XXX
Whitebeard stared at his former son, seeing no recognition in those dark eyes, nothing but a shell that had been there all along, pretending to be full rather than the fathomless vacuum he really was. Smug and self righteous at the moment. He had every reason to be. Despite everything, this was his win, and nothing could change that.
Whitebeard turned away from Marshal D. Teach, perhaps for the last time to look back at his children.
"Retreat," his voice bellowed across the battlefield deep and reverberating, strengthened by the silence in its wake.
"Pops?" Nico, his sons shocked face stared back at him, the closest member of his crew at the moment. "You can't be serious?"
"Get your siblings, and retreat," Whitebeard repeated the order to him, his tone curt as always inviting no other opinions or feedback.
"But… But we can't just let them get away with this! We have to make him pay."
"Now," Whitebeard barked, watching his son jump, back straightened as he took a step back, glaring at Teach on last time over Whitebeards massive shoulder, before pivoting on his heels and taking off running the other way, grabbing his siblings' arms as he past to spread the words they no doubt already heard. They were going home.
The war wasn't finished, but it was for them. This had never been about pride, reputation, ideals, or even revenge. No, like most things in Whitebeards old age, this had been about family and loyalty. Being alone, well there was nothing quite like it. And if Whitebeards legacy was about one thing, it was ensuring his children knew that as long as there was still breath in his old, battered lungs, they would never be alone. And if he had to take on the world to do that, then that is exactly what he would do.
But the time for action was done now, blood had been spilt on both sides, he had done all he could do, and pointless revenge would only serve to strengthen the heartache for his family.
Whitebeard caught Red Hairs eye, the man looking commanded in his own right, even if he was barley more then a snot nosed brat. The straw hat back at home on his head. But credit where credit was due, he nodded at the man, and after a moment Shanks returned the gesture, a small smile on his face as Whitebeard turned away feeling his annoyance return fighting against the gratitude, speaking of cheeky. But these were the players of the new world, he was a relic from a different, older game. He hadn't intended to move recklessly across the board anymore, he would leave it to these new cheeky bastards. And see what type of game they played.
XXX
Marco was covered in blood, from his soaked wet grimy cloths, his tense pale face, and staining his arms, and plastered all over his medical gloves, making them look red rather then clear. It was a contamination issue really, although Whitebeard was sure he knew that. But the man hadn't had a moments rest, probably for the last few months actually. He was hardly the only doctor on the ship, but he was the only one that could defy death itself, and he knew that, working tirelessly on his siblings, running himself ragged. Several of the nurses had complaint about his passing out, but none had the power to make him stop. Whitebeard was rather busy himself right now, plus he respected Marco's ability to do the impossible and look out for his siblings. Although, now when the crisis had mostly passed was the time to step in.
Marco was pulling off the blood-stained gloves, running a cloth over his arms to try and get the rest of the blood that had spilled over before he kept working. It must not be a good feeling, having so much on his hands, and so much weight on his shoulders. But Whitebeard knew his son would not forgive himself for anything short of his best. So, he had let it go. Besides, there were times when Marco could do things he could not, and lately it was happening more and more.
He saw Whitebeards look, a frown on his face, but understood the meaning of the look as much as he didn't like it.
"Later, I…"
"Now."
"We've got it from here," the other doctor in the room promised him, "go get cleaned up."
"Fine." Marco wasn't smiling as he finished mopping up the blood from his arms, throwing the cloth away with some level of annoyance as he walked out of the room, a slight tremor in his step.
It wasn't for another few hours Whitebeard saw him again. He was back in his chair, watching the island grow smaller on the horizon, multiple IV's in his arm as his daughters fussed over him as younglings tended to do, with an energy he envied, and more scolding then he thought was due to him.
It was true, he wasn't young anymore, and he had never felt his age quite as well as right now.
Marco reappeared on deck, having shower and changed, all signs of the battle, and subsequent bloody carnage gone from him, although he did look incredibly tired.
The girls were incredibly eager to talk to him, as were most of his siblings, but Whitebeard sent them away to go help the others before they got the chance. Ever the sweet one, Mary lingered long enough to wrap her arms around him.
"I'm glad your okay," she whispered, and Marco squeezed her arm back before she followed the others.
"Thanks," Marco said taking up a seat on Oyaji's chair. Usually when he sat with Whitebeard, he would perch at the top, ready to give flight at moments notice. But right now, he settled on the edge of the armrest, one of his legs tucked underneath him, the other handing off the edge of the throne, just as Ace used to do. No doubt where Marco's head was at right now.
