:note:

...You didn't believe me when I said I'd update quick did you? /SSSHUUUNN THE NON BELIEVERS SHUUUNNN/ I am sorry for the start of this chapter being so depressing!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my food and my mobile. And my money. Cant forget the money.

Ace knew that he had died. It wasn't his memories of colliding into Akainu's fist or the lack of consciousness that he was now surrounded in. It was just instinct, fact almost. He could no longer feel his heart beating in his chest, could no longer command his body to move no matter how hard he tried.

And surprisingly, he was at peace with it. He didn't have any burning feeling to race back to the world of the living. He'd accepted that saving Luffy was enough, that his brother being safe was worth not seeing another day. He still had his concerns of course, the safety of his father, Marco- all of the crews wellbeing whirling in his mind. But, he was at rest now.

...Well, that's what he thought. Before he had spent two years in absolute darkness.

When describing personality traits of Ace, patience is not one you would come across. He was ultimately convinced he was in hell. And he had his reasons.

The first being of course, was the identity of the blood that ran through his veins. Being the son of such a monster, he was never shown mercy in life, let alone in death. The second reason being that he wasn't exactly an angel in his life. He was a pirate. And being a pirate, you had to commit sins to survive.

But the third reason? The reason he actually believed he was in hell?

"..."

There was only so much waiting in endless darkness that Ace could take.

Countless times he tried to move his dead hands, struggled to open his eyes that were unable to see anymore. But what annoyed him more than anything, was he could still think.

He was awake! ...Technically. He could easily still recount the many precious memories he had spent with his brothers and father.

He would regularly rennact in his head the whole traumatic experience of Impel down, of Marineford. Of seeing his brother's face in total and utter pain as he rushed in front of him. If only his mouth would move, he could speak. Shout even!

But then that voice. The only thing that would speak to him. The only sound or being into the complete darkness that always surrounded him. The voice of reason.

"Stop trying.

You can't do anything about it now.

You gave up your life,

you saved Luffy.

So just stop trying.

There's no point.

You can't escape death y'know.

Stop trying!

Everyone you brought to that execution.

They shouldn't have been there.

How could you let them die?

Stop trying.

You shouldn't...

have even existed in the first place.

Roger was a monster.

You, are a monster.

Stop trying.

You're dead.

You are truly alone now.

So.

Just.

Stop trying."

...

..

.

A rasped and choked voice suddenly hit the darkness. It struggled vigorously with it's words, though it was filled with so much determination, so much conviction.

Ace couldn't believe it was his own voice.

"N-never!"

He didn't want to die, despite knowing that fact that he was already dead. He wanted nothing more than to see his family, to continue on with the unique and truly baffling adventure they had shared. He needed to know what had happened to them, if they escaped; if they were alive.

A silence soon hovered in the air after the words left his mouth, both the Voice and Ace unable to comprehend what just happened.

'That was impossible right?' Ace had asked himself.

Expecting the Voice to respond to him, the ex-Commander inwardly twitched; though only more silence responded, leaving himself with his thoughts again.

'Did, did I just speak?'

Inwardly swallowing any other thought down, Ace focused all his remaining strength on the previous fact.

He had spoke. It couldn't have been his imagination.

'B-because if I just spoke, then that means I have to breat-'

Like being hit in the face by a blustering wave, Ace was hit with the desperation of oxygen in his throat. A tingling feeling spiraled down his inmobile arms, ones that haven't moved for years. Flinging themselves onto Ace's neck, his nails started to claw at his skin for air, as the previously lifeless chest bounced back to life.

Slowly, but surely, it started to move up and down, causing a confused yelp to whimper from Ace's lips. Thrashing his legs upwards, he was quickly met with a bellowing thud, followed by a painful hit to his leg.

Hell if he cared though, he knew this feeling. Since he'd entered this darkness, he'd been hoping- dreaming of this feeling he now felt through his whole body.

He was alive.

But that wasn't possible. He knew too well that he had died- the endless amount of waiting only justifying that.

Focusing his mind onto the new-found pain in his leg once more, Ace managed a small smirk to crawl onto his lips.

