I do not own Fairy Tail, One Piece or the Nasuverse.

Where Are They Now – Franky

/A Snowy Island Somewhere In The Grand Line/

Franky found himself in a rather difficult situation, and that was putting it VERY mildly.

At some point after being flung off by Kuma, he'd lost consciousness and crashed in this godforsaken artic tundra. He had no idea how long he'd actually been unconscious out there in the frozen wastes but his landing had done a number on his body.

As a cyborg, Franky's skin and blood wasn't completely real. His skin was made from a synthetic replica that almost completely resembled that of a Humans, but the texture was very slightly off upon closer examination. Much rubberier and slicker compared to regular skin.

This was an intentional decision on his part to ensure it wouldn't simply melt off of his face or catch fire due to the steel skeleton beneath said skin where muscle and bone should have been. Currently, his robotic face was exposed to the elements making him look like a monstrous machine rather than a Human.

Glowing red robotic eyes, one cracked and the other dim, both signs that he was beginning to lose out to the elements. The only two organs he had left were his heart and brain, the only two vital organs the world wasn't able to replace within him.

Both were currently exposed to sub-zero temperatures.

To make matters worse, he couldn't see two feet in front of him so he had no idea where he was headed. He was forced to simply pick himself up and trudge forward in a desperate attempt to find either help, or at the bare minimum, some form of shelter.

He currently had found neither.

Franky couldn't even visibly grimace as he felt one of his leg joints seize up, locking into place as he fell forward flat on his face. His mouth, sealed shut for the same reason his leg had locked up, just barely stifled the groan from the cyborg as he crawled forward several metres before going limp.

His vision began to go in and out of focus, the snowstorm seemingly growing heavier as he thought back to his friends, pondering their Fates as he slowly succumbs to his own. He inwardly prayed theirs was not going to be as slow and chilling as his was about to be.

But then, as his vision slowly began to darken, he noticed several shadows approaching. They moved at a brisk pace, but he quickly fell unconscious, his last thoughts of his friends as the elements tried to claim him.

/Two Days Later/

A burning sensation had Franky's eyes snap open, the cyborg snapping upward into a sitting position as he went to place a hand over the area he felt had been burnt only to grasp thin air. Looking to his left arm, he was shocked to find it no longer attached to his torso, the arm several metres away on a table where a strange Human was seemingly working on it.

"Oi," Franky barked, his voice sounding much more robotic without any of the flesh portions of his upper body present as the strange Human glanced over at him. "You took my arm!"

"My apologies, but the damage sustained to your frame was extensive Brother and immediate intervention was required, lest we be forced to reforge your frame anew."

Having taken a moment to calm himself, Franky realized just how mangled that arm actually was and couldn't help but agree with the strange man. Upon closer inspection, he was shocked to see the man's eyes had zoomed out of their sockets like some kind of telescope.

"Y-you're like me!?"

"Indeed, my Brother. Like you, I too walk the path of assembly …"

The man ceased working on his arm for a moment and rose from the workbench, practically marching around and toward his position where a strange terminal sat idle. Upon flicking some kind of switch, Franky felt the various wires connected to him buzz as something flowed through him that made the cold steel of his body feel … warm.

"There is much work to be done Brother, but you will survive and be born anew, perhaps even greater than before," the man continued as the feeling had Franky beginning to feel rather drowsy. "The next part cannot contain even a point one percent chance of error, Brother, therefore you must return to rest once more …"

"What … are you … gonna do … to me," Franky mumbled as he slowly fell back onto the table he was on.

"The only thing we can, Brother," the man said as he briefly came into his field of vision. "Rebuild."

Franky's mind replayed the words of the strange man who said he was going to 'rebuild' him, the strange way he sounded almost joyful about it. Ultimately though, there was little he could do about it in the long run and so, he did not resist and again fell to darkness.

/Some Time Later/

Again, Franky woke, yet this time there was no pain or freezing cold nor scalding heat. No, he simply felt like everything was at a reasonable temperature.

Sitting up, Franky was shocked at just how fast he had actually moved and nearly headbutt the space between his legs. And speaking of his legs …

"What the hell …?"

His voice trailed off, the sound of it still indeed his own but … slightly different. Something major had been done to him since he was unconscious and he needed to find out what. Looking around the room, he found his head moving a little too fast and was completely thrown for a loop when he looked directly behind him, his head not stopping where an ordinary neck joint would cease its movement.

"No way," Franky gasped, waiting for a moment before continuing to turn his head until it was back where it had started. "I can rotate my head three-sixty degrees now!?"

That was something he'd failed to achieve when he'd augmented himself in the past. No matter what method he tried, the wiring refused to allow him to do such a thing. But somehow, the strange man had done it, along with whatever else he'd done to him.

