sairakanzaki: Thank you! I enjoy two types of Ace: angsty, miserable and also bratty and obnoxious. Like in one of my other stories where he made fun of all the Whitebeards and was just a complete little shit! So fun to write!

Wishfull-star: Thanks! I like to think I'm good at writing him now. Unlike Luffy, Ace has such a wide range of emotion. He can be furious, goofy, cocky and obnoxious. Love him.

He decided he would tell them about offing Blackbeard. Marco hadn't won against him, and Ace did feel his devil fruit was bad news, but no devil fruit so far was a match against the sea. Using the water to his advantage had always been Ace's greatest attack. Especially against devil fruit users when he encountered them anywhere and they were in range.

The sea was like his weapon other than his size, teeth and claws. One only he could use. Deuce could, too, but he rarely used his fruit. Maybe he'd tell them about the devil fruit island, too. Whitebeard was old, maybe something interesting like that would make him happy. He had nothing against the man because of how he knew Marco was. He was kind and strong and had wanted Ace to meet the captain, meaning he wasn't some scary monster like Kaido and Big Mom.

After the delicious feast, Ace took a nap on a couch in one of the rooms before deciding to call the yonko captain. His crew was around, too. He would just tell them what was said in the conversation regardless. He called the only line that this den den was connected to. It rang a while before someone whose voice he didn't recognize answered.

"Hello?"

"Yo, this is Ace. We just got to Fishman Island and Neptune said Whitebeard wanted to talk to me," Ace explained simply. Whoever was on the other line hurried to the captain. Ace heard voices in the background, and the sound of footsteps before the noises of being outside came.

"Pops! It's Ace! Marco, Thatch, it's Ace!" Ace recognized Thatch's name, the one with big hair. He was with Marco during their first encounter, but Ace had conversed with blonde most.

They heard Whitebeard's deep voice thank his "son" for the call. "Hello Ace, how are you doing?"

"Fine. I attacked Celestial Dragon on Sabaody, so we had to flee." Deuce said it wasn't much of an attack. "Okay, maybe not an attack. I coughed on him and said I had a fatal and contagious disease. So, now we're finally heading to the New World now that I taught my crew haki." He heard laughing on the other end, and then Marco's voice asked if he really taught them in such a short time. "I picked the best for my crew. They learned quickly. So what's up? Why'd you want the call?"

Whitebeard finally spoke, saying, "We wanted to offer you to be allies with us. Not a subordinate crew, but just allies. It only makes sense to do so with you saving Marco without asking for anything in return. So, if you are ever in a real bind, we'll come to help. I also wanted to invite you to join our crew if you ever get tired of sailing yourself," the yonko explained, not surprising Ace at all.

"Well, we plan on visiting Dressrosa for a vacation and then going to Wano to see if they'll accept me helping them repair it. It's the least I can do for not helping any of them for twelve years. Hopefully they'd accept my help," he explained. He didn't turn them down, but he also didn't say he'd join.

Honestly, joining them didn't sound too bad. But they wouldn't get tired of sailing anytime soon. Then he added, "Oh, and I killed the guy, Blackbeard, so you don't gotta worry about him anymore." Thatch was shocked, asking how he did it. "Well, he was really pissed at me for saving Marco. He attacked me, but I destroyed their ship and let them all drown. The ocean is the greatest weapon against devil fruit users."

"Thank you. I am glad he is gone. He attempted to kill Thatch, but was unable to. Though he got away with his new fruit. I heard your crew has more devil fruits now? May I ask how you found so many?" Ace didn't hesitate to answer.

"There was a devil fruit island. A forest full of them. I snagged about 20 of them and fed them to my crew. Nobody else could get there, it wasn't on the log pose and was impossible to enter other than far below the surface. We found a mythical zoan, a new type of logia and another aquatic zoan. I really want to know what the others are, but I guess it'll take some time to find out," Ace explained easily, feeling he could trust these people. He just did.

His crew said nothing, trusting him making this decision to spill the beans. "Seriously?!" Thatch exclaimed. He then asked what the fruits were now. Marco said a "wow" and Ace heard a strange laugh he assumed came from the yonko captain.

