Hi, guys! Sorry I got this in a day late this week - I was pretty busy yesterday.

Thanks to Sparrowhawk8.20 for the Fav!

chaosrin - Oh, Maria's going to do something pretty similar to that in the next few chapters...she's going to show just how much of a threat she can be...

Rae (Guest) - Ah...well...

KP360 - Yeah, if only they had. And yes, further character development for the Reploid is going to happen!

Here we go!

Chapter 133 (or 38) - Everything Goes Downhill

Maria's POV

I couldn't believe what had just happened. Ace - the one pirate we had come here in order to rescue - had just been given a fatal wound. He probably didn't have much longer before...

I didn't want to think about it.

Akainu removed his fist from Ace with a sickening squelching sound and stepped back, leaving Ace - somehow - still standing.

For a moment, anyway.

Ace coughed up a mouthful of blood and started falling forward.

"Ace!" Luffy scrambled over to his brother.

I moved quickly to join them, glaring up at Akainu as the Whitebeard pirates cried out in surprise and pain before they moved to start firing on the monster in human form.

I threw up a Fire Shield over the brothers and stood behind Luffy just as the cannon balls and what looked like a mechanized spear head made contact with Akainu.

I didn't touch the wall of flames that resulted.

It wouldn't have mattered if I'd have absorbed it, anyway, since Akainu walked out of it with a huge hole in his chest that also happened to include the fact that his arm had been blown off completely. And I could see the magma that made up his body clear as day as his body reformed.

Akainu moved to stand behind Ace again, glaring down at Ace, Luffy, and me as I stood behind my captain and defiantly kept the shield up.

"Looks like you're still alive," Akainu noted with a sneer of disgust. "Fire Fist Ace!" He raised his fist again, and it instantly became magma.

"Don't do it!" Luffy begged. "Don't do it!"

All the anger that I'd been feeling towards Akainu decided to manifest itself then; my Fire Shield thickened and grew spikes of white-hot flames; I could feel the drain of power that the shield was taking increase, but I didn't care; I wanted to make sure that my captain and his brother weren't harmed any more than they already had been.

The fist came down; I was prepared to absorb what heat and fire I could from it, but someone else moved in between us and Akainu first, catching Akainu's magma fist in his open hands.

"Jimbei!" Luffy exclaimed.

"You can't touch him anymore!" Jimbei roared.

"You can't delay the inevitable, Jimbei!" Akainu barked back. "Since you were once a Warlord, I bet you know what I'm capable of!"

"I'd be happy to risk my life if I can delay it! I've been ready to die from the beginning!"

There was another explosion of magma, and then Akainu stepped back. Cautiously, I lowered the Fire Shield I'd set up and watched as Jimbe stood, clutching one burned hand with the other and glaring at the Admiral.

"Looks like I need to execute a traitor, too!" Akainu declared. He started to pull back his fist again.

A blue-yellow blur suddenly passed over my head, accompanied by a swordsman with a handlebar mustache.

"Get down, Jimbei!" Marco barked. He and the other Whitebeard pirate slashed into Akainu and landed behind him, but Akainu wasn't physically hurt.

I probably would have paid more attention to the fight that was going on there were it not for the fact that Ace suddenly collapsed against his brother, bringing Luffy down onto his knees.

"A-Ace," Luffy gasped.

I swallowed, wondering if I could do anything that could possibly heal the wound - I mean, I had Flash Fire, which let me absorb fire and heal myself. Did Ace's Devil Fruit let him do the same thing?

"Hey, are you all right?" Luffy's eyes weren't on his brother; they were on where he had been standing a moment ago. "Hey." He brought up the hand that was against Ace's back and saw the blood that was leaking out.

I sucked in a breath sharply.

Luffy started speaking again, his voice panicked. "Ace, you need to get treated right away!"

"I'm sorry...Luffy..."

"Huh?" Luffy turned his head to look at his brother.

I got down in a crouch and gave Ace a look of concern. "Ace..."

"In order to save me...you pushed yourself that far, but...I couldn't make it all the way. I'm sorry." Ace's voice was quiet, barely hearable, but Luffy and I were close enough to make out his words.

I sucked in a breath sharply. Even if Ace had the ability to absorb fire to heal himself, I knew now that it wouldn't work - the damage Akainu had done was far too great.

"Wh-what are you saying?" Luffy's voice was shaking. "Don't be ridiculous!" He looked back at the others behind us. "Somebody, treat him! Please! Please help Ace!"

A pirate ran over - the same one who had been told to look Luffy over before Ivankov had given him the adrenaline boost.

