Cloud - Chapter 48: Chapter 48

POINT OF VIEW OF LUFFY
"Luffy, I need your help," Axel told me as he suddenly appeared in front of me. I did not hesitate one second before jumping on him furiously. He fell backwards and I ended up on top of him. I raised my fist and gave him a hard punch in the face.
"I'm going to kill you, asshole!" I shouted angrily at him and I punched him a few more in the face. He did not push me away nor did he try to counterattack.
"Are you done?" He asked me when he saw that I was tired of punching him and I gripped him tightly by his front shirt, giving him a glare. My punches did not damage his face at all. "You can try to kill me later but right now, I need your help."
"My help?" I laughed at his words, "Why the hell would I help you with anything?"
"Because if we don't do something, Vance is going to kill everyone that you love and care for," he replied and that immediately got my attention. I glared harder at him as he continued, "My son succeeded to fool me. Of course, from the very start, it's not me who he wanted, he doesn't need a dad, he just wants my powers."
I knew it.
I knew that something was off when Vance told me that he was doing all of this simply to have his father back. It all seemed really sweet but for someone like him, it didn't look right and it was definitely too good to be true.
"I don't know how but Vance found my journals," Axel continued, "I thought that the reapers destroyed all of my research after my capture but they didn't. Vance must have read about how to absorb the power of reapers. He probably thought that I would kill Eldon and that then he would be able to absorb my powers. We need to stop him."
"So now you want to stop him?" I asked him in disbelief. "Now that you realized that he only wanted your powers, you are no longer grateful that he saved you? You don't love him anymore?"
"I never said that I loved him," he corrected me, "As long as someone was coming to free me, I did not care who the hell it was. I was surprised actually when I learnt that it was Vance."
"Well, he is your son," I reminded him.
"A son that I never took care of," he added and he averted my eyes, "Now as you can see, he is making me pay for it. He is going to kill me without hesitation, killing you too by the way, so I need you to take care of him."
"Me?" I repeated with a frown, "You're the one in control of the body."
"I'm going to let you return to the surface," he said, "Kill Vance and save us all because I can't do it myself."
"How? Just what?" I was more than confused, "Why can't you kill him yourself? You have better control of the powers than me after all."
"Vance is my son," he replied surprisingly, "I can deny it all I want, that will never change so, because of that, I won't kill him. I never did anything good for him and I refused to be the one to end his life."
"So you want me to kill him for you," I said and he nodded. I tightened my hands around his shirt, the anger boiling inside of me. "Tell me, a lot of shit needed to be done to free you, Frederick had to die, so how are you going to give me back the control of my body so easily?"
"I just need to open a way for you," he answered like if it was obvious, "I can open a passage for your soul to pass through and I will just have to retreat. Though, once I will do that, I won't be able to regain the control. Everything will be up to you."
I could not believe it. He was ready to sacrifice himself so that Vance would be eliminated. Him, the one who wanted so much to be free, he was going to give up his freedom just like that? After everything that happened, after so much centuries of waiting, in a second, he decided that freedom was not worth it anymore?
"Does it have to do with Eldon?" I asked him quietly, "Is it for him that you are doing all of this?"
I was pretty shocked when I discovered that Axel was in love with Cloud's dad. I thought that Cloud was the key to everything because Axel was a reaper just like his dad but I never thought that the original felt something for Cloud's dad. Did they use to be lovers? Did Eldon actually love Axel too? And even if he did, why did he imprison him?
That was just a whole mess.
"I prefer to not talk about this topic with you," Axel told me with no emotion on his face.
"But you love Eldon," I stated.
"Yes, I do," he replied, even though it was not a question, and he let out a laugh, "I told you, you made the same mistake that I did. You fell in love with the son and me, I fell for the father. What a beautiful situation this is...and when I think of what you did with Cloud recently, I just want to vomit."
I was confused and did not know what he was talking but then I realized what he meant and I immediately felt embarrassed. I finally let go of his shirt and stood up. He let out a sigh of relief and pushed himself off the ground to stand on his feet. We stared at each other.
"You ready to go?" he asked me then and I took in a deep breath.
"Yes," I said and he nodded. "Though, know that this doesn't mean that I'm forgiving you for what happened. I will find a way to kill for good. Until then, wait for death to come."
"So sweet," he smirked, "Goodbye, Luffy."
