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Marineford is a massacre in all but its name.
Corpses mare the ground with blood, ash in the steaming hot air from explosions, weapons scattered and broken, debris thrown around on par with bitter words. It's war, in the primal sense of it, not yet painted over by some hubris of a poet, that claims the copper and sulfur have meaning, not yet overshadowed by boasting winners many years after, celebrating the deaths of enemies on the bodies of their own man. It takes and takes, and takes some more, and Ace still cannot fathom why anyone would willingly come here, to die beside him.
To die for him.
"It's stupid." He whispers in the raging sounds of battle, head held low. Defeated. He doesn't know if he wants to say something more, because his throat clogs as one of his sister's war-cry reverberates on par with other yelling.
"It's not." He hears Gramps say, and he hopes these words made him choke just like Ace himself.
Then, Luffy screams and there's a blur, his lungs are aching, his muscles burn, his arms are free, he's running from the execution platform as fast as his legs can carry him, and he hears his little brother laughing somewhere behind his back. The world rights itself, almost, and then again there's poison in his ears, and he knows that it's a trap, just like in Impel Down when guards came to gloat about one thing or another, but-
"It's going to be fine, right? They- they won't kill someone that important, right?"
Don't tarnish my family's name!
"How am I supposed to know?"
Don't make fun of people that came to protect my life!
"Don't sass me, you watched this before! I'm here because of you!"
Don't laugh at the lives lost!
"Maybe if you'd stop pausing the episode you'd know already."
Ace is spitting fire, because his life might not matter to him, but it matters to others and he'll be a fool to reject that truth any longer. Akainu doesn't care for his fire, though, because magma burns hotter, and Ace's anger may turn things to ash, but lava doesn't leave even that. It burns, and melts, and buries down under, and never lets go until years have passed, and there's nothing left alive.
He's starting, startling on his feet, and it's tauntingly slow how magmatic arms move towards his baby brother with intent not to just harm, but to kill.
"What's he going to do?"
Ace moves before the ringing in his ears subdubs.
"Watch and see."
His heartbeat is loud, veins pumping, struggling. The fire's on his heels leave soot on the ground, and he's not even sure his feet aren't bare. He doesn't feel the little rocks of concrete, doesn't hear the booms and cries around him, vision tunneled exclusively onto his target, his instinct, his drive.
Ace will make it.
"Wait, is he-"
"Shh-"
"Don't shh me-!"
He won't stop until he makes it. He has to make it.
"Don't you dare! Luffy won't fucking forgive you!"
"He can't hear you, dumbass."
Ace is so close, he only needs to-
"Don't jump in front, pull him!"
"He can't-"
Only needs to-
"PULL HIM!"
He-
"PULL HIM AWAY!"
Ace grabs Luffy and pulls.
Akainu's fist grazes them both, but Ace doesn't dare even breathe too slowly. He hauls his brother on his back as fast as his overworked body will allow, not pausing, not snarling, not caring enough to dignify the bastard with response or thanking Jimbei for the added support and his last second clutch. He should do it later, when they're not where they are, but now Luffy's muscles are quivering under his palms, shaking and stuttering. The battered state of his brother takes all focus away from the battlefield, and he skips over the unnaturally loud sound of relief and confused sputtering in his haste to provide Luffy much needed medical attention.
Ace promptly falls unconscious as soon as he hears that the little menace will live, because that's enough.
It's enough.
Luffy looks fragile and weak on the sheets of white.
Ace knows that the teen isn't, — and never was, — fragile nor he is weak, not when he was a seven year old and definitely not now, but the white of the bedding and bandages swallows his muscles, his skin, his self. Luffy is alway a tan skin and bright grins, always a sunny smile and equally sun-kissed face. It feels unnatural to look at something so deathly pale, blank as paper. Something so alien. Something so wrong.
"I'm telling you, it's not how it was supposed to go!"
His brother's hand is too cold between Ace's palms.
"Yeah? Maybe you just remember it wrong."
Ace feels like he failed. He's the (only) older brother, his job is to protect. Not be protected, not be in need of protection at all. It could've been avoided if only he listened, if only his head wasn't so far in his ass. He could've waited for the backup, or at least inform the crew about his location. He s hould've waited and continued stalking Blackbeard's every step, to pounce with all the might a wronged Sea Emperor could give, but-
"No, I know for a fact-"
But…
"To pull was definitely a smarter choice than jump to his death, and the guy didn't seem stupid."
Teach wanted to hurt Luffy.
The only bright spot in his ten miserable, miserable years. The only good he knew growing up. The only brother he will give the world to.
"He dug a pit in Alabasta like a goddamn dog-"
Blackbeard wanted to kill the Sun itself, and Ace could not allow that.
"And who wouldn't benefit from a good pit?"
Bandaged chest rises and falls. Steady. Strong.
