Franky
When Franky dies he is one-hundred-and-six years old. By now he is SUUUPER old, though he doesn't think he would have gotten this old naturally. It is probably all because of the many upgrades of his cyberized body that he grows to be this old at all, and he knows that.
He's kinda lonely nowadays. The only one of his nakama left alive is Brook, and the skeleton doesn't stop by very often. The poor guy has dealt with the loss of many of their nakama worse than most of the others, having already lost his first crew once and all. Franky doesn't have anyone else beyond Brook to potentially keep him company, either. Every single member of the Franky Family have died already. The last one - Zambai - died ten years ago, and not a single one of Tom's Workers - the originals, that is - remain. Not even Iceburg. The only one he has left is the Thousand Sunny, and while he loves the ship she isn't a very good conversational partner unless you want to vent. It is in the times when he remembers this that he curses his hard, cold, metal body viciously with every single curse he has learned during his time spent in bars and pubs, at sea, and even around his pirate parents.
Franky dies protecting said ship from people who hate the Pirate King. Others would probably call him foolish for going to such an extent for a ship. But those who know him, who know Sunny, who know what being a real pirate is like, who know a man's romance, they know that Sunny is anything but a mere ship. Sunny is nakama the same way Usopp or Nami or even Luffy is. Sunny is nakama, and his dream. Sunny is the Dream Ship that sailed all the way to Raftel, the ship that has sailed to the end of every sea. Sunny is a ship worth protecting, even more than any other ship, and to Franky every ship has the same value as a human life.
But in the end his conviction is not enough. He is old, and though he may be strong, may be more mechanical than human at this point, that age does affect even him.
How anyone could ever hate Luffy in the first place is a question Franky does not know the answer to. It is strange to him, and far ways from being super. But there still are people who hate him, it doesn't really matter what Franky thinks about it, and some - many - of these people are weak, rookies, bandits, even landbound people, but some of them are strong, and while Franky has been able to protect the Thousand Sunny for a long time he no longer can. But they go down together, him and Sunny, so maybe they'll reach afterlife, and everyone in it, together.
There is one part of Franky's body that he hasn't - and never will - switch for a piece of metal, no matter how fancy or high-tech it might be; his heart. Franky has lived his life after the ideals of a man's romance, and the way Tom-san taught him to, and the heart is every man's most important thing. It is with his heart that he loves, and it is the heart which keeps him alive, so he has never done anything to it, not even stitched in extra metal plates around it, because that would block the way if someone ever was to try to get close to his heart. But this is his downfall.
On the day he dies he takes a barrage of attacks, from swords, to guns, to spears, to cannons. But the killing blow comes from a dagger; a dagger to the heart which penetrates the general armour built into his torso. After this he bleeds out quickly, and everything starts blackening before his eyes until he succumbs to the darkness.
The darkness is weird, and so not super. Everything is black and he can't feel a thing. One would think that that isn't an unusual feeling for him, being a cyborg, but it is. For he did not give up his humanity in favour of his upgrades, he made sure to keep himself human. The metal is part of his body, an extension of himself, and he can feel every bit of it.
He isn't used to not being able to do what he wants, move how he likes. The only time he doesn't usually is when he is asleep, but then he is not aware, not concious, so it isn't a problem then. Now, however… he is restless. Yet he can't even fidget with a gizmo to stave off the boredom. The only thing he has is his mind, and so when he realieses that there isn't anything he can do to get away from here he uses it to continue designing a gadget he had been planning to build.
But in the end he is saved from his boredom by the sense of his body returning, by the feeling of soft grass against his vulnerable back and the sounds of waves crashing against a ship. He opens his eyes and finds them shaded by his usual sunglasses. He raises them and places them on his head, feeling the thick mane of hair there. Huh.
He sits up and looks down on himself. He looks much more human on the outside than he has in a very long time. His hands are no longer big and red, and neither are his shoulders, his feet have regressed along with his legs and arms. His whole body has regressed to the way it was when he met Luffy and the crew. He grins. Someone else would probably have been enraged or dismayed that all the work of the upgrades he has done since then being gone, but not Franky. To him this is an oppportunity for improvement. He can upgrade again, make the upgrades better and work better for the way he knows they will need to be used. Not to mention that it'd have been super boring if he didn't have anything left to upgrade.
