Many years ago, Marshall D. Teach read in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia about the Yami Yami no Mi and started searching for it. He believed that by joining the Whitebeard Pirates he had a better chance of finding it. He joined the 2nd division, and Portgas D. Ace became his division commander less than 5 years ago. More than 2 years ago, the 4th division commander Thatch found the Devil Fruit Teach was searching for, and the ship's rule was that anybody that finds a Devil Fruit has the right to eat it. For that matter, Teach murdered Thatch and stole the fruit before fleeing. Because Teach violated one of the ship's rules, to not kill a comrade, the 2nd division commander, Ace took responsibility for Teach's actions and started to search for his former comrade.
After defecting from the Whitebeard Pirates, Teach then quickly formed his own pirate crew, which was small but consisted of powerful members. He began calling himself "Blackbeard" and his crew the "Blackbeard Pirates". He then learns of Crocodile's defeat and dismissal from the Seven Warlords of the Sea, so he made plans to become Crocodile's replacement in order to further his goals.
The Duel[]
The Blackbeard Pirates invaded the small Banaro Island, in which Ace finally found Blackbeard. As Ace sat on the building, Blackbeard greeted him as his former commander, but Ace deemed that an insult because of the former's actions. Despite this, Blackbeard asked if Ace would join his crew so they could capture Straw Hat Luffy. Ace refused, stating that Luffy is his little brother, much to the former's surprise, and he will not allow Teach to hurt or kill him. Van Augur shot at Ace with his gun, but the bullets went through Ace, who countered with his Higan. Jesus Burgess lifted a building and attempted to smash Ace with it, only for him to use his Mera Mera no Mi ability to destroy the building with his Hibashira. While Blackbeard angrily told his crew to stand down as they are no match for that man, they all get hit by Ace's Hiken. When Blackbeard stood up, he ordered his crew to leave the town while he took care of Ace. Blackbeard explained why he killedThatch and unleashed a dark shroud exclaiming "Ace, you are fire... I am darkness!!"[2]
Blackbeard proceeded to use his Yami Yami no Mi powers to swallow the town, intentionally missing Ace, then violently releasing the remains of the town with the dark aura around him swirling as a demonstration of his power. However, Ace was apparently unimpressed, and used his Hotarubi: Hirudama technique, only to be mildly surprised that the attack could not just pass through him as he is a LogiaDevil Fruit user. After the initial shock of the attack, Blackbeard consumed the flames with his dark aura, stood up and explained that his power made him absorb everything, including knives, punches, flames, lightning, and that in fact, he perhaps took even more damage than a normal human. However, he stated there was another thing he could absorb, and demonstrated this by using his Kurozu technique to grab Ace's body (causing his hat to fly away from his head) and activate the Yami Yami no Mi's most devastating feature: the power to nullify any Devil Fruit's powers upon touch. After Ace realized he could not use his Logia fruit powers, Blackbeard delivered a powerful punch to his stomach, smashing him onto the remains of the town. Blood came spilling out of Ace's mouth, realizing he felt pain for the first time in a long while.[3]
Blackbeard gloated that after exposing the "weakness" of all the so-called overconfident Devil Fruit users, he could not be defeated, because his ability was truly the power of the "Devil". However, Ace pointed out that it would only work if Blackbeard touched him, to which Blackbeard countered by saying he had already proved that Ace could not escape him, and used his Kurozu technique to attempt to draw him in and grab him again, but Ace fought otherwise, and countered by throwing his Shinka: Shiranui technique in the form of two fire lances into Blackbeard's chest, forcing him to punch Ace on his neck. Ace was again thrown into the town's remains as Blackbeard attempted to consume the flames with his powers. Ace realized that if he took a hit like that again, Blackbeard would break his neck, and immediately retaliated from a distance with his Juujika technique, as Blackbeard, after successfully consuming the flames from the previous attack, took it head on.
As the battle raged on, the Banaro Rocks collapsed due to the amount of power both combatants were using. Both Ace and Blackbeard were exhausted, but it seemed that Ace was truly worn out. Blackbeard gave him one last chance to join his crew, but Ace, stubborn and determined to the end, refused. Blackbeard, impressed by his strength, expressed his mild disappointment and said the world could have been theirs for the taking, before unleashing a massive dark shroud. Ace at the same time unleashed his own ultimate technique: Dai Enkai: Entei. Both prepared to fight to the death, "The Sun" and "The Darkness" clashed, forming a massive explosion of energy that almost consumed all of Banaro Island.[4]
Aftermath[]
In the end, Ace was defeated and captured by Blackbeard and his crew, who then turned him in to the Marines. [5] As a result, Blackbeard was granted membership into the Seven Warlords while Ace was sent to Impel Down, and subsequently scheduled for execution.[6]
Edward Newgate, Ace's captain, was famous for his love for his comrades, and thus he prepared to go to war in order to save his "son". Whitebeard rounded up 43 pirate crews from the New World. Sengoku predicted the pirate's actions, so he called all of the most powerful marine forces at Marineford and the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Boa Hancock was threatened with the revocation of her title had she refused to participate in the ear and Jinbe was imprisoned in Impel Down for refusing to fight in the upcoming war due to his friendship with Whitebeard.
Hancock eventually agreed to participate in the war in order to sneak Monkey D. Luffy in Impel Down. The infiltration was successful, but Luffy was eventually defeated by Magellan, poisoned by his powers and imprisoned to Level 5. Luffy was saved by Emporio Ivankov's tension hormones, but by the time he recovered Ace was already taken to Marineford. He rounded up allies and made the biggest breakout in the history of Impel Down, escaping along with 271 other prisoners, the first escape since Shiki's 20 years prior.
Meanwhile, Teach exploited the benefits of his Warlord title to get into Impel Down. He used the chaos created by Luffy's escape to get to Level 6, defeated Magellan and recruited four of the most evil criminals ever imprisoned and the incarcerated jailer Shiryu.
During the War of the Best, Blackbeard reappeared along with his new crewmates from Impel Down, killed Whitebeard who was close to death already, and stole his devil fruit power through unknown means to become the first person ever known to hold two devil fruit powers. One year after the battle of Marineford, the Blackbeard Pirates fought again against the remnants of the Whitebeard Pirates led by the former first division commander Marco in the Payback War, which ended in a crushing defeat for the Marco and his allies. It was after this incident that Blackbeard started to be labeled as an Emperor and used his knowledge of Whitebeard's former territories to claim most of them.
Upon Edward Newgate's death, his era ended. The two legendary marines, Sengoku and Monkey D. Garp left the Marines, considering that their era ended together with Whitebeard's death. With Ace's death, his adoptive brother Luffy realized that he was too weak for the New World, so he decided to disband the Straw Hat Pirates in order to train for two years. The Straw Hat Pirates then reunited two years later and finally went into the New World.
Beasts Pirates(Legendary Hour, Fire Festival, New Onigashima Project)*
Blackbeard Pirates(Duel on Banaro Island, Summit War of Marineford, Payback War)*
Straw Hat Pirates(Operation Utopia, Davy Back Fight, Buster Call, Celestial Dragon Hit-and-Run Incident, Operation SOP, Dead End Race, Turtle Car Race, Pirates Festival)*
