Chapter 2
Secrets wrap around Ace's throat like a serpent. They've been there for as long as he can remember. Hell, maybe he'd been born with it—an umbilical cord flowing with blood and the innate need to hide. Ace's whole existence is a secret, one he'd been taught to hold close, even when the weight of it pressed against his chest. Even when it squeezed his lungs closed and suffocated him better than water, cord, snake, rope, or fist ever could.
That's why it had slipped the first time. He'd needed to just breathe.
"What was that!?" Sabo asks, blood dripping from his busted nose. Ace pushes away from the blonde. Adrenaline and rage and evil bastard, unworthy of living, monster, worse than the man himself races through his blood. It pumps so loudly, he can't hear anything past its war-drum beat. The rhythm—evil, unworthy, monster—pulses against his throat, making it hard to breathe.
"Why would you do that, Ace?" Sabo runs his hands through his hair as he paces. Beer bottle shards fall from his hair and tinkle against the ground. The bar they'd just escaped from is still a tornado of motion and sound, the fighting patrons unaware that their target had been dragged away by his conniving brother. Ace's fists clench. He doesn't realize they're shaking (shaking to that damned rhythm again—evil, unworthy, monster) until Sabo's hand closes over them.
"Ace?" His voice is soft and tinged with a plea. It's a plea that had never been directed towards Ace before. Not from Gramps. Definitely not from Dadan. Sabo's gentle tone breaks through the rhythm—evil, unworthy, Ace?— long enough for a slither of oxygen to flood his lungs.
For a moment, Ace basks in the feeling. There's air in his lungs and he can hear the words (he'll always hear those words) but Sabo's question—his display care, concern, love—is enough to loosen the secrets coiled around Ace's neck. It gives him a break, but he knows, God he knows, that the other boy wouldn't speak like that if he knew the truth.
If he knew that the insults thrown by the bar patrons weren't directed towards some nonexistent boy. If the questions Ace posed weren't merely hypothetical.
And if Ace couldn't tell Sabo the truth, then maybe he didn't deserve concern.
(Maybe he didn't deserve to breathe freely at all.)
"Because it's true." The words are a rushed whisper, but Sabo hears them. His brow quirks, trying to decipher what the raven-haired boy means...
Ace sees the exact moment he gets it. It's written in Sabo's wide eyes, in the way his mouth falls slack. Any second now, that shock will snap into anger, into clenched fists and evil, unworthy, monster.
"Because I deserve it."
For some reason, it's that declaration that makes Sabo move. Ace tries to dodge away from the attack, but the other boy is quicker. Arms snake around his shoulders and curl into a tight hold.
"Shut up." The words should add sparks to the fire raging in Ace's gut. The skinny arms should feel like a boa constrictor, the pressure erasing any whisper of oxygen in his lungs. But it's the opposite.
Don't talk like that, don't even think like that—that's what the "shut up" means. Sabo's arms aren't suffocating. They're a band-aid desperately trying to hold together two sides of a jagged wound. Ace relaxes into the hug, letting his head plop onto Sabo's shoulder. He takes a ragged breath and wonders how he can feel so impossibly light.
Ace never regretted telling Sabo his secret. There's never been a reason to, not even when he'd told Luffy. Sure, Ace had to suffer through hours of Roger fanboying. Yes, he'd torn Sabo a new one for sharing his deepest secret. That's what you were supposed to do when someone spilled beans that weren't theirs to share. But Ace hadn't been really mad, and Sabo knew it. You don't become sworn brothers with someone you don't trust, and Luffy's starry-eyed reaction had only reinforced that trust.
In fact, it'd made Ace breathe again. Made him float and bask with an untethered neck.
The third time his secret is shared feels nothing like the other two.
Luffy's cries start moments after Sabo wakes up.
"Ace! Sabo! Help me!"
Dazed blue meets steel. The same urgency glows brightly in both of their eyes.
"Stay here. I'll find him," Ace goes to stand, but is stopped by a death grip on his shirt.
"I'm coming with you," Sabo says.
"Like hell."
"I'm coming. He's my brother too."
