Chapter 31: (A/N: CALLING ALL HORROR FANS! Do I have your attention? Good. Okay, so recently I was on youtube watching let's plays (cuz that's how I like to waste time) when I came across a playthrough for a semi-new indie horror game. It's available for free download, but it only works on Windows computers. Mac users out there, you should totally watch a let's play. Windows people: download it and play it yourself! It's honestly the scariest thing I've encountered in quite some time, and it's definitely worth looking into. The playthrough I like the most is by a user called HarshlyCritical and it's 28:45 long. It's worth every moment. I highly recommend this to anyone out there who feels like being creeped out!

Panda Bear: Hahahahaha it's not hard if you know what I'm quoting. ;D "The train is coming with its shiny cars, its comfy seats and wheels of stars. So hush my little ones, have no fear. The man in the moon is the engineer." Comes from Alice: Madness Returns, an adventure/horror game for the Xbox 360. "Why're you wearing that stupid human suit?" Comes from one of my favorite movies of all time, Donnie Darko. "It's time to shed your fake skin" Comes from an excellent anime called Soul Eater. Glad you enjoyed the chapter! My research paper is…annoying. But it's done now, so that's good. Hahahahahahahaha Sorry about your head… Don't give yourself a concussion or else you won't be able to read! XD

Little: things are getting better. Kinda… Ace's body gets better day by day, but if anything his mind is only getting worse. Ricky at least is aware that Ace has SOME kind of trauma, but Ace refuses to express it so it makes it very hard to help him. I'm glad you don't find them enraging. Well…yes. But it's not exactly easy to admit one of your close friends has something seriously wrong with them. Especially not when it's your 10-year-old friend who's just been through complete hell…it's hard to admit that the world is really that cruel, you know? Even if the denial is only subconscious, there's some part of them that doesn't want to really believe that Ace was tortured and is now completely traumatized. Trust is very valuable, and Ace isn't exactly trusting of anyone or anything right now…I don't think it'd be an exaggeration to say he trusts the White Rabbit more than he trusts Ricky or even Shanks. Ace hates the part of him that's scared of them, but he can't deny that it exists. After his recent experiences, he's scared of pretty much all of humanity. Wonderland seems more trustworthy to him right now because he at least knows he's somewhat safe, that he has power over the beings of Wonderland *cough*atleasthethinkshedoes*cough**cough*. He recognizes the White Rabbit is just a figment of his imagination and can't really (well, physically) hurt him, but he has yet to realize how strong of an effect Wonderland has on his mind. It was only subconsciously that Ace called the Rabbit. It's just when he goes into a state of complete terror like that (waking up and thinking his nightmare was still going on/real) that the White Rabbit comes to invite him back into Wonderland. If you want to look at Wonderland as a symptom of his PTSD, it's when his mind tries to relapse into its removed state to escape the cruelty/severity of reality/(in Ace's case) imprisonment. Hypnotherapy really exists. I thought it would be the best/easiest way for Ricky to get past those pesky walls that Ace set up around the truth of his past, though as you saw he didn't manage to get past all of them. Yes you're right. But if anything he uses them much more now, and the lies are much more untrue. It is sad. But at least he got to go outside now. :) Yes probably. Being outside helped calm him down and convinced him he didn't need to run from reality, so it was enough this time. 1. That is true, but that wasn't one of the references I was talking about. 2. "Good morning" was actually what Sabo's face said in Ace's first nightmare (in chapter 3) and…I think Hare might have said it at one point, but I can't remember off the top of my head. Also, while this is correct, it wasn't one of the references I was asking about. 3. Yes they were. It's funny…all the stuff you've pointed out has actually been unintentional references to past chapters. XD 3.1 It was a non-explicit allusion to what part of Ace's mind must be suspecting, that what happened to him probably happened to Sabo too. Hope this is out soon enough for you!

TFR: It's okay. You're not alone. :) You're most assuredly not a bad reader. Well…after looking it up the Jung Test is not terribly relevant to Ace's mental issues as the Jung Test is more of a personality test than a psychological analysis. But it shouldn't be hard to write a paper about, it's not that complicated. C: Hahahahahaha I'm glad you didn't think my cliffhanger was fail. I hope this update wasn't too slow… I'll do my best to include Whitebeard, Marco, and Thatch more, but it can be a little hard to do without throwing off the flow of the chapter.

