Epilogue:
The Pirate Meeting Extraordinaire
When Marco died he was one-hundred-twenty-nine years old. But that's almost a year ago now, and he doesn't miss living in the slightest. He's got everything he's ever wanted right here. The only thing he possibly misses is the feeling of flying in his phoenix form, and the feeling of freedom it gave him when the wind brushed through his feathers, but that's nothing compared to the freedom of being back with his family, every one of them, and knowing that he will never lose them again.
Enjoying this knowledge greatly Marco climbs the rigging of the Moby Dick II, heading for the crow's nest for his turn on watch. Climbing over the edge Marco sighs exasperatedly when he finds Ace there, leaning against the mast and snoring away. The younger man never manages to stay awake when he's on watch, but he was very adamant that it was his turn today, something which Marco found surprising, as Ace usually tries to get out of doing chores when they're docked at an island, rather than making sure to do them. He plops down on the bench next to his little brother's still form, deciding to let him wake at his own pace.
He sits there for a while, mulling over his thoughts and watching the ocean, until Ace snorts awake, straightening immediately.
"Oh, I fell asleep," he says, scratching his head under his ridiculously orange cowboy hat. Marco snorts at him.
"You're a rubbish watchman, you know that, yoi?" he says.
"At least I'm not a fire-turkey," Ace answers, using an age-old nickname. Ace meets his eye through a glance, teasing smirk quirking his lips.
"Neither am I, yoi, but you're still a hot-head," Marco quips back, smirking at the look in Ace's eye as the younger man sticks out his tongue at him in a childish manner.
"Did you have a particular reason for visiting me up here, or did you just miss me too much?"
"It's my turn to keep watch, yoi," Marco answers, turning his lazy stare to Ace's.
"But I'm on watch," Ace argues.
"Your watch is over, yoi," Marco says slowly, as if talking to a child.
"No it's not!"
"You slept through most of it, yoi."
"No I didn't!"
"You did, yoi."
"Did not!"
"Both of you are rubbish watchmen," a voice comes from the rigging as Thatch comes climbing up. The man nimbly clambers into the crow's nest, settling down beside Marco, "I've spotted them already," he says cheerfully, nodding at the horizon.
"What?" Ace exclaims, scrambling to his feet even though he would be able to see perfectly well sitting down. Marco looks up too, curious about what is sending Ace into such a state. In the horizon looms what looks like a whole fleet of ships, all bearing different colours. They are all heading in the same direction, towards the island the Moby Dick II is docked at.
Marco gets to his feet to shout down to Oyaji and the others about the potential threat the ships are posing, but a look at Ace's expression makes him pause. He looks happy, eager, and didn't Thatch say 'them' like he knew they were coming? So he takes a second look, and realises that he knows many of the Pirate Flags. There's the one of Strawhat Luffy, there is the Red Hair Pirates and the Roger Pirates, the Kid Pirates and a mark Marco recognises as the very same one Jinbe wore on his chest. He relaxes a bit when he realises, because them all being in the same place at the same time can only mean one thing; this is organised. Though he does feel slightly irked that no one thought to tell him.
But he still has to report in, so he takes a deep breath and yells down, startling the two brothers in the nest with him.
"Oyaji, we've got guests, yoi!"
He sees Newgate lower his tankard of booze - one neither Marco nor the nurses can begrudge him anymore because alcohol poisoning is very nearly impossible to get here - and looks out across the sea. He nods his confirmation at Marco, before he sets down his tankard and stands up, immediately gaining the attention of the crew.
"My children, the council is about to gather, meaning that we'll be partying in a few hours, so I want the Fourth Division helping in the kitchen, the Sixteenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Tenth division on setting up at the beach, the Second Division on making sure that our guests don't trample anyone when they get here-" Oyaji continues on handing out instructions to the divisions, setting everyone in motion when he is finished. Marco would usually be the one managing instructions, but he isn't completely sure what they're doing, which means that he's thankful when his division is put on surveying everything.
"Yosh, I better get started down in the kitchen!" Thatch declares, standing up to leave the crow's nest, "See ya later!" he says, climbing down. Ace's eyes light up with mischief as soon as the red-head is out of sight and he starts digging through his pockets, at last coming up with what he was looking for; an egg. Marco really doesn't want to know why he has that, nor does he wish to enquire as to how the obviously raw egg is still intact.
Nevertheless Marco makes no move to stop Ace from poking his head over the side of the crow's nest and aiming carefully before dropping the poor egg over the edge. It hits with a splat and Thatch lets out a shriek.
"My hair! Dammit, Ace, when I get my hands on you-!" Ace just cackles madly in a way Marco is completely sure Haruta must've taught him.
"Get on down, yoi," Marco says then, shoving Ace's shoulder lightly, "before your division starts panicking because you're missing again."
"You're no fun," Ace says with a pout, but does as he says, decidedly ignoring the cursing Fourth Division Commander below. Marco rolls his eyes, nudging the younger forward to climb down before following himself.
On deck people are rushing back and forth, up and down, to get their assignments done, while the First and Second Divisions have gathered on land, awaiting their Commanders. Marco and Ace head for the railing, and as they do Marco decides to finally ask a very important question.
"What exactly is it we're getting ready for, yoi?" Ace turns to look at him with a confused frown, and then his face clears up and he laughs.
