Will of the Sea
Chapter 2: Brothers and Questions
Warnings: guilt/remorse, scars, mental breakdown, thoughts of murder/mentions of past murder, mentions of death, Marineford flashbacks, mentions of a Buster Call, Akainu, past character death
Blackness.
Light.
Voices.
He could hear young voices, but he couldn't understand anything.
Was he losing his mind?
Was Kozuki-Amatsuki Toki's Devil Fruit ability a lie?
Two voices, he still couldn't understand what they were saying, but he knew that there were two of them.
He knew those voices.
But where?
Where was he?
Why can't he see?
Light.
Pain.
Voices.
Screams.
Pain.
All he could feel was unimaginable pain.
Screams.
Someone was screaming his name.
What was his name?
"A-"
"Ac-"
"Ace-"
"ACE!" The voices blurred together.
He gasped, stumbling. He couldn't feel anything only pain.
"Ace!" A young voice yelled at him, frantic in worry.
Ace. Was that his name?
He doesn't know. He doesn't remember.
He turned his head, everything hurt.
Blue and yellow filled his vision. He can see.
Blue and yellow. Two colors on two boys that he knew better than anyone.
Sabo and Luffy, his younger brothers.
His new brothers.
They were alive.
He was alive.
He was back.
His voice broke. "S- Sa- …. L-Lu-!" He couldn't form their names.
"Ace!" Both boys yelled, concern clear in their young voices and in their bodies.
"Sabo! Luffy!" Ace screamed.
The man-turned-boy snapped his head and screamed.
He screamed so loud his vocal cords felt like they were shredded.
His scream was one of pain.
Of loss and loneliness.
Of heartbreak.
Of betrayal.
Of a past death.
The two boys did not know what to do. They were frozen in shock, fear, and uncertainty. Luffy looked at Sabo, tears streaming down his little face. Sabo also didn't know what to do with their screaming older brother.
That was until he fainted and collapsed.
"Ace!" Sabo and Luffy yelled in unison.
Thumps and loud footfalls. Voices, yells of concern. A brash female leads the yelling.
Dadan.
She would help. She would know what to do.
"What's all the- "
The large orange-haired woman stopped cold, her eyes landing on the unconscious eldest child that she was forced to take care of.
Everything stopped at the moment that the bandit leader and the two little boys stare at the unconscious dark-haired boy. The first little boy that was brought into her care unwillingly.
Unwanted by the world, but still loved. Loved in a way only a parent could love a child.
Dadan scooped up the unconscious little 10-year-old from the arms of the two other boys. His younger brothers clung to her dress, looking up at her with fear for the older boy.
"Let's go home. Then you two will tell me what happened." She said harshly, but her eyes were soft with worry for the three boys.
The two boys nod, tears silently slipped down their faces. Dadan glanced down at the little boy in her arms and frowned. She had heard the scream before she burst through the trees. It wasn't like anything she'd ever heard before.
That scream was filled with pain, a deep aching that a child as young as Ace shouldn't have ever experienced. So why did he scream like that? Dadan wasn't the smartest, nor did she know much about the world, but caring for these three boys? She could do, not very well, but she could at least make sure they lived as long as they wanted and she would always have her door open to them, not that she would admit that she loved the three brats, even the new blond. But she did.
The bandit felt a tug on her dress and looked down. It was Luffy, he was looking up at her with fear, he didn't know what was happening to Ace, but it scared him. Of course, it would.
"Don't worry, Ace will be fine. He'll jump back like normal in no time. Let's just go home and make sure he's not sick, alright?" She whispered softly to the straw-hat wearing boy.
Ace shifted in her arms and Dadan turned her attention back to the boy she was carrying. His eyes were barely open, and his mouth was moving. Leaning her head down a bit to see if he was speaking, her eyes widened for a moment when she heard what he said.
"Marco. Pops. Luffy."
