The timeline fractals just before the flare kissed the sky.
Rosinante (Corazon) had successfully raided Barrels' hideout, but the cost was high. Bleeding from gunshot wounds, he had managed to force-feed the Ope Ope no Mi to Law.
Collapsing in the snow, he handed Law a small, keyed cylinder—a top-secret intelligence report intended for the Navy—and begged the boy to deliver it to a Marine.
Law, weeping for the man who had risked everything for him, ran through the blizzard. He didn't find a lone scout; instead, he stumbled upon a four-man patrol from the Red Gulls. Among them was a man with a distinct piece of food stuck to his cheek—Second Lieutenant Vergo.
The Marines took the boy in, comforting him. Law, desperate, pleaded for them to save his benefactor. Vergo took the cylinder, but instead of delivering it, he cracked it open.
"Vergo-shoui! That's for Rear Admiral Krieg's eyes only! We don't have clearance!" one of his subordinates shouted, reaching out to stop him.
Vergo didn't argue. He simply pivoted and delivered a Busoshoku-hardened kick that sent the Marine flying into a snowdrift.
"I see... I understand everything now, Rosinante," Vergo muttered, his eyes cold behind his shades. "First, I suppose I should silence these noisy mouths."
The two remaining Red Gulls reacted instantly. One scooped up Law, shouting, "Kid, hide!" while the other drew his collapsible alloy rod.
"Vergo! Attacking comrades and opening classified intel?! You're looking at a court-martial!"
The Marine was a veteran of the Task Force, skilled and disciplined, but Vergo was a monster. Even after only a year in the Navy, his Haki was absolute. The Marine's strikes clattered harmlessly against Vergo's Tekkai (Iron Body). The firepower difference was simply too great.
While one Marine held the line, the other checked on their fallen comrade. Seeing he was alive, he grabbed the man's flare gun and fired.
Hyuuuuu—BOOM!
The red smoke spiraled into the sky. Vergo's face contorted in annoyance. He redoubled his assault, shattering the Marine's alloy rod and crushing his Tekkai with a singular, brutal blow. Within moments, the three regular Marines were down.
Vergo turned his attention to the wounded Rosinante, kicking him mercilessly, and even struck the young Law as the boy tried to shield his savior.
"That's enough, Vergo-shoui. What the hell do you think you're doing?"
A new figure stood in the snow. Gin, the "Man-Demon," his red-marked Navy coat fluttering. He gripped his dual tonfas, his gaze piercing. Vergo offered no words, only hardening his arms in a black sheen of Haki.
"Those who can move, get the wounded to safety," Gin ordered without looking back. "I'll handle this."
Gin vanished.
CLANG!
The sound of metal on Haki-clad flesh rang through the ghost town. Vergo caught Gin's tonfa strike with crossed arms, but Gin immediately pivoted, thrusting his second tonfa toward Vergo's throat. Vergo leaned back, but a click echoed from the weapon—a hidden needle shot out.
It was a clever trick, but it couldn't pierce Vergo's hardened Haki. "Is that all?" Vergo sneered, delivering a massive uppercut.
Gin crossed his tonfas to block, but the sheer physical force of the 27-year-old veteran sent the teenager flying.
"You might be a Second Lieutenant like me," Vergo scoffed, "but you're just a brat in his mid-teens. If you want someone to blame, blame Krieg for promoting you before you were ready!"
"Don't... don't you dare look down on the Boss who raised me!"
Gin swung his tonfa, releasing a weighted chain hidden within the handle. It wrapped around Vergo's raised arm, and Gin used the momentum to reel himself in, delivering a devastating kick to Vergo's neck. Even through the Haki, the impact made the spy stumble.
"Didn't you say we should use 'San' for our superiors?" Gin spat. "Vergo-shoui."
Gin pulled a canister from his belt and yanked the cord. A second flare, this one trailing thick grey smoke, rocketed upward.
Gin knew he couldn't finish Vergo here—not while protecting the wounded. He had followed my orders to the letter: If it's too much, call for backup. And when the Rear Admiral's right hand calls for help, there is no doubt who is coming.
Vergo realized the window was closing. Fighting me now was suicide; he had to reach Doflamingo and reveal Rosinante's betrayal. He turned and vanished into the whiteout, choosing flight over a losing battle.
Gin didn't pursue. He had wounded men to tend to. When he turned back to the clearing, however, the snow was empty.
"Gin-shoui... sorry... we lost focus..." one of the recovering Marines groaned.
"Where is the man in the black coat?" Gin asked.
Only a pool of blood remained where Rosinante had been. Law was gone, too. Gin stared at the bloodstains, a realization dawning on him.
The boy's white patches... they were identical to the Amber Lead patients we were treating on Fausse Island.
Gin sat by his comrades, applying emergency field dressings and checking his weapons, waiting for my arrival to report the impossible: the perfect recruit was the perfect traitor.
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