"No one's told you yet, have they?" he laughs out as Marco sends him a dull glare, "alright, alright, so you know how my little brother has a lot of ideas?" a nod, "so years back he was telling us about this thing he used to do when he was alive, he'd gather all the Yonko and some of his other friends up every year to have a 'Pirate Meeting', scared the shit out of a marine who came across them once apparently," Ace explains with a laugh as Marco's eyes widen in realisation. He remembers well when the poor petty officer came across them, the poor sod must've been scarred for life by what he saw. He can only hope that the man got a mild bout of amnesia from the beating he recieved from Kid before anyone could stop him.
"So Thatch decides that this sounds like a great idea, and that we should do it too," the black-haired man continues, "so we get my blood-father, Luffy, and later Zoro and run with it. Then Luffy's other friends start arriving, and of course he invites all of 'em, so we invited old allies we stumbled across, and now it's become a huge tradition we do every year!"
"He invited us, yoi," Marco states, "the New Whitebeard Pirates."
"He never mentioned that part!" Ace exclaims, though he doesn't look particularily bothered.
"He probably thought it should've been obvious, what with me taking over the Yonko title when Luffy defeated Teach," Marco snorts. In all likelihood the second Piratke King merely forgot, but sometimes he does do things with a purpose.
"Ah," Ace says, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
Then they reach the railing and both hop down to the ground to adress their separate Divisions.
"So, guys," Ace starts, rubbing his hands together, "we're the greeting commitee this year, which means it's our job to make sure that Kid doesn't beat anyone up before we've started drinking, Trafalgar doesn't start cutting anyone up ever and Luffy doesn't scare off the newbies, alright?" A chrous of 'Yes, commander', 'Understood!', groans and cheers arise from the Second Division before Ace starts handing out individual assignments to his division-members, directing some of them towards the main harbour and others towards the shore where the Sixteenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Tenth Divisions are setting up the party.
Turning to his own division Marco starts handing out similar orders, sending some crewmates back to the ship to oversee the proceedings there, sending some after the Second Division to make sure they don't mess anything up and the rest to the shore to keep track of everyone else. Marco himself goes with Ace, because there's no telling what he'll do if he's left to his own devices.
They head for the shore, where the earliest ships have started arriving already. Marco spots Whitey Bay's icebreaker about to dock, right beside the Ship of the Revolutionaries, which has already lowered its gangplank. Ace swaggers right up to the big ship, greeting Monkey D. Dragon casually where he comes down the gangplank with a wave and a greeting that speaks of familiarity. Marco stays back a bit, surveying the scene and the other ships docking one by one. The harbour is filling up quickly, and they'll probably have to resort to docking alongside the beach and farther out, sending life-boats in sooner or later.
Marco's attention is garnered when a man with a tall top hat on his head steps off the Revolutionary ship, following closesly behind Dragon but diverting from his leader's - who has moved on towards the beach where Ace has pointed him - path when he spots Ace.
Ace's face lights up when he sees the man, and he starts forward to grab the right hand of the revolutionary, bringing him into a brief hug and a slap on the back.
"Hey, Sabo, yoi," Marco says when the two pull apart, raising a hand in greeting.
"Heya, Marco," stepping forward to shake Marco's hand.
"You know everyone already, don't you Sabo?" Ace asks frustratedly but fondly from behind his blond brother, as if he had been expecting to pull off a nice prank but Sabo ruined it.
"It's a fact of life, big brother," Sabo says, spreading his arms in a what-can-you-do gesture and turning so that he can keep them both in his line of sight.
"Fact of death, too, apparently," Ace says sullenly, before his morose air melts away and he brings his brother into a headlock that knocks his hat off of his head.
"Oi!" Sabo starts struggling, glaring up at his brother when he can't get out. Ace smirks, and Sabo gets a look on his face that usually promises trouble for someone, but they are both hindered from causing any further disturbances by a blur of red and blue hitting Ace square in the back, taking both brothers down in one go.
"Shishishishi! I missed you guys!" Marco really should've been expecting to run into Luffy sooner or later, but unfortunately he forgot to prepare for it and is more surprised to see the young man than he should've been. So when the former Pirate King looks up briefly and spots him he is tackled to the ground just like Luffy's brothers were when Luffy comes for him.
"Shishishi! Hi, Marco!"
"Hi, Luffy, yoi," Marco grunts, pushing the younger man off himself and sitting up. He glares at Ace, who is trying to stifle a laugh with his fist, and gets to his feet, brushing sand off of his trousers. Then he goes to offer Luffy a hand, but finds that the former rubber-man has bounced to his feet already and is watching him with a disturbing expression.
"Marco is here," he says, meeting Ace's eye. His eyes widen and he gets an excited look on his face.
"Oh, this is gonna be good," Ace says eagerly.
"What is?" Sabo asks suspiciously, and with good reason. That kind of excitement usually doesn't bode well when it comes to his dark-haired brothers.
"Old man moustache and I are gonna have a fight-" Luffy starts, but is then distracted by someone else, "SHANKS!" he exclaims before bouncing off to greet his father-figure. Ace slaps his forehead with his palm, shaking his head in fond exasperation.
"Did he say that he's gonna fight Whitebeard?" Sabo asks incredulously.
"Yep," Ace says, like it's no big deal.
