The minutes felt like hours to Rufus as soon as he woke up in an infirmary in Marineford. Even though he was quiet the whole time of treatment, he emulated so much anger from his failure that the doctors were frightened the entire time.
Even though Rufus was annoyed by them, he doesn't do a thing to hurt them. After all, there's no reason to bite the hands that are healing him.
That didn't stop the moronic doctors from running out of the room as soon as they were done though.
With Rufus alone, he can finally stew about what exactly happened these past few days. For the first time in his entire career in CP 8, he failed a mission.
For the first time ever, an outsider not only survived his hunt, but utterly defeated him, and killed three of his men. The thought of that girl, being free and happy with her friends, makes him so mad that he creates a ball of explosive clay in his hand, and throws it to the window to blow it open!
The doctors run back to the room from the sound and are stunned at the sight of a truck sized hole in their wall.
The destruction didn't improve his mood at all, but a new distraction arrived when a door started getting carved open from the hole.
His expression remains blank while he watches the air door swing open to find Blueno on the other side. "Wow, you sure look like shit."
"Yet you're the one stuck to a bed." Blueno comments back as he steps out of his door, with a knocked out Lucci on his back.
The rest of CP 9, along with Nero, is quick to follow him, with the ability to walk, or limp through the doorway on their own.
At the sight of the injured people, the doctors get to work on escorting them off to another treatment room.
When they try to approach Nero though, he shoos them away, and takes a seat by his boss' bedside.
When the two agents are alone, Rufus looks up to his new recruit. "So, what made you lose the key?"
Nero quietly gulps at the question, because of what happened the last time he failed.
Thankfully, Blueno's analysis of the explosion man was more than correct, with his right arm the only one unbroken, with the other in a cast, while his right leg is elevated in a cast.
Seeing as how he can't give chase as easily as Lucci did, he opens up about his failure. "That bird and long nosed man, I think his name was Sniper King, took me down. I was able to hurt the bird, but I underestimated that sniper. He had all kinds of tricks from explosives, pellets, and even a dial. I wound up getting burnt..."
In fear of punishment, he drops his knees to the floor, and lowers his head to beg for mercy. "Please give me another chance! I promise to do better!"
Rufus scowls down at the groveling, because it reminds him of a dreadful time.
A time where he and Andreos were forced to do the same kind of groveling, as children. Whether it was to beg for scraps, or forgiveness for getting caught stealing, so they wouldn't be beaten to death. Each time pissed him off for being so weak.
To get the memory out of his head, he quickly sits up on his bed, and shouts at him. "Get the hell up!"
Nero flinches back up, and is ready to get hit, but instead of receiving a blow, he gets a lecture.
"You can't get anywhere by groveling! As a member of CP 8, you must never beg for anything! Especially not for forgiveness! Do you hear me?!"
He's quick to nod, but is confused. "You mean, I'm still a part of your unit?"
He growls in annoyance of him not understanding, so he spells it out for him. "Don't lump me in with the cat. I don't throw away people when they're still able to grow. Use these failures as fuel to get stronger, and prove to everyone that you deserve to be here. As long as you are in my unit, I don't want to hear you beg again, or I'll blow up your tongue, got it?!"
Nero gulps from the threat, but he got the message clearly by saluting him. "Yes sir!"
Rufus' lips cracked a small grin from his change in attitude, and goes to give an order for him to rest, but stops when the door is slammed open.
Both men look to the door to find Aokiji walking inside with an unconscious, shirtless, man in his arms.
At first, the agents couldn't recognize the one-armed man, because his entire left side, from his hip to his shoulder where his arm used to start from, is covered in bandages.
As soon as Rufus got a closer look though, he's amazed to see that it's the subordinate who he believed was killed in the ship's explosion! "Andreos?!"
"Ah, so he is yours. I found him floating in the water after the battle. The doctors just finished treating him. He should be up in a few hours." Aokiji sets him on the bed, with his back to the men who are speechless from the sight of their comrade surviving.
Aokiji looks back at the two, and continues to tell them what happened after the fight. "The Straw Hats got away with both girls, and Enies Lobby turned into a wasteland from the buster call. Spandam's getting sent to Impel Down for this, but headquarters is working to keep this under wraps. Once all three of you are recovered, you're to report back to base."
He looks down at Nero to see that he hasn't been treated yet. "You need to get healed as well. Can you walk? I can carry you to where the others are treated."
"I can walk, just lead me there please." Nero's quick to answer by standing up, so he doesn't risk being carried, and follows the admiral out of the room.
Once they're gone, Rufus looks to his unconscious friend. Seeing him broken, but alive, brings him massive relief to know that the last of his childhood friends didn't die from this mission.
Tears start rolling down his face, but he doesn't care, because he's alone. With no one to judge him for expressing his emotions, he's not only free to feel the joy of Andreos surviving, but mourn for Nishiki and Lareos' deaths.
He's known those two since he and Andreos started training at Cipher Island with them, and the rest of their generation. When they graduated, those four were the only ones who survived.
And now there were only two left thanks to that demon...
When remembering the cause of all this, he wipes off the tears with his good arm. He growls in frustration of all that he lost, and looks out the window.
Even though he can't see the Straw Hats' ship, he knows that his target is out there. He vows that one day, he will make her suffer as painfully as possible before she dies by his hand.
****************************************************
With the crew having made their escape from Enies Lobby miles away, the Straw Hats that are uninjured are still wary of any pursuers that could be after them.
