The familiarity of the sign on each pirates back was astonishing, the only difference being that the whitebeard was black. These three men were not members of his crew, they worked for Blackbeard, the backstabbing, arse that killed members of his own crew, his own family, because that was what the Whitebeard pirate crew was, basically a large, dysfunctional family; to Ace at least.

Stalking the men as they entered the restaurant/tavern, Ace stopped. What would he do when he got to them? Blackbeard didn't seem to be with them, could that mean that he was back at the ship?

Ace momentarily held his head frustration. Times like these made it clear to him that Luffy was indeed his biological brother, even if he had occasionally told him differently.

Ace smirked at the memory. When Luffy was seven and he was about eleven he had gotten his brother to believe that he was a mermaid taken in by humans. The funniest part, Ace thought as he scratched his chin, was when Luffy tried to swim in search of his "real" family.

Shaking his head, Ace cursed himself. "On task." He whispered harshly to himself. "Stay on task." Looking up again he saw that the men had gone into the little tavern, and seemed to have already taken their seats.. Growling softly he followed their move. If Blackbeard wasn't with them, he could always make them tell him where the traitorous Blackbeard was.

Once inside Ace was met with familiar surroundings, it was the same restaurant he had been in for dinner, yet darker. Perhaps this is the only tavern or restaurant, he thought ass he looked around. The small restaurant was packed full, mostly of men drinking and partying, women danced and through their dresses and skirts up, everyone seemed to come out when the sun went down.

Looking around a bit more, Ace spotted the three Blackbeard pirates, they were sitting and drinking in a nice booth table near the corner.

Turning he saw a man drinking behind him, he smiled. The man was older and chugging a large glass of beer, he also wore a rather old looking vest.

"Hello." Ace said as he turned and patted the man on the back.

"Hiiiyaa!" The man slurred as he draped an arm around Ace's neck.

Ace smiled again as he grabbed the man's vest from his shoulders.

"Mind if I borrow this?" He asked as he threw the man a catty smile, leaving him to contemplate his lost vest.

Ace walked over to the table that occupied three of Blackbeard's crew.

"Hey." He said as he neared them. The three looked up and then at each other.

"Yeah? What do you want?" One asked as he took another gulp of his drink.

"All the tables are full." Ace replied as he leaned on one arm against their table. "I was wondering if I could sit here with you folks?" He asked as innocently as he could, granted the fact that he was seething inside.

The three looked at each other again as one moved over to make room.

"Fine." The leader of the three spoke. "I'm Jackal, that's Remy," Jackal said as he pointed to the smaller member of the crew, though Remy had a certain gleam in his eye that Ace didn't particularly like, "and that's Red." He finished as he pointed to the member with a bright red Mohawk.

"And you are?" The smaller one, Remy, asked as he leaned over the table suspiciously.

Ace jovially answered, "Ace!"

"So, you guys are pirates?" Ace asked as he looked at them all. The three straightened up and put on smug smiles.

"Yup, of Blackbeard's pirate." Jackal said proudly.

"Really?" Ace asked, scoffing their pride in his mind, yet trying to control his voice. "Where's your captain?" He asked innocently as he leaned back in his seat.

That seemed to tip the three off though. "Who wants to know?" Red asked as the three seemed to grow more suspicious.

"I just asked where he was." Ace replied.

"Who are you really?" Jackal asked as he began to stand.

"I told you," Ace replied as he too began to stand to face Jackal, "I'm Ace."

Jackal narrowed his eyes as he motioned for his companions to rise with him.

"Ace. What?" Jackal asked through clenched teeth as he and Ace grew closer.

Ace looked back just as menacingly. "Oh, I'm sure you've heard of me," He started as he smirked, "Fire-Fist Ace of the Whitebeard pirate's." He answered as Jackal immediately growled and threw a punch at him.

Ace immediately threw himself to the table to avoid, and then jumped out of the booth, Jackal did the same.

A waitress screamed as the two hit her and she dropped her tray.

At first it was just he and Jackal fighting, but soon the other two joined as well against Ace.

"I've heard of you," Jackal started as people ran past him screaming, "You ate the mera-mera fruit, got fire-powers." He smirked as if to mock him.

"That's right." Ace agreed. "But I won't need them for you. I just need a little information, nothing personal. Where is Blackbeard!" He asked as the two resumed fighting.

Ace yelled as he was kicked in the back, turning he saw Red standing behind him. Upon turning back there was a low kick coming straight for his head, rolling he barely avoided it. Scampering up he uppercut Red and back kicked Remy who was coming at him with a large hammer.

