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“MAAAAA!!! I WANT TO LIVE!!!!”, echoed over the large battlefield stopping both factions in their tracks for a second before the battle resumed with even more ferocity.
Tears of mourning and stress fell down the young man´s face who was about to be executed for the whole world to see. And why? Because he was a Monster killing and torturing innocent? No. He was sentenced to death only because he was born. Because he was the son of a man the government despised. And now his adoptive Family and their friends and Allies were fighting and dying trying to free him.
Earlier that day he had believed to be contemptuous of dying but now it was not only himself losing his life but also those he held dear in his heart.
Screams of pain, anger, and motivation reached the executioners and prisoner. He might have just doomed them all even more. Now that he declared his will to life there was no way his brothers, sisters, and adoptive father would not die trying.
“I am sorry.”, he whispered.
“You heard my Son. How do you intend to resolve this situation Fleet Admiral Sengoku.”, the soft female voice of his newfound mother sounded from behind them. Dread and disbelieve immediately wash over the two strong men guarding him.
“Your Son?”, the man in charge gulped, his eyes wide in shock.
“Technically my adoptive son, but you know I do not discriminate like that. Please release him from his restraints so we can leave and let this senseless dying end.”
“Whitebeard, huh? What happened?”, Garp piped up, trying to be his typical casual self but there was slight fear in his voice.
“Nature found a way as it always does.”, she answered, “ I still honor the deal that was made.”
“And yet you come here and intervene.”
“You know as well as I that I would have done this no matter what. Ace was not sentenced to death for the choices he made but for being born a man's son. Disgraceful for a government. Any government. Any more urgent questions or can we leave now? There is useless dying going on and my patience starts to become thin with every soul ripped from a body.”
“The key was destroyed by Kizaru. But the lock should not be hard to pick.”, Garp sighed.
“Ready to leave, Ace?”, the woman smiled fondly down at her son. Her black hair flowed behind her back like dark waves in a storm.
“Ma.”, he breathed his eyes filled with tears of relief and disbelief. How had she managed to get to him?
“Once you leave this platform you will be officially declared a traitor, a bounty will be placed upon your head, and there will be no orders given in your favor.”
“I suggest you use the picture made when I was given the title of Vice-Admiral. That one really caught my beautiful side.”, she smiled before helping her son to his feet, detaching the chain of his cuffs from the floor and disappearing with him to the foot of the platform.
Joining the fray from the back and with the previous scene on the execution block happening unaware to the rest of the battlefield no Marine close to them noticed them until they had already passed.
Shouts of confusion and awe. Stuttering of shock and disbelief sounded all around them.
“Ma.”, Ace breathed, wanting to ask questions he was to confused to think of.
“You will go back to your father, no matter what happens. Hear me? No matter what happens or who attacks us.”, she ordered with an authority that left no room for arguments, “Do not worry for me. There is a reason after all that those two did not try to stop me, and I can assure you it was not because they wanted to do me a favor or because we got along in the Past.”
“Y-Yes, Ma.”, he nodded his head.
“Good. And make sure your little brother gets his injuries treated. Breaking into Impel Down. I told Garp his training Methods would one-day Backfire. He caused the lot of you to lose any form of self-preservation.”
The two of them had just made it so far as they were able to see the first skirmishes between the Whitebeard Pirates and Marines in the distance when they caught the attention of a certain flying bird of Fire.
“MA!?”, he called out from the sky causing a lot of attention to be drawn to them. She would have a talk with all of them about situational awareness when everything was over.
Not a second later a giant explosion shook the battlefield.
Where not a blink ago had stood the brother/son they had come to rescue and their Ma/ Mate had stood now was a pool of molten Stone.
Everyone was too much in shock to react. That was until Admiral Akainu decided to break the silence.
“Mating with a Pirate and saving another. A disgrace whose only punishment can be death. You are hereby punished foolish Omega Bitch.”
“Ma...?”, Ace whispered from where he had been thrown to save his life.
“EVERYBODY RETREAT! SOLDIERS FALL BACK!”, Sengoku shouted, a hint of panic in his voice, a panic that many interpreted was there cause nothing was more dangerous than an Alpha (especially the strongest man alive) witnessing their mate's death.
“You fool.”, Garp grounded out, “ You foolish absolute justice idiot. You doomed us all.”