He was dead. That fact was true enough. But for whatever reason, he wasn't now. He didn't have one clue about how that was even possible- but for now, he would just be grateful.

Pushing all of those thoughts to the side, he continued to thrash his legs upwards (despite the bruising it was doing to his previously immobile leg), suddenly causing bits of debris to lightly fall on top of Ace's face. Flickering his eyes open, he was met with darkness.

-but not the same darkness he had been 'living' in for who knows how long.

This new darkness was hinted with a murky brown colour, causing Ace to fling his arms around to see exactly where he was. Only being able to stretch his arms out to the length of his elbows, thoughts- and not overly happy ones, crossed his mind in where he might actually be.

To confirm his suspicions, Ace focused all his energy he had onto his newly animated arm, causing a little light to flicker on the end of his finger. His eyes winced at the new light, as held the finger up, bringing light to where he actually was.

"You've got to be kidding me."

He was inside a coffin, buried underground.

Hours had past since Ace's recovery (he'd stubbornly refused to call it anything else) and not before long, he was already in a situation which he may or may not end up losing his life again.

He was stuck. In a hole. Underground.

He'd be damned if he let himself starve to death. He'd never live it down if he were to die, again, after defying the odds and waking up.

So, as his first attempt of escaping this new form of muddy, grizzly hell, he moved every possible muscle as far as he could. Attempting to hit everywhere, Ace silently begged for the ground to break above, and shine a light of hope.

Of course, the fire-thrower wasn't blessed with the fortune called luck. So the action resulted in the freckled-man to be covered in countless pieces of dirt and bugs, which easily didn't help the man's already irritated mood.

After realising that hitting the ground above wouldn't solve anything, Ace thought for a brief moment, before shrugging off the first thing he could think off.

"HEEEEEEEEEEYYYY?!"

Scream at the top of his voice until someone hears him.

"IS ANYONE UP THERE!?"

He didn't particularly care how stupid he looked or sounded at this moment. His stomach was starting to growl, and after having not eaten in, how long has it been?- he was starting to get pissed. Flames began to flicker on his shoulders an-

Wait.

"KAGERO!"

Ace screamed out, a ray of fire bursting from his fist towards the ground above. Sadly this just again resulted in more ground falling on top of the already pissed and hungry Ace.

"Damn it!" Ace yelled, shaking his hand to rid the fire.

"It's obvious that I would have lost practice, but..."

I'm too weak at the moment to do any damage. Maybe?

"..." Meh. Worth to give it a shot.

"HIKEN!"

Ace shouted again. A huge explosion trembled from above, effectively moving like the fire-thrower had hoped for. But, this time, he was not met with specks of dirt and worms as he had before. Instead, he was greeted by an avalanche of dirt to fall from above.

"Oh shi-!"

Reaching upwards, towards the sky, Ace managed to sneak his way through the crumbled dirt, using his hands, feet, elbows, his chin, anything to climb his way up. After minutes of climbing very slowly up, finally he saw his exit; a small speck of light. This tiniest bit of light shined harshly on the tip of his forehead, blinding one of his eyes. But he was too overjoyed to care.

With one last punch upwards, he lifted the ground above him, a cool breeze hitting his hand and more light shined through. Reaching, he looked around for stable place to pull himself up.

With grunts of pain he lifted himself from the grave, his body breathing heavily; eyes wincing at the light that now surrounded him. Turning around to grasp his surroundings, his eyes were met with a huge inanimate object, more in the shape of a monument.

Focusing closely at what the monument had written in the stone, his pupils went huge. "T-this is?"

'Portgas D. Ace'

So there it is! /collapses/

Sadly, I won't be able to do quick updates like this all the time. But if this chapter gets good reviews and follows, I will try to get another chapter out before or on Wednesday. Also, this is most likely going to be the length of most of the chapters. Like this, I can assure that there will be one update a week!

I struggled to write the beginning of this, but now I have a good plan of everything that is going to happen in this story- so I don't care. :D

Also please feel free to check my other stories! I would really appreciate it!

-KayaaHiko