Successes

Rex stares at the young Vinsmoke Reiju before him, her clothes dirty and her small body shivering.

"Do you want to leave here?"

"That's a stupid question. Of course, I do. But my father has told me I am to stay here for four more days for my crimes."

"Oh and what crimes are those?"

"Love and compassion."

Rex and Reiju look at each other silently after that.

Rex is surprised that Reiju was so intelligent and coherent for an eleven year old. While most of his officers were a few years older than her, Rex felt this girl was more mature than half of them.

Reiju felt that this scientist was weird. He was far more caring than any of the scientists she had met before.

"What if I meant something else by 'leave here'?"

"What do you mean?" Reiju asks puzzled.

"I mean leaving Germa all together." Rex says, wondering how Reiju would react to this offer.

"My father would kill you if he heard that."

"That's not a no."

"You would never escape."

"Still not a no."

Reiju pauses a small glimmer of hope in her eyes. Ever since her father had modified her to never be able to resist a direct order from him, she had lost hope to ever leave Germa.

"Would you really take me with you?"

"All you need to do is say the word."

Reiju bites her lip, her brain telling her not to. Judge would find them, and punish them both for escaping, him harsher than her. But her heart… her heart was telling her to be free.

The cell door is unlocked. As Reiju makes her decision.

'I'm gonna find you, Sanji!'

Rex smiles, taking Reiju and fitting her into his pocket. Reiju's small, eleven year old body was barely able to fit in the pocket, being surround by a sea of files.

Rex's mind then turns to escape. He flees back the way he came, only to see a large fight breaking out in the hallway.

A dozen Germa Clone soldiers seem to be fighting the hundred prisoners. While the prisoners held the numbers advantage, only a few of them had stolen the dead clones and guards' weapons and their poor physical states lead to them being easily culled.

Bringing his face over the scientist's Rex leaps into combat. He draws a sword he had stolen from a fallen guard and starts ribbing the soldiers into dregs.

While Rex knew little about swordsmanship, he still had the muscle memory from working together with Killer and his strength makes the sword into a deadly weapon. In a few short minutes, the soldiers are all dead.

The prisoners all look at Rex with awe.

"Wait a moment, you're…" One prisoner from the South Blue says with a look of revelation.

"I am Jacket D. Hoodie! Now follow me, to freedom!"

Rex leads the soldiers through the halls of Germa 66 cutting down any clone soldier in his way.

"Go left!" Rex hears a female voice calling out from inside him. It's Reiju who's eye is peaking out of a small nook in the zipper.

"Is left the fastest way out?"

"Yes."

Rex nods, running to the left with the prisoners behind him. At this point, each prisoner was armed with a gun and was able to be of some use to Rex. While they couldn't take down a guard one on one, they could take a few down together. Soon Rex makes it into the main hallway he had been in with Judge earlier. There, he sees Judge barreling towards him, a hundred soldiers behind him.

"Run!" Rex roars to the prisoners, withdrawing two Gem grenades and throwing them into the hall.

Judge slows his own pace while his soldiers run in front of him. He looks curiously at the two metal objects, wondering what they are.

Then, a few seconds later, they detonate, creating a massive explosion killing dozens of clones. The cobblestone hall collapses, making Judge curse as he sees the prisoners escaping through a narrow peephole in the rubble.

"Dig your way out!" Judge cries, turning to Chap with an enraged expression.

Picking the small man up by his shirt, Judge roars in his face. "WHO! WAS! THAT!?"

Meanwhile, Rex has already gotten off the ship. Seeing the other Germa warriors moving their ships towards the shore, Rex curses, corralling the prisoners forward.

"Where do we go from hear lord Hoodie?"

"A private dock, in the southwest region of the island." Rex says, retrieving a map he had stolen from Duke Bud. "There you will find a ship. If any of you can navigate, there should be maps for you to sail to another island. If not, just sail away from here. Release yourself from shackled shawl of slavery, be free and flee this land!"

The private dock, also known as the Flevance protocol, was something Deul had created in the case that ever the nobles of the country needed to flee on short notice. Rex had already loaded all of the robbed wealth on one of the ships, and was planning to flee. Still, he didn't want the prisoners following him, as Marines would associate them with him and arrest or kill them.

