"Hey Willow!" A happy voice said as a head of black hair and a face full of freckles popped into view over the side of the crow's-nest. It was quite a nice and peaceful place to sketch which was exactly what I was currently doing. The sky was slightly with patches of large and rather ominous looking rain clouds. It looked as though those clouds were going to open up and release a downpour of heavy rain.
"Hello Ace." I said not looking up and not pausing. Because of the impending rain I was in a bit of a hurry to complete my drawing so that I could quickly get inside before the heavens opened up. Even if there were still large patches of open sky, I still wanted to finish my drawing.
"Wanna go on a raid? There's a ship coming up and we're going to raid it. Maybe they'll have a devil fruit on it or something." He made the last part sound as though he thought the idea of a devil fruit might entice me into joining him and the crew members who chose to partake in the raid.
"Yeah maybe." But I wasn't too interested, I'd rather draw since well we- the Whitebeard Pirates- raid a lot of ships and therefore I could always raid another ship at a different time.
"You don't want to go." Ace sighed the words, as though he were disappointed and he probably was. But still I wasn't going. His words weren't in the form of a question as far as I could tell.
"Not really. Maybe next time." I told him not hiding my disinterest.
"But if you find a devil fruit you get to eat it." He used the supposedly rare fruit to persuade me to come on the raid with him and the rest of the crew. It was rare for a pirate crew to have one of those accursed fruits and so his main argument fell sort of flat. Plus there was no way I was going to find a devil fruit.
"Nah. Someone's got to be able to save you from the ocean in which you so foolishly decide to sail upon." He's fallen in a few times. I mean I didn't save Ace's day every time he managed to end up in the water but what did it matter? Some people needed to be able to swim. Not only that but I liked swimming and water and stuff. Not only that but knowing my luck I'd eat the devil fruit and kill myself via water because only after eating it would I miraculously fall in.
"I don't need to be saved Willow." He argued with a straight face. But if I were to try and count the times he needed to be saved, maybe not from danger but from other things like crew mates and situations he had gotten himself into, I would need several more hands.
"In the water you do." I told him finally pausing in the picture I was sketching and looking up at him. Seriously I might be the one who needed saved most of the time- not that I needed to be saved often, just as often as he needed to be saved from the water- but things happened.
"Shut up." He pouted, admitting that my words were indeed true. "Just come with me. Pleeeaaaaase. I'll leave you alone about the next few raids if you accompany me this time" He reached over the side of the crow's-nest and grabbed ahold of my wrist, lightly tugging on it. "Come one. You can come back to drawing later you know." I don't know why he wanted me to come with him so badly but I still didn't have any more interest in going now then I had a few minutes ago.
"I know." But I was really comfortable right where I was; I was in the middle of a picture and didn't feel like getting up and going to raid a ship.
I bet the other crew was shaking in whatever footwear they wore just by the flag that so proudly fluttered in the wind. And if they weren't doing that they were basking in sweet ignorance and bliss because they did not realize what was coming to them.
Plus raids were fun and for striking fear into the heart of people and for the sheer fun of terrorizing people. Heck I even had a bounty partially due to that. People realized 'oh hey there's a blue haired chick who's always with them, let's give her a bounty.' Of course it didn't rival any one else's bounties, even Sanji had a higher bounty then I did, somewhere between 75,000,000 and 79,000,000. Of course that was nothing to Aces, Marco's or anyone else's really but I had a bounty, a real live wanted poser and a bounty. I was just as wanted as the rest of the crew. And I still didn't know if I liked that or not.
"Pleeeeeease." Ace tried again with hands folded together and a whiney voice.
I let out a sigh and put my pad of paper, supplied by Cole, and pencil down.
"Yes." He hissed out quietly. I think he did it so quietly so that I wouldn't hear his excitement but he failed because I heard him just fine. "Let's go. They're not even five minut-" A collective cheer sounded out, interrupting Ace's sentence. "Aaaaw crap Willow you're making us late to the party!" And with that he quickly scrambled into the crow's-nest faster than my mind could comprehend. He wrapped an arm around my waist, tightly hugged me to his body, stepped onto the edge of the crow's-nest and before I could protest, before I could utter a single sound or even begin struggling against him he leapt out of it.
