Chapter twenty five- New crew members and secrets revealed

Gabriel looked at the pair of them with an interesting look in his eyes. Was he planning on trying to recruit all Baroque works agents? no, just the ones he found interesting and saw potential in, these two made the cut with their devil fruits. So much potential.

"what kind of proposition?" Mr five asked his tone as respectful as he could manage but there was still a sneer in it, clearly he was unhappy about having been bested so easily, he still didn't understand how he did it.

Miss Valentine remained silent as she looked at him various thoughts about what the proposition could be.

Gabriel smirked, before pointing to Mr Five, "Gem of the border, bounty ten million beri" he said before gesturing to miss Valentine, ""Courier" Mikita, bounty seven point five million beri" he added stating both their names and bounties showing that he had more than just muscle but knowledge as well.

Both looked at him with wide eyes when he revealed that he clearly knew who they both were, that shook them more than him actually beating them, how did he know who they were.

Gabriel grinned seeing their reactions, "my proposition is this, I am currently in the process of looking for potential members for my pirate crew, Keren here, aka miss Monday has already taken me up on my offer to join. The same offer I now make to the both of you." He stated plainly.

Both swallowed at the offer, clearly this guy had the power to handle himself in a fight as they had both already seen first-hand. And on top of that he knew who they both were, which meant that they had absolutely no future left with Baroque works now. Unless they killed him to keep their identities secret which they knew they had no chance in doing after their humiliating defeats. They doubted that they'd even be able to scratch him even if they worked together.

Mikita was the first to speak, "I'm in," she said as she stood up to her feet. She knew that if she didn't join up with someone strong now she was dead, with her future with Baroque works down the drain she knew that one of the other four officer teams would be sent to kill them for failing their mission and having their identities revealed, the second he spoke their names he had sealed their fates.

Gabriel nodded to her before looking to Mr five who had yet to give his answer. He was slightly worried that they would reject his offer, he knew their characters, but he had a somewhat backup strategy in mind even if they did. The system was a wonderful thing, he was betting that he could store them in his inventory, there was likely some sort of restriction in place that he would have to meet first like having them unconscious, before they could be stored away. If Mr five refused him he'd just knock his ass out and store him in his inventory until later when he would bring him out and kill him once he was sure he had enough to purchase his devil fruit from the system store. That way he could just keep the fruit until he had someone to make use of it, he wasn't about to let such a powerful fruit get away from him, while he may be able to counter it now if the explosions were fused with Haki it would be another story, and it's possible awakened state made it extremely valuable.

Gem looked at Gabriel and he could see that he was waiting for him to reply. At first he thought about accepting if it meant that he could get close to his targets, if he made a big enough explosion he would be able to take them all out and complete their mission and maybe kill this punk at the same time if he got lucky enough. But he immediately scrapped that idea remembering how his exploding fist hadn't even phased this guy so even if he did complete the mission his identity would still be exposed and he would be useless to Baroque works, and he knew exactly how the boss dealt with useless assets.

"What's in it for me if I join you?" Gem asked with a hard look, he didn't care about companionship or any of that bull shit, what mattered to him was money and getting his jobs done and getting paid.

Gabriel smirked, "protection for one thing, and a position as a member of a future Yonkō's crew, how's that for starters?" he stated.

"Future Yonkō, are you out of your damn mind" Gem said with narrowed eyes thinking this guy was taking this as a joke.

Mikita looked at Gabriel with wide eyes at his statement, of course she expected protection but now the was starting to think that the captain she had just agreed to follow had a screw loose.

Gabriel could see that he thought he was messing with him but knew how he could turn him around, "You don't believe me, that's fine. How about this then, you come with us to Alabasta where I will personally see to it that your Boss, aka the Shichibukai Crocodile, gets his ass handed to him by yours truly as a means of proving my intentions and capabilities to the both of you, after that you can choose if you want to join or not" he offered.

Both looked at him with wide eyes while Keren looked at her captain with a look of horror as he revealed that they had been working for Crocodile all along and never even knew it. They all knew that years ago when he joined the Shichibukai he had a bounty of eighty one million beri and he could have only gotten stronger since then so the thought of anyone in this half of the grand line beating him was unthinkable.

Gem looked at Gabriel and after a moment of silence spoke, "what makes you so confident that you can beat him, why do you want us to join you so bad anyway, and what makes you think that I won't try to double cross you while we make our way to Alabasta?" he asked.

Gabriel gave him a wolf like grin that made Gem swallow hard, "Simple, Crocodile is like you, overconfident in his devil fruit abilities, he has strength yes, and he is in a country where his devil fruit powers can be used to their utmost, but he has become complacent and used to taking on small fries, his over confidence will be his downfall when he underestimates me and before he can get serious I will have already won" he stated with amusement in his tone.

"as for why I want you both on my crew," Gabriel added before gesturing to Keren, "like Keren I can see you both have great potential, your devil fruit powers make you both capable fighters and with the right training I can see you both making a name for yourselves as members of my crew" he stated before his eyes hardened making them both flinch back.

"as for you betraying me and trying to carry out your mission on the way to Alabasta I know I don't need to worry, you both know I am more than a match for either of you and you can trust me when I say that there are those in the allied crew that I am traveling with at the moment who are more than your equal as well, should you try to betray me you wouldn't succeed, and even if you did where would you go, all of us know that even if you succeed in your mission you can't kill me, and I will be more than capable of returning the betray by exposing your identities as members of Baroque works and then Crocodile will just have you both removed as liabilities so there is no point in you betraying me early on and no point in you betraying me after as there will be no Baroque works for you to return too" he stated plainly.

