Chapter 18: Flames
Sabo didn’t ask for Dragon’s permission for the raid on Mary Geoise, he simply told him that was what they were doing, and he started planning.
He had no idea whether or not Dragon approved. He suspected he didn’t approve, but wanted Sabo to do it anyway; thus Sabo refusing to make it a question served both of their purposes.
There was a lot of planning to be done.
Mary Geoise was not the sort of place one could walk into easily, even, or perhaps especially, during the Revelry. Sabo and Ace spent hours and days locked in the “War Room” with Koala, Deuce and Isuka planning every aspect of their attack, retrieval and escape.
Nothing could have prepared them for the real thing.
The approach went smoothly enough, ascending the Red Line in a hot air balloon devised by Deuce and put into practice with their flames. Then they crept into the city itself through the underground waste processing.
From there, they went undercover with disguises and split up to locate where they were holding Kuma. He wasn’t hard to find. One of the ‘saints’ of Mary Geoise was using him as a personal palanquin to carry him around.
Sabo put his hand on Koala’s shoulder to steady her when they saw it. When they saw the blood and bruises on Kuma’s face. When they saw his Celestial Dragon ‘master’s’ laughing.
A chirp on Deuce and Isuka’s transponder told them it was time for the distraction. It wouldn’t happen immediately. There would be a few minutes before the disturbance would be felt up here. Sabo watched and waited with his hand on Koala’s shoulder. With Ace tense and ready, wake and fierce inside of him.
What have they done to him? Ace murmured internally, seeing the strange blank whiteness of Kuma’s eyes.
The sea only knows.
There was a sick feeling in Sabo’s stomach. Rescuing an enslaved man was never a wasted effort, but what if Kuma wasn’t able to take his position as chief of staff?
Then we’ll figure it out, Ace promised. Somehow, no matter what. You want to leave and be a pirate. I want to leave and be a pirate. Koala wants to leave and be a pirate. And we will.
One last mission. One last mission and then they’d be pirates.
Sabo heard a clamor and shouting in the distance. Nervousness rippled through the crowd as they tried to figure out what was happening.
It was starting.
Isuka and Deuce had freed the slaves.
He nodded to Koala. It was their turn to move.
Koala felt sick in the pit of her stomach watching the way Kuma was being treated—and seeing whatever the hell had happened to him.
This wasn’t the normal look of a broken slave. She’d know, wouldn’t she? There was something uncanny about him as he shuffled around.
It took everything she had not to launch herself out and drown the ‘saint’ with her own hands right then and there but the mission took importance over her rage—she’d have her chance soon enough.
This whole place was a sea of bad memories, and part of her was eager for the moment they could set it alight and burn the memories away on their path to becoming true pirates. One last job.
When the uproar began, she glanced over to catch Ace’s nod, leaping into action on her cue.
She shifted to fluid form, flowing across the ground in a slick and sharply alcoholic puddle zipping across the space between them and Kuma, before reforming into a barely human shape behind him and making a grab for the Saint.
When she had him in her arms—she could coat him in enough alcohol for Ace to set alight.
A wicked grin spread over Ace’s face. He didn’t disappoint her.
The inferno of fire that exploded from her liquor trail blazed high, separating saints from slave and igniting the Celestial Dragon into s screaming tower of flame.
In the flicker of the flames she could see the spin of Sabo’s pole as he took on the Celestial Dragons’ guards that came at him- mere shadows in the wall of fire.
But Kuma was rigid as she grabbed him.
His head barely turned to look at her.
But it did turn.
As the saint burned and screamed Koala met Kuma’s eyes and saw so very little meeting her. But there was enough for her to grab him by the shoulders and start pushing him towards their exfiltration point. She trusted Ace and Sabo—they’d kill every guard who tried to stop her.
Kuma moved sluggishly, but he did move. Whatever had been done to him it seemed like he was trained, or beaten, or something– not to resist whatever was being done with or to him.
He let himself be pushed. Silent. Sluggish.
The screams were rising all around her now. Between Ace and Sabo’s rampage to cover her exit, and Isuka and Deuce’s slave uprising, everyone had better things to be doing than watching one person and a slave- even one as big as Kuma.
It was chaos around them, panic, and disorder.