As soon as Chopper was able to move, he took Rose below deck to keep her from getting in the line of fire, and so that he could concentrate.
As soon as she's laying on the floor, Chopper tears off Rose's left sleeve with half her shoulder open, to reveal the sword wound. He's quick to stop the bleeding by stitching up the cut with his medical tools. Once the bleeding stops, he checks her pulse to see that it's weak, but not fatal. If she had lost any more blood, she would've needed a transfusion.
He quietly sighs in relief of that, because he doesn't have the equipment to perform that yet.
Once he finishes bandaging that wound, he checks the injuries on the rest of her body, and bandages accordingly. When he gets a closer look at all the other bruises, and shallow cuts, on her, it brings him back to when he first healed her injuries back on Drum Island.
For his whole life, he was treated like an outcast, but she was the first person, outside of Dr. Hiruluk and Dr. Kureha, to treat him kindly. Seeing her so comfortable with her powers, and showing so much interest in his own abilities, made him feel like he wasn't such a freak after all.
When he remembers all the times that she helped him, but he couldn't even notice that she needed the same thing, his heart starts to break... "I'm sorry Rose. I wish I noticed what you were dealing with..."
He snaps out of his sadness from the sound of footsteps in the hallway, and looks at the doorway to see Nami reaching the doorway. Once the navigator looks inside, she can see his sadness, and goes up to his side. "Do you need any help?"
He sniffles a little before he shakes his head, and finishes re-bandaging Rose's, right, black eye. "N-no, I'm ok. Most of her injuries are bruises, and small cuts, so her life's not in danger. I can't do much else unless she wakes up though..."
Nami can see tears threatening to fall from his eyes, so she kneels beside him, and pats him on the shoulder. "If that's the case, I can help her with the rest of this. You should go take care of the boys' injuries."
The doctor hesitates for a moment, but he knows that he can't leave his other patients waiting, so he relents. "Ok, thank you."
"Of course." She watches him rush off to help Luffy, Sniper King, and Shriek with their injuries, and looks down at the fragile looking girl below her.
Seeing all the bandages that Chopper already used, for all the injuries she went through, twisted her stomach. She sees the last few cuts on her uncovered arm, and starts bandaging her.
Once she's finished, she grows frustrated by her friend's recklessness, and flicks her forehead. "Geez, do you know how scared we were?! We almost lost you, you idiot! Just because you have all that power, and knowledge, doesn't mean that you can shoulder everything!"
With no response from her, she deflates, and softly frowns at her. "Look, I don't care about what you know. Our time together was real, and so is our friendship. You'd better wake up soon, so I can tell you this properly."
She checks her body for any more untended injuries, but there was nothing else to fix, so she stands up. "I'm gonna check on the others, I'll be back."
She carefully watches her, as though she'll vanish into her element at any moment, before she steps out of the room. Once out, she walks to the deck to see that a lot of the men are starting to feel at ease now that they're farther away from the island.
The only one to not be at ease right now is Luffy, even though is bandaged up, because he doesn't see Rose with her. "Did she wake up yet?!"
He tries to get up, but Zoro holds his shoulders to keep him down, so he wouldn't aggravate his injuries.
With silent appreciation of Zoro stopping him, Nami answers her captain's question. "No, she's resting downstairs right now."
He groans in disappointment, and lays back down on the deck. "Dammit, I wanna talk to her already..."
"Your injuries are treated Luffy, so you can go down there if someone carries you."
Luffy beams at that before he looks to his first mate. "Zoro, take me down there!"
Without a word of warning, Zoro does as he's told by picking him up over his shoulder to take him down there.
"Be gentle dammit!" Chopper yells at him, but Zoro doesn't listen at all as he takes his captain inside.
Sanji groans at how callous his crew mate is, and puffs out a smoke from his cigarette. "Of all the people here, I still can't believe Zoro knew about Rose-chan."
While some of the pirates were hit by that fact, Franky's just confused. "I still don't get why Freckles hid it from you guys. Aren't you guys her friends?"
Sniper King softly frowns at the comment, from behind his mask, and speaks up. "Usopp told me that Rose didn't get the best reaction when he, and a few others found out about her research. She didn't want to upset us with it, but she would still help on the sidelines, without us even realizing it..."
Shriek starts feeling sorry for the pirates, when she sees the guilt on their faces, before she groans from the light pain in her wing. When Chopper finishes bandaging her wound, she speaks up to help them feel better. "If she never planned to tell you, then she wouldn't have revealed it so easily on the train. Even if Zira didn't let it slip about her knowing the future, I think she was planning to tell you soon."
While that made a lot of them feel better, Robin only feels her guilt weighing heavier with both explanations.
She knows that she needs to make it up to her. At the moment, all she can do is make sure there's a warm reception from the others waiting for her. "I need to tell you something."
Once she has everyone's attention, she begins to explain herself. "When Wind-chan and I were first caught by Cipher Pol, I tried pushing her away by rejecting her origins. Even when I gave her every reason to leave me, she never stopped trying to save me. When I finally confronted her about her persistence, she told me 'I can't hate you for being right, I'm not a real Straw Hat, but everyone in the crew needs you.'"
Upon hearing Rose's view of herself, every pirate's heart sank. Robin can see how low they feel, but she keeps going to share her point. "I wasn't able to say anything at the time, but I'm sure she still sees herself this way. If anyone has a problem with her origins, we should clear the air now."
The group understands, and while they don't have a problem with it, they don't know what they can say. They honestly had no idea Rose felt so low about herself.
