Here we are, at the last chapter. :( I'm sad it's over. And I hope this chapter isn't disappointing because I'm not the best at writing fight scenes. Thanks for everyone who followed it, and I'm you liked it. Some of my current stories are getting close to finishing, so I have to finish writing more! Anyways, enjoy~

"Pops, Teach stopped running," Marco said, holding the newspaper up. Whitebeard raised his eyebrows in surprise. They all expected Teach to keep running and then run out of islands to hide on before they caught him. Marco handed the captain the paper. Marco had already read it, and pirates started to gather around. It was times like this where they really learned that they had lost a sizable amount of the crew because more fit out on deck.

Whitebeard read it aloud to everyone, the commanders in the crowd as well. "'Three days ago, the yonko Blackbeard stopped on an island that had once been under Whitebeard protection, but was taken over by Blackbeard after the formerly-deceased Whitebeard had risen, just like millions of others. The Whitebeards left a message two weeks ago by decimating Blackbeard's base island, leaving a flag there.

"'Since then, Blackbeard has been on the run, until three days ago when the yonko made his own statement. He ravaged an island and it's people that the Whitebeards had long protected. Everyone on that island is now dead, men, women and children. It is clearly a challenge for the Whitebeards. Will this be another Marineford, where the world is in risk of being destroyed?'"

Marco gave a reassuring smile to Pops. "It's not Sphinx," he said. The moment he read that Teach had destroyed an island, his heart began to beat against his ribcage. But the island was not Sphinx. As much as he was saddened and upset that so many people they knew had died, it wasn't Sphinx.

"Well, we have a place to fight now," Jozu said, trying to find something positive in the situation. "Namur, how far from there are we?"

Namur was a navigator, and he knew the path they were taking, which turned out to be the one Teach had chosen. "Two and a half weeks away. We still have a while till we reach there. Hopefully, he will stay there. I wonder what made him stop running. He's a coward at heart," the fishman sneered.

Whitebeard frowned. "It is unfortunate that all those people were killed. We will avenge them and finally take out the cowardly traitor. Our mission will be here soon, and we will win!" The crew cheered in agreement.

The plan they had in place would work. It was outside of the box, and Teach wouldn't expect it. And he wouldn't be able to nullify Ace's important flames because he'd be distracted with a determined true yonko. They were going to strip Teach of that title and show that no one messes with the Whitebeard pirates and gets away with it.

The commanders got back to training. The Whale was not made of Adam's wood, but it held up well with the fighting taking place on deck. It really was fortunate that they got this ship. One more thing to make everything right again. Then, they were back in action and would adventure once more.

Ace had become proficient at armament and observation haki by his pure determination. He really was a good fighter, and Marco was impressed, though not one bit surprised. He had always been fast in learning new skills. Not so much common sense, like when he thought he could get them to let him go after abducting him. Never.

They sailed even more impatiently than before. The whole way there, there was nothing new in the paper about Teach or his allies. Though they had very little allies to call for help from. Even if Teach had his allies, the pirates still outnumbered them and those who weren't commanders would take care of the allied pirates.

Marco could see Ace get more nervous as the days passed. And he was the only one. The other commanders had confidence in their chances of winning. Ace was terrified of losing, and Marco knew that was a bad mindset. So he brought his lover to Pops' room late one night. When they entered he was sitting on his bed.

"Sons, what can I do for you?" Whitebeard asked. Ace looked uncomfortable, so Marco said it.

"Ace is having anxiety over the battle. He's worried we'll lose," Marco explained simply. Ace's cheeks turned pink, and Whitebeard pat his bed for both of them to sit. His bed was massive, so there was plenty of space for all three of them to sit.

Pops took a breath, and then said, "I understand why you are nervous, son. You had a big defeat from him, and learned he killed me. You are afraid of his strength. If you had seen him at Marineford, and how he reacted to me, you would see that he has little confidence in a fight against me. He was cocky, but when it was clear I was still able to hurt him, he was terrified. I mostly died from Akainu and then the barrage of attacks from his crewmembers.

"We know his power now, when neither of us knew it last time. Teach is afraid of death. When I approach him, my figure is death to him. I have confidence in our more experienced fighters. After all, some of our commanders have been pirates for thirty to forty years. We have a lot of experience. Do not be afraid. But don't be cocky.

"I have faith in all of you and myself to right the wrongs," Pops finished emphatically. Ace looked ashamed, and Marco put his hand on Ace's back.

