Chapter 5

Ace woke pissed off. They had once again been drowned in darkness, and once again, Ace woke up in another room. This was a large throne room. Teach sat on the throne at the top of a platform, grinning down at him. Ace glanced to his sides, and he sat between his fellow bound Chosen ones.

Instead of chains, darkness oozed over their arms and legs. Ace was left shuddering as it crept over his skin, leaving him feeling icy cold. His fire tried to flare in protest, but the darkness kept it locked within him. The vampire was at his side, unconscious. The cat demon Princess was at his other side, a sweet smile upon her face as she stared up at the Old God of Darkness. Beside her, Dragon and Luffy, the two dwarves, stirred.

The green haired demon, Zoro, had a sword in his head. He was beside Marco, eyes glazed. It was freaky, seeing it, because Ace knew that the demon was alive, but it wouldn't be able to move, or speak, or do anything really. It's brain was cut off.

The human was by Zoro's side. He looked fascinated by the sword in the demon's head. That was just as freaky as the sword being in the demon's head in the first place. The witch was sat by Law's side, shivering.

"Hello, Teach," Vivi purred. "How is your back treating you?"

"Your wound scarred over," Teach scowled. "It was a nice touch, Your Highness, placing it in the exact spot I stabbed Thatch. I never realised you liked him so much."

"Marco's my friend," Vivi growled. "When you hurt his family, I get angry on his behalf, and I show no mercy."

"Still upset about all that? I stabbed that idiot in the back thousands of years ago," Teach snorted, amused. "You should really try to get over it, my dear. I'm planning on cutting his throat next time I get a hold of him-"

"BASTARD!"

Ace jumped, whirled round to see that Marco was awake. The vampire leapt to its feet, only for the darkness to tighten around it, dragging it down as it snarled. Darkness pinned it back down to the floor, oozing over his entire body, tightening round his neck.

"Zehahahaha, your fool of a father was the one to let me into his family," Teach smirked. "I hated it, but you were useful, in the end. I gathered my strength, protected by my 'dear siblings'."

"And in the end you stabbed the kindest one in the back yoi!" the vampire snarled, eyes blood red. "You tried to murder Thatch!"

"It's not like it worked," Teach rolled his eyes. "Your pretty witch saved his life. Sadly, he gave his life to lock me away. I wonder if he traded his soul to save Thatch's. That perhaps Thatch was already dead-"

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP-"

"Marco!" Vivi called. "Calm down-"

Darkness impaled Marco's mouth. Ace yelped, tried to move away, because Marco was choking and gasping, writhing, while Vivi screamed.

"Pineapple guy!" Luffy gasped. "Stop it. Stop hurting him!"

"Enough of this, Teach!" Dragon yelled.

"Marco!" Ace screamed. "Leave him alone!"

He paused, baffled. He didn't understand why he'd defend a vampire. It was a murderer, just like all it's kind were. But there was a piece of him that was furious, and wanted to tear the Old God apart. Teach stared at him, smirked, but lowered his hand. The darkness trailed out of Marco's mouth, leaving him gasping. The vampire went limp, on the verge of passing out, and all Ace could do was watch.

"You're right, Ace. Zehahahaha," Teach grinned. "I told you I had gifts to give you, and you haven't received yours yet. Now have you?"

Dragon frowned. "Whatever it is you're up to. It won't hold us."

"And what makes you say that?" Teach drawled, approaching Dragon's side.

"You've never defeated the Chosen ones before, and there is no way we're going to be the first set of Chosen to break that cycle. We won't let you corrupt the world with your darkness," Dragon replied. "We have many people on our side, and we're not afraid of you."

Teach held out his hand, and the darkness dragged Dragon's hand up, the symbolised hand. Teach snatched it, smirking. "You should be."

Dragon started screaming as darkness pierced his hand, sinking deep within the skin.

"DAD!" Luffy cried, thrashing. "LEAVE HIM ALONE! DON'T TOUCH HIM!"

"Relax, brat. I'll give you your gift soon too."

Teach released Dragon after what felt like hours. The dwarf collapsed onto his side, gasping for breath, as the darkness coiled around him. Luffy was screaming bloody murder, while Ace focused on the older dwarf's hand. The darkness smothering his hand sunk completely beneath the skin, curling and twisted into vines. It look like an intricate tattoo, only Ace knew that it wasn't ink decorating Dragon's hand.

"What was that?" Vivi gasped.

"I've had time to play around with my powers, locked in the abyss your last witch sealed me in," Teach drawled, grinning widely. "And this time, I won't let you lock me up again."

"Someone's pretty arrogant, despite the fact that he's already resorting to poisoning his enemies," Law drawled. "Care to try it on me?"

