There were times, Ace reflected, that he thought he'd maybe rubbed off on the other Spades a little bit too much.
The fact that they had placed the bounty poster for Portgas D Shanksessa on some sort of alter covered in flowers whilst they danced around it chanting certainly supported the theory.
Ace was pretty positive that at least some of his crew had been sane before he got to them, but looking at the scene in front of him the young Captain was having a very hard time convincing himself of the fact. Deciding it was in his best interests not to question the strange ritual the freckled teen let out a piercing whistle.
"Spade meeting! Everyone get to the plotting room now, last one there gets extra training." The freckled teen took satisfaction in the way his crew froze up in utter horror before all at once starting to sprint towards the meeting room.
Watching the last of his crew leave Ace let out a small chuckle and decided to leave the alter set up for now. Taking a slow stroll towards the plotting room, Ace opened the door and took a moment to slowly survey his crew.
Noticing the look of resigned terror on Small's face the freckled teen let out a small snort "Extra training tonight Small!" The chef let out a loud groan much to the other Spades relieved amusement.
Smiling at his crew in fond exasperation the freckled teen gave a loud clap "Ok as much as I find this funny, I didn't actually call you all here to torment you with extra training. The Whitebeard pirates have given us an offer and I want to hear your opinions before I decide what we're doing."
The Spades nodded each giving their Captain their full attention. Deciding not to waste time, Ace got straight to the point "The Whitebeard pirates have offered all of us a place in their crew."
Before any of his crew had the chance to start offering their opions Ace cut them off with a piercing whistle "Ok, ok everyone shut up for now. Here's how this is gonna go, I'm going to give you the full facts of the situation, and after that's doneyou can ask me any questions you might have. I'm then going to give you all two hours to think it over and then we'll have a vote on our decision, in the case of a tiebreaker, my votes the decider. Everyone understand?"
The Spades nodded and Ace gave a small smile "Excellent. So as it stands now we're almost at Saboady and while I hate to say it, we're not strong enough to survive what comes after. We're good but we're not at New world level yet."
Ace made sure to meet the eyes of his crew, doing everything in his power to show them how utterly serious he was "The New world is currently under the control of the four Emporer's and while we're in the good graces of two of them that's not going to be enough if we want to stay independent. Because whilst Shanks and Whitebeard may be understanding of our wishes to remain unaffiliated Big Mom and Kaidou will be anything but, and they will employ a join or die policy. Meaning if we want to remain completely independent we'd need to be strong enough to survive refusing them. This means we'd have to stop our journey temporarily and train until we're strong enough to handle that."
"On the other hand if we want to join the Whitebeards then we have two options. Option one is we join the main crew, this would mean leaving the Card Deck on an allied island and relocating to the moby dick, this would mean total protection from the other Emperors as well as the opportunity to stay together whilst having a safe place to train, and access to the Whitebeard's resources. This also means losing our independence as Spades and having to answer to the division commanders and Whitebeard above all."
"The final option would be joining the Whitebeard's as allies. This means we'd stay on our ship and we'd be given the opportunity to trail the Moby Dick and train with the Whitebeard's until we're a bit stronger and then we could mostly go and do our own thing. We would still have to answer to Whitebeard though and if he calls to assemble, we would be obligated to answer that call. This would also mean that Kaidou and Big Mom would recognise us as Whitebeard's allies so would be less likely to employ more violent techniques to keep the balance but we'd still be at significant risk of a fight if we venture anywhere near their territory. So essentially we'd have less protection but more freedom."
Ace looked around at his crew "Any questions?" Alice raised her hand "I've got a question Captain." The Captain nodded "Go ahead." Alice bit her lip looking seemingly reluctant to ask her question "You said if we joined the Whitebeard's we would work under the commanders same as the rest of the crew, does that mean there's a chance we wouldn't be in the same division?"
Ace forced himself to give the question the consideration it deserved, last time the Spades had all been kept together but that was mainly because there had been open space in the second division at the time. There was no telling if any of Ace's actions had affected that to the point where the Spades might be put in seperate divisions.
