AN: Here's the revised chapter.


The others all stared at Luffy in dumbfoundment. Did he just say he quit?

"What in the world is that supposed to mean?" Ben asked. "Are you saying that you quit trying to stop Crocodile?"

"No," Luffy replied.

"Then what do you mean you quit?" Gwen asked in confusion.

Luffy looked at Vivi now. "Vivi," he said. "I want to beat the crap out of Crocodile."

Vivi gasped while Kevin looked back and forth between the two in confusion. "Ooookay. So...what's the problem?"

"If we stop the guys who are rebelling," Luffy said. "Will we stop Crocodile? We can't do anything even if we go to this place. We're pirates. You'd be better off without us."

"Oh, come on," Ben said, realizing what Luffy was quitting. "You're just giving up because all you care about is beating up Crocodile. What is wrong with you? We need to stop all those people from getting killed."

"Boooring," Luffy replied.

Ben's eyes narrowed. "What did you say?" He reached for the Omnitrix.

Luffy ignored Ben and continued looking at Vivi. "You just don't want anyone to die in this war. The people of your country, or us, or anyone."

"What's wrong with that?" Ben asked, really not liking the way Luffy was acting. Wasn't the whole point of their mission here to save the countless lives that were being ruined by Crocodile. Did the only thing Luffy cared about was beating up someone? To Ben, who cared about saving lives and helping people, this kind of talk was getting him angry.

Luffy closed his eyes and continued leaning against the tree. "You're talking about a fight against one of the Shichibukai," he said. "In which over a million people will be in battle. And all you want is for no one to die!"

Sweat was starting to drip down Vivi's forehead. Ben's own hand gripped the Omnitrix tightly.

Luffy opened his eyes now. "That's naive."

Ben grit his teeth. "How is that naive? Wasn't the whole point of us coming to prevent people from dying? And you all care about is beating up Crocodile? What is your problem?"

Luffy looked at Ben. "People die."

Before Ben could say anything else, Vivi punched Luffy flying into the sand.

"Stop talking like that! Don't you dare say that again, that's what we're trying to stop!" Vivi shouted, "You can't blame the rebels or the army for this, why should anyone die?! This is all Crocodile's fault!"

"Then why are you risking your life?!" Luffy yelled as he punched Vivi in the cheek.

Oh that was it. After hearing Luffy talk like that with that uncaring tone of his and hitting Vivi made Ben snap. He, a boy who had spent most of his life protecting people and saving their lives, to hear something as callous as that, was unable to bear it. Angrily, Ben activated the Omnitrix and slammed the dial down. In flash of green light, Ben transformed into what appeared to be a muscular, tail-less, nine foot tall, bipedal tiger with one claw coming out of each wrist.

"RATH!" the new form yelled in vicious rage that caused the others to take a step away from him. This form...sounded very angry.

"Oh, crap," Kevin said, remembering Rath very well out of all of Ben's aliens.

The giant cat-like alien wasted in no time in leaping into the air. Then he soared back down and delivered a pile driver fist into Luffy's face. The blow sent Luffy into the sand. The Straw Hat crews' jaws dropped and eyes widened at the violent action the usually level-headed Ben just did.

"Ben! Stop it!" Gwen cried. She too was familiar with Rath's attitude problem, so she knew that right now, with Ben already being made in his human form, would just make things worse now.

But Rath was too blinded by rage to listen to reason. He grabbed Luffy's head and yanked it in front of him. "Let me tell you something, Monkey D. Luffy! Rath is not gonna listen to you talk like that again! Do you hear me? How about you just shut your mouth?!" he slammed Luffy into the sand again.

The others watched in horror at Rath's actions. They had never seen Ben this vicious before. Zoro and Sanji immediately ran towards Rath. The cat alien heard them coming and turned around.

"You wanna fight? You wanna fight?" he challenged. Just then a rubber fist shot out of the ground and struck Rath in the back, causing him to shoot forward and slam into Sanji and Zoro before they had the chance to dodge. All three sprawled into the ground. But Rath quickly picked himself back up and turned around. Luffy was standing up and moving towards him. Growling, Rath charged at him.

"Gum Gum...Pistol!" Luffy yelled, shooting his fist at Rath.

But the tiger alien grabbed Luffy's fist before it could come in contact with him. Instead he twist his body and yanked Luffy's arm. This caused the rubber boy in turn to shoot forward. But Rath lifted the arm over his head and swung downwards to the ground. The momentum caused Luffy to slam into the ground.

