"Alvida?"
The name choked itself out of Koby's mouth, hoarse and incredulous. "What...what are you doing here?"
Alvida laughed, harshly. "What am I doing here? I believe a certain Marine is responsible for locking me in here," she said, her voice dripping with disdain. "Goodness me now, I wonder just who that was?"
Koby's stomach clenched. Still patronizing, still demeaning, after all these years….
"No, I mean…what is all this? " stammered Koby, gesticulating at the accommodations that were supposedly functioning as her cell.
"Well Koby, it's not exactly how I wanted to spend my twilight years," she said, waving a hand airly. The seastone cuffs clinked. "But someone forced me into early retirement. Just who was that now?"
"Where did you get all this...stuff?" Koby was aware of how stupid he sounded. His mouth was becoming increasingly dry, his palms sweating in a manner than had nothing to do with the heat.
"I have many admirers," Alvida said, shrugging. "The staff has become quite accommodating over the years. And a girl from the North Blue sends me nail polish once a month. Why, you look uncomfortable, Koby. Is it the heat?"
She smirked and raised what looked like a bouquet of ostrich plumes and fanned herself as Koby stared dubiously.
He surveyed her. She had tied off the usual striped uniform that Impel Down inmates wore at her waist, no doubt due to the temperature, and was lounging in a faded bra. Her nails were a bright red, as were her lips. Clearly she had no issue getting ahold of cosmetics.
She didn't look much different. How old was she? She had to be in her thirties at this point, maybe pushing forty. But she looked largely unchanged in the years that had passed. It took Koby a moment to attribute it to her devil fruit: smooth skin can't get wrinkles.
"Why are you so….comfortable?" Koby stammered. He felt stupider by the minute, his head was swimming.
"Comfortable?" snorted Alvida, her eyes narrowed. "I have been in seastone for over a decade , boy. I assure you I am anything but comfortable." She stretched her legs across the couch, red-painted toes curled. "Please, I'm hardly the only one in here who's being accommodated. Despite Impel Down's reputation, the staff all have their favorites."
Koby was incredulous.
"Oh, I'm so sorry to disappoint you!" said Alvida, pressing a manicured hand to her chest in mock concern. "Were you expecting to find me wallowing in misery chained to the wall? Reflecting in sorrow upon my life of crime so you could gloat about justice being served? Prostrate and repented in shackles, begging for your forgiveness? Well, part of that's true," she regarded the seastone cuffs ruefully.
"And what do your 'admirers' get in return?" said Koby, though he was pretty sure he had a good idea, as his brain calculated the number of ethical violations in Alvida's cell.
"So many questions sailor boy!" said Alvida. "I was not expecting an interrogation today. If you are going to insist on this, then do come in and play a game of backgammon with me."
Koby nearly dropped the clipboard.
"What?"
"Oh really, child. Don't tell me you don't know how to play backgammon," said Alvida, rolling her eyes. "Come, I'll make us a cup of tea." She stretched and sat up. Koby wanted nothing more than to bolt, but he felt cemented to the floor.
She was so tall , Koby had forgotten. She seemed to loom over him as she sauntered up to the bars with surprising candor and steadiness, as though the seastone was a minor inconvenience as opposed to genuinely debilitating.
Koby was very aware of his heart rate rising.
"My, such a serious face Koby!" Alvida laughed. "Come now, where is the smiling young hero of the Marines?"
"I didn't come here for you to taunt me," said Koby, as boldly as his voice would allow. "And I certainly didn't come down here to engage in frivolities with the woman who kidnapped me and - "
"Now that's a bit harsh, Koby!" cut in Alvida. "I didn't kidnap you. You ended up on my ship of your own accord. I just decided not to let you leave."
She was leaning on the bars now, staring him down, easily standing a foot taller than him. She was far, far too close.
"I'm not playing your games, Alvida," said Koby, turning away. "You may be able to pull the wool over the staff's eyes, but not me. If you'll excuse me, I have reports to make."
"Oh I know, Koby. You're so busy nowadays," Alvida cooed. "It's been all over the newspapers. You took down a dangerous radical, again proving yourself the charming, boy hero of the Marines, and now you're the beaming face of reform for the new government."
Koby turned back to look at her. She had fixed him with a look that he did not particularly like.
