I needed this to exist.

Lucy stretched her arms up overhead and groaned happily when she felt her shoulders pop. Muscles sore, exhaustion weighed down her body, and she couldn't be happier. Thanks to the destructive nature of her team, she sometimes forgot how smoothly a job could go when she took one solo.

Taking out a group of dark mages wasn't something she'd usually take on by herself, but with the rest of the team busy and rent coming due, Lucy figured that it'd be a great chance to test herself without having to worry about being needlessly protected by her well-meaning friends. Except for some scrapes and bruises, she'd made it out relatively unscathed and was making her way back into town to let the mayor know that the dark mages wouldn't be making any more trouble.

Helping people was, of course, its own reward, but the stack of cash and small key box that Lucy walked out of the mayor's office with certainly didn't hurt. If she hurried to the train station, then she could be back home in time for a late dinner and a hot bath. With renewed motivation, Lucy hurried to buy a ticket before hopping onto the train to settle into one of the available window seats. It was a peaceful ride to Magnolia, and she spent it gazing out the window itching to try out the new key burning a hole in her bag.

Dinner turned out to be a quick and easy sandwich, but soaking away the ache from her limbs in a tub full of fragrant bubbles and skin cleansing oil was everything she could have hoped for. Lucy closed her eyes and sunk deeper into the water, still debating whether to summon her new spirit that night or wait until the following morning. She had already used a lot of magical power during the fight, but she already felt better, and silver keys weren't as big a drain on energy as the golden ones.

In the end, excitement and impatience won out.

Once her fingers started to prune, Lucy drained the tub and dried off, wrapping her hair up in a fluffy white towel. Instead of pajamas, she decided to throw on a pair of her day clothes, thinking that might make a slightly better first impression on the spirit. She went over to her desk and pulled out the notepad she used for new contracts. Each page was filled with scribbled down information, new abilities and information added and scrunched into the margins as time went on, so Lucy flipped through it until she found the next blank page before moving towards the living room.

The box with the key was sitting on the table by the couch, and she was practically vibrating as she opened it. Now that she had the time, Lucy admired the details of the cool silver metal. The solitary bit at the end looked like it had a pair of crossbones cut out of it while the handle was made of two wings with fire-like etchings curving around the symbol of the phoenix.

Falling into her summoning stance, Lucy felt her magic surge as she called out, "I am linked to the path to the world of Celestial Spirits, now! O spirit, answer my call and pass through the gate! Open Gate of the Phoenix!"

Belatedly, Lucy realized that she didn't know what or how big this spirit would be and that summoning them for the first time in her apartment might not have been the brightest plan. When the light of the celestial gateway died down, she was relieved and almost caught off guard by the spirit standing in front of her.

For a spirit he looked odd- that is to say, he looked like a normal human man. He towered over her in height and had blonde hair and tired eyes. Probably the strangest thing about him was the mark on his chest, a blue cross with a sideways crescent moon passing through the middle, that was shown off by the unbuttoned purple shirt he wore. When his gaze landed on her, his eyes widened, and he quickly glanced around before his hardened stare pierced her.

"Where am I, yoi?" he demanded.

"My apartment," she answered, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear and gracing him with a bright smile. "I'm Lucy, it's nice to meet you!"

"How did I get here?"

The mage looked at him curiously and said, "I summoned you," her tone implying that it was obvious. "You are the phoenix, right? What's your name?

For a moment it didn't seem like he was going to answer, but eventually he replied, "Marco." He immediately frowned and stepped closer. "You summoned me here, yoi? How?" Lucy had to tilt her head to look up at him but refused to feel intimidated despite the strong aura radiating from the human phoenix.

"Um, with your phoenix key?" His eyes sought out the silver key held up between delicate fingers, a single curious brow rising. It was the first time a spirit she'd summoned seemed so confused, almost as if he wasn't used to it. Was that even possible?

"Send me home, yoi," he demanded.

"But we have to make a contract first," she implored, giving him the biggest puppy dog eyes she could. In the face of her desperate pout, Marco's bored expression twitched slightly towards irritation, but when he said nothing, Lucy took it as a sign to keep going. "So, Marco, what kind of powers do you have?"

