Chapter 29: Changing of the Guard

Striker ripped through the placid waters of the calm belt like a knife. In its wake followed Sabo's boat, its useless sails furled just like Striker's. Out here, neither wind nor wave disturbed the blue expanse that stretched from the darkening eastern horizon to the western horizon now catching the setting sun.

Speed, though, generated a small wave at the bow that occasionally peppered him with spray and made the flames flying into Striker's engine hiss and spit. It also created wind that seemed hell-bent on putting his hair in his eyes.

Thus was his existence: the flames at his feet, the wave ahead of him, the wind pushing against him, and the boat at his back. Somewhere ahead of him, Luffy. Dead or alive.

Alive. He had to be alive.

With each wave that slapped against the hull, Ace flashed back to a different island. Seven of them. Seven islands. For each one, Sabo had tapped Revolutionary contacts, trying to confirm Luffy was or wasn't there before they had to waste time stopping and looking themselves. The wind had even been at their backs for several hours of their journey, letting Ace conserve his strength and giving Striker's engine time to cool.

In that reprieve, he'd called Marco. Well, first he'd called Pops—but Pops was undergoing a more intensive treatment and couldn't answer, so he'd called Marco.

"Marco," he'd said. "Something else came up, Sabo and I won't make it to the Moby next week."

"Your little brother Straw Hat, I heard-yoi. I hope you learned your lesson about being reckless already."

"Tell Pops I'm sorry."

"Tell him yourself, and bring those brothers of yours-yoi with you when you do."

That conversation had been hours ago. Then, the sun had been high in the sky. Now, it was setting. Luffy had disappeared yesterday. It had been over twenty-four hours since that moment, and the only thing left in Luffy's path was either a watery grave or Boa Hancock's island and Ace didn't know which was worse.

Hancock had been at Impel Down. At Marineford. But that was the extent of what Ace knew about her. Had she sided with the marines during that war? With the pirates? He'd been far too distracted to notice.

Wait.

The flames going into Striker's engine sputtered and surged anew.

Had Luffy done this the first time around? Fought Kizaru and Kuma, and lost? Ace had never gotten the story on how Luffy went from Alabasta to Impel Down to Marineford, only that Hancock had been involved in some way in helping Luffy reach the prison based on what she'd said to him during her visit to level six. Maybe…maybe she would help Luffy again.

He snarled at the thought. As if relying on anyone else's charity had ever done him good. There was every chance his meddling had thrown whatever turn of fortune had brought Hancock to Luffy's side out of reach.

"Something in the water?" Sabo called from the bow of his ship. They'd been avoiding and scaring off sea kings with haki and Sabo's pipe for their entire trip through the Calm Belt thus far, and though Sabo was usually the first to sense them coming, Ace had the best view of what was approaching.

And in this, Ace again had the better view. Sabo didn't know what Ace knew. He had no inkling of the possibility that Hancock might be more charitable toward their idiot little brother than her reputation would imply.

He didn't want to give false hope, but…he couldn't keep this secret, either. Sabo had told him often enough by now that he was a bad liar.

"Hancock might help Luffy."

"Her policy about male interlopers is pretty clear."

Ace chewed his lip, then went for broke. "There's a future where I get captured by the marines, held in Impel Down, and then executed at Marineford. In that future, I'm pretty sure Hancock helped Luffy break into the prison to get me out. I don't know for sure, but I think the fight with Kuma happened then too. That must be how she met him."

"W…" Sabo's voice failed. He stared at Ace like he'd grown another head. "What?"

Sensing a sea king charging at them from below, Ace faced forward, tensed, and did a quick evasive swerve to one side to get out of its path. The beast breached the surface and crashed back down, generating a wave that gave them a boost of speed to carry them out of its reach.

Thus reminded about the need to keep his eyes forward, Ace kept his back to Sabo.

"Are you going to explain any of that?"

"I don't know anything else."

"Marineford, Impel Down—the future?"

"A future. Not this one."

Though he wasn't looking, he sensed Sabo staring with increasing incredulity. "I'm—I'm sorry, when did this happen?"

Another sea king rushed them. This one, Ace hit with a lance of fire as it was surfacing, and its body was left to float for the few seconds it took the other sea kings in the area to descend on the meal that wasn't fighting back.

"Sabo, drop it."

