Luffy

"Yo, Captain! Come over here for a minute! I have something suuu~per to show ya!" Franky shouted from the hatch in the main deck. In no time at all, Luffy had stretched his arms, grabbing the hatch's rim, and flung himself from his seat on the Sunny's figurehead. Calmly, Franky raised his large hand, easily stopping and catching his rubber captain before he could crash into the cyborg.

"What is it, Franky? What is it? What is it?" Luffy asked, getting more and more excited as he squirmed in the cyborg's grip.

Franky glanced around surreptitiously, staring for a moment at Zoro's sleeping form and then looking around like he was checking for someone else. He ignored Usopp, Chopper, Brook, and Robin, barely sparing any of them a passing glance.

"I got a super surprise to show you, but only you, Luffy," Franky said.

"What is it?! What is it?!" Luffy repeated, struggling even more in his excitement.

"A present for your birthday," Franky said with a chuckle as he started heading down below. "But you'll have to wait and see once we get down to my workshop."

"Can I see it, Franky?" Usopp pleaded.

"Sorry, captain's eyes only. Maybe later," Franky said.

"Franky, whatever it is, it better not explode!" Nami called from her mikan grove.

"It won't!" Franky promised, heading down below. The large cyborg practically slid down the ladder to the walkway to the Soldier Docking system, then turned and headed for his workshop. The entire time, Luffy kept squirming, stars in his eyes, hooting like an excited monkey.

Finally, they arrived at Franky's workshop, where the shipwright finally released his more than willing captive. Luffy bounced around the room, searching frantically.

"Is this it? Is this it? What about this? Where's the present, Franky? Where's the present? Is it a robot? Is it-?" Luffy said, grabbing and checking out various objects around the room, before Franky finally put out a hand and stopped him.

"Okay, first, I promised Nami-sis no explosions, so we're going to put that one down," Franky said, gently prying the currently object Luffy held out of his captain's hands and setting it gently on a nearby shelf. "Second, it's over here."

With that, Franky led his captain over to a worktable with a small square box sitting on it, a visor and headphones plugged into one side. Luffy stared at it, tilting his head in confusion.

"What's this?" Luffy asked, looking up at the cyborg while he pointed at the box.

"That is something special I managed to rig up after we left Egghead Island," Franky explained, smiling proudly. "The amount of tech Vegapunk had in that place was incredible, and I was able to use some of it to engineer this!"

"So cool!" Luffy exclaimed, stars in his eyes again. Then, confused, he asked, "So…what is it?"

"So remember that Project Ambience thing you, cook bro, and Zoro got trapped in a while back?" Franky asked.

"Oh yeah," Luffy said, remembering. He grinned. "I got to see Ace and Sabo again! That was awesome!" He made a grimace. "But I was a Marine there and that sucked."

"Well, you won't have to be a Marine in this one!" Franky explained. "And speaking of which…how would you like to see your friend Uta again?"

"Uta?!" Luffy cried out. He picked up the small box, giving it a small shake. "Uta's in this box?!"

"Whoa, whoa! Let's put that down," Franky said, carefully taking the box and setting it back down on the table. "So, how to explain this…you know how that simulation you were in felt and seemed real, but it actually wasn't?"

"Sorta?"

"Okay, so, she's a program inside this box and…look, she's just as real as Zoro's family in the other one," Franky explained.

"Oh. Okay!" Luffy said, smiling, as if the entire thing made sense to him. The cyborg chose to leave the explanation at that.

"Anyway, how it works is you put in this visor and the earphones and then press that button in the middle. Unlike the one Vegapunk made, this one's not crazy delicate, so you should be able to just push that little button in the middle of the box again and you'll leave," Franky explained.

"Cool," Luffy said, picking up the visor. He paused for a moment. "Hey, Franky, where is Uta in this?"

"She's on Elegia, still, with that Gordon guy. But Tot Musica isn't part of the program. Or those mushrooms," Franky said, his expression unusually somber.

"Can she still use the Sing Sing Fruit?" Luffy asked, slipping the visor over his eyes.

"Yes, but it shouldn't affect you," Franky said. "I gathered as much information about her as I could from Vegapunk's database, but I don't know how she'll be in this new world, Luffy. But at the very least, she won't be able to overpower you. Hopefully, this will be a nice reunion."

