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: Lookie Lookie guys! This one is on time! Thank you all for the magnificent reviews! They make me so happy! If you've left one and I haven't replied, never fear! I will get to it soon. The site is being weird again and not letting me reply directly and not showing all of the more recent reviews though I am getting email notifications about them. Eh well. What can you do? Anyways I hope this chapter answers some of the questions yall had for me after the last chapter was updated. This chapter's title comes from the Mary Poppins song, Just a spoon full of sugar. Also dont hesitate to send in words or phrases that Ive used that you dont understand!
Again so much thanks to Ktwontwo for betaing this for me. If yall like James Bond & Sherlock go check out their stuff. Its all phenomenal.
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 the utterly amazing 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 4: A Spoonful of Sugar
Marco didn't really want to enumerate his next set of conclusions. Unfortunately, the rest of the group needed to be aware of them. He took a breath then continued. "This also means the lack of activity from Blackbeard is very serioius. We have no real way of knowing why he's let off recently. It could be as we initially suspected that he is attempting to gain allies or has holed up waiting for the perfect time to strike. It could be that the Card Deck is destroying Blackbeard's bases faster than he can start operations as they claim." Marco waived a hand at Jimbi's pile of paper. He even could have stepped up his game and gotten sneakier to avoid detection. Hell for all we know it could even be a combination of any number of those reasons. This is highly problematic and we need to get off our collective rears and do something about it."
"I don't know about the other options that you just brought to everyone's attention Marco," Izo said as he looked up from his continued reading, "but according to this we can definitely include gathering allies as a reason. According to Spade, Blackbeard is attempting to meet with the World Collective. He hypothesizes that it is probably in order to form some sort of alliance. "
Marco blinked in shock at that. He hadn't thought it would have been possible for the mood in the room to turn any uglier but that simple statement certainly had several of his siblings seeing red. Many of the commanders had issues with the World Collective for a variety of reasons and Blackbeard, whoever he was, knew that very well. Many people did; it was by no means was it a secret. Hell, most people living in the Agvitatmaa had numerous issues with the Collective as well. It didn't matter that the meeting was simply a rumor, the fact that such a rumor even existed only served to infuriate the group further. If Teach truly was Blackbeard then they had a problem. They knew, had known, Teach and he had known them. When he was committed he let nothing stand in his way. If his goal was Agvitatmaa's destruction or Whitebeard's death and he thought that he could use the World Collective to achieve it then he'd make them an ally regardless of any personal feelings on his part.
"We keep mentioning Spade and the Card Deck." Atmos said finally cutting through the angry grumbling. "But who are these people? Do we know anything concrete about them? For if this is all true, then regardless of their agenda we owe them a rather serious debt and I for one do not appreciate owing a group we know next to nothing about. "
"Also, if people begin to make the connection that the Card Deck and the Fire Fist Gang appear to be one and the same along with the fact that they appear to be going after Blackbeard we will have even more problems." Vista added. "People will definitely attempt to take advantage of that perceived debt."
"True" Blamenco interjected. "So which do you think will cause more trouble? People claiming to be part of the Card Deck and that we owe them something or the idiots that will think we have weakened because we're allowing another group to handle our problems for us?"
There were a couple of muffled snorts, as Blamenco's words broke the tense atmosphere that had started to settle in the room. If people did start making those connections there would be a definite uptick in the number of people attempting to challenge them for control of some or all of the territory. Trouble was also perhaps the wrong word to use. All of the commanders and many of the Enforcers themselves would agree that it could get rather boring during cycles between people attempting to attack them. The last three months had been rather slow; even boring. Word getting out might provide some much-needed entertainment and stress relief. Unfortunately the way things were shaping up repelling such nuisance attacks might just be a needless waste of resources; weakening them enough to expose vulnerabilities. There was just no way to tell without more information and even then that might not do much. The future was undefined after all and anything could happen. Oh the wonderful joys of playing defense Marco thought.
