Calm

"Are you still breathing, Ace?"

The pirate blinked, glancing up at his wholly unexpected visitor. He'd been going over what he remembered of how Fox used haki and trying to replicate it. She had offered to teach him a bit once but Ace hadn't been interested in something that took years to learn when he had his Devil Fruit Power. Now he felt like a moron: if he had been able to use haki even half as well as Fox he wouldn't have lost to Teach. Since haki was innate he could practice it regardless of the Sea Stone shackles immobilising him, but it had proved sadly hit and miss. He just couldn't use it consistently and the one he really wanted to know, the one which would stop them from killing him, was the one he couldn't grasp at all.

What was Garp doing visiting him anyway?

"Gramps?" Yes, it was the old man. Weird. "I didn't think I was allowed visitors," Ace croaked. "If I'd known I'd have asked some people I actually like to stop by."

Garp chuckled. "I see you haven't lost your fire, Ace."

Ace grinned through the tacky blood caking one half of his face. "I promised a pretty lady I wouldn't let prison get me down," he said dryly. "Self-pity is apparently very unattractive. Besides, I have my answer now."

Garp tensed, clearly remembering that long-ago question Ace had asked about whether he should ever have been born. "You have?"

Ace nodded, remembering what Fox had said and done after worming his doubts and uncertainty out of him. There was a reason he openly claimed her as one of his best friends; she was certainly his best and closest still-living friend. "My mother's Will was for me to live; who am I to deny that? To honour her I will live the best I can, for as long as I can, and spawn some grandkids for her to fawn over from the afterlife," he said firmly, remembering Fox' promise to hide any children he ever had to the best of her considerable ability. "That is my Will." He didn't have any kids yet –Fox had kindly checked his various past conquests for him– but he would. He was all that was left of his mother and he would not shame her by being the reason the Portgas line ended. Glancing up at Garp Ace smirked at the slightly concerned look on the old man's face. "I'm not going to die any time soon Gramps; just you wait and see." He paused. "How's Pops doing?"

Garp shook his head. "He's coming for you, boy."

Ace narrowed his eyes. "Should I worry about someone trying to kill me early?"

The old Vice-Admiral shook his head. "It wouldn't make any difference at this point; nothing will stop Whitebeard now. We have already angered the ruler of the seas."

Ace said nothing. Pops was the father he'd always wanted and for him to be coming to rescue Ace despite his having left against the old man's orders warmed him as much as it worried him; Pops was getting old. Though honestly it was Spitfire he was seriously worried about; she would cheerfully tell the world they were related by blood and then she'd have the Marines after her in force.

"Ah, I do wish you and Luffy had become great Marine officers like I wanted you to;" Garp reminisced, "to think you would both do the very opposite and become terrible rogues! Oh, yes; come to think of it… I told Luffy about his father. He was rather surprised to learn he even had one!"

Ace snorted. He'd known who Luffy's father was for years; Fox had mentioned once in passing that the Revolutionary Dragon was actually the son of Garp the Fist and Ace had realised at once that the man had to be his little brother's father.

"It doesn't matter whether we know it or not," he croaked, "the fact remains that both Luffy and I have the blood of world-renowned criminals flowing through our veins; how could we ever become Marines?" Fox couldn't either, not that she'd ever wanted to, and her father actually worked under the World Government! "However I took the name 'Portgas' from my mother, whom I owe a great debt. I don't care one jot for that half of my blood that came from my so-called father." He really didn't, especially after Spitfire had confirmed for him that she, not he, was Roger's heir as the Pirate King's firstborn. Ace was his mother's heir in everything, which explained why he so hated being reminded of his father. He was the youngest of six kids Roger had sired, for goodness sake, and not even the only boy! He was just the only one the Government had found out about so his life had been hell! "He's nothing to me."

"Well I suppose that makes sense," Garp conceded.

"And that's why, Gramps," Ace rasped with a smile, remembering his first meeting with Pops, "I only have one father, and that father is Whitebeard!"

Garp frowned. Ace didn't care; he owed his blood father less than nothing. He'd actually gone through a full formal disinheritance ritual with Fox' help so as to sever ties with Roger properly; it had really done wonders for his temper.

Having nothing more to say to the man who had supposedly raised him, Ace closed his eyes and went back to recalling what little he knew of Busoshoku Haki. He'd been promised a rescue; all he had to do was wait.

Fox went through another set of dance exercises, cursing the presence of Marine ships lurking on the horizon. She couldn't go on deck and risk being seen, so she had to stay indoors and keep herself out of trouble. In the four days since briefly spending time with Luffy on Amazon Lily –only Luffy would manage to win over someone as cruel and frigid as Boa Hancock– she had done a lot of knitting and gone through all her combat kata twice before putting aside her distaste and moving on to the dance routines she'd been forced to learn as a slave. Fox loved to move but dancing had been permanently soured by her past experiences; she rarely indulged in the intricate and beautiful routines she knew by heart, preferring the rough and ready improvisation of people who'd had a bit too much to drink.

She'd danced properly exactly once since escaping slavery, as a birthday present for Whitebeard a few years ago. He'd both liked it and understood without asking why she didn't show off more often. Zoro knew she could dance –it frequently featured in her dreams– but he also knew better than to pry into why she preferred not to. The audiences in those kind of dreams were explanation enough.

She did have tentative plans to give her swordsman a private performance before she started increasing though; she wanted to see how far she could push him before he jumped her.

Fox missed Zoro. She could talk to him any time she wanted but she was a highly tactile individual and she missed his warmth at her side, his breath on her throat, his body pressed against hers in the lazy hours after lunch and his hands on her skin at any hour of the day. Gods above, how Fox missed Zoro touching her. He had wonderful hands, strong and heavily calloused from years of swordsmanship and always so warm…

She sighed. Zoro wasn't here and even with Shanks sailing toward Paradise with every intention of reaching Marineford in time to catch the tail-end of the inevitable fight that would break out once Ace' execution started, she probably wouldn't see her lover again for at least a week, probably longer. Her eyes strayed over to a very specific wooden chest by the bed.

Before leaving Luffy to storm Impel Down she had given him a bit of paper similar to Vivre Card and told him to use it to summon help, if he really found himself needing it. She'd told him it was a favour from a fellow assassin and would summon 'him' for two hours' worth of work, no questions asked. To activate it Luffy had to tear a corner off the paper at least half an hour before he needed the help, then tear it in half when he wanted his help to appear. Then it was just a matter of telling the person who showed up what he wanted them to do.

The chest across the cabin contained her killing suit, Phantom Fox mask and her sword, retrieved from Swift Hunter. When she felt Luffy tear the corner from the paper she would get changed and then await her summons. She could not fight a battle against her father without giving herself away, but her alter ego was a true assassin and cared nothing for anything save fulfilling orders. The Phantom Fox was almost an alternate personality, making it practically impossible even for haki users to identify her when she took up the mask. There was a good chance Shanks would find out the truth she had spent so many years hiding, but Ace' life was on the line and he was more important to her than keeping this particular secret from Shanks. He wouldn't judge her for it.

Everything is falling in place, but waiting is never easy.