"Your brain was oozing out of your skull a second ago!"
"It's called bleeding, dumbass. No brain matter is involved."
Ace's reply is cut off by an awful screech. The sound is so twisted, so corkscrewed and shattered, that it takes him a moment to place it as belonging to Luffy. The realization takes his breath away quick as a punch to the gut.
"LUFFY!?"
The answering wail comes from directly behind them. Ace scrabbles against the cliff face, his fingers trying to find a break in the wall, a hidden passage, concealed turn, anything to get to Luffy.
"Over here!" Sabo's voice comes from around a bend in the cliff. Ace follows it and sees Sabo knelt before a hole about the size of a lifebuoy. It's just big enough for the pair to crawl through.
Dirt and stone rain on their heads. Ace grunts as The Elbow is contorted against rock. The boys fit in the tunnel, but it twists and turns at such tight angles, they have to jam themselves into uncomfortable positions, using their feet and hands to propel themselves forward.
It's uncomfortable. It makes fear boil in Ace's gut like hot oil. But it doesn't stop them. Nothing can. Not with their youngest brother screaming from somewhere deep inside the earth.
Darkness swallows Ace and Sabo. The ground beneath their hands and knees turns damp. Eventually, their tiny tunnel opens enough for them to fully sit up. The two boys sit in the pitch black, the sound of each other's breathing audible only when Luffy gasps for air between shrieks.
"Wait," Sabo says. There's a fumbling, a click, and then the circular glow of a flashlight penetrates the cave's shadow.
Sabo gasps. Ace flinches.
It's the markings carved into the walls that make Sabo gasp. It's the symbols traced in crimson that make Ace flinch. They're everywhere. Beneath their feet, above their heads, and all around them. There aren't any letters or words that the boys recognize, but the shape of them, the jagged angles, sharp edges, the way the red ones look wet and drip and how some of the carved ones look impossibly deep—they make both boys want to run.
"HELP ME!"
Luffy's voice echoes between the narrow cave walls. It makes the sound last much longer than it should and send tremors racking up both boys' spines. (What could make Luffy—sunshine, smiles, nose-picking, incapable of lying Luffy—sound like that?)
"I think he's down there," Sabo says as he shines the cracked flashlight down one of the adjacent tunnels. The same markings coat the entirety of it. Ignoring every instinct he has, Ace follows Sabo, crawling deeper into the abyss.
And so it goes. They crawl, shuffle, and walk through the cave system with nothing but a flashlight and their baby brother's screams to mark the path. Time passes. The only gauge Ace has is the volume of Luffy's voice, and it's deafening by now. Eventually, they reach a crossroads. Sabo kneels between the two tunnels, shining his light one way, then the next. The sound is so loud, the caves so echo-y, that they're having a hard time pinpointing where it's coming from.
Ace watches Sabo seesaw between directions again before deciding enough is enough.
"WHERE ARE YOU LUFFY?"
The shrieking ends and is replaced with silence. Absolute silence. The kind of silence that makes Ace's breath sound loud and his heartbeat throb in his ears.
"Lu?" Sabo calls. He passes the flashlight over both paths again. The light flickers as it passes over the left tunnel. He points it to the right, and the beam stays steady. Swallowing, Sabo flashes it to the left.
It flickers again.
They share a look, a question hanging heavily between them. Ace grits his teeth, then nods. Going down the wrong path is better than not moving at all. Sabo nods and continues to the left, the light blinking in and out of existence the entire way.
They make their way deeper into the cave. At first, Ace doesn't notice Sabo's shaking or rapid breaths. He doesn't notice when Sabo squeezes his eyes shut, trying to shove the putrid wrongness flooding his gut back. Ace doesn't realize anything is wrong until the blonde turns to the side and hurls.
(Sabo won't realize until later on that the roiling in his gut isn't the result of a head injury, isn't his body's natural response to a wound.
It's a warning bell.)
Sabo wipes sick from his face and offers Ace an apologetic look as the pair crawls over the mess. The freckled boy shrugs, too dirty and worried to be concerned about a little vomit. They keep going. Two turns later, Ace barely avoids crashing into a suddenly frozen Sabo.
