Aftermath

On the Moby Dick, Whitebeard had a weird feeling about this whole situation. He only had two rules on his ship and one was set in stone which was no man shall kill his crew mate, which was already broken by Teach. And his second rule that he personally had for himself was that no one was allowed to touch his crew members. He had hoped that the group that was sent out to find the missing crewmates would come back with them alive. But something told him that was not going to be the case. He cared not for if a power struggle were to happen in the case of a Yonko war, he also did not care for what the consequences would be if a war between two Emperors of the New World happened. If his sons and daughters were not alive, he would gladly tear apart the whole seas for them. That was the type of man Edward Newgate was.

He was sitting in his throne and drinking his sake, patiently waiting. Although he did not need any preparation, mentally, he was slowly preparing himself for the outcome. He was prepared for any loss that were about to come if a war were to break out. His family knew what they were doing and this was not a child's game. However, he also knew that they were known as the strongest crew in the world and having a right hand man in Marco and the man who was once (and still is) known as "Rogers Demon" on his side was quite an advantage. Not only that but his allies and fleet was at a very large number. A number so large that all of them could even challenge the Marines at their own base in Marineford. And to say that he had "allies" within the government as well, such as Monkey D. Garp. And through his youngest son and "left hand man", he had the alliance of the Revolutionary Army as well as the Davy Family. A name that put fear even in the Vinsmoke family.

If a war were to come, he knew they would have the numbers to challenge a Yonko. And that Yonko being Kaido, everyone was needed. Also, he was preparing for the situation of his death. Now, he of course had no intention on dying, he had a son to crown King eventually so he wanted to be alive to that. But if in case he were to die, he was going to make Ace the new captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. Although he was quite new, he knew none of his old sons would want to be captain. And quite frankly, besides Jones and Marco, he didn't know if anyone would be as good as them at being a captain but then the young trio of Ace, Sabo and Luffy came along. And Sabo was of course going to become a member of the Revolutionary Army and Luffy was aiming for Pirate King with his own crew. And that left Ace.

Ace was young and was a hot headed, impulsive and quick minded. Exactly how Roger was when he was younger. And everyday Whitebeard and Jones were always shocked at how similar father and son were. All Ace needed was maturity and more experience and he would have been a great captain of his own crew but he was not going to leave. Not after everything he received since becoming apart of the Whitebeard Pirates. So he was going to be captain. Of course he was going to talk to Marco and Jones first but his mind was made up.

He cleared his thoughts and took a deep breath and exhaled. He looked at the sea and a voice called out to him saying that they had anchored at a nearby island which had belonged to them. They were about a few hours away from where the group was sent to so he was not worried. Their job now was to just stay there until they got back and then leave. He told the crew to go restock on supplies. Even though they didn't need much as they had just recently stopped at an island, he did not know what would happen after the group comes back so he wanted everything in order so that they wouldn't need to make another supply run at least until they got to their own territories.

Marco was leading the way back to the ship as he was in flying above the crew, calling out any enemies that were in the way so that Jones, Thatch and Mika could kill them. Ace and was holding Sabo while Reyna was being held by Luffy and both boys were careful with how they were carrying the two severely injured crewmates and at the same time running so that they would not be left behind as they were being followed at a distance. Almost like the people behind them were leading them towards the ship. Which was expected by everyone, they knew they were headed right into a trap but that did not matter. All they needed to do was to get to the ship and make their way off of this island.

They finally made it to the ship and were correct with their prediction that they were walking right into a trap because the ship was being guarded by the remaining pirates that were still alive. All of them seemed much stronger than the ones that the group had killed throughout their time on the island and were now getting ready for a very big fight.

"Mika, is there a place on the ship where I can put them?" asked Jones

"Yes, I did have the shipwrights make a small infirmary with enough equipment in case if anything went wrong."

"Brilliant." Said Jones and carefully took Reyna and Sabo and placed them on his shoulders "Mika I want you to run to the ship. No one will be able to see you. Marco when I get back, you fly towards the ship and make sure no one goes in." Marco nodded "Mika, as soon as I disappear, you run." and she nodded as well.

The group did not move while being surrounded in a circle. The people who were on the ship had now come off and were joining in on the circle and that's when Jones had disappeared and Mika ran. Since Mika had the speed devil fruit, she was able to run without being seen and no one was fast enough to catch her. And since no one had Haki, they were unable to even feel her presence. She made it to the room before Jones did he appeared a second later and placed the two o them in beds and then disappeared once more.

He reappeared to where the remaining group was and that's when Marco took flight and made it to the deck of the ship and since people were able to see him, some had chased Marco on board and he was now surrounded all by himself.