SO sorry for the lateness of this chapter! Blame it on finals and youtube! But on the upside I can somewhat succeed at some drawing now thanks to this guy: www . youtube user/ markcrilley (just take out the spaces)

This chapter has been rated T- for SOME VIOLENCE (INCLUDING A SUICIDE ATTEMPT) and MILDLY CREEPY STUFF.

And now, ON WITH THE CHAPTER!)

Ace watched the horizon fade to a dull grey, the foamy tips of the waves silvered in the predawn light. It was early in the morning, no later than 4:30, yet Ace was paying such attention to the approaching day that every passing moment his senses added new details to the birth of the morning. He noted each tiny change in the shade of the sky, felt the wind shift directions slightly, saw each degree the moon sunk as it faded from bright luminosity to a pale, almost translucent looking shadow of its nighttime splendor. Ace observed each detail, each tiny change with fascination.

He knew he should go back to the infirmary before everyone woke up and noticed his absence, but as much as he reasoned that he should turn away, should go back inside, he couldn't make himself do it. The minute changes in the sky, the sensation of sea wind on his skin, all of it was fascinating to him in a way nothing had fascinated him in a long, long time.

It was nothing compared to the sunrise itself.

The colors were bright and vibrant, the hues of blue, pink, peach, orange, and red burning across the sky like spilled watercolors. Ace's eyes hurt from the brightness of the sun in comparison with the artificial light he'd been subsisting on for the last month and a half, but he didn't turn away or make any attempt to hide his eyes. The colors, the grandeur, the slow grace of the rising sun instilled unfathomable, unending awe deep in Ace's chest. His heart swelled and he felt free, truly free for the first time in far, far too long.

The sun rose higher and the wind kicked up the waves, tossing sea spray playfully at the gold-orange disk that was making its way above the horizon. As it rose it chased back the black shades of night, and soon even Venus' starry light faded from the sky. The sky nearest the sun began to change from its oranges and pinks and reds as the sun rose still higher, fading to eggshell blue. This blue began to carry itself across the sky as if the heavens were fabric being dipped in an artisan's dye.

The last vestiges of night faded from the west.

Ace released a breath he didn't know he had been holding and leaned back against the wall behind him. His eyes were wide and filled with complete awe, a hand raised over his mouth. He realized his hands were shaking lightly, and he genuinely laughed at himself for a moment. He pressed them together, trying to make them stop, but after a moment leaned his head back, letting them fall limply into his lap. His eyes drifted softly shut and he savored the smell of the sea and the horizon that was carried to him on the wind. He imagined he'd be hearing the noises of a panicked search once the crew noticed his absence, and he knew he would mourn the loss of the quietude of dawn.

"Ace." Ricky's voice was serious and Ace opened his eyes, looking at the doctor who had just stepped through the door. Ace could see Yassop behind him. Ricky's face was serious and concerned. "We need to talk." The peaceful smile the sunrise had brought to Ace's face faded as he looked in Ricky's eyes. He felt his ingrained mistrust raise its head and ask suspiciously what had changed, what they wanted. Ace glanced between Ricky and Yassop.

"…What's this about?" Ricky took a deep breath, face remaining serious and determined.

"Wonderland." Ace's blood ran ice cold and he froze. Ace's breathing stuck in his throat and he knew his face showed blatant shock. There was no recovering from this one, no passing it off as nothing. He hadn't had time to make a mask, hadn't thought he'd need one for Wonderland of all things. They weren't ever supposed to find out about Wonderland. How did they- He started.

"You say that like I'm ever going back with you. Surviving Wonderland was hard enough the first time, I'm not about to subject myself to another Caucus Race thank you very much." Ace's eyes hardened. They heard me. The heard me talking to Rabbit. Ace stared at Ricky, eyes dark.

"Ace, tell me about Wonderland." Ace's look bordered on a glare. A moment of silence passed and Ricky began to get a bit unnerved. There was a steel in Ace's eyes that hadn't been there two months ago. Ace's eyes were dark and his gaze was frosty. Slowly, Ricky watching him the whole while, he stood. Ricky's eyes widened at seeing him putting his bodyweight on the broken limbs. Ace moved to stand directly in front of Ricky, looking up into his face.

