Time to say goodbye to Enel and Crocodile for a while. :/ We'll miss them, but I'm sure they'll be back.

Whole lotta plot, whole lotta moving of pieces, a good bit of Frobin tidbits...and you've summarized this chapter. Needed to make it to build up to the next one-Red King's identity. Please enjoy!

{P.S. I'm not very happy with the beginning of this chapter...I'm not making excuses~ I'm just saying it would be nice if anyone could review on why it seems to have a funny taste in my mouth when I reread it. o.0}


Yet Robin was never told what she was to do. Completely ignoring her, Enel only muttered at the pressure of time they were under, and "you're following me now, insect".

She watched as he walked to the barrier of sand and had an arguement with a sadistical caterpillar about his need for it to be disintegrated already, if he didn't mind.

"Shut it, puss." Crocodile flicked his fingers at the wall, from his raised hand. Before the other three, it was reduced to a pile of sand. The sand man returned to his newly lit cigar, acting as if he was already bored with everything in front of him, while the grains slithered on the ground back to his body.

The bookworm, though feeling as if she was being hanged out to dry, quietly complied to the powerful Logia's scalding glare while he lingered at the exit for her. She walked towards him, more relieved at be handed to one madman than to be trapped in this stinking hell hole of a murderer's dwelling place. Yet she stopped. Franky hadn't moved.

Robin looked from Enel to Franky. The reptilic man was hesitating, his hands clenched into fists. His face was contorted in thought.

Enel didn't like to wait. "This is annoying. Nico Robin," he warned, his words like ice. "If you don't hurry up...we can end this right now."

The lizardman finally snapped. Squinting, he snarled, "You damn insane lunatic...and just where is she going? What the hell's going on-someone needs to start talking, or I'll-"

Robin quickly appeared in front of Franky. She stopped him, gently shoving him back from Enel, her hands gently on his chest. "Franky, no..."

Franky looked down at Robin, frustrated and angry. It was obvious he wanted to do something. He opened his mouth to voice this, but Robin's unwavering expression made him finally just twist his mouth into a scowl. When he looked up, Enel was turned around. Staring right at him. Smirking.

"You'll...what? Go ahead-any endeavor you do to stop me should be amusing. Your presence here is not needed-killing a nobody like you will mean nothing to my plans..."

The raven-haired woman felt her blood run cold.

Slowly, she turned around to face Enel. His face changed questioningly, watching her stand tall and imposing. The raven-haired woman stood between them, as a shield.

She stayed like that for a second. "You need me alive. So...if you want me to come quietly," she said, calmly. "Then...you have to leave him be. No matter what happens. I mean it."

What a idiotic bluff. She wasn't surprised when Enel doubled over in laughter. "Ya ha ha ha!" He cried, mocking the unfaltering woman. "What an idiot request! Ya ha ha! Alright-alright, he can come. I won't kill the idiot-but only cause of what you said, and the fact that he's meaningless!"

Franky bristled, his face flushed with anger. "Bastard..."

"Franky."

The blue-haired man stopped, and looked down. Robin had turned her head to look at him, but still hadn't moved besides that. She muttered, "Please...just leave."

Franky's eyes widened. "Eh? What are you saying?"

Robin's mouth was muffled, hidden behind her shoulder. Enel's laughter was the cover for thier secret conversation. "Leave. When we get out. I don't want you here. Just leave, Franky."

To her surprise, Franky scowled. "What are you talking about...don't want me around? That's bull crap. I'm not leaving you like this, with no one-"

"Please." She closed her eyes, emphasizing her words and cutting him off. "Please, I don't...you'll get killed with me. You'll die. And I don't...I don't know what'll happen to you. Here. I don't know if you'll be..."

Franky looked at her, his face calm as she trailed off. Finally, whispered calmly. "Babe, I can't leave you."

Robin blinked. She glared at him, angry for him being a fool. Did he ever understand the danger he was in? "Why?"

He paused, a blank look on his face. "Dunno...its fuzzy."

When Robin waited for more, Franky sighed. "I feel like I know you somewhere. And I feel...like I can't lose you. You're important-I don't know why. So, ya...I can't just abandon you."

Robin's eyes widened. She didn't know what to say to this.

The sound of lightning cracking at thier feet made both of them leap.