"I need to find a mirror," Franky muttered as he very slowly and cautiously moved to the side of the table he was lying on and got to his feet.

The first thing he noticed was he found he was utterly weightless. Undoubtedly owed to whatever material his body was now made from, he found he could move at speeds he assumed Brook could move at as a skeleton. He wanted to jump just to see how high he could get but refrained from doing so in case he shot through the roof.

Taking a step forward, he didn't make so much as a sound. Another, then another followed by two more and he'd already reached the end of the room.

"What have they done to me," Franky muttered in complete disbelief as he placed a cold, metallic hand onto the door and pulled it open to reveal an empty hallway. Waiting for a moment in case someone happened to come out, Franky moved out of the room and down the corridor until he reached a bathroom.

Quickly getting inside with purpose, he almost immediately found the mirror and stumbled backward in shock at the strange being before him.

His grey steel body was all but gone, indicating that the strange man had not simply fixed him up, but completely rebuilt him from scratch. But it wasn't steel his body was made from, nor was it anything else their world had like Wapometal.

"This is the same stuff Natsu and I made the Sunny out of … but how!?"

It wasn't Red Ebony like Natsu's was, it was a uniform black with strange blue neon light that travelled all across his form like a visible circulatory system. Once he noticed them, Franky realized he could actually feel it as it flowed through him.

This strange blue substance was a power source.

He could still feel his old power source there, the one he'd designed to run off of cola, but it was currently inactive. Whatever this new energy source was, it was there and it was far beyond any kind of power he'd ever felt within him before.

Feeling the entire building suddenly shake violently snapped Franky out of examining his body. He felt his senses go into overdrive as he heard the rushed sound of footsteps approaching his position.

Turning to face the door, he was shocked when a World Government Soldier kicked down the door to the bathroom and charged in, skidding to a stop as he stared at Franky with a look of complete horror.

"W-WE'VE GOT A BOT IN HERE," the Soldier screamed as he opened fire on him, fully automatic rifle unloading thirty rounds at him at point blank range.

Franky winced and prepared to feel absolute pain, yet nothing came. Instead, he felt all the bullets strike him and bounce right off. His shock was immediately replaced by action as he charged the Soldier, throwing a punch so fast that his metallic fist had gone right through the man's head before he'd even realized it, ripping out part of his spine as the body slumped to the ground.

Franky was so shocked by this he didn't even notice the other Soldiers at the door all looking at him with either fury or fear. He only noticed once several hundred bullets had bounced off of him, his neck snapping upward as the now identified three soldiers fell back down the corridor before opening fire on him as he stepped out of the bathroom, the first soldier's head still stuck on his arm.

"The hell do you guys think this is," Franky snapped as he flicked his arm, sending the head flying into a nearby wall. "You just shoot anybody!?"

"The bot can talk!?"

"Who cares if it can talk Stevens, keep firing!"

Deciding he'd had enough of being shot at, Franky ran at the trio of Soldiers, though he'd clearly underestimated his speed as he ran right into the lead one.

"ARGH-!"

The sound of bones crunching as he smashed into the man was all Franky heard as the man fell backward, dead. His two comrades were practically shitting themselves with fear but kept firing anyway which only further served to annoy Franky.

"You guys aren't that smart, huh," Franky sighed as he reached out and grabbed the barrel of the closest Soldier's gun and bent it backward so it was facing the Soldier himself. "You'd think you'd have stopped shooting after the first thousand bullets or so, right?"

"P-Please don't kill me," the man sobbed as he dropped the weapon and scrambled away frantically. "I don't wanna die!"

"How about you tell me what the hell you're doing here and I might let you both go, eh!?"

"We j-just came here on the orders of Colonel Spaznick," the Soldier cried as Franky advanced on him. "He wanted the weird robot lovers here taken out so we could take this place!"

"Huh? So, some shitty World Government bigshot wanted the robot people here gone so he could claim the place for himself? Why?"

"I-I dunno, please don't kill me!"

"Relax, I'm not gonna kill ya," Franky sighed as he looked between the two mortified Soldiers. "Run on back to that Colonel and tell him to stop sniffing round here!"

The two Soldiers didn't need to be told twice as they bolted out of the area as fast as they could. They had barely been gone for a minute when Franky heard the sounds of footsteps approaching from behind him.

The same strange man from earlier was walking out of the place he'd woken up in, a neutral expression on his face as he eyed his form curiously.

"It is good to see that your form is operating as intended Brother," the man said in greeting with Franky awkwardly nodding in response. "I take it you are curious about your new shell?"

"I'd say I've got more than a few questions, like how you guys somehow rebuilt my base shell using a material only Gods and Devils have access too, for starters?"

The strange mans pupils shrunk momentarily before returning to their natural position, his eyes seemingly zooming in and out before he abruptly nodded and motioned for Franky to follow him.