"You're talking about time travel—"

"And Luffy's in danger! That's the point, not anything else." That one lapse had let a few blue flames sneak into Striker's engine, forcing him to ease up, to slow down. "I just wanted to say Luffy might be okay. Drop the rest."

"Let it go, he says," Sabo muttered. He sighed. "Fine. But we'll be talking about it later."

"Fine."

"Even if Hancock might be nice to Luffy, we still need a plan when we reach the Kuja Tribe." Ace didn't say anything and Sabo frowned. "You can't start a fight with the whole island, Ace."

"Watch me."

"Ace." Recognizing the cajoling tone, he glanced back at Sabo with a glower that had sent lesser men running. Sabo was no lesser man and he weathered the look without flinching. "Making an enemy of Hancock and all her people won't help Luffy. Why turn a potential ally into a certain enemy? If anything, it'll put him in more danger. We need to be careful."

"I don't want to be careful," Ace snarled, facing forward once more and urging just a little more from his fire. A few more blue flickers snuck in amid the yellow and he forced himself to dial it back. Too much heat could overwhelm even Striker's resilient engine, and then they'd really be screwed. "I want to save my brother, something I thought you'd agree with."

Something slammed into the top of his head, causing him to yelp in pain. Sabo flipped his pipe and relaxed his lean against the prow of his boat while he slid the pipe back into its straps. Despite the ease of the motion, his eyes were cold, his posture tense. "I get that you're angry, but we're on the same side, Ace."

Having grace enough to feel ashamed through the anger still burning through him, Ace worked his jaw. "I just—going in slow and careful, when Luffy could be in trouble? That's never been how I work."

"Yeah, I know. But it is how I work now. We're going to get Luffy out of this."

"If he's even there."

"He will be." Sabo set his jaw. "He has to be."

A few more sea kings were starting to swim nearer. Ace tsked and glanced around, then down at Striker when he felt her stutter. She was overheating. He throttled his fire to the bare minimum to keep them moving and released a concentrated pulse of conqueror's haki to chase away the fish that instantly moved in for the kill.

"Handy trick," noted Sabo. "But," he eyed a few other sea kings who were trying to push the limits of what they could endure, hungry for the two idiots moving through their territory, "if your engine needs to cool down again, I think we could be smarter about this. Your fire will be visible for miles when it gets dark, too, and you should get some rest before we reach the island."

At midnight, Ace and Sabo made landfall at a beach so tiny that Sabo's ship barely fit. Nestled amid the unforgiving cliffs that made up the vast majority of Amazon Lily's shores, it was invisible until they were nearly barreling onto it. They set loose the two sea kings they'd harnessed to Sabo's boat and the fish—after a brief debate over trying to attack the two whelps who'd dared to use them like glorified horses, a debate that ended when Ace lit up a hand in a gesture that said try me—splashed back into the depths to attack a less-defended dinner.

Ace extinguished his hand and helped Sabo drag the ships above the high tide mark, then straightened and examined the island they were about to conquer. Or, infiltrate, however Sabo's whole thing worked.

Over the beach loomed a tropical jungle as dense and foreboding as Mount Colubo's worst depths, and over that jungle loomed the massive mountain bearing the Kuja Clan's name. Light was coming from the top of that mountain, visible as the last of the daylight finally died.

"Okay," Sabo said, done erasing the deep ruts their boats left in the sand and using some fallen fronds to break up the boats' silhouettes. It wouldn't hold up to any serious inspection, but in the dark, it would work well enough against a passing observer from the sea. Who knew if the Kuja had patrols regularly sweeping the waters around the island; Sabo wasn't going to take the risk of coming back to destroyed escape craft. "The village is at the top of that mountain; Luffy's probably up there somewhere."

"If they didn't kill him," Ace growled. "If they did, I'm burning this whole island down."

"I'll be right there with you, but let's confirm the situation first, shall we? And please keep your head down. If we get discovered sneaking around like this, we'll put Luffy in danger, whether he's somehow gotten Hancock's favor or not."

Like he'd already said a dozen times, or so it felt like. Ace trailed after him without a word, eyes scanning the dark as the woods closed in around them.

Sneaking around Amazon Lily at night wasn't as difficult as Ace had expected. Maybe some of that could be attributed to Sabo; his observation haki and general sneaking abilities took them on the safest path through patrols and guard posts. Aside from one minor hiccup with some wildlife in the forest, they were able to reach and scale the mountain without incident.

