A different take on how I write the Whitebeard pirates in this very graphic horror-ish story. After all, they did refuse to let Ace go when he wanted. It turned out fine for him in cannon, but you can't expect every case to be like that. So the Whitebeards besides Thatch are the bad guys this time.
A lot of bloody descriptions, mentions of PTSD, swearing. It's a dark story. It starts out graphic too. Anyways, enjoy~
Sabo bled from his stomach, right in the middle. The blood soaked down his side and onto the plastic sheeting all three brothers were laying upon. A little bit of blood dribbled from his mouth, but nothing like Ace's hemorrhaging. It trickled just over his bottom lip as his eyes closed, unlike both of his brothers, who stared at nothing.
Ace coughed up blood as his mouth filled with it, blood also seeping out from his nose and eyes. It dripped out of his ears and puddled in his hair on the hardwood floor of the infirmary on the Spade's pirate ship. He shook as he bled before he became still, eyes open and unseeing as small droplets of blood still slipped down his face.
Luffy thrashed around, grabbing his neck and throat as his eyes grew red. He gasped for air, but none got to his lungs. Tears poured down his eyes as he drowned on land. Soon he became still as well, eyes open and hazy, though no blood had come.
All three were dead.
"Alright, let's get them cleaned up," Deuce said, the first mate of the brothers' pirate crew. They already had cleaning wipes and supplies, rags and towels. Luffy was clothed while the older two were both shirtless so they didn't ruin their clothes with the blood. Sabo's wound slowly healed while they avoided that area and wiped down the rest of it.
Deuce cleaned up Ace's face gently, dabbing the water on the bloody crevices in his face. The corners of his eyes were always the hardest to clean. He didn't clean the inside of his mouth, but the rest of his face and ears.
Once they were clean enough, three of the Spades carried one of them to their bedroom that they shared. They each had their own bed but all slept in the same, large bedroom. Deuce carried Ace, Aggie carried Sabo and Jojo carried Luffy. They tucked all three of them in, putting glasses of water on each of their nightstands for when they woke up.
They turned off the bedroom light and then left the room, keeping the door open just a crack.
-x-
Seven years ago, Sabo was stabbed in the stomach in Gray Terminal. He was just one second too late to dodged the knife. It cut straight into him, deep and in his gut. Ace had killed the offender quickly and attempted to pull Sabo back to the forest, Luffy running after, crying heavily, scared for Sabo.
They didn't make it to the treehouse before Sabo was unable to run anymore. There was a thick trail of blood leading through the woods, dripping down Sabo's front and legs. It was a lot of blood, and Ace knew there was no way they could save him. Luffy protested this logic, saying Sabo was too strong to die like this.
Five minutes later, Ace carried Sabo's bloody, limp body. His eyes were closed and blood was in his mouth. Ace did not cry, but Luffy could not stop. He wailed in despair and Ace didn't have the heart to scold him. They went to the river and cleaned Sabo up, trying not to look at the big and long gash along his stomach.
After that, they buried Sabo at the cliff they declared their dreams at not long ago. They were both devastated, Luffy emotional while Ace cut everyone off. He was mean to Luffy, and regretted it from the bottom of his heart later.
Ace died a year after Sabo, catching a disease that paralyzed him before his brain hemmoraged and he passed in a mess of blood. Luffy saw the whole thing, and something inside of him broke. He didn't eat, didn't sleep. Garp had to come and take care of him, force him to eat and be healthy. Luffy came to hate him for that.
The only remaining brother drowned after falling off of a marine ship, sinking down with his devil fruit. Garp was able to retrieve him, but by then, his soul was gone and all that was left was the empty body of the last of the three brothers. He was taken back to Dawn Island to be buried next to his beloved brothers. So, three graves were there for two years. Until they weren't graves anymore, but messes of churned up dirt.