"I think we'll get more annoyed with the latter first." Jiru said after a moment's consideration, "Those groups don't vary much. They just like to come in and wave weapons around. None of them ever think of trying anything new."
"I think the Card Deck is going to be more aggravating." Fossa said "Because we'll have to double check every single thing they do and if any people claiming to be a part of their group show up, we are going to have to find some way of confirming their identity and keep them under surveillance until we can do so. And that is only going to be made harder by the fact that we know almost nothing about these people."
"That's not entirely true." Izo said at that moment, "There are a few concrete things we do know and other things that we can extrapolate from what Jinbe has said."
"Like what?" Fossa demanded
"Well, we know for sure that there are at least three members of this group, one female and two males, one of whom is referred to as Spade. We also know that Spade is a User and his power has something to do with fire. We know that Spade is an expert hand-to-hand fighter and is competent with a knife as well. His companions are also experts with their own weapons. We know that they are incredibly good at gathering information, based on their ability to discover Blackbeard's operations before us. We know that they are decent people and not heartless due to the fact that they decided to treat Jinbe and moved him so that he would be relatively safe after learning his identity. They also bothered to apologize for attacking him. From their name we can speculate that their group is a decent size, with potentially 56 members at the max if they stay true to their name as the Card Deck."
Fossa looked thoughtful. " You managed to get all of that simply from a few pieces of information? My apologies Izo. It appears I underestimated you. "
Izo nodded in acceptance. "Save your praise. Its all conjecture so who knows how truthful it will turn out to be. More information would be helpful. Jinbe is there anything you might be able to contribute?"
Jinbe was silent for a moment. "I do not think I can help you with challengers or Blackbeard but I may be able to help in regards to the Card Deck."
"How so?" Blenheim wanted to know.
"For one, I shall ask my informants to start asking around. Any information I get I'll have them pass on to Izo. With a little memory work and a good artist I'll be able to give you a much more detailed description of the people whom I encountered."
"Will that cause problems between Méreins and the World Collective?" Namur asked.
"As I am here under the guise of seeking medical attention there is little the World Collective can do to the treaty." Jinbe said with a sharks smile at the idea of pulling one over the World Collective. "The rest? Well what they do not know cannot hurt them. I for one certainly shall not be telling them."
"Now just off the top of my head," Jinbe continued, "the woman involved had straight black hair. She was pretty, slightly plump and rather on the short side, maybe five two at the tallest. Mid twenties to mid thirties in age and had a tattoo on the outside of her lower right thigh, just above the knee. I am not entirely sure but it appeared to be a Q with a heart in the middle. The man was tall with short hair and lanky build. He looks like he hadn't quite finished growing, but I would guess his age to be around early 30's regardless. He too had a tattoo though his was located upon his upper left bicep and it depicted a rather ornate K with a small diamond between the arm and the leg of the letter." Jinbe paused for a moment, "I got a much better look at that one."
"Spade himself looked to be the youngest, early twenties maybe, with slightly wavy black shoulder length hair. His tattoo was rather ornate and located on the upper two thirds of his left bicep. I didn't get a good look at it as his sleeve mostly covered the design though I got the impression that it was writing, with one part crossed out. I couldn't see well enough to determine anything more. All of the other details were obscured by the burgundy traveling coat he was wearing. The coat itself was not terribly fancy. It appeared to simply be the standard one from this area of the Border. The only additional detail that I noticed was that there was a stylized spade on his back. I believe that is where he takes his nickname. All three of them were rather soot streaked which along with the fire made it rather difficult to pick out more identifying details."
"No need for apologies Jinbe." Thatch said, "That's more than enough. Especially the bit about the tattoos, anything else you can give us will be gravy."
