#fight me shanks was totally roger's protege

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Sooooo what’s ace &or the rest of The WBP up to at this point in time of the Lami lives au?

“You’re playing this close to the chest,” Marco states when the rest of the commanders have left them. He doesn’t move closer, adjusting his seat as he watches Pops. “And you involving Shanks in something as simple as raiding Impel Down for Ace seems like overkill.”

Pops looks tired as he leans back in his chair, “Son, there’s some answers that I can’t give you. That Ace wouldn’t like me to give you.”

“So it is about his family,” Marco snorts at the look that Pops directs at him. “I might not know about who his family is, but I know enough. I know that Ace hates his father and you knew him. I know that Ace worries that his mother would hate him for going to sea. That he wishes that he knew more about her.”

“I can’t give you anything, son. If Ace hasn’t told you-”

“Then the marines will. You aren’t planning a raid, are you?”

Pops doesn’t flinch, but Marco knows it’s close, he knows his father well, “We won’t arrive in time.”

“You think they’ll try to execute him that quickly? I don’t think they would risk your wrath. Our armada isn’t weak, why would you need Shanks to fight off something like this?”

“Ace told me his father’s name once,” Pops says after a moment. Marco can see the way the knowledge settles over his shoulders. “I knew him and he was a good man, you liked him as much as you like anyone, but I also know that the marines would have killed Ace for his father even if he had wanted to be a marine. I know that Shanks would never let him die. I know that this will be a declaration of war that we haven never even considered before.”

“Pops?”

Pops takes a moment before his eyes close and he asks something that isn’t tangentially related, “Do you remember, the last time we saw Roger?”

How can Marco forget? They had been lingering in Paradise because Roger had asked a favor of a meeting, even with his crew disbanded Pops hadn’t hesitated to meet him. The last time that Marco would see the Pirate King until his execution pictures had circled in the papers.

“He said that his future was secured, I think you assumed that he planned to be killed. But Roger would never have said that, not the way that you believed, not that I thought differently for a long time.”

“Pops?”

“My children secure my future. I told him that, once a very long time ago.”

“Roger had, he had a kid?”

“If one doesn’t count Shanks, but who remembers the brat who would sneak into battles. Buggy doesn’t count, he was more Rayleigh’s protege then Roger’s,” Pops taps his sake jug. “Roger had a child.”

“What does this have to do with-,” Marco cuts himself off, heart shuddering to a halt in his chest. Because he remembers Roger, he remembers the man and the way he had acted, his looks. “That’s, that’s why you’re calling in Shanks?”

“Even if Roger’s child refused to acknowledge their father because of what they grew up knowing of him, I don’t think that Roger’s allies would allow the child to die, do you?”

Marco nods slowly, “That’s why we’re going to Marineford, isn’t it? Because where else would they risk his execution? It’s a triumph and they will want to share it,” he doesn’t need confirmation. “We have to decide what will be done with Squard, as much as he cares for Ace, he would never forgive you for hiding this.”

“Mhm, I had hoped that he would understand that all are children of the sea,” he sighs. “What will you do with this knowledge, son?”

“I’m going to tell the commanders. They won’t care and it’s better if the shock of the announcement doesn’t put them out of commission. Do you think that Shanks will help us?”

Pops hums thoughtfully, “I think that he isn’t the man I thought he was if he decided not to. May I have the denden now?”

The snail feels like lead as Marco takes it from his pocket and sets it on the table, “I’ll take my leave now.”

“Good night son.”

Marco closes the door behind him and leans heavily against it for a long moment before shoving himself upright. Pops wasn’t as strong as he use to be, Marco didn’t think it was far fetched to think that he wouldn’t survive the battle or not make it long after, he needed to plan for that. He had to tell the others, he-

He wanted to go back. He wanted to stop Ace, save Thatch, to change what had happened, but most of all, Marco wanted to go back to that day that they had last seen Roger and get more from him. To make sure that Ace didn’t grow up thinking he was better of dead, because that was impossible to miss when the kid didn’t have an ounce of self preservation.

“We thought that would take less time,” Vista states lifting himself off the crate he had been on, in the hidden room deep in the ship that the commanders used for times like this. “Pops must have told you something.”

Marco glances at his siblings and hopes that he isn’t wrong to trust them, “he had to be less direct than he wanted, he had a promise to keep.”

“Why wouldn’t we go to Impel Down,” Haruta demands. “I can get us the building plans-”

“Ace won’t be kept there for long. Pops is certain he’s going to be executed in the next three days,” Marco sighs. “It seems that Ace’s parentage was more important than we assumed.”

It was a running joke in the lead up to Ace’s announcement that he would join them. Guess who put Ace up to killing Pops because that’s all he ever said on the subject, ‘that man couldn’t take him’. 

“A marine?” Izo asks, because there’s been a number of marines that had their pirate relations quickly and quietly executed.

“A noble?”

Marco takes a breath, a moment because he knows what Vista and Jozu will say, “A Pirate,” he wonders if they can tell it’s more title than normal. “King.”

“You’re joking,” Kingdew whispers almost falling from his seat. “You’re not, you can’t be-”

“Pops says that Ace told him his father’s name once and then spoke of the last time we saw Roger and how he said-”

“his future was secured,” Jozu finishes. “I see. This changes nothing, except my understanding of where he got his monstrous strength.”

“He’s still our brother,” Jiro agrees. “But it makes sense. Why he would want to take Pops. Roger never actually defeated, defeated him.”

Marco knows this is going to take hours, because they’re his siblings but they’re going to need time before they can go back to their divisions and pretend that they haven’t learned something like this. He wishes that it wouldn’t.

Marco closes his eyes for a fraction of a second, because he wants to go back to his room and hide himself away. He wants to make sure that he’s planned for everything, because he wants Ace to come home.

“Wasn’t expecting a call from you,” Shanks says and the denden mushi never does as good a job relaying the narrowed eyed look. “Not after how you reacted the last time we spoke.”

“Things have changed,” Whitebeard feels his age, feels the way his medication makes him tired and knows he’s not going to live through this fight. Either his body will give out or he will die for his family. “Tell me something Shanks, would would you do to protect Roger’s legacy?”