A/N: Before you begin to read the chapter I only ask for forgiveness. *bows*

Now before we get to the stuff you've all been waiting for, I got a link for an awesome pic of Willow and Ace drawn for me from akgrownrandi. It's awesome and so I'll thank you again for it. :D So check it out people, my fan art (in the form of writing) has fan art!

I don't really know if anyone cares but I'm going off the anime…of what I can of it. I haven't been able to find any full episodes of the things that I've needed and if I have none of them are ones that have worked on my laptop, and the material that I am using has German (I think) subtitles and I'm not fluent in German That and I'm not too good at scenes straight from the anime/manga…

So anyhow I'll stop talking and let you read. Enjoy.

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Her voice was a scratchy whisper. She didn't look as though she were about to break down, her sad among other things eyes were desperately begging me to tell her the truth.

I sighed heavily and turned away from my room.

"W-why did no one tell me?" She asked in that same broken up whisper.

"To protect you."

"T-to protect me? Do you guys really think that I'm that weak?" The crinkle of paper sounded as she clenched her fists tighter than they had been.

"Of course not. But . . ."

"You're close to him." She argued before I could try and defend the crew, Cole's and my intentions.

"I know." I sighed again running a hand back through my hair. Right we had failed to calculate how she'd react if she figured it out, or read it in a newspaper. "Look we didn't want you to do anything irrational or freak out or something." I explained to her hoping that she'd accept it. Then added, "Make me a promise?"

"What?" Willow wearily asked me. It was obvious that she was upset, that word being an understatement but at least she didn't seem angry or about to go on a rampage, which was a good start.

"I want you to," I didn't quite know what I wanted her to do; I didn't really know how to put it into words without offending her or anything. "I want you to take care of yourself properly alright? Don't excessively train; don't slip into depression or anything like that, please." That was the last thing we needed to have to deal with at the moment. We weren't far from Marineford

"So that's why?" She muttered with hardening eyes and several soft shakes of her head. "The only thing I'm going to do is get Ace back. After all I told him that when he got back he'd have to see how much better I've become and what better chance than this?" Willow offered me a smile with quivering lips. The smile was laced with not so well hidden sadness and fear but spiked with determination.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

We weren't going to let the Marines take Ace, our second division commander, friend and brother away from us. They weren't going to separate the two love birds him and Willow had yet to become. Their plans were going to fail and if they somehow succeeded then we were going to fuck them up as much as possible, they were going to feel the repercussions of having messed with Pops and his family.

Then to make sure that she wasn't just going to brush off my words and go cry in her room for days on end, or train until she passed out from physical exhaustion I added, "You know Ace wouldn't be able to stand it if you didn't take care of yourself. If he knew that it was because of him that your health declined or that you stopped going on he'd never let himself hear the end of it."

Willow nodded her head and said, "Yeah, I know. I'm fine." Fine being code for falling apart, pissed that no one told me, the kind of determined Ace could become if he was set on something. "You were all worrying for nothing."

It was certainly not for nothing. My thoughts screamed but that was as far as they went. She had never been to war, she had never fought for someone, she was inexperienced and the people we were going to face weren't. She was one little girl, rather weak compared to the people we were going to fight. She had never had to watch her family fall by her side or have people fight dirty, resorting to cheap shots Someone was going to have to protect her or she was going to have to stay on the ship, something but we certainly were not worrying about nothing.

-Willow-

Waiting, it was one of the hardest things to do at the moment. I understood that we had to get there, to gather our allies and that we had to prepare but I was restless, oh so restless. If I wasn't trying to occupy myself with some kind of non-taxing activity so that way I'd have energy when we reached Marineford to fight then I was worrying and wondering.

I wished that there was more that I could do but I had been told multiple times by nearly everyone and even whitebeard to sit down, conserve my energy and to stay out of the way while the more experienced crewmembers did their jobs. I was fidgety and jumpy, I was on edge and my heart and my mind, neither would stop racing. One with blood, the other with thought with scenarios about how this would play out, how I wanted things to go.

To say that I was nervous was an understatement, and I was so scared that I was fidgety and couldn't sit still. But all of the seasoned pirates that surrounded me, their presence comforted me, I wasn't going in alone. Hell I would never go there on my own, if we weren't going to get Ace then I don't think I'd be here. There were two other ships with us making a grand total of ships that looked like whales.

It wasn't long before the ship angled itself up, before we broke the surface and when I saw Ace knelt there, beat up and more than likely hurting with his hands behind his back, chained to the platform my hands went to my waist and I jerked, about to spring into action.

