Title: Of Dreams and Desires
Pairings: Smoker x Ace, Sanji x Zoro, and other side pairings
Ratings: T - NC-17
Chapter: 27 of ?
Summary: The road to One Piece is a dangerous one and each individual begins at different times and places. Some paths cross for a fleeting moment but the encounter could be so great that it can alter the initial direction. Every meeting is important and is planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other. Follow everyone's story and see what path they take.
Disclaimer: I do not make any profit from this story; all props go to Eiichiro Oda.
Author Note: Ohai everyone! Bronco's won like I figured. They give poor Cam such a hard time. Half-time show was awesome. This is the chapter I know most have been waiting for. I hope you enjoy. :3
Shout Outs: Thanks to ThePoliceLlama for reviewing! Yes Zoro finally got Sanji; time for other parings to make an appearance, ne?
Beta Reader: descriptionsalive21, thank you so much!

Portgas D. Ace

"Hey, Freckles, wait up!"

Ace stopped mid-stride and pivoted to look back at the three Marines running to him. He sighed, "If you came to talk me out of going back, it's not going to work."

Jesse tilted his hat to Ace, "We're coming with you."

"Yeah, we can't let a friend to go in alone."

"Plus, anything to get Cap back on his feet."

The pirate looked at the Marines and smiled, "Right, let's go. We're short on time."

The walk back to Dr. Thaddäus's house was surrounded by an air of gloom. Each man knew they couldn't fail this mission. To come back empty-handed meant the death of someone they held dear to them and that was unacceptable. Remembering his way through the jungle, Ace led the men on the shortest route and soon they were once again at the grotto where the doctor lived. They slowly approached the door, caution in their every move.

Roy took a deep breathe, "If he was the one who actually gave the poison to Cap, won't he try to kill us too?"

Perry nodded, "I don't think we shouldn't enter through the front door."

Just as the words left his mouth, Ace jiggled the handle to find the door unlocked. He pushed it open and the Marines let out a shaky breathe. Jesse gave a nervous chuckle, "Guess we're going through the front door."

They stepped into the house and looked around for any signs of the doctor, but it was empty. Closing the door behind him softly, Roy whispered, "I think we should split up. We can cover more ground that way."

"Split up?!" Perry whispered back harshly, "Don't you watch those scary films, man? That's how everyone dies, by splitting the fuck up."

Sensing an argument, Ace held up his hand to grab their attention, "We stay together. Search the living room first, then we'll find his study. There has to be some sort of documentation of the cure somewhere around here."

The men walked into the familiar living room and looked around the areas they were sitting in earlier. Finding nothing particularly unusual, Jesse went to look at the bookshelf on the wall. He read some of the titles of the books and shivered, "Mate's a sick fuck. He really is doing human experiments."

Ace licked his lips, "Stay focused. We don't have much time."

A low moan followed by a shrill scream tore through the air and alerted everyone. They stood in silence, waiting to see if the noise would come back and when it did, Roy moved towards the pair of double doors adjacent to the living room, "I think…" He pressed his ear to the door, squeezing his grip on the spiked brass knuckles in his palm, "I think the screams are coming from here."

Perry double checked his ammo and nodded, "Let's go."

Roy stepped back from the door and reached down for the knob but there was none there. "How the hell are we supposed to get in if there's no handle?"

"The switch has to be in this room. Spread out and find it." Ace commanded.

They pulled books from their shelves and skimmed their hands across the walls for any signs of a trigger to the door but their search yielded fruitless. The grandfather clock donged with the start of a new hour and Jesse watch the pendulum swing back and forth. He pulled open the side glass and stared at the pendulum lyre.

"What's wrong Jesse?"

The Aussie looked up at Roy then back to the clock, "There's a key here." He pulled the key off the lyre and held it up for everyone else to see.

