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 18: Play the Cards You've Been Dealt
Ace came to rather slowly, taking as much time as he could to gather his wits before doing anything. Years of pretending to remain asleep after waking up from a narcoleptic attack helped him keep his breathing even as he gathered his wits. He knew that he would have been moved after collapsing in the Commander's conference room. The question was where had they moved him? Was he in part of their medical wing due to his untimely collapse or was he in a holding cell? Marco had vouched for him but that did not change the fact that he had still successfully crashed a top-secret meeting in the middle of a siege. Frankly, if he were in the Whitebeard's position he knew what he would do.
Yet despite that, Ace didn't think he was in a medical wing or a holding cell. For one, he was comfortable, warm and whatever he was laying on was ridiculously soft. It also had the added benefit of smelling rather familiar. That definitely ruled out his earlier assumptions. Perhaps he was in some sort of diplomatic quarters then? Ace hesitantly cracked open his eyes, curious and still slightly wary. It was just enough to see but hopefully not enough to let anyone watching know he was awake. He found himself looking at a softly illuminated ceiling. That was not helpful at all. The ceiling told him absolutely nothing.
He closed his eyes again and spent a minute trying to figure out if it mattered or not where he was then proceeded to debate with himself whether or not he should get up. He was ridiculously comfortable. Just as he had come to the conclusion that no it didn't matter and he wasn't really interested in getting up, the soft sound of a page turning drew his attention. He wasn't alone. That changed things.
Curious, Ace opened his eyes again and rolled over onto his side so that he could see the rest of the room. To his delight, Marco was sitting in an overstuffed armchair with a book on his lap. Apparently his rolling over had attracted Marco's attention as warm blue eyes and a soft smile were directed his way.
"Hey," Ace whispered entirely unwilling to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in the room.
"Hey yourself," Marco whispered back.
The silence returned. Finally Ace murmured, "Where a…"
Ace didn't even manage to get the entire question out before Marco answered, "My room."
" 'S nice," Ace said wondering how he'd not recognized that. The room was comfortable, practical and welcoming. It practically screamed Marco.
"Thanks." Marco said.
Ace hummed sleepily as he snuggled into the decadent bed and soaked in as much of this comfortable peace as he could. There probably wouldn't be another chance to do anything like this in the foreseeable future.
"How long?"
"Have you been out? A few hours."
"Hmmmm"
"I haven't seen you randomly collapse like that in a while," Marco continued. "In fact that's the longest I've seen you stay asleep after keeling over like that."
"Your fault."
"My fault?" Marco inquired
"Yes. All your fault," Ace said. His voice sounded somewhat petulant to his surprise. "Lots of stress and other strong emotions increase the frequencies of attacks. Finding out that your boyfriend is stuck in the middle of a siege is not conductive to remaining calm, cool and collected in the slightest."
Marco blinked, "Ah," he said simply. "In my defense, none of us were expecting a full blown siege. I'll try not to do it again?" he offered.
"But you can't promise something like that." That was something they had booth been very aware of when they had started, though neither of them had been prepared to deal with it so soon.
"I know, I know," Ace responded to the look on Marco's face, "I can't promise anything like that either so there is no way I should expect you to."
"I know." Marco said simply.
The comfortable silence returned to the room. All was still good between them. Ace burrowed further into the blankets. Despite what he had told Marco, his narcolepsy and corresponding insomnia had been acting up ever since the Hubloo and if he didn't need to get up, then he wasn't going to.
"Ace?" Marco asked after a moment and Ace noticed that his attention had not returned to his book.
"Mm?"
"Is Blackbeard after Sabo because I asked your brother to investigate?"
There was a strangely remorseful and slightly guilty tone in Marco's voice. Ace glanced at his lover and saw that his face also was tinged with uncertainty.
"Ah nope," Ace said hurriedly to reassure him. "No blaming yourself for nonexistent problems Marco. The dick's not after Sabo. Besides, Sabo was already looking into Blackbeard before you asked."
Marco blinked, "He's was what then?"
"He was already investigating Blackbeard."
"Why?"
"Cause I asked. Years ago, when we first realized that most of the people trying to kill me had been hired by the same source. "
"Right," Marco said sounding slightly confused. "Wait does that mean Blackbeard's after Luffy?"
"Unfortunately."
"Why? What the hell did Luffy do?"
Marco's confusion was obvious but Ace couldn't really help himself. Not when the question was posed as it had been. He let out an undignified snort, one that somehow managed to combine worry, slight amusement and a strange sense of pride.
