Chapter Text
Chapter 1 ,
It had been a nice sunny day out the the Moby dick. The nice and clear sunny skies and all of the crew members were working. Though most of them had rather had a bit less heat radiating from the sun, either way the crew was still happy for the nice beautiful day. The Moby Dick was being restocked, since they were heading to one of their territories.
"Is this the last box or is there another box?" Ace asked Marco as he clapped his hands to remove any dust in his hands. He was now watching as the rest of the crew were starting to board the ship. "Nope, I think Thatch is getting the last box with Izo - yoi." Marco said as he stretched his back a bit and sighed.
"Alright, finally I swear the took FOREVER." Ace sarcastically told Marco as he also started stretching but instead he started with stretching his arms forward. "Ace that was like 30 minutes max - yoi." Marco said with a little annoyance clear on face "Yea, yea." Ace was already walking away from Marco with his hands behind his head when he responded.
As Ace was walking away from Marco he saw the ships cook walking up to him. Ace put his arms down. " Hey thatch what's up?" Ace asked the chef that was walking towards him, but that was much closer than before."Hey Ace! The chef with the pompadour waved to Ace. " Did you finish loading up the last crate?" Ace quickly questioned the chef. " Yup, just finished it right now!" He replied back while lighting hitting the back of his brother.
" Hey Ace, what do you think, how about we pull a prank on Marco after we leave?" Thatch said while he put an arm over Ace's shoulder as he had a mischievous grin on his face. Thatch then started giggled a little bit. As he was asking Ace a little fiery bird overhead them." Thatch I swear if you do I'll chop your hair off - yoi." Marco yelled out as he overheard Thatch conversation with Ace.
Thatch gasped " You wouldn't dare!" Thatch replied back as he reached for his pompadour. Marco then rolled his eyes from the chef's response while he was turning away to head to his room. Ace started laughing as he heard Thatch and Marcos little talk. As Marco finally reached his room he then grabbed a supply was always the one that had to double check and make sure they got everything they needed.
He made sure that they would have enough to last around 3 weeks, or until they reach the island that they were heading towards. Marco walked out to go check out the crates and boxes that the crew brought in to make sure that they would have everything. Or that they would have enough to last them. While he was checking the materials that they were loading in, he then started hearing people shouting?
Marco raised an eyebrow. Shouting wasn't uncommon on the Moby Dick. But it was a bit unusual for shouting to started so early. So after putting the list of materials away he then started heading for the deck for the ship with a sigh.
"NAVY SHIP IS APPROACHING!" One of the crew members yelled out as they were running to the middle of the deck. All of the crew members started chatting about "who could be leading the ship?", "will it be a big crew?", will they attack first?"
Ace only smiled when he heard the news. He was now excited for the navy ship that was approaching the Moby Dick. "Finally some fun, after carrying all those boxes I can use a little bit more of a stretch ."
Ace said as he was starting to stretch while silently giggling to himself. The only thing he was thinking after that was how strong or weak the marines will be this time. Ace had hoped that they were a bit stronger this time.
The last time he had to fight the marines they had been really weak, well to Ace at least. Ace then looked at the clear sunny sky watching as some birds flew by, he was also now wondering about his little brother, Luffy.
ON THE NAVY SHIP
"Captain Luffy we're now heading towards an emperors ship, should we engage?" A new marine officer said as he was saluting to his captain. He was also shaking a little from fear. Luffy was a 17 year old boy who climbed up the ranks quickly. He was also the grandson of Garp, in which he was also know as the navy's hero.
"Which emperor is it?" Luffy asked the marine officer behind him. "Whitebeard's ship, sir!" The marine soilder said in a higher tone. Luffys smile grew when he heard whose owner of the ship it was.
Luffy had his hands behind his back watching the ocean. He had always wanted to see the legendary ship, the Moby Dick, as he faced the ocean Luffy stared hoping to see the ship. He had always loved the smell of salty sea and the wind as it blows through his face. But now he was excited for the fight that they would give.
Luffy then tuned around to face the Marine soilder behind him."I mean we should wait till we receive permission. Buttttt, let's just go ahead and attack. I can't wait to see how strong their members are! Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed out with his huge signature D smile. "Are you sure sir?" The marine said with doubt in his voice.
