Chapter 22:

Three days after fall of Winterfell.

Usopp woke up and yawned as he stretched his arms above his head. He was inside the castle walls, his room in the guest house having a great view of the Godswood, which was like this place's garden, except huge. The pirate got dressed and washed up with the bucket of water someone had brought in his room.

Most of the citizens lived in houses on the outside of the walls on the opposite side that they invaded from, so they didn't run into anyone on their way there the first time. However, most people worked inside the walls of the castle and were there during the rebellion. When the man with the long nose walked out of his room and out into the courtyard, many people turned and waved or smiled at the pirate bowman. He'd like to say he didn't enjoy the attention, but he wasn't that modest and boasted huge stories to the children who ran up to him as he walked down the snow-covered path.

He was only twenty feet from the front door of his building when he heard the door open again and turned around, seeing Nami walking out too. She spotted him and ran over, "You heading to the Great Keep?" He asked and she nodded at him. The woman walked over and smiled at the children around Usopp whose parents then called them, making them scatter. "Wonder what great breakfast they have for us today?" he said, trying to strike up conversation.

"Probably something a lot better than what they're having," she commented with a tilt of her head. The two of them looked across the courtyard to where a small portion of the enemy troops were chained up to a wall. There were so many prisoners they didn't have enough room for them and a lot of people were left out in the open like so.

The accommodations for the prisoners weren't very good, and they were fed a very minimal amount of food in this harsh winter. "At least they weren't executed," Usopp offered as a small consolation to his friend. He wanted to switch the topic and looked down at her stomach, "How are you feeling?"

"I keep telling you," she said in an exasperated tone. "The effects of the paralysis went away after twenty four hours." The girl smiled a little though and whispered, "But thanks, for asking."

He smiled back at her and they kept walking until they reached the keep where they walked right in. The guards all knew the pirates' faces and were told not to stop them; wherever they wanted to go was fine with the Starks. Besides, even without the Starks' approval, these people trusted the strange folks who came and helped them defeat the oppressive Boltons.

Nami and Usopp walked inside the building and down to the Great Hall. Before they even walked in, they could hear the laughing and loud shouting coming from the other side. "Sounds like you're having fun this morning," Usopp called out as he pushed the doors open and looked down the hall.

There was a long table at the end of the room that was empty of guards. At the head of one side of the table sat Jon whose wolf lay behind him. The man had just tossed a piece of meat over his shoulder and Ghost snapped his head up to get it when the others walked in. Next to him on one side was Rickon with Bran on his other side, while on Jon's left sat his younger sister Sansa.

It was the person sitting on Sansa's left that made the two pirates in the doorway smile wide and start running forward. "Arya!" they shouted at the same time and raced towards the youngest Stark female who turned her head around towards them. The Stark boys on the other side of the table saw the pirates walk in and were waiting for this from the second they heard Usopp shout.

The two girls stopped laughing and turned around just in time to see the pirates sprinting towards them. "Be gentle," Sansa warned in a stern motherly tone. Nami and Usopp slowed down so they wouldn't hurt Arya, but they still wrapped her in hugs from either side as the girl tried to push them away softly. Sansa sighed, not seeing why she even tried in the first place.

"I knew you'd be alright," Usopp said with a smirk as he pulled back from the girl. "Like poison could beat you, as if!" he started laughing and the others did too.

The man on Arya's left chuckled and put an arm around her shoulder, "Guess there was no need for us all to be worried in the first place."

Nami and Usopp shared a look and then chuckled at Gendry, "Some of us more worried than others," the orange haired girl mentioned and all the Starks joined in with their laughs too. They would always go in to check on the injured girl, and Gendry was almost always in there sleeping or pacing the floor. The man looked away and dropped his arm from Arya's shoulder, going back to his food which he ate rather quickly.

Arya chuckled and elbowed her friend in the side, "Thanks Gendry," she said. She was sincere about it too; any time she woke up for two days and moaned in pain, Gendry was with her and called for Chopper who gave her more sedatives and painkillers to dull the intense pain. The reindeer was noticeably missing from breakfast, but on Bran's other side that Rickon wasn't sitting at, Franky was next to him eating some delicious pancakes, courtesy of an also-missing Sanji.

"Where is everyone?" Usopp asked as he took the other head of the table and Nami sat on his right, leaving an open space between her and Gendry in case Robin showed up.

Arya went back to her food and was eating like she hadn't had solid food for three days, which she really hadn't. Between bites, she mumbled, "Zoro came to see me this morning when he heard I was up, but I bet he's back to training now. Don't know where the others are though."