Koala couldn’t help but thrill a little as the chaos raged around her. The Revelry was surely in shambles, wracked with the news of an uprising as the entire world saw how fragile the Celestial Dragons really were. The city was in chaos—she felt the heat of flames spreading from the corpse at her back, starting to flare as they consumed more and more to feed their spread.
By the time she’d gone distance, Ace and Sabo hurried to catch up, lobbing fireballs back behind them into the fray.
“Can we go any faster?” they asked, breathlessly. “They’re gonna regroup and be after us any minute.”
She looked down at Kuma with a grimace, before she tried to goad him to go quicker. “I know, I know, but he’s hardly responding to me, guys! This is as fast as I’ve gotten him to go!”
They grabbed his other hand and looked him in the eyes. “Kuma, I don’t know what you’ve got going on right now, but we need you to come with us, as fast as you can.”
The rigid muscles in Kuma’s face softened for just a moment.
He started moving fast enough that he nearly tugged Koala off her feet.
It nearly took her fluid arm off, but she fell into quickstep beside him as they bolted for the exfiltration zone. Her heart was pounding with the thrill of what she hoped was a victory—she shut down the nerves with one last quip to Sabo and Ace as they ran.
“You always did have a way with words, dears.”
They shook the last of the initial wave guards thanks to the chaos, and made their way to the rendezvous site at the waste treatment facility. It was the last place anyone would have thought to look. Isuka and Deuce were there already, tucked beneath the huge grate they’d entered through.
The slave uprising, now that it had been ignited, was on its own. There wasn’t any way they could help them all escape. It was just the lot of them, and Kuma.
Hopefully some of the slaves can escape on their own. We told them to head for the port.
The strong ones. The brave ones. Above all the lucky ones. I wish we could do more, but this is already the biggest risk any of us has ever taken.
Any kind of a head on fight would have been suicide. The marines. Cipher Pol. God’s Knights. Their only chance to steal Kuma out from the nose of the world government was this- a shadowy mission in the heart of chaos.
A hell of a beginning for a life of piracy.
It suits us, doesn’t it?
“We got Kuma!” They hissed to Isuka and Deuce as they squeezed the huge man through the bars. “But he’s in no shape to help us escape. It’s going to be all on plan B.”
Plan B was almost the same way as they’d come.
An improvised balloon down the towering cliff face and hope to hell that the ship, hastily hidden in the crags, was still there.
Isuka sheathed her sword with a soft hiss of breath through her teeth and a sharp smile “you guys sure know how to keep a party going. Plan B? Alright.”
They worked quickly, gathering the balloon and getting Kuma aboard was the easy part— keeping its rate of speed even with the much larger passenger was the hard part as Koala worked with them to regulate the flames.
The red cliff face loomed over them, Ace and Sabo’s face tight, sweat rolling down their brow as they worked with her to keep the flame steady- hot enough to keep them afloat long enough to get to the ship- and to keep them all from plunging into the devouring sea below.
It was a risky job—a misstep and the whole thing could literally go up in flames and dump a bunch of Devil Fruit users in the sea. But it was the best chance of getting off Mary Geoise without a ticket to the gallows.
The sounds of the uprising filtered even out here—screams, shouts, cheers, carried distantly on the wind– -she could only hope that many of the slaves took this chance to escape as she once did during Fisher Tiger’s grand flight from the city all those years ago.
She could only hope many, many young slaves just like her could follow the path the fires left and find a way to be truly free. She remembered running with the flames at her back before—seeing the fishmen ahead of her and staying close with them, seeing young kuja women howling their curses at their captors as they fled alongside them. It was a brutal liberation—just like this had the chance to be.
She’d wished with all her heart that she could help them more, grant them passage on their tiny ship and take them to people who’d love and care for them like she’d once felt loved and cared for by the Sun Pirates. It just wasn’t possible, much to her heartbreak.
They hardly had the room for Kuma, and they were in no shape to fight the God’s Knights, or Cipher Pol. To try was to doom the whole operation.
Kuma—-she’d heard so much about Kuma and here he was as silent as the grave.
The city was burning, freedom was in the air as slaves made desperate flight towards any available exit, and he hadn’t said a word.
It gave her a shiver up her spine wondering what they’d done to him. This wasn’t like her own rictus smile and programmed movements as a well-trained slave. This was—mechanical.
“There it is,” Sabo and Ace hissed, breaking through her brooding. “They didn’t find it yet.”
They had a chance at getting away with this.
