Conclusion Pt. 2

Gulp and Percy stared at each other. No one else moved as they were both silent, figuring out what to do next.

"Well, how about we start with you handing the recording over" Gulp said as his arm stretched out. "After all, this was our agreement."

Everyone had a shocked expression on their face, especially Hilda.

"You knew the Trimm family?" The queen asked as she looked at Percy.

"Sort of, only recently did I get involved with them."

"...so that's why you didn't take my proposal seriously" the queen said dejectedly. "You already had a connection with them."

"Something like that" Percy said and turned to Gulp, "the condition was the footage I want if I'm not mistaken."

"That offer expired once you decided to intervene" Gulp said gritting his teeth, "we only requested one thing from you, and you can't even do that?!"

"I could" Percy said as he then faced a side door, "but I had to play the field, no?"

Out of the side door came Parisse and Campbell. They looked at Gulp and turned their eyes at Percy as if dismissing him.

"As I said Mr. Percy, there are no enemies, only conflicts of interests; except of course, those idiots at the Trimm family."

"Ms. Parisse!" Bria, the second queen shouted as she stared at the newcomers, "I thought you would be helping my son reach the throne."

"That was on the condition that your son Aric, could find the recording before the first prince did. Now... you are not needed" Parisse said as she coldly looked at Bria.

"NO!" Bria screamed as she pointed at the Pakattik family member, guards, kill her. Before anyone could react, three ministers that were standing in the back jumped up and appeared before the guards. They then proceeded to use rokushiki attacks to subdue all the guards in the room. However, two guards managed to fight back using soru and shigan as well. Both parties backed off, the ministers stood next to Parisse while the guards stood behind Gulp.

The throne room was silent before Percy started to laugh,

"HAHAHAHA see this Hilda. Both you and Bria were pawns. The fight for the throne was simply a game played by cipher pol," Percy then held up the little box in his hands, "And this was the prize. Everyone here was a pawn, including me. The only difference is I knew I was a pawn and decided to flip the table. HAHAHAHA."

Percy's laugh echoed throughout the room as everyone processed the information.

[You mean, all that plotting, all those sleepless nights were meaningless?] thought Hilda as she stared at Gulp, then at Parisse.

[Our lives are just a game to them?] Bria thought at the same time, [then why? Why?!]

"If your done" Gulp said as he started to walk forward, "then let's talk about what's really important, the recording."

Hilda, Bria and the rest of the royal family seemed to have lost all of their fighting spirit as the slumped onto the ground.

Percy jumped off of the throne steps and landed on the ground

"well, my agreement is to the Trimm family initially, but the Pakattik made a better offer..."

"And what was that?" Gulp asked as he remained calm.

"They showed proof that they too have what I want and offered to give it to me way quicker than you did."

"And how much quicker is that?" Gulp continued to ask.

"By the time he gets back to Marineford at the latest" Parisse cut in, intending to end the conversation. "I think the Trimm family will be hard pressed to offer something better, no?"

"...we can match. But, we can't give you what you want immediately. I don't have the footage on me."

Percy looked at the two families who were trying to outbid each other in amusement, he quite liked this attention.

"Mr. Percy, you did promise to work with us in the beginning, shouldn't that count for something?"

"It does, that's why I didn't give the recording to Ms. Parisse immediately."

"So you are planning on handing it over to the Pakattiks?"

"Probably, after all, they provided proof that they actually have it, you did not. I don't know you or your family well enough to work off of credit."

Gulp was silent for a moment before he sighed,

"that's a shame, we would have been great allies. Too bad you're going to have to die." Gulp finished his sentence and placed his hands on the ground. Percy looked at the man and frowned, the next second, he felt it. The ground under him started to swell as if it was about to explode. Percy quickly used soru to teleport away when the ground exploded causing dirt and rocks to fly everywhere.

Percy looked at Gulp as the cipher pol agent got up, shook the dirt off his suit and started to run at Percy.

[black hole] Percy thought as his hand reached the ground. Dark smoke permeated through the throne room and Zyn as well as Gulp were stuck in place. They tried to break free, but were unable to as the darkness' attraction was too strong for them.

"Quickly, call Gabba!" Gulp said as he was being sucked further into the abyss.

"Gabba!" Zyn yelled. Percy looked at the door where a spinosaurus was breaking through the entrance and rushing towards Percy. The vice admiral looked at his two commodores and said,

"you want your recommendation? Go get him."

The two commodores instantly reacted and started to fight Gabba all over again.

"How did he escape?" Percy thought out loud as he watched Gulp and Zyn be nearly consumed by the black smoke.

"Hehehehe, it was easy" Gulp said as only his face was above the ground, "All I had to do was kill one or two marines, and bam! A free pawn."

Percy glared at the man and started the crushing process on Gulp. Gulp tried to used geppo and soru in a last ditch effort, but it did not matter. He tried to rupture the ground, but it didn't affect the all consuming darkness.

[crush] Percy thought as he heard Zyn and Gulp start to scream in agony. He held them in the darkness for a while before using liberation to release them.

The pair flew to the other side of the throne room with bones sticking out of their bodies and arms and legs in twisted positions.

Everyone stared in horror as they waited to see if Gulp and Zyn were still breathing. Finally, after 30 seconds or so, Zyn started to hack up blood; however Gulp did not do so. It seemed like he died while being crushed under the pressure of Percy's darkness. Zyn started to scream again in agony as the pain reached an all time high.