All three brothers, the same night at the same moment, woke up in darkness, suffocating darkness. Luffy was in the only coffin, while Ace and Sabo clawed their way through the ground like zombies, though they were perfectly intact. They didn't rot, didn't decompose. They were startled out of their shock when they saw a headstone for Luffy, and Ace heard faint screaming. Sabo and his older brother clawed their already muddy hands into the impacted ground, their nails bleeding by the time they reached the coffin and were able to break it and pull their baby brother out.
Sabo was devastated. "Both of you died?" he asked in a hoarse voice, tears in his eyes, trailing down his dirty cheeks. Ace looked down. All he remembered was being in pain but unable to move, seeing Luffy's teary face, and then darkness.
"I got sick with a disease. I died a year after you." Ace turned to Luffy and hugged him tightly, a strange show of affection to Sabo. "I'm so sorry, Luffy. I left you all alone," he said, feeling useless and guilty. Luffy hugged him back, but looked at his face in what could only be described as fear. "Luffy, what's wrong?"
Luffy burst into tears, the eight year old crying out about what he last saw of Ace. And both older brothers were horrified. Ace felt his face, searching for the blood Luffy said had seeped from every orifice. Sabo hugged him, as he clearly needed it. Luffy clutched his head instead of hugging back, and Ace and Sabo worried about what it had done to him. How he was still suffering from seeing Ace like that, and losing both of them.
"Lu, how did you die?" Ace asked quietly. Luffy looked down, and said he'd drowned.
"I was on grandpa's ship, but I fell in the water. Then I woke up in there," he said, pointing to the coffin. He wiped his eyes furiously, and for the first time ever, Ace walked over and pulled his hands away.
"It's okay to cry," he said kindly, something he'd never said before. He regretted abusing Luffy and then dying like that. He should have been a better brother, shown him love before he was all by himself. Instead, he gave him lasting damage from the sight of Ace bleeding to death. Sabo wiped his own tears away at the scene.
Luffy then asked the question all of them were thinking but hadn't said yet. "Why are we alive?" Ace and Sabo shrugged, not knowing how or why, but hoping to have a second chance to live again. None of their bodies had aged a day from when they'd died. None of them knew how long they'd been dead in the first place.
There was no one to ask. They decided not to return to the bandits or Foosha village. They knew Garp would come. He would no doubt be happy to see them, but they also had no doubt that the marines would try to figure out what happened to them, stealing away the freedom they had a second chance at.
The boys headed to the treehouse, the youngest holding both of their hands. The treehouse was not in bad shape, but it wasn't how it was before, moss had grown, and some planks were out of place. It would be easy enough to fix.
They worked day and night to fix their home, having gone hunting with new poles they picked up at gray terminal. It seemed to have been long enough that no one living there recognized the boys. They were probably dead. You don't always leave the gray terminal alive. Murders there were frequent, and never punished.
Once the treehouse was in good shape, they returned to it. Things started to get better, and they resumed their lives. The treasure was even still in the treasure tree! Everything was going perfectly until a nightmare occured.
Sabo was the first to show signs. He felt a terrible pain in his stomach, and thought he might have upset it until blood started to stain his shirt. He pulled the shirt up with shaking hands to see a long cut, which was bleeding badly. Blood dripped out of his mouth, and he coughed wetly, getting his brothers' attention.
"Sabo!" Ace screamed and ran over, Luffy not far behind. But then, Sabo screamed Ace's name as well, as he started bleeding from his face, just like Luffy had described. He tried wiping the blood away frantically, but there was a pounding in his head and things were getting darker. Then Luffy began to gasp uncontrollably, gripping at his throat in panic. He was gasping for air, but it didn't seem to be doing anything.
In a matter of minutes, they were all laying down on the treehouse floor, two of them bleeding out. They were dead again.
Four hours later, they rose again. And the cycle continued for their lives after that.