Luffy smiled as he picked up the headphones. "Don't worry, Franky. In the end, she's still my friend."

Franky began to sniffle. "A childhood friendship is so beautiful! Brook and I'll have to sing a song about it at your party tonight!"

"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed, slipping the headphones over his ears as Franky began outright sobbing, while insisting that he wasn't. "Alright, Franky. I'm ready!"

"Yosh!" Franky said, stopping his crying immediately. He pushed the button. "Have fun, captain!"

Uta

"We can change the way of our future

Try a brand new path, if I change the world

If I change the world…"

The sound of a racket in the woods nearby caused Uta to pause in her song. The young singer stood, tilting her head. Except for some birds there were hardly any animals on Elegia and certainly no other people (besides Gordon, of course.) She frowned as the noise continued. She had a concert to practice for and certainly no time for nonsense.

"Uta!" The familiar voice caught her by surprise. It couldn't be…

"Luffy?!" Uta cried out as her old friend came flying out of the woods. Oddly enough, it wasn't even Luffy's arms stretching far longer than humanly possible that surprised her most; it was how much Luffy had grown.

"Uta!" Luffy shouted again, wrapping her in a hug. Uta could feel tears forming in her eyes at the sight of her friend as she hugged him back. Of course he was bigger. Uta herself was an adult now, it only made since that Luffy had grown too.

"Luffy, what are you doing here?" Uta asked, separating from the hug. "How did you get here?"

"Oh, um…" Luffy put a hand on his chin, scrunching up his face, deep in thought, as though trying to figure out how to explain. "My friend Franky made a box with you in it and it brought me here."

"A…what?"

"And I know you're not…you're not my Uta…" Luffy continued, much to the singer's further confusion. She wanted to yell at him to make sense, but seeing the uncharacteristically sad look on Luffy's face made her decide against it. "Not the one I knew anyway. But you're as real as Zoro's family and that's good enough for me! It's good to see you, Uta!"

"Who…Zoro…?"

"Oh yeah, he's another one of my crewmates," Luffy explained without actually explaining. He pointed to the straw hat perched on his back, attached to his neck with a string, "Oh, yeah! And I'm a pirate now!"

Uta's eyes widened in surprise, even as her mood darkened at Luffy's words.

"A pirate now, you say?"

"Shishishi! Yep!" Luffy continued, seemingly unaffected or oblivious to her change in mood. He gave her a gentle smile. "But you hate pirates now, don't you, Uta?"

"Huh? How did you…?"

"Shanks and the others left you here. And you've heard nothing but bad things about pirates from around the world, right?"

It took Uta a moment to collect herself to even ask, "Luffy, how do you know all of that?"

"It's not important," Luffy said. Uta was furious. Luffy had always been an aggravating little kid, but this was something else. How dare he just come here out of the blue and just know everything. And not bother to explain the how. "But what is important is that Shanks still thinks of you as his daughter, Uta."

That gave her pause. The singer could feel her heart sink to her stomach. Feelings of abandonment, self-loathing, and guilt all swirled inside her. She wanted them out. All of these feelings, she wanted them out. If she created that world, that perfect new world she knew she could make, everything would be better. Everything would be alright.

She looked up at her old friend, his face with its usual wide-eyed naive expression and bright grin. And then she saw his straw hat. Not just any straw hat. No, her father's old hat was unmistakable. And now Luffy was using it as a symbol of his pirate journey.

He thought he knew everything. And true, somehow, Luffy knew far more than he should. But Uta could show him the truth; guide him to her better world.

"Luffy," Uta said, kindly. After all, she didn't want to hurt him. Luffy was still her friend. He was just ignorant. Like everybody else. "Let me show you something amazing…"

And Uta closed her eyes, opened her mouth and began to sing, feeling her Devil Fruit power swell within her and flow out through her voice. She sang of a bright future, a new world, of liberation and purpose. And once she was done, she opened her eyes.

And saw Luffy just standing there, staring at her blankly.

"Sorry, Uta. Your fruit doesn't work on me here," Luffy said.

"Here? How? I don't understand…!" Uta wailed. Had her plan failed? She was going to change the world, to save the world! It had to work, it just had to…!

"Uta…" Luffy held her hands. She shook him off.

"No! No, my dream! My dream! You can't take that from me too!"

"You wanted to make things better for everyone, right?" Luffy said, in understanding. "But… you can't do that, Uta. That takes away their freedom. And people should choose."