I couldn't bear to see him like that and I was going to help get him out of that predicament. There wasn't anything I wouldn't do at this moment. The water, the sea of marines, the admirals, none of it mattered; it wasn't going to stop me, my family or Pops. But a big hand landed on my shoulder and the words, 'Not so fast' were muttered into my ear and when I looked over my shoulders I saw Blamenco standing behind me.

I nodded and stood still slightly before him. I couldn't do anything else but wait for the cue, whatever that was. I also couldn't lose my head- either literally or figuratively- not here, not now.

When Ace saw us I couldn't tell if he were happy to see us or not. He looked stupefied and shocked.

Pops didn't even have to shout as he said, "Wait just a little longer, Ace." The crew was standing on the deck, Whitebeard on the top of the whales head.

This was so surreal. As I thought that I wondered how Ace felt, what he was thinking.

After he shouted something back Pops stabbed his long weapon into the ship and threw his hands up, curled them then thrust them out. Like glass the air around his fists cracked and spider webbed out. The water around Marineford reared up, drawing attention away from us, the noise broke the silence and the stillness that had taken over as Pops had climbed to where he now stood.

The crew around me was calm, with straight stone faces but me; I didn't know where to look. I couldn't keep my eyes on Pops or the marines or the rising water. I had never witnessed Pops . . . awesome power like this, so close, so powerful. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't afraid at that moment. But I was afraid for many reasons, Pops and his power wasn't the only reason.

As the water curled towards us, towards the center of Marineford a figure out of the corner of my eye caught my attention and I watched as one of the admirals froze the water, turning it into ice before he tried to attack Pops. I swear I was the only one who gasped, or was showing any emotion at all.

When he fell he froze the water there was well, paving a path, eliminating one of the obstacles that stood between us and Ace. I couldn't help but smile. Once the water was frozen they began firing at us. And it seemed that the shots were the cue because the crew began dispersing, leaping off the ship and meeting the marines head on.

Another hand landed on my shoulder, stopping me before I could wrap my hands around my weapons and take off. And when I looked this time I saw Marco standing there but before I could ask him what he wanted he said, "I want you to stay here."

"But-" I tried to argue with him. How was I supposed to do anything if I were right here on the ship?

"Don't leave the ship."

"But Marco-"

"That's an order." He said giving me a hard look. I backed down only because I knew that he knew better than me. I'd get my chance… I hoped.

I watched as Pops stood at the front of the ship- the stern I believe it might be called? - gripping his weapon fearlessly. Nothing was shaking him at all, from what I could tell at least. He didn't seemed the least bit worried about the slice that Jozu had saved the Moby Dick from, or the Admiral that had appeared out of thin air above him or the attack that Marco saved him via his devil fruit form, which again was a new sight for me.

And to think I lived with these people and played around with them, I ate and laughed and trained with all of them, when it came down to it that was a very scary thought.

"Don't get yourself killed alright girlie?" Cole said from next to me. Just about every inch of her skin had a tattoo on it and she wore as little as possible to give her that much more space for … things. Her tattoos were like her war paint. I had to admit that I was surprised that she wasn't among one of the first people to get off of the ship. When I only offered her a nod as an answer she added, "Don't worry about Fire Fist alright? We'll get him back, you'll see."

And with that she ran towards the edge of the ship, vaulted over and when she reappeared a few feet away from the ship she had already pulled off a ball and chain and was whirling that above her head and hitting Marines with it left and right.

Cannonballs exploded all around us, sending men back, making them lose the ground they had gained. Then out of nowhere this huge green giant comes up from behind… at least I believe he's from nowhere.

I certainly hadn't seen him approaching.

I held my breath watching from the deck as war raged around him, as he got closer and closer to the platform, to Ace. Nothing seemed to faze him as he succeeded in getting the closest to Ace. But a blow from a bubble like paw print from one of the warlords did him in when he was only a hair away from reaching Ace, from freeing him.

The look on his face broke my heart. He looked devastated. And the aura radiating from Pops, oh it was quite frightening. Someone was going to pay for that, for killing one of his sons… at least I think he was part of the family.

An ax wielding guy tried to attack Pops but to no avail. Then screaming of many people sounded from above, it neared us and I looked up to see people falling from the sky, ship and all. Luffy, his ship and the people on it, all dressed in black and white striped prisoner garb miraculously landed in yet to be frozen water and those who fell into the ocean were rescued by Jinbe, a fishman who was an Alai and a warlord.

Suddenly a man with a hook appeared behind Pops, catching my attention and pulling it away from Pops. It seemed that the man was aiming to kill him. But then again who wasn't? Before anything could happen, any damage could be done, a single scratch on Pops could be made, a blur of yellow and red intercepted the blow, knocking the sand man off course. Luffy touched down on the deck then looked around before looking right at me. When his eyes landed on me he smiled as if happy to see me, as if we weren't in the middle of a war zone and raised a hand and waved saying, "Hey Artist-san, what are you doing here? Are you here to help rescue Ace too?!" His eyes widened at the last question.

