, Ace woke up to his body. There was no loud flash or anything that would suggest he was sucked into another world. So how? Well, no matter how, Ace was so happy.
Sabo took off his pants, and handed them to Ace to wear. He had his boxers on, and that way Ace wouldn't be nude anymore. Sabo was taller than Ace was now, and his hair was a bit longer. His face was just as bright, and the tears made his blue eyes sparkle more. "You have to be a team with me and Marco," Ace said firmly. "You will come back with me."
"Hah, yes, sir. C'mon, we have a lot to do, don't we? Gotta stop something from going wrong?" Sabo asked, his face pulled into a bright grin. Ace pointed to the mess that was the castle. "What happened?"
"I did. I'm not sure how to help now, though. Everyone else has a flying cat, but I'm stuck down here. I think everyone is up there," Ace said, pointing up. "I have no magic still, and can't turn into a dragon. Kinda helpless right now," he explained bluntly.
Sabo whistled. "That's a lot of damage!" Ace nodded, and they looked up, unable to see anything really. "How do we get up?" Ace shrugged. He had no idea. Ace slammed Sabo down to the ground when a projectile came flying at them. They both looked up in worry and fear, seeing a very angry Edo-Erza glaring at them.
"Are you the one who did it?!" she roared. She looked beaten up and her hair was chopped off. "You and that damned Scarlet?!" Sabo stepped back, and Ace did, too. But they were backed up to a cliff.
She lifted her weapon, and looked furious at Ace. He had decimated the palace, but the lacrima was still there. He couldn't hear what was happening up there, but did see some debris falling. It was rock, not crystal, but the battle still wasn't over. Ace and Sabo were just helpless. How did the others get their magic back to fight?
Ace stared at the face of his surrogate big sister, and knew that he would probably be killed if he stayed there. He had no defense or offense. He took a step back, and fell over the side of the island. He was shocked when Sabo followed him, both of them tumbling in circles and falling. The second time Ace had fallen in this place. At least the first time he was a dragon.
He clenched his eyes shut, and forced himself to transform into a dragon, the feeling hurting terribly, but he was able to catch Sabo in his hand and fly them to safety, away from the main island they'd fallen off of. Sabo screamed, but Ace held him tight and safe. He was never letting Sabo die again. Not if he could help it. It had been, what, four or five years?
So much had changed, but also nothing at all. As he was flying, Ace felt the curse activate again, and Sabo cried out in shock at the black magic circle in front of Ace's face. He ignored it, as it didn't hurt, and landed on a nearby but safe island. No humans on it at all. But there were big, flying creatures there. The ones Ace had seen before. Sabo shouted at Ace to flee them, but none of them attacked.
They looked at him with those creepy, blank eyes, and then just drifted away, as if not caring about them at all. He didn't dare try turning into a human again here. He was tired. Physically and emotionally. He just wanted to go home. They'd need to find a three bedroom apartment. He hoped Marco and Sabo could get along and both be his best friend.
Ace was laying on his side, trying to will away the curse spell. It stayed there for awhile. Both of them had nothing to do. Ace didn't know where was safe or what to do next, all he knew was that he took care of the big bad weapon that would harm the Magnolia lacrima. The curse didn't go away, and Sabo was nervous and scared.
"I can't just let this thing bother me," Ace grunted in irritation. As he stood up, he was reverted back to human form, as if the magic circle was mocking him. You were saying? Ace's skin wasn't raw or bloody. But he had no more magic, and when he tried to transform back, it didn't work. As if his magic was locked away.
It was only once he gave up that the magic circle disappeared. "Are- are you okay?" Sabo asked. Ace simply said he was cursed, and that it was a long story. "We're stranded here. Might as well explain." They had to wait for help, as those flying monsters were away from the area, and they had nothing to fly them to the islands with actual people on them. It made Ace wonder just how many islands in this world had civilization on them.
"I was kidnapped at some point, and then broke out of the confinement when my magic came back - yeah, it sometimes comes too much, and most of the time, I still have nothing - but then I fell into the ocean. I don't remember what happened after being grabbed by a sea monster. Then some time later, I returned to the kingdom with tons of scars, and blind in one eye, that turns out to be cursed."
He added he remembered none of what gave him the scars or who and how he was cursed. "I still can't see in this one," Ace finished. Sabo just hugged him. Ace hugged him back, and started crying. "I missed you! I found you dead!" he said, sounding a bit accusing.
"I don't know what happened. I was there, and then I wasn't. There wasn't even a bright light. I've been here longer than I was with you in our world, but I always missed you. People - they were in our guild here, but all so different. But you weren't there, and soon people kept dying, and I just wanted to go home. I want to go home, take me back with you!" Ace said he wasn't going to leave Sabo there. But they still had to rescue their family and friends. "Then let's go."
Ace nodded, and they ran across the island to where they knew the direction of where they needed to be was. But they were too far to see anything helpful. "We can't get there. I wonder if I helped at all, or caused more damage," Ace said quietly. "I acted on my own instead of teaming up. They were just hard to work with, so I thought of going off on my own, even if it was an accident at first…"
"You never wanted to damage things on jobs, yet you destroyed the palace." Ace's face turned red and he said he didn't want to trouble people. "You wiped out half of the whole building."
"Sh-shut up! It's all I could think of, I didn't expect it would blow up like that!"
"How did it happen?"
"I-I'm not telling." Sabo looked confused, and Ace said he'd laugh at him. The blonde gave him a pleading look. "Okay! I climbed inside the weapon's tube and broke it from in there. Don't laugh!" but Sabo's laugh just brought tears to Ace's eyes. He glomped his friend, and Sabo hugged him back. "Do you know who Marco is, Sabo?"
Sabo shook his head. Ace pushed him away and held him by the shoulders. "He's gonna be your new best friend, too! And you'll live with us and we'll move somewhere with three bedrooms. I originally met him because of you. Yeah. I moved out after your died, and I was roommates with Marco. He helped me heal from you. So you're both gonna be great friends."
"Man, I have to share you."
"That's right." Sabo snorted. They both looked up and saw a vortex in the sky, and looked shocked and worried. Ace didn't know what it was like to come here, so he had no idea if the vortex was a way to go back home, or something more dangerous. Then their gazes snapped downwards when the island began to crumble under their feet, falling from the sky. "I'm so tired of falling off of things!" Ace cried as they went tumbling along with rocks and terrified animals.
But soon their bodies started to glow. White and gold lights filled the sky, not stars or the many moons Edolas seemed to sport. It was magic, magic was in the air. Getting sucked up into the vortex. Ace kicked off of one rock and latched onto Sabo's hand. Sabo stuttered, "I didn't even get to say goodbye to them all! They don't know that I left!" He looked so horrified with himself.
"Well, we can't do anything about it. I'm sorry," Ace said, feeling heartless for saying those words, though they were the truth. "You didn't get to say goodbye to us either. I bet you run out on tabs on dates."
"The hell?!" Sabo shouted, but he laughed. Ace smiled, and the light grew brighter and brighter until they couldn't see. But they made sure to hold onto each other's hands.
