Chapter Text
“Hey! You’re new! Gimme some food!”
Luffy held out his hands. He was standing, despite the seastone cuffs, leaning against the bars.
Zoro grinned back.
“Has that ever worked?”
“Nope! Not yet!” Luffy said cheerfully, hands still out. “Food?”
“Yeah, yeah. Packed some gator. Ace said it was your favorite,” Zoro said, fishing it out of his pack.
Luffy’s face lit up completely.
“You know Ace?!”
“Of course. He’s been looking for you, since you didn’t have a bounty yet.” Zoro pulled out his keys and started undoing the lock. “He’s here with me to break you out of here.”
“You’re breaking out Luffy?” somebody asked from another cell.
“Of course. Can’t very well become Pirate King in here, can he?” Zoro said.
There was laughter from the cells around, but it wasn’t cruel.
“Ha! Told you I’d get out of here!” Luffy responded.
“Well hoist a sail ‘cross me and call me a ship. He was right after all,” a man said from the shadows.
Of course he’d made friends here. That’s what Luffy did.
“Sit down, Luffy. I need to get these things off your ankles.”
Luffy plopped down and stuck his feet up, head whipping around. His eyes were a bit bright with tears.
“Ace is here?”
Zoro knelt and lifted one of Luffy’s ankles. He had to bite back the snarl. He wanted to kill every guard in this place. The seastone wasn’t a surprise, though it pissed him off. Luffy’s ankles though… this wasn’t a recent wound. He’d only seen wounds like this on Sabaody, on slaves who’d worn metal manacles for too long. Where chafing and bruising turned slowly turned to a thick band of scars and open sores.
Still, Luffy didn’t wince as Zoro got the first cuff off. He wiggled his toes experimentally
“Yup. Ace and I split up a few levels ago, but he should be down soon. Other leg.”
When the second shackle slid off, the difference was instant. Luffy still looked sickly, but the bruises faded and his fingers didn’t look so pale.
Luffy stretched his arms experimentally, just a bit, and laughed in delight. It was the best sound Zoro had ever heard. Zoro handed him some alligator jerky, and tried not to be disturbed when Luffy ate it in slow, careful bites rather than huge gulps.
Whispers of a breakout had started to spread, and people were starting to yell, pound on the bars.They needed to let out anyone who wouldn’t get in their way. Zoro looked around for Franky.
“Alright Luffy. We’re opening some cages. Figure the guards’ll have trouble the more of us there are, but don’t wanna open the door to trouble later. Who do we let out?”
If Luffy didn’t name Franky, Zoro would just have to declare it a personal mission.
“Well, my friends first. This is Anjie and Sam!” he said, pointing to his cellmate and a man across the way. Both prisoners who looked equally terrifying and washed up. It took a moment for Zoro to register the bright blue next to Sam. Franky looked so broken down, hair draped over his face, slumped at the back of the cell. “Oh, and Franky’s going to be our shipwright. He’s new, but he’s part robot!”
Of course. Luffy had already found his Nakama.
“Right. Heard about what happened. Got some cola for him,” Zoro said.
He nearly tossed the bottles over, but realized Franky was in no state to catch them. His limbs were limp as his hair.
“How do I get his chest open?” Zoro asked above the clamor of prisoners making their bids for freedom.
“I got it,” the old man in the cell, Sam, said. He pressed a catch and Franky's stomach opened. Zoro tossed out the empty bottles and put in four full ones.
With a gust of steam, Franky’s body refueled and he hopped to his feet, rattling his chains.
“That’s more like it!”
“Right then,” Zoro said. “Time to get out of here.”
There were two reasons Ace was assigned to take the longer route, freeing prisoners as he went down and generally causing as much chaos as possible. First, he couldn’t cut through stone like Zoro. He felt like, to get to Luffy, he could learn to melt stone, but that’s where reason two came in. The second reason Ace had to be the one to fight his way down was currently oozing up the stairs.
Ace had been taking out guards and beasts with ease, but Warden Magellan was a different matter. Any melee fighter wasn’t an option, so Zoro couldn’t take this job. Ace could hold his own here, his powers letting him burn off the poison harmlessly, but, similarly, the poison continued to douse his fire. Every attack fizzled out.
