Chapter 21:

"Luffy," Zoro started and the pirate captain below stopped screaming but didn't turn his head. "Get out of that puddle," the water was rising, and this was the first thing that came to Zoro's mind.

Luffy sobbed a few more times and then mumbled in a raspy voice between choked sobs, "I'd rather just die."

Zoro wanted to go down there and kick his captain in the face for saying something like that. He'd risk his life for this man, one who he planned to help all the way through his goals. If Luffy was giving up on everything now... "You can't," the swordsman stated, knowing he must sound cold to the boy down in the hole.

"Ace said," the pirate mumbled and more tears started streaming down his face as he turned so his stomach was pointed at the ground. He punched the dirt beneath the small layer of water and punched again, creating a hole beneath him. "He said, he'd never die." Maybe he isn't dead, maybe he's, maybe Devil Fruits here, maybe, may- ahh, AHHH, "AHHHH! If Ace is dead, then I don't want to keep living-" this time Zoro couldn't help it and he was down in the hole, punching Luffy across the face and knocking the captain out of the water and into the wall of the large crater, where he made another crater in it.

"Are you kidding me?!" Zoro yelled angrily at the captain. He sprinted over and grabbed his captain by the throat. Luffy writhed around in his arms, trying feebly to break free. "You'd rather die?! What about us?! How do you think Nami, or Usopp, or Chopper would feel if you went and died right now?! Huh?!" Luffy stopped squirming as much and his eyes opened a little to look at the enraged man in front of him.

"Franky made a huge ship just for you! Your going to just roll over now and give up, ruining his dream too?!" Zoro realized he was breaking through, but he really was angry at the way Luffy was acting and he kept going. "We all followed you and got stuck here, on this place where most of us had to abandon our dreams! But you kept us going! You kept us together and we're all fighting for new dreams now, and you're going to just end it here?!"

Luffy sniffled and his running boogers flew back up in his nose. His eyes were still watering, but his lip stopped quivering as much. "Get a hold of yourself. Don't talk about dying like it's something that only affects you! What would any of us do if you weren't here? What would I do?" The swordsman thought at that moment what would happen if Luffy died. He wouldn't listen to anyone else on that ship as his captain, and he wouldn't want to be captain himself. He'd wind up wandering this barren fucking island by himself without his captain. "So pull yourself together Luffy, you promised Arya, Bran, and Jon that you'd take Winterfell back. Are you going to abandon them? And the rest of your crew inside those walls?"

Zoro released his captain's neck as he felt Luffy pushing against him. The rubber teenager stood up and took a deep breath, deeper than any Zoro had ever seen him take without turning into a Balloon. I still... I still have my nakama! Images of every member of his crew flashed through his mind in that moment and he planted his feet firmly on the ground. Luffy looked into Zoro's eyes and a moment passed between them where no words had to be said, thanking the swordsman for what he said and getting him back on his feet. "Of course I won't," Luffy reached back and grabbed his hat, which was pretty badly burnt, but still managed to stay on his head as he placed it on.

Jon rode Ghost around the back line of Stark bannermen over to Bran. His younger brother was sitting on the back of his injured direwolf that couldn't run around anymore due to many slashes on its legs. Summer was whimpering on the ground and Bran sat on its back, holding up his hands and shooting tiny fireballs at any enemy that got too close to him.

The boy was panting hard and he didn't know how much more of this he could take. His energy was depleting fast and he was on his last legs, "Bran!" Jon yelled as he slashed a man who broke through their thin lines and jumped off his large white direwolf.

"Jon! They're breaking through. Not enough people rose up against them and I don't know where Zoro went!" The two boys heard a shout of pain and saw one of the men closest to them fly back with an arrow in his chest. Their other men were backing up to form a small circle around them, but over two hundred Bolton troops were gathered in the square and approaching them.

Many enemies were covered in blood and they weren't looking very happy about this sudden uprising. "Behind us!" One of the Starks' men shouted and they turned to see Bolton banners flying about multiple squads as they charged from the other side and now had them cornered in the square.

Uther climbed his way back into Winterfell using his long roots and looked down from the walls as he got up. He smirked as he saw the small group of men around the two direwolves and their masters. "Finish them!" the man yelled as he jumped off the wall and landed down below safely. He had a large welt on his face and blood was dripping from his nostrils, but he managed to stay conscious after Sanji's kick and was back in the action now.

