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. More of the Author's note can be found at the end.

Chapter 16: Seeing the Bigger Picture

"What exactly did you end up telling Marco, boss?" David's quiet inquiry came somewhat out of the blue.

Ace "Hmmed?" in response to the question. The sound echoed in the empty shop. He hadn't been paying much attention to David. His mind had been elsewhere while they had cleaned up the debris that a smattering of Dustblows had inflicted upon the shop. Despite the Hubloo that had started the Flashflame season the total damage inflicted upon the S'andwich Bar only amounted to a couple of scorched spots, a broken shutter or two and the sign which had fallen off one of its chains. All relatively easy fixes. Unfortunately the biggest cleanup job was getting rid of the dust and mud that seemed to get into every last crack and cranny even though the building had been shut up tight. Of course this was the most important part since the mud was still toxic and the dust was a rather persistent irritant. It was a messy, dirty job but it had to be done after each storm before they could open for business again. It was a mindless task: one that often left the person who was tackling it with way too much time to think. It had happened to Ace time and time again and this time was only different in the fact that his thoughts had unfortunately wandered nowhere particularly good.

"I asked what you had ended up telling Marco," David repeated. "Other than the fact that Marie and I are a part of the Card Deck. Because he hasn't questioned us at all these past couple of weeks. He hasn't said a word about it and I know he saw Marie. That's how I know you told him something." David paused in his cleaning, "You know Marie told me that she spotted him leaving from the back entrance after the Hubloo had cleared up. Was he here that entire time?"

Ace sighed. David wasn't going to stop asking questions especially since he had him alone. Ace knew that he needed to say something. Well in for a penny, Ace thought, David would figure it all out eventually anyway.

"Yeah. He barely made it inside before the Hubloo started. I didn't actually tell him much and I didn't have to tell him about you two. He had already figured that out on his own. He only wanted to know if I had known about your involvement in the Card Deck. He also asked if I knew why you guys were here. I told him that yes I knew about your affiliation and you guys were here because you owed me a favor and then simply didn't leave when it was paid off. Basically, I just made it clear that the Card Deck didn't have a beef with Whitebeard and that our presence in the area is entirely due to the fact that we have a bone to pick with Blackbeard."

"Well, that's true enough," David admitted.

Ace nodded, "Exactly. It's just missing some minor details. Like what the favor was, how I rescued you, and from what."

"And the fact that you're actually the leader of the Card Deck."

"He didn't ask; I didn't tell him," Ace said shooting David an offended look though David's expression caused his own to morph into an expression of confusion. "What!?"

"So, if that was all you told him, then what exactly did the two of you get up to while he was here?" David asked with a sly grin.

Ace groaned, "Oh for crying out loud. What the hell? Why does it even matter?"

David shrugged, "It matters because you're the scariest combination of a completely oblivious dude with a crush mixed with an insanely creative tactical mastermind that any of us know? The whole situation amuses all of us. Also, the general consensus is that while you are normally excellent at the planning and leading thing your plans gain a new level of tactical genius when you're happy. In all the years that I've known you Ace, I don't think I've ever seen you happier than when Marco's around. Except maybe when your brothers are present or we've just blown something up. However that's beside the point. Even if you haven't noticed how happy just his presence makes you, we have and because we're your friends, we just want you to be happy. So did the two of you finally get your act together?"

Ace glared and studied his friend. A frown appeared on his face.

"There's more to this than just me being happy increasing my plotting skills." Realization dawned on him. "I know that look. Why do you and Marie keep using me as the source of your bets?"

David shrugged, "Because it's fun."

Ace sighed, "You're all hopeless."

"Does that mean you're gonna give up trying to get us to stop?"

"I suppose. It's not like you all listen to me anyways."

"One for Robin then," David noted.

Ace blinked, "You all even bet on that?"

"Yes."

Ace's head hit the bar top with a thunk.

Silence fell as fans beat lazily overhead stirring the muggy air but they offered no relief from the ever-present heat. David, after his parting shot, had left to put away the cleaning supplies and Ace enjoyed the silence for a moment. Then he heard it. A faint sound like the rumble of distant thunder only continuous; a low grumble of sound that could only mean one thing.

Ace hopped over the bar to peer out the windows. Yep, it was just as he'd thought. There was another Dustblow on the horizon. From the looks of things it would be hitting the area within the hour. The last week had been full of them. No one had any idea why this time was so bad as it definitely was not normal for this time of year. However, this was the Border and so most of the residents were just thankful that it was simply a Dustblow and not a Mudmist.

"Another storm coming in," Ace said absentmindedly forgetting that David had headed for the cleaning closet.