To one person especially, he saw it as total bullshit, and isn't afraid to express it, but not in his secret identity.
With the removal of his mask, Usopp reveals his annoyance by shouting. "HOW THE HELL COULD SHE THINK THAT AFTER WHAT SHE DID FOR US?!"
Everyone flinches at the sudden shout, and looks in shock to see Usopp, unmasked, trying to get up on his good leg. "If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have been able to talk to Merry's spirit in Skypiea! She shouldered Merry's secret, so that her last journey with us would be a happy one! Even when I cursed her out for hiding it, all she cared about was making sure I knew I wasn't useless! And she has the fucking nerve to say she doesn't matter?! What the hell?!"
Everyone's speechless by his rant when he tries to hobble off, to talk some sense into the wind girl, but he only makes it a few steps until he loses his balance.
Chopper's quick to go into heavy point, and catch his friend before he hits the floor, and keeps him from moving. "Stop it Usopp, your injuries will..."
He trails off when he remembers that he wasn't treating him, and looks around for the superhero. "Wait, what happened to Sniper King?!"
Usopp flinches from the question, with his anger fading away.
Before he can say anything though, his feathered companion, shakily flies up to Chopper's level, without her mask. "After he heard what Robin said, he called Usopp over to get him to confront her. He also called me too."
Chopper fully believes the lie, and gives the bird an eager smile. "Cool, you can talk too?!"
Zira chuckles at the question before she lands on his shoulder. "Yup, name's Zira, it's nice to meet you."
"Same here." Chopper comments back to her, while even though everyone else is surprised by how gullible Chopper is, they're glad that Usopp finally unmasked himself.
His rant brought up some more questions for the navigator though, so she stepped up. "What did you mean she got you to talk to Merry, and made you not feel useless?"
Usopp softly frowns at the question, before he speaks up. "Back when Merry and I fixed the ship, Rose was the one that woke me up to give me the chance to talk with her. And ever since the Davy Back Fight, she tried to convince me I wasn't useless. Even when I quit the crew and cursed her out for hiding that Merry was dying, she kept trying to help me."
Just remembering all that she did for him, and still feeling like she doesn't deserve to be here, brings back his annoyance. "I get that she had to keep secrets, but to think that she doesn't deserve to be here for it is stupid."
"It might not be as stupid as you think." Sanji pipes in which gets everyone's attention on him.
With their eyes on him, he's quick to explain himself. "Think about it, Rose-chan read into our adventures where she never existed. It's natural for her to feel out of place from knowing what'd happen if she wasn't here."
Usopp starts to calm down from seeing that perspective, but he still doesn't like it. "I see..."
Nami quietly sighs at the understanding before she steps in. "At either point, we can't do anything for her right now. As soon as she wakes up, we can all sort this out together. Agreed?"
The others give her a silent nod, with small grains to show that they're fully on board.
That silence is quick to die though, when Franky starts wailing. "Waah! You guys have an awesome friendship! I'm not crying!"
"You clearly are..." Everyone, but Robin mutters as they stare at the scene.
As for the archaeologist, she softly grins at the exchange, because now she doesn't need to worry about Rose receiving backlash from them. Now all she needs to worry about is giving her a proper apology when she wakes up.
When that will be though, is hard to tell, because even with Luffy roughly putting the necklace back around its owner's neck, his queen didn't stir at all.
From being seated beside her, he can see all of her injuries, and groans in frustration of everything that happened. "Dammit, she shouldn't have faced this alone!"
Zoro softens up at Luffy's frustration, and without leaving his seat by the door, he speaks up. "It's not your fault."
Luffy softens up at the assurance, but doesn't take his eyes off of her. "I know, it just pisses me off that Rose shouldered everything. Didn't she know that I was here?"
"She did."
Luffy looks to his first mate this time for an explanation, in which the swordsman is quick to oblige. "Even though she was scared of how you guys would see her, she didn't regret joining this crew. She loves being here. She just didn't want to feel different from everyone else. If it makes you feel better, she was planning on telling you all after this adventure."
Luffy perks up at the new fact because at least now he knows more about how she was feeling. Knowing now that she was planning to tell him the truth makes him feel better enough for a small smile to show on his face.
When he remembers that Zoro was the first to know about this though, he pouts in jealousy, and looks away from him.
"WHAT ARE YOU MAD AT ME FOR?!" Zoro yells back at him, but doesn't get an answer.
He huffs at the lack of answer, but stays quiet because there's no point in arguing with him. Instead, he just looks at the wind girl, and sees her still breathing.
Knowing that Luffy will need to be alone with her when she wakes up, he decides to get up and join the others upstairs in case more enemies approach. "If you need anything, just call out."
Luffy just gives a grunt, because he's still pouting, so Zoro heads off to leave the couple alone.
Once he's gone, Luffy calms down, and lays down beside Rose to get some more rest. "I love you Rose. Please come back to me."
He wraps his arms around her gently, and falls asleep with hopes of waking up to her smile again.
**********************************
Where is this?
What's going on?
How did I get here?
These questions, and many more pile up in Rose's mind, when she wakes up in a dark, blue, void. She uses her hands to sit up, and looks down to see herself reflecting on the floor. She tilts her head at the sight to see her uninjured body, but doesn't see anything else in the reflection,
With no memory of how she got here, she looks up to find that her surroundings hold nothing but space.
There's no point in sitting around though, so she's quick to stand up. With no sense of where to go, she wanders forward to find something, anything in this place, but no avail.
