Michael and the newly rejuvenated Blackbeard are battling it out on the top deck of The Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard seemingly having the upper hand with his new wild style from having become young again.

Pandora gasps seeing this. "What!? I didn't know… his Black Heart could make him YOUNG!?"

Lucifer laughs a little tapping his staff. "Well… That's not quite accurate. That's got nothing to do with the powers you gave him."

Pandora's eyes widen. "W-what do you mean!?"

Lucifer bonks her on the head with his cane making her flinch a little. "So many questions again. Aren't you the one who chose him?" He sighs. "But yes. This is something he's always been able to do."

Pandora tilts her head. "I… see. I think I get it!" She looks a little excited. "It's freedom!" She declares throwing a hand in the air.

Lucifer smirks. "Now isn't this much more liberating? Coming to answers yourself?"

Pandora nods. "Yeah! Thank you, Lucifer!"

Down at Ra's throne Icarus looks up towards where Pandora happily cheers. He grits his teeth. "Lucifer Morningstar? Of course…" He mutters, only for Ra to tap his staff against the ground.

"Quiet. I thought I told you… If I wish to hear you, I will ask. Leave. Or be silent, worm."

Icarus furrows a brow. "Hey! I know about the human fighters! My input is valuable!" He says and there's a bit of silence.

Suddenly Osiris and Ra both chuckle almost in amusement. Icarus steps forward but before he finishes his step towards Ra he finds Osiris' sickle under his chin. "You are amusing Icarus. As always. But I believe you are mistaken if you believe you're here because we NEED you, in order to win. You are here, because Lord Ra wishes you to be here. Whatever his reasons may be, you WILL follow his whim."

Icarus smacks the sickle with his wing, crossing his arms. "Yeah. Whatever… as long as he keeps his promise," He says looking at the floor in front of him. Stand in silence? Pandora never told him to shut up… but she's up there with LUCIFER of all people! He grits his teeth angrily, clenching his fist.

Blackbeard swings his cutlass, Michael blocking it with ease, the young man springing off the ground, kicking Michael back with a rather athletic kick. Michael is still getting used to this new fighting pace. "Perhaps this version of you is more susceptible to reason?" He asks to laughter from Blackbeard as he runs back towards Michael, taking a quick detour to leap off a crate to come down with a swing.

"Come on, fairy! You're still fightin' the same person here! Ain't NO ONE who will govern over BLACKBEARD!" Michael throws his hand up, forming the shield to block. He clenches his fist making the shield disperse and launch at Blackbeard, forcing him to leap back with a shocking amount of spring in his step, mixing in blocks, dodges and even shooting some of the fragments out of the air.

"How can you be so selfish!? I do not understand! Humanity's greatest strength is their compassion for each other! The spirit of self-sacrifice for the greater good. Bountiful and strong as the gods are, few among them are said to possess this! But humanity knows not of this! Humanity will gladly spend hundreds of years, slaving away to save others! Yet I sense none of that from you. I sense a dark bottomless pit where your just spirit ought to lie."

Blackbeard scoffs. "Oh please. Spare me the babble. That's exactly the problem!" He points his sword forward. "You say you'll 'guide' humanity! HA! Bull-fucking-shit! You're a judge not a guide!"

Michael raises an eyebrow. "My judgment is fair and just. Humans are not evil because they wish to be. I will help those in need. I will heal the hurt and feed the starving! Under my protection! Humanity shall prosper and of course. They are allowed their own laws as they are now. I do not wish to intrude unless I must."

Blackbeard leans against the side of the railing. "Right right. And yet… as the sole judge you'd have the jury in ya command wouldn't ya? Judge, and jury…" He springs off, grabbing a stray rope hanging from the small mast up here, taking a running start and swinging around the mast, firing at Michael with a manic glare. "How long until you decide to become the executioner!?"

Upon hearing this humanity shakes their fist at the ship. "Who the hell do you think you're talking about!?" "You don't know ANYTHING, Blackbeard!" "Don't get to high and mighty, murderer!" "..." "..."

Michael deflects the bullets seeing Blackbeard's ability spreading up the rope. Blackbeard comes swinging in with another kick, but Michael simply dodges.