There was hesitation, but slowly he bit out, "I can shift into my phoenix form and regenerate myself almost instantaneously from any wound," before cursing at himself. Lucy, however, was ecstatic, quickly writing down the information in her notepad. Eyes bright, she grinned up at Marco.

"You're a healer? That's fantastic! Can you heal others?"

"To a limited extent. Only minor injuries." Once he finished answering, Marco muttered another angry curse.

"All that's left is the schedule. Are there any days or times that you aren't available?"

He snorted and rolled his eyes. "I'm a very busy man." At this, Lucy furrowed her brow and frowned in disbelief.

"So what? You're never free?"

"I'm always free, yoi."

"Perfect!" Lucy brightened. With his flat tone it was hard to tell, but he must have been joking before. All spirits were available to help their mage at some point, though Lucy understood and respected that they all had their own lives to lead in the Celestial Spirit Realm. "Thanks so much. I look forward to working with you!"

Marco looked confused, and when he saw her raise a glowing key, he quickly shouted, "Wait-" before his voice vanished.

The light faded away, and Lucy allowed her cheerful smile to drop. She huffed at her new key, still warm to the touch. Figures she'd get another rude spirit with a bad attitude.

Cold, blue fire blazed across Marco's skin before dying out when he found himself back inside the meeting room aboard the Moby Dick. Each one of his fellow division commanders were staring at him with wide-eyed concern, and more than a few of them had their weapons drawn in preparation for a potential enemy.

He was standing at the head of the large wooden table, right where had been before vanishing away to meet the strange key-wielding blonde girl. If he had been capable of getting headaches, Marco was sure he'd've had a migraine listening to the shouts of his desperate crewmates asking what happened. The First Division Commander took his seat and all it took was a gesture for the rest to follow now that they knew there was no imminent threat.

A warm hand landed on Marco's forearm, and his eyes trailed up the sun darkened skin to the freckled face of Portgas D. Ace, his warm brown eyes silently asking the blonde if he was okay. Covering Ace's hand with one of his own, lightly rubbing his thumb against it, Marco offered a small reassuring smile and nodded before his expression fell, turning thoughtful.

Before Marco could collect himself, Thatch spoke first. The chef leaned his elbow on the table and focused a serious look on his brother. "What happened? Is it migration season?" Perhaps not so serious. Unfortunately for the Fourth Division Commander, Izou was sitting next to him, and the crossdresser immediately pulled a folded fan from his kimono sleeve and smacked the back of his head, not that it stopped the red-head's amused chuckles.

Instead of rising to the obvious bait, Marco admitted that he had no idea what had happened, which was even more worrying and showed that he was at least a little rattled by whatever it was he saw.

"Anyway," started Izou, sliding an irritated sideways look at Thatch, "you suddenly disappeared in a burst of fire and were gone for several minutes. It was quite concerning."

"Especially for your little firecracker," interjected Thatch, deciding the second head bump was worth seeing flames literally flicker briefly on Ace's face.

"Can you tell us where you were?" Vista inquired, idly twisting his moustache around his finger. "Were you still on the Moby?"

Marco shook his head. "I'm fairly certain I wasn't on a ship at all, yoi." Looking at each of his brothers, he began to explain everything from the home he had appeared in to the young blonde girl brandishing a silver key she claimed had brought him there. Out of everything, the thing he thought was worth the most concern was the compulsion he had felt to honestly answer whatever question she asked.

Fear of the information that could've been spilled shot Haruta angrily to his feet. "What did she want to know? About Pops? The ship?"

Shaking his head, Marco said, "She didn't ask anything about him or the crew. All she asked about were my abilities." After a moment of thought, he corrected himself, "She also seemed interested in my own personal schedule, yoi."

"Planning an attack, maybe?" suggested Ace. Everyone turned their attention to the younger commander expectantly. "I mean, Pops is a force all by himself, so maybe she wanted to figure out your weaknesses or, better yet, when you wouldn't be on the Moby at all."

It was a reasonable idea, but something about it felt wrong to Marco.

