(Sorry) I know it's been a long time. I've got no other excuse other than collage and how my grades are like demanding little children, except no-body is paying me to spend time with them. But it makes me so happy how so many people read this story! I promise I won't abandon it no matter how long some updates take.

***I have an important question to ask you guys! How do you feel about having Sabo in this? So the plan is for him to be in one chapter in kind of a sad appearance. Do you want him to play a bigger role in this or stick to focusing on Ace and Luffy. I'm not exactly sure how this would go but I'm sure I could figure something out. Anyways please tell me what you think.

XXX

"So," Ace said wearily sitting down beside a rough looking man. "Are you down on your luck and looking for a high paying job with flexible morals?" The man threw him a look before sliding over to the next seat, only to be ambushed by Marco who wedged himself in the seats between them.

"So is that a yes or a no?" His friend questioned lazily resting his cheek on his hand.

"Leave me alone!" The man said angrily as he slammed his drink on the table and rose. The two watched him angrily storm out of the bar.

"Oops," Ace said sarcastically. Marco sent him an unreadable expression. "Maybe a bit more subtle next time my friend."

Ace smirked as he buried his head in his arms. He definitely did not want to do this. He wanted Blackbeard to fail miserably, he wanted him to taste defeat in every way. The last thing he wanted was to be helping the rat tail bastard. But Luffy and Thatch needed him. So he had to get his act together.

"Alright!" He said sitting up. "The next one will join for sure."

Marco jumped at the sudden mood shift in his friend. "If you say so," He too was having trouble with this. Doing Teach's job for him seemed counterproductive. The two of them were currently in a bar called 'Rip-Off,' which sounded like poor branding to him but then again who was he to judge. They had been at this all mourning with no luck.

"I'm going to go see if we might have better luck across the street," Marco told him rising to his feet. Ace nodded waving halfheartedly as he scanned the nearly empty bar. Probably a good idea. He was just about to get up as well as someone sat down heavily besides him.

"Huh?" Ace lifted his head in surprised to see a tall thin old man with long grey hair. 'This must be the owner,' he thought to himself.

"Sorry sir," Ace said fetching his cowboy hat from the table. He could guess the owner was probably less than thrilled about the shady recruitment Ace was so obviously advertising for.

The man however waved his hand in denial striking up an easy conversation. "Don't leave on my account. I'm just taking a little break from work.

"Ah," Ace said turning away once more to scan the room one last time for any strong looking criminals.

"Portgas D. Ace right?"

"Huh?" Ace turned around once more to face the man. This just took an interesting turn. Most people who knew his name weren't fans of his. Still he had never been once to back down from a fight.

"Yep, that's me." He clenched his fist under the table watching for any hostility on the others part.

"Oh good, I thought it was you." The man nodded appreciatively. "I've been meaning to introduce myself for some time now. "Silvers Rayleigh, It's a pleasure to finally meet you." He held out his hand which Ace reluctantly took.

"Nice to meet you too sir," Ace said with practiced politeness despite the confusion he felt inside.

After a few minutes of silence he followed it up with a; "Sorry but do I know you?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm a bit of a family friend from long ago."

"The Whitebeards?" Ace guessed now thoroughly confused.

"Nope, although we do go way back as well. I don't know if I would necessarily consider us friends."

"Garp?" Ace guessed halfheartedly.

Now it was Rayleigh's turn to give him a weird look. "Heavens no, although I hear he is a good man."

"I guess?"

"No, I was referring to your father of course."

Ace's mind went blank for a second as he searched his mind for any possibly alternate family affiliations.

He felt the blood rush to his cheeks as he once again tensed. Worse! Much worse than he originally thought.

Rayleigh frowned when he didn't respond for a couple of minutes. "Ace?"

Ace stood stiffly, his hands still clenched into fists but they remained at his side. He didn't want to talk about this, not here not not or ever for that matter. Still this was sort of a big deal, the thought of yet another stranger knowing his secret was not comforting.

"Family friend?" He asked softly.

Rayleigh nodded watching him thoughtfully. "I was your old man's right hand man back in the day." A fond smile flitted across his face.

Ace sunk back down into his seat wearily. "Are you going to tell anybody?"

To his surprise Rayleigh let out a quite laugh. "Who would I tell? Besides I'm sure I would be in just as much trouble as you, probably more so."

He nodded, that made sense to him. One less thing he had to worry about in this already chaotic day. Still the thought of someone knowing made his skin crawl.

"I've always wanted to meet you! I was getting worried that I would never have the chance."

"How did you know it was me?" There was a reason why he changed his last name after all.

