Banaro Island was a frontier town, reminiscent of the wild west, a place where outlaws drank away their bounties and the law rarely turned its eye. Or rather, it was a frontier town.
Now, the main street was eerily quiet, the dust swirling through broken saloon doors and shattered windows. The townsfolk had fled the moment they felt the shift in the air, the heavy, suffocating pressure of two apex predators entering the same territory.
Sitting on a pile of crates in the center of the dusty street, eating cherry pies with grotesque enthusiasm, was Marshall D. Teach. Blackbeard.
Around him, his crew of misfits—Jesus Burgess, Van Augur, Doc Q, and Lafitte—lounged casually, reveling in the destruction they had caused earlier that morning.
"Zehahaha!" Blackbeard laughed, wiping pie filling from his thick, unkempt beard. "This pie is the best! The cherry filling is just right! A perfect day to be alive, boys!"
"Captain," Van Augur, the sniper, spoke up quietly, his monocle glinting in the midday sun. He raised his incredibly long rifle, Senriku, and aimed it at the roof of the town's hotel. "We have a guest. The temperature just spiked."
Blackbeard paused mid-chew. He looked up.
Standing on the edge of the roof, silhouetted against the glaring sun, was a lone figure.
The heat radiating from the man was palpable, distorting the air around him like a mirage. But it wasn't just the heat that made Blackbeard's eyes widen. It was the sheer physical presence of the man.
Portgas D. Ace had changed.
The last time Teach had seen him on the Moby Dick, Ace had been lean, wiry, and athletic. A teenager growing into his power. But the man standing on the roof now was a titan. His shoulders were impossibly broad, his chest barreled with thick, dense slabs of muscle. He stood taller, his posture straight and imposing. Stripped to the waist, the purple Whitebeard tattoo on his back seemed stretched over a physique that was built for war.
With the dark, unruly hair, the fierce, shadowed eyes, and the imposing, towering musculature... he didn't look like a rookie commander anymore.
He looked exactly like Gol D. Roger.
Blackbeard stood up, dropping his pie. His dark eyes narrowed as he took in the transformation.
"Zehahaha!" Teach bellowed, his voice carrying a mix of genuine surprise and amusement. "Commander Ace! It's been a long time! But... what in the world happened to you? What have they been feeding you on the Moby Dick? You've bulked up like a monster! For a second there, I thought the Pirate King himself had come back from the dead!"
Ace didn't smile. He didn't answer the question.
"Teach," Ace said. His voice was deeper, resonating with a terrifying calm. "I didn't come here to talk about my diet. I came here to ask you a question. Do you know why I've been crossing the ocean looking for you?"
"Come on, Ace!" Blackbeard spread his arms wide, acting innocent. "It was just a little disagreement! Thatch had the fruit, I wanted it! It's the pirate way! Don't hold a grudge!"
Flames licked at Ace's fingertips. The fire wasn't just orange; at its core, it burned a blinding, intense white. The physical enhancements of the Serum had magnified his stamina and cardiovascular output, meaning the fuel for his Devil Fruit was vastly superior to what it had been a year ago.
"You killed a brother," Ace growled, leaping down from the roof. The ground cracked beneath his heavy boots when he landed. "On Whitebeard's ship, that is the one unforgivable sin. I am your Commander. And I am going to capture you, drag you back in chains, and make you answer to Pops."
"Zehahaha! Still so loyal to that old relic!" Blackbeard laughed, though his eyes were sharp. "But listen, Ace! Why fight me? Look at my crew! We're destined for greatness! I have a plan to take over this era! Join me, Ace! Become my right hand! Together, we can take the world!"
"Join you?" Ace scoffed, pulling down the brim of his orange hat. "I'm going to make Whitebeard the Pirate King. I have no interest in your delusions of grandeur, Teach."
"Is that so?" Blackbeard's grin faded into a dark, malicious scowl. "What a shame. I always liked you, Ace."
"Hiken!" (Fire Fist)
Ace didn't wait. He threw his fist forward.
