Chapter 10: Fearless Defeat and Rescue

Luffy couldn't remember how much it had hurt back in the day. It was so painful, so… damn agonizing. The memories he held about his infiltration weren't anything like what he was feeling right now. But he had a small advantage, now. He could use Haki.

"You actually brought me to my knees…" Magellan gasped, coughing. "A cornered rat can be fearsome, without a doubt."

The Straw Hat Captain bit on his lip to avoid letting out any pained screams that wanted to come out.

"Well, the poison in your hands is enough to steal your ability to move, though."

Like hell, the raven-haired boy thought.

"Gomu Gomu no…" he mumbled.

"It must be painful. Such a shame!"

"… Twin Jet Pistol!" Luffy yelled as he let his hands go and hit the Chief Warden hard enough to make him miss his aim of his Poison Blowfish attack.

As the Straw Hat pirate dodged the rest of the bubbles, he prepared his next attack, meeting halfway with the Hydra summoned by Magellan. He hated this fight. It was that time where he hated how weak he was, and now that he had come back and despite his knowledge on how to use Haki, that hadn't changed one damn bit.

The only thing he could do was face him head-on. The Hydras kept on spawning and Luffy was having a harder time dodging them as the time ticked by. The Inferno Hell was too hot and he'd been using his Gear Second for way too long. At this rate, he was going to exhaust himself before he could even beat the Chief Warden and he knew what this would mean: going back to the Level 5.5 in Impel Down and losing three days again.

"You haven't had enough yet?" Magellan mocked him as he made five Hydras spawn at once. The raven-haired young man was able to dodge two of them but as he was in the air, the other three fell on him as if it was a wave of the sea, covering him up with the muddy poisonous substance. "This is your sentence, intruder… For twenty-four hours, you will suffer and then you will truly fall into hell!"

"A-ce…"

"With that level of exposure, there's no way you'll be cured…" the Chief Warden sighed as he left Luffy on the floor, covered in poison.

"Good work, Chief Warden Magellan! What should we do with Strawhat Luffy?" one of the guards asked as he saluted him.

"He'll die soon enough. But he'll be in the way if we leave him there. Throw him down the central tower to Level 5!"

"Yes, sir!"

This was unfair. That was all Luffy could think about. It hurt, it stung and it wasn't the way he had planned this second time to end up like. He should've just done what Bon Kurei had told him to do. They should've gotten away from that poison guy and they should've hidden until they had gone somewhere else.

"So painful… It hurts…" He gasped as he stood up however he could manage. He only had one fixation, though, getting Ace to safety. Getting his brother out of here no matter what he had to do. He slammed his head hard against the cell's holding-bars.

"It's the same as an ant in a storm. You will be blown away, unable to do anything." Those were the words Nyah-baa-san had told him. And now he knew they were so damn true.

The Pirate Captain slammed himself once more against the iron bars.

"Stop that, it's pointless! There's no way for you to live with all that poisoning. You're done for, can you hear me?" one of the prisoners yelled.

"No!" he yelled back. "I won't die! I can't…!" Gasping, Luffy tried to stand up once more. "I won't die! Not until I save Ace!"

"You can't even help yourself… You got a friend in these cells? Ridiculous. In here, you must look out for yourself, not anyone else!" the other prisoner said. "To survive the sea of fire, climb over those around you. To escape a monster, you use the guy next to you as bait. If you worry about others, you lose your life. Crap like that of saving other people… Just hearing that makes me wanna puke!"

Luffy collapsed then, trying to keep himself alive. This wasn't supposed to happen, damn it! He had planned to defeat Magellan and go ahead to Level 6 where he knew Ace was being held, but everything had gone wrong, everything had developed just like the last time he had been there.

"Look, someone's coming."

"It's not a guard or a worker…"

"And he's naked?!"

"STRAW-CHAN, I CAME TO HELP YOU… IN THE NAME OF OUR FRIENDSHIP!"

"What the hell? He's all covered in blood…"

"I'm sorry for running away!"

"Who are you…?"

"A friend! Straw-chan, I won't let you die!"

"Ten years… This'll take off ten years of your life… I'll be using those for your sake, Straw-boy."

"T-that's fine…" Luffy answered while gasping.

"Anyways, I can't guarantee that using those ten years will save you. If we say that you have a zero percent of surviving, now, then doing this might give you maximum a two or three percent chance to surviving." Ivankov explained. "Whether you'll survive or whether survival is impossible, that's up to your own will." The Okama Queen crossed her arms over her chest as he looked at the young man restrained on the stone-table. "If you die, the poison wins. If you're still clinging to life, then you win." Luffy nodded. "Well, have a good trip… to death's doors! Emporio Healing Hormones!"

As those nails dug into his skin, Luffy couldn't help but scream out of pain as the hormones entered his system and began to work their magic. Yeah. Now it was all up to how badly he wanted to survive, how bad he wanted to save his brother. The only thing in his mind other than the pain cruising his body was Fire Fist Ace. His sworn brother, the only person he cared about other than his nakama.

As time passed by, Luffy had lost track of the time. There were only two things he knew for sure: firstly, he had to survive and don't let Magellan win and secondly, he had to definitely save Ace this time. He wasn't about to let the same shit happen a second time. Not after everything he'd went through to come back here.

Sabo waited patiently. Like hell he would let this opportunity slip. In the middle of the night, as everyone passed out after they had drowned themselves in alcohol, the Revolutionary Second Commander slipped through all the drowsed bodies and carefully got the small box containing the Devil Fruit. How could these idiots be so careless?

Nevertheless, once he had what he wanted, he left the camp and boarded his boat again, leaving that island behind. Once in the open sea, he opened the box and he looked at the fruit, recognizing it from the book he once had come across about the Devil Fruits.

"The Mizu Mizu no Mi…" he murmured as he admired the swirls and the patterns on it. "This… this will definitely be handy." He smiled to himself as he shoved the fruit in his mouth. The taste was awful, but in the end it would be worth it.

Sorry about the delay. I had a hell of a lot going on in my house since we're trying to sell it to get another where to live in, so accept my deepest apologies.

I know this will be short and I'm sorry, but after this chapter, things will get under their way. Finally we're about to get to Marineford! Hope you're as excited as I am.

Thanks to everyone who has left their comments and those who had said nothing but have read it, favorited and followed this story! Love you all!