"Hurry up and treat him!" Luffy ordered.

I bowed my head as the surgeon took one look at Ace and bowed his own, clenching his jaw and his fists.

"What's the matter? Hurry up and help him!" Luffy insisted.

"I'm sorry," the surgeon replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Luffy's voice took on an angered tone, then. "What's going on?! Just do something! Hey, aren't you a doctor? Hey!"

"It's no use," Ace croaked out. "My organs have been burned. I can't hold out much longer."

My shoulders started to shake. We had been so close...and yet...and yet...

I shut my eyes as the tears started to well up.

"I can tell that my life is ending," Ace continued.

"That's not true!" Luffy protested. "Oh, yeah! Iva-chan! Maria!"

I opened my eyes as Luffy turned his head and looked at the both of us.

"You guys can do something, right?" Luffy gave us a pleading expression. "Iva-chan, inject that stuff into Ace like you did for me! Please! Maria, can't you do that fire thing you can do?"

"I don't know if giving any fire to Ace would let him heal at this point," I replied quietly.

"It...wouldn't," Ace grimly confirmed. "My power...I can feel it fading."

"Iva-chan! Please, you have to help-"

"Straw Hat-boy!" Ivankov's voice cut across Luffy's, stopping him short. "Ace-boy...can't make it."

"H-huh? No way." Luffy was refusing to believe what was right in front of him.

I was feeling the same way, but for a different reason. Memories were stirring up in my mind - an ominous red sky, a woman with green eyes and black, frizzy hair, and a man with kind blue eyes and brown hair like mine. Only, they were looking more terrified than anything else in my mind.

"You promised me!" Luffy looked back at Ace. "You said that you'd never die, no matter what!"

The cry went up to the heavens, and I looked away as the tears started to attempt to flood out again.

"Yeah...if it weren't for you and Sabo, I wouldn't even have a will to live," Ace murmured.

I blinked at that. Sabo? Now wasn't the time to ask, though - and I figured that this was far too private a thing for me to ask about at all.

"Oh, yeah. If you see Dadan someday, say hello for me. When I face my own death, I even miss a woman like her."

"Like I said, don't say that you're gonna die!" Luffy insisted.

"There is one thing that makes me want to stay."

I looked at Ace at that, but he didn't really seem to be looking at anyone - his eyes were open, yes, and they were focused, but he wasn't focused on what was around him.

"That is my desire to see you fulfill your dream."

My tears were starting to stream down my face again. A part of me wished that I had a brother like Luffy did, and some part of me knew that I had someone like Ace, but my memories hadn't recovered that part of my life yet and it was frustrating not knowing.

"But I am sure you can do it!" Ace continued. "Because you're my brother."

I looked away, desperately trying to hold back my tears and failing; some started dripping down onto the stone below me.

"Like we promised that day, I have no regret...in my life."

"That's a lie!" Luffy protested. "Don't tell a lie!"

"I'm not lying." Ace's voice was firm. "Something tells me that what I truly wanted was not fame. 'Did I deserve to be born?' What I wanted was the answer to that question."

I looked up sharply at that, scattering tears in every direction as I stared at Ace with a wide-eyed expression. How could he have ever thought that he didn't deserve to be born?! Everyone deserved to live!

"I can't raise my voice to let everyone hear me anymore." Ace's voice was barely above a whisper, now. "Maria, Luffy...could you tell them...what I'm about to say now?"

I got the horrible sense in my very core of what was coming.

I gave a slight nod.

"Pops...everyone...and you, Luffy. Thank you...for loving someone like me who is good for nothing...and who has such bad blood in his veins...up to today."

Tears started streaming down Ace's face in turrets as he said his last words.

"Thank you...for loving me!"

Ace's mouth shifted, like he was going to say something else, but then it turned into a smile as his teary eyes closed, and he fell off of Luffy and landed on the ground, unmoving.

The Vivre Card that had been attached to Ace's life force burned itself down to ash.

"Ace..." Luffy stared down at the body of his now-dead brother, a disbelieving expression on his face. "Ace..."

I rose to my feet and rubbed at my eyes, but the tears wouldn't stop. I'm sorry I couldn't save you.

Luffy threw his head back and started wailing loudly, which only made my tears come even faster. I covered my mouth with a hand in order to muffle my own sounds of grief, closing my eyes.

At the same time, a memory suddenly broke through.

Memory Break

3rd POV

Maria stepped onto the familiar street as the blue glow faded behind her, a triumphant grin on her face as her mind was still thinking about the place that she had just left.

