Moby Dick's New Residents

by rose7anne101

Ace was supposed to feel proud and delighted when he saw his siblings wanted posters. Then why was he feeling anger and dread. Oh yes, because Luffy was 15 and Marcy was 16. AU 2 YEARS before the canon, OC. beta'd partly now.

9. At Least That Was The Plan

Author notes:

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The chapter was beta'd by the amazing Gerbilfriend who helped me a lot with grammar and paraphrasing and general ideas, and helped in choosing the title. My greatest admiration and respect XD

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Warnings:

English is my fourth language. Warning may change in the future.

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Flowerbelle

Thank you for your review. In what way "so far so good"? ^^

I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Let me know your thoughts.

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nightlyreader

Thank you for your review. Me too. Ace cursing is dreamy (shishish). Thank you I work hard on making my story humorous, I sometimes find it hard to translate my humor into written words. Happy to hear that I succeeded.

I was wondering how my readers would react to Marcy's breakdown, very glad to hear it was believable, I myself was emotional while writing it.

I hope you enjoy the new chapter especially the cursing, and if I am not mistaking you asked about Jinbe and the 'cute' mermaids before. Please enjoy XD and share your thoughts.

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PoorJasonTodd

Thank you for your review. It isn't exactly following her orders, it is more going along with her because he is worried, and he is being Luffy (I hope this chapter make several things clear). Yes, protecting his important people is very Luffy like. I hope the new chapter make you feel even more excited. Looking forward to read your thoughts.

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Chipmunk

Thank you for your review. I hope you enjoy the new chapter as much the last one. Let me know your thoughts. :)

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This fic his over 100 reviews, I am extremely delighted. Thank you all.

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See notes at the END, IMPORTANT please (you get to choose ^^).

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"Was the Moby just attacked?"

Aladine said, asking out loud what was on Jinbe's mind.

They were both standing on the Moby's deck for few seconds now, or what was supposed to be the deck, a heavy smell of smoke tainting the air.

Aladine had insisted on coming along with him to meet Pops, according to him it was going to be entertaining meeting and someone had to tell the whole thing to the crew later (and Jinbe was not to be trusted). How Aladine concluded that this conversation with Pops about the rescued mermaids, his allies in Paradise and the two children and their relationship to Ace was going to be funny was beyond him.

The Moby was not on fire (anymore?), but the effects of fire could be seen everywhere and nobody seemed to be phased by it. They got some nodded greetings, but nobody stopped to chat with them, everyone was simply busy. They were all moving around doing something, trying to repair the deck as quickly as possible by removing the burned wood of the broken masts of the ship.

Jinbe shook his head in bewilderment as well as to wake himself up, and once again looked at the destruction on the Moby. It seemed like the Moby was under heavy firepower just before they arrived, and that in itself was quite weird. They didn't see any escaping ships (sailing with their tails behind… no, with no tails at all or any other missing chunks, usually several) or sinking ones (completely wrecked) for that matter in their way here, and who in the New World would dare to go after Pops like that? Well, if they were going after Pops they needed at least this kind of firepower.

He had a niggling feeling of deja vu that would not leave him, making his aching headache from days ago flare up again, he tried ignoring it (unsuccessfully).

Jinbe looked around searching for one of the commanders or someone that wasn't busy with some urgent task, to ask what the hell happened and if they could speak with Pops.

"Move that to the lower deck and any broken wood, yoi ..."

He heard Marco's voice in the distance and moved craning his head around and searching for him to find him in midst group of people, gesturing and ordering everyone around in desperate attempt to clean the mess fast.

It was probably trick of the sun, but Jinbe could swear that Marco's hair seemed to have a silver glint. Jinbe blinked, shielding his eyes from the setting sun, trying to squint and see more clearly.

Marco had eaten the phoenix devil fruit. It was definitely a play of the light, the trip here and the whole ordeal prior to it had taken its toll on him, he had begun to imagine impossible things.

Jinbe sighed and closing his eyes, trying to stay optimistic.

The whole thing (he doesn't know how describe the last few days, no, weeks and thing just seemed to fit) was bizarre and nerve wracking but at least they were here now. Soon he would get some answers, hopefully satisfying ones.

"Jinbe!"

Jinbe was jolted from his drifting thoughts.

"Jinbe."

He turned to face the one calling his name, Aladine was beside him showing clear concern on his face and had a questioning arched eyebrow eyeing Jinbe's confused face.

Jinbe sighed, he guessed that Aladine had called him several times, before he had noticed (it wasn't the first time it happened).

His head was in the clouds again and the headache was not helping.

Jinbe gave him a nod in return to show that he was okay and turned calling loudly.

"Marco!"

He called his name several times, before he saw Marco titling his head looking around, spotting him, his face showing genuine surprise.

Strange, Marco should know they were coming, they had called ahead.

"Oi. Jinbe, what are you doing here, yoi?"

Strange indeed.

"I called and spoke with Curiel two days ago, to let Pops know that we were arriving today."

"Oh, make sense, we just arrived yesterday, yoi, and as you see a bit busy ..." Marco gestured around him, his face showing exasperation.

He heard him murmur under his breath about idiocy and something about Thatch?

Was it a prank gone wrong and not an attack? But this amount of damage from prank? Not likely, or was it?

"Everything is okay?" Jinbe asked quietly.

Marco's demeanor unsettling him, Marco seemed haggard. His eyes were not showing their typical lazy but amused glint.

"Were you attacked or something?" Aladine added when an answer was not immediately forthcoming, still eyeing the state of the ship and the working bees flying around.

Marco had unreadable look on his face.

"Or something," Marco agreed, not giving any details, he rubbed his face, but to Jinbe's eyes he seemed to be palming his face.

"We come here to speak with Pops," Jinbe decided to get to the point, understanding that he would not be getting any information from Marco.

Marco suddenly tensed, making Jinbe tense too. What the hell…?

"Now is not the best time," Marco said blankly.

"Oh?"

Marco relaxed his shoulders and shook his head, his face showing pinched expression.

"He is.. speaking with Ace."

The pause between the words had not gone unnoticed. Jinbe and Aladine shared a knowing look. Was it because of his siblings?

"Is A.."

"Yeah, Ace is okay," Marco cut in, answering the unasked question and added, "So is Pops."

"Actually we wanted to speak also with Ace about his siblings."

Marco froze, if Jinbe thought he was tense before, then he was wrong, completely and utterly wrong.

"About what exactly?" Marco's voice had cold undertone to it. He seemed defensive. Jinbe couldn't help the shiver running down his spine.

Jinbe took out the wanted posters slowly from the right pocket of his coat.

First, he needed to make sure they were speaking about the same people. No need for misunderstanding and misinformation in the beginning of what promised to be exciting conversation.

"Are they Ace's siblings?" Jinbe asked gesturing at the crumpled wanted posters in his hand.

Marco only glanced for second at the posters before he gave one nod, his eyes not leaving them for second. Marco was still tense and his face was blank.

"They were the ones that defeated Arlong." Jinbe finally said, looking to see what Marco's reaction would be.

Marco arched his eyebrow in surprise, but his eyes narrowed as if considering things deeply.

"Was it not vice admiral Garp, yoi?" he finally asked, he seemed unsure about something, something else not the question that he just asked.

"No, not according to Hatchan it was the two siblings, the marine came at the end.." Jinbe trailed off seeing the emerging amused look on Marco's face and his posture relaxing.

Jinbe sighed inwardly, what was going on? and added outloud.

"And they also saved the kidnapped mermaids."

"Oh, right, Izo told me that mermaids were fo….. Wait, Ace's siblings, yoi?" Marco demanded, emotions running wildly on his face too complexly for Jinbe to be able to decipher.

"Yes." Jinbe said accompanying his answer with a decisive nod.

Marco seemed to be truly bewildered, quietly repeating the words that Jinbe just said to himself.

Jinbe and Aladine looked at each other sharing their confusion and bafflement.

Marco finally asked, stressing each word.

"They saved the mermaids from the slaver's ship, yoi? Ace's siblings?"

"Yeah," Jinbe answered, that was given, was it not?

They shared another look, were they missing something?

Or maybe Marco was hurt, it would explain the glint of silver, maybe whatever or whoever had attacked them used something to stop the effect of devil fruit …

A smirk was blossoming on Marco's face, his eyes finally glowing in their typical manner.

"Finally some good news, yoi."

HUH.

What?

Well, yes, saving the mermaids was good news. But Marco had already known about it, so what was it? That Ace's siblings were the one to save them? Why was that such good news?

"Follow me, yoi," Marco told them while turning and striding to where Pops chair was.

"But ..." Jinbe began, unsure about the whole conversation they just had.

He looked at Aladine, who shrugged and moved after Marco, Jinbe followed behind them.

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"Pops, yoi."

Marco had stayed a respectful distance from where Pops was sitting. When Jinbe looked for Ace he saw him on the huge armrest of Pops's chair and he was so still that he could be mistaken as a statue at first glance.

Ace was tensed as a coiled steel spring and was staring with undivided attention at a …. Den Den Mushi.

"Jinbe is here to speak to Ace and you, yoi," Marco announced even more loudly.

"Jinbe, my son, I heard they found the kidnapped mermaids," Whitebeard greeted him with smile, taking gulp of his sake in the process.

Jinbe felt himself relax a bit, being called son always made something in him feel at ease.

"Yes, Pops, thank you for all the help," Jinbe said heartedly, bowing deeply.

Whitebeard nodded and raised both eyebrows in mild surprise at Aladine's presence. Jinbe usually came alone, less chance of the marines finding out, but he didn't comment on it.

"Not at all," Whitebeard finally said out loud with amusement clear in his voice at Jinbe's formal thanks.

"Anyway, I want to speak with you about the kidnapped mermaids."

Whitebeard's eyes narrowed and he nodded gravely.

".. and Ace," added Jinbe, unsure if he should even address him.

Ace didn't react to the mention of his name, he was in a world of his own, him and the Den Den Mushi (Maybe it was a date? Everyone had their own preferences after all).

Maybe he would mention his siblings issues later, it didn't seem that A..

"Ace, yoi," Marco called and not waiting for reaction, he continued.

