Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds

Chapter 2: Down the Rabbit Hole

Luffy was sitting on a cliff face overlooking the sea. It was a place that he was very familiar with... the same place where he once shared his dreams with both of his brothers... and later the place where Ace had made him a very important promise...

Ace...

He looked beside him to see Ace sitting right there with him looking like he remembered. His serious expression with a splash of freckles across his face... his two tattoos—the Whitebeard symbol on his back, which was once his pride, and the ASCE tattoo on his arm. He tilted his trademark orange hat with two blue smileys, back so that he could look at him and grinned wildly. They both sat silently on that cliff, neither one saying anything as they looked at the sparkling blue sea... a sea that they always thought of as Sabo's Ocean.

The soft breeze that gently blew Luffy's hair about his face as he looked at the water—remembering the promise he and Ace made when they were kids and lost Sabo.

"You know..." Ace said, his voice sounding as it had always been. "I'm sorry that I couldn't keep that one promise to you."

"I know," Luffy answered, looking at him. "You promised me that you'd never die... I get it now that you couldn't keep it... but you did end up keeping another promise now that I'd think about it..."

Ace grinned back as he stood up and held out his hand to him. "I know how hard it is to say goodbye..."

Luffy reached up to take his hand, but as soon as he did—he could smell the scent of blood and burning skin. He could feel the hot blood splattered on his hands and arms—the heat of the fire that tore through Ace's chest...

Luffy's eyes snapped open and he was gasping for breath. He wasn't on the cliffside anymore as his eyes looked around almost in a panic. Instead, he was lying on the floor of the temple that they'd been exploring before he blacked out. He was breathing hard, almost painfully, as his eyes stared up above him at the twilight sky...

He breathed hard as he shut his eyes again, feeling relief...

It had been a long time since he dreamt of his brother's death. After the war ended and he began his training with Rayleigh, he had those same nightmares every night for months... it was what drove him to give it his all in training and help to calm his mind. It was the first time in awhile since he had that nightmare...

He opened his eyes and looked around to see that Zoro, Nami, Robin, and Usopp were there as well and he felt that terrible weight lift off his mind at the sight of his sleeping crewmates. They all looked to be alright, just sleeping. He smiled as he started to get up... until he realized that he couldn't. He was stuck.

Blinking in horror, he tried desperately to move, but his body felt as if he had heavy chains keeping him trapped there. The last time he could remember feeling like this was when he gave it his all to fight that pigeon bastard. But even then, it was because he felt weak and was in pain.

Here, he was just stuck...

Something was keeping him from moving...

Gritting his teeth, Luffy fought with all his strength, but he might've have had his limbs made of solid lead for all the good it did. It was just no use.

"What's going on here?" he demanded, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came up.

He froze. What was happening here? Again, he fought to raise his arms, to just move his fingers as he shouted out into the distance. But there was nothing... no voice, no movement at all. Now growing angry he could feel the blood rushing to his head as he now, almost desperately, fought against whatever was holding him back.