Ace explained the fruits simply. The paramecia was mentioned, too, but was not one of the more special ones. "I can't believe there are aquatic zoans. Salt water crocodiles are fuckin' huge," Thatch muttered. He asked where he was keeping all of the devil fruits. If he had gotten 20, he still had a ton more.

"They're inside my body. Nobody can get to them. So, they're safe with all the money and important shit," Ace said somewhat vaguely.

Marco spoke, and asked if Ace had really eaten a SMILE. He confirmed it. "We ran into some of the remnants of the Beast Pirates. They didn't look anything like you. They just had animal deformities." He sounded curious, which was only natural. Ace's had been a complete anomaly.

"I guess mine was special. You can see why Kaido would have wanted to keep me," Ace replied honestly. "But I'm glad I don't have something shitty. A water dragon is pretty cool." Thatch agreed. Ace asked how he was attacked.

"That fucker stabbed me in the back! But I survived, he only got away from us with the devil fruit. How did you get into Impel Down? I still don't understand how you pulled it off so well!" This guy sounded really positive.

Ace explained about the marine book, and how he memorized all of the names. So, he greeted everyone like he knew them. He walked right through the prison, easily acquiring the necessary keys to quickly get Marco out without making a fuss and getting in trouble. "It would have been more fun with a fight, but I wanted to get in and out quickly. Then I destroyed it and swam away and back to my crew."

Thatch was laughing again, as was Whitebeard. "That marine book was a blessing, honestly," Ace added. "Well, even if we don't join your crew, I'm sure we'll see each other around sometime." The others on the other end agreed. Then Marco asked for them to be careful. "Where would be the fun in that? But I'll be responsible enough to not let my crew get hurt. Though, now they have to pull their own weight a lot, too.

"You might not see us in the paper or anything, but don't think we're dead. Just taking it easy and slow for now," Ace said in finality. They said goodbye, and the call was over. His crew looked at him in shock, and he asked what was wrong.

"I mean, from what you've said about the yonkos, you just had friendly chat with one!" Aggie exclaimed. Ace shrugged, saying he thought Whitebeard was nothing like Kaido. If he dealt with him for so long, it wouldn't make him afraid of the others.

He amended that he didn't wish to meet Big Mom or her kids. But he also thought Shanks wouldn't be too bad. Ace wasn't hostile and wasn't his enemy anymore. Not that he'd ever been one directly, but Kaido and his crew were enemies to Shanks. So, maybe it wouldn't be so friendly. But he still thought it would be cool to meet three of the four yonkos. Omitting Big Mom, who they would definitely avoid.

He couldn't believe he'd once thought about offing them. Back when he was arrogant. He really had changed a lot. And he was happy with who he was, now. He'd still be going to hell for everything he'd done up until that point, and everything he'd do in the future, but he would enjoy this life to his fullest extent.

He put the den den back in the pouch, planning to keep it there, and then they left the palace back on the eel, thanking the king for giving them the den den. They were brought back to the city of Fishman Island. "Want to explore?" Ace asked. They nodded, and they went all around that part of the island, going shopping for souvenirs or interesting clothes, just to see. They revisited the candy store, unable to help themselves.

Mostly Ace was the one to get more candy. Sabo burned it off quickly. Then they were to the more abandoned areas, heading towards the bubble wall, for the first bubble since there was another one around the main one. They watched the sea life swim past. Unlike the other creatures in the deep, most of these ones looked pretty normal. A lot of sea kings and huge fish, but not the creepy looking bottom feeders.

They ran into some rugged looking guys, but they left them alone and stayed away. After walking around the island for a long time, they decided to head to the forest connected to the main bubble.

When they got there, it was gorgeous, and everybody went exploring. There was one grave. A large one with a photo of a blonde woman. Her headstone showed her name of Queen Otohime. While they were there, the princess came up behind them, visiting her mother's grave as well.

Ace didn't know what to say, so he started to walk away. But she said, in a very high pitched voice, "Thank you for saving Marco-san from death." Ace said he deserved it, and was a good person. "All of the Whitebeards are good people, even though I've never met them."