The Bolton troops all roared and hundreds moved in at once towards the two dozen or so enemies remaining there. "Tatsumaki!" Someone shouted over the shouts and everyone turned to see a huge funnel of wind shooting up in the sky, men flying up with it and getting slashed as they spun around.

"Zoro!" Bran yelled as he saw the green haired man who had all three of his swords out around him in the center of the twister.

"Dos Cien Fleur! Gigantesco Mano!" Others looked up at a walkway connecting two towers on the large castle. A woman with black hair had her arms crossed and hundreds of hands formed down below where they all merged into one huge hand that looked much more solid than a lot merged together. It took a lot out of Nico Robin to make this many hands, but it was necessary. "Smack!" she yelled and the hand swept across a line of the enemy, throwing dozens backwards as they tried to attack the Stark men.

"Bran!" someone yelled and the boy sitting on his wolf and his half-brother Jon looked up where they saw the belly of a large wolf that flew over their heads. Bran recognized the voice and his eyes went wide in shock as the wolf fell in front of him and pinned two men to the ground while the person on top slashed down with a shortsword and cut a foe, splattering blood in the air.

The man on the wolf removed his helmet and turned back to Bran and Jon, "Jon you're here too?!" Rickon shouted excitedly, the older brother too shocked by the young boy's appearance on the battlefield.

"Rickon!" Bran and Jon shouted at the same time.

"Charge!" a loud booming voice roared from the back of the square where the Stark men had been flanked. Everyone spun that direction and watched as Lord Greatjon Umber split a man in half horizontally with one swing of his sword. The army following behind him was much, much larger than the army surrounding Jon, Bran, and their men. Most of the people in the army were soldiers, but angry shouting civilians were charging too with weapons they took from captured Bolton troops.

Uther spun back and forth as he saw a man in full armor with a bull helmet charge through five men. He knocked them all backwards before having to parry a swordsman's blow, knocking the other man's sword out of his hand and high up in the air before following through with a slash down his chest. Behind the crazy knight who looked like a bull, a man with a long nose pointed a bow and fired releasing seven arrows at the same time. All of them exploded upon contact with each person that they hit, square-on with perfect accuracy.

"Enough!" Ramsey's number two man shouted at the top of his lungs and held his arms out to either side, while shoving his feet in the ground. Out from the tips of his fingers, long brown roots shot out and wrapped around the long-nosed bowman and the knight, tangling them up. Meanwhile, his feet shot out roots that ripped through the ground and emerged all over the place: under the wolves' legs, around the green haired swordsman, in front of the army, tangling the men on the front lines and bringing down Lord Greatjon.

"Let them go!" Someone shouted and Uther looked up right as the man who shouted at him dropped down from the upper wall. The boy was covered in burns and his fists were bloody, but his eyes were terrifying as he glared straight at Uther.

Uther watched the man drop to the ground in front of him and they stared at each other for a few seconds. Luffy didn't feel the ground under him break, but he heard the man as he was about to shoot roots through the floor to wrap around the enemy kid's legs. Right as Luffy jumped, the ground was ripped open and two brown roots flew up. The pirate reached down and grabbed the tips of these roots, then yanked as hard as he could, pulling Uther three feet into the ground as the man screamed in pain.

Zoro cut the roots around him and Gendry managed to do the same a few seconds later. The swordsmen were pissed they let themselves get caught off guard, and now they focused on the other Bolton men who were realizing they were surrounded on all sides, but as long as they had Uther, they were keeping their weapons raised.

"Fucker!" Uther released the bowman while the knight was already free, and with his free hands he pointed his arms forward and his arms connected, turning completely brown and wooden. His sole arm extended out fast and became sharpened at the point, but Luffy sidestepped it and then punched the wood on the side, splintering it and then snapping it off completely. Five roots shot out from where the wood broke and wrapped around the teenager, making Uther smirk and everyone rooting for Luffy gasp thinking he might have been caught.

