What if Thatch had fought back?

Thatch glared at the purple devil fruit with its ridiculous swirls as it sat on the table in front of him. There was no guarantee that the fruit in front of him would offer him a power worth losing the ability to swim. Hell, with his luck it would give him the ability to turn his body into different flavors of ice cream. While the crew would undoubtedly enjoy the odd ability to no end, it would afford him no leverage in battle.

He pushed the fruit further away from him. Thatch didn't need some weird other-worldly ability, he was powerful enough as is. He was the Fourth Division Commander after all and he got there all by himself with out some freaky power.

Besides, who was he to deny the rest of the crew him in a speedo? Marco and Juzo may claim he looked ridiculous but the ladies loved it!

Maybe he'd see if anyone else wanted the fruit and if not he'd stick it in a chest full of rocks and sink it on the off-chance it had the power of the cosmos. Standing up he turned around just in time to see Teach. His first reaction was to smile at the large, hygienically challenged man. But then he saw the dagger clutched tight in his raised meaty fist.

Teach seemed frozen with his eyes wide in surprise. Then those eyes that had never seemed so beady before darted to the devil fruit behind him on the table. Did Teach, his long time crew mate, plan on murdering him for a bite of demonic fruit?

The larger man lunged at Thatch, all signs of hesitation gone. But there was a reason Teach had just attempted a sneak attack, Thatch was faster and stronger. Before the traitor knew which was up, Thatch had unsheathed his sword and cut off his left arm which held the dagger.

The roar of pain and frustration the man emitted was sure to rouse others and alert them to the situation. Teach fell back on to the floor clutching the nub that was still spewing blood. The monster that lived in all men reared its ugly head and whispered for him to finish the bastard off here and now. He deserved no less for attempting to stab him in the back.

With a cold glare he moved closer and snatched up the two guns on Teach's belt before the other man could use them against him or any other crew member.

"This was all over the fruit?" He asked as he reigned in his rage.

Teach turned his eyes from the severed arm to the fruit and then finally to him. "I've been waiting for the dark dark fruit for years. It's the whole reason I joined Whitebeard."

This admission only strengthened Thatch's resolve to sink the accursed fruit to the bottom of the ocean. "I would have given it to you, brother." He spat the last word out.

The door that led out on to the deck opened with a slam though Thatch could hardly make out the sound from the blood rushing in his ears.

"What the hell is going on here?" The distinct voice of Izo shouted as he stormed into the room.

Thatch didn't spear the Sixteenth Division Commander a glance, keeping his eyes solely on Teach in case he had any more underhanded tricks up his sleeve.

"We have a traitor in our midst." He all but growled.

The man on the ground began to take on a look like that of a cornered animal. Teach had always been a simple man who was rather dim-witted. They had all thought him to lack any sort of ambition when he put his support behind Ace as Second Division Commander.

He heard the thundering feet of his brothers and sisters as they rushed to the scene. This tiny room would become a mad house if someone didn't stop them. Thankfully Izo was on the same page as Thatch heard him move back to the door but didn't step out.

"Hey, one of you bastards wake Pops and another go get a nurse!" He shouted before coming back in the room followed by the footsteps of several others.

"What happened to Teach?" The booming voice of Kingdew asked as he ducked into the room.

"Teach turned traitor." Izo snapped followed by the tell-tale click of one of his flintlock pistols.

Thatch glanced over his shoulder to see that his favorite cross dresser had his gun aimed on the bleeding man on the floor. Thatch finally lowered his sword and moved further back in the room, throwing a dark glare at the fruit that had started this whole mess.

Marco came in next followed by Ace, both remaining calm as he recounted what had happened between him and Teach. Marco merely frowned at Teach who was still bleeding out on the floor like a dog while Ace looked uncertain. He had only been a Division Commander for about a month now and as Teach was one of his underlings he was his responsibility.

Marco seemed to sense this and took control of the situation. "Let's stop the bleeding first and then Take him to Pops, I'm sure Jozu has him up by now."

Ace took off his too long belt and moved forward to cut off the blood flowing out of the open wound while Teach remained silent, glaring at them all.

Thatch just thanked his lucky stars that he had turned around when he had. He couldn't even imagine the damage that this incident could have caused had Teach gotten away with it.

A/N

First One Piece Fanfiction so I would love some feed back on what you think.