Teach raised a brow. "Oh? You want to take me on? A mere human?"

"Shut up, Traffy! I'll beat his ass!" Luffy snarled, struggling against the darkness.

"Don't order me about, Luffy-ya!"

"Y'know what?" Teach scowled at Luffy. "You're the most noisy one here."

Ace could see Luffy trying to stretch, but the darkness dampened his magic, the same way it did to Ace's flames. The darkness forced Luffy's hand up, who immediately tried to punch Teach. The Old God of Darkness grabbed his hand, and forced the darkness inside of it. Luffy screamed, kept trying to kick and punch, but in the end, he too ended up collapsing on the floor.

Vivi growled lowly when Teach approached her. He held out his hand, smirking smugly, but surprisingly the darkness didn't force her hand up.

"Will you be a nice young lady and give me your hand?" Teach asked.

Vivi clawed at him instead, snarling. The darkness held her back, and forced up her hand. Teach merely sighed and took it.

"As violent as ever. You should act like a proper lady for once and be nice," Teach snorted.

Vivi hissed, then screamed when the darkness swept into her hand. The witch yelled, calling her name as Vivi writhed. Vivi collapsed too, laying beside Luffy, whimpering softly. Ace stiffened up as the Old God approached him, smiling softly.

"I have an offer for you, dear Hunter."

"And what is that exactly?" Ace spat.

"Join me. Become one of my Commanders of Darkness, and rule the world at my side," Teach grinned.

Ace scowled. "Me helping a creature of darkness? Fuck that shit."

Teach sighed. "Again, you're hardly fazed by the fact you're cursing at an Old God."

"Bite me."

Teach rolled his eyes. "You do this every time we meet."

Ace frowned, because he had no idea what that meant. Just like the others, the darkness forced his hand up. He strained against it, tried to pull it back down, but Teach took his hand into his own. A burst of cold, sharp pain pierced his hand, and Ace screamed. His fire swarmed towards his hand, tried to sooth the pain, but the cold chill battered it away. Smothered his warmth. Ace whimpered, and collapsed on to his side, shivering weakly.

"Zehahaha, I doubt a Fire Elf would have found that comfortable at all," Teach teased.

Ace heard the vampire hiss weakly, but ignored it in favour of resting. He had never felt so cold in all his life, and it hurt. It was like tiny knives were piercing his body, over and over again. He heard Marco give a pained snarl.

"St-Stop it!" Luffy hissed, trying to sit back up. "St-Stop hurting my friends!"

"A shame the demon won't be awake for this," Teach snorted. "But, I suppose he'll feel it, even if his brain's dead at the moment."

Ace couldn't feel his hand. The numbness was trailing down his entire arm, slowly sinking into his body.

"Now then human, I guess it's finally your turn."

"Oh yes," Law chuckled. "Please go ahead. Make my day."

"Arrogant little shit-"

"Leave Traffy alone-"

"Wait," Teach gasped. "You're no human! Shit-"

A scream startled Ace out of his pain filled arm. He saw a bright light flashing behind his eyes. He heard Vivi yelling for Nami, and Ace passed out.

.::.

Marco yelped. One moment Teach had grabbed Law's hand, and then Law smirked. Teach looked startled, almost horrified in fact, and a burning, sharp light hit them all. Marco felt his restraints melt away, the darkness surrendering to the burning light, and he threw himself over his pet. Ace had passed out, his heart racing as he shivered in his arms. Marco paused, feeling a magical essence envelop him. It began to surround all the Chosen, and Marco grinned.

They were being teleported out by the witch.

Teach had stumbled back next to Luffy, and snarled. "No!" he yelled, reaching out to snatch up the dwarf, but Dragon threw himself over Luffy, shoving him down.

The darkness within Teach's hand swallowed Dragon up, and Luffy screamed as the bright, shining world around them disappeared.

They sparked into existence in a small town. Marco barely landed on his feet, while everyone else hit the ground. Ace was curled up tightly in his arms, clutching his icy, cold blue arm. The elf was shaking, and Marco could feel the flames trying to claw their way back out, by the darkness was seeping into it, driving the fire back.

Marco coaxed out his own flames, smoothed them over Ace's arm, and the coldness receded by only the tiniest touch. Ace's body would struggle for a time, but the darkness didn't seem intent on snuffing out his life. Or any of theirs for that matter. The vampire frowned at that, and couldn't help but wonder what Teach was up to.

Why force his darkness into them?

"Dad!" Luffy shot up to his feet, whirling about frantically. "No! Why didn't he appear here with us?"

"I'm sorry, Luffy," Nami apologised, holding Vivi close, who was now in her smallest of cat forms. "But my magic, as soon as the darkness grabbed him, my magic drained from him."

