The Strongest

Everyone, including me, is shocked that WhiteBeard suddenly showed up out of nowhere.

That is until we notice that his ship, The Mobydick, appears out from the fog along with the rest of his crew looking down from the ship looking out at us.

But without even thinking, even though he's both tired and hungry he makes a flaming wall cutting us off from him and WhiteBeard, "EVERYONE! Get out of here now! I'll take on WhiteBeard myself!" He says trying to muster up all of his strength that he had left in him to face down the Strongest Man in the World.

Everyone wanted to help out but they couldn't get pass the flames until they all looked at me, but I just shook my head, "If he ever wants to master that technique he needs to face a true life or death battle, if WhiteBeard wants him dead I'll do everything in my power to save him, but as his uncle and teacher I will watch him closely." I say as I walk through the flames on the other side to see personally Aces test against WhiteBeard.

I already knew he wasn't going to win, even more so in his current state, but because of his current state he may just be able to activate his own sword of his own.

Both Ace and WhiteBeard notice my appearance, "I thought I said-" but I cut him off.

"Shut it kid! This is your final test! If you ever want to unlock your full potential this is your last chance! Now go and do what you set out to do and beat WhiteBeard!" I shout right back at Ace who is still panting from exhaustion from the fight before.

But he can feel some sense of finality in my words, this is his last test and if he wants to gain the strength he so desires he needs to go all out like his life depends on it, with thinking that Ace gets even more fired up, "Fine Old Man! I'll take him down just like you said!" Ace says as he readies himself for a fight, though WhiteBeard is looking at me closely and I look straight back at him as our eyes meet, but I'm unperturbed as I just nod to him and he nods back at me before looking at Ace.

"So you want to fight me all on your own? You absolutely sure you don't want to call in your crew, or the old fellow over there for help?" WhiteBeard says as he looks down at Ace, after all he is almost 22ft tall.

"Not a chance! I'm not letting my crew get involved because not only is this my fight, but I don't plan on letting them get hurt!" Ace says as he begins to focus even more than he has ever before, he knew that this was a life or death battle, he had to remember everything Fisher ever taught him, what he needed more than anything was to focus and call upon his own blade.

But WhiteBeard wasn't planning to give him time to focus as he came at Ace like roaring thunder as he swiped his Naginata, The Murakumogiri at Ace who was just barely able to dodge.

Ace wasn't trying to attack as he was trying to form his own personal sword, then remembered back to what I had taught him.

*FlashBack*

"Remember when you finally decide to form your own sword, there are two states of mind you must reflect on, either that of the gentle flame, or if the raging inferno, the gentle flame is the kind you see from a candle, or when you view upon your fireplace, the raging inferno like that of a burning forest or the flames of war, when you are in these states what name comes to mind that you will call upon to summon your blade?" I say as I ask Ace that question.

"Well… if I was just in a calm mental state when I summoned my own blade, I think I would call it Luck."

"Oh and why would you call it Luck?"

"Because I would be Lucky to have that moment of calm to myself."

"Then what would you call upon if you are embroiled in the flames of war, trapped in a raging inferno that wishes to consume you whole, who will you call upon them?"

"Well obviously I would name it after the card I identify myself as…" he says as he pulls out the card and shows it to me…

…

..

.

*BUMP BUMP!*

*BUMP BUMP!*

Ace could feel his heart pounding as he was fighting for his life while dodging the best he can from all of WhiteBeards attacks as by now he was covered in cuts all over him.

He was already on his last leg and he looks like to everyone he was about to collapse, but was determined to keep standing, but then he could feel something inside him, and I could feel it so I called out to him.

"ACE! Call your blade! Say it's name!" I shout to him, and that seems to get his attention, and for WhiteBeard it seemed slightly amusing so he wanted to see what happened next, so then Ace grabbed at his chest feeling the formation of his blade coming from his very soul.

"Give me a hand here! SPADE!!!" He shouts as he rips the blade out of his chest as its wreathed in flames emitting very intense flame energy as it looked like a sword that just came out of the forge, before it rapidly cooled and took on the appearance of a thin black saber with hand guard.

Feeling the power emanating from it both surprised me and WhiteBeard, but seeing this just made him even more interested in Ace over all, "Well Kid, want to test out that blade against an old man like me?" WhiteBeard says with a big grin while looking at Ace.

Ace just grins before pointing the sword at him, "Then I hope you don't mind me taking your head!" He says with a jump as he does a spinning front flip with his sword after using his flames to propel him high up into the air before he came crashing down on WhiteBeard.

But the old man just grinned and blocked the attack, but wasn't expecting the overwhelming force from the attack that forced him to bend his knees to compensate a bit before he pushed Ace off.

