A/n: Now for some good ol' Frobin. I meant to add Zosan and Nami into this chapter but it crossed 2k words before I knew it so I decided to push it to the next chapter.

Maybe my updates'll get better soon now that college is ending! Yay!

And Frobin fans? Yes? No? I don't know? Don't sue me if you're not though. Cuz I ship em. They have waaaay more in common with each other than with anyone else in the crew.

That's all for my one-sided rambling!

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Chapter 19

Robin ducked behind a tangle of large pipes, just as several uniformed men zoomed past her. She watched them turn a corner and frowned in thought. Every person she'd seen looked strangely agitated and nervous, like they were confused as to what was going on and didn't know what to do about it. Amoret had briefed them about the memory-alteration that happened when the force fields shut, but she had also said that for every memory that was altered, another memory or an instruction of sorts, replaced it. So if that were the case, if not the townspeople, the ones who worked with the generators ought to have some knowledge about how to act in the current circumstance. But all she had seen was disorder and confusion, that led to fear and frustration.

She slowly slunk in the shadows, making her way through the maze of corridors and stairs, to finally reach the huge generator. She eyed it for a moment and was debating on her next course of action, when she saw a huge shadow shift to the far left, right in front of the massive contraption. Robin crossed her arms and murmured, "Treinta Fleur, strangle!"

She watched as arms appeared around whatever it was and her eyebrows knitted at the familiar cool metal against her disjointed arms.

"Oi oi oi let me goo!"

"Franky?"

"Robin?! What the hell, unhand me!"

Robin chuckled and unfolded her arms, causing the hands clutching the cyborg to disappear. She watched as the blue-haired giant wobbled out of the shadows, pressing his nose angrily several times. Robin watched as his hair spiked out and then formed weird shapes, until it settled into the shape of several gears and Franky nodded, satisfied. He looked at the archaeologist from over his sunglasses and raised an eyebrow.

"Well? Why'd you attack me then?"

Robin shrugged and walked towards him. "You never know whether the one lurking in the shadows are friends or foe. Better safe than sorry."

Her eyes glinted dangerously as she looked up at him and he gulped.

"Yeah well, I'm guessing we're here for the same reason then?"

"I'm here to destroy the generator. What are you here for?"

From the way Franky's jaw dropped, Robin figured they weren't there for the same reason after all.

"Destroy it?! Are you insane! This baby is an exquisite piece of art! Look at her, she's magnificent!"

He turned and spread his ginormous arms out, as if proudly presenting something he created. Robin sighed lightly and walked closer to the huge machine, drawing in all the gears, ridges and intricately places pieces of metal. "Well, though I would normally disagree that this monstrosity is art, I do agree that it is something worth taking a moment to admire."

Franky was too slack-jawed to comment on Robin's utter impassivity at their grand discovery. He stuttered for a moment and grunted, clicking his sunglasses over his metal nose. "Eh, you can't expect a historian to have any interest in machines."

Robin raised an eyebrow at the comment and Franky smartly made sure not to look at her. "Well either ways, Imma take some time exploring this baby inside and out."

"You make it sound so perverse and disgusting."

"Hey, the pervert is honoured!"

Franky could've sworn Robin hmph-ed, but he had better things to worry about. As he made his way to explore, Robin sat herself on one of the stools by the control board and crossed her arms. She watched Franky for a few moments and deciding he was taking too long, wanted to take matters into her own hands.

"Franky, the force fields are closing and we have to destroy this generator. Unless you want all our memories to be rewritten and want to be servants to whoever is looking down and mocking us."

Franky's voice echoed from in between two large wheels, "I know that already. But don't you think if we were to figure out how this baby works, we can just shut it down completely? Besides, I don't know if you realize, but we're underground. If we destroy her, it'll lead to a suuuuuuuppperrrr explosion and the entire island, including us, will collapse."

Robin chewed her lip for a moment, wondering why she hadn't thought of that. Finally resigning herself to the fact that Franky might be right, she leaned back and eyed the contraption again. "How long until you figure this thing out?"

"Her."

"I'm sorry?"

"Figure her out."

Robin almost rolled her eyes, but she knew he couldn't see her anyway. "Yes, her."

She could feel his grin through all the layers of metal and whatnot.

"Awhile atleast. I'll need days to figure out the basic construction and weeks to reconstruct her, but since I'm only looking for a way to shut her down – unfortunately – a few hours is my best guess."

"We don't have a few hours!"

"Well then make a few hours! Whoever that dude was, who spoke to us through that intercom, is definitely watching us right now. We don't know what he wants or what he's expecting, hell we don't even know who he is. So lets just take advantage of the fact that he's leaving us to do whatever we want – for now - and when he actually makes a move, we'll do something about it."

"So you're saying we should just wait for our imminent death or worse?"

There was some clinking and grating and after a loud 'Oww!', Franky's head and arms appeared from the generator, completely covered in grease.

"No. I'm saying we should be smart and get them before they get us."

Robin looked at him without speaking. Franky looked back for a moment and then stuck himself back into the generator. Robin eased herself off the stool and patted her dress. She watched Franky's wriggling backside for a moment and then turned around. The scraping and grating paused as Robin left and Franky's voice echoed through the machine, "Be careful."

Robin melted into the shadows and Franky went back to working on the generator.

