A/N: Welcome to another chapter everyone! This ones kind of boring, but were slowly learning how to get the future members back home! I don't have much else to say beside another thank you for all the favs, follows, and reviews on this story. I never thought I would get so much love on this story, and with every notification I get on this story about you guys supporting me I feel happier and happier! I truly hope you enjoy the chapter and I'll see you next Wednesday!
The next day after everyone woke up, well rested and happy, they had a quick breakfast, cleaned up their small, makeshift camp, and got ready to continue their journey. Tony and Chopper tried their best in checking and changing Monkeys bandages but Robin had to do most of it since the two reindeer were immobilized by the heat, forced to be dragged on their sleds once more. There was a slight throbbing pain but Monkey ignored it easily, having felt much worse before, and he was back to his normal self, jumping around and laughing happily.
That is, until he felt the heat.
It was almost like when he goes out in the cold when they get near winter islands and he runs around without a jacket. He feels no cold, runs around happily, but once reminded of the freezing temperature he realizes how cold he really is.
"I can't wait to get back! Ooh! Do you think we'll be able to explore that island?! Roronoa, you promised we could hunt! Maybe there's a cool jungle there! An Adventure! And- Oh... its sooo hoootttt~!" Monkey suddenly whines, jumping around one second before he sagged, tongue lolling out of his mouth as he begins to pant loudly, much to Nami and Cat Burglars annoyance.
"Oi, Monkey! Luffy's already panting like an idiot, both of you stop it! Your only exhausting yourselves more!" Nami shouted angrily, Cat Burglar nodding her agreement.
"But Nammii~! Its hoooottt~!" Luffy whined. Nami sighed, shaking her head in annoyance and face palming.
"Its a wonder I even joined this crew." She says dejectedly.
"Cat Burrglllaaarrr~! Can't you use your rainy... sky... tempura?" Monkey questioned, completely ignoring Nami's words as he hoped to have any sort of relief from the heat.
"Idiot, its not rainy sky tempura! Its Weather Egg: Rain Tempo, and no I can't, it would create a bunch of fog, as well as mess with the humidity. Though... I could do something similar to my Shower Tempo..." She mumbled, more to herself then Monkey at the end.
"Shower Tempo? What's that?" Nami asks, the other past members also curious.
"Oh, well, I use my clima tact to create and manipulate the weather. One of the ways I do this is by creating a cloud that produces a rain shower, harmless and nice when I need to shower." Nami informed, taking out her clima tact and smiling as she showed off the instrument.
"Wow~! That's so cool~!" Luffy said in excitement, before quickly sagging under the heat.
"If everyone doesn't mind getting wet I could use it to cool us off." Cat Burglar says, twirling the clima tact in her hand. Everyone looked at each other before shrugging.
"Its not like the heat wont dry us off later." Zoro says, already taking off the giant covering they all wore in the desert.
"Not only will we have a nice shower, but the clouds will give us some shade. Huh... for once... you had a somewhat good idea Monkey." Cat Burglar said as everyone else took their desert clothing off. Monkey laughed, completely missing the insult.
"M... Monk... ey... keep... your... wounds... covered..." Tony panted out, tongue sticking out the side of his mouth, too hot to close his mouth. Monkey nodded.
"No problem!" Monkey said, forgetting the heat in his excitement as he put on an extra cardigan that he had. (Don't question it.)
"Alright, everyone ready?" Cat Burglar asked, everyone nodding as they momentarily stopped to watch. Cat Burglar nodded as well, getting into a stance to send out the clouds.
"Giant Shower Tempo!" She announced, puffs of white clouds coming out of the clima tact in a popping sound. They floated up into the sky above them until they were above the whole crew, the sun immediately blocked and giving them shade. The individual clouds all joined together to form one big cloud and, within seconds of forming together, rain began falling from it. Some of the more expressive members cheered happily at the feeling of the cold rain, Monkey and Luffy running around in circles as they played in the rain, Sniper and Usopp both cheering and jumping happily. Chopper and Tony only took a few minutes to bask in the coolness before they felt rejuvenated enough to get off their sleds and join Monkey and Luffy in dancing and running around in the rain.
