Chapter 16 – Wager

Rainbase was a distant stain on the horizon.

Eric collapsed the spyglass and then slipped down the back of the sand dune to the outcrop of rocks where Kohza and Vivi were taking refuge from the sun.

"I didn't see a thing."

The gambling town could have been a mirage in the mind. This morning the captain had been in a slightly better mood and had remarked that the northern stretch of the Sandora had once been the most profitable part of his voyage. He'd taken gamblers and tourists to a dock where luxury F Wanis would be waiting. Then the visitors would be whisked straight to the casino – not even having a moment to look around the oasis of Rainbase.

"But that business all dried up when the truth about that crocodile bastard came out. The people couldn't abandon the city fast enough. Not a thing out there."

The man hadn't been exaggerating. There hadn't been a whisper of movement though Eric had watched the area for ten minutes.

Kohza frowned. "If there are people there, they either aren't doing anything or they're laying low. We better be prepared."

Vivi checked her water while the two boys rummaged through their knapsacks, pulling out items wrapped in oilcloths. She flinched at the first metallic click and averted her eyes when she saw them expertly sliding rifle parts into place. It bothered her how easily they had hidden them from her, how quickly they put the weapons together, how comfortable they were with the process, how it was all so very unthinking for them.

But dirty work, whether it was starting a rebellion or living a secret lie, couldn't be accomplished if a person considered anything for long. Vivi could sympathize; she'd abandoned more than just thinking at Whiskey Peak.

"We don't know what we'll find. Be ready." She looked up but Kohza had been talking to Eric. He turned to her. "Keep back."

She frowned. "I don't need to be protected."

Click. "You aren't armed – "

"Yes. I am," she said sharply. "Only my weapon doesn't need bullets."

A dark shadow passed over Kohza's face while Eric paused in his cleaning and considered the rifle in his hands. She immediately regretted her words but Kohza spoke before she could apologize. "My point is that we can stop something at a distance. Can you? Where's your weapon anyway?"

Her slashers were making a vital contribution to the construction of her brassiere. "I'll stay back," she murmured, choosing the easy way out.

"Drink more water. You're looking flushed," Kohza added before returning to his work.

The final leg of the journey to Rainbase was done at a crawl. They slipped between dunes rather than climbing over the top of them and then approached the outskirts of the city cautiously. It was quite a change from her last entrance into the city when Luffy shouted "Come out, Crocodile!" in front of the assembled Billions and a company of Marines.

Their goal was Raindinners. If there were clues anywhere, they would be found there. They stayed away from main streets and slipped between buildings but it didn't seem like anyone was around. The streets were quiet. The shops, restaurants, and houses were closed and when Vivi peered into a few windows, she saw that the rooms were empty of all but the heaviest furniture. She and Kohza waited at the edge of a side street while Eric scouted ahead.

"The casino isn't that big. I saw it'll take an hour to search," Kohza said. "Then we'll get out of this ghost town."

"It may take longer than that. Whatever we need will be on the lower levels and those may not be safe." Vivi anticipated Kohza's questions before he could ask it. "I was here before."

"But in the casino? When – "

Eric reappeared. "It's clear. We cross this road and then we take back streets all the way to Raindinners."

The crack of gunfire filled the air. Puffs of dirt and sand danced at their feet and they dove for cover wherever they could find it. Then the road became thick with attackers.

Vivi scrambled for shelter and rattled the handle of a shop entrance. It flew open and she stumbled through. She slammed it shut as another rain of bullets blasted the door and she was showered with splinters. Something crashed in the next room.

She heard someone calling her name over the chaos in the streets outside. "I'm okay! I – "

An agent came in the back door, brandishing a pistol. Vivi undid the clasp on her robe and in two practiced motions had her slashers in hand. Her wrists twitched and the length of string snapped out. The sharp end of the weight whipped the man's hand and he dropped his pistol. She stepped forward, kicking it away, and then lashed again.