But that didn't matter to Luffy, he looked back to face the ocean. "If we 'somehow' get in trouble just say it was my fault." Luffy answered with a little shrug and annoyance in his tone. "Uhhh, alright sir. We'll start to engage against the emperor." The marine said with even greater doubt before he left.
"Shishishishi! Can't wait!" Luffy said in a lower tone meant for only him to hear but the marine heard him as well.
And there it was. The Moby Dick, and just the sight of seeing the legendary ship made Luffy feel excited.
"Captain, sir!" The marine then saluted to his captain.
"Yes?" Luffy turned back around to face his marine soilder
"We should be able to to board the ship in a bit!" The marine solider said as they were sweating a bit from being nervous. The marine was getting very nervous, since they were going to attack an EMPERORS ship after all.
"That's great news thank you." Luffy's smile only grew even bigger.
"Alright we're now in attacking range!" One of the other marine soldiers yelled out, the entire navy ship was now extremely loud, they were also screaming out orders. Orders for carrying out cannons and weapons for combat.
"Ok it seems you guys got this I'll go and attack straight on!" Luffy said as he was already stretching his arm to go on the top of the ship. " WHAT! CAPTAIN!" All of the marine soldiers started yelling for Luffy to stop.
As soon as Luffy reached the top of ship he stood there for a bit. He took a deep breath as he was smelling the salty air and he was also taking in the feeling of the salty breeze. Ignoring all of the nearby cannonballs that barely missed his ship.
He then slowly took in the salty air in a big breath. "Alright let's go! Shishishishi!" Luffy laughed out as he stretched his rubber arms to the sides of the ship. And then Luffy launched himself to the side of the Moby Dick barely missing from falling into the water.
BACK ON THE MOBY DICK
"Alright, I can't wait to start fighting some marines!" Ace excitedly said as he put his hands over his eyes almost as if it somehow let him see better. As Ace was looking at the Navy ship that was rearing its head, he saw on the side of the ship that there had been an explosion? No more like something fell?
Ace started to think that maybe one of the marines hit them with a cannonball. But just as he was thinking about if it even was a cannonball someone started speaking.
" Man I almost fell into the water! Shishishi!" A mysterious almost familiar voice came lurking around in the distance from the explosion laughed out. "What the?" Ace said as confusion took over all of his senses. As the person that seemed to have created the little explosion started getting up Ace started to get into his fighting stance. " Man and I just cleaned my clothes!" The mysterious marine said with annoyance in his tone as he was also wiping off the dust from his clothing.
"Who are you?!" Ace loudly asked the man who was standing in the dust of the explosion. As the smoke was slowly starting to disappear he could see a thin male figure with a straw hat. " Oh, hi my name is Captain Monkey D. Luffy!" The mysterious man now revealed himself as Captain Luffy. " Luffy?" "Yup that's my name!" Luffy said proudly as he put his hands on his hips as he announced to everyone on the deck of the ship.
Ace couldn't believe that the marine captain who was in the slowly disappearing dust cloud in front of him was supposedly his little brother, Luffy."Yea, but Luffy I thought you said you wanted to become a pirate? Plus you even wanted to become pirate king! You wouldn't shut up about it." Ace said as he was now reminiscing about all the times that Luffy told him he would become pirates king.
Ace was now looking at the so called 'Luffy' person in front of him was trying to mess with him. As the cloud of dust finally fully cleared he saw him. Ace saw Luffy. The same Luffy who would never shut up about his dream about becoming a pirate. Ace Crowe for a moment as he got a good look at the captains face." What? Do I know you? Cause I don't think we've ever met?" Luffy asked the man in front of him claiming to have known him.
Ace has now stopped his fighting stance as he looked at his younger brother claiming that they've never met before. He was so confuse that he wasn't even focusing on the battle near them anymore. " Hey Ace stop chatting with the marine and attack him!" A blue fiery bird said above him as he was attacking the marines that tried to board the ship.
" Sorry Marco but not right now." Ace responded back in a low tone to the fiery bird that flew in the sky. The fiery bird nearly heard Ace. If the wind blew any harder he would've missed the words Ace spoke to him. Marco looked at Ace for a moment to see if he was in trouble but instead all he saw was his brother talking to marine?
Marco then went away to continue to fight the other marines who were still fighting and boarding the Moby Dick." Luffy do you seriously not remember me?" Ace asked the boy wearing a straw hat who was standing in front of him. " I mean no? Not really. Cause I think I would remember if I ever met you?" Luffy answered with confusion in his voice.
