"Unbeing dead isn't being alive."

—Anonymous

The mortal world trembled again, as if a beast from the old dark times had woken once again to ravage the lands and shatter humanity. Violent and powerful earthquakes succeeded one another, becoming more and more vicious. Houses and temples fell, people screamed in terror, and deep cracks started to appear on the ground like big mouths trying to devour civilization. In the sky, the weather changed in seconds as if confused, snow preceded a burning sun and soon turned into a violent storm, animals shivered scared and soon a cacophony of whimpers and roars filled the woods and cities warning over the the apocalypse.

In Inverness however, one of the last big cities of humanity, no one seemed to pay attention to the chaos in nature and the strange and deadly warnings of a dying world. Deep into the dark foggy night the streets of the imposing city were filled with people fighting. Citizens and townsfolk strolled the streets carrying torches and labour tools in anger, and attacking every soldier or government man they encountered. The fear and abuses they had endured for years under Doflamingo's rule had suddenly been turned into rage by the attack on the castle, and they responded with passion.

Soon, half the city was burning, The wooden small houses of the outskirts of the city defenseless against the blazing fires, the unpredictable weather, and the outraged folk not caring about consequences. In contrast, the royal castle, on top of the mountain and in the middle of the city, proposed to be a huge problem. Filled with soldiers to the brim, the huge doors and high walls were slowly falling under the attack of Shanks' men, but it was taking too long despite the help of the population.

Doflamingo, commanding an army on the brink of annihilation, still gave orders as if he was their only leader. The trained soldiers obeyed him knowing the only way of surviving this ambus was to listen to their king, so no one dared disrespect the blood soaked man or doubt his purposes. Crocodile, Akainu and the other members of the assembly just stared at the fight and chaos in shock, knowing this was their end no matter who they allied with, they didn't dispute Doflamingo commands, they just stared at the raging faces of the people on the other side of the walls, asking for their blood.

The night progressed with a strange tempo. The roaring on the ground increased as if the island was breaking apart. The sky filled with the light of millions of lightnings, so bright that it almost looked as if they were fighting under blinding daylight. It all seemed to turn into a crescendo, the roaring, the light, the fight... until Shanks finally conquered the castle at the same time reality seemed to break.

The redhaired tired man entered the conquered castle seeing a group of soldiers stab the assemblymen. Again and again. In repetition . As if time couldn't advance or go back and only repeated the scene. He watched a group of enemy soldiers laugh maniacally as they were decapitated, the heads producing an empty sound as they fell to the ground in an spray of blood. But their mouths still laughed after that. Louder and louder, with a crazy glint in their eyes that provoked Shanks to shiver. There were doors that opened into lands of frostbite and snow that should be impossible. There were people fighting on the ceiling against their own doubles. Impossible things. Crazy things.

And Doflamingo.

The king was running away within the chaos, escaping and getting away as always, running up the stairs ignoring the horrors. Shanks followed him. His own mind was becoming muddy, chaotic, focused and unfocused, as if something was playing with him. He had a son called Luffy. But the boy wasn't really his son. He had a wife he called Makino...didn't he? He was barely a teenager, he shouldn't try to kill a king. He was an old man, Luffy should be here fighting instead of him.

Finally, after a lapse of time in his mind, he arrived at a room filled with corpses, royal furniture, and blood. Doflamingo was screaming at something in a closet, an altar of pagan magic with the figure of a hard looking goddess and a tapestry of stars on her back. There was something burning in it, the foul smell filling the room. Shanks felt too young to witness these sins, the hand on his sword was that of a child.

Doflamingo suddenly turned to him with the eyes of a crazed man. His clothes were torn, bloodied, there were marks on his face and neck as if he had clawed at himself. He was smiling creepily.

He ran into the fireplace smiling and with open arms.

Shanks tried to stop him, but his legs felt heavy now, his articulations crispy and achy, so, so, old. His mind drifted away again, but Doflamingo's scream as the fire engulfed him, quickly taking to his royal clothes and his blond hair, pulled him back to reality. The king stumbled out of the fire, the flames turning blue, then purple, then deep pitch black. Strangely black. Unnaturally black . Shanks stepped back as the man turned around the room as if looking for an exit, an explanation, for help. His eyes were terrified but his mouth was still smiling as his lips burned away.

The flames on his body suddenly turned into smoky hands. Elegant and delicate woman hands. They pushed and teared at Doflamingo's clothes, guiding him towards a window. Doflamingo screamed again, smiling, burning, with his arms raised in welcome. Shanks watched in fear, knowing this to be something that would torment his dreams until his death, but also unable to look away.