Someone tackled her from the side. She was borne to the ground; her assailant landed on her with a grunt. Vivi kicked and flailed until she had a firm grip on her slasher. She used it as a dagger and jammed it into the man's side. He cringed back and it gave her enough wiggle room to bring up her knee just so.

This time the man yelped and rolled away. That's when she saw it and knew they couldn't be reasoned with. They wouldn't stop for anything. They didn't have a choice.

Eric grabbed Kohza by the collar of his coat and dragged him into an alley.

"Vivi went that way," Kohza protested but Eric ignored him and kicked in a back door. He pulled Kohza inside and slammed the door shut while shots pinged against the walls outside.

"Us versus all of them? We're good, Leader, but not that good. So what do we do?"

Kohza swallowed his dread. "We can give Vivi cover to get over here or keep them away from where she is. Let's go."

They stole towards the front of the shop. Kohza everything away and focused on the firefight they were going to be starting. Vivi said she could take care of herself so he'd just have to take her word for it. She'd know what to do once they started laying down cover.

"Did you see anyone you knew?" Kohza asked as they came up to the shop's front window. "Any old friends?"

"No."

"Good." If they were all agents, he didn't have to be polite.

"Kohza. Something's wrong."

Kohza risked a glance out of the window. Their attackers weren't trying to find cover. They weren't trying to surround the area. They weren't doing any of a dozen things fighters would do when working in a team. It was as if they were operating on the same orders but in a separate space of their own.

What they were lacking in smarts they certainly made up for in numbers. 'Billions' was no exaggeration. Had the Marines caught any agents or was that just some publicity stunt? Kohza thought.

"We're gonna run out of ammo before we run out of enemy," Eric observed.

"Just keep them away from that shop," Kohza ordered.

There was the sound of firing from further up the street. The agents dispersed untidily. Some moved too slowly and were cut down.

Nomad battle cries rang out and men poured down the streets, bearing down upon the agents on camels and horses. The tribesmen ran them to the ground then leapt off and bound them. Then the nomads started house to house searches, like dogs sniffing out rats.

"Hey!"

Kohza's stomach knotted with alarm but Eric had already flung the door open. "One of our friends is in that shop. You have to help her!"

The tribesmen shouted out angrily and rushed towards them. They tore the gun from Kohza's hand and then they were pulled into the street. Kohza realized that there wasn't a face in the group that was older than he was. And they all looked very determined.

A short conversation was conducted in the nomad's language.

"Did you catch that?" Eric tried not to move his lips when he whispered.

The tribesman heard anyway. He turned round on them. "You don't understand our tongue? I'm sorry. I said, 'Death to traitors.'"

The nomads trained their weapons on them.

"Shall I translate the rest? Alright. Ready."

The safeties came off in a series of snaps.

"Stop it!"

Vivi stumbled out onto the street. She stopped short when some of the nomads swung their weapons trained in her direction.

"Death to all traitors," the nomad said. "We don't make exceptions. Aim."

"She is the Princess of Alabasta," roared a voice that Kohza and Eric recognized.

Vivi gestured imperiously. "Lower those weapons. Immediately!"

"Do as she says." Kohza wasn't sure what to think when he saw Falafra pushed his way to the front of the crowd. The ex-rebel stood between his friends and the raised weapons.

The nomad raised his voice and pointed angrily at Kohza and Eric. Then he yelped. His rifle clattered to the ground and he clutched at his hand.

Vivi's peacock slashers hummed in the air. "I said stop."

The man narrowed his eyes. Vivi glared back and said something in the nomad's tongue. That seemed to change everything. The tribesmen brought their weapons to their sides. Some of them bowed to their princess; others removed their headdresses in an obvious gesture of respect.

Vivi ignored the veneration and ran to her friends. "Are you alright?"

Before Kohza could answer, she'd thrown her arms around him and buried her face into his coat. "I can't leave you for a minute," she murmured.

