Are you having a wonderful day? I am simply having a wonderful Christmas. Anyway, this is my first fanfiction for One Piece fandom here and I had the feeling it had to be about Ace's death and what it caused to Luffy. It has been a quite a while since that happened but I HAD to write this fanfiction. I still can't accept it, but I understand. And I don't really like to messing up with the plot Oda-sensei created, I usually write AU stories, but after rereading the Marineford War Arc this plot popped into my mind.

What Luffy really felt inside? That pain was still there but how he was hiding it from the others and how his friends are seeing him after that? With all that questions and many more, I wrote this story.

At first I was planning to make this Chapter One reach at least 6,000 words and I was able to, but I don't want to rush things so I divided it in two chapters. I hope you don't mind, specially because of the angst that will appear later on.

Title: Silent Anger

Rating: K+

Summary: It cames to a sad end for Luffy as for his beloved brother Ace and all of Whitebeard's pirates who had lost not only their 2nd division commander of Whitebeard Pirates, but their Captain Whitebeard as well. Many lives were lost that day.

After the battle of Marineford, Luffy was sadder than he appeared to be. In the aftermath of Ace's death, Luffy went in to a shock state; he was rendered by his loss and was unable to register anything around him. After Ace's death, Luffy had no one left to console him unlike when Sabo died.

The Straw Hat Captain only wished that everything he saw was a really bad dream; all he wanted was that he had saved Ace because he simply couldn't have left his big brother die. Then, after being consoled by Jimbei and trained by Dark King Rayleigh, Luffy still had some sadness in his heart. Now, he has to do everything in his power to hid that side of his from his Nakama. But, will Luffy really be able to fulfill his destiny without Ace by his side?

Warning: This story takes place during the Marineford War, during the 2 years of training and post-time skip.

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece and its characters, this wonderful work belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei.

Important: "These are the speeches."

'These are the thoughts.'

These are flashbacks

Chapter One: Let's rescue Ace!

Ever since Luffy saw that the Vivre card Ace gave him was smaller than before, he knew something was wrong. Even though, Luffy didn't know what exactly was, but he had a bad feeling about it. And ever since Ace was transferred to Marine QG, he knew things could get worse and knew that save Ace would be even more troublesome—but he didn't gave up, because he had still some hope.

The battle of Marineford continued furiously. Blood flew in all directions, as much as pirates and marines' blood. Both sides were having their losses. You could use everything you wanted to, from the very simple weapons such as pistols, to dirty tricks and incredible Akumas no Mi. The main objective of both sides was to defeat as many enemies as possible, no matter what—it included dirty tricks such as Donquixote Flamingo's power.

Luffy kept repeating to himself that everything would be alright; he was very close to save his older brother from the Marines no matter what. Luffy didn't give a damn about that whole war because he was only thinking about saving Ace.

The Straw-Hat boy faced many difficulties before reaching to his main objective and could have died in many occasions, but then again, he stood up and kept going ahead. That was Luffy, always trying to save his beloved ones. He had to bear with the exhaustion, stress, pain and desperation. He, once again, didn't gave a damn; having to bear all that wasn't anything compared to what Ace was passing through and what he could feel if he failed.

He tried to avoid the thought, but then, he couldn't help but has a bad feeling about the end of that war.

"There he is…!" Luffy muttered, feeling extremely happy, as he looked what was in front of him. The prisoner, who looked at Luffy as well, gasped and dropped his jaw.

From the altar of execution, Ace shouted as loud as he could, "LUFFY!"

In the middle of battle, a straw hat wearing boy was shaking his left arm desperately as he shouted a name, "ACE~~!" His happy voice echoed through the battlefield but many men were paying attention in their enemy and didn't notice. "I finally found you!" Many others looked at him and at his companions, which one of them just happened to be Crocodile as well. Some gasped in surprise and shouted the ex-Shichibukai's name.

Ace couldn't believe his eyes; that fragile boy who was always crying and losing to him in their matches, was risking his life to save him. Well, Ace knew very well what kind of person Luffy was, and that was very typical of him. Just too much to him admit.

There his idiotic little brother was. He was right there with that puppy happy eyes looking at him. Damn; he could clearly see him with that tired and semi-narrowed eyes of his. That woman, the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock was really telling him the truth. Luffy had come to rescue him. However, he could see another thing, which made him worry. Luffy was with wounds all over his tiny body, it was as clear as day that the battles in Impel Down made a bad thing to his little body.

Somewhere, Sengoku frowned but a bit surprised and immediately looked at Garp.

"GARP! IS THAT ANOTHER MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY?" He inquired furiously.

