Author's Note: I probably will check out the manga one of these days...
To ThaliaSanchez- When they showed an island with a house inside of Laboon, I figured anything was fair game lol.
Thanks to everyone for reading!
Franky departed from the Sunny. "I won't come back without him!" He vowed with a pose.
It was the middle of the night, and most of the island residents were asleep. Asking people if they'd seen Zoro was out of the question, then. Since the swordsman was always getting lost, the group brainstormed for years for a way to track him. Even if they gave him a transponder snail, he could never find them or describe his location well enough for them to get him. Chopper was usually their best bet for locating him, but at the moment the reindeer was exhausted.
Zoro had always left things like this to "luck." Franky saw some merit to that, but it was nothing to rely on. He started running.
Water 7 had not been in as great shape as he had hoped. The city had downsized tremendously. Between Aqua Laguna and the sinking land, there was little space left for housing. Many citizens had moved away via the upgraded Puffing Tom. Franky and Stupid-Burg had tried to come up with ideas over the years to preserve the land, but few seemed to hold water, in a manner of speaking. They had tried to perfect underwater construction so that buildings could last both above and below the ocean. People would enter the buildings from the top and have a spectacular undersea view underneath. A decent number of these structures had been erected with the assistance of the Galley-La Company and the Franky Family.
When he saw his brothers and sisters again, Franky did not even try to hold back the tears. He could not imagine how he had gathered the willpower to leave them in the first place. Ahh…that's right. The Straw Hats had him by the balls at the time. True to her epithet, Nico Robin could be a terrifying woman when she wanted to be.
Franky's enhanced hearing picked up faint voices that were almost out of his range: a man and a woman. It sounded like people he knew. He headed towards a meadow.
When he spotted Zoro, saying Franky was shocked was an understatement.
…Maybe he should come back later.
Franky's vision was more advanced than human perception. He could see Zoro before the swordsman could identify him, even with Haki. It was harder to tell who the girl was. But when they sensed that someone else was near, the two on the ground scrambled off of one another and grabbed one sword each. Instead of pointing the weapons at the intruder, they directed them towards each other. That was odd. Franky started to approach them. Zoro then recognized Franky and relaxed, sheathing his sword.
Despite the situation, the first thing Zoro asked was, "Where's the rest of them? Did the navy catch anyone besides that idiot cook?"
Franky was still processing what he had seen. He now identified the woman as the marine girl that was always with the Smoke guy. She was readjusting her torn shirt and had a cloth tied around her arm. The cloth had the same pattern as Zoro's shirt on the floor. The swordsman's arm had been bleeding too. Upon closer inspection, Franky could have sworn that their injuries were in the same places. This must be the weird sort of thing swordfighters were into. Evidently, Franky wasn't the only pervert on their ship.
"Uhh…no, everyone is safe for now. I've got the Sunny and most of us are here. But if she…" Franky pointed at Tashigi, "…is with you, then that Smoke guy is probably after Luffy and his brother."
"Brother?" The marine asked. She must have connected the dots, because she sprinted off before the two Straw Hats could even blink.
Franky watched her fade into the distance and turned back to his friend with a laugh. "So that's how you've been spending your vacation. We were worried about you, you know."
"Shut up! I was gonna look for you guys." Zoro picked up the swords and his shirt.
"Nah, it's better that you didn't. I don't know how we'd find you if you sailed off." The two walked together towards the Sunny.
The metal door swung open with a clang.
"Someone might have heard that." Robin said and searched for the keys to Sanji's restraints, carefully making sure that she didn't touch the cuffs themselves. He stretched his limbs beyond the bars to make it easier for her. They heard footsteps approaching, but Robin had not yet released Sanji's hands.
"It's alright, Robin-chan, I'll handle it from here." He kicked a large hole into the side of the ship, and the starry sky was in full view. They were lucky that the cell had not been below the water. Resisting her natural impulses, she forced herself behind the bars. Sanji took the keys and leapt first, but she hesitated, watching the navy charge into the room. Every step was draining. One marine nearly grabbed her hand, but she slipped from his grasp.
And winked.
Closing her eyes, she let herself freefall backwards into the night. Sanji, who had been hovering outside with his Sky Walk, caught her, and the two plunged into the ocean.
