"This island is creepy," Thatch said with a smile, looking around at the overgrown trees and vines that seemed to want to latch onto the small group. Ace didn't quite agree, but kept his mouth shut anyways. "I mean I feel like I'm being watched—I hate that feeling by the way. Especially if it's another pirate crew that thinks they can take us on. Do you know how annoying that is?"

The forest was dark and ominous, with fog licking at their feet and a chill reverberating through the air. The pirates could practically see the glowing red eyes that glared at them from the bushes. They hadn't seen any animals yet—much to Ace's disappointment—but that didn't mean that they couldn't sense their intimidating presence. In a way, the island reminded him of his old home on Dawn Island with Sabo.

Sabo….

Ace frowned and shook his head. He had his family; Sabo was gone. Dead. He wouldn't have wanted Ace stuck on his death, anyways.

"Thatch, we don't need commentary at the moment, yoi." Marco said, swatting at a plant that slithered onto the pathway. Marco huffed as another branch came alive and went for their ankles. Eventually Marco reached the level of fuck it and had his blue fire roared to life. It successfully scared away the blood thirsty plants for a few seconds. "We get that you need to talk all the time, but do you seriously need to talk all the time?"

"Damn, Marc, that's cold " Thatch muttered, lowering his head and sticking out his bottom lip in a pout. He huffed and crossed his arms when he got no reaction, completely ignoring the rose vine that had grabbed his arm. "Ace, you're with me on this right? Come on, buddy!"

"With you on what?" Ace didn't even glance over his shoulder as he continued to burn the island's plants. The pirate took another step before his leg sunk into deep mud. With a low growl, Ace yanked his foot out and continued on his way with his boot now making a 'sqee' every time he stepped. "The pirates or the creepiness?" Another plant attacked them, but Ace just burned it, not really having a problem with their thorny friends because of his fire devil fruit. He huffed and muttered under his breath, "The plants are annoying as hell."

"Everything!" Thatch cried, practically throwing his hands up in the air. How come no one understood what he was trying to say? Everything he'd said was perfectly clear-in his mind anyway. He didn't seem to think that whatever he said fell death to the other pirates' ears.

"I'll admit that the pirate crew challenging pops is annoying, but this island isn't creepy." Ace kicked a giant leaf out of his path, blatantly ignoring the little voice in the back of his head that screamed 'you were one of those pirates!' and rolled his eyes. Just really annoying."

"The plants are out to get me, I swear!" Thatch jumped on Marco's back without warning, causing the blonde to stumble a little. Thatch looked around wildly as if he had seen something truly horrible—which he hadn't, mind you—and dramatically cried, "Marco save me! I'm too young to die!"

Marco said nothing, his only answer was grabbing the redhead's hands and flipping him into a mud pit that was in front of them. He didn't even spare a glance at the fallen commander as he walked over him like a bridge, getting more mud on Thatch's white shirt.

Seeing Thatch's horrified face as he looked at his clothes, Ace couldn't help but let out the hysterical laughter that he'd been holding in. When he thought Marco wasn't looking, Ace shot Thatch a thumbs-up. Without warning, the phoenix stopped walking and turned around to face Ace. "Quit encouraging him."

Thatch pushed himself off the wet ground with a groan, flicking all the excess dirt towards the incoming monster plants. His previously white outfit was now covered in a greenish-brown mixture that smelled awful. Even Ace had to take a step away from his friend.

"Marcooo," Both of them complained—though Thatch's tone had a bit more of an edge to it as he pushed himself off the ground. One pair of puppy dog eyes and another glare met the Phoenix's unwavering gaze. When Marco didn't budge, Ace sighed, giving up, and playfully shoved Thatch away from him as they continued on their impromptu adventure.

Abruptly, Marco stopped, causing the two behind him to run into his back.

"Oi, Marco, why'd you stop?" Ace asked, trying to get a better view.

Instead of answering, Marco bent down to examine what looked like a leaf. Ace raised an eyebrow at Thatch, who just shrugged, flinging a little bit of mud from his hair. Ace was about to ask his question again when Marco straightened out and pointed to a spot just a little off the trail.

"What is it?" Thatch asked as he bent down and went to look at the place Marco pointed to. Ace didn't see anything strange enough for Marco to show them until he noticed the dark red splotches behind a darker plant with three leaves.

