Okay I lied. I had a little bit more to get out there.

Epilogue

Someone had told him once, years ago, that the shivers that ran up his spine when nothing was around to cause it meant that someone was walking across his grave. It was a weird saying attached to a funny feeling that gave it a vague sense of foreboding.

Now, standing in front of his own grave, Ace was a little disappointed that he didn't't feel any shivering at all. Just a bit of melancholy. On the cross was his favorite orange hat, a gift from Luffy all those years ago, his belt and dagger, and a necklace that he had been sure Akainu's fist had broken two and a half years ago.

"I gathered the beads," Marco said, as if reading Ace's mind. He was good at that. "Haruta tried to help me string them back together, but I didn't let her. I felt like- like I had to do it. On my own."

Without looking, Ace grabbed his hand.

"Thank you," he said. He looked at tomb, where they had erected a grave with his name on it. It was weird, he felt like it should have been more horrifying, to see where he had supposedly been laid to rest. Instead he just felt bitter that his family had had to erect it in the first place.

He and Marco still hadn't been to see the others yet. Marco had explained, after his memories returned, that he was now leading the Whitebeard Pirates. After his crash into the icy islands and the ensuing months they had to spend together (which, Ace did not mind at all) Marco had wanted to give Ace a chance to ease back into the swing of piracy before throwing him to the metaphorical sharks.

He was also probably well aware of the fact that the instant they had settled Ace was going to want to hunt down Teach, as well as that had gone before.

All of these thoughts were really just Ace procrastinating looking slightly to the right. Wind caught the massive white coat and pulled it, reminding the young man of the fact that he couldn't put this off forever.

Ace breathed in the tepid air, trying to acquire some modicum of calm.

He lifted his eyes, slowly, to the monument built for his father. His real father. The one that loved him regardless of his origins, taken him in and offered to share his family. Edward Newgate was the only father that Ace had ever known.

And I got him killed.

Ace couldn't breath around the knot in his throat.

"Pop's… I'm so-"

"Don't you dare."

Ace swallowed tensely and looked over his shoulder. Marco's gaze, normally half lidded and lazy, had sharpened. A gaze golden now outside of a phoenix transformation, a sign of how intensely Marco felt about Ace's near apology.

"Marco…"

"Don't. Pops died for you, Little Oars jr. did too. Don't disrespect their love for you by apologizing for their willing sacrifice. If Luffy told you he was sorry he survived after you died for him, how would you feel?"

Ace worked his jaw slowly. The guilt in his heart wasn't alleviated, not a bit, but he knew the truth in Marco's words. If Luffy apologized for living-

Luffy.

Ace looked away from Marco, back to the grave. He bowed his head to hide his dampening cheeks. Where was his hat when he needed it?

"Thank you," he said instead. "For being a wonderful father. I-I love you, pops!"

Ace could have sworn that he felt a massive hand weighing down on his back, warming his shoulders. A familiar laugh was carried on the wind.

"I love you too, my son! "

"Man, Luffy is going to lose his shit when he sees me."

Marco glanced over at Ace, who was very meticulously applying makeup to hide his freckles. He had taken to tying his long, flowing hair into a loose bun behind his head these days, and even in the warmer climate of Dressrosa he had his throat covered with the thick white scarf that fluttered behind his back when he ran. It wasn't much of a disguise, in terms of effort, but often times the best ones were the easiest. Not to mention the fact that Ace had died, publically been executed, two years ago. Most anyone who saw him now would just assume they were crazy, or that there was just a strange resemblance between him and the young pirate prince.

Pirate Prince, now that was a strange thing to think.

At this point, it was more accurate to call Luffy the prince, seeing as he would be the next King and all.

"Does your brother know that his hat belonged to Roger?" Marco asked abruptly.

Ace's head snapped towards him. The younger pirate stared at Marco open mouthed. So Ace hadn't known either? Not that surprising. Ace hadn't even been born when Roger died.