"I knew your mother of course, a bit of a spitfire." He glanced at Ace curiously. "You would have liked her. You look just like her actually."

"Really?" He asked in disbelief. He had seen a picture once and he had to disagree.

"No, not quite. You look much more like Rodger when he was younger but you have her freckles."

"Ah," Ace finished lamely. He had no idea how to respond. This whole situation made him extremely uncomfortable.

"Now I've got a question for you." He continued when Ace didn't respond. "Why are Whitebeards top commanders doing Teach's dirty work?"

Ace looked up at him in surprise. He was more observant then he gave him credit for. "We, um, you know how it goes…pirates, betrayal, alliances." He swallowed thickly thinking how betrayal had suddenly taken on a new meaning to him.

Rayleigh nodded with a concerning amount of comprehension in his old eyes. "You know," he began thoughtfully. "This is only the second time I've seen that hat not on someone's head."

Ace blinked in confusion for a second before his gaze fell to the floor. His watermelon bag lay at his feet, the drawstrings had come untied showing just a patch of a worn out straw. Feeling protective of the tattered old thing he picked up his bag redoing the drawstrings before slinging it over his shoulder.

The old man watched with his ever constant veiled smile.

Ace opened his mouth to say something but before he could get a word out he was interrupted.

"Hey Ace, any luck?" Ace jumped as his friend thumped his back.

"I found a guy who might be interested if you want to come meet him."

Ace glanced up at Marco in surprise. He was acting casual but his usually calm demeanor had broken. He could sense a slight edge of apprehension. Apparently the two of them had already met.

"At least that's one down," Ace said standing up glad to be leaving. "It was nice to meet you sir."

Rayleigh just waved at the two of them as they left. "Come back for a visit any times boys."

Ace decided he liked that man, even if he was a friend of his father.

XXX

Blackbeard sighed as he looked down at the messy table. Nothing… all the hours of research just to come up empty, what a waste of time. Scandals, deceit, blackmail, this was his sport and the ball was in his court. So why couldn't he seem to put the pieces together. He knew he was missing something, the final piece of the puzzle. He was so close he could feel. He closed the book with a slam casting an annoyed glance to the corner of the room. This would be so much easier if a certain someone would just chip in. If there was one thing Teach hated it was hard work. With another loud sigh he walked across the room to where the kids body lay, still and unmoving. He kicked him over with the toe of his boot looking for the gentle rise and fall of his chest. It would be no good if he died now, then what would he use to blackmail Ace with? He doubted the young man had many more exploitable relationships… Speaking of which the elder prisoner had caught himself a fever. He hadn't so much as stirred when they dragged the noisy kid from their cell this morning. He had been meaning to ask the doc to take another look at him but it had slipped his mind. He preferred the pirate alive, at least for now. All he needed now was for the two of them to just stop dying for like five minutes and obey him but apparently that was asking too much. Especially from Luffy. He rubbed him chin bitterly giving the unconscious teen a vicious kick to the ribs in return for the head-butt this morning.

He never considered himself a particularly vicious man. Unpathetic maybe but not downright evil. But unlike some of his acquaintances he didn't necessarily find joy in other's pain. It wasn't uninteresting but it failed to light a spark in his eyes. But then again Blackbeard did get bored sometimes. He leaned down to grab the kids bruised ankle tugging it upwards.

"Oi, get up!"

When he didn't so much as stir Teach narrowed his eyes. Apparently he had to do everything around here. Dragging Luffy by the ankle he made his way out of the stuffy blood stained room and down the long corridor.

For the last few weeks they had been using an abandoned military fortress as a hideout but now it was time to move on. He made a mental note to grab Thatch right after this, he would have Doc take a look at him and Luffy too while he was at it. It would appear that he had seriously messed him up this time. But he was still breathing so that was something.

"Seriously kid," he sighed aggravated. The problem was he was too much like his brother. The more time he spent with the teen the clearer the similarities were. It was in the way they both smiled, denied help when they were hurting and it was in those blood curling glares when they got angry. Idiots like this, the self-sacrificing good Samaritan type, were no surprise to Teach. He had seen their kind before. They lived brightly and burned out fast. No doubt this was where Luffy was headed. He had expected more from Ace but the way things were going that may have been misguided trust. From time to time he would see a familiar shadow behind his grey eyes. The eyes of a killer so angry and mistreated by the world. But that rare glimmer would quickly be swallowed up by mirth and cheer.

