CHAPTER 2 - The very next day
The following morning pain struck him as he slowly opened his eyes and realized that he had fallen asleep in his office, still dressed in his usual black button up vest over the long sleeve shirt alongside the green scarf that hang slightly loose from his neck. As he made an attempt to stand up he slowly realized that his whole body feel completely numb, but that wasn't the only thing that was bothering him. At the moment he suffered from an agonizing headache so strong that he could barely recognize that he was located at his office.
"What the hell?" he murmured to himself trying to remember if he had ever felt this weak, horrible and disorganized all at the same time. He was never the type that caught the flu and therefore had never been familiar with the sensation of feeling sick. God he wish it would all go away.
Suddenly he heard a knock at the door which he presumed to be Miss All Sunday.
"What is it?" Crocodile said while looking at the golden clock that hanged at the wall which was a quarter past nine meaning he had slept for at least twelve hours! Amazed that he had slept for so long, probably the longest time in his life he considered that to many hours of sleep was the reason his mood was so terrible.
"Sir Crocodile I just received a message from the world government that you have been called to a Warlord meeting alongside the head of the marines and the three admirals. It's regarding the latest incident between the Blackbeard and the Whitebeard pirates, did hear what happened?"
"Of course I have, or did you forget that I've asked you to deliver me the newspaper every day?"
The incident started with Blackbeard or referred by his formal name before he rose to fame Marshall D .Teach had betrayed his captain by killing one of his crewmates. Afterwards the 2nd division commander of the Whitebeard pirates Portgas D. Ace went out for a quest to find Blackbeard presumably by seeking out for revenge. When they finally meet they fought with each other for a long time where the battle lasted for several hours. It ended with Ace being ambushed by Blackbeard's crewmates which turned out to be a fatal blow for the young commander. Ace's motives were clearly understandable but as for Blackbeard he was perceived as a threat against the World Government and regular civilians in the Grand Line as well. Apparently Blackbeard wanted to challenge not only Whitebeard but also the Marines by showing his true strength and demanding a place amongst the Warlords or for the whole world to pronounce him as an Yonko. Clearly there must be something wrong with this man since there already are seven members of the Royal Shichibukai and considering the fact that he has barely achieved anything except capturing the strong yet young commander and having Logia type Devil fruit. Now it seems there is going to be a war between the two sides whereas the World Government is apparently on Blackbeard's side even thought they should be against all pirates. They too wants to fight against the notorious pirates who have been conquering the seas far to long and end them once and for all. How are they going to make Whitebeard fight against them? By threatening to execute Portgas D. Ace.
Still standing behind the wooden door Robin cleared her voice as she was coming her way in since it would be better if she told him this face to face "They send you an letter with information about the meeting, may I've come in?"
"Come in" he said even though she she was quick enough to do so before he ended his sentence. As Nico Robin came in into the familiar underwater office she did notice there was something strange with the tall broad shouldered sandman who was leaning against the wall while gazing at the banana wani that were swimming inside the aquarium. As she was coming closer she could clearly see that he didn't look alright. His skin was surprisingly paler than usual almost the same color as marble, the nape-length black hair looked messy with strands of hairs falling over his face rather than being neatly slicked back. He seemed to be unaware of her presence after she looked at his eyes, not because he was looking at the banana wani instead of her but because they seemed wandering, tired and far away.
"Sir are you alright? You seem awfully tired."
"Wha.. It's nothing" he said while rubbing his eyes "can I have the letter?"
She gave the white envelope to him which clearly said with the dark blue lettering "WORLD GOVT". Further down it read out his name with a very formal invitation to the latest Shichibukai meeting at Navy Headquarters which takes place in five days.
A Navy ship will arrive at the port to the Alabasta Kingdom and set sail straight over the Grand Line to Paradise.
The ship will arrive tomorrow morning whereas the journey will take about 3-4 days. At HQ your role in all of this will be to take part in our plans of strategy and defense. Since you have been given the name of an royal warrior of the sea you therefore have an obligation to ally yourself with the World Government to keep the world in balance especially in a situation such as this. When all the Warlords arrives the meeting will start together with the fleet admiral of the Marines, the Vice admirals and the three admirals. About 3 days after the meeting we will declare the execution of Portgas D. Ace and the war will begin between the Whitebeard pirates. As for Marshall D. Teach we have agreed that he will have a place amongst the royal Shichibukai due to the fishman Jinbei showing the act of treason by going up against us to defend the pirate Portgas D. Ace as well as Whitebeard.