"Luffy and Marcy saved the kidnapped mermaids from the slavers' ship."

Ace instantly jerked as if a coiled spring released, he was standing staring at Marco with unseeing eyes.

"What?" Ace uttered finally, his head moving around staring at each one of them in urgency.

"Ace," Pops called his name softly and firmly.

Ace's head snapped to his direction, he opened his mouth, closed it, nodded, and sat down in his place, looking at them with same intensity that he looked at the Den Den Mushi. He was undoubtedly very tense and in turn making them tense.

"The two of them defeated Arlong too." Jinbe couldn't help but add, he was not sure if this information would help his case.

Ace mouthed the words and seemed to take several deep breaths, and then he uttered from behind gritted teeth.

"Explain."

"Hatchan was able to arrive two months after we heard the news of Arlong defeat and capture. He told us the news was not true, their defeat was because of your siblings."

Ace seemed to become more confused as he tensed even more.

What the hell was going on? Was he himself not making any sense, he doesn't seem to know anymore?

"The news said that Garp defeated and captured Arlong, yoi. Arlong is a fishman that left Jinbei's crew and took control of an island in East Blue," Marco gave all the necessary missing information in one concise sentence.

Ace seemed to be deep in thought, nodding to himself, he seemed to be a bit more relaxed, at least now he was not glaring at them. Jinbe felt himself relax a bit without the deadly scrutiny.

"Where is it?"

Ace demanded and when he was greeted with confused expressions he added impatiently, "the island, what its name?"

"It is small island in the East Blue, called Conomi Island."

Ace nodded for them to continue.

"Arlong .. well, he took control of the village and its people … one of the children, Nami, in the small village had navigation skill .. Arlong made her join his crew and .. killed her mother at one point.."

Knowing that he might have been able to stop this if only he did the right thing and stopped Arlong, dammit, dammit….

He felt Aladine patting him on the shoulder and squeezing hard, bringing him back to reality. Everyone was waiting for him to continue, his father was looking at him with narrowed eyes, he would no doubt want to speak to Jinbe about this later.

"Anyway your sister and brother arrived to the island almost three months ago …Hatchan said it seemed they arrived by mistake, they were having a screaming match .. and the girl Nami was trying to drag them away … when Arlong's crew found them."

Jinbe paused, even though the story made some sense in his head, he was finding it hard to tell it coherently.

"Your brother challenged them while your sister was trying to talk them out of it… but your brother was pissed and he attacked some of the crew, it was swift and they hadn't expected a small human boy to be that strong..."

Ace had the corner of his mouth jerking up but he wouldn't be amused by the next part.

"Arlong took your sister and the girl Nami as hostages to try to stop your brother which had the opposite effect and made him more pissed..."

Annnnnd now Jinbe had another pissed brother right in front of him, a halo of fire surrounding him (Thanks a lot Arlong). Marco had gone by where Ace was, standing beside him and murmuring something quietly, and then leaning beside him on the armrest.

"… anyway Hatchan didn't know what happened next but one minute Arlong was standing there threatening them with knife and the next second he was screaming on the ground … he was.."

Jinbe found he was without the right words to explain the next part, would the family jewels sufficient? His manly parts, the formal word was tesicles ..

"Kicked painfully on the nuts," Ace continued for him, a nasty looking smile on his face and unpleasant look shining in his eyes.

Jinbe felt a shudder go down his back. Arlong was lucky to be stuck in Impel Down, truly and utterly lucky.

Hatchan had only revealed the last part few days ago, after the whole family jewels was revealed by the two small mermaids terrors.

Jinbe had made sure that all the mermaids arrived safely back home, and since then he had refused to take any calls from Fishman Island personally, but the news reached him nonetheless, and it was far from encouraging. The count of victims having their jewels struck was getting higher by the day.

Jinbe had considered that Hatchan may be keeping things for them when Jinbe had asked him point blank exactly how was Arlong was defeated and Hatchan was vague in the answer he gave (and now that he thought about it he made no eye contact either).

He had thought then that Hatchan was being vague and hesitant because it was humiliating to speak about being defeated by children, human children at that.

Oh, he was right, it was a humiliating defeat in every way.

"Yes, repeatedly," Aladine, answered when Jinbe failed too, with glee evident in his voice.

Jinbe shook his head at the joyous malice in Ace's eyes, and ignored the snort from Marco.

"They all were stunned out of fighting, well, except your brother, who seized this chance to beat the shit out of the startled crew.."

"More like he didn't care or wasn't paying attention," murmured Ace, he seemed to have relaxed a bit more.

"By then the residents of the island had come, ready to fight and help the children.." Jinbe carried on.

Hatchan was vague about this part too, but it seemed this time because he wasn't paying attention (Jinbe did somehow sympathize, he didn't think the view would have been as funny as Aladine's quiet snickering would suggest).

" ...and somehow in the all the chaos the marines also arrived lead by vice admiral Garp .."

Ace clearly tensed up hearing this name. Jinbe thought that he had imagined Ace tensing up hearing Garp's name before, but he was sure now. Vice admiral Garp had a relationship to them.

"Hatchan said that your sister had shouting match against the vice admiral and the boy joined in, he didn't know what was it about but it was extremely loud… people were trying to plug their ears, and that was how he was able to get free and jump into the water …He said it took him more than week to shake the marines of his tail.. " Jinbe trailed off, this wasn't important, what was important...

"What is their relationship?" Jinbe asked instead and then added to clear the meaning of his own vague question.

"Garp and the siblings? Hatchan was under the impression that they were marines or at least marines' recruits?"

Hatchan was very surprised to see their wanted posters.

Ace looked at Jinbe as if he had five heads and a shining glowing mermaid tail while he was mouthing the words. He then snorted and burst out laughing, clutching his stomach, his whole demeanor changing for the first time, he seemed truly relaxed and happy.

"I should tell Luffy that someone thought of him as marine, his reaction will be hilarious.." he said and then burst into another round of deep bellied laughter that rippled through his frame.

Ace took several deep breaths.

"Garp is Luffy's grandfather and Luffy would never be a marine."

The way Ace said it, it was a universal truth, like needing food to survive. It left no room to question it. It just was.

Ace tensed up again and somberly asked "about the slavers ship?"

"You know about the kidnapped mermaids?"

Jinbe had learned from his last experience and wanted to know how much to explain.

Ace nodded hesitantly.

That decided it for Jinbe, he would be as clear as possible.

"Almost three weeks ago ten mermaids were kidnapped, two of them were children, seven years old."

They were safe, they were all safe. Ichika and Nika were safe (well, safe may not be the right adjective to use). They were busy terrorizing the jewels out of the poor residents of Fishman Island as he was speaking.

Jinbe paused, forcing his clenched hands to relax.

"We are yet to know how," he looked at Whitebeard, who gave him a nod of acknowledgement, they would discuss this privately and at length. This couldn't happen again.

"For a lot of reasons we thought they took the kidnapped mermaids to the New World, but they tricked us and they took them to Paradise instead… Pops sent his allies to help look for them in Paradise and we were in our way back there to search and rescue them when we get a call that the mermaids were found on the shores of Sabaody Archipelago. According to the mermaid they were rescued by your brother and sister from the slavers ship."

Jinbe paused, letting everything sink in.

"The mermaids didn't want to tell us too much because they promised your siblings to keep everything a secret. They seemed to like them a lot."

Too much for keeping his sanity intact.

Aladine snorted beside him, letting out a loud chuckle.

Jinbe reminded himself that it was probably not a good idea to complain to Ace now about his siblings' unconventional teaching (Aladine called them free-spirited, Jinbe wanted him to try to say free-spirited with pointy spears rammed into his nuts).

"We got from the mermaids that they were searching for you, and that was by accident."

The avalanche of tears that they barely avoided because of that accident was still fresh in his mind.

"Later I was able to speak with Lucas privately, she is one of older mermaids that was kidnapped."

Jinbe paused, to take breath and to consider how much and how to tell, then he shrugged mentally, he would say it all, there was no point in being discreet and sensitive now.

"Lucas said that both of your siblings were suddenly brought to where they were keeping them inside the ship. They both had chains in their hands and feets and looked tired and .. no, your sister looked tired, the boy was smiling and was asking about food."

Jinbe paused again, trying to put everything in order in his aching head before he said it outloud.

"Your sister looked around and didn't seem to be bothered by anything she saw but was muttering loudly about their bad luck and how of course the ship to pick them would be a slaver ship, not marine, not pirates, no, slavers.."

Lucas was amused telling him all of that, she even repeated the whole long monologue to Jinbe, this was just the gist of it.

"... and between her muttering, she would burst laughing loudly. Lucas was sure she was crazy."

Or experiencing a manic episode or that the witch with two legs they were told about in stories as kids had just walked in.

Lucas said that she was actually more sure that girl was crazy the more she knew her, but Lucas said it in such loving tone that Jinbe felt that Lucas thought her craziness was to be admired.

Ace face was blank but both his hands were clutching the armrest wood painfully.

"Your brother ate all the food that was there for the mermaids, which wasn't much."

"That's Luffy for you." he heard Ace mutter while he nodded, not surprised by such a behaviour coming from his brother.

Hearing about those two children's behaviour, accomplishments, and mannerisms was very confusing and trying to decipher it was impossible. The boy sometimes seemed as selfish as a mule other times selfless as an angel, there were too many contradictions to even begin to understand his mind.

"The older mermaids were more wary of them, but the small ones become fast friends with boy."

Ace didn't say anything, only gave him a nod, indicating for Jinbe to continue.

"Your sister told him to stay out of trouble, and then she dropped on the floor."

Lucas had thought she saw someone die on her feet (the whole meaning of death on two legs just changed). According to her it was really scary, but the boy didn't react, was still chatting away with Ichika and Nika.

"The mermaids checked on her to find she was in deep sleep." He added hurriedly.

"The kidnappers came back later to check on them and your brother demanded more food, the small mermaids repeated his demand."

All of them cheering for meat, not that the two terrors knew what meat was.

