And here's the second chapter! Ok, now I'm going to go to bed. Next up is going to either be Skidmarks or AbD. So, hold your horses people, I'm working on it, AND life stuff, and of course Work.

Question of the chapter: "Do you like naps?" I love naps. Adore them, even. You're never too old for a nap! Werunyonder keeps calling me "Ace" because I'll vanish for lengths at a time to sleep.

MARCO POV

He turned to glare at Law, annoyed that the man seemed to be feeding his friend's delusions. Marco had been around for quite a while, and he'd never heard of there being any kind of User who could skip through dimensions. Not that he was doubting the possibilities of other dimensions. Oh no, he was no fool; doubting something like that when his best friend could walk through shadows and his other friend was literally fire was downright reckless. That didn't mean he didn't hold a good deal of skepticism for the possibility to cross dimensions. "Not funny, yoi."

"I wasn't attempting to be." Law's smirk was downright creepy, "Merely stating that instead of dealing with these two in your typical brutishly effective manner it might be better to spend your time hunting the one responsible. Before someone perhaps a tad more unsavory appears, ya. Though I can't think of what is much worse than two Gols."

"HEY! I resent that! I could be way worse; we could have been stuck with two of you!" Ace snapped back while the other version of him paled slightly.

"Ace, move." He ordered, having a few questions of his own before he went along with this ridiculous idea.

"Nu-ah. You've got that look. The 'I'm going to punch someone through the wall' look. And he looks like me, so you can't do that, Marc! It'd be…. bad for my…. psyche?"

Sabo coughed, "Nice save…."

Marco sighed, "I'm not going to punch him through a wall." When was the last time he'd ever even done something like that in the first place? "I'm not even looking to punch him. But I will punch you if you don't get out of my way so I can ask him some questions, flame-brain."

It was amazing how fast Ace abandoned his double at that, leaving the other glowering mulishly at Marco in a way he definitely recognized. Arms came up and crossed over a very impressively toned chest, and he noticed the strange tattoo on the young man's arm. "What?"

"You're going to make this difficult, aren't you, yoi?" Marco muttered mostly to himself. "Look kid, this is how it's gonna work. I want your name, real name, rank, and as I doubt you have a social security number I'll take what the hell you were doing to end up here." He raised an eyebrow, "If you don't co-operate and tell me what I need to know, I'm going to have to get others involved, and trust me, that would be bad for everyone."

"Others like who?" Those familiar grey eyes narrowed.

"That depends on how much of a threat Pop's thinks you are. If you're really unlucky, the government." He watched as this marked Ace fliched back, "But none of us want that. It's bad for business, yoi."

"Bad for business?"

He ignored the question. "I'll go first. Marco Zharptitsa - and yes Sabo I'm aware that's not my actual last name, I've told you before I don't remember it anymore, it's the oldest one I remember going by - former officer in the American army, and before that private in the German one. Currently first commander in Whitebeard's Family. Devil-Fruit User with the ability to regenerate. I'm here because my best friend called me freaking out that there were suddenly two Ace's and Luffy's and that one set looked like death warmed over." He looked the young man up and down, "I think he was being kind. You look like shit, yoi."

"You worked with the government?" Came the suspicious reply.

"Long time ago. Before you, or my Ace was born." He shrugged, "It was something to do." Something to do at a time where he was lost, Those he'd known before had all died, and he just couldn't settle into the world as it was now. So he turned to what he knew how to do; being a soldier. "That wouldn't stop them from arresting me now, yoi."

"Marco's a wanted man." Law put in, leaning on a low exam table where it looked like both Luffy's were sleeping. Marco tried to hide his discomfort at the thought of a still Lu as Law continued, "As are most of the people in this room, under one name or another."

"That's not comforting, mate."

"It wasn't meant to be, Brit."

Their bickering was cut off, "Ace. Portgas D Ace." There was a lie there, he saw it in those grey eyes. Marco didn't call him on it, though. Portgas wasn't an unknown name to him. Not with the stories Makino had shared of Ace's mother. "Former Captain of the Spade Pirates. Current Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates." He looked down, "How I got here? Hell if I know. Made a stupid mistake and ended up caught by the Marines and sentenced to death. Oyaji showed up, even though he should have stayed away - and then Luffy showed up, and…. next thing I know Luffy was in danger because of my stupid mistake - and then we were here."

"What kind of danger?"

"The kind where an asshole is going to punch a lava fist through your little brother's heart."

Ace let out a low whistle, "Yeah, that sounds pretty bad. Lava? Who the hell has lava powers?" He glanced over at Law who shrugged.

"No one I know of," The surgeon admitted, "But we all know how hard it is to locate Users when they don't want to be found. Even those that work in the government are very secretive."

Marco found himself nodding in agreement. It didn't mean he wouldn't be making a call to Ducky to see if the man knew anything, though. "Any strange flash of light? Dizziness? Weird sounds?"

"Wha-? No. Just, one minute were were there, and the next we were here."

"Not a lot to go on…" Sabo muttered, "So. What's the plan?"

"Right now, we'll take them back to your place. Get them settled in. I'm not saying I believe this bullshit. Not yet, yoi. But I'm not foolish enough to think it isn't possible. So we'll look into it. But there's not a lot to go on, yoi."

"Well excuse me! I was busy trying to memorize my brother's face before I died."

"You still should have noticed something." Marco quipped back before turning to the exam table, "I'll carry one, Ace - the not half dead one - you get the other."

Given the way the new Ace glared at him when he picked up what was obviously his brother - the lack of scar on the chest being a giveaway - Marco knew it was going to be a long drive back to their apartment. Next time Thatch called in a panic, he decided to let it go to voice mail.