"No." His voice was as cold as his look had been, no expression to it. Distant. Cold. Removed. Hard and frigid as a glacier.

Ace walked passed him and Yassop and down the hallway.

"Ace we need to talk about this!" Ricky turned and followed him, determined to get an answer out of the boy. After Yassop had gone into more detail about what he overheard Ace saying last night, Ricky had begun to agree with Yassop's initial deduction that Ace was having audio-visual hallucinations. If it were true, it was big. Ace's response to Ricky's question about "Wonderland", one of the collection of strange terms Yassop had overheard last night, indicated that Yassop was right. Ricky needed more details, though. Needed to know the intricacies of these things that Ace was seeing, needed to know how long the hallucinations had been going on, when they had started, how they had started, and what was causing them.

Yassop's overhearing Ace last night had been a really lucky break for Ricky. Ricky, of course, had suspected that Ace had deep mental trauma from his experiences, after all, who wouldn't, but now he actually had proof. Now he might be able to define a specific condition and that would bring them one step closer to getting Ace back the way he was before.

Ace didn't know the East Wind all that well, and Ricky used that to his advantage. Knowing Ace was trying to get away from him, Ricky began subtly steering him towards a dead end. Of course, Ace didn't realize he was being herded and followed unknowingly along. He couldn't move as fast as he'd like, could only walk quickly as opposed to running which he would have infinitely preferred (well, theoretically he could run, but the tremendous ache in his legs kept him from actually trying it), and this kept him much physically closer to Ricky than he would have liked.

Finally they reached the dead end, the end of a hallway at the very stern of the ship, and Ace knew he was caught. He clenched his hands into fists at his side and closed his eyes. He resisted the urge to punch the wall out of frustration. After a moment he drew himself up and turned around to face Ricky.

"Alright, Ace. Enough games. This is really, really important, probably the most important thing yet. Yassop told me he overheard you on the deck late last night. He said you were talking to yourself, but it sounded more like one side of a conversation than just thinking out loud." The lie began to flow from Ace's mouth like water.

"Oh that? I was just talking to myself. It's a habit I have. One side of the conversation is my interior thought, one side is the part I speak out loud. It helps me understand more than one facet of a concept sometimes."

"Ace, I can't believe that anymore. Yassop said you specifically addressed and seemed to look at something, something that simply wasn't there. If you were talking to yourself, why would you call yourself "Rabbit"?" Ricky reached into the large inside pocket of his doctor's coat and drew out Ace's sketchbook holding it up so Ace could plainly see what it was he had. "And then there's this." Ricky opened it and began flipping through the pages, one at a time. "You draw scenes from everyday life, sure, and that seemed normal enough. But then I noticed something." Ricky turned the notebook to face Ace pointing at a specific place on the page. "This."

The drawing Ricky was referencing was a drawing of most of the crew. He drew it on the first day he had gone to lunch with the pirates, carried to the mess hall by Shanks, and the image was of a jovial, seemingly ordinary meal aboard the East Wind. Ricky wasn't pointing to the majority of the image, though.

He was pointing at a specific figure.

The people in the image diminished in size as they grew further from Ace. It was back when Ace was working almost exclusively on mastering perspective, and he had put a lot of effort into getting the scaling and shrinking of distance correct. The one Ricky was pointing at was at the very far back of the shot, no individual features being visible, shadowed into near-complete profile like the others that filled the background. He, among all others, seemed to be the only one directly facing Ace, the point of capture. There was one bigger key difference between this figure and the others, though.

He had rabbit ears.

"And that's not the only one, is it?" Ricky flipped through several more pages, the next one he came to rest on being an image of Shanks sleeping, seemingly an accident as he slumped in a chair in the infirmary. His hat hung from his head, skewed at an odd angle. In the shot, the entire infirmary was visible, Ricky's desk, the cabinets of medical supplies, the few other beds in the room, and the door. In this shot, the door was open wide.

Two identical figures peered around the doorway childishly, one on each side. Only half of each face was visible, the other side hidden behind the doorframe and wall. They both had reddish-brown hair, unkempt and untamed. Their eyes were hazel-grey, widened to show white all the way around the iris in an unnatural stretching of the eyelids.

They were grinning.

