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. This chapter in specific contains excessive violence, blood, friendly fire, and character death of OC's and main characters. Its war guys. War and it's associated dangers are not pretty. See end notes for more spoilery warnings.

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 20: Dead Man's Hand - There May be a Price to Pay

"What?" Ace whispered in shock as his mind attempted to determine exactly what Marco had tried to say.

Had Marco just tried to apologize? What the heck did he feel the need to apologize for? For not being careful? For not being….the realization hit Ace all at once. He watched in growing horror as the man he loved swayed and fell boneless to the ground. Any hope that he might have had about Marco's survival diminished with every second that the other man didn't move. Even at this distance Ace could see the growing stain of red and the knife that had caused it. The hilt of that knife was still clasped in the hands of the man who had stabbed Marco in the back and was even now ensuring that it remained firmly stuck there. Standing over both of them was one of the other Vice Admirals of the Brass. That particular rat bastard was looking all too smug and pleased with the sudden turn of affairs.

"MARCO!" someone screamed.

It was a heart wrenching sound, full of terror and grief. The battle slowed almost to a halt as nearly everyone within earshot looked around in confusion for the source of the sound. The only exception appeared to be the Whitebeard Enforcers. For no reason that Ace could understand neither Whitebeard nor the rest of the Enforcers seemed to care that Marco had just fallen. It made no sense to him at all especially given how they all said that they were family. Instead the Enforcers simply took advantage of the lull in all the chaos and pressed their attacks.

The fighting quickly picked up once again but by this time it was fairly obvious that the Brass and Blackbeard's forces were struggling. It appeared that Marco's death and the scream was the break that the Enforcers had needed and within moments the only battles that were still going on were those between the heavy hitters. The more powerful members of the opposition who were currently either unengaged or fighting less experienced folks took the opportunity to attempt to escape. Seeing some of their leaders starting to vacate the field caused many of Blackbeard's troops to also turn and run or, in some cased, give up entirely.

"Fucking hell, if he's dying or dead you assholes are going to pay," Ace muttered to himself not bothering to specify which assholes he was even thinking about: The Brass, Blackbeard or Marco's seemingly uncaring family.

Ace absently realized that it was probably a good thing that he had so much experience fighting while his world was falling to pieces around him as he backhanded some jerk who was trying to stab him from the side. Clearly some part of his brain was still functioning even on autopilot as he dealt with the overwhelming emotions.

Suddenly the world snapped into pinpoint focus as the asshole that had thrown him this far reached his area of the field stirring the men surrounding Ace up into fervor. Ace didn't have time for this. His foot connected with some random person's chest, most likely breaking ribs at the minimum. He couldn't lose himself now. Ace elbowed someone in the face while yanking his knife out of a third idiot who had stepped in front of him.

There was a possibility that Marco was still alive especially since that cowardly piece of shit was still holding onto the knife in Marco's back. He needed to get over there! Another blow was dodged and Ace surged forward delivering a clean hit knocking whoever the hell it was he was fighting now back several paces. He needed to get out of here. He had to see for himself if Marco was all right. There was no conscious decision made on his part as he raced towards where Marco had fallen hitting, stabbing and in some cases tossing anyone who happened to get in his way. Friend or foe Ace didn't even bother to check.

As he surged forward, he reminded himself that there would be time later to find a spot where he could vent? Mourn? Rage? Curse life in its entirety? Ace wasn't entirely sure but it didn't matter. Right now there was someone in front of him blocking his path. It was that asshole from before. Presumably the jerk was one of the more powerful members of the Brass on the field. To make matters worse that someone was boasting.

"Get the fuck out of my way you fucking bastard!" Ace growled, low and dangerous cutting the voice off in mid-brag.

There was a stunned silence as if the Asshole, that's what Ace was officially going to call him, was shocked that Ace or anyone for that matter would speak to him in such a way. Really, he did not have time for this.

Unfortunately Asshole, didn't bother to identify himself to the Devil's spawn scum of the earth who had interrupted him, but merely started up his tirade again.

Ace started to half shift into fire, hoping that manipulating the flames would allow him to get around, over, or through the berk and reduce the time it would take to cross the battlefield.

