Hello everyone, here is the next chapter
I apologize for this being so late. It is also a bit short, but this is mostly build up for the future
Hope you enjoy
Read and relax
As the next day started, Marco mentioned to everyone they would be here for 2 more days, just having spoken of it at the morning meeting. They needed to restock things, as well as the ship needed some minor repairs that was easier made while docked. Ace had calmed down after the first day, even being let out of the bind with reluctance from Max, and told to stay away from Zara, just in case. If he wanted to be close, the bind would be back on. Max also told them were they could get a vampire bind, just in case.
The stay had gone by fine and Marco was trying to be a bit around Zara. For some reason, his phoenix wasn't as scared of Zara as he was of Ace. But he thought maybe this could be a slower start to get used to Ace, to get used to a mythical creature. Zara was also a nice kid, friendly and pleasant. He never had been around the other much, not that he had been much around them either. Zara had probably stayed a bit back from visitors since he was a werewolf, but since they now knew, he was more around. Although, he wasn't close to the boat because of the vampires and werewolves not mixing.
It was night now, the clock just past 11pm and he was walking around the island with a few people, which also included Zara. Marco had never walked much around on this island, so he enjoyed this. They had been heading a bit around for the past 3 hours, Marco giving tips to the others in sailing, them seeming interested in it and they never really sailed out too far, just to fish and such.
And yes, Marco was enjoying himself, but something felt off, and it had the last hour. Marco wasn't able to keep his eyes from looking at Zara now and then, the feeling something was wrong, which only intensifying when Zara twitched now and then. But he tried to ignore it, to tell himself things were fine. The others weren't reacting to it, and they knew the werewolf better than him.
But, when the feeling didn't go away, only intensifying he looked at Zara, who was twitching more. "You sure you're okay?" The other half shook his head. "I-I don't- don't know. Where's Max?" Marco had a bad feeling about this. His phoenix agreeing, more than earlier. He was having a sort of hard time getting used to a werewolf. "I don't know, yoi. I'll see if I can get him." They weren't far away from the office to the major, the first commander having a feeling the older man was there. As Marco had taken a few hurried steps, a bit relieved to get a bit away from the other, knowing the others would be there and make sure he was fine, he quickly stopped and turned when a groan in pain was heard, his phoenix reacting to it. Something was wrong, really so.
Kent had a shocked look as he took a few steps back, looking at Tony. "Get Max! Now!" The man just nodded as he ran off, Kent looking at Zara. "Okay, kiddo. Just try and hold it for a bit more." What was happening? Marco felt he was frozen in place. Zara shook his head, groaning more as a yelp and small scream tore from his mouth as he fell to his knees, Maro hearing bones cracking. "I can't!" Yelled Zara. And that was when Marco got it.
Zara was changing. The full moon was now somehow. It wasn't supposed to be before tomorrow. But it was happening now.
Zara gave a small scream of pain again, bones cracking more as his body deformed, growing larger and tearing his shirt, fur starting to grow. Marco couldn't move, he was scared. It was just as when Ace lost control. Marco could only stare as Zara went through what looked like a painful change, before yellow eyes locked on him, a growl coming from the big white werewolf that stalked towards him. He had never met a real werewolf before, and this felt terrifying.
Marco couldn't move. He was stuck in fear.
When the werewolf was closer and got ready to attack, another fear had shivers go down his spine, before another loud growl was heard, and a body came from behind Marco, attacking Zara and growling at the werewolf with red eyes. Ace was here and he didn't look to be in control. Ace had probably sensed Zara was changing and that Marco was here, coming here both to protect Marco and to rid of the wolf as they didn't like each other. Marco had no idea what to do, he was stuck in fear as the two beings growled at each other.
The two soon launched at each other, biting, clawing, and growling at each other, being a bloody battle.
As Marco was looking on with fear, two arms suddenly hauled him back, turning to see Izou being the one to get him away, Pops, Thatch, Rakuyo, Max, and Tony not far away. Izou got him close to Pops, which was the best as that could help calm him. Marco needed to get his phoenix in control! He needed to be able to help! Be he couldn't like this. Pops gave a few words of comfort, Marco not able to distinguish them. Max walked forward as he did, crouching down on one knee and taking a gun out, aiming at the two fighting.