The less expressive members merely smiled, enjoying the cool feeling on their skin after walking through the hot desert.
"You know, one good perk of having your fruit is that you don't get bothered by the heat, but this feels nice." Sabo said, holding a hand out to feel the falling rain, smiling to Ace who grinned cockily.
"Yeah, fire power is way cooler then rubber." Ace teased, earning a glare from both Monkey and Luffy simultaneously while Sabo was reminded of when they were little and Ace always made fun of Luffys powers.
"Nu uh! My rubber powers are way cooler!" Luffy whined childishly.
"Yeah!" Monkey added lamely, Ace snickering in response. Everyone watched in amusement as Ace began mocking his little brother (brothers?) and the two easily took the bait.
"I have so many cool gears too!" Monkey shouted after Ace declared that there wasn't much he could do with the rubber.
"Gears?" Ace asked, raising an eyebrow, Luffy also curious.
"Yeah! I've got Gear Second, Gear Third, and Gear Fourth, though Gear Fourth takes a lot of my haki and I can't use it for a little bit after..." Monkey mumbled.
"You've got four gears?" Cat Burglar, the other future members also confused, not having seen his fight with Doflamingo.
"Yeah! Its so cool, but I have to keep moving..." Monkey said.
"Well, what do your other gears do?" Usopp asked.
"Oh, well, Gear Second makes me really fast!" Monkey said, getting into position.
"Gear Second!" He exclaimed, his skin pumping itself, blood moving faster and steam rising, skin turning reddish. He grinned as he stood before shooting over a few feet in front of everyone.
"Woah! That's so cool!" Chopper exclaimed, Luffy grinning.
"Yeah, look Ace! My rubber powers aren't lame!" Luffy teased, sticking his tongue out at Ace.
"Hmm, I don't know..." Ace said, over exaggerating as he rubbed his chin, Sabo snickering beside him. Luffy pouted.
"Well that's... not... all..." His words trailed as he realized something.
He wasn't under the cloud anymore.
The heat caught up with him and he fell onto the sandy ground, everyone laughing as they slowly caught up to him, the water cooling him down and rejuvenating him.
"What's Gear Third?" Sanji asked, also intrigued. Monkey grinned again, ready to prove to Ace that his powers were cooler.
"Oh, that ones fun!" Monkey exclaimed, going to bite his left thumb, before Tony cut him off, jumping up and hitting the thumb out of his mouth.
"Monkey, don't use Gear Third on that arm! Its still injured and you'll open the wound back up, as well as make it worse!" Tony scolded, and Monkey pouted.
"Sorry, sorry! Alright, Gear Third!" He exclaimed, biting his opposite thumb instead and blowing into it, causing it to inflate, though not as big as he normally would.
"Woah! Its giant!" Luffy cheered, stars in his eyes.
"I normally make it bigger but I didn't want to hit everyone." Monkey said, letting the arm deflate.
"How'd you do that?!" Chopper asked, Monkey shrugging.
"He inflates his bones, allowing them to expand." Robin informs, watching Usopp, Chopper, and Luffys eyes sparkle.
"See Ace! Cool!" Luffy stated smugly, arms crossed and a wide grin on his face.
"I've seen cooler." Ace replies coolly, still grinning as well. Monkey and Luffy both pout once more.
"What about Gear Fourth?" Zoro asks, not caring all that much for the conversation, but nonetheless curious how strong his Captain got in the future.
"Oh, Gear Fourth? I can't use that one." Monkey says, causing everyone to look at him in confusion.
"I thought you said you could." Vivi says. Monkey nods.
"I can." He deadpans.
"Then why aren't you?" Nami asks in slight irritation.
"Because I can't." Monkey says bluntly again, causing Cat Burglar to hit him on the head.
"Start making sense idiot!" She shouts in anger.
"Yohohoho~! Cat Burglar-san sure knows how to hit!" Brook laughs, sweat dropping.
"It is one Suuuppperrrr hit she's got!" Franky agrees, posing.
"Cat Burglar-Swan~! You can always take your anger out on me~!" Black Leg cooes, Cat Burglar rolling her eye.