"Indeed." Izo agreed looking up from where he had been frantically scribbling on a random piece of paper. "Tattoos are rather distinctive and hard to hide. I can work with this. And now we have possible names for the other two. Given that they go by the name the Card Deck and the one confirmed name we can assume that the tattoos denote their codenames and position in the group. Jinbie's descriptions makes me thing that the man with the glaive is most likely The King of Diamonds while his female compatriot with the punching daggers is the Queen of Hearts. Since Jinbie didn't get a good look at Spade's Tattoo, we shall simply continue to call him Spade until we can figure out where he fits in their hierarchy." Izo stopped for a moment wrinkling his brow, "Although if the card numbers indicate the power or position in the group I suspect that Spade is another court card. The Jack or the King most likely."
"So then the current plan of operation appears to be to keep an eye out for anyone matching the descriptions of the known members of the Card Deck and also keep an eye out for anyone who has any card based tattoos, because they may be a member of the gang as well?" Vista questioned
"Seems that way." Kingdew responded.
"What shall we do if we manage to find someone who we suspect belonging to the Card Deck?" Atmos asked, and the room turned to Marco who didn't answer as he had fallen deep into thought. Something about Jinbe's more detailed descriptions was bothering him, especially the one given for the King of Diamonds fellow. Had he run into the man before? He couldn't remember and it would do no good to obsess over it. Either he would figure out what was bothering him about the description later or he wouldn't. He gave a mental shrug and returned his attention back to the conversation, just as Whitebeard started to speak.
"Simply keep an eye out for them right now." Whitebeard said, "If you are able discover and confirm someone is involved with the Card Deck, discreetly inquire what their motives are. Until we are able to discover that, there is not much that we can do."
"All right." Atmos said in agreement.
"What do you want us to do about Blackbeard, Pops?" Blamenco piped up
There was a silence as the room as Whitebeard thought. "No one should go after him alone." He said finally. "If you learn anything involving him, bring it back here immediately. Be wary, my children. The Hunts have been reactivated for as of yet unknown reasons, and I fear Blackbeard may use this to recruit more Users if he can get to them before the Brass can. What levels of security protocols are currently active?"
The room turned to Marco and Jozu the two people most likely to know, though it was Jozu who spoke. "Current strategies, protocols, and security are all at Copper Fist level."
"That is what I thought." Whitebeard said, leaning back in his chair "Then from this moment on, I would like everyone to switch over to the Pirate King protocols"
The room erupted into a hubbub of murmurs as everyone realized what the sudden shift would mean. There would be no way for Teach to know about that set of protocols as they had last been employed before he had joined. In fact, they hadn't been fully implemented for over 20 years. Not since Roger D. Gol and his friends still roamed the Border.
Marco turned to stare at their father with a multitude of questions in his eyes. Of anyone in the room, he probably knew the cost of those protocols the best. Did they really want to do this? Would it work? Were they absolutely sure that Teach didn't know about those plans? Whitebeard met his stare straight on and simply nodded.
"Alright Pops." Marco said with a shrug much to the confusion of the others in the room.
"Umm…" Haruta asked hesitantly, apparently confused albeit for an entirely different reason "The what protocols?"
Thatch chuckled slightly when more than a few of the other commanders turned to glare at him. Marco simply sighed. It looked like one of Thatch's long-term pranks had just come into fruition and Marco didn't know why he was so surprised. He had been the one to assign Thatch to teach Haruta the duties of the commanders when Haruta had been promoted. "Haruta" Thatch said, clearing his throat. "The Top Secret ones. The Pirate King protocols are the Top Secret protocols."
"Ohhhhhh!" Haruta exclaimed
"Is that all?" Jozu asked, moving to stand. "Implementing those will take some time and I would like to get started soon." There was a mummer of agreement, but before anyone could leave Marco spoke.
"Unfortunately that isn't all. I have something that you all need to hear. And it makes everything infuriatingly more complicated."
"What now?" Vista asked and Marco placed the papers that he had been carrying onto the table.
"The civil war in Nefertari is over." Marco proclaimed rather solemnly.
