//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: Bound By Spades 
// by NewToThis 
//------------------------------//

Five men were walking down a road in a town of an island named Banaro. “We’d better cut ‘em off before they leave, or before the navy gets too them first.” said the man leading the group. As they walked down the road they failed to notice another man sitting atop a building watching them go.

“Hey,” said the sitting man, “hold on a second there Teach. We need to talk.”

“Huh?” responded the man referred to as Teach as he turned to face the one who had called him. He wore black boots, black knee-length shorts with an eyelet-studded orange belt, and a blue pouch belted around his left leg. He also wore a short second belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his shorts. A dagger in a green sheath hung at his left hip. On his left arm, he wore a Log Pose and a red and white striped bracelet around his wrist, an orange elbow guard, and his "ASCE" tattoo. He wore a red beaded necklace and an orange hat with two bluesmileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels. Upon seeing the man Teach responded, with a hardy grin on his face, “Well, what do you know, Commander Ace.”

The man now known as Ace replied with a frown, “You have no right to call me that anymore. Use that title with respect, or don’t use it at all. I won’t have you mock me.”

“Oh, so this is the famous Fire Fist Ace.” A man with a rifle said as he walked a bit past Teach.

“Yep, that’s me. You guessed it.” Replied Ace. “So this is your crew? It looks like you’ve become a captain now huh? Captain Marshall D. Teach of The Blackbeard Pirates.”

“Zeh hah hah hah hah! Come on Ace, lighten up.” Said Teach with a hardy laugh. “It’s good to see you again. What brings you here, you weren’t looking for me, were ya?”

Ace gave Teach a cold stare and said, “Let’s stop beating around the bush shall we, even if you play dumb I know you’re a crafty bastard. There’s only one reason for me to be here and you know what it is.” Ace’s stare turning into a glare. “So spare me the chit-chat.”

Teach’s smile still had yet to leave his face as he replied, “Fine have it your way, but there’s one question I’d like to ask first. Instead of fighting, why don’t you become a member of my crew?” Ace narrowed his eyes at Teach never looking away from the man. “I have the perfect plan to rise to the top, stick with me and we’ll rule the world! Whitebeard’s days are numbered and you know it! I’m the one who’s gonna be king of the pirates! First I’m headed off to Waters 7 to kill Straw Hat Luffy as a special gift to The World Government!” Ace tensed at this piece of news. “Wouldn’t hurt to have you along for the fun.”

“Luffy huh?” Ace finally deciding to speak up, “You’re out of your mind.”

Teach looked up at Ace with a hint of surprise in his voice, “Oh? You know him?”

“Of course I know him you sack of crap!” Ace growled in response, his head lowered so that the rim of his hat hid his eyes from the pirates in front of him. “I’m not gonna let you kill my little brother!” A simple uhh was all Teach could respond with as his face took on a look of worry and surprise. “And I’m not joining your crew, so you can take your little offer and shove it up your-

Ace was interrupted as one of the lackeys behind Blackbeard turned at the drop of a dime, aimed, and fired his gun at Ace. The bullet found its mark but failed to harm him as it flew through the body of Ace causing flames to erupt from where the bullet exited, lighting the rim of his hat ablaze.

Ace let out a sigh as he said, “Well you get the idea.” The hole left from the bullet slowly closed as in a flash of fire. Ace’s eyes narrowed in determination as he let out a laugh. “Ha! Looks like you need to teach your crew some manners captain.” Ace stood up in an instant and pointed his index and middle fingers at the pirate who shot him.

“HIGAN!”
(FIREGUN)

Ace shouted as bursts of fire exploded from his fingertips flying at the pirate. The pirate with the gun rolled to the right to avoid the fire, shot to his feet and kept running as Ace wasn’t letting up the attack. The creaks and groans of wood caught Ace’s attention, he turned his head to see a brawny pirate hurl a building at him. Ace whipped himself around to face the building flying at him, with a swipe from his arm flames started to circling around him. He squatted down and put his hands to the floor.

“ENKAI: HIBASHIRA!”
(FLAME COMMANDMENT: FIRE PILLAR)

A torrent of flames flew into the sky obliterating the building mid-flight. Blackbeard had to take a couple steps back as debris rained from the sky. “Auger! Burgess! You stay out of this fight! Until you get stronger this guy is out of your league, do you hear me!” Shouted Blackbeard. Burgess replied in apology to his captain but was interrupted by Ace.

