Life and Times of Firefist Ace

The first time Ace met Gol D. Roger, world's worst father, he was offered a chance go back in time and protect the lovable, rubber-brained idiot he'd died for. Not thinking twice, Ace accepted, ready to kick ass, right wrongs and protect his family. A growing attraction to a messy-haired, dark-eyed little girl that's supposed to be his brother was not in the plan… fem!Luffy, AceLu

x

"By the Jolly Roger, this is a special kind of Hell."

The man that comment was directed to, a tall fellow with dark sideburns, a handlebar mustache and a grin that just spelled trouble, snorted. Ace ignored him as he continued to plead to whatever higher powers he had access to in this strange hellscape of white and grey and nothing else.

"Please take me away from here. I'm not even that bad a guy! Sure I was a pirate but I never attacked civilians! And I died to save my little brother. That has to count for something, doesn't it?"

"Sit down, boy. You're as impudent and disrespectful as your mother."

The words were spoken with nothing but fondness but there was a flare of light, flashfire bright and crackling ominously, at the comment. "You don't get to speak about my mother!"

The other man raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Portgas D. Rouge."

"She died because of you," Ace accused. The tall fellow closed his eyes, regret all too evident to an indifferent audience, before his face resumed normalcy.

"She died to give birth to you."

The younger man stepped back, acutely aware of his own chest being squeezed as sharply as when Akainu pulverized his heart, and his flames abruptly died out. "And the Gods punished me for my sins by bringing me here. To you."

"To your father," the other man pointed out. "Gol D. Roger. It's good to see you, Ace."

The Pirate King received a baleful look at that term of endearment. "My only father is Pops."

Ace's glare only strengthened when this was acknowledged by an accepting hum. "Whahahahahaha, you're not wrong there, boy. I owe Whitebeard his own weight in sake when I see him next."

"You'll be waiting a long time for that drink then."

"No, I'll not," Roger's tone became more gentle as his younger, near mirrored half stiffened. "I'm sorry, Ace."

There was a brief moment of silence, a stillness yet unbroken by a lifetime of son despising father, before Ace screamed. Fury, grief, regret, pain and guilt. It all poured out of him, a haunted creature in a boy's form, accompanied by flames so tall and bright, a pillar to the sun had been borne. It was a mark of how powerful Gol D. Roger truly was that he didn't move away. No, instead the man that single-handedly kicked off the Age of Piracy stepped forward, body coated in the blackened steel of willpower, as he hugged his son. It was the first embrace he'd ever given… and quite possibly the only one Ace would ever accept.

When the fire died off, tears replaced it and screams and fists and pleas. Roger stood unmoving. Eventually his son was slumped over, all of the fight having left him.

"Pops… my brothers…" Ace muttered hoarsely. "My fault. By the Buddha, this was all my fault."

His body trembled, still unable to fully contain the grief pouring out, as he raised his head. "Luffy?"

"Still alive for now. Another one of those Supernovas carried him out of the war ground but… it's not looking good."

If possible, Firefist Ace folded into himself just that little more at the announcement.

"I wanted to see you before you passed on." The maelstrom of emotions in his eyes were too difficult to interpret, though it was clear that it shook Roger to see his son. "I have a gift for you."

"I don't want it." A short laugh, bitter and hallow. "It's a little too late to play the father role, don't you think?"

"You'll want this gift," Roger stated firmly. "What do you know about the Will of D?"

"I don't need a history lesson from you, old man."

"As much as I love Rouge, I do wish you hadn't inherited her utter irrelevance for authority."

"I'm a pirate." Ace lifted an unimpressed brow. "You were the fucking King of Pirates."

"It's from your mother's side of the family," Roger steadfastly maintained. "Or Garp. I know I was desperate but maybe I should have thought twice before asking him to raise you."

Ace snorted, trying to pull himself away from the embrace. His father's arms refused to move, as unyielding as the wood from the Heavenly Adam Tree, and Ace was too tired to push any further.

