Title: What are the Odds?

Summary: For denizens of the Territories, life is generally pretty good. Provided of course that one is able and willing to conform to the rules imposed by whomever is in the charge of the area. However when the World Collective, a group of allied territories, declares that they are resuming hunts for people who seem to have the Devils own abilities, life becomes very complicated very quickly.

Pairings: Marco/Ace.

Warnings: AU, Language, canon-typical violence, possible Out of Character moments, too many characters, OC's galore, implied sexual content, slow burn, mentions of non consensual drug use.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners. I simply play with them for my, and your amusement.

Authors Note: This was beta'ed by the magnificent Ktwontwo and the artwork that you see in the cover is by Idaida on tumblr. Yall can find a much larger and better version of the magnificent stupendously phenomenal picture here! post/143364258999/one-piece-big-bang-2016-what-are-the-odds

Soooo, that cliffhanger though. I'd say im sorry for leaving things like that for so long but Im not really. Thank you for your reveiws guys. They made me really happy. Sorry about the week break. I needed the time to get the next couple of chapters edited. Anyways I hope you all enjoy this one.

Chapter 11: Full House on Fire

"Everyone out?" Ace asked as he met David several hundred yards from the complex wall.

Together they trotted away from the blazing compound following a deer trail that headed up a small incline and further into the Border.

"Other than Blackbeard's men it was just you, me, and Queen of Hearts right?" David asked just as Marie jogged up to join them.

"Yeah, we were the only three who went in," Ace said picking up the pace without bothering to turn around.

He'd know Marie's steps anywhere. Since she was out too it was all good. He didn't want to waste any more time. They needed to get back to the shop quickly before any of the regulars showed up and wondered where they were.

"No we weren't the only ones in there," added Marie

"No?" Ace turned to look at his friend.

"Whitebeard sent people. Dunno how he found out about this Spade but some of his people were in there. It wasn't just any of Whitebeard's people, he sent some of the commanders," Marie clarified.

The group kept moving. David blinked, shook his head then stared over at Marie. Ace noted that while David was acting surprised, Marie appeared to have a concerned look on her face. Ace frowned. He couldn't figure out what was bugging her. Whitebeard only took the best of the best and the commanders were the most talented of the lot. Why would she be worried about leaving any of them in the complex? Surely they could get out by themselves?

"Which ones?" David asked and Marie's worry appeared to intensify. She glanced nervously at Ace then licked her lips.

"I only saw three. I don't know if there were any more."

"Who did you see, Q?" Ace asked

"Thatch the Fourth Division Commander, Izo the Sixteenth Division Commander, and Marco." Marie paused for a moment then blurted, "And Marco had a tattoo that, if I saw it right, identifies him as the First Division Commander."

"Wait, hold up," David exclaimed, "I know we suspected Marco of working for Whitebeard but you're telling me he's the freaking First Division Commander? Are you sure?".

"As sure as I can be seeing as I almost literally ran into the man as I was trying to get down from the second floor. I got a decent look at his tattoo. It was clearly visible before the stupid ceiling fell down on the stairway." Marie thought for a moment, "The others were also showing their ink. That means they wanted people to know that Whitebeard forces took out the base."

David started chuckling, "Too bad for them that we'd already taken out most of the opposition before they arrived. There's no-one left to take word back. We made dang sure of that!"

Marie appeared to ignore David's comment a thoughtful look on her face.

"Given how he reacted to seeing me there," she finally said, "the Marco you like to eat sandwiches with is clearly the Marco who's the First Division Commander."

"What the hell!" David exclaimed in a disgusted tone. "He's been coming to the bar for clicks. How in the name of all that's holy did we not figure this out sooner? You'd have thought someone from our crew would have made the connection or run into him officially long before this."

"I did," Ace replied softly as he shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his coat. He stopped walking and turned back to stare at the flames. "I knew."

"You what?" David growled.

"I knew," Ace repeated calmly. "I knew from the beginning; from the first time he walked in to be precise."

"And you didn't tell us?!" Marie exploded.

"No." Ace said

"Why not?" Marie asked incredulously.

Ace couldn't look at her. He knew that all he would see in her expression would be betrayal and hurt.

"Because he literally had no idea what he'd walked into. He was just looking for a place where he could be himself. A place where no one knew him and where no one would have any sort of expectations or judgments about him. I know what that's like to need a place like that. I didn't mind that he chose the Bar to be his. He clearly had no idea that he'd just walked into the headquarters of the Card Deck. In fact, I bet he didn't even know we existed at that point. Hell, it's been over nine clicks and I'll eat my hat if he has any clue about the connection."

