"Because I'm the son of Roger!" Ace shouted, his whole body lighting up with angry flames. "The son of a monster! I shouldn't have been born! I was never supposed to be born anyway! You should've just left me there to die!" He shut his eyes tightly, waiting for the rejection that was sure to come.
"Doesn't matter, you're our brother first of all! No way we are leaving you there to die! We never turn our backs on family, Ace!" Haruta said incredulously. Ace just stared for a few moments, dumbfounded.
"Wait, you don't hate me or anything?" He asked, his flames slowly dying down.
"Uh… No? Why would we?" Thatch asked, confused. His confusion made Ace even more confused, the teen tilting his head.
"Because…I'm the son of Gol D. Roger? You know, the Pirate King?"
"Yeah, yeah, you're the son of a dead man. Big deal." Thatch rolled his eyes at him. "It doesn't matter who your birth father is, Ace! You're Oyaji's son now, and that means you're part of our family! And nobody messes with family!" Ace was stunned, gaping for a while, before slowly turning his gaze to Whitebeard, who gave him a fond fatherly smile.
"We'd come to save you no matter what, son." F!Jiru chose that moment to walk up to Ace, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Already knew anyway." It took a few seconds for F!Jiru's words to register in Ace's mind.
"Wait, what do you mean, you already knew?" He asked, looking lost, as he turned to the crew. "The only ones who should know are my brothers, Gramps and Oyaji!" They shared looks before Marco stepped up with a sigh.
"We've known for a long time, Ace. We've known since a few days after you joined, yoi." Ace found himself speechless. They knew all this time, and they still accepted him as one of their own? They knew, even without him telling them, and they were still willing to risk their lives in a war to save him from execution? They knew, and they still wanted him to live?
But…that's impossible!
…Right?
"How did you know?" He mumbled, still finding it hard to believe.
"We've met Roger a few times, yoi." Marco explained. "Sometimes we clash, sure, but we always ended up drinking and partying with them every time we meet, yoi. Roger may be strong and fierce, and known as a monster to the world, but contrary to how the World Government portrayed him, he was more like a carefree fool, yoi. He only ever turned fierce when his loved ones were threatened, yoi. Roger was the kind of man who could've ran from a fight that was too much for him, but he never would, because he couldn't let the enemy have even a chance of going after his nakama, yoi. He was always so doting and proud about any and everything concerning the people he cares for, and loved to boast about them, yoi. Of course, he was aware of how dangerous it would be for the people associated to him if word got out, and only told the people he truly trusted, yoi. I still wonder why he felt that he could trust us, but anyway, the last few times we met him, among other things, the one thing he spoke most about was Rouge, yoi." Ace froze and Marco nodded. "Yes, Portgas D. Rouge, his lover and your mother, yoi. We've met her once or twice, yoi. You look just like her, Ace." He said with a gentle smile.
"I-I do?" Ace asked, gulping. He had always wondered, and knowing that he looked like the mom he never met made pride swell up within him, and he couldn't help but let a small smile slip.
"Yeah. The first time we met you, when you protected your crew like that, it reminded us of Roger whenever he was protecting his crew from an enemy that he knew would be too much for him, yoi. We had our suspicions then, but your resemblance to Rouge was really what gave you away, along with the fact that your name is Portgas too, yoi." He released a small sigh as he placed a hand on Ace's shoulders. "You may despise Roger, Ace, and we won't try to make you feel otherwise, but Roger was truly a good man, and not a monster as you've surely been told since young, yoi. Even if he was actually a monster, we wouldn't have rejected you either way, yoi. We judge a person by their character and not by their bloodline, and we mean it when we say that your past or lineage doesn't matter to us, yoi. Once you joined us, you are already part of our family, and we will never abandon family, yoi." Ace met Marco's firm gaze, and then looked around the room to see everyone nodding in agreement. Their sincerity was clear to see, and it brought tears into his eyes, unable to doubt their genuine words. He nodded, shakily giving them a wide tearful grin.
"…Thank you." He whispered. "For loving me."
"Aww, how sweet of you, Ace!" Thatch teased, making Ace's face instantly flush in embarrassment.
"Geez, thanks for ruining the mood, Thatch." He muttered, making everyone laugh. An additional laughter alerted them to the presence of F!Fossa, who had appeared at some point.
"What else do we need to know, son?" Whitebeard asked, the atmosphere turning solemn again as they remembered their situation.
"No longer protected." F!Fossa replied, promptly disappearing right after.
"Right. I forgot Oyaji died in the future." Haruta sulked, mood just as sour as everyone's at the reminder. "If Oyaji is dead, we might no longer be perceived as a threat."
"Especially if we also lost to a traitor, yoi." Marco agreed, crossing his arms. "In the future they," He sent a nod towards F!Izo. "came from, we lost pretty much everything, yoi. The traitor who killed a brother was allowed to live, the war was an utter defeat, and then we lost to that very same traitor, yoi. I can already see how the world would react, yoi." F!Izo's sigh was enough of an answer.
"The strongest man in the world, along with two of his commanders, was dead, and the remaining crew was overpowered by a traitor. Enemies would be coming for us from all over the world. No wonder the crew split up. Probably had to, for our own safety. Not to mention, with our tarnished reputation, people will likely start to go after our allies and turfs too. Makes sense, we were unable to defend even our own honor; how would we be able to defend our allies and turfs?" Haruta spat bitterly as F!Izo nodded in confirmation.
"It's all so messed up." Thatch moped. F!Izo rolled his eyes and nudged at Thatch. He fixed all of them with a determined look, sending them a silent message that they only understood due to their many years together.
So fix it. F!Izo urged wordlessly. That's why we're here in the first place. "We'll be fine." He was gone the next second, but they knew the words that would've followed. Don't worry about us. Stop brooding over the future we came from and focus on dealing with the problems you'll face.
Such was the events that led to the 16 Division Commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates and Whitebeard himself sitting solemnly in the sound-proof meeting room aboard the Moby Dick, discussing on how to deal with the problems they would face in the future, not just those involving Teach, but also what to do after Whitebeard's death and how to ensure their protection of their allies and turfs still stands afterwards.
Minutes later, with the meeting concluded, they burst out of the meeting room, startling the rest of the crew who had started to grow worried about them, and declared Teach to be a traitor. Marco, Ace and Thatch were sent to grab Teach while the remaining commanders kept the remaining crew under control, urging them to watch and judge for themselves whether Teach is guilty or not. Soon enough, Teach was dragged over to the middle of the crowd, forced to his knees before Whitebeard. A few questions regarding the Yami Yami no Mi and his future ambitions were enough to elicit a split-second reaction (before it was quickly masked, though it was in vain as everyone witnessed it) that was all the answers they needed.
Once given the gist of what Teach's future plans were and realising that the future visitors were the result of those plans, the resulting furious mob tore into Teach like vicious predators into a prey. Teach never stood a chance. Once he was dead, Ace burned his corpse down into nothing, ensuring that he would never be seen bearing Whitebeard's mark and ceased to exist completely, unseen and unknown by the rest of the world. He would never harm anyone ever again.
Finally! Teach is dead! Ugh, I despise him! I swear, I couldn't wait to kill him off at all!
Well, anyways, thanks to everyone for bearing with me throughout this story! I'm really glad to see that so many of you like it so much! I also loved reading all of your reviews, which helped a lot in giving me ideas and to motivate me to finish this story! So, I've decided to write a bonus chapter with two more visitors from the future! Guess who~? ;3
Look forward to it, and reviews are always welcomed!