it's beautiful, isn't it?

exordium

The fucking meteor comes out of nowhere.

His brother's back is the last thing he sees - always his back because if there's one thing Ace doesn't know how to do, it's run away from a fight, even one he can't win - before he as well is incinerated by the massive molten black rock.

A strange pull in his gut is the only warning he gets before he's violently jerked back to the present, back to a world without his brother, and Luffy curses as he rolls to his side, doubles over, and throws up the contents of his stomach on the grass.

Damn Akainu.

Stupid Ace.

His brother's unwillingness to back down was admirable when it was appropriate, but when it led to his death for the eighth time… Luffy was getting goddamn tired of it.

But blaming Ace for something that was ingrained within his very person wouldn't overshadow Luffy's own failure. Ace didn't know what would happen.

Luffy did.

He fists his hands and pounds the ground. He refuses to cry. He refuses to give up.

"Again."

The old man beside him sighs. He knows of the toll this can be on a person. He knows of its damning effects.

And for this boy - still young, still recovering - the old man knows that the event he asks to relive that had only managed to break him (just enough that he's able to pick up the pieces and, despite missing one critical piece, can sloppily put them back together) will soon succeed in destroying him (and no amount of stitches or glue or even love can put back what's been reduced to black dust).

But the old man had already warned him (insisted, really - six times and counting) of the consequences, of the danger in changing an already uncertain future. And each time he would get the same dogged response (I don't care, he's my brother).

He watches the boy now - hunched over in pain and panting hard from the unforgiving lash that breaking the rules of time entails, sweat pouring down his face, bangs shadowing haunted eyes. He regrets ever offering the boy a chance.

The old man tries again. "Mugiwara-"

"Again."

There's a long pause, and Luffy opens his mouth to demand once more when there's a quick, sharp pain from the cursed kick to his bruised temples. The feeling of having every muscle in his body ripped to shreds courses through his body before invisible hands throw him forward - hard enough that if he weren't rubber his neck would snap from the whiplash.

As it was, his head only flew back before whipping back into place, this time in a sore, sweaty, heavily fatigued body.

The heated air is roaring with the shouts of men and women, enemies and allies, clashing swords and the incessant boom of cannon fire. He is surrounded by dead people and people who would soon be dead.

War.

He breathes in the smell of volcanic ash and metallic blood. He knows he should be worried that it smells familiar.

Not a second to waste.

He fixes his gaze on the man kneeling on the platform, dark eyes still wide in disbelief at the war - countless lives, dying for justice, dying for a brother - being waged for his life.

Luffy would make those lives count this time.

Saving Ace is the objective. Nothing else.

He dodges the swords swinging for his head before sprinting towards the execution platform. Movement meant survival, but one wrong step and it was game over.

Then restart.

"Go, Mugiwara!"

It's one of the big mustache Ossan's crewmates, one he's fought beside twice before. Luffy knows his name - Kairo - and that he has a family waiting for him back in North Blue. He had told Luffy he was fighting this war for the reason everyone in Whitebeard's crew was laying their very lives on the line - because Ace was also a part of his family, a brother he had only heard about, not having yet seen in person until this hell of a war but who he loved unconditionally anyway.

Kairo intercepts two marine captains that try to attack Luffy from the side. He throws Ace's little brother a determined grin. "Go! Save Ace!"

Luffy keeps running, head down, teeth clenched. His heart pumps painfully in his chest, but he doesn't turn back to help in the unevenly matched battle. He knows what will happen - damn it, damn it - but saving one of Whitebeard's sons means losing the few precious minutes he needs to rescue his brother.

So he swallows the huge lump in his throat, gasping, and lifts his head up to focus on the true goal.

Still, his step falters when he hears a soft grunt, then a heavy thud behind him.

He regains his balance. He keeps running, running, breathing. It's hard. His vision blurs and he swipes his arm furiously across his eyes - once, twice - and keeps going.

He doesn't have to turn back to know that the man, not much older than he is, really, is slumped awkwardly on the ground, a bloody sword being pulled out of his chest. Luffy's seen it four times already.

Save Ace. Nothing else.

No one else.

His brother needs to live.

He opens his mouth to take a deep, shuddering breath, before locking eyes with Ace.

This time. Definitely this time.

"AAAACCCEEE! I'M COMING TO SAVE YOU!"

Knowledge is shit when you're too weak to use it to your advantage, Luffy finds.

As it was, being strategically three leagues ahead meant nothing when his feet couldn't move even two steps forward.

His heart is still racing from the desperate run to Whitebeard's ship, where they could've made a hasty retreat after successfully retrieving Ace.

Could've, should've, would've if not for his weakened body, pushed to its limit after he - through sheer willpower - refused to collapse when Ace turned back to face Akainu, and used the little strength he had to push his brother out of the way. Then Luffy all but dragged Ace's stubborn ass towards friendlier territory.

He almost forgot about the meteor.

After using all the rest of his meager energy to destroy the incoming lava rock, he finally went down. Ace didn't listen, of course, to all his pleads to leave him and get away.

Fire Fist wouldn't leave his little brother, especially not in the hands of a Marine Admiral (who was anything but cool, in his words).

Luffy spits the taste of bile out of his mouth and wipes his lips with bandaged hands.

"Again."

how it all hurts but we never give up.

(The Word Virus)

Someone stop me. Please. I don't know why I'm doing this to myself. I have four other stories to write and my masochist ass decides to do this.

Be warned - this is not my priority story. Probs won't even look at it til I finish updating the others. It's just an idea that's been bugging me to death - I literally could not sleep until I wrote this chapter down. And do you know why? Because freaking Oda made that freaking 'what if' illustration of what would've happened if Sabo got his memory back earlier and went off to save both his brothers. Don't ask me how I saw that and my depressive af mind somehow transformed it into this shitty story.

Ah well. Tis the curse of being a writer.

Constructive criticism appreciated.

Ja ne,

forgottensongs