"The Will of D was a trade off between mankind and the heavens. The Gods would give a certain portion of humanity the middle initial D, a promise to amplify the effects of their actions, in exchange for people of indomitable will to change the world. For better or worse, you were judged by how many lives you changed, how many people you inspired, how many storms you brought forth…"

"And I brought the biggest storm in the whole damned world."

"You died," Ace said flatly. "Congratulations."

"I died," Roger agreed. "And the Gods were impressed by how many people had their lives changed by only a few words from my mouth. They knew I had a will worth betting on and they offered me a chance to go back. A chance I never used."

"Why not?"

"I can't give you One Piece or the title of Pirate King. My crew is disbanded and you don't want my name. I couldn't even be the father that you deserved to have growing up," the Pirate King explained. "So… this is my gift to you. My only son, the child that Rouge loved more than anything in the world, even life itself. I want you to use the gift."

Ace stared at the older pirate, the man whose face he saw almost every day when he looked into a mirror, a face he utterly despised and felt a sliver of hope. "Go back?"

"It won't be the exact same world," Roger warned. "Changing time has ripple effects. A butterfly beat here, another push there and the world could be a very different place. You won't even remember that you're a reincarnation, at least not till you use haki for the first time."

"So not until I'm a pirate?"

"You didn't know you had haki until you were a grown man that exercised it consciously. I'd be damned insulted if any son of mine didn't use it at least once as a child though."

"Not your son," was the reflexive reply. "...I can save Pops? And my brothers? And Luffy?"

"You can try. I'd recommend not turning back to fight a Marine Admiral after months of captivity and torture but it's up to you, really."

Ace winced. It was a stupid decision, he knew, but damn, could his father be an ass.

"I accept." There wasn't any thinking over this really. He was a Whitebeard Pirate. He had a duty to save his crewmates. He was a big brother. He had a responsibility to wring Luffy's scrawny little rubber neck for being stupid enough to follow Ace into danger. What a reckless, goddamn fool.

First rule of older brotherhood: Do as I say, not as I do.

"Then I hope it'll be a long time till I see you again, Ace." Roger finally released him and stepped back, a small, wistful smile on his face. "Give your mother a smile for me alright?"

"I will. Thank you." A bright silver light erupted around Ace's feet, quickly travelling upwards and covering him in what felt like a cool mist, as he desperately tried to catch Roger's eye. Edward Newgate would always be Pops to him but this… "Dad."

A heartbeat later and Portgas D. 'Firefist' Ace disappeared.

Another few moments and a wriggling form with pinkish pale skin and tufts of raven black hair was being placed in an exhausted woman's arms. Looking up, as he felt wisps of memory sliding past his grip, Ace mustered all of his energy as a newborn and gave his mother an absolutely dazzling smile. Then he closed his eyes, not knowing that action startled the woman into exalted tears. That the midwife, Rouge's best friend and an inexperienced young woman who had snuck out of her home to assist in the secret birth, had to spend several minutes more comforting the woman. That the best friend would one day meet a man deeply intense and passionate and, having seen her friend's happiness firsthand, desire a child of her own. That the two young lovers would make an earlier attempt at conceiving one. That a different sperm would meet a different egg and a different child, still a descendant of D but lacking one vital aspect of another could-be life, was born.

It was definitely Ace's fault. He just couldn't figure out how.

x

Portgas D. Ace came into his own shortly after his eighth birthday. There was snow on the ground, not the pale winterland of the forest, but the grey, mushy stuff that seeped into your boots and turned your toes into icicles like in Grey Terminal. They were in Grey Terminal now, Ace and another boy, with curly blonde hair and a gap-toothed grin, fighting against half a dozen members of a local gang. Ace had just bashed one of the adult men firmly over the head, his outrageous strength knocking the lowlife out in one hit, before he unconsciously used Observation Haki.