"Alright," Sabo says with a shrug before he changes the subject, delving into a story of how Koala accidentally beat up a sea king on the way.
It's not as much of a surprise as it should be, Luffy has always been crazy like that, and now he's got the power to back it up, which means his poor big brothers haven't had any choice but to accept it. However Marco can't honestly say that he doesn't want to see this fight of theirs; he has been wondering for a long time who would win between the two, though he always has believed it to be Oyaji.
Seeing that the two brothers won't be interested in anything but catching up for a while Marco decides to move on to doing what he is supposed to; making sure that everything goes as it should.
By now the shore is getting properly crowded with pirates and there is only one small spot left for a ship to dock at by the actual harbour, which is swiftly occupied by the yellow submarine of the Surgeon of Death, which surfaced only moments ago. The dark-skinned doctor and his crew all step onto land, but as opposed to the other pirate captains around Law doesn't head for the shore where the party is getting into full swing already, instead going the other way towards a ship that was docked there even before the Whitebeards arrived.
He comes back a few minutes later, dragging a tall man in a feather coat and makeup, muttering about how oblivious the other is. The pair is immediately crowded by Captain Kid, who looks ready to start a fight already, even though Marco knows for a fact that the booze hasn't been broken out yet. Though he has never expected anything else from those two, they had a tendency to get into it over the littlest of things back during the original Pirate Meetings, only to be broken up by an oblivious Luffy who wanted one or both of them to join in on one of his crazy schemes.
Thankfully one of Ace's division-members dive upon them like a hawk, having taken Ace's words about keeping those two out of trouble to heart. When it looks like they both are about to gang up on the poor guy Marco starts to head over, but the situation is saved by Dai, who arrives in a nick of time. Marco continues on anyways. If this is going to be a Pirate Meeting he might as well talk to them as usual.
"You got roped into this too, huh, Phoenix?" Kid asks when he spots Marco, nodding at him in greeting.
"I didn't even know that it was happening until an hour ago, yoi," Marco answers with a snort.
"How interesting that you're finally here, some of us were starting to believe that you were going to live forever," Law says giving Marco a look that says that he definitely wasn't one of them.
"Nothing lives forever, yoi," is Marco's response, and Law nods in agreement. As a doctor and a pirate he knows that better than most.
The three of them stand in silence for a moment, observing the accumulation of pirates that have gathered for something that once only included a dozen crews, but now includes several dozen of them. Then the silence is broken by their fourth member, who always has been louder than the rest of them, hair as red as ever and with his everlasting grin in place.
"Marco!" Shanks exclaims, "You're finally here, huh? Maaan, I thought you were gonna live for a while yet, immortal phoenix powers and all, you know," though the booze has yet to be broken into here it's obvious that Shanks isn't completely sober, in all likelihood he had a bottle or two of sake with his breakfast.
"Red Hair," Marco acknowledges dryly, not responding to the rest of his drunken babble.
"No need to pout, Marc-y! Have a drink!" the redhead says, clumsily slinging an arm around Marco's shoulders.
"Drunk already, brat?" comes a booming voice out of nowhere, hindering Marco from making a snappy reply. Striding up to them comes a man he recognises well, red captain coat billowing and with his usual grin in place.
Law groans behind him and mutters something about 'grinning fools and their tendency to cause him trouble', before stalking off, dragging the feathered man who has yet to speak with him. Kid stays, though he looks ready to scram given the slightest reason, and isn't that a funny thing? Usually Kid is the one with a temper so short that he'll go off at the slightest sign of irritation, but now he is the one staying while Law is leaving.
"Oh, Captain! Fancy seeing you here! Dahahaha!" Shanks laughs, as if there was any question about the first Pirate King being invited to the Pirate Meeting.
"You know I never miss a chance at a party, son!"
"Dahahaha! Of course, Captain!" Shanks laughs drunkenly, throwing an arm across Roger's shoulder. Behind them Marco spots Rayleigh shaking his head fondly next to a pretty woman with familiar features. Rayleigh walks over, ignoring his captain and their former cabin-boy in favour of shaking Marco's hand.
"Good to see that you've finally joined us," Rayleigh says, "Newgate needs all the help he can get with you brats," his eyes are twinkling, as they are prone to do.
Marco snorts, "more like everybody needs help to deal with your Captain, yoi."
"You wound me, Marco!" Roger says, clutching at his heart.
"Well-" Marco doesn't get to finish his sentence. Someone is shouting in the distance, loudly enough to drag the attention of most pirates. Marco squints at the commotion before he sighs in exasperation when he realises that it's just Ace being chased around the beach by Haruta, presumably because of a terrible offense concerning her height.
"Who's that?" Roger asks, he too squinting at the young Whitebeards.
"That's Ace, yoi, your son," Marco deadpans.
"I know that," the first Pirate King glares, "I mean the squirt who's chasing him!"
"That's Haruta, she was Twelfth Division Commander, though she didn't join until years after your death, yoi," Marco answers at last. Roger is an annoying man, but Marco rather likes annoying him.
"The kid's got spunk," Roger says as Haruta jumps onto Ace's back, cackling madly and smashing a fistful of sand in his hair.
"I should probably tend to that, yoi," Marco says, realising that it's his job to be overseeing things, and his fellow division commanders are clearly not doing their jobs.
"Yeah, yeah," Roger waves him away, "good luck with that!" he says.