"I'm curious about this...what did she call it? A phoenix key?" Thatch asked, continuing on when he received a confirmation nod. "Is it like a bird whistle? She blows it, and you show up?" In the back of his mind, Marco made a mental note to put Thatch on nightwatch for the next few days.

"It's probably some type of Devil Fruit. I can only wonder what else she's able to summon," Marco mused, squeezing Ace's hand.

"Maybe other Zoan types?" The suggestion came from Jozu and spurred several of the other silent commanders to voice their opinions.

A fist slammed down onto the wood, shocking everyone into silence, and Rakuyo snapped, "I don't like the idea that someone can just whisk away our Vice-Captain on a whim."

"No one likes the idea, dumbass," Haruta growled, "but there's not a whole lot we can do about it yet. We can't even find out more about this Lucy girl unless it happens again." Hissing a curse, Rakuyo stood up and glared at the younger Commander. Haruta rose to meet his fierce stare, and the tension between the two grew until Ace's worried tone cut through.

"Do you really think it'll happen again?" It was asked to the room, but the fire logia user couldn't take his eyes off of Marco, who couldn't offer much more than a shrug.

"We'll just have to wait and see, yoi."

Three weeks passed before anything happened.

A minor pirate crew had thought to make a name for itself by taking on the Whitebeard Pirates. They were quickly remedied of that fantasy, and now, an hour and many jokes about Ace's "Kill Whitebeard" days later, the enemy ship was being cleaned out of its treasure. Marco was watching from the Moby's deck as his brothers brought back chests of gold, a respectable amount considering how easily they were defeated.

He crossed his arms and relaxed against the railing. It was nice to see that spirits were high, especially since the commanders had all been keeping an eye on him ever since he disappeared. While he appreciated their concern, Marco had to admit his observation haki had been constantly tingling the back of his mind from so many people staring at him. At least they had kept the incident between the commanders, and of course they told Pops, so he didn't have to worry about hundreds of other crewmates watching him, too.

As the last of the new cargo was being loaded, Marco felt someone charging at his back, smirking when he recognized who it was. He was more than happy to allow the impact when arms wrapped around his midsection and burning hot - literally - body pressed against his back.

"Hello, Ace, yoi." The younger pirate snorted and chuckled at the greeting.

"Is that all I get after all my hard work?" Stifling a laugh at the grin he heard in Ace's voice, Marco twisted around in his arms and closed the remaining distance between them, slanting their lips together.

When they parted, staying close, he teased, "Better?" No matter how long they were together, Marco would never tire of Ace trying to one-up him only to turn into a stammering mess. Plus, not that he'd admit it outloud, blushing really brought out Ace's freckles. The blonde threw an arm around his lover's bare shoulders. "Come on, yoi. Let's go see how lunch is coming."

The grin splitting Ace's face was enough to say that no matter how much food Thatch made, it wouldn't be enough, which would normally amuse Marco if he hadn't taken two steps before erupting into fire.

From one breath to the next, he found himself on a dirt road by a mountainside. There was barely a moment to take in his surroundings before a familiar blonde girl was screaming at him.

"Marco! You can turn into a bird, right?" Looking over his shoulder, feeling only slight irritation at being trivialized as an ordinary bird, he noted her tense posture and the nervousness in her brown eyes. He felt that compulsion from before and bit out a forced confirmation. Lucy pointed upward towards the rock face. Marco followed the direction of her finger and raised an eyebrow.

"Is that a toddler sitting in a bird's nest, yoi?" The nest hung on a ledge and had to be nearly four times as high as the Moby Dick's mainmast. Sitting amidst the straw was a tiny child that couldn't have been more than a few years old.

"It's a roc nest, and yes. I need you to fly up there and get her." He turned back to her and finally noticed the silver key in her hand. When he didn't immediately grow wings and get airborne, Lucy huffed and stomped her foot. "Before it comes back, please!"

Not that Marco was so heartless as to leave a helpless kid to die via roc, whatever that was, he didn't appreciate whatever invisible force pushed him to shift his arms into fiery blue wings without his say-so. The First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates shouldn't be following anyone's orders but his captain.

