Title: What are the Odds?
Summary: For denizens of the Territories, life is generally pretty good. Provided of course that one is able and willing to conform to the rules imposed by whomever is in the charge of the area. However when the World Collective, a group of allied territories, declares that they are resuming hunts for people who seem to have the Devils own abilities, life becomes very complicated very quickly.
Pairings: Marco/Ace.
Warnings: AU, Language, canon-typical violence, possible Out of Character moments, too many characters, OC's galore, implied sexual content, slow burn
Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners. I simply play with them for my, and your amusement.
Authors Note: Hey all! Apologies for the lateness of this one. Life did as it does and happened so I was a bit busy and was unable to post. For those of you who still wish for a glossary of terms that I created/altered the meaning of please let me know and I will include definitions at the end of the chapter! As always let me know what you think! I love hearing from you all and it makes me happy to know that you guys are enjoying this. Again thanks to Ktwontwo who is still helping me go through the rest of this monstrosity.
Just wanted to remind you all that this story was created for the OP 2016 Big Bang and as such amazing art that I was graciously allowed to use for a cover was created by my partner the magnificent Idaida on tumblr! You can find a much larger and better version of the picture here! post/143364258999/one-piece-big-bang-2016-what-are-the-odds
Chapter 3: Dirty Laundry
Sometime in the past week the world had decided to go crazy Marco decided as he studied the two contradicting missives on his desk. Thanks to the information he had obtained from his trip he had known something like this would happen, but even he had not expected it to happen so quickly. Less than a week after his return the situation had become convoluted and the true reason behind the Hunts restarting was down right shocking.
Whitebeard needed to see this, Marco decided gathering all the reports into an organized pile. He wanted to inform Ace as well. Probably the only benefit of the situation as it stood was that he could make more frequent trips to the S'andwich Bar. In fact, he had plans to sneak out for lunch that very afternoon.
It would be nice to get away from his family for a bit. He felt like he hadn't had any peace in the past five days. If it wasn't someone attempting to coddle him because he couldn't go out in the field then it was folks walking on eggshells because he was perceived as being restless. Thatch, in an attempt to get everyone to stop treating him as if he were made of glass had started a prank war. Some of the pranks were amusing, others not so much. The past two days exploits had unfortunately been public to the point that openly going into Outskirts was only worth it if he were completely willing to sacrifice his anonymity and that was something he wasn't willing to do just yet. Marco knew that he would have to tell Ace his identity eventually, but today was not that day. Today, he was going to hang out with his friend and pass on the real reason behind the reappearance of the hunts.
Marco knew the reason behind the hunts would be of interest to Ace. Anytime the Collective decided to go after a particular person or User they were even more relentless than usual. It would be a good thing for the news of the Hunts as well as the underlying reason to be spread as widely as possible anyways. As more people learned that they were on again the more bounty hunters would be driven into the Border by their own lust and greed. Bounty hunters were not terribly picky about who they turned in provided the reward was worth their time and effort. Frankly bounty hunters were almost as disruptive to life in the Border as the hunts themselves were. If folks knew they were coming they could prepare for the worst or get out of the way.
There was only one problem with his plan. Marco, if he really was a merchant scout, wouldn't have had the access to find out the reason behind the Word Coalition's actions. Oh well. He would just have to figure out some other explanation as to how he got the information. From a friend of a friend perhaps? Wrong place at the right time to overhear something?
The pounding of feet in the hallway pulled him from his thoughts. That noise was his only warning before his door flew open. Marco looked up, ready to reprimand whoever had burst in but stopped short. Haruta stood there, a rather concerned expression on their face.
"What happened?" Marco asked. It had to be something momentous. While Haruta ran everywhere, normally they unlike Thatch, had enough common sense to not slam open his door.
"Jinbe's here." The tone of voice was completely at odds with the worry and concerned look present on their face.
Marco blinked in surprise. Jinbe was a family friend and more. Unfortunately due to the meddling of the World Collective he was not often able to visit.
"Jinbie? Here? Why? Is it the Hunts? Is he playing messenger for the Collective again? If he isn't will this visit negate the deal he has with the World Collective?" Marco wondered aloud.