"I think it's more of a question of what hasn't Luffy done at this point."
Marco warily raised an eyebrow, "What does that mean?"
"Well, the bastard could be after Luffy for a variety of reasons. There's the Attack on the Mountain of the Midnight Sun for one, but my overachiever little brother is also responsible for stopping the Civil War of the Abyss, overthrowing Arlong and crushing Crocodile's coup. And that's only the stuff that Sabo and I were able to confirm. Besides, I haven't heard from him in nearly a month. Who knows what Lu's done since then."
Marco stared. "Ace, are you trying to tell me…"
He didn't get a chance to finish as Ace laughed. "It is exactly what you think it is. Luffy is the leader of the Straw Hat Vandals."
Marco was silent for a moment, "That explains so much. None of you do things by halves."
"If we did, life would be boring," Ace confessed with a grin as the silence returned. Ace tried to return to the drowsy and content state that he had been in moments before but it was futile. No matter how he turned, his mind was too preoccupied to return to its restful state. So much for sleeping. Ah well. He might as well go for broke then. Ace sat up in the bed and arranged the pillows so he could lounge against the headboard. He could still be comfortable while interrogating Marco.
"So what's the plan? Assuming you all agreed on one that is."
"Pops accepted your offer of help." Marco started in.
"That's good. Anything else?"
"Nothing at the moment, really. Most of the plan is going to depend on how long it will take you to sneak out, get back to your people and set things up on that end. By the way I would really like to know who exactly they are and what their capacity is. It will make things either easier or much more difficult to plan."
Marco looked contemplative as if he was unsure about something. Ace hummed a questioning noise hoping to get him to continue.
"Without outside help this siege has the potential to go on for a long time. We can't really afford such a thing. The territory isn't set up to handle it. Hell, we only have a police force because so many people started settling in the area and we learned early on that letting the citizens police themselves wasn't a good idea."
"Marco, I'm not going anywhere," Ace shifted in the bed, the blanket he'd been under pooling around him.
"What? Of course you are. You've got to talk to your people right?"
Ace chuckled, "Marco I can do that from anywhere provided I've got a transfract."
Marco shook his head, "They're jamming the signals. Nothing is getting in or out other than interference."
Ace shrugged and his shoulders popped as he did so, "It's not a problem. I've got a way to get around it."
Marco cocked his head, "You've what now?"
Ace shrugged again, "It's called a SNAIL. Don't ask me how it works cause I don't know but don't worry about it so much Marco. I've got a secure method of contact that doesn't involve me leaving to use it. Which means all you've got to do is give me more of a plan than 'we have to wait to talk to your people' and I can let them know what's up."
Marco just looked at him and Ace stared back, trying to read anything that he could from the other man's expression.
"This has to do with some of those secrets you hold and who you're here representing," Marco finally said.
Ace said nothing. He wasn't going to lie but he didn't really want to deal with this shit right now. He stared at Marco trying to decide what he'd say if the man asked point blank. The truth he supposed. Well, he mused, there was never going to be a perfect time so it was much better than dealing with it later.
"I won't push," Marco said.
"But you want to. I'm not wearing my coat. There's no way you didn't see the insignia when you stripped it off me," Ace pointed out leaning backwards and falling over onto the bed so that he was once again staring at the ceiling.
"I did," Marco confirmed. "I know you're a part of the Card Deck. Just one question? Please?"
"Shoot," Ace said, refusing to look over at Marco.
How had he not noticed that the ceiling was this interesting when he first woke up? He knew that he was trying to avoid the situation but frankly this had the potential to destroy everything. It all depended on the question. He had the feeling that Marco knew it too.
"Are you Spade?" Marco asked slowly.
Ace froze and remained silent all the while mentally cursing the universe. Hadn't he dealt with enough crap today? He'd already had to reveal one secret, albeit one that Whitebeard and his Enforcers hadn't seemed to care about but he hadn't been present or even conscious for the discussion following that reveal so who knew what they actually thought. Add to that his narcoleptic attack. The fact that he wasn't in a medical room was very telling. Marco had probably told them about his narcolepsy to prevent panic and accusations of bioterror. Which meant that there was a roomful of rather powerful potential enemies who knew one of his weaknesses. So, of course it would make sense in the grand scheme of things that Marco would ask that specific question. It was the one question that could change everything depending solely on how Ace responded. Joy.