***
I opened my eyes to a familiar cell. My hands were chained once again and I asked myself how this could be happening to me so often lately. Alexandro was still there in the cell in front of mine and he gave me a not so welcoming look when he saw that I was awake.
"You can stop glaring at me, Alexandro, it's me, Luffy," I informed him and he was sure taken by surprise.
"Luffy?" he repeated my name, suspicious, "It's impossible."
"Well, it's me," I assured him and I looked at the chains which were imprisoning me, "Axel returned back where he belonged."
"He what?"
"You heard me right," I told him, "Him and I both agreed on the fact that Vance should die so we decided to cooperate for the time being to reach our common goal."
Alexandro remained speechless at my words and I realized then that I just told him that I was going to kill his dad but I quickly shrugged it off. I did not have time to worry about that. I just hoped that he wouldn't try to stop me because, else, I would have to take care of him too and I really did not want to hurt him. I might hate his dad but I respected Alexandro enough.
"How the hell am I going to remove those chains?" I asked myself out loud and Alexandro opened his mouth but no words came out. I gave him an impatient look, "If you have something to say, say it."
"You can't remove them on your own," he told me, "They react to the powers of the one they imprison and they will make you suffer if you try to escape."
"But what if I persist through the pain?" I asked him and he frowned in confusion, "If I resist the pain and try to break them with my powers, will they end up actually breaking?"
"You will be dead before that happens," he informed me and that gave me an idea.
I was pretty much sure that Vance wouldn't want me to get killed so soon.
"Okay then," I concluded, ready to do what needed to be done. "Let's do this."
"Let's do what?" Alexandro asked me but I did not reply to him. Instead, I concentrated on the chains and I tried to use my powers to break them. They immediately reacted and the pain was instantly felt. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked me in disbelief but I ignored him and forced myself on the chains even more.
They started crushing my wrists and somehow, blood started coming out of my nose. It hurt like a bitch but I continued to resist and forced my powers even more on the chains. Alexandro shouted at me to stop but I did not listen to him. The pain became more intense and I let out a scream. I was like suffocating.
It seemed to take forever before the door finally opened and two guards walked in, alerted by my screams. They looked at me with wide eye.
"Stop this!" one of them shouted at me, hitting the metal bars with his bare hands and I shook my head.
"Ah! Damn it!" I shouted in pain and I pulled on the chains but they did not seem to be ready to break. Suddenly, I felt something come out of my eyes but it wasn't tears, it was my own blood. I began to sweat and as time passed, it became harder for me to breathe properly.
"Get him out!" Alexandro shouted at them but they did not make a move, "You need to remove those chains or else he is going to kill himself!"
"Master Vance told us not to free him until he tells us so," one guard replied.
"If he dies, my dad is going to kill both of you!" Alexandro exclaimed and that was enough for them to react.
"Go tell our master," one of them ordered the other and the latter nodded before disappearing. The remaining guard opened my cell and got inside. He approached me carefully and removed the chains quickly when he realized that my situation was only getting worst. Once I was finally free, he prepared himself to knock me off but I was faster than him. I grabbed his neck using my two hands and looked at him directly in the eyes.
Soon he started catching on fire and I quickly pulled away from him. His screams filled the air and he moved around like crazy. I dodged his body and walked out the cell, closing it behind me. I wiped the blood on my face and looked at my wrists which had turned completely red. The chains left a trace behind, it seemed.
I looked at Alexandro and he simply stared at me without saying anything. Not thinking twice, I teleport myself inside of his cell and surprised, Alexandro tried to back away from me but he hit against the wall behind him. He watched me carefully. Did he happen to be scared of me?
"Tell me," I started seriously, "Did you know that Vance was planning on killing the original after he got all of his powers back?"
He closed his eyes, like if it was hard for him to reply, before nodding finally, "He wants your powers to be able to kill the other reapers and then he planned on attacking heaven. He wants everyone to pay for his suffering in the past. I was trying to avoid that because I don't want him to turn into a monster."
"He already is a monster," I informed him and he did not try to protest. I advanced towards him before removing his chains. He looked at me in shock. "I did not free you for nothing. You're going to help me. We need to find the others and then together, we're going to see your daddy."
"You're going to use me to get to him?" he asked me as he stood up.
"We'll see," I told him and I grabbed his arm. I took both of us out of the cell and then we walked out of here. Alexandro showed me the way out and like I kind of already predicted, we came upon other guards.
