Chapter 16 - Snippets of Life in Styx - Part 1
Island of Baltigo, New World
"Sir! Dragon, Sir!"
Koala ran after the man, trying to catch up with his long strides. He didn't stop, but she kept going, desperation pushing her to make her case.
She followed him all the way to his office and thankfully he was nice enough to hold the door open for her before closing it behind her. She slammed her hands on his desk.
"Sir, I must protest! There has to be someone else who can do this! It's a simple debrief and rescue op. Practically anybody could do it! There is no way that you don't know what he's going through right now. You have to! Forgive me for being blunt sir, but this is bullcrap."
He kept standing with his back to her, watching out the window. He wasn't ignoring her, but he wasn't deigning her with an answer either.
After a moment, the young woman sighed and leaned forward, her head bowed in frustration. She knew that Dragon was unlikely to change his mind, but if she could just be there to help support Sabo and be by his side when he needed it while he was going through all this emotional turmoil.
It was true that as Revolutionaries, they had to be ready to accept danger and loss at any time, but they were human too. They shouldn't be so focused on their mission that they ignored the quality of life for their agents and soldiers. They were not just compatriots, they were also comrades and friends. For some of them, like her, they were the closest thing to family that she had.
The thing was, she was sure that Dragon knew this and while he could be a demanding leader and even harsh at times, he was never cruel. Which was why she couldn't quite understand why he was doing this.
She sighed, "Is this punishment for the 'evening training' incident, sir?"
A moment of silence held as she waited for his answer. It was the only explanation she could come up with. She could feel her emotions building up inside her and rebellious, insubordinate thoughts were beginning to grow in her head. However, Dragon had gained enough of her trust for her to wait and hear him out.
After seemingly making her wait beyond what was necessary, he finally spoke, but rather than answering her question, he asked one.
"What time is it?"
She tried not to be put off by the left-field question and answered him straight. "0935, sir."
Sabo should be well on his way with his companions, she thought with suppressed aggression. She hoped that if she could convince her boss, she could have time to catch up with him and help him out at least. If not, perhaps she would have to take things into her own hands.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Dragon's next statement. "Lock the door, Koala."
She raised an eyebrow at that, and her thoughts shifted to concern. Dragon only locked his door if there were top-secret issues that he had to discuss. Perhaps, there was something more to this than met the eye?
It was that, or she was going to get the dressing-down of her life, either-or.
After she locked the door, she came back to the desk and watched as Dragon glanced over at her from over his shoulder. His dark-brown almost black eyes pierced through her and she felt herself shiver, her knees weaken, and eventually, she had to take a seat at the chair next to her.
He casually turned back to the window before speaking quietly. "No, Koala, I am not 'punishing' Sabo, though he might think that currently. What I'm doing is for his own good. And while I, in no way, owe you anything, I know that your heart is in the right place. And I'd rather you not try to go off on your own under false pretenses."
She felt abashed at his tone, but she was happy that there was more to this than there originally appeared.
However, when he finally explained everything (after demanding her silence), her emotions were tossed onto a rollercoaster, going from intrigued, too shocked, to outraged, to just plain amazed. She had questions, a bunch of them, but just then Dragon got a call that he couldn't ignore. But it was okay, she'd gotten what she came there for.
When she left his office, closing the door behind her, she was still wiping the tears from her eyes, but a huge smile was plastered on her face.
She understood a little why Dragon hadn't let her go. She knew her limits and knew that if she had this big of a secret to keep from her partner, she'd have probably spilled the beans only an hour into the journey. Plus Sabo was a whole lot better at studying people than her. He would have seen she was hiding something practically right away and would have needled it out of her eventually.
No, let him go with the Binary Stars. Those two had been militarily trained before they even became Revolutionaries, and they could do a whole lot better than she, in not only keeping Sabo out of the loop, but also able to stop him if he decided to do something stupid.
Not that she was a slouch at the secret-keeping department of course! She understood why Dragon asked for her silence and she would keep it. It's just that because she was so close to Sabo, it was harder when it came to him.
However, everything was good.
Better than good.
Everything was just… awesome.
She continued to scrub her face even as she walked back to her room, thinking that perhaps it was time for her to get some rest and take a well-deserved shower.
"Sorry Sabo, you're on your own on this one. It's time for you to face the music. It's also time for you to accept, that it's okay for you to be happy."
The Land of Styx: Day 2
It had been less than two days in this strange place and Ace was already bored.
Sure, the room he was holed up in was comfortable, and his two "nursemaids" had helped him up so that he was leaning against the pillows and headboard. But he had always been a very active person, and now to be confined to a bed like this was enough to make him stir-crazy!
He'd already counted all the planks of wood on the ceiling, floor, and walls, and had even begun mentally playing tic-tac-toe on them (he had won against himself 10 times so far). What he wouldn't give to have the use of his limbs again! He was in this strange dimension that begged to be explored! And what was he doing? Stuck on a mattress.
His stomach was beginning to rumble as well and he groaned in annoyance. He wanted real food too.
He was starving. He hadn't had a real meal since before Banaro. However, his "caretakers" didn't take any pity on him and were relegating him to thin broths and soups. And worse, he couldn't even eat on his own!
Ugh! How was he supposed to get any stronger if they kept feeding him such little sustenance? Who would have thought he could miss even the small bowls of rice that Dadan used to relegate to him and Luffy? How much had his life gone topsy-turvy since those relatively simpler times?
When he had woken up yesterday, he had found himself yet again in another unknown setting laying in an unfamiliar bed. Marco and Shanks were gone, but the old man Rayleigh remained with him, and the silvery Ange had also returned to his side.
The situation had been explained to him, and that he was currently being taken to where Luffy was, in a house located in a different dimension that caused it to be pitch black at all times outside the window.
He knew vaguely that there was some trouble with the Marines that Shanks had gone to deal with and that they were doing all this to protect him.
Normally, this would have been a major stick in his craw. He didn't like running away. He didn't like having others protecting him.
But he wasn't stupid. He knew he didn't stand a chance right now. And he didn't really want to have anything to do with the Marines or the government right now either. So, let the others deal with that.
Thinking back to the place he was currently in, it was composed of really just one floor with two bedrooms and a bathing room. He and the medical equipment that Ange insisted on, were housed in one of the rooms, which he shared with Silvers Rayleigh. He was becoming more and more comfortable with the retired pirate legend, which was something he never would have thought possible only a few months ago.
And it was probably a good thing too since he was the only person that Ace could count on to help him do the most mundane of mundane (and yet completely necessary) tasks, without dying of embarrassment by having no choice but to ask Ange to assist him. He'd rather have been executed than do that. Rayleigh didn't seem to have any problem with it, didn't tease nor make a big deal of it, and seemed to take everything in stride. When he had finally gotten up the guts to ask him the first time, the man only gave an acknowledging smile and helped to pull him up onto his back, stating that this wasn't the first time he had to take care of a brat.
