Warning: SPOILERS for non-manga followers! You'll be spoilt if you know nothing about the events of the Marineford War.

More Warnings: Future updates may be irregular since current plot outline in my head is still vague and the quality may vary from bad to very bad. Grammar, plot holes and spelling errors shall be inevitable but all are welcome to correct.

Disclaimer: This is all respectfully borrowed from Oda's genius.

Take by Storm

Prologue

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Marine Supreme Commander Sengoku spat out a mouthful of blood and looked down bitterly at the bloody form laying limply where Fire-fist Ace had been kneeling mere hours ago. There was not a single spot of unbroken skin left on the boy and he looked more like a discarded, shattered doll than the infamously outrageous pirate, Mugiwara Luffy.

Outrageous he definitely was…Challenging the world government at Enies Lobby, attacking a world noble at Shabondy and taking on the entire Royal Marine at their very own headquarters. What a complete fool of unthinkable proportions. The sort of fool that had just messed up his perfect plan and changed the course of history. The sort of fool that he absolutely detests.

They had lost Whitebeard; they had lost all those convicts from Impel Down; they had even lost Fire-fist Ace, though he had been locked and bolted right under their noses, guarded by the greatest of military forces. They had all but lost the most important war in recent history because of this unforeseen wild card: A fledging pirate who was just beginning to make a name for himself in the big leagues.

It's hard to imagine that the person laying at his feet now, so quiet and lifeless, had been capable of the tremendous explosion of power and strength he displayed at that crucial moment earlier in time. Mugiwara Luffy's sudden burst of incredible haki, accompanied by an unstoppable flurry of fists, had taken both him and Admiral Akainu down—partly by force, partly by pure surprise.

Not for long, but still long enough for him to reach his brother, throw him off the execution platform into the waiting arms of his comrades and collapse in his place.

Mission complete, the Whitebeard pirates and other invaders had no further intention to fight out this battle which had already cost them too much. More than two-thirds of their forces were in no condition to continue fighting and even Whitebeard himself was gravely injured. Their retreat was swift and efficient.

Though some did stay and made daring attempts to rescue the fallen little hero, the three admirals and Garp himself personally saw to it that none were successful. Eventually, they all made the wiser decision to retreat, recoup their losses...and leave Mugiwara Luffy behind.

So now he lay at Sengoku's feet, unconscious and almost dead. Without his trademark strawhat, the pirate seemed uncharacteristically vulnerable and exposed. His brows were smooth and relaxed; his expression almost serene despite the blood dripping down his cheeks. How could a notorious pirate with a bounty of 300 million beri be so young and harmless-looking? His limbs are so slender they looked like they could be snapped as easily as twigs. How could they have been capable of such formidable strength?

How could such a child have taken down veritable monsters like Crocodile and Gecko Moria? How could he have so readily taken on the world for his nakama and his brother? Curious…and frustratingly admirable. Sengoku frowned, realizing with displeasure that his previously immense hatred for the boy was rapidly losing steam.

A sudden thud beside him announced the presence of Garp, who had fallen to his knees beside his unconscious grandson. The tough old man's face was streaked with tears, but he didn't reach out to touch his grandson nor speak a single word. He just kneeled there silently, gaze full of pain and regret and anguish, looking a full 10 years older.

After a long wordless moment of grief, the vice-admiral stood up and left. He didn't look back, though his shoulders were visibly trembling.

As Sengoku watched the other man leave, he hardened his heart. Even Garp knew full well that it would come to this. He'd gone through loss once, with that which almost happened to Fire-fist Ace, he can go through it again.

It didn't matter that Luffy was the only grandson of the great marine hero, his old (though he admits this grudgingly) friend, Vice-Admiral Garp. It didn't matter that he was just a stupid and guileless child, barely 18, breaking laws and taboos like so many sandcastles. It didn't even matter that he was broken and bleeding, looking as if he could not even survive till the next day, let along the torture and torment he was surely going to face at the hands of those depraved, over-privileged sadists.

Sengoku clenched his jaws, still tasting the fresh blood the boy's punches had drawn and told himself it all didn't matter—He was going to follow orders and deliver Monkey D. Luffy to the Tenryuubito, and that was that.

"Men, take Mugiwara Luffy onto Vessel 29. Set course for Mariejoa. Admiral Kizaru is to escort the prisoner there first thing tomorrow," Fleet-admiral Sengoku ordered.

Marine soldiers hurried forward, clapping the unresisting pirate in heavy seastone cuffs and dragging him away, leaving a trail of blood.

"…clean him up and get him bandaged first," Sengoku added, almost as an afterthought.

That day was the end of the great Marineford Whitebeard War, later to be known in history as the beginning of the revolution of the century.

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TBC