It felt like a panic attack that never quite ended. Deuce felt like a cornered rabbit after he and Isuka triggered the mass slave uprising. In the press of bodies, the swell of activity; he couldn’t help but feel a little reminded of the chaos of Marineford.
This was better, he reminded himself. This was much better.
This time they’d keep the target alive. This time he wouldn’t lose anyone. This time the sum total of the whole chaotic mess would be a bunch of freed slaves, Kuma, and their shot at a return to piracy.
But that didn’t make his heart pound all the less as he ran to the rendezvous alongside the laughing Isuka.
At least she was having fun—she seemed to be having a damn lot of fun since she quit holding herself back in the marines. Being a pirate made her go a little crazy, maybe. In a good way.
The city was burning, and they were floating down the cliffside in the balloon that he prayed to whatever god gave a shit about Alabastan pirates with mild cases of hysteria that he’d designed well enough.
At least the knowledge that the slaves he’d freed had a shot gave him hope. All those boats for the Revelry—the smart ones were going to go for them and hijack the gondolas down. Godspeed.
“There it is,” Sabo and Ace hissed. “They didn’t find it yet.”
And so Deuce saw. There, hidden cleverly among the rocks was the tiny ship they’d used on the approach, still tied up and unmolested. It was a trickier proposition to guide the balloon in for a landing than it was to take off from it, that was sure.
A tiny little target in the rocks and the eddies of the sea.
He was the only swimmer among them.
If they crashed he could probably only save one of them. It was a grim thought, and it made his heart beat all the faster as he guided the balloon down.
“Don’t get excited yet. I have to somehow manage to get this thing on the deck.”
It was the wind and the rocks that fucked him.
The rocks that made his target so much harder to hit. The gust of wind that came up suddenly out of nowhere.
And he still managed to thump the makeshift balloon awkwardly down on the rail of the ship.
“Throw your weight toward the ship!” Ace and Sabo yelled, shoving Kuma away from the center of gravity, and toward the ship.
It sent all of them toppling over onto the deck, high and dry, and alive.
All of them except Ace and Sabo, who when the fulcrum of weight shifted so suddenly– were thrown up like a springboard, and into the jaws of the sea.
“DAMMIT!” Deuce shouted, turning immediately with abject terror in his heart—he flung himself into the ocean, diving down after Ace and Sabo with arms outstretched.
He could only save one of them, he’d thought—well. Here he was diving to save two. Two people he loved dearly.
We’re drowning.
The bright blue of the top of the sea rushed away from them, becoming more and more distant.
Looks like.
This is a stupid way to die.
Yeah.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. One more shot together, and they drowned? Maybe devil fruits really were a curse.
I really hoped that we were going to make it as pirates.
Me too. I guess we’re going on a different adventure.
Ace wasn’t ready to die. Not yet. Not again. But just like the last time, there was nothing he could do. There was no winning move.
I’m still not ready. But if it’s with you, it’s easier.
Their body sank like a stone- like a morsel gobbled up by the throat of some hungry monster. Not even batted about by the whims of currents and eddies, just down, down, down forever down as the weight of it sapped the energy from their limbs, and the icy cold infiltrated to the root of their very bones.
The sea was dark. The world above was already a dim haze of blue.
They wished for so many things. For more years together. To sail the open sea. To hold each other in their arms. To apologize to Deuce, and Koala, and Isuka.
But the dark sea sapped everything. Even their wishes.
Something almost like peace, but more like resignation overtook them.
Until a bright heat broke through the icy cold of the water. Fingers wrapping around their arm.
They were too far gone to do anything but smile.
Smile and wish.
Koala was only held back by Isuka as she tried to fling herself into the ocean after the three men. Her eyes were wide, her cries desperate and pleading as Isuka begged her to quiet herself.
Reassurances like ‘Deuce can swim, he’s got him’ and ‘don’t give him more work by flinging yourself in there after him’ died in her ears as the fear of losing the first person she’d ever loved—and the people she’d come to love later—gripped her like a vice.
They were so close! So damn close, and then the sea had to try and take them as a sacrifice.
Deuce practically dragged Ace and Sabo to the surface. His lungs were burning, and he’d wrenched something in one of his arms that sent a searing pain through his body but he refused to let go.
He was like a desperate animal as he hauled Ace out of the damned ocean and breached the surface with a sharp gasp of air. He couldn’t let him die like this. Not after the island, not after Marineford. He wasn’t going to let him OR Sabo die this time.