At the top, they took a minute to rest and stretch. Ace couldn't remember the last time he'd done that much rock climbing as a straight shot, and even Sabo with all his finger strength was wincing as he stretched out his hands.

"Where's the prison?" Ace asked, peering down at the sea of lights nestled in the shielded top of the mountain.

"Not sure yet." Sabo was sketching something on the back of a bounty poster they'd picked up from a particularly brave News Coo. Ace glanced closer and realized it was a map of the city. Sabo tapped a rectangular building towards one side. "This seems likely—there's a gap between it and the surrounding buildings, and there are more Kuja stationed near it. We'll start there; when we get close enough, we can use haki to confirm whether he's there."

"And if he's not?"

"Here," Sabo pointed to another potential prison, "and then here." His finger drifted up to the edge of the city. Frowning, Ace looked at the actual location rather than the sketch representation and found himself staring at the palace.

Ah, wait. He got it. If Luffy wasn't in those places, then he was probably dead. Which meant they'd be making Hancock pay for what she'd done.

Part of him hoped it wouldn't come to that. Another, larger part knew that if it did, he'd find some solace in making this place look like a volcanic eruption's aftermath.

Luffy wasn't at the probable prison or the other probable prison. When Ace ignited his hand and started for the palace, though, Sabo yanked him back into the shadows of the alley and grabbed his wrist with haki-coated fingers.

It was then Ace learned Sabo hadn't pointed to the palace for reasons of killing Boa Hancock but for reasons of "Luffy could be there too."

And, when they scaled the sides of the not-actually-volcanic caldera again and circled around the comparatively less defended edges to get close to the palace, Sabo sucked in a sharp breath. Ace didn't need to ask, but he did anyway.

"He's there?"

"He's there."

Sabo pointed to the window of the tower nearest to them. With some creative applications of rope and climbing ability augmented by Sabo taking the time to figure out the guards' patrol routes and probable shift change pattern, he and Ace were able to reach the window leading into Luffy's room.

Ace was second into the room. He hauled himself through the window, ignoring the burning in his arms from the nonstop climbing, and dropped onto the plush rug on the other side that helpfully muffled the sound of his boots on the floor. He uncurled to see Sabo looking around with an ease that said there was no immediate danger.

"No one outside the door," he said.

Nodding acknowledgement, Ace made a beeline for the bed and the shape sprawled out on top of it. He'd kicked the sheets halfway off and his straw hat had slid off the bed with them, but Luffy was snoring away unbothered by the chill coming in from the window and the bandages winding around his body.

"He's injured."

Sabo, finished confirming they weren't about to be ambushed, joined Ace. "They could be from Sabaody."

"Or here."

"He's fine, Ace. Look at him. His stomach's still full from dinner so they're obviously feeding him. You know how he bounces back once he's got food in him."

Ace made a noncommittal noise. "Do we have a way out with him?"

"Yes. On our way in, I heard the guards saying their shift change was coming up soon. We'll use that confusion to escape. Hopefully, the Kuja will never even know we were here."

Though he knew that was for the best, Ace found himself frowning. There was a fire in him, ignited with the thought of Luffy in danger, that demanded action. Sneaking around wasn't going to let it out.

"Still," Sabo was looking around again, "this has got to be the most comfortable imprisonment I've ever seen."

"Who cares? Let's get out of here. Oi, Luffy, get up." Luffy kept snoring. Ace's eyebrow twitched and he whacked his brother on the head, even putting a little haki into the blow. "Get up!"

"Ow!" Luffy shot upright, one hand flying to his head. "What was that for, Ace?" Then he cocked his head, sleepiness clearing up in a flash. "Ace?"

"Yeah, it's me. C'mon, we're getting you out of here."

He went for the window, Sabo close on his heels, only to pause when Luffy spoke again.

"Who's that?"

"Eh?" Ace glanced over his shoulder. "You don't recognize him? Luffy, that's Sabo. Now come on this way, we don't have long before the guards change shifts."

First, the loss of his entire crew; then, the shock of Boa Hancock and the whole of Amazon Lily; and then Ace crossing half the world to rescue him; and finally, his other brother unceremoniously returned from the dead to do the same. It was all, quite suddenly, too much for Luffy's battered brain.

There was a muffled thud, a hiss of panic from Sabo, and then the distinct lack of Luffy's voice. Ace looked over his shoulder again to see Sabo picking Luffy off the floor and shaking him gently.