No, was he going to shoot them? He couldn't!
Just as Marco was about to try and speak, a gunshot was sounded, before two yelps.
Max just shot Zara and Ace. Max shot Ace! The vampire moved a hand to his shoulder, looking back at Max, who had a serious look. "Go away! Leave! You're scaring them, and we can handle Zara!" The man aimed his gun at Ace when Ace just out a growl, but the vampire soon turned as Zara gave a small whimpered as he halted away in the woods, doing his best to run.
"Don't fol-!" Was all Max got out before Ace followed, snarling. Max gave a swear, running after as he turned to look behind. "Tony, Kent, Red! Get ready!" The 3 ran after as they nodded, Marco glad they seemed to have a plan, but hoped it didn't involve anyone getting injured more, not Max shooting more.
As they were out of sight, the fear from the two beings got less and less, probably since they were moving further away. As he didn't feel frozen in fear, he soon fell down to the ground as he panted. He had never been scared like that, not only since two predators was there like that, but also since Max shot Ace. "Son?" Marco took a breath as he nodded. "Y-yeah. I-I'm good. Just give me a m-minute." Marco tried to take a deep breath. "I just need to- I can't believe Max shot Ace." Marco wasn't good when one of his family members were injured, especially when he already was on edge.
"Oh my God!" Marco looked over at Izou, who was crouched down and picking something up. "What is it?" He heard Pops say, and when Izou stood up and turned to them, Marco felt his insides twist. It was Ace's ring. It was the only thing keeping him from burning in the sun. This was a sunny place; the night lasted only for 5 hours. When the sun rose, Ace would burn. They needed to act. He faintly heard Pops speaking, but wasn't able to make out what he said, worried for Ace and his phoenix was disconcerted and agitated by all of this. He had never been in a situation like this.
Marco closed his eyes, taking a breath. Get it together. He just needed his phoenix to calm down and relax. It was more important things than a stupid fear for vampires and werewolves, at least for now. Zara might be completely gone in his werewolf mind, but Ace wasn't, not fully lost at least. Ace was just protecting them, protecting him. All he needed to do was gather himself now, and he could have done something. For now, he just needed to breathe and do his best to fix and solve this situation.
When he opened his eyes, he saw most of those who had been there was gone, just Pops and Izou left, the others probably having left to try and find Ace, hopefully not going alone. When he moved to stand up, he noticed a man close to them, handing a gun out to Izou and him. "Here. If and when you get a clear shot, take it." Oh no no, Marco was not going to shot Ace. Before he could voice that, the man shook his head. "It's not deadly bullets for them. They will wound them and have a tranquilizing effect." That helped, but Marco still didn't want to use it. The first commander still put the gun in his belt, just in case it go too bad, which he hoped not. "We have, at best 2 hours before sunrise. Zara will be normal by then, but then there's the vampire. We have warned everyone in the town. So, if you find him, get him to the closest house, they are all open." That had him blink. That was well prepared. "Have you dealt with this before?" Asked Pops, looking at the man, who nodded. "We have. You are not the first, and certainly not the last."
That was good to know, but he would be sure they were prepared when visiting islands, or more like preparing the island they would visit. When he was up and help better, they started the search, trying to find or hear where the two creatures were. Marco was somewhat fortunate, seeing as his phoenix reacted to the two creates, making so they could follow that. But, then again, Marco couldn't pinpoint it, seeing as the two were moving fast. They needed to find them, especially Ace. The man who had showed up, Bret, said it would be about an hour of sunlight before Zara turned back. Since the night was as short, the full moon was up after sunrise by a small while. That made things worse in his mind. If Ace got close to the sun and burned, Zara would still be a werewolf, meaning he could attack. This whole situation was bad.