She didn't know what to make of those names or even what he meant, but she would ask him when he woke and was fully conscious again.
"Dogra, Magra!" Dadan shouted when they made it back to the base.
The two bandits came running out of the hut. "What happened?" Dogra asked.
"Don't know," The bandit boss said harshly. She went up to Ace and Luffy's room and put Ace on his bed. "Check him for injuries and see if he's sick." She demanded and the bandits got their meager medical supplies and went up to the boy.
The orange haired woman sat down and gestured for Luffy and Sabo to sit as well, they did. Luffy was leaning on Sabo and clutching his arm, trying to keep his tears from falling unsuccessfully.
"Now, can one of you tell me what the hell happened?" Dadan asked.
"We don't know. We had just promised to become brothers and be pirates together when Ace started panicking and screaming." Sabo said quietly, rubbing Luffy's back, trying to comfort him.
"Boss!" Dogra shouted.
Dadan, Sabo, and Luffy all snapped their heads upwards. The three of them all ran up and squeezed into the two (three) boys' room.
Dadan shielded the two boys from what Dogra and Magra were showing her. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Ace's body was scared, but the two that stood out the most was the one on his stomach and his back.
"What the hell is that?!" Dadan asked, frantic.
"We don't know! We've never seen this before." Magra said.
Luffy and Sabo pushed the female bandit out of the way to see what was happening with their older brother.
Luffy wordlessly sobbed as he saw the giant scar on his oldest brother's stomach and back. Sabo was staring at it, horrified.
"H-How? When did that happen?!" Sabo shouted, wiping his head around to look at the three bandits in the room.
"We don't know, Sabo. We've never seen this before. With a scar this big… Ace shouldn't be alive." Dogra said, glancing between the two boys.
"Don't say that!" Luffy screamed. "We promised each other we wouldn't die!"
"Luffy-" Magra tried to get control of the spiraling situation but the boy wouldn't hear it, neither of them would.
"Magra, get them out of here. Dogra, bandage it." Dadan hissed, her eyes staring at what should have been a giant hole in Ace's back and stomach.
"No! We won't leave him!" Sabo shouted.
"Boys!" Luffy and Sabo stared at Dadan. "You can't do anything for Ace right now. Whatever happened, however it happened… we will need to wait until he wakes up and tells us. For now, we will let you sleep in here if you both promise not to touch him. That might make it worse, alright?" Dadan asked the two boys, making sure both, especially Luffy, knew the severity of the current situation.
Dadan didn't know if she should call Garp or not, but it really wouldn't do any good. Garp probably wouldn't come for at least another three months even if she told him about Ace. "Okay, we understand, Dadan. Thank you." Sabo said.
Luffy nodded, taking one last look at his oldest brother and left the room along with Sabo. "Come and get me if anything changes or if he wakes up. Keep him calm if you can." Dogra nods, serious and worried for the boy.
"I'll go make some food." Magra muttered, going into the small kitchen.
Dadan saw that Sabo was trying to occupy Luffy as to not think so much about Ace. What the hell happened to you, Ace? How in the world did you get that scar? Dadan thought.
"How about you two go into the village and see Makino? You haven't seen her in a while, right Luffy? And you could introduce Sabo to her as well." Dadan said, trying to be a bit nicer to the boys since all of this happened.
Luffy looked at her, his eyes red and puffy from crying. Tears still slid down his cheeks, but not as much as before. The little seven-year-old whimpered and he violently shook his head, his lips firmly pressed together.
"I would actually really like to meet Makino, Luffy. You said that she was like your older sister, right? She could be our older sister." Sabo said quietly, hoping to get the boy up and out of the small house, it was really a large hut.
Luffy pointed up towards where Ace was. "Stay with Ace." He stubbornly shook his head.
Magra came back with plates of food, putting two in front of Luffy and handing the others in his hands to Dadan and Sabo. The blond boy nodded in thanks, a small smile on his lips to the bandit.