A torrent of flames erupted from his knuckles. But this wasn't the standard Fire Fist. The blast was twice as large and burned with a terrifying, white-hot intensity.
The heat wave flash-fried the wooden buildings on either side of the street.
Blackbeard's eyes bulged. "Whoa! That's hot!"
The blast swallowed Teach and his crew. The explosion leveled half the town, sending a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke into the sky.
When the smoke cleared, Burgess, Augur, and the rest of the crew had scrambled to safety, smoking and singed. But Blackbeard had taken the brunt of it. He was rolling on the ground, patting out the flames on his coat, screaming in agony.
"HOT! IT BURNS! AHHHH! I'M BURNING!" Teach wailed, thrashing in the dirt.
Ace stood tall, watching coldly. "If you think a little fire is going to stop me, you're dead wrong. Get up, Teach."
Teach stopped rolling. The flames on his coat flickered and died. A strange, inky black aura began to seep from his skin, swallowing the residual fire.
He stood up, panting, looking at his burned hands.
"Zehahaha... You've gotten stronger, Ace. That fire is hotter than I remember." Teach extended his hands. The black aura grew, covering his arms like liquid shadow. "But you see... while you were getting stronger, I found it. The ultimate power. The fruit that chose me!"
"Yami Yami no Mi. The Dark-Dark Fruit." Teach declared, the shadows swirling around him, absorbing the very light of the sun. "It is the power of gravity! The power to pull everything in and crush it to nothingness! Black Hole!"
Teach slammed his hands onto the ground.
A sea of absolute darkness spread outward from him like a tidal wave of spilled ink. It covered the streets, the ruined buildings, the debris. The darkness possessed an immense, inescapable gravity. Everything it touched sank into the void, crushed into compression by the infinite weight of the shadows.
"Liberation!"
Teach threw his arms up. The town he had just absorbed was violently expelled, exploding upward in a geyser of pulverized wood, stone, and debris, raining down across the island.
Ace jumped backward, using his flames to propel himself away from the falling debris. His brow furrowed. He destroyed a whole town in seconds... this power is dangerous.
"Zehahaha! What do you think, Ace?!" Teach roared. "My darkness absorbs everything! Even fire!"
Teach held out his hand, aiming it directly at Ace.
"Kurouzu!" (Black Vortex)
A terrifying gravitational pull erupted from Teach's palm. Ace felt his body being yanked forward. He tried to turn into fire, to disperse and escape the pull, but it didn't work. The darkness was dragging his physical body through the air.
"My power doesn't just pull physical objects, Ace!" Teach grinned maliciously as Ace flew helplessly toward him. "It pulls in the Devil's power itself! As long as I touch you, you are nothing but a normal human!"
Teach reeled his other fist back, preparing to deliver a devastating, bone-crushing punch to the now-defenseless Ace. He expected the young commander to panic, to rely on his intangibility and fail.
BAM!
Teach's fist collided with Ace's stomach. The impact echoed like a cannon shot.
Teach smirked, waiting for Ace to cough up blood and fold.
Instead, thanks to the Super Soldier Serum binding his muscle fibers and fortifying his skeletal structure with near-indestructible density, Ace simply absorbed the blow. He grunted, his feet digging into the dirt, but he didn't double over.
Teach's smirk vanished. His eyes widened in sheer disbelief. "What?!"
"My turn," Ace growled.
Since Teach had disabled his Devil Fruit, Ace used the weapon he rarely needed to rely on: his newly enhanced, superhuman body.
Ace twisted his hips, planting his boots firmly in the dirt. He drove a brutal, perfectly executed right hook directly into Blackbeard's jaw.
BAM!
Teach stumbled back, screaming. "GYAAAH! IT HURTS! DAMN IT, THAT HURTS!" Because of the Yami Yami no Mi's curse, he absorbed double the pain of a normal human. Tears welled in his eyes as he clutched his face.
