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Well then, the last chapter! I realized it took me a little more than 3 year to write 16 chapter OTL

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the last chapter and I'd love to read your reactions!

Thanks to Aerle and Thérèse for proofreading this whole story. You're the best!

Chapter 16: You are dead

I panicked. How could I have been so stupid, so careless? "Oh my God, Marco, I'm so sorry," I said, as I pressed my hand against his wound as well. At the same time, I tried to move the carpet away from the shooters as fast as possible. "Don't move," I told him while I carefully moved to sit behind him, so his body could rest against mine. "I'll get us out of here."

I moved the carpet as fast as possible, away from here, towards the safe haven of my tower. I cursed myself a thousand times inside my mind. Marco was going to die because of me. It was all my fault. How could I have been so stupid and selfish?! I had thought only about myself and now he was bleeding to death. All because I hadn't thought for even a second about the fact that he had a seastone ring around his neck, and that he wasn't a logia user to begin with.

Was he really going to die? I looked down at his wound, seeing my hand covered in his blood, trying to keep pressure on the wound. Marco had closed his eyes, and I was afraid I had already lost him. A bullet had hit him in the stomach, after all. If it had hit a vital organ, the blood loss might not even be what would cause his death.

"Marco!" I said a little louder than I intended, panic evident in my voice. "Marco, stay with me."

Marco groaned. "I'm still… here."

"Okay. Don't talk," I ordered him. "We're almost at my place."

My mind was spinning, trying to find ways to save Marco. What could I do once we were in my tower? I wasn't a doctor! And neither was Izo – as far as I knew, but he had lied about knowing Marco as well, so I wasn't sure anymore – nor was Thatch.

Then it hit me. Thatch was a genie! I still had a wish left, I could use it to save Marco. As long as he wasn't dead yet.

When we were seconds away from the window of my floor in the tower, I started to yell. "Thatch! Thatch, I need you!"

I saw Marco cracking his eyes open. "Thatch?"

"Sssh," I said. "Everything will be alright." I had to believe in that.

I steered the carpet through my window. "Thatch!" When I didn't immediately see him, I started to panic even more. "Thatch, where are you?!"

"What happened?" I heard Thatch's voice come quietly from the dark corner of the room.

"Marco was shot! My third wish!" I said in panic. "I wish Marco would–"

"Wait!" Thatch interrupted me. "Wish for his necklace to be removed."

"What?" I said confused. Who the hell cared about the ring around his neck when he was dying?

"Without the seastone he can heal himself," Thatch said.

"What?" I repeated myself. "How do you–"

"A phoenix has reviving powers! Just hurry up Ace!" Thatch now yelled, sounding panicked as well.

"Alright, I wish Marco was no longer wearing seastone!" I shouted. I wasn't sure why I was shouting, but it was probably the panic combined with a reaction to Thatch's yelling.

Thatch waved his hand, and within a second the ring around Marco's neck was gone. For a moment I feared it had been too late, or just a bad decision to trust Thatch on this. What did a genie know about Marco's power's anyway?

But then Marco breathed in sharply, and small, blue flames started to rise up from his stomach and shoulder. I let out a relieved breath. It worked! Or at least it seemed to work. I didn't dare to throw a party already.

"What's going on? I heard yelling." Izo's head appeared from down the stairs. When he saw Marco lying wounded in my arms, his eyes widened and he hurried towards us. "Marco! What happened?"

"He was shot by some guards," I told him, already less panicking, as Marco seemed to be healing. Then I remembered the conversation I had with Marco right before the shooting. "You have some serious explaining to do, Izo, if that's even your real name."

I felt Marco chuckle, the vibration of the sound traveling from his chest to mine. "Oh, it is," he said, as he carefully sat up.

Izo looked at Marco with worried look on his face. There were still flames coming from Marco's body, but he already seemed in less pain than before. Marco gestured Izo to come closer, and he obeyed. When Izo crouched down beside him, Marco grabbed him by the throat and threw him on the floor. "You asshole!"

My eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, Marco, take it easy!"

The look on Izo's face showed he was surprised by the attack as well. He seemed to be wanting to say something, but couldn't make more than a gagging noise.

"You've ruined everything!" Marco said angrily, as the last flames disappeared from his body, the skin that appeared was only showing a slightly red spot, instead of a bleeding hole.

"Marco, you're killing him!" I said, still a little in shock. I was angry at Izo too, for lying to me, but I didn't wish him dead.

Marco seemed to realize this too, as he let go of Izo's throat. However, he still sounded angry. "I told you to respect my decision!"

"Wha–" I tried to bring in, but Marco cut me off.

"I'm sorry, Ace, this is something between me and my brother."

"Brother?!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, Ace," Izo answered, but he kept looking at Marco. "Marco is my brother. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before." He sat up and turned his words to Marco. "Your decision was a stupid ass decision, so I've chosen to ignore it."