Jinbe decided to approach the next part carefully. He knew firsthand what a pissed off fireball Ace looked like, and Jinbe didn't think Ace would care that he was only the messenger (or the unfortunate prey, the feeling of deja vu was ringing in his head).

"The kidnapper started to beat him up and your brother didn't fight back."

Yes, carefully and slowly, Jinbe thought, Ace's body was tensed as a steel spring ready to pounce, his reflexes well primed in that stance, his body innervated by his cold anger, much like a panther, waiting for his prey to do one wrong move.

"And when the mermaids didn't shut up either, he used rod to produce electricity currents in the water to keep them quiet and under control."

Jinbe gritted his teeth and clutched his hands into his robes, those bastards, to small children, they dare..

"The slaver found himself knocked out. Your brother headbutted him into the ground."

The boy with all his contradictions was something else, really Jinbe wanted to hug the life out of him when Lucas told him about that part, he still wanted to hug him now.

"Lucas said that your brother has a weird devil fruit powers that can make him change his body."

"Yeah, Luffy ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi."

This explained it. Inflated weird body parts indeed.

"The other kidnappers come to check on the noise, and your brother fought them still chained and he was somehow winning, but one of the kidnappers threatened to bomb the collars around the mermaids' necks if he didn't stop."

Those piece of shit, the scum of earth and sea.. He was going to find them and ...

"Your brother stopped fighting, and the other slavers began beating him up, and he stayed quiet, not reacting .. or fighting back ..."

They really owed him a lot.

Lucas had to stop several times, while telling him this part, she tried not show it but she was very emotional. He couldn't pinpoint if the reason was how badly he was hurt or because a human was going that far to protect them, it was probably a bit of both.

Jinbe had stopped looking at anybody for a while now, especially at Ace, but in the corner of his eyes, he saw Ace's shoulders twitching restlessly.

"Your sister appeared suddenly behind their leader, the one that threatened to blow them up, and she kicked him right on the testicles making him squeak loudly before fainting. She somehow got away and was free, without any chains and was jingling a ring of keys in her hand."

Jinbe paused, swallowing his relief, and letting the image sketch itself in the listener's mind.

It was the only time he immensely enjoyed hearing the sentence being kicked on the testicles (especially coming from his own mouth!).

"She said that the crybaby on the ground was lying and that those collars only exploded if you tried to take them off and not to worry she had the keys."

Jinbe finally looked at Ace's direction, to find him staring at him intensely, unflinching. The protective glint in Ace's irises made Jinbe feel like flinching himself, he wondered what was Ace really seeing.

"It was a short fight but not an easy one. In the end your brother and sister and the mermaids beat all of the slavers up and chained them and with that they took control of the ship."

Jinbe expected Ace to show some kind of relief, but no, he was still the same coiled spring he was before.

"First thing your brother and sister did after they freed everyone, they found the kitchen and had a feast."

Still no reaction, not even smile, even Marco was frowning while eyeing Ace, so was Pops. Pops had kept a natural expression the whole time but had gone from observing Jinbe to observing Ace.

"Your sister interrogated the now prisoners and then called for meeting to decide on appropriate punishment."

Ace snorted at that but was still tense.

"She called it a 'brainstorming exercise', and everyone could suggest anything they thought would be a good punishment. She even had a notebook and was writing down ideas. She then called the meeting to a close and gave everyone a permanent markers with different colors and told them to go wild, your brother began writing and drawing on the sails, everyone followed his example, they even wrote and drew on the slavers faces and bodies, after they stripped them."

He wondered if it was a small mercy or forgetfulness (oversight from their side) that Ichika and Nika didn't demand markers. No, he felt shiver run down his back, he had a bad feeling about that.

"The best revenge is a creative one that is Marcy's motto."

Ace muttered to himself, shaking his head, he looked a bit distressed, like he was reliving a traumatic memory. It made Jinbe wonder about the reason behind the face, while Marco had an amused smirk.

"They found maps and several Eternal Poses..."

One was to Fishman Island, how the hell did the slavers get that one? Those things cost a literal fortunes, that was another matter to consider.

" ...and helped the mermaids decide on which direction to swim to, while they took boat with whatever food was left, and left the slaver's ship with slavers tied and chained there."

Marco arched an eyebrow and Pops had an interested look.

"When Lucas asked your sister about it, she shrugged and said that the slavers getting hungry until someone found them wouldn't make her lose any sleep. She seemed sure that someone would find them soon, and Lucas let it go."

Jinbe sighed, he had finally finished telling everything he knew, now was his turn to ask questions, first..

"You said that fight was short but not easy. Were they hurt?" Ace demanded, his voice was cold in contrast to his burning body.

Oh, right, he did say that.

"Lucas was hurt a bit, the slavers used electricity in the water to discipline them after all, and according to Lucas your sister, while fighting, got her back hit with the electricity rod, your brother had it worse but both of them seemed fine afterward."

Probably because he was made of rubber, electricity and regular fists didn't work on him.

The boy literally bounced back to being a hungry cheerful ball of sunshine according to Lucas' enthusiastic description.

"F**king shit, dammit...Back? Her back? You are sure? Dammit..."

Jinbe was jerked out of his thoughts at hearing Ace cursing but could only nod.

"Is there something wrong, yoi?"

Ace seemed to have deflated and was gnawing on his lips, his hands unconsciously breaking the armchair's wood bit by bit.

"Marcy has burns along her back… and if she is hurt she will not show it, she doesn't like to be seen as weak, and she would not want Luffy to worry...shit."

Marco had his arm around Ace's shoulder in second and even though they were speaking quietly, their conversation was easily heard by the others.

"At least you know about the slavers ship, yoi, and it isn't as bad as we first thought..."

Ace didn't seem to agree, he was still as tense and unhappy as before.

"We now know where they are, yoi, and A.O and his crew will keep them safe."

Ace nodded reluctantly, but he was clearly not convinced.

"If you don't mind me asking…" Jinbe began and then trailed off, when nobody reacted to his words, he tried again..

"Ace.. about your siblings .."

"What?" Ace snapped.

Marco squeezed his shoulder hard and answered instead of him.

"They were not supposed to set sail yet, yoi, but something happened that made them set sail early. We thought they might have been taken by slavers."

Jinbe nodded, that explained their reaction to the slavers story and why Ace seemed so worried and tense, but that doesn't begin to explain why the siblings were involved with two incidents, was it coincidence, truly? Was there such thing?

Jinbe opened his mouth to ask another question from the millions swimming in his mind…

"purupurupurupurupurupuru."

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Marco rubbed his face again, refusing to smell his hand (not that his refusing helped, mind you!)

He could imagine Thatch saying he smelt and looked (and tasted) like broiled chicken in burnt pineapple soup. But then again, Thatch was not any place to call others names.

The idiotic moron, this was all his fault.

Why for all that is precious and good couldn't the moron keep his mouth shit, just for once. Once, dammit.

They needed to somehow repair all of this, Adam tree wood, shit, this would cost fortune and then the wasted flour, shit ..he needed to examine the budget again, and see what can be done …. dammit.

He wondered which (thoughtless) moron had said that pirate life was free and fun and if they had ever had to handle the budget of three ships with more than 1600 members (for those that did not understand sarcasm, it was NOT).

The moron (probably the same moron), Thatch was still in the infirmary getting first aid for his burns (he should stay there for his own sake, and Marco's).

Really, The moron should have known better than to ask loudly and repeatedly to the flaming and tense Ace if his little sister had just said 'slaver's ship' in her breakdown monologue right after the call was just cut off.

He had gotten what he deserved if you asked Marco, his burns were not even serious (and unfortunately his hair was without burn or breakage, which was the most important thing in Thatch's eyes). Nobody else was hurt (really, they all felt the danger and ducked away, yes, he meant into the water, no, not him).

Thatch had gone to the infirmity mainly to make Ace feel better, as always after such an accident, guilt would eat him (if he wasn't busy being tense worrywart about his siblings, he would be sulking and feeling depressed about the explosion. Really? What the hell would he do with this child?).

Marco would bet that the real reason that Thatch had gone to the infirmary was to run away from all the cleaning work.

Oh, if he think he got away, he has several things coming his way, and they were not pretty.

Those last several days, no, since they discovered the wanted posters, almost two weeks ago, he felt as if he aged a century.

Marco wondered how he looked, he really wouldn't be surprised if he found (even with his devil fruit powers) he had grey hair.

Marco sighed and wondered if he should answer the still ringing Den Den Mushi, that Ace was scarily and tensely staring at, his hand reaching towards it but frozen midway.

Not that he could blame him.

Who knew that Ace's little brother was one scary dude when he was in an angry overprotective mode (well Ace for one, he was the same, after all). Ace's little brother took control of the situation ordering private room from A.O's crew and yelled that he would call Ace later, and cut the call without Ace being able to ask anything.

They had called them back after Ace calmed down (after the explosion and extinguishing the fire) Marco sighed in misery, remembering the cleaning work that was still waiting for him to oversee.

Dustin, the first mate, answered after a long wait, and told them that Luffy took over the captain's cabin, he locked himself and Marcy in and demanded more food to be prepared and to bring a lot of chocolate (which they had gone looking for in shops in the island) and told them to stay quiet with fierce glare, that was three hours ago. Ace called every half hour since then (Pops had talked him out from calling every five minutes). And the only good thing that they heard from the crew is that they couldn't hear the sound of wailing anymore.

Ace took long breath and finally answered the Den Den Mushi with shaky hand.

"Hey Ace," a cheerful voice greeted him.

If his brother was back to being cheerful then…

He saw Ace's form relax a little bit and he answered evenly.

"Hey, Luffy, is Marcy…

"I'm here," her voice sounded a bit hoarse and most definitely irritated.

"Marcy." Ace said her name with breathless relief, his whole body deflating.

"Are you ok?" he murmured.

"I am fine." Her curt reply came rather quickly. The irritation was clearly evident this time.

She was clearly telling Ace (and them) that this (her breakdown) was not something to be discussed. Ever. But that was not the only thing in Ace's mind, especially after hearing Jinbe's tale.

Marco saw Ace opening and closing his mouth three times and swallowing. Ace was considering how to go about asking what he wanted to know, clutching his thighs painfully.