Haruta shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like Jinbe could help it. He's injured and we were closer than Mériens"
Marco stared. "Injured?" he asked, more than a little concerned. Jinbe was strong. If he had been given an injury that was affecting him to the point that he'd been forced to come to their territory for help then something was seriously wrong.
Haruta just nodded.
"Right. I'm coming." Marco said. "Do we know how it happened or who caused his injuries?"
Haruta shook his head. " He showed up an hour or so ago looking rather worse for wear and asked to see Pops. He'd somehow managed to get some treatment out in the boonies but Pops insisted on him seeing medical first. They bandaged him up and slipped him into Pop's office before anyone could talk to him. They've been behind closed doors until just a few minutes ago. Pops just called for a commanders meeting so we'll probably find out what's up. Whatever it is, it's got to be serious."
"Right." Marco said half to himself as he stood up and grabbed his papers. "I needed to talk to Pops and the rest of you anyways so I suppose this will save some time."
The commander's meeting room was the largest room in the main complex and perhaps the most heavily fortified. It had to be, as it was one of the only place where the entirety of the chain of command could fit comfortably. Looking around as he entered the room, Marco noticed that he and Haruta were fortunately not going to be the last people to enter the room. Marco headed toward his normal seat then adjusted slightly when he realized that Jinbe was already occupying it. Inwardly shrugging, Marco took the next seat over, which gathered him a small smile from his father. Taking a moment to look at his friend and unofficial brother, Marco winced as he realized the extent of Jinbe's injuries. Haruta hadn't given him any details but Marco had known it was bad simply from the fact that Jinbe had apparently hotfooted it for the closest safe haven rather than back to his own territory.
It was quite a bit worse than he expected from Haruta's description. Jinbe was covered, head to toe in bruises, burns and bandages. He looked exhausted and was sitting completely still, as if it hurt to move. What was really telling was that most of the visible damage looked several days healed. That told Marco that Jinbe's injuries had initially been much worse. Fishmen healed rather quickly after all, certainly faster than normal people though not quite as fast as Marco himself did. Looking at the damage his friend had sustained caused Marco to wonder what condition his opponent had been left in for Jinbe always gave as good as he got.
"You appear to have taken a pounding." Marco said by way of greeting.
Jinbe's expression did not change much. "I did indeed. Hopefully, the other fellow also feels as bad as I do."
"Who were you fighting?"
Jinbe looked around and at a nod from Pops commenced, "I believe I had an encounter with the infamous Fire Fist gang that has had you all so concerned."
That one sentence silenced the entire room, which Marco absently noted was now completely full. The rest of the commanders had all received Marco's initial report and analysis including the theory that the Fire Fist was a User and his concerns regarding the locations of the attacks which were steadily getting closer to their territory.
The room suddenly erupted into noise and chaos as everyone tried to get their questions in all at once. "How'd you know it was Fire Fist?" "What did he look like?" "How strong is he?" were only a few of the questions Marco was able to pick out of the babble before Edward Newgate, more commonly known as Whitebeard but also called some variant of Pops by most of the people in the room, spoke from the head of the table.
"Children, please" Whitebeard said and the room quieted almost instantaneously.
Marco kept his face calm but frowned inwardly. Normally, Pops would have laughed at the antics of his siblings. The fact that he hadn't, implied that whatever was going on was rather serious, and more concerning than the potential threat posed by the Fire Fist gang.
Whitebeard continued "Jinbe please tell them what you told me."
Jinbe nodded. "It is nice to see you all. I wish it was under better circumstances."
"What's going on?" Thatch piped up, apparently unable to keep his inquiries to himself and earned a glare from Pops.
"Six days ago, I was returning from a meeting with the leaders of the World Collective when I came across a rather large Border settlement approximately halfway between Mériens and your borders."
Namur, whose division patrolled that area frowned. "How far out was it? I took a team into the border just last week and there were no settlements there."
Jinbe smiled grimly. "Do not beat yourself up over it, friend. I did not know of its existence either for it was rather cleverly hidden. I only found it because it exploded."
"Did you say that it exploded? " Fossa asked.