"Do you have any idea what you've done? Everyone is in danger now!" Marco sighed. "This isn't about you or me, Izo, this is about what's best for everyone, and you know that!"

"After all these years you still think you working as a slave at the palace is what's best for everyone?!" Now Izo seemed to get angry.

I was still sitting on the carpet I used to fly in here, not understanding a thing about what was going on. Izo had simply forgotten to mention the man I had a crush on was his brother? Even though Marco and Izo couldn't be more different in appearance, that wasn't what surprised me the most. After all, Izo had another brother, Vista, who didn't look a lot like him either. They'd only had the same father, and I assumed the same was the case with Marco. Having figured that out, I still had no clue what the hell they were talking about.

"Yes," Marco answered his brother's question. "At least you could all live your life in peace. Besides, I was not a slave."

"You had no freedom whatsoever! And don't think we could live in peace either!" Izo shook his head. "I can't believe you're so selfish and selfless at the same time! No one of us wants to live while you're stripped of all your freedom!"

"Of course you can!" Marco argued. "Or you could, until you set up a plan to kidnap me. Who's the selfish one here, Izo?"

"You wouldn't have come voluntarily!" Izo brought up. "And we've been searching for you for years! When I finally found out where they'd put you, I couldn't just leave you there! I was first planning to take you myself, but when young Ace here showed an interest in you… The opportunity was just too good to pass."

Marco glanced at me, and I couldn't help but blush a little. "You shouldn't have used Ace for your stupid plans." He shook his head. "It's one thing to do what you want, Izo, but I can't believe you'd just put all our brothers in danger."

"All your brothers?!" I interrupted. "How many of you are there? There's more than just you and Vista?"

"There are fifteen of us in total," Marco answered.

"Fourteen," Izo corrected him.

Marco nodded sadly. "Fourteen."

"And all of us wanted to free you," Izo made clear towards Marco. "You really thought I was the only one? We all agreed you had made the wrong decision, and we all searched for you."

Marco sighed. "You are a stubborn bunch of thieves."

"Yes, we even steal our brother back, when he sacrificed himself."

"Okay, now someone's gonna tell me exactly what happened and what sacrifice took place," I demanded.

Izo and Marco exchanged a look, but then they both nodded. "Alright, I guess we owe you the whole story now," Izo said. But before he could begin the story, he narrowed his eyes. "Wait a minute." He looked at Marco. "You were shot. But you healed, and you're not wearing a seastone necklace anymore."

Marco touched his neck with his hand, apparently only now really realizing what happened.

"How's that possible? How'd you get that seastone off?" Izo asked.

Only at that moment, I realized Thatch hadn't said a word since fulfilling my final wish, and when I looked at the corner he was in before, I half expected him to be gone. The third wish had set him free, after all.

However, after a few seconds of silence, Thatch shyly stepped out of the shadows. "That would have been my doing." He smiled sheepishly. "Hi, guys."

Marco's eyes widened, but Izo looked quite emotionless at Thatch. Still, he stood up slowly, and walked towards him. He shook his head, and his eyes narrowed again. "No. You are dead." He stopped walking when he was only a few inches away from Thatch. "You were dead!" he yelled at Thatch's face. Izo's voice broke. "How dare you?" His right hand went straight for the genie's face, but the slap went right through him. "Wha–" Izo said surprised, while a tear made its way down his cheek.

Some of the dots connected in my head, and I rolled my eyes angrily. "Let me guess. In this nest of lying snakes, Thatch is the fifteenth brother, who died." I crossed my arms in front of my chest, while I could come to only one conclusion. "You both used me."

"I'm so sorry," Thatch said, as he pulled Izo into a hug. I wasn't sure who he said those words to, but guessed to everyone in the room. "I've missed you too," he whispered into Izo's ear. Then he looked at me. "I didn't use you, and I didn't lie. I just withheld some truths. If anything, you used me. Which is fine, because I'm a genie and that's why you were my master, but don't go accusing me of using you. I didn't push you to steal my lamp."

"A genie?" Izo asked in between quiet sobbing.

"Alright! You two, sit!" I ordered, completely done with all the lying and the confusion from all sides, but mainly from my side. "You're gonna tell the whole story now, and don't leave anything out."

Izo dabbed his tears dry in an attempt to not ruin his make-up any more than it already was, and sat down next to Marco again, followed by Thatch. I myself turned one of the chairs to face them, and sat down on it. "Marco can sit on the other chair, if you want," I said with a small smile, my heart speeding up again as I said his name.

Marco smiled back at me. "That's okay, I'm fine here." He leaned back against the wall.

I nodded and crossed my arms before my chest again. "So, who's going to start?"