Silence met his proclamation, then someone started chuckling which quickly set the whole room off. Marco looked to Whitebeard who was smiling slightly but Marco could see the patience and worry in his father's eyes. At least he understood that Marco wouldn't randomly attempt to scare everyone like that. " Geeze Marco. Getting us all worried about your news, when its actually rather good information." Thatch said, slapping Marco's back to which Marco just rolled his eyes and Whitebeard's grin grew larger.
"Yes, its good news that the war has stopped but it's the rest of the information that has me worried." Marco returned, slightly annoyed
"There's more?" Thatch asked confused.
"There's a lot more."
"Right then, sorry. What's up?"
"According to this leaked official report," Marco said tapping a small pile of papers in front of him "The Straw-hats started the rebellion, took out the hero of Nefertari Territory, Sir Nil Crocodile, and were chased out of the Territory by a newly arriving fleet of Brass, who had returned as an escort to the missing princess, then were able to stop the rebellion and save the day."
"That sounds like a rather plausible story. I don't see why you look worried." Blamenco commented.
Marco smiled grimly. "This set of intelligence," he said gesturing to the other pile of papers. "Also says the civil war in Nefertari is over. That is perhaps the only agreement with the official report. The most important difference however is the allegation that Nefertari government is making arrangements to leave the World Collective."
A shocked silence occurred as the implications sunk in. It was broken rather suddenly when Curiel asked, "What the fuck?"
"I suddenly see why you were worried." Thatch muttered under his breath.
"Has the world gone mad?" Vista wondered echoing Marco's thoughts from earlier.
Marco had no doubt the rest of the room felt the same.
Well, not all of them Marco realized when Namur spoke up, "Good for them. Does your unofficial intelligence say why?"
"Yes it does," Marco said looking down at the pile to ensure he passed on the correct information. "Sir Nil Crocodile, the World Collective appointed administrator, was the mastermind behind the civil war. He was using it as an attempt to dispose of the royal family and take control of the territory without loosing the support of the public or the World Collective. The Straw-hat Vandals rescued the missing princess and escorted her back, defeating Sir Crocodile as a side project. The World Collective is desperately trying to cover this all up by promoting the Captain of the Brass who apparently had chased the Straw-hats into Nefertari in the first place."
Marco stopped speaking for a moment to hm softly to himself, tapping a finger on top of his papers. "Oh, and the reason that the Hunts have been reactivated was because the Devil's child, Robin Nico had been sighted in Nefertari's Alabasta Desert. Unfortunately for the Brass who had been sent to apprehend her she managed to escape. It is unknown where she is now as there are conflicting reports of her escaping back to the Alabasta Desert, leaving the Nefertari Territory entirely and heading into the Border or joining forces with the Straw Hats who disappeared into the Border between Jaya and the Nefertari territory. My source thinks that the Straw Hats are headed towards Jaya and the Abyss because they are looking for the entrance to Skypeia, though they were unable to confirm that last rumor. Yes?" he asked looking at the rest of the commanders in the room, most of who were openly gaping.
"How the hell do you do that?" Thatch said finally
"Do what?" Marco inquired
"Deliver news that drastic with a straight face!" Thatch proclaimed
"Get that information for one." Izo demanded to know simultaneously.
"I have a source." Marco responded, ignoring Thatch's outburst
"Who is your source? How do we know that we can trust them?" Izo questioned
"Does it matter?" Marco asked. He was rather hesitant to reveal his source, as it would reveal that he was often in contact with perhaps the most secretive and exclusive information broker in the world.
"Teach might be Blackbeard. Any and all passed on information is currently suspect!" Izo reminded the room sharply. "Yes it matters!"
Marco winced. He didn't want to reveal his source, but Izo had a point. He could only hope that his family wouldn't try to take advantage of this. His source was more than a source. He was a friend of sorts and he wanted to keep it that way. "Look," Marco said, hesitant and mildly annoyed "Royal Blue owed me a favor alright?"