So what should he say? Should he respond flippantly with a simple 'Yes' and expect that to be the end of it? Did he joke about it and say that he had already told him and teasingly inquire if Marco had been listening? No. None of that would do, nor would it be fair. The Enforcers hadn't needed to listen to him after he'd made it blatantly obvious that he'd effectively been spying on their meeting. They'd let Marco take him to his room though he somehow doubted that anyone else knew that. He had a feeling, based on Marco's stories of his family that if his siblings knew where he was they'd be in here too if only to tease Marco. Ace frowned at the ceiling and tried to collect his thoughts. Given all of the leeway and accommodations that the Enforcers had granted him, only the truth would suffice. Besides, he owed it to Marco. The man had figured it out already; at this point all that was left was verbal confirmation.
"Ace?" Marco inquired and only then Ace realized that he'd been silent for a while.
"Yeah, I'm Spade. As you've probably guessed, I lead the Card Deck and they're the people whose help that you would be accepting," Ace said and his voice sounded rather distant even to his own ears.
"I see."
Ace didn't even need to look to know that there was a frown on Marco's face. Clearly he was going to need time to process that information. Instead of the previous comfortable silence this one was tense. Something Sabo had said to him once floated through his mind. Speak the truth and it shall set you free. Ace kept his expression blank thought he wanted to laugh hysterically at the idea of that thought. He had told the truth because he had owed it to Marco at the bare minimum due to their relationship. Unfortunately right now the truth seemed to be tying both of them up in knots rather than liberating them.
Ace turned his head to look at Marco again. He didn't want to see the hate or rage or betrayal or whatever combination of the three Marco was feeling but it would be easier to face head on. He did not expect the expression of simple acceptance and understanding that he found instead. Nor did he expect Marco's next statement.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Marco asked so simply.
"Because I didn't want you to hate me," Ace replied quietly then returned his gaze to the ceiling.
There was a moment of silence. Ace wondered what Marco would say next. Instead of saying anything there were sounds of movement and suddenly Marco was in his line of sight standing over him.
"Budge over would you?" Marco asked.
Ace complied. He felt more the mattress shift as Marco made himself comfortable. They remained like that for a minute, lying next to each other but not quite touching.
"Why would you think I would hate you?"
"Why wouldn't you?" Ace countered, "I've been causing you problems since before we met. The fact that I'm Spade and didn't bother to come forward with any of the information we had before Blackbeard got serious would be reason enough. How about the fact that we were actually actively planning to take out one of your family members before he betrayed you all? Or even the fact that we didn't succeed? People have hated me for much less."
"Because you're Roger's son," Marco said.
"Because I'm Roger's son," Ace snarled angrily, "That alone usually makes people want to kill me."
There was another pause after that outburst.
"You're being ridiculous," Marco said suddenly. "I don't hate you Ace. I don't like what you've had to deal with and I understand why you didn't tell me. I just wanted you to confirm it because it would make a couple of things make more sense. I suddenly understand your obsession with the explosions from the storm and why David and Marie work at the Bar. Also Jinbie did have a general description of you from when you fought. Plus, as you said, tattoos are hardly inconspicuous. And…"
Ace couldn't help it. He laughed, cutting Marco off.
"Don't quote me to myself. Jerk."
He could feel Marco's shrug.
"Seriously though," he continued to cut off any additional comment, "You don't care? It doesn't bother you? The fact that I'm Spade, Roger's son and have an Ability? You don't..."
Ace trailed off as he rolled to his side to look at Marco. He couldn't figure out how to finish the question. It didn't appear to matter, as Marco apparently understood.
"No," He said simply, "I don't. Not about any of it. You're still you. That hasn't changed."
Marco licked his lips and a strange energy filled the space between them. Ace would have thought it was nerves but that wasn't quite right. There was something more it almost felt like that time when…
"Ace…," Marco began but before anymore could be said the door to the room burst open.
"Found them!" Someone, Ace wasn't sure who as he couldn't see them very well past the bulk of Marco's body, yelled.
Marco clearly knew exactly who it was based on his displeased expression.
"He's…" the person yelling paused and then asked in a more normal tone, "Good question; Marco what are you doing?"
"Staring at the ceiling."
"Why?" The bafflement in the other's tone was confusing.
"It's helpful," Marco responded with an unsaid 'obviously' tacked on to the statement.
Ace tucked his face against Marco's arm muffling his laughter.
"How?" The confused voice asked.
There was a sigh as Marco decided not to answer and Ace nearly lost it once again as Marco shot him a rather lazy look. Ace knew that Marco was struggling to contain his own mirth as he confused this strange person who he must consider a sibling.
"What do you want Rayuko?" he finally said.
