A/N: Hey guys! This is my first One Piece fanfiction so be nice okay! This does take place in an alternative Universe where Sabo is still with his brothers and they decided to take Luffy with them when they were seventeen. I will explain this later in the story so I won't give too much away now.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. If I did Ace would never have died, Luffy would never have to be alone, and Sabo would be sailing with his brothers forever!

When Ace woke up it was to see the wooden panels of a ship, hear the salty splash of waves against the hull, and feel a throbbing pain in all his limbs. He groaned quietly to himself. Memories of the fight with Whitebeard came flooding into his brain as he tried to acclimatise to his new surroundings.

How he had lost, how he had created a wall of fire so his brothers and crew mates could escape...how Whitebeard offered him a place on the Moby Dick.

Ace sat up sharply, only to wince in pain as his muscles protested his movement. Another look around the room confirmed that he had no idea where he was, which meant that logically the Whitebeard pirates had taken him aboard and he must be on the Moby Dick.

Sabo would be proud, after 12 years some of his logic had sunk into Ace's head!

Ace's head sunk into his hand as he frowned; trying to continue on the Sabo logic route and not go down the Luffy logic route (which made more sense to him but Sabo explained to him that the three brothers were probably the only ones capable of understanding Luffy logic). If the crew of the Moby Dick really did bring him aboard what motive could they have?

They already knew that he wanted to kill their 'father'. Why would they help their enemy?

Almost as if they had heard his thoughts two of Whitebeard's men entered the room.

One of them had red hair, done up in a weird fashion and a broad grin on his face. The other looked eerily like a pineapple which caused Ace's stomach to rumble loudly in hunger.

This seemed to amuse the red head as he smiled down at Ace from where he was standing.

"Sounds like someone's hungry~"

Ace narrowed his eyes at the sing-song tone of the man, not liking the way he was treating him even if he was bang on in that assessment.

The pineapple man snorted slightly, sitting down on the end of the bed Ace was in.

"Ignore Thatch, yoi. Most of us do"

Ignoring the, now named, red head Ace narrowed his eyes at the blonde man, wondering why he was being so relaxed around an enemy. The man smirked lightly, looking at his soon-to-be-brother out of the corner of his eye.

"You've been out for a couple of days, yoi. Your injuries are healing well but two of your crew are causing a lot of trouble, yoi."

Ace felt all the colour drain from his face. There were only two people he knew that would follow the Moby Dick, disobeying his orders, and try and fight to get him back.

With renewed effort the fire man started struggling to get out of bed, causing the other two men to look at him with varying degrees of concern. Thatch hurried over and put a restraining hand on Ace's shoulder.

"Didn't you hear Marco? Your injuries aren't healed enough for you to be up yet"

He quickly recoiled however when the raven haired boy tried to bite his hand.

"I don't care" he snapped, his fire flaring up inside him causing the temperature in the room to increased dramatically. "I want to see my brothers. If you've hurt them I swear to all the gods I can think of that I will burn this ship to the ground!"

Understanding flickered across the blon-Marco's face. He understood the protectiveness that came with having family and from a quick glance at Thatch he could see the younger man felt the same way.

With a sigh and a smile the two men went on either side of Ace to help him up.

"They're not hurt, yoi. We just tied them to the mast"

"I think our eardrums suffered more than they did. How you managed to sleep through it beats me"

With a sigh of relief Ace let himself be helped to the door. He didn't trust these men, not one bit, but he needed their help for now. Getting back to his brothers was his first priority. His second was yelling at them for coming after him.

It was a bright day when they emerged onto the deck, causing Ace to squint at the harshness of the light after the cool dark of the cabin he had been in. His eyes barely had time to adjust to the change when his ears were assaulted from a loud voice that he would recognise anywhere.

"ACE!"

"Luffy!" He yelled back with a smile, catching sight of his baby brother's eye-wateringly red t-shirt and his precious straw hat.

Luffy was beaming at his brother, not seeming to be bothered by the steel cables that restrained him to the mast. He just kept smiling, glad that his brother seemed to be alright.

"Ace, Ace, guess what?"

"What?" Ace replied with a tired smile, hobbling over to his youngest brother, checking him over to make sure he was really unscathed by the crew of the Moby Dick.