The boy getting wrapped in roots pushed his legs down on the floor and his skin turned red. His body strained having to use this form two times so close together, but as soon as he had the burst of strength, he spread his arms and the roots around him ripped apart. He threw an arm behind him and it started spinning around and getting tighter and tighter as he spun it. Ace, Luffy hesitated for a second, but then saw Bran and Jon and their wolves covered in tightening vines. His mouth turned into a snarl and he focused on his opponent, "Gum Gum," he shouted and everyone in the square was silent as Uther tried to pull himself from the hole he was yanked into. Luffy's twisted up, steaming, red arm flew forwards so fast that only one other person in the entire place could see it, and that was Zoro. "JET RIFLE!" his arm slammed into Uther's face and the man's head snapped back so far that a loud cracking sound was heard.

The man was unable to get thrown backwards because when Luffy pulled on his leg vines, he was pulled into the ground so far he couldn't even escape. Only his head and his upper torso were showing, and the fist hit him so hard his neck snapped over his spine. Usopp and Robin stared in shock at the man whose neck was so far back there wasn't a chance in Hell that he was alive.

Luffy killed him, Usopp thought with a small gasp as he lowered his bow. At the same time, all the remaining Bolton troops started lowering their weapons too and dropping them on the snow and blood covered floor.

"Winterfell is ours!" Greatjon Umber shouted and rose his large broadsword, dripping in blood, above his head. "Long live the Starks!"

Jon looked at his younger, crippled brother and smiled. Then he looked over at his youngest brother who got off his direwolf and ran over to give them hugs. "Bran! Jon! Rickon!" The three of them looked up and saw a teenage girl with red hair up above them on the walkway the black haired woman was standing on. Sansa turned to the older woman and asked, "Could you take me down there like how you brought me up earlier?"

"Sorry," Robin replied with heavy eyelids. "I think, I used up, too much strength," the woman's legs couldn't hold her well anymore and she slumped down with her back against the wall.

Sansa looked down at her brothers again, and was about to race through the castle to get down to them. But first, she looked at the woman who was breathing hard next to her and she bowed as low as she could, "Thank you so much." She said and had tears of joy in the corners of her eyes.

"You're welcome," Robin said and smiled at the young girl before her.

"Do you want me to kill him?!" Asha Greyjoy yelled angrily at the blonde man who wasn't backing down in front of her. Sanji's heart was racing and his mind was spinning as he tried to come up with an option that involved him saving Franky, Chopper, and Arya, but also kept him from hurting a lady. "If not, then don't move as my men restrain you."

This is it! I only have a few seconds before she stabs Chopper in the throat. He saw the men start to move and the woman didn't look like she was playing around. There's no one else to fight her! Where's Nami-san at a moment like this... Right! She's injured too, and I need to get Chopper to her as well! He knew what he had to do, but at the same time he couldn't force his legs to move.

"Damn it Sanji! She's going to kill him if you don't move!" Franky roared at the unmoving cook standing above him.

Sanji's eyes met Chopper's at that exact moment and he saw so much fear in the young reindeer's eyes. Chopper didn't deserve this; besides ladies, Chopper deserved this less than anyone. At the moment Franky yelled, Sanji saw the sheer terror in his nakama's eyes, and his legs moved. He'd been willing them to for a while, and they finally agreed, kicking off the deck so hard that he was in the air in front of the woman holding Chopper within one second. His leg was flying forward and he angled it so it hit her right in the hands, knocking her sword away off the boat.

When he kicked her hands, he heard cracks and his heart skipped a beat as the woman screamed at the feeling of broken bones. He always said he'd rather risk his own live than hurt a woman, allow himself to die if it meant not hitting one, but risking other people's lives too? He couldn't let Arya die for his chivalry, yet, I hit a woman, as Sanji hit the deck, his eyes went dark and his self-loathing went through the roof.

The Ironborne saw their commander's weapon get kicked a mile into the distance and she backed up while holding her mangled hands in front of her. Even though Sanji tried not to put as much power into the kick as he could, he had to move fast enough for her not to have time to shove the sword in Chopper's neck; he couldn't do a soft kick at that velocity.

Asha knew she could no longer fight; her hands were broken and she could no longer wield a weapon. The fighter in front of her was fresh, and he looked even stronger than the other two they'd been fighting. Enough was enough, "Get back on the ships! Withdraw!"

