One Piece – Halfway Broken

Summary: In which Vivi's Dad get's to be a badass for once...

Warning! Chapters 40-43 were all uploaded back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Chapter 43: Kingdom of Fuck Around and Find Out

King Nefertari was grim-faced as he faced down the World Government Representative from his throne. The man had brought Vice-Admiral Strawberry with him, clearly intending to make a point about the power of the World Government and the Marines that were their strong right arm. Sadly for him, Cobra had possessed his own point to make, and a strong hand from which to make it. His position might not have been so strong, if the crew his daughter had joined up with hadn't possessed some means he didn't understand of finding Devil Fruits.

As it was, the young Captain had somehow recovered the Suna Suna no Mi after killing Crocodile. Even more ridiculously, he'd also somehow found the Supa Supa no Mi and Toge Toge no Mi and freely traded all three fruits to Alabasta. In exchange, the Strawhat crew had gotten a formal contract which obligated Alabasta to act as a base of operations for his ship and crew, along with providing discounts on goods and services purchased through the Alabastian royal house. They'd even then gone on to, very recently, somehow acquire the Bane Bane no Mi, which he'd scraped up a fair price for. Assets seized from Crocodile let him manage it, even if they were now quite depleted, and it had added yet another Fruit to Alabasta's military. Though one that was too new to its user for them to have shown it off just yet.

As for what the now Pirate crew had gotten out of it? Cobra would have given him those things anyway. But Luffy had quite cleverly insisted on using the 'trade' of the original three Devil Fruits as justification for the pushback Alabasta was going to be giving the World Government. Something that was working firmly to his advantage now as he'd non-too-subtly made sure the newly promoted members of the Royal Guard wielding those fruits had displayed their usage in a 'training session' that the Government official had been allowed to see on his initial tour.

It meant that the Military of Alabasta was now in known possession of half a dozen Devil Fruit users, along with the single largest army in this half of the Grand Line. Oh, and a fleet of formerly Baroque Works ships that were being refitted as a proper Navy, too. As of right now, the Marines were fully well aware that attempting to attack Alabasta would cost them dearly. Which was making the Government Representative sweat as Cobra glared at him and put the very real anger in his voice to work.

"Now, Mr. Cockreel, you are going to explain to me why my daughter, the heir of the Alabasta Kingdom, has been mislabeled as a pirate. Along with the blatant mislabeling of the crew of Heroes who freed us from your fuckup. You will also, I'm sure, have a very good reason why I have in my possession transcripts of orders to the Marines to attack the ship my daughter and those Heroes are traveling on. Have a care how you answer, Mr. Cockreel. As I remind you that Alabasta is one of the few nations anywhere that doesn't need you. That, in fact, it was one of the twenty nations that founded the World Government. For if I do not like you're answers, I assure you, you won't enjoy my response…"

... ...

"Garp is going to kill us, and I think I might let him."

Tsuru snorted at the exhausted, frustrated tone in Sengoku's voice.

"The fuck you won't. I'm not cleaning up this mess."

Sengoku's broad shoulders slumped.

"I could retire before he gets back."

Kong rolled his eyes, even if he looked as tired as Sengoku.

"And leave the post to who? None of the current Admirals are suitable replacements. It's why you're still in that chair at all."

There was entirely too much truth to that, and they all knew it. Sakazuki, Kizaru, and Kuzan were all powerful. Powerful deterrents and powerful assets. But all three of them had problematic personalities. Neither Kizaru nor Kuzan were really leaders at all. Sakazuki was, but he was also a dogmatic extremist. Kuzan utterly despised his fellow admiral, and Garp might actually hate him more. If he took over the Marines while the balance of power remained as it currently was, it would be an utter disaster.

Given Sakazuki was their best bet for any sort of transition to the younger generations, they were currently trying to alter that balance of power so the Marines would be in a position to sustain and win the war the man would undoubtedly launch on the Yonko. But they weren't ready yet. They still needed a way to bait the trap they were building up for. Several of Whitebeards 'sons' were currently in Paradise, and more of his fleets were in disarray because of why they were. But they needed a lure of some sort to make use of that disarray, and they hadn't found it yet.

And now, this disaster was going to make their situation far more tenuous.

Straightening, Sengoku took the bull by the horns and addressed the problem.

"What are the odds that Alabasta can be brought in line?"

The question was directed at Kong, who had the best grasp on the political angle through his position as Commander-in-Chief.

"Zero. Worse than zero. We had no idea their Princess had formerly signed the Discovery's Articles of Agreement. Since they were not pirates at the time, but an officially registered and fully legal exploration vessel in good standing, there's no question that the Princess was and is a member of the Strawhat crew. Alabasta officially recognizes that. Worse, the Discovery is officially listed as an auxiliary of the Alabastian Navy, sent on an equally official mapping expedition. Meaning that we technically accused one of the founding nations of the World Government of piracy. They've used their position to formally denounce the bounty and accuse the World Government of breach of treaty."