As Deuce made a grab for the rope ladder down the ships side he heard a ragged, painful sounding gasp for breath from Sabo and Ace’s mouth, and suddenly instead of dead weight their clammy-cold arms were holding tight to him.
Hope welled within him as his fingers clung to the rope ladder with a searing pain up his arm. He wrenched it, but adrenaline carried him as he lifted the both of them up to the first rung.
“Come on guys, don’t give up on me now! We’re almost there!”
The words came hard, through gasps and coughs as he spat seawater back into the sea.
Ace and Sabo’s grip only got tighter, gasping and coughing along with him as Koala and Isuka hauled the ladder carefully up to the desk.
Ace and Sabo lay flat on their back next to Deuce, staring up with a smile at Isuka and Koala
Through coughs and chokes as he caught his breath Ace rasped out. “Deuce, you beautiful bastard, you saved my ass again.”
I guess we got one more shot.
I love cheating death with you but let’s try to keep it to a minimum.
Deuce was dazed—looking over at him with a tired grin. “And I’ll keep saving it as long as you call me beautiful, dumbass.”
Koala made a wailing sound and dropped down on her knees beside them to thump her fist limply on Ace’s arm with a sniffle.
“You guys are so…so STUPID!”
“I don’t think it was their wit that sent them over the edge,” Isuka seemed to try and assuage her, but Ace could see the lines of concern on her face.”Good thing we had hero boy here to fix the situation, eh? Good job, Deuce.”
“Sorry for the trouble, ladies,” they murmured, wincing a little as Koala punched them. Their strength was still returning. But they didn’t mind. Not at all.
Their head swam as they tried to sit up, and wobbled woozily.
Oooh, might have done that too fast.
We’ve still got to move fast though.
“You’re forgiven,” Isuka offered them her hand with a thin smile. “But uh…let’s get going. I can hear sails on the wind. We don’t got a lot of time.”
Koala’s head whipped up “…she’s right.” She hopped to her feet with a huff “Ace, Sabo—I’m going to give you a piece of my mind later, but for now we’re off!”
By that she probably meant ‘cry on your chest for an hour’
Sabo caught her hand and squeezed it briefly. He took one more breath and stood up, despite how woozy they felt, and reached down for Deuce.
“Let’s make ready to sail, crew. We have an armada to outwit.”
It was a tense few hours of sailing, but in the end, the armada never even came near them.
It was surprising, honestly, that they’d managed to so thoroughly give them the slip, but no one wanted to look a gift horse in the mouth. They’d all been through such bad luck, they could tolerate some good. And some good planning. They’d been a small strike force. They’d been careful, they’d been hidden. The slave uprising was a much bigger distraction than one tiny ship and four crew.
As the sun sank over the horizon, they were far away from the horrors of the Sacred Land and alone on the open sea.
That was good, at least. Because Kuma, below deck, was still as silent as the grave.
Koala had indeed collapsed on Ace and Sabo’s chest and was crying as she wrapped her arms around him. She had wanted to puzzle over Kuma, but she couldn’t bear to right now. So she let her feelings vent.
She’d nearly lost them, she’d nearly lost them and Deuce to the swells when the plan skirted disaster. She still felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it.
Their arms were wrapped around her, and Sabo’s soft voice shushed her and whispered gentle soothing nothings as he stroked her hair. They’d already apologized again and again. The worst part, perhaps, is it really had been a mere accident.
They had nothing to apologize for—it was a mistake. They did everything they could to avert it, but it still happened because of the tricks of fate.
It was a miracle it wasn’t worse. But she still felt that sting of pain at the very idea of losing him.
“We made it, dear,” he offered softly. “We made it out of Mary Geoise, together. The whole thing was a success.”
“It was,” She sniffed against his chest as she nodded, wiping her eyes on his shirt. “It could have gone wrong at any time, but we did it.”
“We did it. And you did it! You were brilliant, by the way.” His fingers lingered in her hair as he let her mop herself up with his clothes without complaint.
She looked up at him, well aware that she smelt like a bar with the way her powers were acting up under her emotional strain. “You think so? I think we worked pretty damn well together up there—we set the holy city on fire.”