"Is that you got, rubber boy?" Rath taunted. "I thought you were better than that!"

Just then Luffy's leg slammed into Rath's face, causing the tiger to stagger backwards while grabbing his nose. But Luffy wasn't done with his assault.

"Gum Gum...Gatling Gun!" he cried. Luffy then unleashed a barrage of punches to Rath's body. Due to his stretching powers, Luffy appeared to be delivering multiple punches at the same time. Rath seemed helpless. But then the tiger reached out and managed to grab Luffy's arms. He pulled, making the rubber boy shoot towards him again. But this time, Rath delivered a headbutt to the boy. The blow seemed to stun Luffy so Rath began delivering his own punches to Luffy's stomach. But Luffy stretched his arms and slammed a Gum Gum Bazooka to Rath's gut, making him release Luffy. The two snarled at each other and charged.

"Ben-san! Luffy-san!" Vivi cried, terrified at seeing her friends fight. "Please stop this!"

"He's the one who doesn't care about people dying!" Rath roared as he and Luffy engaged in a fist fight with each other. "Leaving people to die is not cool!"

"Ben, you're not thinking!" Gwen shouted. "Calm down for a minute..."

"Let me tell you something, Gwen Tennyson!" Rath snapped at her. "You don't tell me to calm down!"

"Oi!" Sanji yelled at him. "You don't yell at Gwen-chan like that!"

"Let me tell you something, curly-brow!" Rath retorted. "Rath is sick and tired of you being a pervert! It's not even funny!"

"Why you..." Sanji said dangerously as he prepared to kick Rath. But Kevin grabbed him.

"Trust me, man," he said. "You'll only make him madder."

Zoro began pulling out his swords. But Rath merely sneered.

"Now, you're making it interesting," the tiger said smugly.

"Zoro, don't!" Gwen warned. "He can't help it right now."

"Guys, what is going on?" Nami asked, looking at this scene fearfully. "Why is Ben acting like this?"

"That's Rath," Kevin explained to her. "He's the most aggressive alien in Ben's watch. He's part of the Appoplexian race. They're really aggressive and stupid, thinking that violence and hitting stuff is the solution to everything."

At that moment, Luffy took the chance to attack. He punched Rath in the side, causing the Appoplexian to yell out. But instead of clutching his side in pain or doing anything a normal person would do when injured, Rath lunged into the air and body-slammed Luffy. The two of them were now wrestling in the sand.

Vivi gulped as she continued to watch Luffy and Rath fighting each other. She was certain though, that if Luffy didn't have his Gum Gum Fruit powers, he would have lost this match a long time ago. "I didn't know Ben could turn into such a vicious form."

"Well, Luffy really ticked him off," Kevin replied. "Ben's a hero where we come from. Saving lives is what he does. So to hear Luffy just shrug off people dying like that...it really got to him."

"There's got to be something we can do," Nami said as Rath tried to put Luffy in a choke-hold only for Luffy to pull out of the way and strike him in the side. . "We can't just let them fight like this."

"Well what can we do?" Kevin said as Rath retaliated by slashing Luffy with his claw. Luckily Luffy moved out of the way and it only tore his vest. "Neither looks like they're going to listen to each other."

Gwen tapped her chin as she thought about what they were going to do to settle this. Then it came to her. Quickly she reached out with her mana and held both boys away from each other. "That's enough!" she yelled. "Luffy! What did you mean by Vivi risking only her life?"

Luffy and Rath looked at each other, glaring daggers as if hoping that would physically wound the other. After what seemed like forever...

"Vivi, Looking around in just one day in this country, and even I can tell!" he said.

"TELL WHAT?!" she demanded.

"What this country needs! You think putting just your life on the line is enough to stop this from happening?!" he asked.

"Then what exactly should I put on the line then Luffy?!" she asked as Luffy grabbed her wrists. She glared at him before she calmed down and said "All I have to put on the line is my life! That's all."

"HOW ABOUT OUR LIVES THEN?!" Luffy demanded as he screamed out. "WE'RE YOUR FRIENDS, REMEMBER?!" Vivi could only stare as her eyes welled up. "Did you forget we're your friends Vivi?" he asked before she broke down completely and sobbed as as Rath widened his eyes in realization from his words. He picked up his hat and dusted it off before speaking. "You hate all that's happening here, so you wanna get Crocodile the most." he said as Nami and Gwen hugged Vivi as she cried. Everyone else watched as Vivi, the Princess who loved a country that was killing itself, cry her eyes out as Luffy stood up and placed his hat on his head. "Now tell me Vivi...Where's Crocodile?"