"I've only met three of them, and personally spoke to two. I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, knowing they're good, but not having ever seen them," Ace replied. She then looked to him, much larger than his human form but smaller than his dragon form. She asked if he really had been part of the Beast Pirates. People she somehow knew were not very good ones. "I was. Not anymore, and people called Luffy and Law destroyed the rest of the crew. That was after I left for good."

"Luffy-sama?! He's so nice! He visited here not long ago and helped with a sudden uprising! Whitebeard-san couldn't get here fast enough, so he helped us." Ace laughed and said he heard that Luffy helped people a lot.

"He's one of those good guy pirates." She asked if he was a good guy pirate. He rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I don't know. I don't think I'm a bad pirate anymore. I've helped out people a little bit, but it rarely was something large." He heard Sabo sabo call him over. "Well, bye," he said simply, and hurried to his first mate. "What's up?"

"You looked uncomfortable, so I rescued you," Sabo said coolly. Ace chuckled and patted his back, saying he was a good first mate. Sabo's cheeks went a little red, and Ace chuckled. The two of them went to the others, where they saw them looking at another poneglyph. "This is the second one we've seen. Not exactly hidden like that last one."

Mihar wondered how it even fit through the cave tunnels. "I never thought of that," Ban commented. "It was definitely too heavy to carry through, and too wide for some parts of it. Damn, now I'm really curious."

Ace was now, too. Well, he couldn't read them, so finding some wasn't exactly the most important thing to do. Ace's stomach rumbled, but they'd just eaten so much, so they just bought what was a copy of coffee in some ways, but were not coffee beans, at a stand. Which was good, as Ace didn't like coffee, but this smelled good.

It kept the hunger away until dinner time, when they returned to the ship to eat what they already had in stock. It was in a long line of ships, even though they'd seen few pirates here. They'd have to wait a couple of days. Hopefully they wouldn't get too bored.

The next day, Ace really wanted to go on a swim, so he took a running jump on one of the cliffs and threw himself forward with enough force to penetrate both bubbles before he instantly transformed, swimming away from the island and back into Paradise. He swam away a bit, ate a sea king and then after two hours returned back.

He did the same here, swimming at a fast speed and transforming the moment he touched the thick bubble, making his way through the gap and back onto the island. Sabo was there, reading with his feet in the water. "Have a nice swim?" Ace nodded, feeling much better than before. Sadly, the rest of the visit was boring besides Ace making them practice their haki more. They were more than willing, now that the New World was in arms reach.

The SMILE user got a lot of stares from fishmen and mermaids about easily seeing his massive size compacting into a human body. "Is that a devil fruit?" a mermaid asked, resting a bit away from Sabo's little reading place. She wasn't getting too close, and Ace wouldn't have been surprised if Sabo asked her to leave him alone to read.

"Yeah, it's a devil fruit," Ace replied honestly. "There's only one other known aquatic zoan, and that's my crew member. Sorry if my size scared you, I didn't and wasn't going to hurt anything. But I have to ask, what's the not so nice looking area out there?"

The mermaid answered that it was the slums of the island. Those who couldn't afford living in the capital, were criminals and banished, if they just wanted to be down there. Ace nodded, understanding more. He looked back in that direction, but the bubbles were too thick to see a distance away. It was small from there, so it made sense it was out of sight.

"Hey, you know anywhere interesting here? We've been to the shops and walked around the island. I'm bored," Ace added honestly. She asked if he wanted to take a swim with her in a seductive voice. "Nope. Is there anywhere interesting that isn't super busy?"

She looked personally offended and swam away. Sabo laughed at him. "We'll be out by tomorrow. They're working on the coating right now. Be patient." Ace still said he was bored. He took a rock off the ground and threw it at Sabo's head. He dodged easily, and the rock landed on the coral and the impact was so strong it broke it in half.

Ace grinned and told him that was good timing. Sabo smiled back and said he was more than ready for the New World. Ace sat and put his arm around Sabo's shoulders. "Better be. I can't have an emotionally weak first mate now, can I?" Sabo gave him a deadanned look. Then he gave a frown. "What's wrong?"

"Do you think Aggie is ready for the New World?" the blonde wondered quietly. Ace brought his arm back down and leaned forwards.

