Warnings: AU, Language, canon-typical violence, possible Out of Character moments, too many characters, OC's galore, implied sexual content, slow burn, mentions of non consensual drug use.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners. I simply play with them for my, and your amusement.

Authors Note: This was beta'ed by the magnificent Ktwontwo and the artwork that you see in the cover is by Idaida on tumblr. Yall can find a much larger and better version of the magnificent stupendously phenomenal picture here! post/143364258999/one-piece-big-bang-2016-what-are-the-odds. More of the Author's note can be found at the end.

Chapter 15: The Debriefing

"What are you doing?" A curious voice asked from the doorway.

Marco didn't even bother to look up from his current self-assigned task of catching up on work. Surely whoever it was could deduce that he was busy. An occupied office with a closed door was usually an indication to most people that the owner of the office did not want to be disturbed. But no, some idiot had opened the door a few minutes ago and had proceeded to stand there presumably waiting for Marco to notice him or her. Marco was not in the mood to oblige the interloper with the gift of his attention.

"Marco," the voice said again, sounding entirely too amused for no apparent reason, "Oi birdbrain, I know you can hear me. What are you doing?"

Well, that certainly answered the question of who it was. Only Thatch would bother him while he was working and call him birdbrain at the same time. Marco paused for a moment, contemplating if it would be worth it to acknowledge his brother but decided against it. The storm or Hubloo as Ace had named it had trapped him at the S'andwich Bar for just over a week. It had been nice, Marco mused as he suppressed the grin that threatened to surface with the memories. The time in Outskirts had been spent between some of the most interesting conversation he had ever had and, well, other pleasurable activities. The grin escaped his control for a moment.

Enough of that Marco decided and forcibly dragged his attention back to the papers in his hand. Being away for over a week had caused a lot of pileup. If he wanted to be able to make it back to the Border anytime soon he needed to finish these. Thankfully someone from further down the hall caught Thatch's attention before he could pester Marco anymore and he allowed the conversation to wash over him as he continued working.

"Did you say Marco? He's here?" A voice echoed in a way that suggested that the speaker was a ways down the hall and hadn't quite reached the door yet.

"Yeah," said Thatch cheerfully. "He's here and working. It's kinda strange actually I've been standing here for a few minutes and he hasn't so much as looked away from his paperwork. He hasn't stopped humming to himself either. Oh and he's been smiling intermittently at nothing in particular."

"He's doing what?"

"Humming, and smiling at his paperwork." Thatch repeated to the interested busy-body who, judging by the sounds had reached Thatch who was still holding the door open.

Marco decided to tune the rest of the conversation out. If they were simply going to start repeating things that had already been said there was no point in paying attention. Not that he had really been paying full attention to anything other than his paperwork anyways. The conversation in the doorway could go on just fine without his input he thought as he picked up the next report and started to read.

Marco had barely managed to skim the first page of the report before a pair of hands slammed down on his desk. The dark blue painted nails told him exactly who had invaded his office. Marco slowly raised his head only to meet Izo's furious gaze. Izo was clearly pissed off. His dark blue eye shadow made this eyes glitter in a way that promised pain. Marco was surprised that Izo didn't start yelling. Instead he just glared leaning straight armed on the desk. .

It was Marco who ended up breaking the rather tense silence, "Izo."

"Where. The. Hell. Have. You. Been?" Izo hissed his hands clenching on the desk.

Marco blinked. Izo was so annoyed he was shaking.

"Out."

"Out?" Izo huffed and rolled his eyes, "Thank you for that highly enlightening and informative statement!"

Marco attempted to diffuse the situation, "You all knew I went out. I left word."

Izo wasn't ameliorated by the statement.

"We were worried you dipshit. Do you even know what happened while you were out as you put it?"

This was not going well at all, Marco thought. Usually he could calm Izo down by pointing out facts. Unfortunately everything he said or did right now seemed to wind his brother up even more. It was time to try another tack.

Marco narrowed his eyes, "No, I'm barely halfway through the backed up paperwork. I haven't had a chance to look at anything from the time I managed to get you and Thatch alive out of that burning compound. If it hadn't been for me using my Ability you guys would have been severely injured at best and toast at the worst."

"About that!" Izo exclaimed. "That's part of the reason that I've almost had it with you. I want to know what the hell you were thinking! You really had us worried Marco! Nearly losing control when we first confronted those flames was one thing but not being able to shift back to your human form for nearly two days is another matter entirely! Seriously! Then you just up and leave? What the hell? The last we saw of you that night was when Jozu dragged you to bed after you finally managed to regain human form and nearly face planted from exhaustion!" Izo's voice had been getting louder and louder as he went on. "I'm going out for lunch is NOT a sufficient explanation for running off given all the shit that's been going on around here especially since you left before 6 in the effing morning!"

