Blood stained his fingers, a dark stain ebbing into the pitch of black along the middle of his shaking palm. Dark hues stared into the darkness, thoughts stilled and the shattered remains of hope gone from his fleeting mind. Gone to fade away into nothingness as frozen gaze drifted in frozen fear to the still form before him. That same stain of crimson spreading in a dark pool around the suddenly far too silent form.
Gone the laughter, gone that grin, replaced instead by this hollow aching sadness and the faintest hint of frozen smile etched into the pale, all too familiar face.
Distantly there were screams and yells, the clang of metal and gunfire, everything reaching deaf ears as if through a fog. Breath failed to reach screaming lungs, form paralyzed in the undeniable truth that rest before him in the aching wake of death.
"…Luffy…?"
It was a whisper, broken as it fell from pale lips, gaze fixated onto those dull reminders of life. He couldn't move, flames flickering across bare shoulders in barely over a glimmer of light and heat, as weak as the frantic beating of his tortured heart.
"Lu-Luffy…?!" It was louder this time, a shaking hand reaching out as if to brush aside askew ebony only to freeze as gaze once more locked upon the dark stain that sunk into his fingertips. Luffy's blood on his hands. His blood pooling around him in unreflective pool of loss, a mirror that shined only darkness.
Familiar straw hat dipped into such pool and Ace choked on his own breath, reaching out hesitant fingers to tug it from the fallen lifeblood and place it atop unruly dark threads once more.
Luffy was dead.
He didn't want to think about it, didn't want to acknowledge the realization that coursed through him.
Luffy had died in order to protect him.
But he was far to young. Why hadn't it been him instead, his brother just having begun his adventure and forced to end it so soon.
His little brother…
Again the deafening of shouts and fighting reached his ears, pushed back as he pulled the still form into his grasp, curling around the young raven with a choked sob and pressing Luffy's head to his chest, a chilling reminder of life as the warmth slowly faded from his form.
They had killed his brother right in front of him. They had killed Luffy who had done only good his whole life, a child still growing to know the wonder of the world only to be struck down by darkness too soon. He was dead and they hardly cared. Just the son of Dragon brought down in battle; a necessary loss.
Flame flickered in bright and angry light around his shoulders, spreading to devour his figure as he continued to rock the still form of his lost brother, mutterings of his name and apologies falling from his lips in endless stream of remorse. Red and angry, those flames rose to envelop them both, licking harmlessly at one held so dear while lashing out in whips of deadly heat at any foolish enough to draw too close. A white heat that licked at his hair and limbs, throwing scorching inferno up around him in spirals of light and death.
Tears evaporated before fully leaving dark hues yet they continued to fall, sobs drowned out in the crackle of furious fire.
They had stolen his brother from him.
Vaguely there were the calls of his name, calls for his brother, cries of fear from both pirates and marines alike that dared to near him.
All were foe.
All were DAMNED.
They had called him a monster and for years he had fought against such a title. But if it was a monster that they wanted, then a monster they would get. Let them feel the pain of his sorrow and curse the day they pushed him too his flames strike out and devour any who would dare scorn the life of his brother, of his family.
It was hours later when his flickering form crossed across rubble, carrying the corpse of his brother lost in bridal style against his chest. He never spared a glance behind him to the rubble of rising pillars of black smoke, not a thought spared for the charred corpses he stepped over. Only a laugh to echo in the wake of screams and death.
Another pillar fell somewhere in his mind to lay besides the rubble of another long lost. Two gone and not enough salvation to hold fragile mentality in place. It crumbled, falling at his feet.
Ashes to embers, and embers to dust.
Just another notch on the walls too high to climb over.
A/N: Takes place at Marineford in a hypothetical scenario where Luffy died instead of Ace and he goes a little...nuts.
