Time [Ace x Reader]

chapter 13 / the will to live

Ace's POV

I woke up to my body frozen solid, all the warmth that had once filled me sapped away completely.
There was nothing but cold dark emptiness.

There was no floor or ceiling but I wasn't falling. I was floating in this infinite void that took all the pain, the regret and replaced it with a numbing calmness.
I wanted to let go. Let myself be swallowed by this void that gave me the sweet sense of an existence without pain, let my worries and doubts, all the anger I had haboured against the world drift into insignificance.
Is this what dying feels like?

"Ace."

I turned around to see a beautiful lady. I knew her. Maybe I had seen her before? A man stood beside her. Tall, dark haired, a face everyone knew, a face that had brought all the pain and suffering upon me.

"Gol D Rodger." I spat his name out, the calmness that had filled me being washed away by a wave of hate, anger, sadness and disdain.

"Ace, my son."

I looked at the couple now recognizing the woman.
"Mother?"
She smiled at me, her eyes filled with pride, strength and something warm.
Love-
However there was a sense of sadness hovering around her. Her presence was pulling me in and washing away all the anger being alive had stored in me.
They both stepped forward and embraced me in a long warm hug.
Warmth. I never knew what it truly was.

"We love you."

The two figures that where my biological parents faded away leaving the sweet words ringing in my ears.
I tried to grab them. I wanted to tell them I'm sorry. Sorry for hating them. Sorry for throwing away the life they had so desperately tried to preserve. But they where gone, washed away by the endless void.
Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and tears began rolling down my face.
"Thatch."

My first and best friend amongst my crew smiled at me and took a step back. What happened next broke my heart and entire world into tiny irreparable pieces.
"Pops. No-"

Behind Thatch appeared the only man I had called and would ever call my father surrounded by countless of my dearest friends, crew mates and by Pop's definition brother's.
"You guys-"

I choked on my tears as the number of them grew by the second until they had completely surrounded me.
"I'm sorry!"

I waited for them to blame me, to hit me, at least to scold me. I was the reason they where here. They all threw away their lifes for someone like me.
I had wasted their sacrifices. I'm sorry I didn't survive. I'm sorry you died for someone like me.

Just as if he had read my mind Pops gave me a disapproving look and then just like my parents they all embraced me.
But they too where washed away into the void leaving behind awakened memories of laughter, love and joy.
"My family."

A final tear ran down my cheek. I was no longer cold.
Then I heard a new voice.

"Come on mystery boy, breathe!"

And breathe I did. I hadn't even noticed that I was suffocating. But when the sweet fresh air filled my lungs I knew I couldn't stay here. Not yet. The air wasn't like the burned, freezing wind wafting through the labyrinth.
It was full of energy, excitement, life.
I don't ever want loose this feeling.

I- I want to be alive!

_______________

Y/N's POV

"I've got a pulse! He is back! Y/N, we did it. He's alive!"

"Yeah, we did didn't we?"
I smiled and opened the windows to let the sweet, fresh ocean breeze flow in.
Taking a deep breath I smiled.
Have you found it Portgas? Your will to live?