Ace leaned over his shoulder and looked at the pendulum. He hummed and took the key from Jesse, placing it in the keyhole on the pendulum's bob. When he turned the key the clicking of a latch unlocking was heard and Perry stood to investigate the wrought iron doors. With the push of his hand one of the doors slowly swung open with a groan.

He looked back at the group, "Door's open."

The commander stood and situated his hat on his head, sighing. His devil hadn't stopped moving since they'd entered the house and now Mera was lashing out in warning. Ace looked at the Marines next to him, "I don't know what's down there, but stay on your guard. If anything goes south, get out of here."

"Forget it, Freckles, we ain't leaving you."

"Right, so shut up and lead the way."

Ace grinned at his friends and walked through the doors. The other side was vastly different compared to the homey living room they were just in. Cobblestone stairs greeted them and, from what Ace could see, went on downward forever. Thick spider webs and dust gathered in the corners and hung from the ceiling. Roy waved his hand to clear a path only to sneeze when dust tickled his nose.

"It doesn't look like anyone's been down here in forever. Think this is the right way?"

Just as Perry was about to respond, a scream of "No, please!" echoed off the walls. Ace took a deep breath and began to walk down the stairs. The Marines stuck close to his back as the smell of vomit, feces, and urine grew stronger.

When Ace's foot hit the bottom stair, he slid and would have fallen if it weren't for Roy catching him, "Be careful."

"Yeah, but what…" Ace let Mera flow to his foot and the fire illuminated the floor, showing them the blood staining the stair that almost made him fall.

Jesse walked further down the hall, passing empty cells, and peeked around the corner, "Guys, there's something over here."

The trio walked to Jesse to see a guardroom, but there were no guards in it. Everything was pristine; a slight smell of salt water and chemicals hung in the air. Roy ran his finger across the table, "How the fuck is it so clean down here?"

Jesse shrugged, "He is a doctor. His assistants might cleanup for him."

Ace felt a sense of urgency as he glanced at the hourglass on one of the counters, "Let's keep going."

The group passed through an arched hallway to come out the other end where they assumed the captives were kept. This section of the dungeon was different from the rest. Along the length of the walls were cells and each was different in their own way. The cells had no bars on them to keep the abductees from running free.

Perry stepped forward and looked into one of the chambers. He jerked, putting a hand over his mouth as he shook his head slowly, "It's just not right. This… that's not right."

Ace tilted his hat down to shield himself from the sight of the three men in the room. One was strapped down in a tub filled with ice. His skin had long since turned blue but the shivering indicated the unknown victim was still living. Next to him, tied to a chair directly under a sun lamp was another young man who had a slight pink hue to him. In a slightly bigger chair was a man long dead; the lamp having caused the crown of his head to burn, his skin now giving off a sizzling sound.

Roy stepped forward to help them but Ace pulled him back, "This isn't what we're here for, man. Keep moving."

Swallowing the bile in his throat, Jesse stumbled over his feet before he separated his chakram blades and held them defensively in front of himself. He jerked his head for everyone to follow him on down the hallway and the others fell in line behind him. Ace looked into every cell they passed by, fighting the urge to help those being tortured.

Mera flared and not a moment later a woman who'd escaped her confines shot her hand out to Ace's ankle. He looked down at the bloody hand, noting the fingernails that were bent back to the core and bleeding with every squeeze to his ankle she gave. The Marines watched as she pulled her upper half into the light, looking up at them with dead, pleading eyes, "Please, help me. Save us."

Ace leaned down to remove her hand from his person and helped her into a sitting position, "We will come back and help you, I promise."

That answer wasn't what she wanted to hear; she grabbed and pulled at his shoulders, "No, please, I can't stay! I can't stay!"

She was becoming hysterical and starting to hyperventilate. Not wanting to catch any attention to them, Ace knocked her out and laid her upright and just as he was about to rise, a boney hand clutched his shorts. He sighed in pity and helped an elderly man lean against the wall as he did the woman. His dull milky eyes jerked back and forth trying to locate someone… something. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, his tongue had rotted out long ago. Ace gave one last glance to the dying man and walked away.