"I heard you were hurt on the slavers ship? How bad was it? Is your back okay?"

"Yea…. wait, how the hell do you know about that?" She demanded hotly, suspicion coloring her last words.

"Ahhhh.." Ace began, rubbing the back of his head.

Jinbe came closer, gesturing for Ace asking his permission to move closer and to answer this question instead, Ace nodded with evident relief.

"Hello, my name is Jinbe, I am Ace's friend and the one that told him about the slavers ship accident. Thank you for saving the mermaids. They are safe and back home."

Jinbe seemed to be more composed now, then when he was telling them the story.

"Ichika and Nika are back home? They are ok?" Luffy cheerfully asked and cheered at the same time.

Marco had wondered if Luffy had left Marcy alone to speak with Ace, but now he knew that Luffy was there keeping quiet, giving his brother and sister chance to speak freely and reconcile after how the last call ended.

He was smarter than he was letting on. It was probably good tactic to use, having others underestimate you was a winning strategy.

"Yes, we found…"

"Wait, you said your name is Jinbe, as the one that sent crooked nose to East Blue?" Ace's little sister cut him off.

He saw Jinbe stiffen, his mouth frozen open, hearing her statement. It may have been posed as question but it was plain and simple accusation.

He assumed crooked nose was Arlong.

"Ahehhh, he isn't friend of Ichika and Nika?" Luffy sounded confused.

"No, he didn't send him." Ace suddenly cut in, his voice showing no doubt.

"Is he Ace's friend?" Luffy asked.

"Yes," Ace said with conviction making Jinbe startle from whatever guilt trip he was experiencing, it was obvious he was blaming himself for everything. Marco shared look with Pops. He would leave handling Jinbe to Pops. Really he had his hands full as it was.

"Ah, Ok," Luffy answered, the Den Den Mushi, nodding enthusiastically, and for him that was enough, Ace said he was friend then it meant he was friend. But would it be enough for Marcy?

"I didn't send him there, but I am at fault for not stopping him. l am truly sorry for that." Jinbe said, you can almost touch the sorrow and shame in his voice.

"You are apologizing for the wrong people."

Marcy wasn't as convinced or as merciful.

"Yes, I…" Jinbe began, his posture straightened up.

"You can apologize to Nami when we come to Fishman Island," Luffy announced, cutting him off again.

"What? She is with you?" Jinbe asked in total panic.

Nobody said anything about another child with them, did they miss something..

Luffy only laughed while Marcy answered.

"No, Luffy speaking about two or three years from now."

"Wh..?"

"Nami is going to join my crew, she is going to be my navigator." Luffy announced in seriousness.

Marcy snorted.

The boy already had plans. Marco looked sideways at Pops, to see his reaction, after all his plans for the brats would crush with their own plans. He wondered who would prevail, he usually didn't even need to consider this. Pops was always the winner (as you could see with Ace), but in this case he was not completely sure. He just had this premonition of special kind of imminent disaster.

"Marcy, do you have some kind of beef with her?"

"Beef, you ate meat with Nami, without me?" Luffy accusing voice, rung loudly.

Really, the brat and his meat was special kind of entertainment. He should probably increase the food supplies by two, maybe three,... dammit, back to the blasted budget issues.

"No, you moron… really? Ace, you used beef, really?..."

Ace shrugged, seemingly chastised enough but with sheepish smile on his face, "...Ace meant if I don't like her."

"You don't like Nami?" Luffy seemed quite upset.

"It is not that I don't like her, we are just too alike…" she trailed off.

"Why are you nodding?" Marcy demanded.

"Nami said that you are the same, and you make her feel better about her tw..tits.. Tiw.. tite...t…"

"Twisted," Ace helped him, hidden snicker behind his hand.

"Yeah, twited personality," Luffy beamed.

"Did she now?" Marcy murmured, her voice going alarmingly quiet.

"And that I can handle it," Luffy added the last part and burst laughing.

"Do you know what she meant when she said you could handle it?"

Marco would swear he saw one of the Den Den Mushi nostrils twitch repeatedly, as if booger was being dug out of it.

Marco shook his head, rubbing his head, this day was getting to him, imagining such weird things.

"Nope, Nami's weird. I can handle anything," Luffy announced, he didn't seem boastful. It was like he was stating universal truth.

Marcy was suspiciously quiet, Marco noted that Ace had an amused smile.

"What about the mermaids? Is Lucas okay?" Marcy demanded startling Jinbe, he was not yet used to the absurd conversational skills this family had, skills might not have been the right word to use. Maybe a heart attacks, or weapons of mass destruction.

"Yes, we found them by Sabaody Archipelago... It is an island near Fishman Island. Lucas is fine, her burns were treated, they were nothing serious, and I spoke with them four days ago, they were already home."

"And that's how I know that you got hurt," Ace declared right after Jinbe finished, he was back to being tense.

"I am fine, just small burns."

"Did you get treated? Someone checked them?"

"Nope."

"Luffy," she screeched.

Ace face palmed, his shoulders slumped, he was not amused.

Marco had the impression that Ace's siblings were having a staring contest, maybe because of the bugged, unblinking eyes of the Den Den Mushi.

Marcy huffed in annoyance and murmured quietly, "I didn't have the chance to yet."

Ace didn't seem be happy hearing this, at all, he opened his mouth… when Marcy added.

"I will see if they have doctor here and ask him to check them."

Marco get the feeling that she was trying to cajole Ace and Luffy, more than she was worried about her own injuries, trying to keep the peace.

Ace seemed to be a bit relieved, but still was not happy, he opened his mouth once again, probably to demand that she go right this minute to get checked.

"Don't you want to know why we left?" Marcy said in some kind of fake cheerfulness.

Smart, really smart. Changing the conversation to the most important matter, the matter that made Ace sleepless (and by extension Marco).

Ace tensed up, his shoulders stiffening up. She was one manipulative chick.

"Marcy…."

It was not Ace, but Luffy quiet uncertain voice, it was hard to imagine the cheerful child, being this quiet and solemn.

"Oh, stop it Luffy. Maybe hearing from Ace that we did the right thing, would finally get across to your thick stupid full of meat head that we didn't break our promises, we actually kept them."

She was annoyed, no, more than annoyed, she sounded like someone on her last drop of patience with this subject.

Luffy didn't react to this.

Ace was getting tenser by the second, so was everyone else, including him.

"Sorry," Marcy mumbled quietly after small pause and added.

"It was in way your fault Ace."

What? how...

"It wasn't," Luffy rebuffed this accusation and added in angry voice.

"He was trying to protect me."

"It doesn't mean that he shouldn't have made sure there were no loose ends, especially when he stayed behind."

This was ongoing discussion, or fight, that they were not privy in its details and even Ace had no idea what they were talking about from his confused hurt face.

"No, it isn't."

"Wait…" Ace yelled trying to get a word between their stream of confusing words, or at least he was trying.

"Bluejam is bastard."

Ace froze.

"Of course he is. Did I say otherwise. Bu..."

"Wait, what? Bluejam. He didn't die in the fire? What the hell did that bastard do?" Ace yelled, he seemed to be steaming anger and aggression.

Who the hell was this Bluejam, what the heck did he do to earn Ace's ire and hate.

"Oh, I wish," Marcy intoned in displeasure.

"From the beginning." Ace demanded impatiently.

"This is the beginning." Marcy irritably answered.

"Who is Bluejam?" Aladine asked suddenly, saying what was on everyone's minds.

"Bastard."

"Piece of shit."

"Low life asshole."

"That's very informative, yoi," Marco murmured to himself, or so he thought until he earned a murderous glare from Ace.

Ace was seriously pissed and it showed in his very tense posture and facial expressions. He was glowering at everything. Ace took a long breath, forcefully trying to calm his nerves, clenching and unclenching his hands and said between gritted teeth.

"A piece of shit pirate back home, he is cruel liar piece of shit that tried to kill Luffy and me. He and his men and those dammit piece of garbage nobles burned the Gray Terminal down with everything and everyone in it."

Ace paused, and took another deep breath, his hands turning white as he gripped his knees hard before explaining.

"Gray Terminal is the dump ground for the rich spoiled brats to dump their garbage in. Anyway Dadan and me beat him up and left him to burn in the fire he set."

Marco was always glad to learn more and more about Ace and his past. But now he finally understood a bit more of why was Ace so reluctant to reveal it. He was sure that what he just told them, as interesting and impressive as it was, it was not the whole story, no, it didn't began to unveil what truly happened there.

"Well, you didn't, he came back." Marcy bluntly told him, clearly unhappy about this turn of event.

"As business man," She added between gritted teeth.

This fact pissed her more than the first. Interesting, why?

"The bastard found your and Sabo's treasures and he hurt Makino." Luffy pissed voice declared.

"He did what?" Ace snarled, true to god, he had an actual animal snarl coming from his throat.

"Who is Makino?" Aladine asked, the brave soul, not afraid from asking the hard questions.

"Ace's first crush," Marcy said in matter of fact tone.

"She isn't," Ace spluttered in denial, he was not sure if it was Marcy's intention or not, but Ace had relaxed considerably hearing this.

"Ehh, Makino is Ace's best friend? I thought it was Hatchey."

Ace looked at the sky seeking help, or maybe patience, guessed Marco, found none, and then asked in quiet voice.

"What happened?"

"Bluejam come back that what happened," muttered Marcy in evident anger then she sighed in displeasure.

"From what I gathered Bluejam had become some kind of hotshot businessman, he mainly did shipping, specifically gemstones, I guess he found your treasures and put them into good use."

Marcy expelled a long sigh and mumbled.

"We didn't know any of this, and we didn't know that he was in Goa kingdom. I didn't even know who he was until I had the pleasure of meeting him."

Even a deaf dimwit would understand, that the meeting was anything but a happy one.

"It was just regular day, me and Luffy decided to eat lunch at Makino's bar after the morning training. When we arrived at the bar, its outside was full with all kind of people, the kind that you just knew was up to no good. I was considering leaving and coming back later, or going from the back door to check on Makino quietly, when Luffy just burst in demanding food, ignoring the tense dark atmosphere."