They did run into the other 'search parties' if it could be called that, no one having found anything, just places that the two had been, but gone now. Time was running out fast, and Marco could even see sun rays slowly being visible from the horizon, the sky starting to go red. Morning was coming, and it was coming fast. Which each minute, each second, Marco felt his heart beat faster. When the sun finally rose, clear rays hitting the ground and lighting up the forest, Marco just hoped Ace was fine.
After the sun had been up for max 3 minutes, Marco stopped as a feeling came rushing to him. "Son?" Asked Pops, making Marco shake his head. Was… was someone calling his name? He could faintly hear it, but no one was talking. "I hear something, yoi." When the others looked confused, Marco knew for sure it was just him. But it felt important, making him walk to the sound, or voice in his head. Shushing the others when they were about to speak, needing to concentrate. He hadn't heard or felt anything like this.
But, when they got over a small hill, in a clearing, Marco halted at what he saw. A bit to the left in the clearing, laid Zara, the big wolf, or werewolf, giving out a whine when he saw them, not looking mad or frenzied. Seeing as the werewolf's fur was white, he could easily see the wolf was bleeding from his right front foot and from a wound on his chest. As Marco was on his way to take a step back, to assess the situation, the werewolf moved himself slightly, but enough for him to see Ace lying halfway under the werewolf, in the shadow.
At first, Marco had to admit he thought Ace was dead, seeing as Zara was alive. But Ace's chest was clearly moving, breathing strained, looking to be in pain from his face, eyes closed, Marco seeing red parts on his face, obviously been burned, but not too bad.
"Zara, you there?" Marco looked at Bret as he spoke. What did he mean? Zara was there, lying on top of Ace. When the werewolf gave a whine again, Marco could only look at the werewolf. 'vampire hurt' was sounded at the same with the whine. Was- was the voice Zara? 'help vampire'. It had to be the werewolf, but was he in his right mind? His phoenix wasn't telling him this was dangerous, which helped him think he somehow was. "He's- Zara's telling us to help Ace, yoi." Pops and Izou looked at him with frowns, but Bret just put his gun away. "Bloodline. When the sun goes up and he reaches the bloodline, his mind can come back. Bloodline is the line where you go from being frenzied to be more in your mind. All living creatures have it, even us. It only happens at this time of year, when the sun rises early. Or when he gets wolfsbane." Okay, that was a good quick explanation, but he would still ask for more when this was over, and he was sure everyone was safe.
They made their way over to the two creatures, Marco seeing Bret ready to defend himself in necessary. When they were close enough, the werewolf moved his head so they could get to Ace, the first thing that happened was that Izou moved to place the ring back on Ace's finger, making the vampire give a relieved breath. Marco was also glad to see Ace looked fine, just some minor burns on his face and neck.
As Ace was safe of burning, the werewolf gave a whine as he moved to fall down on his side, lying still. 'Hurts'. Marco wanted to move a hand and pet the werewolf, hoping he would be fine. But, as usual, his phoenix was too scared to do that. He was glad when Bret moved to pet the werewolf, moving to look at the wound on his chest. "You're fine, Zara. Just a small flesh wound. You did well and I'm sure Max is close by." The werewolf gave another whine at it, Marco not able to decipher that, maybe just being a whimper.
Bret then moved to look at Ace, who was now sitting up, Izou having helped him. "And you? You fine?" Ace gave a nod, looking mostly fine. "Y-yeah. My arm hurts though; he bit it. I bit him too though." Marco looked at Ace ghastly. "He bit you, yoi?" Ace shrugged, before he perked up. "Oh, no, don't worry. I can't turn into a werewolf. I'm already a vampire. Also, a werewolf is also only contagious between midnight and 1 o'clock every second month." Well, that was new information for him. Pops had mentioned he had spoken to Ace and found more out about creatures. Ace seemed to know a lot.
Bret shook his head. "What happened? It takes a lot to actually make Zara get his mind back." Ace shrugged. "He told me he wanted to protect Max from the phoenix- he doesn't like you Marco- and I said I protected the Phoenix- my brother- from him. Then the sun rose, and I noticed my ring was gone, and here we are. I actually didn't know a werewolf could get his mind back." Bret gave a chuckle, a hand petting Zara. "It's rare. But, he's a born one, not made." Ace blinked. "Oh! There is level D's in werewolf's too?" Bret looked confused, before Ace elaborated. "Vampires made as accident and lose themselves to bloodlust. We call them level D's." That had Bret nod. "Yes. We call them wargs though. They are also grey, real ones are white or black with yellow eyes." Well, Marco was learning new things himself.