"That will never happen! Humanity will make their own choices! I simply wish to give them a place to exist in peace!" He leaps back further, landing on the railing and jumping back further. Blackbeard yanks on the rope making the long blackened rope snap at the top, his power having made it black and more spiky, like a whip. "Listen to me! Humanity has infinite potential! I will use my divine will and EONS of experience to guide them! Allow them to reach their fu-" He starts before Blackbeard rushes at him throwing the rope and wrapping it around his leg.

"Shut ya trap, fairy!" He yells, Michael trying to fly back, Blackbeard jumping at the railing, setting both feet onto it, hanging down almost 45 degrees, holding him down like he's fishing only in the sky. "I ain't lettin' ya fly away THAT easily! Withered might've let that shit slide but NOT Kindled!" He wraps the spiky rope around his arm, the thorns digging into his skin and he starts pulling.

Michael's eyes widen seeing him bleeding to pull him down. And also that… It's working! "Are you mad!? You are hurting yourself!" He stops struggling and shoots down towards him, making him spring off the railing, still connected to Michael's leg with his rope.

"What're ya surprised about!?" As Michael comes flying down he instantly has to dodge Blackbeard's cutlass. Each swing, Blackbeard twirls his wrist around the rope getting more of it around him. "I was gonna KILL MYSELF just so ya'd get close to me! KYAHAHA!" Michael takes a swing at Blackbeard in retaliation, the pirate wrapping the rope around his arm, as he nimbly leaps over him the pins and needles digging into his arm even digging through his chest-armor!

"Gah!" Michael coos as every move he makes, just makes Blackbeard swing the rope around him more. Blackbeard finishes his 'tying' with a punch to the face, Michael grinding his teeth and his light fragments fold under the rope, pushing it out. "ENOUGH!" He yells as it bursts off of him, Blackbeard doing a quick backflip, landing on the railing with the rope. "Such indecency! What brought about this rebellious nature of yours!?" He springs onto the railing, swinging his blade at Blackbeard who leaps back. Unlike in his older form he is not even remotely struggling with balance now. He slides down the railing to the lower deck, back first without so much as a glance, flipping off of it, landing next to one of his cannons.

"What brought ABOUT my desire for freedom!? HA! That's easy!"

-Bristol England 1685-

"I grew up in a TERRIBLE home, wouldn't ya know!?" A young boy is sitting in the corner of a dark room, holding a book up to his face, trying to hide his face, sounds of fighting coming from the other room.

"Why can you not see that this DRINKING of yours is destroying this family!?" A female voice yells, followed swiftly by the sound of a loud smack and crashing of porcelain. The young boy simply turns the page in his book, a blank stare on his face.

"Shut up you fucking bitch… I don't see YOU or that BRAT contributing to the household! So I can do whatever the FUCK I want! Heh! Maybe I'll even go sailing forever! See what the world's got out there!" Then crying as the woman crawls into the room of the kid, closing the door.

The boy looks up from his book. "Are you… okay, mom?"

However the woman stares blankly at him. "What do you care… Edward?"

Edward looks back to his book. "I wish he would disappear…" He mutters under his breath.

"I never saw any life in their eyes. My dad was stuck in a place he didn't want to be… and my mom was stuck with a husband she hated. Isn't that just torture? However the day it all clicked for me… now THAT was some day."

Edward peeks out of his room, hearing another argument. "You CAN'T leave! What will happen to me and Edward!?" His mom yells, tearing flooding from her eyes. Her husband, the fat asshole, is leaving… Edward had heard him talk multiple times about this. He sees his dad having packed his bags.

He swats his mother's arms out of the way, pushing her into a wall and another plate falls to the floor cracking into shards. "Get off my case! I'm doing what I want! Like I care what happens to this BROKEN home anyway!"

"Suddenly… I saw it happen. Something snapped," His mother suddenly picks up a broken plate-shard, stabbing him in the neck.

