Chaos

Ace twitched as Fleet Admiral Sengoku joined him on the execution stand. He knew more about the man than most, having been raised partly by Garp, and knew he felt that simply being the son of a criminal was reason enough for condemnation. As the man addressed his troops Ace let the little voice in the back of his head –which sounded more and more like Fox every passing day– say exactly what it thought of that.

"Ace. Tell me the name of your father!"

Ace scowled. Like hell! He'd disinherited himself for a damn reason! "My father? At a time like this? My father is Whitebeard!"

"He is not!" Sengoku snapped. Ace ground his teeth.

"Yes he is! Whitebeard is my only father! I have no other!" movement caught his eye down below and he glimpsed a hint of red amongst the white Marine coats; a tall, curvaceous figure over three times the height of a normal man.

Sengoku hadn't seen it; he was droning on: "Back then we searched as if our lives depended on it, searching for the possibility that there existed on that island a child of that man based on nothing but the tiniest of leads from Cipher Pol. We investigated all newborn children, all children who were yet to be born and all of their mothers, but ultimately found nothing."

Investigated and found nothing, hm? Ace knew better: they'd killed a whole lot of newborns and pregnant women in their paranoia. Assholes.

"Or so we thought." Sengoku continued. "But out of pure obstinacy your mother risked her life to perform a certain trick with regard to your birth, and it was that trick that deceived our eyes. In South Blue, there lies an island by the name of Baterilla. Your mother's name was Portgas D. Rouge. She performed a feat that we could never hope to imagine and out of devotion to her child, bore him in her womb for a full twenty months!"

Ace scowled downwards, refusing to meet anyone's eye. He knew the story; he knew how much he owed his mother. She'd saved his life and he wasn't going to die here if it could possibly be helped.

"And when the birth came, her strength all but spent, she left this world as you entered it. One year and three months from the father's death a child was born bearing the most accursed blood to be found in this world," Sengoku went on, "that child is you. Do not claim you are not aware that your father is none other than Gol D. Roger!"

In the sudden silence a wickedly amused female voice spoke up, echoing over the Den Den Mushi frequency.

"Jeez, you old bastard; what's with you Marines and your obsession with picking on the family baby?"

There was a sudden commotion on the Plaza as all attention was suddenly focused on the massively tall woman in a red captain's coat with messy bottle green hair tied back from her face and a broad grin filling the lower half of her face as a tiny Den Den Mushi perched on her shoulder, broadcasting her words.

"I mean, Roger was a pirate for decades and you think little Ace is his only son? Get real people!" she went on as the Marines closest to her roiled back like ants. "I mean, he was a pirate! Wine, women and song, you know the drill!" she tilted her head back so the visual Den Den Mushi could get a good look at her fierce features. "Roger had half a dozen kids in his lifetime and you know what Sengoku, as the eldest of the brood I've got a bone to pick with you for victimizing our baby brother. Never let it be said that Gol D. Spitfire doesn't look after her family!" She drew her sword, haki blasting off her in waves.

There was instant and utter pandemonium. The Marines around Spitfire scattered as her blade came down, the giants tried to get closer and Sengoku shouted orders that were lost as panic shook the area and a dozen more pirates in bottle green coats cut into the square from amongst the houses, maiming Marines and sowing confusion as they went. Spitfire laid into her attackers with cheerful vigour; laughing like a maniac as grown men who barely came up to her waist tried to cut her down and failed miserably.

Gol D. Roger's eldest had been wrangling Sea Kings from the age of seventeen and had over twenty years' experience of battle. She was stronger, more imaginative and more fearless than the soldiers trying desperately to take her down and it showed. Bodies didn't just fall; they flew. Spitfire glanced up at the execution stand: the sight of Sengoku's frustration and well-hidden fear was a delight, but more so was the silly grin on her baby brother's face.

Then the fleet of pirate ships appeared just outside the bay and Spitfire set about fighting in earnest. Reinforcements were coming!

Ace stared as first his big sister raised hell and sowed chaos, then a fleet of Pops' allies appeared around the island and finally the Moby Dick itself and three of the fleet surfaced in the middle of the bay, Whitebeard himself standing on the Whale figurehead. He couldn't help the manic giggle that bubbled in his throat as next to him Sengoku tried not to panic.

"You know, I had myself disinherited," he said conversationally, "so that nobody would ever be able to say that my father was anyone other than Whitebeard. It seemed fair really when I was the only person left to carry on my mother's name and Roger had all those other kids."

Sengoku turned on him. "You knew?!"

Ace snorted. "They hunted me down as soon as I got past Reverse Mountain. Don't ever believe Spitfire is all there is; I've got nieces and nephews older than I am and relatives in Paradise and the New World. Killing me won't end the Pirate King's legacy: this execution is just bringing everyone willing to openly fight the Marines out of the woodwork." He chuckled. "Spitfire's old enough to be my mother, you know and she isn't exactly inconspicuous. Makes me wonder how you missed her."

Satisfied that he had done his part in spreading panic and paranoia, Ace settled down to watch as Whitebeard fired his first salvo at the island, shaking the seas and the skies with his Devil Fruit Ability. He felt kinda bad about Pops coming to rescue him when it was his own fault for running off after Blackbeard in the first place, but Fox' letter stood out in his mind warning him that his family weren't about to let him die, no matter how much of an idiot he was.

Then the seas rumbled and tidal waves rose high above the island, called up by Pops' Devil Fruit Power.

Spitfire kicks over a hornet's nest and Whitebeard arrives.