Lara's POV;

I stood with my fellow Warlords on the massive wall that separated the harbour of the Marine HQ with the plaza. Dozens of super-sized warships were guarding the entrance to the harbour and the HQ. Thousands of Marine soldiers were present, most if not all of them were Grand Line veterans.

Many even from the New World.

I wore my Reaper Death clothes, including my mask and stood next to Hancock, she was a lot friendlier in her behaviour towards me, now that she knows that I too was once a slave and that I have no romantic interest in Luffy. Seriously, who the fuck could be romantically involved with someone that has the mental development of a child?

Anyway, on my other side was Mihawk. He had not spoken to me since our talk about a new sword for him, but he did give me a respectful nod when we were climbing the stairs.

The soldiers all around us were worrying about the coming fight, praying to survive or clutching photos of their loved ones. All pretty standard war stuff. There were also those who were looking forward to the fighting. Some higher ranked soldiers were giving a pep talk to their subordinates. One of them was a giant, his loud shouting was audible from all across the plaza. Some Marines were grinning like loons and were giving their weapons one last check.

Ace was already kneeling on the scaffold and the three Admirals had taken their seats directly in front of it. Sengoku stood on the scaffold and looked over the whole plaza with the gaze of a General.

Doflamingo was occasionally chuckling or sending me dark glares. Lia must have already destroyed his task force. Not that I expected something else. The Raptor is a ship that is pretty hard to stop and even harder with Lia in control.

She is able to concentrate on the cannoneers of every surrounding ship with her Observation and then, the moment they fire their cannon, take out the pressure generated by upon firing. The cannonball will be left stuck inside the barrel and explode after a moment.

It's hard to destroy a ship if not a single cannon works and your cannonballs explode on their own. Only someone who is attacking directly with something that has no mass or is his/her own body has any chance of attacking the Raptor. Lia can take out any flying, not Armament coated, projectiles with relative ease.

The speakers clacked and Sengoku started his speech. “Men, I have something crucial to tell you all. The meaning about Portgas D Ace's execution today.” Everyone turned to look back at the scaffold. Only a handful of people already knew what Sengoku will now speak about. “Ace, tell us the name of your father!”

“My father? My father is Whitebeard!” Ace's voice was hoarse and weak. He didn't look all too healthy as well.

“He is not! You know that he is not your real father,” rebuked Sengoku. Ace tried to shout over Sengoku, but he was not really able to.

“Back then, we searched as if our lives depended on it. We searched for the possibility that His blood was still in our world. We searched based on nothing but the tiniest leads. We investigated every newborn child, all children who were yet to be born and every mother that may have stood in contact with him. But in the end, we found nothing. We were relieved, relieved that our fears were unwarranted, we were wrong.

Your mother risked her life for you, she did something unheard of. She, a woman on the island named Baterilla, did something that we had not thought possible. Your mother, Porgas D. Rouge, out of devotion to her child she did bore him in her womb, for a full twenty months!

After the birth she had spent all her strength, she had given up her own life to give you yours. She left the world as you entered it.

One year and three months after the death of your father were you born. A child with the most accursed blood in the world, that child is you. Do not claim you did not know. Your father is not Whitebeard, your father is none other than the Pirate King Gold Roger!” Stunned silence befell the whole island and probably anyone who was watching the transmission.

Hancock on my side was silently wondering about Luffy's claim to be Ace's brother. Even Doflamingo was slightly surprised. And Geko Moria was shouting about the miracle that someone connected to the Pirate King still lives.

Everyone was whispering and mumbling to each other, but the plaza became instantly silent when Sengoku continued. “Two years ago a new pirate has risen with frightening speed and remarkable power. You, as the captain of the Spade Pirates, got so strong so fast that we realized that Roger's blood still lived on.

We were not the only ones to realize it. Whitebeard came to the same conclusion and knew that we would stop you from becoming any stronger. He took you into his crew with the intention of raising you to become the next Pirate King!”

Again Ace tried to shout over Sengoku's words, claiming that he was wrong, that Ace joined so that he could make Whitebeard the next king. But he was stooped by Sengoku's next words.

“You are the only one who believes that. Him taking you at his side protected you from us, from the moment you joined it became almost impossible for us to get rid of you. We knew that if given enough time you would slowly, but surely obtain the strength to stand at the summit of the New Era. That is why it is absolutely imperative for us to take your head today.

Here where everyone can see your death, even if it means that we have to go to war with Whitebeard himself!” He got stopped when an officer gave him a short report. He looked angry for a moment but had the mind to stop the transmission.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

“They are here, all hands prepare for battle!” Shouted Sengoku suddenly again. The soldiers behind me got ready, the cannons moved into position and the air became tense. My fruit enhanced Observation picked up the worry, the fear and the stress of the literal army of Marine soldiers.

Suddenly, there was a thick fog at the horizon and within minutes silhouettes of ships broke through the fog. Ships of all sizes, from normal escort ships to warships and super-sized warships. Some even larger than those. It was truly an impressive sight. The dozens of ships were moving at us. Probably hundreds of cannons were being loaded and thousands of guns, rifles, hand cannons, mazes, axes and swords were drawn.

“Fufufufufu, now this is interesting. I'm getting all pumped up, bring it on Whitebeard, come and show us why you are said to be the strongest man in the world!” Laughed Doflamingo loudly.

At first, nothing happened, the armada of pirate ships got closer, but there was no sight of Whitebeard or anyone of his crew. Only allied ships were coming out of the fog. But then rumbling and the splashing of water came from inside the harbour.

