Thousand Sunny rocked with the blows of the Wave-Wave fruit. The New World was meeting Luffy's every expectation of it, to the crew's general annoyance, and Usopp grinned a little when he saw Nami put forehead to palm as Luffy gave a mighty whoop and bounded into the sky to "beat this guy's ass." Usopp knew she was upset because not only were they being attacked by the only Devil Fruit that could powerfully manipulate the sea, but they were also in the middle of battling their way through a hurricane. Her task wasn't exactly easy.
The wind died down. Sanji gasped as he surfaced, Chopper's worryingly cold arm in his grasp. "I've got him! Marimo! I've got Chopper!"
The asshole swordsman didn't answer him. No one did. He scrambled up onto the deck, trying to warm up Chopper. The little reindeer-man close to his chest remained colder than the deep waters.
Usopp was kissing - Sanji saw red for a long moment before he became aware of Zoro's steely hold on his shoulder. "Nami-san... Nami-san... she can't be..."
Usopp was crying, and he went back to doing compressions, counting through his hiccups.
Luffy was kneeling by Robin, who was still. He held her hand. His eyes were too wide. Sanji could not believe his own.
Chopper lay in his arms, as cold and silent as Robin.
Franky gently took Chopper from Sanji. The cook tried to hold on. He was in shock. He kept staring at Zoro, whose tears ran down his face like rain down rock in a horrible attempt to keep his composure while Usopp sobbed desolately by Nami's pale body and Luffy slowly stood beside Robin.
Luffy locked eyes with Brook.
Brook had been expecting this.
"It's an order," Luffy said unnecessarily, and walked to sit facing him in the wet grass. Once they were seated, Luffy's brow twitched in surprise, as though he had just remembered something. He reached up, lifted the hat from his head, and stretched his arm to place it on Zoro's.
Luffy turned to look at the man who now wore his crown. "I'm bringing them back, okay?" he said simply.
Zoro, still embracing Sanji, stared back at his captain. Conflicting emotions ran openly across his face.
It was obvious, wasn't it? Luffy wanted Brook to take him to the land of the dead and back, a journey which only Brook had ever made. The odds were very high that Luffy would not be able to return, even if he accomplished his task. Especially if he accomplished his task. A life for their lives, and all that.
Zoro believed wholeheartedly in Luffy, more than he believed in anything or anyone.
But he did not want to lose him - the most important of them all - after the three who were already gone.
After nearly five minutes of staring - Usopp had stopped crying and was looking curiously and uncomprehendingly at Luffy and Brook - Franky was placing Chopper's body down between the girls' and surprisingly not crying - Zoro gave a shaky nod. Sanji sagged in his arms, and Brook could hear him say, "No, you shit - not Luffy too, not him, not him please..." Brook wondered to whom he thought he was speaking. It was not as though Zoro could stop Luffy now that the decision had been made.
"Let's go," Luffy said to Brook. "Okay?" He reached to take Brook's bony hand in his own, strong and hot with his life. The rain had ceased. The clouds would move away soon, and Brook did not want the sun to shine on this broken - or perhaps just not-yet-whole-again - crew.
"The sooner the better, Luffy-san," he said gravely, and pushed -
They found Robin first. Or, they found a young woman, perhaps fifteen years old, who looked much like Robin may have looked at that age. She wore pants with mouthy knees and a too-large button sweater. Her feet were ripply and unsteady. The River was dragging at her.
She was crying into her hands, keening, forceful sobs. Each time she inhaled, she choked. Brook and Luffy halted. Luffy's soul brightened considerably.
"Robin!" he called, smiling. "WE FOUND YOU!"
She did not stop her weeping. She did not appear to have heard him at all. Again came the hic-hic of her inhalation, and a high, sighing wail that ended in coughing.
"Robin," Luffy said, and for the first time since discovering her dead body, the captain sounded uncertain. Brook put a hand on his misty shoulder, and Luffy glanced back at him curiously.
"What's wrong with her?"
She is dead. "I cannot tell you, Luffy-san."
Luffy focused his gaze on her. "I'm going to get closer to her."
This was no easy task. The dead, controlled by Death, had ways to remain apart from other souls, even when they were as close and bright as Luffy's. Robin did not look like she would attack Luffy - she did not look like she would do anything other than cry, really - but one could never know. Brook nodded carefully and hung back, trying to gather his spirit around him and strengthen the odd connection that bound Luffy to him.
