Chapter Text
"What the fuck-", said a green haired swordsman as he fell onto his butt. "Where am I?", said a woman with orange hair, when she looked around she realized that she wasn't alone, her Crew mates right beside her. "Huh? Nami? .... NAMI?!", that was the long-nosed sniper that shrieked loudly at the sudden appearance of the other crew member's. All of them talked loudly, questioning where they are and how they all got here, but then Zoro spoke up and pointed out that their Captain was not with them.
"Luffy.. What is happening, where is he?", Robin just observed the surrounding place, it was a bright seemingly endless room with just them in it, until they heard a shuffling noise around them.
Everyone turned around and panicked when they saw marines, a lot of them. Not only that, but there was also Garp. Until more people appeared, and they looked like the former Whitebeard-Pirates with Marco standing tall at the front, glaring at the Marines. Everyone got tense and in a fighting position, not knowing what to do, until a few more people popped up.
"..Pops? A-Ace?", Marco was the first one to speak, getting everyone's attention, including the two new ones. Ace could only stare at them in shock, not knowing how to react. "If the Straw-hat pirates are here, where is anchor?" asked a red haired Emperor suddenly, breaking the confusion and tension for a second. And now all the attention went to the said Pirate Group, which just stood there, seemingly lost. "AAH! What is going on?! Zoro, do something!", Usopp was the first to call out and the man he spoke to just looked annoyed and looked around, searching for some kind of clue.
"..Zoro?", but the swordsman didn't answer any of them, which only ticked off Nami, and she punched him hard on his head, now laying on the ground with a big bump on his head. "Scary woman.." said someone from the surrounding Marines, while others snickered slightly at the behavior of the girl. She only screamed at him to not ignore them, but when he stood back up to snap back at her, they heard the familiar shuffling noise.
One second he was on the ocean and the next he is here, right in front of his Crew. He stood there, seemingly flabbergasted, but while he just stared at them the others were running to him to crush him in a tight hug, until all of them fell onto the ground. "What? Guys..? Shishishi, I don't know what's going on, but I am happy to see you again!", said the boy with the Straw-hat and his iconic laugh. While the Crew got themselves settled, the Marines were freaking out, new to the news that Straw-hat Luffy was still alive and the whole Crew together again. The only one who found it amusing was the Marine Hero Garp, who was laughing out loud, and at that Luffy flinched slightly and turned around, only to see countless marines-
"Marines! AAAAAA-" his yelling got cut short by Sanji, who kicked him on the head and the entire Crew, besides Robin, Franky and Brook yelled at him for being slow. "Ok..Welp, I guess fighting it is?" he said in a slightly asking voice, just making sure with everyone. And before he got the chance to get into his battle stance, he got interrupted by an all too familiar voice, that made his smile fade instantly.
"Lu..?"
No..that couldn't be.. he is dead.. Luffy turned slowly to the source of the voice and froze. There he was, standing with his former nakamas.. a big scar on his chest, where his deadly wound was supposed to be. "No.. What? Ace..?", nobody said anything while they observed the brother's interaction, some knowing how painful it was for the two. Luffy took some steps forward, only to stumble over his feet a few times, but he didn't care, he just wanted to make sure he isn't hallucinating again.
There were standing right in front of each other, and tears began to fill the younger's eyes when he raised his hands to touch his brother's face, tracing over the freckles. "Luffy.. I'm sorry..", and that was exactly the wrong thing to say to the other, following his shocked expression turned into an angry and confused one. Everything happened too fast for Ace, one second his brother traced carefully his face and the next he gets punched right into it, which made him stumble back a few steps. "Huh..?"
"Luffy..", Nami was the one who spoke up, but he ignored her and stared at his brother with anger in his eyes. "You asshole.. I fucking hate you! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?", and Ace's eyes widen instantly, now understanding what his brother meant, "Luffy..", still he couldn't answer him, not when his brother was about to let all his built-up anger out on him., "YOU just had to turn around, didn't you? WE WERE ABOUT TO FLEE, GODDAMMIT!", all the other could do was flinch at those words. He knew that they were true. The Straw-hats and the others on the room where shocked to see the usually cheerful Pirate getting this angry.
