"I know we're going to die. Some of us are going to do something about it."

~call made from a passenger on Flight 93~

Disclaimer: Don't own

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Why We Can't Forget
Chapter Three
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September 11
9:34 a.m.

The doorbell rang. Then rang again. Luffy ignored it. Then there was a heavy pounding on the door. Luffy ignored that too. So far he had gotten calls from his Grandfather's old friend, and the woman who had helped raise him and Ace, Dadan. Makino, who helped run the bar with Sabo. And, Nami's adopted uncle Genzo, who was a retired police officer. He didn't think he could handle reassuring anymore relatives or friends when he barely felt any reassurance himself.

The young man heard the door open and a familiar voice call out. "Yo, Luffy, are you here?" A red haired man poked his head into the living room. He had three scars across his left eye and despite the situation smiled in relief at finding his young friend. Shanks had been called a few minutes ago by Nami's mother, Bellemere. She was an old friend of his from way back but he was surprised to hear from her on this day. She had asked Shanks to stay with Luffy until they got there since Nojiko had been worried about his mental state ever since she talked with him. Since he and Luffy were really close anyway Shanks had no problems with this.

Luffy was sitting in the same spot he had collapsed into earlier that morning, he sat glued to the T.V, he didn't even look up at the entrance of his old friend. Finally he looked over when Shanks sat next to him on the couch and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Shanks… what're you…"

"Bellemere gave me a ring, said you might need some company." The red haired man said, his small smile turning into a concerned frown.

Luffy just nodded with a blank look on his face. "The news guys said practically the whole island is shut down. The roads are blocked, the trains aren't running, there's no way to get in."

Shanks didn't know what to say to that. He had known Nami for awhile but he didn't know if she would make it through or not, and he didn't want to lie so the older man decided to stay silent for now. He and Luffy continued to watch the news in a tense anticipation, waiting to see what would happen next.

The pair didn't have to wait long. Just a few minutes after Shanks walked into the house the scenes of the New York skyline were replaced with the newsroom again. "We are getting reports of what appears to be another attack." The news anchor was saying in a harried kind of tone. "We have reports that the Pentagon, just a few minutes ago, was crashed into. Yes, you heard me right, the Pentagon has been hit." Then the scene changed again and Luffy and Shanks were faced with pictures of new devastation. There were emergency vehicles already at the site. Luffy could see people of all kinds running here and there. Some were in military uniform, some business suits, and some firefighter, EMT, and police uniforms. "What you are seeing now is one side of the Pentagon building..."

Luffy could only gape at the television screen, picking up some detail from the newsman, but ultimately he just sat back on the couch and stared. "Gramps..."

Shanks was just as shocked as Luffy. He knew Garp pretty well but their relationship couldn't be described as friendly. The red haired man looked over at his younger friend, now picking up on some of Nojiko's worry. Luffy wasn't saying anything. That wasn't like him. Usually he was the one to jump up first and scream or fight or whatever action the occasion called for. Then again who was he going to fight, who could've done something like this?

XxXxX

Ace and his company were on the eighteenth floor, the going was slow and tedious. Their gear was easily a hundred pounds and they had to climb single file through the stairwell because of the endless stream of office workers and Trade Center staff that were coming down. They had lost Kaku back on the twelfth floor. He had caught hold of a woman who had tripped on the stairs. She was fairly heavyset and looked like she couldn't even make it down the next two flights. He decided to carry her down himself when it looked like there wasn't anyone else around who was capable of doing it.

One of the bad things about all this climbing was it gave one plenty of time to think. That's what Ace found himself doing on the way up. He thought about Luffy and his Gramps, they were the only family he had. He chuckled quietly to himself, scratch that, Nami could now be added to the list. His soon to be sister-in-law was certainly the brave one, wanting to deal with Luffy for the rest of her life. Come to think of it, didn't she say that she worked in this building? Ace suddenly looked around at the faces passing him in the stairs searching for that familiar orange hair. Of course she could have passed him already, she probably wouldn't recognize him in all his gear, and he hadn't been looking for her.