She was standing on the edge of a building facing the world once more. But this time, she was not begging Luffy to take her away; she was confronting the world with what it needed to hear. But what if they didn't believe her? She needed courage, and she had her friends for that. But the words of criminals would do little to sway those in power. A wall formed in her throat and sealed her words.
As though reading her mind, an older man placed a hand on her shoulder that was unexpectedly warm, "Even if some don't listen, there will be some who will. And if anyone tries to stop you, I'll be right here."
And so Robin spoke. She described her research over the years and the corrupt secrets that the World Government tried to hide regarding the lost history. She still did not know everything, but she had enough proof to make some knowledge public.
"I am not the only one who has done research on this history," she continued, "there were others…who…." The wall started forming again, and her chest heaved. She did not know if she was crying or struggling to breathe.
"There was an island of archaeologists called Ohara." Kuzan stepped in. "I had been stationed there and witnessed the destruction myself." He nodded to Robin, and she allowed him to take the floor as she collected herself.
She brushed her tears aside and took several deep breaths.
"Thank you." She whispered to him before addressing the audience once more.
"Robin-chan!" She opened her eyes. The tears from her dream were still on her face, and Sanji's voice was shaken.
"Sanji?" The two were floating on her speedboat and the navy ship was nowhere to be seen. His hands were free as well. "How long…?"
"Don't worry about it." He offered her some fresh water and she noticed she was underneath a blanket. "Your prince is here to protect you now." That reminded her. She reached into a pouch that she'd left in the boat and retrieved a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She handed it over to the chef.
"You even got this for me! You really do love me Robin-chwaan!" He wiggled with glee, and she giggled softly. After the vacation he'd had, she knew he would probably need it.
He lit one cigarette, dragged, and exhaled.
"I'm sorry that you had to come save me. You could have been in real danger. And I know how much you hate the navy." He cursed himself, but she shook her head. Sanji had his weaknesses, just like everyone else. If she couldn't compensate for her teammates' shortcomings and let them get hurt because of it, she'd never forgive herself.
"It's alright." She placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "And the navy isn't always so terrible."
Aokiji had told her that working outside the law helped him gather intel, but they would also need people inside the system to get things done. Their speech had been a call to action. Aokiji seemed confident that it could happen. She sipped some water and noted that the sun was rising on the horizon.
If there were other marines (even former admirals) who were willing to stand by a criminal's side when necessary, then that gave her some faith. Maybe some of the changes that she hoped to see in the World Government could come about in her lifetime.
Smoker had called in an old favor.
Though Straw Hat was supposed to be the only one on Dawn Island, Smoker's gut told him to prepare for the worst. His instincts about the would-be-pirate-king were rarely wrong, so he contacted an old acquaintance.
"You'll forgive my gambling debt then, White Chase-san?" A deep, graveled spoke from the snail.
"Yeah."
Frankly, Smoker had been expecting Garp to interfere. The revolutionary kid was a surprise.
When he came to, he noticed that the blind swordsman was also awake and propped against the tree beside him. They were shaded from the morning sun. Smoker could not move his arms well, and his legs were killing him. His jacket was torn and bloodied. Smoker rested his back against the tree and stared upwards into the treehouse. He heard a woman calling out to him.
Perfect timing.
"This whole place is demolished! It must have been some fight." Without even moving his head, he knew it was Tashigi. She had a knack for stating the obvious.
Smoker watched her lead a crowd of marines. Upon seeing him and Fujitora, she ordered some of the doctors in the group to look at their wounds. She rushed to his side. "Smoker-san! How bad are your injuries? Should I get some of the men to help carry you out?"
"No, dammit." He lifted an arm and she shouldered it. The two stumbled together over fallen logs and broken chunks of meteorite. After a bit of walking, they finally reached the edge of the crater. Other marines helped Fujitora get to his feet.
"You were pretty easy to find." She said, "That tree is the only thing standing in this entire area."
He grunted in response and thought back to Fujitora's question when they first landed on Dawn Island.
"Do you truly believe that young man will become as renowned as Gol D. Roger?"
"I think he'll do better."
