Here is chapter seven! I hope that you really enjoy it ^_^ Thank you all for all of those wonderful reviews that you left and for all of the favs and alerts of this story (and of my account!) You guys are the best, thank you for giving this story so much love :D While I was writing this chapter I was listening to the song "God's Will" of the Naruto OST. It is so nice, really 3 It probably had an influence too on how this chapter came out. Heh, I swear that I almost cried while I wrote this. Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

The words that Sabo had told me earlier still were dancing around my head. I couldn't forget it. How could that Luffy be the person that I had danced with? It was completely ridiculous. Where had Sabo gotten such a crazy idea from? He surely had to be desperate for me to find that person soon, but that was very unlike him.

I groaned. "This is taking me nowhere" I muttered as I sat on top of my bed and covered my face with my hands. "Concentrate Ace, just concentrate" I then said to myself as I tried to relax and free my head from that annoying thought that just refused to leave my mind. Damn, I was sure that I could even dream with that happening if I wasn't careful. Ugh, this whole thing was killing me. Couldn't I just continue searching for whoever he had been without stupid theories being bombarded to me? Apparently I couldn't.

I glanced at my room. It was quite messy, but it wasn't like I was going to bother changing this anytime soon. The only thing that was relatively ordered was my bed, although I knew that many people would be willing to say the exact opposite. The room was quite well decorated, and it had all of the usual furniture that could be found at a bedroom and even more. I had a small sofa, the walls almost covered with bookshelves and a desk where I usually did all of my work at. The desk was covered with piles of books of all kind, schoolwork and other things that I didn't really know what was doing there.

On one side of the table laid abandoned the fancy mask that I had used during the ball. I couldn't really bring myself to put it in a drawer, since every single time that I looked at it I remembered what had happened at the ball; the dance, his way of walking and talking, the kiss and generally speaking everything about him. At first I had supposed that I would end up forgetting him quickly, it wasn't like any of the people that I had ever danced with or been with had ever caused me much of an impact, but surprisingly enough this time it had been different. I couldn't forget him, and inside myself I found a feeling that could only be categorised as love. Love for a person that I had only known for a bit more than an hour and that I didn't know anything about. It was crazy.

My eyes soon went back to the mask, and I couldn't help but to stare at it without managing to think about anything that wasn't related to that ball or to stop doing this. I remained like this for several more minutes, until I suddenly several taps coming from the window disturbed all of my thoughts. I immediately turned around and stared at the window, immediately recognising a certain seagull that had a red envelope attached to one of its legs.

"It can't be!" I said as soon as I noticed the red envelope. It could only mean one thing, and it couldn't be good at all.

I opened the window quickly and making it crash against the rocky walls of my room and quickly grabbed the red envelope that the all too familiar seagull was carrying, and right after I did this it flew away. I stared at the envelope for quite an amount of time, wondering what it could be about. These letters were quite rare and it always was quite a mystery what they were about. I looked at the symbol that was printed on the back of the envelope in blue, Whitebeard's symbol, the symbol that I was so proud of and that I had tattooed on my back and that was my biggest honour. I quickly opened the letter, destroying the carefully made envelope and immediately set my eyes on the piece of paper that was carefully hidden inside of the envelope. It was wonderful how it seemed like there was nothing inside the envelope except to those that already knew how this worked (and that were part of Whitebeard's 'band'). I started reading what was written.

Ace:

First of all I would like to say that I'm sorry for sending this letter to you two days later than what was intended, after what happened three days ago we had some problems and we just managed to resolve them. I know that you are wondering why this red letter has been sent, since it is carrier of such bad news. I will explain that now.

Blackbeard killed Thatch three days ago. Pop's wants to talk with you as soon as possible. We will explain everything better then. After this the police raided our main base, no doubt informed by Blackbeard of its location. We are currently at the base number 7.

Marco

I stared at the letter for some good minutes, not managing to believe anything that was written on it. Thatch had been...? I couldn't believe it. He was such a strong man, how could that have happened to him? It was surreal, and if this had been written on an ordinary letter I wouldn't have believed it. I would have been unable to. Impossible. No. I still couldn't believe it. I needed to talk to Pop's, I really did. I wanted to know what had happened exactly, why the murder had been committed. Blackbeard... how could he? He had been in Whitebeard's gang for many years, and yet he had betrayed his trust. He had betrayed his companions and brothers. He had killed one of them without thinking about it, and had then revealed the location of the main base to the government.

I gritted my teeth, and I felt an uncontrollable rage flooding my whole being. The thoughts of how happy the last days had been had disappeared. It had been my fault. It had all been my fault. Blackbeard had been inside the second division and I was the commander of the second division. It was entirely my fault. If I had been there when it had happened Thatch would still be alive. He would be alive and the traitorous bastard that was Blackbeard would have been stopped. If only I hadn't been so concentrated on the ball, if only I hadn't been acting too highly and as if everything would always be fine, if only I hadn't been acting like a lovesick fool Thatch would still be...!

I heard a sob being emitted from me as I continued thinking of all of these things. "It is entirely my fault!" I shouted with desperation and a deep sadness going through all of my being as I punched with all my strength the wall that was closest to me, making a small crack appear. "If I had been there-!" I then shouted again as I started punching over and over the wall. Tears were falling from my eyes onto the floor as I continued repeating the same thoughts over and over again.