"I really like him as a person, and he's grown much stronger since before he was first invited, but I think he'll panic sooner or later, at a possibly critical moment. I worry that recruiting him was a mistake for his own part. Maybe he's just not pirate material," Ace replied honestly. "I worry."

Sabo sighed and said, "If necessary, he could be dropped off on an island and Deuce would become the doctor again." Ace asked in disbelief if he'd just stick Aggie onto some random island. "One protected under Whitebeard?"

Ace groaned, saying that he had a lot of hope with Aggie. He had some haki. But Ace was really starting to doubt his mental strength from the stress and fear the New World would cause. "It would have been easier if all of you were from the New World."

The blonde scoffed. "If you wanted strong people, you wouldn't have started off in the weakest sea, you know?" Ace smiled and nodded, saying he got lucky.

With nothing to do and nowhere interesting to go, Ace took a long nap until his crew had all arrived at dinner time, and they all went back to the ship to eat. At the dinner table, Ace asked, "How you all doing?"

Deuce, Sabo, Bree, Mihar and Ban all said they were fine, looking forward to exciting new things. Ace looked to Saber and Aggie. "What about you two?"

Saber said he felt he was ready, going good with his devil fruit and haki, but he was also worried, mostly about the storms. He knew the ship was strong, but the weather Ace spoke of concerned him greatly. "The ship is well designed, powerful, and we have a seasoned shipwright with us. Plenty of wood and metal sheeting if anything does happen. We even have replacement sails. I don't think there's a worry over the ship.

"Falling overboard would be dangerous if I wasn't there. Unlike Deuce, I can handle the storms and crazy waves." Saber nodded, seeming a bit happier and more calmed down. More confident. All eyes then went to Aggie. "What about you, Aggie?"

He said, "I'm concerned about being a burden. I'm the weakest of us in multiple ways."

"Then don't be a burden and don't be weak," Ace said simply, throwing them off. "Better yourself so you don't feel those ways. But, you need to be prepared enough to know it will be hard. You don't have to fight, most pirate enemies never get inside the ship. You can just be the doctor, but that would also recuse you of going on some islands."

The doctor shrunk in demeanor, even if he was still the largest in the room. "I'll do my best."

"120% percent. That's what I'm asking of you," Ace said, taking another bite of food casually. Aggie frowned, but a determined face appeared.

"I won't disappoint," he said firmly. Ace grinned, and said he was counting on all of them. They were all going to enjoy this adventure, no matter how it ended. Sabo asked for their outline of islands. They had maps of the New World.

Ace said, "The two main islands I really want to stop at are Dressrosa and Wano. Other than that, exploring should be fun! Both of them might still be being repaired, but I want to see them anyways," Ace said. "We can choose which islands are most active with the New World log pose. So, if we want a pleasant island, we choose the needle that is the most stable.

"If we want a hard one, we go for the opposite. I think, at least at first, we should go with an easy island as a break between harder ones. Then we have some time to recover," Ace explained. They nodded, and Ace was really glad to not have to deal with the annoying and restricting paradise log pose.

They went to bed, and Ace laid in his captain's quarters, hoping everything would turn out okay. Well, even if it was hard, as long as he kept them alive, it would be okay. He wouldn't let any of them die, never. He drifted to sleep eventually.

"Queen! Queen!" seven year old Ace shouted, running to his favorite Beast pirate. The huge man turned around and greeted Ace enthusiastically. "Look! I made this," Ace said, and presented the all star with a drawing of him as his brachiosaurus form. The others didn't think drawing was very productive, he was supposed to be training, but Queen brought him paper and pencils sometimes.

"Very nice! Thank you," he said, sounding happy. Ace beamed, and nodded. He asked what he was doing, curious. "I'm working on a new disease. It's very effective, watch," the pirate said, and lead him to the experiment room, where he had two people. He shot one with the disease bullet, and he started screaming and turning green, steaming.

When he touched the other man, he was infected, too. It was scary. He was scared of getting hit with that. He didn't feel anything for the two men, was raised and taught not to. "Don't worry, there's an antidote that I'd use. You'll never get hurt from it.

