A promise to kill

To be free

His last breath was peaceful. No matter what kind of life he had led.. He didn't wish for salvation, not guidance.. nor did he wish for heaven.
He only wished to be by her side when she awoke.
His last breath was short not even long enough to say goodbye to the rest of the crew but they knew.. he was simply joining the ones before him and they knew that he was off to see her. The one that he never had a chance to love and cherish. The girl who gave everything to be free. The girl whom he muttered the name of in his sleep and the girl their captain s all whispered about.

Killer opened his eyes to see a vast ocean.. on his old ship.. the one where that he had fallen in love on. The ship that had been destroyed; their Victoria Punk.
He found himself staring out at sea.. This is his afterlife. He sees ships in the distance.. ships forgotten by time and ships he hadn't seen in years. some in which he remembers watching being sent off in magnificent flames.

The wind blowing in his face and the sea water brushing past his nose.. The pirates life.

This is a pirates life.

Peaceful seas and calm winds.

" She's waiting for you.. all this time.. " Behind him stood a pirate who made history. who started a war and died before the war had even begun.

" We've been waiting for you.. for you to come and wake her. " His name is Ace.

Gol. D... no he'd rather be known as Portgas D Ace.

He smiles so bright yet he's seemed to have lost his edge. His smile is calm and there Killer stood, unable to stop himself from smiling as well.
This was their afterlife, where their end began. A fitting end for a Pirate. To die at sea and to live the rest of whatever life they had left at sea.

but to Killer, this is heaven. He knew exactly who is waiting for him.

Killer reaches up to rub his neck and realizes he no longer wore a mask.. He smiles.. He no longer needs one. He's no longer hunter, no longer a killer, no longer in danger. He was no longer embarrassed, no longer ashamed.

He could love you, and you could see how much he loved you. He could tell you so many things without saying the words.

Ace smiles at this. This man had stolen a girls heart. He stole the heart of a girl who he remembers as a sister. He should be protective, but no, he's content because this man is here, after all the years she waited for him, he's here.
They walk side by side.

There she laid. On an island, where flowers bloomed all around her. The trees are fruitful and the air is quiet. Her steady breathing can be seen and a peaceful look covering her face. her clothes remains the same from her time living. It's like no time had passed at all.

Grasped in her hand is a red blossom, her Lehua flower, A flower he had never again seen after her death. All around her lay pieces of her memories. A pair of pistols made by her captain, flowers from her childhood, chains she broke out of, the mask of her lover. The one that she had last seen him in..

He kneeled down by her side taking the mask and putting it on.

" I'm here..Lady, my Lady Layla."

She slowly opens her eyes and looks over to Killer with a simple smile.

" Were you waiting long for me?" Killer wanted to tell her about all the things he had lived through, the years he lived through but that will be for another day..
She smiles so softly that he could barely see it. In his arms she sits up slowly.

" I was dreaming about our days together. How you had fished me out of the sea and when i woke, here you are." She hums with a pleasant expression spread across her face.

"I promised I would be here when you woke." He held her close not afraid to lose her but afraid that his spilling emotions would take away from this precious moment and so

He took this chance to tell her.. Everything in 3 simple words.. All that he felt.. all that he wanted to say.. everything..

no he took action.. what he wanted to say in those three words.. He rounded it up in one single action..

He leaned down and captured her lips.

Everything in his life was worth this moment.. he had his good days and his bad.. he even had very dark days after her death but he knew.. he believed that this day would come to him.. in the after life or maybe even in his next life... he believed that it was worth it...

"Killer, you ain't the only one who missed her. Quit hogging her attention. I've got a bone to pick with the devil spawn." She smiles hearing his familiar voice. He stood behind them in all his glory, a bear of a man, pulchritudinous, so strong that his strengths, his beast of a nature seeps into his eyes. His thundering voice that commands attention, never having lost it's authority.
Her hero, her captain, her greatest friend.

" Kid." Is all she gets out before she's lifted to her feet and into the air, a joyous laugh erupts from her lips as shes spun around because despite his monstrous nature, his personality has rounded out, he's learned to be gentle, and right now his joy over flows from ever pore in his body.

" I knew you would find me. I knew you would lead Killer to me. I knew I could trust you." He grumbles and finally sets her down for them to begin walking towards the ocean where so many of their friends wait; all of the people she left behind. Whether or not this was hell or heaven, maybe a simple state of limbo between life and death, It didn't matter.
The ocean, the sky, a pirates life indeed. Neither the end nor the beginnings. This was it, this what what it meant;

To be free.