*Title at the End*

After getting that notification from the system of Tanya's promotion to Vice admiral, the next day I called her to both congratulate her and also to meet up with her, and we choose to meet up on Vacation Island here in the Grand Line.

She agreed plus after her getting her promotion she mentioned that the Marines were forcing her and Visha to take the next month off as they hadn't taken a single Vacation day since they started out in the marines over 7 years ago now.

Hearing that I was genuinely surprised with how diligent she and Visha were I mean even Agress and Larissa both took vacation days back to spend time in either the Isle of Man or Haven thanks to me giving them access to the gates to those islands.

But no matter, we set the date and time to meet up on Vacation island, and a few days later I arrived on the island and booked a entire hotel just for my crew and me.

Though everything was going smoothly, heck I was even relaxing out on my personal beach chair until I felt a chill, it was so intense I activated my observation haki to see what was going to happen next, and what I saw just made me sigh before I waited for just the right moment before jumping away from my chair as it was smashed apart before landing in the pool.

Though as I resurfaced, I just grinned as I looked at the enraged woman staring daggers at me, "Well, Well, Well, if it isn't Gion? I haven't seen you in what? A year or two, and your still beautiful as ever, just wished you worked on your temper a bit…" I say with a grin as I get out of the pool and heat up my body to instantly dry myself off.

My crew were initially going to help me and see who attacked me, but when they realized who it was they lost interest and went back to playing around.

"Vargas! Why are you here! Seeing your face is ruining my Vacation!" She says angerly at me, though only a little bit later I even see Hina who I haven't actually seen again since the entire Crocodile incident way back when.

"What? I can't come here to enjoy myself? Plus I'm only going to be here until tomorrow morning, also hi Hina you look lovely as ever, I haven't seen you since the whole Crocodile incident." I say as I see Hina who just nods at me before she also takes her own beach chair and relaxes.

"Hey! Don't you ignore me you bastard!" Gion shouts at me.

"What? You want to fight me? Because both you and I know what's going to happen, your gonna lose and I'm gonna use 'that' move on you that will leave you writhing on the floor like every time we fight each other... unless…." I say with a shit eating grin as I back away from her a bit.

"DONT YOU FUCKING SAY IT YOU BASTARD!!!!!" She says as she shouts at me as she knows what I'm about to say.

"Then what do you want me to do, hell I already apologized for what I did back then after we met again, but you didn't accept my apology so we fought and you ended up like that once more, so what do you want me to do? If your asking to let you kill me then I must refuse." I say as I grab my head and shake my head.

"Then-Then…." She try's to say it but she starts to get embarrassed about what she was gonna say, but luckily or unluckily for her I saw what she was going to say soon enough.

"You want me to take responsibility for what I did? But you and I both know that answer Gion, I'm technically still a pirate, and your a Marine, its not gonna work out, well for now that is…"

Though hearing that just makes her teary eyed as she already knew that I couldn't take responsibility for what I did to her because of who I am, until I say the last part that is before she gets pissed again and instantly reaches me and grabs me by the shoulders before shaking me back and forth.

"What do you mean by that huh?! Even if you stop being a warlord your bounty will just bump up to around 400,000,000 million berries and you'll be hunted down!"

"Not unless I become a recognized noble, though I need to do something rather drastic if I want to get that, but I have something in the works, so if you really want me to, then your gonna have to wait till then if your still intrested in me taking responsibility for what I've done to you, though you should know of my nick name so if you really want me to then you'll need to except that…" I say before shaking her off me.

"Hmph!" She just gets pissed before puffing her cheeks out before going off to do her own thing once again, I just shrug before I go find me another beach chair to relax on while I wait for Tanya's appearance.

A few hours later both Tanya and Visha had made there arrival with them both having there own Marine Jackets and using them as capes, "Well congratulations are in order for you Tanya, I'll ask you how you got to your current rank later, as I got some gifts for you." I say as I hand off to her both Mad Dog and Devil Hunter to her.

Her eyes got all sparkly as she looked at her new weapons as she could easily tell how strong both these weapons were, especially the gun she fell in love with, "Thanks Cap- I mean Vargas, thank you for these wonderful gifts!" She says as she sounds genuinely excited to receive both of these for herself.

