Chapter 8: Darkness
"Luffy?" Ace breathes out quietly so only he can he hear it, still holding his brothers hand.
He feels nothing but coldness and he recognizes it as fear. It was nothing like the fear he would feel whenever Garp came for a visit.
It was a more intense fear than what he felt when Sabo saved Ace and Luffy by rejoining the nobles or when Luffy had nearly been speared by one of Bluejam's men in the burning remains of Gray Terminal. It was the same fear that had gripped him when he found out that Sabo; his smart, even-tempered very first friend and brother who was the first person not to judge him, was dead and he would never see him again. The fear was the same as when Luffy was mauled by a bear and almost died; happy, sunshiny Luffy who had quickly become the center of Ace's world and his reason for living, and it was completely his fault.
"Help me…" Luffy rasps again in a voice Ace had never heard before. It's a tired voice that was laced with so much pain and sadness that Ace has the urge to wrap his little brother in his arms and never let go.
But he doesn't because the suddenness has throughly shocked him.
And it seems that he isn't the only one, because no one in the crew moves forward, says anything, or even breathes.
It feels like time has frozen up until a sob makes its way through Luffy's lips and warm tears start to stream down his round face and drip down his chin.
Chopper is automatically in action.
"Luffy, speak to me what's wrong?" The reindeer speaks clear and firm.
"Lonely… Help me." Luffy says again in that pained whisper.
"What do you need help with?" Robin steps forward, kneeling by Ace. The older woman has a glint in her eye.
The question only causes Luffy to choke on a sob.
"The darkness." He whispers a moment later.
It's freezing.
His blood ran cold and his bones were ice.
The being holding him tight - too tight, his lungs were aching for air - added no heat. If anything, it was the single cause for the cold.
Luffy closes his eyes as tight as possible and bites down on his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood.
Arms hold him tight and it was strange.
Luffy doesn't want to escape from the grip no matter how freezing cold it was or if it was too tight.
He hears the being's pleas' for help echo in his head and even now he can feel the loneliness of the being latched onto him.
Luffy wants to help it. He knows what it was like to be alone and its terrible.
He hasn't been alone for a long, long time. Ace was with him nearly every hour of the day. He didn't even want to imagine how the spirit felt, being alone for so long; too long.
(A part of him that's not so little whispers: "You're going to be alone soon, too. Ace can't stay with you forever.")
A shudder rolls through the twelve-year old's frame and he isn't sure if it's because of the cold or because of his own thoughts.
He knows that Ace can't stay with him forever. What Luffy wants is different from what Ace wants. Even still, they have something in common: the sea. Luffy wants Ace to go out to sea, adventure and meet his dreams just as much as he wants to go out to sea himself. He isn't going to hold Ace back; he didn't want to do that to anyone, let alone Ace of all people.
He isn't, however, ready for the loneliness. Three years without Ace sounds like hell to Luffy. The situation they're in now, however, with Luffy's future crew is clear enough that he does live the three years without his brother (his best friend, his favorite person in the world).
He lets the spirit continue to hold him, searching for any solace that he can in the freezing cold.
"What's darkness?" Chopper urges on, his hoofs on both of Luffy's cheeks so his younger captain cannot look away.
To be honest, Chopper is absolutely terrified. Never has he experienced something like this before, even though the situation at Thriller Bark was almost similar. Ghosts and spirits terrify him and now he wants to shake and curl up into one of his nakama's arms, but he this was different.
This was Luffy. His brilliant, silly, reckless, fun captain. If he was hurt Chopper would move mountains to make him better because Luffy let him taste true freedom and set him on the road towards his dreams. Never would he abandon Luffy - his Captain - when he needed him no matter how scared he was.
The reindeer knows that his nakama felt the same.
"Don't know." Luffy sobs as he speaks, shoulders shaking like he's in pain. "'S close… Hurts. Wasn't like this before."
A jolt passes through both Luffy and the spirit holding him, making Luffy grimace because it hurts. It's a different pain than the cold.
Memories that aren't his start playing in his head, so clear that it was almost as if he was there.
Betrayal and pain, cold eyes, even colder words.
His own friends had… They had...
But wait, these weren't his friends. These people were unfamiliar and angry, unlike the colorful and cheerful people his future self dubbed as nakama.
One, undeniably the captain, stepped forward. He hissed like a snake while he raised an axe over his head.
nearby, someone chanted lowly. Luffy didn't know what they were saying but he felt his soul being tugged at when the words met his ears.
The axe came down and then -
The scene switched and a woman was slapping him harshly across the face, yelling obscenities at him. It didn't hurt him personally, but the memory-lady had clearly meant for it to hurt.
That memory faded and then he was pushed into the sea by a group of older boys who laughed as his arms failed, unable to keep himself up in the water .
Other memories passed by, all of them having something in common: pain. In these memories, he was alone. No one was on his side helping him.
He was lonely.
Zoro tenses and his eyes narrow as he slowly unsheathes Sandai Kitetsu an inch. He knew that he had felt something and had been on guard the entire time. Something wasn't right with the air but it didn't have anything to do with the weather; if it did Nami would have pointed it out ages ago. Something was off about the forest, not just the spirit. Something much darker that Zoro couldn't put his tongue on that left him on edge.
"Luffy…" Ace whispers, his voice tense. "Where is he?"
"He's…. Helping me…"
"Where is he?" Ace presses.
A lightbulb goes off inside of Nami's head. "Tell us where and how he is and we'll help you."
Luffy's face looks pained and all the crew feels bad, but they know that they need to make sure that Luffy is okay before anything.
"He…he's inside… He's okay… Letting me use… His body… Don't have time, please help."
Robin is the first to move, placing a hand on Luffy's forehead.
"Where is the darkness coming from?" She asks firmly.
Shakily, a tiny hand moves and points to the large tree they're circled around, the same tree where they found the younger Luffy and Ace.
"There."
Notes: UHHHH IT'S BEEN TWO MONTHS I'M SORRY. I really am, I didn't expect it to take this long. Especially for such a short chapter. I hit a rut and I wasn't able to even think of this story without getting so frustrated that I couldn't write.
Also, next chapter might be the last chapter. Maybe not, but there are only two chapters left tops. Next time won't take as long.
Oh and if you like the Ace/Luffy as a romantic pairing then uh I posted a multichaptered story called 'For the Days' and a genderbent AceLu oneshot called 'You Win Some' if you would like to check them out.