Hello everyone! Here is another story!

This will be the first chapter, as this one will have multiple chapter, to make it more interesting

I have wanted to do this story for so long, and finally it is here!

This might be a bit confusing, but the next one will have more explanations

Hope you enjoy

Read and relax

Whitebeard sat out and enjoyed a relaxing morning, as the sun was shining. Everyone was bussing around, but a few who were off duty were relaxing. Whitebeard was also planning how to welcome everyone back next week, as Ace, who has officially been a part of them for 4 months, was going to become a commander now. He just needed to face a few tests, and was on his last one now, which was to do a small mission with a few others, Ace as the leader. And from the call a few days ago, things were going perfectly. There was supposed to be a call yesterday, but that hadn't happened, but he wasn't worried, since it seemed like Ace had full control. He was very proud of him.

As he was just enjoying the sun, he suddenly heard a loud gasp as something shattered to the ground, and looked over to see Haruta had dropped her cup of coffee to the ground as the hand moved to her mouth as she was reading the newspaper, before she looked at him, fear, dread, and hurt in her eyes. "Pops…" She said and sounded lost for words, which was a bit rare. "What is it, daughter?" Haruta shook her head, no words leaving her, so she just handed him the newspaper, and on the front page, was a large image of Ace, with the mark of the Grinning Rats on his cheek. It was no doubt the Grinning Rats mark, the walking rat who had a grin and looked menacing, no one wanted to be them or have a mark who even had a small resemblance to them as they were hated by all.

Whitebeard felt so at loss now. The Grinning Rats were known worldwide, to be the absolute most brutal and murderous crew there was, killing everyone in their path. Being hated by all, be it pirates or marines. There weren't many who took the mark, but to get accepted you needed to do the ultimate betrayal to show your true colors; kill someone close to you very brutally. This had to be false. Whitebeard swallowed, before he went to the right page, where the input was, which stretched over 2 full pages. And Whitebeard felt himself shocked.

There, was not only a picture, but an input on how those with Ace, had been killed brutally and set up as display, the picture next to it, was Ace standing in front of his dead family members, back to the camera, and Whitebeard needed to close his eyes and take a breath to calm his anger. The mark on Ace's back, which he had said he cherished over all in the world, was burned away, Ace has used his powers to destroy their mark, and then took on the mark of the Grinning Rats.

Many who joined the Grinning Rats had been in a previous crew, and killed many of them, but never everyone, or killed a few family members, to get the mark, always somewhere easy to see. They were hard to find, and he knew they must have a boat, but since the mark was started to be used 4 years ago, people had yet to find a boat with this mark, but he knew it existed, maybe even having multiple boats, most likely doing something as coward as hiding beneath a fake mark. They were chosen based on their actions, which was doing the ultimate betrayal to those close to them, to family members.

Ace had betrayed them to join The Grinning Rats. Ace must have planned this all along. This was not a fake picture, no one would mess around when it came to The Grinning Rats, everyone hated them.

Ace had taken a group of his family and killed them, so he could join this crew. Ace had betrayed them.

He knew of many who had done this, but never had it been anyone he knew personally, Whitebeard liked to think he was a good character reader, but this proved he wasn't. Ace had seemed to genuinely liked it with them, but that was a lie. Ace had probably just used them for this, so he could join this crew, and Whitebeard felt sickened. Sickened that he had let his guard down around Ace, trusted him and taken him in, when it was all a lie. Whitebeard had never felt fury like this inside him in a long long time. He wanted to tear the newspaper apart, but he wouldn't, because everyone needed to read this, to realize Ace had betrayed them. It was also mentioned in the newspaper that they were unsure if they, The Whitebeards, were in on it, making him nod to himself as he knew what needed to be done.

So, he handed the newspaper to Marco, before he loudly said Ace had betrayed them, he had joined The Grinning Rats, and if spotted, they would take revenge and kill Ace, like he had with his family members. Ace was no longer to be associated with them, be thought to be a part of them, and to be always remembered for his betrayal to them. Whitebeard couldn't believe he had trusted Ace, he never should have. Everything he had said had probably been a practiced sob story.

If he ever saw Ace, he would kill him with his bare hands.

-x-

Ace was pushed to the ground, no idea how long he had been on that awful boat, and knew he needed to get help. Before he could get up, a newspaper was thrown at him with laughter, before he was left alone on the ground inside a small forest on an island.

Ace looked at the newspaper, and felt his breath stop. There, on the side it was opened up to, was a input, on how The Whitebeards, and Whitebeard himself, loudly proclaimed, that he, Ace, was no longer to be confused as a part of them, and if they ever spotted Ace, they would kill him, as Ace had killed his children. And Ace noticed how it mentioned him by name, full name, and was not a family member of his family anymore. Whitebeard stated that he was no longer a part of them. Ace had joined the Grinning Rats and betrayed them, and under the input, was a picture of Ace, with the mark on his cheek, mark of the Grinning Rats, and another where it showed his back, where the mark of Whitebeard was gone, burned away, and Ace still remembers that pain.

Ace moved a hand to his cheek, to the mark of the Grinning Rats, moving his nails a bit into it, wanting to scratch it away or just burn it away, but Ace closed his eyes as he remembered their words: "If you remove this beautiful mark on your cheek, Luffy will die." And then, they had showed up to date pictures of Luffy, telling where he was and how they had people watching him, and if Ace ever tried remove the mark, or to tell the truth about this mark to anyone, Luffy would die, and Ace would need to watch, as he had with the others. Ace moved his hand away from the mark, he had no choice, Luffy couldn't die because of him. Ace was abandoned now. He was labeled as a traitor. He needed to figure out how to fix this, but he didn't know how.

The next couple days, Ace tried to, well, just survive. But every time someone saw him, or wait, no, saw the mark on his cheek, they sneered, they let out hateful comments, they ran away, refusing to even look at him, let alone talk with him or help him. Ace had no idea what to do, when a hand moved to his shoulder, making Ace whip around in fear as no one even dared to touch him, making him trip and fall down.

When he looked at the person who touched him, probably someone there to actually hurt him or kill him, Ace blinked as he looked at an older man, maybe in his forties, having a kind and understanding look, and on his neck, almost in the middle but a bit to the left, was the mark of the Grinning Rats. The man had a bit of pale skin and pink hair, so the mark stood out on his skin. And the man held his hand out, before Ace moved his hand and took it and was helped up.

And that's the first chapter! I hope this was interesting!

The next chapter will explain everything more and I hope I will see you in it!

If you have any ideas, don't be afraid to share them!

I hope you enjoyed, and if you want to, I do love feedback, so don't be afraid to leave a review, or send a PM!

If you also want to, I have a Twitter, my name is Azuruko, and I have a discord, my tag/username is just azuruko, as well as a server (Instant invite: discord . gg / 6hzMhbR) where everyone is welcomed! Updates is also posted there, both on discord and on twitter