Whitebeard didn't rush him, instead taking a drink of whatever it was the nurses had approved him having, but it all just tasted like bland river water to him after years of burning his taste buds on sake. One day, he would give in to his children for one day, but tomorrow he would be back to sake, his health be dammed. What good was life, if all he was allowed to consume was lukewarm leaf water.
"You should call a meeting," Marco told him.
"Are you the captain now? I don't remember dying brat."
"Well, I'm not going to do it, and everyone is getting restless."
Whitebeard had gotten the broad strokes, at least most of them in passing from some of the senior doctors, Ana, and Jozu. Although not enough for the whole picture. But he wasn't going to push Marco, nor Thatch, who needed time more then anything right now, not prodding.
He was right, the crew was restless, they had been for months. They were dying for answers. But impatience had never killed anyone. They had waited this long, a couple more hours wouldn't hurt anyone.
And it wouldn't hurt Whitebeard, he was, after all, an old man, impatience was a thing of youth. He knew how to wait.
So instead of questions, he cut right to the important things, "Welcome home my son."
Marco nodded, looking as exhausted as must have felt. The last few months had not been easy on him. They sat in compatible silence for several long moments, Whitebeard drinking his tea, trying to pretend it was something stronger.
"Do you believe… in impossible things?"
"Impossible?"
"Like things that happen that don't make sense?"
"Are you talking about disasters, they are very possible my son."
Marco shook his head. "No, the opposite. Things that can't happen, because they don't make sense, but they happen anyway."
"Well, if it happens, then it's not impossible, it's very possible, you just can't explain it yet. This world is full of them. Things that shouldn't be, but are. That's why most of us take to the seas, to see them for ourselves."
"That's not why I became a pirate."
No, Marco became a pirate to help people, how on brand. And unexciting. Whitebeard laughed into his drink, sending it splashing. "I don't doubt that," he said. "Seeing things that should not be can alarm us."
"I'm not scared," came the immediate reply. "I am just… surprised."
"You think this 'impossibility', is a threat to you?"
Marco rolled his shoulders, clearly uncomfortable by the topic he himself had brought up. "No."
"Then why the surprise? You've sent the impossible before, you are the impossible, you defy death, gravity, what other forces are there to catch you off guard."
"That's just it, I don't know. But, do you think there is something else out there, some stuff we don't know about."
"Undoubtedly."
"What would you do?"
"What's there to be done?"
"If you were swimming at the bottom of the ocean."
"That would be an impossibility in itself," Whitebeard snorted.
"Say you found a way, and you were deep, deep under there, deeper then most people can go, and you find something, like some type of really old, really ancient monster sleeping down there, like one of the things from the stories, and while you were down there you watched it turn over and start to wake up, what would you do?"
Oh, god, his head hurt too much for this right now. Whitebeard put his cup down, the force of it gently vibrating through the back of his chair. "Do you know why we sail on top of the ocean?"
"Because if we didn't, we would drown."
"Well, yes, but we sail on top of the water, for the same reason we bury our dead in the ground and build our cities on top of the ruins of the old ones. We are constantly building our foundations on the bones of the old world, it's the human way. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to look down when you start to climb. If I saw an old ancient monster down in the sea, I would go right on swimming. Whose to say what's down there, or up here, or above our heads, certainly not me. Is your answer to stick a harpoon in it?"
"No," Marco said, "I never said go around killing the things you don't understand. But wouldn't you be freaked out at least."
"I guess that depends on if it gave me reason to be."
"Like red eyes?'
Whitebear laughed again. "Red, like a tree frog, or an owl? Well, then you have to kill it. I thought you knew better then to judge based on appearances."
"What if it scared you, what if it killed you? I think I died a little bit."
Whitebeard looked him over in concern, "is that so? You look fine to me? Tired actually. Is insomnia you're great unknown? Because there is a cure for that."
"Your right," Marco said, "I'm really tired. Don't listen to me, I've had a really long day. Are you alright Pop's?"
"Why are you telling me this?'
"You asked."
"No, why did you want to tell me? You thought it was important I knew?"
Marco frowned, picking his words carefully when he spoke. "It might just be me, I just might need some sleep. Thatch thinks so… but if there is something impossible out there, something we don't understand, I think it's gone now."