Luffy was wondering if he did ever meet the man and might've forgotten but he was sure he would've remembered a man like him. Ace looked at Luffy like HE was the crazy one in this conversation. " L-luffy? I'm your brother? How do you not rem-" Ace at this point sounded and looked a bit desperate. Luffy interrupted ace mid way through his sentence.
" You're just trying to mantis- wait no man uhhh what was it?" Luffy had stared his sentence out strong until he forgot what word it was he trying to tell Ace. Luffy had just stopped talking and was trying to remember what word was that Ace was trying to do to him. " Do you mean manipulate?" Ace asked Luffy with a little bit of awkwardness. Luffy then pointed to Ace. "YES!" Luffy yelled out as if Ace had just solved his never ending hunger.
Ace laughed a little bit as he remembered all the times this would happen when they were younger. And when they still had sabo. Ace frowned a little as he remembered his other brother. But he pushed those thoughts aside as he was focusing on why Luffy joined the marines, and why Luffy didn't remember him. " And no Luffy I'm trying to manipulate you." Ace said as he sighed and facepalmed himself as he remembered the conversation they were having.
" Ok this is getting really confusing let's just fight already!" Luffy announced as he was getting ready to fight. " Luffy how about we calm down a bit?" Ace asked the boy who couldn't remember him as Ace put his hands up trying to show Luffy that he wouldn't attack him. " Yea right!" Luffy called out while he was already starting to attack Ace in multiple directions. "Woah!" Ace had barely dodged one of the rubber attacks that Luffy threw at him.
"Come on just fight back already! Stop dodging!" Luffy shouted out with irritation clear in his voice. Ace could start to tell that him dodging all the attacks instead of attempting to strike back at Luffy, was really starting to anger the marine. "GUM GUM GATLING!" Luffy attacked Ace in multiple directions and Ace dodging every single attack. ' What the hell when did he get so fast? I mean he fights the same just faster, and I guess a bit more aggressive, and more accurate. But I mean it's still the same?' Ace wondered as he slowly began to observe more closely to Luffy's attack.
Ace was getting tired of dodging so he decided that he would fight back, even if Luffy didn't remember him right now. " Fine if you want me to fight I will then!" Ace was then engulfed in flames as he started to shoot fire like bullets through his fingers. " Finally I can't wait to see how well you fight!" Luffy started grinning as we entered his fighting stance for second gear.
Ace looked at the fighting stance that Luffy used wondering if he got better after he left him alone on the island, or if he got better during his time at the navy. Ace grew on a frown when he wondered if he got stronger during his time in the Navy. Ace tried once more to ask his brother about him abandoning his dream."Luffy what happened I thought you wanted to become a pirate!" Ace yelled out as he stopped attacking for a moment before adding something else.
" You even wanted to become pirates king! So what happened you said you'd never become a marine!" He shouted a bit more desperately, he wanted to believe that Luffy was just playing a prank on him, like old times. But he knew he wasn't lying.
FLASHBACK
"The three of us are gonna leave his country. We're gonna sail the seas and see the world! And once I've done it all im gonna write a book for kids like me! Cause studying is fun!" A little boy wearing a top hat and blonde hair yelled out to ocean. "When you're learning about adventure, and we're gonna have LOTS of them!"The blonde boy stopped for a bit before he said " WE'RE GONNA BE PIRATES!" The blonde boy added before a little boy with raven hair walked closer to the edge of the cliff.
A little boy with a straw hat laughed a little bit after hearing the top hat wearing boy.
" I'll be so tough that all pirates and all of the marines will bow at my feet! EVERYONE WILL KNOW MY NAME! That'll be the legacy I leave behind when I die! " A young boy with raven hair holding up a beaten and very dirty old pipe shouted out louder than the blonde boy. He added one more thing " I don't care if people hate me, I don't care if they wished that I'd never been born! But they won't forget me! That's what it means to be strong to be a great PIRATE!" The raven haired boy yelled out to the ocean same as the blonde boy.
The straw hatted boy laughed again as he ran to the cliff where both the blonde and raven colored brothers were at. " Then I know what I'm gonna be too!" He stopped for a moment while he was gathering all the air around him in a deep breath before he yelled out with all of his might. "IM GONNA BE KING OF THE PIRATES!" The boy with the straw hat merely laughed. Both of the brothers who were behind him were a bit flabbergasted and shock for moment before they started laughing.