Enel's smoking finger and the burnt mark on the wood near them marked the Bilkan's growing irritation. He had stopped laughing long ago. Testily, he gave them a bored glare, then thumbed at the exit. "Hurry it up."

/

Robin and Franky quickly followed behind Enel, who decided floating was much better, and to hell with the mortals who could just walk at a brisk pace. Yet Robin suddenly realized something; she stopped.

Franky was quick to grab her arm and pull. "Come on!"

"No...!" Robin slipped her hand from his grip. She whipped around on her heel, to face her former boss. "Crocodile!"

Crocodile had been sitting on his coils, smoking and having his back to them as he seemingly stared at the oozing walls in thought. After a long pause, he slowly turned his head to look at Miss AllSunday. "Hm?"

At having to address him, Robin felt disgusted nausea rise in her throat. Yet she swallowed and said, "Where is the way out? You said you knew...Tell me."

Crocodile just stared.

Robin's face twisted a little in an inward struggle under a skin. "P...Please. Tell me, please."

Enel appeared with a crack at Robin's side. He was snarling. "What does it matter? It's not true-just some lie of that Red bastard's. The only way out, really, is-"

"The way out? Hm...Hm hm. Heh heh heh heh, why it's simple, Nico Robin."

Robin and Enel looked at Crocodile. The man was smirking.

He chewed on the butt of his cigar, obviously enjoying himself. In the silence, Robin inwardly squirmed. She watched as he closed his eyes and shrugged.

"It's not from the way you came in. Obviously."

She nodded. She had guessed it wouldn't be made so easy.

More chewing, grinding his teeth and sucking the nicotine while breathing thick smoke. His smirk widened, and he turned back around. "You have three days. Head for the sea-head for your ship. When you reach it before the third sunset, then you may return to your...reality."

There was complete silence in the cavern.

Robin, hesitating, finally uttered, "That's...it?"

Crocodile waved his hand. "That's it."

She didn't move, and he didn't speak further. The raven-haired woman was burning with questions-questions born from more questions. One burned the brightest-just how was she suppose to find the Sunny Go?

As if reading her mind, Crocodile growled, "Finding your captain would help in some way. Straw Hat..." A grin spread across his face, murderous. "Give my regards to Mugiwara when you see him next..."

Robin froze under his gaze. She hadn't thought...well, ofcourse Luffy was here. It made perfect sense...but, where?

Enel didn't give her any time to ask this. With a hard shove, he got her turned around. "Get moving, woman. Another two sunsets, and this won't matter..."

Mechanically, Robin trod beside the alert Franky as they followed the irked Bilkan. Her rhythm of steps encompassed her thoughts, but she was shallow enough in thought to hear the last thing Crocodile called from his prison, echoing off its walls:

"Good bye, Miss AllSunday. I look forward to watching you bleed out on that beach..."

/

A few minutes later, Robin was outside and forced to drink a vial from Enel. She complied, along with Franky, and was not surprised when she leaped off the tree's fungi and touched down to earth, she was her normal hieght. The other two were as well.

This unnerved her a little. Was it alright to be like this, in the middle of a forest that now could find her big enough to be appetizing? It seemed to not matter to Enel-he lifted a finger to his lips at her, and when she nodded in understanding he turned his back to her and began floating rapidly from them. Obviously he wished them to quietly follow him.

They did, stepping carefully over protruding roots and briskly trying to keep up with the Bilkan. He would stop once or twice, to cast a scathing look at them as they caught up. Then, he would return to speeding ahead of them.

The sun was setting overhead-without the light of the moon mushrooms, which had been left behind, and with the fog overhead receding, Robin could finally see the sky. It wasn't much to look at-the dripping branches weaving together in the canopy let in little light, and what was there was the rays of a blood red sunset. How appropriate.

Robin twisted her nose up at the reek the trees permeated into the air. It was less pungent out in the slight open than it was in Crocodile's lair, but it still had its punch. The ground was overcast with shadow-it squelched and was sticky with some substance that stuck to her bare feet. Fresh blood, she guessed.

Yet after what seemed an hour of walking in near darkness, trying to remain in sight with Enel while slipping past dormant carnivorous foliage and being as quiet as mice, Robin's feet sensed a new sensation of texture invading the ground. It was where Enel decided to finally stop and wait for them both.

Robin stopped with Franky in front of him. She glanced around. Through the blotches of red light that lent light to the ground below, she could see that they were on some kind of path, one made up of white...pebbles, perhaps? 'But this doesn't feel like pebbles,' Robin mused, wincing at the sharp material that pierced her feet.

