Chapter 17:

"Winterfell is the key to the North," Bran began. "A keep meant to withstand a siege for months."

"Sansa's in Winterfell," Arya added, "She was married to Ramsey Bolton."

Jon spoke up from the other side of the room in a grim tone. "From what I've heard of Roose Bolton's heir, he's a monster. Rape, murder, torture, an all around killer."

Robin piped in too, considering Sansa's brothers and sister were thinking emotionally and not strategically. "Roose Bolton has a large cavalry, and his forces are high in number..."

"His forces are mainly Stark bannermen," Arya countered. "When they see who's coming to take Winterfell, they'll rise up to help us."

"Or they'll see a small group with no hope and stay where they can keep their men safe," Gendry stated from his chair. Arya glared at her friend but he didn't back down and continued, "They haven't seen what Luffy can do, and even if they had, we're up against thousands. How many of them can you vouch for their loyalty."

"He's right," Jon stated before his younger siblings could protest. "The Freys, not the Tullys, control the Riverlands now. The Freys and the Boltons are close allies. The Lannisters are too, if Tywin's death hasn't crippled them. Joining with us means going against some of the most powerful houses in Westeros."

"And that's ignoring Stannis as well," Sanji said while looking at the map in front of them, crudely drawn by their newest member. "Even if he's not with the Boltons, he's heading for Winterfell."

"Can't we take something smaller?" Usopp suggested. Most of the people at the table glared at him and he shrank back in his seat a little.

"I'm not leaving Sansa in the hands of Ramsey Bolton," Bran said firmly. Usopp gulped remembering the list of things that Ramsey guy liked to do. He nodded and understood why they couldn't leave her there. "Luffy," the youngest boy called out.

The pirate captain was taking a nap at the head of the table and he snapped his head up, looking back and forth before stopping on Bran. The kid shook his head disappointedly, "Were you even listening? Actually, don't answer that. Can you break a hole in..."

"Yep," the rubber teen said confidently.

"I haven't told you how thick the wall is yet," the cripple boy countered in slight annoyance.

"Doesn't matter, I can break it," he grabbed his bicep and smirked.

The child at the table sighed and agreed that Luffy could probably do it. "If he can't, I'll kick the wall down to save the damsel in distress!" Sanji promised and jumped out of his chair with a hand over his heart.

Zoro woke up from his own nap at this point and looked over to Sanji, "And when the ero-cook fails, I'll cut it down."

"What was that you damn marimo?!" Sanji growled and the two of them got out of their chairs angrily.

"The wall is solid stone," Jon stated as he looked towards the man with green hair. "How do you plan on cutting it?"

"I'm guessing you've never seen a man cut steel before," Zoro stated and looked at Jon for a reaction. The man of the Night's Watch had a blank expression like he was trying to decide whether or not Zoro was serious. "Hmm," the pirate mumbled, getting disappointed by the supposedly great fighters of the realm.

"So considering Luffy breaks down the wall," Nami started and grabbed some of the wooden pieces on top of the map. It looked like a battlefield on the table with the handmade wooden chess pieces scattered around. The one representing Luffy was a straw hat on top of a tall piece. Usopp made all the pieces. Nami put the ones representing them on the inside of the wall, surrounded by Bolton troops. "Then what?"

"We kick their asses," Luffy stated and punched his fists together. He reached forward and flicked one of the enemy wooden pieces off the table in front of the piece representing him.

"And this time they'll stay down," Zoro muttered. "Unlike those fucking zombies."

"Yes, but Luffy," Arya started up and shifted around in her seat a little. "When you say 'kick their asses,' what do you mean?"

The pirate stared at her for a few seconds and then tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Uhh what?" It seemed like a pretty simple concept to him.

"She wants to know if you plan on killing them," Zoro said flat out. Now that it was put out there, the table was silent.

Gendry and Jon were new, so they didn't really get what the big deal was. However, the more they looked around the table, the more they saw these pirates for who they were. Most of them were still teenagers, only the robot and Robin were over twenty. Nami, Usopp, and Chopper all seemed put off by the idea of killing. Franky had his hands on the table with his fingers interlocking. Sanji took a puff of a pipe he bought at Bear Island to make up for his shortage of cigarettes. Zoro seemed pretty calm about it like the older members, but it was Luffy who everyone was looking to.