" You dork. You just gotta try and up show me up, don't ya?" The raven haired boy sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. "Hahahaha. I don't know if you'll be king! But I know you'll do something crazy, that's for sure!" The blonde boy laughed out as he went back to laughing with his hands on his belly.
BACK TO THE PRESENT
Ace was still fighting Luffy, seeing Luffy fight for the marines instead against them made him feel sick, and seeing him give up on his dreams broke Ace, not physically but it broke him emotionally. Ace never thought that in a million years that Luffy would ever decide to join the marines, much less forget his own brother. As Ace was reminiscing about the dreams of all of the 3 brothers it made Ace feel melancholy. Ace stopped fighting for a second.
" Come on Luffy please. I know you didn't forget me." Ace told Luffy desperately one again, as of saying those words would help Ace figure out why Luffy gave up on his dream of being a pirate. No, more like forgot his dreams and forgot his own brothers. " I already told you I don't know you!" Luffy shouted out as he continued to attack Ace, and it felt like he was getting more annoyed at Ace.
" But I'm your brother? How could you not remember? What about the oath we made when we were kids!" Ace yelled back to Luffy, Ace was starting to get very annoyed at him. Ace just couldn't stand Luffy saying he didn't remember him, especially the oath that they made. The oath they made with Sabo.
" Brother? Gramps never told me I had brothers?" Luffy told Ace but it had sounded much more like a he was questioning himself. " Gramps? Do you mean that old bag of bone?!" Ace asked Luffy as if he was starting to make sense of the entire reason that Luffy was with the marines. " How do you him?" Luffy questioned the man fighting against him saying he knew his grandfather, which was Garp the Navy's hero.
"OF COURSE I KNOW HIM!" Ace growled through his teeth. Ace at this point was on his last straw, he started to turn his knuckles into tight fists. Ace then started to attack Luffy with much more force than before, Luffy could also begin to tell that he wasn't holding back as much anymore.
Luffy ignored what Ace yelled to him as he instead started focusing on the fight as Ace was starting to get a bit more serious now, as he was fighting him he felt a little bit of familiarity with his attacks.
Luffy was getting confused and comfortable? It was almost as if they've fought before? But Luffy never met him. Right?
"Shishishishi!" Luffy just laughed as he started to actually enjoy the fight with his supposed 'brother'. As Ace kept throwing fire bullets at him, Luffy kept jumping around like a monkey swinging from tree to tree. As the fight kept on continuing even though many marines and pirates kept interfering with their fight.
It made Ace smile. Seeing his younger brother smile and have fun while fighting just like old times. But it couldn't make him forget that Luffy couldn't remember him at all, or that he was fighting on the sides of the marines . He was even the CAPTAIN of the navy ship. A caption for the marines.
A MARINE! That was like telling Ace that the red apple he loved were never red but instead neon pink. Ace just couldn't believe that the CAPTAIN marine he was fighting on the Moby Dick was his younger brother. Luffy of all people! The boy who said he'd want to become a pirate. A pirate king no less. Ace knew his brother never EVER dreamed of becoming a marine, it made him sick just thinking about how wrong it was.
"You know you aren't as bad as I thought!" Luffy smile grew as he started to actually have fun in his fight with Ace. "You too you've gotten a bit better!" Ace called back as he started to remember all of the times that Luffy would break a tree as he kept on missing the none moving target's which was mostly Ace and Sabo.
He smiled at the thought of that. As the fight continued to carry on Ace took a little broken up pipe and engulfed it with flames and continued to attack Luffy. He then aimed for his upper torso but Luffy somehow managed to escape the attack. Luffy realized that he had just dodged an unexpected attack, it was almost as if he FELT it coming. But how?
Luffy never met the man before, was what the man told him true? Had he truly met the man before, if so why couldn't he remember? Especially if he is saying he's his brother.
But Ace started to notice something weird happening with Luffy, his movements were slowly becoming more sluggish and they were also becoming easier to dodge, he then started slowing down a little.
" Hey don't tell me after all that yelling you said about you actually wanting me to fight you, was a joke? Are you already getting tired?" Ace said to Luffy in a sarcastic tone as he giggled while he was still continuing to throw attacks to him. " Ha! You wish I'm only just getting started!" Luffy yelled out while he continued to attack with "full" force against Ace.