"Until you're big and strong, we won't let anybody get you," Queen said. Then he said they should have a concert for his new success.

"And my drawing?"

"And your drawing." Ace beamed and ran after him, his little legs hard to catch up. They went and had a concert, Ace sitting on his shoulder.

Ace woke up, and then a scowl formed on his face. None of it was real. That was all an act, one pulled off perfectly. He punched the pillow, but didn't destroy it. He had never really felt happy that Queen died. Initially, he had been. But just in that moment. He really just felt blank, it didn't concern him. It never had, so he shouldn't be upset.

But, when he had gone to the Beast Pirate ship, and had found the photo of him so happy with somebody he thought truly cared about him, that's what had gotten him. And he was glad he burned that damn reminder of the lie Ace had lived there. He was never loved, he was just a tool, used and then to be thrown away like his twelve years there was nothing.

He sat up and got dressed, heading to the galley where he knew Bree was already. He sat at the table, going to eat anything that was served. Bree had full reign over the meals, and since none of them were disgusting, Ace never had a problem with what was served. The others trickled in, some sleepy, others wide awake. This was the last day of being on Fishman island. The ship was nearly finished being coated. Then up to the New World.

They had no real plans on what to do, since the island had grown boring and lost its novelty. Sabo brought a book to the table, and as he ate, he was reading up on the weather occurrences in the most dangerous sea. He didn't seem afraid or nervous, but determined. Ace knew he'd do well and get used to the sea fairly quickly, if not immediately.

They went to stock up food, the ship very nearly done. They didn't need meat, but other foods were necessary. But most of their needs could not be met here. They didn't have crops like at the surface. Most of what they got were things they wouldn't want to eat too much. But food was food and they needed it to be alive.

It wasn't that they were missing food and provisions. Being a small crew kept their food bills fairly low. Nothing like how the Whitebeard's bills must be. Having so many people to feed, how did the chefs handle it? Surely they had many, many chefs. Ace honestly looked forward to meeting them. They most likely wouldn't merge with them. There was so much adventure out there, but who knows what would happen?

After stocking up on food, they came back to put things away and saw the ship completely coated. Ace could practically hear everybody's hearts beating in nervousness. "It's okay, we're ready. As ready as we can be," Ace assured them. "Want to go now, or take a breather?" he asked once they were inside and ready to leave whenever they wanted.

The crew shared looks before Deuce said he'd like to get it over with and just go. The others nodded, including Aggie. He looked scared, but not terrified. Ace smiled and nodded. They got directions on how to ascend, and made their way out and back into the deep sea. The flotation device brought them up at a slow pace. It would go slower than the way down, but shouldn't take more than a few hours.

They saw the new monsters in the depth. Bigger with larger teeth. But they left the Spades alone, thankfully. Ace felt great, happy to be back. The ship rose and rose, floating upwards and to the sun. Already, he could see the water was wild at the surface. The moment the ship makes the surface, they let go of the floating device, and they weather their first immediate storm.

Sabo told everyone what to do, and they did it. Many looked scared, but Ace pulled them out of the storm as they dealt with keeping the ship safe. The storm lasted a while before the huge bursts of water came shooting up and high into the air, Ace expertly leading the ship through the gaps, sensing the displacement of water below before one shot up.

The sun then came back and the storm was over, the waters calmer. When he jumped back on deck, he saw the crew all laying on their backs, panting. "Welcome to the New World!" he shouted. They gave shaky laughs, and put their thumbs up when asked if they were alright. "This is just the beginning. Don't be too scared!"

Deuce said, "We came here, we aren't scared." Ace laughed, saying he didn't need to lie. Ace helped Sabo with the navigating before the blonde shooed him out of his navigation room, saying he didn't need help so he was just being a hindrance. Ace just laughed and left the room to talk with the others.

They looked at the large New World log pose where the Paradise one used to sit not so long ago. They were heading towards the calmest island. This was an adventure for him, too, as he'd never gone to even a majority of the New World's islands. He'd been to many, but not nearly even a quarter of just how many islands there were. He hoped to come across some gems like the devil fruit island with the treats still in his pouch, safely hidden away and just waiting for a new member to try.