Every person there was relieved to here those words come out of her mouth and they all jogged back to the sides of the ship and jumped off. Chopper didn't waste a second and ignored his own injuries, as well as Franky's for now. He sprinted straight up to Arya who was in a dangerous enough condition for Sanji to have come all the way back from Winterfell to get his help.

"What happened?!" the reindeer demanded to know. He got no response and turned to see Sanji on his knees looking down at the floorboards. "Sanji!"

"Huh," the man turned and his head snapped up a little at the urgency, "She said she was poisoned when she was still able to scream." He remembered on their trip when her screams got quieter and he couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Right," the reindeer said and lifted up the girl carefully. "We have to stop the bleeding first, then comes the poison. She has two deep cuts on her sides, possible injury to her internal organs. Franky," Chopper ordered in his most serious tone and he was obviously in charge right now, "you rebuilt yourself once, you must know a few things about surgery right?"

"Yeah, I'm no pro but..."

"Good, come with me," the reindeer looked back at Sanji and his expression softened for a second. "Th-Thank you Sanji. I know, how hard it was for you to do that."

The blonde man just looked back down and muttered, "Go help Arya."

Chopper nodded and raced inside the cabin, running to the med bay with Franky right behind him.

"Lord Baelish," a messenger greeted as he walked up to the Lord of the Eyrie, one of the seven kingdoms of Westeros. "A message for you from Winterfell," Petyr grinned, having lots of spies in the keep. If it was from Roose Bolton, the messenger would have said so, which meant it was in fact from a spy.

"Thank you very much," the Lord said with a nod of his head, taking the sealed scroll. He opened it and read the letter from top to bottom without stopping, then he read it again, and again. The messenger left the room his Lord was sitting in, leaving the man alone with his thoughts. I never considered this option, he prided himself on thinking of everything. If Stannis won the battle, he would have gone in and defeated him, taken Sansa, married her, and the Eyrie and the North would take King's Landing from the Lannisters. Had Roose won, he would have done the same exact thing, only with more support from the Northerners and less from the Riverlands who were close allies with the Boltons. Though Walder Frey would have easily joined my side if he thought I was winning.

But the Starks, he cursed under his breath and started pacing the room. There was no way for him to take the North now and retain the support of the Northerners. "Even if I marry Sansa, she isn't the Wardeness of the North." Bran and Rickon were both alive, and they're in Winterfell. "If I can't have the North, I'll need to cement our alliance. Instead of going to her," he grinned, "I'll bring Sansa to me. Make her my wife, and make the North my closest allies. Of course Cersei will turn on me, but she has always been an enemy, a formidable one, but one I can defeat."

"There's only one wildcard," he looked back at the letter and read about the strange man with his impossible power again. His spies wouldn't lie to him, and everything else in the letter sounded reasonable. Could power like that exist? He remembered telling Cersei once that knowledge was power, and she responded by almost having her guards kill him on the spot and stating, "Power is Power." With an ability like that, taking Westeros will be much, much easier.

"My Lord!" the messenger ran back into the room and exclaimed as Petyr Baelish was putting down the parchment. There was another man with the messenger and Petyr's eyes opened wide as he saw the doctor who entered his office.

"Is it done then?" Lord Baelish questioned. The doctor nodded and held his hand out in the hall, requesting his Lord to follow him. "Is he completely healed?"

"Unfortunately," the doctor began, "his injuries were too severe and we lost him for quite a while. When he came to, he was in a coma for a long time, and although I continued work on his body, I was afraid his mind would never heal after so long beyond." The doctor led Lord Baelish down the hall and they both stopped in front of the door and turned back to the messenger. Petyr asked him to leave and the man nodded and left without another word. "Can he be trusted?"

"No one can be trusted with this besides us," Littlefinger replied and the doctor quickly nodded, understanding what breaking that promise would mean.

"Although he has woken up, it is clear he does not retain all of his memories. He follows my tasks and my modifications have given him incredible strength, though he hasn't said a word yet. In fact, he's more like a dog than ever now," they entered the room and Petyr grinned wide at the sight before him. The doctor held out his arms with a proud look, "May I present, Sandor, 'The Hound' Clegane!"