"Ah. Never mind then," Marco waved his hand to dismiss his words. Ace was marginally less sensitive about his lineage since he regained his memories, Marco could only guess why. That was the only reason there hadn't been an outburst of Ace's Issues with the dead king.

"Wait, does that mean Shanks was on his crew?" Ace turned towards Marco. Marco handed him his combat boots.

"Shanks? Yeah, he was Roger's apprentice back in the day. Trouble maker back then. Not much has changed," Marco shrugged casually. This was all old news. Roger had always been pretty good at keeping his cabin brats out of the limelight, so the government and therefore the public didn't know about his relationship. Still, he thought…

Well, it didn't matter what he thought.

"Who knew," Ace shook his head. He needed it clear for what they were about to do.

"For the record, I'm against this," Marco said for the millionth time.

For the millionth time Ace replied, "That won't stop me. Lu needs to know I'm okay."

"Just… be careful," Marco must have let some of his genuine worry leak into his voice because Ace's expression softened. He crossed what little space there was in their cheap hotel room and sat next to Marco, close enough they were pressed side to side.

Marco couldn't help it if he worried. He had already lost so much already. He had barely kept the crew together in the last two years and even now most of them were in hiding after the disastrous attempt at revenge.

The attempt he'd lead them in.

A strong arm draped comfortably across Marco's shoulders.

"We sure are a pair, huh?" Ace joked. "What would Pops say?"

Marco snorted. "He'd tell us to get our heads out of our asses and start acting like pirates."

"Yeah. So what are we doing sitting on our asses? We've got trouble to stir up!"

Marco shook his head and leaned on Ace. He didn't like this, the whole thing smelled like a trap. As if the devil fruit wasn't enough proof of the fact that they were luring people in, the whole country was populated by living toys. It made Marco's skin crawl.

He still had a lot of questions in regards to the fruit, and exactly what had happened with Ace. People didn't just disappear in a flare of red when they were supposed to be dead. Accounts of devil fruit were rare and far between, so he just assumed that it had something to do with the Flame Flame Fruit. And, Ace still had his fire power.

So, either the fruit that was being offered as a prize was a fake, or they were missing something important about Logias.

Thinking about it, Marco had never heard of a logia user dying.

There was so much about devil fruits that no one knew, so much that they didn't understand. Even to the people who had eaten them, even to people like Marco, who had seen thousands of devil fruit in his long life didn't know that much about them.

Marco sighed and gently shoved Ace. He pushed a ski cap into his hands.

"Get going. You're in A block yeah? Be careful and remember-"

"No fires, I know, I know," Ace held up his hand and an exhasperated surrender. He flashed Marco a guileless smile and, with a parting kiss, ran off through the door with his scarf pulled up over his mouth.

Marco had a very bad feeling about all of this.

Ace had had a good feeling about this, at the start of the fight.

By the time he was on his knees, gulping in air while the crowds screamed around him, his opinion had changed a little.

Mr. Store lay on the ground in front of him, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Blood dripped down a cut on his temple, saturating the brown paper bag that covered the rest of his face. One of his arms was bent at the wrong angle and the rubber on his boots had melted at some point. Hopefully no one would notice, what with the whole undercover thing.

Ace was breathing so hard he felt cold from his lungs outwards, only combated by his devil fruit abilities. Ace lifted his clenched fists above his head, tilted his face towards the sun a roared his victory for the world to hear.

He hadn't thought the fight would be that hard. Everyone else in the block had fallen easily, but this Mr. Store just would stay down. Ace had to give credit where it was due, not a lot of people could take what he had dished out.

In the months since he had come back from the grave he had been training his ass off in a desperate attempt to get back to where he was, and to surpass that level entirely. If he couldn't, he didn't have the right to sail the seas. The New World was a place where only the strong survived, and Ace would not be a burden on Marco while they travelled together. So he trained, harder than he ever had in his life.

He would have been stronger if he hadn't spent the last two years doing little more than running around a snow island, chopping wood and helping fix houses. But, he was stronger than he had been before, finally.