A few of them gave each other small looks knowing some of what had happened. Usopp and Nami looked at each other and frowned, sadness on their faces as they thought about their captain. They were devastated when they heard about their friend Ace who they all met in Alabasta, but Luffy was taking it much worse. They were not only shocked to see their captain kill that Uther guy, but they also heard from Zoro that he brutally drowned Ramsey too. Once the swordsman followed up with telling them how the man had Ace's fruit, they understood what made their captain snap so much.

Each of them wanted to comfort the teen, but he'd been moping around in his room until the times they went to see him. Once they did, he would instantly lighten up and they really felt like they were making him feel better, but their captain kept acting so different. He would stay closer to them when they walked around and was always looking off in the sky like he was waiting for something. Zoro finally decided to let him have some alone time to think, which many thought was a bad idea, but he assured them Luffy wouldn't do anything stupid. They all knew what he meant by that and none of them could see him doing it.

Franky looked down at his plate and thought about where Chopper probably was. They'd left the Sunny in a lake up the river from the coast, near a town called Torrhen's Square, with lots of guards protecting it, courtesy of the Starks. The cyborg didn't need to worry about the ship as much and was able to stay with the rest of the crew in Winterfell. He assumed the reindeer was with Sanji.

The chef had been pretty quiet with the rest of the crew the last few days. He went back to Wintefell to bring Nami to the Sunny for treatment back when the battle had just finished, and was with the crew when everyone gathered together for Chopper's diagnosis of what was wrong with them. Everyone celebrated when the doctor came out of the medical bay and said that Nami was stable and Arya was trying hard to pull through, (with his medications helping her out). The only ones who didn't seem too overjoyed were Luffy, who they all learned the reason why soon after, and Sanji, who most still didn't know why he was acting so depressed.

He would have let himself get killed before he hit a woman, Franky kept reminding himself of how much resolve the man had, and how he had to break the most sacred rule in his life. But he still saved us, the cyborg didn't realize that a few of the others were staring at his regretful face.

Sansa turned to Arya and scolded the girl, "Talk after you finish chewing." The red haired girl looked across the table at the boy who'd been living alone in the north, the younger brother who'd been with the husky and ragged Greatjon Umber, and the man who'd been surrounded by pretty much only men for seven years and they were all talking with food in their mouths too. "All of you need to learn some manners," she'd heard stories from all of her brothers about the last bunch of years, though she'd stayed pretty quiet about her own time in the capital.

"Sorry," the rest of the Starks and Jon Snow said, still with food in their mouths. They all tried to swallow at the same time and then started laughing at their sister's disgusted look. Sansa smiled as they all went back to their food and she looked around at them, I thought I was the unlucky one, but you've all had hard times. She cast a glance at her sister on her left and remembered something the woman Nico Robin told her. 'You need to talk to your sister about a lot of things. She's hurting deeper than the wounds she received in the battle.'

The red head couldn't even tell at the moment with Arya laughing and talking to the men on the other side of her. Usopp and Gendry were both talking about the other during the battle and the knight really thought the sharpshooter was an amazing fighter after fighting with him. Usopp already thought the man was probably pretty strong after what Arya had told them, but he was surprised when he watched the man take on five enemies at the same time and defeat them all.

After Usopp and Nami made their plates and were eating with the rest of them for a little while, Robin walked into the Great Hall as well. As soon as the woman with black hair, that now went just below her shoulders, walked in, Nami made eye contact with her. She said she wanted to talk soon, and Robin said during breakfast they could. Both women had something to tell the other.

While everyone was talking, eating, and laughing, Robin walked over and sat next to Nami. They didn't whisper so they could keep from raising suspicion, but they still were quiet enough in the rambunctious mess hall that no one overheard them while they spoke. After a short greeting, Robin got right to what she wanted to say, "I have a Devil Fruit." The weight lifted off Nami's chest as she had a small doubt that maybe Robin was trying to hide it and not mention it to anyone.

"I know," Nami said and Robin lifted her eyebrows. "Yeah, I could see everything while I was paralyzed." The navigator glanced back at the black haired girl arguing with her sister and then looked back at the archaeologist. "I saw something else too besides you pocketing that fruit," she continued, piquing Robin's interest. "There was more than one fruit in that box the guy was guarding."

Nico Robin shook her head, positive that she didn't see another fruit in there when she looked inside. Suddenly her eyes opened wide and she realized why Nami must have glanced across the table for a second, "Arya?" She asked and the woman next to her just nodded slowly. Nami had no idea what power her younger friend had, but it saved them both from the clutches of that despicable man.