But a second later, the dark aura flared, and Teach stopped stumbling. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his broken smile returning. He hadn't fallen.
"Zehahaha... That's a heavy punch, Ace! It hurts like hell!" Teach laughed, the shadows swirling thicker around him. "But without Haki, raw physical force just sinks into the darkness! I can absorb it! You can't break me!"
---
The duel escalated into a brutal, agonizing test of endurance.
For the next twelve hours, Banaro Island ceased to exist as a habitable landmass. It became a crucible of fire and darkness.
Ace unleashed storms of white-hot flames, but Teach's darkness was absolute. He absorbed the flames, throwing debris back at Ace, and repeatedly using Kurouzu to drag Ace into close-quarters brawls.
It was a grueling, one-sided cycle. Teach would pull Ace in, nullify his fire, and strike him with earth-shattering force. Ace, fortified by the Super Soldier Serum, endured impacts that would have turned any other Logia user to paste.
He countered with everything he had—punches, elbows, kicks packed with inhuman strength—but without Armament Haki, his blows couldn't bypass Teach's strange, pain-absorbing physiology.
Teach screamed in agony with every hit Ace landed, but the darkness always knit his defenses back together. He took the damage and kept moving. Ace was effectively a punching bag, unable to deal lasting injury, relying entirely on his enhanced cellular regeneration and bone density to stay alive as Teach battered him over and over again.
The sun set, painting the sky in blood red.
The moon rose, casting eerie shadows over the battlefield.
And still, Ace took the punishment.
By dawn the next day, Ace was at his limit.
He stood panting, his chest heaving. His hat was gone. He was covered in cuts, bruises, and deep purple welts. His lungs burned. The Serum gave him incredible endurance, but the constant nullification of his Devil Fruit and the sheer physical trauma of Teach's unending blows were taking their toll.
Teach looked battered—his face was swollen, his teeth broken, his coat shredded—but his dark aura was as strong as ever. His eyes burned with greedy ambition.
"Huff... huff... You're tough, Ace," Teach wheezed, wiping blood from his chin. "Any other man would have died hours ago. But you can't keep this up forever. Every time I pull you in, you take damage. And your punches... they're just annoying!"
Ace spat a glob of blood onto the scorched earth.
Teach was right. His physical strength was immense, but striking Teach bare-handed while his powers were nullified meant nothing. He couldn't generate enough raw impact to put the durable monster down for good.
I need more power, Ace thought, his Observation Haki flaring as he anticipated Teach's next move. My fire gets absorbed. My physical strikes just bruise him. I need a hit that shatters his defense entirely.
Ace closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. He remembered a conversation he had with Whitebeard.
"Armament Haki is an invisible armor," Whitebeard had explained, while drinking. "It's your willpower condensed into a physical force. It can hit Logias, yes, but it also amplifies your blunt force to catastrophic levels. You rely on your fruit too much, Ace. When the fire fails, the armor remains."
Ace had never fully grasped Armament Haki. He had focused purely on expanding the destructive capabilities of the Mera Mera no Mi and his Observation.
But now, pushed to the absolute brink, his body battered, his back against the wall, desperation became the catalyst.
"Kurouzu!" Teach roared, extending his hand.
The black vortex erupted. The gravitational pull grabbed Ace once again, dragging him relentlessly through the air toward Teach's waiting, massive fist.
Focus, Ace told himself, the wind roaring in his ears. Don't try to turn into fire. Don't fight the pull. Use it.
Ace channeled every ounce of his remaining willpower, drawing it from his core, down through his shoulder, and into his right fist. He visualized the invisible armor. He demanded it to manifest. He needed it to protect his family. He needed to stop this traitor.
As he flew into Teach's striking range, a shift occurred.
Ace's right fist—which he had pulled back for a counter—suddenly stopped looking like normal flesh. It darkened, taking on a metallic, obsidian sheen.
Teach, expecting another regular physical punch, swung his fist to meet Ace's.
"Die, Ace!" Teach screamed.