Ace shook his head, nostalgic smile crossing his face, this behavior was nothing new for his brother.

"I, of course followed him inside, to find that Woop Slap, the cynical mayor was there, surrounded by men with guns and Makino was beside him, she was trying to calm things down. Those cronies were following the orders of the asshole Bluejam, who was sitting there enjoying drink. He was happy to see Luffy bursting in, asking about where you were, Ace. He had come specifically to this dump to settle score with you, according to his articulate words."

Marcy was clearly gritting her teeth as she spat out the last bit.

"Anyway, he came to Makino's bar searching for you, and his minions were looking for you, Luffy and the bandits in the village and the forest. The mayor had gone to speak with them, it wasn't going well, when me and Luffy crashed the party. He then told us all about your history together, he didn't seem to mind that he was once a low life, probably because he was still one. He had come back to get his dues, first you and Luffy and then the bandits, then the nobles after he finished using them.."

Ace was immersed in listening, he was drinking every word, but his face was flashing to different emotions, telling the story of how he was feeling about this, anger, irritation, shame, and rage were the main ones.

"I never understood some people and their obsession with telling others their plans." Marcy said snidely, apparently this was a big beef of hers.

"The asshole ordered his cronies to beat everyone until he got his answers. Luffy beat the cronies closer to us and tried to punch him, Makino tried to interfere and the asshole hit her instead."

"Bastard." Luffy cursed angrily.

"Luffy then went berserk like you do, they basically destroyed the bar .." she trailed off.

"I took Makino and Woop Slap out of the chaos, and told them to find Dadan and the bandits and to tell them what was going on and to call Garp, to come handle this. This village was under his protection after all." She muttered several unflattering words under her breath and carried on.

"I don't know how I was able to get Luffy alone for few ..."

"You punched me and it hurt." Luffy complained.

"You deserved it, anyway, I told him that we should steal one of their ships and run with it."

"Running away is not the manly way." Luffy announced, he was cross with her, he could see Ace's little brother pouting, even Ace smiled and short chuckle rumbled in Pop's throat.

Marcy huffed.

"We were not running away, we were taking the fight somewhere else, so no one else would get hurt and the place would not be destroyed even more. I basically had to drag you.." she grumbled.

"Anyway as expected, the morons followed us.. They shot cannonballs at us..."

Luffy cut her off.

"I threw them right back at them, I have 100% accuracy now, shishishi." Luffy boasted with laughter.

"Right," Marcy uttered, giving everyone the impression that his announcement was not 100% accurate.

Her next words added to the accuracy of that impression.

"I guess we are extremely lucky that Luffy can't be hurt by cannonballs or bullets, or we would have been in some deep trouble .." she trailed off.

"To put long story short, we beat them up good although I had to save Luffy twice from drowning.."

She sounded dejected.

"By the end of that fight I was like drowned rat."

Luffy laughed, without care at his sister's troubles.

"I punched Bluejam several times, until he went to sleep."

Luffy gleefully told them.

"Lucky or not, Garp was in his way to the village, him and the marines rounded up all of those bastards there and when they finally arrived rounded Bluejam and his cronies."

Marcy snorted when she finished speaking.

Marco wondered why she didn't call him grandfather but by his given name but neither Luffy nor Ace were surprised by it. Was their relationship not good one?

"Really, Bluejam looked real attractive with a swollen face and handcuffs on his hands."

She didn't sound as happy as the words implied she should.

"Garp decided to take them to base nearby, and we were to come along to give testimony before going back home."

Everyone could hear her quiet murmur of, "at least that was the plan," before she carried on.

"Garp was beaming from happiness and boasting about his grandchildren being marines in the making ...he and Luffy had big fight about that," she said, her voice was colored with exasperation.

"Marines yuck."

Marco laughed out loud, and he wasn't the only one, Pops almost choked on his sake. Marco thought that eloquent description was very accurate.

"Grandpa is a meanie." Luffy added after a small pause.

"Garp got even more stubborn with Luffy shouting insulting things back and announced that we will begin training to be marines early, which made Luffy more angry …" she trailed off with a sigh of resignation.

"The never ending cycle of idiocy."

"Marcy is more meanie," Luffy suddenly announced in an accusing tone, Marco could imagine him pointing his accusing finger at the bewildered Marcy.

"What ? Why?" her reply was instant, even Ace looked surprised.

"You made me wear the marine uniform," the disgust was clear in his voice, the yucky was clearly there without it being said.

"Agehh, again with this. For the who knows how many times, It was a pretend game, so we could trick the marines."

Ace asked loudly, "What happened after that?", Clearly intending to stop what was going to be a long winded pointless argument.

Marcy seemed to get what he was trying to do and answered immediately.

"I spoke with Garp privately at the evening, and he said that after we put the scoundrels in the base, we would be in our way home. We get to the base without much trouble expect the continuous fights between Luffy and Garp."

"Business as usual," remarked Ace quietly.

"The marine base leader was some new hotshot named Morgan the axe, we left the prisoner there. We didn't even get to eat before we had to leave, not that I minded, the father and the son duo gave me the creeps, even Garp behaved strangely. I was sure he would beat the spoiled brat son … doesn't matter...

"Helpo is crybaby." Luffy seemed to agree.

"Garp said to celebrate our entry into marine life, he was going to take us to some floating restaurant…"

"Food.." yelled Luffy enthusiastically cutting her off.

"Yeah, Luffy, we all knew that restaurants serve fo… oh, you can put them there…."

They could hear some people speaking faintly and things being moved, Marco assumed that physical food had arrived, the munching sound alone would have given it away.

Marcy cleared her throat.

"At that time I knew that something was not right. I mean you all suck at lying. I think it is genetic, and it was obvious that Garp was not telling us everything, and even though his shitty stubborn moron he would not make us join the marines against our will, so something else was going on..."

"He can't, I will never be a marine. I am going to be the pirate king." Luffy announced in firm resolve between bites.

The boy had big plans, Ace had already mentioned the pirate king thing before, but Marco still looked at Pops to see his reaction, to find to his surprise Pops had a thoughtful look on his face (instead of the amused look Marco had expected).

"So I began to gather information, which was harder than I thought.."

"You mean eavesdrop," Ace corrected her, amused.

"Apples and oranges. Please, do I look the eavesdropping type, I have more elegance than to use such primitive ways."

She cleared her throat again and stayed quite for few seconds, seeing if anyone else dared to comment in her intelligent way of doing things.

"I heard Garp speaking with someone about wanted posters,"

She paused and stressed every syllable.

"Our wanted posters, me and Luffy's wanted posters …

"We get it," Ace complained.

"No, you don't," Marcy yelled angrily and said once again.

"Garp and whoever the hell he was speaking to were discussing ways to stop our wanted posters from being published."

This was getting more interesting. Ace froze, the words finally sinking in, he seemed lost, unsure..

"Why were you issued with wanted posters to begin with? yoi. You didn't commit any crime according to what you told us."

"Thank you, someone with brain. Yeah, exactly. WHY. Garp even suggested we become marine trainees to stop the wanted posters from being issued, whoever he was speaking with said he doesn't think it would help, but it might get Garp more time. Time to do what, I had no idea."

This was getting weirder and weirder, but very interesting too.

"It took me another three days of gathering information to hear him speaking with the same person again, saying that he was sorry and it didn't work, and that the wanted posters would be issued soon. He was going to do his utmost to delay them but that was all he could do and that the order for the posters to be issued come from high above, he said 'that low life had friends in high places'."

Low life, someone with grudge against those children, who could… no, who in the marines was powerful enough to be able to delay issuing a wanted poster …

Things were in play that neither he or Pops and definitely not Ace, who had probably had nightmares of scenarios running in his head when he saw the wanted posters of his own siblings, had imagined.

"I was considering who was the low life that could have such influence, when I heard Garp curse loudly and say Bluejam's name."

"What?" Ace choked.

Marco frowned trying to put all the pieces together. He understood why she was more pissed that he was business man. But even a business man couldn't influence the marines except….

"Yeah, the boasting about him being rich and important was not all air." Marcy spat out and from between gritted teeth added.

"The piece of shit had the support of some Celestial Dragon, bite me if I know how."

Ace tensed up, biting his lips hard, his nails drawing blood from his hands, Marco was considering how … when Marcy murmured.

"A lot of things made sense then, why Bluejam was not in chains and why we left in hurry, Why was Garp acting weird, why we're going further from home ..I won't be surprised if he had a hand in the huge increase in your last wanted poster." She added the last bit thoughtfully, clearly it just came to her.

Ace jerked up in surprise. His hands clenching and unclenching unconsciously, Marco could guess he was tearing his own wanted poster to pieces mentally (Ace was proud of it before, but not anymore. Marco should probably tell the crew not to congratulate him on the increase of his bounty, or mentioned it for that matter).

If Bluejam had this much influence and backing, then that was quite possible. Looking at Pops's face, they seemed to reach the same conclusion. That Bluejam bastard may just bit off (for the last time) more than he could ever dream of chewing. Nobody messed with Whitebeard's sons. Not even a bloody Celestial Dragon.

"I decided that was enough information gathered and that we needed to run away, I thought at first that we could trick everyone and go back home quietly and hide in the forest…" she trailed off, her voice had dreamy quality to it.

"But I knew that if Bluejam truly had that much influence that home would be the first place they would look for us, it would be swarming with his cronies." She mumbled, it was clearly a hard but true conclusion to arrive to.

"I was not sure about what the best course of action, but I knew that we couldn't stay with marines if we were to have wanted posters. Even Garp couldn't protect us, he couldn't stop the wanted posters... I wanted for us to get away first before considering our options, which was me being an idiot, because Luffy."

"What?" Luffy yelled hearing his name, his voice full with chewed food.

Ace sighed, shaking his head.

"How bad?"

They were both ignoring Luffy's incomprehensible input.

"He butchered five escaping plans, the most we got away was half day … well, Luffy ate the all the food and enough said we got caught every f**king time." Marcy sighed in defeat.

"I would like to say that the marines are idiots but they are not that idiotic, it became harder and harder to escape with each try."

She paused, clearly remembering those unsuccessful painful days.

