Three Years

It's been three years since Percy and Kaidou's battle. Since then, the emperor has been laying low and hardly been making any notable appearances. When he has, Percy was too slow to be there in time to see what was going on. He relied on cipher pol agents for information and they did not disappoint.

"So Kozuki Oden has left the Whitebeard pirates" Percy said into the den den mushi. He was sitting inside his office in Marineford and staring out of his office.

"Yes sir" a cipher pol agent said on the other line, "we caught wind of this as you predicted"

"I see" Percy said as he thought about how the future was drawing closer and closer to the start of the canon manga.

"You are to monitor them, from a distance of course. I don't need the Rogers pirate eliminating cipher pol agents at this time"

"Will do" the agent said, "Oh yeah, admiral Kurosai. chief Vape of cp-0 requests your presence at Mary Geoise at your earliest convenience."

"Vape?" Percy scrunched his eyebrows together. Since he became an admiral, he never really interacted with the world nobles, or cp-0. The fact that they wanted to speak with him now was odd to say the least.

"I'm only relaying orders sir" the agent said before hanging up.

Percy thought about it for a second before deciding to call Dragon first.

*peroperopero peroperopero peroperopero*

*katcha* "Hello?" Dragon said

"It's Percy"

"Oh, Percy. What can I do for you?"

"Are you alone at the moment?"

"Hold on for a second" Dragon responded and Percy heard footsteps in the background. A few seconds later, Dragon started to speak again, "okay, I'm clear."

"Did you find him?"

"Find who?" Dragon asked.

"Doflamingo? I know I asked about him periodically. Never really knew about the progress regarding that kid."

"Him? Yeah, I found him little after our battle with Kaidou. I went to North Blue like you wanted and found Dolfamingo with Trebol and his gang."

"Did they join our cause?" Percy asked curiously.

"They did and they didn't. They are angry. Too angry in my opinion. That kind of hatred will breed destruction and I'm not sure if we are able to harness it."

Percy paused for a second before nodding his head,

"I thought as much, that boy may hate the world nobles more than you and I combined. After all, he once was one of them and they rejected him."

"Correct. They are willing to cooperate with us, but are not willing to be part of the revolutionary army." Dragon summarized his conversation with the former noble.

"So in short, Doflamingo is an ally. Is that what you're trying to say."

"Yeah, an ally based on benefits though. He and his team is dedicated to becoming pirates, so they decided that they only want our relationship to be surface level at best."

"...Well...that's something. We can only hope to build a better relationship in the future."

"Yeah" Dragon agreed as he sighed. "On the other hand, I think it might be time for my departure from the navy."

"You think so?" Percy asked surprised. "Isn't it too soon?"

"No" Dragon responded. "I have at least 10 countries right now supporting our cause that are associated with the world government and another 20 that are not. That should be enough for us to start the revolution."

"Hmmm...perhaps" Percy said as he rubbed his chin. "It will be a little tough though. Don't underestimate how powerful the world government truly is. I still don't know how far their reach is and I've been an admiral for almost 4 years."

"I never have" Dragon said in agreement. "I need you to 'chase' after me when I announce myself to the world though"

"Of course" Percy said. "Can't have Sengoku or Rosati taking the lead. That won't be good. Though I doubt they have the time to deal with anything else, seeing as Bigmom has started a particular dreadful tradition."

"Tea party" Dragon grimaced.

"Yea" Percy said nodding his head, "Tea party"

"What about Shiki?" Dragon asked as he sat in his chair.

"Well, Shiki is making him run all around the Grand line, for what I have no idea. All I know is that he keeps complaining every time he returns to Marineford."

There was a lull in the conversation before Percy finally asked the question,

"So when?"

"In a week."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive" Dragon said confidently. "Everything is in place. All I need to do is announce myself to the world and the pieces will fall in place."

"And your first move?" Percy inquired

"We need startup funds" Dragon said smilingly. "The Levely is happening again soon isn't it?"

As if putting the pieces together Percy laughed,

"HAHAHAHAHA, that's your first move?! One hell of an opening statement!"

"Two birds, one stone." Dragon said with what sounded like a smile on his face. "We need the gold anyways."

**********************************

"It's been a while chief Vape" Percy said as he sat in the chair given to him by the chief of the cp-0.

"It has indeed" Vape said with a smile on his face. "Normally we would be speaking over the den den mushi, but I believe that this matter is a little too important to talk over something that could be intercepted by someone else."

"Oh?" Percy said as he sat a little straighter.

[Could they have discovered Dragon's movements already?] Percy thought as he planned a game plan if they had.

"Yes" Vape nodded as he placed his arms on his chair. "As you know the Levely is coming up and the world government representatives is coming up to Mary Geoise."

Percy nodded as well.

Vape continued, "Well, what you may not know is that during this time, the world nobles hate to stay here because they don't want to breathe the same air as the other kings. Most of them head to the surface and treat this time as a vacation of sorts."

Percy was surprised by this, he did not recall that happening in the canon at all. He thought that the Levely was a time for kings and world nobles to interact with one another. But having lived in this world for over a decade, he figured as much.

"Here in lies the problem Kurosai." Vape said rubbing his forehead. "There are simply too many nobles heading towards the surface world this time for us to handle and we need your assistance. Usually we would require both Sengoku and Rosati to assist us as well, but they are currently occupied."

"Yeah" Percy started, "Shiki and Bigmom have started to make waves again in the New world causing them to monitor them carefully. Kaidou on the other hand has been rather quiet after my scuffle with him."

"We asked the nobles not to come down during this time" Vape went on as if Percy didn't speak, "but you know the nobles, why would they care about our opinions. We only live to serve them. So because of this, we need your help to provide support for the cp-0."

"In what way?" Percy asked as they got to the crux of the issue.

"Be available for deployment, don't take any assignment during this time. Not until the Levely is over and the nobles travel back to their homes."

"I can do that" Percy said as he got up. "I'll have my ship ready and my second prepared to leave at a moment's notice."

"Good" Vape said as he too got up and stuck his hand out. "All of this is for the nobles after all."

[Until I burn them to the ground] Percy thought as he shook Vape's outstretched hand, "For the nobles."