As he neared the door at the end of the hall, the sound of a violin playing was heard. As the melody played out, the occupants in the cells began to scream and cry out in terror. A screech came from behind the door and the men slowly approached it with their weapons drawn. Ace looked through the glass window and saw a man laid out on an operation table, strapped into place. An assortment of scalpels, pins, and clippers were on a tray next to the board.

Dr. Thaddäus passed the glass and Ace squatted down to avoid being seen, signaling for the others to do the same thing. Waiting until he was sure they wouldn't be caught, he turned to whisper to the Marines, "We don't have time to help everyone, but I believe some of these people are the villagers that've been going missing."

Perry pulled back the hammer on Serendipity, "We should help them."

Ace shook his head and sighed, "We can't; not at the moment. But what we can do…" He trailed off, looking the three men that he'd grown to respect before nodding his head, "Is find the cure for Smoker. When we do, then one of us can take the cure back to the doctor. The other two can free the rest of the civilians while I take care of Dr. Thaddäus."

Roy looked into one of the cells at a dying victim, "That is, if they're alive by then."

Perry nodded, "Jesse, you run the fastest out of all of us. You'll take the medicine to Zion then tell Ensign Tashigi to bring reinforcements to help the ones who can still move."

With a plan in place, Ace stood and opened the door to the operating room. Dr. Thaddäus stood over a man, getting ready to cut into his chest. Not expecting anyone, the doctor stopped his work and chuckled deeply when he saw who it was, "Ah, it's you again." He looked at the other Marines and snarled, "You could have left those good for nothings behind."

Roy observed his surroundings and blanched at the men and women brutally cut into and disfigured by the doctor. Some moaned in pain, giving slight shivers to the group, "Did you poison our captain?"

Dr. Thaddäus shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant way, returning to his "patient", "Who knows…" He looked up over his glasses, "Why? Is he showing symptoms of something?"

When no one replied the doctor laughed madly, "Oh, so he is!" He clapped his hands together in glee, "Tell me, what are they?"

Repulsed beyond words, Jesse stepped forward, holding his blade out, "Give us the damn cure and the keys to these contraptions you have hurting these people."

Thaddäus looked surprised, "You want my experiments?" He clicked his tongue, "You ask too much, Marine." He picked back up the scalpel and began to cut into the man on the table, said man began to wither and scream in agony, "Don't be greedy, you can only have one. So here is your time to choose, but please do it fast, as you can see, I'm a very busy man."

Ace threw a ball of fire at the psycho's head in warning, "We'll be taking both."

The man regarded the pirate sadly, "I really like you. I don't want to kill you."

With quick hands, Dr. Thaddäus set down the scalpel and drew a gun. Perry pointed Serendipity at him, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Look, bloke, you're outnumbered. Just give us what we want and don't resist arrest."

The doctor raised an eyebrow, "Oh, you think I'm outnumbered? Sadly, the tables are as opposite as they can be."

He clicked a button on the floor with his foot and a buzzer sound was made, but nothing else happened. Thaddäus placed the gun down and picked up his cutting utensil once more. He then proceeded to leaned down to cut into the man on the table again and the battered man gave out a wretched cry. Roy punched the wall, evoking a sigh from the doctor as he was interrupted again, "Young man, I cannot relate to the frustration of being challenged mentally as you are but please stop damaging my property."

He patted the side of his victim's face and set down his scalpel, "Here, while we're waiting for you to die I'll let you in on what I've been doing. Did you know that most doctors aren't scientists?" He took off his gloves and threw them in a disposal bin, "Many are doctors to help and cure people. Then there are those who go into clinical practicing. I am a scientist that is very curious about a lot of things."