And with that she began to look over her weapons with glee as she began to polish and rub her face against them.

Visha seemed glad that her leader had gotten some nice weapons for herself, but I also got her some better weapons as well that matched Tanya's and she liked that very much.

After that me and my crew just enjoyed our time on resort island as we all rested and relaxed together with one another before we left the next day after handing off my gifts to Tanya for a job well done.

And well for the next few months not so much really happened, well besides a few things I guess I'll mention, for one thing WhiteBeard invited me for a drink aboard his ship, and well if he's inviting me for drinks I don't mind to make the trip to his ship.

But on the way there I saw a rather small boat that was floating along the sea, and a familiar snake was on that small boat, though the second he saw my ship I could see the fear on his face, but I wasn't gonna let him get away as I took my flames and propelled myself onto his small ship as I stood face to face with him.

"Let me guess…. You finally got what you wanted from them didn't you?" I say as I take out a cigar before I light it and begin to smoke.

And as he hears me say that Teach just gives me the biggest Shit Eating Grin I have seen in a long time, "Yes! Zehahahahaha! I finally got the Yami Yami no Mi Devil Fruit! One of the strongest devil fruits in the world! I can finally achieve my dreams and become the Pirate King and no longer need to be under WhiteBeards shadow!" He says as he envelopes his arms in darkness as he looks upon his power with glee and a hint of Madness in his eyes.

I just shake my head at that, "Look in all honesty I don't care what you go out and do, I even told him about you, but he didn't listen and you finally got what you wanted Teach, but I will say this…" I say as I grab his neck with one hand.

He just grins before grabbing at my arm with his shadow covered hands, but then he realizes something, my flames on my arms aren't going out, which freaks him out.

"Why isn't it working?!?! You shouldn't be able to use your Devil Fruit powers while I'm touching you!" He shouts in both anger and fear as his new powers aren't working the way they should.

I just grin before I tell him, "When have I ever said that my flames were a devil fruit ability?" And as I say that I could see a visible intense fear in his eyes as I began to grip his neck even tighter as my flames crawl up my arm to my neck before I pull him close and whisper in his ear.

"Lucky for you I don't clean up other peoples messes, so I'm gonna let you live, but because you even thought about fighting me, I'm gonna leave a mark you can remember me by…" I say as I burn my hand on his throat.

"GYAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" He shrieks in pain as he try's to wriggle out of my grip before I get bored of his screams of pain before throwing him down back onto his ship.

"Next time I see your face, I'm gonna kill you personally…" I say before I jump back and fly back off to my ship, "Let's get out of here…" I say as we begin our journey to see WhiteBeard as we leave the terrified Teach behind on his ship.

"…. Why'd you let him live? You could have easily killed him…" Catarina says as she looks back towards Teach's ship as it begins to disappear in the distance.

"I could, but because WhiteBeard didn't heed my warning, I'm letting him go because of that, but the next time I see him I'll kill him personally as slowly as I can…" I say as I forget about him as we continue our journey to meet WhiteBeard.

And about 6 hours later we arrived at our destination, though when we boarded, the crew was filled with emotion, anger, sadness, confusion, and worry was on everyone's faces.

"Pops you have to let me go after him! He nearly killed Thatch and stole that Devil fruit of ours! He betrayed our crew, our family…. And since he was my responsibility I should go after him!" I could hear a familiar voice that was yelling at obviously WhiteBeard, probably about what Teach had done.

"I think I have come at a bad time… maybe I should leave if something serious has happened…" I say as I act as if I don't already know what happened.

"Pops, why the hell did you invite him here? We don't need his help in this! It's my responsibility to go after him!" Ace says as he sees me.

"Oh let me guess, you didn't take my warning that I told you back then seriously and now your paying the consequences for not heeding my warning…" but as I finish saying that Ace rushes me and grabs at my coat.

"You knew that Teach would do something like this?! Why didn't y-" but before he could finish I grabbed the side of his head before head butting him hard and making him fall back and straight on his ass.