In truth, he was wearing down. He’d done his best to rest up for the raid, but all the small battles had begun to add up. He needed some food and a good nap. He needed-
He checked the corpses of the marines around him. Most didn’t carry much, but one of them had what he was looking for. He ripped off his marine jacket so he wouldn’t touch the seastone cuffs, then flung them at the goop.
They caught in the outer layer of goop and fell uselessly to the ground. Magellan just laughed and let the cuffs slide off without touching him. Ace braced. If this was going to be a battle of endurance, he wouldn’t lose.
Still, as the fight continued, he had to face his disadvantage. He was sinking fire into an inflammable liquid, and time was ticking away to make his escape. The drugs would wear off and communication would be back online.
Prisoners and guards both littered the ground, so Ace barely noticed when one leaned up. Magellan didn’t notice at all, but the prisoner grabbed the fallen cuffs and swung them like a bolas. They wrapped around Magellan’s left ankle and Magellan screamed as his own acid began to burn him. Ace added to the screams, chucking flame.
“Everyone go!” he yelled. “Unlock the doors! The more people escaping, the harder we get to catch!”
He ran down the stairs and onto wide stretches of sand and there, being carried by a huge man with blue hair, was Luffy.
“Ace!” Luffy shouted, rubber arms bridging the distance between them. His aim was a bit sloppy, but Ace caught his wrists and let Luffy rocket towards him. Ace tumbled onto his back.
“Luffy! Let’s get you out of here!”
Luffy was already digging through his pack, pulling out jerky, though he was eating it at a disturbingly not-Luffy speed.
“Ace,” he blubbered through a mouthful of jerky, “I’m sorry I broke our promise. I didn’t set out to sea. I got caught. I wasn’t strong enough.”
He almost burst into flame with rage. How dare they try to steal Luffy’s dream? What chance did any 14 year old have against a Cipher Pol unit?
“Luffy,” Ace grabbed Luffy’s shoulders to make eye contact, though Luffy’s hands remained firmly in the food bags, “thank you for surviving through this. You didn’t break your promise, you’re just a little late.”
Luffy froze, then grinned.
“Yeah.”
Franky had thought a lot about Tom, on his way to Enies Lobby. He thought a lot about the Franky Family.
He hoped Tom had died not knowing that the boy he gave himself over for had thrown that life right onto the train tracks. He couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if any of the Franky Family got killed trying to save him.
He hoped they wouldn’t fall back on bad habits. Grief could do that, make you look at everything you’d done to be happy and toss it in the trash to go drown in a bottle or lose yourself in a fight.
He hoped somebody was with Kokoro right now.
He hoped that Numbskull had an apprentice or two who could carry on his work.
He cried all the way through the Gates of Justice. He’d gone through the intake process, which probably would have majorly sucked if Franky had been there instead of floating at the edge of the room, feeling a detached pity for the poor sucker, they took him to his cell.
They had to have those weird cow things carry him ‘cuz he was all out of cola. Not ‘floppy hair and no cool moves’ out of cola, ‘painfully reminded that he was pretty much half a torso and most of a head’ out of cola. He was dying on some shipwreck with a smashed-in torso and limbs that wouldn’t move. He was thrown over the railing, barely able to swim, watching his parents sail away. Time tripped and looped and collapsed.
They took him down, past jeering and screaming. It felt like sinking into the ocean.
This level was quiet. There were still jeers, but not many, and the air was cool and humid. No torture, no scorching sands, just dim light and a rumble of voices.
“Oh, that one’s checked out. Must be a weak one.”
“You know him? Looks like a pirate to me.”
“Ha! Welcome to hell, you unlucky bastard.”
“Hey, Blue! Any news!”
Hungry eyes watched him from behind bars. Well, first introductions were important. He gave his best grin, though he couldn’t do much to strike a pose.
“Hey y’all. I’m Frrrrrrranky! What do you do for fun around here?”
He got a few laughs, thankfully. A few scoffs too.
“Great. Another crazy one.”