"Blood." Marco said simply, his expression remained impassive.

"So?" Ace said. Thatch pushed the leaves out of the way, revealing another large puddle. "An animal got hurt. Big deal."

"No, Ace." Thatch's voice was barley above a hushed whisper. "Look."

Ace furrowed his brows and pushed the leaves out of the way to get a better look. There was a lot of blood. His eyes traced the edged of the puddle before he spotted the small indents in the ground leading away from the blood. He sucked in a breath. "Are those…?"

"Footprints," Marco said.

"Human blood?" Thatch asked, glancing around them. "I thought this island was inhabited."

"This island is uninhabited." Marco said, standing up again and resting his hands on his hips. "It's pretty much impossible for any humans to live here, or stay here for a period of time because of the flora and fauna. This is the first time I've been here myself, but I've heard about how the animals are strong enough to take out entire crews, yoi."

Ace whistled, lips curving into a smirk. "Entire crews? That's pretty impressive. I'd like to explore this island more." The more he learned about this island, the more he was convinced that this was just a deadlier version of his home back in East Blue.

Thatch snorted, then hit Ace on the head. The fire-user glared at the cook, who in turn flicked dirt at his unsuspecting victim. "Of course you'd want to explore the island with deadly animals. Seriously Ace, where is the common sense? Were you dropped on your head as a kid? Or is the whole 'D' thing going to your head?"

Ace growled and snapped at the fourth division commander, "That shitty geezer wasn't that nice to me, you know. Not to mention the fact that mountain bandits raised me. They don't like people very much—especially little kids who had a knack for making things explode."

"Problem child," Thatch coughed into his fist, smirking as he watched Ace turn and give him a deadly glare that could probably scare off the plants.

Marco was between the bickering pair in an instant, pushing them away from each other before they could start a fight—spar, Ace would say after everything was destroyed. The Phoenix looked at Thatch directly in the eyes and said, "I don't think what Ace said about exploring the island was such a bad idea, yoi. It might give us the chance to find this person." Ace nodded his head in agreement.

"Fine!" Thatch playfully threw his hands up in the air, grinning. The redhead bounded up from behind Ace and jabbed his finger in Ace's chest accusingly, leaving a circle of mud in the middle of his chest. "If I die, I'm blaming you, buddy."

Ace shrugged nonchalantly and smirked. "Sure, but you'll be dead."

"Stop." Marco's underlining threat reached both of the other commander's ears and they backed down. Ace rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, gave a small grin to Marco, and said, "Yeah, explore. Right."

Marco's eyebrow twitched, but he didn't comment and started walking past the plant that they'd been looking at, following the small trail of blood. Ace and Thatch glanced at each other, before snickering and racing to catch up with Marco.

The trail led on for a while, longer than Ace thought possible. He didn't think they were going to find anyone alive, if they found anyone at all. It seemed impossible at this point. How much blood had this person lost? They would at least be unconscious, if not dead.

The sun was starting to set, and Ace really didn't want to have to try and find his way back to the Moby Dick in the dark. He had a feeling that the plants weren't going to help them find a way out of this damn jungle.

Ace was brought out of his musings by a roar that seemed to echo throughout the whole forest. Birds cried out as they fled their trees, taking to the sky. Ace felt himself shiver in excitement.

Thatch stopped, "I think I hear one of those large animals."

"The blood trail leads towards whatever that was." Marco informed the other two, gesturing to the trail they'd been following. "We should go check it out, yoi."

Both Ace and Thatch nodded eagerly, and followed the older man as they made their way through all the large plants and thick roots. They were all tense, expecting an attack at any moment. It wasn't a moment later when they all heard a high-pitched scream that vibrated in Ace's head even after it faded.

Ace stopped dead in his tracks, looking around wildly, his haki momentary forgotten. "That was a person!"

Marco gave him a glance, "What are we waiting for then, yoi?"

All three commanders found themselves racing through the plants, covering the in small scratches and other injuries as the plants eagerly grabbed onto their clothes

When the found what they were supposedly looking for, it wasn't what they expected. The first thing they noticed was the tiger, which was—admittedly—hard to miss. Standing almost as tall as a middle-aged tree, it's bright orange and black coat that glittered in the sunlight and glaring fangs made it the center of attention. From what Ace could tell it had cornered a small animal that was backed against a tree.