"Hey," he whisper-hissed. "Hey, Luffy, wake up! I only need one brother with narcolepsy!"

"Is he—"

"He's," Sabo paused long enough to check his pulse, "fine? Maybe?" When Luffy didn't rouse, Sabo slung him over his shoulder and gestured for Ace to move. "Go, I'll be right behind you."

Ace nodded and turned toward the window, only to freeze when a couple of presences pinged off his haki. "Someone's coming!"

"Then go!"

"They're outside the window!"

"Why—oh, hell, you're right."

Ace cursed and tossed Luffy onto the bed, then grabbed Sabo by the arm and dragged him under the bed frame in the instant before the two women he'd detected scaling the wall peered in through the window. He and Sabo ended up facing each other, Ace with his back to the room, Sabo with his back against one of the bed's central supporting legs, their knees touching and their shoulders lightly pinned between the floor and the frame. Cramped didn't begin to do it justice. Insult to injury, their abrupt arrival had kicked up the thick layer of dust that had settled over the floor.

The sheets are just fluttering from the wind blowing in, Ace thought in direction of the window for all the good it would do.

Two observers, just two. Two young women, even—no, of course. This was the island of women. They had, much like Ace and Sabo, scaled the wall to reach the window.

"Can you see him?" one asked.

"Just the hand, quit jostling. Let me—right there, right there! Over on the bed."

"Oh, wow. What a carefree sleeping position. Is that how men sleep?"

"It must be."

Sabo's nose twitched and his eyes went wide.

Don't you dare, Ace mouthed. Sabo shook his head, slowly shifting so he could get his hand up to his face and pinch his nose, trying to stifle the sneeze that desperately wanted to escape. His eyes were watering. His whole body tensed. Ace tensed too—

Sabo squeezed his eyes shut, twitched, and then let out a slow, careful breath. He grinned at Ace, who scowled back. They could be relieved when they got out of this mess.

"He's smaller than I thought he'd be," one of the women was saying. "I'm pretty sure I could fit his head in my hand."

"Maybe he's just a small man? He's about my size. There could be men your size."

"Maybe."

They fell silent for a moment and Ace hoped that meant they were finished creeping on Luffy and were about to climb away. Instead, their comments took on a different, far more objectifying air. Rage knifed through Ace as he was forced to listen, and when he couldn't tamp it down any longer, a haki-coated hand clamped over his mouth.

From past that hand, Sabo glared. Ace glared back.

A flicker of fire escaped his control. They both froze, that flare of light painfully visible in the dark.

Sabo didn't have to speak for Ace to read the are you fucking serious on his face.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"There was a light under his bed."

Ace could hear the faint scuff of hands and feet on rocks as the women adjusted their positions.

"I think you're seeing things."

"Huh. I could've sworn…"

"Wait, look—down below."

Sabo's hand squeezed. Ace readied his fire, careful to keep it contained this time.

"The guards are changing."

"Shoot, you're right. Liana won't let us keep looking when she starts her shift. Let's go, quickly."

As they climbed down, Sabo whispered, "If the guards are changing now, we've missed our window. We'll need to wait for the next change."

"It'll be almost morning by then."

Sabo shrugged as much as their cramped hiding place allowed, eyes reflecting the frustrated helplessness making it into his voice. "We can't leave now without running into those two. When it's our turn, we'll have to move fast."

"Great." Ace shuffled out from under the bed and moved aside so Sabo could do the same. "Luffy's still asleep."

"Like you have any position to judge from." Sabo brushed off the dust and went to the window. He pressed himself to the wall next to it and then carefully peered out. "Guards have finished changing. Looks like those two women got caught."

"Meaning?"

"Just a lecture, looks like."

Ace scowled. "After what they said—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I heard it too. They're very sheltered in this place." Sighing, he left the window and arranged Luffy a little more comfortably before sitting on the edge of his bed. He patted the spot next to him. "Pacing isn't going to get you anything. Sit down and rest, we have time."

Ace hadn't even realized he'd started pacing again, but he felt way too coiled up to relax. "I'll stand."

"Suit yourself."

Sabo had left his Den Den Mushi on the boat, so there was nothing to break up the silence except the faint sounds of the island that the breeze carried through the windows. Fortunately, no one else seemed inclined to scale the tower for a look at the only man on the island.

The only man they knew about, anyway.