"Robin, there, there," said the boy softly as he stepped forward, a hand raised. Another step. "There, there. Hello? Hello? It's Luffy. I'm going to become Pirate King. There, there. You remember us. That's Brook over there."
Luffy waved to him. Brook did not wave back, but Luffy didn't seem to mind. His focus was entirely on Robin, who still did not appear to have noticed him at all.
"We're taking you back," he said as she sniffled into her hands. He suddenly shivered, his teeth chattering and his glow flickering. "Oh, cold," he said, and wrapped one hand around his middle as though to keep warm - and then his right hand was gripping her shoulder.
His soul-shine flickered, dimmed, and would have gone out entirely if Brook hadn't dug his heels into the fabric of this world-beyond to anchor them both. "Luffy-san," he called warningly. The boy was bent forward, clutching his middle and almost too dim to see, but only for a moment. The light surged back, and Luffy straightened and put his other hand on Robin's other shoulder.
She lifted her face from her hands.
Brook would have held his breath if he'd had any.
Young Nico Robin stared directly into Luffy's shining smile for a long moment, then turned her head away slowly, looking around. She coughed twice while she stared into the mists around them. If Brook had to make a guess, he would say she could not see Luffy, though some part of her must have sensed his presence. She slowly swung her gaze toward him twice more before lifting her hands again to her eyes.
Luffy quickly moved his grip on her shoulders to her wrists, stopping her. "Robin! Robin!" Wills and strength locked, the two souls were like statues, but waves of energy pulsed along the connection between Luffy and Brook. The older soul could sense her now, and realized Luffy's hold on her had built a bright though tenuous bridge between their hearts. "You've got to want to come back. You've got to say it. Do you remember? I kicked that pigeon guy's ass. You can come with us. You've just got to say it. Robin."
Her eyes lifted to his, seeing him finally, and her lips moved.
"Yes! Louder!"
"Take me with you ... to the sea..." said the girl, sounding unsure.
"Louder!"
"Take me with you!" she said, firm and tearful. "To the sea!"
"Ahh, all right!" Beaming, Luffy bent forward to press a kiss against her damp dark hair. She took a very deep breath.
She disappeared.
Luffy stumbled forward into the space where she had been standing, and Brook felt the reverberations of his captain's exhaustion as a tremor through his bones.
On the deck of the Thousand Sunny, Sanji stared at Nami's pale face. He held her cold hand in his, and only his iron will held further tears at bay. In a secluded corner of his mind, pragmatism stated that he should get off his ass and into the kitchen, because the living members of his crew needed food to stay that way. But if he turned from Nami and stood up, his eyes invariably encountered Luffy's icy, prone, unbreathing form in the grass, and that was too much. Better to sit and watch over the beautiful navigator than to face that horror.
In the silence, Robin gasped, badly startling Usopp who screamed with fright. "Please, take me with you," she said, echoingly, and Sanji whirled to stare at her.
"We always will," said Zoro from his vigil beside Luffy.
She nodded, drinking in each of them with her eyes. Sanji tore out of the blanket Franky had placed on him and hurried to drape it over her. "I'm all right," she said.
It was a long time before they found Nami. Brook was surprised when they did, for her eyes were dry and alert. The water swirled around her knees but her stance was strong against it - she did not sway with the current. Brook fleetingly wondered, if they left her alone, whether she might not find her way back on her own.
Luffy, heartened by his victory with Robin, strode up to her fearlessly.
Her head cocked like a bird's, but with fiercer visage and longer hair, and a white-knuckled fist flashed out to hit his temple. And Luffy yelled in surprise, and fell.
"No!" Brook shouted, flying forward, pulling, willing with every particle that Luffy would snap up and not fall in...
The water splashed. Nami, unseeing as Robin had been, watched for enemies, and took no notice of her captain's fatal fall.
Brook froze when he heard Luffy laugh. "Oi, Nami, don't do that, that hurts!" he complained, and chuckled again. He was sitting in the River, the water flowing around his chest. He was soaked, but somehow - somehow - his soul shone still.
"Luffy-san," said Brook, falteringly.
"I'm okay, Brook," said Luffy, and stood up. "NAMI!"
Her head cocked again, but her fists unclenched. Her mouth moved. Luffy sucked in another breath.