Listening to him lay everything out like that Gem felt even more hopeless than he had before, he still thought he was nuts to think that he could beat crocodile and become a Yonkō in the future. But a part of him couldn't help but remember how badly he had beaten him, and the way he spoke was so full of confidence, maybe he would give him a shot to prove himself, if he did being a part of a Yonkō's crew would definitely have its benefits.

"Alright, I'll come with you to Alabasta to see if you defeat Crocodile, if you do then and only then will I join your crew," Gem told him making Gabriel let out a laugh.

"excellent, glad that we've got that all sorted" Gabriel said before he spun his staff and in front of their eyes it just vanished, though really he had just stored it in his inventory, "now then come on, negotiations and explanations are happening now between the princess and Straw hats, let's go catch up shall we" he said as he turned and began to walk off pulling his kimono and haori back over his shoulders as he went, not giving them any other option but to follow him.

It only took them a few minutes to find where the others had gathered by the river side and all were currently talking, but upon seeing Gabriel and Keren with the others behind them Vivi rose to her feet in fear.

Gabriel put his hands up to her, "easy Vivi, they aren't going to hurt you, they know they can't beat me and I know who they both are so they know their usefulness to Baroque works is over and they both know what that means for their life expectancies, Mikita here" he said as he gestured to the blond, "has even agreed to join my crew while Gem here" he added as he gestured to him, "has agreed not to harm you, and after I prove myself he'll join up also"

"but they're officer agents, they are high up in Baroque works, how can you do that they are just as much responsible for the civil war as their boss is?" Vivi said shocked and outraged that he would take such people on his crew despite what he said before about the kind of pirate he was.

Gabriel shook his head, "are you sure about that Vivi, think about it you know how Baroque work handles it's business, you only know as much as you do because you went looking for answers, I doubt any single agent knows the bosses true intentions"

Vivi frowned and looked conflicted but then Gabriel continued, "how about this, we all sit down and you can go over what you know to fill everyone in and at the end we'll see if Mikita and Gem knew what was going on"

Hearing the reasonable request Vivi nodded and sat back down while the others all gathered closer to listen as Vivi explained everything that she had found out, how she had discovered that Baroque works was behind the civil war, framing her father the King for stealing the countries rain and causing the drought that had been ravaging most of the island except the capital, how she suspected they had infiltrated both sides and roused further hatred for both sides and were trying drive the country to the point of all-out war, and in the after math that the boss could take over the nation with him as king and that all officers and other higher agents were promised a high place in the nations hierarchy.

They all listened with looks of shock on their faced except for Gabriel who knew all about this, and when she reached the end of her tale Mikita jumped to her feet.

"I knew nothing about this," she said with heat in her voice as Vivi looked at her with shock, "sure we were told that the end goal was some utopia nation but we were never told that we were killing a kingdom to build it."

Gem from his seat looked just as equally disgusted, "our missions were to act as bounty hunters, hunt down the weak pirates that passed down other routes of the grand line and drag their sorry carcases to the nearest billions ship so they could take them and claim the bounty to funnel it back up the chain. We thought we were helping to gather funds for the construction of the utopia, not some messed up shit like this"

"all this time, we've been played for absolute fools, ideal utopia my ass, this is genocide" Keren said looking green thinking about what she had been helping to do.

Vivi looked at them with wide and shocked eyes, the way they spoke, none of them had known about what was actually happening, she looked down ashamed at her previous words, "I'm sorry"

Gabriel nodded, "its okay Vivi, you were just upset about the suffering of your people, it's understandable for you to be disgusted with anyone you believed would be involved in such things"

Nami sighed as she leaned against one of the building walls, "Okay I suppose I get what you were saying before, yeah there's no way a country in the middle of a civil war would have any money just laying around" she shook her head, 'oh well there goes the easy score' she mourned her billion beri fee.

"right now all that matters is that I get back to Alabasta to tell everyone what is happening to stop the fighting," Vivi said as she clenched her fists, "if I don't then…" she said as she tried to hold back her tears thinking about what would happen.

Luffy was listening intently the whole time as he sat against another wall with his hat shading his eyes, "I see, tell me, did you find out just who is behind all of this then, who the boss really is?" he asked.

Vivi froze when she heard his question and looked to him with wide eyes, "The bosses Identity! You shouldn't ask that," she said remembering how afraid she had been when she had found out about who he really was.

"but you know don't you?" Luffy pressed again his eyes still shaded by his hat.

"Ask me anything but that," Vivi told him shaking, "if I told any of you it would put your lives in danger too."

Gem, Mikita and Keren all shared a look between them before looking to Gabriel wondering how it was that he had found out if Vivi hadn't been the one to tell them. Gabriel for his part just remained silent.

Nami snorted, "yeah I'll pass, this guy is trying to take over a country after all, I don't want someone like that coming after me"

"no you don't," Vivi agreed, "I don't care how strong you are, you wouldn't stand a chance against one of the Ōka Shichibukai, against Crocodile" she stated and everyone was still for several seconds as a cold wind blew through the air.

"Who now?" Luffy said breaking the tension.

That was when Gabriel looked to the roof of one of the buildings and blinked, he had admittedly seen a lot of strange things since coming to the one piece world, but the sight of an otter with a shell dressed in a pink onesie and a vulture wearing an aviators cap while both of them wore shades, had to be the strangest sight yet.

Everyone looked up to follow Gabriel's gaze and when the pair noticed that they had been seen they took off, and all hell broke loose.