"Man, I can't wait to tell them about..." Her voice trailed off; something was wrong.

The sky was an eerie, ominous red that almost seemed to darken as it got closer to one particular house on the street. Four figures were standing on the sidewalk - two large, black, monstrous humanoid creatures holding what looked like guns up against two humans - a man with brown hair and blue eyes, and a woman with green eyes and frizzy black hair.

"Mom! Dad!" Maria started running forward, metal boots connecting with the asphalt under her feet.

"Maria, stop!" Dad barked.

Maria skidded to a halt, a confused expression on her face. "Dad, what-"

"You have to go! Don't worry about us!" Mom tried to pull her arms out of the clawed hand that was holding them above her head, but it was obvious that the grip was too strong for her to do so. "They're looking for you!"

"For me?!"

One of the black creatures snarled something in a throaty language that Maria couldn't identify.

"Don't worry about us!" Dad ordered. "Just get out of here!"

"Not without you!" Maria's voice broke in a panic.

"Maria, you're going to have to!" Mom's eyes were watering just as much as Maria's were now. "Tell Matthew, Collin, and Liz that we love them."

Maria shook her head, disbelieving. "Mom...Dad..."

The monsters snarled something to each other, and they raised their guns and pointed them at the backs of Maria's parents' heads.

"Maria! GO!" the two yelled together, squeezing their eyes shut.

BRRRZP!

Twin lasers were shot at the same time, coating the humans' bodies in energy. Any color they had faded to a deep gray, and their bodies crumbled into piles of ash.

Maria's eyes widened in shock at the sight, her breath hitching at the sudden act of violence, the smell of burned flesh in the air, and the sudden non-existence of her parents.

When the monsters stepped on the ash piles and laughed, her eyes narrowed with anger, and she clenched her teeth as flames coated her arms. With a roar of anger, she charged towards the monsters, shock and rage holding back whatever grief she might have had over what she had just witnesses.

She was so focused on the two that had just killed her parents that she didn't notice a third monster come up behind her and level a different kind of gun at her.

Bzzzrpt!

Maria screamed in pain as electricity arched over her armor, scrambling her circuits and causing her vision and hearing to suddenly fizz and pop with static. She felt her joints lock up, and she fell to the ground as her systems automatically started to shut down for repairs; she tried to fight it, but she already wasn't able to move, much less hear or make use of her power.

One of the alien monsters came over and picked Maria, wrapping its claws around her middle and letting her arms, legs, and head hang limp.

She caught sight of a dark-haired boy in blue armor standing a short distance away behind one of the houses, a shocked look on his own, usually more guarded face.

Everything went black.

Memory Break

Maria's POV

I came out of the memory with a gasp of pain and a feeling in my chest like something there was going to break in two. Instantly, I was hit with the sound of pirates around me wailing Ace's name.

That, combined with the memory that I'd just recovered, didn't leave me in a very good mental state.

I sensed Akainu's wall of magma rolling towards us more than I saw it, and I turned sharply to glare at him as he materialized out of it, a determined glare on his face.

I matched it a moment later, my tears turning into small spurts of steam as my core temperature shot up.

"I'll get you this time for sure!" Akainu pulled back a fist, clearly planning on hitting my unmoving captain.

"Like the Pit you are!"

Suddenly, I was between Luffy and Akainu, my body's temperature so high that I'm sure that my heat rivaled the amount the admiral was releasing. White flames materialize around me, and I forced them up in a shield to stop the attack.

Blue and yellow mixed with white; I suddenly found Marco beside me in a half-phoenix form.

"I won't let you kill him!" Marco barked. "Maria, take Luffy and go!"

"But-"

"Go! We can't let him lose anyone else close to him!"

I hesitated at that. Some part of me knew that Marco was right - that I should just take Luffy and run - but the anger that I had against Akainu and the weird monsters in my vision was burning so strongly that I knew that I needed to act on it.

"Luffy-kun! Luffy-kun! Stay with me!"

I looked back and saw Jimbei holding Luffy and shaking him. It was clear that Luffy'd gone into shock; his eyes looked like they'd rolled into the back of his head, and he wasn't responding to the shaking that Jimbei was giving him.

I retracted my fire from the barrier, and Marco quickly picked up the slack as I let my temperature drop back to normal. "Jimbei! We need to get Luffy out of here asap! Come on!"

"Right!" Jimbei turned and ran back towards the bay; I took off after him and quickly moved to his left, where he held Luffy close to his body. If any Marines were going to try and stop us, they were going to get the brunt of my wrath instead.