"Just like my rubber," Luffy frowned, staring at his hands. "I couldn't stretch at all..."

Luffy's eyes hardened and he scowled. "I need to go get my dad back."

"We've got a few problems," Law began, drawing out the white sword from Zoro's head and sheathing it. Zoro remained still, eyes staring blankly ahead. "We've lost our Leader, the Hunter is a fire elf corrupted by darkness, and doesn't look like he's going to wake up any time soon, most of us have darkness in our hands and I have no idea where we are."

Nami frowned, and looked around. She tensed immediately. Marco tilted his head, looking around, but he spotted no threats. In fact it looked like a small, peaceful town, close to the seaside.

"This is Cocoyashi Town..." Nami shivered. "I... I shouldn't have brought any of you here..."

Zoro's snarl made them all jump. Zoro immediately grabbed his sword from Law's hand, and leapt to his feet, drawing the blade. "Where is that fat bastard? And that narrowed eyed sadistic fuck! I'll cut them both down!"

"Finally awake, Zoro-ya?" Law drawled.

"They stabbed me with my own swords!" Zoro snarled. "Then Teach put his darkness in me too. The bastard."

Marco paused. He thought he saw a flicker in the darkness in Zoro's hand, but dismissed it as his imagination when he stared more closely at it and saw nothing.

"That doesn't matter right now," Law said, approaching Marco's side.

Marco watched as the hand glowed with a bright light, and shivered as it drew closer to him. Law's hand landed on Ace's arm, and Ace groaned, curling up tighter. The shivering began to calm, and Ace settled heavily against him.

"So, what are you exactly yoi?" Marco asked.

Law sighed. "I don't really wish to discuss it, but I suppose I have to now."

Zoro shrugged. "You're the one who used your powers in front of everyone. I might have been brain dead, but I still felt it."

"True," Law grumbled. "Fine, I'm what you call a 'Spirit Healer'."

Spirit Healers were from a country once known as Flevance, or more commonly the 'White City'. Everything had been white due to amber lead. What most people hadn't realised, was that amber lead was toxic, and had been slowly destroying the lifespan of each generation of Spirit Healers. The only Spirit Healers left were the Royal Family who had abandoned Flevance to it's fate. Thus, they were very well cared for by the world. Nobody wanted the world's last best healers to die after all.

Spirit Healers were descended from Angels, created from their own souls and gifted to the world. Legends say a glance from a powerful Spirit Healer would cure you of all your problems. The Spirit Healers took years to build up their own population. Angels after all, were very rare to find in the first place. For a long time the Spirit Healers thrived, until the day the government let them all die.

Marco had found all this out from Haruta. His little sister specialised in finding out information nobody wanted leaked, and Flevance was a tragedy none of the government's wanted realised, just like Ohara. No, instead they had spread the idea that it was contagious, so nobody would offer to help the Spirit Healers.

To see another Spirit Healer outside of the Royal Family after all this time was stunning.

It was even worse when the world government realised that dwarves were naturally resistant to mining amber lead. They had handed Flevance over to them, and had them dig more amber lead. All that death could have been avoided, and yet, the world did nothing about it.

If Marco had blood, it would be boiling right now.

Law pulled away, and the icy blue cold across Ace's arm began to turn into a healthy pink once more.

"That's all I can do for now. Ace will just need to sleep the rest of it off, and get warmed back up properly."

"Nami," Vivi called, stepping off her lap. "This is your home town. Isn't it?"

The cat looked angry, blue flames sparking to life over her body. Nami looked away, but Vivi transformed back into her human form, cupping her cheeks, forcing their eyes to meet.

"Nami, is Arlong here?" Vivi asked, eyes burning with intense rage.

Nami hesitated, but nodded. "This is my burden to handle, Vivi. Not yours."

"I love you, and you love me," Vivi said firmly. "And when people love each other, they share their burdens."

"What's going on here?"

They all turned as one. A group of fishmen approached, and Marco frowned, tilting his head. Arlong was a vaguely familiar name, but where had he heard it before? Marco tried to think on it, if it had been Namur or Jinbei who had mentioned it before.

That was going to be annoying. He really needed to start writing out a journal or something to help with his memory.

"Arlong!" Nami gasped.

"Shahahaha, Nami, you've brought visitors!" Arlong sniggered. "What did you bring them here for? Do you think they are about to save your precious village? Come now, nobody can beat us! We're fishmen-"

"And I'm a Demon Cat," Vivi growled as she stood. "Do you want to know what cats do to little fishes?"

She opened up her hand, and her claws extended. "We eat them."

Hopefully I've explained Spirit Healers well enough! They've been in one of my stories before, 'The Everlasting Turn'. But I'm trying to develop them further this time around.