Luffy picked at his food. He didn't eat. Dadan immediately knew that what happened to Ace was affecting Luffy far more than she initially realized. "Luffy, aren't you going to eat?" She asked the boy, his head was bowed, the hat on his head almost covering his entire face.
"I… I can't! Not when Ace…" His tears renewed as he clung to his hat. Dadan and Magra sighed and glanced at each other, not having any clue on how to comfort the two boys.
After a while, Luffy and Sabo went upstairs to watch over Ace. "Sabo?" The older brother looked to their youngest.
"Yeah, Luffy?"
"What happened to Ace?"
Sabo couldn't answer. But his imagination was running and every possibility he could think of and not think of was worse than the pervious. "I don't know."
Luffy raised his hand to his head, taking off the hat Shanks had given to him a while back. He took it off and stared at it. "Why does Gramps hate this hat? It was Shanks' hat. Why does he hate that I have it?"
The former Noble stared at Luffy; he didn't know where the other boy's head was at to even start thinking about Garp and the implications of Shanks and the straw hat that he had given to Luffy. "I… I don't know. Want to sit with Ace?" He asked, looking over at the comatose boy.
Still having his hat in his hand, Luffy rested it on Ace's head. Dogra and Sabo were stunned. Luffy never lets anyone touch his hat; no one could even wear it.
"Now when Ace wakes up, he'll also have a hat."
"We need to get him a hat, Sabo. So, we can match. Maybe a cowboy hat? Do you think Ace will like that?" Luffy rambled and Sabo couldn't help but let out a wet chuckle.
Maybe what happened to Ace will never be solved, but at least Luffy would always be his happy and blunt self. The little dark-haired boy sat down on the bed, at Ace's feet. Luffy put his head on his knees and just stared at his oldest brother, thinking.
Luffy was thinking, an activity he doesn't usually do. How had Ace gotten that really big scar on his stomach and back? Why did he scream? What happened to him? Luffy curled up at Ace's feet and closed his eyes. Maybe sleeping would help him calm down.
Sabo and Dogra glanced at each other. "If you need anything, we'll be downstairs. If something changes, come get us. We'll leave you three alone." Dogra told him softly, the former Noble nodded, grateful that the bandits were helping them.
It was a week later that Ace woke up.
Ace's back and abdomen hurt like hell. Probably because he got a magma-fist through his chest, but that was beside the point.
Kozuki-Amatsuki Toki's Devil Fruit actually worked; he was back in the past.
From what Ace could tell, he was a kid again, age ten or so. He also felt something on his head. Reaching up, he felt straw. Familiar straw that was shaped into a hat. Into…Luffy's hat, the one that Shanks had given to him…which he got from his own Captain…Ace's father.
And then remembered-
Sabo was still alive; he could save Sabo this time! He could make sure that Sabo's parents and that Tenryubito never hurt him; he could stop Bluejam from kidnapping Luffy and torturing him!
I could have my family again. Ace thought, a burn in his eyes.
The black-haired D-Bearer reached down to the pocket of his shorts, taking out the picture that his father had given him before he went back to his past.
Roger had told him to go to South Blue, why, he didn't know. But maybe it had to do with the Roger Pirates, or even something that Roger and Rouge had left for Ace when he was older. But he would go there to find out.
He thumbed the picture; it was old but well taken care of. A tiny smile slipped on his lips as he gazed at the unmoving forms of his parents, of the two people who had brought him into the world and risked their lives for him. But more than that, Garp and Dadan had also risked their lives for him, for Luffy and him both.
Ace started crying, tears streaming down his face. "Mom, Dad, Gramps, Dadan, Sabo, Luffy, Pops, Thatch, Marco."
He broke down, wrapping his arms tightly around his knees and curling into himself, just staring blankly at the picture of the Oro Jackson and the Roger Pirates. Of his father's family, of his crew.
That was when he realized what he had just said out loud. The names that he had called out in his grief.