Marco strides away over the sand, eyes on his younger siblings. He almost doesn't notice Zoro laying stretched out in his path, sleeping. He has adopted the strangest of sleeping places ever since he became the strongest swordsman, probably because he now is safe in the knowledge that no one ever can get the jump on him again. He steps over the sleeping swordsman and continues on his way.
Luffy has joined the chase while Marco was distracted, he notes, as the three barrel over Law's first mate Bepo. The poor bear-man shouts about being sorry from his place in the sand. Chopper comes over and offers the bear a hand up in his Human Form, offering tips for how to get the sand out of his fur to the poor polar bear.
Ace has just made a lap around the beach, Haruta on his back and Luffy on his tail, and Marco catches him by the strap of his hat, causing the orange accessory to fall off and Ace to come to a dead stop.
"My hat!" he shouts in a way that is very similar to his little brother. Marco raises an eyebrow at him when their eyes meet and Ace freezes.
"Right," he says, suddenly loosening his grip on Haruta's feet, causing the girl to fall to the ground, "Right, ships, greetings," he says over the sound of Haruta's indignant shouting.
He turns to the sea and blanches.
"Shit. Shit! shitshitshitshitshitshit, Gramps," he grounds out, "he's gonna beat everyone up," he says, voice full of horror.
"You should stop him, yoi," Marco says, shoving the hat back down over Ace's eyes in the exact moment that Luffy catches up, bowling over his older brother and getting a faceful of sand as he lands a few feet away. Ace doesn't even flinch, however, he just spits out his own mouthful of sand and runs off towards the place where the life-boats of a sailor ship is pulling into port.
Marco is glad that he doesn't have to deal with Garp himself. He hasn't seen the man in more than a passing glance since Marineford, and he can't quite help the lingering grudge in the back of his mind that insists that Ace and Oyaji could've lived if Garp hadn't punched him out of the air. It's been a very long time since the war, and he's had his family back for a year now, but it still lingers, and he can't be sure that he won't punch Garp's lights out if he gets too close now.
Luffy extracts his own head from the sand, looking up and around himself.
"Where did Ace go?" he asks, bewildered.
"That way, yoi," Marco answers, extending an arm to point the way Ace ran. Luffy's eyes widen as he spots the familiar mass clad in loud colours step onto land. He jumps to his feet, eyes wild, and runs away in the direction that he saw Sabo talking to Robin and his companion Koala earlier, screaming about "GRANDPA ALERT!" at the top of his lungs.
When both of the D brothers are gone Haruta pouts up at Marco.
"Why did you have to go and scare them off?" she says as she takes his offered hand up from the sand.
"It couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that we're supposed to be setting up the beach, yoi, now could it?" Marco says, raising and eyebrow at his sister.
"Everyone's already doing that!"
"We should help, yoi."
"Party pooper," Haruta says, her pout becoming more pronounced. Marco chuckles and Haruta shoves his arm before taking off towards some of her division members with a "Fine, fine!"
When she's gone Marco decides to take a walk around the beach to survey his siblings in their preparations. He passes Robin and Koala, who seem to have been abandoned by Sabo, presumably to run off with Luffy. Robin gives him and easy smile as he passes while Koala grins at anyone and everyone that passes by. He sees Franky, Usopp and Sanji who are helping Marco's brothers and sisters to set up tables, bonfires and barbecues. He sees the head of orange that signals Nami strolling down the beach coming from the west, a blue-haired woman and a pink-haired woman on either side of herself. He sees Brook happily fiddling away on his violin in a jaunty tune that sounds like Bink's Sake, accompanied by what looks to be an entire crew of musicians. He starts humming along to the old pirate song as he walks by and soon notices many of his fellow pirates doing the same as they work.
It continues on like this for an hour until the combined efforts of a few of the crews have readied the beach for a party that might just blow up the island if they are unlucky. They all gather in the same place, right next to the biggest of the bonfires and in front of the Moby Dick II. Marco has found Thatch again, who temporarily has emerged from the kitchen to listen to Oyaji and decide to continue the rest of his cooking on the beach along with Sanji and an assortment of other cooks who want to help.
They come to stand on the deck behind Whitebeard to listen. He holds a short speech. It's nothing fancy, just something about not starting any wars and to get drunk of one's ass, which is quite like Oyaji, really.
It doesn't take many moments after Oyaji is done for someone to break open the first barrel of sake. Marco suspects Shanks, but no one can be sure.
"Are we the ones who arrange all this every year, yoi?" Marco asks Thatch, leaning against the railing that Thatch is standing on, directing his fellow cooks like a general inbattle in order to get all the food brought down to the beach.
"Nah," he says, turning his gaze down to Marco's, "everyone takes turns, last year it was Luffy's crew, and the year before that it was Bay's crew."
"Really?" Marco says, amusedly, Whitey Bay certainly likes a good party, but she isn't all that good at arranging them.
"Yeah," Thatch laughs, "turns out she had a bit of help from the Decalvan Brothers, but it turned out a blast, so nobody complained- No! Derek, you can't leave that there-!" Thatch interrupts himself, hopping down from the railing and over to one of the members of the Fourth Division to save his precious party food.