"Our sixth try was partially successful, we escaped on a boat with a lot of food which should had been enough for two weeks, it was finished by Luffy in a day… We were drifting on our second day, when Luffy saw a seagull and decided that it would be a delicious snack, it was a news coo, Luffy ended shooting himself into the sky using it."

Marcy was clearly shaking her head with every word, the Den Den Mushi on their side was at least shaking its head.

"Seagulls are awesome, they can find you anywhere.."

The sound of the food being munched had disappeared, Luffy was back to listening and commenting.

"Not exactly," Marcy cut him with snort.

"Going to catch one and make him my Nakama.." Luffy was clearly ignoring her.

"Good luck with that, with the fact that we are being boycotted by them."

"What, why?" asked Ace, he didn't seem surprised by the idea of news coo boycotting his brother and sister (was being boycotted by the news coo even possible?), he was more curious.

"Whenever Luffy saw one after that time he would try to catch it, he succeeded only once, and then he tried to convince the poor bird to join him by talking his ears off and by giving him meat. Let me tell you it wasn't funny."

Marco disagreed it sounded quite funny, he shared an amused look with Pops, his eyes were twinkling like storm. The more the brats spoke the more Whitebeard wanted them as his son and daughter. Jinbe looked confused, not sure how to react to any of this. Marco saw him blink several times as if checking if this was real and not a fragment of his wild imagination. Aladine was the one having the most fun, cackling and chuckling at every bit, listening with focus of someone intending to repeat everything to some other people. The mermaids?

Ace seemed to be fighting with himself, before losing the battle and laughing out loud to Marcy's ire.

In the other side of line there was heated battle being fought.

"... meat is the best, he should have agreed, I will show him next time the greatness of meat ..."

Marcy muttered something that they couldn't decipher and said loudly,

"Since that last episode, we magically didn't see any, and I mean any news coo or seagull for that matter, even though I think I glimpsed one when we were on Hawkeyes's boat… I think."

"Hawkeyes? The Shichibukai?" Jinbe, one of the Shichibukai himself, asked in mixture of astonishment and incredulousness.

Their journey sounded unbelievably staggeringly ridiculous. What the hell happened …. or maybe he should ask what the hell didn't happen to them in this short journey.

"Yeah, we.. no… I didn't know that then. He seemed quite interested in Luffy, no, Luffy's hat. He helped us get into the Grand Line, without him it would have been extremely hard."

"Hawaky is cool, he has a big awesome sword, but he refused to join my crew."

Pops let out loud laugh, clearly approving.

"So I told him I am going to find the best swordsman ever and he would beat him up good."

Marcy was rolling her eyes repeatedly if going by the Den Den Mushi's facial expression, he wondered if it was because of irritation at the situation or the mind-boggling craziness of it all.

Jinbe titled his head to Ace's direction, his face showing dumbfounded shock.

"Your brother asked a Shichibukai to join his crew?" his words, were half accusing and half waiting for confirmation (or was it denial?).

Ace shrugged, not bothering with an actual answer, he asked Luffy instead.

"Luffy, you know what Shichibukai means?"

"Shibabakbake, is it some kind of food…"

He clearly didn't know and neither did he care (maybe after they explained it to him. Marco could ask him what he thought about Ace being asked to join. It should be entertaining to see Luffy's reaction. The question was who would explain it to him).

"… Oh, yeah, Hawaky is Shanks's friend…. oh that makes sense now.."

The bloody Red Hair again, at least he had already left (finally, the bloody ass, he took his bloody sweet time) but his shadow was still here.

"What make sense now?" Both Ace and Marcy asked, both looking interested.

Marco assumed logical jumps were rarely occurring with the boy, and they were far from logical.

"It is because he is Shanks' friend that he said the same thing.." Luffy paused then continued with different voice and manner.

"Good luck young man, I will wait for you and your best swordsman at sea."

Luffy was imitating Hawaky (the boy was truly fearless! Whitebeard - bread and now this), this boy was unbelievably gutsy, shit… Marco wished he was on the other side to see how his face looked, (It promised to be truly captivating) and he wasn't the only one, looking by Pops and Aladine faces. Jinbe was just unbelievably confused.

"Hawkeyes said they were barely acquaintances." Marcy gave the more believable status of their relationship.

Not really surprising, their fights were what everyone spoke about whenever they happened in the past.

"Actually Shanks came here asking about you, he was really worried."

The bloody annoying Red Hair, Marco hoped to never see his ugly mug ever again.

"Shanks did?" Luffy's voice was full of childish excitement.

"Yeah, Shanks said he was surprised and proud when he saw your wanted poster. I should call him and let him know that you are all alright. He told me to tell you he is still waiting."

"Shanks…"

They heard him murmur softly.

"Wait, that's means that you met him and introduced yourself as Luffy's big brother." Marcy cut in, excited.

Ace smiled sheepishly, his hand rubbing the back of his head.

"The first thing I did when I arrived to the New World."

"Oh my, oh my, what a good big brother you are," singsonged Marcy.

The girl had natural talent for poking fun of Ace.

"Marcy," Ace said dejectedly, more like in defeat, but he was still smiling.

Their father bellowed a laugh, and everyone else was smiling, Marco couldn't help but smirk at the reddening of Ace ears (even it if it was indirectly because of Red Hair).

Marcy decided to have mercy on Ace's soul and get back to their story.

"Anyway, Luffy shot himself up using the seagull and I was panicking because sea and Luffy sinks like an anchor. So I was rowing in total panic looking for his drowning form when I saw an island nearby, and knowing Luffy's luck he would land on it. So, I breathed out in relief and rowed there less panicky, of course I should have known better, Luffy landed on a private memorial and of course ate the food…."

"Tangerines are the best but not as bestest as meat," cheered Luffy, not bothered by anything. In such instances Marco thought that being born as an idiot was blessing.

Marcy ignored him and continued.

" ...and made friends with the annoying orange head brat, by the time I got there crooked nose and his crew was there…. yeah I am speaking about what happened in Nami's island which you should know all about."

Aladine cleared his throat, he was clearly waiting for this.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you defeat crooked nose?"

But they knew how, Jinbe just told them, did he want to hear the story again? He did laugh his butt off ...or was there something more..

"Marcy kicked him in the family jewels." Luffy answered for her, in disinterested voice, like someone that never had the awful experience of being kicked in that area... hmm..

Oh, him and Luffy had something in common because of their devil fruit their manhood was safe. Marco smirked at that entertaining thought.

Marcy huffed in annoyance.

"That asshole dared not only put knife on me, but touched my chest."

That was a sin that couldn't be forgiven by her voice, Ace seemed to agree with her by his tensed figure. It was good that the moron Arlong was in Impel Down, or maybe not. He could see Ace trying to break in there just to strangle the life out of the crooked nose.

Marco sighed in resignation.. he would have to keep watch on Ace again for a while. He should kiss his sleep goodbye once again, his devil powers didn't mean that he didn't need sleep, God dammit, or should he say Ace-dammit like that moron Thatch..

Marco's lips were pulled into sinister smirk when sudden thought descended on him, because he ran away from cleaning, Thatch missed the most important conversation and Marco would tell him all about it in detail, oh, no, not the conversation itself… really Marcy was right. The best revenge was all about creativity.

"He called you a flat chested tomato and...Ouch…."

Ace cringed.

The boy should know better, he was yet to meet Marcy in the flesh and he knew better.

"Eat your food and keep quiet."

"Meanie. There is no food."

He seemed more upset about the missing food part. How much food did he need? Four times more food supplies? Shit, they would need to increase their missions and their hunting and…. Joy, more work for him.

"Of course, I gave that rude hellion some much needed lessons in manners. I was just getting warmed up, just found the best angle to kick him by my twelfth try, if it wasn't for that shitty octopus I would have…"

"Octopus?" Aladine and Jinbe said in the same time, both sharing surprised look. What..

"Yeah, he had all of his eight arms around my body stopping me for kicking crooked nose. Luffy punched the octopus, and I was able to kick him once in the one place that matters… I am going to find him and beat the crap out of him...just you wait."

Jinbe face became green, it didn't look good with his blue skin. Aladine burst laughing, tears were glistening in his eyes.

"We can make octopuses balls..tak.. takoyaki," Luffy said beamingly.

"Leave it to Luffy to be able to pronounce food names right." Ace commented, amused.

"Sounds truly appetizing," Marcy approved, her voice sounded sickeningly sweet.

He felt sorry for the unlucky Octopus, calling him dead meat sounded ironically fitting.

"Garp came at the end as usual, after we did all the hard work, and rounded up everyone, of course except future Octopus balls who got away…"

Oh, Octopus balls was Hatchan. Jinbe not making any eye contact confirmed that.

Lucky him, Ace was too busy with his sibling's antics to make the connection.

Oh my, what should he do? An ominous smirk crept across Marco's face while he considered his options. It was always about the timing of things.

"... the villagers decided to throw us a party, Nami and me tried to use it as distraction to run away, but Luffy was in the midst of eating contest against Garp."

"I won." Luffy announced with the air of conqueror.

"They finished the whole food supply of the village."

"Seriously?" Aladine choked, still laughing.

"Do I sound like I am kidding," Marcy answered with annoyance and added.

"Fortunately, the villagers didn't seem to mind, thought they did complain about the marine base nearby that didn't answer their calls for help. Garp promised them to check it out on our way to the restaurant, and by checking in it out he ended putting all of them under arrest, the whole damned base."

He didn't find that so surprising, Garp had a reputation for being hard ass on everyone, his own even more.

"I decided to forgo trying to escape for now and focus on gathering more information. I found out we were going to the Loguetown Marine Base, the captain there was good sort according to my sources."

She paused. She seemed hesitant for some reason, even Ace picked on this by the frown on his face.

"I also happened to hear Garp speaking with someone else. His voice was different from the other two times, it was deeper...They were basically screaming at each other then speaking quietly and again… It was really weird. I thought that Grandpa was only that kind of 'excited' when speaking with family… anyway, I got that the person he was speaking with was going to come get us and keep us safe … some marine called Garp's name and the call ended… Garp was in weird mood the whole day afterwards."