The Asshole continued to monologue but Ace wasn't listening. He had almost fully shifted into his flame form. The only words that he caught were audacity, ability, eradication, bloodline and some other such nonsense. He moved on past the blowhard and was suddenly stopped as a fist of magma pushed right through him.

Ace screamed, the physical pain nearly forcing him to become solid. The Asshole had caught the spot in the middle of his torso that hadn't quite finished turning from flesh into flame and it burned. It burned; he was melting. It was too much. He couldn't think through the pain on top of everything else he was dealing with at the moment.

Ace concentrated; ignoring the pain, the emotions, the battle and everything else going on around him. A second of clarity was all he needed to concoct a plan. Through sheer force of will he got it.

"If you won't get the fuck out of my way you thrice cursed Dickwad," Ace snarled lowly more than half-flame, "then I'm going to fucking make you. Remove your hand from my person or I will remove it for you."

"And what is a piece of scum like you going to do?" The Asshole asked in a taunt.

"One," Ace said grimly.

It was taking more effort than he thought it would to finish completely transmuting himself.

"No really and whatever it is, I doubt you'll be able to hurt me," Asshole continued rather conversationally.

"Two."

The burning flesh did not want to shift and it hurt like hell to force it, but Ace forced it to do as he commanded anyway. The Asshole didn't bother to comment this time. Instead he moved his hand but not out of the hole that he had made in Ace's person. No this time it felt like he was trying to find Ace's heart probably to crush it or any other organ that he could get his hand on. It was just too bad for jerkface that Ace had already turned all his organa to fireform. There was nothing there for his opponent to find even if the sensation was somewhat nauseating for Ace. Ah well, this was going to be fun if it worked. The Asshole deserved it too. No one, no one could claim that Ace hadn't warned the man.

Ace smiled, and vaguely realized that he probably looked like the monster in all the stories from the Collective. A smiling deamon covered in fire and blood and god only knows what else.

"Three," he said and the hand still did not move.

Screw it bastard. Ace gave up his form completely to the flames. He started laughing manically when he heard the Asshole's bellow of rage. Ace had literally slipped through his fingers. Needless to say Asshole was not pleased.

Ace, however, didn't go very far. He needed to be close for what he had planned to work. Quickly, quickly because he wouldn't get another chance he summoned all the fire he possessed. It was all of the fire that he had ever produced condensed tightly as he could somewhere inside of his core. It grew into a small ball of pure white light that was deceptively innocent in appearance. Like a small star it drew attention rendering any attempt at staying relatively anonymous on the battlefield useless.

Ace took advantage of the attention the light was gathering. He took his humanoid form once more just as he forced the little light forward out of him exposing it to the open air. It hung there for a second floating in the air ignoring all attempts of gravity and the laws of physics to make it adhere to the normal rules. The ball pulsed once, twice, thrice, then sent a flash of pure light out in a ring. It appeared as if it were getting used to the idea that it was no longer contained or controlled by anything. Suddenly the ball collapsed in on itself for no apparent reason.

The Asshole laughed, "That's it? That's your trump card? For a piece of scum that actually managed to put up a fight I must admit I was expecting more. What do I get? A disappearing ball of light?" The laugher stopped abruptly. "Enough tricks," He said reaching forward lava gathering in his hands once again, "You're dead."

"Maybe," Ace said offhandedly.

His sudden admission of potential weakness had the Asshole stopping in his tracks. Ace understood it was entirely possible he was going to die. He had a hole in his chest. It was probably right through a lung. He was barely holding himself together and remaining standing was currently taking more effort than he really wanted to admit to himself. Death had always been a distinct possibility of this battle and Ace had only made it worse by deciding to try out an entirely untested application of his powers. He mustered up enough energy to put a tired but cocky grin on his face.

"But if I am, I'm taking you and the rest of these jerks with me," Ace glanced around at the number of fighters who had converged on his position, "that'll be enough."

"And what are you going to do?" the Asshole taunted. "Your trump card failed. Men!" He called out, "Surround him! We may have lost but this one will not escape!"