"It would be a shame if someone were to mess all that up for you."
Koby felt as though his stomach had just been plunged in ice water. He grounded himself, and willed himself to look back at her.
"Oh, and do tell Alvida, how are you going to mess things up from the bottom of Impel Down," he said, turning and leaning against the opposite wall, his arms crossed.
"Well Koby, you made it very clear upon my arrest that you had concerns about me... talking ," said Alvida. "It seemed like you were rather worried that I was going to go and spread rumors about you….now why would I do that?"
"Indeed," said Koby. "Why would you do that, Alvida? What would you stand to gain from spreading gossip about me that no one is going to believe at this point? Your conditions here wouldn't improve, and you seem to be so...taken care of."
"Well, its just in this terrifying new age and all these political transitions, it just really is so very hard to know what to believe," said Alvida gesturing as broadly as her shackled hands would allow. "Why, the people want someone they can trust! And understandably so. There's already been so much corruption in the government. It would really be such a scandal if the pure, good-hearted war hero of the Marines was hiding a secret history with piracy. "
The knot in Koby's stomach tightened and seemed to be swelling upward into his chest. His mouth was very dry.
"Quite frankly I am surprised you managed to join the Marines at all, given our connection," said Alvida, regarding her nails. "Something must have happened to make your recruiters skip over things."
"And if there was?" said Koby, trying to keep the desperation from creeping into the edges of his voice. "Who would believe the words of a has-been pirate from the bottom of Impel Down, over a Marine in good standing? Who would believe some criminal just looking to get even with the Marine who put her away?"
"Oh of course, you're absolutely right," said Alvida, waving a hand. "A Marine in your standing is obviously beyond reproach. But these are troubled times Koby. Surely you have enemies. And your little affiliation with Straw Hat Luffy is hardly a state secret. And in this rocky political climate...people just might, hear things, Koby. People might suspect things. People talk , Koby. And then someone might just decide to do some poking around. Can you believe the headlines - the brightest star of the Marines, building his entire career on lies…"
The coiled knot of fear in his stomach gave way into anger. Koby could feel himself getting very warm in a way that had nothing to do with the heat - he was desperately trying to remain grounded against the sickening swell of emotion.
"Why now?" demanded Koby, his nails digging into his palms. "You've had years here Alvida, why now?"
"Oh please sailor boy, I'm a patient woman, when I want to be," said Alvida. "If I had been blabbing about our little connection the day they dragged me down here kicking and screaming no one would have ever believed me. But I have rapport now. I'm on good terms with the staff...obviously," she gestured to her surroundings. "I have people who will listen ."
The knot in Koby's stomach and chest had swollen into a massive fist, clenched around his racing heart.
"Go ahead, call my bluff," said Alvida airily, turning and sitting back down her couch. "Who would believe a batty old pirate claiming Rear Admiral Koby was her cabin boy back in her days of the East Blue. Of course, no one would believe such drivel! But it certainly would make for quite the conversation, even if it's nothing but silly gossip tossed around between the Impel Down guards. And I mean, obviously since the golden boy of the Marines has nothing to hide, he wouldn't mind if those rumors just happened to get around for people to do some poking in the right places, because there would be nothing to find, and because he has nothing to hide…."
Koby's mind was spinning. CP0 could dig up dirt on anyone. Were all of the agents loyal to him? He had no way of knowing. He knew he couldn't pass a background check if it came to that. His entire life could be shattered, all because of this...
"….right, Koby?"
He was losing control, his mind blank with fear. He could feel the grip on his Observation slipping. He could feel a nauseating aura of spite off her, swelling into his emotions.
He was speaking before he even realized the words were out his mouth.
"What do you want?" The voice was not his own.
Alvida regarded him, smirking. He could see the checkmate in her eyes.
"I want to get out of here, you idiot," she said. "What do you think I want?"
Koby blanched. He should have expected this.
He did not particularly want to let Alvida out of Impel Down. It would be a complete undoing what had been such an important milestone for him. On top of that, with the government reform in progress, Impel Down was in a state of limbo. Even if he called in favors, it could be months before someone picked up Alvida's case to try to assess parole.