Percy sighed and looked at Parisse,

"are you going to save her? Or do you want me to just end her misery?"

"Y-yeah" Parisse said as there was still a trace terror in her eyes.

[He's dangerous] Parisse thought as she motioned to her men to try save them, [way more dangerous than we initially thought]. Parisse shivered thinking of the possibility where she would have to fight the vice admiral.

Percy then looked at the two standing guards that were part of Gulp's team,

"go. And tell your boss what happened here today. Tell him that if he tries to f*ck with me, I'll do the same thing to him."

The guards nodded their heads vigorously and ran away, happy to be away from that monster.

Percy watched as Gabba was still fighting Eli and Good Price when he noticed that the first prince was waking up. The prince looked at the situation around him, saw that everything was over and started to whine to his father,

"why didn't you choose me. All of this could have been avoided if you just chose me to be the next king."

The king heard his son's words and started to laugh again,

"It's ironic, isn't it vice admiral."

"What is?"

"The fact that I did this all for my son, but he tried to kill me instead."

"Oh, so you did have a reason why you didn't want him to be the next king?" Percy asked as his curiosity was peeked.

"Haha, listen to the recording. You'll understand after that."

Percy was about to do just that when Parisse tried to interrupt him,

"Mr. Percy, the agreement states-"

"our agreement never mentioned the fact that I couldn't listen, right?" Percy said as she stared into Parisse's soul.

She hesitated before nodding, she did not want to make an enemy out of Percy, not today.

The vice admiral nodded and started the den den mushi and the room quieted, even Gabba and the commodores stopped their fight momentarily.

*********************************************************************************************************

Flashback 6 years ago, Zandia kingdom

"So you're saying you want me to send you all my tributes directly? Instead of sending it with everyone else?" the king said as he sitting across a man.

"That's correct. And in return, we'll help you secure a second island for yourself. Think about it. Having two kingdoms under the same family, who wouldn't want that?" the man said as he lit a cigarette.

"Two kingdoms huh?" the king repeated as he stroked his beard. "What guarantees do I get if I do this. Surely the world government and the world nobles will be displeased with our lack of tributes."

"No problem, for my boss, the majestic St. Camael, he can secure you another island as easy as making a phone call."

"True, true" the king said as he thought about his prospects. "When do I get my second kingdom?"

The man put out his cigarette and sneered at the king,

"Don't ask too many questions. You are a mere king, compared to his majesty, you are an ant. He only wants your tributes because he wants more pocket money to buy new rare animals, that's all. Don't overstep your bounds."

The king was silent for a moment before asking again,

"that may be, but I still am a king. This new kingdom will be given to my first son, I need to ensure it's perfect. Therefore, I need at least something fungible."

The man was quiet for a moment before he said

"in a few months, there will be a buster call on the island of Tumeric. Don't ask why, just know there will be. When that happens, I'll call you again. St. Camael is offering this island to you. All you need to do is send the tributes to him and it's yours. If not, then pray that a buster call doesn't appear here next."

End of recording

*********************************************************************************************************The room was silent as the recording finished.

"Isn't it ironic?" the king said as the den den mushi went back to sleep, "I did all this for my son and he tries to kill me instead."

"Why didn't you tell me?" the prince asked as he realized his mistake "none of this would have happened if you just let me know."

"Ha! If I told you, then everyone will probably know by now" the king stated as he stared at his son. "Plus, this kind of transaction can't be made public, for obvious reasons."

Percy nodded his head in understanding,

[if this gets released, the public backlash on the world nobles will be severe. They need to save face after all. Perhaps I should just keep it and save it for another time.]

Parisse was quiet for a moment before walking towards Percy,

"even so, this is our ticket towards freedom. If we can retrieve this for the world government, perhaps they will promote us to a higher status; maybe even eliminate our competitors" she said as she glanced at Gulp and Zyn who were still passed out from the pain.

"Indeed" Percy said as he considered what to do. This can be a powerful tool, or can be exchanged immediately for something he wants. He decided the latter.

"But before that; Eli, Good Price. Wrap it up would you?"

The two commodores looked at each other before looking at Gulp. They noticed that the rebel leader was trying to tip-toe away from the scene. When they noticed him, Gabba started to transform, but before he could, Good Price used his devil fruit and hit him in the stomach. The internal damage this time was too much and he fell over.

Before Good Price could arrest him again, Gabba was shot by a pistol. He quickly turned around to see Parisse holding a gun in her hand staring at the dead rebel.

Percy looked at her and raised an eyebrow,

"What? He knew too much. If he talks in prison, then who knows how many people would find out. When the wardens start gossiping then what if they carry the story to other places. Cut the roots so that the weeds don't grow."

"And what about them?" Percy pointed at the royal family who were now shaking, "they heard everything as well."

"Them?" Parisse looked at the royals, "they'll never talk or else a buster call would be visiting them soon. After all, that is the celestial dragon's way of solving problems."

"Alright" Percy said as he started to hand over the recording to Parisse, but before she could get a grip on the box, her arm was grabbed by Percy,

"I expect to receive a package before I get to Marineford. Don't f*ck me over Parisse, you don't want me as an enemy."

Parisse nodded her head once in understanding, she too did not want to confront an angry Percy.

He looked into her eyes, saw that she wasn't lying, and let go of the recording. Parisse immediately retreated from everyone with Campbell and looked at the group. She didn't say anything before they both disappeared, like they were ghosts.

Percy sighed and looked at his two men, "Let's go home."