Jones, Luffy, Ace and Thatch were surrounded by the larger circle but no one was to concerned. They may have been outnumbered but they were Whitebeard Pirates. "Wanna make a bet?" asked Thatch to the group "Most kills win a free meal and losers have to pay?" As soon as he said free meal, Luffy's ears shoot up and they all said yes. "Well then, may be best one win." said Thatch as the opposing pirates had rushed towards the group. "Oh and by the way… No devil fruit abilities." and no one was bothered by that.

"Haki?" asked Jones

"No. Let's make this as 'challenging' as possible."

"You mean more fun for you." said Ace

"Free meal is mine!" says Luffy as they got within arms reach of the group. Jones took out his sword out of its sheath and slit the throats of five enemies with ease. Ace had raw strength but since this was a killing competition, he pulled out his small dagger he took with him and started to attack without any trouble or resistance. Thatch was making heads fly with his two blades as he was just going on a killing spree and having fun while doing so. And for Luffy, since he was at an odd position as he was never really taught how to fight with weapons decided to take a pistol from a dead body (with the help of his devil fruit) and took a sword and started firing and aimlessly slice at enemies, and to everyone's surprise, Luffy was killing enemies down at a high rate.

Back on the ship, Marco was bored with the people he was fighting. He didn't need his weapons as his devil fruit was more than enough. The bright blue wings of his were actually quite deadly if he wanted to attack or defend with them and his talons were enough to rip heads off of bodies. The ships deck was getting all messy due to the blood accumulating from the lifeless bodies of the many pirates that tried to attack Marco.

It didn't take much long until all of the remaining pirates were killed off. The group that made the bet went on a tear and were able to kill off the large circle within a few minutes while Marco had been done defending the ship for a long time and started throwing the dead bodies off of the ship. Once he was done with that, he went inside to the small infirmary and wanted an update from Mika.

"How are they doing yoi?" he asked as he took off his bloodstained shirt and wiped sweat off of his face with his sash that was around his waist.

"I'm treating them as best as I can, but they will live. We need to get back to the Moby so I can properly check them but they are fine for now."

"That's good." he said and exited the room. He made it back on deck and saw Thatch covered in blood but didn't bother asking. He knew it wasn't his blood so he couldn't care less. "Alright well I'm headed to the bath yoi… Ace and Luffy, the two of you clean up the blood on deck and then go take a bath afterwards." and he disappeared inside.

"Alright you bastards, What's your final count?" asked Thatch "Before telling your numbers, I counted 150 dead bodies. If the numbers don't add up I will find out who was lying." He gave the three a stern look "I got 44."

"44." Said Jones

"Killed 32." said Ace

"I uh killed 30…" said Luffy

"What? That's actually a very high number. I wasn't expecting that…" said Ace

"No devil fruit and no Haki… That's pretty impressive considering no one taught you how to use weapons."

"I'll teach you." said Jones looking at the ship and cleaning the blood off of his sword.

"Ah but wait… You and Jones-san tied… What about the free meal?" said Ace

"Ehh we'll give it to you. We tied and you beat Luffy." said Thatch and then he and Jones went off to take a bath as well.

The two boys were left on the deck and while Ace was celebrating, Luffy was mad at his older brother that he had won and started to sulk around by starting to clean up the deck by himself. It was shortly after that Ace had helped Luffy clean.

It didn't take them too long to finish up and by the time they were done, both took off their shirts as they were dirty and had quite a bit of blood on them and made their way to the infirmary to check up on Sabo and Reyna.

Knocking on the door, the two were silent as they waited for Mika to open and give them an update about their conditions. Mika answered and the two quickly noticed that she was tired so the two brothers gave each other a quick look and then started talking "How are they doing?" asked Ace

She exhaled "Well, they are going to live. All we need to do is get back to the Moby quickly so I can treat them better." Both were relieved to hear that they would be fine. She allowed the two of them to come in and see them but they decided not to bother her any longer so they kindly had refused and made their way to the bath as the elder pirates had just finished with theirs and were already out on deck.

The two boys made it to the bath and were finally able to relax. Both were exhausted and couldn't imagine how the others were feeling at this very moment but they could be needed at any point since they were in enemy waters. They quickly washed up, changed into different clothing and made their way on deck.

Marco said that they would be a few hours behind the main ship and just hoped that nothing was to happen to the Moby as well as themselves. They did not want to runt into any more trouble considering the things they had learned.

By dinner time, Thatch had come out of the kitchen and brought out the dinner to the deck. He made a simple meal which was just beef burgers and French fries. He made more than enough so that everyone would be full by the time they were finished and they all had dug in the food very quickly. All of the were very hungry yet no one really said anything until they grabbed their food. All Thatch could do as a chef was nothing but smile at his family enjoying the burgers he made.

During dinner, the three older pirates had a discussion.

"So what do we do about this whole thing?" asked Thatch

"Well Pops will be going for a fight most likely yoi."

"Agreed." Said Jones "But we have to consider everything that can take place. We need to be fully prepared. And I mean FULLY."

