Chapter 32: Treachery
Every pirate in the world knew that setting sail in search of the One Piece, following in the footsteps of Gold Rodger, meant dealing with the navy, other rookies, the warlords and the emperors. Yet whilst taking down the emperors was seen as essential in becoming the 'king of the pirates', most pirates actively avoided whitebeard as any attempt on his crews lives would mean certain death to the guilty party. "Anyone who hurts my family pays the ultimate price", merchants would recall to all they met when the Whitebeard Pirates came up in conversation.
Edward Newgate, Whitebeard, or pops' to his beloved crew, his "family" was troubled. An emergency had arisen in one of his outermost territories; the cluster of islets and atolls which had been prone to bandit strikes before he'd leant his flag to the natives protection, had now seemingly attracted the attention of Kaido. Whitebeard new that Kaido was not a strategist or had the mindset for subtlety, so attacking a low level territory was out of the ordinary and worrying. As a result the 'king of the sea' had dispatched two of his "sons" to go protect and investigate this strange divergence from the norm. He still worried when he sent his "kids" ,crew, out on missions like these but they were necessary in keeping order within his territories and staying his rivals hands. The most prevalent, until now, had been Kiado and Big Mom, Shanks always remained aloof. Off eating and drinking with his crew, never a worry in the world. That changed when the rise of the Dragon King, Kaido suddenly changed, his attacks remained brutal but now were targeting all those who he believed had a connection, no matter how insignificant, the new fifth emperor. 'No matter' Whitebeard thought, shaking his heard, Kaido may be a monster but even a monster wouldn't declare war on an even greater monsters' children'.
"You won't get away with this Teach." Forth division Commander, Thatch staggered and collapsed to the ground, heaving out ragged breaths as he tried to stay conscious. He found himself lying face down on the ground, as a tall imposing, slightly overweight, man stood over him. The presence of his traitorous former comrade, Marshal D. Teach stood over him holding the prize Devil Fruit in one hand and bloody dagger in the other. All the while grinning manically. Teach had accompanied Thatch ashore with a large group of men from the forth division to look for information on the remote Ember Island, the fact that they had been comrades for over a decade hadn't factored as betrayal so Thatch was completely unaware and unprepared until it was too late, as he felt the dagger sink into his back.
"You should focus on staying alive commander Thatch, I just want the Devil Fruit. There's no need for you to die here." Teach said as his gaze flickered from Thatch to the Devil fruit in his hands. "I specifically made the poison sufficiently weak to temporally paralyse you, just stay down". Teach muttered looking at his new prize. The fruit was an odd one, it looked like three cherries all sharing one stem. One was blood red with swirling dark green and black colored patterns. Teach smiled gleefully "I asked you if I could have this Devil Fruit, I even offered to purchase it but you wanted to eat it in front of Whitebeard and the other commanders. You didn't even let it out of your sight, so I didn't have a chance to steal it. Believe me you forced my hand, I had no intention of this happening but I won't let you or anyone else stand between me and my goals."
With the greatest difficulty but with the most amount of anger possible, Thatch let out a snarl as he glared at the traitor before him m. "That's what this all about? I can't believe you'd attack me over something so petty!" Thatch yelled as he made another attempt to push himself up but fell down again, the poison numbing his body. "Zehahahahaha!" Blackbeard laughed as he stared down at his former commander. "This isn't pettiness. The only reason I served on Whitebeards crew for these last decade was to acquire a specific devil fruit, I knew I would have the best chance of finding it upon this ship. Unfortunately whenever I searched I always came up wanting, but then you came back brandishing my devil fruit.
Teach held the devil fruit in front Thatch's face. "I thought fate had abandoned me, but it looks like it favors me more than anyone else. With this fruit I'll be able to take out all my rivals and make this era mine! I'm no longer Marshal D. Teach, I'm Blackbeard!" He yelled, bringing the fruit up to his lips and swallowed it in whole.
"The others…will…make you…pay for this Teach" Thatch spluttered and coughed up blood, feeling the life draining from his body. "The deepest part of hell…is…reserved for traitors and…cowards…like…you." And with that Thatch fell to the ground and expired.