The expression wasn't photorealistic as most of the faces Ace drew, merely a pointed white crescent half obscured by the door. The ends of the surreal smiles went higher than they should have, ending even with the bottom of the nose.

Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum weren't the only two beings of Wonderland that had snuck into the image, though.

Half of Rabbit's anthropomorphic frame was visible at the very edge of the capture. He was to Ace's left in the picture whereas the twins were on Ace's right. He was facing directly towards Ace.

Rabbit was closer than he had been before.

"It keeps getting worse." Ricky's face was serious as he continued flipping through the pages, coming to rest on another drawing of Shanks, this time seemingly laughing at Benn's expense.

Hatter had found his way into this frame.

He sat at a table in the near background, sipping from one of his elegant china cups. Dormouse was there as well, climbing up Benn's back via his hair.

Rabbit stood not 6 feet behind the table Shanks and Benn were at.

Ricky closed the book, placing it back in his pocket. He looked at Ace seriously and from the tone of his voice Ace could tell he was being completely honest.

"I'm scared to see the rest, Ace. Scared to see what that rabbit wants. Scared to see why it's always in pictures with Shanks. Most of all I'm scared to see its face when it gets close enough for you to draw it." Ricky knew he had to be delicate about this. In all likelihood, Ace perceived these hallucinations to be real. For the time being, it would be better for Ricky to treat them that way too, if he wanted Ace not to shut him off. "Who is that, Ace? What is it that it wants? Why is it getting closer? Where does it come from?" Ace had taken to staring at the floor. There was no use hiding anything anymore. And…maybe Ricky could help him. Maybe Ricky could help convince him Wonderland wasn't real and keep Ace from seeing its inhabitants anymore. Ace took a deep breath and swallowed.

"That's the White Rabbit. He's…he's my guide, when I visit. I…I don't know what it is about Shanks or if Shanks is even a factor in when he decides to show up." Ace looked up, trying to convince Ricky with his eyes that he was actually being honest for once. "I don't remember drawing him, Ricky." Truth be told, Ace was scared. He had no memory of drawing Rabbit, the twins, Hatter, Dormouse, any of them. That frightened him. These bouts of blankness were growing more frequent, too. It was like his mind would just turn off for a while, and when he came back, things were different. Ace was sure his fear showed in his eyes and was apparent in his voice when he spoke next.

"Make it stop, Doctor." To say Ricky was surprised by the fragility of Ace's expression and voice would have been an understatement. The words were barely more than a whisper, and Ace looked almost scared enough to cry. Ricky walked closer to Ace slowly, stopping in front of him and crouching down so they were on more even ground.

"I'm going to try, Ace. We're going to make you better. But I need you to promise me you won't hide things like this from me again, alright? I can't help you if you don't let me know you need help." Ace nodded. His fear only grew by the moment. He felt the beginnings of panic settling into his stomach. Ricky tried to smile comfortingly at him and pulled the notebook from his pocket once more.

"Can you tell me about these people you've drawn, Ace?" Ace nodded again and took the sketchbook from Ricky's hand, flipping through the pages to a specific drawing.

It was Hatter, seated at tea, cheek resting on one hand at an angle, staring off in near profile away from the point of capture at something viewers couldn't see. Ace raised a lightly shaking hand and ran it over the picture. A scared, shaky smile came to his face. He didn't know what was making him so terrified, but it was like being trapped in one of his nightmares again, unable to move, unable to run away and knowing something horrible was getting closer by the moment.

He thought – hoped – Ricky could save him.

"This is Hatter. The Mad Hatter, if you prefer. He's…He's probably the smartest one in Wonderland." Ricky moved closer, glancing at the image and trying to smile reassuringly at Ace. He wondered for a moment how to phrase his question in a way Ace would answer his real question, then spoke.

"Where…Where does Hatter live, Ace?" Ace stared at Ricky for a second before a tiny, shaky smile flickered on his face for a moment and he laughed breathily, terror dancing in his eyes.

"He lives in my brain, of course. Hatter's logic. Where else would he be?" Ace snapped his attention back to the sketchbook and flipped manically through the pages, coming to rest on another.

