"There it is." Nami murmured, looking through the subs periscope. Right on schedule. There was no doubt that this was the transport ship, Ace's Vivre-card was making it clear that this wasn't just a random ship. She felt some satisfaction that her calculations had been correct.

She quickly got behind the controls and carefully maneuvered them into place alongside the battleship, where they surfaced and Robin created a 'rope ladder' out of arms and legs for them to climb on board. Nami went first, found a rope, and climbed back down halfway to tie it to the ship, and tossed the rest of it down to Robin so the sub wouldn't float away. That would be bad, since Nami was the only one that would be able to retrieve it, assuming she could swim against the current.

Being trapped here was the last thing they wanted.

Once on the deck, they quickly and quietly made their way towards the bow to check that Ace was where he should have been. Once confirmed, Robin formed eyes around the area to keep an eye out, and they went to find the key. Nami could pick it, easily, but her Mirage tempo had a time-limit, and she didn't want to risk it running out while she was in plain view on a Marine prisoner transport ship.

Once they had everything they needed from the ship, and the communications room sabotaged, they quickly made their way back to Ace while they sent their new things back to the sub via Robin's Devil Fruit. They needed to move fast, now.

"We're clear." Robin murmured, using her eyes to scan every inch of the ship. "The Vice-Admiral was speaking with him earlier. I didn't catch what they were saying, but Ace didn't seem too pleased if his expression was anything to go by." Nami frowned, but readied her clima-tact. Robin would keep an eye out, and any Marine that looked or started walking in this direction would find his neck snapped before being gently lowered into the ocean to prevent splash.

"Better watch out." She grinned widely. "There is heavy chance for a mirage to form in today's forecast." And with that, she disappeared from sight, but not Robin's Haki. Robin smirked, Nami would have done well for herself as a thief if she hadn't 'decided' to follow Luffy.

(One did not decide to follow Luffy. One agreed to it after he decided he wanted you on his ship. Robin was the exception when she invited herself on board.)

A moment later, she watched as Ace's eyes widened incredulously and his cuffs were pulled off his wrists and he disappeared as Nami extended her mirage to cover him as well. Just in time, too, as the reflexive flare up of his flames would have been noticed by somebody.

"Let's go." She heard whispered a moment later from beside her. Ace grumbled something that neither girl quite caught, but they didn't say anything about it, instead she turned and led the way carefully. They didn't want to seem like they were rushing, that might draw attention, but they didn't want to linger, either.

Ladder formed ("That's not disturbing at all."), Nami went down first so that she could catch Ace, or at least be in a position to jump into the water quickly should his arms give out on him during the climb down. Prison time had not been kind to him, after all. Not at all.

"They've noticed he's gone." Robin said urgently as soon as she closed the hatch, Nami nodded before rushing to the controls while Robin tended to Ace's injuries as best she could in the enclosed space and with her limited medical knowledge. (She resolved to start reading some of Chopper's medical journals after this.)

"And we're gone! Ace, you can be in charge of calling Luffy to let your family know you're alright." She grinned evilly as she held out the Snail.

Ace actually gulped as he took it.

Crap.

In the two days since Nami and Robin left, final preparations and plans were made. The Strawhats were each assigned two members of the Second Division (who seemed to have adopted the rookie crew as one of them) who would ensure the rookie pirates made it out alive.

Luffy wasn't too happy about it, but could acknowledge that it relieved some of his fears a great deal, and that the Whitebeard's had more experience with this kind of thing. And he was happy enough to get to spend some time with Ace's first mate, Dusty, and get to know some of Ace's original crew better. The rest of the Second Division drew straws to see who would be in charge of ensuring the safety of the Sunny. If the main cannon was as powerful as they claimed, after all, they wouldn't want anything happening to it

It had also been decided that the Allies would guard the mouth of the bay, while the Moby and her sister ships along with the Sunny would come up right in the middle, confronting the Marines head on.

Members of Haruta's division had snuck onto the island as soon as they were in position, ready and waiting to commandeer the video Snails that were set up to broadcast Ace's execution. (A member of Ace's old crew went with them, after all, if anybody knew how to hack the Marine's broadcast system, it was them. If they could do it while drunk out of their minds, they could certainly do it sober).

They were planning on making a statement here. They couldn't do that if the Marines cut off the broadcast signal, now could they?

