Disclaimer: Anything related to One Piece rightfully belongs to Eiichiro Oda, and the settings did not belong to me nor my imaginations as well. Except the OCs inculded in the story.

Prologue

He remember nothing but chaos.

A formidable myriad of never ending chaos thundering tenfold in the once impenetrable grounds of Marineford. The place where all the world's fate will be decided once and for all.

For what Portugas D. Ace could see, it is now a tumultuous battlefield of the most valiant warriors, while strengthened by their undying valor and established justice, fighting with all their might. The freckled man, whose face contorted in unadulterated fear and befuddlement, could witness the macabre sight of the battlefield laid out above from where the scaffold stands, awaiting his execution.

Allies - the confidants he made during his journey - falling after another, offering their lives as they clear a path for his salvation, for his comrades to reach out to his hopeless self.

All for him.

Ace squeeze his eyes shut. Although unseen, the voices of the slain and were barely unheard. They were very clear to his ears. Their agonized voices along as their blood decorating the battleground. While the standing soldiers, with their undying flames of valor, let out a battle cry as they avenge their fallen comrades and garner the determined chants and cries varying in different degrees.

It is a macabre battle weighting his life in a balance, a chaotic battle thrice as powerful than the strongest storms of Grand Line combined. The New World even. And Ace knew he was at fault.

Why bother save a life so worthless?

But no. They stormed through the strongholds of Navy, opposing everything, even at the exchange of their lives just to save him. All to save a life of someone they hold so dear.

"We're here!"

"Hang on!"

"We're coming Ace!"

"Ace..."

"ACE!"

They thought they have it in control.

They thought everything will be fine.

Just when Ace had finally begin to regain his will to live, life failed him. From a magma fist that came swinging fast it ended so quickly. Never would they realize that it'd be an admiral who would execute the job.

The magma fist, he thought that'd leave no effect, tore through the walls of his defenses, penetrating the appendages of his skin and destroy all his life within. It came all too fast... all to inexplicable. Everyone was too stunned to say anything. Nary a one could comprehend a thing that transpired. Portugas D. Ace could feel the excruciating burn scorching his skin as the fist remains. It destroyed the pride he proudly bear on his back. His determination. All for a single strike... just like that...

When the admiral's fist withdraws, a sudden warmth envelopes him just as his feet began to give out. A glimpse of red and yellow, zeroing his ashen form with wide and teary eyes, caught him.

...Luffy.

He did it to protect him. Ace blocked himself to save Luffy. Ace cannot allow himself to let Luffy suffer like this. Not here.

The moment he lost to that man, Portugas D. Ace knew immediately that this would be his fate. As a man with a blood linked that of the demon, he anticipated this.

"Your fate has been decided..."

Just as Ace gained the ability to live, he lost it immediately. How cruel could this world get? Despite such outlook, one thing did managed to get him into sense - that if there's one thing this war had taught Ace, he would not allow to keep it himself.

"Please...Pass on what I'm about to say..." Ace struggles out. "Oyaji... Everyone... and especially you Luffy..."

"...Even though... I'm so worthless...He could feel the flame that long since coarse his blood diminish slowly, draining what was left in him. He grew cold and numb. Regardless, he went on. "...Even though I carry the blood of the demon...thank you..."

The last moments were eerily quiet. Nothing but an awful air of silence making itself known in the once tensional atmosphere - an air full of sorrow and despair.

Not a sound of gunshots.

...Swords colliding to another,

...nor the he battlecries of pirates and marines.

All he ever felt was gratitude as tears slid down his cheeks. It stream down burning the sides of his face like coals. It burned him more than the magma burned him.

"...for loving me!"

For the first time in twenty years, Ace felt loved. So much to an extent comrades would cross the wide and raging seas and take on the entire government themselves jusy to save a life as worthless as him. For the first time... He felt important.

Ace heard Luffy's sobs, his little brother's tears dripping his shoulders. A small smile suppresses his lips. His short life in this world was spent with no little regrets.

Becoming a brother.

Becoming a pirate.

Becoming a comrade.

...Becoming Whitebeard's son.

As the flame of his lifeline had finally extinguish, white began to swirl in Ace's vision, engulfing it slowly into darkness.

Was it good that I was alive?

"Well... as you live, you'll find out eventually..."

Yes, he did find the answer.

And he had no regrets seeking them.

His blurry vision adjusted to the light, its faint glow peeking awfully in the dark skies as wisps of dusts dishevels around the ruins of the panicked Marineford standing, as what would he consider as, his own grave as they watch him demise.

Soon Sabo... I'll join you soon... Just you wait...

As the event unfolds, away from the weeping eyes of the beholder, the vivre card's remains, that long since fluttered out the rubberman's hat, reduce into ashes... into nothing...

And slowly, he plunge into darkness. Its gravity spiral him downwards to unfathomable depths. Not a single thing was felt, just the endless stretch of darkness taking shape at an abnormal velocity morphing and conjoining into an entirely different universe. And then everything stops.

"Where am I?"

