Marco was walking behind the others, he didn't like this place, there was something felt wrong.

Like someone was watching them, but every time he turned around he saw nothing.

After a few minutes, he stopped. He was SURWE he had heard something. He stood still and listened, and after a while he heard it again.

It was a voice, whispering his name.

"marcooo" It whispered. He was sure, more than sure, he had heard that voice before.

"Ace"? He thought as he walked in to a corridor he hadn't seen until now.

"Marcooo, save me" the voice whispered, he could barely hear it, but still it was there.

"ace"? marco asked out loud, as he started running, following the voice.

"Marco, WATCH OUT" the voice screamed inside his head as the floor under his feet disappeared, and he fell into darkness.

~ A while later~

"Hey, pom-pom guy, where did birdy guy go"? Luffy asked, tilting his head looking behind them.

"Huh"? thatch answered, also looking behind them where Marco was supposed to be. The only problem, he wasn't behind them at all.

"Oh great…when did he disappear!" Thatch said pinching the bridge of his nose.

Making Rakuyo and Vista turn around too, getting worried for their first commander.

They had been walking for about an hour now, no trace of either Ace, a stair, or any enemies, although that didn't mean they weren't there, and now, they had lost their strongest fighter along the way.

Ace would NEVER forgive them if he died here, and they wouldn't forgive themselves either.

"Should we look for him"? Vista asked, looking worried.

Thatch thought about it for a minute, he was worried for his brother, but Marco was strong. Ace probably needed them more.

"No, Marco can take care of himself. Ace needs us more, Marco wouldn't want us to waste time on looking for him when Ace needs help". Thatch said, but as they kept on walking, he had a bad feeling in his gut that said that every moment they looked for Ace, would bring Marco one step closer to death, and even if they looked for Marco, by the time they reached him, it would be too late.

Sabo, Jozu, Izou and Benn walked through the dark mansion, no one talked and the silence was tense.

They all had a bad feeling about this place and most of all they wanted to turn and run, but they would never do that. Ace needed them and they were so close.

The whitebeards didn't even care that Sabo was kind of in charge if it meant they could see Ace soon. They missed him so it hurt, his pranks with Thatch, him falling asleep everywhere, his eating habits, and even his annoying habit of setting things on fire all the time.

He were their LITTLE BROTHER damn it!

They stopped in their tracks as they thought they heard a scream, it kind of sounded like Marco?

But dismissed it quickly and kept on walking, why would Marco of all people be screaming? He never screamed. Also, he had 2 other commanders with him, he would be just fine.

They kept on walking until they suddenly came to a big steel door.

They stood in silence for a moment before Sabo broke the silence.

"So.. shall we"? he said, looking back with a big grin.

Marco's pov

I fell for what felt like forever, I don't know why I didn't just use my powers, I guess I was too surprised at the sudden fall.

I felt myself land hard on a stone floor and groaned as I sat up on my knees, rubbing my head.

"What the hell was that, you" I murmured for myself, looking around, it was pitch dark, and for some reason my devil fruit that allows me to see in the darkness wasn't working all too good.

I tried to stand up and felt a dull pain in my knee. "Must be sea stone, but where"? I though and looker around me again, trying to see something, anything at all.

Suddenly, I felt a presence, it wasn't one I recognized and got into a battle station. The only problem was that I couldn't tell where the presence came from.

"Who are you" I asked.

No one said anything for a while, making me think he was playing with me.

"So you are Marco the phoenix" a voice said, I frowned, it was like the voice was inside my head, I didn't like it one bit.

"Who. Are. You." I growled.

"Oh, no one special. I've been waiting for you you know, the little rascal was so curtain that you would come, seems like he was right, although.. I can't let you have him that easy now can i…"

Normal POV

"You're the one who took Ace aren't you! Give him back, yoi!" Marco screamed, now feeling the anger rush through his veins.

"He took my Ace" was all he was thinking in that moment.

"Ohh… don't be like that Marrrcoo… you had you chans… he's mine now.."

Marco loathed this man with all his might. And something about the way he was speaking his name gave his chills.

"You STOLE him from us! YOU HAD NO RIGHT,YOI! GIVE HIM BACK YOU FUCKING BASTARD BEFORE I RIP YOUR THROTE"! Marco screamed from the top of his lungs.

He was really losing his cool.

"And you are a pirate, don't YOU steal, Marrrco? Have you never stolen anything".

"I don't steal PEOPLE AND KEEP THEM AWAY LIKE THIS!"

"Hmm you dooo have a poooiiint there… know what… you can have him back."
…."huh?"

"If… you'll live… that is…" a maniac laughter was heard after this, then, nothing.

Marco felt his inside twist, although he didn't know why. He knew it would be harder than just waltz in and take Ace back, he had excpected a fight, but this?
He couldn't even see.

He figured he was somewhere under the mansion, "guess that's a start, yoi" he thought before starting to walk forward.

Normal pov, Harutas group.

"Will you two stop nagging already"? Haruta shouted at Shanks and Law. They had been called by Sabo's group a while ago and was now heading to the spot where the door was supposed to be.

Unfortunately the two idiot sword users just HAD to argue on which way was the right one.

"You have to be kidding be, were are supposed to go to the RIGHT!" shanks said.

"NO way carrot head, we are supposed to go straight forward, are your sense of direction that bad"!?

Haruta sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, while Namur and Fossa sweetdropped at the two arguing.

"Aren't we supposed to go to the left"? Fossa whispered to Namur, who nodded, not able to find a good answer as he looked at the escalating fight.

Finally, Haruta had had enough and hit them both over the head.