He had helped Ace to the bathroom, aiding him in both relieving himself and bathing. He had found himself to not be nearly as grimy as he'd expected and the old man said that Marco had given him regular sponge baths while he was still in a coma.
Well, at least it had only been Marco and not…well…let's just say he was happy to have avoided more mortification.
In the bath, he had examined himself then, seeing that any of the bruises, lacerations, and other wounds left over from his time in Impel Down and during the war were healing very well. The near-fatal wound that had taken up a large section of his torso, was nonexistent. Seeing the skin so fresh and unbroken, with not even a scar, was offputting, to say the least. If it wasn't for the fact of all the events that were playing out around him and his very real memories of being wounded by Akainu, he could easily have imagined it all as some horrible dream. There was little to say otherwise, other than the slight difference in the color of his skin.
Well, that, and the disappearance of his Whitbeard tattoo. It was almost like the admiral had aimed at it specifically as if by melting the mark into obliteration, he could stamp out the entire Whitebeard Clan.
All the skin had been grown back by Ange, but it was so new it almost felt like somebody else's. It would take time to get used to it. It belonged to him but would need some breaking in.
He wanted his mark back, but that would have to wait until his body healed and he reconnected with the rest of his crew. He'd just have to add it to his long to-do list once he had made sure Luffy was okay and he recovered fully.
For now though, at least he was clean and dressed in a plain shirt and pants. He hadn't worn a shirt in a while, mostly because he never really felt cold thanks to his devil fruit, but currently, while he felt his fire within him, it wasn't nearly as intense. Also, while in the bath, it was impossible to miss how thin he now was. His clothes were currently hanging off him in a way they had never done before. The lack of body fat also contributed to his lack of warmth, so he was happy with the shirt and blankets they had found for him.
Now if he could just find something to do.
He would suck it up and try to talk to Rayleigh, but he was currently gone. Having disappeared sometime while he had been asleep.
Must be nice, to have working legs….
So that left him alone, with only the soft hum and beeps of the monitors for company.
Oh well, time to start that 11th game of tic-tac-toe. Perhaps using the floorboards this time?
Lily pushed the door open to Rayleigh and Ace's room, carrying a tray of steaming hibiscus soup carefully in front of her, along with a glass of water. The older pirate had gone off telling her that he was working on something about the house and that Ace was settled in his room, though he'd probably be bored soon. Which from the look of relief at her appearance, seemed to be the case.
However, that delight seemed to deflate a bit when he saw what she had brought.
"Really? Soup again?"
She rolled her eyes with amused exasperation. "Yes, 'soup again'. It's going to be soup again for quite a while."
She watched as Ace dropped back on his pillow in only half-mock despair. She placed the tray on the table next to him and absently did her standard check-up of him. As she took his pulse, he once again sighed.
"I'm just used to eating a lot more than this."
"You eat more than this and you're going to puke it all back up on yourself, and I'm not cleaning that. You do realize I basically had to replace your esophagus and part of your stomach, right? You should be happy that I'm even giving you varieties of soup rather than simply clear broth 24/7."
Ace shuddered at the thought and slowly tried to lift his hand to the spoon on the tray. His arm trembled even in trying to do that much and inwardly, he was annoyed at how weak he had become. He knew realistically, he had a long way to go to get back to full health and that he should be grateful to have this opportunity to be alive at all, but it was still frustrating! He could barely pick up a spoon!
The first meal he'd eaten, they'd put it in a cup and held it to his mouth as he drank it down. Eventually, at his insistence, they tried him out in trying to grasp small objects like pens, forks, spoons, and other utensils. He could hold them for a time, though his motor control was a bit weak. And he struggled completely in actually lifting the object up. However, he reasoned it was a matter of sheer will. If he could put his mind to it, he could do this!
The revolutionary watched him struggle with a grimace. Not wanting him to burn himself, but also sensing his frustration, Lily went over to his side, saying nothing, and silently took the spoon away from him. She gathered a spoonful of the soup and held it up to his lips and waited.
A frown crossed over his rugged features and he raised an eyebrow at her, a stubborn tilt to his face already beginning to form.
"I can feed myself, thank you."
It was one thing to let Silvers feed him, but for Ange to help him this way, felt somehow more embarrassing than when it was with the old man.
Her expression didn't change though and the position of the spoon didn't shift.
The frown deepened, "I can do it. I'm not an invalid!"
(He was, but that was beside the point.)
She still said nothing.
Nothing moved, the spoon stayed right where it was.
She continued to wait.
Seeing that he wasn't getting anywhere, Ace heaved a huge exasperated sigh before flouncing back against the headboard. He tiredly but resolutely turned away from her. "I can be just as stubborn as you can. If you won't let me feed myself, I'm not eating."
She smirked. Oh really now?
She opened up her sight and spied out her targets, using her ability to take control of the cells in the muscles of his jaw as well as the ones in his tongue and throat. She could see him jolt with the realization that she was going to actually force him to eat, whether he liked it or not.
And with that kind of persuasion, it didn't take more than a couple of seconds for him to u-turn on his previous declaration. Stupid weird angel powers!
"All right, all right! I give up! I'll eat!"
Her grin became triumphant and she released him. Slowly.
As her vision returned, she saw that his scowl had increased exponentially, his lips pressed together grumpily.
Undaunted, she raised an eyebrow and brought the spoonful of soup up again, daring him to try her.
With extreme reluctance, he pried open his mouth accepting the now-cooled soup. He was too recalcitrant to admit that it was delicious.
As he swallowed, before fixing her with a look of spiteful irritation. "Happy now?"
She smiled sweetly, "Yes."
As he watched her take a seat on the bed bringing the bowl closer to her, he sighed loudly, grumbling under his breath. "This is humiliating…"
Undaunted, she brought the spoon back up to his mouth, which he again accepted.
It was actually even better hot.
As he ate, she spoke. "Ace, the reason you're so weak is that I had to use every energy reserve in your body and then some to rebuild your body. You're not going to get it back if you don't eat."
He knew that. He really did. He wanted that! But it didn't make it any less frustrating.
He felt a spark along his skin as Lily laid a hand over his. He looked at her white skin against his more tanned tone, feeling the warmth from her touch…it was a strange feeling, different from the warmth he usually felt from others. Was this brief tingliness maybe from her powers? Then why did it feel different from before? Hmm…weird…
He took his eyes off their touching skin to look up into her eyes. She had a serious but understanding look in those luminescent orbs.
"Ace, if it wasn't you, but your brother in this situation. Would you not do the same?"
His mind immediately pictured Lu with a fist of molten magma bursting from out of his chest, his skin going pale as blood ran in steady rivulets over his entire body, running hot over his hands. That bright smile dim and that warmth he brought with his mere presence, disappearing by the second.