The two strongest Marines that had existed up to this point in time and had kept out of the battle got ready to fight. Seeing this most soldiers stumbled over each other to follow that order and get away as far as possible of whatever beating would be coming their way.
“EVERYBODY GET OFF THIS ISLAND. MAN THE BOATS AND LEAVE. DO NOT LOOK BACK.”
Akainu had turned his back to the fiery pit he had created glaring at his superior and the hero of the Marines in anger and distaste.
“You are afraid of an old Man barely able to stand? The death of a traitor can not change a war.”, he mocked.
“Did you idiot never wonder why she was allowed to leave and roam the seas as she saw fit?”, his superior growled out. It was rare for him to use his ALpha voice, as the head of the military everyone knew who was in charge.
“A useless damaged Omega. Why should I care about that.”, the Admiral sneered, earning the anger of pirates and marines alike. V had been well-liked by her subordinates after all.
A rumble then shook the magma pool. A vibration not coming from the user of the earthquake fruit broke ended the verbal argument.
“I consider this a direct attack with the intent to kill by the government. The deal is hereby nullified.”, a whisper waved through the air causing the two strongest Marines to pale and sweat, “Tell me puppy, how do you think this will end for you? Someone who would not be able to stand a chance against one of those two right now, while they in their prime and working together would not stand a chance against me?”, with every spoken word the voice had turned more and more into a deep growling rumble to be followed by a chuckle.
Suddenly the pool of molten stone exploded again and a giant black claw gripped the edge, followed by a second one on the opposite side of the soon to be dead man. Where once had stood the Mate of the strongest man alive a large bipedal wolf made of dark flames and obsidian fur now towered. Lava dripped from its form and out of its mouth, its eyes white without any pupils.
“Any last words Pup?”, she growled, “Before I rip your soul into small pieces and feed it to my hounds? What about you Teach? Any words or thoughts you wish to share before receiving your punishment for killing a brother?”
The second man in question looked around in shock. Not a blink of an eye earlier he had laughed with his crew that his plan was working and it was only a question of time how long they had to hide on the other side of the island. And now he stood next to the Admiral and in front of pure terror.
“You think you can kill me?”- “Justice will win!” the two of them called out mockingly only to be ripped apart by a swat of her claw. Their Logia powers did nothing to protect them, but they were not dead yet, only turned to small pieces, “They are yours to feast on.”, the wolf breathed only for shadowy hounds of fire and fog to start eating the remains, some even fighting for their scraps. At the same moment, the Giant Castle that had formerly housed the Marine headquarters collapsed. But not before giant marks made by claws had appeared on the walls.
“We will be leaving now. Consider the deal reinstated. Choose more wisely with who you choose next for the warlord position I suggest. Oh and Garp. You owe me tea. I told you one of these two would break into Impeldown.”, V smiled, now back in her humanoid form.
“VICE ADMIRAL!”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Asking for permission to rejoin your command!”
“Permission granted. Gather anyone else who wants to go back to the good old times and is willing to become a pirate on the Bloody Midnight and join the fleet.”
“AYE AYE.”, dozens of men and women answered.
“Gather the wounded! We are leaving.”, she ordered her sons and daughters.
“What about the dead-yoi?”, Marco frowned confused and in awe of what had just happened.
“What dead?”, she chuckled with a slight hint of tiredness in her voice.
Marco just wanted to say something when every single one of the fallen (apart from those ripped apart by the hounds of hell), suddenly stood up as they had only been victims of conquerors Haki and rejoined their sides.
“The War is not over.”, Sengoku stated,
“No. But this battle is.”, she declared with finality.
“Yes it is. TEND TO THE WOUNDED!”, he sounded worried, he had always had a soft spot for her and did not wish to know what she had to barter with Death that he would willingly return all these souls to this life again. But he was grateful and thanked her for any sacrifices he was sure she had just made.
“She had never been destined to be caught in the restrains of the Government her Devilfruit had always been too feral for that.”, Garp patted his old friend on the shoulder, watching his former student and friend to walk through the mists of pirates that were soon joined by about a hundred men and women who had been her crew before she was forced to retire.
“Aye.”
“I don´t want to hear a sound.”, she stated passing through the throngs of pirates on her way to the Moby, “The two of us, Mate, will have a talk later. Now I am tired.”