“For fun? We watch ‘em break the newbies!”
He was chained up next to two guys who looked like they could snap him in half as easy as separating chopsticks. They didn’t really need to chain Franky up, but they did anyways.
He sat. Water condensed on the ceiling, hanging in drops until it fell. Franky watched it. The sound was soothing, almost like rain. He’d miss rain.
“How’d you end up on Level 6,” the man next to him asked. “You don’t look like much.”
“Level 6?” He’d heard Impel Down had five levels.
“The level that doesn’t exist. We’re the ones the government doesn’t even want to admit exist. So what are you? Murderous marine? Revolution leader? Big-shot pirate?” The guy looked like somebody had thrown him under the rudder of a ship for a few turns and left him short on hair, teeth, and half his limbs.
“None a’ those,” Franky said, shoulder twitching as he tried to wave off the idea. “Just burnt up some paper they wanted.”
“Must’ve been some paper.”
“Hey Metal-Nose, you look cool!” a voice said across the aisle. “Can you fight? Why’ve you got a metal nose anyways?”
He wanted to be mishearing, because that voice was young . Most of his Family were in their twenties, and they seemed so young sometimes, but this boy wasn’t even that old.
He looked across to a wide, excited grin. The boy looked about fourteen, but he was probably older, considering how skinny he was and how long he looked like he’d been here. He had hollow cheeks and matted hair. When his cuffs slipped down, Franky could see scars around his wrists. Still, his grin was as bright as Franky had ever seen.
Well, he knew what to do when there were kids around.
“That’s because I’m a metal man! I’d show you my amaaaazing~ transformations, but I’m a little low on fuel right now.”
The boy didn’t seem to care. His eyes sparkled as he leaned forward, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his cell.
“Do you have rockets?!”
“You bet I do! Who’d turn themselves into a cyborg and not add rockets?”
“Coooooool! How much of your body’s metal? Can you poop?”
The man next to Franky sighed.
“Leave the poor man alone, Luffy.”
“It’s no problemo!” Franky said. Anything but that drip of water. “Most of me’s metal, which is why I’m a little outta fuel right now, but I still got my butt! I’m always improving it though. What do you think I should add?”
It was the oddest feeling. He’d only ever been this low after Tom died. He could remember putting himself back together and thinking it should hurt more. What a strange feeling, to be back in that place, and have someone so bright staring back at him.
“A place for snacks! And lasers!”
“Hell yeah, little dude! In fact, I already got a place to store my soda! If my cellmate helps me out and pops it open for me, I can show ya too!”
Luffy bounced on the balls of his feet.
“C’mon Sam! I wanna see a robot stomach!”
A lot of members of the Franky Family had been in jail, but a few had been to prison too. There was a lot of talk about toughness and hierarchies.
The thing was, in Level 6, it didn’t really matter if you were strong. Nobody got out of their cage. It was a tough enough crowd that posturing was useless.
No, the real power in Eternal Hell was Monkey D. Luffy.
They weren’t obvious about it, besides a few older prisoners who openly looked after the boy, but his opinion held weight around here.
A week after they brought Franky in, they brought in some guy who kept bragging about how he nearly escaped the marines by jumping ship and swimming three days to a nearby island, only to get turned in by his lover.
“You abandoned your crew and your flag,” Luffy’d said with a laugh. “Why’d a coward like you become a pirate in the first place?
Franky had never seen a man destroyed so quickly and efficiently, especially not with so much cheerful innocence.
Stories about kill counts and scores of lovers were deemed unimportant. If you hadn’t seen a cool dinosaur, you could shut up. Franky found he wasn’t immune, but it was hard to tell the right stories. He wanted to tell Luffy about the time he’d chased his bounty through a mime show, not getting his body jacked up trying to prevent his mentor’s death, but-
“Hey, could you put lasers on a ship?” Luffy asked.
“Well, I’m pretty good with ships, but I’m more in the business of destroying them than building them.”
Luffy looked horrified at the idea.
“Hey, don’t look sad. You gotta be willing to scrap up a broken down ship so those parts can get born again.”
“Can you not build ships then?” Luffy asked.