Marco chuckles at him and heaves himself up to sit on the railing, once more surveying the party taking place below him. He wishes that he could change into a phoenix and fly above it all, but he can't, so he settles for sitting on the railing. His eyes go to Nami again, whose hair easily garners attention, especially when she's beside a younger woman with bright blue hair, not the same one as before, the first one's hair leaned more towards purple, but the girl's hair is baby blue. The two are dancing together in the middle of the beach to the beat of the musician crew's playing.
Luffy and Ace are both easy to spot, they seem to be playing a game of who can steal the most food without the cooks noticing. They're failing quite miserably, though, and Sanji is fending them both off with one leg at a time while he's got a pan in one hand and a pot in the other. Marco then spots a woman he hadn't expected to see here; Boa Hancock and her Kuja Pirates are here, Hancock trying to get Luffy's attention while her sisters and crew mingle with the other pirates, all seemingly fascinated by how unstretchy the men are. He's known about the Pirate Empress's infatuation for a while of course, but he didn't really expect her to show up.
He is interrupted in his people-watching when someone climbs up the rope-ladder that is lowered to the beach for people to come and go as they like for the night. It's the very same woman that he saw standing next to Rayleigh earlier, the one with the familiar features that he couldn't place.
"Hello," she says, swinging herself up to sit next to him on the railing with surprising grace. Marco doesn't even blink however.
"I can't quite place you, yoi," he says, keeping his eyes on the scene below them.
"I'd be impressed if you could," the woman admits. Her voice is soft and warm, but when she laughs it sounds more like twinkling bells.
"Care to share, yoi?"
"My name is Rouge, Portgas D. Rouge," she says, and when Marco turns to her with wide eyes he finds that she too is watching the scene below them, more specifically Ace.
"You're a friend of his, right? Marco," she says, turning her gaze to his. He just nods. So this is the woman that gave birth to one of his best friends.
"Or… is it brother?" It sounds strange for someone's mother to ask if someone is a brother of her son, but there it is. "He speaks about you a lot, he talks about most of his brothers, of course, but mostly about those he hasn't seen in a while. I'm glad that you've finally joined us."
"Thank you, yoi," he answers, because that's what he's gathered of common courtesy around here; when someone congratulates you on their death you say 'thank you', when someone apologizes for your death you also say 'thank you'.
He lets his face fall back into his usual relaxed place and sits silent for a moment, contemplating whether he should say anything more, looking for a way to word what he wants to say.
"He's happier now, yoi," he says at last, and he can tell that Rouge is listening intently, "more carefree. Before he always lived without regrets, he acted carefree, he was happy, but never as happy as I've seen him the last year, yoi."
"He's happy now. That's all that matters," she says, though she almost sounds like she's convincing herself.
"He is, yoi." Suddenly Rouge brightens.
"I don't suppose anyone has bothered to tell you who everyone are?" she asks, seemingly excited at the prospect.
"No," Marco says amusedly, as he once more looks out over the sea of faces, "No one has, yoi."
"Let me help," Rouge says, smiling.
"As you wish, yoi."
Rouge beams at him, before turning back to survey the crowd for people he won't know. She seems so very happy to be of help it almost bewilders him, but then he remembers how Ace told him that she died in child-labour. She never got the chance to see Ace grow up, to help him through rough patches or teach him about the world or why it hated his father. So she helps anyone in any and every way she can now.
"That's Banchina," Rouge says after a few beats, pointing at a dark-haired woman with a long nose who is leading Benn Beckman through a waltz, much to the general amusement of the Red Hair Pirates, "She's Yasopp's wife and Usopp's mother, and she sails under Shanks's flag. She's the most fantastic artist, I'll ask her to show you a few of her works later if you like," she offers, smile stuck to her face.
"And that's Makino," she motions to a green-haired woman with kind eyes who is dancing with Sabo, "She's Shanks's lover and sails with him as well. She helped take care of Ace, Sabo and Luffy when they were younger, she's the closest to a mother any of them have had besides Dadan," Dadan, Marco has heard stories about from Ace, being brought up by a bandit certainly explained his table manners, "I'm very grateful to her."
Rouge smiles a soft smile and then goes on to point out the blue-haired girl who was dancing with Nami, who is called Vivi and used to be Queen of Alabasta, but that she now is a Strawhat. She explains how most of the Strawhats' parents are here, as most were sailors at some point or another.
She continues to point out new unfamiliar pirate crews until Roger comes running, cheeks flushed and looking more than slightly tipsy.
"Oh dear," she says smiling at her husband, amused, "I better make sure that he hasn't managed to get the whole crew drunk yet."
"Indeed, yoi," Marco says with a snort. He knows well how proficient Roger is at getting people drunk, and how terrifying the morning after usually is.
"I'm up here, Roger!" Rouge calls, waving at Roger from her perch.
"Rouge!" Roger shouts, spreading his arms wide. Rouge just smiles.
"Won't you join the party?" she asks, turning to Marco.
"I will, yoi," he answers, meeting her eyes. She smiles.
"Good," then she puts her hands on the railing and pushes off, her long skirt flaring out around her as she falls, landing gracefully in the sand beside the rock outcropping the Moby Dick II is anchored by. Marco raises an impressed eyebrow before following her lead, rolling to his feet when he reaches the ground.
"Rouge my lovely, isn't it a marvelous night?" Roger says when they meet halfway, spreading his arms and grinning widely.