Strong enough to clear the coliseum block without using his devil fruit powers once.

...well, maybe once. Just to give him a little bit of leverage in that last bout.

Ace rocked unsteadily to his feet. He'd taken more damage than he'd wanted too. Marco was gonna be pissed when he got back. Actually, from the dark glower that was clouding his face from where he sat in the crowd, he was already pissed. Great.

Ace smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. His bun had almost come loose. God, he needed a haircut. After he wasn't in hiding any more he was chopping it short again.

Luffy was here too. It had been impossible for Ace to miss him fighting in B block. This was going to be fun, he could already tell.

His good feeling only got better when he saw a flash of a gold helmet and a white beard turn through the same tunnel he was going through. Now, Ace had a plan when he came there. Beat everyone, show the world he was alive and challenge Luffy to meet him 'where the sea meets the sky'. He was pretty confident that, even if Luffy couldn't figure it out, that clever navigator of his would understand that there was a knock up stream around the next island.

Ace wanted a little bit of privacy for their reunion.

All those plans went out the window the second he realized he was within walking distance of his little brother. His little brother.

God, what was he ever supposed to say to him? He had speeches rehearsed in his head, excuses, apologies, pleas. But they all boiled down to thanks. Thanks that he had already given Luffy, given all of them on his deathbed. Er, death brick?

Ace grimaced and halted at the doorway to the place where the gladiators who won were all gathering. He clenched his hands into fists. Why was this shit so hard?!

It had been easier when he hadn't known just how badly he'd fucked everything up in the past. It was almost enough to make him long for those days where the past was nothing more than the white wind the blew outside, untouchable, cold and dangerous.

Marco vanished in the crowd, also disguised though his was just some sun glasses and he actually buttoned his shirt up for once. He reappeared right above where Ace was hesitating, head poking out from the bricks that made up the colosseum. The whole place had a weird feel to it. It reminded him of walking on an iced over lake. Stable, with something lurking beneath the surface.

"Hey!" Marco tossed a pebble at Ace's head. "Get going already."

Ace rubbed the point of impact, like it had actually hurt, and made a face up at Marco.

"Maybe I don't want to," he crossed his arms over his chest childishly.

Marco rolled his sleepy eyes, looking utterly bored with Ace's antics and indecision. For someone who was so bullheaded all of the time, when Ace's self esteem issues reared their ugly head the cure was hard to find.

"Just go see him. Talk to him, if nothing else. He doesn't even need to know your name."

That was… a good point.

Ace fiddled with the dagger strapped to his hip. He'd taken that, and his hat and his necklace, off of his grave. He didn't feel quite right without them, now that he knew they had been missing. It was a hollow mourning he hadn't even known he'd been going through.

"Okay, okay," Ace took a breath, squared his shoulders, and walked into the darkness.

Luffy had a habit of picking up weird people. Really, weird people. Ace stared at the guy in the diamond patterned pants and the red jacket. Honestly the most normal thing about him was the green hair. Those teeth.

Ace made a face.

He hadn't meant to take so long to catch up to Luffy, but removing the makeup that hid his freckles and then tracking the boy down took more time than he wanted it to. Which was how he had gotten there just in time for the green haired weirdo, Bart or Romeo, he hadn't been paying attention, to declare that he would win the Flame Flame fruit on Luffy's behalf.

"That's pretty bold talk, for a rookie," Ace chided. The sound was muffled by his scarf. "Maybe I'll win."

The green haired man stomped towards him, half slouched over. Even like that he towered easily over Ace. Ace didn't so much as blink. He hadn't planned on having audience. On top of this guy, someone else was walking down the hallway towards them. Ace glanced over. An uncomfortably familiar hat bobbed in the dimly lit tunnel.

The 'S' on his arm itched.

"Who do you think you are? Do you know who I am? I'll win the fruit for him for sure!" he roared, pointing at Luffy. Ace peered around his shoulder and waved. It was all he could do. Even with the goofy disguise the dark brown eyes that squinted at him were unmistakable.

