Final chapter! Probably!

Edit: I don't know where the fight scene came from. It was unintentional and probably very bad. Enjoy!

Previously...

That question was sorted quickly enough by the appearance of Marco, who was leaning against the doorframe.

"Clean the deck by seven -yoi," and walked out again. What a load of help that was.

"Uh, Marco? How do I get down? Marco? MARCOOO! ANYONE?"

—x—

There was a suspicious absence of... well, anyone as Ace jumped onto the Card Deck. Maybe they were all asleep? No, his haki was picking up their signatures more clearly than if they were. Hmm...

As he walked through to the galley, he heard voices coming through the door of the meeting room. Why they had one of those, he didn't know. Deuce probably wanted it for some reason.

"... I dunno. I like them, but join? Maybe not. We'd have to spend a bit longer in their company first," came the voice of one of his crewmates, most likely Alice.

"Well, here's our problem. Ace is too kind. If he thinks we are unhappy, he'll sacrifice his own happiness for us! So, if we have one more day of deliberation, see how we like them then. If you still don't like them, sail off! Leave at the next island! I don't care! Do what you fucking want, 'cause the Spades are staying right here!" Deuce finished off his speech, and was met with a resounding yell of 'AYE!'.

Ace was torn between gate-crashing or just walking away, satisfied with his first mate's public speaking skills. He decided on gate-crashing.

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Deuce. Except the me being too kind part. That is the correct amount of kindness to have as captain!" Everyone looked shocked at his sudden appearance, and so he laughed at them.

"Hey, I overheard you guys. You were kinda loud, don't look so surprised! Anyway, Deuce is right. I'm staying here, so if you wanna leave after a day, go for it!" He then sauntered back out the door to go to sleep, leaving his shell-shocked crew behind him.

—x—

(The next day)

Marco sighed a huge sigh of relief. The truth serum had worn off. Finally! He could go about his day without anyone hearing his thoughts.

The first thing he did was go and eat breakfast. It wasn't prepared by Thatch, who had decided that if no-one was going to help him, he should just go to sleep and see if anyone cared. No-one had, so after this Marco was going to get him down. Just him though. The rest of his stuff could suffer, as the pink hadn't entirely disappeared from Marco's walls yet.

He was genuinely annoyed that the galley had been transformed into a food fight. He walked in, grabbed some food and piled it on a plate, then flew up to the highest crow's nest.

After laying there doing nothing for an hour, he decided it was a good idea to get Thatch, just to see how annoyed he got with the state of the galley. He was going for Thatch being either pissed or joining in.

He positioned a mattress and some duvets underneath the unconscious man, and flew up to get rid of the tape. A few quick slices from his talons and Thatch was awake and on the right side of the floor.

"Oww... Marco! How mean!"

"I got you down, didn't I -yoi? The time is 10:01 am. If you're lucky there may still be breakfast, though with Ace and his crew around I doubt it -yoi." He omitted the food fight, as he wanted to see Thatch's reaction.

Thatch's eyes widened, and he sprinted for the galley. Marco chuckled, and followed behind at a more relaxed pace. A few seconds later, he heard an aggravated roar. It seemed Thatch was the first option.

—x—

Ace strolled over to where Whitebeard was seated on his... seat? Throne? Massive chair? Whatever.

"Hello my son, how are you today?" Whitebeard greeted cheerfully.

"I'm good thanks, just got something on my mind. Say, you got any good stories about when the Whitebeard Pirates were newer?"

"I have quite a few, I must say. Do you want an exciting one, a funny one, an embarrassing one, or a mix?"

"Umm… a mix please!"

"Right, well. Back when the crew was a lot smaller, we came across a land filled with volcanoes…"

And so most of the Whitebeards and Spades were dragged into an impromptu storytime, taking up most of the morning.

—x—

Deuce sighed as he dodged a slash from Vista and another from Alice. Most of both crews had got into a training fight, one team against the other, and somehow it had turned into an every man for themselves situation.

He parried one of Thatch's blades, and narrowly missed a hit from Tori's taser. Why did that guy even own one of those?

He could see Marco and Whitebeard off to the side, laughing at everyone else's misfortune. How fucking dare they? He ducked as one of the Whitebeards was sent over the sides by a powerful uppercut from somewhere and started on the warpath towards the captain and first mate.

At some point, someone managed to get a hit in, but he continued.

"Spades! Arrowhead formation, on the Phoenix!" At once, everyone on the Spades snapped into formation, and charged Marco from either side.