The image immediately made him want to vomit. A cold sweat broke out all over him and he felt his heart thumping hard against his chest. It was the start of a panic attack as he began to meld the agony and torment that he himself had gone through, with that of his last vision of his little brother. How the boy had looked so lonely, lost, and broken, while Ace was in his "last" moments. For that to be the last way he had seen Luffy… and not knowing if he himself had survived the injury that had occurred after his big brother was no longer there to protect him.
Ace of all people knew that fate was a cruel mistress. But if he had by a miracle of miracles survived his tangle with death, only for his brother to succumb to his…
He would never forgive himself.
He had to get back to him, to make sure he was alive! To see him with his own eyes and to let Lu see him. While he was aware that Luffy had a good crew around him, he knew what breaking his long-ago promise would do to his little brother. It would be devastating.
These were thoughts that had been running through his head already and that mental image had brought it all to the forefront again.
A comforting hand rubbed circles along his back, trying to bring his mind back to the here and now.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have used him as an example."
Ace shook his head at her apologetic tone, all the while trying to steady his breathing, calming himself down. Luffy was okay. He wasn't dead. He was hurt, but not dead.
Eventually, he calmed to the point where he could actually respond. "You don't have to be sorry. You're right. If it was Luffy, I would have tied him to a tree by his scrawny arms by now and forced the food down his throat. It's just really hard feeling this way. I've never not been able to depend on myself before. Even with my crew, I always could pull my own weight. With my brother, I was the one he leaned on. I'm just…not used to…help."
She could feel his awkward mortification and felt sympathy for him, though she lacked understanding.
Maybe this was a pirate thing? The fierce self-reliance?
It felt more intense with the commander than it did with Marco and Shanks, who while their own men, leaned against each other pretty seamlessly.
Perhaps it was just a "him" thing?
She had never really felt that way before.
She had never had anyone to really help her when she needed it as a child other than Schaden, so when she was saved by the Revolutionaries, and they gave out their hand in aid, she took it with little hesitation. It always felt like an amazing gift to have people around her who were willing to be kind to her and help her when she needed it. People she could depend on. She had lived a life of being able to depend on only herself. It was not a life she wished to go back to.
What was it like to live a life where standing alone was preferable?
She watched Ace look down and away from her, the air taking on a nervous awkward quality to it between them. And Lily found that she didn't like it. She might understand how everything else about the man worked, but she found herself wanting to understand how Portgas D. Ace worked.
She placed the spoon back in the bowl and put it to the side. Ace watched her, a bit dismayed at the loss of more food, but a bit curious as she gathered herself and smiled before putting her hand forward.
"I think we got off on the wrong foot, you and I. You tried to burn me. I dumped water on you—"
"Three times," he interjected.
She frowned at the interruption but could see that his smile was easy again and teasing. "Yes, three times, but you know you deserved it. Anyway! We never were truly introduced, so—I'm Dr. Lily, glad to meet you."
Ace looked down at her proffered hand for a moment or two, trying to judge the situation, before pushing his hand to grasp onto hers. It wasn't a full handshake as he would have liked, but he took hold of her fingers and grasped them as tightly as he could. Her smile widened and she responded in kind.
He didn't know what it was about it, but he liked it when she smiled.
He started with what was important first, "I want to apologize. You weren't lying before and you saved my life and everything, and I tried to attack you. I'm really, really sorry. It won't happen again, you have my word."
He bowed his head to her, and he hoped that she understood how contrite he was. He had returned spite for kindness and he had learned to be better than that.
He felt her hand grasp his even tighter and he took a glance up and was happy to see both understanding and forgiveness there. So he lifted his head and continued with their renewed introduction.
"It's Portgas D. Ace, Second Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. I'm happy to meet you, Ange."
This time she dropped his hand in exasperation, "Oh come on, I thought we had established this. I'm not an angel, Ace. I just told you, my name's Lily."
He didn't seem to be apologetic about it and simply shrugged as he was able. "You're an angel to me. Plus, you have to admit that the things you can do are pretty mysterious and angel-like."
She looked at him seriously, "It's not a mystery. I have a devil fruit, Ace. It's just a devil fruit."
He tilted his head a bit as if examining her for a moment. Lily let him do so, thinking that maybe the thought had never occurred to him for some reason. She didn't really know why since devil fruits were a pretty common occurrence in the New World, especially to such a big-shot pirate who had one himself.
When he finally spoke, his voice was soft but truthful. "Nothing about you should have the word 'devil' in it, Ange."
When he looked up at her, his gray eyes were so intense that she felt the seriousness in what he said, as if it was a fact that could not be argued. Which only caused her to feel the blood rising up in her cheeks. She quickly looked away, before twisting a finger through her hair in a weird case of shyness. She tried to think of something to say.
"W-Well…I mean, I guess…that's just what they're called, Ace. Mine…mine's nothing special."
He laughed, "Maybe you got the only 'angel fruit' out there?"
She only groaned in exasperation before burying her face in her hands. Partly from knowing there was just no reasoning with him, and partially to hide how red her face was getting. Did he even know what he was saying?
As for Ace, it wasn't really that big a deal for him. It took a little parceling out at first once he figured out where he was and what was going on, but he believed he finally had the right of it.
He had often gotten on Luffy about the strange and absurd nicknames he would give people on first acquaintance. Eventually, some of those names might change, and rarely he would actually remember the person's real name. However as time went on, he began to realize that Luffy's naming system wasn't as abstract as people would think. There was a method to it and a reasoning behind it. Also, he knew his brother was actually more perceptive and discerning than people gave him credit for. Not always, but often the names he gave to others reflected the heart of what he saw within them.
For the first time, he actually felt that he understood this strange method. Because while he did know the woman in front of him was indeed human, and there was another name that she went by, everything about her said "angel" to him. And so, the name had lodged itself in his brain and wouldn't be removed. So, he just left it be.
He remembered the first time he had ever heard the word "angel". It was with bittersweet regret that he wished that he could have introduced this one to the brother that had first told him about them.
Thatch would have loved her.
More than a year ago, aboard the Moby Dick
Ace slipped into the kitchens, drawn as usual by all the wonderful smells of food cooking and by the fact that he hadn't eaten in a couple of hours. He was past due for a snack or two, and Thatch usually had a few lying around for him to grab, knowing of his high metabolism and his signature D. appetite.
However, as he came in, he was curious to find the man himself staring at his ovens worriedly. He was looking at them with such intensity that he didn't seem to even notice the other's presence in the room.
Ace snagged an apple from the counter and began to munch on it before coming up next to the other man and trying to figure out without success, what the other man was staring so intently at. After a moment, he finally just decided to ask.
"Hey, Thatch."
"Ahh!" The man jumped up in shock before looking at him, seemingly quite put out, "Don't do that, Ace! Can't you see, I'm on the edge of a breakthrough here?"