They were at a fork in the path. Enel was perched on a rotting signpost, like a bird. Or a vulture.

On the signposts, thier were two markers: to the left was a single sign that said 'Way Out'. The other two directing to the right professed, " - Village" and "Tar Swamp". The village's name was illegible, and both were nearly covered over by a parchment that shrieked, "DANGER TURN BACK" in blood red letters.

The Bilkan grinned at them when Robin looked up from reading it. "You'll be going to the right, Nico Robin. A half a day's walk, and you'll meet me at the swamp. That's where will continue on until the Waste and finally the Red King."

Robin lifted an eyebrow, but she didn't appear surprise: "You're not coming."

Enel's gin grew. "No, I'm not. If you can't survive here, then I see no point in going further. Also-my orders are clear...you're to be left alone."

He gave a meaningful glare at Franky. The lizardman snorted and equally shot it back.

Slowly, Enel's body began to lose its opacity. It wasn't long before, in a flickering moment, he was out like a light. And Franky and Robin were alone in front of the sign post.

Franky frowned. and crossed his arms. "...There's no chance of me persuading you to go left, is there?"

Robin ignored him. She turned right and began walking ahead. While sighing and grumbling under his breath, he quickly caught up with her, and resided himself to walking beside the enigmatic woman as she unwaveringly strided to the next checkpoint in her journey.

/

Franky had a deep frown etched across his face. He was in a deadly forest, in a situation too deep for his...fuzzy mind to begin to dissect, and he was having what he felt was one of the few moments in his life where he wished he was wearing shoes. He lifted his feet unscrumpciously from the ground, feeling the needle like rocks they walked on pierce his feet. Robin seemed to pay it no mind-did she even really feel menial pain?

Finally, after hours of walking and with an enormous sigh that made even the raven-haired woman halt, he stopped in the middle of the path to pick out the white rocks embedded in his sole. "Damn," he grumbled softly. "What the hell are these things?"

When Franky had stopped, Robin had turned around. She frowned, feeling hurried-the last of the sun's rays were slipping away like water, leaving her only two left. They didn't have time for dawdling. Yet while he grumbled, she inwardly sighed and walked towards him.

He looked up when she lightly plucked the white pebble from his hand. After scrutinizing it for a split second, she smirked and tossed it back to him.

"It's a tooth."

Franky's jaw dropped. "A wha-EEE!"

In almost a tenory squeal, Franky leaped away from the rotten 'pebble'. The pathway crunched under him-the pathway of, yes, human teeth- and realizing he was surrounded, the lizard man began frantically hopping on one foot to the other.

"T-TEETH?" he hissed shrilly. He was desperately trying to be quiet, but he was too disgusted.

Robin watched him dance his odd tango of disgust and mental scarring. She couldn't stop herself from smirking. "So...you're cool and collected about a carnivorous forest that bleeds and eats people...but you have a problem with walking on a pathway of teeth...?"

"It's human teeth-human teeth!" he hissed in his defensive, slowly settling down until he stopped hopping like a housewife spotting a mouse. "That...that's just disgusting! And we've been walking on it-!"

Franky stopped himself as a shudder went up his spine. He crossed his arms and whined, "Horrible-why the hell is there teeth here?"

Robin's voice was hard, but faraway. "Perhaps its a fear tatic."

The cyan-haired young man snorted loudly. "A little extremeist, dontcha think?"

ShhhShhhShh...

Above them, the branches of the trees writhed. Both of them froze, listening and staring like dried fish upwards.

Shhhhhshhhhhhh...

They were like the antenannae of some blind insect, fruitlessly groping at the air above, as if feeling for something in the dark. Or tasting the air for a smell, like the tongue of a snake. Robin could feel her heart echo loudly in her chest-she wanted so desperately to silence it. She felt some innate fear that they could hear the blood desperately being pumped across her body.

Time dragged on forever. Finally, the branches ceased moving. Slowly, they retreated back to gripping around each other in an oozing canopy, and the deadly forest returned to its slumber, still unaware of the creeping humans in its path.

Robin looked at Franky, wide-eyed. Franky looked at her with the same look.

And then it began raining.

/

"Come on! Hurry!"