"Damn!" David said as he came back into the room and spotted Ace at the window, "we just finished cleaning up after the last one."

"Um hm. Less than 12 hours between storms this time."

"Hard to get any news with all this weather going on." David said in reply.

"Tell me about it." Ace said.

He hadn't heard from Luffy in nearly four and a half weeks. Normally this wouldn't be a reason to worry, but that had been before the Hubloo. Ace didn't know if Luffy and his people had managed to get to shelter in time or if they had even been in the affected area. What made matter worse was that there would be no way to know until someone called or the group itself returned from whatever adventure Luffy had undoubtedly dragged them on. The only thing that kept Ace from being frantic was that they'd taken off toward the Canyon and that area had a lot of caves where a group could get out of the weather. Unfortunately the rugged terrain also played hell with reception so calling in wasn't really an option.

What was more concerning was that Ace also hadn't heard from Sabo. He had left sometime in the middle of the day immediately after Shanks's visit and before Ace had returned from a raid on one of Blackbeard's new compounds. Sabo had left a note stating he'd received some troublesome news and it was imperative that he go find out truth from fiction. The note also mentioned that he was going to touch base with Marco about some other things on the way out. According to the note he estimated that he'd be back in a week and a half, two weeks at the latest.

While the note was helpful and provided a possible explanation for why Marco had showed up the compound they had raided it was also rather worrying. Specifically it was the time frame that had Ace so bothered. A week and a half should have allowed his brother to miss the Hubloo in its entirety. Generally Sabo's information sources weren't even in areas that experienced the same weather phenomena so he should have been safe from that. Despite the frequency of the storms there had been some time periods where travelers could make the run between the Whitebeard territory and the edge of the desert. All of which meant he should have been back by now; not three weeks late.

It was highly possible, Ace thought to himself, that he was freaking out a little too much about brothers. They were capable, talented, and knew how to take care of themselves. He took a deep breath to calm himself absently smothering the wisps of flames that he had unconsciously sent running up and down his arms.

"You're worried," David remarked from behind him.

"Is it that obvious?" Ace asked though he knew the answer was yes.

David raised an eyebrow and declined to comment.

Ace took the lack of response as a sign to continue. "It's too quiet," he remarked. "This is the Border. There's always something going on. Just last week we were practically being overrun with perhaps the strangest conglomeration of people I've ever encountered and I've encountered plenty of weird shit. After that nothing; not a peep. Now add to that the bizarre sequence of sandstorms, the fact that Sabo's late from a information gathering 'milk run' as he put it, and Marco hasn't been by in nearly a week and a half? Something's up."

"He has been coming by a lot more frequently hadn't he?" David mused thoughtfully.

Ace shot his friend a wary look. While it was fairly obvious that his friends were hoping that he and Marco would get together the pair hadn't been exactly obvious about the change in the nature of their relationship. It was still new to the both of them and they wanted to take their time to see where things were going to go without everyone adding in their two cents. Besides, they were still testing the waters so to speak in an attempt to figure out if the relationship could even withstand the differences and all of the secrets between them.

"Yes?" Ace finally said by way of an answer not sure he wanted to know where David was headed with that train of thought.

He never got to find out as at that moment a person wearing a rather heavy traveling coat, hood and full face covering walked in through the door of the S'andwich Bar. Slightly grateful for the distraction Ace studied the covered figure. Whoever it was, they clearly were in this area of the Border a lot. Only people who frequently traveled in this area wore their outer garments so that no skin would be exposed to the irritating sometimes toxic sand and harsh sun.

"Welcome" Ace said after a moment, moving to head back behind the counter in case they wanted something to eat.

He felt a smile slip onto his face. Maybe he would finally get the answers to whatever it was that was going on. People didn't typically wear concealing coats inside a building after all.

"Ace?" came Sabo's voice from underneath the layers of fabric.

Ace spun around so quickly that he nearly gave himself whiplash to look. Sabo was in the process of removing the coat's hood after having undone the face mask. His face was covered with bruises and small cuts and the way he moved indicated that bruising and/or other wounds were concealed underneath the rest of his coat.

Ace growled under his breath.

"Why are you here? Don't you know what's going on?" Sabo asked imperiously.

"Ah Ha! So there is something going on!"

"I thought we'd established that something was up already Ace," David remarked casually.

The shock on Sabo's face could have been answer enough, "You don't know do you." Sabo sat down rather heavily in a chair, still wearing his coat, "One would think that after all these years, especially with it right in front of you, you might have a clue about what's happening in the wider world."

"That's why I have you," Ace said. "But seriously, you're starting to freak me out. What don't I know? Does it have anything to do with why you're back so freaking late and the injuries that you are trying to hide from me?"

