The Family Card

Summary: Ace wasn't sure which was worse—being the son of a Pirate King, or the brother of one.

*Warning: Contains spoilers for chapter 550*

Author's Note: This story is supposed to be set after the end of One Piece. Of course, later events may contradict my vision of the ending, but fortunately fanfiction doesn't have to match the real storyline. For now, this is just a vision into a possible future.

Disclaimer:

Lil' sis: "As if One Piece could be owned by a loser like me."

Big sis: "Speak for yourself!"

Lil' sis: "Like you could last one minute on the Grand Line! You're worse than I am!"

Big sis: "Um…what are you talking about?"

Lil' sis: "Being the King of Pirates! I'm saying I'd never last long enough on the Grand Line to find and own One Piece. Hell, I get seasick for God's sake!"

Big sis: "No, stupid. For a disclaimer you're supposed to talk about not owning One Piece the manga, not One Piece the treasure."

Lil' sis: "Oh. Well. In that case, I don't own that One Piece either, and I'm too poor to risk being sued if I pretend to. I know! Maybe I can go off and find One Piece the treasure, and use that to buy One Piece the manga!"

Big sis: "But…you just said you'd never be able to find One Piece because you wouldn't last on the grand line!"

Lil' sis: *covers ears with hands* "I forget all unfortunate things I don't want to remember within 30 seconds of thinking them, and I'm not listening to you! Lalalala~"

Big sis: "…Anyway, no, I don't own One Piece, the manga or the treasure. And neither does that idiot over there."

---

Ace found himself waist deep in water as his tiny skiff rapidly sunk towards the ocean floor. It could have been worse—at least there was another ship within easy reach.

Granted, this was a marine ship, the same one that had just put a canon ball sized hole in the side of his craft, but as far as this pyromaniac was concerned, that just made things more exciting.

The marine soldiers were astonished when Ace easily vaulted out of his craft and landed on their deck. They had expected that once the sea water rendered his devil fruit powers useless, he would become helpless. They obviously had no idea who they were dealing with.

Apparently fresh recruits, the marines took one look at him, turned, and fled. The only ones who stood their ground were the captain and a few other older and more experienced looking men.

Not that this was going to do them any good. Not even bothering to use his devil fruit abilities, Ace gave them each a swift, strong kick into the ocean.

Sputtering and coughing up water the captain moaned, "I suppose we should have known better. Even if he's not the famous one, blood will tell."

Ace felt his temperature rise with annoyance. That always managed to get to him. "When will you people get over who my father was!?! I never even met the bastard!"

The captain gave him a blank stare. "Your father? Not him. He's old news."

Now Ace was more puzzled than angry. The marines had been chasing him for decades thanks to his dear old dad, and now they didn't care?

"Then what, do you people have something against my mother?" he asked sarcastically.

"What would we want with that whore?" the captain sneered.

Furious, Ace whipped up a fireball, preparing to burn and boil them. Quickly, another sailor in the water explained, "We just wanted to make ourselves famous by taking down the Pirate King's brother!"

---

And that was how Ace first learned that Luffy had found One Piece and become the next Pirate King.

---

Since that day, Ace's life had become a living hell. He couldn't walk into any town large enough to have a den den mushi without someone calling in a marine admiral on him. Even Luffy didn't have it this bad—the marines were all scared of him. But Ace? Noooooo. Everyone thought he'd make perfect hostage material.

He drew marines, bounty hunters, and even other pirates like flies to honey. But Ace quickly proved to any and all that he was not, in fact, honey. He was more like a walking bug zapper. But, like moths to a flame, they just kept coming.

At first he was pleased to hear that this new attention had gotten his bounty raised considerably. But then he got a good look at the new wanted poster.

It had been bad enough before when he had to live with the small letters "Gol D. Roger's son" under his own name. But now…now…where his own name should have been was written "Monkey D. Luffy's brother" and "Portugas D. Ace" was but a side note. And of course, in the smallest letters of all, there was still the ever faithful "Gol D. Roger's son."

Ace destroyed those wanted posters wherever he found them. But, the only thing this served to do was leave a trail of where he had been.

---

It wasn't the increasing number of pursuers that bothered Ace. He could deal with that. He might even consider it fun. It was the fact that these people weren't chasing Ace for who he was, but rather for who he was related to.

That said, Ace was sincerely proud of Luffy. He wouldn't denounce their brotherhood for anything in the world. In fact, due to their close bond, most of the world was convinced that they were blood brothers, and Luffy was also Gol D. Roger's son.

Anyone with half a brain would know that the timing just didn't work out; Luffy was too young to possibly be Gol D. Roger's son. However, it made a better story when he was, so the legend continued to spread. Sometimes people didn't remember Ace at all, or mistook him for the younger brother.

And even if the higher-up marines all knew the truth, past events had shown that Ace could be used as a hostage against Luffy, and that was all they cared about.

Ace resolved to never be taken by the marines again—even death was preferable. Being rescued by Luffy once had been enough humiliation for a lifetime. Plus, he'd never forgive himself if he caused his baby brother to be in danger.

---

Under the delusion that he was the less dangerous target, and an easy way to get at Luffy, the marines pursued Ace relentlessly. But the fire-slinging pirate wasn't afraid of them, so he still continued hitting up big cities when he felt like it, regardless of the consequences.

And for once, he'd gotten lucky. No one in the bar he was currently eating at had called down the admirals on him yet.

Or at least he'd thought himself lucky until he saw one particularly well know marine captain stroll in.

He would recognize that cigar stuffed face anywhere—Smoker.

Ace debated making a quick exit, but he had never run away from anything.

The one time with the Buster call didn't count. He'd been only trying to spare the surrounding area from damage, really. What psychopath had used that as a weapon when he was only trying to get a meal, he'd never now.

But once again, it appeared that his dinner was going to be interrupted by more overzealous marines with their greedy eyes fixed on his famous relatives.

He swallowed the last of his drink and stood up, catching Smoker's eye.

"You. Pirate. Take it outside," Smoker growled.

Ace didn't take orders from marines, but he'd liked the bar and decided to take pity on its owner and go outside to keep the place from getting trashed.

After walking out, Smoker faced him and said, "So, are you going to surrender, or are we going to do this the hard way?"

As flames rose up and around his body, Ace smirked, "Do you even need to ask?"

"I suppose not," Smoker replied, as his hands dissipated into smoke.

"And incidentally," Ace added, "Even if you do somehow manage to catch me, Luffy won't surrender either."

"Luffy? What does he have to do with anything?" Smoker questioned.

"Oh, so it's my father then," Ace said sullenly.

"Your father? Isn't he dead? What do I want with a dead guy?"

Looking at Smoker in confusion, Ace realized the captain was serious. "Why are you chasing me then?" he asked.

"You're a pirate! What other reason do I need?"

Ace felt his heart lighten for the first time in almost a year. A wide grin broke out across his face. "You really want me just because I'm me?" he asked excitedly.

Smoker took a step backward.

Ace continued, "This is awesome! You're the best! Let's have it out right now!"

Smoker took a long look at him and then said, "Congratulations. You've managed to do what no one else in the grand line ever has."

"What?"

"You've complete killed my motivation to fight a pirate."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm leaving. Right now."

"What? Wait! No! Come back! Fight me, you!"

And Smoker had another first. The first time ever that he had to run away from a pirate.

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The End