"Aye."
"Huh." Fossa stroked his moustache thoughtfully. " Do you know what caused it?"
"Unfortunately not. I thought I heard voices in the rubble and started to put out the fire so that people could escape about the blaze when I was attacked. At the time I believed I was only dealing with a single woman, though this was soon rectified and I later realized that I had encountered the group referred to by the World Collation as the Fire Fist Gang."
"Wait, the Fire Fist is female?" Was Vista's question.
"Nay, but at least one of the group is. The woman fought with a pair of punching daggers and was holding her own when someone further inside the blaze let out a string of rather impressive swearing, distracting her. I moved in to render her unconscious and was interrupted by a second fighter, this one a tall lanky man who wielded a glaive. The woman took the chance to yell for another member of their party."
"By name?" Blamenco spoke up this time.
"Yes. Well, perhaps. She was calling rather creatively for 'Spade'"
"Is it the guy's actual name?" Rayuko wanted to know.
"I doubt it." Jozu interjected. "If the man is indeed a User…"
"Aye, there is no doubt that Spade is a User. I do not know the true nature of his powers but it appears to be connected to fire."
Jozu nodded. "Then that is probably a codename of some sort. Fire you said? No man with a power that destructive would use the real one when it makes it easier for the World Collective to find them."
"Even so," Jiru added, "a codename can occasionally be better than an epithet. You said she called for him?"
"It was more of an angry demand, but yes. I believe the exact wording was 'Would you stop dicking around Spade? We have a goddamned problem out here, you fucking pyro!' She then resumed attacking me. I think she had noticed that my opponent with the glaive was starting to waiver. Whoever had been in the complex before the explosion had put up a rather tough fight and the guy with the glaive had taken the brunt of it. They teamed up to face me and were doing a good job covering each other's attacks. They were good enough to hold me off for a bit."
"If they can do that, it means that they have been fighting together for a while." Curiel mentioned offhandedly.
"I agree." Jinbe said. "It was clear they were attempting to buy time for Spade to show up. I could see they were tiring quickly and I almost had them when I was tackled from the side."
There was slightly shocked blinking as the room took in that information save for Atmos's amused chuckling. After a moment Marco realized why. Jinbe was rather large as was Atmos and both were experienced fighters. Neither of them were strangers to being tackled nor to people attempting to bodily move them out of the way. Those that tried were often in for a nasty surprise. After he had calmed slightly Atmos spoke. "I assume this 'Spade' tackled you? Please tell me…"
Jinbe managed to look slightly affronted. "Who do to take me for Atmos? Of course I threw him. Though I was surprised. That man's strength is nothing to scoff at."
Thatch laughed. "The guy managed to push you back didn't he."
Jinbe now looked sheepish. "He did indeed. I threw him into his to compatriots. He ignored them in favor of charging me again."
Kingdew frowned disapprovingly. "Did he have no regard for their wellbeing?" Murmurs of agreement echoed through the room.
They all knew they were slightly unusual in that regard. In general, most everyone in the room considered not only each other but also all the members of the Enforcers as family. Those who lived in the territory were usually classified as extended family and friends. It wasn't a common attitude but to a person they never stopped hoping to come across it in other places.
"That was why he charged me." Jinbe acknowledged with a perplexed smile. "Just before I tossed him he was yelling at his companions demanding that they leave him and get away before they got themselves injured worse than they already were. He was concerned that I would ignore him and go after them as the easier targets."
"Would you have?" Izo wanted to know.
"Perhaps if I had been given the chance." Jinbe admitted. "I would have liked to disable them before dealing with this Spade. "
"What do you mean if you had been given the chance?" Marco said, speaking for the first time since the meeting had started.
"As I said earlier, that young man's strength is nothing to laugh at. In order to allow his companions to escape Spade kept me completely occupied with his attacks. It was, interesting." Jinbe mused. "Once he had ensured that my attention was fully on him and not his companions, Spade revealed that he knew how fight using a knife and rather well at that. Once I had managed to disarm him and cast the knife into the flames he opted to fight with his fists instead of retrieving it. I believe his powers would have made it possible for him to retrieve the blade but he didn't. I suspect that he realized my strength would probably outlast his own so he started to use his Ability. At that point, I became rather focused on the fight. I think we went for five days more or less. I lost track. That man will go far if he does not burn himself out. Fighting him was rather like fighting a wildfire during a drought."