Garp raised both arms and put his hands on his head as a sign of nervousness. Surely, he knew that Luffy was capable of doing that, but he doubted that his grandson could really do that. Very inside of him, he was expecting that Luffy wasn't there; he couldn't bear the grief of losing his two grandchildren in a single day. Worst of all was being there but can't do a thing to help them. If only…

No. There was nothing to do; he couldn't help. Garp was frustrated.

"L-Luffy!" Garp's voice sounded desperate, angered and surprised at same time.

Many comments echoed through the battlefield, all of them in surprise. Sure, they weren't expecting to see the famous troublemaker rookie Straw-Hat Luffy right there in the war and surely they weren't expecting to see as well that many of prisoners who escaped from Impel Down. And of course they weren't expecting to see Jimbei, a Shichibukai, Crocodile, an ex-Shichibukai, and even Ivankov from the Revolutionary Army with Straw-Hat Luffy.

"You never fail to make a scene worth witnessing," Hawk-eye Mihawk said sombrely but a bit surprised. "Straw-Hat…"

Unlike Mihawk, calm and everything, Gekko Moria stuttered, "Sssssttttrrrrawwww Hattt?" A vein popped on his face.

Boa Hancock immediately changed her expression and blushed furiously. She placed her hands on her red cheeks and went into her fangirl mood, "Luffy!" You could clearly see a lovely aura she was expelling. "It is such a relief to see you safe!"

The events that occurred right before broke the seriousness of the moment. Soon Whitebeard was talking to Luffy.

Luffy gritted his teeth.

Who that old man thought he was? Yeah, he was one of Yonkou and the man who fought equally many times against the King of the Pirates, Gold Roger – which by the way, was the man he admired and was aiming to be one. But still, that old man with that strange beard had no right to tell him what he could and what he couldn't do to save his brother. Dammit! Go to hell if he was powerful just as Shanks. He, Monkey D. Luffy, will be the one to rescue Ace from that damn platform.

"SHUT UP! That's not for you to decide!" Luffy shouted with all the air from his lungs. "I heard you wanna be the Pirate King," It wasn't a question; Luffy was affirming. "But I'm the one who's gonna become the Pirate King!" His voice was louder, showing all his confident to the world see it by themselves.

Indeed, he looked truly confident; no one could say otherwise.

Everyone gasped in surprise and dropped their jaws, but mostly the ex-prisoners. Whitebeard looked at him a bit astonished before smirking and saying, "Cheeky brat…"

There would always be an idiot like that, willing to sacrifice his own life – as he could see –, to save a comrade. Nothing he could complain about, though.

"JUST DON'T GET IN MY WAY, PIPSQUEEK!" The Yonkou completed.

Once again, Luffy didn't give a damn about Whitebeard's words of advice. Was it a challenge? Okay, he accepted.

"I'M GONNA DO THIS MY WAY! I'LL BE THE ONE TO SAVE ACE!" Luffy prepared himself to the battle, looking straight at the battlefield with a determinate look in the eyes.

The ex-prisoners, but mostly Ivankov and Buggy were very shocked; all of them thinking at same time and the same thought. He actually challenged Whitebeard!

None of them knew yet just how Luffy could be inconsequential.

Jimbei was surprised. He had seen his bravery in first hand, but directly challenging Whitebeard was on another level.

'This Mugiwara no Luffy brat surely has some guts to shout like that at Whitebeard… No wonder he's your little brother, Ace-san.'

Ace's jaw dropped but it wasn't due to his surprise but mostly because of his disbelief. That couldn't be happening. He blinked a few times, thinking it might be an illusion that his mind had preached him, but it was the true and bitter reality—Luffy was there with the ex-Shichibukai Crocodile who his little brother had defeated once in Alabasta, some of Impel Down's prisoners and even Jimbei!

'What are you doing here, Luffy?'

He gritted his teeth, swallowing down the attempt to shout right there and right now to his little brother to go to a safe place while there was still time.

'Why did you have to come…? I don't want to bury another brother, Luffy!'

He shouted in thoughts.

Suddenly, Luffy remembered of some thing very important which made him hurry to get there.

"Ossan…" He said, drawing Whitebeard's attention to him once again. "I have something to tell you."

Whitebeard narrowed his eyes a bit, "What's it?"

Luffy only took a minute to inform Whitebeard of everything he had heard on the Marines' ship through the Den Den Mushi.

"They mean to execute Ace ahead of schedule?" The Yonkou inquired. "You are certain that is what you heard?"

Luffy nodded and continued, "They said they'd do it when they'd got some kind of preparations ready, but the rest was full of codes, so I didn't really get it."

