Hearing the chains clank loudly against each other, Jiru bolted awake and fell, splayed on her stomach, across someone's clammy lap.
"What the crap?" She gasped in utter shock.
Looking up and facing the grimy, dingy, dark stone wall, her eyes froze at the hulking mass of the blue-skinned fish that calmly sat there; the multitude of thick chains restraining him too many to count. His face stared at her in shock, the fanged lower jaw open in amazement.
His face, large and grim, leered openly at her, giving her a view of what the large, marine creature really looked like. A pair of black eyes sat under bushy eyebrows; and the left eye sported an angry, red scar. The bush of black, curling hair rustled on his back as the fishmen – for that was truly what this thing was – leaned forward. The massive, rotund throat was working under the splash of his curly trimmed chin-beard. The red, orange-square patterned kimono was dirty, torn and bloody; indicating he had been in the same spot for a while.
"Astonishing." The rumbling bass of his deep-throated voice startled her into flinching, bringing awareness once again to her predicament – she wasn't on the Sunny-Gou.
The next several seconds completely blew her mind as her senses registered the rest of the environment that was assuredly NOT the bedroom she had fallen asleep in on the Thousand Sunny-Gou. First off, she wore nothing but a knee-length white shirt to cover her otherwise nude form. Secondly, the moaning, pleading and life-begging screams and curses of many other voices entered her ears. Thirdly, the dark, stone-built room she was in was undoubtedly a jail cell. Then, finally, as she managed to unlock her eyes from the blue-skinned, white-fanged marine-beast in front of her, she became aware of a stiff, prodding stick pushing up against her lower stomach.
"Heya, babe, I didn't actually think it'd work." The husky, fiery voice greeted her from the lap-owner's head. The familiarity of the voice made her freeze in pure disbelief. "Nice ass, by the way, I'd love to have some."
Shoving herself off the ground and away from the prodding stick, Jiru bolted onto her knees with a cry of surprise and let her hand fly across the freckled face of Luffy's older brother, Portgas D. Ace.
"PERVERT!" She managed to scream. "What have you done!"
"Invoked your name."
"That's bloody not FAIR!" the shocked treasure hunter shifted to readjust the weight on her knees. Sitting back on folded legs, she stared wide-eyed at Ace, then lowered her gaze. The rod that had been poking her was none other than Ace's very attentive male member.
"Like what you see, babe?" Ace continued to tease her. "You can play with 'em if you want to."
"Again, you pervert!" A red-faced Jiru scrambled back away from Ace and the Fishman. "Just what is this horrible place!" Looking to her right, and outside the bars, the confused female viewed the rest of the cold stone floor; which was just as terrible and intimidating as the cell she sat in. "Why did you invoke my name HERE! In front of…HIM!"
Pointing to the now-relaxed fishman, Jiru was still stunned. Not only had Ace used the name she had hidden by not speaking it, but he had spoke it in front of a complete stranger. By saying her true name, the older brother had managed to call her to his side.
"Relax, babe, it's nothing to worry about. Old Jimbei here swore not to invoke your name." Ace grinned back at her as he nodded towards the watchful fishman. "You can trust me on that."
"O-o-ok, I guess so…" Jiru allowed herself to calm down slightly.
"Besides, we're all asleep here, so nobody is going to hurt you." Ace snickered. "Trust me: this all is a very weird dream. See?" The masculine laugh made her shiver as his head pointed past the bars. Looking back out of the bars, the previous stone floor was now the deck of a large ship. The wooden deck of the ship turned out to be made of brown flowers the size of her thumb.
"OK, this is completely bizarre." Jiru looked at Ace as he finally stood up. "I wasn't expecting this, I really thought you teleported me here."
"In a way, I did. We're connected through our dreams." Ace's sultry voice chuckled. "You taught me yourself, back in Alabasta's desert, how to connect to someone's dreams."
"I guess I did, didn't I?" The softness in her voice returned, as she fell into a remembering daze. "It's been so long for me."
She had mentioned some random story on how a person could insert themselves into someone else's dream. The person would mentally picture a version of his or herself floating into the back of that person's neck, between the second and third vertebrae.
XXX
Ace stepped towards her while she was thinking; wearing his normal red shorts and worn out brown hat. Looking down at her with bedroom eyes, the older pirate took his hand and lifted her chin upwards, allowing him access to her delicious lips. Covering her mouth with his, Ace reveled in the faint taste of her lips; mint and raspberry – just like the first time he met her on his younger brother's ship back in Alabasta-port waters.
Having an errand to run within Alabasta borders, Ace had opted to join his younger brother in his jaunt through the desert. It proved to be a thrilling adventure – while searching for any leads in the Alabastian desert on his bounty-hunted prey, Blackbeard – Ace had fallen head over heels in love with the treasure-hunter that sailed under Luffy's command. The young dark-haired girl had paled in physical comparison to the fiery tempered and busty orange-haired navigator Nami and the slender, graceful lithe figure of the undercover princess, Vivi, whom temporarily traveled with the Mugiwaras. But her spirit shone through like a wildfire in the night. He loved the way she laughed, teased her friends and her sharp, flowing intellect. The fire-wielding pirate always made an effort to get close to her while they traveled – much to the dismay of more than one pirate of his brother's crew.
He and she ended up separated from the rest within the desert; and Ace jumped on the chance to convince her to join the Whitebeard Pirates. Her polite refusal cut like a knife, but Ace bore the disappointment. Whitebeard would be better off without someone who changed loyalties so easily, and so he let her stay with the Mugiwaras – for now. However, her refusal didn't stop the fiery-powered pirate from vowing to protect her until she could reunite with Luffy.