Shocked silence reigned in the room and everyone had varying expressions of shock on their faces. Thatch's mouth was opening and closing giving him the appearance of a dumbstruck goldfish. Even Whitebeard had a frown upon his face.
"Son," Whitebeard said "What stopped the fight? If this fight was on our border why did we not hear of this sooner? We would have assisted had we known."
Marco blinked at his father. While everyone knew Jinbe was one of Whitebeard's family in all but name, that connection was never officially acknowledged in order to not give the World Collective another reason to dislike their unofficial brother. To hear Whitebeard call Jinbe his son openly, even though only the highest-ranking members of the family were present, showed everyone exactly how worried he had been.
"I have no doubt about that," Jimbe flashed a smile at pops, "The fight occurred in the midst of an inferno. You know as well as I do that this section of the Border has periods of time where parts of it are aflame. Why should you suspect that this particular fire was any different?" The silence in the room answered his question though Marco knew Jinbe would see that they all felt guilty. "It is of no consequence." He said finally. "You did not even know of the existence of the compound that Fire Fist attacked in the first place so do not go beating yourselves up for things not under your control. But to answer the earlier question, what truly ended the fight was exhaustion. Well, exhaustion and interference. After fighting continuously for so long we were both on the verge of passing out yet neither of us was willing to surrender or call truce. Imagine our surprise when the fight was ended for us. His companions came charging back through the flames and joined in the fight."
"There were people crazy enough to do something like that?" Thatch asked incredulously. "Who would do something like that?"
"Apparently the people who were crazy enough to assist a User set fire to a random compound in the first place."
"His companions came back?" Blenheim asked as if repeating the fact would make it more understandable.
"Indeed. Though I do not know what happened after, as I passed out. When I awoke, I found myself on the edge of where we had fought. I was hidden in an area out of the direct line of sight of anyone on the road, under rather decent cover. To my surprise, my wounds had been treated and partially bandaged as well. It was simply a large number of field dressings ensuring that I wouldn't bleed out and there was a packet along with some supplies in my lap."
"And you're all right now?" Blamenco asked with slight concern
"I am well enough. I heal fast enough that there were no problems. It simply looks worse than it is."
"Well, I'm certainly confused." Haruta said. "He fought you to a standstill for five days, then he and his companions gave you first aid and supplies? Who the hell are these people?"
"I do not know. As I said I believe them to be the Fire Fist Gang. I was just as confused as you are but as the group was no longer present, I was unable to question them. Instead I turned my attention to the package of supplies."
"What did you find out?" Jiru wanted to know.
"The package contained some food, water and a bunch of papers. The first page was a note from those I had been fighting. It…" Here Jinbe had a rather peculiar look on his face as if he could not understand what exactly had occurred either. "It was an apology of all things"
"An apology?" Haruta questioned, no doubt adding that to the mental list of things that made no sense about this group.
"Aye. Apparently Spade's subordinates had learned my identity sometime after they had left and knew of my connection to you. It was for that reason they had treated my wounds, but according to the note they could not afford to let me catch them, nor did they have the ability to take me somewhere safer. The group refereed to themselves as the Card Deck and I doubt they are aware that they are also referred to as the Fire Fist Gang, courtesy of the World Collective."
"Why did your connection to us matter?" Whitebeard asked, leaning forward in his chair slightly.
Jinbe shrugged. "I do not know exactly. According to the note, they owe you a debt for some unspecified reason or another."
Marco met his father's eyes as they both searched their memories for people they had met who resembled Jinbe's earlier descriptions "I know of no such person or group who might owe me a debt." Whitebeard rumbled, looking thoughtful while Marco struggled with sorting through a massive amount of faces contained in his memory relatively quickly. He and Whitebeard had saved many people over the years, though most had come about because Pops had taken exception to any number of things in the area. As such, because they had helped for no real reason he often took no reward despite the fact that the people they "saved" often wished for the Whitebeards to do so anyways. Perhaps the group had an explanation like that, for he didn't know of all the people who mistakenly thought they owed him something. Finally Marco shook his head slightly in response to Whitebeard's questioning gaze. He would have to get a better description later, but as of right now none of the people Jinbe had fought seemed at all familiar to him.
