The execution scaffold. The sky is splitting with chaos. Fire and smoke coil around the Marineford plaza as the war rages. Luffy is fighting his way up the final stretch. You — the Witch of the New World — are walking through the battlefield like a storm incarnate, leaving a trail of shattered reality behind you.

⸻

[Portgas D. Ace dangles in chains. Bloodied. Drained. He lifts his head at the sudden change in atmosphere — the cold chill of dreamfire, the screams of hallucinating marines.]

Ace (eyes narrowing, voice hoarse): “…No. That’s not… It can’t be…”

[He sees you through the smoke. A glowing silhouette wrapped in black and violet. You’re standing tall, terrifying, beautiful. A living ghost from the past.]

Ace (choking on disbelief, his voice breaking): “…[Your Name]?”

[Your eyes meet his. Just for a second, the world falls silent — no war, no screams, just the unbearable weight of everything. The last time you saw each other. The way you disappeared. The truth you never told him.]

You (softly, like the memory of a song): “I told you I’d come back when the world was burning.”

Ace (angry, stunned): “You’re supposed to be dead! I thought—!! Where the hell did you go?!”

You (gritting your teeth, voice colder now): “I left so the Marines wouldn’t use me against you. So you wouldn’t die for me, like you always tried to.”

[Suddenly, cannonfire crashes down nearby. The scaffold shakes. Sengoku shouts orders. Garp watches silently, fists clenched. Admirals stir — they know who you are now.]

Kizaru (hovering midair, coldly amused): “Well well… the Witch really is real. That’s quite a bounty walking back into the light.”

You (to Kizaru, unflinching): “Light bends. Dreams break. You’ll see which one’s stronger.”

Ace (yelling now, strained): “You SHOULDN’T have come back! You’ll die here—!”

You (cutting him off, eyes burning): “Then at least I die next to you.”

[You raise your hand. Dreamfire surges upward, creating a barrier of bending, shimmering space — bullets vanish into nothing, Marines stumble into illusions. Behind you, Luffy is scaling the final wall, screaming Ace’s name.]

Ace (barely holding it together, heart in his throat): “…You’re insane…”

You (smiling softly): “Takes one to love one.”