"Stupid Love Cook." Roronoa grumbles under his breath, Black Leg not hearing as he twirled around Cat Burglar.
"So why can't you use Gear Fourth?" Sniper asks curiously, everyone calming down to listen.
"Well, when I use Gear Fourth I can't stay in one place, like I said, and it also uses all of my haki." Monkey said. Sabo nods.
"I remember that, it took ten minutes to come back right? Do- er, uh... Feathers was destroying the town looking for you." Sabo said, and Monkey nods.
"It also deactivates on its own after a little bit and I can barely move after using it." Monkey adds, and everyone nods.
"What's Gear Fourth like?" Robin asks in curiosity. Monkey tilts his head, thinking.
"Mm... Its like Gear Third and Fourth mixed together. Im really fast, which is why I can't stay in one place, and my whole body gets really big like Gear Third. Im also covered in haki but Im still rubbery." Monkey informs, everyone nodding, though the past crew still didn't really know what haki was, just that it was a future power and, apparently, really useful to have.
"See Ace, cool!" Luffy says again, but before Ace could make a comment about it not being all that cool Sabo nudged him, smiling.
"Enough teasing." Sabo says, and Ace laughs.
"Fine, I guess your rubber powers aren't all that stupid Lu." Ace relents, Monkey and Luffy cheering happily. Sabo shakes his head, laughing, and some of the others join in, laughing at their Captain's childish ways.
"So Ace, what's life like on Whitebeards Ship?" Vivi asked in general curiosity. Ace looked at her a second before humming, Monkey and Luffy calming down enough to listen.
"Hmm... well... its a lot like living with a bunch of Luffys and only a few Sabos." Ace explained, confusing everyone, though Sabo glared and Monkey and Luffy laughed.
"What's that mean?" Sanji asks, and Ace grins.
"It means that there are a lot of carefree, easy going idiots, but there are a few level headed ones that seem to find pleasure in ruining our fun." Ace said, Sabo hitting him on the head.
"That started as a compliment." Sabo said with a sigh, the others laughing, even Ace.
"Anyways, its mostly the commanders that are the more level headed ones, but there are a few of them that know how to have fun." Ace said with a smile.
"Your nakama sound cool!" Luffy says happily, smiling brightly at Ace who nods, ruffling Luffy's hair.
"Yeah, they are." Ace says fondly.
"Margos one of those commandeers, right?" Monkey asks, a thoughtful look on his face. Ace raises an eyebrow, most of that sentence having been wrong.
"I think you meant Marco and commander, and yes, Marco is one of them, he's the first commander and the first mate. Why do you ask?" Ace questions, eyebrow raised, everyone else waiting for Monkey's response as well. After a few minutes of Monkey not responding, his face in an uncharacteristically thoughtful look, he smiles happily, though not as big and wide as he normally does.
"He's a good guy. I like him." Monkey says, and Ace waits to see if his odd little brother was going to add anything else, but he didn't. He slowly nods in response.
"Yeah, he's one of my best friends. Im guessing you met him during..." Ace trails off and Monkey nods, smile turning slightly sad.
"Mm. He helped me a lot, and after you-... After that he even helped me get away, saying that since you... died... the way you did... that they were going to protect your last wish, which was to get me out safely." Monkey said somberly.
"Wait, I thought you said you... uh... snapped? That you passed out..." Cat Burglar says awkwardly, Monkey nodding.
"I did. I don't remember what happened after Ace died, but I was able to hear some things, and that was one of them. I also heard a lot of people screaming to leave, a lot of fighting still happening, and a lot of people yelling for old man mustache." Monkey says distantly, remembering. Ace has to force himself to not question those words anymore and Tony nods, distracting him.
"Its not unusual for someone to still be aware of sounds around them when they're unconscious." Tony informs. The clouds created by Cat Burglar slowly stopped raining, though they stayed and provided shade.
"So-" Ace was cut off as he suddenly slumped over, falling to the ground.
"Wah! Ace is dead!" Usopp shouted fearfully, causing Tony and Chopper to freak out. Luffy and Monkey started laughing hysterically while Sabo sighed, shaking in head in annoyance.