Time crawled by. Ace spent some of it examining the room—nothing of note, just expensive furniture and expensive silks and expensive everything—and then peering out the window—nothing worth noting that they hadn't already seen. Luffy kept snoring away. Even after a narcoleptic fit caught Ace and snuck another several minutes out of him, the night dragged on.

Watching him from the bed where he'd ended up once more after joining Ace in looking through the room, Sabo sighed. "Ace."

"What?"

"Can we talk about it now?"

"Talk about what?"

Sabo fixed him with a look. "The time travel."

"Now's not the time."

"We're stuck here until the guards change and you've made it clear you've got nothing else to do. No one's around to hear."

Witnesses didn't matter. He hated thinking about it in the privacy of his own skull, much less voicing it to the brother he'd thought he'd gotten killed while he sat over the one he'd died to maybe save.

A choked-off laugh broke out of him. He had no idea if Luffy had gotten out of there. If anyone had. In his good moments he chose to believe they had, that his sacrifice hadn't been pointless.

He wasn't having a lot of good moments lately.

"What do you want to hear, Sabo? Someone I cared about died, I chased the murderer, and I got caught just before all this," he waved at their surroundings, at Luffy, "happened. My tour of Impel Down was pretty fucking limited, and most of Marineford I saw from on top of an execution stand while my family fought and died. What else is there to say?"

"Ace, I'm not asking as a revolutionary." His voice softened. "I'm asking as your brother."

Ace flinched.

Sabo leaned forward. "You said Hancock helped Luffy. Was he there, then? At Impel Down? At Marineford?"

A warship crashing down from the sky, a log hurtling through the air, a voice stretched so thin it was breaking: I'M YOUR BROTHER!

"Yeah." Saying it felt like a betrayal. An admission that he wasn't strong enough to keep Luffy out of danger. No, that he was so weak he'd dragged Luffy into danger. "Yeah, Luffy was there, even though I told him a hundred times to leave."

"With your usual delicate touch, I'm sure. Do you want to sit down? You're pacing again."

"No."

Pacing was good. Pacing helped distract him from the void where his thoughts had tried to go in the span between hearing Luffy had vanished and finding him here on Amazon Lily.

"I don't know how they knew," he finally said. "Who told them, or how they figured it out. Maybe they knew my mother's name and just put it together. They couldn't just kill me, they had to make it a show.

"They revealed my parentage for the whole world to hear while I was up on a platform even higher than his. Gol D. Ace," he spat the name. "Even if I'd gotten out, my mom's name would've been erased."

"If?" Sabo repeated. "What do you mean, if?"

Ace's throat bobbed but he couldn't force the words out. Sabo's voice cracked.

"Ace, what happened at Marineford?"

He brought a hand to his chest—to the scar going through it. He didn't want to say it. Didn't want to explain. Didn't want Sabo to know how badly he'd failed when it mattered most.

But Sabo—alive—was staring at him, and Luffy—alive—was softly snoring behind him, and Ace couldn't bear the weight of keeping this to himself anymore.

"Luffy came to get me out, and I—all I had to do was stick with him. I just had to keep running. That was all I had to do." He swallowed. His chest was burning and the faint smell of smoke tickled his nose. It wasn't real, he knew that, but he couldn't stop himself from tensing. "Akainu insulted Pops. After everything—my family was dying for me, they took on all of Marineford, and he thought Pops was a loser? A relic? I couldn't stand it. I tried to fight him, but he was stronger. And then he went for Luffy."

Sabo sucked in a breath.

"I couldn't let him. I—I didn't think, I just moved, put myself between him and Luffy, and…" He trailed off, staring down at the scar, trying not to blink because he knew what he'd see when he did. "I woke up here."

Fingers wrapped around his wrist and Sabo gently tugged him toward the bed. Ace fell onto it next to him and put his face in his hands, the shame of it all bowing his shoulders. "I don't want him to know. Sabo, he can't know. That failure—he gave everything he had and it wasn't—knowing would kill him."

"Like it killed you?"

He flinched, then flinched again when Sabo's hand came to rest on his back. Slowly, that hand moved in comforting circles. Ace felt even worse.

"After we lost you, I promised him I'd never die. I promised, and I—" his voice broke.

Sabo reached around and pulled him into a hug. "You're alive now. You can keep your promise." He carded his fingers through Ace's hair. "I'll help you do it, you know I will."

"I know," Ace managed. For a minute, neither of them said anything, and Ace was able to get himself mostly under control. Only then did Sabo break the silence.

