Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece.
Forewarning: Very dark. Suicide attempts, subtle hints of torture, slavery, etc.
Ace observed the glass shard he held in his hands, running a calloused thumb over its rough edge. A thin line appeared, a drop of blood oozing out. Taking a deep breath, he brought the shard to his extended wrist, flipping it over and pressing the edge to where his artery was. Just two quick slashes and it'll all be over. Slowly, he pressed into the warm flesh, preparing to drag it down in a clean slice when the alarm rang. The loud, blaring siren forced him to drop his makeshift knife abruptly from shock. He watched in disappointment as it shattered into a million pieces upon contact with the tiled floor.
So close, yet so far.
He glared viciously at the innocent looking surveillance den den mushi that sat on the desk of his miserable excuse of a room. The stupid snail was transmitting his every move to the observation room, like always, and soon enough there'd be a marine officer charging in and asking if he was alright. His door suddenly slammed open with a loud bang. He sighed in resignation as a young officer dressed in the standard uniform dashed over to him and snapped a quick salute.
"Sir! Are you alright?" he asked frantically, eyes darting around the room for a trace of an invader, and scouring Ace's body for any sign of injury. His eyes widened in alarm when he took in the slightly bleeding wrist and darted out the room once more, no doubt to holler out for medic.
Ace sighed again. It was only a small cut, no need for attention. But no doubt the doctor would be suspicious and check him all over, due the unfortunate streak of suicide attempts he had built up over the last two years. The surveillance was going to increase for another few days again in case he tried something else, then die down until he gets close, and the pattern would repeat over and over again. He'd gladly step in front of the sea train to end this.
Within moments, the officer had ushered in a doctor that had treated Ace's injuries several times in the past, and he didn't look a bit surprised to see the blood seeping out of his wound. He watched as the elderly man worked expertly, wincing when he cleaned the wound with alcohol. No matter how many times he had gotten that treatment, he still couldn't get used to the sting. The doctor tied a neat knot, took a bow, and took a step towards the door…
… only to crash head on to another soldier that had dashed into Ace's room.
The young man hid his smile as he watched the two get clumsily on their feet and rubbed their heads in pain. The doctor left hurriedly, but not without glaring poisonously at the marine. The latter, meanwhile, turned to Ace and saluted. "Sir! Fleet Admiral Sakazuki requests you to report to him immediately."
Even after two years, hearing anything about his commander (or slave master, as he'd rather think) would still give him chills. The man would appear as a leader with an iron fist, fighting strongly for what he believed in, but few had ever seen the sadist streak that he hid well behind the thirst for blood of pirates. His methods he had to keep people, specifically Ace, in line, were persuasive to say the least. Or maybe it was just him that Akainu loved to play around with, he didn't know.
He shivered inwardly, wondering what sort of thing the sadist fleet admiral had cooked up for him yet again. Putting on an expressionless face, he marched towards the office on the other wing, where Akainu would be waiting for him. As he steadily approached, he couldn't help but notice the amount of people walking around had lessened. Of course, there wasn't a person that was afraid of the fleet admiral; the further away one was to him, the happier they would be.
Ace stepped cautiously into the room, eyeing his official warily to gauge the older man's emotions. Sadly, Sakazuki also had a smooth mask, his eyes completely unreadable. It was the worst when you couldn't tell what was coming, but judging from experience he was probably planning something, and whatever it was it certainly wasn't praise.
"Gol D. Ace, reporting," Ace said with a salute, acting out of protocol.
"Your last mission was to execute the noble family in Alaric," Akainu said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Ace wanted to flinch. Heavy disappointment and irritation practically oozed from his superior's words. The younger gulped and said, "Yes sir."
"I believe the two had a son at the age of seven."
He nodded, feeling cold sweat breaking out.
Akainu continued, "However, a small team was dispatched to check up on the job. You know what they found?"
To lie or not to lie, that is the question. "I don't, sir," Ace replied, his emotions barely kept under check. What if?
The magma man frowned. "Their son was alive." He spat out the last word as if it was venom, and he was now scowling, discarding his previous blank demeanor completely away.
Oh god. They found him.
"We cannot let anyone who witnessed this survive, in the possibility that your identity will be compromised along with the dirtier duties of the marines." Akainu tapped a red button strapped onto a den den mushi that sat unblinking on his desk. "Take him in," he commanded into the sitcom.
The boy was only seven.
The door behind him slid open, and Ace whirled around to see two soldiers dragging in a limp boy. His breath caught in his throat.