The captain looked down a little and the brim of his hat shadowed his eyes. Rape, murder, torture, the pirate clenched his fists in hate of the man he didn't even know, kill him. If it was in a fight, he knew he could do it, but he doubted the man would put up even a small fight. He thought of Arya putting the blade through Meryn's head when he was finished fighting, and Jon doing the same with Pester. Could he really do the same thing? "I'll kick his ass," Luffy stated again and this time he wasn't talking about a large group of people, they knew he was only thinking of Ramsey.

"All the other men though," Arya continued, pressing the topic. "Winter is coming. Food is scarce and feeding tens of thousands of prisoners won't be easy. If you send them away after they lose, they'll be right back to take it as soon as we leave again."

"You're talking about people's lives," Nami stated a little too harshly. "Does following the Boltons make them all equally guilty?"

"There are definitely monsters in the World Government," Sanji agreed, "but there are good Marines too." His analogy was spot on, "I can't blame all of them for what their leaders are doing." His tone started to change to fury though as he thought about the girl in danger and he roared, "But this isn't exactly like that! I'd kill them all to get to Sansa-chwan!"

Gendry sweatdropped at the complete switch in perspective. The knight took charge, "Why don't we take Winterfell first, then talk about what we'll do with the prisoners?"

Everyone agreed as none of them wanted to stay on this topic any longer than they had already. Luffy smiled and started playing with the pieces on the map as Bran continued with the plan, but the pirate's mind was elsewhere. I don't want to murder anyone, but I will if I have to. He thought about Crocodile, Arlong, and Enel. Always being able to leave after a fight allowed him to beat up enemies and not have to worry about them since he used to be traveling a large ocean, but he was stuck on this island now and had to deal with his enemies even after they got their asses kicked. If those three were in front of him now, and he had the option to kill them, would I? He knew he'd kick their asses, but murder them? Thinking about this was upsetting him, and he didn't like it, so he decided to focus on the chess pieces in front of him and cracked a smile again.

Later that day...

Ghost and Summer were lying on the deck next to each other. It was still cold this far north, but most of the crew had just been on an excursion around the tip of Westeros, they weren't really feeling it and a few of them weren't even wearing one layer of coats.

Zoro was about to go for a cold water swim, when he heard an interesting conversation behind him and turned around. He wasn't wearing a shirt and he walked over to Arya and Jon on the grass deck of the Sunny. "...in the bag on my saddle." Jon finished explaining and the girl with him ran to the side of the ship and looked off towards the shore they were anchored near.

The remaining defeated Night's Watchmen had long since left after being defeated by one man, Pester's body was taken too. Jon's horse was still lying on its side though with arrows in it and Arya could see a saddle bag partially under it. "Let's take the Mini Merry and go-" the girl heard a loud splash and looked over a little to see Zoro pop his head out of the water and start swimming. "Or you could do that," she muttered.

The girl went swimming back at Hardhome and the frigid water felt like a hundred knives sticking into her body. At the time she was doing it to save her brother, so she didn't think about it, but making the conscious decision to jump in when there wasn't a rush, she shook her head and stared after the swordsman.

Zoro stopped where he was swimming and looked back. He treaded in the water staring straight into Arya's eyes and smirked, "Do you want me to get your sword, little girl?"

Jon was walking towards his sister on the deck when the girl in front of him dropped her black coat on the ground. "Arya?" he asked and then sprinted forward with a hand outstretched. He was too late though and the girl was off the side.

AHHHH. Ok, not nearly as bad as Hardhome, the girl splashed out of the water and started doing the frontstroke towards shore. Zoro nodded his head as the girl swam by him and she smiled despite the freezing cold water surrounding her. Her master's respect was something she constantly looked for and she knew staying on the ship while he went to get their swords would lower his opinion of her.

She actually jumped in, Zoro grinned after the girl swam past him. She's different than she was when we picked her up, I've changed her. He was proud of her, and he never knew being a teacher could feel so rewarding. It was like there was a miniature him on the ship, and he liked her. He also got the satisfaction of seeing Sanji's broken expression every time the girl started training with her sword.