"I won't tell Luffy, but for what it's worth, I think he'd understand."

"Won't tell me what?"

"Ah!"

Ace and Sabo sprang apart as though shot. Luffy, sat up on the bed, stared at them. At Sabo.

And then he was glomming onto Sabo with a yell, tears and snot all but exploding from his face. "SABO!"

Sabo tumbled off the bed and smacked against the floor while Ace found himself impressed by the number of times Luffy had managed to wrap his rubbery arms around Sabo in that one brief moment.

For another moment, he just looked on, the sight of a blubbering and basically incoherent Luffy trying to communicate to a relieved and winded Sabo unwinding something in his chest. It felt like he could take a full breath again.

Then he realized Sabo had worked one of his hands free and was holding it out. Ace took it and joined them, wrapping both his brothers in a hug.

Both of them. Alive.

He buried his head in Sabo's other shoulder so neither of them would see the tears.

Sabo's soothing words eventually helped calm Luffy down. Unable to completely detangle his brother, Sabo awkwardly got up and got them all on the bed again.

"At least you'll be easy to carry like this," he said.

Luffy cocked his head. "Carry? Wait—what're you guys even doing here?"

Scowling, Ace thumped him on the head. "We came because we were worried, you idiot!"

"Ow!"

"We're getting you out of here, so put your sandals on. The guards are gonna change soon."

Rubbing at the fresh bump, Luffy asked, "How'd you even find me?"

"It wasn't easy. C'mon," Ace yanked him off Sabo, "sandals."

Luffy didn't move.

"Lu, sandals."

"Why do we need to sneak out?"

Ace looked at him askance. "Because you're a prisoner?"

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"Now that I think about it," Sabo mused from where he'd wandered to the window, "all those guards are positioned more to keep the Kuja out than Luffy in. It's not like there's anyone outside his door, just the main entrances, and he's not restrained."

Ace lowered the hand he'd been about to bonk Luffy with. "If you're not a prisoner, then…then what are you?"

"I dunno. A guest, I think? Hammock's giving me a ship in the morning to get back to Sabaody."

"Hammock. Hancock? Boa Hancock? The Warlord?"

"Yep."

How did she not kill him? Ace marveled at his brother, probably the only man in the whole world who could call Pirate Empress Boa Hancock "Hammock" and get away with it.

"Maybe he doesn't call her that to her face," Sabo offered, reading Ace's thoughts from his expression. "But if Luffy's not a prisoner, we should rethink our strategy. You said she's offering you a ship to go back?"

Luffy nodded emphatically. "I'm going back to Sabaody and I'm getting my crew and we're going to the New World."

Ace and Sabo exchanged a look, the both of them thinking about what they'd heard of the confrontation at Sabaody and Ace in particular thinking about the crew he'd met in Alabasta. Even if they'd gotten stronger since then, it hadn't been that long, and he felt pretty confident in saying:

"They'll die."

Luffy froze. "What?"

"They'll die," Ace repeated. "All of them, and you."

Shock turned to anger. "You don't know that."

A light touch on his shoulder from Sabo stopped Ace from snapping out a response. Sabo was from his coat producing a newspaper a news coo had managed to deliver while they were blazing across the Calm Belt. On the front page, the main article detailed the fall of the Straw Hats in retribution for harming some Celestial Dragons.

"Your whole crew was defeated," Sabo said softly as Luffy took the newspaper and stared at the headline. "The rest of the supernovas were scattered. Luffy, you're strong, but the New World isn't just an extension of Paradise—it's exactly what the name sounds like. And you haven't trained for that. The fact you're here alone is proof enough."

Luffy's lip trembled, and Ace realized—Luffy wasn't stupid. He'd seen his crew fail, he'd failed himself, and he'd been stewing in that grief from the moment Kuma launched him out of Sabaody. He knew. But he, same as Ace, hated feeling weak, hated doing nothing, and hated—above all—failing to save his crew.

"Hey," Ace said, pulling Luffy close, "they're okay. Sabo's got his friends searching for them, and the ones we know about are just fine."

Luffy's arms wrapped around Ace, then wrapped again, and Ace's chest was feeling damp where Luffy's face was pressed against it. "I—I couldn't save them, Ace. I wasn't strong enough! We went through everything together and when it mattered I couldn't do anything!"

That wail pierced straight through Ace's heart. He knew that feeling of helplessness all too well. "I know, Lu, I know. Like you were there just to watch."