“An eye for an eye. They wouldn’t hesitate to do it to anyone else.” Sabo murmured. He had told her in the time since he’d regained his memories, of the way they’d burned the poor in the Goa kingdom. “But yes, you were brilliant darling, and we were brilliant together.”
She shuddered against him and nodded.
“I know they wouldn’t, Sabo. But we showed them how it feels to fear people doing it to them.” Her fingers clutched tighter on his shirt. “and we hopefully freed a lot of slaves, too. It was worth it. Even if I nearly died of shock when you went into the water.”
“We would have all seen one another again very shortly if things had gone south then,” he commented dryly, tugging her hair. “But I’m sorry we scared you. We scared us, too. But… sometimes things like that happen. Deuce was there. We’re all a team. It worked out.”
“They do—Deuce is a real hero, isn’t he?” She laughed weakly against his chest. ‘The one downside of this power is… is that. I didn’t know what to do when you hit the water. But you’re right. We’re a team. I love him too, and I trusted him to jump in there after you and look where it got us? You’re safe.”
“Safe and sound,” he murmured. He slipped his fingers under her chin and tilted her face up to look at him.”Are you alright, my dear?”
Koala looked up into his eyes with a subtle flush. She was fine, wasn’t she? Mostly—kind of. Not really. She was shaken up, after already having been pushed to the edge by the sight of her old cage.
Mary Geoise—the holy city was where she was enslaved as a child, home to countless traumatic memories. Between that, the guilt of not being able to personally help a few slaves escape instead of merely hoping they did, and the near disaster—her nerves were frayed into a thin and narrow string.
She sniffed softly. “I’m a little rattled, but…but I’ll be okay.”
Sabo stroked her face gently. “It wasn’t just our near miss that got you rattled, was it?”
He looked at her with his deep, dark eyes. Just like he couldn’t hide anything from her, he could so often tell what she was thinking.
She shook her head with a sad smile. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that city. It’s just as horrid as the day I left.”
“I’m sure it is,” he agreed, seriously. “But look at you, leaving again. And this time you left them with a real mark.”
“I did. They’re not gonna recover from this easy, Sabo.” She leaned up to nuzzle his hand. “Even if I do wish we could have helped a few more slaves make a guaranteed escape.”
“We gave them the best shot they’ll ever get. I wish we could have done more too, but nothing’s guaranteed.”
“Nothing’s guaranteed.” She gave him a small smile. “They have as much of a shot as I did when the Sun Pirates made their move.”
She watched their grin hitch as it shifted from Sabo, to Ace, and he tipped up their hat. “Maybe when we’re big and famous and I’m an emperor, we can come back and do another raid.”
Koala felt her face flush as the smile crept along her face. “You know…like the Sun Pirates once did. When you’re an Emperor—when we’re famous and powerful—what say we really put that city to the torch and set every last one of them free?”
They leaned in and kissed her forehead. “It would be our pleasure, Ko. Let’s make it our big goal.”
She melted into them and kissed his jawline with a smile. “You’re far to good to me, the both of you.”
“Always forever, Ko. Dear.” They nuzzled her for a moment, leaning their face into hers.”Our biggest adventures still await.”
She closed her eyes , resting her cheek against his as she felt their always present warmth flow through her. “Our biggest adventures still await.”
Once they fixed Kuma—once they got him back to the Army, they’d be the Spade Pirates. Koala was certain that a grand adventure was just waiting right around the corner. They just had to unfurl the sails and ride into it.
Deuce hated how decent he was at doctoring. Sure, being a medic was a great skill to have on a pirate ship—but it meant he had to do things like this.
He took a step back from Kuma’s horrifically quiet body and pulled off his gloves with a low and sharp sigh “for fucks sake…”
He had to see the bad news, he had to understand that it could always get worse—and he had to deal with reminders of his bastard of a father and his loser brother the whole time he worked.
Kuma’s condition went beyond bad news. This was a fucking medical disaster.
“Give it to me straight, Doc.” Ace’s voice rang out behind him. Deuce had been so far in his own head he hadn’t even heard him approach.
“It’s a fucking medical disaster is what it is.” Deuce tried not to jolt in surprise, looking over his shoulder at Ace with a weak smile. “He’s not doing so hot, Ace. They uh…I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s like he ain’t even human anymore.”
Ace sucked in a breath as he put a gloved hand on Deuce’s shoulder, tousled blond hair in his eyes.
