I do not own One Piece

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Beta read by the wonderful Karukyuu

Rise from the Ashes

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Spoilers for chapter 820

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Chapter 1: Rise

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"Alright then, everybody ready?" Marco the Phoenix asked as he looked over the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates. Vista twirled his mustache with satisfaction, Izo had done his make-up to perfection in celebration, and Jozu was smiling for the first time in years, his natural arm crossed over his chest with his prosthetic one.

"RAAAAAAAH!"

"Glad to hear," Marco said with a lazy grin, but his fellow Division Commanders and other brothers and sisters could all see he was as excited as they were.

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"We all witnessed firsthand…his bottomless determination and power."

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Following the death of the Old Man, the Whitebeard Pirates had been bereft. Their Father, dead. A thousand upstarts attacking them while they seemed weak. The traitor already starting to seize their territory. And worst of all, there was no one that they could bring themselves to accept as Captain, especially since Marco refused to accept the title. In their darkest hour, they had struggled to find a purpose, one worthy of the Old Man's pride in them.

And then a certain young fool had returned to Marineford to ring the Ox Bell sixteen times, declaring the end of Whitebeard's era, and the beginning of his own. That was when they knew what they had to do. That was when they had begun to plan.

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"Ace protected him, and the Old Man acknowledged him!"

"Now it's our duty to send him off into the new era!"

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"And you guys are convinced?" Marco continued in relaxed manner to their assembled allied captains who had returned for this special day.

"What can I say?" Whitey Bay responded with a fierce grin on her face while holding up the latest addition of the newspaper, "Jinbe said it would take two years, and I said we should wait before going to see him, give him a chance to prove what he's capable of in the New World on his own first, and he's definitely done that."

"Indeed," Doma agreed while his monkey chattered and jumped up and down on his back.

"Let's do it," Squard said, burning with a need for redemption that no one could dissuade him of, while the dozen other captains eagerly nodded.

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"Akainu! Could it be that what you fear in him…is the very thing that makes him our hope for the future!?"

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"Well, then, let's get to it," Marco concluded, and in his eyes they could all see the same spirit that had made Edward 'Whitebeard' Newgate appoint him as his right-hand. Here was a pirate ready to wage war once more. "This is era belongs to Ace's little Brother, Straw Hat Luffy, and it's our job to make sure he does it. Now we just have to find him. Set sail!"

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