"But…but…" Uta collapsed to her knees, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. She had been so close! She had been so lonely and sad, but she was going to sing for everyone and make them happy and take them to a better place.

"It's okay, Uta," Luffy said, crouching in front of her. "You've been alone for a long time, right?"

Sniffling, Uta nodded. "J-just me and Gordon."

Luffy grinned. "Then let's play like we used to!"

As Uta looked into that stupid grinning face, a bit of her unease fell away. She had been lonely, ever since that day Shanks and the others had abandoned her…no, ever since that day Shanks and the others had protected her. Leaving her and her monstrous ability some place where they'd never hurt anyone again.

She sniffled one last time, wiping her eyes. "Does Shanks really still think of me as his daughter?"

"Of course!" Luffy said confidently.

"Well, I guess it must be true," Uta said, smiling sadly. "You always were a terrible liar."

Luffy's expression changed into an angry pout. "I am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Oh, yeah? Prove it! Tell me a lie. Not even one I would know. Tell me a lie about this crew of yours." Uta challenged.

Luffy looked away, his lips puckering together to the side. "Franky's most definitely not an awesomely cool cyborg…"

"Lie."

"Zoro never sleeps."

"Lie."

"Usopp has a short nose."

"Lie." Uta smiled. "Told ya you were terrible at this."

"Shut up!"

"Alright. A new challenge then!"

"You're on!"

And that's how the two friends spent the rest of the afternoon. Inventing new games, teasing each other, and running around until they were both exhausted. It was the best afternoon Uta had had in years.

Franky

Popping open a fresh bottle of cola, Franky sat back as Luffy sat in a chair nearby. While this system wasn't nearly as extensive as Vegapunk's, and therefore not nearly as delicate and dangerous, Franky still didn't want to take the chance that his captain was going to get up and go swinging around his workshop while his consciousness was in a different world. Therefore he decided to keep a watch over Luffy. He had just taken a break from the project he had been tinkering with to kill time when he heard the telltale sound of someone coming down the ladder from the main deck. Just as Franky got up to investigate, Luffy reached over and pushed the button in the center of the box.

"Whoo! That was fun!" Luffy said with a laugh as he took off his visor. "Thanks, Franky! That present was awesome!"

Franky chuckled. "Glad you liked it, Captain. How was Uta?"

"Same as always. We talked a lot. And played. And she was sad when I had to go, but I told her I'd be back," Luffy said. "I can go back, right?"

Franky was about to answer, when the door to the workshop opened. "Go back to what?"

"Uh…" Franky elegantly let out.

"Um…" Luffy unhelpfully supplied.

Their fiery-tempered cook stood in the doorway, a covered tray resting on one hand. He was one of the people Franky had been trying to avoid showing this project to. And sure enough, Sanji's eyes narrowed at the sight of the device sitting on the work table.

"Is that…?"

"Isn't it cool, Sanji?" Luffy said happily. "Franky let me see Uta for my birthday!"

"Oh, he did, did he?" Sanji said, an angry expression on his face. "Putting our captain in danger for his birthday, Franky?"

"It's not like that, Cook-bro!"

"No? Should I list all the way this project of yours could have gone wrong? You weren't trapped in that dream world, we were!"

"But, Sanji, I agreed to it. And I got to see Uta again! It was so much fun! I wanna see her again!" Luffy protested. "And besides, you let Zoro do it."

Sanji's face reddened. "The Mosshead is perfect example of why you shouldn't make attachments in that dream world. But his case was different. That doc screwed with his brain…"

Sanji trailed off at the expression on Luffy's face. His captain's eyes were big and watery, like he was about to burst into tears.

"Please, Sanji? I miss her," Luffy pleaded. "And Uta seemed really lonely in that world. And I promised her I'd come back. And you say I should never break a promise to a lady, right?"

Sanji sighed. "Well, I suppose you can't disappoint a lady."

"I made a ton of safety precautions to this mini Ambience anyway," Franky chimed in. "Our captain will be perfectly safe. Heck, if you want, Cook bro, I could even expand the world so you could visit your family, too."

Sanji's face went flat. "No thanks."

"But what about your…?"

"I said no thanks," Sanji replied firmly. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, Franky. But I made peace with losing my mom a long time ago."