Thatch was alive. He was alive right now.
The Whitebeards didn't know that they had a traitor in their midst, they had no idea of the danger that Blackbeard posed to them, to the Commanders, to Whitebeard himself.
To Marco.
That made Ace's heart stop.
If Blackbeard hurt Marco, if he hurt the man that had loved him for everything he was even though he didn't deserve it… he would kill him.
Marshall D. Teach – Blackbeard - would die. Somehow, someway, Ace would make sure he died. Painfully and slowly, Ace would not let that bastard hurt the people he loved and who loved him.
That meant getting to the Grand Line, getting his crew again, this time getting a few more members, mainly some of the Roger Pirates if he could find any of them.
Roger did say that he had disbanded the crew in secret and that they were all scattered throughout the Grand Line and the Blues. Some, he figured, were dead, which he couldn't really do much about that. But those that he could find, those that accepted him as their captain, as their former captain's son… he would take them into his crew and protect them with all he had.
He wouldn't let the Roger Pirates die because of Blackbeard or any of the Marines.
He would not let that happen, not while he's still breathing.
He needs to train and find the Mera Mera no Mi. He needs to train Luffy and Sabo, maybe even teach Sabo Haki as well, that could be good.
Teaching his younger brother to fight with both a weapon and Haki would be a good idea. Ace did know how to use Busoshoku Haki, but he didn't know how one went about unlocking Haki, be he figured it had to do with the circumstances. He had unlocked his Busoshoku Haki when he had already started his journey.
The man-turned-boy threw the blankets off of his body and got up, but he stumbled a bit since he wasn't used to being in his child body again.
"Okay, I can do this. Take it one step at a time." He told himself. He slowly started taking small steps throughout the room to get his bearings back. After a few minutes he lifted his shirt and saw the hole that Akainu had punched through him. It should have been a hole, now it was just a large, deformed scar. "I guess I won't be able to get any tattoos anymore." He sighed, thinking about Whitebeard's ruined Jolly Roger on his back.
He quickly took off his shirt and checked if he still had Pops Jolly Roger and his tribute to Sabo. He didn't. Ace grabbed his arm and closed his eyes. He would still get Sabo's tribute on is arm, he has too, but this time it was a promise to keep his brother safe and happy.
The door suddenly opened. Standing frozen in the doorway was Dadan, she just stared at him, and he blinked as he thought he saw tears in her eyes. Shaking his head, he switched into a black tank top and slipped his shoes on.
"Hi Dadan. How've you been?" He asked her with a smile.
She continued to stare at him and then shouted, "You brat! What the hell happened to you?!"
Ace winced and looked down at the floor. Then he looked back up at the woman who he considered to be his mother. She gasped as her eyes widen in shock seeing the haunted look in the boy's eyes.
"Too much, Dadan. Too much happened to me." He grimaced, clutching his abdomen where Akainu's fist went through him.
The shout was heard downstairs, and two boys ran up to see their awakened brother. Luffy and Sabo slammed into Ace, knocking him onto the floor but Ace didn't care, he just let them cry and cling and hug him.
"Ace! You're okay! What happened? Are you okay?" Luffy asked frantically, sobbing into the tank top.
Sabo was checking him over, trying to see anymore wounds on him. "What happened to you?" He whispered, catching the haunted look that Dadan saw before they came up.
Ace closed his eyes and just smiled. "I'm okay." He spoke.
"Okay my ass!" Dadan shouted. "You are not 'okay' Ace. I want to know what the hell happened to you and where you got that giant scar!"
Ace pushed Sabo and Luffy off him and put them to the side a bit to be able to get up. "I don't have to tell you anything I don't want to!" Roger's famous temper flaring within him.
"You brat! You will tell me! You scared your brothers half to death! You scared me half to death! I was thinking about calling Garp to come back! So yes, you will!" She shouted, stomping over to the boy.
