You didn't dream in there. From the moment your eyes closed it took a beat for them to flicker back open again. Something you found yourself grateful for, if not a little confused. Dreams didn't come easy those days.
Turns out your head is a far more terrifying place than reality could ever be.
"A...el?"
Gah your ears! You sat yourself upright, ignoring the dizziness that washed over you, and reached to wipe the residues of unconsciousness from your face. The fuzziness and the banging, the constant banging... It was enough to drive a person mad.
"A-"
"Be quiet for a moment."
And your head! Your aching head! Flesh and metal fingers alike began massaging your temples. Just what had Crocodile put in that wine to make you feel like this? Flunitrazepam? Rohypanol? Something worse?
"How long was I out?"
"A.. uh..." Ace's blurry form twitched a little. "I dunno... 's not like I timed you or anything."
Things were coming back into focus. Warm but dingy mud walls behind you, with sand laden wind spitting at your face... an alleyway perhaps? Yeah... you could finally pick out the crates you were hiding behind. An alleyway... in Rainbase? Or somewhere else?
"An estimate is fine."
"Then... 15 minutes I guess? 20? 30?" A warm hand forced you downwards as something whizzed past a few feet away. "Haven't exactly had time to think about it!"
Still in Rainbase then. That at least was... a plus? A negative? You weren't fully sure of that yet. There were still too many factors at play. Factors including... your gaze went to the bullet hole in the wall behind you.
"How long have they been out there?"
"Ever since you started speaking nonsense really. Then when you fell they swarmed on us." Ace grimaced. "It's taken pretty much everything I have to just keep dodging them?"
You brow furrowed. "You're not killing them?"
"Well-" He chuckled tiredly, his messy hair flopping over his face as he turned back towards you- "You asked me to stay incognito right? Which means I can't use my fire. Couldn't let the government know their precious little World Noble had connections to the Whitebeard pirates, right?"
In your drug filled haze you couldn't help but feel so... surprised. That there was this... something you hadn't seen there before. Something in him? Or inside... yourself...
You're getting sloppy, brat.
And you had been drugged. Or poisoned. These days it was hard to tell, especially given your feeble attempts at immunity. You snapped yourself back to attention. If you had hallucinated her again after all these years, who knew what other strange things your brain was concocting into reality.
"Right." You hesitantly pushed yourself away. "You didn't have to do that for my sake... but thank you."
Was it just you or did his brow twitch. "Yeah. You're welcome."
"Ace..." Another bullet whizzed past, just shy of your ear. No. Not the time to sort out feelings. You began reaching for the pistol strapped to your leg. First priority was making it out of this alive. Sorting out the touchy feely stuff came after.
"Wait." In a fluid movement you found your body being slammed back against the uneven mud walls. "You're not shooting them."
Oh for crying out... "And why not?" Your lip grimaced. "We need to get out of this situation somehow. And if you're not doing anything someone's got to step up to the plate. I can defend myself."
YOU ARE READING
Broken Faith
Fanfiction[F!ReaderxASL] It's hard sometimes to accept who or what you are. That thought came to you when you were only six years old. Because being one of the infamous World Nobles wasn't enough, now you have to live with a robotic arm after the fire that de...