The hands caught the border of the window and tried to push Doflamingo towards death. The blond resisted, suddenly grabbing at the curtains, but with no avail. More flames turned into smoky hands. Grabbing, demanding and eager. There seemed to be something ominous about them, vengeful . Doflamingo cried. Half his face was burned along with his golden hair and clothes that now seemed to melt with his skin. There were wounds on his flesh too, finger marks on his neck.

His hold on the curtains loosened.

He fell into nothingness.

Shanks fell to his knees breathing hard. He observed his hands changed again. Old and wrinkled to young and tender and back to old. Again and again and again. There were screams coming from everywhere. The ground kept shaking. Snow entered through the window to fall onto the body of a man with black hair and tanned skin, as if caressing him.

Shanks gasped in sudden realization.

Trafalgar Law, the boy Shanks had also considered a son once, lay dead and untouched by the chaos. A puddle of blood kept spreading around him and soaking the carpet and wooden floor. A knife was still protruding from his chest. His eyes were closed with trails of tears now dried on his face. He looked peaceful, sad but liberated.

Shanks whimpered with loss filling his changing mind. Their future. Their world. Their saviour. Everything was dead now.

...oOo…

Roronoa Zoro observed the place his mother had been just minutes ago in shocked silence. There was nothing there, no trace left from her, no corpse, not even her power or dress. It felt as if the world had just erased her from existence as if she was never meant to exist, as if this was destined, a thing that needed to be done.

They had won, they had succeeded...and yet it all felt so wrong.

Zoro felt it in his very soul. As if the world was screaming around him and his cells reverberated with a deafening sound. This was so wrong . They had killed her, the beginning of the world, the source of all power, the first living being.

The one that had controlled everything.

Everything was now falling apart around them.

The god's world was painful to look at. The ocean crashed with killing winds, mixed with the purest fires and grew along nature. Raw power just turned around them clashing with one another in an undefined pattern. It felt as if everything had escaped control and their powers were trying to conquer one another. It wasn't a world anymore, it had just been destroyed, they had lost their home, their world and land.

They had destroyed her.

Zoro observed the chaos in stunned silence. His breathing was hard as he tried to understand the enormity of what they had done without thinking. They had killed the worlds. They had killed their mother. They had killed everything.

Ace, his younger brother, slowly approached him and, looking at him with determined eyes, knelt before him lowering his head in submission. Zoro observed him, and observed Nami as she too came close to kneel. Boa followed, with Killer, Marco, and all the survivors of the massacre. Soon, all remnants of their people were at his feet.

The message was clear. He was the first son. The strongest. He was now king of them all and this mess.

Zoro's breathing increased in speed as he observed it all. His people and family. The raging powers. His instincts screaming this was the end. He couldn't do this. He hadn't been able to control his own power at best times, how was he supposed to fix this all? How was he supposed to keep such power under control?

They were all dead.

It was then that he noticed another figure. A redheaded man who had not knelt and was standing next to him. His dear favourite brother hadn't moved from his place. He just stared at the point where their mother had died, as if he had nothing else left to do now that their objective and their enemy was dead.

Zoro had never seen him like this. Kidd had been cold before Law, his emotions controlled and tightly kept. But this was on a different level. He didn't only look dead, he also felt dead. As if he had given up. As if he just waited for his own end.

Kidd was broken.

A tight lump formed in Zoro's throat choking him and for a moment he wanted to cry. He had hoped for his brother's happiness. He had just wanted him to be happy since his own happiness had died long ago with Mihawk. Just once he needed it to have a happy ending. Just Kidd, and all his sacrifices and pain would be worth it.

He had been unable to even do that. He hadn't been able to even save one person. Mihawk was dead. Kidd a soulless shadow of himself. The world was crumbling under their wild powers.

Zoro lowered his head defeated and felt the tears fall. He wanted to hug Kidd, but Zoro didn't dare touch the person he had failed so dramatically. His family and kingdom looked at him in silence, sadly, understanding and accepting the end. They had won the unwinnable battle, but they all knew they had lost the most important war.

...oOo...

Law woke in a void place of darkness and peace. He saw nowhere nor no-one, he felt raw and weak like a new born baby in the world, but instead of crying scared, he laid down absorbing the calmness and freedom of the place. He could just feel content and peaceful, his trip was done, all the things that he had needed to do were done, it all had ended. He sighted in pleasure and relaxation.

He also felt welcomed here. There was a woman suddenly next to him, touching him with blackened smoky hands and looking sad at him. She was beautiful and had a kind but strong face that reminded Law of his own. There was a man too, tall and strong, a king wearing his armor. He was looking proudly at him, proudly but sad too.