“HIKEN!”
(FIREFIST)

Ace launched a giant fireball towards the Blackbeard pirates. Ace heard them all scream as the explosion caught the group. Blackbeard wailed in pain engulfed by the flames. Burgess and Auger ran over to their captain asking if he was okay. All Blackbeard did was wail as the flames continued to burn away him. Ace started walking towards the group as they started trying to put out the flames.

“Get off of me I’m fine!” Blackbeard snarled as he tried to get to his feet and failed, ending with him kneeling on one knee trying to catch his breath as Ace kept getting closer. When Ace had reached a certain distance he stopped walking and now the two just stared at each other. “Heh heh heheheheheh.” Started Blackbeard in a low tone working his way back up to all fours. “Zeh heh heheheheheh.” Blackbeard strained as he stopped leaning on one of his arms and took a kneeling position once more letting out another small laugh. “Heh, all right Ace. I get it. You wanna finish me don’t you? For murder of a fellow crewmate is a serious crime after all, and yes I killed fourth division commander Thatch with my own hands! But there wasn’t any other choice!” Roared Blackbeard. “It wasn’t personal but he had the devil fruit I’d been searching for! You know the rules on Whitebeard’s ship! Whoever finds one of those gets to eat it! I memorized the shapes and colors of all the devil fruits that they’ve discovered, so I knew that was the one I needed! Whether I liked it or not I spent decades biding my time on Whitebeard’s ship because it was the best shot I had at finding that one single fruit! But just when I thought that there was no hope left, there it was, right in the hand of my friend.”

Ace slightly tilted his head before replying, “Then you murdered him in cold blood and stole it. Without a second thought.”

“Bad luck for him.” Replied Blackbeard finally getting to his feet. “There was no other way, this ability has chosen me! Zeh heh heh heheha! And its powers make me the strongest man in the world!” Blackbeard bellowed as he raised his right fist in the air with a manic look in his eyes. “Watch, even among the Logia fruits, there’s nothing quite like it.” As Blackbeard spoke his entire frame started to radiate a shadowy smoke. Not too long after it appeared it shot straight into the air in a pillar of black. Ace’s eyes widened in shock as he watched the pillar shoot from Blackbeard into the sky. “Ace,” Blackbeard called out, “Your body is made of fire, right?” Blackbeard let out a laugh as the smoke started to blot out the sky above them. “My body is darkness.”

Off in the distance townsfolk could see the tower of darkness that Blackbeard had conjured with his devil fruit powers getting them all to look on in fear knowing what was going to happen next as they tried to evacuate.

“Darkness?” asked Ace looking at Blackbeard while black smoke kept fuming off of him.

“You’ll see soon enough Commander Ace,” replied Blackbeard, “And I think you’ll want to reconsider my offer. In the history of all devil fruits this is said to be the most dangerous power of them all. The Logia type Dark-Dark fruit. In other words, I’ve become a darkness man, now I’ll give you a taste of its power. I wouldn’t blink if I were you.” Threatened Blackbeard as he held a hand in front of his face that was overflowing with darkness.

Ace stared at Blackbeard for a few seconds and a smirk slowly started to appear on his face. “Hmph, stop yapping and do it.”

As this was all happening four sole figures ran down the streets of the town. One fell on his face from exhaustion and Burgess started to yell at him, “Hey! Now’s not the time for a nap! Captains on a rampage! If we don’t hightail it out of here he’ll kill us too!” As he finished yelling at the grounded pirate the third started grabbing hold of the fallen ones arm as Burgess took hold of the other and started dragging him across the road. Soon after the fourth fell on his face too, “Not you too damnit!” Burgess yelled.

Darkness wafted off of Blackbeard’s right hand as he raised it higher in a clenched fist. “Zeheheheheh.” With a shout Blackbeard lifted his hand completely outstretching it as all the darkness that he had let flow into the sky came rushing back down onto his form and spread out across the ground from where he stood. The darkness spreading out under all the buildings along the ground as villagers tried to get away. Fleeing to the coast or forest, anywhere as long as the darkness didn’t reach them. “Darkness is gravity, it swallows everything around it, even light itself cannot escape! Its power is infinite!” Howled Blackbeard with the same manic look in his eyes.

Ace stood back as aloof as always eyeing Blackbeard. “That’s real nice but it’s nowhere near me,” stated Ace, standing atop some of the debris that the darkness flowed around, “you sure you got the hang of this?”

