"Old man Rayleigh!" Luffy gasped with relief.
""Ha..""
Zoro and Sanji visibly dropped their shoulders, grateful for the intervention. And then quickly pivoted, turning their backs to Rayleigh to keep the surrounding Marines at bay.
Ace, leaning heavily against Luffy, stared at the silver-haired legend in shock. He knew exactly who Silvers Rayleigh was.
His father's right hand man.
Ace himself knew nothing about Roger.
And this man knew more than anyone about his father.
"The Dark King..." Ace murmured, his voice trembling with a complex mixture of awe, deep-seated resentment, and confusion.
"Why... why are you here?"
Rayleigh turned his head, looking over his shoulder.
Into Ace's eyes.
He was a retired old man who had long disappeared from the world.
Exactly. Why was he here?
Rayleigh couldn't help but reflect on himself.
With Luffy, Rayleigh's attitude had always been hands-off. He was an observer, a guide who preferred letting the future go where it will, curious to see if this new generation would find a different answer than his crew did.
But looking at Portgas D. Ace—bruised, battered, and shackled—Rayleigh's demeanor was not the same. It could not be the same.
'Roger... it's your kid...'
There was no detached curiosity. There was only the trace of reminiscence and the guilt of the First Mate of the Roger Pirates.
'Look how big he's gotten.'
But.
"Roger..." Rayleigh couldn't meet Ace's eyes for the moment.
"...was not a good father."
"Ace-kun. "
"None of this was your fault."
He slowly looked back up at Ace's face and said something only he could say in the whole world.
"Roger owes you."
Rayleigh smiled resignedly at himself.
"And I, this pathetic old man didn't even know about you."
"Roger's debt."
"Ace-kun!"
"Let me, his First Mate, make it up to you!!"
Rayleigh's aura flared, a warm but terrifyingly powerful presence that pushed the biting cold away. A fierce, unapologetic smile from the era of the Dark King broke across his weathered face.
'If... If it was for Ace, retirement could wait!'
GRIN.
"ACE! LET UNCLE MAKE IT UP TO YOU!"
Ace's eyes widened.
Instantly.
"YOU OLD SHITTY GEEZER! SHUT UP!!" Ace yelled, his voice raw and furious, thrashing weakly against Luffy's grip.
A sudden, familiar surge of venomous anger boiled up in his chest at the mention of the Pirate King. The father whose shadow had cursed his existence, whose very name was the reason he was wearing these Seastone chains.
He glared at the living legend.
"OYE! What the heck are you going on about!"
"I don't need anything from Roger!"
"My only father is Whitebeard! You hear me?!"
For a moment, the battlefield around them seemed to freeze. Vice Admirals and pirate commanders alike paused, stunned by the sheer audacity of the Fire Fist yelling at the Dark King.
But Rayleigh didn't get angry. He didn't look offended.
Instead, the Dark King threw his head back and burst into a loud, booming laugh.
"HAHAHAHA!"
Rayleigh's laughter echoed across the bloody ice, rich, genuine, and full of life. He wiped a tear from his eye, looking at Ace with deep, unmistakable affection.
"Newgate as your father... Sure! Why not!" Rayleigh beamed, entirely unbothered by the rejection.
"Roger would totally lose his mind if he heard you calling Newgate father! Hahaha!"
"That stubbornness... you are just like him!"
Ace gritted his teeth, looking away. He wanted to stay angry, but the sheer, unburdened joy in Rayleigh's laugh extinguished a fraction of the heavy darkness in his chest.
It was the first time anyone had spoken of Roger not as a demon or a god, but as an old friend who would be annoyed by a rebellious son.
High above, a beam of light shot down from the sky, materializing into the tall, pinstripe-suited form of Admiral Kizaru. He landed softly on the ice just twenty yards away, his hands resting on his hips.
"Oooooh... happy family reunion, Rayleigh-san," Kizaru drawled, his voice losing its playful cadence, replaced by genuine annoyance.
"Though your nephew is going to die soon, such a shame ne~"
Rayleigh stopped laughing.
He turned his back to the Straw Hats, facing the Admiral and the converging swarm of Marines. His grip on his sword tightened, his aura turning razor-sharp.
"Take Ace and run to the ships, Luffy-kun." Rayleigh commanded, his voice dropping into a deadly, serious register that brooked no argument.
"Don't stop for anything!"
"Ace-kun's path... I'll pave it!"
Rayleigh gave his word.
"Right!" Luffy nodded fiercely, hoisting Ace higher.
"Thanks, old man Rayleigh! Come on, guys!"
"We'll buy you that drink when this is over, old man!" Sanji yelled, pivoting and immediately launching a kick to shatter the shield of an advancing Marine.
"Let's move!" Zoro barked, taking point once again, his blades a blur of green and silver.
As the Straw Hats resumed their desperate sprint, the Marines surged forward to intercept them, emboldened by Kizaru's presence.
"Bypass the old man!" Vice Admiral Onigumo hissed, charging forward with his eight sabers drawn.
"The brothers are the objective!"
Rayleigh's eyes narrowed behind his round glasses.
SLASH!
He stepped forward, bringing his black sword up. He didn't wait for Kizaru to attack. The Dark King surged forward with blinding speed, swinging his blade in a devastating, wide horizontal arc.
He unleashed a pulse of Supreme King's Haki directly into the shockwave of his slash.
Zoom!
""STEADY YOURSELF!""
"Geuh-!"
""AAHH-""
The invisible wave rolled over the ice. The weaker Marine infantrymen attempting to flank the Straw Hats instantly rolled their eyes back into their heads, collapsing onto the permafrost in synchronized heaps.
CLANG!
Kizaru materialized his light-sword, Ama no Murakumo, and caught Rayleigh's heavy strike.
BAM!!
The collision shattered the ice beneath their feet, creating a massive crater. Sparks of light and black Haki violently sprayed across the battlefield, illuminating the grim faces of both legends.
"You can't hold me and protect them at the same time, Dark King," Kizaru noted, applying more pressure, the heat of his blade singing the edges of Rayleigh's cloak.
"Don't play with death, Borsalino."
"If you persist..."
CRACKE. BURST!!
A crackle left the Dark King's sword and pulverized a massive ship debris log into splinters.
Blood would be shed.
.
.
.
A/N: The aspect of Ace and Rayleigh ever meeting is highly underestimated. No one knows where it would have led. For my story, I have chosen THIS. Read on, readers. It's building towards something big!
{Read 30+chapters on patreon(dot)com/Glivaria}