"YOU DON'T GET TO LEAVE! You bastard!" The man falls to the floor and Edward watches with wide eyes as his timid mother angrily stabs his father to death, blood splattering everywhere. "HAHA! Not so strong now! NOT GONNA LEAVE NOW ARE YOU!?" She manically laughs for a few seconds, panting before she drops the shard, having clutched it so hard that she is bleeding herself. She looks over to Edward who is watching in awe. She runs to him in shock. "E-Edward!? Eddy… w-we have to go!"

"Go… where are we going?" He says looking up at his mother with sparkling eyes.

"Away! I-I made a mistake! What have I done!?"

"What… do you mean, mom? Dad was the worst… he's gone now… isn't this what… we wanted?" He asks tilting his head and her eyes widen.

"But… But I…" She falls to her knees, Edward patting her head.

"There there mom…"

-Present day-

"She kept cursing herself… for the rest of her short life. Saying she made a mistake," Edward taps his gun against his forehead. "She kept crying about it. But I saw it. When he was leaving… my dad's eyes were sparkling with a joy I'd never seen before. And when she stabbed him to death! She looked so alive! NOTHING was wrong with what happened that day!" He yells, holding out his arms. "It was just a result of them doing what they wanted to do! What made them happy! The only thing I regretted… was that I didn't get to stab my scumbag father ONCE… I wanted to know if it was as liberating as mother made it seem."

Michael gulps looking at Blackbeard. He's been staring at him with Angel's Gaze this entire time… "You…"

"You know… I reunited with my dad when I died and came to Heaven," He adds smirking.

Michael looks out in the audience. "You did? Is he watching?"

"HA! I killed that scumbag first thing when I awoke in Heaven!"

Michael suddenly feels something tug at his heart, gripping his chest. "How can you be so… inhuman…?" He says feeling physical pain.

"Inhuman!? I'm more human than ANYONE!" He yells tossing the rope into a crate of cannonballs, pulling it out with a cannonball now wrapped around one end, swinging it over his head like a flail, the black smoke making it grow spikes and he hurls it at Michael. "Any human will tell you! Doing what they desire makes them happy! But they're FOOLS!" He calls as Michael swipes his sword at the flail to deflect it but as soon as his blade slices into it, the ball detonates sending the angel flying out of the cloud of smoke.

Michael recovers flapping his wings, wiping the dust off himself, a few white shards crumbling. He got up a shield just in time to not take significant damage. "Fools!? Humanity is not foolish! Humanity makes mistakes! That is what makes them humans!"

"KYAHAAR! Noooo that's NOT what I'm talking about," Heavy thuds come up the stairs all of a sudden. "People are idiots, setting their desires aside! For what!? So others will like them!? That's where they're wrong!"

"MICHAEL! Watch out!" A child calls out as Blackbeard comes up the stairs, carrying… a cannon! Holding it like a gatling gun under his arm, the fuse already lit. Michael's eyes widen as the moment it's in view it fires sending a giant cannonball at him at immense speeds, Blackbeard being launched back as well. In the split second before he dodges, Michael realizes that at this speed this thing will his the audience and swings his sword at it with all his might. "It'll explode!" Another audience member calls out in fear.

And sure enough, as if perfectly timed a skull and crossbones spin into Michael's view on the cannonball, and it explodes right in his face, sending him flying into the water, making a huge splash. Blackbeard leans over the edge. "Heh. Gotcha, fairy," He says with a smirk.

A member in the audience grits his teeth. "You son a bitch! HOW DARE YOU!?" He yells out, standing. A holy-man, wearing a white gown with red lines, long blonde hair and bright white eyes. "Michael has been taking the role of caretaker for humanity and THIS is the thanks you show him!?" This man is St. Peter. "Michael is nothing like what you said!"

"HA! As if I'm gonna listen to some old fart in a DRESS!" Blackbeard says picking his ear. "Tell me! Would you REALLY want to live your ETERNITY in a CAGE made by someone!? He's a PERSON who wants to RULE! Get it through ya thick skull! Even if he's gonna play nice for ya, ain't NO WAY he'll do that forever! Eventually you'll all be his slaves! You're so FUCKING SHORTSIGHTED!"

"N-no! You are WRONG!" St. Peter yells, looking around. "Stand with me humanity!"