“Calm down, I’m not aiming at you yet. You’ll be glad when you see what I do to this town.” Blackbeard threw his arm down with a shout.

“BURAKKU HORU!”
(BLACK HOLE)

As soon as the words left Blackbeard’s mouth the entire town started getting darker by the second. Everything that the darkness was touching began to groan, creak, and break at the immense pressure the darkness put on it. Ace stared at the destruction with a calm look. Whole buildings collapsed, wooden carts left in the streets were shattered and absorbed by the darkness. “Within these shadows lies the limitless power to compress anything and everything! They crush whatever they touch!” said Blackbeard. Slowly the darkness started receding back towards Blackbeard, gathering around his form once again. As the shadows receded all that could be scene of the town left was the giant crater where it once stood. “And that’s just the beginning, now I’ll show you what happened to that town. Or whatever’s left of it I should say.”

“RIBEREISHON!”
(LIBERATION)

As Blackbeard shouted the darkness pooled over his head and expelled everything that it had swallowed up. An entire towns worth of debris spewed from the darkness. Broken beams of wood and mortared bricks began flying in all directions.

“Zehehehehaha! So do you get it now Ace?” Blackbeard started, “This is what I was willing to kill a friend for!” As Blackbeard was talking he noticed several bright green glowing spheres floating towards and around him. “Huh?” was all Blackbeard could let out before Ace interrupted.

With arms extended and glowing hands Ace glared at Teach.

“HOTARUBI HIDARUMA!”
(FIREFLY FIERY DOLL)

In an instant the glowing spheres and Ace’s hands turned a fiery red as all the spheres launched themselves at Blackbeard and ignited into an inferno that engulfed Blackbeard once again. Blackbeard fell to his back wailing about the heat of the inferno once more. Ace kept a narrowed stare on the flailing form of Blackbeard. “The darkness part I get, but this not so much.” Ace said as a smirk grew on his face. “I wonder what’s going on here. If you’re a Logia type that shouldn’t hurt you, or rather it shouldn’t even hit you.” Blackbeard slowly stopped writhing as shadows emerged from his body and extinguished the flames causing Ace to narrow his eyes with a surprised grunt.

Blackbeard breathed heavily as he worked his way to standing up again. He leaned onto his right arm after rolling over, “I already told you. My darkness swallows everything around it whether its punches, blades, bullets, lightning, or fire!” Stated Blackbeard still breathing heavily. “Unlike you I can’t just turn into an element and dodge an attack! The pain I absorb when I get hit is much greater than what a normal human feels.” Ace kept his narrowed stare on Blackbeard as he explained. “But the trade out for that inconvenience is more than worth it.” Said Blackbeard finally back on his feet. “Cause there happens to be one other thing that I can absorb.” Blackbeard extended his left hand.

“KUROUZU!”
(BLACK VORTEX)

Blackbeard’s extended hand turned into a shade of pitch black as black fumes started swirling around his palm. “First I use the gravity of darkness to pull a devil fruit power holder into my grasp.” As he was explaining his powers to Ace black tendrils of smoke got closer and closer until the Ace was pulled towards Blackbeard with a scowl on his face and shock in his eyes. Ace tried to fight against the gravitational force with all his might but failed in the end as he was flung forward, his hat flying from off his head, as Blackbeard grasped at Ace’s right shoulder. Ace grunted trying to free himself from Blackbeard’s grip to no avail. “You’re smart, you figured out the secret yet? Huh?” Blackbeard asked Ace as he let out a small laugh.

Ace snapped his head to look into Blackbeard’s face in shock, “It can’t be!” Ace shouted only for Blackbeard’s smile to grow larger as he threw his arm into Ace’s stomach. The force of Blackbeard’s hit taking Ace along with it as a small amount of blood spewed from Ace’s mouth with a cough. The hit sent Ace hurtling into the debris that still lay around the two.

“Zehahahahah! Hahahahahahahahahahahah!” Laughed Blackbeard as he saw Ace atop the debris with a pained expression on his face. Ace struggled to lift himself out of the hole caused by the impact, as he fell onto the floor he remained standing breathing heavily, Blackbeard started once again, “It’s been so long since you’ve been hit you’ve forgot how much it hurts, Ace. But you understand now, you understood the second I grabbed you.” Ace ran two fingers along the ends of his mouth and was shocked as he pulled them back to see blood on his fingertips. “Not only can my darkness pull you in, it can also absorb your devil fruit power! In other words, as long as they’re in contact with me someone with devil fruit powers is no different than a normal human!” Explained Blackbeard with a menacing look, “Logia, Zoan, Paramecia, all those with devil fruit powers who have become dependent on them are in for a surprise! One little touch will remind them of how weak they really are!”