Marco had to acknowledge that Izo did have cause to yell. When you put things together that way his behavior hadn't been terribly clear. He could see how his siblings might be a bit concerned especially since he'd taken off as soon as he'd recovered from his shift into bird form and back. The next bit was going to be a bit tricky. How could he satisfy his brother without revealing sensitive information? That didn't even touch the fact that he really didn't want his siblings to get wind of his love affair at least until he had a chance to warn Ace about the impending invasion of the S'andwich Bar that would ensue when they did find out.

"I needed some answers to some things I discovered at the compound, so, I went to get them."

"What? Why didn't I know about this? I had all of the papers!"

"It wasn't anything in the documents Izo. It was just some observations I'd made when I was trying to catch up to you guys. There were also a few coincidences that turned out not to be coincidences at all."

"Why didn't you tell us instead of going off on your own?" Thatch questioned as he moved into the room proper and plopped down into one of the chairs in front of Marco's desk.

"We were so fucking worried!" Izo tacked onto the end of that statement as he stopped leaning on the desk and looked around for a chair.

"We were so worried." Thatch echoed in a slightly mocking tone of voice.

He received a swat on the shoulder from Izo for his cheek. Thatch took it with good grace and grinned up at Izo. Izo made a face back.

While Marco had to smile at Thatch's jesting he could still see the underlying seriousness in Thatch's expression. Thatch may express things differently but he had been just as worried as Izo and for many of the same reasons.

"Sorry," Marco said though he wasn't really.

While he was sorry for the amount of worry that he had apparently caused though if he had a chance to do it again, he would. Had he stayed the others would not have let him confront Ace on his own and things would have ended up developing very differently. Knowing what he knew now, Marco understood that if he had not been alone Ace wouldn't have told him anything. No, Ace would have spun a believable tale and then would have discouraged their continued association. Judging by the glare Izo shot him as he claimed the other seat he knew very well that Marco's apology was only for appearances sake.

"It wasn't just that you'd vanished on us," Izou continued, "because you've done that before. It was more the fact that you didn't come back or get word to us until now. Normally you at least leave a detailed note!"

Sensing that he wouldn't get any sort of explanation until he provided one of his own Marco sighed, "I honestly don't know why I didn't leave a better note. I thought it was obvious. I went to see Ace."

"Ace?" Izo questioned.

There it was. Izo had that look that he got on occasion. It did not bode well for any of Marco's secrets. Izo would keep digging and digging until he thought he'd unearthed every last shred of information on the topic in question.

"Yes," Marco said meeting that gaze head on. If he did anything different Izo would notice right away. His relationship with Ace was too new to risk like that. No he would just have to respond as he always did when Izo was attempting to chase down information.

"Ace runs a Bar out in the border," Marco explained. "He hears things and I thought he would have some of the answers I needed so I headed that way. I ended up getting stuck in a storm that rolled through. It was seriously nasty and I couldn't exactly leave once it had started."

"Didn't you think to call?" Thatch wanted to know and Marco snorted.

"Oh I thought about it all right but Transfracts barely work in Outskirts in the first place. The odds of one working in a fiery electrical sandstorm were astronomical. That doesn't even mention the fact that Ace doesn't even have one at his place. Now spill. What's happened?"

Izo took a deep breath and started in. "While you were busy being a bird the World Collective sent a missive demanding that we surrender all information we had on a series of so called dangerous criminals who they were pursuing. As near as we could tell they are mostly Devil's Abilities users. In addition, some of the criminals they wanted information on were aliases belonging to a good majority of us. Pops refused of course. The World Collective went off in a huff about it making what we thought were the usual empty threats. You turned back that night and collapsed before anyone could fill you in. By the next morning when anyone thought to look you'd vanished. Pops didn't appear to be too worried about it which kept the rest of us from doing a territory wide search. We figured that Pops would know if anything bad had happened. Then the storms started up."

"Anyone hurt?" Marco inquired

"The citizens are fine thankfully but part of a caravan was caught on the lower paths when the first one hit. No one survived. We don't get them that bad up here but did you know that when combined with the rain, the sandstorms turn toxic?"

"Yes." Marco said dryly.

