•Black Hat•

•12

I didn't have the time to warn Luffy about him, and tell him to go away because I felt my stomach being kicked again. I fell, face down on the cold bloody and dirty floor and I could feel Kizaru ready to step on my head and destroy me.

I guess that Luffy attacked him because his presence disappeared from over my head. Soon enough Luffy had also fallen down unable to move. Marco, that whitebeard pirate from before, was now fighting with him. I crawled next to Luffy to see if he was breathing.

I tried to clean his face with my sleeve again but I only smothered it, compiling the blood and dust together.

"Luffy, Luffy!" I managed to utter. Every word I spoke hurt me terribly. "Wake up" I ordered him but this time it did sound like I was begging him. I threw my hand over him and placed my ear left over his chest. His heart. It was beating. I left out a sigh of relief.

Luffy tried to get up and after he placed his elbows on the earth he leaned against them. I rolled down to his legs not being able to move aside.

"I need... to save him-"

"Stay out of out of the battle from this point forward!" A loud husky voice told him. Whitebeard was standing next to him, his eyes fixed far ahead without sparing us a look.

"I won't!" Luffy hissed between his teeth. The giant left and Luffy turned to Ivankov. "Please give me one more" he asked him. One more of what? I wondered but I could barely open my eyes.

"One more dose of Tension Hormones will likely kill you-!" Iva-san protested.

"I would rather die than fail to save him. Please Iva-san!"

"It's ten more years off your life! Don't you-"

"Please!" Luffy pleaded. With my eyes half open I could see him clinging on Ivankov begging him for a second dose of those... Tension Hormones. It sounded bad but I couldn't move.

"Okay Strawhat... okay. Be careful because I won't be able to do it again!" Ivankov back down. I reached out my hand and grabbed Luffy's. I held it tight when Iva-San dug his long nails inside Luffy's flesh providing him with these Tension Hormones.

After a brief moment Luffy kneeled down and placed my head on something soft.

"Take care of it until I return". He told me as I opened my eyes I saw something missing from his head. It was his hat! I didn't really know why but I felt like that hat was really important to him and the fact that he entrusted me with it made my chin tremble and my eyes water. I clung on his hand harder. In his eyes I could see what he wanted to say so I nodded and let go of him. It were only a few hours since we had first met but we both wanted the same thing. To free Ace. And apart from that I had swore to protect him, but he was the one taking care of me.

Luffy left running again, while I fought with myself to take in a breath. It hadn't even been four minutes when and extremely loud voice, Luffy's voice of course shouted:

"STOP IT!!" I supposed that the executors were once again trying to kill Ace.

For a moment Marineford turned blue and many pirates and marines collapsed to the ground. I couldn't understand why so I used every last bit of energy that I had to go to Ace.

The executors had collapsed on the platform and Ace was staring at Luffy shocked.

"He uses it too!"

Exhausted I was disconnected without hurting myself. I just didn't have the energy to stay there.

"Conquerors Haki..." Marco mumbled beside me. He was beaten by my father and now tried to recover. My breathing had slowly become more steady and my stomach didn't ache as much.

"Marco?" I asked him and he turned to look at me. "How is Luffy doing?" I asked him. I'm sure that in a different case he would have ignored me but because Luffy had previously asked him to save me he might have thought I was his friend so he described to me how Luffy climbed up the bridge that funny man with the scissors had made and how he fought Garp.

He is his grandfather, I thought, it must be hard for both of them...

"He reached the platform!!" Marco suddenly shouted. I sat up but immediately I felt like my head was about to break. I didn't lie down again though. I pressured myself to at least get on it's knees. I buried my face inside my hands and took a look at the platform.

Luffy was holding the key that woman had previously given to him. He was ready to unlock Ace's shackles when *zoom* a beam of light hit it and broke it to pieces. It was my father. I knew it, this was his power from the devil fruit he had eaten.

I got ready to give the earth a punch when I quickly realized that one of the executors was that man from Impel Down. The wax user! He covered all three of them with his wax to protect them from that Marine who had turned into a Buddha and keep them safe from the collapsing platform.

The marines, all of them opened fire and shot at the three men but it's too late. Ace has been freed!