"What if we lose someone? What if one of the bad matchups can't do it?" Ace asked in worry. Pops frowned.

He turned to Marco and asked, "Son, how many people died in the Payback war?" Marco thought for a moment. None of the commanders had died, though Namut got a nasty wound from the woman on the Blackbeard crew. But none of the commanders died.

He answered, "Only four of our lower ranking men and no commanders." Ace looked slightly better at that, but not fully.

Whitebeard turned back to the youngest and said, "So, if they didn't die then, will they die when I'm there? When I'm their inspiration and motivation? And they have two more commanders with them." Ace nodded. Marco kissed his head.

"Why don't you go to bed? It's getting late and we'll be nearing the island in two days. Get lots of sleep, my sons," he said, and wished them goodnight. Marco walked with Ace back to their room a few doors away. Ace undressed and laid in bed, where Marco curled around him, being the big spoon like usual.

He kissed the nape of Ace's neck. "It'll be over soon, and things will be how they were before," he whispered. "Now, sleep." Ace nodded and drifted to sleep, safe in Marco's embrace.

The day they were to fight Teach, the commanders slept almost all of it, and then ate tons of healthy food in preparation for however long the fights would last. They had the plan in detail in their minds, their strategy should work well. It was well thought out and everyone knew Ace could do it.

The Whitebeards all looked forward to this so much. It was their dream come true to have Pops and Ace and Teach back to kill Teach. It wouldn't be long before they were officially a yonko crew again. They would take their rightful place that Teach had stolen. They did grow restless, and itched to battle a real enemy and go all out instead of pulling their punches against one another.

When they reached the island, named Kotatsuno island, which was now devoid of any people, the main ship stayed far out while Moby 2, which had been sailing behind them, brought the commanders and captain to the shore, where they stepped off. The Blackbeard pirates were standing in an open area, glaring or grinning sadistically at the commanders and captaIn.

While the other members looked fine with fighting, it was their captain that looked the most frightened, eyes not leaving Pops. "Now, Ace," Whitebeard said. Ace raised his hands above him and formed a thick and high fire wall around the clearing. Now they were all trapped inside. Ace was able to control his flames to what he wanted to burn. He did not want vegetation or his crew to burn. Only the Blackbeards and Teach. It really was handy, and something Marco was glad he'd practiced it so long. Teach looked surprised, but went to smother the flames with his powers before Pops smashed a hand into the air, knocking Teach off of his feet to land on his butt. He glared at Pops, but Marco saw his face look at the man, and the fear was back.

Pops was in front of the sun, so he looked like a terrifying silhouette. "Kill them!" he shouted, and the commanders ran forward before their enemies did. Marco saw Ace run to his opponent, Jesus Burgess, while his brothers went to their own designated enemy. Ace lifted his arms again and smaller rings of fire formed around each fight. The commanders would be safe in the flames.

Marco wished he could see the whole fight against Teach, but soon he heard shouts and screams and the sound of the air cracking and splitting apart. As Marco battled Shiryu, he heard Pops say, "Everything you have worked for has been erased. I am alive, my power is back, Ace and Thatch are back, your status and crew will be destroyed and then you will die."

When his opponent turned invisible, Marco focused fully on his battle. The man was not hard to catch with his invisibility, but he did have his sword covered in haki. Marco flew up and was able to dodge, using his talon to grab at the former warden. He was sadistic, and smiled the whole way. Which wasn't exactly strange for a pirate.

It was strange, however, that he smiled when Marco scratched out an eye. His devil fruit was useless against Marco, who had advanced haki and enhanced senses. The sword got him, slashing deep into his chest and spraying blood. If he were a logia, he would have been much more hurt. But the second the sword was no longer touching him, the gash healed, leaving no impression of the deep cut.

Shiryu cursed at Marco's ability. It really was the best there was in Marco's opinion. He wasn't one to speak while he fought, staying focused only on killing him. Marco was at an advantage, and was nearest to Pops for this reason. He could hover and not get tripped up by the tremors from Pops using his power. It was working, so his plan on not touching Teach was working.

The moment Shiryu stumbed from the cracks under his feet, Marco took the advantage and clasped the sword and shattered it into three pieces. His sword was useless now. So the man resorted to using fists covered in haki, but he was clearly not well trained in hand to hand. Marco was winning, not that he really expected anything different.