Suddenly a young woman coming into the stairwell from the twenty-first floor all but launched herself at Franky, who was leading the team of firefighters. "Please, you have to help me. My friend is back there," she pointed in the direction she had come from, "she can't make it down the stairs. She's in a wheelchair and I can't get anyone to stop and help her. Please."

The woman looked to be in near panic as Franky pulled her hands from his arms but he didn't let them go. Still holding the woman's hands he turned to the men behind him. "You guys go on ahead. I'll take care of this lady and her friend and be back up with Kaku in no time."

Marco nodded with Franky gone it looked like he was the one left in charge. "Alright Franky, we'll meet you guys up there." With that the blue haired man followed the young woman and the rest of the company continued to climb upwards.

XxXxX

9:40 a.m.

After seventy-one flights of stairs and following hundreds of people Nami was finally free to step out in the open. The crowd had to go through the mall that spread out under the Twin Towers because the lobby was filled with firefighters and cops and from what she had seen the plaza outside was littered with debris. She wondered if Ace was down there or maybe in the North Tower, there was no question he was here somewhere. Nami was also worried about Vivi and Lola, when she entered the crowded stairwell she had stopped the first firefighter she saw and told him. He said that he'd take care of them and she should continue down.

Looking around she saw that the evacuees from both towers were being split into groups: the seriously injured were being loaded into ambulances, the ones with superficial wounds were being directed into a nearby store, and the others were being pointed further down the street.

Nami turned to look up at the two smoking towers and immediately wished she hadn't as she noticed a tiny figure jump from one of the higher windows. Like watching a horrible car accident, in morbid fascination, she watched the body freefall and only turned away when he disappeared behind a building. With a shudder Nami started walking again passing up the medical line, her head was still pounding painfully but it had stopped bleeding around the twentieth floor, all she wanted was to get back to Luffy and collapse into his arms.

She had discarded her high heeled shoes around the fifty-eighth floor they were definitely not designed for climbing stairs. So now barefoot, Nami started walking, not really knowing how she was going to get home. She hadn't gone more than a few yards down the street when she first picked up on the noise. She actually heard it before she felt it as the sound of something crashing behind her started lightly at first then very quickly turned into a deafening roar. The ground beneath her feet shook like a mini earthquake. Nami turned just in time to see the South Tower, the building she had just been inside, collapse in on itself.

"Oh my God." Was all that managed to make it out of her mouth before a huge wall of dust surged over everything in its path. People, buildings, cars, they all disappeared.

The force of the wind from the collapse made Nami stagger sideways. She couldn't see anything, her eyes were closed against the dust. Even if they weren't the cloud was so thick that it instantly turned the sunny day black as pitch. With one hand she covered her mouth and the other felt around in front of her as she stumbled forward. Tripping over the curb Nami landed on her hands and knees and decided it was safer to stay there.

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God." Nami continued to repeat over and over again as she choked on the blowing dust. Tears leaked out from under her lashes and made dirty trails down her cheeks. After a while she could feel the dust settle somewhat but she still didn't move from her spot.

A young man walked out into the dust and debris covered street along with a few others. They had been in the temporary medical facilities set up in the store. What he saw was like something out of a dream. Everything was covered in the same gray dust, it was piled up like snow in winter, on cars and trees even buildings were coated with the stuff. It hung in the air making it hard to breathe and the young man's eyes watered. The sun cast a weird light through the hanging dust giving the outside world an even weirder look.

He was just a young med student but a few in his class had come down here to help the injured evacuees. Seeing his friends begin helping people up he started to do the same. Across the street he noticed a young woman kneeling on the ground. He couldn't tell anything about her because she was hunched over on her hands and knees and she was colored grey from head to feet, which he noticed were missing shoes.

A pair of strong hands gripped Nami's shoulders making her gasp and look up. "Ma'am, are you alright?" A man a few years younger than herself was standing over her looking concerned. His short light brown hair ruffled in the breeze and his brown eyes showed worry.