"Wait," Started the first commander. "Zara thought I was a danger?" Ace just shrugged at that, but Bret had a thoughtful look. "You are a phoenix if what Ace said was right?" Marco nodded, making the man continue. "A real phoenix, the actual mythical bird from centuries ago, they hunted werewolves." Marco blinked. "What?!" Bret shrugged. "You know phoenixes are large, your fruit probably proves that too. A phoenix also hunted mermaids, unicorns, and kitsunes. Just if you run into any of those." Bret then looked at Ace. "Vampires also hunted phoenixes." Marco blinked. Well, that explained why his phoenix was as afraid of Ace. He wasn't as bad around the werewolf, but he reacted still.
Ace looked shocked to. "Huh. Didn't know that." Bret gave a chuckle. "You two should talk to Max; he knows a lot about creatures. Don't take this wrong, but his father was one of the world's greatest hunters. His father taught him all he knew, hoping to get his son to hunt. Max just saw the other side of you; the good side. So, he tricked his father to teach him about creatures, and he searched them up and saw the good side and left his family business. He knows most about the most normal ones, but he has a lot of information he might be willing to share." Marco might take up on that offer.
Marco looked at Pops when the man spoke, asking Ace if he really was fine; he had been shot. Ace just shrugged to that. "That healed at once. I'm fine. The bite might take a bit of time to heal though; since it's from a creature." Made sense, and Marco would be sure Ace went to the infirmary and get extra blood, just in case. As Marco was on his way to help Ace up, so they could head back to the boat, Max was suddenly there and put a cover over the werewolf, who gave a whine, before the man looked at them. "You should go back to the ship, just way from here. The transformation back isn't pretty." Marco got it and helped Ace up. "Okay, yoi. We'll see you later; sorry for all of this." Max shook his head. "You couldn't have foreseen this. I forgot last month was the leap year and I was a day off. It's my fault."
That was right. The last month was a day longer, and that probably put things a bit off track. he had heard about that happening places, many missing meetings and such. They never had much issues with that being pirates and all that. They headed back to the boat, everyone glad Ace was fine, and Marco took Ace to the infirmary, being sure he went and got extra food. Bay said it wasn't anything dangerous and it seemed Ace knew more about this than her in this manner.
After that, nothing much happened. They started to prepare the boat to set sail, having planned to leave this day, before the night when they thought the full moon was. When they were prepared to leave, just going to wait an hour, being told from someone on the dock Max would drop by before they left. When the man did show up, he had Zara with him, who looked fine. Zara did have some bandages around his chest and arm, where he had been shot as a wolf. Marco was sure the werewolf healed better than a normal person. Both of them did apologize for what had happened, Ace also thanking the werewolf for shielding him from the sun. Zara did also say he only attacked because he thought the phoenix, him, was dangerous. Marco said to not think about it; one couldn't do much about natural instinct.
Max and Zara did stay for an hour, telling them about creatures, mostly about them; him and Ace, telling what they had hunted and what had hunted them. Max did also say phoenixes were thought to be extinct, but Max didn't believe it, thinking one or two real ones still existed somewhere. The man knew a lot and while Ace seemed to know most, just not the finer details, they both enjoyed it, just hearing about creatures, Marco really interesting in the real phoenixes; not many knew about them.
When they left the island, Marco was glad they were still on good terms with the island, seeing as this whole thing could have turned much worse.
They sailed towards the Grand Line, going to check on an island, as well stop on an island halfway there, having spoken to Shanks and he had said if they got to the place in 14 days, they would be there for the next blood moon, and Aoba would love to have Ace to fly with, and Ace would too. They had time enough, seeing as if Namur were right travel time, it would take them just 12 days, so they could take it slow and enjoy the sailing. They had been lucky up until now with the weather, just having a few cloudy days and short periods of rain the last 8 days.