"Fuck you. You know what? I did all of that for absolutely nothing.. I broke into Impel Down, almost died, lost 10 years of my life to survive just to miss you by a few minutes and then I rush into the War, almost dying AGAIN just for you to..", and he became silent. He realized that he said too much in his rant and winced at the sharp intake of breath and the shocked gasps around him. "What..? Luffy. What did you just say?", and now it was Ace turn to be angry at him. He knew that that idiot got himself captured back then in Impel Down, but nothing more. "Nothing. Forget it, Ace."
Nope, that won't do it. And Ace marched forward to Luffy and grabbed him by his collar, and they crashed onto the ground, with Ace on top of him, holding him tightly. "You are always so fucking selfless, but that's even worse - Why..?"
"WHY? You are asking me why I wanted to save my only brother from being executed? First I lost Sabo, and now you!" And now Luffy struggled against the other's tight hold, wanting to just throw him off and get away from this stupid conversation. "You can't save someone if you are DEAD! GET THAT IN YOUR HEAD!", but the other did not want to hear any of that, and pushed Ace right off of him and stood up, absolutely not caring the scene he was causing. He looked down at his older brother, who was still on the ground, and said in a voice that left no room for any argument-
"It's my life. I don't care if I die, when I protect my friends or family, like you. You died. You broke the promise, so go fuck yourself.", he just wanted to storm off, to somewhere he can be alone and not in between these people, almost everyone is staring at him in pity- and he hated it. Before Ace could reply he got interrupted by the strong wave of Haki, which knocked over a few lower Marines and Pirates, it was Shanks, standing now near Luffy.
"Luffy, calm down, okay? You two spoke enough hurtful words against each other, so leave it."
And at the presence and voice of Shanks the younger stood still, he knew he was right, and not soon after he heard his words his shoulders began to shake slightly, and he launched himself into Ace, ignoring the grunts of pain the other let out. "Ace!", and there he was, the crybaby the older knew.
"Shh.. It's okay. I forgive you. It's fine. You're fine.", said Ace as he stroked through the black locks of the other.
Everyone just watched the brothers' but the ones who felt the worst are the Straw-hat Pirates. They didn't know what their Captain had to go through, they let him alone. They let him down, and go through so much pain, and they didn't even know. Not only that, but they sat clueless on the island they got sent to. All of them felt a great wave of shame wash over them.
Alright boys and girls, that was overwhelming emotional but that beside - Luffy looked teary-eyed around and got the attention of Ace, who asked what's wrong. "Do you hear that voice?"
Shanks looked at the boy for a second before answering, "No, Lu. There is no voice."
"But Shanks! I hear it- wait.. Am I going crazy? I clearly hear it!" he turned around to look at his Crew. Robin was first to speak her thought, "We believe you, but we can't hear anything." Suddenly, Luffy felt a sharp pain in his head and gripped his hair tightly.
"Luffy? What's wrong?", called Ace out to him, worry in his voice. Oooh you're the only one who's hearing me right now? How unfortunate.. Let me check something-
It hurts, every time the voice speaks up it felt like his head is about to explode. "There is someone speaking.. I hear them clearly. They want to-" but before he can finish his sentence a loud sound erupts, sounding like a crash, and they all looked up.
"Hello there- I hope that everyone can hear me now, and not only the boy right there.", the maturity of the people looked around confused, meanwhile Luffy was kind of looking excited to his Crew, to which few of them just sweat dropped.
"Not to spook any of you, but I brought you here to react to a certain someone." ,spoke the mystery voice.
It became silent, except for the loud laughter of a certain someone, Garp, and an overly excited pirate boy.
"Sounds interesting! Let's do it!", Luffy was the first to speak up, and his Crew began to shout at him, "LUFFY!", "shitty Captain.." and "Moron" and also with a chuckle from Robin in response.
"Okay mystery voice, and whom might that be?", this time it was Marco that spoke through the loud shouts of the other crew.
"Wait. Before I say more, let me just bring a few more in here-". A loud noise erupts and two more people joined them, a blonde boy with formal clothes and the leader of the revolutionary army. "That's Dragon! And there is Sabo, the No. 2 of the Revolutionary's!", shouted a Marine as they got tense. The two being spoken too stood there tense.
