Whitebeard was conflicted. It had been a day since the article about the dissapearing of the marine brat, and for once in a long while he wasn't sure about what to do. They had been traveling towards marineford since they found out about Marco's execution, but now with this new bit of information?

It was almost to much of a coincidence that a vice admiral would travel like this at a time like this, but what if it was a missleading trap? What if it wasn't. What if Marco hda been with the marine when he dissapeared, what if Marco didn't make it. The article didn't mention what had happened to make the Marine dissapear like that, was there an attack? A storm? It did say that the brat was traveling towards marineford, so it wasn't that much of an off thought that this brat had been the one to escort Marco there, but by himself?

Whitebeard shook his head, he knew that vice admirals were strong, but this was the grandline, and that boy looked young and was entrusted with a huge and dangerous task. The marines knew that whitebeard would stop at nothing to get his son back, didn't they care about the boy at all?

Whitebeard sighed and closed his eyes. They would continue traveling towards marineford and just hope that it wasn't in vain.

x.x.x.x.x.x

In a different part of the grandline, Ace was just as conflicted. It had been a day since he and Marco left the iseland and the shy was dark and filled with stars. They could only bring so much food onboard so they would have to stop somewhere on the way. But the reason for Ace's trouble was, well... he just couldn't stop thinking about yesterday in the jungle with Marco. It was the first time he had had so much fun without worrying about the punishment afterwards, he had been in the marines for years, and while they liked to talk about justice to the public, there wasn't much fairness in how they punished their soildiers. They could be cruel just to make a point. Akainu was the worst. He wasn't evl per se, but he really wasn't good either. He was the evil side of the word good. Not the type Ace wanted to be around.

It was times like this that he missed his brothers the most, Luffy would bluntly say what Ace somewhere knew he should do, and Sabo would reason with him about what he should do in a teasing manner. Damn he missed that. He hadn't seen them since he joined the marines six years ago, seven years in a few months. It hurt, but he just couldn't look them in the eyes again after leaving like that. They just didn't understand why he would give up his dream of freedom for them, the idiots.

"Ace, you okay"? Marco asked beside him, Ace almost jumped, he had kind of forgotten that Marco was there since he had been silent on the other side of the ship for so long.

"Uh, yeah.. I'm alright" Ace answered, he could feel Marco's stare and knew he didn't believe him, but he didn't push. That's one thing Ace liked about Marco. He didn't push something if he didn't had to, he respected others privacy, and Ace respected him for it. A pang of guilt and sadness tore through Ace's chest as he realized that their time togheter had been counted since the moment they met, soon Marco would be gone. He was a pirate, and Ace was the Marine bringing death upon him. He almost couldn't breath. They sat there for a while before Ace opened his mouth again after gathering himself, "Hey, Marco"? He said in a quiet tone, gettign Marco's attention.

"Yeah, Ace"? He said, looking curious

"What would you thing, if the pirate king had a son" He asked. He hadn't asked that in 10 years now, not since Luffy, and he dreaded the answer.

"If the pirate king had a son, huh... Well, so what. We all choose our own destiny, that man wouldn't be any different. Either he is a good guy, or a bad guy. It would be all up to him and I would judge him accordingly. Despite who his father was. Everyone deserves a chance to decide who he is on his own. "

Ace was speechless. This man was supposed to be Roger's enemy once upon a time, but he wouldn't have cared one bit? Ace felt like he was going to cry, but he forced the feeling down. Marco would have accepted him no matter what, despite him being a marine, Marco had been nothing but nice, hell he even saved his life. He would even accept his shitty heritage. But the thing that stung the most was that the only thing this had done was confirming what Ace had already known. If something wasn't done, Marco's execution would be the day not only Marco died, but Ace as well.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Teach wasn't all too happy right now. He hadn't REALLY meant for the forst divison commander to get arrested like that, he had more meant for him HIMSELF to capture him and bring him in. This wouldn't do Teach any good at all. Sure, he was the one to give the tip about the whitebears whereabouts, but he couldn't claim the honor of getting the commander captured. Damn it. This wasn't going according to plan at all, and if he did anything now it would be to obvious.

The crew had been on high allert ever since the dissaperance of the commander, the watch had been doubbled and now it was even worse. Everyone was ready for battle, and Teach knew he was out numbred. He would simply have to wait again for an oppirtunity, one that wouldn't expose him as the traitor he was until it was time. He had been waiting for 20 years, he could wait again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x

So this was super short. I just wanted to upload something, I have a longer chapter on it's way!

So, things are about to heat up a little which is what I wanted to show with this chapter, Ace is super conflicted about what to do right now, Teach is on standby with his evil stuff, and Whitebeard is on the move. Sorry it took a while but since i promised to start uploading my other stories as well I have been working on a few at the same time, I don't recomend it. Super fun, but I don't recomend it. The stories I'm working on right now is set me free, born from fire, Obsessed and Burning emotions. I will try to update all those stories within a month, but no hard promises :)