"It's dead?"
His frown grew, and once more he mulled his answer over in his head, "I don't think it can die. People die, I didn't feel a person to me, it felt like… something else."
"It sounds like you're the expert, you tell me. What would you do if you where swimming in the ocean, and you stumbled across a really old impossible, not living, not dead monster, and it started to wake up, but you had to come up for air, and by the time you went back down again it was gone?"
"I would probably tell my captain."
"You're incredibly wise captain," Whitebeard said, watching the corners of Marco's mouth twist upwards.
"My incredibly wise, enigmatic captain."
"And he would tell you, to stop fussing over broken eggs, from chickens you've don't have, when you have plenty of work already. The day I have all the answers to all of life, is the day I will officially go take that nice little ocean deep dive. Better that then boredom. You should go get some sleep, I can take care of things."
Marco hesitated for a moment, not moving from his spot on Whitebeards chair. "Can you tell Ace, about Luffy, when he wakes up?...I can't."
"Tell him what?"
He shook his head. "Medicine is about trying to help, even if you know it won't work."
"You're throwing in the towel already? That's not like you? You're the one who saved him."
Marco wanted to be wrong, he knew Thatch thought he was, and if Ace was here, he would say the same thing. But Marco wasn't wrong. It was like that horrible, CPO-0 man had said back in the tunnels. Luffy was already dead, it just hadn't caught up to him yet. And no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't change that. Everyone's luck ran out eventually."
XXX
Sabo pulled Luffy into his arms, hugging him tightly against his chest, careful not to pull on the cords attached to Luffy's arm. He felt his little brother shift a little but he didn't wake up. Sabo rested his cheek on the messy hair turning to Marco with a frown.
The man was watching them from a few feet away.
"I don't understand. What happened?"
"That makes two of us," Marco said.
"What do you mean?"
"He just woke up. There wasn't a whole lot of warning, it really surprised us. But, I guess Ace somehow figured it out because he came down here." Marco gesture at Ace who was passed out again, he had barley moved when Sabo had pulled Luffy away. Sleeping as soundly as he had been for the past two weeks. Although hopefully this time he wouldn't be out for two weeks.
"Isn't that what we wanted?"
"It is," Marco said. Not being in a coma was generally the preferred option. It was just the odds of this actually happening were really low, like not a possibility low. So, this had kind of freaked everyone out. Or at least the medical staff, who knew his charts as well as Marco did.
"You really didn't hear anything?"
Sabo frowned, sending a look towards Marco that needed no interpretation.
"Right, sorry about that." As the loser of their Go Fish game, Marco had dared Sabo to actually take his medicine, the same ones he was supposed to be taking all along. Which, for the record, was a good intentioned way to try and take care of the younger boy. Unfortunately, it had backfired. Of course, the one-time Sabo actually listened to Marco, was the one time he wasn't able to hear his little brothers distress call through the haze of pain killers.
"It's fine," Sabo said, not sounding fine with it at all. But he seemed committed to perfect behaviour around Marco. Which seemingly included no mouthing off to the man who saved his brothers lives. "So, he's okay then?"
"I can't really say," Marco told him. "He has better control of motor skills then we had expected. But that's not necessarily indicative of how much damage prolonged hypoxia might have had on the cerebral frontal cortex."
Sabo stared back at him. "So, he's not okay?"
"I can't say," Marco repeated. "We don't have a lot to go off of until he wakes up again." But that wasn't a very good answer, was it? "He's somewhat okay," he told Sabo. "We saw enough to know that much. Fear is a higher brain response. It means he was reacting to the world… that's a good thing." Much better than Marco had hoped.
Still Sabo was frowning, he looked down at Luffy who he was holding against his side. "Lu?" he poked his brother's cheek, waiting to get some kind of something. But the only response this time was slow and shallow breathing.
Marco sighed, sitting down on the corner of the bed, feeling the weight shift towards him. It wasn't a very large bed to start off with, with Ace on Sabo's right, peacefully passed out on his stomach, his face pushed into his arms, Luffy between them, tucked tight into Sabo's arms.
Doctors used a lot of different types of tools depending on the injury. But Marco was still fumbling his way through which ones to use to heal the kind of scars you couldn't see. He could talk Sabo's ear off with logistics, and vitals, and medical elasticity, and everything else that might be relevant, or he could leave him alone to give him some time to work through everything at his own time, which seemed to be Sabo's preferred method. He was like Ace in that way, he didn't like to let other people read him, he tried to keep the emotions off his face, and safe inside his head. Even when his world was crumbling around him.