"Yes…" Nami said automatically then looked down at the dust blowing around in the slight breeze. "No…" She looked back up at the young man above her. "I don't know anymore…" Her tearful brown eyes stared at the scene around them, at the ashy gray world she was now in.

"My name's Tony Chopper." The young man introduced himself. Nami turned back to him because looking at this young man was infinitely better than looking at anything else around them. "I'm a junior medical student that was here helping take care of people." He held out a hand which Nami gratefully accepted and he helped her to her feet. "That looks like a really bad gash there, I can take care of it for you," he said indicating her forehead, then he looked to her bare feet, "and maybe get you some shoes."

XxXxX

One man was dead already, his throat slashed open with a box cutter of all things. The rest of the passengers and crew had been shuffled to the back of the plane. The cockpit crew was most likely dead as well. The one man these hijackers left behind to guard them was looking pretty nervous, constantly shifting the small blade from one hand to the other. Zoro smiled at this, he should be nervous.

Thanks to a few calls to loved ones, the people aboard Flight 93 were very well aware that this was not a catch and release kind of operation. There were no demands to be met, there were no plans for an exchange, it was a suicide mission. They all knew what had happened with the Trade Centers and just recently with the Pentagon. In an unanimous decision every person had agreed they were not going to let that happen a fourth time.

Zoro looked around the plane. Right now people were making some last minute attack plans and calls to family. The green haired man pulled out his cell phone. He supposed he should do the same. Dialing a number he waited but only got an answering machine. He sighed of course she wouldn't be there. "Hey, Kuina, it's me. I know I was supposed to be home today but with everything that's gone on this morning I don't see that happening." Zoro sighed into the phone hopefully what he was about to say wouldn't be necessary to listen to later. "Kuina, listen, I see no reason to pussy foot around this. You'll find out later anyway. My plane has been hijacked. We all know about what happened with the other planes and we're not gonna let it happen again. You know me, right, can't just sit on my ass and do nothing in a situation like this." Zoro paused smiling grimly into the receiver of the phone. "I hate getting all mushy and stuff like this but just in case… you are the best friend I ever had and I'm sorry about what I did and said last time I was home. I'll see ya later." Zoro hurriedly hung up the phone with a click. He never was good with touching, tearful good-byes.

"Excuse me a moment sir." A skinny older man stood in front of Zoro. He had a large black afro and his eyes were covered in small dark glasses and he had a black cane that was topped with a silver skull. All in all it made for a really weird look for the old guy. "My name is Brook and I was wondering if I may borrow the use of your phone?"

The younger green haired man smiled and pulled the cell phone out of his pocket again handing it over to Brook. He got up out of his seat. "Take as long as you want old man." Then he headed over to the small group next to the kitchen, he assumed they were the main planners for this little operation. There were two stewardesses and a few men talking together but they stopped as Zoro approached. "So lady," he directed to one of the women, "you got any blades in that kitchen? I've got a plan to take that little bastard over there down easy."

XxXxX

Nojiko was crying and Bellemere looked close to shock. Shanks sat next to his old friend but had no comforting words to say to her. Honestly he was in a state of shock himself. Luffy had gotten up to go to the kitchen after it happened, he hadn't been seen since.

The mother and daughter had arrived just a few minutes before the tower fell. All four had been watching when the cameraman on the ground had gotten the shot of Tower 2 as it collapsed and consequently been overtaken by the billowing dark cloud. The scene had then switched over to a sky shot showing the part of the city around the World Trade Center as it was taken over by the resulting dust cloud.

"All those people. Wh…what if Nami was in there? She c…could have been…" Nojiko stammered through her tears. A noise from her adopted mother made the teal haired young woman look over.

"Don't even think it Nojiko." Bellemere growled as she glared daggers at the television screen as if daring the news anchor to say her daughter was dead. A cigarette was clenched tightly between her teeth. "I raised both you girls to be strong and smart. Nami wouldn't have stayed in that building."

Shanks shared a look with Nojiko, who was still sniffling but had stopped crying. "Bellemere, listen, we all know how tough Nami is but it might not be up to her. Something could have happened for all we know." The red haired man tried to get the older woman to prepare herself but she wouldn't have any of it.