"Well he does now." Marie said darkly.

"What?" Ace looked over at her and winced at her thunderous expression.

"He saw and recognized me. Demanded to know what the hell I was doing there. He knows something's up Spade. At the very minimum he knows I'm a member of the Card Deck."

"Shit!" David said, summing up the situation quite nicely.

"Seconded," Ace said with a sigh as he stared at the burning compound once more. "Damn. I guess I really screwed things up this time."

"Oh yes you did," Marie agreed.

Ace could feel her staring at him.

Finally she added, "Wipe that look off your face this instant and get moving! There's no way you are going back in there. We need to get out of here regardless of your feelings for the man. Damnit Spade you can't run in and save him if you want to have any chance of salvaging the last four years of planning and work. It's bad enough that he saw me. We do not need him questioning who you are, wondering about your connections or worse yet asking what the hell you're doing in the area besides running a sandwich shop of all things. Though I do have to admit I'm a bit curious to hear what you tell him about that last seeing as the story changes every time you tell it."

Ace shrugged absently as he glanced in the general direction of the bar but quickly turned back to stare at the flames then his companions. He felt like he'd been punched. No, more like he'd been picked up and shaken. He had no idea what he should do now. His head said hot foot it back to the bar and pretend nothing had happened. His emotions on the other hand were telling him to wade back into the inferno.

Apparently his indecision was very evident on his face because something in Marie's expression softened for a split second. "I get it, ok? He's my friend too. He'll be all right. He's Whitebeard's Second in Command and you know that lot, they're damn hard to kill. A little fire like that won't even slow him down."

Ace shook his head attempting to clear his thoughts. "You don't really get it do you? I…" he paused for a moment to figure out how to express what he wanted to say. "I won't throw away what we're doing but I won't leave him in there to die either. I just can't Q. I'll figure something out if it comes to that. He'll die if I don't do something and I can't loose another person to…I refuse to let someone else I care about die in one of my fires again."

"Is there anything you can do?" Marie asked and Ace looked down at the ground, an anguished expression on his face.

"Not from here. Not without going back in myself. The fire's not mine anymore. I relinquished my control over it when I noticed…"

"Noticed what?"

"There was someone else in the fire."

"The fire was covering the entire building Spade," David said sarcastically. "There were a lot of people in the fire."

Ace shook his head, "Oh shut up King. That's not what I meant and you know it. I meant that there was someone else who could manipulate fire. They stuck their hands into the flames metaphysically and somehow managed to keep the fire from harming them. It didn't even seem to faze them. Who ever it was they didn't seem to be upset by being surrounded by fire. Intrigued sure, but they were definitely not worried. They just waded in and started poking at it. Playing with it even. I couldn't even get a good read on their location, just a general area. Any bit of flame I sent into their vicinity ended up getting misdirected before getting grabbed and taken over by this weird purple flame that we both could control."

"Good!" Marie said decisively, "Then we can go back to the bar with no worries."

"What?" Ace asked confused. He wasn't following Marie's logic. How did the fact that there was another fire user change anything?

Marie rolled her eyes at him but grinned all the same, "The other fire ability probably came with the Enforcers otherwise you would have noticed it earlier. At least one of those guys has a talent that affects fire. That means whatever happens in there Marco has a chance. Which means we don't have to place our plans in any more jeopardy than they already are."

Ace smiled back at her seeing the truth in her words but David frowned, "Another Ability that can control fire or not, I don't think it's going to help much."

Marie and Ace whirled on him, "What do you know that we don't?"

David just shook his head. He had apparently continued to keep watch for survivors as Ace and Marie had been talking. He simply pointed wordlessly at the compound as the structure let out a final creaking groan and collapsed in on itself with a mighty series of thuds. For a moment all was quiet save for the aggravatingly cheerful crackle of the flames.

"No," Ace whispered as he took a small step forward. "No, no, no!"

David put a hand on Ace's shoulder in a wordless show of sympathy but no words were exchanged as the trio stood there. The world was silent, save for the crackle of flames.

Ace didn't know quite what to feel. He was frozen in place; couldn't think, couldn't breathe. He couldn't even look at the compound any more. The only thing that was keeping him together was David's hand on his shoulder.

As they stood gazing down at the ruins of the complex a trilling hum filled the air. It steadily increased in volume and Ace absently wondered if he was the one making the noise. Marie's exclamation of What the hell? made him realize that the noise had some other source. Ace felt David's hand move as he shrugged. Marie must have asked if he knew what it was but it was clear that they were all way out of their depth in this situation.

A whispered Spade caught his attention but he couldn't turn to face his friend. All he could do was stare down at his feet. Thankfully Marie seemed to get it because she didn't demand that he look at her.