Although, as he was helping the scared child wrap her tiny arms around his neck, Marco had to admit that there were worse things Lucy could make him do than save a kid.

The next time was a little more interesting.

Instead of helping plot the ship's course to the next island, Marco was with Lucy fighting against a group of people with the strangest Devil Fruits he'd ever seen. It was rare to find a crew where every member had their own Devil Fruit, even though at about fifteen people it was a relatively small one, but that wasn't enough to grab Marco's attention.

This time he found out that Lucy had a crew.

It was clear she wasn't the captain, a position he'd more likely award to the sword wielding woman with long red hair. The other two crewmates in the midst of the battle were the most interesting, since their Devil Fruits were a little too similar to people Marco already knew. If he didn't know better, he'd say the bare-chested man with dark hair had the Ice-Ice Fruit Aokiji was famed for, and then there was a pinkette who utilized fire in a way uncannily similar to Fire Fist Ace.

When the fight was over, Lucy didn't immediately send him home to the Moby Dick. Marco leaned against the broken stone entrance of what had once been the enemy crew's land based hideout and watched the blonde's crew gather together, impatiently waiting until he could go home and eat the lunch that Thatch would have saved for him. The chef could be unbearable sometimes, but he had promised to set aside food for Marco if he ever got summoned away during mealtime. There was only a ten percent chance that he'd return to a bowl of birdseed.

"Hey, Marco, come meet everyone!" The blonde's voice called out, the underlying command forcing Marco's feet towards her and her companions. The dark haired boy was the tallest of the four yet even he was still dwarfed by nearly a foot with the Phoenix's impressive height. "Guys, this is the new spirit I told you about, Marco the Phoenix."

Marco's brow furrowed as he stared at Lucy. Spirit?

Then Marco met her other Zoans.

Judging by how many keys she kept in the pouch on her hip, he figured that there were plenty others, but he'd take the chance to gather information from the others affected by her strange power. One was obviously a cow Zoan while the other was a meek girl who Marco guessed was some type of sheep.

Not wanting to risk Lucy sending them back home as soon as the fight was over, he took whatever opportunity he had to ask them questions.

"What crew are you from, yoi?"

The pink haired ram looked at him curiously and replied, "What crew?" as if she didn't understand before jumping away to avoid an attack. The cow was at least a little more helpful.

"We're part of the Zodiac." Though he said it as if it were obvious. If it was a themed crew, then it would explain why they went by the names Taurus and Aries. Marco had never heard of them, so It couldn't be that big of a pirate crew, and he made a note to mention it to Pops and Haruta.

Before they were sent away, Marco only had the chance to ask them which Blue they were sailing in but he only received confused looks in return.

It was pure luck that he hadn't been pulled away from the Moby Dick during a time of crisis; however, there was one time when Marco was summoned that made absolutely no one happy.

Not Lucy, who didn't expect the Phoenix to materialize fully nude.

Not her enemies, who got the brunt of Marco's frustration.

And certainly not the beautifully furious Ace, who was left alone and unsatisfied in Marco's bed.

It wasn't unusual for Lucy to be visited by her spirits, but when Loke appeared in a flash of golden light wearing a serious expression, she grew concerned.

"We need to talk, Princess," he said. "It's about the Phoenix." Lucy stood up from her desk and offered to make some tea. Her fingers barely brushed the kettle before Loke took over, insisting she relax. Rolling her eyes but smiling, Lucy took a seat at the table and waited until the lion spirit set down two steaming cups of tea and took the seat across from her.

"What's wrong, Loke?"

"I've been talking to the others, and there's no phoenix spirit named Marco."

Lucy floundered for a moment. Her eyes widened, and her mouth opened and closed a couple of times. "What are you saying?" She abandoned her tea and got up to fetch her key ring. Flipping through the keys, she unhooked the silver key and handed it to Loke. "This is his key. What else could he be?"

The leader of the Zodiacs inspected it, checked every part, and Lucy watched the key faintly glow in his fingers. He swore under his breath and handed it back.

When he didn't say anything, Lucy prompted him. "So?"