Meanwhile, every Snail the pirates had that was capable of it, was being used to listen in on the Marines chatter. They were gathering some good intelligence on Marine movements throughout the Grandline that Robin would love to have, and waiting for the moment when Nami either called to report success, or the transport ship called to alert Marineford of the loss of their prisoner.

(Of course, Luffy and Zoro were pretty sure that Robin was going to sabotage the communications room or steal all the Snails on board, so that last option probably wasn't going to happen...)

Once the Marines knew that Ace was no longer in custody, however that happened, they would be given a few moments to stew over that information before the Whitebeard's and Strawhats made their entrance.

They'd already gotten good information about the Marines plans for once Ace arrived and the Whitebeard's made their anticipated entrance, and Namur ensured that the wall would not rise, and could not be used to trap them in the bay to be picked off.

After that, it was a waiting game. The transport ship would have left with Ace on board roughly an hour ago, and the girls should be boarding it any minute now to retrieve Ace. Once they got the call, all they had to wait for was the Marines to become aware their prisoner was no longer a prisoner. Shouldn't take too long, depending on whether or not Robin sabotaged their communications. It was roughly a two hour trip from Impel Down to Marineford through the Tub Current, and the girls planned to wait for it roughly halfway, so...

Everyone was distracted by Luffy Transponder Snail ringing. "Nami?" He asked, since they were the only ones who had this number.

"Luffy?" Ace's voice sounded, loud and clear, full of disbelief.

Luffy's eyes went wide, and the Whitebeard's seemed to all stop breathing for a moment. "ACE!" He yelled, ecstatic. At that moment, the Whitebeard's could easily see the boy that Ace constantly told them stories about, and none of the serious captain they'd been seeing over the last two weeks. That seemed to be the signal for the Whitebeard's to snap out of it, and they started crowding around Luffy, eagerly trying to shout their questions at Ace, who's bewildered expression was reflected by the Snail.

"Gurarararara!" Whitebeard laughed loudly, shutting everybody up.

"Pops? Guys? What... Luffy why are... wha-?" He stammered, trying to wrap his head around the fact that Luffy was currently with his crew.

"You had us worried, son, when Luffy called to ask what happened to you, and why your Vivre-card was burning." Whitebeard said simply, picking Luffy up so that the Snail was closer to his face, and also so that Luffy didn't have to let go of it.

Tears formed in the corners of the snails eyes. "I'm so sorry, Pops. I didn't... I should have listened to you and just stayed." He apologized.

"No, son. I am the one who let you go." Whitebeard said simply. "King Neptune is waiting for you three on Fishman Island, he will take care of you until we get there."

"Huh?" Ace was confused. "What do you... you're not going to Marineford, are you?" He suddenly sounded panicked.

"You just stay with those two, you will be safe. We will meet up with you shortly. Alright?" Whitebeard suddenly had power leaking from every pore, and there was no doubt that Ace would have felt the weight of that command from the other end of the call.

"A- alright. But, Pops..." He pleaded.

"Do not worry, my son. We will come for you. You will be home again soon enough." Whitebeard said, resting his gaze on the island high above them on the surface of the water. "And nobody will ever dare try and take you from us again."

"Luffy." Ace suddenly said.

"Yeah?"

"Don't you dare do anything stupid." Ace warned.

"Shishishishishi. Silly Ace. Telling me not to be stupid when he's the one who got caught." Luffy laughed. "Dusty is here, I'll be fine." He promised his older brother. "But you'll go to Fishman Island, and you'll be safe there. Promise?" He asked simply. He knew his brother, and he knew that unless he made Ace promise, Ace would find a way to come to Marineford despite what Whitebeard said about it.

Ace sighed. "I promise. Happy now?" He certainly didn't sound happy.

"We need to go, I think that Marineford is about to discover your escape." Marco said, looking up at the battleship that just entered the bay.

"Bye, Ace, see you soon!" Luffy chirped before hanging up on his brothers protests. Several minutes later, one of the Twelfth Division that had snuck onto the island hours earlier called to alert them that it was time for the grand entrance.

Sengoku stared in disbelief at the giant whale-shaped ship that suddenly appeared in the middle of the bay... minutes after he learned that Ace had somehow disappeared right off the transport ship. He immediately called for the broadcast to be stopped. Moments later, he was informed that they couldn't. The system had been hijacked somehow, but they were working on getting control back so they could turn it off.

He growled while Garp started laughing beside him. "Garp!" He warned, and the old man managed to contain his laughter to hiccuping chuckles.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

His head snapped around and his growl deepened. Just how had they done all this without anybody noticing a thing?