The child's black bangs were matted and slick with grease, eyes half closed and glazed over in pain. Every breath he took was labored, his legs barely supporting him as he was dumped on the floor. His heavily bruised and swollen face was contorted in pain as he used his arms to keep himself somewhat upright, one of them bent in a crooked and unnatural angle. His white shirt had been reduced to tatters that hung stubbornly onto his bleeding back, dyed red with blood.
Ace told him to run. He thought he did.
"I'm curious," Sakazuki said in a genuinely interested tone. "Why did you spare him?"
Besides the fact it's horribly immoral to kill a mere child? Ace wanted to scream in rage. For some reason, the kid had reminded him of another person he only saw in his dreams, someone he knew without a doubt belonged to his past. He looked so similar, with the same young, naïve black eyes that stared up to him in wonder. The child simply radiated happiness and innocence, inevitably drawing in Ace, who was corrupted and filled with misery. No matter how he tried to harden his heart, he couldn't bear to kill him. It just wasn't possible.
Ace didn't reply.
"Does he remind you of someone?"
He stared wildly at his commander. Was it possible that Akainu could read his thoughts? He knew that the man was responsible for all of this mess he was in and definitely his lost memories. It was reaffirmed again when he saw the tiniest hint of a smirk upon his lips, the slightest shift to satisfaction in his cold eyes.
"What-" Ace began, but was cut off with a wave of the other's hand.
"Finish the job," he commanded.
"… Big brother?" The child looked up. Although he sounded terrified, his eyes were filled with so much trust.
He just called Ace big brother, just like someone Ace used to know. He couldn't kill this boy. "No."
"What?" Sakazuki sounded mildly surprised; it was rare for Ace to defy his orders like this.
"No," the younger said louder this time. "This is wrong."
"There's nothing wrong with this," the other said with a hint of amusement. "You have killed children before, and this one is no different. He cannot be allowed to live."
Stay calm, he told himself, stay calm now. He had to.
"But if it's honestly that undoable…" One of the marines drew a standard issue gun and had it pointed to the child. "I'll just let someone do it for you."
"Fire."
Then, maybe time had slowed down, or maybe it simply sped up, Ace couldn't tell, but he saw the soldier pull the trigger. He distinctively heard someone scream out "No!", or maybe it was himself, and to his surprise, he felt a large shockwave of energy from himself burst out. The world turned grayscale. The soldiers crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Time reverted back to normal again as he lunged forward to catch the falling boy.
Yet to his horror, he felt a familiar warm wetness that coated the younger's back, spilling out steadily. Ace drew back a hand and found it covered in redness, dripping down onto the unblemished white tiles. The boy's breath was now coming in as gasps, his eyes widened in surprise, yet as he caught sight of Ace's horrified face, he smiled lightly despite the pain he had to be in. "Thank you," he whispered, "for giving me a chance." His eyes slowly slid close, and his breath stopped completely. The blood continued to flow.
It can't be. This wasn't happening.
Those last words continued to echo in his head as he cradled the body in his arms, and he heard the steady drip of the blood on the tiles. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he knew that his uniform was probably also stained with the ruby liquid.
Guilt flooded him.
Why did he thank Ace? Ace didn't manage to save him. He killed his parents, and the boy himself. He wasn't a savior, he was the Devil. Ace stared blankly at his hands, wondering how many times was it already since he had stained them with the blood of the innocent, how many times had he murdered and cut off a bit of his soul and sanity. Every time he had a choice, a choice he never took in favor of his own wellbeing.
He was so vile. So selfish. So disgusting for doing these things.
And yet he was still thanked.
No.
So lost in thoughts, he barely registered other soldiers rushing in, pulling the dead body away from his frozen arms, forcing him roughly on his knees.
"I didn't think you'd commit an act of disobedience after all the discipline I had drilled into you."
The cruel words only brushed past him. Ace was too dumb to comprehend him properly and stayed silent, still drowning in his own emotions and remembering those final words.
"You took down the entire east wing of soldiers with your surprise burst of haki."
He should've ended the boy in a swift, painless death instead of what he was subjected to. But Ace was so blind to see that, to not foresee what happened if his impromptu plan had fallen apart. He had let him suffer because of his stupidity, all the extra pain the child didn't need. He was just seven, the same age as…
He blinked, feeling a sudden stinging pain.
Akainu was staring down at him with irritation again, hand semi-raised.
He just slapped him on the cheek.
Overwhelming fury filled Ace's head briefly. The act itself wasn't very painful to other things he had been subjected to, but it was like been treated like a mere dog to be slapped like this.