“‘Course I can. I was trained by the best shipwright in the world, you know! But making a ship’s a heavy thing, because then it sails away, and you gotta accept whatever it does.”
Luffy’s grin only widened.
“Well, that’s not a problem! You can make me a ship and come sail it with me! Then you know it’ll be doing awesome things.”
For a moment, Franky forgot they were both in Impel Down, that, even with working limbs, he wouldn’t be able to do much more than shove around his food. He could picture a ship made for Luffy, a ship that could take him right out of here and on to all his adventures. He’d like to see a ship like that. A dream didn’t really matter down here, but it was also sort of all you had.
“Well, then you better tell me what your ship would be like.”
“Okay! First, the figurehead’s got to be awesome!”
Luffy’s ship priorities matched his usual sensibilities. The ship needed lasers, it needed transformations, and it needed lots of meat.
But Franky could also hear the priorities of a boy behind bars. He wanted to sleep on deck, and for the ship to be filled with plants and music. For somebody with so much fight in him, he was interested in so many ways of running away. He wanted his ship to be fast, but he also liked the idea of the ship being able to fly or turn invisible.
It was a bit painful, and it made it all the harder not to hope. As much as Franky told himself he was humoring the kid, his brain kept drafting dimensions of ships to take Luffy to the end of the Grand Line.
When he and Iceberg got permission to see the plans for the Oro Jackson, it had been daunting. They’d stayed up late, marveling over the grand prow, the arches of the wood, every detail from the figurehead to the ropes. How could you even dream of matching a ship like that?
You didn’t, Franky understood now. The Oro Jackson had been Roger’s, imposing and grand, yet adventurous and irreverent. Luffy didn’t need a great and gilded beauty to carry him. He started to dream of Luffy’s ship, a ship with a heartbeat, a ship whose laughter spilled over the edges in vines and feathers.
“How come Franky gets to sail with you,” Samuel the Axe whined playfully. “We’ve been friends for years and you’ve never invited me to sail with you.”
Luffy looked at him seriously.
“Because when you get out of here, you said you want to go meet your grandkids and help at your son’s shop.”
Sam laughed, but Franky could see the fondness on the criminal’s craggy features.
“I guess you’re right. Can’t go off on adventures before I’ve made sure that boy isn’t running his shop into the ground.”
The boy was asleep now, splayed out on the floor and snoring. The question that had been tickling Franky’s brain made its way out.
“What did they put a kid down here for anyway?”
“Nobody knows,” Bloody Anjie, scourge of the South Blue said. “Even the brat has no idea. He did some petty crimes, but one day he got shot in the shoulder with a seastone bullet and brought down here. It’s been three years now. A damn shame, it is.”
Franky had been in Impel Down less than a month, but the moment he broke back into the sunlight felt like a revelation. Many of the prisoners streamed out, running for the stationed Marine boats, but plenty of others froze like Franky, letting the light wash over them. He had soda and sunlight. He was undefeatable.
“Franky, which boat?” Luffy asked as his side.
Mostly standard ships and battleships, all too clunky for an escape.
Then he saw her. She was lighter than a standard Marine ship, a fine fully-rigged pinnace, full with oars. She’d probably been commissioned to hunt pirates, right into the calm belt if needed, but she looked fast and sleek. She looked like freedom.
“That one there. She’ll get us where we need to go.” He thought for a moment. He’d agreed to Luffy’s mad dream, but he’d agreed in the depth of the ocean. Here, in the sunlight, what did he want? “She’ll get us there, Captain.”
It felt right to say it.
“Okay! Let’s go!”
There was no figurehead to sit on, but Luffy had still found his way to the mast. Zoro watched him and felt the world settle back into place.
“Where are we settin’ course?” Franky asked.
It was strange. Marine ships had a complex dash of log poses and compasses to help an advanced sailor go anywhere. Franky and Ace had been puzzling over them, but, for now, they’d just been sailing away. Some marines tried to give chase, but they ended up too on fire to do anything about it.
“Adventure!” Luffy declared.
“A doctor,” Ace said.
“Drum’s s’posed to have plenty of those.”