Luffy listened to the conversation the three were having from the kitchen. He was leaning against the counter and had the little post-it note from Nami clutched tightly in his fist. "Gramps, Ace, Nami, they're the only family I have. Without them I don't have anything. What'll I do if they're gone?"

Clenching his teeth together he buried his face in his hands fighting back the tears. Luffy felt the lowest he had ever felt in his life right at this moment. If his grandpa was dead, Luffy was sure he would feel sad, but he'd get over it. If Ace died, he knew without a doubt the news would break his heart, but eventually he'd get over it. If Nami was gone there would be no sadness or depression, there would be no getting over anything, because Luffy knew in his heart that if Nami died there was no way he could live without her.

Walking over to the sink the young man leaned over to splash some cold water on his face, hoping to wash these thoughts from his mind. Turning the water off Luffy stayed bent over the sink resting his elbows on the countertop. He knew what Nami would do in this situation he had seen her do it before, though he had never done it himself.

"God, uh, it's me, Luffy. I don't really know what I'm doin' here so I hope you're up there listening. I know I never really talked to ya before but Nami does it all the time and she said it's easy. I need some help, my family is in trouble. Nami said you can see everything that goes on, so you probably already know what's goin' on down here. I think a lot of people are asking ya the same thing today but if it's ok to add one more to that list, please let everyone be alright."

Luffy looked out of the window above the kitchen sink, he could see the beautiful bright blue sky and the occasional puffy white cloud. He didn't know if God was really there or if He heard him but as Luffy stood by the sink he could feel a weight lift from his shoulders. The heavy feeling that had grown since early this morning when he watched the first plane hit wasn't totally gone but it was much more bearable.

With a determined nod the young man turned to head back into the living room. Walking out of the kitchen he almost bumped into Nojiko, who was standing just outside the kitchen door. She was leaning against the wall with her head bowed. Luffy stopped and watched her for a minute and then she looked up at him with a teary eyed smile.

"Thanks, Luffy, for reminding me." She said to him as she straightened up and turned around to go back to join the others in front of the T.V. Luffy just looked confused.

XxXxX

It took nearly forty minutes for Chopper, as the young man liked to be called, to get the supplies he needed to tend to Nami. The young woman used this time to get cleaned up some and borrowed a pair of tennis shoes from another young med student that was helping Chopper. The blonde haired woman had introduced herself as Kaya and while Nami was waiting the two struck up a conversation, each woman trying to not think about the events of the day.

Finally though Chopper appeared with sterilized supplies and a bottle of Tylenol, which was the only pain meds they were allowed to give out. After apologizing, it only took a few minutes for the young man to stitch her up and hand over the pain medicine. Chopper gave some basic instructions dealing with the stitches, about when they should come out and stuff, before being pulled away to help someone else.

Leaving the makeshift clinic behind Nami started walking up the street again. At first it seemed eerily devoid of life aside from an occasional emergency worker and the gray duty ash that covered everything made the world look even more surreal. As she got a little bit further from the Trade Center though more and more people were gathered together, talking or helping each other out, and mostly everyone was covered in gray just adding to the surreal feeling Nami had.

Nami had already gone a few blocks when the people around her started yelling and pointing, some even started running. With an extreme case of déjà vu she also turned around to look behind her and for the second time that day cursed her curiosity.

Tower 1, the North Tower, was collapsing following in the footsteps of its brother. Nami, already suspecting what was gonna come next, turned and started running down the street. A few dozen other people had the same idea. "Thank you Kaya." Nami silently thanked the young woman for the shoes as she tried to outrun the oncoming dust cloud. Even though Nami was in pretty good shape the huge wall of dust and smoke was catching up far too easily. Soon enough the orange haired young woman was once more enveloped in a dark smothering cloud of dust and debris.