"We need to start talking about," Nami began and sat up straight in her seat, gaining the attention of everyone around them. They'd been waiting until Arya was up and about to have this conversation, but now it was time to get things moving. "What we're going to do now."

"Repairs on the Sunny didn't take very long," Franky mentioned. Everyone had heard about the Greyjoy's attempted attack on their ship and there was some damage done to the bow, but Franky was able to mend the Adam Wood and keep their ship as strong as ever. "She's ready to sail whenever we need her."

"I think it will be good for Luffy if we leave here sooner, rather than later," Robin added on and the few Starks who were going to argue that they should stay for longer closed their mouths. It was the first time in years that they were all together like this, and none of them knew how long it would last.

Rickon stood up and cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention. "Lord Greatjon and I have been discussing the next plan of action. The Dreadfort. The home of the Boltons..." The others listened to the youngest person at the table as he talked about their defensive capabilities and then switched the subject completely to how they might not even have to fight them. "The traitor Rosse Bolton, is our prisoner," the boy's eyes darkened, "and as much as I want him executed, he's a valuable hostage."

"Huh?" Usopp asked, confused at what was going on. This preteen boy knew much more about politics than he did and he needed to be caught up on what was going on.

Jon cut in to explain a little, "We have a large portion of Bolton troops, but their remaining loyal men can defend the Dreadfort and force us to lay siege in the north. As we are now with our food and supplies, a sustained siege would never last. Having Roose Bolton as a hostage will force them to ally themselves with us."

"What has the traitor said anyway?" Arya sneered, her fury apparent in her voice. "Does he beg us to let him live?" Her siblings looked at her with weird looks and the girl looked around at them, "What?"

"Um," Bran started, shaking off the fact that his sister just scared the socks off of him. "Well, he hasn't really said anything so far. We told him Ramsey was dead, but he didn't even flinch in his cage. He didn't seem to care about his wife, Walda, either."

"We could use her against Walder Frey," Sansa suggested.

"Not a chance," Rickon stated with a shake of his head. "Frey doesn't give a shit about any of his family. Great Uncle Brynden said that mom executed his last wife in front of him and he didn't care..."

"The Blackfish is alive?!" Jon exclaimed, wondering where his brother got this news.

"Yes," Rickon stated with a small smile. "He escaped from the Red Wedding," Arya flinched noticeably but no one mentioned anything and her youngest brother continued. "He's in Riverrun, still flying Robb's banners.

"Aren't the Riverlands controlled by the Freys?" Robin asked, becoming a very knowledgeable person of all things in Westeros.

"Yes, but they are running it from the Twins..." Rickon continued to talk and Bran smiled proudly at his younger brother. The small boy had grown a lot in the time Bran had been apart from him, and he was now taller than both Bran and Arya. His arms were bigger and the boy was turning out to be a great warrior.

"I'm still stuck on the fact that we're letting Roose Bolton stay alive," Arya muttered out of nowhere and the others looked to the girl who'd been sitting there, angrily looking at her half-empty plate for a minute now. "He stabbed Robb," she looked up at glared into each of her siblings' eyes, "in the heart." Bran looked in her eyes and lowered her gaze as she turned to Rickon next, "He cut off his head," the youngest boy flinched and she turned to Jon, "and had it sewn on top of Grey Wind's corpse."

Even the hardened man of the Night's Watch couldn't look in his younger sister's eyes for any longer after that and he looked back at his own wolf, glad Ghost was still alive and by his side. Arya looked at Sansa, the older sister who'd been listening in horror, never hearing it in this much detail before. "They slit mom's throat and threw her off the Twins, dropping her in the river to rot."

The table was completely silent as Arya stood up and slammed her hands on the table. He was on her list, she didn't care about the benefits of keeping him alive, he had to die. "What can the Dreadfort do? Most of their forces are here," Rickon looked up at her again and the girl continued, "if we let that traitor live, we'll look like fools and be mocked by all of Westeros. The second Roose's men see their lord die, they'll no longer have anyone to be loyal to and we can put one of the lesser lords in command of the Dreadfort."

Usopp was still sweating a lot from the description of their oldest brother and mom's deaths, but he saw the people around the table considering what she was saying. "She might be right," Bran whispered, the first one to speak besides Arya in a while. "We can't let Roose Bolton's crimes go unpunished."

Rickon thought about what the Greatjon told him, but his own emotions were getting the best of him. He nodded along with his siblings and the table seemed to be in agreement here. "We'll sentence him today," Sansa stated, also agreeing with the horrible man's execution.

"Bran should give the sentencing," Rickon suggested but the older brother sitting on his chair objected.

