@daadzi
It wasn’t very often the King Of Goa found himself concerned with the plight of others. Especially someone as lowly as a pirate. Portgas D. Ace was a different kind of pirate though, one the redhead actually knew from his childhood. Reading of his capture and imprisonment only seemed to bring back memories of that time years ago.
For once, both Stelly and his adopted older brother had the same goal, getting Sabo out of Outlook’s manor. Sabo didn’t want to be there and Stelly wanted to inherit everything for himself, so-- it made more sense to work with him instead of being petty and trying to ruin a reputation the blonde didn’t even want.
Besides, anything he could have down would only have driven their father into stricter rules for Sabo. He’d never leave then!
And while the blonde couldn’t leave the manor, Stelly could. Which is how he met Ace and Luffy trying to sneak in. What formed from that was an unlikely acquaintanceship and almost sometimes even- friendship. Ace and Luffy were just gutter rats to him but yet the redhead almost preferred their company to all the other children he knew. They weren’t looking for a way to backstab him, they just wanted their brother back.
So-- Stelly helped them. It was for his own gain, he’d claim, but it benefited everyone to get Sabo out of there.
“Father! You already said you adopted me in case Sabo didn’t work out! He’s going to ruin your company when he gets it, give it to me, I want it!” With the combination of Stelly hounding Outlook and Didit for being their only son and Sabo’s detachment from everything, how could they not agree that the redhead was the better son?
That led Stelly to his current goal. Somehow getting Ace out of Impel Down. He tried the obvious of just buying him, as Stelly knew he had the power to do so. There was something else keeping Ace there however, that the warden and anyone else there refused to budge on. Stelly couldn’t name a high enough price but he could bring in someone they couldn’t refuse.
Ace was to be part of the redhead’s tribute to a Celestial Dragon then! No one had the authority to turn that away. First though, he would be brought to Stelly’s own kingdom. For cleanup and presentation he said. Can’t go giving the World Nobles damaged goods now can he? What the marines didn’t know, and they couldn’t change now, is that Stelly was just going to keep Ace there in the kingdom now.
Even standing in front of the pirate now, still bound in his seastone, Stelly could hardly recognize him. Whether that was just from how Ace had grown or how beaten he looked though--.
“You need a bath.” Stelly’s mouth is covered with a handkerchief, much like his father always did when he was around anyone less than nobility. “You do remember me, don’t you?”