"Since we both want to save Ace, I figure you should know that much, at least!" He admitted.

Whitebeard looked up and straight, and tensed a bit. For a moment he thought that having Ace's younger brother on his side wasn't that bad, it could be faster to save Ace with his help. The boy was somehow powerful, or just had lucky, to be able to escape from the world's maximum-security prison.

He had to watch the boy fighting to see which one of those options was.

"I see…this is valuable information indeed," Whitebeard commented. "I must thank you!" His tone of voice was honest.

Luffy being Luffy as always, just replied with all his honesty and casually tone as ever, "Nah, don't worry about it!"

The second before, Luffy jumped from Whitebeard's ship and went ahead to the battlefield.

And once again, the prisoners, Ivankov and Buggy were shocked. How could Mugiwara no Luffy, just some rookie have all that confidence to talk with that all causality to Whitebeard, one of the Yonkou?

Luffy ran, punched people, avoided being wounded by those swords and kept running. The faster he could reach to his goal, the better. But it wasn't too easy.

Moria, the zombie's freak, was looking every step he took. "Straw-Hat! I see your strength is as impressive as ever!" The Shichibukai commented. "Yes, I think I will take your shadow once more, and implant it into Oars!"

With a movement of hand, suddenly, corpses rose from the ground with Moria's power.

"Come, my zombies minions!" He called them and in seconds there were various zombies standing up and Moria's laughing with all of his might. "Now, my zombies! Go and capture Straw-Hat for me! This is a battlefield! The more soldiers die, the more zombies I can create! Kishishishishi!"

"LUFFY!" Ace shouted in worry as he saw his little brother being wounded by a sword. He knew that Luffy's power was nothing compared to swords and any other sharp object, he still could be wounded and that was whatworried him the most.

More marines went to Luffy's direction and the Straw-Hat's battle had worsened.

Something caught Luffy's attention and he gritted his teeth. "Moria!" He cursed under his breath. "…Not that annoying guy again!"

Ace clenched his jaw as he watched his little brother fighting with all those marines all by himself. That was too much for him. He couldn't stand the grief even more. He had to do something or Luffy could be killed right before him. Luffy was too careless for his own good. Yes, he had to do something before it was too late.

"STAY BACK LUFFY!" He shouted with all of his might.

He did it. If he just kept watching Luffy fighting when he clearly couldn't, surely he could see an unpleasant thing he was avoiding to ever since long ago. The image of losing his little brother didn't get out of his mind for even a second.

Luffy looked up at the altar where Ace was with questioning look before punching a marine in his face.

With all the courage he had, Ace shouted once again. "I shouldn't have to tell you this! You're a pirate just like me!" He began. The sadness in his voice was noticeable, he couldn't deny. "We're both sailed the ocean as our hearts guided us!"

Not just Luffy had stopped to listen to him, but Garp, Whitebeard, Jimbei and Marco as well. The disappointment in his grandpa, Garp, was evident, and Ace noticed it but he had to continue. For Luffy's sake.

"I have my own adventure to live!" Luffy listened carefully those words shouted directly at him while being attentive to any enemies' attacks. "I have my own comrades!"

"SAVE ACE!" Some of Whitebeard's allies were shouting, unaware of Ace's speech to Luffy.

"And I don't remember asking you to interfere!" Ace continued. That might hurt his little brother in some way, but there was no other choice but do that. "A weakling like you? Coming to save me?"

Luffy stopped on the spot.

Just what the hell Ace was talking about? Calling him weakling? Seriously? Him, of all people, already knows that he was strong. Does he look weak? Was he weak? Luffy was pretty sure he was strong and could handle everything; well, he still was pretty sure he was strong.

"Do you really believe I'm going to forgive you for that? This is a humiliation!"

Luffy frowned.

'W-What are you talking about, Ace? You don't meant to say those words, you know that! Y-You are just…!'

Luffy was thinking while punching the marines with all his strength gained due to hearing those painful words.

Ace bit his lip and felt the heavy chains around his hurting wrists gotten tighter. The lump in his throat had got worse and swallowing was very difficult to him; not even drinking water could end that strange feeling. Kneeling on the platform with those annoying heavy chains around his wrists, ready to his execution, wasn't the most humiliating thing. Indeed, seeing all these people he cared the most, getting hurt and killed only because of him just made him want to die. He wanted to die already. Between having a quick death and watching his nakama, his old man and even his idiotic younger brother fighting for him, he could quickly agree on being executed ahead of schedule.