"I must admit Brother, I am surprised you know of such a thing as the materials of higher realms. I take it that you are aware of worlds outside of this one, Brother?"

"I'm aware of them, yeah, though I've never been."

"Curious," the strange man muttered as they walked past the dead Soldiers with the strange man not even batting an eye. "Tell me, Brother, of what the name Vegapunk means to you?"

Franky almost tripped at the man's question, but managed to right himself as they walked out into an open courtyard area littered with the bodies of Soldiers just like the ones Franky had encountered.

"Do not mind them Brother, they are mere casualties of the war."

"War?"

"I say war, but it is more one sided really," the strange man replied as they stopped at the centre of the carnage. "The local garrison believes they have the right to claim this facility in the name of the World Government despite the fact we have been here over a decade. They attack, we defend, they suffer heavy casualties and retreat. Rinse and repeat."

"You don't counterattack?"

"Why? We have no interest in what lays beyond these walls, Brother, aside from the local town and trade with our allies who assist in funding our research projects."

"Allies?"

"The Servant State of Eden are our primary clients and allies," the strange man replied as they continued their walk across the courtyard. "Which leads me back to my main question, Brother. What does the name Vegapunk mean to you?"

"Well, I'd say its pretty obvious that I look up to him as a scientist, the guy is an unrivalled genius. He somehow managed to make more than one Bartholomew Kuma and has done all other kinds of crazy stuff."

"So, it is safe to say that you do not harbor any ill will toward him?"

"Ill will? Nah man, he might be part of the World Government, but he's only doing what he does because he wants to make the world a better place, right?"

The strange man didn't respond, instead, opening the nearby set of double doors and motioning for Franky to enter. After several moments he did with the strange man quickly taking the lead once again.

"I ask you these questions Brother for a very specific purpose," the strange man said as he quickly moved to stand in front of a strange, highly technical door that had strange symbols he couldn't recognize all over it. "For you see, Brother, Vegapunk is actually our leader."

Pushing open the door, Franky's jaw dropped as a massive lab lay on the other side, stuffed full of highly advanced technology the likes of which he'd never seen before.

But what shocked Franky more was all the other cyborgs and robots inside, even animals that were walking around talking like Humans. It was like something from one of those science magazines he'd read once about what regular scientists thought the world would be like in a hundred or more years from now without the World Government to 'graciously' guide them.

"Holy shit …"

As soon as he swore, all heads in the lab immediately turned toward his position. To his shock, everyone started applauding him like he'd just performed some great deed. Even the animals were clapping, which sort of freaked him out a little.

"As I said earlier back in the other room, all your answers shall be answered Brother," the strange man said as he stepped in front of all the applauding staff. "But to start, welcome to Baldimore, the Country of the Future."

Now THAT had Franky's attention.

"Baldimore!? You mean the same Baldimore that is Vegapunk's hometown!?"

"The very same," the strange man responded with a curt nod.

"Th-then that means that this entire place is-!?"

"Indeed Brother. Currently, you are standing within the original lab of Doctor Vegapunk, the focal point of his brilliance within this world."

Franky was at a loss for words as the man lead him off toward the side as the rest of the cyborgs and robots returned to their work. The strange man led him to a small office, the entire thing looking just as high tech as the lab itself as he offered him a seat.

Slowly, Franky sank into the seat as the strange man sat down behind the desk, eyeing him curiously for a moment.

"When you are ready Brother, you may begin with your questions."

"Who are you," Franky immediately asked with the strange man's eyes zooming in and out momentarily before he responded.

"To answer such a question Brother, you must also know of my position," the strange man replied as two thin beams of light burst from his irises to project an image.

A Highly Advanced Cyborg

Devout Follower Of The Church

A Man From Another Reality

Processor Coventry

"So, you're a member of this … Church, and so is Vegapunk?"

"The man your world refers to as Doctor Vegapunk is in fact one of the Church's most devout members," Coventry replied plainly in response. "There were six of us who came from beyond the barriers between realities, he is our leader. His true title is All-Seer Vegapunk, though he rarely requires it in this new reality."

"Well, you guys being from a place that knows all about cybernetics means my next question mostly answered itself," Franky replied with Coventry nodding in understanding. "But-?"

"You still desire the knowledge on where we managed to get the material necessary to reforge your shell entirely out of Ebony, as well as the power source currently fuelling you?"

"Y-yeah …"

"You stand within the singular stronghold of the Church upon this world," Coventry began as he slowly rose and moved to gaze out onto the lab below. "To answer your question, I must tell you a tale …"

A Tale Of The Broken God.

I would make this one longer, but you can probably already tell I've dropped some absolute bombshells with this chapter. To those of you who know, you know.

Hope you all enjoyed though and I'll see you in the next one!