"Shut UP" she schooled the two and turned around, thankfully going the right way, muttering something about "Fights even worse than Ace and Marco after the egg incident", making Fossa and Namur to snicker while shanks pouted while holding his head, and Law sent death glares.

Haruta sighed inside her head, this rescue operation was going be an annoying one.

Normal POV Sabo's group.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN MARCO IS GONE" Izou almost screamed, they had called Thatch to tell him they found a way down, then he had planted this freaking bomb of news, that Marco had disappeared almost an hour ago.

"Why didn't you call us"! Izou demanded to know.

"Sorry, we didn't notice it until it was to late, and Marco is strong Izou, Ace needs us more"!

Izou sighed, he knew Thatch was right, but he didn't like the idea of his brother lost in this place. No one did, but the person who needed them now was Ace. They had no idea how he was, but he did know he needed medical attention, and probably some food and a long freaking shower.

But still, he could not shake the bad feeling he got that whatever place Marco was at, it was nothing good.

Ace's POV

I looked up as the door was opening and the man was walking in, carrying a video transponder snail.

I watched him set it up, confused. What was he doing?

Before I could ask, he turned towards me.

"I figured you'd want to see this" He said, and even though I couldn't see his face because of the ever present hood, I knew he was smiling.

I had a very bad feeling about this.

As he put it on, the first thing I could see was a dark room, but after a few seconds, I could hear running footsteps, and as the person walked into the room, my mouth dropped open.

"Marco"!? I though, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be happy, angry, sad, or worried.

I noticed that he seemed to be alone thought.. yep, I totally had a bad feeling about this.

Suddenly Marco stopped and turned to the left, I frowned, wondering what had caught his attention, I still couldn't believe that it was Marco I saw.

Then everything went by so quickly that I barley could keep track on what was what.

Apparently Marco had been attacked by a few creatures, they were fast as hell too.

I watched in amazement for a few minutes until I noticed that something wasn't right with Marco's fighting stance.

He was sort of limping on his right leg, I was now starting to get worried, I knew Marco can handle himself, but if he was injured that meant that his devil fruit for some reason didn't work, and that could be very very bad.

From now on, I watched in horror as Marco grew more and more tired, and after almost half an hour of watching I saw something that made my blood run cold.

One of the beasts was sneaking up on Marco from behind, and even though i knew Marco couldn't hear me, I screamed for Marco to watch out.

The second after, Marco was pierced from behind.

I could see Marco's eyes widening and how he looked down at the big antler stocking out of his gut.

He brought his hand up to his face and looked at the blood with a surprised expression.

Only a second had gone by, and then, Marco screamed.

It wasn't just a scream, it was a blood freezing scream of pain.

The beast seemed to take this as some sort of sign, and lifted Marco up into the air making Marco cough up blood and grit his teeth to keep the screams down.

I could see Marco's teeth, red from his own blood, the pained expression on my lovers face, and the fact that I could do nothing to help him pained me more than anything.

I saw how the beast turned his head upwards, making Marco slid even further down, screaming and making a bloody trail.

He breathed heavily , coughing up more blood, before whispering something, but I couldn't hear what it was, before he went still, closing his eyes.

As I Saw my lover close his eyes, my vision blurred, the pain too intense, and I passed out.

Marco's POV

I jumped as one of the animals came at me from the left, I had been running for probably an hour, meeting new enemies at every turn or a very annoying trap.

Now I was in a circle formed room full with the same kind of animals we had fought in the forest on our way here. I cursed mentally as one of the beasts almost got me, and grimaced as I landed on my wounded knee making the pain bloom up again.

I had forgotten how annoying it was to get injured since I always relied on my devil fruit to keep me unharmed.

I jumped again as a beast came at me from the right.

The rest of the fight went by in a haze, I grew more and more tired and my knee hurted like a bitch.

I couldn't keep this up much longer.

Just as I was about to charge once again, I felt an intense pain in my back and my eyes widened in shock.

I slowly looked down and saw something big come out of my gut.

"..what the.." I thought as I brought up my hand to my face to see it covered in deep red blood.

My blood!

The second after I felt the pain, it was burning and over powering, it paralyzed me.

I heard someone scream, only to realize it was me. All I could think of was the pain.

Suddenly, I felt like someone was trying to make the wound even bigger, the shock made me couch, and I felt something warm running down my chin.

I could hear every heartbeat in my head, I could feel the blood pumping out of the wound in my gut and I gritted my teeth to keep another scream in as I put a hand by the pulsating wound in some weak try to stop the bleeding.

The object piercing right through me shifted again, making me slid further down, I tried to be scilent at first, but the pain was too intense and soon I screamed.

It was starting to get heavy to breath, and the blood in my throat made me cough once again.

At least the pain was starting to go away, and instead there was an heavy feeling, making Me tired and wanting to go to sleep.

I knew this was it, this was death. I couldn't help but feel guilty for some reason, I just couldn't remember why.

The last thing I thought of was Ace, his big brilliant smile, as he saw me, he pouted. He had fallen over board and was annoyed I hadn't caught him before hitting the water, making me smile.

I hugged him tightly, one hand on his back and the other on his soft raven hair.

It was a nice memory, one I treasure a lot.

I sighed as I felt my eyelids get heavy, the breathing getting heavier by the second.

With my last power I whispered

"I'm sorry, Ace, I couldn't save you"

Then I fell into nothingness.

x-x-x-x-x-x

SORRY GUYS!

DO YOU HATE ME NOW!?

I love Marco so much, but I thought the story needed a little spice.

Please leave a rewiev about what you think!

And don't ya worry, I won't let Marco die so easily