Vivi's Tears, Death is a Constant

As it turned out, Yuuba was farther than the pirates thought. It took six days of traveling to get them to their destination and Ace left on the fourth, a meeting with a bounty hunter and his two sons telling him that Blackbeard had been spotted in the east. Before leaving, Ace gave Luffy a piece of paper and said that it would reunite them one day. The younger brother, taking the paper with equal parts confusion and eagerness, had it sewn into the band of his hat by Nami for safekeeping and waved enthusiastically as his older brother's form slowly faded into the dessert haze.

The town of Yuuba was deserted when they arrived, dried-out plants and crumbling buildings greeting them from under a thick layer of sand as they entered the once-crossroads of Alabastian traders. The pirates wandered into the town silently, more than one of the crew jumpy at the howling wind that blew through the buildings as the dessert sun slowly sunk below the horizon. Vivi openly cried; seeing the town her childhood best friend and his father had gone to start in ruins only built on the despair she'd been feeling more and more as the years since the start of the drought passed by.

The only life they found in the village was an old man digging in the center of town. He was rail-thin, torn clothing hanging off him indicating that he'd lost a lot of weight recently. A bushy, stark-white mustache hung over his upper lip and regular sandals covered his feet. He introduced himself as Toto, the mayor of Yuuba.

"It's good to see that there are still people who travel the desert without fear of the war," the old man sighed, shaking his head. "And to think my idiotic son is leading it now. I kept telling him to trust in our royal family, but it seems that the drought and our missing princess were too much for him."

"It really is you, isn't it, Toto?" Vivi whispered. "You... you've lost so much weight.

Realization seemed to dawn on the old man. "Princess!" Toto declared happily. "Oh thank Heaven that you're alive! Now that you're back, you can stop the stupid rebellion!"

"I hope I can, Toto," Vivi responded in a melancholic voice. "It's wonderful to see you again, but the city seems empty. Wasn't the Rebel Army stationed here? Where's Kohza?"

"I'm afraid you missed them," Toto lamented. "The well dried up a few months ago, so the Rebels moved on. I'm the only one left."

"Wh-where are they stationed now?" Vivi asked in a quiet voice, praying that the answer she would receive was a town close by.

"They're in Katorea," Toto answered.

"That's close to here, right?" Chopper questioned.

"No, it's not," Vivi replied, tears welling in her eyes. "Katorea is near Nanohana in the direction we just came from."

"You're kidding me!" Luffy yelled angrily as Gin pulled out his tonfa and released his anger on a nearby building.

"You mean we came all this way for nothing?!" Zoro added. Eyelash grumbled something.

"That's right," Chopper translated. "I was carrying supplies for them when I met the reindeer." The men went to town beating on the camel, yelling at him about not mentioning anything. He huffed when they were done.

"Whatever," Chopper translated again, the comment starting another round of beating for the perverted animal. Toto invited them to stay the night since they shouldn't travel through the dessert when the sun is down. Most of the crew ended up in a giant pillow fight that night that expended the last of their energy and put them to sleep quickly. Luffy, however, decided to go outside to talk to Toto.

Coby, seeing him leave, decided to follow him, but caught a pillow with the back of his head and fell out the door. He threw it back in with a cry of "Jerks!", and hit Usopp in the face. Coby quickly shut the door. Several thumps of other pillows rattled the wood on its hinges as he walked down a path of new footprints in the sand.

"What are you doing down here?" he heard Toto say. "Your friends are having fun in the inn. You should join them."

"Nah," Luffy waved off. "Don't feel like it. Are you still down here digging, Old Guy?"

"Yes, I am. This old spring isn't dead yet. I can feel it. I just have to find that water." The youngest of the three reached the edge of the hole.

"Then I'll help," Luffy nodded. He shifted over to another point and started scooping out sand with his bare hands, the grains piling into the hole Toto had been making.

"Stop it!" the man ordered. "You're undoing all of my work!"

"But I'm helping," Luffy argued.

"Captain Luffy," Coby called, sliding down the side.

"Coby? What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to help."