Ace simply kept munching on his apple, not at all affected by the other's mood. "Watcha' doin'?"
The auburn-haired commander gave an exaggerated sigh before looking sadly back at his baking endeavor. "I'm trying out this new soufflé recipe and I was just praying to L'ange de la cuisine that this goes right this time. I've tried it nearly 100 times, it shouldn't be this hard, darn it! I've tried every method I can think of, but…"
He sighed again, looking forlornly at the oven window like a poor dejected puppy whose favorite bone was held out of its reach.
It wasn't the first time Thatch had worried over some new concoction he was putting together, so Ace was pretty sure he would be fine whatever happened. However, he did like to at least try to get an understanding of his friend's woes, even if in his mind they were a bit silly. However, this time there were a bunch of words in there that were drawing a blank in the young man's brain and so he decided to ask.
"What's a 'souplay'? And who's 'Lunge day la keysine'?" he spoke through mouthfuls of crunching apple.
Thatch looked over at him with exasperation, "It's soufflé. It's like a fluffy egg dessert. And it's L'ange de la cuisine." He sounded it out with exaggerated slowness.
"Don't you dare butcher the angel's name. She's the patron for all us cooks!"
Ace looked at him curiously, "What's an angel?"
The cook only looked at him blankly for a few moments before getting that overly sympathetic look on his face and clicking his tongue at the unfortunateness of it all. "Come on take a seat, let me tell you all about les anges."
Ace had given up trying to understand why sometimes the man would go back and forth between two different languages. When he asked, Thatch simply said that it was the language of cooks all over the world, and to be truly accomplished in the field of cooking you needed to at least know all the important vernacular.
Ace thought it was all pretty silly. Food was food. Though he'd never tell Thatch that to his face. He liked his tongue where it was, thank you very much.
However, he enjoyed listening to Thatch's tall tales, and so hopped up on a stool before grabbing another apple, as well as a couple of rolls of bread.
Thatch proceeded to tell him about angels. Immortal spirit beings that lived in the heavenly realm and were beautiful beyond compare. They were everything that was true and good and right. They were pure and lovely, the very epitome of the fine, good things in others. They were the messengers of God and thus would carry out his will.
But even beyond that, they were stronger than anything that could be found in the earthly realm, and they also were nothing to mess with, having abilities beyond life and death. There were angels over many different areas and people.
"And the L'ange de la cuisine watches over all us poor cooks, especially when we have to carry the burden of cooking for bottomless black holes like some scruffy brats I could name."
He reached out instinctively to smack away Ace's hand before he could swipe some of the roast beef that was for dinner.
"That sounds like a whole bunch of nonsense, Thatch," he commented as he grabbed a cookie instead.
The man only waved a finger at him, his lips in a knowing smirk, "Just wait till you meet one, Ace. Your life will never be the same."
The other's eyes grew wide with shock, "You've met one before?!"
Thatch sighed wistfully, "Very briefly, for barely a second. Back before I even joined the crew."
He reached over and began to cut up some of the wild jerky that he knew Ace loved, before sliding it over to him to the firemancer's delight. "I'd been out at sea by myself back then, and there was a really bad storm. I was young and stupid and didn't listen to anyone's advice. Kinda like another flame-headed idiot I know."
He playfully avoided Ace's indignant swat at his head, before continuing to chop some vegetables.
"Anyway, my boat capsized and I could barely hold on, completely at the mercy of the sea. I thought I was done for. I was drowning and would have been doomed, when I felt a hand reach out and take mine. There in front of me was a woman completely in white, with blazing otherworldly eyes. She smiled and then I lost consciousness. When I woke up. I was washed up on the shore, banged up and battered, but alive. Some think it was a dream or a mirage or even a mermaid that helped me. But I'm sure what I saw that night was an angel and she saved my life. I'll never forget that night for the rest of my life."
Ace had been fascinated by Thatch's stories and while at the time he hadn't put much stock in them, it never escaped his memory. He had lived a hard enough life, that the notion of such fairy tale things was rather implausible. Yet, some part deep down liked to think that such beings as angels could indeed exist.
Now several months later, Thatch was gone, Pops was gone, and he'd almost died himself.
He almost lost everything because of his own hubris and had made so many mistakes that he couldn't even begin to count them all. However, he now had another chance.
He too had been saved.
And it was all thanks to an angel.
Present Day, Land of Styx
Lily cleared her throat, trying to push down her budding diffidence. Picking up the bowl of soup again, she nearly jammed a spoonful of it into the bothersome pirate's mouth.
"W-Why don't you tell me about yourself?"
Ace drank down the soup before responding, "About me?"
She nodded, before gathering more soup, "Yeah, I want to get to know you, now that you're awake and able to talk and all."
He looked away, his smile turning into a sneer, his hand gripping the covers. "What more do you want to know? It's not like everything hasn't already been blasted over all the newspapers or shown on every screen across the world. You were there, you heard everything."
Lily frowned at the self-deprecating tone she heard, and she could definitely understand his ire at how his greatest secret had been blown open and revealed to the world. However, she didn't like hearing the tinges of despair she heard in the back of his words. She liked it when he smiled. Melancholy didn't suit him nearly as well.
She touched his hand and Ace looked up at her, that weird tingle there once again. But he was distracted by her words even more so this time.
"That was your legacy, Ace. But that's not you. I want to know who Aceis."
He gulped a bit before trying to shrug it off. "You sure? I mean my life's not really all that interesting."
Inwardly, he was beginning to feel a bit self-conscious. He normally didn't care if anyone knew about his past on Dawn Island. It wasn't something he actively volunteered, but if anyone asked, he had no problem with sharing. The only thing he had been hesitant about in the past was revealing Luffy and his location in the East Blue just in case someone wanted to take their anger at him out on his little brother. But once Luffy had set out on his own, Ace lost that fear and then talked about his brother anytime his new bounty poster came out. His own past wasn't really all that important.
But now, he was wondering what would she think? Would she be disgusted, or weirded out? Would she pity him? He didn't want any of those things.
He could almost hear his father's voice whisper, You'll never know until you try, boy!
Shut up, old man.
But the voice was right. He'd have to handle this like he always did. No regrets. Just tell her the truth and go from there.
And so that's what he did.
He started from the beginning, talking about his earliest memories of growing up alone on Mt. Corvo, housed with a group of rough-and-tumble local bandits that had been blackmailed into caring for him by his adopted grandfather. How as a very young child he had wondered about his family and why the kids he would watch in the nearby village all had moms and dads and he didn't. Why his birthday would pass by unrecognized and unmarked? Why no one seemed really care if he existed at all?
He had been told under no uncertain terms by the time he could understand, that Dadan was not his mother and none of the other bandits wanted ownership of him. And so eventually, he got the courage at 4 years of age, to ask his Grandpa, who visited sporadically to terrorize him, about his parents.