Rath touched the Omnitrix symbol and turned back to normal. Ben could see what Luffy's intentions were. That stopping the Rebels will not get rid of Crocodile nor prevent any loss of life and they should go to Rainbase where Crocodile resides. He noted that even if they manage to reach the rebels, Crocodile will still try something to continue the war, it should be noted that, at this point, they still thought there was time before the battles started. It made Ben want to kick himself for jumping to conclusions like that.

"You know," Kevin said. "If this Crocodile is as tough as you say he is, we might need all of us to stop him."

"Who said I was fighting?" Nami asked, shocked at such an idea.

"Vivi," Gwen said, trying to lower the tension down. "Since you're going to be looking for the rebellion, we'll need you to tell us where to find Crocodile."

"Ye...yes," Vivi said hesitantly, blaming herself for the fact that two of her closest friends had just gotten into a brutal fight with each other. She nervously pulled out the map and pointed to a place. "This is the oasis called Rainbase, which is where Crocodile is. Straight to the north of Yuba. It will take a whole day to walk through the desert."

"Will there be water there?" Chopper asked. He was worried about what would happen if they ran out of water by the time they reached Rainbase.

"Yes, it will be safe," Vivi reassured him. "It's a gambling town, separate from all the fighting."

Nami looked up excitedly. Her eyes had turned into money signs. "Oooh, gambling?"

"Oh no," Zoro groaned. "What are you thinking?"

"Gambling, huh?" Kevin asked. "Sounds like fun."

"Kevin!" Gwen snapped at him.

"How's the supplies?" Usopp asked.

"We'll make it," Ben said. "I can turn into a bunch of alien heroes, remember?"

The others chuckled nervously at that. After seeing Rath's "little" temper tantrum, most like Nami and Usopp couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by Ben's powers.

"Hey Luffy," Ben started, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for earlier, I shouldn't have lost my temper like that."

Luffy just grinned, "That's okay! You did give me a good fight after all!"


And so, the Straw-Hats continued walking towards Rainbase. Surprisingly, Luffy had been very conservative about the water that he, Ben, and Mr. Toto had dug up. The words that Mr. Toto had said about not being defeated by mere sand got to him. Needless to say, the others were impressed. But later on...

"Aaaah," Luffy and Usopp said weakly as they walked through the desert. "Aaaaah."

"I thought I told you to stop doing that!" Nami snapped at them.

"Shut up, you're on the camel!" Luffy yelled at her.

"Yeah," Usopp agreed. "Let us ride too!"

"Camel-woman!

"Nami-camel!'

"Shut up!" Nami yelled at both of them, causing Ben and Kevin to laugh and even Gwen to giggle a little.

Zoro looked over at Chopper, who didn't seemed as bothered by the heat as he used to be. "You aren't all wiped out today, Chopper."

"Nope," Chopper said determinedly. "I'm sticking it out today."

"Heh," Sanji chuckled as he lit his cigarette.


The rebel army was preparing for a final assault on Alubarna to finally end this war and to free their country from it's current King, despite not having enough weaponry.

'Soon,' thought the rebel leader Kohza. 'Cobra's head will fall and this country will finally be able to rebuild.'


"I forbid it!" Cobra shouted. Cobra Nefertari, King of Alabasta, was denying his two head soldiers to attack for various reasons. Two were that the country is it's people and that attacking without knowing the enemy is pointless. Both Pell and Chaka were now discussing what to do about their soldiers unrest before a random soldier shouted that Carue had returned. Soon, Carue was drinking his fill of water as Chaka, Pell, and Cobra were discussing the letter that Carue had delivered. Soon, they found out that Vivi was okay, that Igaram's whereabouts were unknown, and about the friends she was traveling with. But what shocked them the most was the name of the man that was behind the tragedy that has befallen Alabasta and it's people: Crocodile.


"I see it!" Nami cried. "It's Rainbase!"

"We made it?" Usopp asked.

"Finally," Kevin groaned. "I'm surprised my legs are still attached."

"Yeesssss!" Luffy cried out happily. "Crocodile! Your ass is grass!"

Zoro frowned. "Shut up already."


End of Chapter