I stopped doing this several minutes later, once my hand started to hurt. Maybe it was bleeding, I didn't know. My vision was too blurred to know exactly. I let myself fall on top of the small sofa and I quickly moved my hands to my face, cleaning the tears that didn't stop falling. Thatch had been such a good friend from the very start; I couldn't believe that he had...

I remained like this for several moments, not really thinking about anything. It was only after some time, when I had calmed myself a bit. It wasn't acceptable for me that I broke down like this. I was a man, I should not cry. Instead I should confront Blackbeard, to make him pay for what he had done. Yes, I would do that. I would defeat Blackbeard and make him pay for his crime. I looked at the red letter, that laid abandoned on the cold floor besides the window. It was almost night time now, and the amount of light that entered through the window was less and less. The moon was already up in the sky, fighting the sun off with her silvery light and slowly taking over the warm golden one.

"It dinner time" I thought as I stared at the sky, not moving or doing anything at all.

I slowly got up from the comfortable sofa, telling myself that no matter what I would go and speak with Whitebeard as soon as possible. Luckily enough tomorrow it was Sunday and there were no classes, which would allow me to go out of the castle discreetly without it being noticed too much tomorrow. I got hold of the red letter, and quickly hid it inside a locked drawer of the table. It wouldn't be good if it was seen here. Once I had finished doing this I walked to the door that led out of my room, deciding that I would eat a quick dinner and later go to the central tower of the school, where the sky could be seen clearly, to clear my thoughts and to simply relax.

I went towards the dining hall, finding that Sabo was there talking to Vivi about something. I quickly got my food and sat with them, not noticing the absence of the other person that sat near us every day. I chatted a bit with them, looking at Sabo to see if he knew about what had happened to Thatch. He was also a member of Whitebeard's gang after all. Something in his eyes told him that he had just learnt about it too and also that he also wanted to talk to Whitebeard about it.

Time passed quickly, and soon both Sabo and I had finished eating our dinner. We walked quietly out of the dining hall and to an emptier corridor where we could talk more privately.

"You heard about what happened, right?" I quickly asked him, sadness evident in my voice.

"...yes" He said with slowly and quietly, with a hesitant tone of voice.

"I want to talk to Pop's, I thought that tonight would be a good time" I quickly told him then.

"I want to see him too" Sabo soon added with determination. "How about going to see him later on and going out of here at about 1 a.m.?" He then asked.

"It is fine by me" I then said.

"What are you going to do now Ace? I have to finish doing some homework for Monday if I want to study tomorrow for several exams" Sabo said.

"I am going to go to the central tower to relax for a bit and think. Where should we meet at the time?" I asked him with curiosity.

"The best thing will be to meet at our common room, right?" He immediately answered.

"Yes, it makes sense" I quickly answered.

"Very well, see you at the time there then" He then said before going away.

I nodded and started walking in the opposite direction, going towards the central tower of the school. It was quite big, and while it had all the classical elements of medieval towers it was quite big and had a magnificent view of the sky. I frequently went up there to relax and think, since it was almost always deserted and I was never interrupted up there. The catch was that it took quite some time to get up the, the stairs that took there were so long after all.

Quarter of an hour later I had finally arrived to the tower. I opened the door that led to the open space that I was so used to and that separated the stairs from that open space. It was a very old and quite resistant door, but some parts of it were already rotten.

"At last" I muttered as I felt the fresh night air all around me, soothing me and making me already feel relaxed.

There was a wonderful view from here, and the very atmosphere of this place made it seem like you were far away from civilisation and from every problem that you had ever encountered. This was the best thing. I walked towards the centre, and it was only a when I was almost there when I noticed that there was a person sitting on top of a crenel at the very border of the tower. He seemed to be staring at the sky from his position, but I didn't know if he had noticed me or not. I stared at the figure for some moments, thinking if I should approach him or just walk away to another part of the castle. I was about to walk away when I heard him talk.

"It's nice here, isn't it?" He asked aloud without turning around to look at me. "It's so distant from everything, even from every problem that there is" He then added.

"Yes" I said with a calm tone of voice as I stared at him, quite shocked. Could he possibly be... 'him'? The figure of the person that was sitting there surely was similar to the one of the person that I had danced with, and I was willing to bet anything that they had the same height. I looked at him, trying to recognise the person that was sitting in front of me.

I sighed inwardly as I realised that i wouldn't be able to recognise who that person was if I didn't get closer to him. I started walking towards him, and as I got closer and closer to him I realised that he wasn't wearing the school uniform, but he clearly was a student though. He had a straw hat on top of his head that hid well his whole face. It was thanks to the straw had that I recognised who he was. He was that strange kid, Monkey D. Luffy, not the person that I had danced with at the masquerade. If I remembered correctly he was three years younger than me, he probably was seventeen already. I myself was twenty, and I would finish my studies here next year. This school was almost like a university, it slowly prepared to for that and by the end, when you were twenty one (more or less) you would have already received a degree. It was a system that had become quite popular in this area. What was that kid doing here wearing something that would surely cost him quite a harsh detention at the school? Had he gone anywhere? That straw hat that he was wearing... it was familiar, and I only realised it now. I knew that I had seen it somewhere, but where exactly?