Somebody's heart was beating like a frightened rabbit's. Kohza realized it was his.

Then she was scooping Eric's hat from sand and putting it on his head and chastising him in the same way.

Eric laughed without humor and asked Falafra. "What's saving our butts worth these days?"

"A beer, but you'll have to owe me. What are you doing here?"

Kohza frowned. "That was going to be my question."

"It's not important right now." Vivi's eyes were steely. "My father has never sanctioned executions. Chief Urgano didn't order the nomads to do this, did he?"

"No way. He sent us out here to see if the wasps had returned to their nest."

"Us?" Kohza asked quickly.

Falafra ignored Kohza and glanced at the nomad who was bandaging his hand. "That one's brother was killed in an ambush last week and he got ahead of us. He's gonna have a lot of explaining to do."

The nomads were dragging bodies into neat and tidy rows while arranging the secured prisoners into a group. "There are two more agents in that shop over there," Vivi said. "They're unconscious."

"You fought them off? Then you saw that they aren't acting normal," Falafra said.

She nodded.

"It's like they're under a spell."

"But it's not magic," Vivi walked over to one of the bodies and knelt down. She willed herself to keep from trembling as she brushed back the dead man's long hair. "It's not magic at all."

====================

One of Bracken's men stuck his head into the tent. "The scouts are back."

And after listening to their report, Bracken's pleasant mood evaporated. Kohza, he reflected ominously, was too lucky for his own damn good.

He wouldn't even be here now had Kohza followed his plans; they would have taken over the country a year ago. But only when an entire city was destroyed did their so-called Leader act and when he did act, it was a half-effort, leaving rebels behind and saying it was strategy. Well Bracken knew strategy – overwhelming force and power won.

Then again there was something to be said for cunning. A little distraction over here, an attack on this side while a small group of loyal friends slipped past the nomads and ever closer to their objective…

He didn't feel bad about using the agents as fodder. Their treachery was far worse than Kohza's cowardice. They had to be punished some way and he didn't believe in Marine justice; it was too soft. This felt more complete; the men were helping the revolution they had tried to sabotage. If what was left of the entire organization became target practice for the nomads, then that was perfectly fine with him.

Acceptable losses; yet another thing Kohza hadn't been able to face. You didn't start a war if you weren't willing to pay the price.

Bracken frowned to himself.

"Something wrong, sir?"

"What? No. You still here? Go get something to eat." Bracken shook his head again to clear the fog. Had he eaten? "Wait, I'll come with you."

Yes, Bracken thought, as he strode across the sands, he was willing to pay the price. He didn't like it, but there it was. That's what the Water of Life required and with that artifact, he could topple the monarchy and set Alabasta up as a democracy of the people. A democracy that did not have to suffer to listen to the words of a decrepit old fool and his daughter, nor pretend that all was well and wonderful in the sandy kingdom.

Kohza had believed in that dream once – or pretended he'd had. Bracken had admired the guy for telling them all to stop thinking of Cobra as their king and to think of him as a man. Kings were gods. Men were dust in the end. But Kohza had thrown his convictions to the wind as soon as the princess had shown up.

Now they were both out here in the desert – away from the safety of Yuba and the capital. That could make things interesting.

He sent the other rebel ahead. His partner needed to know about this.

He'd been surprised to find that there was someone who hated the princess almost as much as he hated Kohza. He strode past the guards at the entrance of the tent and threw the flap open. "Hey kid. What're you up to?"

"Eating." Her solemn expression unfixed itself from the food in front of her and latched onto him. Then she asked, like she always did, "Would you like a senbei?"

A/Ns: Falafra is the Suna Suna Clan member who lost his arm saving Kohza. He's the really big guy standing next to Kohza when the kid tries to join the rebellion in case that helps.

The slashers that Vivi is using are her string ones from Whiskey Peak and not the linked chains that she uses later in Alabasta.