Chapter 7: WTF

A month a half is what it took for the Whitebeard Pirates to notice the absence of their youngest member. However, it only took Marco fifteen days to become annoyed that Ace hadn't checked in like he normally did, that didn't mean the teen had been spotted leaving one of their territories so he hadn't been too worried. Twenty days into Ace going silent on them was when it was noticed that the little Moby three was MIA along with the rest of the former Spades. This caused a lot of head scratching but nobody said anything, especially to Pops or Marco. That was then though, this was now. A month and a half of silence with a sighting of Ace off of Kyte Island with a known revolutionary!

"How long ago was this sighting?" Izou asked the third division commander.

Jozu grinned at Izou. He had just talked to a friend who was a burlesque dancer on Kyte Island. "Six hours ago." Was his proud answer.

"Please tell me you told Marco?" Izou inquired knowing full well Marco was to the point of wanting to pull his hair out over their idiot little brother and his troublesome friends.

"Told Marco what?" Came an annoyed voice from behind them.

Turning the two men saw the Phoenix user. His eye was twitching and he had a look that said he was pissed about something. Jozu gulped loudly. No. He had not told their big brother the news yet. "Calm down Marco! It's good news!" He grinned but waved his hands in front of himself to try and ward off anything his brother would or might throw at him. "It's about Ace!" At the mere mention of the pyromaniac had a headache starting for Marco, his eyebrow twitched again.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Marco took a deep breath. "What about him?"

"Jozu knows where he is!" Izou stated chuckling at the deer in the headlights look the big guy had.

Marco grasped the big man by his shirt and pulled his face down towards his own. "Where. Is. ACE!?" He snarled out him.

"Kyte Island!" Jozu yelped as he was release by the first commander.

Marco looked at Izou. "Don't give me your attitude big brother. I'm not the one you're mad at." He smirked knowing Marco only got this hot headed when he was worried. "Go. We'll tell Pop we found him."

"Lucky for him we're close." With that Marco stalked down the hall of the Moby before he took off from the deck in full flight mode. His blue flames flaring from his immediate anger.

Lucky? Izou wondered. More likely we'll be burying Ace tomorrow.

It took Marco only a few hours to fly to Kyte Island. The small island was busy as always when he arrived. Ships were still coming into port as the sun began sitting onto the horizon. Marco landed onto an empty dock as two drunks rushed to get out of his way. For the last three weeks he had been keeping feelers out. When Ace didn't come back after his last sighting Marco had thought maybe the Navy caught the firecracker on that stupid boat of his. Rubbing his face, Marco tried to calm himself down. He'd do this with a clear head and demand to know what was going on.

Marco sometimes wished he had observation haki, it would come in handy right now. Ah well. Guess I'll just look to see who causing the most damage on the island yoi. He grinned knowing full well Ace couldn't go a day without damaging someone or something.

Ace groaned as he woke up with arms tangled with Sabo. His brother's loud snores told him that he hadn't woken yet. Slowly he began untangling himself, he had after all become a detangler extraordinaire because of Luffy. Once he was out of his brother's arms, Ace stretched himself properly. Muscles and joints were able to fully relax as they were properly stretched out. Looking over his shoulder he saw the morning light begin coming over the horizon.

Sunrises on Dawn had always been beautiful but over the ocean, it was breathtaking. He suddenly frowned as a dot of blue fire seemed to spark in front of him. Blue fire? He questioned his still sleepy brain when it began to get closer and closer. Then his sleepy brain finally woke up and it clicked as to what or what had just found him. SHIT! His brain screamed as he scrambled to get out of the way of the human Phoenix shaped missile only for claws to narrowly miss him.

"ACE!" Marco yelled out at the brat.

"Huh?" Sabo slowly sat up. His hair a mess from sleeping through the night. First time he didn't have any night terrors. What woke me? He wondered as he heard somebody suddenly scream Ace's name once again. Sabo's eyes widened as a flaming bird suddenly landed on the cabin where Lindbergh and Koala were sleeping. Grasping his pipe Sabo attacked the unknown devil fruit user from behind and landed next to Ace.

"Who the hell did you piss off this early!?" Sabo yelled as the flames of the made before him reformed the man's left side easily.

"Sorry 'Bo." Ace apologized. He looked back at his pissed off brother. "Let me introduce you to my oldest brother from the Whitebeard Pirates; Marco the Phoenix."

"Again, I ask, what the fuck did you do to get him pissed!?" Sabo grouched as now he was getting upset with his brother.

Ace scratched the back of his neck. "Uh…technically I may have went silent on the whole crew." He said the last part very slowly and nervously.

Sabo's eyebrow twitched. "How long?" he inquired, curiosity getting the best of him.

"Uh…" Ace thought about it for second. Truthfully he wasn't sure.