I did not know how but my determination made me use my powers with ease and my enemies did not even have time to hurt me that they were already dead. I somehow felt inspired by the original as I got the chance to see him attacked Vance's men earlier. When it happened, I could feel his every move and also how the powers flew in his body. He knew what he was doing and he did not hesitate. I was trying to do the same.
"Damn," I cursed out loud just as I dig a dagger through a guard's heart. He was trying to hurt me with this but it caught my eyes just in time for me to grab the weapon and use it against him. His body slipped down the wall and soon he stopped moving. I pulled the dagger out and kept it in my hand. "I'm having enough of this."
"Why don't you simply teleport us out of here?" Alexandro asked me as he looked at the lifeless bodies on the ground.
"Because I don't know what there is out there. I wouldn't want to appear among a group of people that could kill me," I replied to him, "And one of the guards already went to inform Vance about what had happened, he must surely be preparing something now."
"Well, it seems like you have already think of everything," he commented.
"Not really, I still need to free the others. I don't want Vance to have something to use against me," I told him and we continued to advance towards the way out. Though, all of a sudden, we heard shouting and we stopped dead in our track.
I quickly recognized these voices.
"Let me go!" I heard Nicolas shout.
"I'm going to kill you!" Rain added soon after and they finally came into sight.
They were being dragged by force by Vance's men who immediately froze when they saw Alexandro and I. Well, we all froze in place. One of the guards seemed familiar to me and I remembered that he was the one who was dragging me around the mansion before that whole ritual thing.
"What the-" he started and I did not waste another second; I ran towards them. That startled my enemies and they immediately let go of Nicolas and Rain to take out theirs weapons but taking them by surprise, I teleport myself behind them and attacked.
I jumped on my dear guard's back and pierced the dagger, which was still with me, through his neck. He immediately screamed and before I could even move my weapon to slice his throat open, he took a few steps back, slamming me against the wall. I was crushed between his big body and the wall and he grabbed the dagger, trying to pull it out. He was obviously stronger than me and sensing the danger, I let go of my weapon and teleport myself a few meters away from him.
The other guards immediately tried to attack me and I let out just enough energy to make them all hit against the walls. Even Rain and Nicolas went flying in the air due to their close proximity. I broke the bones of my enemies, making sure to attack theirs legs first so that they couldn't move. It seemed to work for the most part but my guard resisted and despite the fact that the bones in his legs were breaking, he succeeded to stand up and he began to walk to me.
I was concentrating my powers on five persons at the same time and it was already hard as it was, I couldn't let go of anyone of them as I knew that they would try to attack me. I stepped back as my enemy got closer, he clenched his sword tight in his hand and I tried to think of something to do. Before any solution could come to me, Alexandro appeared behind the guard and he grabbed his head. The bigger man's eyes widened as Alexandro whispered something into his ear.
Well, at last the little son of Vance was making a move.
When he was done, Alexandro stepped away and the guard changed direction. He went to kill his own friends. Sadly, those ones still couldn't move because of me and the guard killed them easily. I watched the whole scene as he chopped off theirs heads and when all four of them were dead, I was surprised to see him sliced his own throat. He fell down, the blood pouring out madly, and Alexandro picked up his fallen weapon before piercing it through his heart, killing him once and for all.
"You can fight," I told Alexandro in surprise and he looked at me like if it was obvious, "You could have done something to help me much sooner."
"Well-" he was cut off in his reply when a sword was suddenly buried through his stomach. My eyes opened wide in horror as the weapon was removed and Alexandro fell to his knees. Unexpectedly, I found Rain behind him, a bloody sword in hand. He kicked Alexandro and the latter fell to the side.
"Rain," I said and he advanced towards me, a murderous look in the eyes. Why did he look like if he wanted to murder me?
"Rain, stop, Luffy is still in there," Nicolas exclaimed after him and it suddenly became more clear. Damn it, those two were not aware yet that I regained the control of my body.
"Rain, it's me, Luffy. This isn't the original. I've regained the control of my body," I told him and Nicolas was shocked but Rain did not seem to have heard my words. He stopped right in front of me and I thought that he was going to kill me for one second but then he let go of the sword and it hit the floor with a loud noise.
"I'm not here to kill you, I know that you're stronger than me," he started and he added something that made me freeze, "Kill me. I want you to kill me. I can't live without him."