"What's up?"
The blonde doesn't respond. He doesn't even move. Ace shifts to see past him, and similarly stiffens.
It's rock. Solid rock with a big spiral sigil chiseled into it.
It's a dead end.
Ace growls and reaches for Sabo's pant leg. He yanks him backwards.
"Come on. Let's go the other way."
Sabo's sigh fills the air, but he turns to follow the raven-haired boy. The flashlight's beam wobbles as he moves, then dies. Darkness blankets them like a heavy fog. Ace's breathing increases as he listens to Sabo smack at the flashlight, desperately trying to get it back on.
They're going to have to find their way back in the pitch black, and he isn't sure they can do that. He'd prefer not to try at all. Without the flashlight or Luffy's voice to guide them, the boys will—
"Why are you leaving me?" Luffy whispers from right beside Ace's ear. The older boy yelps, then frantically reaches for the voice. His hands touch nothing but cold earth.
"Luffy?"
"I'm right here." His voice is behind them, back towards the dead end. "You're leaving me. Leaving me all alone again."
"Where are you? Do you see anything—"
"YOUR'E LEAVING ME ALL ALONE!"
Ace's breath stutters. No. He'd never leave Luffy alone. Never again.
"IT HURTS AND YOU'RE LEAVING ME!"
Ace shoulders Sabo out of the way. His fists beat against the cave wall. Sabo joins him, both pushing, clawing, and shoving against the stone. Luffy needs them. He's screaming for them, and they can't get through. They can't move solid stone through will alone.
"IT HURTS. IT HURTS. IT HURTS."
"We're coming, we're coming," Ace says as he shoves against the wall with his shoulder. Sabo traces the wall above Ace, trying to find a weak spot. His fingers dip into the spiral sigil. He shoves them deeper. Hoping the carving has weakened the rock. Hoping there's a way to make it open or crumble or anything to get them to their baby brother.
There's a pinch of pain. Sabo falls back with a shout. Blood oozes from his fingertips. He clutches at the cut digits, trying to decipher what happened through touch alone. A single slice stretches across the pads of his three middle fingers.
A soft, green glow lights the tunnel. Ace and Sabo squint against the light radiating from the center of the sigil. A drop of blood oozes from inside the carving, right where Sabo's hand had been.
The boys stare at the sudden light in silence. They don't understand it. It scares them. But somewhere behind that stone is Luffy, who sounds even more scared, more hurt than either of the older boys.
With a shaking hand, Ace reaches for the wall. The light dies beneath his touch, coating them in darkness.
Sabo pushes past a stunned Ace.
"There has to be a way..." The blonde's voice fades as the sigil reignites beneath his touch. He shares a bewildered look with his brother, both of their eyes shining beneath the green light.
"Why..."
"Who cares. Just keep going," Ace snaps. They don't have time to wonder. Not with Luffy being deathly quiet once again.
"Keep doing what? All I did was touch it," Sabo says, his temper flaring up to match his brother's.
"I don't know! Keep touching it!"
The middle brother spares a glare at Ace, before turning back to the illuminated mark. He touches the edge of the spiral, following the carved earth until he reaches the center. Unsure of what else to do, Sabo retraces the pattern, hand rotating around the sigil like a turning lock.
A tremor rocks through the cave the moment he reaches the end of the mark. The boys shrink against each other, arms thrown over their heads as pebbles fall. Through the falling debris, Ace watches as the cracks wrap around the edges of the dead end until a perfect circle is punched out of it with the sigil sitting in the center. With an otherworldly creak, the chunk of earth swings backwards like an ancient door. It opens to a wall of black.
"Luffy?" Ace calls.
"I'm here!"
The oldest boy races through the doorway. He pauses on the other side, realizing Sabo isn't with him. The blonde kneels, arms wrapped around his stomach, eyes wide and bright. A bead of sweat carves a path down his dirty face.
(He won't mention it until the ordeal is over, but his entire body is screaming don't go in there.)