But unfortunately the battle couldn't last long as the spike of energy he got from forming his blade wasn't enough to keep him going for to long until he took one bad hit that forced him to the ground with no more strength to stand.

"Well fought kid, but I'm not called the strongest in the world for nothing after all." He says before he kneels in front of Ace.

"*Cough Cough* Well you won…. I guess your gonna kill me huh… I didn't think I would die like this…." Ace says with a rather wide smile on his face, but while everyone else in the crew is freaking out, I can tell for a fact that WhiteBeard has no intention of killing him, something both Deuce and Isuka notice so they aren't worrying like the rest of the crew.

"Well…. Normally that would be true… but I have a different offer for you, how about I make you my son instead?" But as soon as he says that Ace spits some blood at his face, well try's to but he can't exactly see straight from losing so much blood.

"And I'll say…. Go fuck…. Yourself….." he says before falling completely unconscious, but seeing that act of defiance made him want to take in Ace even more as he just smiles before he stands up and unleashes a wave of conquers haki that knocks out the rest of the crew all except for me who's still standing unaffected from the attack.

This just makes him grin even more before he turns to the crew, "Marco, you guys get Ace and the rest of his crew back onto the ship, I think me and him need to have a chat." WhiteBeard says as he points his Naginata at me before motioning me to follow him to somewhere else, which I nod and follow after him.

But Marco and the rest of the higher ups find this behavior from there father to be rather strange so Marco, Jozu, Thatch and a few other division leaders decided to head off and see what we were doing, even Teach was curious and decided to sneak off and see what was going on.

About 10 minutes later me and WhiteBeard are both standing on top of this small hill that has a good view of the rest of the island before we turn to face one another.

It's completely dead silent as we face each other, until he speaks, "I get the feeling your not who your trying to portray yourself as." This slightly surprised me as he is the 2nd person to see through my disguise.

"Oh? And what makes you say that exactly?" Since I know it's not a fluke that people can see through my disguises rarely, I really want to know what is giving me away.

"It's more of a gut feeling than anything else, for your over all looks even though you look physically fit with the age that your giving off you should still be a bit weakened, hell even I'm getting on in my years and I'm slowly getting weaker where I need a breathing machine just to be able to sleep…" WhiteBeard openly admits to me.

"Huh… so your saying for my age I'm acting a bit to young, I guess I'll have to keep that in mind if I ever take on this look once more." I say before cracking my neck before turning back to my original Eagle looks before boosting myself to his height.

"Nice to meet you WhiteBeard, I'm guess you know who I am already right?" I say stretching out my body to get used to this new height of mine.

"The Monster of the world himself, Blood Eagle, I guess it was about time we met face to face, and I guess those rumors about you figuring out how to make Gigantfication possible are true." He says before he decides to take a seat and I sit in front of him as the sun rises further in the sky.

"Though I have no clue why you have decided to disguise yourself and stay apart of my sons crew." He says before he pulls out a gourd and takes a swig from it.

"Who says he even wants to be your son? You saw that look on his face, as soon as he recovers I wouldn't be surprised if he keeps trying to kill you." I say as I shake my head.

Though off in the distance several of his other 'sons' as well as Teach who was hiding very well even for his size was watching our conversation as well.

*What the hell is he doing here? Then again… if I get the chance maybe I'll get to talk with him personally.* Teach thinks to himself as he watches our conversation from the shadows.

"Bah, I'll just kick his ass over and over again until he changes his mind, plus my sons will possibly change his mind over time, though what am I gonna tell him about your disappearance?" He says looking at me questionably.

"Well I guess I'll tell him the truth, I was disguised as one of my fleet members after all… he might feel betrayed by Fishers disappearance, but I will say it was my order that he was following, but I really did come to like the kid, and I genuinely find him to be a friend and kindred spirit after all, that's why I want to have you hand these to him." I say as I place my symbol before him and a letter of apology to him from both me and Owen as well.

But WhiteBeard just sees those and looks up to me before taking another swing from his gourd, "I think it would be best to hear it from you and this Fisher fellow in person, if you really consider him a friend then it's the least you can do for him."

Hearing him say that I look down at what I was offering him before chuckling a little, "Heh, I guess your right, though usually I would want to have a fight of some kind with you, I don't think the time is right yet, though maybe the next time we meet will have a actual fight." I say as I pull out my own personal gourd and drink from it.

"What? Is the Monster afraid of fighting the Strongest man in the World?" He asks questionably.