Parting with the prisoners, Rex fled to his ship and grinned. He did it.

(Three Days Later)

Rex smiled as he lounged back in his own chair for the first time in over a week. He had pulled off yet another great heist.

A few hours ago, Rex had met up with the King Gucci, offloading all the gold before sending the noble ship drifting off in the sea. He then had it destroyed, knowing any evidence that could trace back to him needed to be eliminated.

From the news, Rex learned that Chap had suppressed the news of the kidnapped nobles, claiming that Jacket D. Hoodie was wanted for a chain of robberies on the Deul Kingdom's nobility. As for the missing nobles, Chap said a disease had been spreading through the nobility and had only been recently gotten under control.

On the other hand, the prisoners of Germa 66 weren't mentioned at all. Rex hoped they had escaped, fearing for their safety.

As for Jacket D. Hood.

"300 million!" Kid shouted as he read the paper. "300 million Berries! I'm almost tempted to turn you in myself!"

"Have Bonney and Karina finished with Reiju?"

Kid shakes his head. "I have no idea what's taking those two so long. It's just a disguise, why do they act like it's the end of the world?"

"It's her damn life!" Bonney barks, entering just in time to hear Kid's comments. "Men like you are animals, only caring about a woman's looks, so we've got to make sure her disguise is perfect! After all, she's gonna live with it for the rest of her life."

"Does that mean you hags are finally finished!?" Kid barks back.

"Yup. Presenting, the new, and improved, Vinsmoke Reiju!"

The person who enters the room has almost no resemblance with the starving child Rex had met earlier. The current Reiju had been aged up by Bonney's fruit to around 18, her Vinsmoke eyebrows had been removed, seeing as they were a dead giveaway, and her hair had been bleached blond. She looked almost identical to her mother, with the only difference being purple eyes instead of blue ones.

"The name…" Rex managed to get out, still a bit in shock at the transformation.

Bonney pouts, but realizes that Reiju really can't keep using her real name.

"How about… Rose?" Rex says, remembering that in his past life, rose was the French word for pink. Not to mention, with the juxtaposition of her sweet appearance and the fact that Rex knew she could 'prick' so to speak, the name was fitting.

"A bit cliché, no?" Reiju says with a pout. "But still, I like it."

"Well then, Rose, welcome to the King Pirates!"

<i>Marineford, Grand Line</i>

"Wahahahaha! Look at your face, Sengoku! You were so sure that Rex was the same person as Jacket D. Hoodie and now it turns out your wrong! I told you my senbei buddy and my son weren't related!"

"I'm aware of that Garp so I don't need a reminder! And stop calling him your 'senbei buddy', he's a pirate!" Sengoku growls scratching his chin. "It just doesn't make sense. Two men, both smart, dangerous and calculating, come from the same blue, both visit the same kingdom only days apart. They should've been the same!"

Sengoku puzzles, looking over dozens of documents. While Vesta Rex wasn't important enough for him to personally investigate, Jacket D. Hoodie, with his possible connections to the revolutionaries was more than important enough.

"Are you sure that every member of Rex's crew was accounted for in his appearances over the past few weeks." Sengoku asks a marine intelligence officer.

"According to the reports of our Marines who fought them, all of the officers with a bounty were present and fought, as well as several dozen unknowns."

Sengoku shook his head, feeling that a piece of the puzzle was missing. Then, his eyes brightened.

"What if…" Sengoku quickly rearranges a bunch of scattered figures on board. "Yes, yes, it's perfect!"

But then Sengoku frowned. While the theory made sense, he didn't have much evidence. If he tried to push the story now, people would probably not believe it. He needed more.

<i>Spider Miles, North Blue</i>

Meanwhile, at Spider Miles, a man in a pink, feather coat was coming to the exact same conclusion was.

"No wonder his weaponry is so advanced, Rex has connections to the revolutionaries. He probably bought the Germa 66 information from the Black Market for the revolutionaries, because the revolutionaries know my men won't sell to them. Fuffuffufu"

Doflamingo smiles as he 'fits' the pieces together.