"Bo?" Ace asks, his own body buzzing with the need to go, to find his family and get them somewhere safe. Sabo swallows thickly—sunshine, smiles, stretchy armed hugs, he reminds himself— then nods. Together, they step deeper into the cavern. They stop at the edge of light created by the sigil, unwilling to leave its comforting illumination.
Ace listens closely, trying to pinpoint where Luffy is. He hears thumps as Sabo smacks at their flashlight again. Their breathing is loud. His heart thumps. There's a trickle, like water is nearby. The realization makes his already frayed nerves convulse. Luffy can't swim. Water is very, very bad.
There's something else too. It matches the water trickles, but it's sharper. Almost like metal dinging together.
"Yes!" Sabo cries as their flashlight turns on. Its circle lands on water. It's a pond of some sort, with bundles of dried plants bobbing at the surface. The flashlight glides across the water, farther back into the cavern.
"Over here!"
The light snaps towards the sound. It hits a crumpled form caked in dirt and red. So much red. It isn't until Ace sees the anchor T-shirt that he realizes it's Luffy. Unconscious. Hurt. With strange red lumps on his back.
He's dead to the world.
He's incapable of producing any sound at all.
"Luffy!" The older boys race towards him. They only stop when metal clangs together again and a figure peels itself from the shadows. A clawed hand runs through Luffy's matted hair. Golden chains wrap around the appendage. Eyes the same color as the chains flash like predators' in the night.
"Back off!" Ace shouts as the figure's claws brush Luffy's cheek. She stops caressing him and turns towards them, revealing womanly curves and striped skin. No, Ace realizes as it rustles with the movement, fur.
"Aren't you going to help me?" It's Luffy's voice, but it's her mouth moving. Her mouth revealing bloodstained fangs and forked tongue. Ace steps forward, determined to grab Luffy and beat the creature's face into the ground for daring to mock them. But Sabo grabs his hand, yanking him to a stop.
"Don't," Sabo says, his face bleached white beneath the dried blood and layers of dirt.
"Don't," the creature mocks Sabo's voice, making Ace's blood ignite. This bitch had taunted them for hours, manipulated their bonds and concerns to send them on a wild goose chase. She'd hurt Luffy and was keeping him away from them.
She's going to pay.
"I'm going to kick her ass!"
"Why don't you give me your name first?" It's another voice, one Ace has never heard before, but it makes Sabo flinch. (It's his mother. He hasn't seen her in years, but it's. His. Mother.)
"You already know my name," Ace hisses, remembering how many times it'd been screamed in the past few couple hours.
"Knowing does not mean it was given," she continues in the same high-pitched voice. It doesn't match her angular cat eyes or ringlets of russet curls or pointed ears.
Fuck that. Ace isn't giving her anything.
The creature sees the look on his face. A striped tail snakes around Luffy still form. She doesn't speak, but the threat rings loud as a gun shot.
"What is your name?" The voice changes. It's deep and grumbly and Ace has to fight the urge to duck. It's Gramps.
"Sabo. Sabo Wilmur Outlook," the trembling boy says. Ace glances at him, wondering why his normally daring brother looks ready to bolt. Fear pops in Ace's gut, but fiery fury buries the emotion deep.
The creature grins, one of her fangs hooking over a plump lip.
"And...?"
"Screw you."
The creature's tail wraps around Luffy's neck and lifts him in the air like he weighs nothing. The little boy doesn't move, and Ace wonders how those weird red lumps are still attached to his back.
She doesn't say anything. She just stares at Ace while slowly suffocating his baby brother.
"Let him go!"
"Ace..." Sabo pleads.
"What is your name?" The monster asks with Gramps' voice. Ace's fists shake by his side. He needs to move. He needs to get Luffy back. He needs to make the beast pay for his family's suffering.
"He's Ace! Portgas D. Ace!" Sabo shouts, reading Ace's stance and realizing he has no intention of giving in.
She tuts, her tail flicking back and forth slowly, making the dangling Luffy sway with the motion. Luffy's tan skin is turning blue, and Ace's fingernails are gouging into his palm.
"That isn't yours to give, Sabo Wilmur Outlook."