"I don't know these people. Most of them have no idea who I am, and haven't seen me for years. You've been the Stark they were waiting for, and you're doing a great job too," he said to his frowning younger brother who had been waiting for Bran's arrival for so long to fill this role. "Besides, father always said that he who gives the sentence should swing the sword, and I have to admit I won't be able to do it."

Rickon went a little red in the face, "I don't think I could lop a man's head off in one swing either. Jon, would you..."

"I'm not a Stark," he reminded them as he leaned back in his chair. "I'd really like to do it," he added, showing how much each of them despised Roose Bolton. "But it can't be me."

"I'll do it," Arya said and the others looked at the girl who was still standing out of her chair. Gendry looked at the girl next to him and knew about the girl's list, assuming Roose was one of the people on it. "I'll kill him."

"You don't have to-" Sansa began but Arya cut her off.

"I know," Arya stated and looked at her sister, something glinting in her eyes, "but I want to." As Arya stood there, Sansa recalled something the Hound told her on the night of the Blackwater. "Look at me! Stannis is a Killer! The Lannisters are Killers! Your father was a Killer. Your brother is a killer. Your sons will be killers someday. The world is built by killers... so you better get used to looking at them. She stared wide-eyed at her sister and the look in Arya's eyes was definitely the look of a killer.

"Alright," Rickon said and looked around at everyone at the table. The pirates had stayed quiet for most of the family conversation, but they were still very much a part of this. "Then it's settled."

Hundreds, no thousands of people gathered in front of the main gate of Wintefell. Only a few dozen people stood in front of the gates, but before them was a massive army. The captured prisoners were chained and put in cages outside the walls and all the citizens of the outlying towns had come here for this historic moment.

"Roose Bolton!" Rickon shouted, a face recognizable to many people there. Standing next to him was Greatjon Umber, with Bran sitting atop his direwolf as well, staying silent. They set up a large rock and made a groove in it for this sole purpose, and it was sitting in front of the crowd of important figures at the gate looking out over the crowd. "For the crimes of treason, flaying, betrayal, oathbreaking, and regicide," the boy was trying to make his voice as low as he could as he confidently shouted over the crowd, but he stopped at the end of his sentence and a smaller girl with dark black hair walked up behind him. "I sentence you to die!"

Cheers and screams of approval shook the ground as thousands of troops and citizens of the north watched their true leaders return. The Starks were always good to them, and most had never stopped being loyal to Ned, and then his son Rob. The Boltons never had a chance of gaining their loyalty, even by marrying Ramsey off to Sansa. "Kill him!"

"Cut his fucking head off!" People in the crowd started throwing rocks at the man on his knees in between the huge crowd of people and Rickon's group at the gate. There were guards around the Stark boy and up on the castle walls to protect from any Bolton troops that might be hiding in the crowd, having escaped capture.

Two men, Jon and Gendry, went to either side of Roose Bolton and grabbed him under the shoulders, lifting the calm man to his feet. They didn't even have to drag him as Roose walked over and got back on his knees in front of the rock. However, both young men who brought him there slammed his head down hard on the rock so his neck was extended.

Most people in the crowd didn't recognize this girl who walked forward, but she was standing next to Sansa when Rickon was talking. Murmers shot through the crowd as they spoke of Arya Stark's reappearance. She definitely had the features of a Stark, taking after her father, and everyone watched as the girl walked forward and held the black sheath in front of herself horizontally.

Arya grabbed the sheath with one hand and the hilt with her right. She tried not to wince in pain as she pulled out the sword as her right arm was not fully healed yet. Chopper told her not to do this, said it would be a strain on her side stitches, but she told him she had to. The girl removed her long silver blade that was thinner than most and everyone wondered if she would be able to cut through his head in one stroke. That was always the most interesting thing to look for in a public beheading.

Luffy, Sanji, Zoro, Usopp, Nami, Chopper, Franky, and Robin stood in a line up on the stone wall above the gate. The sniper was looking around to help the guards look for possible interruptions, but his eyes kept shooting back to their nakama who was walking towards Roose Bolton. After hearing about the man's crimes during breakfast that morning, he agreed with having the man executed, but he wished it didn't have to be her.

Sanji stared down at Arya and for the first time in three days, he was able to completely get his mind off of the woman he kicked in the hands. He stared down at Arya and his heart went out to the child.

Another name off the list, Zoro, Nami, and Robin all thought as they stared at the girl and her sword, Vengeance.