Izo huffed at the interruption even though he'd invited it with his question and continued, "Anyway each storm didn't last too long. What was curious though was they kept hitting with an alarming frequency and ferocity. Fortunately the city itself is too high for the sands to reach but we got rain, hail and some serious wind. In addition, the sand storms in the lower area made it near impossible to get into or out of the territory. No one knew when the next storm was going to hit and no one wanted to chance getting caught in the sand storm if it decided to rain. We ended up cut off from a lot of our allies for the entirety of the week. Visitors started risking heading back to their respective homes yesterday after a full day of no storms. We also got a lot of returning citizens as well as information from our allies."

"You're not going to like this Marco," Thatch chimed in.

"What's going on?"

"Your dream came true," Thatch said.

When Marco looked at him blankly Thatch sighed then elaborated, "We're preparing for War." Apparently our refusal to turn over our own was the last straw for the Toilets. In the middle of the Week of Storms the Brass called in the Warlords. All of them. There's been no official declaration yet but we know it's coming."

Marco glared at Thatch then looked to Izo for confirmation. Izo looked up from examining his fingernails and nodded. Marco pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. This was distinctly not good. "You know, when I said it would be nice if the WC just got off their rears and stopped the stalemate that I was joking right?"

Thatch chuckled though the sound was not a happy one, "Oh it gets better," he said. "Jinbie is no longer a Warlord and has been arrested. Upon learning what exactly they had been called in for he refused to fight us claiming that his honor would not allow him to do so after Whitebeard effectively put a stop to the rest of the human trafficking that the Toilet Dwellers wouldn't touch and providing medical assistance after he had been attacked by the Card Deck."

"I'm guessing his honor didn't sit well with some people?"

"Got it in one," Thatch replied. "They stripped him of his rank and arrested him for crimes against the Collective. It's a load of bull. Once we got the news Pops declared Mariens a part of our territory and under our protection. Their official government is quite relieved."

Marco smiled grimly. Declaring Merines as part of the territory didn't change much. The two areas had been allied since Jinbie had asked them to look into what could be done to stop the trafficking of the merfolk all of those years ago. However he could tell that wasn't everything. Thatch was practically vibrating in his chair.

"What else?"

"We suspect Ceaser that one gas logia scientist and Crocodile to be the driving forces behind the storms that kept us cut off from the rest of the world. Just before the Toilet made its ridiculous demands, we received reports that Ceaser was heading towards one of their outlying territories. Taken in conjunction with a late report saying that Crocodile has regained an official but temporary position with the Brass well it seems like too much of a coincidence. It certainly would make the random pattern and lack of warning that we had in regards to the storms make sense."

Marco frowned thoughtfully and tapped his fingers against the desk. "If that's the case we can probably expect more storms in the future. They'll try and use them to whittle down our forces and contaminate food and water supplies. I know that's not everything though. What are you trying not to tell me?"

"They offered the vacant Warlord position to Blackbeard," Izo said, "and he accepted. We don't know the conditions of his alliance with them but we're definitely part of it. Squared and Whitey Bay were taken down by him and he's been wandering a haphazard path through our allies territories on his way towards us. It's making it rather hard to predict when exactly the war is coming but he's definitely making his way here."

Marco stared at his siblings. He knew that he probably looked the picture of calm at the moment but inside he was seething with anger. His fist clenched and a sudden crunch coupled with sharp pain had him looking down at his clenched fist. Uncurling his fingers, Marco frowned at the shattered remains of his pen.

"Marco?" Izo questioned, having noticed his sudden shift in attention.

"I'm fine." He said with a wince as he pulled pieces of plastic out of the palm of his hand. Blood flowed freely for a moment, mixing with ink before blue flames sprang from the wounds, healing them in an instant.

"Uh huh." Thatch said pointedly eying the small pile of shattered fragments on Marco's desk. "I call bullshit."

"Call it all you like Thatch, I'm fine," Marco cut Thatch off. "It doesn't matter much. I need you to fill me in on what we're doing to prepare for this, where Jimbe's being held, and who's going to be tasked with springing him."

"Yeah, what did Pops say about breaking Jimbe out? Do we even know where they stashed him?" Izo asked.

Thatch smiled, a real one this time, "We don't have to worry about Jimbe. Apparently he had contingency plans for just this situation. He's on his way back to Mariens right now no worse for wear. Now, as far as preparations go," Thatch started in.

Izo nodded and leaned forward to put his elbows on Marco's desk. Marco shifted into a slightly more comfortable position in his chair. This had the potential to go on for a while.

AN: Apologies for the shortness and uneventfulness of the chapter. I promise it is important. And hey, in good news, Ive handled the craziness that I had to deal with and hopefully will have a more stable updating schedule. Anyways, I hope yall like the chapter. Please let me know what you think of it!