Ace brought a thumb up to a corner of his mouth to wipe the blood away as he said, “Then all I have to do is avoid you.”

“You think you can escape gravity that easily.” Blackbeard said as more of a statement than a question. “I’d like to see you try!” He shouted as he extended his left arm at Ace once again.

“KUROUZU!”
(BLACK VORTEX)

Ace was pulled off his feet once again as the gravitational power of Blackbeard’s darkness took effect. This time Ace was ready and flung his arms forward,

“SHINKA: SHIRANUI!”
(SAINT ELMO’S FIRE)

Two lances made completely out of fire shot out of Ace’s arms and straight into the chest of Blackbeard, but despite the interruption to Blackbeard’s powers, Ace’s momentum carried him straight into the punch Blackbeard had thrown. Blackbeard roared in agony gripping the flame lances that stuck out of his chest as Ace was sent flying from the punch into more debris. Ace held the back of his neck as he fell to a kneeling position while Blackbeard took hold of the lances and shouted, “Damnit get this off of me!” smoke started swirling around him again to extinguish the flames.

“That bastard almost broke my neck.” Ace said still rubbing his neck getting into a standing position. “His ability is gonna be a bigger pain than I thought.” Ace held his hands up in front of him with both his index fingers crossing each other.

“JUJIKA!”
(CROSS FIRE)

Flame engulfed the front of his index fingers in the form of a cross, light shown through straight at Blackbeard’s chest as fire shot out at the mark. An explosion went off when the fire found its mark and the resulting force caused a giant stone spire to fall over. On a mountain off in the distance stood four pirates watching the intense battle. “This is quite a surprise,” Auger said. “Most devil fruit power holders with one such as his would be rendered ineffective as soon as their trump card was taken away from them. Not so with Ace, his powers are not a crutch but an aid to his own talents. We should expect no less from one of Whitebeard’s commanders. We’re at the crossroads of fate, it’s no coincidence that these men have been brought together.”

Ace was on all fours breathing heavily as he held his eyes shut, not too far across from where Ace was stood Blackbeard with smoke fuming off his body also breathing heavily. “Everything falls before darkness, even you can only struggle for so long.” Blackbeard said, “Still finishing you off here would be a waste of your talent. Don’t fight it Ace! Join me!”

Ace grunted as he struggled to get up, “Heh, if I surrender to you, then I can never call myself a man again.” Ace said as he got to his knees. “I won’t submit and I won’t live with regrets, no matter what! You got that dumbass.”

“Once you die your morals are useless,” said Blackbeard with a growl. “I’m sorry you can’t understand that. Tell me Ace, what do you think will happen to you if I use all of the power at my darkness’ disposal.” Blackbeard said with a menacing laugh.

“I’m guessing we’re about to find out eh Teach.” Ace said as he took a half crouched stance with his arms crossed in front of him.

“DAI ENKAI: ENTEI!”
(GREAT FLAME COMMANDMENT: FLAME EMPEROR)

Flames erupted along the ground around where Ace stood and stretched far wider circling his position. Among the flames Ace stood with his right hand slightly above his head holding an enormous fire ball whose flames roared in fury.

“Zehahahahaha! The sun against darkness huh?! Only one will win! Darkness take you!” shouted Blackbeard at the top of his lungs as darkness flowed from his form.

“I’ll make Whitebeard king of the pirates, or die trying.” With that said both men charged at each other with a roar and let fly their attacks. The fire and darkness collided in the middle of the island, fire fought darkness and darkness fire in a power struggle that wouldn’t seem to end, at the sound of a final explosion an immense blinding light shown at the fight signaling its end. As the light died down there stood only one figure among the newly formed crater while the other was on his back defeated.

“It’s a real shame Ace, it wouldn’t have come to this if you had just joined me.” Darkness began to pool around Ace’s bloody, beaten form as Blackbeard turned and started walking away. “Now feel the full extent of what the yami yami no mi is capable of. Goodbye, Commander Ace.” Ace’s body fell deeper and deeper into the darkness, to the depths of which nothing should have been able to survive. It was at this moment that a voice spoke in his head, a voice that he didn’t hear thanks to his unconscious condition, and a moment later a light aura began to envelope the pirate as he disappeared into the darkness.