I can explain!

Disclaimer: Is One Piece mine? Never. This? Totally.

What's the Situation?

Meeting Room, Flagship of the Whitebeard Pirates, New World, 10 AM

Fourteen Whitebeard Commanders were quietly sitting at the long table, undergoing their monthly meeting.

Seated at the head of the table was their infamous Captain and Father, a massive man that had been quite the headache inducing catalyst for the World Government in his youth. Now, though aged, he, and his crew were still people that were revered and feared.

And for good reason.

The man presiding over the meeting, however, wasn't the towering Captain, who much more preoccupied with his tankard and quite happy with simply listening to his sons undergo the proceedings.

It was the man sitting to his right that led the meeting.

"My division has been good." Atmos reported.

"Same for mine. We just had an issue with the furniture in a few of the barracks. The bolts loosened when we were tossed around in the storm." Fossa bit down on his cigar.

"Blamenco, yoi, work it out with him." Marco the Phoenix, likely the strongest on the crew after its Captain, as well as impromptu first mate of the crew ordered.

"Sure." Blamenco affirmed.

"Izo?"

"The 16th division is fine." He replied, smoothing down his kimono.

"Aside from that… Kingdew, your division will be responsible for forming a team and checking out the situation on Foodvalten. They've sent out a distress call, yoi."

"Roger. I'll lead the team myself."

"That's fine. As for our islands in Paradise… We haven't sent anyone to take a look for some time. Thatch, can your division handle that, yoi?"

"No problem!" Thatch replied cheerily. "When do we set out?"

"It isn't particularly urgent, yoi."

"Then I'll wait for Jiru to return before leaving."

"Good. And Ace, how has your division been, yoi?"

"Decent. That last battle with Kaido caught us off guard, but we've pretty much recovered."

"Alright. Vista, are the funds still sufficient?"

"We're still going strong! We still haven't finished using what Namur and his division brought back from their haul. I also took the opportunity to replenish our reserves."

"That… should be pretty much everything, yoi." Marco skimmed through his notes. "Alright, everyone can go and do whatever they need to do, yoi. Kingdew, Thatch, I'll brief you on your respective missions."

In twos and threes, the rest of the Commanders filed out of the spacious meeting room.

Main Deck, ten minutes later

"My, my, the Revolutionary Army has certainly been on a roll recently." Izo commented as he read from the paper in his hands. "This is the second island they've liberated this year. Just a few months ago, they declared victory on an island in Paradise."

"Hmmm?"

"This time, it's an island in South Blue, called Centaurea. Have you heard of it?"

"Nope. I've never been to South Blue before." Haruta replied. "You could try asking Curiel."

"If I remember to later." Izo agreed. "And despite all of this chaos, the Marines still haven't made any movements except continuing to spread their propaganda. It's as if they aren't worried... Whatever, this is their headache. I just hope that the Revolutionaries aren't planning on ripping off all pretenses anytime soon… things have been tense enough recently."

"Regardless, It has nothing to do with us. As long as no one bothers us, we won't go out of our way to pick a fight." Haruta said dismissively. "What I think we should be worrying about right now is Ace."

"Ace?"
"Haven't you noticed? He's been acting a little strange recently." Haruta questioned.

"He has certainly been a little off." Vista joined the conversation.

"I haven't noticed anything, so if you could clarify the situation…" Curiel raised his eyebrows.

"Same." Izo agreed.

"Well, it's all the small things, but I'll summarize for you!" Haruta said cheerfully. "The first thing that you should have noticed is that he's been waking up early in the past few days. Like, really early. In the past, you don't see him until around nine or so. And that's on a good day."

"And, so?" Izo naturally wouldn't notice such a fact because he was also a late riser.

"Then, after careful observation, I noticed the reason he was getting up so early every day was because he wanted to read the newspaper."

"Okaaaaay, I believed you on the first one, but seriously?" Curiel asked dubiously. "Since when has Ace developed a habit of reading the news?"
"That's right!"

"And I happened to notice that there's been a few rather strange new additions to the clutter in his room." Vista added. "I'm certain that I saw a pipe somewhere."
"Wait, a pipe?" Blamenco, who was passing by, paused. "You said you found my missing pipes? Where did you find them? My division wanted to do repairs yesterday, only to find that our supply of pipes has… dwindled. It's been a real problem for us to find them, because nobody knew why anyone would take them."

"And, when we docked two weeks ago, I think Ace had someone commission his vivre card!" Fossa added. "I didn't think much of it at the time, but thinking back… Ace wouldn't make it for no reason, and vivre cards are definitely a big risk if they fall into the wrong hands."
"You're right, Ace has been acting unusual lately. Now, one question remains, why? Did something happen?"

"No. Ace is from East Blue, right? Everything's been normal." Vista mused.

"And Ace seems to have been in a great mood recently. Even better than normal."

"That… is true."
"But this doesn't add up!" Haruta frowned.
"Let's just go and ask him about it."

"Shouldn't we ask Pops first? Or Marco. They might know something."
"Who are we asking again?" Thatch questioned. "And why are all of you gathered around here?"
"Where's Marco and Pops?"
"Marco's still speaking to Kingdew. Pops should be with them. Why?"
"Well… we might have a problem on our hands."

"..."

"... And that is why we think Ace is being bothered by something!"

"Wait, what?" Thatch listened as Haruta summarized their conversation.

"Yup, that's it!"

"Hmmm… now that I think about it, your words do make sense! Ace hasn't come to talk to me for quite some time! I just thought he was busy lately… we definitely need to talk to Pops about this!" Thatch declared.

"Why didn't you mention this in the meeting, Haruta?"
"It could have been a minor thing…" Haruta sulked. "I didn't think that things were that drastic. And besides, it might be a private matter. I couldn't have just announced it in front of everyone."

The group of Commanders made their way back to the meeting room.

"It seems like we were too slow." Vista said as he opened the door of the empty room.

"Maybe Marco's in his room."
"What about Pops?"

"They might be in Pop's room."
"Shouldn't we grab Ace, too? And the other Commanders?"

"Everyone, shut up!" Haruta shouted. "Here's what we're going to do- I will search for Marco in his room. Vista, you search Pop's room. Thatch, you get Ace. Someone try to find Kingdew, Jozu, Atmos and Namur. Everyone will meet back here in ten minutes. Are we good?"
When he heard the mutters of assent, Haruta said, "Alright, then let's get to it!"

Yep, so people must be wondering, why the hell are you starting another story that will probably drag on forever and ever, just like the one you are currently working on, when we all know the problems you have with updating on time?

Err... Well, I was being plagued with this, it was even appearing in my dreams, so... Yeah...

I'll give you a brief explanation on this, since it might not seem too clear at the moment.

Oda never gave us a particular date as to when Thatch finds his fruit, and when everything becomes a mess. Since Ace did meet Luffy's crew at Alabasta, we can estimate. Or rather, I'll estimate that Thatch finds his fruit around the time when Luffy sets sail. Well, he does in canon, but he won't here, because of a certain sleep deprived Almighty currently typing on a keyboard. And then everything changes, because Teach's betrayal causes far more than just the Battle at Marineford. Not to make it sound unimportant, but things like the breakout from Impel Down with members of the Revolutionary Army, the two year timeskip, a new fleet admiral and new admiral, Jinbe turning to Big Mom for protection for Fishman Island... All of these things will have to change, one way or another. While I can't promise some things won't be similar to canon, you can see how much I need to change.

This chapter is relatively short, the chapters will get longer as we go.

One last question for you all: you do know what's going on, right?

Please don't be stingy with your reviews! :)