"USOPP STOLE YOUR INK TO DRAW ON ZORO WHILE HE WAS SLEEPING AND THEN HE TRIED TO PUT IT BACK AND SOMEHOW IT SPILLED AND I DEFINITELY WASN'T INVOLVED BUT ALL YOUR MAPS AND ALL YOUR CLOTHES HAVE INK ON THEM NOW!" he bellowed at her. With every twist to the lie (god, Brook hoped it was a lie), Luffy pulsed brighter, and Nami's hands slowly dropped to her sides. Her brow wrinkled.
"Wha...?" she breathed.
Luffy inhaled. "AND LATER CHOPPER AND FRANKY WERE PLAYING ROBOTS VERSUS NINJAS AND THEY KNOCKED YOUR TREASURE - ALL OF IT - INTO THE OCEAN WITH A BEAM SO IT VAPORIZED TOO AND WE CAN'T GET IT BACK!" He panted. "I ALSO WASN'T INVOLVED IN THAT!"
Nami's hands lifted to settle on her hips, the ghost of a familiar, scary grin slipping on her face. "Luffy," she said. "Luffy."
Luffy stepped within the reach of her arms again. "Yeah, Nami, it's me." He chuckled. "Sorry 'bout your stuff."
"Lu... ffy..." she growled through gritted teeth, but this time he ducked the punch, reached in an arm, and tickled her side. She bent double, a laughing shriek escaping before she could muster the sternness again, but it was hardly a second before the boy, triumphantly bright, tickled her again and she lost the composure, giggling.
Brook listened carefully to the young ones' laughter. This place had never heard such a thing. The press of Death eased, and Brook thought It felt - confused. More confused than It had been when his soul explained his peculiar circumstances fifty-two years ago. Joyous, playful laughter was not simply foreign; it was impossible. And yet.
Luffy and Nami slowly quieted, and Brook noted that she could see her captain now. She put her hands on her hips. "Where the hell are we?"
"It doesn't matter," Luffy said, trying to maintain his cheer, but an undercurrent of weariness dragged at the words. "You gotta go back."
Her haughtiness drained from her shoulders and face. "I don't know how."
Luffy rocked back on his heels, humming as he thought. "Aha! Tell me where to go!"
Nami stared at him, as she often did, as though he were missing his brain. "I just said I can't, moron."
"You're my navigator," Luffy said. "You always know where to go."
"But..." And she looked down at the River that snaked about their knees. She frowned and raised her head suddenly, searching the mists. Her gaze stopped somewhere to the left of Luffy's shoulder, and her brow cleared. "Oh, oh, it's that -"
Even as her arm lifted, she vanished.
Luffy swayed and dimmed, and Brook moved quickly to stand beside him and send him as much strength as he could. He wished he had his guitar or his violin with him, but he contented himself with singing a sea chanty from North Blue. His captain stood still long enough to listen to the song all the way through, then waved his hand.
"Chopper's still out there," he muttered.
When Nami stirred, it was Sanji's turn to shriek. "Nami-san!"
She blinked slowly, as though waking from sleep. Her pulse beat in her fingers, clenched in his hand. Robin was at her side in an instant, tucking a hand under her head and helping her to sit up. Color returned quickly to her cheeks and lips. Sanji turned the hand he held over, caressed the palm with his thumb, his mouth open in amazement.
Nami gently extricated it and placed it fleetingly on his cheek before pressing it to the deck to stand. Robin stuck close to her, with an arm around her back. "Where's Luffy?" Nami asked just before she saw. She would have collapsed if not for Robin's support.
"What is he doing?" she moaned. "Come back, idiot!"
"Nami," Zoro chided. "He hasn't gotten Chopper yet."
Her frown dissipated. "Okay." She took three steadying breaths. "Franky."
The cyborg, sitting crosslegged on Luffy's other side, slowly turned to look at her like his joints had rusted. "Nami-aneki?"
"Did you... and Usopp... uh, never mind," she said quietly. Then she shrugged out of Robin's arms and walked away from them all, to the steps and climbed them, up to the helm. Usopp and Sanji stared after her, then got up and followed.
She made a course correction as they reached the top step.
"N-Nami-san," Sanji began, but could not think of what to say next.
"Nami," said Usopp with more confidence. "What are you doing? Luffy's still - not back."
"I don't know how to help him there, Usopp," she said, glaring at the clouds. "But I know where to go." She spun the wheel.
