#i'm very niara focused these days i guess

[novemberhope]

Summary: After the tragic events in Marineford, Niara pays Ace one last visit. Spoilers: Yes! Marineford and Portgas D Ace Spoilers under the cut! Notes: After a long time, I finally wrote something again!! Yay!! (not very long though) Word Count: 881

Standing in front of the grave made it real. That's why Niara had avoided coming here for as long as she could. But there was no getting around it. If she really was to take Luffy up on his offer to join him and his crew in Sabaody, she knew what she had to do. She had to accept that Ace was gone and move on. But the tears would not stop falling. She had managed not to cry in a while, but now, standing in front of his grave, it was overwhelming. It was a good thing no one else was there.

She looked over at Whitebeard's grave. She'd never met him in person but Ace had been obsessed with taking him down. If he hadn't, and if he hadn't joined Whitebeard's crew at some point, maybe the Spade Pirates would still be together and none of this would have happened.

But Niara also knew she couldn't blame it on Whitebeard. Many things had happened in the world since the Spade Pirates left Niara on that little island where she'd met her grandparents for the first time. She was not sorry she had stayed behind to get to know them. She'd always planned on catching up with the others at some point but apparently that had never been meant to happen - after hearing that Ace had joined Whitebeard's crew and the others had moved on to do their own thing, Niara hadn't been in any hurry to catch up with her old crew. There had been nothing to catch up with now anyway. But maybe - maybe if she had…

No, she told herself, trying to wipe the tears away that still kept coming. This was just a lot of what ifs and might have beens. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her fingers gently trailing the edges of the gravestone. "I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I couldn't save you." If only she had taken things more seriously, if only she had taken the time to train, to get stronger, to handle her devil fruit better, to learn Haki… maybe her rushing to Marineford to save Ace would have made a difference. Instead, she hadn't even come close before she'd been knocked out and if Luffy's companions hadn't saved her… The only good thing that had come out of this was that he had seen her. He'd known she had come to try and save him. If anything, that made her feel better.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered again.

For a moment, she felt the heat of the afternoon sun on her back and she pretended it was fire embracing her for the very last time.

"I've decided to take your little brother up on his offer," she said. She wanted Ace to know that she was going to be fine. And that his brother was going to be fine too. "I'm going to train hard and then I'll join his crew when they all meet up again in Sabaody. I promise I won't ever let anything happen to him."

Truth be told, Luffy was a lot stronger than Niara ever would be, but she still felt like she needed to make that promise.

"And… maybe you want to know that Ginny's okay too." Ginny, who was everything but Niara's favorite person. She had sold the Spade Pirates out back in the day and joined the marines, putting a huge target on their back. But Ace had cared about Ginny and Ginny seemed to be on the right path now, so it felt right to let him know that. "I don't know what happened to her afterwards, but she fought on our side in Marineford. Which means that she's probably no longer a Marine."

Not that Niara cared all that much. She wasn't sure if she would ever be able to forgive Ginny. Still, it looked like she did the right thing in the end so that was good.

"I own so much of where I am now and who I’ve become to you… and I just… I just really wish you would be here to share the rest of my journey as well," she cried, wiping her eyes again. They hadn't seen each other in forever, there was so much they had to tell each other… and now they would never have the chance to do so.

“I’ll come back and tell you all about my adventures with the Strawhats,” she promised.

Slowly reaching out with her outstretched hand, her fingertips barely reaching the soft grass covering the earth. Suddenly, colorful flowers appeared, finding their way all around the gravesite.

Carefully, Niara extended her hand to the gravestone itself and a beautiful fire poppy grew right in her hand. Slowly, she put the flower on the gravestone.

“Goodbye, Ace,” she whispered. “I’ll make you proud, I promise you.”

Again the tears wouldn’t stop falling and she quickly had to turn around and walk away. Once more, the afternoon sun was blazing down on her, but it felt strangely comforting again.

And now… now she was completely on her own. She would return to Amazon Lily to accept the offer to train there and in two years time, she would find Luffy and his crew and hopefully set sail with them.