Massive bubbles came up from under the water and then a giant ship sprung up. It had been coated and had approached the Marine HQ from under the water. Three more followed and formed a circle. On deck were the big names of the Whitebeard pirates. The fourteen division commanders of the Whitebeard Pirates stood were on these four ships.

And then Whitebeard himself walked on the deck of the ship that faced the plaza. He was truly a massive man. Easily towering above two meters, close to three. His body looked old but still was muscled. A true anime old man badass.

I could feel that he was stronger than me, I knew that I might be able to fight him if I give my all, but he would easily be able to fight back. That man was strong beyond words.

Suddenly, Whitebeard punched the air and two large cracks formed in the air. I felt it before it happened. The vibrations in the stone at the ground of the sea were massive. His fruit allows him to produce quakes.

He had destroyed the bedrock and the pressure down below had pushed the rock upwards. It generated truly massive waves and an earthquake that rumbled through the world. I think with Lia's help I might have been able to do the same, but we would have been a lot more spent than he.

He was the brute strength to my fine control.

Waves began to tower up, dwarfing everything around. The super-sized warships were small in comparison. The Marines around us were starting to panic, the other Warlords were watching with interest.

I was contemplating if I want to stop this. I could, but would have to eat a rumble ball to do that. It would make things a lot different than canon. The ships would not be frozen and the attack of the pirates would be different.

“Ah, fuck it!” I decided that having everything like canon would be boring. And it's not as if I couldn't eat more than one rumble ball. Or were limited to three. My body had no limit, I will just be more tired.

Hancock looked down at me with an amused expression, clearly mistaking my words for worry. “As the new guy between us, I have to show something right?” I asked with a grin and plopped the orange ball between my teeth.

I bit down and the effect was instant. My strength surged and skyrocketed. With a grand gesture, I hit the air next to me, not unlike Whitebeard has done. And a visible ripple travelled through the sky.

The shouted conversation between Whitebeard and Ace stopped when they noticed that I had done something. The loud rumbling of the Tsunami got quieter and the massive waves began to shake. They were pushing against an invisible force and began to be pushed back. They became smaller and smaller, before vanishing completely.

Hancock was still looking at me, but now in shock. The Marines and pirates were equally stunned and surprised. Some were muttering that this wasn't possible, others were rubbing their eyes.

“Gurararara, the lady seems to disagree with me,” laughed Whitebeard. Not the least bit looking angry for my interference. He rose his arms to repeat his attack, but Aojiki had jumped up from his seat and shot an Ice Age into the sea.

He froze the water around the whole HQ like he did in canon and made a repeat of Whitebeard's attack impossible. I clicked my tongue, now the harbour was frozen again and everything was back to canon.

Well, not everything. Many of the warships of the Marines survived the beginning of the Tsunami and were still able to fire. And the pirate ships were now closer than what they would have been before. Close enough even to shoot.

Which they eagerly did.

Cannonballs of every size and classification were shot from the attacking armada and the Marines returned fire with their own ships. The cannons of the pirates were not as strong as those of the Marines, but they were more numerous and had a bigger range in variety.

It also helped that some of the pirate ships were not caught in the ice and still able to evade the incoming cannonballs, something that could not be said for the Marine ships. The Marine ships were not able to move and under heavy fire, but there were more of them than pirate ships, and their hull was by far stronger.

The explosions and constant fire of cannons began to fill the air and generated a background noise that only a war could produce.

Aokiji attacked Whitebeard with ice spears, but they were destroyed with an almost casual flick of Whitebeard's hand. The Admiral landed in the harbour and froze that water too. Thick ice covered the whole bay and the pirates used the new foothold to jump off and down.

While the surrounding harbour defence began to shoot their cannons. Explosions began to destroy the massive Moby Dick class ships but were ignored by the steady stream of pirates. They must have packed the ships to maximum capacity.

The Moby Dicks began to fire back, but the first volley of cannonballs got cut mid-flight. The Vice-Admirals of the Marines had stepped on stage and were now facing the flood of Whitebeard Pirates.

“This is even better than the Buster Call,” I laughed. We had still time before any of us Warlords needed to step in. But it looked as if Mihawk had other plans.

He drew his massive sword, truly a masterpiece of smithing but also too big for me to use. “I'm going to measure myself. I want to see with my own eyes the difference in actual strength between that man and I,” answered Mihawk a question asked by Doflamingo.

Mihawk cut down and a force blade the size of a warship cut through the sky and ice. It glowed in a dark green light and wasn't stopped by any pirate, Marine or the ice. That was until it almost reached the Moby Dick. There it suddenly stopped and was deflected into the air. The one who stopped the attack was a man halfway transformed into diamonds.

“You did not coat your attack with Armament, why did you attack half-heartedly?” I asked. An attack this strong should be able to cut diamonds if enforced by Armament.

“I merely wanted to see if they were good enough to stop brute force,” answered Mihawk calmly. I did not comment on this. I do not understand why he did what he did, but that wasn't needed.

More importantly was the quickly proceeding fight down in the harbour. Kizaru had just attacked Whitebeard with a light generated attack. One I felt I could stop now, under the influence of the rumble ball. But it got deflected by Marco, the Mythical Zoan Fruit user of the Model Bird, subclass phoenix.

His immortality made it easy for him to tackle the attack head-on. He did get destroyed but was instantly regenerating any and all damage. He then transformed into a pretty ugly bluebird and flew at Kizaru, straight through his laser bullets. The moment he reached the Admiral he transformed back and kicked Kizaru out of the sky and into the plaza behind.

“I think this will be fun,” I said and watched how the diamond guy began to pull a massive iceberg, the size of a super-sized warship, out of the frozen harbour.