"I won't let you touch Pops!" Ace roared.
The two fists collided in mid-air.
But this time, the result was vastly different. Ace's Haki-coated fist, driven by the momentum of Teach's own gravity pull and backed by the Super Soldier Serum's raw horsepower, completely overwhelmed Teach's strike.
KRA-KOOOOM!
The shockwave blasted the remaining ruins of the town into dust.
Teach's arm snapped back with a sickening crunch. Ace's black fist blew past Teach's guard and buried itself deep into Teach's gut.
The Armament Haki bypassed the weird pain-absorption of the Yami Yami no Mi and dealt devastating, concentrated internal damage.
"GUGHHH!" Teach's eyes rolled back into his head. He coughed up a massive spray of blood, the darkness around him violently flickering and dying out as he lost concentration.
Teach was launched backward, tumbling across the rocky terrain like a skipped stone.
Ace landed gracefully on his feet. The black hardening remained on his fists. A fierce, triumphant grin spread across his bloodied face.
I did it. I finally awakened it.
"Now," Ace growled, his Haki flaring as he lunged forward. "Let's see how much you can really take, Teach!"
The real fight had finally begun.
With Armament Haki unlocked, the tide turned instantly. For the next several minutes, Ace dominated. He moved faster, hitting harder, his black fists tearing through Teach's darkness and dealing genuine, lasting damage. Teach frantically tried to absorb the blows, but the Haki shattered his defenses.
Teach hit a boulder, shattering it, and lay in the rubble, barely conscious.
"It's over, Teach," Ace declared. He raised his hands above his head, preparing to end it. He gathered his heat, creating a localized Dai Enkai: Entei (Great Flame Command: Flame Emperor). But this time, he mentally projected his newly awakened Armament Haki into the core of the fire, creating a dense, inescapable sphere of destruction to completely incapacitate the rest of the crew and secure the traitor.
He gathered the heat, the massive sphere forming above him. His Observation Haki was entirely focused on Teach, making sure the man didn't get up.
That was his mistake.
BANG.
From the ruins to his far right, a gunshot rang out.
Ace, unable to turn into fire while concentrating on the massive sphere, instinctively tried to dodge. But he was exhausted. The bullet—a specially crafted Seastone round fired by Van Augur from over a mile away—grazed his knee.
"Gah!" Ace stumbled, his leg instantly going numb from the Seastone contact. The massive fireball above him flickered and destabilized.
"NOW, BURGESS!" Lafitte's voice shrieked from the shadows.
From directly behind Ace, dropping from a ruined clocktower in his blind spot, came Jesus Burgess. The massive brawler wasn't just throwing a punch. He was holding a colossal, ten-ton slab of solid stone foundation that he had ripped from the ground.
"WEEHAHAHA! TAKE THIS!"
Ace tried to turn, trying to coat his back in Haki, but the Seastone graze had disrupted his focus and sapped his energy.
The ten-ton slab of stone smashed directly into the back of Ace's head and spine.
CRASH.
The impact was catastrophic. Even with the Super Soldier Serum, the sheer weight of the ambush, combined with the sudden weakness from the Seastone, was too much.
Ace's vision exploded into white light, then faded to a dizzying gray. He collapsed into the dirt, the sphere of fire above him dissipating into harmless sparks.
Through his fading consciousness, he saw Teach pulling himself out of the rubble, spitting blood, but grinning a horrifying, broken-toothed smile.
"Zehahaha... Good shot, Augur. Good smash, Burgess." Teach limped forward, darkness swirling in his hand once more. "He almost had me. The brat learned Haki. But in a real pirate fight... there are no rules."
Teach raised his hand, gathering a concentrated ball of crushing gravity.
"Sleep, Commander."
Teach brought his hand down on Ace's head.
The world went completely black.
The Open Sea - The Next Day
The sound of seagulls and the rhythmic splashing of waves against wood slowly pierced through the veil of unconsciousness.