His eyes lazily scanned the grey horizon. The sun would be rising in a few hours. They would be long gone by then. He wasn't exactly thrilled about their ship as it was too small and battered in his opinion. Nothing like the ship that the future pirate king would sail on should look like but for now he would make due. He could always get Ace to get him a better one later. He smiled at the thought as he continued to drag the teen across the crumbling courtyard.

He dropped Luffy's leg when he felt the slight stir of tired muscles. He once again tried to wake him with a non-too gentle nudge to the ribs. Luffy moaned lightly in response.

"You alive?"

His already spent temper sparked when Luffy didn't respond.

"You're an idiot you know that right?" He couldn't wait to get a crew so he wouldn't have to do grunt work like this himself. Soon, he reassured himself, he would be able to order people to deal with the kid and all his idiotic idealisms. At the very least it would save him a headache and sore knuckles.

He glanced down at the teen, surprised that he had remained silent for so long. To his surprise Luffy wasn't even looking at him. Instead his head was turned to the side, his gaze transfixed at the docks a little ways from their make shift fortress. Or more specifically the ocean beyond that.

"Listen to me brat! I'm giving you some advice here! Smarten up a little would you? Maybe if you were a little more helpful we wouldn't have to rough you up so much."

Luffy turned away from the ocean for a moment to give the man a thoughtful look, rarely seen on his face.

"Shhh,"

"Huh?" Teach sent him a confused look. "What is it?"

"I don't like the sound of your voice." Luffy told him with his usually subtly and tact.

"Always the hard way with you huh?" Teach considered for a moment. He didn't seem to be responding to violence and pain, maybe it was time to try something else. He squatted down closer to Luffy's level, balancing his enormous weight on the balls of his feet.

"You know what kid?"

Luffy didn't respond, his attention was already back on the ocean. He seemed too tired even for his usual lame comebacks.

"Your brother is really worried about you."

Luffy's gaze flickered over to him. "Thatch as well," Teach continued.

"Their actually coming to get you," He turned away in hope Luffy didn't see the wide grin on his face. He could tell he had the teen's full attention now. "I can't comprehend how but they found out about our base…we were thinking about giving you back. I mean after we got some compensation of course. But you know I got to thinking. You really are the worst kind of brat and I would hate to see you get away so easily, especially without learning your lesson first." He turned back to Luffy a huge smile plastered on his face.

"So I think we are going to keep you instead." His grin grew wider when he saw the teens eyes grow wide. He once again grabbed his ankle dragging him along roughly towards the dock. Luffy yelled in response trying weakly to kick Teach with his free foot while his bound arms scrambled in the dirt desperate for some kind of hand hold.

Teach smiled to himself. He didn't know if Luffy completely believed him or not but the reaction was nice. Why hadn't he tried this sooner?

When they reached the docks he once again dropped his bruised leg in order to roughly lift him up by his shoulders. "We have a long trip and we don't need a brat like you running his mouth so shut up and for once in your life behave."

When Luffy tried to unsuccessfully bite him he dropped him in a wooden cargo crate, thoroughly unimpressed.

"Stay," he ordered, much like one orders a dog around.

Whatever Luffy's response was it was muffled as he slammed the lid shut once more, fastening it in place with a few dozen nails for good measure. He could hear the teenager continuing to shout and kick the sides frantically with his feet. Teach kicked the box over watching in satisfaction as it tumbled a few times. He turned away content, feeling like he had won that exchange. They wouldn't be leaving for a couple hours, plenty of time for him to get some much deserved rest. He frowned as he remembered Thatch but quickly brushed the thought aside. He would be fine for tonight…probably.

Content things were going according to plan he headed off. Leaving one of his underlings to deal with the rowdy cargo box. Somewhere at the bottom of the ship would do, where the air was stale and the floor was already flooded. He was curious to see how well Luffy would hold up with no food or water in a very special kind of solitary.

"Stupid brat," he muttered pushing the annoying kid out of his mind. Time to go mess with the older one as well.

XXX

Kind of a dark chapter (sorry). Blackbeard was lying to Luffy about the Whitebeards coming. He was trying psychological torture because Luffy wasn't responding to pain.

Yes, Rayleigh did know it wasn't Ace's hat. All he knows about Luffy is that the straw hat boy keeps popping up. The other time he was referring to was when he was talking to shanks about what happened to his hat and his arm and Shanks told him about Luffy.

***In other news Sabo might make an appearance next chapter and Teach forgets which crate he puts Luffy due to poor organization skills.

I might have said this already but if I missed/ didn't answer a question I am super sorry. I promise it was not intentional. It is a little hard to keep track of and I apologize. Please just ask again or tell me I skipped it and I will get right on it.