Thatch sighed, and started to loosen the scarf around his neck and the upper buttons of his shirt. He pushed the fabric aside and showed a tattoo on the right part of his chest. It didn't surprise me anymore that it was the same tattoo Izo and Marco had.

"You don't recognize this symbol, do you?" Thatch asked.

"You all have that tattoo," I answered. "But when I saw it with Izo first, I did think it looked familiar, I just couldn't think of where I should have seen it before. Should I know it?"

Thatch shrugged as he closed his shirt again. "I guess you might be a little too young to have a clear memory of it, but does the name Whitebeard ring any bells?"

"Of course," I answered. "He was one of the most notorious thieves out there, almost as bad as Roger," I tried saying that last name as if it didn't mean anything special to me, and hoped Thatch would not betray me on this.

"He wasn't bad," Izo said, sounding slightly offended that I'd said that.

"Wait," I said as a memory was triggered. "That symbol was Whitebeard's, wasn't it?"

Thatch smiled. "We are his sons."

"Sons?" I repeated dumbly.

"Not by blood, but by a stronger bond, that of choice," Marco added.

"But he died, like, ten years or so ago?" I said, not sure if my perception of time was accurate here.

"Only a short time after I died myself," Thatch said. Then he turned towards his brothers. "When I died, a genie hunter found me and turned me into a genie, before you even found my body."

"Why didn't you come back to us? Let us know that you were still somewhat alive?!" Izo said, still a little angry at him.

"I'm a genie!" Thatch defended himself. "I was trapped inside this lamp!" The lamp had appeared in his hand and he tossed it towards Izo. "Couldn't go farther than two hundred yards from it, if my master even let me out."

"You've been with me for a few weeks, though," I brought up. "And you didn't want to show Izo your face, even when he lived in this tower, so within your reach." I ignored the betrayed look he gave me. He had no right to feel more betrayed than me, right now. "At least not your real face."

Izo looked from me to Thatch. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, you remember that dog I had?" I said. "He chose the name Stefan himself. The same name as your childhood dog. Coincidence? I think not."

"Wait, you were Stefan?" Izo said in a hurt tone. "Wow, Thatch. Wow."

"I'm sorry, okay?" Thatch looked at the floor. "I didn't know how to tell you I was still alive. I was waiting for the right moment to–"

"The right moment would have been the first moment," Izo interrupted him bitterly.

Thatch nodded slowly. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Okay, continue the story," I said impatiently. "What happened after Thatch died?"

Marco stood up and walked towards the other chair after all. "A short while later we got into a war, which we lost. I'm sure you've heard the story. Pops died in that battle. The rest of us got away, but we were still being hunted, even more than before. So, to give my brothers the possibility to live their lives in peace again, I struck a deal with the government. I'd work the rest of my life in their service, and in exchange they wouldn't try to capture my brothers anymore, as long as they didn't commit too big a crime."

"That's why Smoker, that city guard, couldn't arrest me for carrying around stolen ware," Izo explained. "Remember? When you thought I was working with them?"

"I remember," I said, not giving him the satisfaction of apologizing for falsely accusing him. He had still lied to me.

"But apparently, Izo couldn't respect my decision to make that deal," Marco added as he let himself sink into the soft cushions of the chair. I couldn't help but look at him. I just had to take a moment to remember that we'd kissed not even an hour ago. Even in my anger I couldn't forget about that, and couldn't get rid of the fluttering feeling in my chest.

"Well, you couldn't respect our wish to not give yourself up, so yeah," Izo said. "You had it coming. None of us wanted to leave you there. It took us a while to find out where they'd put you to work, but I'm very glad I finally found you and got you out." He held up his hand before anyone else could say anything. "And don't think I'll let you go back."

Marco snorted. "I can't go back." He slowly let his arm turn into a wing of blue fire. "Thatch made sure of that."

My eyes widened and my mouth had fallen open. "That's so beautiful."

Marco smiled, but Thatch and Izo chuckled, the latter saying, "You'd better stop that, Marco, we can't use a horny Ace right now."

I felt my face become red, while I picked up a cushion and threw it at Izo's face. "Shut up."

But in spite of my embarrassment, I was glad the mood had been lifted somewhat.

The rest of the day was spend asking questions and answering them. After a while, Izo invited his brothers over to his place, to show them how he currently lived. Thatch followed him immediately, but Marco stopped after he got up. "I'll be there in a minute, you just go ahead."

Thatch nodded and pushed Izo to the stairs, even though he had, of course, already seen how Izo lived. Izo cooperated, but a grin appeared on his face. "Sure. Just remember… thin walls." He winked at Marco and me.

I had to resist the urge to throw something at him again. Stupid Izo, always trying to embarrass me.

When we were sure they were out of earshot, Marco smiled at me. "Thank you," he said. "Despite the fact that I can't go back to the palace anymore, I'd like to thank you. You did save my life. Besides, it's not even your fault that I can't go back. I guess… it's my own fault, if anyone's."