All Ace could manage was a strangled, 'hey Lu.'.

He cleared his throat, ignoring the way that Luffy's eyes got just a little bigger. The scar on his chest throbbed painfully. This was Luffy. Luffy, who he'd caused so much pain. He probably would have been better off if they never even me-

Being alone is worse than any pain.

Ace mentally shook himself. This wasn't the time for his self deprecation. Luffy needed to know. He needed to know that Ace hadn't broken his promise. He needed to know he still had one brother left in this world.

"I'm afraid," the stranger in the top hat said, coming to a halt next to them, "That I can't let either one of you win the Flame Flame Fruit." A thin smile slid across the half shadowed face. "Straw Hat Luffy."

So this guy recognized his little brother too? Ace shifted on his feet, freeing a hand from his pockets. He lay his fingers around the hilt of his dagger. He wasn't the only one defensive of Luffy, the green guy swaggered over, baring his teeth.

"Who the hell are you supposed to be? Where are you from? You can't talk to him so casually!"

Ace sighed. Where did Lu find these people? He was a magnet for outcasts, oddballs, and victims of misfortune.

Oh, he was still talking.

"He's the brother of the legendary Fire Fist Ace! Of course he'll get the fruit!"

At that, Ace couldn't stop it. He laughed. All eyes snapped to him. He held his hands up, placatingly.

"Ah-ha, don't mind me. It's just, that fruit up there is fake. The real ones already been eaten."

"How can you laugh at his tragedy!" the green man screamed in Ace's face. Ace put his hand on his cheek and shoved him hard enough to send him into a wall.

The man stumbled away. Ace hadn't actually hurt him. He was a friend of Luffy's, after all. "You can't- He's going to be King of the Pirates one day!"

Ace smiled. Luffy kept finding these people with so much faith in him. So, weird or not, he could give the green guy his support.

"Oh, I've known that since way back," the strange waved his hand in a gesture that was a little too familiar. There was something about him… Ace could swear he knew him, but the only real resemblance was impossible. So, who was he?

Before Ace's eyes, the top hat came down. A fluff of blond hair appeared, an ugly scar that Ace recognized as being from fire painted his face. A face that, even twelve years older Ace would recognize anywhere. His throat closed up, squeezing a hiss through his teeth.

That was-

"Sabo."

Past that he couldn't hear anything they were saying, the words no more than static in his brain. Ace could only watch, jaw dropped from behind his scarf as Luffy, tears and snot pouring down his face, launched himself at the blond. Sabo was- Sabo was-

Sabo was alive.

Ace felt like he was a world away, no more than a bystander as Sabo turned his head and gasped for air, being strangled by Luffy's rubber hug.

"B-but Sabo!"

Luffy's sobs finally broke through the white noise machine that had replaced his ears. His heart wrenched his chest when Luffy poured his words out.

"I let Ace get killed right in front of me!"

Ace took an unsteady step forwards. He didn't know if he wanted to hug or beat the shit out of both of them.

"I know," Sabo's smile didn't fade at all. "Even still, I'm so happy you survived. I almost lost both of my brothers. If you had died, I would have been completely alone."

"No!" the word burst past his lips. Sabo and Luffy looked over at him, one bawling his eyes out, the other happy as composed as he was. Ace gripped his white scarf with shaking fingers. His own eyes were starting to get blurry.

"You- you wouldn't have been alone," Ace ripped the scarf away, burning the stupid ski cap right off of his head, a few stray tears slipping down his face. "You didn't let me die, Lu! I've been here the whole time!"

There was a beat of silence and for an instant Ace feared Luffy didn't believe him. That he'd have to prove it.

Then a long arm slung around his shoulders and Ace found himself being slammed against his brothers. His brothers! Luffy and Sabo, all three of them. Ace's knees grew weak and he was left with no choice but to cling to Sabo for support.

"Thank you," he choked against Sabo's shoulder. "Thank you! Sabo, Luffy!"