Nothing special had happened up until now, the only thing being Ace and Thatch deciding to play a prank on him, making so he now had blue feathers glued to his body. Or, he had had. Being a fire phoenix helped as he could just burn it away. What had him the most annoyed, was that they were close to an island- they could barely see it in the distance, but boats were around, which had him annoyed, not sure if they would see it or not. None were close, but every boat had scopes. The worst was that they didn't know this island, but knew it wasn't an aggressive one or controlled by an enemy crew or marines.
But, as Marco was lecturing the two, he felt uneasy when something grey- or silver more like it- started dripping from his nose. "Ace, are you feeling fine, yoi?" It had both of the two in front of him frown, not understanding why his mood suddenly changed. "What are you on Marc- Oh my God! Ace! Your nose!" Ace blinked at Thatch, moving a hand to his face, frowning himself when he saw the silver color. "W-wha-" Ace cut off as a tooth fell out of his mouth, Ace moving a hand to it, before moving it away and seeing the same silver color. What was going on? Ace moved a hand shocked to his mouth and just pulled out another tooth, Marco too shocked to even think of anything to do. When Ace looked at his hand, his breathing hitched as his nails was falling off too, the same silver color being present.
Ace's body was falling apart or something. Wait, silver color? Marco felt his insides freeze when he recognized it as the same he had seen in the memory with the dread doctors.
Marco moved his hands towards Ace. "Just relax, Ace, yoi. It will be f-" "No!" Yelled Ace, taking a step back as he looked horrified, moving a shaking hand to take a nail off, looking almost petrified, hands shaking. "W-what's happening to me!" Marco had no idea, but he needed to calm Ace down. "Just relax, Ace. We will fix this." Marco said carefully as he tried to approach the other, who looked close to freaking out, which Marco got. Something serious was happening, everyone out also noticing something was up. When Ace looked up at him, Marco felt more anxious as the silver stuff was dropping from his eyes as tears. "What's happening? What's happening to me?!"
Marco tried to reach out to Ace, needing him to calm down. "Just breathe, Ace, we will fig-" His hand was almost at Ace's shoulder when he wrenched away. "No! Get away!" Why was Ace being like this? The others also figured they needed to do something and went to slowly help him get Ace under control. Marco didn't know if it was the right approach, but they needed to make Ace calm down, and then get him to Bay.
But when Ace noticed, he looked more hysterical, closing his eyes he moved his arms out to stop them from coming closer. "Get away from me!"
Marco felt his head hurting, eyes opening as he found himself lying on the deck. What had happened? Where was Ace? When he got his bearing right, he was shocked to find everyone out on deck out cold, even Pops who was slouched in his chair. What happened? The last thing he remembered was Ace screaming. Had he done it? It had to be him; who else would do this? And what was happening with Ace? He didn't usually get this worked up or was horrified and frenzied. He usually had more control than that. Something was wrong, terrible wrong.
They needed to find Ace, and Marco hoped he was somehow fine.
-x-
Ace felt a whimper leave him, seeing Marco falling down to the ground. "M-Marco?" No reaction, making him turn to his side, only for a sob to come out as everyone was unconscious, even Pops. "P-Pops? Pl-please wake up!" Ace didn't know what to do, looking down at his hands that were covered in this silver goo, his nails starting to fall off. Why was this happening? What was happening to him? Had he hurt the others? Ace felt a sob leave him. Of course it was, who else could it be?!
Ace looked at the others, just wishing they would wake up. "I-I- I'm so-sorry!" Then Ace turned around and ran, needing to get off the boat and away. Whatever was happening to him, was harmful, he hurt the others.
Ace needed to get away so he wouldn't hurt his family.
And that's the chapter, hope you enjoyed
I apologize for this being so late, things have just been hectic, but I hope the next chapter will be up when it should. I'm also working on a one shot I hope to get up this week, which have taken some time to finish as it got way longer than I anticipated
And, if you have the time and want to, please leave a review, they keep me going!
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