"Alright," Luffy shrugged. The three dug for most of the night, Luffy falling asleep sometime around 11:15 and Coby following him into the realm of dreams around 11:25. Toto picked up their sleeping forms and carried them to the inn where the rest of their group was resting soundly. Returning to the dried spring alone, Toto was shocked by the depth of the hole the captain and the rosette had made just that night. He climbed down the latter he'd needed to get to retrieve them and was speechless.

The sand under his feet was damp.

The crew left Yuuba that morning. As they were preparing to leave, Toto stopped them to give them a barrel full of water and told them that he had been able to pull it from the bottom of the hole Luffy and Coby had made the night before. He also gave the two a small barrel of water with a straw on a necklace each. They thanked him profusely and went on their way. The group was halted several minutes later.

"I quit," Luffy announced, dropping into the shade of a dead tree.

"Luffy?" Nami asked. "What's wrong?"

"Please, Captain Luffy. We don't have time for this," Coby insisted. Grace, on the other hand, slid off of Eyelash and sat next to Luffy in the scarce shade with a rice cracker in her hand. "Not you too, Grace."

"I need a nap," Grace yawned.

"A nap?" Usopp asked incredulously. "You weren't even walking!"

"Shut your face!" Sanji rebuffed him, kicking him away. "If a lady wants to nap, you let her nap!"

"Coby's right; we don't have time for this," Vivi said. "Get up! If we wait any longer, people could die!"

"We could stop the rebellion; that won't stop Crocodile. People are going to die anyway," Luffy told her bluntly.

"I can't accept that," the princess growled. "This is my country and it is my duty to protect it. I have to do what's right for Alabasta."

"Does that involve you dying?"

"If need be, yes." Luffy rose suddenly and punched her, shocking their audience. Surprisingly, Sanji did nothing to help her as she fell.

"You can't do that, Vivi," Luffy told her seriously. "People die every day and there's nothing we can do. There will be casualties. You're important to this country and the people love you. They'd happily die to protect you. Why do you think your life is the only one that can be put on the line?" Vivi pulled herself up and retaliated, slugging the pirate hard enough to throw him to the ground. She mounted him, repeatedly punching and slapping and beating him, but she knew, deep down, that he was right.

"What do you want me to do, huh?!" she asked hysterically, continuing to wail on the pirate. "Is it wrong to want everybody to survive?! Do you want me to let those people just die?! Do you want me to do nothing?!" Luffy grabbed her arms at the wrists.

"Why don't you let us put our lives on the line, too?!" Luffy pulled himself from under her and stood.

"I... I..." Vivi had no words. Tears pooled in her eyes as the pirates moved to stand behind their captain, standing with him. For her. For her country. And it was too much. Her emotions welled up as the tears spilled over, running down her face and falling to the sand.

"Now the way I look at it," Luffy's voice cut through her crying, "Crocodile is the leader of the ones doing this, so all I have to do is kick his ass. So, where is Crocodile?"

Vivi sniffled. "Rainbase," she got out. "His base is in Rainbase. A day's journey to the north."

"Then let's go!"

Five people, two women and three men, sat at a table with nine chairs, the one at the head of the table turned away. The walls of the room around them were glass, showing the aquarium on the other side inhabited by bananadiles, giant crocodiles the color of bananas and with a banana-shaped protrusion on their heads and teeth the size of a full-grown human when fully grown like these were.

"Well?" A large woman asked quickly, slamming her hand in the table before her. "When are we going to get started? When, started, when, started, whenwhenwhen?!" This woman had fuzzy red hair that poofed out in a thin afro-like style and sunglasses that hid her eyes. She was dressed in a plain white button up and black dress pants. A green tie with red dots in the shape of a Christmas tree hung from her neck.

"Ha... Ha... Ha," the woman's partner laughed slowly. He was also large, but much taller than his short-statured partner. He had short blond hair parted down the middle and a dopey look on his face. He wore a green dress shirt with matching pants and a regular darker-green tie. A metal baseball bat was mounted on his back. "Ha... Ha... Ha."