As simple and easy as that.
We landed hard on the deck but in one piece. Even better I was still alive. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised but I was. He didn't let me go until we were on the ship of the other ships deck. He grinned widely at me and put me down on my own two feet. "Now's a great chance to show off the skills you've supposedly been learning. I mean unless you haven't learned anything and just carry those things around for show." He teased lightly pulling at the crescents at either of my hips.
Around us a battle raged.
Well it wasn't much of a battle for the Whitebeard Pirates but more of a pastime. But for the other crew they were fighting, with drawn swords, perspiring faces and determined expressions.
"I don't need to show off." I grumbled at him.
"Come one it's a lot more fun when you show off. And besides everyone thinks you've been slacking off and don't contribute to the crew."
"No they don't." I weakly argued. I mean there was no way that was true, not when I tried to make myself as useful as possible. Not when I tried to train with at least someone every day. I bet Ace was just saying this because he could, because he thought it'd get me into action.
"Yeah you're right they don't." Ace admitted scratching the back of his head and ducked a random sword that was being swung around. "You know what I'm just going to stand here." And with that he crossed his arms over his chest. "So if you don't hop to it I'm going to get real injured." He gave me this look, this 'and you wouldn't want that' kind of look.
"Ace!" I shouted pushing him out of the way of some sword wielding guy.
"That was a close one." He said wiping his brow as if he had been worried.
"Ace you can't do this!"
"Why not?" Ace innocently asked. Damn when he wanted to he could pull off innocent quite well.
Did he really see nothing wrong with what he was doing?
"Because. Please, not here not now." This was one of the worst times for him to pull this. I mean yeah raids were supposed to be fun but what if I missed or didn't see an attack? And from the sounds of it he wasn't going to turn himself into fire to avoid getting impaled, which worried me extremely.
"Why not? I know I can put my life in your hands if I need to."
"Yeah but-" I don't think he realized what he was saying. Even if he could trust his live in the hands of just about every other crew member, those words still meant more than they should.
"No buts." Ace interrupted me with ease.
"Fine. You get your way. But I expect you to have my back." I told him with a roll of my eyes as I gripped my weapons, looking for any threats to Ace's health. I mean there was no reason that anyone would come after me especially if they wanted bounties. His was far more impressive than mine.
"Of course." He flashed a grin and lightly elbowed me. "Don't forget to have fun."
"I'll try not to." Raids weren't my favorite thing, I would much rather be drawing right now. But it couldn't be helped.
"Loosen up Willow." He said blasting a guy I should have been able to sense was sneaking up behind me. "Less talking more fighting." He added with yet another grin.
With another roll of my eyes and short huff I obeyed my superior and began fending people off, away from him. I was dancing circles around him as he grabbed somebodies sword and began having his fun.
The rival crew seemed to be endless. I mean really where were they all coming from? Their ship was only so large. And for every one that Ace cut down or blasted five or so men lunged at him, from all sides and it was my job to keep them away, to make sure that their fists, weapons, perspiration or spit didn't touch him. And I think I was doing a pretty good job at doing so.
The raid stopped around sunset when the skies were turning from blue to pink and orange. And we were all gathered on the deck of the ship. I stood next to Ace with Cole on my other side and Teach, a guy I never really got the chance to get to know, stood not far behind us. Several other crew mates gathered around staring at what Thatch held in his hand.
"Ace, I found something interesting!" He exclaimed holding up a purple thing.
"Aww sick a devil fruit?" A voice whispered from next to me. So that's what a devil fruit looked like. Strange.
It was kind of weird that Ace had been right, that the crew had indeed possessed a devil fruit. And when I looked over at him Ace had a slightly shocked look on his face as he asked, "Oh, ain't that a devil fruit?"
"I don't know what kind of fruit it is though, yet." Thatch continued scratching the back of his head.
There was a noise behind me, maybe a chuckle of sorts before I was shoved into Ace, who was as surprised as I was and failed to catch me or himself so we toppled to the ground. Cole managed to prevent herself from falling to the ground.