"The note had no further explanation than that. It was also clear that they knew how territory politics worked. They understood that my connection to you along with their activities would have demanded that I hand them over to you if I had caught them. The note mentioned that meeting the Agvitatmaa Enforcers was not conducive to the furtherance of their agenda."
"They admitted to having an agenda?" Marco asked, rather surprised. Normally when one group attempted to use another, it was never revealed until after the fact. The fact that the Card Deck had an agenda that appeared to include helping Whitebeard was strange. The fact that they had admitted the existence of said agenda through a note was even stranger.
"Aye, though the note said nothing more on that either. The last item of interest was a request that I pass the rest of the packet on to you as quickly as I could."
"I find it interesting that they did not bother to find out if you actually would pass on the packet." Curiel said. "They simply assumed you would"
"Yeah, these people are weird." Haruta proclaimed decisively. "Interesting, but weird."
"It did not matter. When I looked through the packet and realized what I now held, I knew I would acquiesce to their request because you all would want to see it. "
"What was in the packet?" Thatch asked, "I mean that's the point of this meeting right?"
"Indeed." Jinbe said before exchanging an undecipherable look with Whitebeard. "The packet contained information."
"On?" Izo piped up suddenly very interested, while Whitebeard and Jinbe exchanged another look. At Whitebeard's nod, he motioned to a thick packet of paper sitting on the table. He shuffled through them quickly then passed part of the the contents to Izo.
As Izo read, Whitebeard spoke. "It is the contents of that packet that have me concerned children. If the information is accurate, then we have several very large problems on our hands."
Marco turned to watch his brother and frankly he did not like what he saw. The more Izo read, the whiter he was turning.
"Jinbe," Izo finally asked, horror and worry apparent in every word. "How accurate is this? Do you have any idea how they managed to learn this information? I've received some things that indicate this but haven't been able to confirm any of it yet!"
"I cannot vouch for all of it, but I took care to mark the information that I could directly verify from my own knowledge. I have no idea how Spade and his companions discovered it."
"What is it?" Jozu asked.
"Blackbeard." Thatch hissed, having moved from his seat to read over Izo's shoulders.
"What?!" was the thunderous cry in the room.
"What has that unholy bastard done now?" Vista demanded.
Blackbeard. Just the name was enough to bring a grimace of distaste to Marco's face. That was the name of a leader of a rather slimy organization that had been attempting to take over their territory for a little over half a year and each attempt was more unpleasant than the last. Unfortunately they hadn't been able to learn much about the man himself or his plans. Whenever they had managed to capture a member of Blackbeard's attacking forces he was sent to their goals and interrogated for information. It hadn't been helpful yet, as Blackbeard held things rather close to his chest. The most his mooks knew were the basic details of their plan of the day, the name of their commander, and the belief that they were going to take out Whitebeard. They hadn't managed to yet, but Blackbeard's unusual persistence had started a numerous amount of rumors regarding anything and everything, from the size of his shoe to a hypothetical description or even a real name. However, rumors were rumors and if there was a kernel of truth amongst them it would take time to find. That was what Izo had been working on for the past eight months, though he had stepped up his game in the past three.
For no apparent reason, Blackbeard had not bothered to attack for the last few months. Unable to find neither hide nor hair of the man or his organization the citizens of Agvitatmaa had started to entertain the notion that Blackbeard had given up. The commanders and the members of the enforcers knew better. At this point in time of their lives, there wasn't a single member of the Enforcers that hadn't been in a long drawn out skirmish of some sort and knew it was entirely more likely that Blackbeard had holed up somewhere to wait or was attempting to gain more allies or some combination of the two. Whatever the reason the results were unlikely to be pleasant judging by the expressions on both Thatch and Izo faces.