-x-
Sabo was always the one to wake up first, and sat up, his wound healed perfectly fine. He stood up easily, blood loss non-existent, and walked to the closet to put a top on and get dressed. He waited casually on his bed for his brothers to awaken. It was always him that came to first, probably since he died first.
The eighteen year old threw a shirt at his older brother when he sat up himself. He yawned and groaned. He was so sick of this. The only good thing was that over the past seven years, they'd gotten used to it. And for the last one, they'd had someone or someones to help them through it. Clean up their mess before they had to wake to it.
It saved the youngest from having a panic attack when he awoke. Luffy had PTSD from Ace's death. And it happened every two weeks. The fifteen year old was in the worst shape of all of them after waking up. Well, coming back to life. Since he always witnessed both of them dying their bloody deaths, always the last to succumb as he saw the bodies of his beloved brothers.
It was due to that that their crew members cleaned them up afterwards. Ace and Sabo had gotten used to it years ago, but Luffy still had not. Probably because he was the last to die, alone for too long after they both passed in painful ways. He blinked his big eyes, and looked at Ace. He smiled, and showed that there was no blood on his face. Luffy sighed in relief.
The three got dressed and put their shoes on to leave and thank their beloved crew for helping them. They entered the galley to see the six of them lounging around on the couch, Jojo cooking dinner.
"Morning, sunshines," Deuce teased. "How was your reset?"
"Same old, same old," Sabo replied, sitting on the comfortable chair across from the couch. They weren't the richest crew, so their furniture was old and damaged, but still comfortable. The ship had taken up much of the brothers pirate funds. They had enough to buy food, but were not able to splurge on non-necessities.
Everyone came from poor backgrounds, so none of them were really used to fancy things. Jojo had never lived in a house before she found her home on the Piece of Spadille, but they called it the PoS, even though that also meant "piece of shit". It was an inside joke between them, and sometimes they'd call her a piece of shit, even though she was a nice ship.
"Thanks for cleaning us up, again," Ace said, popping his neck before sitting on top of Sabo.
"Hey! It's my turn on the chair!" Sabo said angrily, shoving Ace off of him. They fought over the reclining chair, since they only had the one. Luffy laughed from the floor, sitting on his piece of carpet. They only had one,just for Luffy to use.
Aggie cut through their fighting, "You're welcome," he said loudly. Ace and Sabo continued to glare at each other.
Jojo said, "If you don't stop fighting I'm not making you any dessert," she called from the small kitchen. They had one table that fit all ten of them. A small but cozy crew. Ace and Sabo stopped fighting. They were the co-captains, but they couldn't cook so relied on Jojo to make them food. Luffy laughed at it again, sitting cross legged.
Ace sighed and finally gave up the seat and sat on the couch. Sabo smirked at him and very clearly relaxed into the chair, sinking into its fluffiness. Ace glared at him. Luffy changed the subject by asking when they would make it to the next island.
Saber was the navigator, and answered the youngest's question, even though he'd told everyone before. "We'll be arriving tomorrow if the weather allows us. The next island has a marine base."
"Yay!" Luffy exclaimed. They loved marine bases because they could beat everyone up. None of them still had a bounty because there was never any photographs taken. It was always Luffy's mission to find a den den camera to use and give them a picture to use. He was strong enough to be able to fight on his own, his devil fruit quite powerful now, in the ways he used it.
Ace had his own devil fruit, and was usually the one to light the marine bases on fire once everyone was done with their fun. The whole crew took part in the marine base massacres. Ace made sure everyone was far from it until he lit the fire. Then, they'd sail away, feeling satisfied and energized.
"Hopefully we can find a camera this time," Sabo commented. Ace and Luffy nodded in agreement. "We don't have bounties yet, even though we should. We've decimated six bases, shouldn't we be wanted by now?" He was almost pouting.
The rest of the crew agreed. They were barely recognized at all in the sea, even though they had made it to the New World already. They'd made it all the way through Paradise with no bounty or recognition. It was because they weren't spotted and the burning of the buildings left no survivors or witnesses. It was a win-win while also a loss.