"Straw Hat's life is how Ace's life will live on!" Marco roared behind us. "We will protect him at any cost on Ace's behalf! If we let him die, it's a dishonor to the Whitebeard Pirates!"

The pirates around us roared in response, but I didn't grin at the thought of the support or encouragement that could have given me.

"Luffy-kun, don't lose your sanity!" Jimbei called.

An explosion went off behind us, and I heard a yell of pain from Marco as I pulled up a Fire Shield to protect Jimbei and Luffy from the blast, which allowed us to keep going despite the shaking ground and the magma being thrown in all directions.

"Straw Hat!" Akainu roared from behind us.

Jimbei and I looked back and caught sight of Akainu running towards us, the intent to kill clear in his eyes.

I started to turn around fully, ready to fire off one of my own attacks at a moment's notice - if I couldn't stop him, I could at least slow him down - when I saw a large shadow suddenly appear behind Akainu and stop him short.

Whitebeard had caught up with him. And boy, did he look mad.

Judging by the look that was on Akainu's face as he turned around to look at Whitebeard, he knew it, too.

I turned back around, a cynical smirk appearing on my face as a shockwave blast of energy came from behind and pushed us forward a little. Whitebeard pirates crowded around us, yelling about how Whitebeard was going on a rampage. The only thing that even allowed me a shred of twisted happiness at this point was the terrified look that had been on Akainu's face.

Loser? Pfft, yeah right.

I looked down at Luffy, and my smirk faded back into a determined frown. "Luffy never thought that his brother was going to die. He must've snapped."

"Yes," Jimbei replied grimly. "And I have no doubt that he is going to descend into madness if we don't get him to snap out of it soon."

"Well, you won't get him to snap out of it here.. Not when we're so close to what happened and all this is still going on." I motioned to the Marines battling the pirates around us, trying to stop our advance back to the bay. None of them had been able to intercept us yet, but I was ready to intervene at a moment't notice.

Jimbei shot me an odd look as the Whitebeard pirates behind us started yelling. I was tempted to look back, but making sure Luffy got out of Marineford alive was a priority, no matter how much anger I had for Akainu.

Whitebeard was giving us a chance to get away. Despite my want to join him and do something about Akainu myself, I couldn't let the chance that Whitebeard was giving us be wasted.

Moments later, the ground started shaking, and the air vibrated with an energy that nearly threw me off my hoverboard as the sound of stone cracking went off behind us and alongside us. Dust and small rocks were thrown into the air like shrapnel as the plaza started to tear itself apart.

"Whoa!" I rose up a little, startled. "What is-"

"Whitebeard is must be intending to take down all of Marineford!" Jimbei exclaimed, coming to a stop in order to regain his balance. I stopped with him. "We're far enough away from him that we won't be sunk with it now, but we will have to hurry if we don't want to be caught up in it!"

I looked back at where Whitebeard and Akainu had been fighting, and I caught sight of the plaza breaking suddenly, a chasm opening up between Whitebeard and the rest of us, leaving him stranded with a large number of Marines.

"Pops!" the Whitebeard pirates cried.

Whitebeard raised his weapon. "From now on, I'm the only one you have to deal with! Bring it on!"

"Come on!" Jimbei turned and started running back towards the opening into the bay. I followed after him moments later.

"People are dying left and right and there's nothing that I can do to stop it," I muttered. "It's not right."

"I understand why you feel this way," Jimbei replied. "And you can grieve later. But for now, we must hurry and get you and Luffy out of here."

"Yeah..." I gave a grim nod.

"The Blackbeard Pirates!"

Blackbeard?

"Zehahahahaha! Long time no see! I'm glad I'm present at your death!"

That laugh made a chill run down my spine, and I turned my head and looked back, frowning as I tried to find the source of the voice. It was strangely familiar - and it made me feel terribly uneasy.

Somehow, I managed to zoom my focus in on the platform where the execution stand had been, and I caught sight of a dark-skinned man with black hair and missing teeth.

Instantly, the dredges of a vision that I'd had - back at the start of my journey with Luffy, in fact - came back in full force.

It was like darkness and light were battling on that island.

"Scrap," I cursed, wide-eyed. "This is bad."

...Well. That memory was the last thing I'd been expecting to pop up. Ah, who am I kidding? I've had that scene planned since I started writing this arc!

And yes, Maria really did see her parents - named Morgen and Katie - get killed right in front of her eyes. How long ago it was though...that's going to take a bit for me to release.

I'll see you guys on Monday!