"Why are you two laughing?!" Nami and Cat Burglar shouted in unison, punching Luffy and Monkey on the head.
"Its fine, its just a narcolepsy attack." Sabo said, lifting Ace off the ground and putting him on his back, continuing to walk.
"Narcolepsy?" Vivi questioned. Sabo, Luffy and Monkey nodded.
"Yeah! Ace is always falling asleep! Its funnier when he lands in his food, or in the mud, or-" Luffy was cut off by Sabo.
"Yes Luffy, they get it." He said, smiling to his little brother.
"I didn't know he had narcolepsy." Sniper said, everyone nodding in agreement.
"He never fell asleep when you were with him?" Sabo asks, and the future members shake their heads.
"Now that I think about it, Ace didn't have a narosepsy attacks when he was with us." Monkey confirms.
"Its narcolepsy, idiot." Black Leg says.
"Tarcopepsy?" Monkey asks, tilting his head at Black Leg.
"No, Narcolepsy." Brook says gently.
"Fopersepy?" He asks. Everyone face palms, and Franky opens his mouth to correct Monkey but Cat Burglar puts her hand on his mouth.
"Yes Monkey, Fopersepy!" She shouts, and Monkey places a fist in his hand, having an ah ha moment.
"Yeah, Lerepy!" He shouts in triumph, everyone sighing in response.
"Well, now that that's over, has Ace had this his whole life?" Chopper asks, and the three brothers nod.
"Yup, ever since I can remember." Sabo says, shifting Ace on his back in a more comfortable position.
"Seems troublesome." Zoro says. Sabo nods.
"It can be, especially when we were little and would go hunting, only for Ace to slump over in the middle of an attack." Sabo said, shaking his head at the memory.
"Oh! Or when we were running from Grandpa and he would fall out of the tree from sleeping and we would get found!" Luffy says, laughing.
"Or when he would be climbing the ladder to the tree house and would fall because he fell asleep and knock us all over!" Monkey adds fondly, the three brothers smiling at their memories, everyone laughing at the thought.
"You guys sure had an interesting childhood!" Brook muses.
"We did. Speaking of which, did Ace really almost let you get killed by a bear?" Sabo asks, the question having been nagging him since last night. Monkey and Luffy nod.
"Mm. After you, uh.. died, Ace and I got in a lot more fights. We weren't talking to each other and he wouldn't help me fight so when the bear came he ignored me, but then the bear attacked me." Monkey said, not remembering much after that.
"That idiot! I thought he was lying! When you wake up I swear..." Sabo growls to the snoring Ace.
"After that Ace started being a lot nicer! He even had Makino teach him manners!" Luffy added, Sabos eyes widening in shock.
"Really? I wouldn't think this idiot would ask, I was just hoping over time he matured from when he was little." Sabo said.
"Was he that bad?" Sanji asks, the three nodding.
"Yeah! He was soo mean~!" Luffy whined.
"He hit me a lot!" Monkey said, pouting.
"He got into a lot of fights, though he still might." Sabo said.
"Really?! He's been nothing but a gentlemen!" Vivi said in shock.
"Pfft! He was anything but that! He was as bad as Luffy with manners, and even worse when it came to fighting! He also had quite a short temper." Sabo said, much to everyone's continuous shock.
"I wouldn't have thought Ace was anything like that." Cat Burglar says.
"Its true, Sabo was always the nice one!" Monkey adds, Sabo smiling at that.
"-why don't we- what? Why am I on your back?" Ace asks, suddenly waking up, much to the crews shock.
"You fell asleep." Sabo said simply, allowing Ace to get off.
"Oh... what did I miss?" Ace asks, stretching.
"Not much Ace-bro!" Franky says enthusiastically, Ace nodding.
"Except..." Sabo says slowly, turning to face Ace, his face slowly contorting into rage as he glared at Ace, which confused the cowboy hat wearing man.
"What?" Ace asks, slightly fearing for his life.
"YOU LET LUFFY GET ATTACKED BY A BEAR?!" Sabo shouts in fury, punching Ace on the head. Multiple times.
