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Ace chuckled as he read the article in the newspaper about what his little brother had been up to lately. Attacking Enies Lobby and burning it to the ground? He chuckled again. No doubt Fox had been there too; she wasn't the sort to let her captain go running off without her. Since it was a really big thing he would likely be seeing a bounty poster with her face on it soon; he hoped she didn't get in too much trouble with her dad over that. The one time he'd met Mihawk the Shichibukai had made it abundantly clear that while he was prepared to turn a blind eye to Fox' activities, he would not be able to shield her from the World Government if she got a bounty. Considering she'd been at large on the Grand Line for the past six years, Ace was impressed that no-one had caught her yet; she certainly wasn't all that bothered about the law and had done a whole lot of highly illegal things over the years.

Putting the paper aside, he picked up the letter she'd sent him most recently and re-read it, smiling. Letters were a slow way to communicate, but it was more secure than Den Den Mushi and better than trying to meet face-to-face. Fox' little delivery critters did pretty well really; they weren't truly alive so they didn't need to eat or sleep and they seemed to have an Eternal Pose inside their heads that could always track down the recipient no matter how long it took.

Most of the delivery animals were fish or amphibians, but Ace had been given a sea iguana in deference of his Logia nature: Fox hadn't wanted to give him something he might dry out and damage by accident. The beast was as long as Ace was tall and could turn itself into a small chest that he put letters and the occasional gift in. Currently Beastie was on its way to Fox with a letter from Ace, or possibly on its way back if she'd already replied. Ace was actually glad Beastie wasn't here, as it stuck close whenever it was with him and he didn't want it to get caught up in the fight that was about to break out now he had found Teach on Banaro Island.

Leaving both letter and newspaper on his boat, Ace stepped onto dry land and set out after the pirate who had killed Thatch, considering as he did the merits of Fox' assertion that Teach's severed head would look good on his crewmate's grave. The more he thought about it the more agreeable the idea became…

Several hours later a medium-sized sea iguana scuttled through the burnt and crushed remnants at the centre of the island of Banaro and came to a stop by an abandoned orange cowboy hat with red beads. The iguana's head contorted into a vaguely box-like shape and it swallowed the hat whole before dashing back the way it had come.

Marco, the First Division Commander of Whitebeard's crew and de-facto first mate, lounged on the upper deck of the Moby Dick waiting for the newspaper. It was three days since the mess at Enies Lobby had been announced and Marco was looking forward to seeing the bounty posters that would inevitably arise from such an incident. He'd heard a lot about Luffy from Ace, seeing as Straw Hat was Fire Fist's little brother, and it was clear the younger boy was making an even bigger splash than the elder had.

When the news coo landed next to him the calm blond accepted the paper and handed over the money, then paused as nine bounty posters all tried to escape from him at once. A moment later the newspaper was folded beside him and Marco was flipping through the posters, taking note of the crimes each individual was being accused off and their bounties: 'Straw Hat' Luffy, 300 million; 'Devil's Child' Nico Robin 90 million; 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro 120 million; 'Cat Thief' Nami 16 million; 'Cyborg' Franky 44 million; 'Black Leg' Sanji 77 million; 'King of Sharpshooters' Sogeking 30 million; 'Cotton Candy Lover' Chopper fifty beli –a pet?– and the last poster, which Marco removed from the stack and lifted up to the light.

'Angel of Death' Fox, 220 million.

Both the picture and the name were familiar; Marco paused thoughtfully. The name, the name… ah yes, a pirate superstition: sometimes particularly violent and vicious pirate crews would be found dead on their ships or on isolated islands. Some of the crew would be cut into pieces while others were barely scratched or completely untouched. It was a mystery that led pirates to murmur that the dead crew's actions had caught the attention of the Angel of Death, who had come for them and left no man behind to tell the tale. The name was also connected to the massacre of a few towns here and there and one small Marine base. If the Marines had finally managed to connect those crimes to a face, no wonder the starting bounty was so high. But why did he recognise that face?

Marco studied it for a moment. That nose… the cheekbones and eyebrows… that was Fox, his Fox, Mihawk's kid. It had to be, never mind that the sunglasses, bandanna and hat made her almost unrecognisable.

Wait, hat? He knew that hat from somewhere.

Marco studied the picture again before a slow smile expanded across his face. He was going to get years of fun out of this; Fox was wearing Ace' spare hat in her bounty poster! He was going to tease Ace mercilessly about finally confessing his crush to Fox and making their odd relationship official; after all she was borrowing his clothes and getting photographed wearing them while fighting Marines.

Marco knew all about Ace' crush on Fox, though he rarely teased the younger man about it since most of the Moby Dick's crew had been there for the big Dracule father-daughter shouting match a year previously that revealed the Shichibukai had hunted down and killed almost everyone Fox had ever been involved with. There had apparently been a survivor, one the captain had finally made a detour to Mystoria Island for them to look for, but seeing the scar that went most of the way through the man's neck Marco wasn't entirely sure his continued existence had been deliberate on Mihawk's part.

Marco had first met Fox when she had been just six: the Whitebeard Pirates had been enjoying some downtime on Fishman Island and he had been sitting in the Mermaid Café when a small human girl with untidy blonde hair and golden eyes had brought him his order. The Pirate's first thought on seeing the girl had been, does my captain know he's got a daughter, before he noticed that apart from her colouring she looked nothing like Edward Newgate. He'd struck up a conversation with the child and learnt that her mother was a mermaid but her father was not, that she wasn't supposed to talk about her father to strangers and that no, Whitebeard wasn't her father. Marco had then tried to coax her into a guessing game so he could find out who her father really was, but the girl had just giggled and run away from him. Not that she'd run far; she'd followed him from a distance all the way back to the Moby Dick when he left the café, hiding behind buildings or people every time he turned around.

He'd next seen her three days later while he was eating dinner with a few mermaids who'd invited him over to their place: a moderately large, navy-blue-haired mermaid whose tail had separated had knocked on the door and asked his hosts if they could look after 'Fox-chan' for a while. His hosts had agreed and Marco had introduced himself properly to the girl. He'd learnt that the ladies hosting him were Fox' aunties and they often looked after her when her mother was busy. He also learnt she was unreasonably lucky at cards, surprisingly strong for her size and very perceptive. Marco had enjoyed himself thoroughly playing with her and in doing so had won himself a lot of personal attention from his hosts after Fox had been put to bed.

The next morning had been less fun, as he had been eating breakfast with the energetic little girl when none other than 'Hawk Eyes' Mihawk had walked into the house. The swordsman's presence had been shocking enough; that Fox had squealed "Father!" and launched herself at the Shichibukai had made Marco's jaw drop. The pirate had sworn himself to secrecy readily enough for the innocent chibi's sake and later made a point of catching up with her whenever he was on Fishman Island during the next few years. When she vanished aged nine Marco had been worried for her and had kept a sharp eye out for the adorable little girl ever after, just in case. However as time passed and the likelihood of ever finding her grew less and less, little Fox had been pushed to the back of his mind.

No-one had been more surprised than Marco then when on the Moby Dick's deck in the middle of a storm, more than six years after Fox had vanished, the First Division Commander found himself face to face with a tall, sharply-boned, snowy-haired teenager with hauntingly familiar eyes who latched onto his neck and instantly burst into tears.

Touching on Ace and Marco.