A/N Hey everyone, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter. Winterfell has been taken! Yippee! We'll probably have a few more chapters up in the North as things start to get settled, then the crew will be off again on their next arc. Looking for ideas on where to send them next; check out a map of Westeros and give me something reasonable in relation to their current location. I hope you liked Zoro's little pep talk with Luffy, but I really couldn't see him accepting Luffy's desire to kill himself. He knew it was a weak moment for his captain, but his words really pulled him through, (at least for now). Also, Sanji had to go against his code in order to save Arya, (and Chopper) (and maybe Franky too, though him probably the least), but mostly for Arya whose in critical condition with Doctor Chopper coming to save her. Next time we get discussions and action involving the most important prisoner in Winterfell... figure it out :P, anyway, time for reviews:

Ralman23

Ok, good chapter. Damn Sanji better do something...

Thanks! And yeah, Sanji's foot was forced, leaving a very depressed chef, mwah mwah mwaaaahhhh, *sad music plays* It's ok Sanji!

Wolvenstrom

Did Arya just get Yami Yami powers?

Nice, if less overpowered due to the scarcity of devil fruits at the moment.

No comment... ;)

raw666

And were soon coming to the climax, I wonder how this adventure will end. Though I am curious if they will spend time upgrading the North before heading south. I can imagine long range muskets, cannons and other more powerful weapons will change the balance of power away from magic and knights, forever.

BAM! Your comment hit me like a freight train. I'd never even considered all these options. I feel like the pirates wouldn't really be into giving these people weapons of mass destruction like cannons and muskets, considering how the entire island is always at war with each other. They'd probably feel like giving guns to these people would just result in the slaughter of thousands of innocents, even if they are fighting for the enemy. IDK really, haven't put much thought into it, but they will be heading south pretty quickly, as they are pirates and have an adventure to get to. Maybe if they're feeling a party, they may stay a few more days than necessary, but their ship is setting sail soon.

GR

So, Luffy unlock CoK first intead of CoC, hope Sanji make it thoguh his code but seeing from the Violet saga , he woldn't.
P.s
Have you seen Kaidou in today chapter?-my time zone 11 hours faster than your time zone it seem

I think Sanji could have made it through his code with another Lady's life on the line. In the Violet saga, she was just going to kill him which he'd said many times he was okay with. Haven't seen Kaidou yet, would rather wait until I see him in the anime, but for my story One Piece Tourney, I'll probs have to look at him to describe him in his fight.

Okiro Benihime

Alright, you wrote a lot so I'm not gonna copy and paste both full reviews here, but I'll mention the review anyway. "None of this "I'm gonna send them early because they're too OP" shit" I not you, get to decide when the Straw Hats arrive in Westeros. I put them here before Thriller Bark because that was the Straw Hat crew I wanted to write about when I started this. ""let's give their enemies powers because I have no idea how to write it otherwise" shit." I gave them powers to make the battles more intense, and to keep the Straw Hats progressing in strength even without the enemies they would have had to fight otherwise. If Westeros and OP are the same world, which in this story, they are, then Devil Fruits do exist and they are appearing here. "Ramsey Bolton got the Mera Mera? There's making it challenging for the straw hats then there's making it impossible. Because the Straw hats CANNOT beat Ramsey as it stands, unless you wanna pull out Haki randomly, which at that point would be an asspull and difficult to believe." At this point you're just getting annoying with all the random 'facts' you're coming up with like how obtaining Haki in a stressful situation is an 'asspull' and hard to believe, because that's literally one of the only two ways to get it other than being trained, and considering there's no one to train them here, it was the only way for them to get it. You can be stuck in the way you wished this story was written: In the current timeline, with no Devil Fruit Powers, and you know what, it could have been a good story, but that's not this story, so stop pretending like it's trying to be. Umm, and thanks for the reviews... XD

Aperson

Is luffy crying or laughing like a sadistic maniac

Crying. Waaa, just doesn't seem like the type of cry Luffy would make right? He's more of a screamer, and AHHahhhah ahhhh when you shout it in a sad way sounds like crying. Haha thanks for the review.

Haki has been introduced now, although they won't really know what it is, so future Logia users beware, you're not invincible. Remember, leave me feedback on what you thought of the Winterfell arc and where you think they should go from here. 'Till next time!