Was this how Zoro feels when he gets lost?
The confused girl chuckles at the thought of her friend, but loses her grin when she starts to remember what happened to her. Everything from the battle in Enies Lobby hits her like a train, and realizes that she has no idea what happened after she passed out.
Did everyone make it out ok?
Was Merry still able to save them?
Were they able to grab Luffy like in the manga or did she somehow screw that up?
The idea of Luffy not escaping Enies Lobby terrifies her, and makes her run. She jumps in her sprint, in an attempt to fly, but her feet are quick to land back on the floor for her to keep running to try to find a way out of wherever this is. "LUFFY! ZORO! CHOPPER! CAN ANYONE FUCKING HEAR ME?! SOMEBODY SAY SOMETHING! PLEASE!"
Her heart races from how her voice echoes in this space. It spreads so far that it feels like the sound went on for miles.
She slows her feet down from that realization until she reaches a full stop, with nothing but fear in her heart. "What the hell? Wait, am I actually in hell?"
"Why do people always assume this place is hell? Is this place really that bad?"
Rose twitches at the sound of a young voice behind her, and turns around to find the owner to be a small figure in a black cloak.
"Who are you?"
The figure reaches for the hood, and pulls it back to reveal a scowling young boy, who couldn't be older than six.
Her eyes widen at the child's face, when she looks down at his matching purple eyes, and buzz cut black hair. If he had freckles, they could've been close to twins. "What the?"
The boy grows annoyed at Rose's surprise, and walks up to her. "Is that any way to greet your little brother? What's wrong with you?"
She remembers Lily's little brother, and can easily tell that the kid's not lying.
Despite her sadness for her situation, she softly smiles at her little brother before she falls to her knees, to get on his level, and pulls him into a sweet embrace. "How's this bro?"
He grows shocked about her reaction, because he expected her to not believe him, and get annoyed with him.
Feeling her joy to actually meet him though, brings tears to his amethyst eyes, as he tightly returns her hug.
Rose can feel him shake a little, but doesn't comment on it, as she keeps her arms around him. "So, do you have a name, or should I keep calling you bro?"
He chuckles at the question, before he wipes his face on her shirt, and pulls away with a small smile. "My name's Ash. I already know your name Rose. Mom and dad always talk about you."
She widens her eyes at the mention of her parents, and looks around the area. "Are they here too?!"
"No, they're in heaven."
She settles down from that, but looks down at Ash in confusion. "Then why are you here? And where is this place?"
"We're in the in-between. From what the ghosts tell me, it's where people go when they're close to dying. They can go back or go to the other side from here."
Rose slightly nods at this, because she can remember everything she went through, but that just leads to more questions. "That still doesn't explain why you're here. It's been seven years since mom and dad died. And umm..."
She trails off uncomfortably, because she can't bring herself to remind him that he didn't even have a chance to live, because he died while mom was pregnant with him...
Ash can tell what she's trying to say though, and gives her a simple shrug. "I don't know what to say about it. Mom and dad can't leave heaven, but I can go to any afterlife realm I want, and grow up too. I was told that I can do all this since I couldn't live. When I turn eighteen, I get a chance to be reborn though."
While Rose is glad about him still having a chance to live, her guilt of how she couldn't protect him is clear. "I'm sor-!"
Before she can apologize, the kid is quick to give her a punch to the nose that's powerful enough to knock her on her back.
Rose groans at the hit, and rubs her nose while she sits back up. "What the hell was that for?!"
"Dad said that if you try to say sorry that I can punch you!"
Before she can protest, Ash gives her a folded up piece of paper. "He also told me to give you this since he and mom can't come themselves."
Rose relaxes at the gift, and is quick to open the paper to find a note written on it.
Rose,
Of all the things to do, you almost die?! We can't believe how reckless you've been since you went to the One Piece world! If we were able to see you, we'd give you a scolding from hell!
Rose flinches from the first section which got her brother laughing. "Hahaha, sis is in trouble~!"
She flicks the kid on the nose, as a form of payback, before she goes back to the letter.
That being said, we can't tell you how proud we are of you. You've grown into such an amazing young woman, even when being raised in that horrible environment after we died. We're sorry we left you alone in that world, but we're really glad that you were able to use the comet to get to mom's world, and start a life for yourself.
You've accomplished so much, but you need to know something important. You can't survive on your own. Especially not when the world is after you like this. We don't even want to think of what would've happened if your friends weren't there to help this time.
From what we've seen, you found amazing people that would truly stand by you. When you go back to the living, do your best to trust them as much as they trust you.
That's right, WHEN you go back to the living. If we find out that you died, your scolding will be tenfold! Your life has only just begun, and we can't wait to see how far you'll go.
Love,
Mom and dad
P.S. Tell that Luffy kid that if he breaks your heart, I'll haunt him! - Dad.
Your dad will not do that, don't worry! You two make such a great couple! He's just as cute as you are, and I'm sure my future grandchildren will be just as cute! I can't wait to see them! ;) - Mom
Rose blushes at the last message from her mom, which gets Ash confused. "What'd they say?"
"Don't worry about it." Rose answers as she puts the letter in her pocket, and wonders what she should do now. Even if she knew how to go to either side, she doesn't know how she can even face the crew if she goes back.
Robin may have protected her from a few hits near the end, but she made it perfectly clear that she doesn't like her anymore. And with what happened with Merry, she's sure that Usopp still isn't too happy with her.