And in that blunt way that all men of the Monkey family were, he was told about who his father was and what had happened to his mother, and why he was stuck with such a crap group of caretakers. He remembered it as the day that his entire worldview had changed, and the first time that he had truly begun to doubt that he was really wanted by anyone...and wonder if he even deserved to be.
His fears eventually turned into anger and resolute independence. He couldn't place his hopes on anyone else for anything. He would depend on himself completely and totally. If you didn't rely on others, then you couldn't be let down by them either.
Lily listened carefully, making sure that she kept feeding him but other than that, was completely invested. She didn't let her emotions play out on her face, not wanting him to freak out by any emotional display on her part. However, on the inside, her heart bled for him.
And more than that, she was beginning to truly understand him. And more than that, she could connect to him.
Ace then spoke of how he never got much to eat with the bandits and so through trial and error, taught himself how to hunt, make campfires, and cook his own meat. He described the vast jungles of his home and the huge animals they held. He hadn't realized how huge until he left and realized that the beasts of the forests he grew up in, were actually rather unusual for their size.
He spoke of the fact that eventually after exploring the mountain, he had found a land covered in trash and treasures, and past that, a large city of people.
It was from there that he learned the value of money, the value of staying vigilant, and that the value of the skills that he had learned in hunting could also be turned towards beasts of the human variety. He had also learned, via his own morbid curiosity, how much his father had been hated and by association, how much of that hate transferred to him.
By that point in his life, at 5 years old, there was probably no one on the island who carried more hatred than him. It had grown and festered and quadrupled over the years. Hate and rage towards any and everything. He hated how unfair everything was and that so many wished for his death before he had even begun to live. His life was directionless, like being lost at sea without a rudder. He survived out of pure stubbornness, but other than that he saw no reason to continue existing. It was only his rage and his desire to stick it to the whole world that prevented him from simply just ending it.
At this, Lily couldn't help a small gasp.
To have such thoughts at only five years of age was incomprehensible to her.
She had been alone for much of the beginning years that she could remember, but she had never felt such dark thoughts. Though perhaps even without her memories, she had already developed a sense of self-worth in her forgotten childhood? Something that it seems Ace had never been given a chance to gain.
Ace didn't really acknowledge her show of emotion, though he shrugged and wouldn't meet her eyes. "I didn't have a lot to live for back then. No one who'd really seemed to care if I was alive or dead. If I came back to the house or stayed away for days at a time. Nothing seemed to really matter. Nothing at least until I met 'Bo."
"Bo?" she asked with soft curiosity.
"Yeah, my first friend." He smiled dolefully, "My best friend. My brother."
She could tell from the crushed look on his face that this previously unknown brother was no longer among the living. So she only asked softly. "What happened to him?"
Ace let out a sigh, "He wanted freedom from a world that refused to give it to him. I wasn't there, but from what I've been able to put together, he was shot to death by a Celestial Dragon."
She gasped before gritting her teeth in anger.
Celestial Dragons…the banes of existence. False gods who only served to destroy the lives of everyone around them. Everything was their "divine right", and the marines and World Government only reinforced their selfish atrocities.
She knew personally how evil Celestials could be, but she hated that Ace had also been touched so personally by their cruelty.
He gave a weak smile, mollified to see her outraged on his behalf. This time reaching out to touch her hand, letting out just enough heat to warm it. "It's okay, it was a long time ago. I've gotten over it."
Mostly…
It did help to talk about him again though. So he told her how they didn't start as brothers, but he had met 'Bo in Gray Terminal and they became friends and then partners as thieves and hunters and just all-around hooligans. He didn't spend a lot of time on that part, as it was still painful to remember, but it was the first time in his life that he began to think that someone might just care if he was alive or not.
It was also with 'Bo that he began to put together a goal, a dream for himself. Something beyond this life and the borders of the island. He realized then that he was going to be a pirate, and he was going to be free. Free from this life that could care less about him. He was going to make a name for himself, and he was going to make people remember it. A name that no one could deny. One that was all his own.
Ace thought about it with a bit of mirthless wit, that ironically, he had gotten what he wanted, but not quite in the way he wanted.
He spoke of growing up with 'Bo, though his presence alone wasn't enough to drive back the darkness that had taken over his life. So when Lu came into their lives when they were 10, he was much too jaded to see the boy for what he was and rejected him outright.
Lily tried her best not to smirk or laugh as Ace talked about all the ways he had tried to get rid of and even outright kill the other younger kid who had been thrown in with the bandits just as he himself had been. She supposed it would be horrible to consider a 10-year-old doing such a thing to a 7-year-old, but knowing firsthand how much Ace doted on "Lu" today, it just made the entire situation rather amusing. No one who saw how Firefist Ace and Strawhat Luffy had interacted on that battlefield, would ever believe that on their first meeting, one had literally spit in the face of the other.
"So how did this extreme hatred, turn into undying adoration?"
He frowned at the wording, "I don't know if I would call it "adoration", Lu can be a pain in the ass when he wants to be. Sometimes even when he doesn't want to be."
She smiled knowingly, resting her chin on her upturned hand. "But you love him anyway."
His cheeks grew red before he avoided her gaze. "He's my baby brother."
It was all he knew to say, and it was all he had to say. His words spoke for themselves. There was a lot that was in that statement, and even more, that was being left unsaid.
"But to answer your original question, it all started when he got nearly tortured to death."
All the mirth in her face fell and she could only look back at him in shock.
A shadow of guilt and regret came over his face as he told the story of crossing the local pirates of his island and how Lu had survived several hours of torture at their hands, rather than give up the other two boys. He had done so even though they had been less than welcoming to him, and it was simply because he already considered them his friends and would not betray them.
This selfless act of loyalty began to increase the cracks in the huge barriers he had placed around himself. It was the first time he had been introduced to a different kind of love. One that was not give-and-take, but one that was more.
Lu had changed both his and 'Bo's lives.
Had brought something to the two of them that they had been missing, and they hadn't even known it.
The three of them became inseparable and eventually, he realized that for the first time in his life, he had multiple people who cared that he was alive and wanted him to live. For the first time, he felt that he had a home and a real family.
He got the idea to have the three of them become sworn brothers over a cup of sake. He was a selfish person and now that he had found these two people who were so unlike anyone else he had met in his short life, he wanted to keep them forever. He was willing to tie his soul to these two other boys who had outgrown the bonds of friendship and transformed them into a pact of brotherhood.
It was the best of times.
But like many things in his life, it was over all too quickly. Ace spoke of how his 'Bo's past caught up with him and he was pulled out of their lives by a family they hadn't even known about.
How that family wanted their son to have nothing to do with him and Lu and were willing to kill to make that happen.
How his younger brother had sacrificed himself to protect the other two, though he had been too hardheaded to see it as that at the time.
