The Paramount War had reached its final stage. The execution stand had been brought down, Whitebeard had made his final stand and Ace had been freed against all odds by his sister, who he would never be able to call weak again without being reminded of this moment.

Luffy and her first mate were running ahead, with Jimbei in front of them and Ace directly behind, and the girl couldn't smile any wider, even covered in blood and gunpowder as she was. It had been a hopeless plan from the beginning, but she had done it. She stumbled on one of the cracks that littered the ground, but her swordsman was instantly there to catch her; it seemed like nothing would be able to stop them now.

And then Akainu popped up, and started badmouthing Whitebeard and all the headway they had been making went to hell in a handbasket.

Luffy felt her brother turn and tried to copy him but her knees failed her as the exhaustion took over. She had been running for hours, not to mention the being poisoned, doped and repeatedly thrown around part. With salvation literally in front of them, she couldn't help feeling more than a bit annoyed at Ace. The flame logia was not moving an inch, even though there was little to no chance of him surviving, much less actually winning; now that she had finally fallen, the she-captain was just too plain tired to move one way or the other.

There Ace was, completely outmatched but not giving a damn about it, just like ten years ago only now there was no Dadan to save him; though, trying to picture their caretaker taking on an Admiral… on the bright side, Dadan might just grab Ace and they would be back at Mount Corvo before Akainu could say 'pirate scum'. Now, that idea had some merit.

When she caught the glimpse of green out of the corner of her eye, it was like a light-bulb suddenly lit in her head, and she realized that there was one thing she could do that would stop her bull-headed brother from getting himself killed. Without hesitating anymore, she extended her arms to loop them around Zoro's neck and hoist herself up, then looked at her swordsman in the eye.

"The name of this era is—"

Ace froze in the middle of his epic speech, fist still burning and poised to strike. For a moment he looked quite funny, as his brotherly senses went into overdrive and his pride as a Whitebeard pirate battled with another, older pride.

With a stiff jerk Ace turned around, ignoring the rather befuddled admiral who had been looking forward to skewer Roger's brat with a magma fist but now had lost his timing. Against his better judgment, Akainu looked over Ace's shoulder, only to determine if there was some new threat (most definitely not because he was curious, marine admirals didn't do curious).

Hundreds of eyes, both on the battlefield and on those places connected by the last Visual Den Den Mushi followed the second Commander's glare, and were left gaping at the scene. In Sabaody some non-descript reporter cat-called, but he was shushed almost immediately because really, this was supposed to be gloomy and tragic and it was a bloody war after all, caused by the second greatest criminal of the era for the son of the late greatest criminal of the last era so it was not the moment for getting sidetracked.

It didn't stop most of the common folk watching from sort of wishing to be there at the moment in his or her place depending on each person's orientation.

Because in the middle of the aforementioned war and ignoring the marines and pirates, two of the Supernovas were locked in a spectacular kiss, one of those toe-curling kisses that only appear at the very end of the movie and not now when it was definitely Not The Time. From the remaining Den Den Mushi's position, one could even kind of make out Whitebeard's bleeding and dying form, though he was mostly being ignored now that the rookies had broken the mood so thoroughly.

Ace's eyes twitched. Then he gritted his teeth. Ironically enough, the air seemed to get colder for a moment as he glared at the teenagers, who looked back at him as innocently as they could while still wrapped in each other's arms.

"I think we should run."

Luffy giggled, and then she shifted until she was lying comfortably on Zoro's back, which was quite devious as it would prevent her brother from killing her boyfriend. Human shield thus equipped and having successfully prevented Ace from hearing any more of Akainu's goading (though now the flame user's health was being endangered for a completely different reason, as he was getting quite red in the face and starting to fume—literally) the two Straw Hats made a mad dash towards the closest ship.

Seeing them run away seemed to break everyone else out of the daze, as the survivors recovered their voices and resumed their retreat.

"Everyone, run away!"

"Ace is saved!"

"We're leaving this place!"

"No! My sweet, cute, lovely granddaughter is eloping! Do something Sengoku!" Garp moaned from the remains of the execution stand, not bothering to wipe off the blood from his recent encounter with the ground.

"You do realize that to elope they should be at a place they are welcomed to begin with, don't you?" The fleet admiral sighed, because at this point he didn't have any delusions of having things under control, not even his subordinates. Garp was bawling and making even less sense than usual, Tsuru was giggling like the closet fangirl she truly was and he could see that pink-haired recruit of the Vice-Admiral looking so heartbroken that it hurt. Two of his Admirals were already dozing off and the third was still throwing a tantrum and trying to pursue the two Ds, who were not even acknowledging him at this point.

This was one of those times when retirement sounded very good indeed.

Meanwhile Ace had taken off after his wayward sister and her lover threatening to do increasingly creative things with the swordsman's manhood, most of them involving fire, and Akainu was drenched in sea water courtesy of Jimbei and forced to abandon the chase amongst much spluttering and cursing (which fell a bit flat as Ace was now contemplating the various uses of desert sand some feet ahead of him).

This was the greatest flaw in the Straw Hat couple's plan; as at this rate they would have to go aboard the Moby Dick if they wanted to escape Marineford, and then Ace would catch them and make true of his threats. Luckily salvation came in the form of a yellow submarine that had been hidden for a while and a bemused surgeon who seemed to be the only one seeing the humor of the situation.

"Mugiwara-ya!"

Widening her smile, Luffy wrapped her legs around her first-mate and, securing the hat with her left hand, thrust the right hand forward to grab the periscope and rocket them the last few yards just before Ace used his fire powers to catch up. Hearing her brother yelling behind them, she turned her head to shot him a blinding grin.

"See ya Ace! Don't die before I make you an uncle!"

The only answer was a half-choke, half-squeal sound as Ace's brain processed her words and went into shock. Since he had also been running on adrenaline only for a while, he fell like a ragdoll as his brain processes shut down. It was lucky that Marco was nearby and was able to catch the near-catatonic man before he reached the ground, haul him over his shoulder and jump aboard the Moby Dick.

From then on it was complete disarray as some ships submerged, the rest sailed away and by the time the Red Force appeared Marineford had been cleared of all pirates still breathing.

In Moby Dick's deck, Ace was staring blankly ahead while a medic tried to coax him into getting examined. The events would probably leave some emotional trauma behind, yes, but at least he was alive so all in all the plan could be considered a success.