It was Caterpillar, chubby, blue, curled on a leaf. It had 6 white, gloved hands and 6 shoed feet. In one hand he held a Persian hookah, grey-white smoke puffing out the end and hazing the background and entire image. His other hands were held in Hindu-like positions, similar to those in the statues of gods or taken up by priests in meditation. His eyes were closed. Ace's trembling hand ghosted over the image, careful not to smudge the careful shading within the folds of the smoke.

"This is Caterpillar." Ace turned to Ricky, frightened, shaky smile still on his face. "He's the calmest of all the inhabitants." Ricky was worried about Ace. He looked absolutely terrified. Ricky didn't understand why, but there was no threat here and Ricky needed to know more about this condition, so he couldn't stop. This may be the only time he could get Ace to open up like this, and he didn't want to waste the opportunity.

"And where does Caterpillar live, Ace?" Ricky kept his voice gentle, calm. Soothing. Trying to calm Ace down even as he delved deeper into just why Ace was so scared.

"Caterpillar lives in my hands." Ace's voice had begun to shake, and his shoulders were trembling lightly now too. "He-He's creativity." Ace gave another of those terrified, breathy laughs. "Of course he lives there. He makes things. Creates them." Ace felt tiny, felt defenseless, felt completely vulnerable and could feel the horrible horrendous him that was after him and knew he was close and knew it wouldn't be long before he got here. Ricky had to know by then, had to see, or else something bad was going to happen.

Ace didn't like bad.

"Ace?" Ace's head snapped to the left and he looked at Ricky, breath freezing in his throat for a moment. He licked dry lips.

"There's no time. No time at all. Can you save me? Can you see yet?" Stop talking, Ace. Ace froze completely where he was, stomach tying itself in knots, air freezing in his lungs, heart stopping as cold shot up his spine. His trembling increased tenfold. He turned to Ricky, eyes wide, terrified.

"Save me, Ricky!" I said stop. The voice changed and Ace became lost.

He sounded like Ricky now.

Ace's breathing was coming in great, terrified gulps now, panic crawling up his throat. He turned his gaze to the doctor, eyes wide. "Wh-Who are you?" Ricky was a bit shocked at that one and answered the question slowly, speaking clearly so Ace would understand him through his panic.

"It's me, Ricky. I'm your friend, your doctor." And I'm angry now, Ace. The sentence was continued seamlessly in Ace's mind and Ace couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. His panic was clawing at his spinal cord, his breathing almost to the point of hyperventilation, heart pounding at something beyond terror.

"How do I know that? Can I trust you? Can you see?"

"Of course you can trust me, Ace. Let me help you. What are you afraid of? I can and will help you, but you need to tell me what's wrong." Trust me like you trusted Shanks before. He didn't save you then and I won't either. Ricky's voice was serious and direct, intense. Ace was on the edge of complete mental breakdown, and Ricky wanted nothing more than to help him. Ace knew he was so close to being out of time. He was here, he was angry, and Ace needed somewhere to hide. Ace had to take a chance. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, shoving his terror back down his throat for long enough for his mind to work. After a moment he looked up at Ricky.

"There's someone else you need to meet." Stop. Talking. Now. Ricky nodded down at Ace.

"Okay." Anything to make the fear in Ace lessen. Ace flipped wildly through the pages of the notebook. He…He didn't know whether this Ricky was really Ricky and not him, but Ace had to trust him because without Ricky's help He'd have to face him alone. He was still scared of Ricky, scared of the similarities between him and Hare, but thus far Ricky had been nothing but helpful, done nothing but support and heal Ace. Ace forced himself to trust.

And then he reached the blank pages at the end of the notebook.

His eyes widened. "No." His laugh echoed in Ace's mind, in Ricky's voice. "No!"

"What's the matter, Ace?" Out of time? Ace looked up at Ricky with wide, horrified eyes.

"He's in the other notebook."

"Who is, Ace? Is he the one that's scaring you?" Answer that and question and I'll have you begging for death.

"It's-" A warning snarl of rage sounded in Ace's mind. Stop talking. Now. "He's-" Stop. Now.

"It's okay, Ace. Let's just go and get the other notebook." Ricky stood and reached slowly towards Ace. Ace backed away a step, pressing against the wall.

"No I have to tell you! Now, before he gets here!" Don't. Say. Another. Word. "He's…He's…" Ricky spoke smoothly, placatingly.