Well, Ace thought, that meant that most of the rest of the battles had all but ended. He absently noticed a growing crowd of Enforcers around where Marco had fallen out of the corner of his eye. That view didn't remain unobstructed for long as members of the Brass and what appeared to be left of Blackbeard's men surrounded him, complying with the wishes of the highest-ranking officer still present on the battlefield.

Being able to see the group shortly became irrelevant as someone's keening wails echoed over the battlefield and clued Ace about situation over there. An echoing scream answered any remaining question he might have had. He sighed shallowly. That could only mean one thing. Marco was dead.

Everything paused for a fraction of a moment and suddenly there was enraged yelling coming from that direction. Obviously the rest of the Enforcers had just realized his peril. Someone had noticed that one of their own was in surrounded by enemies with no escape. It was sweet, Ace thought absently. They were going to risk their lives for him when he'd given them all headaches for months. For their sake, he hoped, that they didn't make it in time. If this paid off and he survived, he really did not want to be responsible for any of Marco's family or his own people getting hurt.

There was a spark from behind the Asshole right where the ball of fire had disappeared. Ace couldn't help it, a triumphant smirk crept across his face. Before anyone really noticed or could question what the heck he was smiling about a wall of pure white fire erupted outwards in all direction from the spark.

I didn't get to say goodbye was Ace's last thought as he shifted and lost himself in the flames.

It was gone. All gone. Nothing left to burn. Ashes to ashes. Done. Finished. Complete? Embers pulsed once, twice, in the center of the circular moonscape of ash then died. All was quiet. The nearby survivors of the explosion stood in disbelief and shock. No one noticed as a small flame flickered to life.

The fire felt small, tired and scattered in a way that it hadn't for a long time. Hungry. It extended its awareness. Oh. Outside the circular area that once had been its full form there was food. Well that meant the hunger was easily remedied. The fire moved. So many different types of food here. New things that it hadn't tried before. A hungry tongue of flame licked forward. The fire didn't know what it was consuming, didn't need to know, didn't even care so long as it was combustible. The food sizzled slightly, the way wet things did when burnt, as the fire advanced. The fire paid it no mind. There wasn't enough liquid to douse it's flames.

It finished off a pile of fuel and felt around for more. There were so many different pockets of fuel/food around. With a single-minded determination to consume and devour the fire surged forward from one to another growing in an ever-widening circle as it went. It was large now but it needed to grow more. It was still hungry. It consumed and kept consuming everything that lay in its path not stopping until something moved.

It was in the path between flame and the next food. It moved. That caught the fire's interest. This was new. Normally not-fuel-yet did its best to avoid fire. The rest of the not yet food that it could sense was behaving as it normally did so why was this, no wait there were two moving not-fuel-yet coming towards it? It, they, moved right up to the flames as if they wanted to enter. Curious, the fire moved to create a non-burning space for these two pieces of not-yet-fuel to move around in.

Strangely this caused one of the not-fuel-yet clad in more fuel to call out. "Ace?"

There was no answer. This made sense to the fire. The only things in the fire beside the fire itself were these two moving pieces of not-fuel-yet. Was one calling to the other? No. The other not-fuel-yet was looking around as if it was waiting for a response. The fact that it did not get one seemed to make it move around more.

The non-response did not seem to deter the taller one in the slightest. "Ace!" It called again, "Where the hell are you?"

Once again there was no answer and the smaller one took it upon itself to try to find this Ace whatever it was.

"ACE!" the smaller one screamed. Its voice echoed in the silence, the force of it making the flames dance.

The fire watched, as the pair wandered making sure to pull itself out of their way as they wandered closer and closer to the heart of the fire. They stopped abruptly as they reached the area where the heart of the fire was supposed to be. There were no flames here. Where there should have been a roaring bonfire being sustained by coals there was nothing but a large ashy crater. What did the not-fuel-yet want with this area? It wasn't interesting at all. Couldn't they see there was no food there?

"Ace?" The small one asked again while the larger one clambered down into the crater.

"Sorry, Luffy," The tall one said. "I don't know where Ace is. All that's down here is his hat. I hope he didn't…"

"Course he didn't," the smaller not-fuel-yet, who was apparently a Luffy whatever that was, said definitively. "Ace wouldn't loose himself to the flames."