Thatch shook his head. "I… it…" Clearing his throat, Thatch tried again. "It's not what Blackbeard has done. It's more of what this Spade and the Card Deck have managed to discover."
"Well, what is it?" Jozu demanded impatiently.
"The Card Deck says they know who Blackbeard is." Izo said flatly, spreading out the pile on the table in front of him, a silent invitation for the others to read the papers themselves.
"Isn't that good news?" Rakuyo asked "I mean, that's what you've been trying to figure out since we first heard the name right, Izo?"
Izo grimaced, but shook his head. "Normally yes, I would say that it's good news that we know who he is."
"Then what is the problem?" Fossa asked.
"The problem is who they identify as Blackbeard," Izo said glancing at Thatch out of the corner of his eye. Marco followed his brother's gaze and his frown deepened. Thatch really wasn't looking to good. His knuckles were white with tension as he gripped the back of Izo's chair.
"So?" Jiru demanded to know reclaiming Marco and Izo's attention. He was practically vibrating in his seat, much like a scent dog that had been told it wasn't allowed to chase after its suspect yet.
"According to this, Blackbeard is Teach." Izo growled.
There was a silence then Jiru asked tentatively, as if to confirm that he hadn't heard that incorrectly, "Teach?"
Izo nodded, his expression stony and unchanging while the room collectively turned to study Thatch who had sat down rather heavily moments earlier. Marco sat there with a sense of disbelief and moderate denial that was spread throughout the room. Six months ago, there had been what appeared to be a border dispute on the edge of the 4th and 5th territory, though it was later revealed to have been instigated by Blackbeard's men. When the commanders had shown up to help settle things everything went to hell in a hand basket and during the fight, Thatch had been injured. It had been an accident or so they had thought at the time due to the person who had claimed responsibility for Thatch's near fatal injury, one of their own men, a man named Teach D. Marshall. They had all accepted his story but afterwards Teach had been different. When questioned about what was bothering him, Teach had explained that he still hadn't been able to forgive himself for injuring his brother, even on accident and left the Enforcers. They still had considered him family but he continued to pull away despite all of their efforts to keep in touch and he had eventually dropped off the grid. They had kept an eye out for their wayward brother but had been unable to find him. Frankly the Enforcers had privately feared the worst, that Teach had been captured by an enemy of Whitebeard who thought he would make a good target now that he was no longer a part of the Enforcers. And all this time it had appeared their worry had been for nothing. The man they had considered one of their brothers, a member of their family, had been an enemy in hiding laying in wait and studying them and their methods for the past 15 years.
"It wasn't an accident." Thatch said rather shakily. Marco couldn't tell if it was due to the shock of the information that he had just learned or due to the scrutiny that he was under from the rest of the room. "He meant to kill me." Thatch continued, "He honestly meant to kill me. Why am I still alive? We've all seen Teach fight. He's a ruthless son of a bitch. When he wants someone dead, they tend to die. Why am I not dead? Why did he change his mind?"
Looks were exchanged around the room but no answers were given. Finally Marco had to ask, "How sure are we that this is accurate?"
Jinbe and Izo turned to look at Marco, Jinbe's pitying and Izo's furious. Izo spoke first. "I'd been hearing rumors and getting tidbits of information regarding Blackbeard's identity for months and I've been working on confirming them but that takes time. Teach's name had popped up occasionally but I thought the claim was ridiculous. After all, he was one of us. When I came across his name the first time he still was one of us. Since he left his name has become more frequent in the rumors. I was trying to confirm it but wasn't able to."
Izo paused, "Damn him!" he suddenly snarled. "Teach knows a decent number of my sources. He's been keeping us all in the dark for months and I allowed it, simply because I didn't want to believe that a family member had betrayed us!"
"I did not want to believe that piece of news when I read it the first time either." Jinbe said "Teach was a friend of mine as well, and due to the nature of how I received the information I initially suspected the Card Deck of attempting to throw you all into chaos and turn you against a former Enforcer and maybe even each other."
"Could that be their goal?" Atmos asked with a frown of his own.