"Listen-"
"Look, Sabo, the crybaby brother is all grown up now." He whispers teary, pulling the white-so-white hand to his forehead in the mockery of a prayer. The silence of the room is oppressing, stiffing, and Ace chokes on his breath. It shouldn't even be silent, not with Luffy, not even while asleep. There should be snores and stray hands flying over his face, there should be mumbles about food and delighted sleepy laugh about whatever dream is running in that rubbery head, not-
Not silence. Not this heavy, heavy silence.
"...Sabo?"
Ace flinches. His Observation Haki flares in all directions reflectively, trying to pinpoint the stray whisper that he missed in his grief, but no presence registers. No ripples of power, no pings of life.
Nothing.
For a second, he thinks he hallucinates.
"Ah, well. Normally I'd say you'll know later, but…"
Two stray voices, echo-y, with not-quite-here feel. Snail's transmission has a reverberating tone to it with a bit of rustling edge, a telling sign, but he can't hear that in these things. Not a recording either, because it was a question- question of his words. No one on his crew knows about Sabo, and the voices sound unfamiliar, and no one knows-
Ace whips his head, looking like a startled animal.
The room is empty.
"...But what?"
He stains his ears and the voices sound clearer than a second ago. He swallows hard.
The room is still empty.
"...Well, on the Dwan Island there was three-"
"Who are you?" Ace growled. His muscles are still trembling, if only slightly, but the adrenalin is singing in his blood with the need to shut the voices up. He feels his heart in his throat, stance not unlike a tiger hovering over its younglings, back pressed against the side of the bed.
Luffy's hand twitches at the lack of warmth.
The pause rings in the air with tension.
"...Did he-?"
"There's no way. Maybe we missed something while distracted-"
"I asked you a question!" He snapped again. He doesn't know if it's a miracle that no one had come to check why he was screaming like that.
The deafening silence resumes once again. The only sound Ace hears is his own, uneven breathing.
"Oh dear god."
Fire surges inside him, ready to incinerate anyone at his command. He's not sure what he's looking for, but the sparks crack at his fingertips, hostile and daring. I am a threat, says his body, his presence, his very soul. I am a threat, I am a threat, I am a-
"YOU CAN HEAR US!?"
Ace flinches at the sheer volume of that voice.
"Oh my god, he can! Look, look, he absolutely can hear us! He reacted to that, there's no way it wasn't that!"
"I see it, stop shaking me-"
"This is ridiculous!! Don't you understand!? This is completely insane!"
"Calm the hell down-!"
Luffy's hand grabs the frayed end of his shorts, face pitched and frowny, before Ace could yell again. He sees the muscle under the pale skin flex with spasms, but the palm does not let go, only roots itself deeper into the fabric. There's a new, pink-ish color on the bandages from where the wounds were aggravated, and his heart stutters, anger forgotten.
He lays one of his hands on the rubbery fist and his brother's expression smooths again instantly, but Luffy doesn't let go.
Ace's next breath is shaky.
He couldn't feel the presence still, Observation Haki coming completely blank. He wouldn't know when they decide to attack until they do, and he isn't sure he will be able to block it in time. It's a risk he was just not willing to go for.
Not with Luffy, defenseless and ashen, so near.
A wonderstruck laughter and a faint hiss of displeasure resonates across the room, making Ace tighten his hold on rubber arm. Fire licks his cheek, a faint puff of smoke coming out of his mouth, fingers twitching with nerves. He never ran from a fight. He hopes he can win this one.
"What do you want." He intones. Perhaps it'll be just gold, or his head. He can deal with that. He only hopes it has nothing to do with his brother, and the answer will be straightforward.
What follows, however, is a bark of Quiet! and a strangled yelp complete with a clear sound of a body falling from a stool.
No furniture in the room moved.
"We want nothing of the sorts you are probably thinking about."
The tremor in his hands subdubs.
"Oh." He says, hushed.
"Look, I don't know how to explain it, alright? I don't. It's- I'm not equipped to deal with this."
Ace stays silent, with sudden understanding
"...We want nothing."
He sags back on his seat. Then laughs without humor.
"Seas, I hope I'm hallucinating. Maybe I am." He hides his face in a palm, turning to face his brother's body fully. "You're not even real. I got worked up over an illusion. This is embarrassing."
The unreal voice sighs, weary and a touch heavy.
"If that's how you want to see this, then fine. We'll deal with it."
A whine rings aloud, and Ace's lips twitch upwards against his better judgment. It sounded so alike to Luffy, when he needed to do something he didn't want.
"But it's unfair!"
"This isn't for you to decide."
For some reason, he imagines the more childish voice to pout. The more mature one sighs again.
"Ace."
Ace ignores it.
"We're… one call away."
He lets them fade into the white noise.
"Your brother will be fine."
The room grows quiet.
"...Good luck."
The silence rings, unmoving once again.
"Please, live."
And then, Luffy opens his eyes.