_________ POV Narration _________
Nefertari Vivi was not exactly having the best week.
The country of Alabasta was experiencing quite severe food shortages, which were, in part, due to the fact that the entire world had gone dark.
Cobra, the King, was unable to contact the outside world at all, and he didn't know much about what else was happening.
Now, Alabasta was one of the twenty founding countries of the World Governnt, normally they would be able to ask for support from the other 19, as they were still technically allies.
But now Cobra found himself alone, and he needed so way to make his people self-sufficient.
At least that was what Vivi knew of the situation, she knew that it was dire after all the Royal Family had already opened up its food storage to the rest of the country, and they were sharing the sa rations as every civilian.
This was one of the many reasons that the people respected the Royal Family of Alabasta. It was because they were one of the few royal lines that treated the civilians of their country properly.
Igaram, the leader of the Royal Guard, was tasked with sending a ssage to a nearby kingdom. He and a small group of the Royal Guards were acting as a delegation to ask for assistance.
Even if Cobra thought it would be useless, he still needed to try, his people's lives were at stake...
The food shortage was unfortunately now the least of Vivi's worries... Sohow, Crocodile ca back.
Of all people, it was obvious that Crocodile would have an eternal pose to Alabasta at the end of the day. If not, it wasn't all that hard to acquire for a forr warlord with connections to spare.
But why was he there in the first place?
"Haven't you caused our people enough suffering!?" The Princess was disgusted when seeing the man for the first ti when he stord the castle with an army of n.
She watched Crocodile outright kill a few of the Royal Guards with no hesitation. And she was trembling as she took out her weapon, the Peacock Slashers.
But soone else had acted first... Pell the Falcon, their country's strongest, did his best that day. He instantly turned into a falcon thanks to his Zoan and tried to use his speed to cut the Logia user with his blade.
Alas, without Haki, it was nothing more than an exercise in futility.
Pell quickly thought of coating his cutlass in water, but he didn't get the chance to, as he was stabbed in the stomach by Crocodile's golden hook and flung away, straight out of the castle window.
Just like that, Vivi was the only one left standing in front of the Warlord, her hands trembling as she started spinning her weapon...
Crocodile just scoffed at her, not even bothering to respond to her. He raised his hand and extended it, allowing it to grow into a torrent of sand that crushed her into the wall behind her.
Cobra was subjugated by a few of his underlings as well. But Crocodile didn't kill them. Instead, he sent them to the dungeon, where they were stripped of their clothing and dressed appropriately, in dirty rags...
They were kept there for 7 days, 7 gruelling days without any food and with only a glass of water per day. It was clear that Crocodile was having fun at the expense of their lives and health...
Cobra always gave Vivi the water, as the King, he could only curse his own weakness as he struggled to see his daughter's suffering.
He was weakened more and more in that ti, and Vivi herself was getting desperate...
She could hear the revolt outside, calling for justice, calling for Crocodile to step down and free the Royal Family... She could hear the voice of her childhood friend, Koza, who was likely leading the rebellion...
'Luffy... Please help us...' Her mind couldn't help but wander off to the man that had saved their kingdom before, to the crew that she had sailed with for a while... But it seed her luck had run out.
She and her father were then dragged out of their cells by a few of Crocodile's henchn. The little Princess tried to struggle a bit, but she was unable to do much while chained up...
Then they reached the Balcony, where her Father would normally give speeches to the people and make announcents... It was then that she realized what Crocodile was planning to do.
'... So this is the end for ...'
In her despair, she failed to even notice the people that had brought her to the balcony fall on the ground unconscious.
She struggled to stand up, gritting her teeth as she did so before raising her head.
She was going to face her death straight on, she was not going to give Crocodile the satisfaction of seeing her cry in despair...
It was only when she looked up that she noticed the second figure standing on the balcony...
More specifically, Crocodile seed to be cowering in the corner while the figure stood tall, even taller than the forr warlord. His head was angled down, as he looked at Crocodile with a calm smile on his face.
A well-dressed man, leaner than Crocodile, but wearing similar clothes, drawing a parallel only when it ca to colour.
His furred coat was a pure white, and it seed to have the word 'JUSTICE' written boldly on it, which reminded Vivi of marines...