Sabo shrugged, "In part. It's a long story. Let me start at the beginning and I'll explain."

Ace was silent as he waited for his brother to collect his thoughts, but after a moment Sabo shook his head.

"Ah, never mind. There's too much to explain. To quickly sum it up, the World Collective called in the Warlords. They announced a full scale assault on Agvitatmaa. After a bit of a disagreement in the ranks they dismissed the Knight of the Sea and arrested him for crimes against the Porcelain Gods. I spent the better part of the week staging his breakout, getting him out of the area and on his way home. While I was occupied with that they made Blackbeard a Warlord in exchange for his future assistance in apprehending the Straw Hat Gang. Blackbeard agreed on the condition the Collective would help him take over Whitebeard's territory first. He allegedly proposed it so that he could have a base of operations close to the area where the Straw Hats are rumored to be active. The rest of the Warlords agreed. Whitebeard has been under siege for just over a week. Blackbeard arrived yesterday with the rest of the besieging force and things are getting restless on both sides. Something is going to give soon and there's going to be a bloodbath."

Ace blinked, "What the fuck?"

Blackbeard was after Luffy? Putting his already existing issues with Blackbeard aside that couldn't be allowed to stand. Blackbeard needed to realize that the Straw Hats were off limits. Attacking Whitebeard on thier own turf was a bold if rather idiotic move. How the hell had Blackbeard survived this long if he made decisions like that? Did he really think he could conquer Agvitamaa and hold it? Marco and the rest of the commanders had not only the high ground but also the advantage in training and supplies.

Thinking of Marco, even tangentially, sparked a memory of a conversation that they'd had a little over a week ago.

"Ace," Marco had said rather seriously, "I need to talk to you."

His voice had been rather low, as if he was trying to avoid even the miniscule amount of attention that the conversing pair occasionally drew while sitting together for lunch. Despite Marco's almost daily presence after the Hubloo and his appearances before, the S'andwich Bar regulars were still getting used to the idea of Ace having someone around with whom he teased and flirted. Ace supposed it was the novelty since many had tried to engage his interest in the past and gotten nowhere.

"This about the Card Deck again?" he had asked.

"No," Marco shook his head and a mildly worried expression on his face though Ace doubted that anyone who didn't know Marco very well would be able to tell, "there's been some issues back at home and it looks like it's all coming to a boil."

Ace remembered having grinned at that, "whatever it is I think you can handle it. I mean, you outran a freaking Hubaloo Marco. Unless of course you're telling me I should be worried?"

Marco's quiet chuckle was music to his ears and even better had the effect of chasing away the worry from Marco's face, "Nah. No reason to. I just wanted to let you know that because of that I'm not going to be around for a little bit."

"Ah," Ace had said, leaning back in his chair, "I appreciate that. How long is a little?"

Marco had shrugged slightly, "Should be three, maybe four days at the max."

"Well then," Ace had said, half serious half teasing, "You should drop by for a spell when your stuff is done. Stay a night or two."

Marco had grinned, "I may take you up on that. See you in a few days Ace."

"Bye Marco."

Ace's eyes narrowed, "Shit…he knew!" Ace hissed. "The asshole knew this attack was coming and all he bothers to say is that he's not going to be around for a couple of days!"

"Who knew what?" Sabo questioned

"Marco!"

Sabo raised an eyebrow at that, "Marco told you that he wasn't going to be around for a while because Agvitatmaa was going to be under attack?"

"Eh, sort of," Ace said not really focusing on the question. Angry little flames rolled across his back, radiating heat and Ace made no motion to control them. He was too pissed off.

"Uh, right," Sabo replied realizing that Ace wasn't really in any condition to give him substantive information right now.

David just shook his head at the pair of brothers before interjecting, "What do we do Boss? It's your call. Luffy is your brother and Blackbeard has been your target a lot longer than the majority of us knew to blame him for our misfortunes. I know you've got some piece of a plan in that brain of yours."

Ace glared at the table for a moment longer allowing his flames to burn off the more destructive edges to his anger. When he could actually think past his rage he took in a deep breath and straightened up to look his co-conspirators in the eye.

"Alright" he said spreading his hands out and leaning on the table in front of him. "This is what we are going to do."

AN: Hey guys. So this is late, but still within my two weeks so Im going to count it as being on time. Hopefully that will be the schedule for the rest of the year but who knows. Life is complicated. Anyways I hope you all liked the chapter. Please let me know what you think of it. I am super excited for the next chapter because it contains the second scene that I actually thought out for this story and I find it immensely hilarious. I just have to finish editing it. Anyways thats not really relevant to this chapter, so please let me know what you think of it.