Suddenly images were flashing in the fire. It struggled to keep up with them all. This wasn't right. Something wasn't right here.

"He promised,"

That last statement was delivered with such faith and certainty that the images crystallized in the fire's awareness and that knowledge spread.

"When did he promise that?" Sabo wondered but Luffy didn't answer as the pair continued to search the area.

What was he doing? Ace absently wondered as he remained in the flames watching his brothers. They were worried. They had walked into a blaze that they had no clue if he controlled looking for him. The least he could do would be to let them know he was all right.

It was harder than he thought to force himself out of the flames and once he did he knew at once that he had overdone it.

"Ace!" Luffy cried out cheerfully.

"Hey." Ace rasped.

Moving hurt like hell and he had barely taken two steps before he collapsed against his younger brother.

"Sorry."

He wasn't sure what exactly he was apologizing for. It wasn't for using Luffy as crutch. No it was for something far more important but he couldn't remember what. At the moment he didn't know much of anything at all. All he knew was that they had won, Marco was dead and…

Actually that was it. He had no clue if Blackbeard had been slain.

"You ok?" Sabo asked coming up behind him.

Ace ignored the question. Struggling to make his mouth work he managed to choke out "Blackbeard?"

Thankfully Sabo knew what he was talking about and shook his head in frustration. "He got away when you did whatever the hell it was that you did."

Ace stared at Sabo in disbelief as a fog of anger filled his vision and he pushed away from Luffy. He had to get out of here before he completely shut down or lost himself into the anger and pain. He tried to move but his side screamed at him to stop everything he was doing. Shutting down it would have to be then Ace absently noted as an exhausted lethargy replaced the anger. There would be time to mourn over Marco's death and rage against the unfairness in the world later. That would have to do but until he was able to work through this his own way he wouldn't be a pleasant person to be around. Opening his mouth in an attempt to warn Sabo of that he swayed and collapsed against someone, he couldn't even tell who at this point and the fog rolled in again.

A voice that he knew and trusted implacably cut through the fog. "Ace? Ace, are you with me? Come on bro, we gotta get you to Chopper."

That was Sabo. Where had Luffy gone?

"Copper's gonna patch him up quick." Luffy said remarkably serious. "And then we gotta get Ace to the canyon."

"What? He shouldn't be going anywhere until he's better." Sabo argued.

"He needs to Sabo. Bad things'll happen if we don't." Luffy said matter of factly

Sabo made a questioning noise and it was clear to Ace that Sabo didn't understand what their little brother was talking about in the slightest.

He could hear Luffy's eye roll as the youngest continued his very Luffy like explanation. "Ace is having bad emotions right now and if he doesn't deal with them he's gonna be impossible."

"If you say so. But how do you know that?" Sabo asked.

Ace could hear the frown in Luffy's voice as he clutched at Sabo's arms. He needed to hold onto the fact that Sabo was here because he knew what Luffy was going to say next.

"Because." He started haltingly. "The last time Ace looked like that" Luffy said, true to Ace's prediction, "you were dead."

Warnings: This chapter in specific contains excessive violence, blood, friendly fire, and character death of OC's and main characters. Also contains fairly detailed fight sequences, broken necks, back stabbings, explosions, fire and swearing, courtesy of Ace. Again Ill repeat that they're at war guys. War and all of it's associated dangers are not pretty. If there end up being other things that people need me to tag, please let me know.

AN: Hey all! Im not dead and this story isn't either. I promise. I just got really caught up in some stuff. One of those things being the BB project for this year. Im super excited for it cause its gonna be awesome. And you know what else is Awesome? This story is almost done. I think ive got a single chapter left to edit and the epilogue to tidy up and then its done. So yeah, we're getting down to the end of things here. Thanks for sticking with me this long! I hope you're enjoying the ride! I'd also like to say Im sorry about the cliffhangers, but like Im kinda not? I love reading your reactions to them so please please let me know what you think of everything. Its always much appreciated.

Oh and for those curious, this chapter's title was brought to you by some random poker terminology that I happen to know and the song May be a Price to Pay by the Alan Parsons Project from the album Turn of A Friendly Card.