Of all people, why Luffy had to be there? He couldn't stand the grief of having to lose his brother in that war and do nothing but just stay sat and watch everything until the very end.

Everything was chaos in the battlefield, he couldn't stand watching his friends losing their very lives for his own sake but seeing Luffy there risking his own was unforgivable. Nothing else could be compared to the pain he was feeling in his chest to see his little brother getting hurt because of him. He didn't deserve it. He didn't do anything to deserve it.

Ace made a decision. It was that or nothing. He had no choice.

"GET OUT OF HERE LUFFY!" That was an order filled with despair and apprehension. "WHY DID YOU COME?" He demanded.

Ace lowered his head, almost like bowing to someone and silenced. He breathed heavily and clenched his jaw once more, with all his strength and will. He didn't dare to look at Luffy, the only thing he did was begging to Luffy mentally, with some hope that his weakling little brother could understand the subliminal message. He had to.

'Please, Luffy… Don't let me drag you into this too…! This is my problem, not yours…!'

Luffy took a deep breath. Hearing those words pissed him off. How could Ace shout something like that to him? Has he forgotten who he was? Not even joking he should say those words to him. Go to hell if he doesn't forgive him later or even if he doesn't want to look at him anymore, all he wanted was to make sure that Ace could live another day.

There were some murmurs in the crowd as they watched that scene and some of the closer Nakama of Ace dropped a bit their jaws. The brother he was always talking about with proud written in his eyes was being pushed away by none but his older brother, Ace. It was very shocking indeed.

Luffy inbreathed all the air his lungs could bear and shouted back as loud as he could, "'CAUSE I'M YOUR BROTHER!"

There it was. A kind of answer that only Luffy was able to say in such innocence. With all his courage and might.

'You idiot…!'

Luffy wanted to add.

If that wasn't a reason good enough to make Ace regret what he had said earlier, then, Luffy didn't know what else he had to say. Even without Ace's consent, he would still continue fighting to rescue him. I don't want to lose anymore else, not when I still have some chance to do something, he thought.

Behind the meaning of that statement, Ace could sense that Luffy was hiding something. And that something bothered him too much to just ignore as if he hadn't realised it. For his deduction, Luffy was hiding from him some thing obscure. But that wasn't just too much troublesome to even think about, he had another problems in mind just now. He realised that Luffy had decided to go through that whole thing until the very end, even though if it meant not being forgiven for his older brother.

Very inside of Ace's heart, he wanted to hear those words but he couldn't just admit it or he would lose to Luffy—doing such unthinkable thing could only make that idiot does more effort to save him, and possibly be killed on his attempt.

"Did you know?" Ace was hearing his childish voice inside his mind; it was his speech he did when both him and Luffy were still very young. "If you exchange drinks, you can form a bond of brotherhood!" Luffy laughed happily as he heard that. "From today on, the two of us..."

They laughed and exchanged drinks from the same bottle.

"…Are brothers!"

"I don't give a crap about those stupid pirate rules!" Ace heard Luffy shouting at him just in time after he had that nostalgic flashback.

Ace's expression darkened in irritation. "Luffy, you idiot…"

Ace couldn't reject Luffy any more, after all, they were fighting for the same reason. Ace was only trying to protect Luffy at any cost and Luffy was trying to save him at any cost too.

Of course, after that Luffy was more determined than never to save Ace.

'Just watch me from there and wait for me, Ace! I'll for sure save you, no matter what!'

And then he continued to throw himself into the ocean of marines and punch them in their faces and kick them with all his strength.

Some of the marines were still too astonished because Luffy had just said he was Ace's younger brother. There were some murmurs here and there about how could Mugiwara no Luffy be Hiken no Ace's brother if both Ace's parents died when he was born, implying that he couldn't possibly have a younger brother.

Still, both D. brothers ignored the comments as if they hadn't heard it. Being related by blood or not doesn't meant anything to them, their bond was stronger than many others. It was their pride—theirs and Sabo's.

Ace mentally sighed.

'Luffy… You surely are an idiot and weakling younger brother who does nothing but worries me! But you still are my brother, no matter the circumstances we are in.'

Indeed, Ace was happy he met Luffy and that idiot cared about him when no one else even did. When he first met him, he had no idea that Luffy would mean this much to him.

I started writing this story on Thanksgiving day but I finally posted it! I'm feeling like a huge weight came off my shoulders. And what makes me happy too is that this is the longest chapter I've ever wrote of all my stories...3,248 words on Word! :D

If you liked this chapter, please do leave a review. If not, well, you could tell me why and I'll try to work on the bad parts and please, feel free to point out my grammar mistakes. And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :)