"Portgas D. Ace I presume, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Piss off."

"Don't be like that." The man smiled, showing his yellow teeth. "Black Beard couldn't make it today but he sends his love."

"Go to hell," Ace retorted angrily refusing the offered seat across from the man. "Just tell me what you did with my brother?"

"He's fine," He said. "Such a spitfire if I do say so myself. I see where he gets if from."

"Who are you?" Ace demanded trying his best to keep his fire in check.

"Jesus Burgess, Black Beards first mate. How do you do?"

"So what? That crazy psycho is starting his own crew?"

"Started," Burgess corrected. "And we are currently recruiting, you interested?"

"Go to hell," Ace repeated once more. "Just tell me where my brother is and you can get back to recruiting for your little cult."

Burgess sighed as he sunk lower into his seat. "Boss said that if you rejected things would get complicated. Of course that's exactly what he said you would do. Thinks your predictable or something. You see we didn't go out of our way to kidnap your brother just to give him back because you asked nicely. One way or another you're going to help us."

Ace frowned crossing his arms. "You're wasting your time with me. I've got nothing to give you."

The man once again grinned, his eyes twinkling cruelly. "That's not true Portgas…or should I say Gol D. Ace."

Ace froze at that, staring at Burgess as if he had suddenly sprouted horns. "What are you talking about?" He finally managed to spit out.

The pirate just laughed at his pitiful attempt, clearly aware he had found Ace's soft spot. "Don't play dumb, we both know very well what I am talking about. Although if it makes you feel better you can keep pretending you're not tht man's son."

They stood in silence for a moment as Ace desperately tried to calm his racing heartbeat. His biggest secret, the one that single handedly assured his destruction rested in the hands of monsters. As did Luffy. One thing was for sure, he was screwed. He pushed those thoughts out of his head. That didn't matter right now, he came here for one reason and one reason only. He would save Luffy even if it were the last thing he did.

"So you know," he finally said. "Why not just go tell the government? I am sure they would be very interested."

Burgess simply shrugged at the suggestion, uninterested. "And let them kill you? How would that help us? Like it or not we have bigger plans for you. And all thing considered it would be in your best interest to listen to us. Wouldn't it be a shame if something were to happen to your little brother? It's my understanding you don't have a lot of family to spare."

How long were they going to keep throwing that back in his face? Generally speaking when your family dies you don't have a lot left over. But he was oh so sorry it narrowed down their blackmail choices. Not for the first time Ace wondered if Luffy would have been better off if they had never met. But perhaps now wasn't the best time to contemplate this. He could worry about it more when Luffy was safe.

"So what, I do your dirty work and in turn you return my brother? Fine what do you want?"

"For starter we want crew members. At the moment it's just three of us and it's getting a little lonely."

"Well that must be tough." Ace mocked not in the mood for jokes.

"They told me you were a tough kid." Burgess said, "You should have no problem finding the kind of recruits we need."

"Is that all? I get you recruits that's your big request?"

"For now at least, you get us recruits then we will talk again." Until then you better get a move on it, your little friend Thatch is also in our care and from the looks of it he isn't doing so well. It would be a real shame if he died don't you think?"

Ace perked up at this, instantly standing up straighter. "Thatch is still alive? Is he okay, what are you doing to him."

Burgess put up a hand to stop him, "As I said get us some crew mates then we will talk. For now all I'm going to say is that both of them are still alive."

Relief crashed through Ace like a tidal wave. Thank god Thatch was still alive, at least that was one death he didn't have on his conscience. At least not yet. If there was any physical way for him to save Thatch he would certainly try. He just hoped the man could hang on a little while longer.

"We want seven new members. They better be strong and none of that conscience crap they need to be tough, rob a prison if you need to. You have two weeks before we meet back here. And you better have all of them or someone is going to die." Burgess rose to leave but Ace called him back.

"What?"

He bit his lip unsure of how to broach the topic. As much as he wanted to let it go he knew he had to ask. If not for himself then for Luffy who cared more about Ace's life then Ace did.

"When this is all said and done are you going to kill me?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Just answer it." Ace snapped not willing to play word games with his life.

"Fine," Burgess sighed. "I'm not going to lie it's not looking good for you."

Ace sucked in his breath doing his best to keep his face neutral. This definitely would not be the first time he got a death threat, not by a long shot. But this was the first time someone held so much power over him. Hell the military presence was strong on this island, all it would take was a few carefully chosen words from Burgess and they would send a buster call for Ace's death. And that was best case scenario. At least right now he had a fighting chance. But the way he gathered it the same could not be said about the future. Especially considering they held both Luffy and Thatch's lives in their hands.

He fought through the rising emotions, struggling to keep his voice the same. "What about Luffy and Thatch? Do you plan to kill them too?"

"Whitebeard pirate aside we don't have a reason to kill the brat unless he gives us one. You better pray it stays that way. What I can tell you is if you listen like a good boy your brother's chances will be better."

Ace almost groaned at that. Clearly this man had not spent enough time with his brother. He was sure Luffy would give them a reason. Hell he had probably given them some today alone. But at least they needed him alive to control Ace. So for now they couldn't do anything too serious.

Burgess stood up to leave but Ace hardly noticed. He sat there mulling over what he had said. The single thought that kept repeating over and over in his mind was that he didn't want to die, not yet. When he was little he didn't even want his life. It used to be too full of pain and misery for it to be worth it. But somewhere along the way that had changed. He managed to get a family, even someone so useless like him had found some people who loved and supported him no matter what. Of course Sabo was gone now (it still hurt to think about it)…and thanks to him Luffy was in trouble. He knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if anything happened to that kid. It should be a no brainer, his life for Luffy's. And while he knew he was going to get Luffy back no matter what he just couldn't accept his fate so easily. A small selfish part of his brain kept wishing he could somehow get both, begging him to find another way, a way he didn't have to die. But why should it even matter? He should be happy as long as he saved Luffy right? So why was he suddenly so devastated?

But there was his mother and his brother to think of. If he were to die that would waste her sacrifice and break the promise he had made to Luffy. That was the last thing he wanted.

Sighing he stood up. He couldn't procrastinate any longer on his other fear, if Marco overheard or not. On unsteady legs he walked over to his friends hiding place. In theory it was far enough away that nothing could be heard but He learned never to underestimate the fire birds hearing.

He tried his best to change his serious face but quickly gave up. He wasn't really in the mood to smile right now… or ever again.

"How did it go?"

"We have two weeks to find seven crew members."

Marco grimaced but didn't object. "Well we should be able to manage it."

"Thatch is alive." Ace said watching a huge smile bloom over his friends face. It certainly made himself feel better as well. At least this way Marco would only have to lose one friend not two. Ae chided himself for thinking that way.

Picking up on his distress Marco's face darkened. "Did he say anything else?"

"Nope!" Ace said innocently, "That was it."

He could tell his friend believed that lie as much as he had believed the first. The only difference was this time Ace wasn't going to tell him, no amount of friendship speeches would change that.

"We should get moving." Ace said swinging his bag over his shoulder. "We have to find this crazy group cult members and we only have two weeks."

Marco said something else but it fell on deaf ears. Ace felt the familiar disconnectedness that accompanied his narcoleptic fits. He always got them when his mind became too full. Usually it was an annoyance but for the first time in his life he welcomed it. His problems were finally too big for him to deal with alone.

He was asleep before he even hit the ground.

XXX

"Yea, now we have to help Black Beard gather a crew." Marco sighed leaning against a wall.

Ace had passed out leaving nothing for Marco to do but call pops and update him. To say he was worried about his friend was an understatement. Although the news about Thatch had been just about the best thing he had heard in his life.

"I'm really worried about him Oyaji. I think it's worse than he's telling me. Why won't that stubborn idiot just let me help him?" He kicked the ground in an unusual display of irritation.

"He wouldn't be Ace if he did things the easy way." Whitebeard reminded him patiently. "You have to remember who you're dealing with here. For whatever reason Ace isn't used to relying on others. He tries to do everything himself no matter how bad things get."

"I know," Marco said slowly letting go of his pent up aggression. "Hopefully he will tell me what's really going on before he dies of stress or something like that."

Whitebeard laughed at that, "You give yourself too little credit. Imagine what would have happened if you hadn't noticed something was wrong with him. He would have to do all of this on his own. We would still have no clue why he left or what was wrong."

That was true at least. It's not like Marco was useless. Right now it looked like his job was finding sketchy crew mates with questionable morals. Lame as it sounded it was all he could do to help Ace at the moment. So he was sure as hell going to do it.

"Well Pops, I guess I have to let you go." They weren't going to find themselves after all.

He just preyed Thatch could hold on a little longer.

.

Tada! Meeting complete. And things are getting serious. Poor Ace :..(Hopefully he will stop being an idiot and let Marco help. DON'T DIE! I'm sorry to say I don't have enough internet to reply back to you guys. I barley have enough to post this. But please tell me what you think. I should be able to respond back next chapter. The next update should be in two weeks when my job ends. But after that it should come more regularly.