Marco wondered if she had noticed the slip of tongue, calling Garp grandpa. Ace seemed to have not noticed either, he was in deep thought.

"The whole thing made me understand how serious the situation was and that it was the whole bandits' situation again…He was going to dump us on some unsavory people again that he thought owed him. We would stuck there with whoever they were for our own safety."

Ace nodded, he looked unhappy as Marcy sounded.

"I dug some more and found that my feelings were right on the money. Bluejam was back on Goa as free man, the marines needed to apologize for such oversight in their part. Garp was reprimanded and his pay was cut off and he and his subordinates were actually off duty."

Marcy paused.

"Leave it to Garp to go catch pirates and bad apples in his time off." Marcy muttered snidely.

Marco shook his head. Out of everything that was what bugged her the most.

"I decided if we were going to run away our best chance would be in Loguetown Island, it was the last stop before the Grand Line with a lot of ships... but for now I needed to get supplies, money and more information."

Marcy added in amusement.

"We did actually stop by the floating restaurant."

"They have the best food, Sanji is going to be my cook, he is the best, better than Hatchey."

"How you are going to convince the womanizer to join you?" Marcy sounded truly curious. Ace had his eyebrow raised at the womanizer comment, and he was yet to lower it.

"I have Nami." Luffy announced in confidence.

"…"

".."

".."

Did the stupid innocent boy just imply that..

Marco stared at Ace, both of his eyebrows were up high, his mouth open in shock. The boy had left them speechless.

"Wow, Luffy, I didn't know you had it in you to be manipulative," Marcy said with clear admiration in her voice.

"Huh, what does manppptive mean?"

"Tricky."

"Huh, wh... no, Nami would convince him, she told me she once convinced a pirate to give up his treasures and food. Isn't that cool?"

Making him give up food impressed Luffy more, definitely more.

Marcy snorted.

"I believe stole is the word you are looking for."

"Shishishi, we will steal Sanji away."

Luffy didn't seem to care how if he get what he wanted. Those stubborn selfish people were quite dangerous, he should know, his father was one. Marco gave Pops a questioning look asking for his take on this. Pops didn't seem to care, he was quietly enjoying himself. Marco would bet the Moby that Pops was looking forward to facing the brat. The two of them facing each other was going to be on big headache for him, he was the one to pick the pieces in the end (metaphorically and literally).

"Thanks to him being womanizer, I didn't have to pay for Luffy and me's food and I actually got some food supplies before the head chef kicked us out, and threatened us with bloody bodily harm if we ever came back."

"But I am going back to eat the yummy food there and steal Sanji away." Luffy whined.

"Best of luck to you. I am not going to set foot on that wretched place ever," she huffed, "Really! I understand kicking you and Garp out, you have no manners whatsoever but he kicked me, me, out. Even though I ate only a bit and was extremely polite. I refuse to depart from my money in such uncultured place."

"But you didn't pay." Ace pointed out.

"It doesn't change the point." She replied decisively.

Marco saw Ace opening his mouth and mouthing 'which is what?' before he soberly shook his head and asked instead.

"Marcy, what happened next?"

"Took us a week and a bit to arrive to Loguetown, I didn't hear any more enlightening conversations in the way."

"Logtown is so cool, Smokey showed us around, we went to the execution platform, but Smokey didn't let me climb it."

Luffy generously shared his experience, where did Marco hear the name Smoky again…

"Not that that stopped you from trying to climb it Every Single Day."

Did Ace's siblings not know about his biological father, for some reason he was under the impression that they knew…

Ace was tense but not overly so.

"Garp needed to leave to do something. What the heck was he doing when he was suspended only god knows, and he put the captain Smoker guy as our babysitter. He was for some reason captivated with Luffy, he even tried to convert him into a marine."

Ace snorted hearing this, while Luffy laughed jovially like this was one good joke.

"Smoky is funny guy, he said marines have fun too.. Shishishi.. How could they have fun when they have to wear uniform and have the same flag … soooo boring and what about adventures?"

Marco found himself snickering with the others, hearing Luffy's reasoning.

Captain Smoker, Yes, Marco remembered something vaguely. He had some interesting devil fruit, he would check later what kind of information they had on him…

"Let me tell you he was good. He was able to keep up with Luffy, but not good enough for me not to be able to slip away and get information about ships leaving to the Grand Line, and I found several that we either could pay our way in or just became uninvited guests for a while and I also found out that there was a marine training exercise scheduled in two days. So, if I were to convince the pirates to stir some trouble on the training day, Smokey and the marines would be either busy with training or the trouble in town, and with Garp not there. We would sneak onto one of the ships leaving that day and with the money I borrowed we would be safe for a while, at least that was the plan..."

This was a good plan, he had no doubt that she would have been able to convince the pirates to stir up trouble, she had a way with words. But as with every good plan, something unexpected would come and turn everything upside down...

"The biggest problem to my otherwise perfect plan was Luffy of course, with everything going on I didn't explain to him what I had found out. He was regarding the whole thing is mini adventure in preparing for his own true adventure. I did find it weird that he didn't go explore all the new places as he usually would do, except the execution platform."

"I want to have the real adventure with my Nakama."

Luffy let it be known that he was listening, and he was not impressed with her plans then and now.

"I explained to him everything again and again and again… and he still refused and insisted that we should run away and go back home, that he would not break his promise to you or to Sabo, that.." she trailed off with sigh of total defeat.

This was the second time that the Sabo person was mentioned, and every time Ace would grab his upper arm with tattoo on it. It seemed unconscious gesture. Who was he? What was his relationship to Ace and his siblings?

Ace looked conflicted, he seemed to force himself to relax by taking deep breaths.

"Luffy," Ace called, his voice soft but had an authoritative quality to it.

But no answer came.

"He is listening and sulking." Marcy said after few seconds, her voice was blank.

"Luffy, you didn't break your promise."

"But we left before seventeen and I have a wanted poster and I didn't even try to get it." Luffy answered quietly, his voice was subdued. His cheerful and strong headed attitude is nowhere to be seen. This was something he took hard, breaking promise was a taboo in his eyes.

"That doesn't matter, you didn't break your promise, did you leave intentionally?"

"No," Luffy basically yelled, the Den Den Mushi shaking its head violently.

"You couldn't go back because otherwise everyone would have been in danger, the mayor, Makino, Dadan.. everyone."

"But still, it doesn't mean th.."

"Luffy, when Sabo left, do you think he broke his promise?"

"What? No, Sabo left because he didn't have choice, he wanted to protect us."

The Sabo person again, and they always spoke about him in past tense, did they lose touch with him? Was he dead? Well, it would make sense.

Ace was clutching his tattooed bicep so hard his fingers turned white.

Marco saw Aladine opening his mouth, probably to ask who was Sabo, but Marco caught his eyes in time and with decisive shake of his head and heated glare (to make sure the point get across), indicating for him to stay quiet.

Aladine got the point and closed his mouth soberly. Jinbe moved closer to Aladine and murmured to him quietly. Jinbe give Marco a nod. He would make sure they were listeners without input.

"Are you angry at him for leaving?" Ace voice was calm, but his posture was emitting a mixture of sadness and deep seated anger.

"I am angry but not at him."

The anger could be tasted with every syllable Luffy spit out.

"Do you think Sabo would have been angry if you left to protect your friends?"

"No," Luffy said quietly, and asked hesitantly after small pause.

"Ace isn't angry?"

"Oh, I am angry, but not at you and Marcy. I am proud of you, both of you, that you protected everyone and came to find me even thought it was hard decision."

Ace paused, swallowing, relaxing his shoulders, and pulled smile on his face, an unnatural one.

"You truly have become strong."

What he was trying to do worked.

Luffy laughed a cheerful laugh.

"Of course, I bet I can beat you now."

Ace smile became smaller but more natural.

"Not that strong, but we will see when you arrive, I will beat the shit out of you like usual."

The Den Den Mushi seemed to be beaming with excitement and happiness.

"I will be the one to beat Ace this time, you will see."

A sudden rumbling sound cut the peaceful quiet.

It sounded like..

"Marcy, Do you want food? I am going to bring more."

They could hear a door opening and slamming the next second.

"Finally, the doom feeling has disappeared. I somehow feel pissed! I explained all of this to him in detail so many times but he stubbornly held to his guilt and self-disappointment, and just one word from you and he is back to being the truly cheerful idiot we know and love."

"Marcy are you both fine?"

Ace asked once more, the meaning of his words was clear, he was not asking only about physically but also about mentally.

She groaned but answered nonetheless.

"Yes, now that you cleared this with Luffy I can say we are totally fine, and don't ask about me. I am fine, peachey, the bright rays of sunshine, a permanent resident of cloud nine and seventh heaven. I am the essence of health, cheerfulness, joyfulness, optimistic, carefreeness, happiness, …"

Ace opened his mouth not sure how to stop this, he looked helplessly around him.

"What happened next, yoi?"

Marco to the rescue.

She stopped abruptly in her monologue and expelled a long sigh.

"It took a lot of time and effort to convince Luffy. In the end, I stole a Den Den Mushi and called Dadan. We spoke with Makino, Dadan, the mayor and the bandits. They all said the same thing: 'for us to stay away, that if we are not there they would stay safe'. Bluejam's men were everywhere, but they didn't make any trouble. Dadan and the bandits were staying low for now and that the asshole sent his men after us, if they were busy following us then they couldn't do any harm there … I guess hearing all of this convinced him and when I told him we would go find you … he decided to go along with me..."

She stopped speaking, her voice getting soft at the end.

"My plan didn't work, the marines somehow found about the pirates hideout and gone to raid it and delayed the training exercise, putting the town on lockdown, and Smokey, the bastard, he locked us up before leaving to do his real job."

She sighed, and depressedly added.

"All my work had gone to the drain, so I decided to go with plan B, I picked the lock."

"Since when do you know how to pick locks?" Ace asked unbelieving.

Marcy cleared her throat and in formal tone she declared.

"For survival purposes derived from being related to dumb and dumber. I decided after deep thought and long consideration that I needed to add some unsavory skills to my arsenal, picking locks is one of them."