"These meetings are always marvelous, dear," Rouge says with a smile, accepting a swift kiss on the lips.
"Indeed!" Roger's voice and gestures have a tendency to become even more pronounced and loud than usual when he's drunk, which never is a good thing, especially when he manages to stay awake all night and is as drunk when his fellows wake with dundering hangovers as he was when they fell asleep. This had been the cause of many a goose chase in the past, with Roger managing to evade angry and hungover pirates every single time.
Marco is pulled from his thoughts by someone calling his name. He cranes his neck and turns, spotting a familiar orange cowboy hat heading his way.
"Maaaaaarcooooo~!" He thinks Ace might've gotten a drink or two, too, beause his gaze passes Marco thrice as he looks around before he notices him.
"Marco!" Ace struts over, and Marco idly notes that his movements get more pronounced and his voice louder in the same way his father's does when he's tipsy. He'd never noticed before because he'd never made the connection between the two, but now he sees how similar they really are in some aspects.
"There you are!" Ace says, "Oh, hey, mom!" he pecks Rouge's cheek, ignoring Roger completely and turns back to Marco, "Oyaji and Luffy are getting ready to have a fight! They've been talking about it for decades, and now it's finally time so you better not miss it," Ace nods importantly to himself, before grabbing Marco's arm without giving him a chance to answer and drags him off.
"See you later, mom!" he yells, waving over his shoulder at Rouge, who waves back and laughs while Roger complains about how his son doesn't like him.
Ace doesn't have to drag him for long, for Marco has been anticipating seeing this fight for longer than he's aware, so he follows on his own without argument. The other pirates around them are starting to walk in the same direction as talk of the battle spreads among them, and soon enough entire crowds are moving along like fish schools.
They gather in a circle when they reach the two big shots, spread out and gathered in a circle much wider than one would normally give, considering Oyaji's strength and Luffy's uncanny ability to destroy big things despite being such a small man. Marco spots the majority of the Strawhats on the other side of the ring and snorts when he sees the look of utter exasperation on Nami's face. He knows well that it's far from the first time that her captain has decided to take on a foe much bigger and possibly much stronger than himself.
Luffy himself stands in the middle of the circle, goofy grin in place and a pipe on his back as he faces down Edward Newgate. Oyaji is grinning back underneath his moustache, back straight and a hand on his bisento.
"Marco," he says, turning to look at his first mate in the crowd, "will you be our judge?"
"With pleasure, yoi," Marco answers with a lazy grin. He steps to the front of the crowd and places himself right in the middle in between the two.
"Rules are; everything is allowed, yoi, the first one to knock the other out wins," he takes a few steps back, out of their way, "Start, yoi!"
Luffy crouches into his fighting position and Whitebeard positions his bisento, and then they're off. Whitebeard swings his bisento and Luffy meets it with his pipe. The clash of metal on metal rings through the air and the battle begins for real. They swing and clash and meet, fists fly and blocks are made. While they battle murmurs pass through the crowds, comments on fighting styles and power, bets being made, and general awe. After what could be hours they part, panting slightly and foreheads beading with sweat. It's a testament to quite how strong Luffy is that he has been able to drive the Strongest Man in the World to the point where even he needs a moment to breathe.
The battle shows on both of them. There are cuts on Luffy's arms and bruises on Oyaji's chest, but they still manage not to look worse for wear at all. A hush has spread, now, and the pirates watch silently as two of the strongest of them to ever live or die give each other appraising looks before getting right back into it.
Marco watches every move intently, even the ones that are to quick to be seen by someone who doesn't know what to look for, and damn if it wasn't interesting to see Oyaji fighting completely without his Devil Fruit again. Marco had been there years before he ever found the Gura Gura no Mi, but still he had very nearly forgotten how strong the man he calls father is even without it. What he does remember is how easily he moves, how strangely graceful his attacks are despite his considerable size and bulk.
Something which almost is even more interesting is Luffy's new style of fighting. Marco has heard about how he ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi when he was just seven years old, and how he didn't really know how to fight without it, or at least that's the way it was back when they were alive. Now however, he has a new and fully developed style. He has kept some elements of his usual, like how he uses mostly his fists, and how they can pack much more power than one would expect, but he also uses the pipe he has brought into the fight in a style Marco recognises well; both Sabo and Ace use it, Sabo always has, with his pipe, and while Ace was more than proficient with a bo-staff when he was alive he prefered his fists, fire and dagger then. Now however all three of them wield pipes, and they do it well. Marco realises for the first time that the three of them must've created the style together as kids.
But besides that there are other elements to Luffy's new style that Marco recognises; he kicks more than he used to, does handstands and uses moves that he can't have learned from anyone but Sanji; he moves with the awareness of a swordsman, something both Brook, Zoro and Shanks could've taught him. But then again, Luffy is good at learning from observing, especially in the middle of battle, so in all likelihood he has taught himself by sparring and watching them fight.
The clash between their two styles is… strange. Luffy's style can no longer meet someone bigger and stronger with equally big and strong moves, as he used to, but he still holds up well, he makes up for it by simply putting more strength into his punches. Whitebeard on the other hand doesn't have much trouble, seeing as he's used to fighting foes much smaller than himself, but Luffy is quick and hard to catch, if he hadn't been he'd most likely have been crushed by now.
