Title: Eternal Night
Rating: G
Media: Fanfiction - Ficlet
Character/s: Ace centric.
Prompt: Night
Contains spoilers from chapter 574. Written for a 300 word challenge community on livejournal.
It had been some time since Ace could claim the night as his own. When he wasn't surrounded by his crew, he was preoccupied with other thoughts – rarely was he allowed a silent night. He was seas apart from his crew and it felt like forever since he had seen Luffy. When was the last time he saw Luffy? He couldn't remember.
His memory was hazy, his body felt eerily light. How did he come to be on this island? The sand was as white as the old man's beard, the sound of the ocean lulling him into a pensive state. The stars twinkled above, like little crystals bestowed to the heavens by God, a gift to mankind.
Luffy. Luffy. Whitebeard. Luffy.
He racked his brain, yearning, wishing to remember. Fragments of his memory told him that he had been crying, ready for execution. The old man, Marco and everyone had come to save him. Luffy followed him from Impel Down to save him too. He remembered feeling mixed feelings of great sorrow and joy. Sorrow knowing that it was because of him, that he had caused so many people pain and inconvenience. Joy came with the knowledge that he was loved by his crew, his old man, his beloved younger brother.
There was no wind, no sign of life other than the gentle waves of a sleeping ocean. He remembered Luffy crying. He remembered the surge of adrenaline, the sense that Luffy was in danger. Ahh. It made sense now. He was dead.
He died saving Luffy. He was happy, happy knowing he could protect Luffy till the very end. And now, he waited in the eternal night of his purgatory until the time he would find peace.
"I kept my promise Sabo."
He always loved peaceful nights.