Ace sighed. He really couldn't say anything to this. Could he? And more importantly what other unsavory skills she picked?

"Then, yoi?"

"I borrowed some marines' uniform and like that I became a captain and Luffy a lieutenant..."

The yucky marine uniform finally come to play.

"...let me tell you, it was a down right battle to have Luffy wear the marine uniform.. I boarded the ship and decided to do a sudden inspection…"

"How?" Ace cut her.

She was making it sound like it was the easiest thing ever to impersonate a marine inspector.

"I announced who I was and that we were here to do a sudden inspection and then glared at everything, while Luffy was going around doing whatever until he found the kitchen, which I left him to inspect thoroughly."

They could hear the shrug in her voice. It was the easiest thing ever, at least to her.

"I made them sail the ship to examine the ship engines and sails when unfortunately Garp came back. We heard him on the Den Den Mushi radio."

"What did you do?" Aladine asked breathless, he seemed excited. He had already forgotten all about Marco's warning. Marco gave Jinbe an unimpressed raised eyebrow. Jinbe slumped his shoulders and with pinched expression, dragged Aladine by the collar of his shirt several steps back, throwing Marco an apologetic look.

Marcy sighed, clearly unhappy, she muttered, "The one time that we wanted him to be late, he arrived early, so f**king typical."

She sighed again, and said in the seriousness of someone that looked at every option, and arrived to the bitter truth.

"The only thing I could. I announced the beginning of the training exercise, the enemy was Garp's ship."

They all cracked up, laughing hard.

The girl was fast on her feet (and off them), she was very cunning.

Pops let a long chuckle, moving his body forward to listen more clearly, he even put the sake bottle down (That was first!). Marco give him a look indicating to the bottle with his head, and Whitebeard gave a shrug accompanied with smirk (what the hell?).

"They went with it?" Ace asked truly curious.

"Cowards, they were all scared like shit," Luffy announced.

Luffy was back and so was the munching sound.

"You mean you are not scared of his fist of love," Marcy asked knowingly.

"That's different! Even Ace is scared of it." Luffy defended himself hotly, stopping his eating spree to do so.

Ace was startled, he didn't expect to be dragged into this. He ignored Marco questioning look about the truth of the statement. He would ask him later about it, in front of many specific people...oh my Ace, this would be fun.

"Aehh, what about you Marcy?" Ace deflected.

Evasiveness was cute look on Ace.

"I am smart enough to stay out of any situation where the fist of love may be involved, and if nothing else I can always cry my heart out." Marcy said boastfully.

"Crybaby."

"Ouch, you meanie."

"How did you convince them to fight?" Ace asked trying to get them back to the matter at hand.

"She gave them a speech with a lot of words, they all cheered at the end and began fighting like morons."

"You cheered with them, and began fighting like moron too. I needed to drag you from the fight several time for us to escape.."

"What kind of speech would motivate those fools to go to their death?"

Jinbe seemed confused hearing the words his mouth produced, he didn't intend to say that out loud. He looked abashed at Marco's direction, mouthing sorry repeatedly. Aladine was snickering at his predicament.

Marcy cleared her throat and in authoritative voice she declared.

"You are our future heroes, the one to stand for justice and defeat evil. You have to be ready, always ready, for anything. You could never know when evil would appear and strike, it would not wait neither will it face you right ahead. Evil and his followers are full of trickery and would gnaw on your weakness, but justice have none. No weakness. You have none."

She paused. He had no doubt she did the same thing when she first said it. She was good, really good.

"And the evil in front of us now is Garp, it doesn't matter that he is a marine, neither does it matter that he is strong, nor the fact that he caught the pirate king. Today he is just like any other lowly pirate and we are the justice's seekers, and justice Will Not Bend. Not today, not on our watch."

Her voice was getting louder by the end, Luffy cheered loudly and excitedly after the last words.

Pops burst laughing loudly and declared approvingly, "You have way with words, cheeky brat."

Indeed, to come with such thing in sudden bind, you needed wits, self confidence, and piles of cunning.

"Why thank you, and who the hell are you?"

Ace hurriedly introduced him.

"Marcy, this is my captain, his name is..

"Whitebeard of course."

Unlike her little brother, she knew of him (hopefully).

"Please, be polite," Ace was basically begging.

She could do worse than their little brother calling their father bread?

Even though Ace explained that it was an unintentional and Pops seemed not to mind (Pops found the whole thing hilarious), some of his brothers seemed to mind.

How much worse was she? and just maybe it was a good thing that only few were listening in.

"Really Ace, when I ever not polite?" She added immediately, a fake indignation filling her voice.

"Just so you know. I am not expecting an answer."

Ace seemed not sure what to do with himself.

"Mister Whitebeard. Is that polite enough for you Ace?"

Ace palmed his face with both hands, or was he trying to hide his face, not bothering to answer.

"Mister Whitebeard, I would have preferred to have this conversation with you face to face, but beggars can't be choosers."

Pops seemed to be quite interested and very amused.

"Whatever you prefer, after all you are in your way here, we can have this conversation when you arrive."

"That is quiet kind of you, mister Whitebeard, then we will have our long, deep and meaningful conversation when we arrive, but if it isn't too much trouble could I please ask you few questions?.. Please."

Ace was shaking his head furiously at Pops direction, looking pleadingly at him. Pops ignored him, clutching the sake bottle once again in his hand and with an amused raised eyebrow bellowed.

"Fire away, cheeky brat."

Challenge accepted, Pops seemed into it. Too much for Marco's (and Ace's) liking. Ace was still shaking his head and mouthing 'please no'.

"What are your intentions toward Ace?" She demanded, her voice sounded menacing.

Ace stopped moving and was instead looking up at the sky in intensity, refusing to make any eye contact, his ears red as tomatoes. Maybe he should narrate this information to Marcy,.. Hmm, without the tomato bit. Marco was not an idiot and preferred not to bring her wrath on him (like several idiots that shall not be named), he still wasn't sure he was in the clear because of Ace's recklessness when it came to attacking those ships that got his bounty raised (how the hell could he had stopped that, she should know better!) that began her meltdown. He really preferred not to rock the boat so to speak).

Even though Whitebeard eyes were twinkling with amusement and warmth he answered seriously, "He is my son, and that's all there is to it."

Ace became even more scarlet, his freckles shining like a warning sign. Really! Marco would not be surprised if he had smoke rising from his ears, with him being fire that was very possible.

Marcy was not finished, he had feeling that few questions, would not be a few and lovely ones.

"What does being your son entails exactly? Please be specific." She demanded.

He heard Aladine murmur to Jinbe that they were intruding on Marriage negotiations, (Ace being the bride. Aladine was smart enough to speak quietly so Ace would not hear him or else they would be having roasted brotula for dinner) and that Jinbe should pay attention, this was important, he could learn a thing or two about what to expect in his future marriage. Jinbe was looking like he preferred to be anywhere but here (Marco could relate).

Whitebeard relaxed into his chair, Marco saw him swallow a laugh by taking a gulp of sake.

Marco needed a drink himself, not that it made him drunk, but he can pretend.

"What a father always wishes for his sons, to be happy and free."

"Father? but Ace already his fath..Ouch."

So Luffy and Marcy knew about Ace's biological father, and Luffy at least didn't find it to be anything out of the ordinary...

"Oh, right, I forget. Ace doesn't like him."

"I know." Pops said, looking right at tensed pale Ace (all the color had left him suddenly), who was trying to became smaller, but hearing this Ace looked up, and searchingly his eyes travelled to Pops's face, who was looking at Ace steadily, his face showing his unshaken determined resolve.

"You know?" Both of the siblings asked in surprise.

Jinbe and Aladine looked confused, and Marco gave them a warning look to stay out of this. He would speak with them later and make sure that anything personal was kept private.

"Yes." Pops said curtly with soft smile, keeping eye contact with abashed Ace. His color returning and small shy smile reappearing on his face.

"And?" Marcy demanded impatiently.

"Does it matter? Ace is Ace."

Luffy didn't seem to agree.

"No. Ace is awesome, and strong, and he's the greatest big brother ever."

Pops bellowed a joyous laugh.

"I apologize, you are right. He is all that and much more."

Luffy bellowed his own cheerful laugh, to Marco's ears his laugh was even louder than Pops, was he trying to compete for the louder laugh?

"Ok. I approve! Ace you can join Bread's crew, he is nice."

"Thank you," Ace muttered dryly, his face even redder then before if possible. Really! Blushing suited him.

"Your welcome," Luffy laughed another loud high pitched laugh.

"So, you finally get it into your thick idiotic head that it doesn't matter."

"Ehh, yeah," Ace mumbled, cracking his fingers nervously.

Marcy sighed in disappointment.

"No, you didn't. But at least you made some process… imagine me patting you in the head and messing up your fluffy hair saying job well done."

Ace spluttered, muttering under his breath about headstrong egoistic sisters, but he was still blushing and a shadow of smile was still on his face.

Marco might have found an ally, strong one, to help Ace became less guarded and more … free from the self doubt, self hate… .from the heavy chains he put on his own heart.

"Mister Whitebeard, I am going to hold into my approval until after we have our long and deep conversation."

Pops' smile stretched his face, his crinkled eyes were shining with so many emotions, amusement and anticipation were the prominent ones.

"Wouldn't want it any other way, cheeky brat."

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The conversation yet to end (sorry, but not really), but as I am over 16k, I thought it was safe to end it here. (*shrugging my shoulders in Ace's like manner*)

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Looking forward to hear your thoughts about this chapter, especially because the story behind Luffy and Marcy leaving begun to unravel.

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IMPORTANT: For the next chapter (after you tell me in detail your thoughts XD) please tell me which POV you want the conversation to continue with: Marco, Ace, Whitebeard, Marcy. If you have another suggestion, share it and tell me why.

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I began new part time job and as result I have good news and bad news.

Good news: I won't die from starvation any time soon (and leave you without knowing what will happen next).

Bad news: I have chaotic schedule for the next few weeks, until I figure my schedule out (and with four fics in total) my writing and posting schedule will be affected. Just thought you should all know.

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Please leave a review and cheer me up XD