Whitebeard deflects a punch aimed at his face and throws a punch of his own in retaliation, which Luffy dodges easily, but he can't dodge Oyaji's other fist, and flies back into the crowd, bowling over a dozen of Whitebeard Pirates. They all groan and complain - those that are still conscious - but Luffy just jumps back to his feet and jumps back into it, using the extra space to charge, throwing a punch with extra much momentum, catching Oyaji in the gut, followed by an elbow to his side. Whitebeard grunts but doesn't move, instead he smacks Luffy away with his big palm.
Luffy comes rushing back, swinging his pipe and managing to drive Oyaji back a few paces. They each land crouching, as silent as before. Then a muffled thud sounds across the ring, and everyone turns to where the sound came from, even Oyaji and Luffy glance that way. Ace has fallen asleep, now sprawled out across the sandy ground. Marco snorts and Luffy giggles, soon joined by a cacophony of chuckles and snorts.
"Oi," Marco pokes his brother in the side with his toes, but Ace just snores. Marco looks up at the two captains in the middle of the ring, "continue, yoi."
Luffy shrugs and throws himself at Whitebeard, who chuckles.
"Hey," someone in the crowd calls, head facing the sea, "there's a ship approaching." Normally someone would probably sound a bit worried, but now not even one of the murmurs that rise is worried in the least. It would be stupid to be, considering that there must be at the very least fifty crews on the beach all in all, most likely more.
Roger squints at the ship, and then his expression clears.
"It's Shiki," he states, sounding bemused. A murmur of the name goes through the crowd, but Oyaji and Luffy don't stop their match, not on account of Shiki, whom they've both fought in the past.
Marco turns most of his attention back to their battle, but keeps half an eye on the approaching ship, which seems to be heading right for them. Soon enough it's close enough for them to be able to make out Shiki's voice shouting at them.
"ROGER, NEWGATE," he yells, "now that we've left the world that should've been mine you should join me to take over this one." Marco sighs, that idiot just never gives up, does he?
Shiki jumps ashore, because despite not having a devil fruit anymore he's still good at travelling far through the air. The sand flies around him when he lands, covering the closest pirates, irking the poor bastards.
"Newgate!" he shouts, pushing aside anyone who doesn't have the sense to move, approaching the one of his old rivals that is t easiest to find. He breaks through the ring and Oyaji and Luffy finally pause, turning blank stares, that Marco knows will annoy the old lion, on him. The man's eyes widen when they land on Luffy.
"YOU! Strawhat! What are you doing here?!" he sounds scandalised, like it's actually a surprise to see the latest Pirate King at a gathering of pirates.
"Who're you?" Luffy asks, tilting his head to the side, seemingly confused.
"I'm the Golden Lion Shiki! The greatest adversary you've ever met!" Shiki exclaims, sticking out his chest.
"AH! It's Khaki!" Luffy says, hitting his fist against his palm.
"Shiki!" said man shouts. It seems he has lost quite a bit of his composure and calm since the Whitebeard Pirates last faced him.
"Shakky," Luffy says, nodding. Shiki's head looks about ready to burst.
"IT'S SHIK-"
"What's happened to your crew, yoi?" Marco asks, breaking him off, "You used to have many more," he states, nodding at the single, sparsely crewed ship he came here on. The man bristles and draws himself up.
"You, Phoenix, you're as insolent as always, it's useless having a crewmate that doesn't obey you. Newgate should've killed yo-" Shiki doesn't get the chance to finish his sentence, for most of the Whitebeard Pirates have drawn their weapons, along with quite a few of the other pirates around, and Oyaji, protective as always, has aimed a kick at Shiki's stomach, making the man - caught off guard - fly back, landing in the sea a few yards from his ship. Idiot.
He emerges from the water, triumphantly proclaiming that he no longer is a hammer. His crew throws him a rope and he climbs up, readying himself to jump to the beach again.
Marco sighs in exasperation. Shiki is proof that even the mighty can fall far. It's almost like being dead has driven him to the brink of madness, and he is tiptoeing on the edge. He jumps again, and when he lands and rushes forward this time he comes face to face with Roger.
"What was it you wanted again, old chap?" he asks. Shiki grins, finally getting the attention he wanted.
"Join me," he says, "this new world is ripe for the taking and with you and Newgate under my command it would be a piece of cake to take it." His face positively glows at the possibility of world dominance. Marco doesn't get the chance to wonder why he hasn't approached his fellow pirates until now, for Roger laughs loudly and punches Shiki in the shoulder less than lightly.
"That's a good joke, Shiki," he says, though there seems to be a strain in his voice that is uncharacteristic for him, like he's expecting something bad to happen any minute.
Shiki glares, "You had your reasons before, but those can't still aply, so you should join me and I might let you have a few islands of this world," he says, the mad glint in his eye now more pronounced than ever, "I might even forgive you, you know." They all know of how Roger took the man's legs and a lot of his crew, but the legs are back now of course, but the crew doesn't seem to have rejoined him.
"That's silly, Shiki," Roger says. The whole of the beach is silent now except for the two of them, watching the exchange. They all know that an 'alliance' like that will never come to pass, and they're waiting for Roger to send him away.
"You've lost your sense," Whitebeard speaks up, because he was invited too. Shiki draws himself up again.
"My sense is perfectly intact, Newgate," he says, glaring up at his old rival.