Then he remembered the scream and his eyes widened. No, not an animal. An animal couldn't make a sound like that. A person. Probably a child, given the size.

The tiger snarled, and the kid backed further against the tree. Ace didn't know when or how, but he found his legs working on his own, running towards the giant tiger, ready to defend the kid and fry the tiger into a crisp.

"Oi!" Ace yelled at the tiger, trying to get it to back away from the kid. "Oi! You big fur ball! Over here!" He probably looked like an idiot, waving his hands in the air like a monkey. The tiger turned snarled.

Ace took a moment to glance at the kid that was huddled against the tree. He couldn't have been older than four, and all he wore was a simple pair of shorts that were covered in dirt, scratches and blood. He had black hair and wide, innocent eyes that were terrified. In his hand, he was tightly clutching a silver pipe that was also covered in blood. He was skinny—way too skinny for anyone his age—Ace could see the boy's ribs even from where he was standing.

The tiger snarled again as Ace brought his attention back to the current danger at hand. Ace couldn't help but gawk as the tiger loomed over him with drool dripping from its giant maw. Seriously, how could a tiger be this large?

"Hey, Thatch," Ace said, slowly and carefully as he noticed the man approach. "How do you feel about cooking tiger?"

Thatch snorted, "Maybe if you don't fry it to a crisp first. Can't cook it if its charred to the bone."

Ace's grin turned feral. "I'll try and be careful."

The tiger glanced between the two of them, hesitating for a split second before pouncing.

Ace was surprised to say the least, when the tiger didn't go for him, but for Thatch. Thatch easily dodged the incoming attack just as the tiger crushed the ground where Thatch would've been.

"Looks like he's your apponent now, Thatch!" Ace laughed and used the distraction to sprint towards the boy. He ignored Thatch's call of damn it, Ace! From across clearing. Ace wasn't worried, Thatch is a cook; he knows how to deal with food.

When Ace reached the boy, his eyes were shut, his breathing was shallow and the wound on the side was still bleeding heavily, but at least he was still alive. Ace gave a sigh of relief; the kid could probably still be saved with emergency medical care. Which was back on the ship. And they were somewhat in the middle of a jungle. Lost.

Well shit.

Sighing in frustration, the young adult ripped a piece of fabric from his shorts and gently pressed it on to the boy's bleeding wound. It wouldn't be life threatening if it had been treated right away—a simple bandage would've done wonders—but it looks like the child had been running for his life since they wound had appeared. Ace guessed that the tiger gave the kid his wound—those claws weren't for show.

The child cried out in pain and surprise when he felt something touch him, his eyes snapping open. The minute he saw Ace, he whimpered and tried to move away, but Ace's hand on his shoulder held him firmly in place.

"Hey, hey." Ace said quietly, trying not to scare the boy more than he already was. "It's okay. We're not here to hurt you. We want to help." The boy's eyes were dropping slowly from the amount of blood he lost, but they still held the same fear and defiance that Ace had seen before. The boy made a small noise and tried to shift away.

Ace snaked his hands under his small body and picked the boy up bridal style, holding him close to his exposed chest. The boy let out a gasp of surprise, opening his eyes once again to stare around him, but he didn't struggle like he had before. Instead, the boy buried his tiny head into Ace's shirtless chest, taking ragged breaths.

Ace frowned and gently shook the boy, trying as best as he could not to hurt him. "Oi. Don't drop on us just yet. Stay awake a little longer, okay?" He didn't get a response, which he knew wasn't a very good sign.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Thatch still fighting the tiger, but it was obvious who the winner was. It was more of a one-sided bead down on Thatch's part, the tiger could barley keep up. Marco was sitting in a nearby tree, watching everything but not intervening. His lazy eyes were darting all around the clearing, looking for other possible enemies.

"Marco! Thatch!" Ace hollered. They had to get out of here—they could come back later and see where the boy's caretakers were. "We need to go! Now!"

Marco simply nodded, jumping off the tree and dragging Thatch by the collar of his shirt. Thatch didn't seem very happy about this, but he didn't struggle, only crossing his arms like a five year old and sticking out his tongue and letting his feet drag on the ground as the tiger chased them.