"Spade, look at the flames," she hissed.

He didn't want to look at that pile of flaming rubble that more than likely had just killed the man that he loved. That realization almost took him to his knees. Wasn't that an unfortunate but interesting thing to realize at this particular moment he thought to himself. He loved Marco. It was too late though. Marco would never get to hear it and Ace would never get to tell him. He should have gone in there, plans be damned. He should have moved the minute Marie told him she'd seen Marco.

"I should have gone back." Ace whispered.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed again this time as if chastising him.

"If you had," David said softly, "we might have been digging you out of that."

"So?" Ace muttered darkly. Despite his plans of revenge Ace had never held much stock in living more than one day at a time. It was much simpler that way.

"It's not over," Marie said insistently.

Ace wanted to scream. Of course it was over. Marco had died.

"No, really Ace. Listen! Look! You've got to see this," she pressed.

It was the use of his real name that had him look up. Marie wouldn't have used it unless she really needed to get his attention. With great difficulty Ace pulled himself together enough to turn his gaze from the ground to look at the flaming rubble the fire itself. What he saw nearly gave him a heart attack. There, in the heart of the flame was that strange purple fire that he had mentioned. It was the same color as the fire that he had been playing with earlier.

"The fire user," he whispered, "the fire user survived! He still has some control."

As they watched the purple changed. It lightened bleeding into an even stranger color, sky blue. All the while the trilling hum got louder and louder. It seemed to be coming from the heart of the fire.

"If the fire user survived then the others did as well," Marie proclaimed her tone silencing any doubts that either Ace or David might have had. "He's one of Whitebeard's men. You know the stories about the trouble that they've had to deal with. Besides they never leave a man behind. Marco will be fine."

Ace just nodded as he watched the building in front of them. The strange noise from earlier had now changed from a hum to something more resembling…

"Is that singing?" David asked in disbelief.

Ace shrugged as the song, because there was no doubt now that it was indeed a song, reached a crescendo. In a brilliant explosion of wood and fire a large streak of blue shot upward into the sky. It hung there for a moment and Ace peered at the flames in an attempt to see. The light was blinding but he could just make out the shapes of three different forms, two humanoid and one large bird.

The song now sounded triumphant and joyful. The light shot straight up into the sky singing as it went then just as suddenly swooped down gliding over where they stood. As it passed Ace watched as the flames shifted. There was a glint of a golden eye, wild and alien looking at him. He couldn't tell if it was truly seeing him before it suddenly went silent, wheeled around and headed towards the Whitebeard Territory.

Ace was slightly thankful that he hadn't tried to move when Marie had told him to look at the flames. If he had he would have probably fallen over. As it was he simply sat down as the realization of just what he had seen rushed through him. He most likely looked like a complete idiot with his jaw hanging low staring after the blue light disappearing into the distance.

"What. The. Fuck!" Marie said finally.

"Hell if I know," David said offering his hand to Ace.

Ace gladly took it and used it to help lever himself off the ground.

"I do," Ace said once he had gotten his feet under him.

He took a couple of test steps to make sure that he wasn't going to collapse. He was a little shaky and while Ace wanted to blame it on over exertion he knew that it had more to do with the emotional rollercoaster that the past five minutes had been. He needed a nap, badly. Hopefully he would be able to make it back to the bar without collapsing from a sleep attack. Taking another couple of steps, Ace looked behind him only to find that David and Marie were still staring after the flaming speck in the sky.

"Cmon. We don't want to be here in case it decides to come back."

"You know what it is?" David asked as he hurried to catch up.

"Oh, yeah I know what that was."

Ace started to laugh but the sound came out weird. He couldn't really decide if he was more excited or worried about the clear confirmation of that particular rumor.

"Whitebeard is taking things very seriously indeed," he muttered when he got control of his laughter.

"Spade," Marie said from behind him. He could tell from her tone she was confused, "Elaborate. Now!"

"We just saw the Phoenix," Ace said dryly as he picked up his pace.

"Whitebeard sent the motherfucking Phoenix to deal with Blackbeard?"

"Apparently," David contributed, "And that's not all. You said you only saw three of the commanders?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"There were only three figures up there; two humanoid and one rather large flaming bird. The only logical explanation is that one of the Commanders is the Phoenix."

"Fucking hell man. What shit did we just get ourselves involved in?" Marie demanded.

"We all knew the risks when we started the whole vendetta," Ace said and Marie glowered.