"Calm down Ace. Why don't we go back to the infirmary? I'm sure we can find your other notebook there and I can give you something to help you calm down." You can't trust him. He's me. Say anything to him and you're saying it to me. I do not harbor traitors, Ace. You will not betray me. That's…that's not true. This is Ricky. You're not Ricky. He smiled. How do you know? Can you prove it? Ace was risking it. This was all or nothing. He sounded like Ricky and he could look however he wanted. How could Ace be sure this wasn't just him in disguise, testing his resolution to silence?

"H-His na-name is-" Stop talking now. "Mister-" I. Ace stared up into Ricky's face, eyes wide, terrified, petrified with fear. Said.

The words came out in a rush. "His name's Mr. Savage!" NOW! The word was a roar, and it seemed to deafen Ace's ears as well as his mind. There was a sound like whooshing air past a fast moving object, then something struck Ace's face hard on his right cheek. Ace was actually bowled over by the force of the blow and the sound of a slap practically echoed down the hallway.

Ricky stared down at Ace, uncomprehending. Ace cried out when he hit the floor, landing on his stomach. He instantly rolled over, looking up at Ricky with wide, horrified eyes, hand pressed against his already reddening cheek. Ace's breath was stuck in his chest and for a moment he couldn't breathe.

"Y-You…" Ace's eyes were focused on Ricky's left arm. Ricky followed Ace's gaze to his left hand, still extended to lead Ace back to the infirmary as he had offered moments ago. His eyes widened, realizing what Ace was assuming.

"No, Ace! I'd never-" Ricky reached out towards Ace, going to comfort him. Ace scrambled back wildly.

"They were right about you! They were right! I never should have trusted you! You're just like him! Just like him!"

"Ace-!" Ace stumbled to his feet, turning and running down the hallway, ignoring the shooting agony from his legs.

"Don't touch me!" Ace was running fast, faster than would have been possible without the adrenaline shooting through his veins. Ricky watched him go, too surprised, too stunned to pursue. After Ace's running footsteps had faded, Ricky continued to stare, shocked, at the other end of the hallway where Ace had turned left. After another moment of Ricky's stunned silence he slowly retracted his outstretched left hand, which had been reaching for Ace. He turned it so the palm was facing towards him. I…I didn't hit him. I didn't. Ricky's eyes were wide, full of blatant shock. Even if it were a moment of complete lunacy and somehow I did hit him, my hand would be stinging right now and it's not. I didn't…I didn't hit Ace…

…So who did?

"Ace! Ace, where are you?!" Shanks ran down the hallway, hands cupped around his mouth, shouting for the missing boy. Ricky had told him some of what happened, saying Ace had had a panic attack born of his "acute cleisiophobia". Ricky had translated this to normal-people-language as an extreme fear of being locked in enclosed spaces. Ricky hadn't gone into any more detail than that, and Shanks hadn't given him the time to, immediately employing the entire crew in the search.

Shanks jumped down an entire staircase in one go, practically crash-landing at the bottom. He immediately began running down this hallway, sticking his head through doors and calling Ace's name.

He was panting hard by the time he reached the end of this hallway. There was only one door left. The storage room.

The storage room was a large place, bare walls, open floors used for the stacking and holding of crates and barrels of supplies, treasure…whatever happened to be aboard. Right now, there were only foodstuffs, the East Wind travelling light to catch up with the Marine ship Ace had been on as quickly as possible.

Shanks opened the door and stepped inside.

"YOU FUCKING ASSFACE GET YOUR GODDAMNED ASS OVER HERE NOW!" It didn't matter that Marco knew Shanks couldn't hear him. Yelling, doing something, anything, made him feel better. Marco, Thatch, and Whitebeard were all pounding against the glass, had been for the last 7 minutes.

It was dark in the storage hold, the only illumination being a lantern placed on a crate next to the door Shanks lit upon entering the room and the open door behind him. The lantern was running pretty low on oil, so the fire wasn't bright. Shanks couldn't see very far, and he knew he'd have to be methodical if he wanted to make a thorough search of the room. He started at the fore side of the room, the side nearest the bow, working left and right in rows. He checked between and behind boxes, barrels, and nets, stooping low sometime to look under the occasional shelf.

"NO TIME FOR YOUR FUCKING IGNORANCE RIGHT NOW, RED HAIR!" It still didn't matter that Marco knew Shanks couldn't hear him. He couldn't stand just waiting there praying that Shanks would hurry the FUCK up.

