Veyron's dead glare fixed on the sand lady. The vengefulness in her expression was only quenched by surprise. He, who she always thought was a kind soul, was actually going along with her delusions.
"You seem to be underestimating me, Croco. I may not wish for the bloodshed that you desire, but I want to erase the celestial dragons just as much if not more than you."
While still levitating in front of him, she crossed her arms and accentuated her proud chest, asking him to explain his reasoning. Veyron coughed and tried to evade the sight of that bugging cleavage.
"Ever since I arrived in this world, I have heard and seen nothing more than atrocities from them. They're a cancer that should be stripped away so that this world can move forward. That's just talking about modern times, the atrocities they may have done during the last century… I don't even want to know."
Chief among those atrocities was the suffering of his three little snakes at the hands of the celestial dragons and the suffering of Primrose over her missing daughters. Peter Hornigold's mission of taking over the Sky Islands was all ordered by the Gorosei. That and much more he had heard from Hancock during her journeys.
'There is not a single goddamn thing to say about them... only atrocities.'
"Then will you help me?" She clamoured, but a finger of his on her lips stopped her joy.
"But your thirst for vengeance is not allowing you to see things clearly. They are not weak in the slightest. My trillion volts lightning won't be able to completely erase them. Even if I were to kill the weaklings, the strongest ones would remain. Kill as many as we can and then die? Is that your plan? That's not how you get rid of cancer. It has to be stripped from the root."
"What is this cancer that you keep mentioning?"
"A very deadly disease that originates inside the body. When the cells that conform to the body get rebellious, eventually… the body dies from the inside. Once it has extended long enough, there is no cure to it."
"A disease, once it has extended, there is no cure..." She mumbled as if thinking of somebody's important words, she shook her head and groaned, "But then what…? If it is not now then when?"
"Not now, I'm making my preparations. For now, I'll go undercover with Kuma and Dragon to save this Ginny… that's all. What can I say... Dragon will owe me a favour. I'll take Robin-"
"No, take me… take me instead!"
"What can you help with? Robin's power is good for going undercover-"
"So is mine... I can discover the location of that girl right away. Take me along, Veyron!"
"With your current mindset, you will cause trouble."
His brows furrowed in decline; taking her along would be like taking a ticking bomb although truthfully she could also pull out the job albeit a bit slower than Robin.
"I won't." She extended her arms forward, and Veyron put her down, her arms extended at either side of his head with determination, "If I do… you can punish me however you want. You must take me along, there is a man I must kill... as long as I can erase that bastard from this world, I don't mind becoming your loyal b*tch."
"Eh? To that extent!?"
"Yes, he needs to die. Even if I don't cause a massacre… he must be gone!"
'She… how much is she thirsty for vengeance!?'
The more she spoke, the more curious he was about her past, 'Who would have thought that Crocodile had such a deep backstory for someone Luffy defeated so casually.'
"We will see… you don't have to lick my shoes. It is not like I have a filthy fetish like that. What exactly have you gone through all these years?"
"If I tell you... will you take me along?"
"I promise."
"Why do you care? I thought you didn't want me to recall a painful past."
"I'm sorry, but you're mine like Monet and Sugar. I'm going to be counting on you in the future to work alongside me, do jobs for me and a lot more. If I want to trust you, I must know where you come from and what you've been through, I want to know why you are so adamant about finishing the celestial dragons."
For him, it was important to know cause and effect. The amount of hatred a person had in their hearts was equivalent to how prone they would be to make a mistake under certain circumstances.
Just like Monet and Sugar would likely not follow orders if he only showed them hell and not rewards.
'If her hatred is too big... she won't follow orders.'
Her eyes flinched for a second, 'I had never told anyone... nobody.'
"A lot more, huh? What else are we going to do?~"
"..."
His expression showed that he wasn't up for games and awaited her story patiently.
She sighed and rose from her position, sitting at the edge of the bed with a somewhat desolate look.
"Just a summary… I lived in Marie Geoise for fifteen years; my mother's name was Saint Leia Esquivel, and during a once-in-a-lifetime journey to the Grand Line, she met my father after deserting the main vessel of the Esquivel family at that time. She got pregnant with me, and it was not accepted by the family, but because of her status, they had to tolerate it. Also, they didn't know whose child it was. After the incident in God Valley, my disgrace of a father became a walking sin for the celestial dragons. Everything related to him had to be erased, including me and my mother. I was chased out; my mother was executed."
"..." Veyron's eyebrows flinched at how natural she was at saying it, that was, until she took another position, hugging her knees. Making herself small.
"I survived out of stealing stuff for a part of my life until my beauty became too prominent… then, someone took me in, as their woman... he was a pirate. I thought I'd be protected, but I ended up becoming just another pleasure object. When they knew of my relationship with Rocks, I was sold to the Marines for a hefty amount. They betrayed me after using me. Rinse and repeat."
"…"
"I always managed to escape because they didn't know I had a Devil Fruit. At that time, Sea Stone wasn't a commodity like it is today, and Logia users like me were difficult to catch."