"Dragon! Long time, no see!", shouted Garp and came forward. While Dragon just ignored his father and analyzed the surrounding people. "Dragon..", said Sabo beside him, in a weary voice and Dragon looked to where the other's gaze went and followed it, just so see his son and a person that should be dead.
"Wait Sabo..? No, that can't be..", Ace was confused, why did that man look like him.. He should be dead!
"What..? Ace? Lu?"
But before anyone could ask or respond to the questions, a loud crying noise interrupts them. Looking to his side he saw that Luffy began to cry, but not from sadness but from happiness, and before he could say something his brother jumped up and launched himself into Sabo, while crying out happily.
"SABOOO!! I thought you were dead!", and that kicked Ace into action and ran towards the blonde too, jumping onto him and causing them to crash onto the ground. "Bastard.. What the fuck?!", this time it was Ace time to let a few happy tears run down his cheeks.
Around them the Marines and Pirates whispered and asking themselves the relationship between the three. "Who is that?", asked Usopp the others around him and Robin answered in a calm voice, "That's Sabo, the Nr. 2 of the Revolutionaries. I met him a few times over the past two years."
"What's with Luffy?", asked Sanji in return, not understanding a thing. "I don't know, but let them have their moment."
With the Marines. "Garp, it's your family again!", screamed Sengoku at the other, while in the other corner of the room was Akainu, who just wanted to kill every single pirate and revolutionary in this room. Kizaru on the other hand found it amusing and smirked to himself, while Aokiji was a bit confused but also amused by the young pirate and his relationships with famous and dangerous people.
"Lu- can't breathe-", not hearing his brother's words, he continued to cry into his shirt and hug him tightly, fearing he might disappear any second. But Ace understood what his brother meant and kicked Luffy with full force off, so that all three of them are now separated.
" ACE! Don't kick Luffy!", screamed Sabo at him, but only got a 'tsk' in return. Looking back at the youngest he had snot dripping from his nose and his eyes red from all the crying.
They ignored Luffy still sniffing in his corner as they both stood up, and Ace asked why the other didn't ring them up all those years, "After the fire.. When *they* shot me down, I almost died. But Dragon-san over there saved me, but I lost all my memories and couldn't even remember my own name, besides the feeling of having to run away from Goa." Ace smiled weary at him and punched him into his stomach. "That's for forgetting us. But it's good to see you still kicking.. And that Luffy isn't alone.", the last part came out a little quieter, so that Luffy couldn't hear them.
"Sooo? Everyone settled?", Usopp shrieked at the sudden appearance of the mystery voice. "If I may ask, who are you? And what do you want from us?", asked the red-haired Emperor.
"Uuuuh, that's right! I forgot to tell. How many of you experienced the pain that came with living life to it's fullest?". Nobody said anything as some of them looked around, with their heads lightly hung low. "That's what i thought. You are going to react to someone's past, and everyone I brought here today has a connection of some sorts to him. And the matter of whom I am, that's not important for now."
Many grew weary at that, the tension rising in the room, but got cut short by no other than Luffy, "LETS DO IT! That's going to be fun, right guys?", smiling brightly at his crew, while making them groan in annoyance. "But what if it's a trap, Luffy?"
"Yeah! Chopper's right! We should get out of here.." added Usopp, but their Captain only continued to smile and laughed lightly before saying, "Even if it's a trap, I have you guys! And we didn't train for nothing these past two years!" And that's it to make them all blush lightly, getting flustered at their Captain's words, even Zoro and Sanji looked away feeling embarrassed. "I hate when he does that..", muttered Zoro, but quickly got up and agreed to his Captain decision and soon everyone else followed suit.
"Wow.. He has them around his pinkie and doesn't even realize it.."
"What just happened..?
"Anchor got a good crew.."
Many Marines frowned at their interaction, some fearing the future that is about to come with them out on the seas again. He is such an idiot.., thought Ace as he watched the Crew talk and encourage each other. "As I was saying - You all are going to watch the Memories of no other than Monkey D. Luffy!"