The green haired man swam after Arya and they reached the shore at the same time. The girl started shivering and Zoro had to stop himself from doing the same as he walked towards the horse. Every step in the snow was freezing for the swordsman, but he had to keep up his image.

How is he not cold?! Arya followed behind her master and tried clenching her teeth and grabbing her arms to stop herself from shivering, but it didn't work. "Ok then," she muttered and started running through the snow. I'll have to keep myself warm somehow, she reached the horse and kept jogging in place as Zoro walked over and bent down.

The swordsman put one hand on the horse and lifted it off the ground while Arya pulled the satchel out from underneath. Jon was watching from the ship and his jaw lowered a little as he saw the horse get lifted by one hand and then dropped again as soon as Arya moved the bag.

The two freezing swordsmen stopped moving and looked down at the long leather bag in Arya's hands. It could definitely fit a few swords in it and the girl holding it could feel the shape of blades inside. "Open it up," Zoro commanded and the girl nodded, flipping the closed part open and reaching her hand in carefully.

"They're in sheaths," she said and slid the two blades out of the bag. Zoro could instantly tell which was his from the shape of the blade, but Arya was surprised by the size of the blade Jon had made for her. It's larger than Needle, she looked at the long black sheath that was several inches wide. She handed Zoro the other, slightly thinner blade, in its red sheath and the man grabbed it and smirked.

The older swordsman felt the blade was a tiny bit too heavy, but it was still in its sheath. He slid it out a few inches and stared at the one sided silver blade, with the back being black and blunt. Just from looking he could see it was sharp, and crafted with precise skill. Arya watched him as he slid the sword out of its red sheath and held it in his right hand. He slashed it across his front and then back the other way. Lighter than Yubashiri, he realized the leather sheath weighed more than he thought and the blade was actually a bit on the light side, but I can adapt.

Arya had enough of watching him and she looked at the black blade in her right hand. Unlike the black and red striped hilt of Zoro's sword, hers looked more like her brother's. It had a silver cross shaped hilt extending out both ways just like Needle did, but it was thicker, probably to match the blade. The ends of the cross were little round knobs, and the part at the end of the hilt was in the shape of a direwolf made of black wood. She held it out in front of her and it was a longer blade than her old one as well as wider, but for some reason it wasn't any harder to lift than Needle was. I'm stronger now, the idea made her grin as much as getting this new sword and she slowly slid it from its sheath.

The other swordsman stopped admiring his own blade for a moment to watch as Arya removed hers from the black sheath for the first time. Both sides were sharp and the metal gleamed as she slid more of it out. There was an indent in the center of the blade that ran towards the tip. When she finally removed it from the sheath, she lifted it in one hand and held it vertically in front of her chest. She stared at the blade centered in front of her face and then curved it around the top of her head in a wide arc, stepping to the side with one leg and swiping.

Holding the heavier blade with one hand outstretched like that wasn't very difficult she realized, but then again she had been practicing with a heavier blade than this for the last month; she could handle it. The girl spun the blade in her hand and stepped back with one foot, placing it behind her other shoe and twisting with another swipe that cut across the air. The girl moved faster this time and didn't pause at the end of the swipe, twirling her blade and arcing it above her head before slashing down to the right. The slash was unexpected to the man watching her, as she showed no motion with her feet or head that she would make the attack before she swung.

The girl moved faster still and the grin on her face only grew as she jumped in the air and spun her body three hundred and sixty degrees with her sword out in front of her. Arya barely landed on both feet with her knees bent and had to use her left hand to push herself off the ground, but when she lifted her head, she still had her sword raised in her right hand ready to go.

Getting better, Zoro thought but didn't say anything, not wanting the girl to get a big head. As long as he was her teacher, he suspected she'd never get cocky because she'd always have someone better than her at her side. His smirk grew, And if I am the strongest swordsman on this island, then I now have a new goal. To make Arya the second best... no! He smirked wider, I'll make her stronger than me, he stopped and questioned his enthusiasm, or at least as strong. I will only get stronger with someone I can truly fight full strength against, so for now, I'll focus my efforts on making her stronger.