The two figures hugged him with a strange air of longing, as if they had been waiting for him, but at the same time were sad that he had finally arrived. Two complete strangers Law had never seen before and yet felt so familiar, her grey eyes, his knowing smirk, the caramel colour of their skin convinced him. Law understood. He hugged them back tightly, feeling something inside him heal after a whole life of solitude and doubts. His mother caressed his hair fondly with trembling fingers, his father squeezed his shoulders in silence, as if he couldn't believe he was there. For a moment everything seemed fine, right, fixed.

Then they pushed him away.

Into a place that was filled with a different kind of darkness. Big and powerful. With blue eyes filled with thousand stars, and black long hair. She was the beginning and end of this place. She was the beginning and end of every journey and every life.

"Do you know who I am?" she asked him, her voice deep and absolute in this place, tearing away the last traces Law had of the warmth of his family and the calmness in his mind.

"I do" he answered calmly.

He had always known her. In his childhood she had always loomed in the dark dangerous alleys. When training she had been in every careless cut and bruise. In every beating from Doflamingo. In Kidd's old resigned eyes. Law had always known death better than any man or god. She had been his sister and mother, teaching him, forging him into the man he had become.

"Are you scared?" she asked again, intent eyes on his person.

"No," he answered again "I am dead"

She still looked at him. Fixedly. Bright eyes in a face of darkness and perfection. She looked to be trying to understand him, as if he was a piece she needed to fix, to comprehend so she could function again. She seemed to be failing completely.

"But you are angry" she said slowly, as if trying to guess his emotions, as if she herself couldn't feel them.

"Yes"

"Why?"

"Kidd" Law answered immediately "You hurt him, we were going to…" Law looked away sighing, the pain was still to recent, the injury too fresh to expose to the woman who had separated them.

A puzzled look from the cold eyes. "You are angry about Kidd? Not your death?"

"Yes, I don't care what happens to me, but you hurt him"

Again that long staring look, the lack of understanding, the intense stare. "You care about my son." A pause "Does my son care about you in the same way?"

"Yes" Law knew it now. It had taken time but it was an absolute knowledge now. The sky was blue. Swords could kill you. Kidd loved him. Black and white. It was something that warmed him inside and made him want to smile stupidly.

"How do you know?" she asked frowning, despising him, not seeing his worth.

"I know it" he said defiantly "Here" he said pointing at his chest, at the bright star that seemed to illuminate the darkness and this strange world. A star his parents also shared but that seemed to be lacking in the goddess. Emotions. Love. An unbreakable bond.

Robin looked at his shining heart in silence, with a sudden longing in her eyes replacing the annoyance. She finally nodded looking defeated.

"Why did you do it?" was Law's turn to ask.

She looked away, as if ashamed of herself. Her eyes turned sad, tired, she looked so so tired and ancient. Still Law felt no pity for her. Not after what she had done. Not after the happiness that had been torn away. Kidd was immortal , he would never die unlike Law. Law won't ever met Kidd again in this place of darkness, Law won't touch his flaming hair, he won't be able to hold his hand, or kiss his lips after a fight.

She had condemned them to solitude for eternity. Like Zoro and his lover. Like hundred others.

"I...was scared. I wanted to protect them. I wanted to protect myself" she said slowly, with a voice so low Law could barely hear her. "I thought you were bad for my children"

Law's mother grabbed his hand at that moment and leaned her head against his shoulder watching the goddess. Her face was intent, determined, and Law understood she would die again protecting him. That she had probably died protecting him if what Doflamingo had said was true. Every mother would protect her son, it was a part of life too, another absolute.

Law sighed squeezing his mother's hand, finding strength in her presence. "Well, you succeeded" he said starting to turn his back to the goddess and accepting the embrace of his father "I hope you are happy now"

He wanted to walk away and never see her again.

"No" she suddenly said stopping him, her face with a determined almost desperate look. A hard look. A resolved look. "But I will fix it"

Then she disappeared. And the strange place Law was in started to change, to shift, to spin away. It filled with things that didn't belong there. Law felt as the ground shifted under him. It grabbed him and pulled him back.

Yet his parents didn't seem affected by the sudden change.

His mom smiled now happily and hugged him strongly. She was smaller than him, petite, with lighter hair and an easy smile, she looked soft and tender. Still her spirit had a light to it that made Law want to cry for the missed moments, for the lost love and happy childhood.