The force of the wind wasn't so bad now, being a few blocks away, but the cloud was still as dark and suffocating as the last one. Blindly stumbling in the choking dust Nami tried to find some way out of it. She didn't even think that the tower's collapse meant everyone inside had just been crushed. She didn't think about the planes from earlier crashing and exploding killing their passengers and crew instantly. She couldn't even begin to imagine what was going to happen after this. All the orange haired woman allowed herself to think about was this moment now and only what was in front of her, in other words, getting out of this dust and someplace she could breathe and see.

Suddenly Nami felt someone slam into her side coming from somewhere on the left. Crying out in surprise she took in a lungful of dusty air and immediately started choking on it. Whoever it was pushed her against what felt like a glass panel, maybe a window or door. Thanks to the dust, and the fact that every time she coughed trying to get rid of the stuff in her lungs she only breathed more in, there was no way she could see what or who had slammed into her.

Well the answer to one of her questions was answered shortly as the surface she was against pushed outwards forcing the unknown someone and Nami to stumble backwards. The door swung open and someone else Nami couldn't get a good look at because of the dust in her eyes stepped out slightly. "Well what are you waiting for, get in here." He was definitely a man. She felt the person who had run into her stand up as the other guy reached out to help her on her feet. Coughing and half blinded Nami was led forward by the stranger and into what looked like a restaurant. At least that's what Nami made out of it, her blurry vision picking out a number of tables and chairs.

"I was getting worried about you Ussop, I thought you would come running over here a lot earlier." The one that was still holding Nami's hand said in a teasing tone. The one that had run into her, obviously this guy named Ussop, only offered a quiet "shut up" in his defense as he coughed and sputtered.

"Th…thank you for letting us in." Nami was still coughing but was very grateful for the clean air inside this place. She tried to wipe the dust and grime from her face but it wasn't working very well as her hands were just as dirty as the rest of her. She heard one of the guys let out a chuckle.

The young woman let out a startled gasp as she felt a cool wet cloth start wiping at her face. "Sorry about that and it's not a problem, my lady. With everything that's happened today there isn't anyone who doesn't need some help. Anyway I was expecting this fraidy cat here to come crashing in eventually, didn't know he'd bring a friend though." He finished wiping off her face and stood back. "There we go. Much better, right?"

"He's not a friend, I don't even know him, he just ran into me outside."

Nami said opening her eyes and thankfully was able to see clearly again. She looked over at her two 'saviors'. One was covered in the dust from outside and obviously the one who had pushed her over here. His most outstanding features were his really long nose and bushy black hair. The other was a very clean cut kinda guy, Nami could tell, his short blonde hair covered one eye and the other was topped by a very curly eyebrow. "Yeah, it's much better. Thank you Mr…"

The blonde was glaring at his friend but immediately broke off to look back at her. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, my name is Sanji and I own this restaurant. The one with horrible manners over there is Ussop." He said with an apologetic bow.

"Hey what do you mean horrible manners, I saved her didn't I?" Ussop pouted over on the side.

Sanji glared again. "Yeah if that's what you want to call tackling a pretty lady into my door."

Nami smiled at the two as Ussop and Sanji got into an argument over the curly haired boy's manners towards her. Even with all that was going on out in the streets she couldn't help it. In here it seemed, for the moment at least, everything from the outside stayed on the outside.

XxXxX

11:34 a.m.

Garp was standing with a few other officers from the different branches of the military, they were under a shady tree that stood far enough away from the media circus so that they wouldn't be bothered yet close enough to the Pentagon to watch what was going on. A part of the damaged section had already caved in but other than that the structure appeared sound.

The little group was going over the accountability lists again to see if there was anyone still missing. The 'confirmed dead' list was short, thankfully, but still there were names on it. After a few minutes of going back and forth the group split up to tend to their people and give out orders.

Garp was met by Robin as he crossed the grass lawn. She had gotten some coffee from somewhere and handed it to him. "I thought I told you to go home Ms. Nico." He said taking the cup anyway. "You should get some rest and tend to that hand."

The black haired woman had been lucky, she hadn't been in the section that the plane hit directly, but the explosion and initial collapse of the wall had her trapped for some time before rescuers dug her out. She had escaped with only minor scrapes and bruises and her hand had been burned pretty good when she tried to push away a burning piece of wood.