"Please calm yourself, Ms. Merrychristmas," the other woman said as her black eyes looked at the aforementioned Ms. Merrychristmas. She had slightly longer blue hair in the same style as the other woman, but it hung lower behind her head. She also had a voluptuous figure accented by her one-piece outfit that covered her modesty, but only had a spider web design over her thin midriff. Her lower body was dressed in skinny jeans the same color as the rest of her outfit and 2" boots. Ms. Merrychristmas opened her mouth to retort, but a "man" beat her to it.

"Now, now," Mr. 2 muttered in all his okama glory. "We musn't fight between ourselves when we are so close."

"Everybody shut up," the final man at the table growled. "You're all annoying." This man had dark skin and white hair that looked grey from the combination of his skin tone and buzz cut. He was a tall man wearing a black sleeveless shirt and off-white pants with brown shoes. His crossed arms rippled every time they moved from the bulging muscles just under the skin.

"You be quiet, you big bully!" Mr. 2 rebuffed. "I don't care if you are a number above me, I'll still kill you."

"Ha, not likely."

"Ha... Ha... Ha," Mr. 4 continued to laughed.

"You all sure are a lively bunch." The men craned their necks to see the steps behind them while the women only looked up. On the stairs was another woman, Ms. Allsunday. "You have all been called here because the plan is moving into its final stage. Thus, it is time for you to meet the man you all know, yet do not."

"You mean it's time to meet the boss?" Ms. Doublefinger asked.

"Yes, that's right," a deep, gruff voice answered. The chair at the head of the table spun around to reveal the Warlord, Crocodile. Everyone in the room, with the exception of said man and Ms. Allsunday, gasped. He was a man of average height with slicked-back black hair that fell to his neck and a prominent scar that ran from one side of his face to the other over his nose. He was dressed in nice, cotton clothes of yellow and brown shades and a striped, fur-lined coat of dark black cotton hung from his shoulders like a cape. From his mouth hung a lit cigar, the smoke slowly wafting through the air. Finally, his left arm ended at the wrist, the hand replaced by a golden hook. "Yes, I am Mr. 0, but that is unimportant at the present moment. As Ms. Allsunday said, the plan is moving into its final stage. These," he pulled out slips of paper that Ms. Allsunday passed around, "are your final orders as members of Baroque Works. If all goes to plan, Alabasta will fall by the end of the week. And without the Straw Hats or that pesky princess running around, nothing can go wrong."

"Is this a bad time, then?" Mr. 3 interrupted, emerging from that shadows. He was covered in bandages and his hair was drooping.

"Ah!" Mr. 2 called, hopping up and falling into a fighting stance. "Finally, you show yourself, Mr. 3! I can now complete my last mission and eliminate you!"

"Hold it, Mr. 2," Crocodile ordered, standing. "I don't know how you found this place, Mr. 3, but-"

"The Straw Hats are not dead," Mr. 3 said, cutting the Warlord off.

"What?" Crocodile growled. "You told me over the den-den mushi that you'd killed them all on Little Garden along with princess Vivi."

"What den-den? I haven't used one since before getting to Little Garden. I came to report that both Ms. Goldenweek and Ms. Valentine have betrayed us for the pirates and that Mr. 5 fell sick and died on our way back."

Crocodile rushed forward and grabbed the agent by the throat, his anger palpable. As the other agents watched, Mr. 3 slowly shriveled as if the water was being sucked from his body. "Please," he begged, his voice turning hoarse from dehydration. "Have mercy. Let me make it right."

"You've done enough," Crocodile ground out. He threw the man away, said man calling for water. "You want water? I'll give you all the water you can drink." He pressed a button, opening a trapdoor beneath the wax-man and dropping him into a large area under the other room. A bananadile came up and ate the man before he could scream.

"These are the pirates?" Mr. 2 asked as the sketches the Unluckies had drawn in Whisky Peak were set before him. "I've met these people before. They were a fun bunch. I did not see Ms. Goldenweek or Ms. Valentine when I was on their ship however. Also, there was some sort of animal pet thing there, too, and I didn't touch everybody."

"Make pictures of the ones you can," Mr. 0 ordered. "They have a kill on sight order that I want you all to pass on to your men. We can't let them ruin our plan now. Dismissed."