A few punches got in, but Marco finally slashed his talons across his throat, spraying blood. It splattered against his chest. When Shiryu was still standing, Marco latched his left talon onto his head and squeezed hard enough to have part's of his head cave in. Marco dropped down, looking at the dead former-jailer.

He won his fight in fifteen minutes. All of his brothers were still fighting, though he could now look around at them from above. The one having the most trouble was the group against the massive one. Marco didn't interfere with any of the fights, trusting his brothers to do well. So he flew overhead to watch Pops' battle.

Teach was bloody in almost every place. The major flaw of his fruit was that physical attacks still hurt him, so Whitebeard's bisento was the perfect weapon. It was at a distance so Teach couldn't grab the captain and take his power away.

Slash after slash was made, and Teach continuously tried to suck Pops into his darkness, but every time, he made a tremor which would knock the losing yonko around, making him no longer use the black matter.

Teach was very angry, but fear was on his face. He had many very deep wounds. Even someone with a body like his could not take a haki covered blade so big like that. Pops never used his power directly against Teach, knowing from experience that it would be useless. However, he was able to use it just close enough that it would throw Teach off but not touch him.

If he were in Teach's shoes, he'd be terrified, too. The older yonko had a cold, dangerous look on. He was silent as he fought, while Teach started begging to not be killed, that he was Pops' son. It made Marco sick that he'd say such a thing. But Pops did not get emotional or fall for it.

"You are not my son. You are a disgusting traitor, and will be dead in a few moments." Marco turned to look at his brothers, and many of them had defeated their opponent by teamwork. Haruta and Thatch were dancing in circles as their enemy's body burned in Ace's fire. The big one, Sanjuan Wolf was blinded. The pirates had destroyed both of his eyes, and he fell back in the water, finally, making a huge splash that did not douse Ace's flames. He could no longer stand from the affect of water all around him and not just around his legs, and sunk into the ocean due to having a devil fruit.

Vista's opponent was gone as well, and Marco wished he could have watched all of them fight. He looked back to Ace, who had a few bruises, but was mostly unharmed. He had a grin on, an evil one though Marco knew he was just having fun.

Everytime Burgess tried to use a shockwave, it would bypass Ace when he turned into flames. He had his fists covered in armament haki, giving Burgess rapid punches that had him spit out blood. He had huge parts of his body burned badly. Third degree burns that would scar forever if he wasn't going to die.

His clothes were burned away, too. Not completely, but his outfit was ruined. Ace finally won, thirty minutes after starting, and burned all of Burgess's face and head. It was disgusting, and Ace kicked him into the flames for his whole body to burn.

Those who were not matched up well seemed to be doing okay, though Jiru had multiple bullet wounds in his arms. He continued to fight though, and won eventually.

Marco was not the only one in the air, but Izo was holding his sniper, and shooting at Laffitte, who was flying above him, occasionally trying to get close only for Izo to smoothly switch to his pistol and shoot him in a shorter distance.

Finally, the 16th division commander shot just to the side of where the winged man was, predicting his move based on what he'd observed. The bullet went through Laffitte's neck. It caused blood to pour down his front, as his wings reformed into arms and he fell, hitting the ground hard as he bled out. Izo didn't wait for him to die, and tossed him into the flames surrounding him.

Once everyone had won their fight, Marco told Ace he could bring down the flames. All that was left were ashes, blowing away in the wind so they wouldn't be resurrected in case it happened again. All that was left was Teach, who saw the state of his crew, and screamed. He was bleeding out, a puddle of blood soaking around him. Even he couldn't handle blood loss like that. He had a wound that went through his back, clearly all the way through his body.

He was trying to crawl away, and was dying quickly. "Thatch, Ace. Come have your revenge," Whitebeard said darkly. The blade of his bisento was covered in blood. The blood was smearing across the ground as Teach did his best to flee for the last time.

Thatch and Ace stomped over and Ace controlled his burns to lick the inside of Teach's wound, just like what had happened to him years ago. Teach screamed in agony, and Thatch cut off each of his limbs. It was clearly torture, which the Whitebeards usually didn't resort to. But this man deserved it. It was karma for all he had done, and it was damn satisfying.

Whitebeard finally sliced Teach's head off, and their hell was over and misery avenged for good. Ace burned the body for good measure and they put his head on a spike. The pirates cheered, and they heard all the others on The Whale were cheering as well. The commanders, many of them, were tired from the fights, but they had won. All themselves, they didn't need any outside help.