'I'm...trying!' Robin's glared daggers at Franky's back. Her feet squelched in the stinking sludge she was desperately wading through. It was like walking in wet sand-rain stung like cold needles on her skin and obscured her vision in sheets, as she sloshed through thick mud and blood. Her skin was caked in quite a few areas with brown; Franky had it worse. He was lucky to be in a speedo.

He had his hand around her wrist. He was tugging her across the open space to the destination they had spotted a few minutes ago. A black blob of mass in the shape of a house. It was old, and in ruins along with its neighbors, but at least it had a roof that was still intact.

They hit higher ground, and ran the rest of the way into the shelter. There was no door-no furniture either, except for a table, a piece of polished metal for a mirror, and cabinets. It only had one room, and the roof leaked. The two intruders huddled to the dryest spot in the cabin, and sat on the dirt floor to wait out the rain.

Both of them were shivering. The rain made a soft 'shh' sound with the wind. It battered the house's meager defenses, and permeated through the cracks in the walls, the holes in the cieling, and the naked doorway.

Franky's teeth were chattering, but he grinned at her.

"Lucky we found this village in time, right?"

Robin's face was blank, but her eyes were sarcastic. "Not lucky for the villagers before us...do you really think we're safe in a ghost town?"

Franky chewed the inside of his mouth in thought. "Hmm...you have a point. But it should be fine-the rain around here never last for long. In fact...I can't remember the last time we had rain like this...Or any rain at all, for that matter."

There was a beat of silence. Robin watched as Franky mulled thoughts over in his brain. She turned her head, then crossed her arms and sat on her legs, looking at the ground in thought. "...This place is ridiculous. Why would anyone have a village in the middle of a forest that eats people?"

Franky's grinned returned. "Cheap realty?"

"Be serious."

"Hmm..." In not-so-serious thought, Franky mimicked Robin's sitting position-choosing to cross his legs instead, though-and mused, "You know, putting things in to that light...kinda makes you notice that not alot of things do make sense here. A good many, important things."

Robin glanced in amusement at him as he continued, "Like...why is this place so big in the first place? What feeds these trees so that they can germeate this much-surely there isn't as many schmucks in the world dumb enough to feed this disgusting place. I mean...you get downwind of these trees, and you should, if you're sane, recognize the smell of death right away."

"Says the sane man who thought it was a good idea to hide in a grove of them."

Franky smirked at her barely contained sarcasm. "Oi, we're alive aren't we?"

After a pause, in which the ends of Robin's lips twisted up in acknowledgement, Franky sighed and exclaimed, "Another thing I don't get. What...the HELL...was going on in that tree?"

Robin's face returned to being emotionless. "In your current condition, its hard to explain."

He snorted. "Really? Because I feel fine." When Robin continued to be silent, he frowned. "Enlighten me."

Robin sighed, fatigued. "Franky...please just trust me. This is not the real you right now. This is...this is.."

"Just some figment of a dream."

His voice was bitter. In response Robin's face grew more tired looking. Without looking at him, her eyes narrowed at the ground.

"...That possibility hasn't been completely ruled out."

"It should be!"

She didn't look up. Franky's snarl twisted up his face, as he said hotly, "Look, I know I'm not just something out of your head...I'm real! I'm flesh, and blood-"

"And scales," she remarked. "Don't forget scales."

He snorted again. "Well...haven't I always had scales?"

His retort was so straightforward, so believing; Robin felt the instant need to correct him. "No, you did not." She lifted her head and said, "You had...have, an exaggerated blue ducktail. And three chins."

Franky's face blanched at this, but she continued, "You have sideburns, a enormous upper body, and a gold chain around your neck. Your arms are gigantic, like an ape's-and you're taller, older...much older. And you're made out of skin and metal. You're a cyborg, not a...lizard man!"

Robin stopped, finished. She looked at Franky. He sat in silence. Finally, he blinked dolefully at her.

"Well...I sound pretty kickass." He broke into a grin.

The expression on his face was so immature; Robin's face fell a little. "...I am being perfectly serious."

Franky guffawed. "So am I!"

Still grinning, he leaned closer to her. "Oi...so am I tricked out with insane weapons? Like...Cannons and missiles and stuff?"

The bookworm blinked at him. "Well, yes...you have missiles coming out of your shoulders. And bullets from your arm. And...well, for a cannon you have a device that connects your arms and allows you to shoot a powerful shot of compressed air."

"Really?"