His blond hair was swept backwards, his earlobes were long enough to reach his waist. After a few seconds of taking in his appearance, she finally realised who she was ogling...
As her eyes filled with recognition, she imdiately perked up, regaining her hope.
Enel was soone she hoped she'd be able to one day et, to thank him for saving Luffy and Ace...
Since the Emperor was a friend of Luffy, it suddenly seed she still had a chance to live after all...
"Emperor Enel..." Cobra said as he tried to also get up, but his weakened body failed to listen to him.
"Well, if it isn't the Royal Family! They don't look all that good, ain't that sothing, huh, Crocodile?" Enel smiled widely as he turned his head between Crocodile and the Nefertari family.
"..." Crocodile just gulped, while hoping that Enel truly didn't have any connection to the Nefertari Family...
Vivi blinked a few tis as she saw how careful Crocodile was being, it was as if the situation was completely flipped on its head now, and he was about to get executed.
"As I said... My business with the Royal Family of Alabasta is personal... I'd really appreciate it if you didn't interfere..." Crocodile still hoped to salvage the situation. Enel was a pirate at the end of the day...
"Personal!? It was you who went after our country and its people! All for that stupid poneglyph that the World Governnt took from us a while back! What more do you want!?" Vivi was filled with indignation and anger, speaking her mind freely.
Crocodile just scowled, as he clenched his fist.
"Doesn't sound all that fair for the Poor Kingdom of Alabasta now, does it?" Enel asked as he looked out on the streets below.
He saw that the civilians were still fighting the people under Crocodile, trying and dying to free their Royal Family.
"Really... Disgraceful." Enel shrugged as he narrowed his eyes. A dark blue aura seed to extend out of his body, spreading out all over the palace.
Crocodile trembled slightly when he felt it, the air around him becoming thicker as he even felt himself taking a step back.
Vivi and Cobra both felt it as well, the wind picking up and their hair getting flung backwards.
'Shit... It's even stronger than at Marineford...'
The forr Warlord didn't try to fight it, knowing that it would do him any good.
In a split second, all of his n were tripping over themselves and falling to the ground unconscious, dropping their rifles and weapons as the civilians finally gained a mont of rest in that chaos.
"Still have a long way to go..." Enel just scoffed as he retracted his Conquror's Haki and turned his head back to Crocodile.
His smile was just as wide as before, his words were far from cheerful though...
"You are not a man that belongs in this part of the sea... Have so semblance of pride, you pathetic worm." The emperor's smile receded as he reached the end of the sentence, as he felt a bit of the forr Enel that resided within his soul rise up.
Crocodile turned a bit red when hearing that, both in anger and sha.
It was true that he was basically bullying children... He truly didn't have a great excuse besides the fact that he wanted the Royal Family of Alabasta dead. It was a bit shaful for a man of his stature, but he was still a pirate...
The thing that made it worse, and that made him frustrated, was that he simply didn't dare to refute Enel in any way.
He was confident enough to attack Whitebeard, although he was weakened by age and diseases.
He was strong enough to face off the likes of Aokiji during the war.
But he knew that he had no chance against Enel.
A fully-fledged Emperor, with enough power to erase an island if he so desired... That was the power that Crocodile had dreamt of achieving with Pluton, it was not sothing he could go against...
Vivi trembled and smiled when hearing that, her lips pursing into a smile as her father beside her also heaved a sigh of relief.
In the end, Crocodile just scoffed and turned his head away.
Enel sighed and slowly walked over to the bound King and princess. He lightly tapped the chains that restrained them and they imdiately fell apart.
Vivi smiled even more as she looked up at the crouching Emperor. She thanked him with a bow before going to her father and struggling to support him.
"You are not to touch the people of Alabasta anymore Crocodile..." Enel's face turned serious as his eyes burned a hole into Crocodile. The Warlord only nodded, looking away into the desert with a conflicted expression.
Without further ado, the Emperor took a deep breath and shouted.
"I HEREBY DECLARE SANDY ISLAND, AND BY EXTENSION THE KINGDOM OF ALABASTA, MY TERRITORY!"
The Emperor's voice bood throughout the palace and the lands surrounding it, causing many to hold their ears, including Vivi and Cobra.
Cobra specifically was looking at Enel with wide eyes...