Perry's gun followed Thaddäus's every movement as he walked around to another table with two identical-looking women on it, both unconscious. He patted one of their legs and smiled, "I am experimenting on how far the human body can go. What it can handle. For example: twins. With so many people chasing after this thing called One Piece and the Marines losing men left and right, we need to find a way to repopulate the world quicker. But I also want to further understand why twins are the way they are. If I infect one with a disease then give the blood to the other, how will it affect the twin? Also, to what extent are conjoined twins connected? If I do something to one, will it harm the other? All these questions need to be answered."

Ace shook his head, interrupting the doctor's rant, "You're a sick fuck."

"Possibly!" He laughed manically for a moment before he spoke again, "Don't you ever wonder what effect freezing to death can have on the organs of the human body or the reproductive system? What effect do certain poisons have? What about bone, muscle, or nerve transplantation?"

"We don't give a shit about that! Give us what we came here for!"

Dr. Thaddäus eyed the four men in his operating room, "Well, what about your friend you're fighting so hard to get a cure for? Wouldn't you like to know about him?"

The slick haired man walked over to a mini-fridge and pulled out a vial, "When we were younger, our parents made us get shots to prevent us from getting sick. Did you know that those 'protective shots' were nothing but the actual virus in a small dose? They give it to you so your immune system can fight against it, study it, and beat it; so that way, next time you get sick your body already knows what to do for defense. Now, have you heard of Dying Sleep Virus?"

He looked at them with glee and he chuckled when they didn't respond, "Here, let me tell you some of the symptoms: difficulty moving." He stared at Ace, waiting for a reaction, "Coughing blood and spasms of the body." He hummed when he got no reaction, "What about organ failure?"

Ace twitched and Thaddäus laughed, "Ah, so he's dying." He went to a note pad and scribbled something across it, "I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time I use it. Don't worry though," he smiled brightly at them, "exertion and doing nothing can both cause him to die faster, so I'd give it…" He looked at the old clock on the wall, "Another hour and a half before he's dead."

Jesse threw one of his chakrams at Thaddäus, hitting him in the arm, making the doctor to scream at the unsuspecting pain, "Fuck you and all this madness you've surrounded yourself in. You need some got damn help."

Just as they were about to move in on the doctor a loud bang came from the door behind them. Thaddäus giggled and squeezed his arm that was dripping with blood. His glasses slid down his sweat-soaked face, "Gentlemen, do you know what cannibalism is? I've been studying it for some time now and it is a very interesting subject."

He pulled the chakram out of his arm and dropped it on the floor, "There is this medical publication that states in early human years we use to practice in extensive cannibalism. Rumor is that eating diseased human brain tissue can lead to brain diseases like 'kuru'. Interesting, ne?"

Another bang was heard and Ace felt Mera screaming at him to fight but he just didn't know what it was he was fighting. Seeing they were distracted by the noises, Thaddäus ran to a button on the wall and slapped it, leaving a bloody hand print on the white wall. The door opened to reveal normal looking women and men from first glance. The only difference between them and everyone else was the glazed over look in their eyes.

Thaddäus pulled another gun from one of the drawers and shot it in the air, spurring the cannibals to lurch forward and begin attacking the group. Perry felt a little conflicted about shooting the victims of the crazy doctor but when one bit him that logic went out the window. He knocked back the hammer on Serendipity and began firing; dropping the hungry humans two at a time.

Roy began to punch down those trying to feast on him. He buried his spiked brass knuckles into the side of one of their faces before turning to Ace, "We gotta find the cure and get outta here! We're running out of time!"

Ace called back Mera and used his physical strength to overpower the woman in front of him. When she was subdued, he rushed the doctor and would have tackled him but the sound of the gun going off and the burning sensation in his leg made him stumble. He looked down, confused at the bleeding bullet wound, then back up at the doctor who was shaking his head slowly.

"Seastone bullets will stop you every time, young man."

Ace dropped down to one knee as he felt his energy being drained away from him and Jesse shouted his name but he ignored him and focused on the man in front of him. Pulling what strength he had left, Ace plowed into Thaddäus, making him drop the gun. The men scrapped for a moment, kicked and punching each other, and when Ace finally gained the upper hand he pinned the doctor to the wall.

