Quietus

Roger's heart rate skyrocketed, and he found himself perspiring heavily.

Drops of sweat clung to his cheeks and forehead, to finally drop down on the stony surface below. His thick glorious moustache now seemed to make him feel hot and uncomfortable; he felt that it just was too heavy.

Yet also he felt that his body was but for show. He felt cold and distant from his own body, and discerned that this was in itself a side-effect of the withdrawing the Edo Tensei Jutsu.

Already his hands and parts of his abs were drifting upwards towards the sky; it seemed like slow poison, but Roger endeavoured to make the most out of it.

"I cannot even imagine to think that what I did was the best thing that I could've done. Though, I don't know it myself, it seemed to be the right thing to do. Even entrusting the life of my son in the hands of my enemy.

I could have done more, Ace. So much more. What use is my power and strength and all that, when I have not the courage to protect my own family. I might take the incurable disease as an excuse—and it might as well as be one—yet I could have saved Rouge before it got me.

My mind was filled with the beauty of the One Piece, Ace. It was like a fever then; it consumed me.

A devouring monster it was, making me an addict. Though even then, of course, I didn't show it to anybody. The Pirate King ought not to show weakness, or he will find a blade through his hide within a day.

Distractions drew me away from reality, and I ended up making the wrong decisions. I don't know if you can ever forgive me, but I am trying, son. Just never doubt that I do."

Ace's knees wobbled, when he saw his father's were going to sublime out of existence.

"But, b-but. . . How can I? What should I do now? For all these years Pops was my only father-like figure… and now you come… I don't even know how to react. I just don't know anything. Nothing…" with that , Ace's composure completely broke down, and he became a sobbing heap.

Tears sprouted from his ducts, and he kneeled down before his father, who pitied him. He had no strength left, yes. All of this had really deprived him of his energy.

With choking gasps and a great many teardrops falling on the ground, Ace tried to make up for his father, by letting himself still, and not shiver like a naked man caught in a blizzard.

Roger watched all of this with a calm barely able to handle. What was this feeling? Was it because of this deathly technique that caused his body to disintegrate, or was this merely psychological?

He too, did not understand much, but he could not show weakness in front of his son. Not now, especially now.

"It's okay, Ace. I don't expect anything from you. Placing expectations will again be a burden for you, which I would never want to happen to you. I just want. . . I just wanted to see you, Ace. Just once, before I die, for good this time. Just once. And now that it has been fulfilled, I brim with pride, son. I feel so proud, to have such a son. This-this is enough for me. Now I can peacefully drift across the heavens."

Ace replied to that, in a confused tone. "What?! But, but why? Did you not just join me? We've met just now, for the first time in my life. What's happening? Why're you leavin' me again? Be with me, dad. Don't leave me."

Ace's body shivered as the pure drops of rain fell on him from the skies. His was was hoarse and cracked. Choking on tears, he tried to express his feelings, now a dark melancholic tornado. His emotions changed quick as a cat, though that void-like feeling of losing someone whom you love burned his mind, enveloping all other thoughts of his. With desperation did Portgas. D. Ace thump down his great hands upon the broken concrete ground, and flames danced across the length of his arm. When his fists rang on the land, fires erupted around the battlefield, sprouting abruptly but taking a millennium to get extinguished.

His sensations were causing his power over his powers to go haywire , and a great wall of flame burst out, surrounding Ace and his father.

Roger surveyed these bursts of flame with eyes unbiased. These flames could not hurt Ace, and the other allies were too far away to get burned. And then, he replied softly to his son, in a voice yet firm. "Why am I dying? I-I don't know. I never knew anything. Not when I was filled with life, and now, not when I am about to die. It is just instinct that moves me about, telling me to do this, do that. I never truly understood what happened that day. And now, I have no means of finding out how to not die either. It is farewell for good, this time. I don't think we shall meet again, but this was enough for me. May you live life to the fullest, Ace. Never forget that I love you, and always will. Do what you must to protect those you hold beloved, for nothing else is of more importance. Goodbye, Ace. Good-bye."

And those were the last words spoken from the tongue of the Pirate King.