Robin held up her bandaged hand. "It's only a slight burn, Vice Admiral, and I'm sure I can be of much more help here that sitting in my apartment. Have you tried to call Luffy back?" She asked with a concerned frown.

"No." He answered curtly. Garp had tried earlier to call his grandson but the phone had been busy and there hadn't been time lately to try and call again.

The black haired woman held out her own phone, which had amazingly been undamaged, and handed it over to the old man. "You have some time now Vice Admiral."

XxXxX

4:00 p.m.

It was now mid-afternoon and everything seemed to be over. After the strike at the Pentagon there seemed to be no more attacks, not counting Flight 93 that had been hijacked but had gone down before attacking anything. Shanks, Bellemere, Nojiko, and Luffy were just sitting in the living room still glued to the news hoping to hear something that would let them know about Nami.

There was continuous news coverage of New York City and the Pentagon and the crash site of Flight 93, though what exactly happened there was still being investigated. The mayor of New York had come on reassuring people about their safety and urging them to stay home. The president had come on earlier and offered some much needed reassurance that this was not going to go unpunished. Other official people had held meetings and press conferences throughout the afternoon. These mixed in with the news showing despondent New York citizens who seemed to be in a collective state of shock. One face looked just like another, concerned, fearful, and angry.

Bellemere had taken to rolling Luffy's cell phone around in her hand nervously. Flipping it open then closed again. There was a small pile of cigarettes in front of her showing just how apprehensive she was as if no one knew anyway.

Nojiko, after her breakdown when the South Tower fell, was pretty calm considering the circumstances. She didn't cry when the North Tower followed a few minutes later, she, along with the rest of the room just stared in silent shock. Now she was in the kitchen with Shanks making the small group some snacks since no one had even suggested they eat lunch earlier this afternoon, really Nojiko wasn't even sure anyone would eat now, but it was something to keep her mind and hands occupied.

Luffy was sitting beside the older maroon haired woman that was playing with his phone. He tried to stay calm and collected but it was quickly failing. He had finally heard from his Grandpa just around noon but there had been no word of Nami the entire day. Luffy heard from the news guy that phone service had been cut off for the entire Manhattan area, so he knew she couldn't call on her phone.

He had heard statistics and assumptions about the number of dead and he found the dark part of his mind wondering if Nami was one of them. Luffy quickly shook this thought away. It wouldn't do to start thinking like that. There had also been no word from Ace but Luffy knew he was probably too busy at 'Ground Zero' as the former site of the Twin Towers had been dubbed.

The doorbell rang and then there was a knock. Luffy sighed and stood up figuring it must be a neighbor or something since a few people from across the street had already come by to see how he was doing. 'Yeah he was feeling just peachy keen today.' The young man walked over to the front door and opened it, who had locked the door anyway, he was suddenly jumped on by the person standing outside.

Luffy stood there for a moment, his mind trying to process that Nami was currently trying to crush his rib cage. "N…Nami?" He stared down at the woman in wide eyed astonishment.

She was filthy, her clothes were ruined, she was exhausted, and both her feet and head were killing her. But, as Nami looked up into Luffy's surprised face, she laughed. She didn't even bother to notice as the tears started rolling down her cheeks.

Luffy slowly started to smile and then laughed with her as he brought his hands up to gently wipe away the glistening tears from her eyes. He fought back tears of his own as he suddenly pulled Nami into his chest wrapping his strong arms around her, determined not to let go. Luffy looked up towards the sky with a relieved smile and nodded his head in a silent 'Thanks'.

Nami buried her face into Luffy's shoulder, her quiet laughter turning into heart wrenching sobs that shook through her entire body. She felt as Luffy tightened his hold around her waist and she cried harder. Finally she was back home. The one place Nami had been wanting to get back to all day, through everything that had happened, and now she was in his arms again. For the first time since this horrible day started Nami felt completely safe.

=O=O=O=

Chapter 3 done. Only the epilogue left.