"I say we not discuss anything we have in our minds until we go talk to Oyaji." said Thatch

"Why not?" asked Marco with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't against this idea stated by Thatch, he just wanted a reason.

"Well them we'd basically be arguing about things that Pops might like but we completely throw out of the picture."

"He is right on that." said Jones "However, I want your opinions on this, we let Garp know."

"Of course yoi." said Marco

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea. We tell Pops first and then he's the first one we call."

Both nodded. They needed all the help they could get.

The island the Whitebeard Pirates were at currently was peaceful. There weren't any pirates nor were there Marines which was surprising so they went into town and got everything that they needed and more. Whitebeard told them that they should get enough so that they wouldn't have to stop at another island until they got back into their own territory. Which was smart and important.

Walking around the town, Vista and Jozu were walking side by side. Once the people recognized that the pirates at the island were Whitebeard Pirates, the civilians were very friendly with them. No one was scared of them and surprisingly a lot of the store owners that they got supplies from wanted to give them free things but everyone of the Whitebeard Pirates had insisted that they would pay and actually do so.

Walking through the island, Vista had heard something that made his ears twitch but since he did not want to attract any attention to himself, he just walked normally however he had used his Observation Haki to listen in on a certain conversation.

"Yes Commodore Teach, it is as you said."

"Well then, you know what your job is Lafitte." and he hung up

Once the conversation was over, Vista looked at the road ahead and wondered why Blackbeard would be involved in this. He was going to bring this up to Whitebeard once he returned to the ship. But for now, the Whitebeard Pirates were all told to relax for some time when they get finished with their supply run.

He and Jozu had entered a bar and were not surprised at all when they saw the rest of the division commanders at the same place, some were already drinking while others were just sitting and enjoying this little break that they got. Even though they all loved the seas, they did like being on land and roaming around islands. It was just something that they liked to feel.

Back on the main ship, once the phone call from Marco had come through saying that they were on their way back and also informing the captain what had happened, Whitebeard was slightly concerned that two of his family members were severely injured during the rescue mission. Not only that but the missing crew mates were confirmed dead. All the more reason why he wanted to go to war. The one mistake he made as a father was to leave Teach alone after he had killed a newcomer and almost killed Thatch and Luffy. But this time he would not let anything slide. He was furious. He would only be satisfied until Kaido is killed by his own hands.

It was sunset and the weather was still quite warm on the island so everyone was out on deck, enjoying the peaceful and warm night. Even Whitebeard, who was mainly thinking about what was going to happen afterwards was enjoying the night with his family. This was something that the Old Man had wanted. His treasure was his family. From Marco all the way to the newest recruit they had just picked up from this island, Whitebeard was proud of all of them. He loved each son and daughter he picked up along the way of his journey. He closed his eyes and took in the moment that was going on, like he did for all the other times his family was out enjoying the weather and having fun on the ship. It wasn't until late night where everyone had fallen asleep except for him and he got up from his seat and made it to his room.

He sat at his desk and could feel the aura's of Marco and the group getting closer and closer. He stayed in his room for a few minutes until someone outside of the door had knocked. The door had creaked open as it was not shut all the way and he saw the trio of Marco, Thatch and Jones.

He gestured for them to enter and they shut to door fully closed behind them. Thatch sat on the bed and was right beside Marco as he sat down in the chair right in front of the desk. Jones stood by the door and was leaning his back on it.

"So Marco… What is it that you have to discuss with me." he spoke

Marco took a deep breath and exhaled before he started talking.

"So Jack, what of the Whitebeard Pirates?" Kaido spoke through a den den-mushi

"Well they got off the island."

"Good."

"What of Davy Jones?"

"He's with them." Jack replied and that's when Kaido hung up the call.

He looked to his left and saw Big Mom salivating. He knew she always wanted to kill Whitebeard and now was her best chance to do so. They both looked in front of them and saw Blackbeard smiling "Well then… Let's have a war!" he yelled out.

When the trio were done with the talk with Whitebeard, they went into Marco's room and decided to talk it out as many decisions were made as it was still nightfall and everyone was asleep, including Whitebeard.

"First things first, around lunch time, we will tell the rest of the commanders what is going on yoi. Secondly yoi, we have to make sure we get in touch with our allies. I'll do that so don't worry about it."

"I'll call Dragon and my sister. I think I can convincer her to fight with us."

"What's one person going to do?" asked Thatch

"Well technically speaking she is the current head of the Davy family. They'll fight with us if she gives out the word."

"That's actually very helpful. Do we tell Garp?"

"Yes. I'll call him too yoi. We need at least some help on that side so we know what we are going to deal with."

"Alright so now that we got al the calls out of the way, how are we going to prepare for this war?" asked Thatch. "This isn't something as easy as two pirate crews fighting. There are two Emperors, one fuck head and a shit ton of Marines and ordinary pirates as well."