"Ow! Sabo! Ow- Yes I- ow- Stop that!" Ace couldn't say much as Sabo continually hit his brother, Monkey and Luffy laughing hysterically in the background. After a minute of this and the crews wondering if they should help or not, Sabo sighed and stopped.
"Thanks for stopping. Anyways, I told you I did, and I didn't think the bear would kill him!" Ace said, trying to defend himself.
"Well maybe you shouldn't be so stubborn." Sabo says, though he knew Ace wouldn't put Luffy in danger on purpose.
"A-Anyways, should we start trying to think of how to 'forgive the past'? I'd rather not fight anymore big enemies like Akainu..." Sniper said, trying to change the subject without anyone else getting hurt. Everyone shivered at the reminder of what happened yesterday.
"That's a good idea, besides, if what you said earlier is true, you guys being here is also disrupting the timeline, changing things. If we don't want anything drastic to change we have to get you back home soon." Vivi said.
"Well, if we just have to forgive our past we have to figure out what were feeling guilty about." Brook said, everyone nodding their agreement.
"We know it has to do with Ace-san, but not all of us were here in this moment, so why would you feel guilt?" Robin asked, looking to Brook Franky and Sabo who shrugged. They continued walking on in silence, all of them wondering what they had to feel guilty about in this moment, what happened that they couldn't forgive?
"We didn't really have much interaction with Ace... We all just traveled together for a little while until he left. There was only one eventful thing that happened, and that was Scorpion and his kids." Cat Burglar mused.
"Maybe it was the suuuper way he said goodbye?" Franky questioned, not really knowing how it happened.
"Well... the goodbye wasn't that eventful either. We said our goodbyes and he disappeared, which was kind of weird actually. Oh! He did give Monkey his vivre card!" Sniper said, remembering that moment, all of them thinking it had been a regular blank sheet of paper.
"Was there something he said? Something that would help us?" Sabo asked, and the future members all thought back, trying to remember back to Alabasta, before the craziness with Crocodile. It was hard to think back all those years, hard to dissect an event that took place a long time ago, analyze it, try and find something suspicious.
"He didn't say much... just that... he was leaving Monkey in our care..." Black Leg said, and slowly, realization dawned on their faces, much to the past crews, as well as Franky, Brook, and Sabos confusion.
"What is it? Did you figure it out?" Usopp asks.
"H-He said he was leaving Monkey in our care." Cat Burglar repeated softly, and even Monkey was confused.
"What's so strange about that?" Nami asks.
"We failed." Roronoa hissed in anger.
"What?" Sanji asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We let him go off and fight a war by himself, let him fight by himself, without us there to help him." Black Leg growled out, still angry with himself over what happened those some years ago.
"He went through the tragedy of losing Ace by himself while we were stuck on different islands." Sniper said softly, guilty that he had been eating without a care that day.
"We were so unaware, didn't even know what happened until it was over." Cat Burglar says sadly, remembering when she read the newspaper announcing the end of the war she hadn't even known was happening.
"We failed Ace, we told him we would protect Monkey and we didn't." Roronoa said, angry with himself still.
"Ah, yes, I remember that. Even I felt like I had failed Ace-san." Brook remembers sadly. If he had skin he would be frowning.
"I also felt Suuuper guilty about letting Monkey-bro go and fight in a war." Franky says, trying to hide his tears.
"When I got my memories back that day I was mad that I had let one of my brothers die, and nearly lost another." Sabo admitted, also feeling sad from the memory of that day.
"S-so... we know why were guilty... now we just have to forgive. Right?" Sniper asks, turning to Robin who nods.
"According to legend, yes. We all need to forgive and we will be sent back to our time, whether we go one at a time as we forgive ourselves, or whether we all leave as a group when everyone forgives, I don't know." She says, holding the book with the legend in it in her hand, flipping through the pages. Their walk continued in silence after that, mostly from the exhaustion of walking such a long distance, and also because they were up late the night before after Monkey came back.
"Well then, I guess its time to get to work." Cat Burglar says, sighing.