"Don't worry, we'll get one soon," Luffy said optimistically. Deuce reached over the side of the couch and ruffled his hair. Luffy was always the extreme optimist of the ship. Always looking ahead, not getting too upset about things unless it was a PTSD related incident. Deuce was the doctor, and was always helping to heal Luffy's mental state.
It did not work well, as every two weeks, he saw Ace in the condition that had caused his mental illness in the first place. It was a tragedy that Luffy was always the last one to succumb. It was truly unfair to him, as he was the one who'd suffered most in life. After losing both brothers, he was all alone and then died alone. At least Ace and Sabo had died with the presence of a brother.
Luffy offered to play a game of cards, even though he failed miserably at it, and no one could deny him, so they played a game of BS. Sabo had the best poker face, so he was much better than his brothers. Luffy was incapable of lying and Ace easily grew angry at losing, scowling. Predictably, Luffy lost, and Mihar won.
Ace promptly fell backwards and started snoring. No one reacted, just stepping over him to get somewhere. Luffy drew a mustache on him, giggling, before hiding the pen he always kept in one of his pockets. Sabo looked at him with raised eyebrows. "Why do you risk his wrath?" he asked his younger brother.
Luffy shrugged, and Deuce said, "Don't worry, Ace's brother complex makes him unable to be angry at Lu for long periods of time." Luffy nodded to that excitedly. Sabo huffed. Ace did indeed have a brother complex. He couldn't resist anything Luffy wanted unless it was dangerous. And Luffy took advantage of that. He was a little devil sometimes, but they all loved him.
Dinner was served not much later, and the brothers scarfed everything down. They were always hungrier on a day after passing. They called it a reset day instead of a death day or anything insinuating dying. That was more negative and they didn't want that. It was already traumatizing, they didn't need the name to be bad, too.
The crew hated eating with Luffy. Absolutely hated it, because he stole other peoples' food before he even finished his own. His brothers did not protest to stabbing his hands with forks, as they did that as well. But Luffy was quick. Sometimes it turned into brawls, usually Finamore would lose his temper and tackle Luffy to the floor. Then Ace would strike, being an asshole and taking the food Finamore had been protecting. It was a usual occurrence.
Jojo did make dessert that night, chocolate lava cakes. The Spades had a massive fridge, even if it barely fit in the kitchen, just for the brothers. They ate the food happily, with Luffy burning his tongue, like usual when they had hot desserts. There was no stopping him from doing it, so they ignored his nosies of burning.
Though it was a little gross when he'd spit out the hot food and wait for it to cool before eating it again. All in all, Luffy was not fun to eat with. But they adored him anyways.
The nights after the resets, they were always sleepier and slept in their clothes, passing out the minute they laid on their own beds, or Luffy sharing Ace's. Sabo wasn't offended that Luffy was more attached to Ace than he was to Sabo. Ace's death had been much harder on him since he had a brother to mourn with when Sabo died, even if Ace didn't do a good job being a nice big brother.
He was making up for it now, though. Well, for the last seven years he'd been making up for it. The room was filled with quiet and loud snores all night, the ship stationary with Saber on watch. The ship lightly swayed back and forth. It was always nice sleeping through the night and not having to deal with some storm or weird thing that broke the laws of physics. The New World was both awesome and the worst.
-x-
Luffy woke first the next day and waited for Ace and Sabo to wake up before going to bathe in one of their two small bathrooms. He just had to make sure they woke up and then he could go. And Sabo woke first, and patiently waited with Luffy for Ace to wake. When both older brothers were awake, Luffy left to bathe.
It was something Luffy needed, to know his brothers wouldn't die in their sleep. It was sad, but Ace and Sabo did as he wished, and kept him company. "I wish he wouldn't do that," Ace said sadly.
