Prologue

"Portgas D. Ace," the man said in a condescending manner. Ace bristled at the tone. He hated Marines and he had a small idea of why this man was here. "It took us years to find you and here you are out in the open, right under out noses and being taken care of by one of our own."

"That stupid ji-ji doesn't take care of me," Ace protested. As much as he hated Garp and his ways he wasn't going to sell out his own grandfather.

"Even so, he knew you were here," the man said. Ace looked at him with pure hate in his eyes. "I'd be happy to just kill you now, however Admiral Sengoku would like you to be brought in alive. I guess he has plans for you boy."

"And you think I'm just gonna let you take me away?" Ace said defiantly, though he knew this man had him backed into a corner.

He was already injured pretty badly from just trying to run away. He knew well that at fourteen he was no match for this vice- admiral in front of him but he also knew he would rather die then allow them to capture him. He wasn't going to spend his life rotting away in Impel Down like these stupid Marines most likely planned.

Taking a fighting stance Ace readied himself for anther attack. He had already made sure that Luffy was well hidden and far away from there, he had nothing to lose in this battle.

At least that's what he had thought back then…

Ace jerked away, a cold sweat covering his body. He had that dream again. It had already been a little over three years since that day. He had thought there was nothing they could take from him, that nothing they did would be worse then rotting in Impel Down. Oh how wrong he had been. They took the one thing he fought so hard to keep. His freedom. They had stripped it from him in the most degrading way possible and there was nothing he could have done to stop it. Sengoku had strapped a bomb collar around his neck, branded him on the back and made him a slave.

With those two simple actions, Ace's freedom was forever out of his reach. The only thing that kept him from losing himself completely was when Garp was allowed to see him and trained him in secret. The old man hadn't given up on him. He told him how Luffy was doing and told him that one day he would get out of this mess. For the first three weeks Garp had done nothing but apologized. For what Ace wasn't exactly sure but he figured it was something to do with him not being able to protect him from the government like he had promised Ace's late father. Gol D. Roger, it was a name Ace was coming to detest more with each passing year. His enslavement after all was due to nothing more then being that cursed man's son.

Sighing Ace got out of bed, which was really just some blankets on the floor, and stretched his aching muscles. Garp had given him a training session the day before and right after Sengoku had made him scrub all the floors in the entire base before he was even allowed to sleep. The man truly enjoyed torturing Ace but he was long used to the chores. That had been all Sengoku had allowed him to do from the time he woke to the time he slept if it wasn't a day he was allowed time with his grandfather. That's how it had been for the first two years. However since he had turned seventeen he noticed some of the soldiers giving him odd looks, ones he wasn't comfortable with at all, but they wouldn't dare touch him, not with Garp giving them death glares every time he noticed someone looking at his grandson with lust filed eyes. But there was one person Garp couldn't stop and Ace shivered at the memories that he tried to suppress. The only other thing there was were the regular beatings, usually handed down by Sengoku himself. They were trying to brake him, force him to lose the will to live but even after all this time they hadn't succeeded. He wasn't sure how long his spirit would hold out however but he knew he needed to find a way out. Ace didn't realize it but that opportunity would present itself very soon.