Ace was of course to his feet a lot faster than I was but even that wasn't fast enough to stop Teach from plunging a sword into Thatch's vulnerable, open and unsuspecting back. The large man I had never gotten the chance to get to know grabbed the devil fruit and left as quickly as he could. And while Ace furiously tore after the traitor I crawled over to Thatch's body. Bright crimson stained the back of his white shirt, the back of the yellow foulard and the deck.
Swallowing hard I grabbed his shoulders and rolled him over, checking for signs of life.
Oh god he couldn't be dead. He couldn't have been killed, not after such a good raid. Not for that accursed fruit and not by a crew mate. As rain started to drizzle down tears blurred my vision and began slipping down my cheeks, mixing with the rain as it was the blood, washing it away.
"Thatch." I shook him unwilling to believe that he was dead. He was a pretty nice guy and if Teach had asked for the fruit maybe he would have received it. "Thatch please." I begged praying that he'd magically not be dead.
-Ace-
The only reason that bastard ran was because he knew that if he stayed a second more he'd be dead and even if he didn't stay he was going to die.
I could barely contain my rage.
God so help him when I got my hands on him he was going to look like that guy I had helped Willow take care of. Not only was he under my division but the bastard had just thrown everything Pops had done for him into his face.
Willow was crying over Thatch's dead body and if I let him escape then he won't be able to rest in peace.
I was going to avenge him.
However everyone was getting in my way, trying to stop me. Several people were holding me back.
"Stop it Ace." Someone to my left tried.
"Calm down." Another shouted.
But I wouldn't hear it. I wasn't going to calm down, and I wasn't going to stop. Not until I had avenged Thatch.
"The old man said he'd make an exception, just this once." A large man who was holding my arm and shoulder tightly growled at me as if I hadn't heard Pops the first time. "You don't have to chase after Teach!"
I wrenched out of his grasp and whorled on him shouting, "Let me go! He was a member of my division!"
And therefore was my responsibility. And that meant that if there was a traitor in my division I had to be the one to take care of them and god dammit I was going to take care of Teach, whether I had to or not. The longer we stood here talking the farther away Teach got and the longer it would take for me to take revenge. What Teach did was intolerable and unforgiveable and god dammit someone has to take care of the traitor.
"If I just ignore this, Thatch won't be able to rest in peace!" I shouted at them. I wasn't going to go after the bastard for my own pleasure. I was going to avenge Thatch. End of story. The least he deserved was to be able to rest in peace.
"Ace." Pops said getting my attention, causing me to stop struggling against people that weren't trying to hold me back at the moment. Despite the fact that this was a great moment to get going I stopped and waited to see what he was going to say. "It's fine, just this once. I have a weird feeling about this."
Just this once he was going to make an exception because of a weird feeling?! I don't think so. Who gave a damn about weird feelings? So if Pops wasn't going to take any measures against him then I would.
"He killed a crewmate," Thatch was so much more than just a crewmate! ",and escaped!" Did he not see what was so wrong with this?! I couldn't just let this go. "After living under your protection for so many years he just spat right in your face!"
Was there something wrong with Pops? This was not an offence that we could let slide so easily. The very thought of him having not only killed Thatch but having also betrayed Pops after everything he's done for the vermin just pissed me off. No it did far more than simply pissing me off.
"Above all else he tarnished his father's name." I said pulling my hat onto my head and walking towards the edge of the ship. This time no one tried to stop me, in fact they moved out of my way which was a hell of a lot safer for their health then trying to stop me was. It was awfully hard to change my mind once it was already made up and unless I was physically unable to move, unable to continue on, my mind was made up.
"You think I can just ignore that?" I took a few steps forwards, almost testingly. I was waiting for everyone to jump, to try and restrain me, I was waiting for Pops to try and stop me, but he didn't. No one made a move.
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A/N: Yup the beginning of the end. Man I hope this chapter was ok and that I didn't miss anything too important.
Feedback. Thoughts. Opinions. Constructive criticism is all welcome and very greatly appreciated.