A Black Heart Does Not Always Stay Black

The Good and the Terrible

Whitebeard held his bisento for the first time in awhile, ready to fight to protect his sons against the strong ones in the marines. He honestly did not believe the vice-admirals were there to avenge Smoker. The marines were not like the Whitebeards: they did not care about their subordinates or colleagues as the pirate crew did.

The commanders had all of their weapons ready, standing at the railing, while the weaker fighters were spaced further around the deck. The commanders could hold their own against vice-admirals, which was why it was hard to find replacements for them. They had to be immensely strong.

The problem with fighting higher-ups in the marines was that they were skilled in haki, able to injure Marco, their strongest fighter. "Don't let any of them get inside the ship. They are here for a different reason than to avenge Smoker."

"Aye!" the crew shouted, weapons out and ready to defend their ship and crew. Marco was in phoenix form, perched on the lowest yardarm.

"I want the commanders to fight the vice-admirals, and team up if necessary. The rest of you, keep the lower ranking marines out of your commanders' ways! I'll take the strongest of them. Haruta, can you see who the vice-admirals are?" Whitebeard asked. He looked to his son, who could see those on deck on the ship easily.

"Momonga, Dalmatian, Onigumo, Vergo, and Strawberry," Haruta listed. "Shit! Aokiji is here!" the commander shouted. "There are also quite a bit of lower ranking marine fodder."

"I'll take Aokiji with the help of Marco and Jozu. You two are skilled at haki and his ice won't damage either of you. The rest, team up in your usual pairs and take whichever vice admiral comes at you. We all know they are not here for us, they want the boys. It looks like the marines made a call before their deaths after all."

The marine ship was there quickly, and everyone began their respective fights. Since there were five vice-admirals, each one got two or three commanders to fight. Aokiji clearly was assigned the strongest of the crew, Whitebeard, Marco and Diamond Jozu. the ice would go straight through Marco, and Jozu would deflect it when in diamond form.

Aokiji was by far the most difficult, while Vergo's strong armament haki was giving trouble to the sword users, who had their blades coated in haki. There were few close combat commanders on the crew, most using guns, swords or other weapons. Namur was using his fishman karate against Onigumo, with Vista using his sword covered in haki against them.

They weren't called commanders for nothing. The vice-admirals were having a lot of difficulty, while Aokiji went after the strongest of them. As usual, the man spoke while fighting, not even out of breath. Whitebeard's bisento was coated in haki, breaking through the ice easily, while Marco went in to claw at the man with haki covered feet. Jozu used haki on his already strong fists, doubled in power from both his diamond ability and the armament haki.

"We do not wish for the only decent admiral to die. Why are you here?" Whitebeard asked, not out of breath either. Aokiji had a hard time defending against three of the strongest on the crew.

"We're not here to take your heads if that's what you think. We're here for three children that were taken out of our custody," Aokiji said, shocking the three who he was fighting. Whitebeard's haki was unleashed as he was angrier than he had ever felt in his life. They had had no idea the World Government was behind the boys' situation.

Whitebeards growled, and swung his bisento at Aokiji, using the force of his power enough to break him to pieces but not strong enough to damage the ship or his sons. "How could you do those things to children? Did you know what the men at that place were doing to them?" Whitebeard wasn't surprised that the marines didn't care. But Luffy had killed tons of marines before, he'd said so himself.