It had begun to rain when the water reached Luffy's chest. Now they trudged slowly through it; the waves, infrequent and chaotic, splashed Brook's collar. Luffy's hatless hair was plastered to his skull, and his skin shone with a sicker, ghostly light. Brook thought fondly of another ailing captain who used to curse his subordinate's hovering, but Luffy could not have been more different. As he lagged, the young soul drifted closer to the old one. The flood rose and the rain started to sting.
Neither of them noticed the howling for what it was at first - it was only natural to assume the wind was responsible, but then they realized there was nothing in this place around which wind might scream. And there was no wind in any case.
Luffy began to thrash around in the water, peering into it as though it held unseen depths. Brook marveled a little at his captain's intuition just as a wave of truly unnatural proportions crashed over them, and the howling trebled in volume.
"Luffy-san!" Brook cried out, catching desperately at their bond as the waters swirled. "Luffy!"
The boy was paddling through the water with his hands and legs. "Brook," he sputtered, and his teeth chattered. Brook pressed his soul as close to Luffy's as he could, but his hands passed through the boy's arms when he tried to lift him up. "C-c-can't find the bottom," Luffy shivered.
"I will send us -"
"No, Brook, he's right here." After holding Brook's gaze for a long second to make him understand, Luffy took a breath and dove under the next wave.
Brook was too surprised even to shout a warning. No, he had not told his foolish captain why going under the water was asking for true Death, because he knew Luffy would be able to sense its potency.
"No..." said Brook, searching the rain and the waves for any sign Luffy was still alive. There was none; no splash nor shining light, nor laughter nor weeping. If the bond between them still existed, Brook was not sure he could sense it. Even the howling died away. He tipped his head back, let the rain fall onto the bones of his face, and wept. "Luffy-san, we cannot have come this far... only to fail... The others are waiting for us. Nami-san and Robin-san, and everyone. Please."
The waters became still but for the rain that poured steadily down. Brook was alone.
He took a shuddering breath. "Please. Death-san."
The waters rose slightly, and Brook knew he had Its attention. "I know..." he said quietly, "that you are not in the habit of making bargains. Even with my condition, I nearly did not leave this place. But perhaps that means I have something to offer you." He lifted his hands from the water, patted his afro, and straightened his bow tie. The waters rose further, rippling around his ribs.
"If you let them go, I will stay."
The water stopped rising, and Brook panicked. "I am worth them both, I assure you! Surely the temptation to take me is strong... I am the one who got away, after all... Death-san?"
Distantly, the water burbled. He thought, Luffy-sencho will never forgive me if I choose to save only him. But perhaps I could keep Chopper company until they all return here, and maybe then he would accept my choice...
The rain ceased and the flood drained away. Brook looked down at his feet; he had always been curious about what firmament was here beneath the water. More than a meter away from where he stood was only mist, but beneath him he saw planks of wood - the deck of a ship. Brook waited.
"What does this mean?" he called. "Are you accepting my -"
Something tugged where his heart would have been, and he spun around. Luffy sat shining on the ground, legs crossed, and little Chopper lay beside him. Luffy blinked, picked up his insensate doctor, and hugged him tightly. In the new silence Brook thought he could hear Luffy murmur, "We love you, Chopper. Let's go home."
Chopper's soul faded until Luffy held only empty air.
Chopper coughed, and coughed, and seawater spewed from his snout and mouth until he could breathe. Nami cheered from the helm, and looking around, Sanji could see smiles on everyone's faces. Robin pulled their smallest member into her lap and dried him off with a towel, happy tears shining on her face. She ducked her head twice to kiss the tips of his antlers, and when he had the strength, Chopper bounced up and hugged her neck, weeping. "Robin! I think I - did I die? I was so afraid, but then I saw - I saw -"
In the space of a heartbeat, everyone had run to look at Luffy and Brook.
Neither stirred.
After thirty seconds, Sanji realized he was holding his breath, and released it slowly. "Luffy -hic- saved me," Chopper shouted from Robin's arms. Sanji saw their navigator whirl from the railing where she had been watching and return to the helm, shoulders shaking. Zoro, who had stood when Chopper woke, now fell to his knees, glaring at Luffy's icy face.
Robin carried Chopper to Franky and set him down beside him, then went to sit by Brook's head and absently straightened his tie.
