There were only two ways out that Drake could think of: cut their way through the beast's stomach or use the Protector's Warp System.
"Protector, is there a better way to escape?" Drake asked, hoping the vessel had a specialized function he wasn't aware of yet.
[Ding! The Protector's Ion Lightbeam can be initialized!]
Ion Lightbeam? Drake's eyes lit up. This was excellent news; he hadn't realized the Protector came equipped with an offensive weapons system.
"Activate the Ion Lightbeam!" Drake commanded, pointing forward.
At the bow of the submarine, the hull plating slid back to reveal a majestic, dragon-headed cannon port.
Hum—! A terrifying amount of energy began to coalesce. Drake and the others watched the process clearly through the main monitor. Sabo and Kenshin were speechless, but even Drake—a modern soul from Earth—was stunned. He had assumed the beam would be comparable to the Thousand Sunny's Gaon Cannon, but this was on an entirely different level.
A pillar of pure energy, crackling with arcs of electricity, tore into the darkness. For a moment, the pitch-black void was replaced by the blinding radiance of dawn. When their vision finally cleared, they saw a massive streak of light disappearing into the distant horizon. The beam had punched clean through the Sea King and kept going.
"That..." Sabo stammered, turning to Drake with wide eyes. "Drake, what exactly is this ship? That power is..."
"Hahaha, don't worry about it!" Drake laughed, a confident smirk playing on his lips as he stared ahead. "With this, our chances of rescuing Ace just went up, didn't they?"
"Yeah," Sabo smiled, his eyes fixed on the distance. "By the way, Drake... you should probably tell me the full story. Why exactly was Ace caught?"
Sabo had been troubled by this. He knew Ace's strength better than anyone; he found it hard to believe the Marines could simply catch him unless they deployed an Admiral. And if an Admiral had moved, the Revolutionary Army should have heard about it.
"It was Blackbeard." After a moment of silence, Drake revealed the truth. "His real name is Marshall D. Teach. He was a member of the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division—one of Ace's own subordinates."
Drake laid out everything he knew about Blackbeard for Sabo and Kenshin.
Blackbeard would be a major player in the coming war, and warning Sabo now was a necessary precaution. In the original timeline, Teach was the ultimate winner of the Paramount War, seizing the Gura Gura no Mi and ascending to the rank of Emperor.
"So this Blackbeard is the one behind it all..." Sabo's eyes turned razor-sharp, his fists clenching tight. He was far from calm.
"Yeah," Drake nodded. Blackbeard was a nightmare to deal with. The Yami Yami no Mi was the ultimate counter to other Devil Fruit users. By touching them, he could nullify their powers completely. However, without the Gura Gura no Mi, he wasn't yet at the pinnacle of the world's strongest.
"The Darkness Fruit makes him stronger than Ace. He's definitely going to show up at the war to scavenge, so we have to be ready."
"So he's basically the natural enemy of all Fruit users..." Kenshin noted grimly. The Darkness Fruit sounded incredibly dangerous.
"Exactly." Drake sighed. Teach was a true opportunist—a man who had spent decades hiding in the shadows, waiting for his moment. Who else has that kind of patience?
"Is this Blackbeard a guy wearing a large coat, ugly as sin, with a hairy round belly, three pistols in his belt, a bottle of booze, and... uh, missing several teeth?" Kenshin asked hesitantly.
"How do you know that?" Drake looked at him, surprised by the level of detail.
"Look." Kenshin gestured toward the screen with a strange expression.
Drake turned his head and froze.
"How is that possible!?" Drake stared at the Marine warship on the surface, his mind racing. "That's Blackbeard? Why the hell is he here!?"
On the deck of the warship stood none other than the Blackbeard Pirates.
There were only two days left until the execution. By all rights, Blackbeard should have been heading to Impel Down by now. Why was he in this part of the sea? They hadn't reached the Marine Triangle yet—if they had entered the Tarai Current, they would have felt it.
"That's him? That's Blackbeard!?" Sabo hissed, his teeth gritted as he glared at the figure standing arrogantly on the warship's deck.
The warship was currently about two hundred meters ahead of the Protector. Because Drake was submerged, the Blackbeard Pirates hadn't noticed them.
"Drake, what's the move?" Kenshin asked, stepping up to his captain's side. The man responsible for sending their brother to the gallows was right in front of them.
"Sabo." Drake reached out and gripped Sabo's shoulder.
"I know. Don't worry," Sabo whispered. He knew Blackbeard was dangerous, but his heart screamed at him not to let the man walk away scot-free.
"I agree. We can't let them go that easily," Drake smirked. He didn't know why the timeline had shifted, but Blackbeard was their sworn enemy. In a day's time, these villains would meet Luffy in the Great Prison...
Suddenly, Drake's eyes narrowed. He remembered that in the original story, this was when Luffy fought Magellan and nearly died from poison.
"Whew..." Drake checked their course. They were still a day and a half away from Marineford at standard speeds. Warping was too energy-intensive to use repeatedly. He had to trust Luffy, but looking at Blackbeard's mocking grin on the screen, his blood boiled.
"Let's give them a taste of the cannon," Drake ordered. "If they survive, it's their lucky day. Protector, aim at the warship and fire the Ion Lightbeam!"
[Ding! Initializing Ion Lightbeam!]