From her vantage point, Robin eyed the red-light district, the moving throng of people was like a ginormous millipede writhing and wriggling about on hundreds of legs. She debated for barely a moment as to whether she should risk going into the packed street and look for Amoret. But the idea was discarded a second later, she of all people knew how foolish and futile that would be. She didn't know either Nami or Amoret's locations as she couldn't contact them in any way, lest she should get them caught in a god-awful situation.

She glanced back in the direction she'd come from, deciding she may as well accompany Franky as he worked his way through the huge machine. She padded her way across the rooftops, keeping to the shadows and making herself as scarce as possible. As she neared the last building in that alley, she climbed atop the water tower and squinted at the storehouse that led to the underground factory, several metres away.

She jumped onto the roof and took one step forward, preparing to leap off the roof and make her way towards the storehouse. Only her timing was so perfect, that just as she placed her foot on the slightly raised edge of the building, a rush of hot air blew past her. Robin glanced upwards, just in time to watch everything that happened next, unfold slowly.

The storehouse that she was looking at burst into flames, the burning tongues of fire swallowing the huge wooden structure whole, erupting like a volcano, sending wave after wave of heat and dirt outward in a huge circle. Robin was thrown back against the water tower, her back cracking painfully against the hard cement. She grunted from the sharp pain the stung her, but could do nothing more than shut her eyes, as she remained pinned to the wall by the blast of heat from the explosion.

She cracked her eyes open just in time to dodge a large piece of metal that rammed against the wall to her right and rattled to the ground uselessly. She managed to cross her arms against the flow of air pushing against her and summoned two large hands in front of her. The palms opened outwards, protecting her from the flying debris. She watched as deformed pieces of wood and metal, cement and stone crashed against the water tower and fell to the ground beside her feet. She sunk to the ground, head tucked between her knees, arms still crossed against her chest, and she sat still in a fetal position till she could no longer hear the crashing and banging of objects.

She slowly stood up and immediately doubled over in a fit of coughing. The air around her was thick with smoke and dust, enveloping everything with its grey hands. Robin retched and wheezed, barely able to breathe. She crossed her arms again and choked out a broken 'Cien Fleur, Wing', before hundreds of hands sprouted from her back, each arm from another, until they formed two large wings behind her. Her wings shuddered and quivered with a pale pink colour and she hunched her shoulders, willing her wings to move. They swung to and fro, beating the air around her and pushing away the smog.

She made her way to the edge and walked off the building, her wings carrying her to a stop at the bottom. She coughed, wings still flapping behind her, as she made her way to what used to be the storehouse, that was now nothing but a pile of burnt wood. As she neared the wreckage, the smog seemed to clear, leaving nothing but lingering dust and the pale gray bits of ash that floated down almost serenely, like snow on a winter's night. She walked through the debris, the pungent smell of burnt wood and melted metal causing her eyes to smart.

She eyed what was left of the storehouse, searching for the single set of spiraling stairs that was the only way in or out of the factory below. Her heart hammering wildly in her chest, she hurriedly dug through scraps of metal and pieces of wood, desperately looking for the staircase to hell. She clawed through the rubble, hands cut and bleeding, eyes tearing from the settling smoke and the strong smell that clung to everything around her like a thick veil.

Her mind was a mess of thoughts and emotions that rushed around her brain in a frenzy, but even amongst them a single thought screamed out louder than the rest, the word screeching through her mind and throbbing through her head, 'Franky!'

And just as she was about to lose it, debating on the chances a cyborg would have of surviving under tonnes of wood and metal, not to mention everything else the generator and the pipes surrounding it contained, she spotted the stairway. She almost looked past it, but something caught her eye and she rushed towards it, prying away planks and beams in order to create a big enough opening to slip through. Just as she slipped a foot through the crumbling wood, a strong mixture of gases escaped from below, throwing her into another spasm that finally settled after a time, leaving her breathless and drained. She was about to shift, in order to twist her way through the small hole when-

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You have no idea what kind of extremely dangerous gases are down there. You just had a taste of some didn't you? Well I suggest you stay where you are, because it would do neither of us any good if you ended up dead from inhaling poison."

Robin froze, one leg awkwardly bent in a weird angle, the other dangling through the hole she'd made. She couldn't even let go of her hands in order to defend herself as they were the only things keeping her from plummeting into an abyss of imminent death. She breathed lowly, mind whirring through suggestions and ideas. Finally realizing anything that she could come up with needed her hands, she set her jaw and grit her teeth.

She twisted around suddenly, her propped up leg curving in an unimaginable angle. Her wide eyes darted wildly, searching for the enemy and landed on three cloaked figures, their faces hidden by the sun that was directly behind them. The one closest to her seemed to be the one who spoke, his deep, throaty voice triggering warning bells to go off in her head. His voice was so distantly familiar, but she simply couldn't place a finger to it.

In one last attempt, she let go of her hands, leaning against her bent leg for support. Just as her arms crossed, the man raised a pale hand and flicked his wrist. The air around his hand shimmered and trembled like it was alive and then the floating bits of ash seemed to come together a few inches above his palm, hovering there like a small ball of dirt. Robin opened her mouth to call out an attack, but as luck had its way, the creaking wood beneath her foot gave way and she fell, cracking her neck against the dented metal stairs. Just as she blacked out, she made out the man waving his hand and the beam she'd taken so much difficulty in moving, replaced itself to cover the hole she'd fallen through.

And then the blackness took over.

A/n: Yes well, see you next time!

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