"I will not tolerate this behavior again," his officer snarled angrily, and for a good measure, aimed a sharp, haki-imbued kick to his ribs that knocked the breath out of him. It was going to leave a good-sized bruise for a few days, Ace was sure.
He smiled morbidly in response, knowing that as much trouble as he caused, the magma man would never get rid of him, after all the trouble they went through to obtain and train him. He was the marine's secret weapon, and Akainu knew that fact as well as he did.
"Take him away."
A sudden jolt of electricity ran through his body, then came the soothing feel of the tranquilizer running through his veins before his world went black.
Two weeks later, Ace found himself on duty, an actual real and honest marine work, which throughout his entire short career as a soldier he had never done. All he did was dirty work, executing unwanted people behind the scenes, assassinating leaders to force the country under the World Government's control, and other truly despicable work.
He was surprised that Akainu had decided to put him on the task, but knew there were probably other notions the fleet admiral had kept hidden from him. The thought that his commander simply assigned this because he thought Ace needed a break was hysterically ridiculous.
Ace's orders were simple: stay at Elysia for two months and capture any pirates that come that way.
Elysia was an island located just at the beginning of the New World, often serving as a rest stop of some sorts before pirates fully took a step into the turbulent land ahead, the ideal place for restocking supplies and taking a break. This would've become perfect for marines to capture the lawbreakers if not for the fact that the inhabitants had a severe dislike of soldiers in general. The dispatched team would be going undercover, taking a limited amount of weapons and forgoing the uniform.
The moment they set foot on the island, the leader of the mission had ordered them to wander around and not clump together, to avoid drawing attention. Do not alert others unless backup is dire to the situation. These instructions suited Ace perfectly, since he didn't like the leader nor the other soldiers.
He had taken up sitting by the beach for the past two weeks, occasionally meeting his fellow colleagues now and then, but generally staying away from them all. He loved the refreshing scent of the sea, the wind blowing through his locks of hair, the cry of seagulls above head, and the way the waves lapped. Something about the ocean just drew him in. To him, it symbolized freedom, the thing he wanted most desperately out of all things. Some days he wished he could sail away and become a pirate; they had the most freedom of all even if they turned their backs on law and order and became fugitives in the government's eye.
The days passed slowly, with no pirates in sight. It was either there were none, or they hid well and left before any of them could capture them. Ace morbidly thought it was probably the former, as most pirates don't even reach Sabaody before they died, got captured, or quit. Even if they got to the New World, the chances of surviving became lower, and it was a matter of time before they were all killed, captured, or joined ranks with one of the Yonko to stay alive before it was too late.
He stretched in the sand, yawning as he did. A tiny object caught his eye on the horizon. He spotted a ship bobbing in the distance, no doubt heading for this island. Squinting, he made out a strange looking mast head that was either a sunflower, or someone's failed impression of a lion head. A black flag was fluttering in the wind, and Ace saw the tell-tale sign of a pirate, a personalized Jolly Roger. This specific one had a straw hat with a red ribbon wrapped around.
In his mind, the image of a teenage kid popped in his head again. He donned the exact same hat and said, "C'mon, Ace, let's go beat up that tiger! It looks so yummy!" With that large, goofy smile on his face he charged into the forest.
Ace frowned at the strange memory. Did this kid become a pirate, or was this simply a coincidence? But then, straw hats aren't that uncommon, right? Besides, he remembered a couple of soldiers mentioning some infamous crew called the Straw Hat Pirates, who were rumored to be dead two years ago until they appeared again at Sabaody. Supposedly, the captain also had the hat. Before he could eavesdrop further, the soldiers had shut up because Akainu was lurking around the mess hall.
… Wait… That meant the ship he just saw must be the Straw Hat Pirates. They had just emerged recently again at the famous archipelagos, which meant the next leg of their journey would be to pass Fishman Island, then to here.
Ace jumped up. The captain might have some connections to that kid, because he honestly didn't know how far the dreams dated back, and for all he knew they occurred right before he had been taken in. Maybe, just maybe, if he confronted them now, he would get answers at last.
Akainu and Ace probably seems OOC or something, but then again I think this is what Ace would be like if he had actually gone through this. I doubt he'd be all bright and cheery like he used to be. Akainu's personality was never fully delved into, so I took advantage of that fact to add a sadist side, which I think fits him. Also, please note that this island Elysia did not exist, I simply created it to not mess up what happens in Punk Hazard and after since the arc is still ongoing at the moment. Please don't kill me for being mean to Ace… I might have to up the rating… Let's just see how much worse it gets.
Hope you guys like the chapter, and please review! :)
~Shen