"Alvida," said Koby. "I-I don't think that's possible. The government is in shambles. I am trying to pick up the pieces. I can't possibly -"
"Well the government is going to have a lot harder time putting itself back together if one of their key players is under investigation for ties to crimes of piracy," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Impel Down has come under questioning for its ethical practices. Prisoners will be pardoned, crimes re-assessed and -"
"Alvida, you were co-captain to a warlord ," hissed Koby. "You fenced mercenaries! That's not the sort of thing we can just waltz up for consideration of a government pardon! It's not as though you just jumped into a raft and thought you would go treasure hunting, and got scooped up by Marines. Those are the people who will get pardons. You were allied with a warlord."
"So what I was doing, as co-captain to a warlord, was legal at the time. Therefore, I shouldn't be in here for crimes that weren't even considered crimes when I had government protection -"
"Yes, well kidnapping me was indeed a crime, and you were imprisoned for piracy, kidnapping, resisting arrest, and assaulting me upon arrest -"
"Again with the kidnapping!" said Alvida, pressing a hand to her head dramatically. "You walked onto my ship. Be thankful I liked you enough to keep you around for two years and didn't just throw you overboard."
"I don't have time for this!" snapped Koby.
Alvida stared him down. The swell of her malice against his own emotions was sickening.
"Listen cabin boy ," Alvida hissed. "I've kept my silence all these years, and frankly I am tired of it. You agree to get me out of here, or the next time my lovely acquaintance Leopold comes down here to bring me a new novel and worship my feet, I'll tell him a fun little story about a cabin boy I once had, with pink hair, named Koby - and yes that's right, just like the Rear Admiral, how funny, what a coincidence…"
"Alvida, these sorts of things take time," said Koby, desperately. "It couldn't even happen right away! I would have to petition for your case to be reviewed, maybe couple it with a few other pirates who were arrested around your time so it's not suspicious -"
"I'm not unreasonable, Koby," said Alvida, waving a hand, her shackles clanking. "I know that I cannot reasonably expect to walk out of here tomorrow. The world is changing. So in the meantime, while you poke my files in the right direction and I play hurry up and wait….you can come visit me."
Koby gaped at her. "Come again?"
"Let me rephrase that for you. You will come visit me."
Koby stared. "Why?"
"So that we can have a cup of tea and play backgammon, and I can hear about the world and watch you squirm." said Alvida, turning to recline back into the couch, a cat-like smirk on her face.
"I can't visit you Alvida, that's absurd."
"You are overseeing a good deal of Impel Down's reform," said Alvida, stretching her legs across the couch. "Whenever you drop by for a visit to check up on everyone's daily allotment of torture, and make sure Sadi-chan and Domino are following all the new rules, you can come drop in to see me as well. I don't think that is unreasonable."
Koby found that highly unreasonable.
"You visited someone else quite frequently," said Alvida, quietly, her eyebrows raised.
Koby's throat suddenly felt very tight, his fingertips numb. After all, all these years...Had he learned nothing? Had he not changed from that miserable little cabin boy on her ship?
Where was Luffy? Where was Luffy to show up with that beaming smile and punch the problem away, Luffy to send her flying into the ocean and -
Luffy was dead.
He had no fight in him.
Not for this.
"Fine." he said, through gritted teeth, fighting to keep his voice even. "I'll petition your case and…"
He swallowed, his hands trembling and numb.
"...and I'll visit you."
"Splendid," said Alvida, her eyes narrowing like a cat that was playing with its food.
Checkmate.
"I'll look forward to it, sailor boy."
She waved her hand at him, manicured nails contrasting sharply with the heavy shackles. She was dismissing him.
He turned, and walked slowly down the corridor. His hands felt like weights, his heart as though it was about to burst up through his chest.
"You visited someone else quite frequently."
"Shishishi, but Koby, this is how it's supposed to be! It started with us, it's gonna end with us! Shishsishi,"
This was not how it was supposed to be.
Koby ducked into an empty cell and vomited, his body wracked with sobs.
So - I'm going to maybe post another chapter or two here, but if I'm not really getting any readership or audience, I may just delete the story. I fulfilled my requirements for the One Piece Big Bang 2019, and it just seems like I have more audience right now on other platforms - which is totally okay, but I'm not going to post my full Big Bang fic if I really don't have anyone down for this story. So if you are enjoying this, please let me know. Thanks!