The commanders stared at Teach's body in hateful glee. He was dead, he had paid the price for his sins. And it was the most satisfying death any of them could have asked for. Ace burned into the ground the mark of their jolly roger next to his head on a spike. The world would soon find out what they'd done. And the status would be given back to Pops.

It would be nice if all of the commanders got bounties or in the case of those who already had them, they were raised. Leaving battlefield and Teach's head behind, the commanders happily set out back to the main ship, Marco's arm securely around Ace's waist.

"Told you we'd win," Marco whispered in his ear.

"Yeah. You did," Ace said in a happy voice, relieved that no one had died. "I'm glad my fire helped so much." Marco nodded. It really was their trump card, to trap each mini battle and the winners (the Whitebeards) had been able to use it to dispose of the bodies.

A weight was lifted off of everyone's shoulders, and of course they had the biggest party in many years.

-x-

After the incident, when the marines learned of what had happened, each commander got a bounty, and Ace's raised to 900,000,000, while Marco's rose to over a billion. Pops' was raised another billion. They were all so proud. The status was immediately given back to Pops. He was now a yonko again, and claimed every island Teach had stolen. They would attempt to take back Fishman Island once things settled down more.

Ace still hadn't seen Luffy, still on his adventure. He had no doubt that Luffy and his crew would set out to find Ace. He wanted to apologize to Luffy and give him a big hug.

Three months after the battle with Teach, Marco was acting funny, and Ace was worried something was wrong. It was after they'd stopped on an island to restock, which was more expensive now that the world was struggling with overpopulation and not enough resources. But they still got the supplies. After all, they also looted every marine base or pirate ship they came across.

When Marco and Ace were to go to bed, Marco looked incredibly nervous. "Are you okay?" Ace asked in concern, finally. Marco nodded.

"Ace? Do you want to spend the rest of your life with me?" Marco asked. Ace frowned.

"Of course I do. Did you think I don't want to?" he asked, almost offended. But Marco shook his head, a soft smile on his face. He took a deep breath and got on one knee. Ace's heart was beating painfully fast as his brain told him this wasn't actually happening. There was no way. But then Marco took out a little box and opened it to find a band ring that had blue and red stones on it. It must have been very expensive.

"I know we're pirates, but will you marry me?" Marco asked, voice shaking. Ace didn't respond for a moment. He wanted to say yes, but didn't want Marco to end up taking it back. But, if he was proposing, then he truly wanted to be with Ace forever.

The longer he was silent the more terrified Marco looked. "Y-Yes," Ace whispered, and Marco wore the biggest and brightest grin Ace had ever seen. It even beat Luffy's, which he thought was an impossible feat. Ace's partner - fiance - slid the ring on his finger, and it fit perfectly.

"I measured your finger in your sleep a couple weeks ago," Marco said, and Ace laughed. "I love you so much, Ace. I'm so happy you came back to me."

Ace smiled warmly. "I love you, too. Does this mean we get to live happily ever after?" he joked. Marco stood and hugged him.

"We're pirates, silly. If we want to do that, we're free to sail forever. No regrets, right?" Marco asked, probably remembering what Ace had said on his deathbed.

"No regrets," he replied.

-x- Epilogue -x-

"So, he's dead? Any show that his doing is ending?"

"No, there are no known recorded re-deaths. Looks like it's permanent." They five elders stood around the body of the man had had caused them so much trouble and annoyance for the past year and a half.

"We have to find this devil fruit. If we don't, this could happen again someday under another user. Do we know his motivation? Why hasn't he done this before? He had the fruit for many years."

"Apparently it was to spite the marines. They arrested his son, who died in Impel Down, and so he got back at the world by causing chaos. It's partially due to the marines that this happened."

"Find that fruit. We will not have this happen again."

Regarding the Luffy one-shot. I'm not sure when it will come out, since Wano is making things tricky for me after the last couple of chapters. I'm not gonna say much about it cause I don't want to spoil it, but I just don't know what to do about it. Those who read the manga I'm sure will know what the problem is for me. I'm sorry if it doesn't come out soon since I know everyone wants to see Luffy meet Ace. I just don't want to fuck things over. It might be stupid I wanted to follow the canon time line. I did with Sabo going to the levely (revely) and I want to do the same regarding Luffy. So, please be patient. Anyways, thanks again for reading!