I nodded, really only answering the last of his questions.

His grin widened at my response and he said, "Me too. Wanna come with me?"

Did Luffy really just ask me if he wanted me to join him in battle to reach Ace? I couldn't pass up the opportunity, and I'm sure Marco wouldn't be too mad at me for disobeying, after all with Luffy by my side I was sure we could make it, that we were sure to rescue Ace.

Again I nodded, any words I might have been able to say stuck in the back of my throat, a smile finding its way onto my face. I walked forwards, and stopped when I reached Luffy's side. "Thanks." I muttered to him. I was going to prove myself here, to prove that I wasn't going to have to be the one who had to be left on the ship because they were so weak. I was weak compared to the pirates that were warring with the marines but I was strong compared to what I sued to be, compared to when Luffy had first found me. This was my chance to show Ace all of the work that I had been doing as of late, during his absence.

He nodded once then looked at me concerned. "Do you know how to handle those things?" Luffy pointed at my hips.

By those things he meant my crescent blades. "Yes sir."

For a moment Luffy looked relieved but then the concerned expression returned and I wondered what it was this time. "Good. And you're going to be able to keep up?"

Again I nodded. I wasn't too confident in that answer but I kept that to myself. There was simply no room for self-doubt, not here, not now.

Then Pops intervened, shifting his eyes to give me a little look but, saying nothing to me. They had their little stare-down, maybe it was a guy thing but we were in the middle of a war, there wasn't time for stare-downs and arguments about who was going to save Ace.

The world was once again still as they spoke to each other. Luffy's reckless declaration of being the King of pirates, a title that Pops really had no interest in, echoed as he shouted it to the world, not caring who heard him, or that he was in the middle of frieken Marineford!

They had another few second stare off and no matter what Pops did- like twirling his weapon around and trying to stare down Luffy- he wasn't impressing or intimidating him in the slightest, which really came as no surprise. Luffy loudly proclaiming that he was going to be the King of pirates, not Pops and that he was going to save Ace by himself, which either meant that he didn't intend on having me help him or that it had slipped his mind as he yelled at the man considered to be the most powerful pirate alive, the closest thing to the pirate king as of now.

He looked at me and then said, "Let's go Willow!"

I nodded and into the battle we charged. Pops nor Marco, despite his previous orders, made even the slightest twitch to stop me, which I was silently grateful for.

Together we faced incineration, rolling purple haired… things, iron fences and zombies which seemed to come from absolutely nowhere! Seriously where had the zombies come from?!

-Ace-

It was agonizing to be chained to the platform watching helplessly as Pops and the crew showed up. Agony was an understatement through and through there were no words that could or would do any justice to the shredding of my insides. Despite being stationary, my heart was pounding painfully, breaking and shattering more and more with each blow, each injury my family took for me. My pounding blood thumped loudly in my ears but I could still hear everything that was going on around me.

Little Oars Jr. only yards away from me and at my side Garp still going on about how I should have been a Marine, how Luffy and I should have become what he wanted to us to become, how he wasn't going to interfere with the war raging around us.

I watched helplessly as Ace and Willow teamed up to reach me, they made a decent team but I still wanted neither of them there. I didn't want either of them hurt or even worse killed. And when I saw a marine's blade slide my stupid little brother I snapped.

I snapped at both of them, telling them how pathetic it was that I had to be saved by my little brother and by a girl who hadn't even been a pirate for more than two years, a full year stretching it. I didn't want to drag them down with me; I didn't want them to perish here. I told them to go home, to get out of here while they still could. I was desperate, trying to save and Willow and Pops and the crew. I wanted him to go home and I shouted at them that it was humiliating to have such weaklings have to come to my rescue. Then to drive my point home I shouted, "I'll never forgive you!"

I would never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to anyone because of me, because I needed to be rescued.

"I'll save you even if it kills me!" Luffy shouted looking up at me as he said this.

I saw Willow nod in agreement before she shouted up at me as well, "Don't worry Ace; we'll get you one way or another!" She even offered a weary smile and went back to fighting. I tried to watch the both of them since they had gotten separated and isolated; they were now fighting by themselves. Ok well Luffy wasn't alone, he had so many people helping and looking out for him, but Willow was and that worried me greatly. I wished that I wasn't so helpless, that I could do something.

I knelt there horrified as I watched Squard impaled Pops. The world froze the fights mid swing, mid punch, kick or swing.

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A/N: I'm sorry for ending that there….I've got to go.

Feedback. Thoughts. Opinions. Constructive criticism is all welcome and very greatly appreciated.