Here is chapter 38! I absolutely loved writing this one, absolutely LOVED it. It was so nice ^_^ It was quite hard coming up with what should appear on this chapter (consider the last two paragraphs some kind of present =P), it is so hard to write these last chapters since I am so close to the end and I'm not too sure what to make each chapter have, even though I know what the end is going to be like. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy this chapter! Thank you for all of the reviews, favs and alerts! I'm very glad that all of you guys like this story! =D

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:

I ran desperately forwards, wanting to reach as soon as possible the next and last room. That scream... it had undoubtedly belonged to Luffy. What had happened to him? What had happened inside that last room? I felt a shudder go up my spine as I thought of all of the possible things that could have happened to the person most important to me.

"If you have done anything to him you will pay Blackbeard" I muttered as I continued running in a tone of voice that would have made anyone shiver from pure fear.

Luffy's scream had seemed to be so full of pain. I only hoped that he was okay, that was the only thing that I was currently wishing for. I wasn't able to imagine how being without Luffy again would be. I was completely unable to imagine how life without him would be, let alone how I would manage to cope with him 'dying' again. I wouldn't be able to stand it. I needed to be close to Luffy now, after we had found each other and after I had managed to finally place and recognise the nature of my feelings for him. He even felt the same way for me, and that was something that surprised me a lot, but in a good way. I had never thought of Luffy as someone who would fall in love or even know what those kind of feelings were like. If he went away I wouldn't want to continue going on. No. If he went away I would want to die, no matter what else happened. A world without Luffy just wasn't worth it. That was why I had to reach the last room as soon as possible, to make sure that nothing had happened to him, to protect him, to defeat Blackbeard and to stop his plans and to tell Luffy just how important he was for me again, if I managed to say it. I had never expressed affection too well

Seconds seemed to turn into minutes and minutes into hours as I ran towards the last room, with all of these thoughts constantly repeating themselves inside my head. An eternity seemed to have passed before I the last room, and by then the only sound that could be heard was the loud supernatural buzz that I had heard earlier. Soon I was right in front of a huge and massive wooden door that clearly led to the last room. The atmosphere was quite cold and seemed to be charged with some kind of supernatural energy that was filling all of my senses. The door had several drawings on it and several writings on it too that I didn't bother to read the writings.

I touched the door and quickly opened it. A very loud 'creak' was heard as I did this, filling all of the corridor that I had been running through before, and soon the last room was revealed. It was quite dark, and the only sources of light that filled the room seemed to come from the walls and from some place inside the room that was directly opposite from where I was but that I couldn't distinguish very well due to the great distance that was between the two points. I entered the room and took a deep breath, and it was then when I realised that the whole room smelled of blood. I looked around me, trying to find the source of the smell, and it was then when I saw two bodies lying on the floor quite near the entrance. One was from the sichibukai Kuma, and the other one was from a vice admiral. Both had very deep slashes on them, and Kuma was cut in half. I went towards the bodies to check if any of the two were alive, but I soon found that neither of them had a single twinge of life in them. The walls beside them had numerous parts where you could see that a body had been thrown against it. On the floor there was quite an amount of rubble beside these parts of the wall that had been destroyed by someone.

I continued walking around the room, looking around me. There were many parts of the wall that had these marks on them and were destroyed. There had been quite a fight inside here not so long ago. The room was huge, and I could see many destroyed pictures and words written by the ancient people on them. Soon I detected another smell. It was also blood, but this one was more familiar. It was a blood that I had even tasted not so long ago, from a person very important to me. Luffy's blood. By now I was nearly at the centre of the room, very near the three pedestals that were at the centre of the room. I had been looking at the floor all of the time, and I hadn't realised my proximity to the three pedestals, what was on top of them, the bag beside them or the strange blue 'circle' that was directly in front of them and opposite to the only door that led to this room. No. Instead I was staring at the increasingly frequent red puddles of varying size that were starting to appear. This blood wasn't like the one that I had smelled earlier when I had entered the room. This blood was familiar. Very familiar, and I knew exactly why.

I bent down and ran one finger across one small puddle of blood that was very close to me, wishing that this wasn't what I had imagined. Once my fingertip was red with the still fresh blood I stood up and I tasted the blood to try and prove what I had just realised wrong, but soon I realised that this was the blood that I had tasted two times before, the one whose taste I would never forget and that I still longer for, even if I wasn't thirsty. It was Luffy's blood, just like I had detected by the smell.

"No!" I shouted once I had tasted the blood, realising who had then done all of the damage and had killed the sichibukai member and the vice admiral. That one had been Blackbeard, and Luffy probably was...

I looked around me anxiously, and it was then when I saw what was on top of the three pedestals, the bag that was beside them and the blue portal that had opened directly opposite from the entrance. It was then when I realised what had happened inside here and the winner of the fight that had happened here. It was then when I saw a familiar torn cloak near the three pedestals and a limp body right in front of the bluish portal that still was creating that loud supernatural buzz that filled the room and the corridor.

"Luffy!" I shouted as I ran towards the unmoving body of my adoptive younger body.

It only took a few seconds to reach the unmoving body. Once I was near the figure of Luffy I threw myself to the floor and shook it almost violently.