"Yes. This 'Jacket D. Hoodie' character must have met Rex in the South Blue. Seeing he had potential, he probably gave him a random Devil Fruit, that was later revealed to be a Mythic Zoan, in exchange for his future cooperation with the revolutionaries. Then, years later, Rex starts helping him out, smuggling him off islands, causing a commotion in the South Blue's Marines to let the revolutionaries act in secret. It all makes sense!"

If Rex were to know that his two greatest enemies had both reached this conclusion, he would have been ecstatic. Rex had specifically acted this way to convince them that he had revolutionaries backing.

That way, Doflamingo wouldn't want to push him too hard out of fear of Dragon. On the other hand, the Marines would attribute all his success to the revolutionaries, thinking that every act he committed was to draw away their attention from them. It was perfect!

<i>Baltigo Island, Grand Line</i>

However, one more person was putting the pieces together, only this man knew for a fact that Jacket D. Hoodie was not a Revolutionary.

He was Monkey D. Dragon.

"So, you're saying that Jacket D. Hoodie freed you, and sent you away on the ship we found you on, and, when he met you at sea, he gave you several treasure chests and told you to flee?"

The prisoner Dragon was talking to nodded at this. "Yes, lord Dragon."

That prisoner had been a revolutionary spy on one of the islands Germa 66 had attacked and had been captured for his strength to be investigated. When Rex had set him free, he knew that he couldn't take the prisoners to the Marines, as Germa would use their influence to kill them off, so he went to Dragon instead.

"Have the prisoners who wish to join us sent to the training camp. The others can be sent home. They haven't seen any of our faces, nor do they know you are a revolutionary so it's fine. Now, tell me everything you can remember about Jacket D. Hoodie."

(Two Days Later)

'Rose' fit in fairly well with the crew in her first few days.

In her, Rex had unintentionally found his crew's scientist. Rose had inherited her father's scientific intelligence, and once she had glanced the Germa files on Rex's desk, she had been hooked.

Still, Rex wasn't in the position to host a full-time scientist, so Rose found the rest of her work as an aide to Doctor Jidanbo.

Rex smiled, now, all he needed was a chef and a navigator. Once he had those two things, he would be able to depart to the Grand Line. As for his desired tailor, Rex had been disappointed by each and every tailor he visited. Still, Rex had hope that he would find them.

Buru Buru.

"This is Vesta Rex." Rex replies. "I see…"

Hanging up his Den Den Mushi, Rex leaves his room.

"Turn the ship around, we're headed to Hoodoo Island!"

"So, we're going after another crew member?" Kid asked. "Don't we have enough? We've got like 6 special ones, already! Why can't we just go to the Grand Line?"

Rex shakes his head. He wasn't the one to give up free talent when he stumbled across it. If he could get his hand on six hundred talented crew members, he would recruit them all. Still, after he dealt with Hawkins, Sugar, Monet and the Ope Ope no Mi, he would definitely consider going to the Grand Line.

"Who are we picking up?" Rose asked curiously.

"A Devil fruit user who claims to be able to see the future."

Killer scrunches his brow at that. Wasn't Rex's ability to see the future enough? Now there would be another person making cryptic phrases and knowing weird facts.

"What can he do?" Gem asks.

"He's a straw man who ate the Wara-Wara no mi. With it, he is able to create and manipulate straw."

"Straw, that's lame. Why can't we take a guy who controls lightning or fire or something cool!?" Kid complained.

Rex chuckled, if he so desired, Rex could easily find the Mera Mera no Mi on Sixis Island. As soon as he learned Armament Haki, he could also go to Jaya and fight Enel if he wanted. Still, that just wasn't what he wanted.

For one, Ace's fruit was kind of weak in the grand scheme of things. It lacked versatility and was only good at destruction. In fact, even for destruction there were better fruits like Gem's or Akainu's.

As for Enel's fruit, Rex couldn't say he wasn't tempted, but Rex felt that he could never trust Enel. He was too ambitious to ever be tamed.

"We're going after a straw man. If we happen to pass a fire fruit or a lightning fruit user, you're welcome to invite them."

Kid just grumbles about lame fruits, but the crew sets off.

"Hmm, Hoodoo Island, huh? Spread the news on the black market. Also, double his bounty. Let's watch him squirm for a bit. Fuffuffufu!"