"Fine, don't tell me," The other man, Rayuko apparently, huffed. "Never mind that. There's been a new development. The WC sent terms, demands, whatever. Pops didn't even bother to look at them. He simply wrote something along the lines of 'Only over my dead body will we surrender to you traitors.' They stepped up their assault almost immediately after they got the message. I think the opposition took Pop's words a bit too seriously."
"Great," Marco sighed and heaved himself to his feet. "Ace, you sure whatever it is you're going to use to get in touch with your folks is secure?"
Ace nodded and rolled himself off the bed and landed on the floor with a thud. He stood and dusted himself off ignoring the stare he was getting from Rayuko.
"Very sure."
Marco grinned, "Good then let's get this ball rolling, eh?"
The entire process of attaching the SNAIL to the provided transfract had taken a more than few minutes. It had been made unnecessarily long by the fact that people kept interrupting to state that they had already tried to use the transfract or ask what Ace was doing. Within moments of completing the TransSNAIL, Ace had managed to pick up a signal and started trying to get in touch with Sabo. That had started its own set of rapid-fire questions, specifically from Kingdew and Atmos about what exactly Ace had attached to the Transfract, how it worked and their loud disbelief when Ace told them that he truly didn't know.
They had barely quieted down when the signal finally went through and Sabo's voice, but not his face appeared on the projection. It had been Sabo's teasing answer of Oh there you are Spade. We were wondering where you had gotten to that had started the group up again as the rest of the commanders realized who exactly they had sitting in their midst. Ace knew his own reply of Oh shut up Club hadn't helped at all.
Or maybe it had. Ace wasn't entirely sure. Revealing that he was the leader of the Card Deck had needed to happen sooner or later. Once the shock had worn off and the Whitebeards had confirmed that they would be receptive to any sort of assistance the Deck could muster, all of the involved parties got down to business. The most up to date information had been obtained, verified by Royal Blue, relayed and shared with all the commanders. From there the whole group had all sat down and devised several plans that they hoped would allow them to triumph based on who they knew for sure was stationed where. Unfortunately even Sabo had no idea where exactly Blackbeard was going to be. The location of his reinforcements, if there were any, was also problematic. The numbers that they had been first contemplating were rather grim and members of the Enforcers and Deck alike were scrambling to figure out how to fix that when Luffy quite literally barged in, dragging a very bemused Jinbie behind him much to the amusement of everyone. Once the pair had learned what exactly was going on they too had insisted on helping. Surprisingly it hadn't taken too long to get the plans together and out to the other groups. The SNAIL had proven very useful in that regard too. Despite the meetings, strategy session and the number of calls Ace was pleased that he as well as most of the Whitebeard's commanders had managed to get a couple of hours of sleep in before the time they planned to break out.
Light was scarce in the predawn hours but that didn't matter much as Ace watched Marco's familiar figure standing on the city walls. His face was grim as he looked out at the force that had besieged the territory. Ace could see that while Marco had known, objectively speaking that the force was huge, the sandstorms had prevented that knowledge from sinking in entirely. Now that he could see the size of the force they were up against it was clear Marco was wondering what exactly this plan of theirs would cost.
As far as Ace was concerned it was a fairly simple plan. Well, as simple as anything involving 4 different attacking forces could be at any rate. He'd run things much more complex with the Deck, albeit with smaller groups. Compared to those raids, this was not tricky at all. There was to be a signal and then The Straw Hats, the Card Deck and the Sun Army from Merenis would attack Blackbeard's forces. They'd be coming from several points on the Border side of Blackbeard's army. At the same time, The Whitebeard Enforcers would also sally forth from their fortified positions and attack. The plan was to hopefully catch Blackbeard's forces by surprise, quickly take out their leaders and then catch the stragglers who surrendered when the chain of command collapsed.
Ace had tried and he knew Luffy and Sabo had also to add to their forces by contacting the rest of Whitebeard's allies. Many of those contacted wanted to help but none of them would make it in time. That meant that this four pronged attack would have to do. They wouldn't get another chance.
Ace watched as Marco took one final look at the size of their opponents before making his way down to the men that he was leading. It was clear that he did not doubt the strength of his men as well as the rest of the Enforcers. No the look on his face was that of a commander who knew that even a superior fighting force could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Judging from Marco's expression he thought it was highly likely that this battle was most likely going to turn into a numbers game.
"Ready?" Ace asked from his position leaning casually against the wall.
He had volunteered to be the person who set off the signal. He knew that alone had Marco suspecting that the signal had something to do with Ace's unique talents in manipulating fire.