"Luffy! Wake up you idiot! I am finally here!" I shouted over and over again. I felt something damp fall from my eyes, and it wasn't until I heard myself sob one, two and three times that I realised that I was crying. I looked at Luffy, or at his now lifeless body. His eyes were closed, his clothes were torn and dirtied with dry and liquid blood, his straw hat also seemed to be missing, due to who knows why, there were no signs that showed that Luffy was alive and his whole body was covered in deep and not so deep wounds and signs of starvation. The thought that I was grabbing Luffy's dead body suddenly hit me with a massive force that made me clutch it even tighter and start crying harder, something that I hadn't done since Sabo's death.

"Luffy!" I shouted as I hugged the dead body of my younger brother and only love. "Luffy!" I shouted again.

I remained like this for a very long time, the only thought s in my head all of the moments that we had gone through together. I didn't remember anything else, or rather; there wasn't any space for anything else. I could only remember him grinning with that goofy grin of his at me, the feeling of his lips against mine, how it felt when he had bit be and when he had told me that he loved me. I could only remember these things, everything else displaced and forgotten.

More minutes passed, and I slowly became more and more aware of the portal that was open before me and the person that had done this to Luffy. I suddenly became aware of the person that had gone through the portal and of what he wanted to achieve. I was invaded by a strong feeling of anger and rage that demanded a bloody revenge, and I decided to follow it. It was what I should do and what I had to do to avenge Luffy. Yes. I would make sure that that bastard was dead before he could reach that stone and complete that so called 'dream' of his. I would make sure that Luffy hadn't died in vain and that what he had last tried to achieve was completed so he could rest in peace.

With these thoughts I placed my lips on Luffy's dead ones. "I love you" I whispered to his body. I got up and I walked towards the bluish portal and crossed it decided to avenge my younger brother and to complete what he had died trying to do. I crossed it, not even noticing the sucking sensation that went through all of my body as I did this and how my body was left behind once I had crossed the portal and how it fell very near Luffy's one.

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Marco's POV:

Soon enough Jimbei, the skeleton called 'Brook' and I had managed to defeat the vampire empress with some great teamwork, and she had ended up revealing us that she had voluntarily let Luffy go through this corridor before, and she had been quite glad let's say when she learnt that we were allies of Luffy. It hadn't been a bloody fight, but it had been quite damaging, and the corridor where we had somehow managed to fight in had ended up quite damaged. It was a wonder how it hadn't collapsed yet, seeing the amount of damage that had been made to it. Bare seconds had passed since the four of us had stopped fighting when we felt several presences behind us.

"Well done" I heard a very familiar voice say behind me.

The four of us turned around, and soon we found ourselves staring at Rayleigh. Behind him were Aokiji, Zoro, Nami, that Usopp, several other hunters, Sanji and several other vampires that were members of the Whiteberad vampires.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Rayleigh. "Weren't you all fighting outside this place?" I then asked again.

Rayleigh laughed. "Yes, but the fight has ended. We have won" He stated. "It's good to see you again, Hancock" Rayleigh then said, greeting the vampire empress.

I stared at him with shock, not managing to believe entirely what he said. They had defeated Blackbeard's allies and the government already? How had they managed to do that? It didn't seem like so much time had passed... right?

"Many hours have passed already. You may have not noticed, but a whole day has passed since you entered this place" Rayleigh then said.

"A day?" I said, very surprised. It had only seemed like a few hours had passed since we had entered this place. How was it possible? I then looked at the ones that were behind Rayleigh, more specifically at Zoro. During the time that I had spent with him he had mentioned a couple of times his dream of becoming the best swordsman in the world, and I had seen him before Ace and I had entered this place starting to fight the best swordsman in the world Dracule Mihawk. Did that mean that he had managed to...?

"Zoro, did you defeat Mihawk?" I asked, wondering what had been the result of the fight.

"Yes" He replied calmly.

We remained silent during the next seconds, thinking about what we had all have to go through the last... day. It was Rayleigh the one that broke the silence after he looked around.

"So it has started already..." He muttered.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, wondering what he had meant by that.

He looked around himself a bit more, as if feeling the atmosphere. "The portal has been open" He said. "Where are ace and Luffy?" He then asked aloud.

"Luffy was always in front of us, and Ace went in front of us while we fought the vampire empress" I said.

"We have to be quick then" Rayleigh then said. "We have to reach the last room as soon as possible to see what has happened" He then finished saying.

We all nodded and started running towards the last room, wondering what had happened there.

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Luffy's POV:

I slowly opened my eyes as I regained consciousness. After Blackbeard had taken me through the portal I had managed to follow him for a bit, but I had ended up falling unconscious due to all of the wounds that had remained with me when I had gone through the portal and the little energy that I had left, not to mention the fact that I was starving for blood.

I blinked several times, not being able to adjust my eyes to the bright light that surrounded me. I could feel someone hugging me tightly and something damp, probably tears, falling on my face. I could hear the person hugging me saying something, but I couldn't recognise clearly what he or she was saying. I blinked several times more, until I became used to the light that surrounded me, and it was only then when I recognised the person that was hugging me so tightly.

"Ace?" I said, quite weakly, as I moved my arms to hug my brother back.