The girl was staring at the blade she held in front of her horizontally. She had the hilt in her right hand out to the side and ran her finger down the flat of the blade, right down the indent in the middle. It was only about three inches wide, smaller than most swords she'd ever seen, besides Zoro's and Needle. There are daggers thicker than this, she thought and then thought of something else that made her smile. A name, my sword needs a name.

Zoro could tell what the girl was thinking from the sudden change in her smile and he sheathed his new sword in its red cover. "Wait," he stated and looked down at his hip. He didn't remove his swords from his waist when he swam here because he was already planning on this from back on the ship. "Before we name our swords, there is something I must do." He removed Yubashiri from his waist and walked towards a tree near the shore.

Back on the ship, Jon was watching the swordsman with his sister carefully. He didn't know what he'd be able to do from here if the man tried anything, but he couldn't help but feel nervous. The two of them also seemed to have forgotten about the cold which he was amazed at since they were wet and one of them shirtless.

"What is he doing?" the man who owned a Valyrian steel sword, Longclaw, muttered as he watched the green haired swordsman walk to a tree with one of his swords in hand. He stared off as the man removed the blade from its sheath and he saw it was the broken blade Jon had replaced when he arrived at Castle Black. The swordsman got on his knees in front of the tree and Arya did the same as Zoro started to dig a hole in the shallow snow.

Nico Robin was also on deck and she covered one of her ears, having it reappear on the tree trunk above Zoro's head. The woman smiled and removed her hand after a few seconds, "It seems Swordsman-san is giving his sword a proper funeral."

Jon looked to his left at the woman who suddenly appeared next to him. She was silent in her approach and he felt a little nervous in her presence. "A funeral? For a sword?"

"I've heard of other master swordsmen who do the same," Robin said with a small smile.

Master swordsman huh? And he's been training Arya, Jon smiled and turned around. Arya, Bran, and in a few days, Sansa.

On shore, Arya waited until Zoro got back up, to get up herself. She thought it was admirable that he became connected with his swords enough to give one a proper send off like that. Remember what Syrio said, the sword is an extension of myself.

The girl looked at the blade in her right hand and she still hadn't put it in its sheath yet. Not without a name, she stared at the steel and thought of all her names. There was a long list of people she needed to kill, and she had good reasons for all of them. As she stared at her sword, she could see Illyn Payne's head on the end of it. He was the King's Justice, the executioner for the king on the Iron Throne. Justice, no that sounds pretentious, and what I'm doing isn't for justice at all. What I'm doing, is for...

"Vengeance," she whispered as she looked at her blade. Zoro looked down at the girl whose eyes were dark and cold as she thought about those people she wanted to kill, she needed to kill. She started walking back towards the water and sheathed her sword as she did. The faces of those on her list appeared in her mind and the girl growled, "Valar Morghulis. All men must die."

Zoro stared after her with a deep frown on his face. What about when your vengeance is complete? What will you do when there is no one left you want to kill? Your path leads to a point where training is no longer necessary, where you won't feel a need to get stronger. I have to change that.

"Sir, do you really believe what the merchant said?" a burly man with no hair on his head to speak of questioned. "It sounds ridiculous. There's no way such a thing could exist in the world."

The young, thinner man with a mess of black hair walked towards the crate in front of him. "How many men do you think I've tortured Hunder? One hundred? Two hundred?" Ramsey Snow reached down in the box in front of him and grabbed one of the six objects inside with his hand. "I hadn't even started to flay the merchant's legs when he was screaming everything he knew about his products."

Another of the group of twenty men, a close advisor of Ramsey looked back at the flayed corpse behind them and scratched his blonde scruffy beard. "But from Sothoryos? It sounds, well, you know how it sounds."

"I have my own doubts to be sure," Ramsey assured. He looked at his closest advisor. It wasn't that he trusted the man, he made it a habit not to trust anyone. He just respected Uther's advice the most of his men. Uther was smart, second to only him in strategy, and he was the only man he brought with him on the mission. The rest of the twenty were his father's men, his best men. Ramsey turned to Hunder behind him. "But there is only one way to be positive."

The large man nodded and then thought about Ramsey's last sentence. His eyes went wide as the young Bolton smirked. "Hunder, thank you for volunteering."

"I didn't..." the burly man was kicked in the back of the legs and he fell to his knees. The men behind him held him still while their Lord's son lifted one of the squishy objects from the crate.