"You know Royal Blue?" Izo gaped while Marco just hummed an affirmative. He supposed that he could understand his brother's reaction. Royal Blue, or Blue as Marco tended to call him, was a legend in both the underworld and the information communities. His information was almost always correct and if it was dodgy he either didn't pass it on or he labeled it as such. In the rare instance where he didn't know or couldn't find out he was often able to point you in the right direction. Interestingly enough for a man of his reputation it was rumored that he never lied. If he didn't want to tell someone something, he simply wouldn't and no amount of questioning, pleading, begging, or threatening would get him to change his mind. No one knew who he was either. Despite having actually met the man in person several times and their friendly relationship he still didn't know Royal Blue's true identity or any of his other aliases.
"More importantly" Izo demanded, and Marco looked back at his brother, "you know how to get in touch with Royal Blue?"
"Yes." Marco said simply.
"What the hell Marco?" Izo was almost yelling by now and Marco could see the amusement on the faces of everyone else in the room. At least this was causing them to not stress about the bombshells that had been dropped over the course of the afternoon. "Why didn't anyone else know about this?" Izo continued, "We could have used this!"
"That's why. Blue is a friend of sorts and it wasn't that important. Besides, its not like nobody at all knew."
"What?" Izo demanded, outraged.
"Pops knew." Marco said, placing his hands behind his head as he leaned back in his chair.
Izo whirled to look at their father, who was also trying valiantly to hide his amusement, with a look of betrayal on his face. "Pops!"
Marco smiled slightly as well. Seeing Izo all riled up was fun, but why where all of his siblings so over dramatic? "Anyways," he said, drawing Izo's attention once again, "Blue happened to be in the area so I asked him if he would let me know what was going on."
"It wasn't important?" Izo sputtered "You're, and I quote, friends of sorts with Royal Blue, one of the best information brokers in the world and you claim that it's not important?!"
"It wasn't." Marco said his face schooled back to his normal placid expression. "And that was all of the news I had, so unless anyone else has anything to add I would recommend we follow Jozu's advice. The Pirate King protocols need to be reviewed, updated and then implemented and we need to train everyone in them."
"Does anyone have anything else to add?" Whitebeard asked. When no one spoke, he continued "Then off with you. Come see me if parts of the protocols are no longer useable or valid. Jinbie would you like to stay any longer to recuperate some more? If so we need to figure out what to say so that you can assure the World Collective for the reason behind your presence. Namur, will you help Jinbie with that? Marco, stay please. There are some things we have to discuss."
Marco turned to look at his father, a question on his lips but the apologetic look Whitebeard leveled at him stopped Marco short while the rest of his siblings and Jinbie trickled out of the room. He had intended to slip out to The S'andwich Bar this afternoon. That was no longer an option. Marco suspected that his father had known of his plans but the problems revealed by the new information would take time to sort out. Pops wouldn't appreciate him shirking his duties in such a situation.
His suspicions were confirmed when Whitebeard continued, "Namely, we need to figure out how to include the second division into this."
"Alright Pops."
"I am sorry, son."
Marco shook his head slightly at the apology as he readjusted his papers and moved closer to his father; taking the seat that Jinbie had vacated moments before. "Its not a problem, Pops. It'll be there tomorrow."
"Yes, but you have other reasons behind going to that sandwich shop you like, don't you?" Whitebeard teased.
Marco huffed, but smiled. He may enjoy withholding information about his possible romantic entanglements from his siblings, but he had never managed to do so from his father. "I do, but I'm not sure that whatever that is, is going anywhere anyway. You're my family and this is more important right now."
Whitebeard frowned slightly at that last bit. Marco, for the life in him could not figure out what he said that might have caused it. Finally after a long moment Whitebeard spoke again. "Whatever your relationship is, don't neglect it. It makes you happy, and nothing is more important that your happiness, son." With that said, Whitebeard turned to the papers. "Now, do you have any suggestions on how to incorporate the Second Division into the Pirate King protocols seeing as they are effectively without a leader and you will be spending even more time with your division?"