Hearing Garp's name made Ace freeze. "No." He hissed; the three other occupants tensed at the level of hatred in the boy's voice. "No fucking Marines! I'll kill them all if they think they can kill us!" His grey eyes burned with utter hate that it made Dadan step back in fear of the boy.
"Okay…. Alright Ace. No Garp, I'm sorry." She said, trying to get him to calm down. "Just… can you tell us what happened to you?" She asked, almost pleading.
Dadan, Sabo, and Luffy were looking at him with concern and slight fear at what his answer would be. "I won't answer all of your questions, but I will answer some. Let's go downstairs, I'm hungry." Ace said as he moved to the doorway and heading to the kitchen-dining room area the small hut had.
Dogra and Magra stopped and stared at Ace when he came down followed by Dadan, Luffy, and Sabo. Ace sat down in one of the chairs at the table, followed closely by his brothers. Luffy sat on Ace's lap and Sabo grabbed Ace's hand to make sure he was real and that he wasn't hallucinating.
"I'll answer the questions I want to, if you try and demand answers I'm leaving and taking Luffy and Sabo with me to start training." Ace told them seriously.
The bandits and his brothers nodded. "What happened to you?" Luffy asked first.
"Be more specific, what do you mean 'what happened'?" Ace asked, looking between his brothers.
"You started screaming and panicking when we became brothers." Sabo said.
"I didn't know where I was." Ace answered.
"How could you not know?" Magra asked.
"Who are Pops and Marco?" Dadan suddenly remembered the names that Ace had muttered when she had found the brothers.
Ace stared at her. "Where did you hear those names?"
"You were muttering them when I brought you back here. Who are Pops and Marco?" She asked, wondering if Pops was Roger. If so, what could she do if he stared asking questions about the former Pirate King?
"Not telling you that." Ace shook his head and before Dadan could protest he glared at her, flaring his Haoshoku toward her and making her jerk back in fear. "I told you that some things I wouldn't answer. This is one of those things. But I will tell you this…They are powerful, more powerful than you could even image."
"Even stronger than Gramps?" Luffy whispered.
He remembered Marineford, he remembered Garp blocking Luffy's path to get him off of the execution scaffold.
"Maybe, both of them are really strong." Ace told his little brother who was in awe. So were the others but they didn't show it on their faces, however, Ace could tell.
"How did you get that scar?" Dadan asked harshly, blowing out smoke from her cigarette. She wanted to get straight to the point of the conversation, knowing the others were wondering what happened to Ace as well, but were too scared to ask the question directly.
Ace nudged Luffy off his lap and the little seven-year-old went over to Sabo to sit on, still holding one of his hands.
Ace laid a hand on his chest and closed his eyes. He was thrown back again into his memories of the war.
Of Luffy and the Whitebeards coming for him, all because of Blackbeard's betrayal and Thatch's murder. How Luffy fought off the Admirals, of Akainu aiming to kill Luffy but he stepped in between them, sacrificing himself for his youngest brother.
He was brought back from his mind by a gentle hand. He grabbed it and then reached for the neck of the person who had grabbed him.
It was Dadan. He let go of her and stepped back. "Don't do that. I could have killed you." He told her harshly.
She narrowed her eyes at him and asked her question again. "How did you get that scar?"
"You won't let this go, will you?" It wasn't a question and they both knew it. He closed his eyes and growled.
"A man attempted to kill me." That was all that he would say on the topic.
"What?! Who tried to kill you!?" Luffy yelled, frantic.
"A Marine." Ace answered. That made the house's occupant's freeze in horror.
"Was… was it Garp?" Magra questioned, glancing towards Luffy as he said the man's name.
"The Marines and the World Government are corrupt. There's no denying that. Don't get me wrong, there are some good Marines that are actual decent people, but most are corrupt bastards that don't care about anyone but themselves and their goals." Ace paused and then looked directly at Luffy.
