I wasn't sure how long it took me to reach the Moby Dick. It had been days, maybe a week. It was impossible to tell.

Lack of water and food, on top of my unending panic, had caused my brain to begin shutting down. I had found myself speaking to whoever would listen, be it Ace, Corazon, Sabo, even Doffy at one point. Nobody was there to respond to me. To help me.

That was until I saw the magnificent bow of a white whale in the distance.

My strength somehow returned to me in that instant. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to stop as I rowed closer and closer, my voice hoarse as I cried out, praying somebody on board would hear me.
"P..POPS..! MAR..CO..! DEUCE..! IZOU..! PLEASE..!"

I squeezed my eyes shut, the throbbing in my head becoming almost too much to bear, when suddenly I felt something grasp my shoulders tightly, lifting me from the tiny prison of a boat.

My body finally had the chance to go limp for the first time in days, but it didn't stay that way for very long. I was carefully dropped into a pair of arms, and I forced my eyes to open.

"(Y/N)! Y..You're alive..! We thought we'd lost you!" Deuce delicately cradled my body, but I refused to stay down. Grabbing hold of his shoulders, I dragged myself up to meet his eyes properly, barely able to see his mask through the blur of my vision.

"I..It's Ace..! He..He got..! Teach..! He..!" My voice was failing me, but I was determined to get it out, even through the dry sobs that convulsed through my body. "Impel..! Down..! Ace..! I-"

"We heard, (Y/N). We know. Please, try to breathe. You're seriously dehydrated." Deuce soothed me with a hand on my cheek, what I could clearly see of his eyes looking glossy. "Did you really row all the way here? That was reckless...Just like you..."

I felt another hand on my forehead, knocking Ace's hat back a little, which upset me.
"No fever, but she needs fluids, and quick-yoi." Marco's tone was thick with worry, and I understood why. I knew I was a complete mess. "Bring her to the infirmary. Vista, go tell Pops. Now."

I closed my eyes as I felt myself being lifted higher, my head rolling back, but my breathing remained the same. Shallow and unable to slow down. Not once had my panic eased since I had seen Ace being dragged off to hell, and I doubted it would until I saw him again.

There was a period of nothingness for a while before I returned to the land of the living again, now with an intravenous drip in the pit of my elbow, and clothes changed. Ace's hat sat upon my chest, and I moved my hand to rest on the rim.

"You're home now. We're here." I turned my head with difficulty, Whitebeard's solemn smile greeting me from my bedside. It was strange, seeing him hunched to fit inside the small room.

But...

"Pops...I'm sorry. I tried to stop him..." My tears were wet this time around, but before they even had a chance to escape my waterline a large finger carefully caught them.
"Don't be sorry, girl. You know how Ace is." He sighed, moving his hand to gingerly pat my head. "We're just glad you made it out safely. When I heard about what happened, there was no mention of you. I didn't know what to think."

Forcing myself to sit up, I glanced to Ace's hat before looking Whitebeard in the eye, ignoring the severe ache in my overworked body.
"Wh..What have you heard..?" Had Ace really been sent to Impel Down? What was going to happen? Was he really going to rot in there for the rest of his days?

The hulking Captain hesitated for a few moments, which told me that, at the very least, the news wasn't good.
"Well, You see-"
"I think we should talk to her about that." Marco cut him off as he entered the room, Deuce in tow. They both looked tired, with bags hanging low beneath their eyes.

Whitebeard nodded curtly in silent agreement, awkwardly standing, but he didn't leave before he patted my head one last time.
"Thank you for coming home in one piece. I can't lose another child. I just can't."

There was a heavy silence as the captain left, Deuce closing the door behind him before sighing, rubbing his eyes.
"You, uh, feeling any better, (Y/N)?" He asked, but I didn't want questions. I didn't want to talk about myself. There was only one thing I wanted to know.

"Ace. Tell me what you know." There was still a crackle to my voice, but I was slowly gaining enough strength to be able to talk and move a bit more, at least enough to give Marco an irritated glare as he pressed his stethoscope to my back.

The pair shared a long, pained glance, and I knew. Something far worse was about to come down upon me. No, not me. I didn't matter. It was Ace who was in grave danger.

"(Y/N)...I need you to promise me that you're not going to panic. Please. You need to stay calm, okay-yoi?" Marco spoke in a deeply serious tone, and it scared me out of my wits. Still, I nodded, but the two of them didn't look overly convinced.

I need to know, no matter how bad it is.

But did I, though? What if he had been killed by Blackbeard already? I couldn't take that information. It would be the immediate end of me.

"Ace, he..." Marco took hold of my hand as he spoke, and I felt Deuce place his on my knee. Not at all as comforting as they likely meant it to be. "...The Navy is planning to...execute him in three days..."

Ex..ecute..?

It took an unfathomable amount of time for me to really process the words he had said, but once my mind actually computed it, I tried to spring up from the infirmary bed, reaching to rip the cannula from my arm.
"WE HAVE TO GO GET HIM! W..WE CAN'T LET THEM DO THAT! WE CAN'T! LET ME GO! LET ME GO..!"

The two men had been prepared for my frenzy, of course, holding me from getting out of the bed or further harming my already fragile body.
"W..We are, (Y/N)! We are! Please, just breathe..!" Deuce pleaded with me, assisting Marco in keeping me from escaping.

Instead of speaking, Marco just climbed into the bed behind me, wrapping his arms around my torso, pinning my limbs so I couldn't thrash about any longer. His pulse was as rapid as mine was, and his breathing not much better.

"Deuce...could you go and get something light from the galley for her to eat-yoi? Please?" His voice was betraying the reactions of his body when he addressed his companion, who made no effort to argue. Deuce gave me a sad look before he stood up, bowing his head a little before leaving the room.

I fought against Marco for as long as I could before I just had to stop, my body refusing to cooperate any longer. I slumped back against the older man, who at no point had relaxed his hold on me.
"He's...He's on death row...a..and I didn't do a thing to stop it..." I whimpered, feeling him squeeze me closer.

"None of us did...but we couldn't have stopped him anyway-yoi...You know that as well as any of us..." The blond replied quietly, and I knew he was right. Ace was as stubborn as they could possibly come. He'd set his sights on Blackbeard and there had been no possible chance to change that.

Only...I encouraged him up until the eleventh hour...

"You listen to me, (Y/N). We're gonna get him back. No..no matter what. You hear me? My brother...your husband...Pop's son...We're getting him back...I promise you-yoi..." Marco's voice broke and he lowered his face until it was hidden in my matted (H/C) hair.

He was speaking as though he wasn't just trying to convince me, but himself, too. Even though it was painful, and extremely difficult given his hold on me from that position, I managed to turn myself around, slightly tangling the both of us with my IV when I threw my arms around him.

"Please...Don't make promises about things you have no control over..." I pleaded with him, face in the crook of his shoulder. "J..Just...as long as we're doing something...W..We can save him...We have to..." I wanted to be positive, but it was hard in such a situation.

Impel Down was an impregnable fortress, and if they were indeed planning on holding a public execution, then that would mean the entire Navy would be in attendance, not to mention other unsavory characters. One in particular I didn't even want to think about.

"I honestly thought you'd been killed..." Marco whispered, a hand on the back of my head pulling me closer still. I just let him hold me like that, because he very obviously needed it. I needed it too. Marco was my family, my brother, and we needed to stick by each other. It was all we could do for now.

"No...Nobody else is going to die...We'll make sure of that..."

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*** :)

Next Time: No Way, No How***