"I was young and stupid and still thought anger and violence was the best answer to anything that got in my way. I was losing him, and I couldn't take it. I blamed him, I blamed myself, I blamed the world. I was just sooo mad." Ace spoke thoughtfully. "I remember my last words to him, and how I wanted him to hurt. To fight back. To come back to this home that we'd built… How was I to know that would be the last time I would ever see him?"
Lily felt the heaviness build up in her chest as she resonated with his sorrow. Even though she knew this other brother of Ace's was long gone, she could see the pain and guilt of it all was still there.
Buried, but there.
The black-haired man took a deep breath and let it out with a long ragged sigh. "When we got news of his death, I nearly broke. And Lu…well…he shattered. It took a while for us to put our pieces back together. I had to learn to readjust and take care of Lu by myself. I was so rough cut. I had to learn patience, and restraint, and how to care, and how to sand down all the edges that I had built up all my life."
He spoke of how the next seven years of his life were quite different from the previous ten, how he decided to live his life without regrets and to make sure that both he and his brother were able and ready to fulfill their dreams.
At 17, in accordance with a long-ago promise, he set sail to become a pirate, leaving behind a brother that he had somehow become irrevocably attached to in those intervening years, as well as those to whom he had eventually felt affection and begrudging fondness.
He traveled away from home for the first time and set out to find a life and a crew to call his own. He gained a new set of friends and a different perspective on the world. He got stronger and gained a devil fruit, and explored places that he had only dreamed of.
And yet, even despite it all, he had still been missing something. Despite everything, the hole in his heart, the need to prove himself to the world, to prove that he was better than the shadow of Gol D. Roger. That need consumed him.
Lily listened to his time with his own crew of Spade pirates and how he eventually was forced into the Whitebeard family against his will, only to eventually find that missing part that he was looking for all along, with them.
She was of two different minds about that. First, she was going to have to have a word with Marco about their "adoption" practices and that their current policy could not stand.
But second, she was beginning to realize what Ace had been wanting all along and why nothing had really come along to fulfill that need until Edward Newgate and the Whitebeard clan claimed him.
He could allege independence and self-reliance all he wanted, but in truth, what he was seeking was someone who he could trust and depend on, who could take care of and love him with no strings attached.
He had spent his entire life relying on only himself. Even his beloved siblings were meant to rely on him, not the other way around. He was the protector, the anchor, the provider, but had never truly had anyone to do that for him. It was from out of that need that his compulsion to prove himself came. His need to be acknowledged. His need to be wanted.
His need to be loved.
She had been wrong.
She and he weren't all that different from each other.
Their desires were the same, even if Ace didn't trust to admit that to himself. Once she was able to comprehend these facts, she stowed them carefully away inside the secret places of her mind and simply sat back and listened happily to Firefist's colorful stories about the antics that he and his crewmates got up to.
As he was talking about a meat-eating contest that he had taken part in (and had totally won!) she frowned and found herself interrupting him.
"Okay wait, You can't have eaten a thousand pounds of meat, you'd have made yourself sick."
Ace looked at her as if to ask if she was serious, "Weren't you listening? That's like a snack. I easily eat more than that all the time."
The disbelief must have been obvious on her face because he reiterated, "I'm serious! I mean my brothers and I could scarf down two big crocodiles apiece. Luffy probably could have eaten four! And they're much heavier than a thousand pounds!"
She studied him curiously, before looking at the empty bowl of soup that she had laid to the side. It should be impossible, but then again, she had seen her CO and her boss put away huge portions of food before with no repercussions. She'd never gotten the courage to ask Dragon about it, but Sabo had said that he was just used to it and guessed it was from his body's learned reflex from growing up in an environment where you never knew where your next meal was coming from.
If Ace was telling the truth, then maybe she had misjudged her nutrition plan. If his metabolism was really that high…
She stood up while grabbing the bowl. "Alright, I'll make a deal with you. I'm going to get you a little heartier food, and if you are doing okay and can hold it down, we'll step it up on the recovery plan. But if you feel the least bit queasy, and definitely if you spew it all up, it's back to soup only. You got it?"
The smile that greeted her was blinding, the way his freckles seemed to flicker on his cheeks, and the crinkle to the edges of his eye as he enthusiastically agreed to her conditions.
This mischievous imp.
She suspected that even if he felt sick to his stomach, he would still smile and say that he was perfectly fine so that he could get his way.
As Lily got up to leave and get more food, he asked. "By the way, where is the kitchen in this house? When the old man takes me out of here, it's just my room, your room, and the bathroom. Is there more to this house?"
She shrugged, "Not really. Rayleigh is working to seal the house, so we might eventually be able to go into other areas, but for now, it's just this floor. The supplies we borrowed from the ship are in the hall, but I set up an area to cook meals in my room."
Ace's eyes went round with surprise, "You've been cooking all the food?!"
She raised an eyebrow in question, "Who did you think was doing all the cooking?"
He had the awareness to at least look bashfully away while whispering under his breath, " L'ange de la cuisine indeed…"
She batted her eyes at that but continued out of the room to go back to hers.
Ace sighed and laid back, happy to take a break after having talked for so long. He didn't know why he had just decided to spill his guts and tell his whole life's story. He would never've done that before, not even under torture. And yet somehow he had let himself be talked into it.
It has been the first time in a long time that he had actually looked that deeply at his past, usually preferring to keep his eyes on the present and not worry about the future.
He hadn't thought about Sabo in a long time, though he found it to be not as painful as it once had been.
His eyes looked over at the tattoo on his arm barely covered by the shirt sleeve. He hadn't thought about it, but he had never gotten an impression of his brother's presence when he had been "dead". Had Sabo just not wanted to see him? Had he not had anything to say?
Had he been disappointed in him for breaking his promise?
He looked up from his thoughts and saw Ange coming in with a second tray. This one looked much more promising and the smell made him start to drool. To think she was even a great cook too on top of everything else. He didn't even mind her feeding him this time!
As she sat down, he saw there was another bowl of soup, plus a plate of meat of some kind, apple sauce, and a slice of bread.
Not the biggest meal he'd ever had by far, but better than anything he'd had to eat in months.
Ange set about breaking apart the meat before putting a forkful to his mouth. He bit onto it with relish.
Hmm, chicken. Not the spicy wild game he favored, but still so good.
He had just finished the meat when she took his hand and placed the bread in it.
"I'm guessing that nothing horrible with happen if you drop it by accident, so we can use this to help you with your hand coordination."
He looked up at her in surprise at the allowance, but she kept her eyes down purposefully on cutting up the rest of the food in front of her. He smiled at the small offering, also the illusion of privacy, before trying to concentrate on getting his fingers to do what he wanted.
He was able to grasp onto the bread well enough, but the act of actually moving his arm up and towards his mouth, or himself downwards towards his hand was a bit harder. He felt his muscles strain as he pushed himself to lift the arm up. His body reacted well enough, but it was like he was struggling to pick up a 2-ton rock instead of a simple slice of bread.