Franky leaned even closer to her, ignoring her space. Even in the dim light, this close she could still see the sparkle in his eye as he imagined his self's artillery-packed body. "What else? What else?"

Without realizing it, Robin began smiling a little. She described the rest of his assortment of weaponry-his 'strong right', his 'centaur form', his deadly detachable sideburns. When she got to his inflatable backside attack, Franky stopped her excitedly and shouted, "Ow! Amazing-I must be more than just great-Suuper!"

Robin's eye widened. "You..."

Suddenly, she guffawed into laughter. She clutched her sides and let it out, bending over.

Franky sat in silence, watching her tumble in a fit of giggles.

"...Nico Robin, you're kind of creepy when you laugh."

/

"Older...? Really? Exactly how much older?"

Franky and Robin were still sitting in the corner of the tiny house. Overhead, the rain had slipped into the hint of a drizzle on the swiss-cheesed roof. Franky had left when it had begun to clear up a few hours ago, with Robin left to scavenge the cabin. She had found mason jars of fruit preserves-he had found blankets and clothes from the nieghboring houses.

They huddled together, wrapped in the dry pieces of quilted cloth and eating with thier hands in the dark. It was cold, and Robin shivered violently, but there was no way for a fire to be lit here. The wooden furniture was rotten and damp...and there was no use looking in the forest for firewood.

The raven-haired woman looked up from fingering the hem of her new clothes-a wine red sack of a dress that was not at all distinct or flattering. She couldn't remember a time they had talked so much-it was really about things he already should have known. The Sunny Go, the layout of his body, his past, the other Mugiwara's...everything that she knew since she had met him.

"Seven years my senior," she muttered.

He squinted. "Really...huh, that's wierd."

Robin looked up, seeing his face twist in thought. She assumed he found it difficult for his imagination.

"Well", she explained slowly. "You're much younger now. Which makes it all the more sense that this is a dream-"

Franky barked a laugh. "I...I'm younger? Babe, I think you've got it mixed up."

Robin looked up from her sticky fingers and her jar of strawberry preserves to look at him questioningly. "Whatever do you mean?"

The blue-haired youth snickered. He thumbed at a nearby looking glass hanging on the wall. "Take a look in the mirror. Compared to you, I'm not that young."

Completely baffled, Robin had no choice but to silently comply and stand up from her corner of warmth. She quietly crossed the room, and gazed at the reflective surface.

Her large blue eyes blinked. He was right-her face was more fuller, she had shorten in height-and her hair was the same long length it had been when she was twenty, no longer at her shoulders and growing so wild that she felt the need to put it in a ponytail. She looked like she had...'before I met Crocodile.'

Robin stared blankly at her reflection. She felt her hair and looked at it-when had it grown?How was this possible? She couldn't come up with an answer. But she felt that if this didn't make it a dream, nothing would. She looked back up, then with frightened eyes took a step back. In it, she could see a man standing over her shoulder. Grinning, and laughing.

"Fufufufu...mind not being so close? You're breathing on me."


Everytime Nico Robin laughs...

o.0 An LOLcat dies.

No, no-I'm sure they probably don't. But probably, quite possibly, I am going to Oda's reserved circle of Hell for bad little fangirls-very uncanon of me...making Robin snicker-snort. Yet seriously-Robin is possibly the hardest person to write. Maybe it's just me, but its like grinding my forehead against a brick wall in having to make her hold in most of her emotions (s'why I like writing Franky, Sanji, and Luffy so much I guess. Emotions make me happy. =.=). But I like the challenge...therefore, dearest reader, T.T I ask you to not be shy in filleting me if I am doing Robin any injustice-I am open for constructive flames! FLAME ME, PLEASE~!

First time Franky said 'suuper'...does that mean he's slowly returning to his old self again? And why was Enel and Crocodile here...together? Where's the Sunny Go-WHERE'S THE REST OF THE CREW? 8D Hey look! I wrote a suspense-a little on accident! Red King is next. How do I know? *points at half-prewritten chapter she's already working on* Call it a feeling. Yes dear reader-his identity will be revealed next week.

8D Please review-if you can't, its fine. I understand. But I do enjoy your encouragements/constructive flames SO~~!

Update: AHHH~! My apologies for the sudden addition of a new part-I couldn't resist, dear reader. I finished this last bundle of paragraphs tonight, and simply had to add it in. Forgive my randomness~!