I placed my hand on his arm, feeling my heart speed up a little. "Maybe it's just how it was meant to be." I surprised even myself with that wise comment. I wasn't one to accept my fate as it was, normally, but somehow this seemed like the best outcome of the past events.

Marco chuckled. "Maybe. But still, you used your third and last wish to save me. You must have saved that wish for something special, this was a big sacrifice."

"No, it wasn't," I said immediately. "This was something special. I can't think of anything better to spend my last wish on." It was the truth. I hadn't hesitated for a moment to us it for him, and I didn't regret it either.

Marco was silent for a moment, but then his lips slowly turned into a smile. "I'm going to kiss you now," he announced as he leaned in.

I couldn't keep the grin off my face until his lips touched mine, and we got lost in a long, tender kiss. We only broke apart when we needed air to breathe.

I stepped back and looked him in the eyes. There was still one thing I needed to get off my chest. "There is just one down side, though. About the whole saving your life thing, and more importantly, the not being able to go back to the palace thing," I started.

But Marco didn't let me finish. "I know," he said instead, meeting my eyes. "Vivi. I can't go back to her, and neither can you. It would be too dangerous, as they now know who you are and how you got inside the palace."

I nodded sadly. I was happy Marco was here with me now, but Vivi… "She'll feel even more alone now. And she won't even know what happened to us. Maybe the guards will make up a story and tell her we're dead, or something."

"Possibly," Marco agreed. "But I have an idea… Come." He walked towards the stairs and gestured me to follow him.

I did as he asked, and we descended the stairs towards the second floor. There, Marco moved the curtain aside to enter Izo's apartment, and stopped a few feet inside, to give it a look over. I almost bumped into him.

When Marco was done looking, he chuckled. "Quite plain for your doing, Izo."

Izo turned sharply towards him. "Hey, I just moved in here, not even two weeks ago, I've barely had time to redecorate."

Marco chuckled again. "I figured." Then he turned towards Thatch, who had made himself comfortable on Izo's mattress. "Hey Thatch, are you a free genie now?"

"Yes, finally!" Thatch said with a huge smile on his face. He showed his wrist to prove it. The cuffs that had previously been around them, were now gone.

"If I'm correct, that means you aren't bound to the lamp anymore," Marco stated.

"You are correct."

"Good. So you can go wherever you like. Then, to make up for all the years I thought you were dead, can you do something for me?"

It was only then that I realized what Marco's idea was. "You want him to go to Vivi?"

"The princess?" Thatch said, though I had talked often enough about her that I knew this was a rhetorical question.

"Why?" Izo asked.

"Because she needs someone to talk to. Or at least someone who tells her what happened to us," Marco explained. "Don't look at me like that, Izo. She might be part of the government, but she is a good person, and someone we can trust."

"And you know that!" I added, seeing as Izo didn't seem convinced. "I told you often enough. Besides, she has become a friend, and you don't just abandon friends." I hadn't really thought about that before I said it, but it was true. Vivi really had become a friend.

Izo shrugged. "Fine. It's not like I have anything to say about it anyway."

He was right, and we all looked at Thatch to see his reaction. He nodded. "Of course I will tell her. It won't be a problem for me to get into the palace at all." He looked at Marco. "If you know where she'll be, I can go right now, if you want."

Marco explained that she'd probably be back inside her room by now, and told Thatch exactly how to get there. Thatch dramatically wrote the instructions down on a piece of paper he'd gotten out of nowhere, and then left through the window. I shook my head, chuckling. He always liked to use his genie powers to the fullest.

After he had left, there fell a slightly awkward silence. When I began to think of what to say next, Izo stood up.

"Well then, I'll just be going out to tell our other brothers what happened, if you don't mind." He didn't wait for our approval and walked towards the exit. "You two stay here. The city guards might be looking for you."

"And for you," Marco commented. "I broke the deal we had, after all, so you're no longer safe."

Izo smiled at him. "I'll manage."

Marco smiled back. "I know." He nodded at Izo and the latter disappeared through the curtain.

I heard his footsteps go down the stairs and I turned towards Marco, who was suddenly a lot closer than before.

"Now…" Marco said, as he placed one hand in my hair. "Where were we?"

Our lips connected in a hungry kiss, making me forget all my worries. He pushed me against the wall and deepened the kiss some more.

Yes, everything would be alright, I knew that now. I was exactly where I needed to be. I had come home.

The End

I'd love to read your reactions!

Also, I have some other stories planned in this same universe, with different pairings (Nami/Vivi, which follows directly up on this story, Franky/Robin, and even a Marco/Ace sequel. If anyone is interested I might even write a short Izo/Smoker one :P) anyway, those are still in the planning phase, so I won't post anything anytime soon, but still, I thought I'd let you know ;)