The Devil and Helen Talk

After 10 minutes I reached Helen's house. The house is an ordinary two story house with two windows for each floor.

I walk up to the door and knock three times. Eventually the door opens to Helen smiling face " come on in Samael, I hope you're hungry because I'm cooking dinner".

I accept her offer because the fight I had with Ace left me starving for some good food. Once I walk into her house I can tell by the atmosphere that's a loving home.

Helen leads me to her dining room where there's a brown round table with four chairs. I also see Helen's husband who by the looks is 40 years old. Then to the side of him I see 14 year old blond girl " well if it isn't little Stella, after all these years you still haven't grown that much hahaha".

I can see Stella is confused but when she notices my crimson ready eyes she smiles and hugs me.

After calming her down " well look at you, after all these years you're still the same little girl I found crying years ago hahaha".

Looking at her she really has grown up from the little girl all those years ago. I just want to wind her up because I remember it was funny when she used to get angry at me.

Stella's smile quickly turns in to a pout " no I'm not, I'm 14 now and nearly 5 ft 4 inches now idiot" *sticks out her tongue*. She then straightens her posture to look taller.

I walk forward and flick her head " yeah, of course, you did shorty hahaha". I sit down at the table and start talking to Stella and her father Carl, who's name I learned after speaking to him about his life.

Eventually, Helen came out with dinner which was chicken, potatoes and peas. We spent 30 minutes eating and talking.

When dinner is finished me and Helen head to the living so we can talk about what information she has uncovered. While we head to the living room Carl and Stella clear the table and dishes.

We sit down on her sofa and I look at Helen " so what have you been able to find". Helen grabs a folder from the coffee table near us and hands it to me.

While I start looking through the papers and news articles she starts to explain everything.

" well, the only concrete information I could find was that Crocodile once dreamed of becoming the pirate king. So when he challenged Whitebeard as a rookie he lost, after that he gave up his dream.

Ever since then he returned to Alabasta and went on to become one of the seven pirate warlords.

Apart from that, not much is known about him because he rarely makes public appearances. The only other information I have is that he owns a successful casino called Rainbase".

Listening to her I was impressed with how much she was able to dig up all from scratch. Though it's still not enough.

So I go through the folder and find some notes. I pull some out and hold them up " what are these?". Helen narrows her eyes to see what I'm holding then smiles " those are the other information I was able to uncover which might be related to Crocodile".

She grabs the folder from me and spreads her notes across the coffee table near us.

" with the little information I found on Crocodile I started to research about events happening in Alabasta. After some time I was able to find out some interesting information.

First, Even though Alabasta is a desert kingdom they had plenty of water from rivers and wells. Then a few years ago it stopped raining which dried up most of the rivers and wells. The only places left with a stable water supply is the town where Crocodile's casino is".

Listening to Helen I found it disturbing because it's not unheard of for there to be droughts. What is unheard of is that a part of the land isn't affected while the rest is.

I look back up to Helen " got any ideas why most of Alabasta is suffering from the drought but not the town where Crocodile's casino is?".

Helen in response hands me one her notes. As I start looking " at first I thought it was natural but when I looked into the matter more I found a highly possible solution".

she then points to the note in my hand

" in the past when Alabasta used to have droughts they used something called Dance Powder. It would speed up the process so the clouds would produce rain.

They would burn the powder so it would release vapours. Then when those vapours would reach the clouds it would speed up the creation of ice particles. When those particles would reach a certain point, the clouds would start producing rain due to the sub zero freezing temperatures of the clouds.

At first, it solved the drought problems. Then they started to realise the consequences of using the Dance Powder. While they would have rain, the surrounding countries started to have droughts.

This eventually leads to a war which resulted in the dance powder becoming prohibited by the world government".

Now I'm really impressed with Helen. I didn't think she would be this thorough. After hearing about this Dance powder it is the most likely reason for the drought problem.

I start looking at her other notes and notice one about rebellion. Helen notices the note and starts explaining.

" with the drought causing so much damage the king tried looking for solutions to the problem but couldn't find any. With the king not taking any visible action, the public started to become angry at him.

Normally that would be fine but they kept getting angrier until talks of rebellion we're quickly becoming a reality.

At first, it seemed natural but then I realised the same groups of people kept spreading rumours about how the king was weak and that he was cause for the drought by using Dance Powder. So he needed to be overthrown to save Alabasta.

I started to keep tabs on them and tried to find out any information I could about them. Eventually I was able to find out they were bounty hunters from gossips about the most notable one's.

when I found out their identities I kept digging further because it was too coordinated for a small group to be responsible. After a lot of research I found it they all belong to a group called Baroque Works.

They're a bounty hunter organisation who the leader's identity is unknown and their goals are unknown as well".

Even though this is interesting it seemed like it had no connection to Crocodile. So I gave a look to Helen " that's interesting but what's the connection to Crocodile?".

Helen just starts laughing " wait I'm getting to it. Be a good boy and wait patiently". My only response was an irritated frown.

" when I couldn't find out any information about the leader, I started to document their movements in Alabasta. When there was too many for me to track I paid homeless kids with food to follow them and report back.

Months went on with the same things happening. I finally had enough information to make an educated guess.

From my observations and the homeless kids, I found out all the bounty hunters frequented Rainbase. When I first realised this I thought it was just their favourite establishment. Then when I realised all the members of baroque works visited Rainbase it confirmed my suspicions.

Crocodile is their leader and he's using them to create a rebellion against the king. I still don't know the reason why because the organisation is so secret and vigilant that any attempts at attempts of finding further information is useless".

After Helen finishes her debrief I'm satisfied with her information. while I'm thinking over all the stuff she said I realise she didn't mention an important person.

I look through her notes but don't find it" Helen what about the Kings children".

Helen seems surprised at my sudden question " he only has one child which is the princess Vivi". I indicate to her to carry on about the princess.

" the princess Vivi Nefeltari is currently missing along with a palace guard called Igaram".

After collecting all the notes and papers I thank Helen and go to my room which Helen said I could use.

Before I leave Helen speaks up " what do you plan to do with that information?".

I take a few moments " I don't know yet but I know what I plan to accomplish by the end of it."

Helen seems confused for a couple of seconds " do you plan on saving people by defeating crocodile?".

I burst out laughing which only further confuses Helen.

" there's one thing you need to know about me, I'm no hero. I plan on killing crocodile and all his minions.

when I defeat him I will make it public and release information about his crimes. I plan to do this because it will make the marines seem untrustworthy for employing such a criminal.

The other reason is that the marines will most likely try and claim it was they who defeated crocodile after discovering his plans. They will do this to keep their image pure.

They've done this in the past by blaming pirates for attacks they conducted and claimed they protected people when it was others like pirates who actually done it".

Helen seems a little alarmed at my proclamation " so you won't save people?".

I shake my head " I do plan to save people but they're not my first priority. If I try and save them instead of killing crocodile he'll try and exploit me by using them as hostages most probably.

I'm not naive enough to think I can save everyone. I know I can't it's impossible so i'll save as many people as I can".

After I clarified my intentions Helen returned to her smiling face " well that is realistic so if you need any help in the future don't be afraid to ask".

I just nod and leave to go and form a plan of attack at Crocodile.

Helens Pov-----------

When Samael left, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

I forgot that Samael can be really scary. All through the evening he put on a smile. Then when it came to Crocodile his smile turned into a scowl.

When he was talking about his plan I shivered underneath his stare. When I looked into his Crimson red eyes I remembered how brutal he can be.

Whatever happens in the near future I know it will result in Crocodile's dead body at the feet of Samael.