Sengoku bit back a curse, turning to Tsuru for the next question.

"How badly will it hurt us to lose Alabasta? There's no way we can roll back the bounties at this point. And we don't even know where the crew is in order to try pressing the Warlord position on them."

Tsuru scowled.

"Badly. Alabasta is the single largest trade hub in the entirety of Paradise, and one with the military strength to make retaliation far too costly. A huge chunk of our own resources for Marineford, Enes Lobby, the Water Seven ship projects, and even Impel Down all pass through their waters. If they go through with denying the World Government use of their ports? We're looking at less than three months before we face serious shortages, unless we reroute military assets to create an entirely new supply line."

Sengoku's desk creaked as his hands clenched on it, the heavily reinforced materials straining as he tried to keep his rage in check. Drawing lightly on his Devil Fruit to help enhance his calm, he shifted focus.

"Fine. We'll need to accelerate certain plans, then. As well as run damage control. Not to mention figure out how to explain this all to Garp when he finds out…"

All of them winced at that. Presenting Garp with a fait accompli of his Grandson becoming a Warlord, someone technically still under the auspices of the Marines, was one thing. Having to tell him they'd declared him a pirate without that softening follow up? That was going to be a complete disaster…

... ...

Marco breathed a sigh of relief as they finally broke the surface and the bubble coating on their ship burst. The ship wasn't one of the Whitebeard battleships. Instead, it was a small but extremely fast sloop that they normally used as a scout or courier. It was a far cry from the Moby Dick, or the other big beasts of the First Division that Marco was nominally in charge of. Since that Division included the Moby Dick itself, however, Marco was somewhat used to being sent out when a senior fleet representative was needed elsewhere. After all, Whitebeard could very easily take over the command of the fleet in battle if needed. Hell, he'd do a better job of it than Marco could.

In truth, Marco's role as the First Division commander was mostly a matter of day-to-day management. He ran the division and its ships so that Whitebeard didn't have to, leaving the old man to handle the overall command of all sixteen divisions that made up the Grand Fleet. The largest single fleet any of the Yonko controlled, and not by a small difference as far as actual ship strength went. Shanks was notorious for not caring to maintain a large fleet, instead relying on subordinate pirate crews and an insanely strong central crew on the Red Force itself. Big Mom technically had more people under her than even Whitebeard, but a weaker overall fleet. With Kaidou being the inverse, a technically more numerous fleet but with fewer meaningfully powerful ships compared to Pops.

The size of the Grand Fleet meant Whitebeard was too busy to handle the First Division all the time…but he had enough reliable people around him that he could and often did spare Marco for missions like this. Well, not exactly like this. Traitors were virtually unheard of in Whitebeard's crews. But attacks on his holdings were considerably more common. As was the occasional need to interact with other powers. A role which he trusted Marco with.

Now, he was trusting Marco both to deal with Blackbeard…and to reign in Ace. All of them understood why the Second Division Commander had chased after Teach, both on an emotional and practical level. But Ace should have pulled back when he failed to catch up to the man before he escaped in Paradise. Ace had excused himself by claiming to be scouting ahead…but it was fairly clear from both his and their other contacts' reports that the hothead had lost sight of that. If it had ever been his intention to start with.

Thankfully, his little brother had apparently bailed Ace out. Something that Marco was not going to let him forget. Maybe a year or two of teasing him over that detail would finally get him to calm down and make more rational choices.

…

…

Nah.

Somehow Marco thought that was unlikely! But he'd still try…

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N: So, the more and more I look at Alabasta, the more I wonder how the fuck it didn't have more sway than it did in canon. Its army size is seriously broken versus basically anyone else. The various Yonko can each only count on a few tens of thousands of troops, most of whom aren't anything special. Alabasta has like 700,000+.

It's also a Grand Line army, so there's zero chance those are all regular mook-level troops like you'd see in the Blues. Most likely, the various officer levels in the Alabastian army are actually somewhat dangerous to at least their similarly ranked counterparts in the Marines. Particularly since Alabasta's military tradition came out of being one of the 20 countries that founded the WG. It's also highly plausible they have more DFs among their officers. We only see two Zoans because they were part of the royal guard. But...there could easily be more among the army itself. It's not like DFs are hard to come by on the Grand Line.

So, beef that army up with some additional Devil Fruits and a Navy? Not even the WG is going to be able to causally smack them down without bleeding a LOT as a cost. As such, I've dubbed this version of Alabasta the 'Fuck Around and Find Out' country. The WG is going to regret pissing them off. A lot.

A/N 2: Once per release, I remind people that...I have a Patreon Page! Nothing I write, fanfiction wise, is ever permanently paywalled. That said, I do have Early Access chapters. There is, in fact, roughly another 15,000 words of One Piece - Halfway Broken currently in Early Access (Chapters 44-47). Also, of course, you also get access to my other Early Access chapters for my other stories. There is typically around 40-60k words of various works in early access at any one time. I always appreciate any support, since it helps me free up more writing time...but most of all I hope you just enjoy the stories!