"Well, suit yourself," Franky said, gathering up the box and its parts and placing them on a shelf. Sanji raised his eyebrow at it.

"So, does that box allow full interaction with the… people in the world?" Sanji asked.

"Yep, it was so cool!" Luffy confirmed before Franky could get a word in.

"I originally started working on it to give Zoro-bro a chance to interact with his little family, but I wanted to make sure I worked out all the bugs before I gave it to him," Franky said. "And after our little incident on Elegia, I figured our captain and Uta could get a chance at a better reunion."

"Hmm," Luffy said, his head tilted like he was deep in thought.

"Don't hurt yourself, Captain," Sanji commented.

"Hey, Franky, do you think you could combine Uta's world with the one Zoro's family is in?" Luffy asked.

"It would take some work, but it should be possible. However," Franky explained, "You may want to talk to Uta for a bit and make sure she's at peace with how her world is. Her power won't work on any of us, but it should be able to work on other people inside the simulation. No reason to go and put Zoro-bro's family and little island in danger."

"Okay," Luffy agreed. "That's fair."

"So when are you planning to tell the Mosshead about this?" Sanji asked.

"I'm still working out a few kinks in the system, but I'm figuring as soon as possible. So maybe another month at most," Franky said. "Thought about waiting for his birthday, but it seems cruel to wait that long when he could have been interacting with them this whole time."

"And you're sure it's safe?" Sanji asked.

"The technology's perfectly safe," Franky explained. "As to whether Zoro-bro will be okay after he uses it, well, I suppose you two would be the better judge of that."

The cook's face scrunched up a bit as he seemed to think about it, but Luffy just grinned.

"Zoro will be fine, Sanji," Luffy said.

"Yeah, but…"

"He'll be fine. That doctor isn't messing with him, he knows what that world is, and he has us. He'll come back," Luffy said. His smile widened. "I know you're worried about him."

"Like I'd be worried about that kelp-for-brains…!"

"Say, Cook-bro, what brings you down here anyway?" Franky asked before the blond could get too riled up.

"Oh, yeah. Well, when Luffy was late for lunch, I figured…"

"I'm late for lunch?!" Luffy cried out.

"Yeah, better get it before Zoro and Usopp eat your share," Sanji said. The rubber man bolted through the doorway. Franky could hear his flip flops banging against the rungs of the ladder as Luffy shouted for the others not to eat his food. Sanji laughed.

"Anyway, Franky, here's yours," Sanji said, presenting the tray. "I figured you had a project going on down here."

"Thanks!" Franky said happily, uncovering the tray of hamburgers. He glanced up in the direction of the galley. "Think he'll tell Zoro about the surprise?"

"Naw. Luffy's a shitty liar, but he's not a blabbermouth, either," Sanji said. "Enjoy the food, Franky. Bring the tray up once you're done."

"You got it!" Franky said, giving a thumbs up.

Once the cook had left and Franky finished his meal, he pulled out the box and began working. At one point, he accidentally pushed the button in the center and the visor began to glow. From the headphones came a beautiful, haunting melody. For a moment, the cyborg debated turning the box off while he worked, but instead, chose to let the young singer's voice provide an accompaniment to his labor. After all, it would be a tragedy for such a great singer not to have an audience.

Author's Notes: Yeah, I know I figured Ambience was done, but after seeing Film Red last fall and how the plot tied into getting trapped in a dream world (sound familiar?), I couldn't resist. Been planning out this chapter and how exactly to have Luffy and Uta meet againsince seeing that movie. Egghead provided some great excuses for Franky to pick up more Vegapunk tech, so went with that. Got this sucker written out in just a couple days and planned to have it up by Luffy's birthday. A bit late, but here it is!

-Lyrics to New Genesis are from the English version by AmaLee, who also dubbed Uta. While Uta's reasons really didn't make a lot of sense in that movie, I really enjoyed her as a character. Adorable design, amazing Devil Fruit, and I love her backstory with Luffy and Shanks.

-Just have one more chapter of A Heart Colder than Ice to go and it'll be done. I'm moving this summer so hopefully I'll have it done before then. Writing might be a bit slower after that, but we'll see.

-Princess of the Desert, Prince of the Sea was supposed to be a one-shot for Sanji Week, but I might expand that AU. There seems to be a clamoring for it. And I have some ideas; I just need to connect them into a coherent plot.