But right now Marco didn't think that was the best approach. Although so far talking hadn't gotten him very far either. Probably because he was the one who ended up doing all the talking.
"You saved them."
Sabo looked up at him, "I remember that being you."
Well yes, but only in part. "I helped. But Ace would have never made it this far without you, and something tells me that goes for when you guys were kids too." Back when all of this started, Marco had been trying to help, but Ace wouldn't take it. He hadn't trusted him enough to tell him about Luffy, nor about Roger, or the blackmail, or anything really. Sabo was the one who had gotten them here. He stayed with Ace through everything, he blackmailed the Whitebeard pirates, he played Marco, he played Burgess, Dragon had given him Teach's location, he had gotten the key for the sea stone cuffs, he had taken on the Cipher Pol agent, and whether Marco liked it or not, he had managed to keep them away from Akainu, even if the alternative was over a cliff. Not to mention he had held onto two anchors after he had drowned, just long enough for Shanks to save them. Honestly, "Your pretty amazing," Marco told him, "Even if you are a revolutionary."
"Ex," he said after a moment.
"ex- revolutionary," Marco amended.
"It sounds pretty impressive when you say it like that," Sabo said.
"Because it is!"
"Well, I couldn't do it." Sabo told him. "I wasn't strong enough to protect them, or anyone."
"There is a difference between being strong and defying gravity, everyone has their limits kid. And you pushed yours as far as they would go. All three of you." When Sabo didn't reply Marco continued, his voice softer. "You can be the strongest person in the world- people still die. You can ask Oyaji, he'll tell you then same thing."
"Isn't that why they have you? Nobody fights death harder than you."
Nothing got by him did it. "I keep forgetting you are the smart one."
"Smart isn't usually the word people go for."
"Oh?"
"More like smart ass."
Despite everything Marco felt the beginnings of a smile. Yeah, he could see that. "So, if you're the smart ass, what's Ace supposed to be then?"
That seemed easy as Sabo's answer came quickly. "The angry one."
"Really?"
Sabo shrugged. It wasn't like he was the one who came up with the names.
"And Luffy?"
He looked down at his little brother thinking about it. "It depended on the day. On a bad day- the dumb one."
"And a good day?"
"The nice one… the good one. He liked people, and they liked him. At least more then me and Ace. I guess that didn't really help him in the end."
"It matters," Marco promised him. "Not to them, but it still matters. I promise."
"Whatever you say."
XXX
The first time Marco had taken Sabo to that dark room at the bottom of the ship, and explained everything to him Sabo had stood there, his face pale and blank, his eyes fixed on Luffy's unmoving form. It was bad enough that there was something wrong with Ace. That Sabo had failed in his one job. But this was something else.
He felt the man's eyes on him, watching him. Waiting for him to break down, to scream and start tearing the ship apart. So, Sabo stood there, without a word, staring through the person who used to be his little brother, the only noise was the soft and steady beeping of the monitor, letting them know that his heart was indeed beating.
The rest of Marco's words were lost on Sabo, and after a few minutes of silence Marco had quietly grabbed his shoulder, ignoring the way Sabo had flinched, gently pulling him out of the room, supporting him and his broken leg. He took Sabo back to bed, neither of them saying much.
"We're taking good care of him," Marco promised.
Sabo waited until all the lights were off, and the floor was empty, save for the odd nightshift nurses doing their rounds. He pulled the covers aside, once again leaning against the wall when his leg threatened to give out.
Sabo slipped back down the stairs, towards the bottom of the ship, waiting there for the last doctor to pass by before heading back to that room.
Luffy was… Luffy was… right here. But he wasn't. Not right now at least. He was somewhere else. How much had Sabo missed in one week. It felt crazy to him, to sleep through some of the most important moments in their lives. To tap out and leave everything in the hands of others.
It made him feel… something. Something unpleasant.
"Lu?" he reached out for his brother's shoulder, giving him a shake, soft at first and then a little harder. "Luffy!"
He had heard what Marco said, at least some of it. Not dead, but not really alive either. But that wasn't right. He was right here. Sabo shook him harder. "Luffy!"
Ace wasn't answering him. His friends were thousands of miles away, if they weren't dead. He had went and broken his entire body, and he had fucked everything up. He had one job. And he had failed. He had let down everyone. It was too late to fix anything.