"If he hasn't stopped by now, he's not going to anytime soon," Sabo replied, making his bed, the only one to do so. Ace sighed, and got dressed. They passed the bathroom that Luffy was bathing and went to the galley and sat down on the bench, waiting for the food to be done.
The others trickled in, and they ate quickly. They were arriving at the marine island today, and had to prepare. Luffy came in and scarfed down his food, hair wet and plastered to his face. "Today's gonna be fun. I promise I'll find a camera den den this time," he vowed, and the others nodded along. He said that every time, but none of them pointed that out.
Not much later, the co-captains and "first mate" were out on deck, steering the ship in the right direction the log pose was pointing. The one the were planning on going to out of the three. The ship had drifted a little to the west, but they fixed it easily.
They only called Luffy the first mate since he wasn't a co-captain when Deuce was more of the unofficial first mate. He was the first they had found and joined their crew back in the East Blue on that small ship they'd started out with. Now they had a much nicer one, but they'd always look back at Dinky with smiles.
They named it Dinky because of how small it was.
An hour after they woke up, the island came into view, a tiny speck on the horizon. Luffy was ansty, running up and down the yardarm, trying to get out pent up energy before getting there. Sabo was writing on the sign he'd be holding up for their bounty poster image. They already had planned what they would pose like. It would be the only photo of them, so the marines would be forced to use it.
The ship docked at the back of the island, far from the marine base, on the opposite side of the island. Everyone but Aggie 68 left, heading through the woods instead of through the town. Luffy swung from branch to branch above them as the others were silent of making quiet conversation.
When they arrived at the base, two hours later, they didn't look for the front door before Ace kicked open the nearest wall. An alarm started blaring already, the sound energizing the pirates as they all ran down different hallways to have their own fun. Sabo was using his pipe covered in haki while Ace and Luffy both used their devil fruits, and the others used their own weapons.
Out of all of them, Jojo was the most violent with her victims. Ace was a close second. Luffy punched through enemies as they came down his hall, shouting out his moves excitedly, looking in the rooms no one was in for a camera den den. He needed to find one already!
Loud crashes and booms could be heard throughout the base as the Spades did their worst, having a blast. Luffy was running down a long hall when there was an explosion from the floor with Sabo jumping up through it. He broke the ceiling, not wanting to wait to find stairs.
"Find one yet, Lu?" Sabo asked, both of them checking rooms. It was an obvious question, if Luffy had gotten it yet, then he still wouldn't be searching. But he didn't point this out and just said he hadn't.
More marines appeared, but they were running from something. Then they stopped, cornered by Luffy and Sabo and Ducky Bree, who was covered in blood with his swords soaked in it as well. The marines had to choose who they wanted to risk, so of course they went for Sabo and Luffy, who easily dispatched them, slamming their heads against the walls, breaking the building apart.
Luffy entered a big room, and found a den den mushi on the desk that was there and finally a camera one. "SABO! I found one!" Luffy shouted triumphantly and ran out of the room to find his brother knocking two marine's heads together extremely harshly.
Sabo turned around and beamed. Smoke started to fill the hallway coming from the stairs, and Sabo huffed. "That idiot is supposed to wait! Let's go!" Sabo said, and Luffy punched an exit through the nearest wall, jumping out of the smoking building and landing easily on the grass right outside the base.
They turned around to see the building was in shambles. Some of their crew were out, standing and watching or jumping out of gaps in the walls. Ace was last to come. They all glared at him. "It was an accident!" he defended.
Jojo raised her eyebrows. "You do this almost every time. It's not an accident, it's recklessness," she said sternly. Ace stuck his tongue out at her. "Did you get one, Lu?" Luffy beamed and held up the camera den den, earning cheers from the pirates.
Deuce held up the camera, the three brothers standing in front of the burning marine base, and took the photo that would be on a wanted poster soon enough. They went back to the ship ecstatic and excited for the next newspaper. They sailed off, in a great mood, as the marine base crumbled to nothing.