She shakes her head at the negative thoughts, because she can't worry about that right now. The most important thing right now is knowing that she really can go back.
With that goal, she gets up, and looks down at her brother. "So, you've seen people leave right? How does someone get out of here?"
Ash looks around to see that they're still surrounded by nothingness, and hums in confusion. "Something should've shown up by now."
"What do you mean?"
"When it's time for you to live or die, you'll either be following a light, or following voices of people that you know, out of here."
"And if it's a light?"
"Sometimes it's life, but sometimes it's death. They never go to just one place, same with the voices. They're always different."
Rose hums in thought on that, but she doesn't see or hear anything different. Since she doesn't have any idea of when she'll be getting out of here, she looks at the kid and gets an idea on how to make the most of this.
Ash gets nervous when he sees a sinister smirk on her face, and starts stepping back. "W-what are you-?!"
He jumps back when she reaches out to him, and starts running, but Rose was still able to tap his shoulder. "You're it!"
The kid freezes at the comment, and turns around to see her running away, while looking back at him with a gleeful grin. Realizing that she just challenged him to a game of tag, he smirks in delight and goes after her. "It's on now!"
Childish laughter from both siblings can be heard throughout the in-between with both kids having a blast from each tag, and new chase. It's almost as though they're making up for lost time by playing this game to the fullest.
Neither of them knows how long they've been playing, but they were able to exhaust themselves to when Ash jumps at her side for another tag, he accidentally tackles her to the floor. She rolls on her back with the kid at her side, but stays down while the two laugh at the match they just had.
The two abruptly stop though, when Chopper's voice fills the air. "I'm sorry Rose, I wish I noticed what you were dealing with..."
The two are quick to get up from that, with Rose being the first to speak. "That's Chopper's voice!"
She listens around for which direction it came, when Nami's voice rises up this time. "Geez, do you know how scared we were?! We almost lost you, you idiot! Just because you have all that power, and knowledge, doesn't mean that you can shoulder everything!"
Rose almost flinches from the scolding when a gust of wind suddenly picks her up, a few inches off the floor, and starts taking her to the direction of the voice.
Ash doesn't act surprised at all by his sister floating, and rushes after her. Rose tries to stop, but this isn't her wind, so she has no control over it.
She just managed to float upright while Nami continues talking. "Look, I don't care about what you know. Our time together was real, and so is our friendship. You'd better wake up soon, so I can tell you this properly."
Rose can feel her breath hitch from Nami's kind words, while the wind starts moving faster. She looks back to see her brother doing his best to keep up, so she tries to stop again, by flailing her limbs, but it doesn't work. "Why can't I stop?!"
Ash finally catches up by her side, and goes to explain. "When it's your time to leave, this place likes to throw you out. It's going to take you to where that girl's voice is. Is she alive?"
"Yea, she's alive. Does that mean I'm going back?"
From knowing what's going to happen next, he gives her a small, sad, smile. "That's right. You'll be going back to the living soon..."
Rose realizes that she'll be losing her brother again, and goes to grab him. "Come with me then! You don't deserve to be left alone!"
Just when her hand was about to grab his own, her hand phases through it!
Ash almost chuckles at her attempt to take him with her, when he starts slowing down, so now they're gaining distance. "Sorry, but I can go anywhere, but the living. Now that you're going back, we can't be around each other anymore. I'm gonna go back to mom and dad when you leave, so I won't be alone."
Rose's eyes fill with tears from the news, just before he stops running, and gives her his last words. "Those who get the voices have loved ones waiting for them, so I'm glad you're not alone too. I'll let mom and dad know you're ok. Bye big sis!"
"Wait Ash-! Aah!" The wind holding her suddenly doubles in speed, and takes her soaring at top speed.
Rose starts bawling from the sight of her brother's figure shrinking in the distance, but she snaps out of it when Luffy's voice rings in the air. "Dammit, she shouldn't have faced this alone!"
She flinches at how loud he was, with her tears stopping from the surprise, just when Zoro speaks up. "It's not your fault."
Rose doesn't really know what they're talking about, but it sounds like something bad is happening when Luffy speaks in a somber tone. "I know, it just pisses me off that Rose shouldered everything."
The wind girl's breath hitches when she learns that he's talking about her, when Zoro's voice takes over.
"She was scared of how you guys would see her, but she didn't regret joining this crew. She loves being here. She just didn't want to feel different from everyone else."
Rose feels gratitude for Zoro's support, but her guilt for how she's worrying everyone right now is taking over. She really didn't think that they'd still care like this when they heard the truth, but here they are being real friends to her...
When memories of how her friends called to her after she defeated Rufus flood back to her, she can feel her eyes water.
No matter how many times she tries to wipe them away, the tears won't stop. They just get worse when Luffy's voice speaks up again. "I love you Rose. Please come back to me."
Those words make her heart melt, with a small smile gracing her lips. "Hang on Luffy, I'm com- AAH!"
The wind suddenly tossed her through the air at lightning speed, with her surroundings fading away until everything turned black.
*********************************
With a loud gasp of air, Rose shoots up from her bed awake, with Luffy's arms stretched around her while she hurriedly checks her surroundings to find herself in the room.
Luffy jumps awake from the sudden movement, and sees his love awake. "ROSE!"
Rose looks to her boyfriend, just before he tackles her back down in a hug. "You're finally up!"
The pain of her injuries flare up from the tackle, and proves to her that she's awake. That confirmation gives her one of the biggest smiles ever knowing that this is real, and hugs him back. "Thank you..."