Ace groaned. His head felt like it had been split open with an axe. He tried to reach up to rub his temples, but his arms wouldn't move.
He blinked his eyes open, fighting against the blinding glare of the afternoon sun.
He was sitting on a massive, crudely built log raft. He tried to move his legs, but they were bound tight. He looked down at his wrists. Heavy, thick cuffs made of solid Seastone locked his hands to a massive iron ring embedded in the raft's mast.
The Seastone was doing its job. It drained his energy constantly, suppressing his Devil Fruit.
"Ah. Sleeping Beauty awakes."
Ace looked up.
Sitting on a barrel a few feet away, nursing a bottle of rum, was Blackbeard. He was wrapped in bandages, his jaw visibly swollen and wired shut in places, but he was grinning his infuriating grin.
"Teach," Ace growled, straining against the chains. The metal clinked loudly, but didn't give an inch.
"Don't bother struggling, Ace," Teach laughed, though he winced slightly as it pulled on his broken jaw. "Those are Marine-grade Seastone cuffs. You're not going anywhere. And I gotta say... taking you down was the hardest fight of my life. You're a monster, Ace."
"Untie me," Ace hissed, his eyes burning with hatred. "Let's finish this man to man."
"Zehahaha! No thanks. I already won," Teach took a swig of rum. "You almost ruined my grand plan, you know. But in the end... you actually made it better."
"What plan?" Ace asked, his voice rough.
"I was originally going to hunt down that rookie," Teach revealed, leaning forward. "Monkey D. Luffy, and hand him over to the World Government. His bounty recently just shot up to a hundred million, you know." (Marines didn't update Straw hat crew bounties.)
Ace's heart skipped a beat at the mention of his little brother, but he kept his face impassive.
"But then," Teach grinned widely, "you showed up. The Second Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. The son of Gol D. Roger."
Ace froze. The blood drained from his face. He knows?
"Oh, don't look so surprised, Ace. I was on the ship for decades. I hear things. I see things," Teach chuckled darkly. "The Government wants a big name to fill the empty seat in the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Luffy would have been good. But you? You are the ultimate prize."
Teach stood up, walking to the edge of the raft, looking out toward the horizon.
"I'm going to hand you over to the Marines, Ace," Teach declared. "In exchange, they will grant me the title of Warlord. With that title, I can access places the Navy protects. I can build my real crew. I can become the King of the World!"
Ace stared at Teach's broad back.
The reality of the situation crashed down on him like a tidal wave, far heavier than the Seastone chains.
If Teach handed him over to the Marines... they would execute him. They would make a public spectacle of it. They would announce his lineage to the world to prove they had extinguished the Pirate King's bloodline.
And if they did that...
Pops. Whitebeard wouldn't just sit by. Whitebeard would summon the entire fleet. He would march on Marine Headquarters. It would be a war unlike anything the world had seen in decades. Thousands of his brothers would die. The old man, who was already sick and relying on life support, would tear the world apart to save him, and it would cost him his life.
No, Ace thought, panic finally setting in. No, no, no. I can't let that happen. I ignored Pops' warning. I came after Teach on my own. I can't let my stubbornness drag my family into a slaughterhouse.
Teach tossed his empty bottle into the sea and turned to his crewmate, Lafitte. "I'm going to rest these broken ribs. Keep an eye on the prisoner. We reach the Marine rendezvous point tomorrow."
"Yes, Captain," Lafitte tipped his hat.
Teach descended into the small cabin built into the raft. Lafitte took the helm, focusing on navigating the unpredictable currents.
Ace was left alone, chained to the mast.
He pulled at the chains again. Useless. His muscles strained, but without his full energy.
He hung his head in despair. He was trapped. He was going to start a war that would end his family.
Think, Ace. Think! His mind raced. He had no fire. He had no strength. He had no allies here.
Then, his chest brushed against the cold metal of his chains.
Wait. Not the chains.
Tucked safely beneath his shirt, resting against his collarbone on a simple leather cord, was a small, unassuming metal locket.
Ben.