Sabo felt his broken leg give out underneath him, tumbling down to the ground.
'You really are a disappointment.' His mom had told him long long ago.
That was all they had ever seen when they looked at him. Everything he had failed to be.
He felt his eyes start to burn as he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against Luffy's stomach, feeling the gentle rise and fall of it.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry Lu." He brought his arms up, covering his face, even if it was just the two of them, still Sabo had a hard time letting the world see him fail, seeing him fall and break down. "I'm so sorry."
XXX
At some point he had fallen asleep, sometime after Marco leaving, with vague instructions to go back to his own bed, but if he didn't, then at least not to mess up his leg anymore.
He felt someone moving besides him, a feint touch against his cheek, tracing his scar. Sabo groaned, shifting a little bit against the pins and needles in his back.
He had fallen asleep resting against the headboard, one leg falling off the side of the bed, with the other hugged against his chest. He figured Marco was back, or maybe one of the nurses, but the moment he moved the touch was gone.
It took a moment for him to remember where he was, and then he sat up quickly, trying to get a hold of his breathing.
The lights were off, besides for the glow of the medical equipment, and the ever-present beeping of the heart monitor.
It was Luffy who was sitting in front of him, staring at him, his bandaged hand still raised, frozen there like he was a rabbit who had just realized that it had wondered into the path of a coyote. As if Sabo wouldn't notice him if he didn't breathe.
They had startled each other, for completely different reasons.
All thoughts of sleep gone, Sabo sat up, staring back at him, feeling his eyes grow bigger. His voice was soft, and barley there. "Lu?"
Luffy reached out again, slowly with his finger, poking Sabo's cheek, finding the scar. He finished tracing it, before reaching up to tug on a strand of Sabo's hair, his bangs having fallen over his eye.
Too dazed from sleep, and past caring, Sabo hardly registered Luffy's strangeness, or rather the fact he seemed to be even weirder then usual. Honestly at the moment Sabo didn't care.
He let Luffy tug his hair again, before dropping his hand, apparently satisfied by whatever the hell he had figured out as the tension seemed to leave his shoulders. Even if there was a strange look in his eyes. Like he was seeing through Sabo.
Whatever it was, it was the least of his concerned now. Sabo felt something snap in his chest as he leaned forwards, reaching out to grab Luffy, pulling him against his chest as tightly as he dared.
He heard the other make a soft huff in surprise, and felt the tension return when Sabo squeezed him tighter. It took a minute, but Luffy dropped his guard, leaning further into Sabo, his head resting against his cheek, content to stay there this time, now that scars were felt, and hair was tugged.
"You're so weird," Sabo told him, holding him tighter to his chest still. That wasn't what he meant to say to his post-comatose baby brother. There were better things to lead with, things Sabo had really wanted to tell him one more time. Like, I love you, I miss you, please don't die. But right now, he couldn't get the words out, and even if he did, he didn't think Luffy was listening.
He felt Luffy move a bit in his arms, his head tilting to look up at him. It was brief but for a moment the far-off look was gone, and when their eyes met Luffy really looked at him.
Moment gone, Luffy pushed forward, pressing his face into Sabo's shoulder. He caught him, squeezing his arms around him. He felt light tremors run through Luffy.
"You're okay," Sabo promised him, "you're okay now." He looked to his right where Ace was still sleeping, happily dead to the world.
"We're okay."
XXX
Hey friends, sorry it has been a second.
I promised the reunite our boys, and here we go, although this is just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone has a lot going on right now.
So Marco is a little freaked out. He has been a, pirate for a while, and has seen a lot of things. But when he was trying to save Luffy the last time we used his phoenix powers to go really deep when he was trying to find any hint of Luffy's life force to try and enhance with his phoenix flames. Which, unfortunately for Marco was the same time Nika showed a glimmer of himself and brought Luffy back. So for a split second Marco felt the powers of a god through his phoenix powers, and with absolutely no context, it freaked him right out.
Anyways, I am going feral over the recent One Piece chapters, and I stayed up way to late to post this, so please comment and make poor sleep deprived me's day a little better as I slog through work with what I hope is a strong caffeine high, and pure will power.
I'll try to update again soon. But until then, let me know what you are looking forward too, and I can do my best to work it into to fluff on the horizon.
Stay safe out there guys.
(I'll make sure I get to replies tomorrow).