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Marco steps carefully around the mess of debris in the hall from their newest (soon-to-be) little brother's murder attempt. Already there are grumbling men cleaning up and patching the hole.
“You've got to stop,” Marco hears a voice huff and he stops, listening carefully for the direction.
“Shu up!” A garbled voice responds, that being that of Ace, and stuffing his face with food by the sounds of it.
“I thought you said you weren't going to kill Whitebeard?” Marco finally recognises the voice as Deuce, the Spade Pirates's first mate, who had been assigned to the medical ward under Marco. Although they'd been trying to separate the Spade Pirates a little, so they would cause less trouble.
Marco should probably split the pair up, but his curiosity gets the better of him.
“I'm not trying to!” Ace responds and Marco freezes in place, finding himself outside the door to the food store room.
“Well, that's news to me,” Deuce snaps. “Ace, you don't honestly think you can kill him, do you? What about your dads?”
“I said I'm not trying to kill him,” Ace growls before sighing. “This would've been easier if Kaido had been home. Now I've gotta go through all this just to get that old geezer to retire.”
Marco barely has enough time to take that in when they continue.
“Defeating a Yonko alone isn't going to make you one,” Deuce points out.
“But I can get his stupid poneglyph and make things easier. Then you can read it too, get more fluent or something.”
“Just because I decipher the damn things doesn't mean you need to grab every one you see,” Deuce hisses and Marco almost breaks the door down. They’re not implying what he thinks they're implying, are they?
“Yeah, well, once I defeat Whitebeard we can go get Big Mom's one too, and then they'll have to give me Yonko status,” Ace says sharply.
“Come on, Ace!” Deuce pleads. “The rest of the crew want to leave, and I know you don't want to be here either.”
“It's not like we can leave,” Ace responds and Marco stops his hands which are inches from the door.
“Call your mom,” Deuce argues. “You know she'll come, she cares too much for you to let someone like Whitebeard stand in her way.”
“No.” Ace is firm.
“We need more training, it's not like your brother is hitting the seas tomorrow. We have time!”
Ace grumbles something under his breath and Deuce sighs again.
And Marco decides, finally, to shove the door open and get this over with. Pops needs to hear this, they need to know what the Spade Pirates are planning.
Deuce and Ace are huddled up near a crate of apples, a few apple stalks discarded on the ground bit predictably no cores. Ace lights half of himself on fire in an instant, the unlit side holding onto his first mate.
“Go. Away,” Ace growls.
“Ace, yoi,” he starts, his vocal tick worse with the new stress of the knowledge he's overheard. “You two need to see Pops, yoi.”
“Ace!” Deuce grounds out, shaking his former (or still) captain with fresh vigour. “Call. Her.”
Ace puts himself out and steps forward, tugging Deuce along yet keeping him behind and defended. Like Marco might attack.
“What the hell do you want?”
“Why do you want the poneglyphs?” Marco reluctantly fires the question back and Ace recoils before levelling him with a sharp glare.
“Eavesdropping is rude, y'know?” Ace steps forward, a challenge. “Fine, where's your dumbass captain?”
“Ace!” Deuce snaps again but is ignored.
Edward Newgate watches one of his oldest sons step into his cabin, two of his newer (in all but name) sons following behind—Ace and his former first mate Deuce.
Just as he's about to laugh and congratulate the pair on deciding to join, he glimpses the expression on Marco's face. It's a dark look that he levels at Edward while both of the former Spade Pirates stare at him as well. Ace, with a protective glare so harsh he could swear he's staring at Roger himself as he pulls little Shanks and Buggy behind him. And Deuce, nervous and exasperated. Deuce also gives Edward a sharp look, brave for a rookie vice-captain.
“What's wrong now, my sons?”
Ace sets himself on fire, seething. “Don't call me that,” he growls. “I have fathers, I don't need you.”
Deuce grabs Ace with a firm grip. “Ace,” he hisses sharply.
“This is important, Pops,” Marco cuts in. “Ace wants the Fishman Island Poneglyph, that's why he's been attacking you.”
Ace glares even harder as Edward takes in this information. There are plenty of children on the seas searching for the One Piece but not many know about how important the poneglyphs are, nor how important it is to distinguish between a regular one and a Road Poneglyph. Roger and Oden both spoke about them a fair amount, especially after Lodestar Island.
“Where did you hear about that, brat?” He speaks, voice firm. Ace straightens but is still on the defensive.
“Why the fuck should I tell you, old man?”
“Ace!” Deuce snaps. “Whitebeard,” he finally addresses Edward himself. “I wish to apologize for my captain’s behaviour while here, and I'd like to ask on his and the rest of the Spade Pirates's behalf that you let our crew off at the next island.”