I did not realize until now but I was obviously not the only one who lost Frederick, Rain lost him too, he lost the boy he loved and I did not even want to know what was going on in his head right now. He wasn't crying, his expression was serious but as he spoke those words, I could feel all his pain.
"I'm not going to kill you," I told him, "No one is going to kill you. This is not what Frederick would have wanted. You know that he loved you and because of this you need to live for him."
That was some nice words that I needed to tell myself. I wanted Rain to believe in them, even though, I couldn't do so.
"You're really Luffy?" He asked me.
"I am."
"Then why don't I believe you?"
"Because some part of me is him," I replied and despite the fact that it pained me, I needed to admit to myself that Axel and I were connected. "He's me and I'm him and...I'm partly to blame for what happened to Frederick."
I was the direct reason for Frederick's death. I was blaming everyone else when I was myself to blame. Could Rain pardon me for this? Wouldn't he end up hating me each time he would see my face? I couldn't tell for sure.
"L-luffy," I heard Alexandro say and I immediately remembered that he was still bleeding on the ground. He was basically drowning in his own blood.
Damn it.
I grabbed Rain's chains and broke them, letting free his powers. Then I quickly walked to Nicolas who was looking at me, speechless, and I removed his chains too.
"Heal him," I told him, pointing to Alexandro and surprisingly, he obeyed within seconds. He knelt beside Alexandro and used his powers to heal his wound.
"Why are you saving him?" Rain asked me in disbelief and anger.
"Because I need his help," I replied, "Do you believe that it's the real me now?"
"Not at all," was his reply, "But it doesn't matter. I can now use my powers so I'm going to find Calum and rip his heart out."
I did not have time to tell him to wait that he was already gone. I sighed and decided to not mind him. I was not against his choice of killing Calum. I would just have liked to have killed him myself. I looked back at Alexandro and saw that his wound was slowly healing and he seemed to be able to breathe properly again.
"Done," Nicolas stated and he stood up, his jeans dirtied by the blood. He looked at me and unexpectedly, he took me into his arms. I was startled at first but then I slowly hugged him back. "I'm so, so sorry, Luffy. I was weak and I couldn't do anything to help you, I couldn't save him."
"Don't worry about it, it's not your fault," I assured him, "You couldn't have done anything to change it. You might have gotten yourself killed if you had tried to do something." We pulled away and I asked him, "Though, how did you even end up here in the first place? I told you not to try anything to save me."
"And you really thought that we were going to listen to you?" He asked me in response, incredulous. "We planned on coming for you but before we could even do anything, the Vins attacked the house. We were winning the fight at first but suddenly, something in the air changed and we all fell unconscious. When we woke up, we were in the middle of the forest, imprisoned."
Well, I kind of understood why Vance needed Cloud and Rain. He needed a way to summon Eldon here and there was no better way than threatening his sons' life.
"Where is Cloud and Cale now?" I asked Nicolas.
"Cale is with Calum. I don't know where they went though and Cloud is still with Vance. Apparently, Rain and I were too noisy so he decided to take us here," Nicolas explained to me and I nodded.
"We need to act and fast," I declared and I looked down at Alexandro, "Get off the floor. We need to go."
Just after my words, more guards came running into our direction and we had no choice but to all fight. We made our way through the mansion and when we stepped outside, I discovered that it was still night. There seemed to be no one around and I decided to make an actual plan before going any further.
"Vance won't be alone when we will arrive," I said, "He has a group of guards ready to attack and those ancient witches too seemed powerful. There's way too many of them for only the three of us."
"We need to get rid of the ancient witches first. Their chant could kill any enemy," Alexandro informed me and I sighed.
"Do they have any sort of weaknesses?" I asked him.
"Well, kind of," his reply was not clear, "The bandanna that hides theirs eyes, it's to prevent them from seeing the light. When they remove it, they do get stronger but if you attack them with light at that specific moment, they will burn immediately."
"I can create the light," Nicolas said.
"I doubt that your light alone will be enough," Alexandro told him and I cursed out loud.
"We are outnumbered anyway. We need more people on our side," I stated.
"But there's no one," Alexandro said and I frowned.
"Not exactly," I protested, making an important realization. "I know someone that can help us but I will have to go search for him. Go hide and wait for me. I'll try to be quick."