"I think you should reconsider that." Jackal replied as he stood. "You see, I'm called Jackal for a reason." He said as he quickly lunged at Ace from across the bar.

Putting up his guards, Ace blocked his attack. "Why?" He asked. "Because you look like a dog?" Ace smirked at his quip. Though the reaction of his opponent wasn't what he thought it would be.

Jackal was chuckling a bit and trying to control a smile as he answered, "Yep."

Ace stood for a moment contemplating this, unfortunately at that moment Jackal decided to show him what he meant.

Jackal spread his arms as growled a bit, and began hunching over. Ace watched for a moment as he watched. Jackal was on the ground, clutching at his stomach and growling out of control. His two companions stood back and smirked. Ace had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Jackal continued, except he began to grow larger, and furrier, by the second. Soon with a giant roar Jackal exploded into a giant dog-looking creature.

"Let's really get started Ace!" He growled in a deeper voice than before as he swung a giant clawed paw at the smaller man. Ace leaped out of the way as he tried to abandon the vest holding him back slightly.

"Fire-Fist!" Ace screamed as he invoked his fire around his fist, sending a spiral of fire towards Jackal.

"It's called the inu-inu fruit Ace!" Jackal called as he swept his paw and redirected the flame with gust of winds that was caused.

Ace held his hand momentarily as he glared up at the giant dog. "At least it fits! But I thought you were a dog the moment I set eyes on you! Just like your captain!" Ace hollered as he barely evaded another swipe of the paw, unfortunately he was caught in the following wind and was thrown back-first against a wall.

"Bastard!" Jackal called as he charged through the empty restaurant, long since evacuated, towards the other pirate.

Ace squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before raising both of his arms uyp for a shield of sorts.

The dog beast unfortunately couldn't stop before the shield, promptly burning his snout and whiskers in the flames.

Ace rose back up, taking advantage of his opponent's folly, he prepared to deliver his custom fire-fist. "Fire-fist!" He screamed as he charged towards the dog's eyes, burning one eye before his arm was caught in the giant fangs.

Ace screamed as he was whipped around the room by his impaled arm.

"Is that all you have?" Ace screamed as he chocked on his own blood, getting dizzy from being whipped about. Conjuring his last bit of strength, he surrounded the bloody arm with fire. "Fire-fist!" He screamed as the beast's throat was burnt, letting him go in a mad fury.

Ace crashed against a wall once again and clutched his hurt arm, as Jackal screamed and reverted back to his human form, most likely dead.

Red and Remy watched on fearfully as Ace forced himself from the wall and made his way to them.

As they turned to run though they heard a voice.

"Don't even think about it. Or else you'll be dead like him." Ace said, still choicking slightly, and dizzy from blood loss.

The two stopped in fear.

"Now, tell me where Blackbeard is." Ace commanded as he neared the fear stricken duo.

"W-well… the-the truth is-um…" Remy stuttered as he backed up, trying to stay as far away from the devil-powered man as possible, without giving him good reason to actually use his devil-powers.

"What?" Ace demanded as the rage reentered his eyes.

"We don't know where he is!" Red finally shouted out, quickly covering his mouth.

"Why is it I don't believe that?" Ace asked darkly as he allowed a bit of fire to come to his finger tips.

"D-don't hurt us! Red's telling the truth! We-we really don't know where he is now! We were separated!" Remy squeaked out as he backed against a wall.

Ace was losing his patience, he let a bit more fire embody his hand.

"We can tell you were he was!" Red finally shouted.

"Where?" Ace asked.

"On a little island called "Chisaa" he was restocking! I swear!" He screamed as tears began to come to his eyes.

"Fine. That better be the truth." Ace spat as he allowed the fire to die down, turning to leave. The two crashed down with each other in the ruins of ht restaurant.

Ace limped out, deciding to go back to the ship.

Upon returning he undid the flag from his ship, deciding that Red and Remy owed him for sparing their lives, he decided that he would take the ship as their debt.

Later that night, Ace drifted aimlessly on the ocean, having no idea where he was. One thing was certain though, he was heading for Chisaa.

"Let's see…" He said to himself as he re-burnt his wounds to stop the blood, which he had done earlier as well. "next stop I really need to get a map." He finished as he looked out at the sail, newly christened with a Whitebeard pirate flag.

I liked this chapter so much better! Yes! And I would like to thank my reviewers for inspiring me! Please read and review! Thank you!