“Well, Deu, that sounds like a medical disaster alright. Do you have any clue what happened to him?”
“They made him some kinda robot. You know, like straight out of the newspaper comics.” He gestured to him with a frown. “…I hope you don’t mind, I got to poking around a bit and I noticed some irregularities. Remember those fucking Pacifista robots?”
“Unfortunately,” Ace drawled. Deuce felt him stiffen. “No… no way. Don’t tell me we were duped and we got the wrong one??”
“No uh,” Deuce shook his head. No. This one was the real deal–something about him, the way the machinery was implemented and the trace of scars older than the modifications…it made it all too clear that they got the right Kuma.
“This is the right Kuma. But they did something to him to make him like those machines.”
“Fuck.” The hiss of Ace’s swear broke off and was replaced by Sabo’s cautious tones. “Maybe Iva can do something to help him.”
“I…I hope so,” Deuce laughed weakly. “I’m not gonna lie, this is way out of my league as a doctor. He’s basically nonresponsive except to orders.”
“Well, if Iva can’t help him, we’ll find someone who can,” Sabo said with determination. “Hell, maybe he’ll just snap out of it when he sees Dragon. They were always close.”
Deuce felt a sting of hope at that—sometimes it just took the right stimulus, right? You show the right person the right thing and boom! Sometimes their problems got a lot better real fast—not that he really thought much would improve this outside of some major surgery and tlc.
“Y-yeah, if they’re that close there’s a chance it’ll snap him outta it.”
Ace slipped his arm around Deuce’s shoulders, leaning heavily into him. “Yeah. All we’ve got to do is get him back to HQ. And no matter what happens, Deu, we’re still reforming the Spade Pirates.”
Deuce looked at him over his shoulder, leaning back against his chest. “We are? Good— because I know this big guy’s a complication to that….”
He’d been terrified that Kuma’s condition would throw the whole plan off.
Ace squeezed him. It was obvious from his soft smile that he’d known Deuce was worried. “He is a big complication. But that’s all it is. A complication. We’re all serious about this. Sabo doesn’t want this complication to change things either.”
“He doesn’t huh? And Koala? Is she gonna be okay going through with it no matter what too?” He shifted in his arms, propping himself against Ace with a low chuckle. “I just want this to work out, you know? I feel bad for the guy, I hope the army can help him, but we’re pirates at the end of the day.”
“We are,” he agreed, scooping both his arms around him and leaning in to kiss his neck. “And right now’s the end of that day. We are pirates. There’s no turning back. I promised Koala when I’m an emperor, we’ll come back and smash up Mary Geoise even better than today.”
“You did?” Deuce asked with a light shiver, smiling as the sensation of his warm lips trailed up his neck. “How’d she take that offer?”
Ace’s grin widened. “It really seemed to get her excited. There’s an absolute maniac hiding in her, you know.”
The tone in his voice was familiar. And it spoke to how much Ace had obviously fallen for Koala, as much as Sabo, as much as him…it was the sound of Ace in love.
And who could blame him? Koala was charming, witty— firey and an absolute knockout when she got into one of her brutal, feral moods. He was damn fond of her himself. He leaned into Ace with a flush , smirk growing on his face as he nodded.
“Oh trust me. I’ve been with her a few years, I’ve started to notice. Remember that op where she beat that man’s head in with his own casino chip case?”
He chuckled quietly, thinking of the return to that city in the future. He could imagine her grinning like a madwoman as the whole city went up in REAL flames till there was nothing left
.”When we go back please tell me we’ll have more than four…technically five…crewmates.”
“That’s the plan, my man.” Ace chuckled, grinning widely. He was sure that Ace and Sabo were remembering that moment of Koala’s savagery, and a few more besides, too. “As soon as we’ve sewn up this Kuma mess and made good on our exit, the Spade Pirates are going to be recruiting.”
Deuce could imagine it. A whole crew, a magnificent ship, their jolly roger fluttering in the Grand Line’s breeze. It was everything he ever wanted since he’d devoted himself to Ace on that lonely beach—it was his dream.
“Maybe Isuka can hook us up with some of her Baroque Works pals, huh?” he grinned.
“Oooh, you think? I’d be willing to give it a shot! And we can see if we can track down any of the original crew. Some of them might want to come back.”
Deuce’s smile lit up his face. “Geeze…yeah!!! The old crew—fuck, I hope they’ll wanna come back! I haven’t had any contact with ’em since like…before Marineford.”