"It's possible. The Whitebeard pirates do try to keep crews together but at the same time they like grouping specialed skill sets which might mean splitting our crew between divisions. Space availability is also a large deciding factor on where we might be placed. However even in different divisions we'd all still be in regular contact."
Alice gave a firm nod, decision clear on her face "Thank you Captain." The freckled teen gave her a quick smile "Any other questions?" The Spades shook their heads "Excellent. Ok you have two hours and Shanks should be leaving in ten minutes if anyone wants to join me in seeing them off. If not I'll see you all back here in two hours."
Giving his crew one last reassuring smile the teen walked out leaving them to think it over. As much as the possibility of not being affiliated with the Whitebeard pirates saddened him Ace knew that he'd keep his friendship with the other crew regardless.
Because more important than repeating his past was making sure this time his crew got a choice. Because while he'd grown to love the crew that had saved him from himself, Ace could still acknowledge that by forcibly kidnapping him, the Whitebeard pirates (whilst saving him) had not left many choices for his crew even if they had eventually grown to love the crew just as much as Ace did.
So this time he would let them choose and he would honour that choice. After all whatever the outcome was Ace would still live his life with no regrets.
The freckled teen couldn't help but let a small grin slip onto his face, he had to say goodbye to Shanks but after that there would still be a decent amount of time before the limit he gave his crew was up.
Just enough time to write a letter and make a phone call. The grin on Ace's face widened, it had been a while since the Spades had started any rumors and the young Captain knew another pirate who would be very interested in helping him with that.
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Ignoring the worried looks from his crew Buggy let out another helpless giggle at the letter in front of him. The pirate had always liked Rouge, and her son had grown up to be incredibly entertaining. As it stands Buggy would have happily helped the boy in his schemes for free, but the embarrassing photos of Shanks the kid had thrown in certainly sweetened the deal.
Grinning evily the clown rubbed his hands together, cackling. Oh this was going to be hilarious, Shanks wasn't going to know what hit him.
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Marco grinned at the Spades as they approached him, his Den Den Mushi already in hand "You ready to give Pop's your decision brat?" Ace nodded, a shit eating grin clear on his face. "Sure thing Old man." The Phoenix rolled his eyes with something close to fond irritation, before dialling up the number both men knew by heart.
Several seconds later and a familiar voice bellowed out through the snail "Marco! Good to hear from you Son, I assume you've got the brat and his crew there with you?" The first division commander let out a small snort of amusement "They're here Pops."
Ace stepped closer to the Den Den Mushi "Hi Pops!" The Emporer chuckled "Hello Son. So what have you and your crew decided?" The freckled teen let a smile grace his face "We've decided that while we'd be honoured to join your main crew we'd like to remain as the Spade pirates for a little bit longer. We would however love to join your assembly of allied crews, and if possible we'd like to sail and train with you for the next few months until we're strong enough to make headway on the new world ourselves."
A slight chuckle emerged from the Den Den Mushi "As you wish my Son. Though know that you're all welcone to join our main crew at any point you wish." Ace let out a blinding smile "Thank you Pops."
The giant let out another chuckle "No problem Brat. Now join Marco and set course for the Moby Dick, now that you're officially our ally I believe a celebration is in order!"
Ace looked at his crew and smiled evilly "Looking forward to it Pop's but before that, would you mind if I borrowed Marco for a day before we set off?" The phoenix in question raised an eyebrow, amusement clear across his face "Wouldn't I get a say in that?"
Whitebeard laughed "I'm sure a day more away from the crew wouldn't hurt Marco. But if im going to share my first mate with you for the day I'd need a reason first." Letting an evil smile grow on his face the young Captain began to explain.
An hour later the Spade pirates, accompanied by Marco the Phoenix, made their way to Saboady. A plan clear in their minds.
Author's note
So first things first... IM SO SORRY THIS IS LATE I really need to stop making deadlines for myself because coursework keeps interfering. Moving on from my horrible organisational abilities thank you all so much for the lovely reviews they really motivate me to keep this story going! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and unfortunately I can make no promise for when the next one will be up due to university work interfering but I will aim to get it up as soon as possible. I can promise some fun reunions in the next chapter though! Feel free to leave a review and thank you all for the favourites and follows :)