As he read through the letter he couldn't help but feel a little tingle inside of him that he is going up against Whitebeard, the very man that defeated him once, humiliating him and crushing his dreams of ever pursuing to become the king of the pirates…
Even tho many others will participate in this war he saw this as an opportunity to face his enemy and making him pay. For all Crocodile knew this was the one and only reason he was interested in this war otherwise he wouldn't spend a second of his life "helping out" the marines.
Looking up he stopped leaning and started to stand straighter whilst pulling his hair backwards Robin sensed that his attitude became more serious after he had finished reading the letter.
"Looks like I have to make myself ready then"
"You're going, in this condition?" She said without hesitation.
"What exactly do you mean?"
"I mean the moment I came here I immediately noticed that something was wrong, you look as if… well how should I put this? Like you had a hangover."
"Oh so that is what you think because of that wine I drank? I let you taste it as well so how come you're not in turmoil? " He said nonchalantly.
"Perhaps because I didn't drink the whole bottle" she stated pointing her direction at the empty bottle that was standing on his lamp table proving her point.
Crocodile made a shrug to her gesture while trying to remember what he did last night but he could only remember receiving the fancy wine bottle and tasting the delicious flavorsome liquid. Everything else was just to blurry when trying to figure out why he waked up in his ordinary daily clothes and why he wasn't in his bedroom?
"Whatever, it doesn't really matter right now and also since I have to be gone for awhile I want you to call in the officer agents of the Baroque Works in this office tonight".
Robin was taken aback at this since all of the top members has never had an unified calling together and probably doesn't even know each others identities or faces, same goes for their anonymous executive Mr. 0. For Crocodile to make this decision was really something just out of character because of the fact that he usually acts very carefully before making a move.
"Are you sure you're have put any thought through this? I mean you have been keeping this master plan of yours for over a decade and you have always made sure to hide your true identity and keeping up with your false persona."
Crocodile listened to what she had to say but still couldn't resist himself from becoming a little bit impatient. "Well I appreciate your concern Miss All Sunday but I believe that this matter is none of your business" he said with a stern voice.
"But what if it is my concern since I have cooperated with you and helped you searching for your goal for the last four years now. If anything happens…"( she hesitated as she continued) " I mean what happens if someone from our little group suddenly turns their back against us by revealing our identities to the marines or the World Government...it would all be over."
The concerned look she gave him made him understand that if they would get betrayed by someone from Baroque works then of course everything he has been working for until now would have been in vain. As for Robin, considering her difficult background and her special yet dangerous ability to read the poneglyphs she would to be in danger. Even if their relationship weren't anything but a semblance of mutual trust and the fact that he never showed her any real compassion he still had to admit it, she is really important to him. While he was in his thoughts it was as if Robin's concerned expression looked more desperate and that her opinion sounded more like a plea saying if something would happen she would lose her shelter from the authorities.
"Yes. There is a possibility that what you are saying right now could very well happen. Still I expect you to follow my decision" he said calmly.
"The reason why I want to assemble the top agents is because I want to tell them in person what is going to happen when I won't be here and also in worst case scenario if I come across an obstacle during my stay it would be up to you and for the officer agents as well as the billions and millions to continue to follow my plan. I want my identity to be revealed only towards the higher ranks inside Baroque works so that they know the true seriousness of this organization and that they have been working under a Shichibukai all this time who is known as an "ally" for the World Government. Of course it would give the impression that I see them as my loyal subordinates and thereafter they would hopefully trust me in return."
Even tho he had a good reason to go along with this plan Robin still thought it might be better if they didn't rush things up and that Crocodile should keep being anonymous as long as there is no threat against their organization.
"I understand sir that I'm only here to follow orders and yes I will gather a meeting tonight." Said Robin feeling a bit anxious.
Crocodile began to walk away as he gave her a small smile. "Thank you, I appreciate it". He walked towards his bedroom and shut the doors to change his clothes while noticing that he still feel a bit dizzy which he tried to ignore as he thought it was just because he drank all that wine.
A/N: So... since this is the first fanfic I've ever written you may take notice that I have committed a big rocky misstake by not putting the same label on both chapter 1 and 2. I promise that this won't happen again in upcoming chapters and that you hopefully manage to realize that this is in fact the same story! Anyhow I hope you guys will stick around for next chapter which is going to be a treat;))