Shanks had been working for about 12 minutes when he finally reached the end of the room, the light from his lantern illuminating the back wall of the storage space. What he saw froze his heart in his chest, his breath catching in his lungs.

TICK

TICK

TICK

The word was written three separate times on the wall, the letters large and capitalized, each about as long as Shanks' arm. They were written messily, the letters crooked and unevenly spaced, the words not in any kind of pattern. One was written high on the wall, skewed slightly to the right and about halfway between the middle of the wall and the right edge.

The next time it was written was near the center of the wall, a little bit to the left. This one was fairly straight, but the letters weren't, not as evenly formed as they were the first time.

The third time was near the bottom of the wall, far to the right, almost touching the starboard hull of the ship. The letters on this one were even more shaky and ill formed than the last time, and the word was skewed a little bit left. The light of the lantern glinted off the still-wet writing, revealing the sticky, half-congealed crimson for what it was.

Blood.

The tail end of the last "K" trailed down to the floor, the writing here wetter than the rest, blood sliding down from the letters in tiny streams.

Sliding down to Ace.

He lay on his back in a small pool of blood, the bottom of the "K" trailing down to where the pointer, middle, and ring finger of his left hand were still doused in the crimson life sluggishly pumping from his body. He clutched a surgical scalpel in his right hand, blade pointed out the base of his fist.

Three long, vertical slashes ran down the length of his left forearm.

Shanks stared at the scene for a moment, uncomprehending. When his brain kicked back into gear he sprinted across the floor, coming up beside his unmoving friend. OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGodohmyGod ohmyGod… He tore the sleeve off his shirt and ripped it in half with his teeth, creating makeshift bandages. He lifted Ace's limp arm and began wrapping it tightly, scared of how much blood was around and how much was already staining the sleeve of his shirt.

"RICKY!" Shanks had never yelled so loud in his life. He was pretty sure North Blue heard him, but it didn't matter so long as Ricky was here in nanoseconds. Shanks was scared. Terrified. Hadn't been even close to this afraid since they'd found Ace on the floor of that cage. This was worse. Infinitely worse.

Ace's eyes were wide and glazed over, his chest horribly, horribly still.

( A/N: …NOTHING SAYS MERRY CHRISTMAS LIKE A SUICIDE ATTEMPT!

Sorry…but seriously guys, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

Christmas cookies for everyone. You all deserve them. And I mean the yummy, kinda peppermint-y kind with sprinkles and frosting. Cuz those are just da bomb.

Sooooooooooo…yeah…hope ya liked the chapter! Sorry for the longish break! Like I said, finals and stuff. And, ya know, spending time with my family during the Christmas season. :)

…If you feel like reading something way, WAY more suited to the season, my sister, as a Christmas present for me, wrote an ADORABLE one-shot about a party hosted by the Straw-Hats on Christmas Eve for all their friends. Warning: It is a crossover. It contains characters from two of our other favorite series: Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Butler. Oh, and some of the Whitebeard Pirates show up. :D It's Chopper-centric and FREAKING SO CUTE MY SOUL MELTED. It's a MUST read. I'm not sure if she posted it yet…I'll tell her to do it in the morning, if it's not already up there. :)

Anyways, hope you liked the chapter, and I hope you got everything your heart desired this holiday season! Wanna make me feel all warm and fuzzy? Leave me a nice long review as a Christmas present. Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with the chocolate moose I made yesterday on top? ;) ~Mountain97

OH, P.S. OF EPIC SHIZ! So I saw Les Miserables (the movie) today and it was SO ABSOLUTELY FREAKING AMAZING. It's seriously in my top 3 movies of all time. ALL TIME, PEOPLE. I'd never seen the stage production or read the book or heard the music, so it was totally new for me. I CRIED NINE SEPARATE TIMES! NINE! I NEVER cry in movies! Anne Hathaway is officially the best Hollywood singer ever. I Dreamed a Dream was the best song in the whole show. (That was the first time I cried during the movie. XD) That movie should with every Oscar there is. You should all go and see it and support this absolutely fantastic piece of film. Seriously. Do it. You will not regret it. And then buy the soundtrack. Okay. Done ranting now. C: Bye everyone! )