Hi, guys. Happy New Year!

I apologize for the delay with this chapter, but there have been some developments in my life. First of all, I hate the holidays, and getting a cold on top of them is not fun.

That said, updates for this story will be spaced out to one every two weeks until early-February (the three week delay is entirely due to the season). Why, you might ask. Well, remember me whining about an exam a while back? Results took forever to come out, but they finally did and I PASSED! The second exam is on February 9th, meaning I won't have much free time to write until after that date. Unfortunately, I am almost caught up with the chapters I have written for this story, and if I kept to my normal update schedule while I couldn't write, then I would catch up to what I have written. So I'm spacing updates out and planning on a writing spree after the exam.

The Eternal Hell, Part III

Whitebeard's question rebounded throughout level six, and Rayleigh walked out of the shadows of the hallway to find himself the subject of the disbelieving stares from everyone who was in a position to see him. There were shocked mutterings, but the volume didn't rise again. Whether the prisoners were too shocked to see him alive despite the rumors of his crew's destruction, or if it was because he was working with his alleged mortal enemy Whitebeard, Rayleigh didn't care enough to find out.

He pulled the keys out of his pocket, and searched for the right number as he walked to one of the few cells on ground level. From that cell, Portgas D. Ace and the Knight of the Sea, Jinbe, watched him in silence. Jinbe's presence here spared them the effort of looking for him elsewhere.

Rayleigh very deliberately forced his thoughts away from Ace. Not now, not while he was still in that cage and held in chains. And definitely not with such a vicious and hateful audience as the prisoners in level six.

"Here we go," Rayleigh said, opening the door with the ease of someone who wasn't a devil fruit user.

The moment the door was open, Luffy pushed past him into the cell.

"Ace!" Luffy called, dropping to his knees next to Ace. He immediately fell over due to the kairoseki chains he'd inadvertently touched. He groaned something unintelligible.

"…Luffy?" Ace asked, his voice hoarse in what Rayleigh was sure had to be disbelief.

Sighing, Rayleigh walked in and pulled Luffy off Ace.

"Don't touch anything," he told Luffy before he turned to kneel himself and started removing the many chains that held Ace in place.

The marines, no, the World Government, were a bunch of absolute assholes. They hadn't even bothered to treat Ace's wounds. Some of them appeared to be infected.

"Pops?" Ace spoke again, head turned to where Whitebeard was crouched outside of the cell. "What the hell?" he asked, and his eyes darted between Whitebeard and Luffy.

Rayleigh lowered Ace's right arm carefully before moving to free his left one. He didn't want to know how those muscles were feeling after who knew how long of being forced into that position.

He didn't need to turn to know Whitebeard had to be smiling.

"You didn't expect we'd abandon you, did you, son?" Whitebeard asked. From Ace's shock, Rayleigh had the sinking suspicion that it was exactly what Ace had expected. Or, perhaps even worse, hoped.

"But—" Ace started. He shut up, and his shoulders tensed.

Rayleigh focused on the damn cuff.

"And, really, Jinbe? You should've gone to war," Whitebeard continued, no reproach in his voice despite his words.

Rayleigh lowered Ace's left arm. There were still a lot of chains holding his feet and torso in place.

Jinbe groaned.

"Not you too," he said almost plaintively.