Finshing his cursory examination of his own assets he looks up and around and smiles. He's on the Sunny. He was right, he and the ship arrived together, and they will be greeting their nakama together, just like the last time. He pushes his sunglasses down again to save his eyes the pain of looking into the sun and looks out over the sea.
There are two ships heading for him and Sunny, one from each side of the colourful ship. One of them is a big galleon with 'freedom' stamped on the sails in kanji, one which he does not recognise, but the other he does know. The other ship is the Going Merry. But as he watches the smaller ship starts dissolving. She dissolves and leaves her nakama in the water, all of who are staring around in panicked worry. Franky himself does not get the time to worry.
A mist of white gathers on deck, swirling closer and closer together and becoming more compact as it goes. Soon it has taken the shape of a small human. The small humanoid is wearing a sailor's coat and shoes and is grinning brightly in a way oddly reminiscent of Luffy. He blinks and stares for a moment before he realises. It's a Klabautermann, the Going Merry's Klabautermann. This isn't the first time he has met one. Sunny has showed herself to him a few times, usually in times of great need, such as when the whole crew was mourning Luffy's loss.
"SUUPER!" he exclaims, striking a pose while Merry giggles. This is super, it really is, Franky knows that the question about which ship they'll sail and how they'd bring both with them should've been a problem, but now it's not. Merry has taken a form that will allow them all to be together without trouble.
"Pleased to meetcha, Merry!" he tells the Klabatuermann, taking off his glasses again to see her properly and offering a hand for her to shake.
"It's good to meet you, too! I think we'll be great friends!" Merry answers, taking the offered hand, grinning widely.
"FRANKY!" Usopp's panicked voice sounds from the water below the Thousand Sunny. Franky crosses the deck in a few long strides, Merry skipping along behind him.
"Usopp-bro!" Franky calls in answer, peering down at the others in the water.
"Franky, something happened to Merry! She's gone!" Luffy continues where Usopp left off in a voice just as worried.
"Nah, Lamb-chan is fine, she's up here," he reassures them, pointing with a thumb over his shoulder.
"Hey, everyone!" Merry says cheerfully, popping up over the railing to wave down at the others, huge grin in place.
"Merry!" Usopp shouts, eyes wide as he stares up.
"Hi, Usopp-kun!" Merry waves down at him. While the young Klabautermann waves and greets the others Franky goes to fetch some rope for the other's to climb up. He saw the way both Luffy, Chopper and Robin looked in the water. They weren't paralyzed, but none of them were swimming on their own, and they'd clearly have trouble getting on board without a rope.
He throws one end of the rope over the side, tying the other to the railing. Robin is the first one up as Sanji - who is helping her stay up - insists that she needs to get on deck. She climbs the rope with less trouble that he had expected, but he gives her a hand with getting over the railing all the same, that is a man's romance after all.
"Robin-sis!" he greets, crushig the younger woman in a hug.
"It's nice to see you, too, Franky," Robin gasps out, patting his arm. He lets her down when he realises that she's having a hard time breathing and mutters a chastened apology while Robin gives him yet another pat on the arm and a smile. Then the archeologist is distracted by the small child-like figure beside her, who tugs on Robin's skirt to gain her attention. Her smile widens and changes into something maternal as she squats down to speak to Merry. A soft 'thank you' is spoken and further words of comfort and caring follow, and Franky takes his cue to leave them to it.
Next up the rope comes Nami, whose expertise at climbing is less surprising, considering her time as a thief. He gives her the same treatment as he gave Robin, though her response to being crushed - though Franky tries to be gentler this time - isn't as calm. When a head of blue hair appears by the railing Franky clearly sees the pattern; Sanji won't let anyone else up before the ladies are safe on deck.
"Vivi-sis," he recognises, helping the former princess as he helped Robin and Nami.
"Hello, Franky-san, it's good to see you again. I hope you had a pleasant death," she says politeky, shaking his hand when she has both feet back on deck. The strange phrase sounds like a greeting as common as 'How have you been?', considering where they are and the way Vivi says it, so Franky just rolls with it.
"Sunny and I went down with a DON," he declares proudly, because that's really all there is to it.
After this Sanji seems to have let up on his guard of the rope because the next ones who arrive do so in a tumble of limbs as they all fall together. This turns out to be Sanji, Usopp and Chopper, whom was riding on Usopp's head.