"The giant Ossan you tried to kill has this really awesome doggy that's really funny! And there's a shark man on this ship, and a guy made out of shiny stuff, and a guy that makes really good food! They wouldn't let me eat the walking pineapple though" he finished his rambling with a pout as said walking pineapple had to be restrained from hitting him by a hysterical Thatch.

Ace chuckled slightly, grinning at his brother's blunt words. Then another pressing matter entered into his mind.

"Luffy, where's Sabo?"

"Oh so you finally remember me, thanks Ace" came a sulky reply from the other side of the mast. Ace carefully manoeuvred himself to see both his brothers at the same time.

His blonde brother seemed to be unscathed as well. His hat covered his eyes, casting them in shadows. While Luffy had grinned at the sight of him, Sabo gave him a sullen glare.

"...care to explain what was going through the empty space you call a brain when you thought a wall of fire was a good plan?..."

Ace barely hid a wince. That may not have been his smartest idea...but it would have worked if they had just stayed away!

"Maybe I was trying to make sure you guys could get away! It would have worked if you had just done what I told you to" he snapped back indignantly.

That apparently wasn't what Sabo had wanted to hear. His dark blue eyes narrowed dangerously.

"How many times do we have to tell you? We're sticking with you! You're our big brother Ace!"

This time Ace really did flinch. Sabo acknowledging him as the eldest always preludes the worst guilt trips. He was already feeling guilty enough thanks.

"If you're taken we will follow and fight to get you back. We're never letting anyone be taken somewhere against their will. If you're going to blow up every time Luffy gets a scratch or I get a beat down then we're allowed to do the same! Don't be a hypocrite!...don't be like them..."

The last part was in a whisper for only his brothers to hear as Sabo finally lowered his gaze from Ace. That whisper alone was enough to make Ace wish he was still being beaten up by Whitebeard, never mind how the rest of his speech made him feel.

Carefully, hesitantly, he made his way to his blonde brother and rapped the side of his head with his knuckles. This was his own way of apologising and when Sabo smiled back up at him, he knew he was forgiven. Not off the hook, but forgiven.

The moment was ultimately ruined when the wonderful black haired brat they called their baby brother started whining. Loudly.

"Aaaace! I want meeeat!"

The other two started to laugh at Liffy before they both seemed to realise how hunger they were too. Almost at once three large, loud growls sounded from their stomachs. Luffy and Sabo hung their heads in despair while Ace collapsed from where he was previously standing, sending the crew into a panic.

Thatch smiled down at them, crouching down to prod at Ace's side. A low groan was the response he got for this oh-so-caring approach, followed by a low moan of "...Huuungry..."

With a chuckle the red haired man stood up and headed to the kitchen, shouting to the rest that he was going to get their guests something to eat. That calmed the rest of the crew down somewhat and two of the men started to untie Luffy and Sabo from the mast. Now they knew where their brother was they might be less inclined to try and kill everyone.

As soon as they were released the two boys slid down the mast to lie prone on the deck with the other brother, all of them too hungry to move.

Joza, Vista, and Marco all tried to get the three brothers to move or at least sit up. All three of them failed. All that was accomplished was all three of them getting annoyed looks from Ace, Sabo, and Luffy.

It was only when Thatch came back up on deck with a large platter of different food did they move at all. As a unit they looked up, stars in their eyes and drool coming out their mouths, and pounced on the food. There were no manners as the brothers ripped into their food like starving wolves, occasionally fighting each other over a particular piece of meat.

This wasn't too shocking to the crew of the Moby Dick as they were no strangers to bad table manners. What impressed them was the speed they were eating.

'...do they even breathe?...' Wondered most of the crew that was able to continue watching.

'No' was the resounding answer as they watched Sabo turn an alarming shade of blue and started hacking his lungs out.

Without looking up from their own meals Ace and Luffy both whacked him on the back hard enough to dislodge the fish skeleton that had caught in his throat.

While their brother recovered from his coughing fit they had started another fight over a leg of meat which was promptly stolen by Sabo when they weren't looking.

Marco shook his head at the display the three were putting on and at all his siblings 'inconspicuous' attempts at betting on the outcome. The blonde commander looked up at their father, a small smirk gracing his face when he noticed the gentle smile and amusement lighting up the old man's face.

His new brothers were going to fight in great, whether they wanted to or not.