His gaze is held steady against Edward's steely one, conquerors haki rising up to press down both young Pirates. Ace, in return, pushes back and it’s almost like facing Roger again, facing down his hard eyes and giddy grin. Deuce holds firm, grasping his captain’s shoulder.
“We are grateful for your hospitality but we’d rather not overstay our welcome,” Deuce keeps on.
“You aren’t leaving,” Edward states firmly. Marco gives him a look while Deuce stands up straighter. Edward hadn’t even taken much note of the Spade Pirates, but now that one is standing up to him, he’s peering deeper.
“Fucking hell!” Ace snaps. “Why can’t you just retire, old geezer?”
Edward startles back, levelling Ace with a sharp look.
“Ace!”
“Because you want to take his place as Yonko, right Ace?” Marco interrupts and Ace flicks a few stray flames at him.
“Did you hear everything?”
Edward rumbles to his feet, standing over the three. Marco gives him a dark look but Edward’s eyes are for Ace and Deuce.
“You want me to retire?” Edward asks, carefully.
Ace glares right back. “Yes.”
“You say your attacks were not intended to kill me?”
“Yes,” Ace replies. “My dads told me not to kill you.”
Edward hums, looking down at Ace again. The boy is simmering, scorching the ground with stray flames as Deuce continues to hold on.
“You can’t defeat me, boy,” Edward finally settles on. “You must join my crew instead. Become my son.”
“Fuck you!” Ace shouts. “I have parents! I don’t need you!”
“Ace,” Deuce urges, quieter this time. “C’mon, he’s not going to let us go otherwise.”
Ace breathes out, slow and steady.
“Is this really the play you want to make?” Ace asks, much calmer this time. “If you let us off, this will go a lot smoother, but the moment I call her, all bets are off, I can’t be held accountable for the damage she will cause.”
Her. She. Automatically, Edward’s mind flashes to Linlin, but Ace doesn’t fit the naming scheme, and Linlin would never allow her own child to start their own crew. He could be talking up this person, an empty threat, but that look in his eyes.
Edward doesn’t like it. It’s of one having made their final choice, defiant ‘til the end.
Even so, he must stay true. These boys, and their crew, are Whitebeard’s, despite their protests.
“You must stay,” Edward finally settles on and Ace sighs.
“I really wish you hadn’t made me do this,” Ace replies. “It’s embarrassing.” He then leans back and takes a deep breath.
Marco is inches from sweeping forward but it all happens in slow motion. Edward steps forward, Marco reaches out, and Ace shouts to the wind.
“MOM!”
Luffy swings from left to right, the grass beneath him shuddering with every quick step mom makes. Dad sits beside him, outwardly calm but Luffy knows better. He’s troubled because there are very few people who can communicate with Mom and Momonosuke is missing, Luffy is present and accounted for, and the other two who may be able to communicate, Roger and Oden, are both dead.
But Ace…
Mom said that if Ace were ever in trouble, that she would come if he called. So Luffy hangs on, swaying from side to side. Sabo has gone too, off to find Luffy’s biological dad, one that Luffy didn’t even know he had, because he met a mink named Lindbergh, who told him about the Revolution.
Lindbergh even talked to Luffy a bit after Luffy told him about his name and his grandpa, and sent a message far later that Dragon confirmed his connection. Then he picked Sabo up, sailing off to free some people. Nika loves that part.
“Luffy?” Pedro’s voice cuts through. “Do you know where we are going?”
Luffy is the only one present to understand Mom’s whims. He can hear her.
So Luffy nods. “We’re going to Ace.”
Dad huffs out a soft ‘woof’ at that and Carrot shifts from where she’s sitting in Luffy’s lap, only eleven and already so big. He remembers when she was tiny, remembers her riding around on Ace’s shoulders.
“Big brother Ace will be okay, right?”
Luffy grins, wider than should be possible.
“Yep!”
“Alright, what the fuck is that?” Haruta utters and Thatch looks up, confused.
“What is what?”
Haruta points, a smidge horrified. If they’re not mistaken, that definitely looks like an elephant.
If it were taller than the fucking Red Line.
“Holy shit!” Thatch yells in response. “What the fuck is that?”
Haruta clambers down the crow’s nest and they both hurry to get to Pops, crashing through the door to find Marco, Ace, and one of the Spade Pirates in a standoff alongside Pops.
“Pops!” Thatch yells, gaining everyone’s attention.
“What is it, my son?” Pops asks, stepping forward. There’s a sly grin on Ace’s face that leaves Haruta feeling unnerved.
“There’s an elephant,” Thatch gets out.
Marco frowns.
“An elephant, in the middle of the-”
He pales.
“Big?” Marco switches to. Haruta nods at the same time that Thatch does and Ace’s grin widens.
Pops turns back to Ace, narrowed in on him.
Ace just stares back, delight in his eyes.
“I told you she’d come for me.”