"Nope, just it's not fun fighting a fight I know I won't win or have a remote chance of winning, if I was stronger and I knew that I had a chance at beating you of course I would, besides before I even became a pirate you were one of the people I looked up to and have a deep respect for." I say as I hold my gourd to him, which he just grins and clinks his up against mine before we go on to take more swigs from our gourds.

Though after we drink, it's almost like he sees through me, "You had a sad life didn't you?… from all the stunts I have heard you do over the years, and your unadulterated hatred of World Nobles…" he says leaving it off for me to finish.

But I just shake my head, "imagine over 10 years of pain and suffering under there boot as a slave, watching both your parents being killed in front of you, and having just live with that to survive, and when I finally get free I go back 4 years later to help the Fishmen to burn down Mary Genoise and slaughter a bunch of CD's in the process sending my name out across the world to insight fear in them, then they have the audacity to try and ruin my wedding day, so I made an example of why that is a bad idea and that's why the Shabody Massacre happened, and plenty more to come in the future." I say as I take one large swig of my gourd just to not think about it.

"Then do you think it will make you feel better with them-"

"Gone? Yes I do think I will feel better when every single CD is wiped off the face of the earth, even the children, because for them, and only them do I have a scorched earth policy in mind, I will not let a single one of them live even if they never did anything wrong and were just born into that position." But as I turn to look at him, he gives me a look as if I'm going to far with my logic.

"Oh so you want the reason why I would even go after there children?… honestly I don't want to… but seeing what one kid became just because he lost his title as a CD as a child and was so furious about it he even killed his own father and brought his head to the CD's just to get his title back but still couldn't and has now ruined a country under the guise of him and his crews saving it like hero's, I think my thought about wiping every single one out aren't that far fetched if that was something Doflamingo could do on his own." I say after taking another swig and noticing it's empty before I go and chuck it far away from me.

But hearing what I had to say about it, and me giving some legitimate reasons as to why I couldn't even let the kids go he just sighs before drinking more from his gourd, "I guess it's not my place to Judge you on your thoughts about things if that is what you have been through…. Maybe if I had been there when you were escaping… maybe I would have been able to change you over time as my own son…." He says as he just shakes his head at the thought.

"Maybe… but at the time I knew I couldn't survive in the new world so I decided to stowaway on a ship to the paradise side of the grandline stowing away from ship to ship and stealing here and there until I could afford my own small boat, and after getting my experience in the grandline then the attack on Mary Genoise, and you know the rest, so here I am, but enough talking about me besides coming here because Ace wanted to, I also wanted to talk about something with you."

"Hoo? And what would you like to talk about exactly?"

"Well I know that your slowly dying from that disease you have been affected by, I have a doctor who could cure you completely if you want, not have to be strapped to an IV bag all the time, not needing something to help you breathe in your sleep, to be healthy once again, and to top it off I promise to help you in one of your most difficult of times, where you feel your about to lose everything, whether that be your crew, your sons or even your own life, I'll come in to help you, in return all I ask from you is one favor when the time comes." I say as I stand up and look towards the horizon off in the distance.

"Well not having to be strapped to an IV bag and having to use a machine just so I can sleep properly would be fantastic, but really it all comes down to this favor that your gonna ask of me." He says as he puts his gourd away and stands next to me.

"All I ask is when me, Kaido and Big Ma start the final war to destroy the world government, that you either help us, or stay out of our way, though they might both take that as an insult and afterwards will attack you back because you didn't help, but hey by then it will be no holds barred as I plan on taking down Kaido personally when this is all done."

"Like I'm afraid of them both coming at me combined, let them come! I'll just teach them a lesson they soon won't forget!" He says as he stamps his Naginata into the ground.

"So I'm taking it you accept my proposal?"

"So long as he can fix me back up to my good old days before I was afflicted with this illness, I promise that we will not get in the way of your war, even though I'm already 70 I shouldn't be living like this, maybe in my 90's I could accept living like that, but if I somehow live that long I plan on retiring and handing off my mantle, I mean I prefer dying in battle but if I somehow live that long I'll go live my last years back on my home island surrounded by friends and family." He says with a look of nostalgia on his face.

"Well we can talk more about that back on your ship, I'm guessing you got a mushi I could use right?"

"Of course, use it to call your doctor over, while we celebrate me getting a new son of mine! GUHAHAHAHA!" He laughs as he turns and heads for his ship.

I just shake my head as I follow after him, though I get the feeling I was being watched as I turned to look at a bush nearby but see nothing, but I know someone is there so I just grin before I turn away and follow after WhiteBeard.

Not long later the bush shakes and Teach peeps out of the bush, "Man… that guy is scary… maybe not as scary as pops…. But he is much more ruthless than pops is…. Probably shouldn't piss him off…" he says before he books it back to the MobyDick.