Specifically his body registered another thug aiming a hit on Sabo, something that by all accounts shouldn't be visible to him, since the blonde was fighting at his back. Not missing a beat, Ace turned on one heel, lifted his metal pipe up and near cracked the man's skull in half. Luckily, he was the last member left and went down without a fuss. Unluckily, a sea train's worth of memories smashed into him at breakneck speed and Ace promptly went down.

Garp-Corvo-Sabo-Roger-Pops-Whitebeard-Marco-Thatch-Marineford-Akainu-Luffy-Luffy-Luffy-

"Oh fuck me sideways with a Sea King," Ace moaned, holding onto his throbbing skull. This felt worse than the one and only time he was stupid enough to challenge a regenerative phoenix to a drinking contest. "Marco, you bastard, I would trade my soul for your powers right now."

If Marco had powers right now. Did Ace even know when his brother ate that Mythical Zoan fruit?

"Ace?" Another brother's voice, painfully familiar and welcome after so many years of loss, numbed his ears. He looked to see Sabo's pretty boy blue eyes turned worryingly to his direction. "Are you okay?"

"Never better," the once-and-future pirate legend croaked. He threw himself forward, grabbing Sabo in a tight embrace and refusing to let him go, even with the ineffectual flailing. "I'm so glad you're alive, Sabo."

"Of course I'm alive!" A sharp rap of the blonde's pipe didn't do much to remove Ace but knowing that they were out in the open, in Grey Terminal no less, did. "Did you get a concussion or something?"

"What's the date?" Ace asked, instead of the more pertinent, 'Have we met our other brother yet?'

Sabo ignored him. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three. I don't have a concussion," Ace rolled his eyes, trying to disguise the mistiness to them. He held tightly onto Sabo's arm regardless.

"January 15th," Sabo reported suspiciously.

"Two weeks after my birthday then," the dark-haired boy looked the blonde over speculatively. He had met Luffy in August of his ninth year. Sabo looked roughly the appropriate age but it wasn't summer yet. "Year?"

Sabo looked astonished. And indignant. "You didn't tell me your birthday passed!"

"Well, it did. Now what year is it?" Ace asked impatiently. At the answer given, he made a few quick calculations. Luffy was five years old now… he hadn't even met Shanks yet. So he was nowhere near ready to meet Luffy. "Hey, come and live with me."

"What?" Sabo still looked at him like he was trying to find a socially acceptable way to check his head.

"Come live with me." So I don't have to be alone.

"Travelling to Grey Terminal all day is a bother." I'm going to worry about you here.

"You'll be able to handle the bandits." You'll like them more than your own family.

"I don't mind." I missed you.

"Are you sure?" Sabo's worry was melding over to shock… and longing. "I don't want to be a bother."

"You're never a bother," Ace replied firmly. 'I'm sorry that it took Bluejam and his men to realize what a dangerous situation I left you in. We rob from gangs everyday and then I leave to the safety of Mt. Corvo and you stay here, with people as likely to stab you in the back and strip your corpse as offer you a smile.'

Sabo looked away. "Guess you need someone to keep an eye on that concussion of yours."

"That's the spirit!" Ace cheered. "Now come on, let's see if these thugs have any loose change in their pockets."

Every little bit was welcome when you had gone from one of the wealthiest commanders of the most prestigious pirate crew around (it helped when the traditional pirate vices of whores and sake didn't appeal to you) to a scrappy bastard without a beli to his name. There was their pirate fund but Ace couldn't remember how much that contained at this point, beyond the certainty that it was nowhere near the tens of millions he had stashed around the New World before.

They collected everything of worth they found on the men, including a pair of semi-nice fake leather loafers that Mogra would like and a pocket knife for Dogra, before fleeing the scene. Ace led a mildly freaked out Sabo on a small detour to a nearby spring that attracted animal life and took down a mid-sized crocodile. Curly Dadan would like the meat and Pochi could feast on the bone marrow afterward. Ace knew that his considerate actions would freak the bandits out- terribly so, even- but with the added benefit of hindsight, he felt they deserved some courtesy. After all, Ace had been a goddamn terror to raise and Sabo and Luffy wouldn't be much better.