Like a great storm of white his body did swirl, and his ash-like fragments drifted swiftly across the humid air. The rain did nothing to their movements, and the particles of life slowly diminished in size and density and at last, winked out of existence, like a piece of plastic paper set on fire.

And in the midst of that gale, Portgas. D. Ace expressed desperation at it's greatest, as he failed to cling on to pieces of his beloved father. His hands grasped nothing but air, and those white pieces that he did catch were slowly subliming.

Gathering air into his lungs with all of his remaining strength, he howled greatly, much like a dark wolf on a full-moon night.

His cry, a strangled gasp, was forced to come out of his aching throat.

A hollow shriek, so deadly and horrifying, rattled the desolate minds of the navy men. Even the pirates themselves dreaded that sound, that one shriek that was the most terrible one they had ever heard in their lifetime.Many men shut their ears and tried to look for the cause. When they saw that Roger was dead, a great many soldiers' emotions outright changed. The Marines received new hope, and the pirates were saddened because of the loss of their newfound leader. It was a sad parting, yet the pirates were not to be easily sundered from their goal.

Nonetheless, without doubt, the most grief-stricken was Ace, though this had been his one and only short meeting of his father. Kneeling on his knees, he clutched at his shirt and pulled, pulled at something imaginary that he could never get again.

The breaths were ragged and strenuous.

The cries choked with tears.

The mind tainted black with dread.

The heart struck cold with loss.

Yet there bloomed in the depths another emotion, different from the others.

Rage.

First he felt nothing, but then out of the blue it sprouted like a raging storm, and nothing could subdue it. A torrent of anger gushed out from his innards, and this time, the bellow that came out of his buccal cavity was of another pitch. A dark guttural roar was emancipated from him, and yet again all were alarmed.

And this time, the audial yell was not the only thing that accompanied Ace. He himself stood up, twitching like a wounded animal. His shapely eyes were of an odd form now.

His bloodshot eyes beheld a blurred vision, partly due to his damp eyes, party due to the blinding fury. Like a predator he surveyed, and fixed his eyes on his enemies.

Ah, his enemies. How badly he wished to destroy them.

If he destroyed them, then the pirates would win. There would be no more bloodshed. Then everything could be alright. Just the way it was.

Thinking that, Ace had a dream of going back to the way his life had been just a few months back, before Thatch had been killed. He would end this war, and go back to the Moby Dick, drinking and laughing with Pops.

Like a cheetah he ran, and like a lion he pounced, on Aokiji.

Admiral Aokiji was taken at unawares, for he was with all the other warriors, staring intently at the newcomers, the crew of Blackbeard.

Enveloping himself in flames, Ace mouthed out the name of his signature move.

"Hiken."

A inferno, a great swirling tempest of heat more than 3000 degrees, hit Aokiji right in the ribs.

Too late did he realise, and in vain did he raise an ice wall to protect himself.

But the attack was not imbued with Haki.

Slowly, Aokiji's body reformed.

At that very instant, Admiral Kizaru turned his head sideways to look at what had caused this sudden surge of heat. When he recognised Ace, he lifted his hand and shot lasers from his palm, as fast as a strike of lightning. His reaction speed was unmatched, after all.

But Ace too, was not all dumbstruck by this sudden hostile action.

'Higan.'

Locking his biceps to his sides, he placed his forearms perpendicular to his upper arms, and pointed his index fingers towards the projectiles of Kizaru.

As the trajectories of the missiles of both the powerful men clashed together, it created a large smoking cloud. The dust proceeded to make Portgas. D. Ace slightly cough, and he thus pressed his arm over his nose, to prevent the polluting air to enter his nostrils.

And when the smoke cleared, the first view that Ace got made his pupils enlarge, and his eyes shook with shock.

Ace noticed at first glance, on the great platform on which he had been made to kneel chained, a dozen figures, each varying in size and raiment. And foremost amongst them, he recognised his nemesis, the one and only being who was the sole cause for this whole dreadful incident.

Blackbeard was seen by Ace, much like a deer being seen by a tiger. The hunger of revenge burned inside Ace like an inextinguishable flame. Being guided by his egoistic revenge desires, Ace's eyes locked onto Blackbeard, and at the same time, Teach also found the patch of cold grey stone on which Ace stood.