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[slowsunrise]

Title: Nightmares
Theme: # 15 Good Bye - Set 3
Claim: Ace
Words: 424
Rating: M, perhaps
Warnings: 574, angst, oh the angst
Disclaimers: One Piece isn't mine.


His eyes closed, and his last breath spoke of his final words. Then his head fell down heavily to the paved ground. For a second the battle field were silent, everybody standing still as if they were frozen statues. Then he begun to cry. Like a signal to return to the battle once more, Luffy's shouts of despair were heard all over the plaza.

It had been painful days, and painful weeks. His wounds were harsh and deep, but it wasn't the pain from his injuries that was haunting his lonely nights. Luffy slipped in and out of nightmares of kind he wasn't familiar with. Always when he dreamed a bad dream someone was there to wake him up and take care of him, be it his crew, his grandfather, Dadan... Ace... Ace had always been there to protecting from everything, from the world.

Now, nobody sat at the side of his bed on those painful nights. His precious crew was spread all over the world, his grandfather was left on Marinefold, he hadn't heard of Dadan in ages, and Ace... Ace was gone, gone forever. Over and over Luffy watched his brother die, over and over he heard those final words of farewell whispered in a low voice, his hurt body not letting him speak louder. And so the nightmares continued.

Sometimes the black haired boy woke up, alone in an dark room. But being awake wasn't helping Luffy in his struggles against the nightmares. Every time he woke up, he remembered that the nightmares was, unlike those of his childhood, real. During his younger years, the ghosts and monsters had disappeared as soon as he opened his eyes, as someone was patting his forehead, telling him that they were only illusions. But this time, not even waking up was any comfort for Luffy. He screamed, remembering Ace's last moments alive, how his brother had smiled and said his good byes. But the older raven wouldn't leave him.

He was always there, no matter if Luffy was awake or not, and it killed the rubber boy. Seeing his most precious person in the world pass away was horrible enough, but his nightmares kept repeating themselves. Again and again, Ace died, again and again, the admiral punched a hole through his stomach, again and again Ace said 'Good Bye'.

Again and again, Luffy cried out in despair.