Two Dreams, One Adventure

Impel Down Part 4: New Allies

Next chapter shit GOES DOWN. I make a HUGE non-canon change. It made me happy to write it, I'd been looking forward to writing that moment for dozens of chapters. So, look forward to a damn good time. Enjoy~

He passed out again, but could hear voices all around him faintly when he came to. He couldn't feel his body. He finally woke in a dark room. He was glad, any light would be painful. He hurt. Somebody was in front of him, standing there.

"Have you come to? You had quite the breakdown back there," a man with puffy hair said. That's all he could see. "You don't want to die, right?"

"I ca...nt die. No-t till I s - hah - save A-Ace," Luffy said.

"I can save you." Luffy's eyes widened, even if he couldn't see well. "It will come at a cost. Ten years of your life. Are you prepared for that? You will never get those years back. Though you will die here if you don't." Luffy said he accepted. "But even if I help you, the process will be so painful you may die from the pain."

"Nothing... can be... worse... than this," Luffy said.

"Maybe. But even if I try, it will only bring your chances of living from zero percent to two or three percent. You will be in agony, and you will need to prove that you want to live by surviving this." Luffy would prove. He didn't want to die, and he had things he needed to do. People he needed to see. He wasn't a weak child who cried about being lonely.

He only saw that that part of him was still buried deep inside. And he would bury it again. Deep, deep down where he'd never see it again! He was a man with a 300 million berries bounty on his head, not a helpless child! He gasped, and grit his teeth, ready for whatever would happen.

"Have a nice trip to the brink of death! I hope you survive! Emporio healing hormones!" the man shouted, and stabbed Luffy in the side with sharp things. Suddenly, he was in agony again. It replayed just how it had for the last hour or so. He wouldn't scream! He wouldn't cry! He grit his teeth, he couldn't cry! He wouldn't scream! He was a monster that can survive anything! He couldn't depend on blood, he couldn't depend on the life force of others, he had to fight this himself. He would see light again, he would feel the sun again! He'd return to the ocean, and see his brother again! He would see his crew, his lover again! They would make up for that fight!

Luffy would get stronger, and he would never die! Not while he still had dreams and people to see! What the hell good is being a monster, non-human, if you can't even live on your own!? Blood... who needs blood?!

"ACE!" Luffy finally screamed. He breathed heavily, and refused to scream in pain. If he let it out, he would never stop screaming. He'd cried like a baby before, he would prove he was strong. Not to this random person, not to Bon-chan. Not to anybody else but himself.

"I... am... strong!" he shouted. This was life or death, but it was also to test himself. Was he strong enough to take hell in silence, or would he scream it all out? He knew screaming would feel better. Letting out his pain would feel better. But he would be weak. To himself, screaming would show he was at the mercy of somebody else!

Even as his body melted from the inside and reformed over and over, he would never open his mouth again. Even as blood poured from every wound and orifice, he didn't scream. Blood came from everywhere. He still couldn't smell anything. His body broke down, dissolved, only to be built up again and again, a never ending, vicious cycle.

Fuck you, pain! There's nothing for you here! Everything had been horrible lately, he'd been weak, doubting himself. What good could he do in life if he did that?! If he let himself fall apart over old wounds that were surfacing after years. He spent a decade training to be a pirate, to be the king. To find a strong crew.