Marco had stayed silent after the revolutionary had shown up. It had taken him all night to track down the merchant who had been adamant that Ace had hired him to set a trap for a mink revolutionary which had gone into how the chief of staff had shown up to kill Ace only for the man to have sort of breakdown. In the end he'd been told Ace had gone with the two revolutionaries willingly. He had searched the entire bay, every docked ship until he came across Ace in bed with a revolutionary. Now he was pissed. "A month and a half, yoi." Marco snarled out. "A month and a fucking half Ace!" Marco's flames shot upwards and away from him in his anger.

Sabo sighed. His brother really was an idiot. Walking forward he came to the forefront between the two before bowing from the waist up. "I apologize sir." he spoke with sincerity. "Please forgive my brother. He is an idiotic moron," He pulled himself upright before looking at Ace with anger. "who I am certain was dropped on his head one too many times!" He took a swipe at Ace with his weapon. "Are you truly that insensitive that you couldn't have even called them in that time!"

Ace raced across the deck to avoid Sabo's attacks. Of course his brother had sided with Marco. Even he knew he was being a shithead for not calling but after a month he'd just decided to wait until he called Pops after he visited Shanks. Suddenly he was tackled by Sabo causing the two to slide to where Marco and two startled revolutionaries were waiting. "Umm…Oops."

Sabo facepalmed. "I swear Garp pounded your brains down until there wasn't much left." He groused.

"Garp?" Koala asked. "As in Monkey D. Garp!?" The young woman sounded a bit panicked.

"Wait, you're brothers?" Marco asked a sly grin spreading across his face as he called his flames away.

"Twins." Ace stated with a happy grin.

"He thought I was dead." Sabo explained. "I had amnesia and thought I was a son of a noble family or something because of where I was found by Dragon."

"Turns out you're the son of a looser with a pirate as a brother." Lindbergh stated trying to spin a positive narrative on this.

Ace pushed himself off of the ground. "I know I'm in trouble Marco but I found out some things and I need to do something to stop a very bad thing from happening." he tried to tell him without going into the whole story.

Marco sighed. "You are in a lot of trouble," He looked at Ace and knew something was going on. "unfortunately Pops here already and wants an explanation. I want an explanation yoi."

Ace looked miserable about having to do this. "What if I explained things so Ace could leave without getting into too much trouble?" Sabo asked knowing Ace really wanted to get going to set things up.

Marco cocked his head to the side a little too much like a bird would which had both young men trying not to chuckle at the older man. Marco knew something was going on here. An explanation was all they really needed. If the brother can give that, Pops would be slightly satisfied. After much thought, Marco reluctantly agreed. "Fine."

Ace's demeanor changed immediately. He grinned. "Really?"

Marco pinched his nose and nodded. "However, you must contact me every couple of weeks and if you don't…" He looked at Sabo. "I'll be contacting him to hunt you down."

Sabo smirked. "If I have to do so I will be cuffing you with a sea stone and dragging you back to your Pops."

Ace blanched at the thought of being forced back on the Moby when he had a mission to do. "Yes. I'll agree to the periodic checking in." Both Sabo and Marco seemed to be grinning at finally driving it into Ace that checking in was healthy for him. "Why do I have the feeling that you two knowing each other is going to come bite me in the ass."

"Because it will." Marco promised with his iconic grin.

Meanwhile in the foothills of Mt. Colubo of Dawn Island the cries of "Gum Gum no Punch!" was heard causing the animal residents to flee as the stretchy appendage of one Monkey D. Luff came flying at his enemy. The fearsome Tiger King jumped out of the way of the fist that the teen had thrown at him, only for the beast to turn his claws at the human that had disturbed his rest on this lazy morning.

Doing some quick thinking Luffy jumped out of the way, flinging his fist towards the tree and pulling back the fist connected with the Tiger King's face throwing the best several feet away from its intended target. The orange tiger shook itself flinging the dirt to the ground. "Shishishi." Luffy laughed as a wide D grin plastered itself across his face.

As the two clashed together in the wild jungle, off shore a small inconspicuous boat anchored into the bay. The previously known Spade Pirates had arrived in the Goa Kingdom of Dawn Island early to check on their former captains brother before heading towards the Karai Bari Islands. The former first mate looked at the island in front of him and smiled. He couldn't wait to check out the island his captain had grown up on.

M-Angel: Are you glad I waited until Monday? It's a bit of a longer chapter than originally planned, but I had fun with this one.

Guest - Unfortunately there will not be any pairings in this story. It's not a romance story. Brotherly is the big theme here basically. As for Whitebeard or the Whitebeard Pirates seeing Gear 5? Eh, thats still up in there as i haven't made a final decision on that as of yet.

Rick - Aw! I am glad this gave you the feels. Thank-you for saying that.