"What are they doing?" Usopp whispered. "Robin, what are they doing?" But she could only look sadly at him. Chopper took Luffy's pulse, tried to lift an eyelid, and pressed the end of a stethoscope to his chest. Then he sat back, shaking his head in shock. Franky put one large hand around him and drew him to his side, where Chopper buried his face in Franky's shirt.
Sanji could not keep watching, so he fled up the stairs to the helm. Nami-san's knuckles were white where she gripped the handles on the wheel. He walked to stand next to her, facing the bow and the patch of sunlight that was their destination, and lit a cigarette.
"Sanji," Nami said quietly, and turned from the wheel to put a hand on his shoulder. "Sanji, he's going to make it," she said, pleadingly, and only then did he realize he was crying.
"Shit," he said, and wiped his face. "Not very cool of me, eh, Nami-san?"
She hugged him in response, and he tried to breathe without hiccuping. When she pulled away, he said, "Thanks."
She laughed, a little. "You're supposed to say, ah, all my dreams have come true."
He found, somehow, that he could laugh a little too.
"No."
Luffy glared at something over Brook's shoulder, and Brook had a fairly good idea what It was.
"You can't have him either," Luffy said firmly. "I need him."
THAT HAS NO BEARING ON THIS MATTER.
"I needed the others too. That's how they got home. And I need my musician."
HE OFFERED TO STAY.
Luffy frowned at Brook. "Why'd you do that?"
"Luffy-san..." Brook started, and bowed his head. "I thought that you had -"
FOR YOU, OH IMPERTINENT ONE.
"You're rude," Luffy said, and stuck out his tongue. Brook discovered he could not turn around to see this Death. He wondered what It was, exactly, that Luffy saw.
"Luffy-san, if you are going to return to the others, you must go now," Brook told him quickly. "If you fight It, I do not think It will accept my payment, and you will have to stay here as well."
"Not leaving without Brook," Luffy stated simply. He looked the skeleton in the eye and said gently, "Go home. The others are waiting."
Brook marveled at his captain's power; he could feel himself fading from the command alone, and dug in his heels. "Luffy-san! If I leave, you won't be able to get back!"
Luffy's expression did not change. "We're both going back."
YOU CANNOT.
"Screw you," Luffy said, and pushed -
"O-oi!" Zoro shrieked.
Sanji and Nami raced each other to the deck. Sanji caught a glimpse beyond Robin's skirts of Brook sitting up a little and leaning on his elbows, whipping his head around and complaining of stiff joints and foolish captains who never follow any sort of rules, and then Sanji heard the sweetest sound in the entire world.
Luffy was laughing. "Ouch, Zoro!" he said between gales of giggles, and Sanji saw the swordsman was still kneeling by his captain's head and was holding the younger man's shoulder in what looked like a painfully strong grip. "Dammit, Luffy," Zoro growled, an undercurrent to Chopper and Franky's bawling and Usopp's shouting that he never doubted him for a second and Robin's attempts to help Brook stand - Sanji moved quickly to assist her, taking Brook's left side.
The tall skeleton juddered a little as he stepped forward, looking down on Luffy's still-supine (and still-laughing) form. Sanji kept a careful grip on his arm.
"Brook!" Luffy shouted with a grin.
"L... Luffy-sencho!" Brook roared, and everyone drew back from his apparent outrage.
"What the -"
"Jeez, Brook, cool it -"
Brook ignored them. "What the hell were you thinking?! That should never have worked! And diving down like that? Leaving me alone, thinking - I didn't know what to think! What kind of idiot are you?"
Despite this tirade, Luffy continued to laugh. "Ah... I'm glad it worked!"
"Luffy..." Brook said. Sanji saw Zoro grin. "I'm so glad..." said Brook, putting a hand to his forehead. "I'm so glad you're alive..."
The skeleton, for the second time since their meeting, began to sob in earnest. Robin moved closer to him and put her arm around his hips. Nami threw her arm over Sanji's shoulders, Chopper leapt over Luffy to tackle Zoro with a hug, and Usopp lifted the straw hat from where it tumbled off Zoro's head and gave it to Luffy, who had strength enough only to grin at it and let it fall on his chest. Franky carefully picked him up.
"Sanji, I'm -" was all their captain managed to get out before he was snoring.
Sanji smiled and headed to the galley. The sunlight spread across the grass.