"I should've saved them. I should've saved them!"

"I know."

Sabo scooted closer and laid a hand on Luffy's shoulder. "Lu, I misspoke, and I apologize for that. You're not here alone. You have us."

Luffy peeled his face away from Ace's chest and blinked watery eyes at Sabo. "Wha?"

Seeing exactly where Sabo was going with this, Ace grinned and nodded his heartfelt approval. Sabo smiled back.

"We're here. Me 'n Ace. Whaddaya say? It'll be just like old times."

Luffy blinked again, eyes getting huge, and then he grinned from ear to ear with a smile as bright as the sun threatening to break over the eastern horizon. "YEAH!"

They left Luffy in his not-prison. With the threat of the coming dawn and the brief window as the guard changed, they moved fast, descending the wall, sneaking through the waking streets, and picking their way back down the mountain and through the forest as fast as they quietly could.

During the journey, Ace kept to himself, mind caught up in all the things he'd have to settle before taking the time to train up his brother. He'd have to call Deuce, see if his second could handle tracking Kimei alone. Then there was finding someone to head up the second division in his stead…maybe Bront, or Deuce and Bront working together. The second had been without a commander for a while before Ace showed up, they could handle it again. Then there was Wano. Couldn't just leave Tama and Yamato to fend for themselves for years. Maybe he could convince Sabo to take over for a month while Ace went on a trip.

Thankfully, their ships were as they'd left them. Ace cleared the fronds and then helped Sabo drag them back into the water, and then they both erased all signs of their tracks from the sand. Then, they dropped anchor just off the coast and settled on the deck to wait.

"So," Sabo began.

"So."

"He's alive."

Ace huffed out a laugh that was part amusement and mostly relief. "Yeah. He's alive." He leaned on the railing and stared up at the mountain. "Odds he sticks to the script you gave him?"

"Low. I'm mostly hoping he sticks to the idea that we're probably chasing him and she should look around for us on the water. If they look on the island, they'll almost certainly find our tracks."

"Not my fault that boar decided to charge us."

"It is your fault that you almost used your fire."

"I didn't!"

"Only because I got to it first. Honestly, you are not cut out for subtlety."

"Oi, we pulled plenty of subtle shit growing up."

"Remind me, how often did that end up with us throwing off our disguise and braining every witness with our pipes?"

Ace grumbled and refused to answer. Sabo leaned on the railing next to him and nudged his shoulder.

"You doing okay?"

"Fine. Like you said, he's alive."

"You were ready to burn the world down for him."

"And you weren't?" Ace dropped his gaze to the forest. "I'm fine, Sabo, really. I just needed to see that he was okay. The time travel shit, I've had months to deal with. Even had Marco teach me to meditate about it."

"You? Meditate?"

"Shut up, I'm decent at it."

"You mean, all those times while we were traveling together, it wasn't just a narcoleptic attack you'd had while sitting down?"

"Fuck off."

They shared smiles that died when something pinged off their observation haki. Sabo reacted first, and then Ace a second later. Kuja warriors, scantily clad but sporting weapons aplenty, emerged from the trees and stepped onto the smooth sand of the beach.

"Who dares trespass on the territory of Empress Hancock?" their apparent leader, a brunette with waist-length pigtails, demanded.

"Portgas D. Ace and Sabo," Sabo called. Unlike Ace, he'd stopped leaning on the railing when the new arrivals showed themselves. "We're looking for our brother. We hear he's somewhere on this island."

"You'd know him as Luffy," Ace added. "Straw hat, big smile, makes all kinds of trouble."

The Kuja exchanged looks. The bows and spears lowered.

"Tell her," the leader ordered another woman, who produced a snail and said some quick words to it. To Ace and Sabo, the leader said, "Stay where you are. You are not permitted to come ashore."

Ace must've grinned a little too wide at that because Sabo kicked him in the shin. He cursed and eyed his brother balefully. "What? Luffy did it. Hammock's on her way."

That comment, quiet as it was, earned him a hearty whack on the head. "Don't you dare say that to her face or I'll kill you before she gets the chance."

Hancock made her appearance a few minutes later, but not by land: by sea. Fitting, all things considered. Ace doubted someone like her would ever hitchhike through a forest. Her pirate ship dwarfed Sabo's small craft, making it look like a dinghy by comparison.