In retrospect, Curly Dadan must have liked them, at least a little. Anyone else in her situation would have chosen prison over having to raise Ace and his brothers.

"Are we going to use these to bribe them into accepting me?" Sabo asked nervously.

"Nah, they would need way bigger bribes to accept a second kid. We're telling them that you're staying and if they say otherwise, they'll have to deal with me."

Sabo very wisely did not ask why a group of hardened criminals would fear an eight-year-old boy. Though it may have been the dangerous gleam in his eyes, when Ace tapped his metal pipe against his hand. Either way, Ace couldn't help the small, irrepressible smile that took his face when he saw the oversized wooden shack of the mountain bandits. He had made so many wonderful memories here with Luffy and Sabo… and yeah, the Dadan Family had been in there somewhere.

Ace lifted a hand and knocked very politely on the door. It was slammed open and a man amongst men, with wild curly orange hair and a cigar on her lips, stood in front. Her eyes bugged out when she saw the two little boys there.

"A-Ace?" He responded to the shocked stutter- were manners that strange on him?- with a charming grin. It was one guaranteed to get either a flustered blush or a fondly indulgent smile, depending on the lady in question. Dadan simply stepped back two paces.

"Hello Dadan," Firefist Ace barrelled on. "I brought you a gift."

He gestured behind him to the massive, four meters long from tail to snout, crocodile he'd dragged here and left on the lawn. "How are you today?"

"Do you have a concussion?" The woman bluntly asked.

Under his breath, Sabo muttered. "Knew it."

Not looking away or losing his grin, Ace reached out his arm and jabbed the pipe into the soft spot between Sabo's armpit and ribs. His brother made a soft wheeze and the dark-haired boy inwardly treasured the sound. It had been so long since he had heard Sabo's over dramatic reaction to pain.

"This is Sabo. He's going to be living with us now." He couldn't use Conqueror's Haki or Armament or Observation- he had tried- but there was a presence that simply exuded from the boy. The authority he had exercised as a Commander for Pops and a Captain for the Spade Pirates had changed him. "These are some gifts for Mogra and Dogra. The shoes are for Mogra, the pocketknife is for Dogra."

The woman gaped at him. Behind her back, he could see the two bandits named crowding around, also looking like they'd never seen Ace before in their lives. The dark-haired boy offered a polite bow. "I know it's a bit belated but I want to thank you for raising me all these years. I truly appreciate it."

That triggered a reaction. Lips trembling and obviously trying not to cry, Dadan snarled at him. "JUST GO UPSTAIRS AND DON'T MAKE ANY TROUBLE, YOU BRAT!"

He smiled back brightly. "Yes, ma'am!"

"DON'T CALL ME MA'AM. I'M A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG LADY, YOU KNOW!"

A few hours later, as Ace and Sabo spread out their bedrolls, the blonde shook his head consideringly. "This is… different."

"Good different or bad different?"

"I don't know." Even in the darkness, he was sure Sabo would be shrugging. "It's different. But… I think it's the good kind. Sleep on your side, Ace. It'll help with your concussion."

"That's for pregnant women, idiot. And I don't have a concussion."

x

The next day, Ace woke up well before the first morning light, when the world outside was still shrouded in darkness. He had given the matter some thought. Should he approach Luffy now or wait until Garp dropped him off in a little less than nineteen months? He still hadn't come to a decision but if there was one thing he knew, it was that Ace desperately wanted to see his baby brother.

He was also strangely grateful that Thatch's death had taught him to muffle his nightmare screams into a pillow. The memory of Akainu's magma-covered fist coming down on Luffy's wide black eyes would never cease to haunt him. He hadn't thought he could ever hate a man more than Blackbeard but the sadistic and merciless Vice-Admiral proved him wrong.

Ace dressed quietly and efficiently in the dark, taking a moment to gurgle water through his mouth while inwardly despairing over the state of his toothbrush. He would have to replace that soon. And get a new futon while he was at it. It wouldn't beat his commander's quarters but anything was better than the scratchy, rag-thin one he had now.