“Means it’ll be a hunt, right? An adventure?” Ace looked at him hopefully.
Skull, Mihar, Banshee, Kotatsu, Saber—all of them. They were out there somewhere, scattered to the four blues after Whitebeard’s conquest, thrust into different divisions and scattered even further when those fell apart.
He missed them, often, missed their camaraderie, their shared jokes—he missed being a crew. So if Ace wanted a hunt—a proper adventure for the treasure of their lost friends—he was damn well eager to go along.
“An adventure, Ace! Heh, it’ll make for a great first step on our rise of infamy, right?”
Ace grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “A great first step. A new first step. And this time we’re gonna make it all the way.”
Ace and Sabo leaned on the railing of the tiny ship’s deck, feeling the cool evening air and the salt spray against their face, letting their nerves wind slowly down from the mission, and their excitement for what came next well up further inside them.
Sabo smiled and looked off to his left, imagining Ace there beside him with an arm around his shoulders. Like he often did with Deuce. Like they’d stood so often when they were young, on that far away little island where Sabo had been born.
“Hell of a day, huh?” Ace teased.
“We didn’t exactly run into the kind of complications I imagined when we were planning,” Sabo huffed internally.
Sabo had imagined a skirmish with Cipher Pol, or with God’s Knights, not a clean get-away with a near disastrous dunk in the ocean. Not a Kuma who had been turned into something silent and inhuman.
It was a complication in their plans.
“But it’s only a complication,” Ace repeated what he’d said to Deuce. “It sure isn’t what I had imagined either. But that’s the fun of an adventure, right?”
They’d already talked about it. It was the first thing on their minds. Whether Kuma’s state meant their plan was off. And both of them had decided, ‘no’. No, they couldn’t go back now.
Nothing could stop them. Not a dunk in the sea. Not all the forces of the Sacred Land.Not whatever was wrong with Kuma.
Especially not with the smile on Koala’s face when they’d suggested burning Mary Geoise.
Sabo could remember it now. That day in the fire. How they’d locked the poor and the desperate in to let them die. Like burning so much garbage.
There had been nothing he, or Ace could do back then. But now they were they fire. And one day they’d burn righteous fury that would make the disgusting rulers of the world understand what they had done.
Even if it was just for a moment while they burned. Like Kuma’s ‘master’ had burned today.
“Easy there, Sabo, we’re smoking,” Ace teased.
Sabo sniffed and wrinkled his nose. He realized that in his brooding, he’d started to get a little too hot. There was a black scorch mark on the railing of the ship.
Bashfully he grinned, and let the internal flames ebb. “Whoops.”
“Nah, I get you, brother. I’m right there with you.” They leaned on the rail together, clearing their nose of smoke with the smell of the sea. “One day we’ll get big enough that we can do it. Big enough to take on the whole world.”
“We’ll need a big crew for that.”
“Well, we’ve got a good start with the best crew in the world, don’t you think?”
Sabo smiled. Koala who had been his rock. Who he had loved for years. Deuce made them a foursome and brought another needed dose of good sense to the group. Isuka, who had joined them with enthusiasm, and Sabo was already getting very attached to.
They were the best. The best friends. The best lovers. The best to have your back in a pinch. The best crew in the world.
They stood out on the deck of the small ship as the moon rose over the dark sea, all of them. Ace and Sabo leaned on the rail, watching the shimmer of starlight on the waves and smiling.
Koala had her eyes closed right next to him, taking a deep breath of the sea air as the wind rustled her short and fluffy hair. She’d relaxed since their talk—and she carried herself with an obvious growing joy.
Deuce sat on the railing, flipping a harmonica between his fingers with a lazy smile on his face, before he started to play a light and pleasant tune.
With a bobbing of her head, Isuka picked up the song and hummed along. The former marine was content, her smile tugging at her old scars as she leaned on the railing on Ace and Sabo’s other side.
It was a peaceful moment. A hopeful one. One full of love, and joy and companionship. The threads of fate that had tried for so long to tear them apart had never quite come together. Somehow, they’d all unplucked them, and written their own destiny.
Whatever happened next, they had won. They had won together, and they were going to go off on their next great adventure.
Despite everything, they had all gotten their second chance. They were going to make it count.
The Spade Pirates reborn.