-x-
Marco picked up the newspaper that had been dropped by the newscoo and scanned the first page for anything important. Another marine base had been taken out. Burned and destroyed like the others. Someone was going and taking them out as they made it through the New World, since it was following a trail from island to island.
Whoever was doing this, really liked fire. Marco opened the paper fully to slide out the recent wanted posters. He sorted through them, seeing angry or cocky looking rookies with low bounties appearing in Paradise. When he got to the last poster, he couldn't help but laugh at the photo. He took it to show Pops in his chair.
"Look at this wanted poster. It's pretty funny," Marco said with a smile as he handed Pops the poster. The captain laughed as well. The photo was of three kids, all teenagers, standing in front of the burning marine base. But they were not looking like most wanted posters. They each had a pose.
One with freckles was holding a flaming middle finger at the camera, and they assumed he was the one to light the bases on fire. Next to him was a blonde wearing a fancy outfit, holding a sign that read, "Ace, Luffy, Sabo. Spade Pirates." They must have been irate that they hadn't gotten anything from the marine base attacks. The youngest one had his cheeks stretched out way too far to be natural. He also had his tongue out.
"These brats sure know how to make a first impression," Pops said in good humor. Marco left to go show Thatch and Haruta, who would no doubt enjoy the mocking and silly bounty poster. The three were clumped together instead of on separate posters. Considering how many marine bases they'd taken out, the bounty was only 300,000,000, very low for New World standards. It might just be because of their age. They were clearly all teenagers, two older ones and the stretchy kid who was obviously a couple years younger.
Marco found Thatch in the kitchen, cooking something that wasn't for breakfast since they'd just finished cleaning the leftovers up. "Hey! Outta the kitchen, bird brain!" Thatch scolded. Marco rolled his eyes. Thatch always got pissy when someone other than him entered his "safe space". "Whadya' want?"
Sitting at the bar counter, Marco held up the poster. "Got some pretty funny kids to show you," he said, and got Thatch's attention. He looked at the poster for about one second before busting up into laughter. "Apparently they're the ones who have been wiping out marine bases, by the looks of the background of this."
Thatch chuckled. "Too bad we can't assimilate them. They look like fun kids," he said, still shaking his head. Marco laughed and looked back at the poster. They definitely looked like they could enjoy a party. As long as the older one, Ace, didn't set them on fire with his fruit. Marco assumed it was a logia, and the younger one was a paramecia of some type, since it just wasn't possible for anyone normal to have their face stretched to that point. It just wasn't possible.
They all looked very different. One had a polite smile on with a top hat and what looked like rich-people clothing, and the other older one, the fire logia, could not look more different. He had black hair, not blonde, and had a shit eating grin that most mocked you from the photo. Plus he was flipping the camera off. And the youngest had big eyes and a scar under his left eye, with messy black hair. He did not look like a pirate based on how young and dare-say, cute, he was.
They seemed interesting, these "Ace, Sabo and Luffy"s. There were arrows on the paper pointing to them. The arrow named "Ace" was directly pointing at fire-freckles, which would now be Marco's nickname for him because, why not? The blonde was Sabo and the kid was Luffy. Didn't say any last names, and only helped the name of their crew with a messy drawing of their jolly roger.
When he showed Haruta, his reaction was much more acceptable. He laughed loudly and exclaimed that they should go and find them. Marco said, "Well, you could ask Pops." Haruta then ran from the room to find their father. Marco went to the intelligence headquarters, where Haruta ran things, and filed it in the large tub of wanted posters, separated by price. The highest was Pops', since Roger's bounty had been revoked with his death and now didn't mean much. The lowest was someone named Buggy the Clown. He still took pride that Pops' bounty was the highest out of the yonkos.
He'd keep an eye out for these kids. He wouldn't mind meeting them, seeing if they deserved that bounty.