Time Frame: Alabasta, pre Straw Hat involvement
Spoilers: Some minor Baroque Works stuff, nothing major
Rating: K+
Nico Robin, as Miss All Sunday, sat patiently at the Spider Café. Today she had the joy of performing another job interview. Both the ex-Miss Wednesday and the ex-Mr. 8 had been killed after their romantic relationship (which was explicitly forbidden by company policy for just this reason) had caused both a horrible failure in a mission and nearly blown the cover off of the whole Baroque Work's operation.
The whole mess had been a huge headache and a mountain of paperwork, not to mention there was a good chance that during the pair's run as frontier agents they had caused several security breaches in an attempt to hide their relationship. To Miss All Sunday this meant that there was a distinct possibility that someone somewhere knew about Baroque Work's plan to overthrow the current monarchy.
To prevent similar situations, Crocodile had gone ahead and hired the 13 pair, but as far as he was concerned the breach never should have happened in the first place. When the Warlord had heard the news, Miss All Sunday had thought he was going to kill everything in the room. Even now, four days later, he was taking his foul mood out on the pirates that had the misfortune of docking on the island.
But the absence of the two agents left serious holes in the Baroque Works system that needed to be filled as quickly as possible. After pouring over possible candidates, Miss All Sunday had picked a handful to interview. Two were set to come in soon. They were a pair that despite their recent entry to the company had an impeccable record. They would have to be split up, of course, but showed great promise.
"Another coffee Paula, if you don't mind," she said to the woman manning the bar. Paula obliged with a nod before returning to her work. Miss All Sunday smiled to herself before taking a sip. Out of the officer agents, Miss Doublefinger by far had the best undercover skills. She had been quite the find; Baroque Works had stumbled upon her skills by complete accident on a neighboring island. The arrangement they had worked out quite nicely, and she made for a good partner for the notoriously difficult to work with Mr. 1.
Right on time, the door opened and two people entered the little café. Miss All Sunday put on her most professional smile and turned to greet the would-be agents…
Only to almost kill them on sight.
Before her stood the Princess of Alabasta and the Captain of the Royal Guard. Who apparently were members of Baroque Works and were working their way up the ranks. Presumably to interfere in ways that would be problematic to Miss All Sunday's goals.
Oh dear.
The interview went smoothly. The girl was obviously nervous, but answered the questions intelligently. The captain didn't say much, but had a steady presence that indicated strength and diligence. They were most certainly strong candidates for the agent positions. At the end of the interview Miss All Sunday thanked them for their time, and promised to get back to them with her decision within the next couple of days.
The morning wore on, and candidates came and went. None of them left quite the impression that the princess and the captain did. After she was finished she sat back with a final cup of coffee before heading back to the capital.
"Those first two were the best, in my opinion," Paula said as she wiped down her tables.
"Hm. You think so?" Miss All Sunday asked, genuinely interested in the other woman's opinion.
"Yeah, the others were just so…meh. The first ones, they'd do anything to finish a job."
"I agree," Miss All Sunday murmured into her cup, deep in thought.
Back in Alubarna Miss All Sunday had quite the conundrum on her hands. What to do with the little princess and her loyal dog. There were multiple paths open to her, but Miss All Sunday knew that picking the wrong one would lead to her own demise.
The whole situation would have been avoided had the hiring agencies done their job properly. While blue hair had been a popular fashion choice since the birth of the princess, since the onset of the drought it had fallen out of style. While the princess's makeup and style of dress made her look older than she actually was, the captain hadn't changed his distinctive appearance at all. Obviously the problem of Baroque Work's security was bigger than originally thought.
But what was done was done. Dealing with her employee's incompetence would have to wait; right now Miss All Sunday was scheming. As she finished some paperwork she began to put a plan together. Miss All Sunday was seriously considering allowing the pair to continue on their little crusade to save their doomed country.
Crocodile did not directly interact with his agents. The anonymity of Mr. 0 was crucial to the success of his plans. This left Miss All Sunday as a go between the agents and their mysterious boss. He would never know that the monarchy had infiltrated the organization.
In addition, all of the current high ranking agents were not from Alabasta. As well as preventing a conflict of interest, this allowed for a greater variety of skills throughout Baroque Works. With Miss All Sunday in charge of all important promotions, she could insure that the princess and her guard were always paired with someone who wouldn't recognize them. There was risk involved, but it was manageable.
And what would she gain? For one, knowing the identity of the spies made it possible for Miss All Sunday to directly control what information the Alabastian government had about any given situation.
More importantly, though, was the fact that Crocodile would never know. In the years of working with him, Miss All Sunday had discovered that he was clever and ruthless enough that his plans would never fail by conventional means. And Crocodile's plan failing was crucial to her own survival. It would take a spectacular, unpredictable event to derail the Warlord's vision.
Something like a plucky princess infiltrating an evil organization for the sake of her country.
Besides, the princess would be forced to perform each of their missions to the best of their ability in an attempt to please Baroque Works. With Alabasta itself backing them, they would have remarkable recourses at their disposal. There was a certain irony in a princess inadvertently help destroy her own country that appealed to the morbid sense of humor in Miss All Sunday.
Yes…promoting the princess had many advantages.
"From now on you will be known as Miss Wednesday and you as Mr. 8. Here are your new partners, Mr. 9 and Miss Monday. I suggest you get to know each other; you will be given your new assignments within the week. If you have any questions, you can direct them towards me, as Mr. 0 is a very busy man who does not like to be disturbed by trivial matters," Miss All Sunday said to the four people in front of her.
"Wait! I thought I was going to be partners with, uh, Miss Wednesday," the new Mr. 8 said as he adjusted the strap to his saxophone.
"It has been determined that your abilities are better complimented by your new partners. While there is a chance the four of you will work in close proximity to one another, it is for the good of the company that you are split," she replied in a cool tone that left no room for compromise. The two Alabastians gave each other a worried glance before sizing up their new partners.
"If that is all, you are dismissed," Miss All Sunday said before leaving the new partners to themselves.
The first part of her plan complete, the only thing left was to patiently wait for her opportunity to strike. Reveal Crocodile's plans to soon and she risked her only chance at Alabasta's poneglyph, but wait too long the princess's information would become useless.
Miss All Sunday was playing a dangerous game against an even more dangerous opponent. With Alabasta and Baroque Works caught in the middle of their struggle for power, the slightest misstep could ruin the lives of millions.
And with one bold move, Miss All Sunday had introduced a new player.
She could only hope it was the right decision.
AN: In an alternate version of this fic, Robin was aware of Vivi's and Igaram's entry into Baroque Works from the start, and manipulated their way into top position.
Manipulative!Robin is sadly underrepresented. The lady not only has been wanted for 20 years, but basically orchestrated the downfall of a "good" country with no repercussions (unless you count getting stabbed in the chest, but even that worked out in her favor). Speaking of which, I don't recall reading any good Vivi/Robin post-Alabasta fics hmm…
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