"Eventually, I found a good partner… perhaps the only man that ever loved me. Always the same, he died... the World Government killed him while chasing after me for being Rocks' daughter, the stain of Marie Geoise."
"If you were so pursued, how come I have never heard of Rocks D. Ali?" He asked her.
"Because Rocks D. Ali is dead... or at least that's what they believe. When I was at my lowest, almost dead, I met Roger… he took me in and taught me a few things before dropping me off with Dragon. I abandoned my womanhood after he was executed as I had decided never to love again and just become stronger… I worked for Dragon and then
abandoned him once I was strong enough. For a while, I made commerce in the underworld selling weapons for war, but my mind was set on finding an ancestral weapon. Roger had told me that Pluton was the weapon closest at hand. From the other two, one was already taken, the other had perished long ago. He didn't tell me an explicit location; he only told me... traces could be found in Alabasta. I always thought the weapon was there and became obsessed with that."
Veyron gasped more and more with each word, understanding the source of every scar and every attitude. This woman had certainly lived through hell.
"He told you all that? why?"
"Tch!" She twitched her tongue in irritation and prepared to light up another cigarette, only to be thrown back on the bed by Veyron who instead straddled her while shaking his head; he didn't want her to smoke.
"You're annoying... anyway, that geezer was fond of me just because I was Rocks' daughter. Those two seemed to be in a rival/friendship situation, there was some sort of regret Roger felt against my father, but he never told me. In the end, in my search for Pluton, I was unlucky enough to board a ship heading into the sky islands where I thought there may be traces of the ancestral weapons. Hmph, what a shitty decision to make. I met the most annoying perverted brat in the whole world; the rest is history."
Her brown eyes glared at him as if to see any reactions, but all she saw was a smile that peeved her.
"Indeed, that was one hell of an annoying brat~"
"You tell me. Are you going to get off me, or do you have something spicier in mind?"
"You're way more perverted than I thought you were, Ali."
"I'm in my forties, brat... I have experienced pleasure and pain that your women would never know. I just happened to discard that side of me as I had no use for it. As a man, I was stronger... people didn't lust after me; they feared me."
"... You did look like quite the thug, not gonna lie."
"Now, though... I could show you a world your women can't-"
"I'll have to pass; I'm married to plenty ladies and satisfied the way it is."
"Hmph, p*ssy... what? are you afraid you will fall in love with me after I show you what I can do?"
Veyron frowned and pressed both of her arms at either side of her head; she merely smiled and awaited his next move.
"You sure know how to run your mouth. Now that you're a woman, you become more talkative."
"I have always been a woman. Come on, Veyron... take me along." She leaned up, whispering next to his ear, "Once I become yours... I'll dig all your tunnels; then you can dig all mine~."
!!!
'B-Beyond perverted!' He groaned in disbelief while a huge load seemed to unload from her shoulders with a broad laugh.
"Look, I made you blush!"
Irritated, he just gave up and slumped next to her. Ali's wicked smile never receded until they were both looking at the ceiling.
"... who is the man you want to kill?"
"Saint Rosward Esquivel."
"Esquivel...? You do know... one of the Knights of God is surnamed Esquivel."
"I know; her name is Saint Isabel Esquivel, the 9th Knight. And she's an ancestor of my mother's family. I don't know much about her except that she's incredibly strong, even though she's the ninth knight, she's among the strongest."
"Killing that man will likely mean having to fight her."
"And you will be there to help me, don't you?~"
A moment of brief thinking was all it took for Veyron to make his decision; alas... in this shattered building in Alubarna, he wasn't the only one that made a last moment decision.
*BOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!*
!!!
A sonic boom resonated and shook the whole palace; all the alarms rang up once again.
'What!?'
Ali's body began to scatter as the snowy ventisca began rushing into the palace. The two flew towards the main hall where Dragon, Ivankov, Robin, and Monet were already alert.
"Kuma has gone! It is now or never!"
"On his own? why?!"
"Why!? Your words affected him, of course!" Ivankov cursed at Ali.
"Master, orders." Monet stood next to him with a glare while Robin too waited to see what he was going to do. Dragon and Ali, with me! If we're not back here in a day. You two will have to stand your ground. There is a chance Akainu and Kizaru will be sent here; you hear me?"
Robin approached him to give him the deepest of kisses.
"You don't need to worry, just go... Monet and I will take care of everything here."
Veyron nodded before both he and Dragon rushed off at breakneck speeds.
Before Ali could join them, a dark hand grasped her shoulder with a cold that resembled the nine nether hells.
"If anything happens to my husband because of you. You will have to answer to all of us."
"I thought we were friends, don't you trust me?"
"I'm a wife before I'm a friend. I have already warned you, Ali... I know how you are so control yourself."
The sand lady twitched her tongue before jumping in the air and transforming into a gust of sand that travelled across the skies following the gust of wind left by Dragon.
The thrill of her heart couldn't be denied. The thirst for blood couldn't be quenched.
'I'm sorry, Robin... but I must massacre them all now that I have a chance, now that he's there.'