Sanji curses the other two as he tries to detangle himself from the pile, but still helps the other two up after some more grumbling. The moment Usopp is on his feet he is looking wildly around him, searching.
"Merry!" he exclaims when he sees her, rushing over to where the little soul is surrounded by the girls. Chopper and Sanji both move to follow, though Sanji stops to give him a clap on the shoulder, one that ends up on his arm because of his height, before going to Merry. Chopper, however, takes his time, staring up at Franky with shining eyes.
"We missed you, Franky!" he wails suddenly, throwing his arms around one of the cyborg's legs.
"I suuuper missed you guys too," Franky chuckles, patting Chopper's head. The reindeer looks torn for a moment, looking up at his older friend before glancing towards where the others are gathered around Merry, then back.
"Go on," he says in a tone of voice he hasn't used in years, the one that he imagines he would've used if he'd ever had children. Chopper nods in his determined way before skipping away, shouting about Merry being back.
Zoro and Luffy have stepped onto deck while Franky and Chopper talked, which means that they're all gathered again - bar Brook, but he probably won't be long now.
"Franky!" Luffy exclaims, throwing his arms around Franky. Franky hugs him back, lifting him into the air while the Captain laughs into his chest. He lets the younger man down and Luffy beams up at him.
"Franky, join my crew!" he says, smiling, but with a glint in his eye that reveals how serious he is about this.
"I'll SUUPER join you, Captain-bro!" he declares, striking his favourite pose in a way reminiscent of the first time he joined.
"Yosh!" Luffy shouts, throwing his fist into the air, "let's go see Merry!" he says and grabs both Franky and Zoro to rush off to the others.
The others are huddled around Merry, but shuffle to the sides to make place for the rest of them. Luffy greets the Klabautermann just as happily as he did Franky and gives her the same proposition. Merry cheers and throws herself at him, tackling him to the ground in a surprising show of strength.
"Oh! And Sunny, too!" Luffy jumps to his feet, "Sunny, you'll join my crew, too, right? I'm sorry I forgot to ask you the first time around, and you too, Merry, but I'm asking now!" It makes Franky happy to hear it. It's one thing to consider the ship nakama, and it's one thing to ask when the ship has a human form, but the fact that Luffy is extending the very same proposition to Sunny in her ship form means a lot.
There is no noticeable answer of course, but the way the wind cathces the sail, and the way their ship feels is enough to know that Sunny is happily accepting.
A sound that Franky knows wasn't made by any of the crew sounds through the air from the opposite side of where the crew came from. He looks up and stares out over the port-side of the brig-sloop at the ship he had noticed earlier. He had completely forgotten about seeing it.
Franky is not the not the only one to notice. Both Chopper, Zoro and Robin all look up at the galleon, alert as always, but they all seem to relax when they see the ship. Both Robin and Chopper get to their feet and head over to the railing. Robin helps Chopper up to stand on the high railing while she herself leans against it, waving with one hand. Franky is not oblivious to the way her other hand strokes the wood beneath it, though, which is enough of a gesture from her for those who know her to know that she has missed Sunny.
A white-haired woman is waving back to Robin, along with a red-haired giant and a bunch of other people while a man in hat and a funky hair-style is waving excitedly at Chopper from beside an old woman Franky recognises as Kureha, the - witch - doctor from Chopper's home island. Then he sees someone else, someone he knows very well himself.
"Tom-san!" he shouts, staring wide-eyed at the fishman, tears gathering in his eyes - but he's not crying dammit!
"Tahahahaha! I see you lived your life with a DON, Franky!"
"Hey, are you crying, Bakanky?" and there's Iceburg with his stupid face, and man is Franky glad to see him. Water 7 had gotten all the more lonely after the former Mayor's death.
"I'm not crying, you're crying, Bakaburg!" Iceburg looks like he's about to argue, but Tom-san breaks him off with a laugh.
"Don't squabble like little boys, if you fight you should do it with a DON!"
Franky and Iceburg exchange a look and then a grin; everything is back to the way it should be.
AN: Continuation of the last chapter, what do you think? Did I do them justice?
For my lovely guests~
hi: Mini Merry II, huh? That's certainly an idea, I can't remember if I ever considered that or not, I might've. I'm glad you liked the way it ended up though!
Thanks for reading!
Next up: Newgate