"No, Garp is a Vice-Admiral; the one who tried to kill me was an Admiral. That's all you need to know. Also, if any of you see people with black suits, tell me immediately." He demanded.
"Why? Who are they?" Sabo asked.
"They are CP Agents, Cipher Pol, a special division of the World Government that can and will kill anyone who the Government deems a threat. That means that Luffy and I need to be extra careful. Luffy you cannot go into Grey Terminal or Foosha Village without me, same goes for you Sabo." Ace told his brothers, looking at them both dead in the eyes.
Both knew that this was serious. Luffy and Sabo nod and Luffy asks his own question. "Why can't we go without you?"
"I'm the only one who can cover the two of you and make sure they don't automatically kill you or get word out to issue a Buster Call." Ace said, his eyes turning to the window to watch the scenery of the area.
"What's a Buster Call?" Dadan asked.
"It's the ultimate attack by the military. A fleet of 10 ships initiates the attack, obliterating anything and everything that's the target. The only ones who can activate a Buster Call are the Fleet Admiral, 3 Admirals, Commander-in-Chief, and the Five Elders."
The others, again, froze in terror at just hearing about the utter destruction that the World Government could call upon with just a press of a button. "Wh-Why would that happen?" Luffy asked, scared and clutching his straw hat tightly.
"Because we are D-Bearers, we are the children of the Pirate King and the Commander of the Revolutionary Army. More than that, that would give the Celestial Dragons an excuse to kill Garp. He's also a D.-Bearer" Luffy whimpered and began to cry.
Ace scooped him up in his arms and rocked him, humming Bink's Sake to the little boy.
Luffy calmed down and blinked up at Ace. "How do you know Bink's Sake, Ace?" Ace grinned.
"You sing it a lot." The tense atmosphere was broken with the laughter from the three brothers. Ace turned his attention back to the bandits.
"Any other questions?"
"What happens if a Buster Call is called to Dawn Island?" Dogra asked.
Ace frowned. "There's a cave on the beach, get Makino and go there, only you four. I'll make sure Sabo and Luffy are safe then we leave under the cover of the destruction. There are a few safe places I can think of in East Blue, but if we need to go to the one of the other Blues, I would say South Blue would be the next best thing. If not, then we head to the Grand Line and find an island protected by a decent pirate crew or by a Yonko if we I can convince him to allow you four shelter."
"How… How do you know all that?" Dadan asked, narrowing her eyes to stare at Ace.
He temporarily ignored her and turned to Luffy and Sabo. "Would it be alright with you two if we start our journeys a bit earlier than we planned?" He asked, truly wanting to know. Luffy grinned a big D-grin, and Sabo nodded seriously. "Good."
His eyes found Dadan's again and he explained. "If we need to leave under fire of a Buster Call then I'm going to start gathering my crew, but we won't do anything noteworthy until you, Dogra, Magra, and Makino are safe."
"You don't need to protect us, brat." Dadan said harshly.
"You have a bounty on your head, Dadan. It may be a small one even for East Blue standards but yes, I do. You are the closest thing to a mother that Luffy and I have." The man-turned-boy frowned.
"I'm not going to let you die because the misguided sins of Garp. If I can protect you four, then I will. If need be, I'll have find some wat for Luffy to contact Shanks and ask him to offer you four protection on one of the islands he protects." Dadan and the rest stared at him.
"Also, Lu…thanks for the hat." Ace smiled warmly at his little brother who grinned at him.
"Did it help?" Luffy tilted his head, blinking widely.
"Yeah-yeah it did. Thank you, Luffy." He hugged Luffy when the boy's arms wrapped around him.
"Kid, you're insane." Dadan shook her head. "Just… be careful. I don't want to hear of your deaths, got it?" Ace smiled at her and gave her a hug as well.
"Course! We'll fulfil our dreams, that's a promise!" Luffy giggled and Sabo laughed but they were together, that's all that mattered.