"It's not connected to the Celestial Spirit World."

She ran a hand through her hair and furrowed her brow. "If Marco isn't a celestial spirit, then where's he coming from?"

Waking up with Ace in his arms, face buried in the younger man's dark hair, had been the perfect way to start the day. The sun was bright, and they had a day of smooth sailing. It was about as peaceful a day could be while on a pirate ship - until Thatch and Haruta decided to make themselves known.

Thatch was exceedingly lucky that Marco vanished when he was a moment away from grabbing him and tossing him overboard.

Being torn from the ship was always jarring but even more so when he was teleported somewhere indoors after being out on the deck. It had been awhile since he'd been there, but Marco recognized it as the apartment he'd first met Lucy.

The blonde girl was standing next to a ginger haired male in a suit when he materialized. Marco shoved his hands into his pockets and watched them.

"Hey, Marco," Lucy said sheepishly. She gestured to the other man. "This is Leo the Lion, Leader of the Zodiacs. He's a Celestial Spirit."

"What's a Celestial Spirit, yoi?" Hearing his question, the other two exchanged a certain look before Lucy took a step closer despite the warning touch Leo gave her shoulder.

"Honestly? It's what we thought you were," she told him. The key that had become the bane of his existence was being fiddled with by her long fingers. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you?"

"I'm First Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates." Marco frowned, annoyed that he was still compelled to answer her questions. Before Lucy had time to blink, Leo pulled her behind him and held up his fists.

"Better stay back, pirate," the lion threatened to which the phoenix rolled his eyes.

Lucy pushed aside the protective spirit and growled, "Loke, calm down. You insisted on being here, but I will send your butt back to the Spirit World if you keep this up." Ignoring the now pouting ginger, she walked until she was right in front of Marco and held out the silver key. "If you aren't a Celestial Spirit, then our contract is officially null and void."

Needing no prompting, Marco accepted the key. He scrutinized the curious object, still not understanding why it was able to teleport him there, and when he looked back up it was to see Lucy in a deep bow.

"I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine how much trouble this must have caused you. Can you ever forgive me?" The best part of that apology was that Marco felt no compulsion to answer her question, proof that whatever hold she had on him should be gone.

The Phoenix glanced at the key then back at the girl. "Without this, you can't control me anymore?" The distressed girl rapidly nodded. "Then we're fine, yoi." She stood up straight, and Marco wouldn't admit it, but he inwardly groaned when he saw her misty eyes. "Get me back home, and I swear it's fine."

Perking up, Lucy brushed invisible dust off her skirt and touched a single finger to the Phoenix Key in Marco's hand. It glowed beneath her touch, and she gave him a sweet smile.

"It was nice meeting you, Marco." He gave her a lazy smirk in return and nodded his head before finding himself back on the wooden deck of the Moby Dick.

With everything that had been happening, none of the crew really took notice anymore when their Vice-Captain disappeared and reappeared, but he didn't usually call a meeting for all the commanders immediately after. They all arrived in the meeting room as quickly as they could, eagerly looking to the head of the table where Marco sat. After everyone was seated, he set the silver key out on the wooden table.

Ace leaned over to poke at it before turning wide eyed to the blonde. "Wait, so this is that key?" Marco nodded. "So you stole it from her?"

"She gave it to me, yoi."

"Why would she do that?" Marco turned to Vista and started to explain what had happened during his most recent summoning. They got so deep into their discussion that neither noticed one of the other commanders reaching out to take the key.

Thatch turned it this way and that to see the light glinting off the metallic surface.

"So can anyone use this?" he asked. Marco opened his mouth to say he didn't know when he noticed who exactly was asking.

"Thatch," he warned the Fourth Division Commander who grinned innocently before hopping over the table and running above deck. Marco chased after the chef, determined to throw him overboard before he could figure out how to use the magic key.

When Lucy fought Gemini, Sagittarius was forced to follow gemini!Lucy's commands. That's why Marco faces the same compulsion.

But seriously, though, at 6'8" Marco is almost a foot taller than Gray. Why is everyone in One Piece so flippin' tall?