As the battle between both sides continued it became painfully obvious that the Whitebeard Pirates were winning against the Marines by mile. More and more Marines were falling down from the overwhelming power from the Whitebeard Pirates.
" How boring. I thought that this batch of marines would AT LEAST be more powerful." One of the commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates sighed he was with a face of makeup and who was wearing a beautiful purple kimono. The commander continued to sigh as he sat down in top of a box as he put his head to his hand as he continued to watch the battle currently underway.
"Well at least the rest of them are getting their training." As a fairly short male wearing a green shirt with ruffles and white pants commander walked closer to the man complaining on the box. An annoyed sigh can be heard from the commander sitting on the box. " I mean yea I guess, but these guys aren't even worth to being target practice!" The commander said as he waved his hands up showing his double pistols in both his hands.
" Aww, come on Izou don't be like that!" The shorter commander said as he tried to convince Izou to not be so sad about it. " Shut up Haruta." Izou sighed while glaring at Haruta." Imagine how much better they'll be!" Haruta said as he moved to show the few of the little battle of the quickly declining numbers of marines and the pirates clearly winning.
"Ugh" Luffy reached for his head.
It felt like someone shot a cannonball straight to his head. Or for more of a Luffy comparison, like Garps fist of love but it had been 3 times in one row. Ace stopped fighting for a moment as he saw his little brother in pain. "Luffy, are you ok?!" Ace called out for him but Luffy couldn't hear him anymore.
His head was no longer in the fight, but was instead in his head as the pain from his head continued to grow and grow.
He didn't know what was happening. Luffy had never experienced this type of pain before especially with his head. He then fell to his knees as the pain from his head was getting too much to handle. Ace ran up to his brother who was on his knees, and had his hands on his head almost as if the boy thought his own head was going to explode. "LUFFY!" Ace called out once more before running up to his brother who was in deep pain.
Ace ran to his brother attacking any marine who tried to keep him away from their captain. As Ace finally arrived to where his brother, he realized that he was in horrible pain he crouched down and out his hands on Luffy's shoulder. "Luffy are you ok?" Ace asked him with worry as he saw his brother grabbing his head in pain and not answering him.
Luffy then started grunting in pain as the still growing pain was constant. He never did answer the question. Luffy looked up to see an older man looking at him with concern clear in his face. His face soften a bit as he saw Luffy looking up at him. "Ace?" Luffy told the man but in a way that made it seem that he wasn't sure if the man he was in front of him really was Ace. "Yes Luffy? I'm right here what do you need?" Ace asked his hurting brother in a hurry almost as if he thought that Luffy would somehow disappear and he would never see him again.
"Help me…" He said as dark spots danced wildly all over the place. He saw Aces face turn pale as the dark spots slowly grew and grew. He also saw as Ace started yelling at him? Maybe. Luffy wasn't to sure about it . And that was all Luffy could remember.
AFTERWARDS
"Help me…" Ace saw as Luffys eyes slowly slid down lower each second until his eyes were fully closed. And during every second Ace would tell for him to stay awake. "LUFFY STAY WITH ME!" Ace called for Luffy time and time. But it never did work in the end. Ace then saw as his fully closed and his breathing slowly evened out. "MARCO!" Ace shouted for the fiery bird as he saw him beating up the last of the marines.
"What happened - yoi?" Marco asked as he saw his brother holding a passed out marine who was surprisingly a captain for his age. "I don't know! We were just fighting and hen he started having like headaches. And it looked like it hurt really bad! And then he j-" Ace got interrupted as Marco put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from rambling any further.
"Calm down a bit - yoi." Ace looked up behind him as saw Marco giving him a small but gentle and warm smile. Marco right now saw Ace as his little brother who was panicking over something right now. So Marco needed to help both of them, as best he could. "Let me take a look at him, ok - yoi? Marco asked Ace as he walked a bit closer to the captain.
"Yea.." Ace said as he brought his eyes down towards the brunt wood planks underneath them. Just as that moment he realized that he'd forgotten to keep his flames under control. As Ace was realizing his mistake, Marco instead started focusing on the young thin marine captain who his little brother supposedly knew. Marco bent down to get a little closer.
He put his hand over the boys head, as blue flames quickly grew in size, they never did start burning, more like warming the cool ocean breeze. " Don't worry. He should be fine - yoi"