"Sabo," the boy whispered, leaning down to where his brother was smothered under three blankets, one his own. "Sabo. I'm going out now. I'll be back with breakfast."

Unintelligible grumbling met his ears. Drool slipped out of the noble boy's mouth.

Exercising a restraint he hadn't developed until he set out to sea, Ace slipped out the door and headed over to the closest spring. He wanted to vent some of his lingering fury from the Akainu nightmare. Luffy had always been a sensitive kid, oddly enough for someone as selfish as he was, and he would mistake any negative feeling Ace had as directed to him.

Two juvenile tigers and a particularly grizzly bear served as catharsis for him. It wasn't until he was winding down from the fight that Ace even noticed the cold getting to him. Ugh, he had forgotten how unpleasant it all was. It would be years until he could get his hands on the Mera Mera no Mi again.

'At least I know no one else is likely to find it,' he consoled himself. The fiery Logia fruit had been an unbelievable stroke of luck, right at the bottom of an old mountain trail that he had accidentally wandered through. His sense of direction was quite as bad as Luffy's swordsman but it wasn't anything to write home about either.

The path to Foosha Village was a familiar one and when he reached the outskirts of the homes, tidy, well-built, all built the same as the last, dawn was starting to creep up. Most of the villagers were asleep at the moment but the few awake, mostly shopkeepers and farmers heading out to work, looked disapprovingly at the unfamiliar boy. Ace ignored them and headed to the only public drinking establishment in this small town: Partys Bar. It was closed.

'What? Why isn't Makino here?' The green-haired woman opened the bar at the first crack of dawn. She should be in there now, polishing tables and checking the inventory, while Luffy sat in a corner stool and drank his favorite orange juice. 'And if Makino isn't here, then where's Luffy?'

Before panic could set in, Ace's mind offered a reasonable answer. Makino had mentioned once that she got up earlier to open the bar since her house felt empty without Luffy around. Luffy hadn't been around since he had started living with Ace at Mt. Columbo. But before that, he had lived in Garp's house in the village, with Makino moving in to take care of him when the old man wasn't around. If she wasn't here, then Makino and by association, Luffy, would be at Garp's place.

Where did Garp live exactly?

Well, considering his adoptive grandfather's main traits were destructive and loud, Ace would bet on a house at the outskirts of the village. Anything else would have had him hunted down and strung up by a mob of villagers long before now. There would have to be a private place for him to train when he was home, near the sea or the forest. Probably a home bigger than average considering the salary Garp would make as a Vice Admiral, supplemented by his outrageous prize money from taking down big-name pirates.

'And a house that wouldn't be like anyone else's,' Ace concluded fondly, after a few minutes of jogging around the village. At the edge of the forest, just a few meters away from a rocky path leading down to shore, was a two-story house painted an eye-searing blue. The gaudy effect was counteracted somewhat by the white shutters and roof tiles, as well as the neatly grown vegetable bed (Makino's work), carefully trimmed fruit trees (Makino's work) and well-kept mailbox (definitely Makino's work).

He carefully let himself in through the fence, oiled and silent, considering Makino's attention to detail, and walked up to the door. It was a sunshine yellow that suited the cheerful nature of its residents. There wasn't a doorbell present, so Ace knocked. He could have peered through the windows or waited quietly until they left for the bar but he had a sudden desire to hear Luffy's voice. See that devil-may-care grin and marvel over those expressive eyes and punch him for his future self's actions.

'This time I'll beat the stupid straight out of him,' Ace promised himself fervently.

His perfectly reasonable plan came to an abrupt halt when the door opened. There was a girl standing there, with messy raven hair framing a pale, round-cheeked face and dark grey eyes. The hat was missing and so were the short-sleeved t-shirts and jean shorts, replaced by a pinkish-white dress of all things, but she was undeniably familiar. And wrong. So very, very wrong.

"Who are you?"

"Monkey D. Lucillia."

x