"What? Deal with your Pops problem myself? I'm not obligated to clean up his problems, and before you ask WhiteBeard, if you called me here to use my favor already I should say you should save that for when your life or someone you deeply care about a life is in danger."

"….. But one of my sons lives is in danger, Thatch… when Teach betrayed me he attacked him and he is injured really bad, and Marco is trying to save him but he thinks he's a lost cause and we're just prolonging the inevitable an-"

"Alright I get it you want me to save him right? Fine, but I'll do this because Ace is an old friend of mine, so think of this as a freebie." I say as I snap my fingers as agate opens and Theo steps through, I debrief him on the situation before he nods and heads off following Marco to go save Thatch.

Seeing that, WhiteBeard looks towards me before bowing his head towards me, "Thank you."

"Thank me after he's all healed, now all we need to do is wait for him to be all healed up." I say as I sit by WhiteBeard before pulling out a gourd and drinking out of it.

And so we all waited for the results of the surgery, besides my crew and WhiteBeard himself everyone else was nervous, but I know Theo's skill, I don't know how good Marco is but I have to guess he is a very good doctor at that, and after a few hours both Theo and Marco come back, and looks like good news since Marco is grinning.

"Pops, looks like Thatch is gonna make it, though he's gonna have to rest up for a few weeks before he can go out and move around once again." Hearing that the rest of the crew cheer that Thatch will live.

"That's good news Pops! But I'm still certain that I need to chase Teach down for what he did!"

"What devil fruit did he decide to take from you guys that he would betray his crew mates?" I say acting genuine enough that they didn't see through me lying to them.

"He stole the Yami Yami no Mi, a devil fruit that gives you power over darkness itself…" WhiteBeard says as he takes a swig from his gourd as well, clearly he seems to be reflecting on what has happened and was clearly upset about not listening to the warning I gave him back then.

"Oh it's that devil fruit… Ace if your dead set on going after him know this, don't let him touch you, that devil fruit can nullify other devil fruit powers if your not careful…" I say as I look at Ace before going back to my drink.

"I still think it's not a good idea for Ace to chase after him…" WhiteBeard says before shaking his head at the idea.

"Just let him go do it, even if you say no he clearly would just go off in the middle of the night and do it anyway, I should know I traveled around with him for a few months so I have a good idea as what will happen even if you say no…"

Hearing that WhiteBeard just sighed before looking at Ace for a bit then looking back down at his drink before taking a swig and looking back at Ace.

"Then go with my blessing and avenge the wrongs Teach had done upon Thatch and our crew, either bring him back to be judged by me, and if all else fails bring back his head as proof of the job done…" WhiteBeard says as he looks upon Ace seriously.

Ace just smiles, "I promise I won't let either you or the rest of the crew down Pops!" He says before he jumps onto a small ship strapped to the side of Moby Dick as this was clearly his personal ship Striker that Owen helped him build back in the day before cutting and waving back at the rest of the crew to set off in his search for Teach.

After that there was no real reason for me and my crew to stay so I gave WhiteBeard one final toast to his and Thatches health before I returned to my ship and headed back home.

And for the next few months nothing really happened that is until I suddenly got a notification that startled me and then made me look off in one direction.

…

..

.

"Yosh! So if I want to get a real crew going I'm gonna need 10 more members to join up with me! And after that well…" he says with a huge smile on his face.

"Then I can truly start my goal of becoming the Pirate King!" But as soon as he says that a large Sea Monster appears but he just grins before pulling his arm back well beyond the limits of what is humanly possible before launching his arm forward with enough force to knock it out cold.

But unfortunately while it was knocked out it accidentally broke a part of his ship causing it to start to sink, this freaked out the young pirate a bit before he got the bright idea to hide inside of a barrel so he could float away to safety as his journey is only just beginning.

…

..

.

"So now the story has officially started huh? I guess that means things around the world are gonna become even more interesting for me after all.

System- The Prologue has come to an end, the main story starts now as the start of a new age is on the horizon, User prepare yourself for the events to come.

Marshal D. Teach & Monkey D. Luffy