Someone asked for Whitebeards' POV, so here it is!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of its characters.

Familial Love – Part One

Edward Newgate had lived a long life for a pirate.

He had seen far too many things – wondrous things, awe-inspiring things, things that clenched the very core of his heart, and things that filled him with rage so great his sight was blinded by a splash of iridescent red and a whirl of darkness – in his life.

Edward had loved, lived, and lost. Had laughed, grieved, and cried.

He had spent his childhood tearing after his right to live. His youth, he had chased after passing dreams. In his adulthood, he had fought for every breath. He had struck and parried and leaped and dodged, summoning whatever strength he had in himself to culminate in blows so frighteningly strong his muscles threatened to tear and his bones to break.

The whispers began when he hit his middle-aged years. He was walking down a crowded street in a quiet village tucked away in one of the many corners of the New World. Poor marine presence. Worryingly high pirate traffic. He was minding his own business, keen to purchase new wares for his run-down ship, maybe add a little life to it. He had, after all, just about left his former crew to fill that hole in his heart that had remained so achingly empty throughout the years. But as life always was, it didn't go according to plan. A deaf-inducing explosion, a burst of dazzling blue flames and the gleam of the brightest sky-blue eyes he had seen later, and Edward was returning to his ship with a new crew mate in tow.

As he left, the whispers rose in the air like the soft roiling wind across calm waters. Newgate…Strongest man in the world.

Strongest.

No one can defeat him.

No one.

Edward Newgate. Strongest man in the world.

It would have been flattering, but Edward never wanted to be the strongest man in the world. He wanted peace. He wanted to be loved. And perhaps his desire for love was so great that he soon amassed a large family like no other on both land and seas. He went from an orphan to a father of so many children even he couldn't believe himself. He couldn't even count the number of times he had to lock himself in his room, his throat closing up on him, as he worked himself into a mess of panic. He was a father. How could those brats suddenly decide to call him that? Which self-respecting brat would do that? A father, father, father, father, father, father… What did that even mean?!

Oyaji! He cut off my hair while I was asleep! Do something!

You're a good Oyaji, yoi.

Oyaji, oyaji, oyaji…

It became easier over the years. He learnt to become the voice of reason (even when his ageing pirate heart berated him for not inciting chaos), the value of fairness (he had had to when his children squabbled over the pettiest of things and demanded he take a side), and to harden and gentle his heart at the same time (it surprised him in its intensity the pain of punishing his adopted children).

And Edward kept on learning. He damaged properties, lied through his skin, and wiped the souls out of his enemies with little remorse. Because on one fateful evening, on the hills of a ravaged island that no longer bore life, he bid his final farewells to two bright, wonderful brats whose greatest crime was to trim his moustache while he slept. Because he realised too late that nothing hurt more than burying the brilliant eyes and crooked smiles of his beloved children. He learnt to protect what was his no matter the cost.

As his family grew, so did concerns that the family was becoming too large. They couldn't protect themselves when so many were so weak. When they relied so terribly on their aging Captain alone. And so his older and stronger children trained hard to protect the ones they too had come to love. They became an extension of Edward himself. They fought with determination in their eyes and familial love in their hearts. Struck down enemies, threats, dangers– all for the sake of love.

The whispers soon changed like the tempestuous winds of the New World.

Strongest man in the world, Edward Newgate.

The family protects their own.

Harm one of them, and you would have harmed all of them.

Edward knew his spreading reputation was not enough. His children still fell. They were then avenged. His mark – that of a father, not of a pirate crew – was plastered on each of his brats. It marked them as his, like a wolf drawing clear territorial boundaries. Cross it and bear the consequences.

But then there were those who did and would be welcomed into the flailing, but welcoming, arms of his family. How could he not when he caught that same well-worn desire for acceptance in strangers across the seas? How could he have turned them away? What if they could have become someone important to him? How many of his children were out there, but had yet to cross paths with him?

Ah. Another thing he had not known to look out for was how soft he became in his older years.

When he stumbled upon lost souls – like that fire brat – whose very eyes screamed for protection and love, he pushed aside his sense of justice and forced his name upon the child. He hardened his heart when the child – when Ace – railed at him for his freedom. He tolerated the attacks, the curses, the desperate attempts to be break free. He didn't even blink when the anger in those striking grey eyes – as sharp and clouded as a coming storm – soon dissipated to gather into tears of frustration.

Edward had lived a long life, after all. The world was cruel and unjust. Corruption, slavery, social inequalities, exploitation, neglect… It was a terrible place to live in. The Marines wouldn't protect the people. Pirates fought for their own self-interests. The Revolutionary Army had a long way to go yet. Nothing was set in stone.

As a father, how could he allow this child to slip through his fingers and rush headfirst into untold suffering? Ace would not stop at him. He would move on to that serpent Kaido or that vain woman Big Mom if he could. They would snuff out the light – those brilliant eyes and crooked smile – out of him, like a puppeteer snapping the ropes of the doll, leaving the once beautiful life melting into tainted shadow.

Like so many of his children, Ace needed a home and a protector. Edward and his capable children would provide it. They would be the shelter, the weapon, and the strength that would give this soul the chance at reprieve.

This was how Edward loved.

And, at his crux of his pirate heart, Whitebeard tore into blood and washed the red off his halberd in protection of this treasure.

To be honest, I'm not fond of writing from his perspective as I'm not good at handling his POV. No idea if this was OOC or not, but hey you asked and I delivered, and that's good enough for me.

Do review!