Okay, first things first. There are spoilers here reaching chapter 574 and it's anime equivalent (the end of the Marineford arc). You have been warned.

Thank you all for all of the alerts, favs and reviews! I'm glad that you've all liked this story so much =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Luffy's POV:

I opened my eyes, realising that I was surrounded by darkness. Where was I? Was I… dead? No, that was not it. Is this real though? I couldn't know. I didn't know how to recognise where I was exactly, but I didn't really care right now.

I closed my eyes, letting the sweet darkness surround me again. I could faintly hear my own heavy breathing, but I couldn't detect or feel anything else, just this darkness. I didn't move a muscle and I just laid there, with no thoughts in my mind. I didn't know what do, how to react. I didn't know what to think. I tried to remember what had happened before I had gotten 'here', whatever this place was.

A feeling suddenly flooded my entire being. A bittersweet feeling: happiness and sadness at the same time. What had happened? Why was I feeling like this?

An image flooded through my mind, occupying everything. I suddenly saw myself at Marineford, running towards my brother to save him from death. I started hearing the deafening sound of men battling and being killed at a fast pace. I was running towards my brother, overcoming everyone trying to stop me with the help of my friends. I smiled as I felt the nervousness and the determination running through my veins again with every pulse of my heart.

Suddenly another image flashed through my mind, erasing all trace of the last one. I was on top of the execution platform, so close to saving Ace, and yet Kizaru had destroyed the key to Ace's handcuffs. Suddenly Sengoku attacked us with his devil fruit power, and I immediately saw myself protecting Ace together with the help of Mr3. A few seconds passed, and suddenly I was falling towards the ground with Ace and Mr3. His handcuffs were still on. Marines were pointing at us with guns. They shot at us, and before I knew it I had managed to free Ace.

A smile immediately found its way to my face as I remembered this. I had managed to do it. I had freed Ace and stopped his execution. I had managed to do what I had proposed myself to do, and no one had managed to stop me. No one.

Suddenly another image appeared. I was fighting with Ace, and he told me that he would protect me. Whitebeard suddenly announced something. I couldn't understand or remember exactly what he had said. It was as if this was a movie without any kind of sound. All of the pirates cried, Ace replied something with deep emotion and suddenly we were running away. We were still together, but the feeling of happiness quickly disappeared as Akainu appeared in the scene. He said something with a cocky and clearly harming tone of voice. Ace turned around, furious. More seconds passed, and suddenly... and suddenly...

I sat up, with tears in my eyes. I didn't want to remember. I didn't want to. I felt tears starting to fall from my eyes, stopping me from seeing any of the nature that surrounded me. Where was I? I didn't care. I could only remember now where I had been, what had happened. Ace had... Ace had...!

"He promised to never die!" I said with a low tone of voice as I continued crying, neither managing to stop myself from crying nor wanting to.

I stayed in that position, not changing a single bit. It was then when I felt someone's presence behind me.

"It was a shame that you didn't manage to save me, right?" I heard the figure of Ace behind me say with a sad tone of voice.

I jumped on my feet and ran towards him.

"Ace!" I shouted, thinking that my brother really was there.

I jumped towards him, the tears still flowing down my cheeks. I couldn't manage to smile, I couldn't understand what was happening, but Ace was there... right? I was centimetres away from him, I opened my arms, prepared to hug him in that way that I had always done and that he hated. Suddenly I saw myself falling right through him and his figure disappearing.

"It was a shame that you didn't manage to save me Luffy" He said. "It was a shame that... you weren't strong enough..." He then said, before vanishing completely and leaving me in the cold and heartless darkness that had been surrounding me before.

I suddenly cracked my eyes open. "A dream?" I muttered as I remembered what I had just seen. Yes, it had been a dream. I suddenly remembered what had happened, what I had seen in the dream and how Akainu had attacked us. Yes, Ace was... Ace was... I suddenly found myself standing on my feet, crying harder that I had ever cried. I shouted something, feeling myself fall into deep desperation and sadness. I then fell on my knees.

"I wasn't strong enough" I muttered several times over.

Yes. I hadn't been strong enough. If only I had been stronger I would have managed to... I had said that I would be the Pirate King. What had I been thinking? I hadn't even managed to save Ace, so how could I possibly...? I remained there for a lot of time, ignoring the sounds of the animals around me and the footsteps that slowly approximated me.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Author note: I first though titling this chapter "Alternate ending" truly, I have thought a lot about what I should do at this point. I would reach this point of the series eventually, and I wasn't sure if I should end it here or continue with an AU. In the end, I decided to continue this story as an AU. I'm sorry if you don't like AUs, but I can't really bring myself to end the story right here (it is too depressing and I don't want to end this in a depressing way, besides, this story has been a lot of fun to write), so that is why you'll see a new chapter coming out soon for this (^_^) Special thanks to animatedrose for all of the help =D *hugs* By the way, sorry for any inaccuracies on the story and on the descriptions of these anime and manga chapters. I hate being innacurate, but I really didn't want to see them again, so I just did my best here.