Flight
Fox ran, zigzagging up the slope behind the town and relying heavily on Devil Fruit and her Colour of Observation to prevent herself from running into things or getting hit by the bullets fired by the Marines chasing her. Her eyes were useless right now: the Marine Commodore in command of the forces chasing her has tried to kill her and she had not dodged fast enough to prevent him from giving her a cracked skull even though she'd called up her Colour of Armament in time to protect her brain. If she hadn't reflexively protected herself she would likely have died then and there. The concussion had destroyed her vision, affected her balance, made her movements clumsy and interfered with her Devil Fruit Ability to the point that she had been forced to revert to her most basic offensive Ability in order to defend herself.
Breathing heavily as she slipped through a narrow break in the rocks and down the other side of the island, Fox decided this was one of the worse weeks of her life. Not the very worst, but definitely in the top ten. It had started badly and had just deteriorated further: first Kaido's subordinates and now bigoted Marines. Considering trouble often came in threes, she was dreading what was yet to come.
The worst part was that both attacks had been aimed specifically at Dracule Lisska, Hawk-Eyes' daughter; news had got out from Sabaody that she'd been the Pirate Hunter's lover and her pregnancy was impossible to hide now so a lot of people had put two and two together. Some of those people were Marines and hated pirates enough to take out their irrational loathing on someone who –as far as they knew– was just a Pose Artificer with a poor taste in men. The rest simply wanted her as leverage against her father and equated 'pregnant' with 'vulnerable'.
She paused, reaching out even as she hid herself from perception. There were Marines… there, there, there and there. The vegetation screened her from view to a certain extent but she was wearing a brightly coloured kimono and would probably be spotted soon. Thankfully she was far fitter than they'd expected and not the civilian they'd thought her when they cornered her in the street; unfortunately, they knew that too now. She'd resorted to haki in order to knock out as many of her assailants as possible before running and the Marine Commodore would by now be back on his feet, shouting orders and possibly calling for reinforcements. They weren't the only ones to have done so though: Fox had resorted to the emergency measure of sending a distress signal to her father, who she knew would respond with all possible speed and overwhelming force. Hopefully Ace would catch up with her before her father reached her, but if not he at least had a good reason for not being at her side right now.
Stumbling over some loose rocks, Fox swore quietly and staggered on down the slope, hoping they hadn't heard her. No such luck; she picked up speed again, her stride not as long as it could be due to her swollen belly and kimono.
Why had everything had to go so wrong?
Edward D. Spadille swore viciously and creatively, flying as quickly as he could towards his lover. This was quite possibly his worst week ever; at least at Marineford the only person at risk had been him. Now Fox was under fire, unable to defend herself properly and several days' sailing away. Flying was much quicker than sailing, but he was still unlikely to reach her before sunset which was far too long. It had taken him three days to ferret out and destroy every last one of Kaido's subordinates on the island the four pirate ships had ambushed them at; it would have taken less time had the island not been populated as then he could have flattened it and called it a day. Sometimes having a conscience sucked.
On realising he –or rather Fox– was the target, the first thing the former Whitebeard Pirate had done was take out the ships, reducing them and anyone still on them to ash in the wind. His experimentation with temperature had proved its worth then: the ships had practically vaporised. He'd also destroyed all the other ships in the harbour so his enemies couldn't escape and made his lover go back to Swift Hunter: since she was the target, she should escape now and he would catch up later. She had agreed and headed for an island east of them which had a small Marine base, making it an unlikely target for Pirates. It was also in Big Mom's territory, so Kaido wouldn't chase her there like he would if she sailed south or west towards more familiar islands that had been part of Whitebeard's territory and were now up for grabs.
Ace had then been left with about five hundred live targets to practice his recently expanded Ability on; he had improved quickly, made good use of his emerging Kenbunshoku haki and refined several different attacks. He hadn't even tried physical force; in Logia form he had the advantage and with Fox' wellbeing on the line he didn't have the time for anything approaching fair play. Besides, his enemies were scum who were targeting a pregnant woman, so they didn't even deserve a chance.
The last few pirates he'd caught up with had been highly skilled, but by then he'd got the hang of how to control and focus his attacks properly and had simply seared them to ash shadows on nearby walls. Fox had been right; there was far more to fire then just burning stuff. It was great stress relief after months of stumbling over things, basic training and general frustration; he finally felt strong again. Of course, he had to remember that just because he could reduce a person to so much fine powder did not make him invincible; arrogance was a leading cause of death in Devil Fruit Users. He needed to find more things he could do, preferably including something he could use defensively, no matter what Fox said.
He had left the island three days after sending Fox on ahead but barely three hours into his flight everything had gone to hell: Fox had been attacked by Marines who saw her being pregnant by a pirate as a crime and were determined to kill the unborn baby. They were perfectly willing to kill his precious Kitsune as well for defending her daughter-to-be, but despite her concussion his lover had used haki to knock out everyone within twenty yards of her and fled the scene as fast as she could. Ace had done everything he could to improve his speed, but there was a limit to what he dared to try when even the smallest mistake would result in him drowning and never arriving at his lover's side. Never mind what his death would do to her; the shock might cause her to lose the baby! He couldn't risk it. Which left him gnashing his teeth as he shot through the air like a comet towards the people trying to kill his Kitsune, Asura urging him on from the back of his mind. He would be in time and then everyone who'd dared so much as think of harming Fox would die.
Six weeks later they are in the New World again and Fox is in trouble. Ace is also unintentionally earning himself the beginning of a reputation.