While Luffy was happy to hear her voice, he's still mad about what happened, so he pulls away and gives her a piece of his mind. "What the hell?! Why didn't you tell me you were from another world?!"
Rose was a bit nervous from the questions, and lowers her head in shame, with her bangs covering her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to think of me badly for knowing too much."
"Badly?! How could you think that?! So what if you know about the future?!" Luffy yells back, which gets her to grit her teeth in frustration because of how lightly he's taking this.
"It's not just the future, I also know each of your pasts! You honestly wanted to know that I know about your past or even Ace and Sabo's?!" Rose yells back with her head raised to show tears in her eyes, which gets him to flinch, because he never told her about his second brother.
She groans to herself for being so emotional, while covering her eyes with her hands while she keeps talking. "Dammit, I'm sorry. It's just... My knowledge comes straight from your crew's adventures. I know everyone's pasts, including a lot of bad stuff that you guys went through. I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable with knowing that, and what your crew's adventures will be like for the next few years. Even though I don't know everything, I risked everyone's lives by coming aboard your crew. I'm sorry..."
She tries to turn away without looking at her captain, but he won't have it. He grabs both of her wrists, gently, to keep her from leaving. "Rose, look at me."
The wind girl bites her lip in fear, and is hesitant for a moment. Knowing that she needs to face him at some point, she carefully lowers her hands, to reveal dried up tears sticking under her eyes.
Luffy can feel his heart ache from seeing her in such a fragile state, but his face only shows a stern look when moves his hands, so that they're holding her own, and looks her in the eye. "You might know all that stuff, but you're stupid if you think you've hurt us when you've done so much for us. It was my choice to recruit you, and I never regretted it once. I've been with you long enough to know you would never hurt us with it, or spoil our adventures. You will always have a place in my crew, but what do you want to do?"
Luffy's question surprises Rose, because she didn't expect him to ask her that. Seeing him so accepting of her reminds her of her parents' words in that letter from her dream. She truly can't be alone, when the world government is after her without trying running away to another world.
The thing is, she doesn't want to run anymore. When she leaves this world again, she wants to do so proudly with the people she cherishes more than anything.
Her tears begin to stream down her face from that desire, before releasing a small sob. "I-I want to stay. I want to see the crew's adventures through. And when I do leave this world, I want you, and everyone else to come too..."
Luffy pulls her into a comforting hug, which she instantly returns as tightly as she could, while crying.
He holds her as though she could break at any moment, but doesn't say a word until he feels a soft, warm breeze flowing off of her.
She pulls away to give him a small genuine smile, while she's wiping away the last of her tears. "Thank you Luffy."
He chuckles at the gratitude, and gives off his own casual smile. "Don't worry about it, but I have one important question to ask you."
She hums in confusion, when Luffy gives her a toothy grin. "Can you crap?"
Before she can answer, a huge thud sounds off by the door, and forces them to look out to the doorway. Not only was everybody, but Franky, eavesdropping, but Nami and Sanji fell forward to the doorway from hearing Luffy's question.
While those who are still standing are staring at their captain blankly from the random question, the three that fell are quick to get up, pull Luffy a few feet away from Rose.
"WHAT THE HELL KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT?!" Sanji yells while he pulls his left cheek.
"WE'RE TRYING NOT TO SCARE HER AWAY YOU CREEP!" Nami shouts at him as she pulls his other cheek.
"BUT I GOTTA KNOW!" Luffy argues back with them as he frees his cheeks from their tormentors.
Some of the crew members are about to stop them, when they hear an eruption of laughter from the wind girl.
Everyone freezes from the laughter, and look to the bed to see Rose holding her sides as she's laughing at the chaos.
While some of them are confused at why she's laughing, they're relieved to see that she's not upset.
She settles down when she sees them staring at them, and looks to her captain, who's relieved that Nami and Sanji aren't mad at him anymore. "Yes, I can poop."
Zoro groans at the answer. "You really didn't need to tell us that."
She just shrugs at the comment before she speaks up to him. "How long have guys been listening?"
"Since you talked about knowing our pasts."
While she's relieved to know that she doesn't need to repeat her explanation, she doesn't know what to say now.
Lucky for her, the rest of the crew has plenty to say with Nami starting. "Listen here, we know what you told Robin, and you're crazy to think that! You're as much of a Straw Hat as any of us here!"
Rose widens her eyes at the declaration when she sees Sanji stepping up now.
Tears start building up in his eyes in guilt of hurting a girl like this, when he says his piece. "That's right Rose-chan, we couldn't imagine that what we said back then could've hurt you like this. We're so sorry that we made you feel like you had to hide who you were."
"I'm sorry too! After all that you did to help me, I should've been able to help you too!" Chopper calls out with tears in his eyes.
Rose can feel her own eyes grow wet from the apologies, and tries to stop their guilt. "It wasn't your fault-!"
"Then who's fault was it then?! Because it sure as hell wasn't yours!" Usopp calls out which gets both her and Luffy to flinch.
"When did you get here?!"
Some of the pirates blankly stare at the couple's stupidity, but Usopp doesn't care. Instead, he ignores the question, limps towards the two, and sits down a few feet from them.
Rose almost drops her jaw at the leg cast, because she doesn't remember him getting this injured in the manga. "What the hell happened to you?!"
"I fought my damnedest, and you know what happened?"