He felt sweat bead up on his brow, but he was determined to at least do this much. One step at a time. One goal at a time. Today it was a piece of bread. Tomorrow, who knows?
Perhaps he'd take an actual step!
After a lot of struggle and stubbornness, he was able to get his arm high enough that he was able to bend down and grab the bread with his teeth! Yes!
He grinned, ecstatic and proud at his success. Ange, who had kept her eyes down on her task (the rest of the chicken was minced at this point) during the whole ordeal, smiled with quiet delight.
He chewed on the bread while still keeping it in his mouth, having long ago learned the art of eating with no hands. While he worked on that, Ange waited for him to finish. Finally done shredding the chicken, she picked up a book that she had brought in with her and read in comfortable silence while he ate. Eventually, Ace was able to happily finish the whole thing and was ready for more. Ange was already there with another forkful of chicken, which he took with no hassle. He'd had improvement, that was what was important.
And while the silence was comfortable between them now, he found himself curious about this woman who was so instrumental to his new life. She was about his age, which was unusual for Ace. After having joined the Whitebeard crew, he was the youngest there, the only other close in age was Haruta. And he definitely never met any girls his age. He didn't know much about how to act with one. Especially not one like her.
He was doing well so far, but he didn't want to mess anything up by being too rough or crass or just being an idiot. Marco had warned him to be on his best behavior and he knew he would get it if he messed this up. Plus, rule one of survival was to never mess with the source of your next meal.
But beyond all that, she was simply Ange…his angel. She'd saved his life without asking for anything in return and even now was helping him without expecting anything back. Feeding him food made by her own hands. He'd just as soon be thrown back into Impel Down than to hurt her, even if it was only with his words.
Come on ya idiot! Just remember all those lessons Makino taught you. She's like Makino, imagine you're talking to Makino. It's going to be fine.
As casually as he could, he asked, "So, uh, what about you, Ange?"
She looked up at him in surprise. "Me?"
She looked a bit perplexed before looking down at the food and then smiling warmly, "Oh, I'll eat later, but thanks for asking, Ace. It's okay, this is all yours."
He shook his head. That wasn't what he meant. "No, I mean, what's your story? I…I told you all about me, but what about you?"
She looked at him blankly for a moment or two. "Me?"
He nodded, "Mm-hmm"
There were another few moments of silence.
He was careful to swallow before speaking again. "I mean, are you a member of Shanks' crew? Have you been with him long? And what about before that? Your story's gotta be better than mine. Do you have siblings too? What was your childhood like? Tell me about you, Ange."
Ace thought he had done well in getting his thoughts across, but he knew he had said something wrong when what little color there was in her face drained and she looked away from him. But before he could even apologize, Ange mumbled a few of her own before suddenly getting up, leaving the tray and her book on the bed, and fleeing the room.
His heart sank and he swore loudly to the empty chamber. Was it something he'd said? Had he been too forward? Why was he always messing things up?
He sighed and looked at the door forlornly before turning back to the halfway-finished tray of food. He tried to reach out for it but found out that it was just too far out of his reach. Sigh, why couldn't he have Luffy's stretch powers just this once?
He wouldn't have minded having his brother's emotional insight either.
Because it could be a trick of the light, but before she rushed out, he couldn't help but notice the traces of anguish and fear in those snow-crystal eyes…
Keep it together.
Keep it together.
Get it together, soldier!
Lily stood in her room with her back pressed up against the closed door. She tried to quiet the trembling that had appeared in her form. She couldn't blame Ace. Firefist had just asked a question. And considering how he had opened up so fully to her, it was a question that he was perfectly in his right to ask.
However, it hadn't been that long since her nightmares had returned and any talk of the past could open doors that were previously shut tight within her.
She didn't want to risk that.
It would be so much easier to lie and pretend, to shrug him off like so many before him. But that would be a slap in the face after how open he had been with her. And at the same time, she found she didn't want to.
She slowly let out a breath, trying to calm herself down. Her trainers had helped her deal with different triggers from her past in preparation for her first assignment. It had been a worry that Dragon had had in sending her out, but Sabo had convinced him that she could handle it.
And she had! She had been able to rub elbows with the military elite, right under the World Government's nose! If somebody had asked her about her backstory, she had been able to tell them her made-up tale with confidence.
And yet now, she was being faced with all these pirates who actually seemed to care about her answers. With their keen eyes and their calm words and their easygoing free nature…!
Damn them…
Perhaps it had been the presence of Scha always by her side that had helped her in the confidence department so far. Perhaps that's why when for the first time in a long time, he was gone, she began to falter.
A knock came against the wall, startling her out of her tangled thoughts.
It was soon followed by another one.
It was the wall she shared with Ace and Rayleigh's room. She felt heat in her cheeks at what he must think of her leaving him so abruptly like that. She took a deep breath. No matter her own issues, she had a duty as his doctor that she needed to return to. However, before she could move to go, she heard Firefist's muffled voice through the wall.
"Hey, Ange? If whatever I said hurt you, I'm really sorry. Please believe that I would never do something like that on purpose. I'm just not—"
Lily was already out the door and back in the adjacent room before he had even finished. The ash-eyed pirate looked up in surprise at her sudden entrance, but he was even more shocked when she marched straight up to his bedside and took his face in both of her hands to angle it upwards to look directly at her.
She spoke to him as seriously as she could.
"Ace. Listen to the words coming out of my mouth. You keep calling me an angel. Well, the angel is speaking right now, so you'd better listen."
He only blinked back at her, she had his undivided attention.
She stared into those deep gray eyes. "You did nothing wrong. Nothing. Do you understand me? It had nothing to do with what you said, Ace. It was only me and my own issues and just acting like a big ninny. You are not guilty of anything. You didn't hurt me. Got it?"
He continued to stare at her.
"Nod, if you got it." she amended.
He nodded.
She sighed, before finally letting go of his head and sitting down on the bed again, careful of his legs. "I'm sorry that I rushed off like that without explanation."
Ace looked over her as if studying her for some reason or another before nodding again. "As long as you're okay now. Just don't think about all the bad stuff. If you can't change it, there's no use dwelling on it."
She raised an eyebrow at that. "Not always possible in my line of work, but I can see where you're coming from."
As she gathered up the tray of food once more, as well as her book, he absently read the title from the side. His eyes widened as he recognized the novel. "The Curse of Capistrano? That used to be my brother's favorite book when were kids!"
She looked at him in surprise. She never would have pegged Strawhat Luffy as an avid reader.
"It's one of my CO's favorites. He's letting me borrow it. It's actually pretty good so far."
Ace looked at her in question, "'CO'?"
"Commanding Officer" she clarified absently as she went to place the book on the floor near her.