There's a pause as Ace glares at the creature. She smirks at him, absently brushing a dangling curl back with a chained hand.
"Ace, please," Sabo says, stunning the older boy, "She's bad. We can't fight her. She'll kill us. Do worse than kill us. I feel it, Ace."
And like Luffy never asks for help, Sabo never begs.
"Luffy is going to die! Just tell her! Please!"
It's that plea that cinches the deal. Ace never dreamed of having little brothers. He'd spent so long alone, so long hidden away in the jungle, that he hadn't even known what having brothers really meant. Now that he knows what the patter of small footsteps behind him sounds like, what wordless understanding and teamwork tastes like, what chocolate eyes glittering up at him looks like, what sharing in belly-aching laughter feels like...there's nothing in the Four Blues that will make him give it up. Not even his pride.
"Portgas D. Ace," the oldest boy says stiffly. The creature's tail curls even tighter around Luffy's bruised neck. There can't be much time left.
"I asked for your name. Not some pathetic moniker," she says in Dadan's gruff voice.
Ace scowls, unsure what "moniker" means.
"Last name," Sabo whispers.
And that's when Ace understands what's being asked of him. His throat closes so tight, he's not sure he'd be able to answer even if he wanted to.
"Tick tock," she sings, switching to Luffy's bright chirps. The tone is off though. Sickly. Filled with a mocking nastiness that Luffy isn't capable of.
Can he tell her? Ace had only told one other person before. He'd only ever given up that secret part of himself the once. Could he tell some twisted monster his identity when the secrecy of it was ingrained into his very bone marrow?
"Don't you want to help me, Ace? That's what big brothers are supposed to do, right?"
He can. For Luffy, he absolutely can.
"My name is Gol D. Ace."
He sees her mouth blossom into a twisted grin before something wraps around his ankle and pulls. Ace's busted elbow bursts with pain when it hits the ground, but then there's water everywhere and he's moving so fast, he can't reach the thing looped around his ankle. His fingers squabble at the rocky bottom of the pond, trying to grab something to halt his journey
Cold water falls around Ace as he's lifted from the water. Sabo's shouts mix with the creature's hellish laughter and Ace's own gasps. The flashlight's beam dances across the cavern—Sabo's moving, probably trying to help. It stills on Ace long enough for him to see the furry, striped thing holding him up in the air.
It's a tail. One of her tails. From this angle, Ace counts three, four, six different tails poised behind her back.
"Let me—" Ace's protest is cut off as a hand wraps around his face. It's painful, and he tries to grapple the hand away, but she's too big, too strong, and then there's a metallic twang hitting his tongue. It flows down Ace's throat like magma. It burns, it hurts, it makes him want to scream. His body convulses, tries to purge the liquid away, but her hand keeps it trapped inside.
He knows the moment it hits his stomach. That's when Ace's entire world turns to fire and agony and bones snapping and flesh tearing and skin boiling and screams that can't possibly be coming from him.
That's the moment thousands of choices he doesn't even know exist are snatched away.
Months later, Ace will crash into a bespectacled old man in a tropical shirt. The cleft chin and striped hat spark a memory, but there's too much going on—Luffy is crying and Sabo's bleeding, and Ace's body smolders. He can't breathe, and his entire body shakes with the need to go. To run far, far away from the bad things they'd found in the jungle.
She's gonna escape and she's gonna find us. We have to go now, now, now.
Fire bubbles in Ace's gut at the reminder. He fumbles, trying to lift a shocked Luffy up from where he'd fallen while keeping an injured Sabo on his feet.
He doesn't see the old man rise and wipe the dust from his glasses. He doesn't see the old man squint at the trio of boys in twilight's dark cast.
But he does hear him ask that damned question.
"It's you! Makino's boys. Oh, what were your names again?"
Ace doesn't think. He can't. Not when his brain seizes at the word. Not when the sentence makes his whole-body tremble, and power sizzle in his gut.
Ace can't think, so he sets the inferno free.
That night, three brothers escape the evil lurking deep inside Goa's veins with nothing but a rickety rowboat and each other.