Deuce smirked. Ace may be captain, but he wasn't as effective at this whole 'teamwork' thing as Deuce was, so in battle Deuce was in charge. If Ace called, the Spades wouldn't act as quickly.

Marco was now battling 9 to one, and was somehow still getting the upper hand. That just went to show how good the first mate of the Whitebeard Pirates was.

"Ace! Get your godforsaken ass over here and help us out! We can't beat him!" He yelled over to his captain, who was lounging around on the upper deck.

"Fine, fine!" Ace yelled, and vaulted over the railing. "Fore!" And let loose a golf-ball-sized ball of fire towards Marco's head.

"Hey! Marco! Fight me!"

"Sure, are we using devil fruits -yoi?" Marco asked, while fastening something to his anklet-thing. It looked like a second band, maybe to keep it in place?

"Yup! You're going down, old man!" The Spades groaned at how bad their captain's sense of self-preservation was.

"Good luck with that one -yoi! This ain't my first rodeo, kid!" Marco smirked as everyone cleared the area to let the two fire-users battle.

Ace threw the first punch, quite literally as he released a hiken towards Marco. Marco seemed to have resolved that his question meant that Ace and Ace only was using his devil fruit, as he jumped over the flames and proceeded to run towards Ace, instead of flying, which really would've been more efficient.

Ace sent out a wave of hotarubi to cover the area they were fighting in, and as Marco got close to each one, ignited it. What was strange was that Marco had chosen to forgo healing himself in favour of running up to Ace, jumping, and kicking the fire-man in the face.

Sandal hit nose with a crunch, but Ace didn't show any signs of stopping the fight, instead giving Marco a fiery uppercut. Marco jumped up again, over the top of Ace, kicking him in the middle of his back.

Ace kicked up with one leg as he fell, but Marco seemed to move away before it had happened. Ace rolled, and shot another hiken, Marco again dodging, but by less this time, as the flames seared off the end of part of his hair. And his healing flames still didn't appear. What was up with Marco?

The two were facing off against each other again, and Deuce swore he could hear money being passed around behind him. A betting ring? Of course. They were pirates after all.

Ace, realising his fire power wasn't really helping his cause, switched to coming in close and punching. Marco dodged most easily, but a few found their way through his iron defence, catching him in the gut. Each time he seemed slightly offended by the pain, but kept his guard (mostly) up.

After about 2 minutes, Ace began to get cocky, and started adding fire to his punches. When that happened, Marco sidestepped Ace, and elbowed him in the side, almost too quick to see, let alone react to.

Ace, who had been in the punching stance taught by the marines (Deuce knew the story behind that one, thank you very much) toppled over. He softened his landing and ended up on his back, where he was pinned by Marco.

"You'll have to do better than that, brat -yoi! Better luck next time!" Marco smirked. Deuce found that smirk annoying, he could only imagine how Ace felt with it being in his face.

Marco got off Ace, took the band off his band, chucked it on the floor, and erupted in blue flame. Oh, so that's what the band was: really weak kairoseki. Sort of unfair on Ace, another hard blow on his pride. Ace was still going to stay though, with an added thing on his list: beat Marco.

"Better luck next time captain!" He yelled. Ace groaned at him, and he took that as a good sign.

—x—

Dinner was served, nothing of note happened (unless you count the 5th and 6th divisions ganging up on their commanders and pouring mash on their heads), and Ace called his crew over to the Card Deck.

"So, you've had a day. All those in favour of staying, to your left. All those who want to leave, to your right!" Most of the crew moved to Ace's right, which was a promising sign. The few on his left were newer to the crew, so he could understand why they wanted to leave.

"Ok, those who voted leave, there is an island about half a day away from here. I'll tow you there tomorrow morning, okay?" The leavers nodded, content with that. "As for the remainers, I'm gonna go and ask Whitebeard to joing his crew, come with me!"

—x—

Whitebeard was sitting on his chair, when he felt Ace and a large number of his crewmates coming towards him.

"Hey Whitebeard!" Ace said, seemingly the spokesperson.

He smiled down at his the assembled crowd, "Hello sons, how was your day today?"

"It was pretty good! I've got to train much harder to equal Marco even without his devil fruit. But anyway, is the offer to join your crew still open, and can I bring these guys," he gestured behind him," along with me?"

"Guarara, of course my sons! Welcome to the Whitebeard Pirates!"

—x—

That is it! Done! Finito! This is actually the first multi-chapter fic I've ever finished!

Thank you to everyone who followed, favourited and/or reviewed!

I may end up doing a one-shot series for this, we'll see!

Bye!