At Gern's order to attack, Ace's heart clenched, and the muscles he had just relaxed tensed again.
He felt the gaze at his back lash him like a whip, forcing him to make a choice.
Ace looked down at Shanks, who was still laughing and inviting him over. He pressed his lips together, hesitating.
"Heh." When Ace still failed to act, Gern asked softly, a mocking edge to his voice, "Can't make up your mind?"
"..." Ace gave no reply. He remained silent.
"Then do you know just how great your mother, Portgas D. Rouge, was?"
"Mother..." Ace stirred slightly.
That gentle yet resilient figure he had pieced together from Garp's scattered remarks.
"It was that bastard father of yours who seduced her before he died, and then that was it.
"He was a dying man over fifty, yet he insisted on seducing a girl in the prime of her youth...
"And to protect you, she endured twenty whole months of agony before giving birth to you. You could say she traded her life for yours.
"Ah, but even for a mother that great, your father loved her for less than a year...
"What your mother gave and what she received were far too unequal. It wasn't fair.
"For a brief spell of love, she had to pay with her life and a lifetime of disgrace.
"And that bastard down there..." Gern's voice suddenly rose, deliberately guiding and provoking him as he pointed at the warmly laughing Shanks below.
"Roger adored him for the entire voyage! He poured all his love into him!
"But all that great mother received was... one year out of his entire journey.
"Tell me, do you think that was fair to your mother? Portgas D. Ace."
As he spoke that name at the end, especially