"... he's not… wrong?" Someone mutters. Suddenly murmuring starts around the arena again. "Is he? Michael would essentially rule us…" "A divine being ruling us… objectively… it doesn't sound good…"

"No! Michael would never!"

Meanwhile beneath the water, Heimdall is swimming around in a diving-suit. "It appears Michael is out cold!" He declares as he sees Michael sinking towards the bottom of the arena. "I guess this means that I must declare tha-" Suddenly a bright flash emits from Michael, knocking Heimdall back. "BWAAA!" He yelps swimming up to safety.

Michael bursts from the water, majestically spreading his wings. "ENOUGH!" He yells out, his wings having grown. "You all! Come to your senses! Do not let this man POISON your mind! I will ensure your safety! I will protect you! I will prove it! By saving this man!" He points down to Blackbeard.

However he is met by silence, the few cheers erupting from humanity, being drowned out by the silence. Suddenly one voice echoes through. "Prove it then…" It mutters. From the back of the rows. Captain Kidd with his arms crossed. "Save the man you called inhuman. Show us the power of humanity,"

Blackbeard meanwhile has gone to grab another drink as Michael comes down. "Edward! Face me!"

Blackbeard laughs. "Kyaha!" He shakes his head, holding out a mug for Michael. "Nah. I'm ready to talk. Come on then. Let's discuss," He says with a cocky smirk. Michael activates his Angel's Gaze.

"You dare lie?"

"No. I'm ready… to talk. About my 'morals'. Or lack thereof," He says and Michael is about to step forward and relax. The Angel's Gaze forces humans to speak the truth after all. However he suddenly finds something stopping him as he reaches his arm out. "Is something the matter, fairy?" Blackbeard says with a smirk.

Michael gulps. "I don't… The Angel's Gaze never lies. Neither do you. Yet…" he suddenly raises his sword. "I don't believe you! You are a man capable of changing his morals on a whim! You can FOOL the Angel's Gaze!"

"BWAHAHA! So much for 'no enemy I cannot talk to'. Such hypocrisy! YOU are supposed to be MY moral superior!?"

The audience finds themselves coldly staring at Michael. "He… denied Blackbeard's request?" "It's Blackbeard though… he shouldn't trust him." "But it's Michael. He would never do this…" "Not unless… what Blackbeard said was true." Michael feels a dark aura starting to emit from humanity's side of the arena.

"Now now! People! Hear me! I promise t-"

"We've heard enough!" "We believe in you Michael!" "Just finish the fight already!" "You're the best! Do not trust this LIAR!" "You can't even trust your own truth-seeing eyes!?" Humanity bombards him with contradictory statements.

Michael steps back in shock. "Humanity… what're you saying? It is me! ME! Your savior! Do not… do not taint your mouths with such words. Please listen… why…?" He stops, suddenly feeling Blackbeard's flintlock pistol against the back of his head.

"And that's game over, fairy-boy!"

Michael grabs his head. "Why won't you listen?" Michael whispers. "Please listen!" He yells seeing his devout followers becoming drowned out by complaints.

"It's too good to be true!" "We don't want you here! Never have!"

Lucifer looks at the ground. "The silent majority has become quite vocal. It is sad that you must see this side of your beloved humanity, brother," He mutters, Pandora gulping.

There's suddenly a loud gunshot as Michael falls over, the light from his wings shattering against the deck like glass. Blackbeard blows at his smoking gun. "Guess we're done here," He says smirking as he walks back towards the rudder.

Heimdall gulps. "N-now! For real this time… THE MATCH IS OVER!?" He yells however a large pillar of light erupts from Michael's body, the light shards gathering around him.

"You must listen! YOU WILL LISTEN TO REASON!" Michael's voice echoes through the arena as the sphere floats over the water, growing to a gigantic size, large flaming white wings erupting from the sides, sprouting 'beautiful' eyes in the middle, two large metal rings, resembling Michael's metal halo surrounding it, each covered in eyes, one final giant eye opening vertically over the middle of the giant creature. TRUE HOLY ANGEL!

All who sees it, find themselves in terrified awe at this new form of his. All except one. Blackbeard runs to the side of the ship, smiling up at the giant thing. "Oh HELL YEAH! BRING! IT! ON!"