1.) Control

My summary is crap but the story is better than the summary. Promise.

——(xXx)——

There was a man. He appeared out of no where one day. Stopping a Celestial Dragon from killing a child while being close to the holy city.

This man was cloaked in black fire, shadowing him to the world, his hair a shock of orange and his eyes a penetrating amber fire.

Marines went after him, and came back terrified, unable to speak of what had scared them so.

His first appearance to world ever, was on a wanted posted. The called him the Guardian. As he always seemed to protect the innocent around him.

After his wanted poster was publicized, he vanished once again, just as quickly as he appeared in the first place.

No trace of him was found after he vanished.

There had been mention. A clue. A rumor. No one knew who started it or where it originated from, but whispers appeared that at the Pirate King's execution, a figure cloaked in black fire stood in the shadows, watching with glowing amber fire eyes stared out of the darkness, locked onto the form of the Pirate King as he started the Great Pirate Era, and died smiling.

Rumor said the figure stood in the shadows a moment longer, enough to hear people start an uproar about Roger's exclamation, before turning and vanishing into mid air.

Nothing else was said about him. No knew rumors. No knew sightings. Nothing.

Until three years after the execution of the Pirate King.

On the anniversary of said notorious pirate, a single figure, a single man, dressed in black fire, a shock of orange hair, and amber eyes, walked into the holy land and stood before the leaders of the world government unafraid, unwavering, and unmoving. And ready for a fight.

From rumor, in fact, it was the leaders who looked more nervous.

No one knew exactly what happened between them, but when that day had ended, the Guardian had his bounty wiped, and had been enlisted as a marine.

In his first two years he hopped around from base to base, assignment to assignment. He gained a reputation of only following the orders he deemed fair. Even going as so far as to let pirates go when they had stood right in front of him.

Yet. He had never been stripped of his position for it.

Scolded and lectured by the higher ups, yes. Relentlessly even. But he remained secure in his position of marine.

The few soldiers who were brave enough to be in his presence more than 10 minutes seemed to notice.. the Guardian seemed to hate being a marine.

He didn't have a set position in rank, but each marine knew he was one of the big leagues, and thus never messed with him for it.

The guy certainly was strong, even if they never saw his true strength, and wasn't afraid of anything in his path. But he wasn't just a mindless brute either.

He was a genius.

It wasn't obvious at first. In fact it took them a full 5 years of his carrier as a marine for anyone to notice that the Guardian was smarter than he let on. He could lead multiple squadrons and platoons of 1000s of marines with no trouble. He could come up with a battle plan, one that would succeed, in a few seconds of calculation once he had all the needed information.

He was.. awe inspiring to several marines who, in turn, strives to become stronger.

Seven years as a marine. That's how long it took for him to find a position that he'd keep.

And once he did. It was one that surprised many, and frightened others.

The Guardian has become the new warden of Impel Down.

The leaders of the world government tried to protest, but the new warden of impel down ignored them.

He kept his new position.

In Impel Down, things started shifting drastically.

Prisoners were still led to a specific floor based on their bounty, prisoners still wore sea stone if they were devil fruit users, and prisoners who acted out where still punished. But everything else was changed. Even the punishment.

Instead of being whipped, boiled alive, or any other form of torture, punishment for acting out was having all privileges taken away, being isolated in a smaller cell with no windows and only one windowless door, and had less rationing of the food.

They were all fed more than one moldy piece of bread a week, almost full meals even if they were a bit sloppy, and given water twice a day.

Fishmen were given water as a privilege or had it taken as a punishment. Since most Fishmen had some form of control over water, but also needed it more often, the average amount they could get a day was 5. If they acted out that number was reduced to two.

That wasn't all.

The red spikes and poisonous spiders were both removed on level one. The wild beasts of level two were all killed or let loose into the wild. The torture conditions of a starvation-like desert where removed. The bodies cleared out and taken away. The burning hell was removed as well. The huge cauldrons of boiling blood cooled, sealed, and shot by a canon into the calm belt for the sea kings to devour. The wolves of the next level, miraculously where tamed by the Guardian himself, and the ice and snow that had built up for decades was melted. Sure the room was colder than a normal room, but compared to what it had been it was like entering into a sauna.

Level six, didn't change too much besides the torturing of prisoners stopping.

Level six was considered the prisoners of extreme danger or insanity. Nothing less.

Overall the prisoners were all treated fairly. Yea they still were in bad conditions, security increased, and were punished if they acted out, but they weren't tortured. Never were tortured.

The biggest thing that changed though, was that every single prisoner of Impel Down personally met the Guardian.

He'd always have a file on them. Telling each of their crimes, and why they were arrested. He'd question them. Why did you do this? Why did you do that? Who are your allies?

It wouldn't matter what you'd answer he'd always know if you were lying or not. At the end of the questioning he'd call you a criminal or a Pirate. Some didn't understand the difference. Other understood all too well.

If you ended up being a genuinely bad person who deserved to be arrested, you would be placed in a cell and told not to expect a chance at freedom again. The others who he called a Pirate, who were good people, had justifiable reasons, who didn't deserve to be forever locked away, at least not in a prison such as impel down, was put into a cell for a certain period of time, determined by how many and what crimes they had, and then were let free with a warning that next time they wouldn't be so lucky.

The marines and leaders of the world government were baffled by this. And infuriated. But they didn't do much about it. They threatened to take his job, lock him up, yelled and lectured at him, but nothing ever changed about the knew warden's method, and everybody else was just too nervous to bring it up.

The higher ups did take precaution though to seemingly protect their own image of power.

No info about the new warden's identity, Impel down's methods changing, or the mercy bestowed on the innocent, and the lesser sentences got out to the public world.

The prisoners released were usually hunted down, as the Guardian couldn't control what happened to them after they set foot outside his prison, and killed. The wiser amongst them kept quiet about Impel Down's metamorphosis, or just made themselves disappear completely. That didn't mean that they stopped being a Pirate. In fact many of them didn't change at all.

When asked by allies what the Guardian was like? Or about anything else inside the infamous prison, they wouldn't say a word about anything, just reply with a misleading comment and a knowing smirk on their face.

It was all so different on the inside than it had been before.

The vice warden was the poison man Magellan, the chief guard was a snake looking man named Hannibal. The government had picked them out and refused the transfer them when the warden had asked.

They were the government's inside men. Dirty workers so to speak.

And those two where what they put their bets on when "Fire Fist" Ace D. Portagus, Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, and the legacy of Roger D. Gol was defeated and turned in by his own previous ally Marshal Teach.