"As we'll ever be I guess. I'm not going to lie; I'm rather hoping that Blackbeard is in the faction that I face. It will be rather satisfying to rip that asshole apart. He's not going to stop coming after us until he has died and I hope to hell that I get to be the one who puts him in the ground."
"Get in line." Ace replied with a sharp-toothed smile
Marco returned the smile with a bloodthirsty grin of his own. The both of them had their own grievances with Blackbeard but it was anyone's guess as to where exactly the putrid fecaloid waste of space was.
"Are you ready?" Marco asked in return.
Ace heard the underlying question Marco was asking. Today, regardless of what went down, would mark the end of a vengeance filled quest that had consumed almost the entirety of Ace's life thus far. Marco clearly was concerned that Ace might take chances to see that vengeance realized.
"We'll see," Ace replied with a small shrug.
Marco nodded.
Ace had been hoping for a little more than that but it would have to do for now. They both had places to get to after all, Marco needed to his men and Ace had to get in position to set off the signal. However Marco wasn't leaving. He had a look on his face like he needed to tell Ace something but didn't quite know how to say it.
"Ace…" Marco began yet before he could continue a loud bang echoed through the quiet morning air and the causing the street beneath their feet to tremble.
"What the hell?"
"I take it that that was not supposed to happen?" Marco asked dryly.
They exchanged worried looks before turning scrambling up the wall to see what had just happened. The sight that greeted them was unexpected and quite terrifying. Halfway between two gates, where there had once been a solid expanse of ground now stood a rather expansive crater. Blackened earth, the occasional burning bush, and twisted pieces of metal decorated its edge. In the center of the crater stood the burning husk of some metal monstrosity and a couple of very upset people who strangely enough did not appear to be too terribly hurt despite their closeness to the epicenter. A mild groan escaped Ace as he recognized the arguing pair then looked around for their leader.
Marco made a questioning noise. It was clear he didn't understand the reaction.
Ace elbowed Marco and pointed with his chin to a figure standing on the far edge of the crater wearing a very familiar straw hat.
"Well, there goes the element of surprise," Ace growled as Luffy launched himself towards the center of the crater with a yell. He turned to Marco, "You might want to get off the wall and back to your men. We have to attack now because there is no way that everyone else is going to ignore that. I'm going to send up the signal then I'll join you. Fair warning, it's going to be very bright."
Marco nodded acknowledging Ace's point but he still hesitated apparently wanting to say something. In fact it sort of looked to Ace like a bunch of words were all jammed up behind Marco's lips and he couldn't bring himself to utter them.
Damnit Marco, Ace thought to himself, this is not the time to get tongue tied. We both have jobs to do and we can't wait around on the top of this wall for you to get over your reluctance to open your mouth and say whatever it is you feel that you absolutely have to say.
Ace was just about to turn to go when Marco suddenly reached out and grabbed him by the forearm successfully getting his attention. Marco pulled him close while muttering something that sounded to Ace like don't have time for this and proceeded to kiss him thoroughly.
Ace was rather surprised. Marco hadn't really gone in for public displays of affection before. In fact, he'd been rather circumspect even in the safety of the S'anwich Bar. The kiss wasn't unwelcome and Ace returned it enthusiastically.
When the kiss ended Marco took one long careful look. Ace could almost read his thoughts primarily because it looked like he was thinking exactly what Ace was thinking. Who knew if this would be the last time they saw each other? They were about to enter a free for all and anything could go wrong.
"Be careful," Marco finally said.
Ace understood and uttered a soft "You too," in return.
Marco turned and slid down the ladder to join his men.
Ace watched him go for just a moment before heading off toward the top of the gate house where he would set off the signal.
AN: Here we are guys. Its the beginning of the end. I hope you've enjoyed the ride thus far. Fair warning, you're gonna want to start holding on to the edge of your seats because things are about to get very crazy and really messy really quickly. Like, the next chapter quickly. And I'm hoping that I get the next chapter out by the middle of the week but no promises.
So I know I haven't really messed with the warnings much in the past and I know people tend to ignore them. However, like I said, things are gonna get messy. Really really messy. War is not pretty and I don't mind saying that here because I'm pretty sure that its fairly obvious that's where this is going. That said, there will be an addendum to the warnings. So even if you don't normally read those, please please please pay attention to them during the next chapter at least. I'll try to include vague ones at the top and then more spoilery ones before my author's note here below. I think that was all I wanted to say so I guess that's it for the moment. Leave me a review please? I love hearing from you all and I really want to know what you all think. Hearing your theories and comments about what you loved is my favorite part of posting.