The memory flooded back. Alabasta. The blazing desert sun. Ben handing him the serum, and then tossing him the locket.
"This is a Portkey. If you are ever in a situation where you are absolutely, undeniably going to die or be captured by someone you can't beat... hold it in your hand and say the words 'Take me to Merry'."
"It's an emergency escape hatch. Don't lose it."
Ace's heart hammered in his chest. A Portkey. Magic.
It wasn't a Devil Fruit ability. Ben had explicitly told him it ran on an entirely different system of power. The Seastone drained his physical stamina and locked his flames, but would it stop Ben's magic?
He had to try. But as his fingers tightened around the cold metal, a powerful, visceral wave of revulsion washed over him.
Run away?
The blood of Gol D. Roger screamed in his veins. He was Portgas D. Ace. He never ran. Since he was a child, he had sworn to never turn his back on an enemy. Running meant giving up. Running was the coward's way out. Every instinct he possessed told him to stay, to fight until the chains broke or his body gave out.
He gritted his teeth, his grip on the locket loosening.
But if I stay... Pops will go to war for me. And he will die.
Ace closed his eyes. He dug deep into his memories, pushing past the fierce, unyielding pride that defined him.
He remembered a burning ship, and a top hat floating in the wreckage. Sabo. He remembered the promise he had made to a crying, rubber boy in the forest so many years ago: "Listen to me, Luffy! I will never die! I'll never leave a weak little brother like you behind!"
He thought of Wano. He thought of Otama, her small face lighting up with a brilliant smile as she ate real rice for the first time, waiting loyally by the shore for him to return and take her to sea.
He thought of Yamato, chained to Onigashima, reading Oden's journal and waiting for the dawn they had promised to bring to the world together.
If I die here out of stubborn pride... I'm the one betraying them. I'm the one causing them pain.
His pride was heavy, but the weight of his family's love, the promises he had made to those waiting for him, was heavier. He deliberately chose them over his own ego. He wouldn't let Teach use him as bait to destroy Whitebeard.
Ace shifted his body, ignoring the scrape of the heavy iron cuffs against his wrists. Because his hands were chained together in front of him, he had just enough leeway to reach his own chest.
Slowly, carefully, keeping an eye on Lafitte who was busy adjusting the sails, Ace slipped his chained fingers into his unbuttoned shirt.
His fingertips brushed the cold metal of the locket. He gripped it tightly in his palm, crushing his pride along with it.
He brought his bound hands, and the locket, as close to his mouth as the chains would allow.
He took a deep breath.
"Take me to Merry," Ace whispered.
For a terrible, agonizing second, nothing happened. The waves splashed. The seagulls cried. Ace thought the Seastone had nullified the magic. He thought he was doomed.
Then, he felt it.
It started as an uncomfortable, sharp jerk behind his navel, as if an invisible hook had snagged him from the inside out.
The world around him—the wooden raft, the bright sky, Lafitte's back—suddenly blurred and stretched into a violently spinning vortex of color and sound. The wind roared in his ears with hurricane force. The sickening sensation of being pulled through a tube far too small for his body overwhelmed his senses.
He was flying. He was falling. He was nowhere.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, the spinning stopped.
The hard, uncomfortable wood of the raft's mast vanished from behind his back. The smell of the open sea was replaced by the scent of fresh cut grass, gunpowder, and... tangerines?
Gravity reasserted itself with a vengeance.
THUD.
Ace slammed hard onto a grassy surface, his Seastone chains clanking loudly against the ground.
He gasped for air, his vision swimming as he tried to orient himself. He was no longer on the raft. The blinding sun was gone, replaced by a softer, artificial light and the starry night sky.
He blinked, his eyes adjusting.
He was lying on the deck of a ship. But not just any ship. He recognized the shape of the mast, the peculiar grassy deck, the distinct hum of incredible technology hiding beneath the wood.
Ace had a weak, exhausted smile breaking across his bruised face.
He had made it. He was on the Going Merry.