Here we go! Last night I wrote like three extra chapters guys, I'm looking forward to you reading them soon. Can you believe I held on 24 hours before updating? I don't.

Thank you to Blue Thief, 12 Slytherin, Le055Li0n, Watching the rain fall, Madeline Lech, and SupI'mHere for their awesome reviews, you guys are the best.


Ensign Lero is absolutely livid. He's in the back rows, next to the admirals, cannon fodder for sure because no one who reaches them is someone he can handle -though it also shows that he might not reach the battle at all. Talk about no risk and no gain.

Although, he's certainly not in the search for certain death it is isn't his position that grinds on his nerves. He would've rather be farther away from the scaffold, specifically farther away from the chained vice-admiral.

You've been reassigned to Vice-Admiral's Monkey D. Luffy's ship.

He'd grounded his teeth when his commanding officer informed him of the change, it would be his third transfer in less than a year. Besides, he had barely heard about the new Vice-Admiral but he did know he was a kid. Garp the fist's grandson, back then most people thought he was just riding his grandfather's coattails. They couldn't have been further from the truth.

He sees his captain now, and his semblance is as cheerful as ever. He's covered in grime and in bruises but he can see the Fleet Admiral's annoyance from here, so Vice-Admiral must remain in good spirits. He wonders who exactly the marines expect to show up at this execution because it almost feels like they're going to war here. His captain is certainly a charming person, but most of his friends -at least the ones who can fight- are protecting his death not preventing it.

The thought makes his stomach flipflop and he tries to remind himself that the Vice-Admiral had committed treason and allowed for the freedom of a very dangerous criminal... without saying that his immediate battle squad, whom Lero is closely acquinted with where the actual rescuers. What is it about Portgas D. Ace that made fine marines go back on their oaths?

The thing is because he knows them, Lero just feels like there has to be something he's missing and it pisses him off. A part of him just wants to excuse his Vice-Admiral, Luffy who always had a smile and acceptance for everyone he met, even a "stick in the mud" like him. His comms officer yells from behind.

"The execution is now live!" He says, and then, a little more perplexed also informs. "We're picking up radio activity...!" There's some unidentifiable muttering and then, "INCOMING!"

Lero will never forget what happens in the next few minutes because half a dozen ships explode out of the bay and where there had only been sea, now stands an army. He sees Portgas D. Ace and it's impossible to miss his bold declaration, he catches sight from some of the former marines that had resigned and is blown away -literally- by the sheer strength of the opposition. Wherever he looks, pirates are emerging from the cracks in their ships, armed and thirsty for blood.

Why did the Whitebeard pirates come rescue a Marine Vice-Admiral? What exactly is going down on him? He listens to Sengoku's speech with one ear, still too much in awe at the figures. He catches sight of the Fishmen pirates, not that surprising, he's intimately aware between the relationship between the island and Luffy.

After more pointless words are exchanged between two powerhouses of men, Lero is still hesitant. He's not sure if he should really fight, more than anything, the thought that he hopes the pirates succeed is at the forefront of his mind. A conflicted heart is quiet dangerous during battle, but as he collapses the choice is out of his hands.


The winds are absolutely crazy, Benn notes. He and his captain keep exchanging glances, reality sinking in their guts. Next to them, Anchor's navigator, a slip of a woman that Benn learned can drink entire pirate crews under the table, has a map on one hand and her eyes set on her log pose. She is meticulously yelling orders to the swordsman. Benn has heard Mihawk talk about him. The man has tremendous strength, impossible to miss as he mans the helm, but Benn has been a seaman for a long time and there's no fighting the weather.

"Nami," Shanks cuts into their argument, his tone of voice is tight and angry. Benn knows the same powerlessness must be going through his captain that he himself feels. "I think we should call ahead, I don't think we'll make it." Between coating and the storm on their way to the Red Line the Red Force has been running behind schedule already, these winds weren't helping them. Nami has proved herself an absolutely brilliant navigator, her ability to read -or more like predict- the weather is downright supernatural, but sea transport has limitations. They are still half a day away and Luffy only has hours. Their allies cannot go into battle battle expecting them to be there if they aren't going to be.

Nami shakes her head, her tangerine colored hair darkened by the poor visibility in the cloudy day. She takes out the stripped tube she always carries.

"We'll be there." She says. It's a promise to the pirates, and a challenge to the world. Her contraption extends into a staff, both older pirates are staring intently.

"A good navigator knows there is no fighting the weather." It is a saying Benn had heard a long time ago. Nami smirks, baton spinning and eyes on the horizon.

"And a great navigator knows how to control it." For a moment, she breaks her concentration to look them in the eye. "Luffy's waiting for us." She says, and in the middle of fighting the wheel, her fellow companion straightens. "We'll be there."


It isn't the first time Whitebeard readies for war, but it might be the last he admits to himself. He's sat down his commanders, driving the message that this will be the beginning of a new Era. Only some of them catch on to the entire meaning. This upcoming battle will decide much more than the fate of one young man, though from what Marco has relayed from his stay at the Assault Team's HQ is that Monkey D. Luffy is no ordinary young man.