"Now we'll be able to tell if the merchant's story is true or not," one of the smaller men holding Hunder still, Lyrro, snickered. He put the larger man in a headlock and pried his mouth open as the man struggled against them, believing the product to be poisoned.

"You should be honored," Ramsey stated as he got close and bent a knee in front of the man. He lifted the purple fruit curved like a banana with weird red swirls on it. The kneeling man gazed at the brightly colored object and the others stared at it too, "If the merchant is correct, you're about to become very powerful." He shoved the fruit inside the bald man's mouth and the others pressed his mouth closed.

A loud squish was heard as Hunder chomped into the fruit and his face distorted. He swallowed the whole thing against his will, and then they let go of him. He fell forward and stuck out his tongue wiped it with his hands and shouted, "That tasted like SHIT!" He didn't feel poisoned though, and hoped it wasn't a late acting one that would still be in effect later.

"So," Lyrro started, "you feel any different?"

"No, I just," the man was getting up and he burped a little and felt his stomach churn. "Oh fu-" He began swaying on his feet and the others backed away in nervous anticipation.

Uther stepped in front of Ramsey and drew his sword as the burly man drew his own. Hunder was swinging it wildly around himself with one hand and grabbed his head with the other, moaning loudly. "What's, going," his voice lowered every word he said, "on, here?" His skin started to change color, except it was unnoticable with the long black hair growing out of his arms and body. His clothes started to morph with him as he became wider, taller, hairier... much hairier.

Hunder's face stayed pretty much the same the whole time, but hair came up from his chest and merged with his head, wrapping around his bald scalp. While his face stayed the same, black hair covered his ears, the top of his head, and the back of his head.

The transformation stopped and Hunder started looking at his body in awe. "I-I became..."

"It worked," Uther said, sheathing his sword.

"Indeed," Ramsey grinned a wider grin than they'd ever seen him with. Forget holding onto the North, we're going to take King's Landing with these.

A/N Dum dum DUMMMM! Alright, so Zoro and Arya get their new swords, Luffy is faced with the hard question of what they're going to do with their prisoners if they take Winterfell, but who knows if they'll even be able to with the appearance of the first Devil Fruits in this story! Why, Why did someone like Ramsey have to be the one who found them?! The agony! Now we've got a good battle ahead of us as the Boltons obtain some Devil Fruits. Hope you enjoyed this latest chapter and thank you for reading and reviewing!

iitrnr

Great chapter. Thanks.

Your welcome XD! Haha thanks for reviewing!

raw666

So when is Luffy going to make the first kills. I suspect it will be with the Boltons, specifically a certain bastard that needs to be put down.

Oh he's thinking about it. Ramsey rapes his friends' sister, he tortures and kills, and he's pretty much in charge of their enemies. Hope Luffy thinking long and hard about something doesn't seem to OOC for him, it's just hard knowing that they won't really be putting up much of a fight... unless the Devil Fruits change that... XD

Shadowtail15

Great as always but it seems the chapters are getting shorter and are taking longer to update.

Thank you! The chapter size of the last few was smaller than the few before it, but this one was longer than the three previous so screw that trend XD! Also, I have work every day and a lot of different projects I'm trying to juggle at once, so it was taking me longer to post chapters, but I'll try to stay on top of it and keep updating, two in a row now!

thunder18

Great chapter Update soon

Thanks, I'll try! I still have one more chapter in reserves to post, but I'm going to continue writing this story for the first time in three weeks today, so I might be able to finish chapter 20 by tomorrow night if I focus.

Guest

So they've picked up Jon, where are they headed now? Essos or South to Kings landing?

Umm, neither. They be headin to Winterfell first! Bran dreams of Sansa's rape and they know where she is, they aren't going to leave her there in the hands of the despicable Boltons! Thanks for the review.

Guest

Yay! Three Starklings!

Yeah! Or... two and a Snow, or Targaryen... or something XD!

erin

wonderful chapter always , its great to see Jon finally join the crew.

Role of protective older brother for the two younger kids, CHECK. Love the guy and can't wait to see him in the next season, (CUZ #JON SNOW BEST BE ALIVE!) Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! 'Till next time!