"I was about to beat the shit out of it!" Thatch complained, "Tiger meat is delicious if you cook it properly."

"We didn't come here for a tiger." Marco said firmly, finally catching up to Ace. He glanced at the child in Ace's arms before catching his eye and nodding. The child was unconscious now, but he was still making noises of pain every time he was jostled when Ace was running. In addition to the large wound on his side, there was also an assortment of scratches that were no doubt given to him by the island's plants and some bruises that were already starting to form. "He's in pretty bad shape, yoi."

"Of course he's in bad shape, the kid was just attacked by that monster tiger!" Thatch rolled his eyes. "That tiger wasn't weak, either."

"Yeah," Ace commented dryly, holding the boy closer to his chest. "We noticed."

"I'm so going back for it later," Ace could see practically see the gears turning in Thatch's head, possible thinking of hundreds of ways to cook tiger. "That tiger is a dead animal walking. There is no way that thing is going to see tomorrow."

"Have fun with that." Ace told him with a snort.

By now, Ace's chest had been stained red and whenever he moved it felt slick and rather disgusting. He could feel it dripping down and soaking into his pants. He hissed, "Shit! How the hell is this kid still alive?"

It took around two minutes of full-blown sprinting before the three were back on the boat. Ace didn't bother to say hello, wave or even answer any questions as he ran down the long, wooden hallways of the boat towards the infirmary. He could leave Marco and Thatch to deal with the details and his pestering family.

Not even knocking, Ace burst through the infirmary door, startling some of the nearby nurses. The ship's head doctor looked up at Ace's panting form before sighing and rolling her eyes. "You again? Come on, Ace. Don't you have anything better to do then spending time in the infirmary? I swear you visit me at least once a week. I don't have time to treat you, especially if it's something stupid like a paper cut."

Ace glared at her, trying to catch his breath. "Not the time. Kid. Help him." Before gently placing the small child on the nearest bed.

"Oh?" The doctor raced over to the child to get a better look. A curious spark appeared in her eyes, the kind of spark that only doctors had whenever the brought in someone new to dissect. Okay, okay. Maybe not dissect, but that's what it looked like to Ace. "What do we have here? A new patient?" She quickly snapped on a pair of blue gloves before examining the boy's battered form. A frown creased on her face before she started ordering the nurses around her. She looked up at Ace with worried eyes. "He's in pretty bad condition. How'd you find him?"

Ace had finally caught his breath. "We found him on the island, there was this giant tiger attacking him. That's pretty much all I know other than he was pretty scared when I approached him."

She took off the cloth that Ace had put on his wound before carefully examining that. "A giant tiger, huh? I don't even want to know. You always find the craziest shit don't you, Portgas?"

"To be fair, it was Marco's fault."

"Uh-huh. Sure."

"Oi," Ace glared playfully at the doctor as she went back to looking the kid over, poking the wound on his side. Even unconscious, the boy squirmed. "I'm serious. It was Marco's fault! I'm the bystander here."

The doctor put two fingers to the boy's neck, checking his pulse. The kid did nothing more than twitch once, making the doctor sigh and run her fingers through the boy's hair. The boy reacted to the touch, moving his head closer to her hand.

"He should be dead," She finally tore her eyes off the boy as another nurse grabbed him and took him out of sight. The doctor looked at Ace and gave a small, reassuring smile. "I don't know how that kid is still alive. He's going to need surgery, but he should be fine. If he wakes up, He'll need to rest, eat and not move around too much or else it'll re-open up his wounds. But he's young, he'll should heal fast. If he survives the next twenty-four hours, that is."

Ace raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to patch him up? Work your doctor-like magic?"

"Not with you here, Flame brain." The doctor snorted, made a shooing motion with her hands and literally shoved him towards the door. He stumbled a bit before he caught himself and looked at her. "Off you go. I'll tell you if anything happens."

With a large sigh, Ace nodded and headed the rest of the distance towards the door. His finger's brushed the wood's smooth surface and he looked back at the doctor. "I trust you to help him." He said simply, meeting her gaze.

The woman nodded and grinned as she disappeared around the other door, leaving Ace to wonder what the hell had just happened to his calm and peaceful day.