"Yeah, if you meant we knew we might die trying to take down Blackbeard and his men that's a known risk," Marie groused. "Not once in my wildest imagination did I think that we might end up coming face to face with a legend. I mean in the last half hour we've encountered the fucking First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Territory and the freaking Phoenix. The first of which is by all reports one scary dude and the latter is supposedly is just a rumor to scare people and doesn't really exist!"

"Well we know Marco and he hasn't acted all that scary so why are you surprised that the thing that allegedly doesn't exist actually does? You can always back out if you want," David pointed out calmly and received a glare for his troubles.

"Screw that and fuck you for even suggesting it!" Marie swore. "I've been in for this long and I'm going to see it to the end, legends be damned. Still I have to wonder which Commander it is," She continued a bit more calmly, "That's one hell of a secret to keep."

"Probably just one more reason that the Collective hates Whitebeard," Ace mused thoughtfully. "If the Phoenix is an ability, it's one of the really powerful ones and it's not on their side. That's bad from their point of view and to make things worse if it considers one of their most powerful enemies family well...no wonder the Shitlords are desperate enough to team up with Blackbeard to try and take Whitebeard out".

"Why the hell do they even want that ability?" David asked.

"Maybe they're really trying to take over the world," Ace said nonchalantly. "Enough speculation for now. It's not currently our problem. Right now the problem is that we need to figure out what to do other than have at least Marie and more likely both of you lay low for a couple of days."

"What? Why?" Marie whined.

David also looked curious as to why Ace was suggesting he too go into hiding.

"Because Q you're the only one that Marco actually saw. He's probably going to make the connection from you to King. You both fought Jinbie with me and I have no doubt that Jinbie gave them a description of his opponents. Marco's gonna come looking for answers the moment that he is able to."

"And he can't demand them from us if he can't find us," Marie said slowly realizing Ace's plan.

"Exactly," Ace concurred satisfied that his point had been made.

"What about you?" David asked rather bluntly.

"What about me?"

"He'll probably make the connection between you and Spade as well," David said and Ace shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe. I won't deny it's a possibility but that's my problem. Besides, I don't wear my hat with the coat and Marco's never seen the coat. I've got a better chance of keeping my identity hidden. Whatever happens I'll handle it."

Silence fell as the small group of three trudged on. Ace could tell that David wasn't terribly pleased but it was also clear that he couldn't think of anything to say that might have a chance of changing Ace's mind.

They were almost all the way back to Outskirts soft thud followed by an, "Oh. Oh ho!" broke the silence.

Ace shot a curious glance over his shoulder to look at Marie who was looking way too pleased with herself given the events of the day. She met his eyes and her grin grew into a smirk.

"No worries Ace. I get it. I get it."

"Get what?" Ace said. He was genuinely curious what Marie thought she understood because Ace certainly didn't have any plans to handle this other than hope that Marco wasn't to terribly pissed at him for all of the half-truths and misdirection.

"Weeeell, let's just say that the problem of Marco recognizing you as Spade is not the only thing that you're going to have to handle," Marie said with a smirk and a wiggle of her eyebrows.

"What the hell Queen?" David asked while Ace glared at his friend.

"Seriously?" Ace asked.

"Oh, I'm dead serious. Marco likes you so it's not like it wouldn't work," Marie said.

"He what?" Ace asked momentarily distracted by a faint thwapp. "Look, I'll figure out some other way to deal with this ok? That would be a really shitty thing to do."

Marie raised an eyebrow, "Says the man who once seduced a Brass Captain to get into his rooms and steal some information. Like that wasn't a shitty thing to do?"

Ace shrugged. "It wasn't personal. Not like…" he cut himself off and whirled around to look back in the direction that they had come.

Marie however had continued speaking. "Not like this is?" she asked rather gleefully.

"I'm not talking about this right now," Ace hissed as he studied the landscape. There was that distant thud again.

"Why not?" Marie asked cheerfully.

"Because," Ace started hoping to all hell that the sounds he had heard had been his imagination.

Marie opened her mouth to cut him off but before she could contribute anything more a muffled crackling boom echoed across the desert. Another boom immediately echoed it close enough so that Ace could hear the soft fwoosh as dry plant matter caught and burst into flame. The three exchanged wary looks and took off at a run in the direction of Outskirts.

They all knew what that particular series of sounds meant. Flashflame, that lovely time of year when the Border became a raging inferno, had started and no one wanted to be outside when the flames came close.

AN: So there you go. I hope you enjoyed that and that makes up for the cliffhanger from last update. I know its kinda short, but I like to have the next chapter done with edits before I post the one for the week and chapter 12 needed some major revisions. Again, sorry about that. Please let me know what you all think! I really enjoy hearing from you all. It makes me happy.