She shakes her head nervously, before he starts smirking at her. "For the first time in weeks, I felt fucking useful! I not only kicked the crap out of a CP 9 agent, but was able to get one of the keys that we needed for you and Robin! That training you had me help you with really helped my skills in taking him down!"
When he remembers his enemy, and how saddening it was that Nero was basically abandoned by his team, his smile faded. "You showed me that even I could be strong in my own way. And that's more than what I deserved after everything I said before and after I left the crew. You gave me precious time with Merry, which I can't thank you enough for that, and I'm so sorry for what I said."
"Usopp..." The sweet apology brings a small smile on her face, and gives him a pat on the shoulder as a way to show that she accepts it.
While the sniper was happy with the affection, he knows that he can't be done with just one apology when he's come this far...
He looks towards his former captain, and starts getting nervous. "Um, and Luffy, about our fight..."
Luffy frowns at being reminded of their battle, then flinches back when the sniper smacks his forehead on the floor! "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said all those things! I was mad about everything that was going on with Merry and I took it out on you! Can I please come back?"
Luffy's surprised by the heart felt apology, when tears form in his eyes with a giant smile showing up on his face. "Of course you can, you idiot!"
Usopp lifts his head in time for Luffy to tackle him in a hug.
Chopper is quick to break it up, by getting into heavy point to pick Luffy up by the back of his shirt. "He's still injured!"
"My bad."
"Both you and Usopp are idiots." Zoro mutters, with the others agreeing.
When Luffy's dropped back next to Rose, the wind girl giggles at the exchange.
She can feel that everyone's attention is back on her again, and sees that her suspicions are correct. When she sees everyone's eyes back on her, she takes a short breath to steel her nerves. "So, umm... I can answer any questions you guys have, except for personal ones about the crew, and about the future. I'd rather not spoil anything."
The others look at one another, but no one can really say anything, because they never thought about what she would actually tell them.
Only Robin was able to come up with a question, so she steps up. "I do, do you know our adventures until the end?"
With the tame question, Rose is able to answer with ease. "I do not. I only know up to a certain amount of time, but the crew was still going after it. Any time after that point, is just as much of a surprise for me as it is for you guys."
The others were surprised by her knowledge having a limit, but all the same it wouldn't change their minds about her.
Luffy grins at the answer, because he knows she won't be burdened too much. "Great, you don't need to tell us anything about what happens. If you're in danger again though, you need to tell us so we can support you. Captain's orders."
Rose chuckles at the order, nods to the command, and goes to hug him, but flinches when her injured shoulder flares up.
Chopper notices the flinch, and looks to the others. "I need to check on her injuries. Get out. Zoro, take Luffy with you."
The captain groans at having to leave, but knowing that his queen's health comes first, he doesn't fight Zoro when he lifts him onto his shoulder again, and follows the rest of the crew outside.
Once alone with his patient, Chopper goes over to Rose and checks over her injured shoulder to see that none of the stitches popped. "Can you try to lift your arm as high as you can?"
She's quick to comply by lifting her right arm up until she's at shoulder level, where the pain is borderline unbearable.
Chopper hums at the level she was able to go. "You can drop it now."
She releases the hold, just before Chopper goes into his bag. "I got some pain medication that should help you. Take these today."
He gives her some pills which she easily swallows, while the doctor stares at her.
She can tell that he's staring, but before she can say anything, the reindeer rushes up to her, and gives her a careful hug.
Rose widens her eyes at the sudden affection, when Chopper looks up at her with teary eyes. "I really am sorry! You helped me so much at Drum Island, and I couldn't do the same..."
"Doc..." She reaches her arms around him to return the hug. "That isn't true at all. You've always been wonderful."
When she remembers her dream with her brother, she slightly pulls away, with a soft smile. "In fact, it was your voice that started pulling me back to the living."
Chopper was surprised by the comment and jumps backwards. "You were able to hear me?!"
She nods to the question. "Yea, I had a weird dream where I was between life and death, and had no idea how to get back. When I heard you though, it was like I was being lead back here, so I gotta thank you."
Chopper grins at the gratitude, and gives her one last hug. "I'm just glad you're ok."
He's quick to pull away before he looks to the door then to her. "We should go outside. We're almost to Water Seven. Can you stand?"
Rose's heart sinks from the reminder that Merry's at her last moments, but she wants to spend as much time as she can with the ship. With a small grin, she shakily gets up, with the doctor ready to catch her at any moment she falls.
She was able to get up though, and follow her doctor out the door. When she feels something in her pocket though, she stops, digs into it to find a piece of paper, and brings it out to find it being her parents' letter.
"Oh fuck..." She mutters in shock in finding it, and realizing that she wasn't dreaming at all. She was literally between life and death.
"Everything ok Rose?" Chopper askes when he reaches the door, and snaps her out of her daze.
The thought of knowing that her family is watching her though, gives her a small grin. She puts the letter back in her pocket and rushes to her doctor. "I'm all good doc. Let's go."
He nods at he leads her outside for them to join the crew on their last leg of Merry's journey.
*******************************************************
In the hours spent on travelling, the crew was not only able to reach Galley La's ship, and travel back with them, but can see Water Seven on the horizon. During their travels, not only could they feel comfortable, but the crew was able to re-connect with one another. Along with Rose having opened up, Robin was able to open up more to the others about her past.
The archaeologist was able to make amends with the others, but couldn't bring herself to apologize to Rose with the others watching.