Arya looked down at the man whose neck was facing the sky, his face pointed down at the other side of the rock. She had such a good angle to kill him at and it made her heart race. It had been years since the Red Wedding, but she remembered that night so well. It was playing over and over again in her head all day as she prepared for this moment, and she directed all her anger over it at this man. "Any last words?" she requested of the man.

Roose Bolton had stayed quiet from the moment he was captured, through all his time in the cages. He wouldn't speak to his own men when they sent some in there to report. He didn't show emotion when told of his son's death. Even now, a pregnant Walda Frey was sobbing in her cage as she watched her husband about to get killed, but he didn't give her a second glance.

Something happened that made everyone in the crowd closest to the beheading-rock become silent. The pirates on the wall could hear the man down below and it made shivers run down many of their spines, as well as some of the Stark children behind Arya.

Roose Bolton laughed.

The gutteral sounds he made came from his throat, but soon his mouth was open and the man was chuckling with his face tilting slowly up. "I had this shit stain on the map burnt to a crisp once, I'll do it again." The smile on Roose Bolton's face shocked many in the front of the crowd who took steps back. They thought he must have gone mad to be smiling in a moment like this, especially when they'd never seen him smile once before. "My seed will..."

Arya lifted her sword above her head and everyone stared in shock at the furious snarl on the girl's face as she brought her sword in one huge arc over her head and then all the way down where her blade stuck in the dirt after slicing cleaning through Roose Bolton's neck. "Nevermind," the girl muttered as she ripped her sword out of the ground, "I couldn't care less what you have to say."

Roose Bolton's decapitated head rolled off the rock and tumbled across the ground to the front of the roaring crowd. Everyone screamed and cheered and hooted and hollered. They were waving their hands around in the air and someone reached down and picked up the head, throwing it up in the air.

"These people are nutty," Franky said quietly as he watched two men fight over who got to hold Roose Bolton's head next.

"After that man flayed so many of their friends alive," Zoro started without turning to the cyborg, "I can't blame them." Luffy nodded and watched as Roose's torso slumped over and toppled to the side before Gendry and Jon went to drag it away.

"Still want to be the king of a place like this?" Zoro asked his captain, also without turning to him.

The two were side by side in the center of their crew and the others all looked inwards towards the two men. The younger, thinner boy reached back behind him and grabbed his hat dangling by a string. He placed the hat on top of his head and looked down at the crowd of people. These people were at the hands of cruelty for way too long. Whoever the King of this damn island was that allowed this to go on, he was now Luffy's enemy. "Yes," the pirate captain stated. He made an enemy of this world by taking down the Boltons, and he was prepared to finish what he started.

A/N Hey everyone! Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. Still looking for ideas on where to send the crew next since they have to go all the way around the bottom of Westeros to reach King's Landing. There's one final chapter of Westeros left and I hope you'll like it. Arya executed Roose, and now he and Ramsey are both crossed off of her list, even if Luffy stole one of her kills.

raw666

I have a feeling Petyr is about to feel the Mood Door very soon, though I wonder who will kill him, Ayra or Sansa?
Also will what he did in the books be revealed as well or at least indicated he did. Specifically people saying he was the one to institute Ned's father and brother to die in Kinglandings and helped start Robert's Rebellion in hops of killing the Starks for taking his dear Cat?

Yeah, throwing in the Petyr scene was just a hint of something I had an idea for, but would come much later. I've never seen that theory and haven't read the books, so I don't know about that, but Petyr is very very smart. I'm sure he can think of some ways to challenge the Strawhats.

thunder18

Great chapter Update soon

Thanks! I'll try!

god's executioner REBORN

Please let Peter Dinklage join the crew.

If you mean Tyrion, then I'll certainly try XD! I know I want to write a reuniting with him and Sansa, as well as him and Jon, and maybe Bran since he made the cripple boy the horse saddle thing. He was pretty good to the Starks and although his name is Lannister, he's accused of killing Joffrey and did kill Tywin, so i don't think Arya will have much of a problem with him.

GR

Baelish must be 1 hell of a nutjob to think he can still handle the situation. Who will spread knowlegde about Haki anyway?
that the sword went for "a mile" was real or not? I think half a mile is already as it best with how Sanji was trying to kick at the time.

P.S
can you make a crossover with Kenichi mightiest disciple?-assumping you know the manga.

No one will spread knowledge about Haki, and they'll probably never call it that, they'll just come up with their own terms as each of them gets stronger. Conquering King's Haki will emerge but they won't really know much about it, but if they get a lot stronger I'm sure they'll be able to teach themselves how to control it so they don't knock out their allies. Have not heard of Kenichi, sorry. Thanks again to everyone who reviewed! Till next time!