"I'll personally get in touch with Shanks. Though I may need to leave the ship for quite some time for that to happen." said Jones "This war will cause unnecessary death for a lot of people but we can try reducing our casualties."

"Speaking of death…" said Marco "When we were telling Pops the situation and when he was talking to us, did it seem to you that he wouldn't mind dying?"

Both Thatch and Jones looked towards Marco. Both of them had felt like that during the talk but dared not to say anything about it. "I only say that because we all know his health is starting to deteriorate and he legit asked if we would let Ace be captain of the crew in case he was to die."

"I mean this war is pretty big, we all know this. And shit may go down the drain. But I don't think he's ready to die just yet." said Jones. Both men looked at him, remembering that his former captain used to be Gol D Roger. "Roger's last words to me was 'I'm not gonna die, partner' however, he knew his death was coming up and he accepted it. He was dying and after he became Pirate King, there was nothing else for him to do. There wasn't that devilish spark in his eyes anymore since then. That's when Rayleigh-san and I knew that he was content with dying. Pops on the other hand, has to hand over the entire seas to his youngest son. The one child of his going on and doing big things… Of course he wants to see that. He's just being prepared for worse case scenario. Trust me on this" he said all serious. "And plus, while I'm alive, no one and nothing will touch him." The two were reassured with his talk but were still in doubt in their minds. They were not ready to lose their father.

"You know something" Jones said while laughing for a brief moment "You know why they want this war?" he looked at the two and both were silent "You guys do know that Whitebeard knows where and what One Piece is."

"Yes we know that but that doesn't explain much as to why they want to start this war. And plus don't you know what One Piece is?" both said.

"Well yes. And you see here, my idiot captain and Pops were more so friends than rivals. And both trusted each other a lot. I don't know what Roger told Whitebeard in Wano when we all were there, but the one thing I know for sure is that he told them the Will of D."

"We always wondered what that was yoi."

"I'll actually get to that if you want to know… But neither of you tell a living soul. Especially the trio…" He continued with his explanation "But about One Piece, after Roger told Oyaji about it, what did Pops do?"

They thought to themselves for a minute and came up with "Nothing?"

"Exactly. And who do you think stands in the way of people who come to the New World?"

"The Emperors. Oyaji and us?"

"Bingo… Now why would Whitebeard not do anything about One Piece considering he knows everything about it? And I mean everything."

"He's always said that he never wanted any of that. His treasure is us." Thatch replied

"Well yes but if one has to go through the Emperors to get to One Piece, and Whitebeard knows where and what it is, doesn't it look like he's 'defending' it. Or at least waiting for someone worthy?"

The two were still confused "Jheeze you guys are idiots. Roger indirectly told Whitebeard to guard One Piece and to sit right in front of the 'seat' of the Pirate King." Both looked at Jones and they seemed to have more questions than they got answers for but they slowly processed the information in their heads and then started to understand. Since Whitebeard does not want One Piece, all the pirates that do want it need to get past him eventually and since the Yonko are the closest, they might as well go to war with him and start a power struggle where they can take advantage of that situation.

Once Jones had realized that they finally understood the reasoning behind the war, he looked at the ceiling and now said "About the 'Will of D' here's how the story goes. It's a story from long ago…"

Blackbeard, also known as Marshall D. Teach was now back on his own ship and had called the main crew to discuss a few things with them. "It took you all a while to get back from your tasks…"

"Sorry Commodore Teach, I got stuck in the middle of things." said Lafitte "However I was successful."

"Wonderful."

"Burgess you need to be more careful. You could have almost died."

"I wasn't expecting that damn Dog to be that strong."

"Well whatever the case… Whatever happens, we will hide in the back for as long as possible. Let Whitebeard, Kaido and Big Mom kill each other and then we have a clear path. Oh and I will be taking their devil fruits. And once we kill the Yonko, no one will be able to stop us. Not the Marines, not the World Government, and definitely not anyone else. We will become immortal until old age!" and he laughed while his crew was all serious. They knew Teach was a dangerous man and was really difficult to stop right now but if he could get his hands on three powerful devil fruits, he can be already much stronger than he already is and it really would be impossible to stop him. However, none of them were celebrating. Although this plan was quite smart, the only problem to this plan is Whitebeard and Davy Jones. Those two need to die before they are able to do anything.

I'm really sorry but I could jut not get more than 5000 words out for this chapter. I've been extremely busy with school and a few other things and I don't have much time to write out for the story much. However I will be continuing and will finish this and then hopefully start on my next One Piece fanfic. I may or may not upload the first chapter to see the feedback I get from the readers so I know if I should continue it or scrap it. Anyways I do hope you guys enjoyed, and as always please feel free to leave a favorite/follow and leave a review. They are all much appreciated.