It was on the night before they regrouped, that Ace had given her the night of her life; and she, his. She had trusted him enough to tell her bizarre story – how she fell from another plane of existence in search of the broken pieces of her personal treasure, a shattered jewel that contained power. Her story continued with who she really was and what she did – a warrior that traveled the stars. Ace had to say it was one of the most out-land-ish things he heard, but returned her trust by telling her his deepest secret: who his father was. She told him she already knew, and he was completely taken by surprise. She had, not once, shown the revulsion or contempt Ace had always seen on other faces when he spoke of his heritage – of who his father was. Then, after sharing their previous experiences in the desert, Ace gave in to his urges and showed her the true, fiery nature of 'Fist-Fist' Ace.
Coupling with her – safely, due to her concerns – had driven him out of his sanity. She was the best partner ever, past or future. Ace had blessed the gods as he watched her blossom into a wildfire that matched his own. Ardor and passion burned hotly through him as he drove her wild on the sand under the night stars, time after time, until the sun rose.
Rejoining the Mugiwara Pirates, Ace used no words to show his younger brother how he protected Jiru. Offering his brother and Jiru a position in White Beard's crew – both still refused – Ace knew it was time to move on. If he didn't, he'd never be able to separate himself from his new-found soul mate. Giving a brief, to-the point farewell – along with a Vivre card to Luffy, telling the pirate that the card would lead him to Ace if he simply followed the moving paper – Ace took off, his mind full of thoughts on both extremities. On one hand, he had no luck in finding any decent leads on that black-hearted bastard, Teach; on the other, he was now thoroughly distracted to the point of frustration. Ace should have declared his feelings to Luffy and Jiru; and stolen the woman away.
Ace was furious, then, having finally caught up to Blackbeard months later, when the scoundrel brought up Ace's relation with both his brother and the treasure-hunter. The murderous bastard, having met Luffy but not Jiru, had planned to capture their bounties to pay his way to be a Shichibukai. Deep down, if he hadn't been so infuriated, Fire-Fist would have laughed at the fact his quiet, shy female had made a name and bounty for herself by assisting Luffy in fighting against the World Government at Enies Lobby.
Rumor had it; she became the 'Golden Thief', bounty of 113 million Beri, by stealing the fabled Golden Den-Den Mushi right from the hands of CP9's director. That kind of sly, thieving talent would serve the White-Beard Pirates well, and Blackbeard insinuated that it would be his.
It was to that extent, that a distracted Ace lost his fight against Blackbeard, sealing his fate. Roger's son had his thoughts divided by the girl.
Which led him to his current predicament: he was stuck well and truly in the depths of Impel Down and his life most likely to be ended at the Marine's whim. Having furtively told his cell-mate, who was none other than his sensei, Jimbei of the Sea; his meeting with Jiru, Ace held out as long as he could in surviving the prison's hell.
Thinking back on his time with his one and only love, Ace decided to invoke her true name and spend time with her before he died. By invoking her true name, the name she went by in other dimensions, Ace could create a spiritual-psychic bond and talk to her. The drawbacks were: they both had to be asleep, and alive. Bringing his mentor into the deal was something that hadn't occurred to Ace until he told Jimbei of the ritual. The fishman was extremely curious to meet the woman that had burned her way into Ace's heart and so Ace included the fishman in on the 'dream'.
His dream-thought process happened all within the span of his long, drawn out kiss. Ace smiled when Jiru stepped back and gave him a small smile.
"So….we're both dreaming?" the dark-chocolate colored-hair on her head rustled softly in the astral breeze. "I'm assuming you have something extremely important to tell me?"
They now were on a ship's deck, the ocean holding the floating barge up. Seagulls whirled and cawed their sounds in the sky above. He watched as the woman looked slowly around, as if the scenery change didn't surprise her. It should have, given the effort of Ace's dreaming mind to recreate the deck of the Moby Dick, Whitebeard's flagship.
"I do, babe, but are you sure it would carry over when you wake up?" Fire-Fist brought his hands up to her face, tracing the curve of her cheeks. They were now alone on the brown-flowered deck, Jimbei must have awoken.
"No, but dreams are powerful things." She answered, as if stating an obvious fact. "I don't know what I will remember when I wake up."
"You are so gorgeous, babe." He smiled. "Why not become my nakama?"
"Ace-san, thanks, but I'm still Luffy's nakama. I'm not going to work for some old-fart that I don't even know." She frowned, looking serious.
Throwing back his head in laughter, Ace felt lighter than he had for days. "You are amusing, Chibi-chan, I'll give you that."
"What is it you want to tell Luffy-san?" Jiru looked even more faux-mad as Ace laughed at her. "Tell me or I'll wake up and you'll lose your chance to say anything at all."
"Ok, Ok, Ok, don't get your socks in a knot." Ace stepped closer to her and smiled as he basked in her low-key natural beauty; her charming aura. "Blackbeard is the one to blame. Beware of Blackbeard; don't fight him, just run away."
"What?" Jiru looked blank. "Who is that?"
"Edward D. Teach. He knows about you and Luffy. He may try to hurt you both, since I'm the one who went after him." Ace's face changed into seriousness. "I don't want Luffy or you to fight him."
"No fighting Blackbeard, ok I got it. Anything else?"
"Naw, tell Luffy not to worry about me and stuff…." Ace couldn't stand it anymore; and jumped on her, kissing her mouth roughly.
It took minutes to get into her, and Ace loved every moment of it. Playing on her astral emotions, the fire-using pirate basked in the waves of energy that rolled off her luscious body. Building both of them up into a climax, Ace screamed her true name as the dream broke with a snap of a ringing bell.