Jinbe shook his head. "I do not believe so. That assumption was born of my lack of knowledge about Teach having left the Enforcers and disappearing months ago. Fortunately or unfortunately in this case for I still would very much like it to not be true, I do not face the same problems that Izo does. Teach does not know any of my sources which will allow me to confirm some of this rather quickly. Personally I do believe it. The amount and detail of information provided caused me to go over all of my interactions with the man over the years and finally some things started to make sense, like his strange need for too much detail when he never planned to become a division commander."
"Can we stick to calling him Blackbeard?" Curiel requested, his voice deceptively mild. "It infuriates me to know that the man we once called friend and family is suspected of doing this, but it has not been confirmed yet and I feel as if constantly referring to our adversary by the name of our brother will permanently link Teach to something he may not have done. He was our brother. Until Jinbe or Izo can confirm this, we should at least give him the benefit of doubt."
There was a general murmur of agreement in the room. Rayuko spoke raising his voice slightly to be heard, "This changes everything. And it explains why we were having so much trouble fending off Blackbeard's attacks. He had been attacking our weak spots because he knew exactly where they were from his years with us."
"What happened to the benefit of doubt?" Curiel growled, the anger coming off of him in waves.
Rayuko glared back but stood his ground. "I'm not saying that it's Teach! I don't want to believe it either but you have to acknowledge that the idea holds some merit. After months of scrutiny, we still haven't found a mole. It simply makes more sense that whoever is passing along this information to Blackbeard was once one of us. Teach wasn't the only one who's ever left the Enforcers! Hell, he's not even the most recent! And plenty of others who left before and after him left under much worse circumstances or even gone out with a grudge of their own!"
Rayuko had increase in volume, anger and exasperation the longer he continued, leaning over the table as he did so. Curiel's expression and apparent anger did not abate in the slightest and the room buzzed with a strange tenseness. Something needed to be done before the pair came to blows, Marco realized. It was simply a question of what.
Thankfully, Thatch had appeared to realize that as well. Despite being the main instigator behind arguments due to his pranks, he also was the best person to break up a fight or solve personal problems within the family. Provided of course it didn't involve Izo. "Does the package say why Blackbeard has stopped these past three months?" He asked and Marco nearly sighed in relief as the sudden question diverted the attention of the room and both of his siblings backed down. Marco studied them surreptitiously. There would be problems between Curiel and Rayuko until they sorted this out but it would have to be taken care of later.
"Apparently that would be on account of the Card Deck." Namur explained, looking up from the papers that he had been studying. "It appears that the destruction that we have been attributing to the Fire Fist gang or the Card Deck or whatever we are going to call them and what we have been keeping an eye on was simply the group going around and destroying Blackbeard's operations as soon as they found out about them. They even provided proof, though that will also take time to confirm."
Marco frowned as he took in the implications of what Namur had said. It appeared that he had initially been wrong about this group, which was nice, though their existence and admission to having an agenda worried him. It probably would until he figured out what exactly it was that the Card Deck wanted. Another realization left Marco reeling, though judging by the expressions on the others in the room, no one had yet realized it. "This poses several problems and not all of them are posed by Blackbeard." He said and the room turned its attention to him, while Marco in turn looked to Jinbe. "How is the Card Deck obtaining their information? Do you know?"
Jinbe simply shook his head no in answer to Marco's question.
Marco grimaced then continued on with his point. "We need to find out. As far as we know, Blackbeard has primarily been active in our area of the world, which means we have no idea how the Card Deck found out about Blackbeard in the first place. Rayuko has a point that the information may be coming from someone else who left the Enforcers but we need to keep looking to see if there is a spy in our midst. The reason that our search may have been unsuccessful could simply be because we were searching for the wrong thing. The spy, if there even is one, may not be spying for Blackbeard at all. He could be getting his information third hand and putting it together based upon his time with us. We also don't know what the Card Deck wants, though they have openly admitted to having an agenda that involves us. We don't know why they are attacking Blackbeard with such ferocity. I highly doubt that whatever debt they claim to owe us covers defending us from his attempts to take over our territory. If their claim that Teach is Blackbeard is true it would make sense that they would instead resent us for unknowingly harboring or producing someone they clearly despise."