"Not if you're intending to try to take over this world." At the third time speaking about world-domination the air starts to crackle, and out of it steps a hooded creature, fitting the description of a Reaper.
"Alright, alright, hold on a moment," he says, holding up his hands, they as well covered in his cloak.
"Who's talking about taking over the world?" he asks, turning the place where his face belongs between the pirates surrounding him.
Nobody moves.
The Reaper sighs, "Y'see my superiors don't like all this talk of world-domination, being the ones that actually rule this world and all, so I've been told to take the plotter in for questioning." Marco doesn't think this is the Reaper's usual job, because no one who arrested people for a living would tell a beach full of pirates that he is there arrest one of them.
"It was Shiki," says one of the Decalvan brothers.
"Indeed it was Shiki," says the other one.
The Reaper sweeps his eyes over the crowd before settling on Shiki.
"I'll be taking you in for questioning," he says, and before anyone knows it he has grabbed ahold of Shiki's arm, snapped his fingers, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"I knew it," Roger mutters, glaring at the spot where the Reaper and Shiki had been moments earlier. Then the beach erupts in sound as the pirates start discussing what just happened. Many of them seem unsurprised, though slightly shaken. Marco gathers that this isn't a common occurence, but that it's been known to happen.
He kicks Ace in the side, successfullly waking the man this time. Ace snorts awake, and then pushes himself up onto his hands and startes coughing and rubbing his nose as fast as he can.
"Damn sand," he mutters. Marco chuckles, it's not the first time his brother has fallen asleep face down on a beach and managed to snort sand when he woke up. It usually made him a bit touchy. He glares up at Marco and gets to his feet, still rubbing his nose. Then he looks around, bemused, at all the pirates discussing Shiki's arrest, and at Luffy and Oyaji, standing in the middle of it all talking.
"Is it over?" he asks, confused. It's obvious to the both of them that it can't be, there's not enough blood, and neither of the big shots are knocked out on the ground, but Ace asks anyway.
"Nah, we just had a visit from Shiki the Golden Lion, he got arrested by a Reaper, yoi," Marco answers.
"Huh," Ace has never met Shiki in person before, Marco knows that much, but most people have heard at least one story about his intention of taking over the world back in Roger's age.
"The guy Luffy fought?" Ace asks next, and of course he doesn't pay heed to the huge battle between his blood father and Shiki that went down in history.
"Yes, yoi," Marco sighs, exasperatedly but fondly all the same.
"Can we continue now?" Luffy's voice resounds over the beach right then, breaking off anything anyone could've been about to say. Marco does some quick thinking, and then answers.
"No, yoi," he says, all heads turning to him, "It's interesting, but it's probably best to save it for another day, yoi. Who knows how many days the two of you could go without getting anywhere?" Admittedly they are doing this partially for him, but Marco knows them both, and knows that this match in all likelihood could continue on for weeks.
Fortunately no one argues his logic. Oyaji chuckles and shrugs his shoulders and asks one of his sons to bring him a bottle of booze while Luffy whines, but doesn't exactly argue, because he's rubbish at arguing.
And so the crowd starts dispersing and spreading out over the beach again, finding the tables laden with food and alcohol. The cooks head for the grills and the musicians gather to discuss a strategy for what to play during the night and the ones that don't have anything to do start drinking and socialising.
A game of cards with twenty people in it starts up almost immediately, using three decks, plus the extra cards that no doubt are hidden up sleeves, down cleavages and and occasionally in pants. Marco joins in and ends up swindling them all.
Soon enough darkness falls and bonfires are lit. Ace drags Marco away from his cards and shoves a tankard of booze into his hands. He is made to sit down by one of the bigger bonfires in between Ace and Thatch, opposite from Rouge, Roger and Rayleigh. By the same fire is also Oyaji, Sabo, Dragon and Garp - who for once isn't beating anyone up. Someone probably tried to coerce Luffy into sitting down too, but he's to busy dancing around with a dozen pirates with chopsticks up their nostrils.
Marco is dragged into the conversation soon enough, which seems to be about which Sky-Island is the best to visit. Marco leans back and listens, occasionally taking a drink of his booze and throwing in a comment - because Skypeia is obviously the best.
The conversation soon spirals into ancedotes, as it's prone to do when old people like them get together, no matter how young they may look on the outside. Marco lets the fire and the alcohol warm him and smiles. He feels at home like this, surrounded by family and friends - and alcohol, because no pirate will deny that that's an important part.
Ace rubs his nose, wrinkling it in an attempt to get rid of leftover sand and Marco laughs.
AN: I finished this week after all! Yay~
Who wins the battle you'll have to figure out on your own, because I'm a huge idiot and a bit of a troll like that. I can't just conclude everything, can I?
Shiki hasn't shown up until now because he's been working on one of his many long, long (longlonglong) plans to take over the world, and was now ready to approach Roger and Whitebeard to ask them to join, that obviously didn't turn out so well though.
There's a lot of mention of Ace in this, but the whole idea was actually based on his death to begin with, so I felt that it was justified! xD
I'm stalling. So, this is the last chapter, as I've mentioned, so I'd just like to thank you all one last time fo reading, reviewing, favouriting and following, and been here every week. Thank you. To those who find this when it's over and done with, I thank you as well.
Thank you for reading!