'We love you Law' she said against his chest, squeezing him against her as if he was the most precious thing she had 'Don't ever doubt it again'

Law hugged her back feeling tears in his eyes, understanding what was happening. Yet, this little moment was a gift he had never dared to think about. This was so much more than what he was prepared for.

The world pulled at him with strong insistent hands.

Next to them, his father cleared his throat and Law raised his brows to see him smiling evilly at him. With the same smile Law himself used. He looked like a warrior, strong and in control, but there was something amocable about his smile and eyes. People had probably loved him as a leader.

'Well, Law, I did want grandsons' he said making Law's mother groan and turn suddenly to glare at him between the tears. The king chuckled back at her in that way married couples did, with their secret language and rituals, but finally he also approached to join the hug and kiss Law's forehead ' but I would accept whoever you chose, son. I still want to punch him, but I will control myself, and since you did punch him yourself…"

Law smiled at his father and hugged him back.

"Thank you" he told them. For loving him despite his scars, his nightmares and his horrors. For not being the son they expected and still fighting for him.

His mom caressed his face again, than a force pulled him back, out, away from their loving arms. Her smile was sad again, tears ran down her face. It hadn't been enough. Could never be enough for the time stolen. His father hugged her against his chest and ruffled Law's hair one last time.

'We love you, Law'

And Law ceased to exist.

...oOo…

When the world was younger, and gods and mortals mingled on the continents and oceans, there was a civilization that built wonders beyond imagination. There were machines of heavy metal that flew in the sky as easily as birds did, there were buildings that rose above mountains, people could speak while being very far away, and they could even heal illness that had eradicated previous kingdoms.

However, as mortals are mortals, a deadly war soon arose among the civilizations threatening to destroy their wondrous creations. Continents disappeared. Oceans filled with strange creatures. And life almost ceased to exist but for one island.

The gods, terrified about what the mortals had done, created a sacred place that allowed them to hide and protect themselves from the passions that moved mortals, their intrigues, and their horrible weapons. Their Queen, fearing for her people, forbid her children to go back to the land of mortals and mingle among them, and condemned any kind of thing that reminded her people of the cruel creatures capable of so much pain and destruction.

It was then, as the two worlds separated, that a group of the wiser scholars among this last kingdom created a way to contact the gods and travel to their land. Mortals and gods had always been friends, associates, even family, they shouldn't be divided no matter what the Queen said or the punishment she promised.

So they created the doors.

Small structures that could be easily hidden, but full of beauty and power. Filled with a magic and a technology that no mortal nor god could understand, they were the light in the darkness for the people who longed for peace and friendship, and for years, they served their purpose.

Until a little goddess who could see the future fell in love with a mortal, and the proud Queen discovered it. The mortal was soon killed, the memory of him eradicated from anyone's mind, his crime too big to pardon, but the girl was condemned too for her betrayal. However, before she could die and also disappear from this world, she spoke of a small prophecy. Of vengeance. Of love and sorrow.

And the world started to head to its own end. To a fate it couldn't help but suffer no matter what anyone seemed to do. After milenia, when the prophecy had almost been forgotten by everyone but the Queen, the lovers met, played and bonded. The Queen raged. The world collapsed. It all came to end.

Until the Queen, the proud and powerful one so many had feared, did something no one thought her capable of after so much time and cruelness. She felt the pain and love for the first time. She finally understood what she had done and regrets and guilt choked her for her sins.

Wanting to undo what had already been done, she did the ultimate sacrifice.

That day the last ruins of one of those magical doors vanished from existence, crumbling into pieces on a claire in the middle of a swamp. That day the universe trembled, stars shifted, and existence screamed under the power of a goddess on her dying moments.

That day two worlds that had been separated by force mingled into one as they had once been.

Happy Christmas and new year guys, I hope you are having fun and enjoying the holidays~

Well I know this is a mess, but it will end soon and it will end in the right way, we are approaching our end for good or for bad. I don't know if it has been clear, but in the last part I'm speaking about an hypothetical World War 3, where the whole world is destroyed-toxic-deadly but for an island (England) where Law lives. It is the future, not the past, but after the war, civilization had to re-start, and it takes them a bit longer since space and resources are now very limited.

The gods on the other hand would be like men with superpowers and immortality that used to live along normal plain humans, until the war thing happened. Robin was the first of the "gods" to appear, maybe thanks to technology or evolution or some sort of universe magic, then the others appeared too, and the conflicts started, the prophecy, kidlaw, and...

I know is a chaos, but I swear that in my mind it had a lot more sense T^T, see you in the next and final chapter, sorry for taking so long to update.