Ace's devotion and his desperate favor is certainly enough to bring Whitebeard and his family to the marine's threshold, but Luffy's sacrifice for Ace is what made the Emperor agree. Upon his return to the ship, late the night before, Marco had retold him some of the things he'd learned about the enigmatic figure that is Ace's little brother.

Whitebeard hadn't laughed so much in a while. What a crazy kid.


As Luffy just hangs around the execution platform, he looks over the bay and is a little blown away by how many marines are present. He thinks to himself that they'll be disappointed today, no way they'd all get to fight -if there's a fight at all. I mean, Luffy's dad might show up? Screwing with the government is his thing but, he has also never been there before so...

He wonders how he can be so okay with his death, but it really had been a matter of when and not if, right?

Maybe, in my next life, I'll be free.

Maybe he and Ace have more things in common than Luffy originally thought, because when the execution begins, cameras start rolling, and he sees all these marines ready for battle, he's still not expecting ships to burst through the bay. Is that the Moby Dick? The Sunny? Ships keep emerging one after the other and it takes Luffy a moment to understand... He laughs long and hard, he's underestimated his nakama. Why did Luffy think they'd do what is reasonable?

He's not sure what their plan is. There are thousands of enemy soldiers and Luffy is still very much collared but... If he trusts anybody with his life, it's definitely his friends, and if Whitebeard is here... then...

Did you know? If we toast with sake, we'll become brothers!

He can see people coming forward from the ship, emerging to stand tall across the bows. Ussop, Sanji, Robin, Franky, Brook... He recognizes many more and there's even more he doesn't, but dead center, emerging to stand on the massive head of the whale of the flagship of the strongest man in the world, stands Ace. Luffy's heart starts beating, and he can feel every inch of him thrumming in expectation.

"Luffy!" He yells, and his voice carries all the way across the plaza. Luffy's worried, he's very worried... for his nakama, for Ace, for all these strangers that have apparently come to save him but... who is he to tell these people what to do with their freedom? "We came to save you!"

"Ace!" Luffy yells back. "Guys...!" Luffy can die today without regrets, he can, but looking at the army in front of him and thnking that maybe he doesn't have to... he feels the tears dripping down his chin before he realizes he's conciously crying. Ace forgives him too...

"There will absolutely be no saving! Today, we serve justice." Sengoku says on the speaker, and Luffy sees a giant of a man appearing behind his brother. The mustache is unmistakeable.

"Unless we have anything to say about that." Answering roars follows his declaration, but no one in either ship has moved to engaged yet. Whitebeard has emerged. "It's been a while, Sengoku."

""There he is," Sengoku says and his voice carries around all the blues, "the strongest man in the world." Luffy feels one of his guards shift nervously behind him. The Fleet Admiral speaks through the den-den mushi speaker again. "Today, regardless of interference, will be the execution of former marine vice-admiral Monkey D. Luffy. Not only has this man committed high treason and broken every oath he has taken while doing it, but he is the cause marines lost custody of Portgas D. Ace." Sengoku lists, more for the benefit of their audience than anyone present at the plaza. "He has also been found guilty of aiding and colluding with criminals, unsurprising considering his lineage..." Sengoku makes a pause. "After all, Monkey D. Luffy is the only son of the most wanted man in the word, a fearsom terrorist, Revolutionary Dragon." Luffy has never minded to hide his parentage, but it is a little startling the silence that falls upon the marines. Mayhem flares everywhere around him and the battlefield drowns in whisper and speculation, one voice carries easily above the others.

"Is a child's father enough reason to execute the children now?" Whitebeard's condemnation is cutting. He strikes a pose, and with one fist he proceeds to create a crack in reality, the ground trembles and so, the war begins.

"Luffy's a hero!" It's Sanji's voice accusing the marines present."You should be ashamed to execute a good marine!"

"Yeah," Ussop screams alongside him from his perch in the Sunny's crow nest, "What happened to Justice?"

Uncertainty shifts along the masses. Many of these men have served with Luffy for many years, and Luffy doesn't want them to abandon their dreams for him; but a selfish part of him warms at their reluctance. Akainu's voice stretches behind the marines.

"This is Justice." His voice carries no inflection, but it doesn't lack conviction.

Luffy is feeling the strain of sea stone, and worry is eating at his insides, but seeing all this people fired up is just making the blood pump faster through veins burn. He looks at Sengoku, and sees a flicker of suspicion on his former superior's face. Ah, Seagull guy knows him so well!

"Well, I can't let other people do all my rescuing for me." Actually, he won't. The wave of haki strikes the battlefield in seconds, and it's cut short as the collar activates and forces Luffy to bend over until his forehead slams into the ground. Not even the burning can contain his laughter. "Ouch." The sound of bodies hitting the ground is impossible to miss and soothes his aching.

"Luffy!"

"Shishishishi!"