"Oh, which of Shanks' executives are you under?" He asked as she began to spoonfeed him some of the soup.
She laughed, "Oh no, I'm not a pirate. I only met Shanks a little over a week ago. I'm a Revolutionary."
His countenance dropped and she was surprised to see a sour, distasteful look take its place. "A Revolutionary? You're part of the R.A.?"
Her eyes narrowed at this less-than-desirable tone. "Yeah? You have a problem with that?"
Ace shrugged, "Well, not with their philosophy I guess. And they do really help people who the World Government ignores or purposefully made their lives hell. They also do stick it to those Celestial bastards who killed 'Bo and I can get behind that. It's just your boss that I mostly have a problem with."
"Dragon? But why? You've met him?"
"Well no, but—"
"So you're judging him without meeting him?" She looked at him impassively.
He sighed dramatically not sure how to make her understand but knowing that she probably looked up to the bastard, settled on speaking as diplomatically as he could. "Look I'm sure he's a great leader and all. My problems with him have nothing to do with that."
She looked at him dubiously, thinking back to all that Ace had told her of his life before finally speaking. "Does this have to do with the fact that Dragon is your little brother's father?"
His countenance darkened to the utmost and Lily knew she had hit the nail on the head.
Ace firmly kept his mouth closed and Lily didn't feel like it was her place to address the ins and outs of the relationship between father and son. She knew Ace had his issues with his father and because he was so close to Strawhat many of those feelings transferred. He couldn't at all see things without his own personal bias coloring them.
She thought about dropping the subject since she doubted that anything she could say would make a dent in his point of view. But then she thought of the affection she had heard when her leader had referred to Strawhat as an "eaglet", as well as the uncharacteristic hesitance there had been when he asked her to look out for Strawhat during Marineford, or even the wistful glances that passed through the man's eyes when he was training with the Chief of Staff, a relationship that many in the organization saw as bordering on paternal.
She was also beginning to see an opportunity.
She spoke quietly, "Dragon has saved a lot of lives both directly and indirectly, and I admire him for what he's had the courage to do."
He nodded, 'I don't deny that."
"Through his actions, he's saved your life and your brother's."
"I think I would have remembered if he ever saved my life. And he's never even taken two seconds out of his very busy schedule to even see Luffy, so I can't see that either," he remarked with disdain.
"Your brother didn't escape from danger on his own, I and many others helped him." Lily carefully reminded him, "And I was able to pull you from the battlefield, which was not easy might I add, in time to save your life."
Her pale eyes looked up, instantly capturing his. "And if wasn't for Dragon saving mine, I would not have been able to be there for either of you…"
And with that, she pried open a sealed door of her past and the days of a time long ago that she wished to forget. She began to tell him of her time in an institute in the farthest reaches of the Northern Blue, a place that had a proper name, but those who came from there only referred to it as The Facility.
A place of both the darkest dreams…
and the loveliest of nightmares…
In the Air, Paradise Half of the Grand Line
He was still airborne when the call came in.
"Sir, you asked for any strange movements to be reported from sector G23M." The intelligence agent reported.
Aramaki turned his wrist to look at his watch. A little later than he expected, but it looked like his venture had paid off. "Indeed. And what did you find?"
"A sighting sir, of Marco the Phoenix using full zoan transformation and flying alone towards the southwest. We're trying now to coordinate to find his point of origin."
The mercenary smiled.
"Don't bother." He knew where Whitebeard's shoulder pet was coming from. "I just need to know where the birdy's going now."
After a moment the agent reported his answer, "If he doesn't divert course, He'll eventually reach the South Blue and the nearest location there past the Calm Belt is Centaurea."
The green-haired man frowned. The island had Revolutionary Army ties, and while the undercover rats might have a reason to go there, the Phoenix had never shown any interest in working with the rebels' cause. No, it just didn't seem right.
"What about before that?"
"Before that, sir?
"Phoenix can't go too far without a place to roost. He's not planning on a long journey. What would he come to if he still stayed on the Grand Line?"
"Well, nothing sir. On his charted course, he would fly past the Floridian Triangle, past the decimated Enies Lobby, then the Calm Belt, and—"
He snapped his fingers, "Amazon Lily."
Rustling of papers could be heard as the agent checked, "Yes sir, it would put him on a trajectory to the island of women. But sir, you don't think the lovely Empress would harbor—"
Aramaki clicked his tongue in disapproval. "She's nothing but a harlot of a pirate. She hides behind her warlord status, but she's scum just like all the others."
It was hard to believe that the Phoenix would come to Boa Hancock. They had just finished fighting as enemies on Marineford and it was well known that the Kuja didn't allow men into their stronghold. The two had never had much in terms of connections in the past. It didn't make any sense for him to go there.
And yet…
Hancock didn't have any love for the World Government, only using them to provide for her people. She also didn't have any qualms about doing whatever she wanted and turning on the Navy at the drop of a hat. On top of that, there were suspicious coincidences between her sudden unusual arrival at Impel Down, and the miraculous infiltration of one Monkey D. Luffy into that very same prison at nearly the very same time.
And then there was the fact that she conveniently disappeared from the battlefield at just about the time Strawhat made his escape. Could she have a connection to Strawhat?
Marco the Phoenix also showed a connection to Strawhat during the battle. And it was also rumored that the Dark King Silvers Rayleigh also had ties to Amazon Lily, a man who had a close relationship with RedHair and was seen helping and protecting the StrawHat pirates a little while ago before they disappeared from Sabaody.
What was the connection between all these things?
He felt like he was missing something here. Something important. Something that would bust this entire affair wide open. And he had a hunch it was the same thing that Red Hair and Phoenix were trying to hide.
For now, he thanked the agent for the information, telling them to keep on watching and to keep tabs on Phoenix for as long as they were able before signing out. He was pretty sure now that the pirate's destination was Amazon Lily, but he would err on the side of caution.
Changing his course, he'd come at the island from a slightly different direction. While flying, he began to dial a different number into his transponder.
Perhaps it was time to update the Admiral on all these… coincidences …
A/N: Hope you enjoyed Lily and Ace getting closer. Don't worry, I'm not off-screening Lily/Lami's backstory, but the chapter was long enough as it is!😄
Her part will probably be in the next chapter.
And if you're wondering how a house in the middle of an interdimensional weird space has flowing water and working plumbing-it's a mystery!😅
And yes, to confirm, Lily and Ace are both constantly talking about Sabo, but frustratingly, neither is actually saying his name! Or at least with Ace, he never says Sabo's full name. Because he's going back into his memories, he's a bit nostalgic so he calls both his brothers only by their nicknames. "Bo" for Sabo, and "Lu" for Luffy. Lily caught on that Lu was Luffy, but never wondered if the same could apply to "Bo".
Well, you knew it wasn't going to be that easy.
Thanks for reading, catch you next time!