It wasn't exactly normal for an emperor to make his ho in Paradise, the first half of the Grand Line. They always fought over territory in the new world after all...
The World Governnt would normally contest such a claim imdiately... But now they had no way of doing so. Cobra only sighed after thinking of all that.
'Well, paying tribute to an Emperor is certainly better than dying...'
He knew how claims worked for Emperors... It was technically the island paying the Pirate for protection.
Crocodile could only sigh and raise his hands in defeat. Knowing that there was no way for him to execute either Vivi or Cobra.
"There is still sothing I need on this island..." Still, he hoped to at least achieve his main objective...
So of his n were currently still combing the desert looking for the stone that marked the site of the Poneglyph.
Crocodile hoped to at least be able to copy the contents of that ancient stone before being forced out of Alabasta.
"Hmm? What is it? If it's good enough I'll let you complete it, maybe even help you so you may go on your rry way..." Enel looked at the sweating Crocodile with narrowed eyes.
"..." Crocodile pondered on whether or not to tell Enel of his findings.
Then he rembered so news that he had found in the underworld... News that he had been a bit too panicked to rember prior...
'Wasn't Enel with the Revolutionaries?'
It was at that mont that he decided to just spill the beans. If anything, maybe Enel could help him get the writings deciphered as well...
"I recently learned of a different Poneglyph hidden sowhere on this island... I'm not sure where exactly.
So of my n have already been searching for it for the last week or so..." Crocodile imdiately got to the point, ignoring the reactions of the Royal Family.
Vivi looked at him with loathing. If only gazes could kill...
"I don't like the idea of this man staying on our land for much longer..." Cobra seed to be of the sa mind as her.
Enel looked at the king and nodded.
"Very well, I'll find this Poneglyph and give it to you. You can start heading to your ship, I'll et you there..." Enel rolled his eyes as he scanned through the entire island.
He didn't even need Crocodile to give him further information on its possible location. His radar could pick up everything on the island at once. And it only took him a few seconds to sort through the information.
At that point, he was already used to his mind being constantly overloaded with information that he took in from his surroundings.
If it wasn't for his devil fruit seemingly boosting his cognitive functions as well, he would've hardly been able to use his radar after all...
Enel turned into a flash of lightning as soon as he felt it, with Crocodile doing as instructed and flying away towards his ship, ignoring the villagers below that were throwing trash at him.
'At least I didn't die... Might as well forget about any sort of revenge on Alabasta...' Crocodile thought as he got farther and farther from the castle.
Vivi and Cobra both shakily walked to the stone railing of the balcony, Cobra leaned on it as his people cheered him on.
The King could only smile when seeing his loyal subjects, and Vivi couldn't help but get a bit emotional...
"I thank you all for your sacrifices! Our Kingdom has been granted another chance! We will prevail!" Cobra mustered what remained of his strength to shout out to his people, as they cheered even louder.
Vivi smiled with tears in her eyes, glad that their ordeal was finally over...
Cobra was still a bit concerned though...
'Our kingdom barely stands on its feet... I just hope Enel won't ask us for tribute right away...'
While all of that was happening, Enel was busy looking at a rock in the middle of the desert.
He appeared above it in a flash of light, with the clouds following him swiftly. Crocodile's n that had been wandering the desert were all unfortunately struck by lightning as Enel finally ca across the Poneglyph in question...
'Wait... I rember this one...' Enel couldn't help but recall the site... He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he assud that maybe he had seen it in the show.
He could feel a room below the sand... Not just a room, it appeared to be so sort of temple. Completely engulfed in sand, even the room in question was filled to the brim with sand.
But Enel could still feel the Poneglyph inside, so he could only sigh as he realised he now had to dig it out...
'... Better get to work unearthing all of this...'
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Hope you liked the chapter!
Btw, the mc obviously still hopes to make an ally out of crocky, and I do plan to do a few things with him, so that's why he ain't dying )))
So ppl ntioned it already, about the Mommy Crocodile theory... I'll just say it's one of the few theories that can actually explain why Luffy didn't die in Alabasta.
He's still obviously tied to the Revolutionary Army in so way, but I won't talk about it much more than that :))
If u want to support look up VeganMaster(Vegan Cult) on Patre_on, you'd also get 10 chapters in advance (or 5 depending on tier)
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