His onyx spheres flutters wide. Darkness is the first thing that greeted his gaze. He found himself standing on an empty space. Ace blinks, in hopes to regain his already fine vision and observed the area. Still darkness. He twitch his fingers above and below him. Strangely, Ace still has full control on his body.

"Hello?" His voice echoes in the dark stretch of abyss.

Ace shuffles his feet and wander his gaze ahead the stretch of darkness. But in all avail, nothing was found. "Hello?" The same reply was heard as he calls out to the darkness. "Luffy? Anyone?"

What had happened?

He was just at the war. Ace shake his head. It couldn't be afterlife. Yet, his body reacted as if nothing happened. He felt energized in fact.

The freckled man pause to feel his chest. Nothing. The absence of his heartbeats sent Ace in a state of befuddlement. If so, then where am I-- His thoughts were cut short when a light blinded his vision. Ace covered his eyes, taken in from its sudden appearance. "Huh?" Ace peers over his blocked arms.

A beacon of light shones afar from where he stood, seeming to approach him slow and steadily. Ace squinted his eyes, trying to identify the object. As soon as it was close, Ace's eyes flew wide and his feet immediately sprung to action just in time a chunk of metal came dashing fast.

"What was - !" Another came. This time, making a deafening sound. Ace stepped aside but another one, dashing awfully fast, caught him. Without a time to dodge, Ace mentally prepares himself for impact.

Nothing happened. "...What the hell?" Ace was panicking when he learned it was already behind him.

Ace took a step back unaware of another machine running in the opposite direction. He nearly jumped when it went past him, feeling its heat radiating on his body. Ace scampers away from the road confused and wander his gaze frantically. Then there he saw it: The darkness morphing into inexplicable shapes; tall structures, like ginormous trees of Sabaody taking its form, appearing around him as the brightest lights, rivaling that of Sabaody park and Gran Tesoro's, flickers to life in the flashiest colors and shapes - from the moving metals in the streets, buildings and almost everything. Odd, yet fascinating at the same time.

Was this suppose to be afterlife? Heaven? Hell?

Why is it different from the stories told by the elders?

The raven-haired man backs away, dark spheres never leaving the odd place. He nearly stumbled when an outlandish man walk past him, expression blank. It follows by another, and soon the area is now infested in people filling the place like running water. The strangest part is the odd technology they held, emitting lights and sounds. Most of the population were glued to it and some were even speaking to it.

Were they the angels mentioned in the books? "H-Hello?" He called out.

"Can anyone hear me?"

Nothing.

Ace swallows a lump and approach the closest person, throwing them the same question but none of his words reaches their ears.

He stood, shoulders dropping low. But he did not give up. "Hey..." Ace follows a man wearing a suit. "Excuse me-" The moment he made contact, his hands only went through the man.

He grew confused.

The man train his gaze to the strangers, endeavoring attention. Try as he might, none had manage to catch their attention. Even if to strip himself naked wouldn't be of use by the looks of it.

Is this still the Grandline? The raven-haired man scrutinize the area in search for clues. His eyes locks on the certain words plastered mostly in wide and bright signs flashing in rectangular devices:

"渋谷区"

"Shibuya...?" Ace read aloud. Confusion plastering his face.

Never had Ace heard such a name, let alone the entire place and its technologies. They're all strange to him. Their jabbers grew deaf in his ears as he walk past them, completely deep in thoughts.

Wait - Ace stop dead on his tracks.

A wide, transparent glass stood alongside a path he walked. He glance at it. Behind shows a row of shelves stacked in unknown stuffs. It is occupied by a few people standing over the collection. However, the lights of the city reflected the most.

...He cannot see himself.

Among all strangers that passes, reflecting their figures, Ace is the only one unseen in the glass. It is as if he never existed. Ace took slow and steady steps, and press his palms at the glass. It left an imprint. He breathed, a mist formed. It all shows the sign of his existence but yet...

Everyone can't see him.

There he began to panic. Someone out there may be able to see him. There's no way I'm invisible in their eyes! I need to find Luffy and Pops.

But you're dead. A voice in his head whispers. Ace backtracks. Akainu killed you remember?

How about Luffy-?! Ace's thoughts returns in Marineford. Then to his reckless brother and comrades. Were they gonna be fine left with... him? Suddenly, it dawns him. A hard and painful reality slapping him hard that he, in fact, is dead and away from them. Gone are the moments of division and sufferance. The pain and discrimination. All gone.

Ace drops on his knees, shaking uncontrollably. Tears began to sprung his eyes. He though about everyone- his comrades, the bandits back in Corvo, Makino, Garp, and Luffy- the young and idiotic rubber left alone in the cruel world.

He is now away...

Stuck in a different world... Alone... Confused...

Ace just knew his life will never be the same again...

Welcome to Shibuya, the busiest shopping district in Tokyo, Japan. Featuring *drumroll* Portugas D. Ace! Please review, favorite or follow... Perhaps do all of them?

Comments and criticisms are appreciated. If there are grammatical errors and typo, do tell me and I will fix it right away. :))

And again, thank you for reading!