"Give me the cure!"

Thaddäus smiled a bloody smile and leaned close to Ace, "It's over by the fridge, the vial I pulled out earlier."

Roy uppercut a man, sending him flying into two more cannibals before he turned to scream at the orange eyed Marine. "Jesse, grab it and go! We're right behind you!"

Jesse cut the neck of the woman in front of him and ran over to his fallen chakram blade, picking it up before the vial. He turned around and assessed the situation. Roy and Perry were still holding off the cannibals and Ace was dealing with the crazy doctor.

He gripped the padded handle on his chakrams and pocketed the cure, "I'm going ahead and I'll be back with reinforcements!"

The Aussie barreled his way through the group of man eaters at the door, disappearing into the dark hall. Part of their plan was complete and now all that was left was to help the people the doctor had called test subjects. Perry shot his gun and screamed over his shoulder to Ace, "Get the keys!"

Ace pulled Thaddäus from the wall then slammed him back into it, "Where are the keys?!"

Thaddäus tried to reach into his pocket but Ace jerked him in warning and the doctor held his hands up in surrender, "I was just giving you the keys… they are in my lab coat pocket."

Keeping a watch on the psycho, Ace dug into his pocket and removed the key. "Roy!" He turned and tossed the keys over to the Marine.

Roy knocked out the last cannibal and caught the keys, "I'll start helping those who are still alive. I'll come back with Jesse and the reinforcements."

Perry reloaded his gun as he watched Roy run into the hall and start unlocking people from their confines. He looked back at Ace and smiled victoriously, "We did it, partner! Let's get the hell outta here!"

Ace let go of Thaddäus, letting him hit the ground with a hard thud. He swayed a little as he stumbled back to Perry's side. The southern man threw Ace's arm around his shoulders and wrapped his arm around his waist, securing his hurt comrade, "You good?"

The teen gave a pained grin, "I'll live." He turned back to the doctor moaning on the ground, "Guess we'll leave him for the Marines."

When Perry placed his hand on the door to open it, the doctor began to chuckle softly, pulling their attention back to him. "Do you know why Whitebeard took back his protection?"

Ace pulled away from his human crutch and limped over to the man, "Say what now?"

The earlier punch to his gut had blood and spit pouring down his chin, "I told him that I wanted to have him as my next experiment." He gave a crazed laugh, "I want to pull apart his skin and muscles so I can look at his nervous system. I want to dissect him slowly so I can understand why he's as powerful as he is."

Ace bent down and grabbed Dr. Thaddäus's chin tightly, "Say… what now?"

The doctor spat at the pirate, "What begins, but has no end, yet ends all that begins? Death." He cackled madly, "I will kill him and his entire crew and you will have to suffer being lonely. You think the Government will stop me?! I will be free and I will kill him slowly! He's a freak of nature and if science can't explain him then he shouldn't exist!"

The fingers on his jaw tightened and the pain shooting through his face made him screech. Ace gave a deadly grin to the doctor, "You can't kill him if I kill you first."

As if those words were a trigger, Ace slowly began to pull the doctors jaw bone away from his face. He continued to pull despite the screaming and writhing of the man beneath him. Soon the sound of popping happened before slowly the skin began to tear and blood shot out from the wound he was inflicting. Ace jerked his arm back and the jaw dislocated from the skull it belonged to, sitting between the fingers of the pirate.

A dying moan was the last thing heard as Ace dropped the bone on the body and stood to limp back to Perry.

Perry smiled and opened his mouth to speak but the sound of ticking made him pause and he shared a look with Ace before they both said "Shit" and an explosion happened to their left, throwing them into a wall, knocking them unconscious.

Nuuu one bad thing after another. Let me know your thoughts so far. Stay tune for the next chapter: Kuzan Aokiji - Huredhiel