The wind girl had no problem with that, because even with her not openly hating her anymore, what Robin did to push her away still hurt. While it made her feel better that Robin protected her from Spandam near the end, she needs some time before she can forgive her.
Instead, she kept her focus on answering as many questions about her world from Usopp, Luffy, Sanji, and Zira as much as possible.
"So let me get this straight, you're from a world that not only knows about us, but a whole bunch of other worlds?" Usopp asks from his seat on the deck.
Rose nods her head from her seat next to Merry. "That's right. The world itself isn't all that special, but it's useful to at least be a holder of other world knowledge."
Zira tilts her head at that comment. "Really? That world's not special?"
"Yea, we don't have devil fruits, magic or anything of the like. If it wasn't for my mom being from this world, I probably wouldn't have thought other worlds were real."
Luffy scowls at that answer. "Wow, your world sucks."
"Don't insult her world!" Sanji yells out as he goes to kick him, but Rose gently lifts him in the air to stop him.
"It's fine Sanji, I completely agree with him. I'd rather be in this world any day of the week."
Sanji quietly sighs at the comment, before he softly looks at her. "We'd rather you be here too."
She grins at the answer, before she sets him down. Once his feet touch the floor, they give in to his weight to the point where Rose needs to use her wind to keep him from falling through!
"What the-?!" Chopper couldn't finish his question when he suddenly falls forward with the others when the ship suddenly stops!
Rose drops Sanji onto the deck and latches onto Merry's neck to keep herself of falling into the water when the front half of the boat starts tilting forward.
"Crap!" She flies up a few feet, and goes to get the others, but stops when the front of the ship stops splitting. Even though she sees that the pirates are alright, her eyes can't leave the massive wound on Merry.
Luffy is quick to stand up, horrified at the damage. "What the hell happened all of a sudden?!"
Nami softly frowns at her captain, before looking away. "It wasn't all of a sudden. Galley La said it themselves that Merry didn't have much longer..."
While most were forced to accept this, their captain can't just yet. Not after Merry was able to miraculously come save them. With some hope that Merry can still make it, he rushes to the rail to plead to Galley La's president. "Ice Pops, please! There has to be something that we can do! Merry's one of us!"
Iceburg is heartbroken at his pleas, but to be merciful he tells him the truth. "If you really love her, then you need to let her rest. Last night, your ship begged me to help her sail just once more to save you all."
Every Straw Hat didn't know how to answer that, while the mayor looks out to see that they are just minutes away from the city's ship graveyard. "Even the fact that this ship was able to bring you all back to Water Seven was nothing short of a miracle. I've never seen a ship love her crew this much, but every ship's life has an end. All we can do is let her sleep now."
At the end of his speech, everyone in the crew knew that he was right.
Luffy especially when he holds a solemn look as he talks to the others. "I understand, let's go guys."
Franky, Kokoro, Chimney, Gombei and the crew silently leave the ship from life boats that Galley La supplies them.
Luffy, stays on a boat alone right by a ship with a torch in hand while the others dock onto the ship graveyard, and stay on the coast.
Once everyone's settled, Luffy holds his torch towards the ship. "Merry, here's where we'll see you off. Thank you for carrying us this far."
As soon as the flame touches the boat, the fire extended quickly to rise. As the flames envelope the ship, yellow embers fall towards to the surrounding area.
With the sun setting on the horizon, the glowing embers look as though they're bright snowflakes flying in the air.
Everyone is mesmerized by the beautiful sight, but once the light embers come near the pirates, memories begin to appear in their minds.
Memories of precious moments that each pirate has spent with their beloved ship. From the time they were given Merry in East Blue, to their arrival in Water Seven, each cherished memory was shown of how they were happy sailing together.
With each passing memory being shown the pirates' emotions welled to the point of tears pouring because they're forced to fully accept that this is it. This is the last time that they'll ever see the Going Merry.
One memory in particular had hit the hardest for Rose, and that being the memory of Rose arriving on the Goin Merry. She can almost feel the confusion that Merry felt from a large blue light forming on the deck, and shock when Rose formed from it.
Seeing that Rose was so happy to be there though, brought happiness to her own self in finding a new friend.
Rose couldn't stop crying from seeing how Merry felt from seeing her for the first time, and practically welcomed her with open arms.
"I'm sorry..."
Everyone flinched from Merry's voice when she continues to speak up.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to continue my journey with you guys. I wish I could've stayed longer."
Luffy's guilt from not being able to save his ship wells up, and shout at her. "WE SHOULD BE THE ONES APOLOGIZING MERRY! I CRASHED YOU, SANJI AND ZORO KEPT BREAKING STUFF, WE COULDN'T GIVE YOU THE HELP YOU NEEDED! WE'RE SO SORRY!"
"Don't be, I was happy to be with you all. Thank you for the amazing adventures."
Her final words brought even those outside of the crew to tears as they watched the Viking funeral continue.
Just as the sun finished setting, so did Merry's life reach her end when the last of the flames flickered just before her remains sunk into the ocean.
TO BE CONTINUED
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A/N: Hey everyone, it's been a while. Thank you for being patient with me, these past ten months were really eventful.
My job has driven me up the wall, but I got promoted for getting through it.
I can't promise that I'll be writing faster, because work is still hectic with this inflation crisis. I also have a life that I need to lead too, so for those that are impatient I'm sorry but I just don't have the time like I used to have.
That being said, I won't just give up either because I've put a lot of work into this. All I ask is please be patient. I will do my best to keep the story alive.
Good luck and be safe :)