Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! If I did Franky and Robin would come out of the closet and loudly proclaim that they're in a relationship.

Life Worth Livin'

'It's fine like this...'

I lived as I pleased, but I found a dream and accomplished it. I became a kick-ass marine and kicked pirate ass. I don't have anymore complaints in life.

I let my eyes close, fully expecting to never open them again.

In a battlefield a person without the will to live, won't.

I might have been faint, I might have lost too much blood. My eye sight was failing me, but strangely enough what I heard next was clear. It was pristine.

The town was on fire. The dead, both marine and pirate, lined the streets. Explosions had rocked the buildings and flames still raged as the city crumbled. What I heard next was so out of place, so unexpected that I opened what I thought was better left closed.

The sound of a child laughing - never have I been so glad to hear something so simple.

When I turned my head - what I saw - gave me that will to live. I got up. I got up because I had to get them to safety. I had to keep them safe. They were the reason worth fighting for.

Innocents.

The sound was carefree - the giggles of a baby - so free, but the first thing I saw wasn't someone free.

The first thing I saw was a little soldier with blue hair.

She wasn't crying for something lost, and she wasn't claiming revenge on the world. She wasn't blaming the little baby in her arms, nor did she lay there screaming at the world.

She wasn't concerned with hushing the baby in her arms. She was concerned with nothing else, but putting one leg forward at a time. She wasn't even afraid that they could be heard, because there was no one to hear.

Her face was impassive and her wandering aimless - she kept on marching. Her eyes - what haven't they seen?

I stopped in front of them, and immediately I notice a change in the girl. Recognizing that I was a marine her shoulders slumped in relief, as if a heavy weight had just been lifted, because... Because a heavy weight had been lifted. For someone so young, to be responsible for another's life - on this battlefield.

The blue haired girl stops for me but she doesn't relax completely - doesn't give into hope. I tried to look reassuring, but I wasn't exactly looking that hot. I was bloody, I was battered, and I was even limping heavily, but I was a Marine.

So I smiled and although it was thin - I tried to look like hope.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, to make her stop looking like that, like she was forcing herself to repress her own emotions.

"Is that your sister?"

When she shakes her head and tells me that they're strangers... Something inside of me aches for her. I can't believe it, me? Feeling motherly?

The baby - barely a year old - when she notices me, brightens. She-

"She's smiling-"

I could feel myself tearing up, but for some reason I wanted to laugh.

"She doesn't know the slightest thing about what's going on..."

It was so absurd that the blue haired little girl and I - we started laughing.

Surely it's a miracle?

It's a miracle that these two survived. A miracle that I was alive when they came.

No, I lived... so I could be here (there) for these two.

We laughed so hard that tears started to stream down our faces.

The baby with the orange hair, her smile, was like a dam breaking.

~/~\~

"Look! It is Bellmere!"

(I don't care...)

"She has children with her! Whose kids are those!?"

("I don't care what anyone has to say...)

"Call the doctor! They've got terrible fevers!"

(As long as they're alive...)

"They've been terribly exhausted by the storm!"

(Life is worth living.)

"Alright, I'll treat them right away! But you've got serious wounds yourse-"

(Was I worthy? Was my life worth it? I used to ask myself that before I decided to become a marine.)

"Enough about me and just go! Don't let those kids die!"

(I found it... The answer to my questions.)

"Please save them no matter what!"

(I found it!)

AN: Writing this chapter I've come to realize that Ace and Bellmere are very similar. They were both orphans that acted out, because they couldn't find a reason for their lives. Just think.. if Ace was Ann and became a marine like Garp wanted...

I can see it.

Luffy was Ace's Nojiko and Nami, just think about it.