When Hancock stepped up toward the bow and Ace got his first look at her in person, he couldn't help the way his heart skipped a beat. In the two-piece red and white outfit, with that raven-black hair waving in the breeze and those golden snake earrings catching the sunrise, Hancock was every bit as beautiful as her bounty poster showed and then some.

The longer Ace looked, though, the easier it was to get himself under control. She was beautiful, but it was the kind of beauty that was so all-encompassing it crossed over into intimidating. Even without her Devil Fruit, she seemed perfectly capable of killing with her gaze alone. If he thought of her as a bejeweled dagger or a sword, something ornate but still kept razor-sharp, he could ignore the rest of himself too distracted to be useful.

It was a little gratifying to see a bit of a blush on Sabo's face too. Neither of them was immune.

"Ace, Sabo!" Luffy, who was apparently completely immune, popped up next to Hancock and waved.

"Luffy, good to see you!"

"Gum-Gum—"

"Oh, shit." Ace hit the deck. Sabo frowned at him.

"What are you—"

"ROCKET!"

A blue and tan blur slammed into Sabo and sent him careening into the aft cabin wall. The wood splintered and both Luffy and Sabo collapsed in a heap. Ace picked himself up, dusted off his hat, and replaced it at a properly roguish angle on his head.

"That," he explained. Sabo groaned.

"Hi, Luffy, good to see you too."

Luffy just laughed. Ace chanced a look at Hancock and shivered; she was looking at them with murder in her eyes. "Uh, Sabo?"

Clearing his throat and getting to his feet, Sabo chivvied Luffy up next to Ace. "Pirate Empress Hancock, it's an honor to meet you." He swept down into a bow, one hand reaching over to yank Ace down into a bow as well.

"It is," Hancock agreed. "You're Luffy's brothers?"

"Yes, we are. I'm sorry for any trouble he may have caused you; he can be quite a handful."

"Hmph."

With how hard he was straining against Sabo, Ace nearly stumbled when the pressure keeping him bowed vanished. He and Sabo both straightened. Some of the hostility had left Hancock's gaze, but it was more than made up for by the suspicion in all of the Kuja women on her ship and watching from shore.

"Hey, Hammock!" called Luffy. Ace and Sabo both winced, but Hancock just smiled at Luffy, a bit of color dusting her cheeks, and Ace had to catch himself before his jaw could hit the deck. "Can my brothers stay here too? We're gonna train together!"

"I guess he already explained he's not taking that ship anymore," Sabo muttered.

Hancock bit her lip, her aura at once shifting from intimidating to damnably cute. Ace pressed his nails into his palms and demanded he get ahold of himself. One day ago, he'd been fully prepared to kill her if she'd hurt Luffy.

Stoking the embers of his rage helped more than he thought it would.

Unaware of his internal struggle, Hancock put a hand on her hip and frowned. "I cannot."

"Aw, why not?"

"Men are forbidden on this island. Though you," warmth stole over her voice, "are welcome, anyone else," the ice was back, "will be tossed into the sea as food for the fish. At most, I would let them stay on the beach out of respect for their ties as your brothers."

Luffy crossed his arms. "There's not enough room to train on the beach."

"Train?"

"Yeah, I gotta get stronger, and they're gonna help with that."

Taken aback, Hancock put a delicate finger to her chin and thought for a minute, eyeing Ace and Sabo with an intensity that made them both shift their weight with discomfort.

"Rusukaina," she finally said.

Exclamations of surprise rose up from the Kuja tribe, of which Sabo took note.

"It's a nearby island we often use for training. You'll find no shortage of ferocious beasts and unforgiving land in its borders."

"Sabo?" Ace muttered, and he replied in kind.

"It's ideal; staying in the Calm Belt, and in this vicinity in particular, is about as close to off the radar as we can get. Any complaints?"

"No. An island full of wild animals sounds perfect, actually."

"I was thinking the same. Right, Luffy? It really will be just like old times."

Luffy practically bounced on his feet. "I'm gonna finally beat Ace! And Sabo!"

"Don't bet on it." Ace raised his voice so Hancock could hear. "We accept! We'll do our training on Rusukaina."

Hancock nodded. "I'll have my people prepare some supplies for you." Ace was under no illusions that the you encompassed anyone other than Luffy. "In the meantime, your brothers are to stay on their ship. I'll have my people show you the way when the supplies are ready."

Sabo sketched another bow. "You have our thanks, empress."