Before Pudding could continue whatever manipulation that Cherry was sure she was up to, Cherry stood up and exclaimed, "You bunch of sons of bitches, I JUST fixed him!"
Cherry was out the door and gone before anyone could say or do anything to stop her or ask what she was on about.
"D-did I say or do something to upset her?" Pudding looked to be on the verge of tears.
"No, no! Cherry's just like that sometimes, it has nothing to do with you!" Nami quickly assured her.
"Do you think that had something to do with… our guide?" Jinbe wondered aloud, choosing his words carefully.
"I'll go check it out." Pedro said, and stepped out of the door that Cherry didn't bother to close, closing it himself as he left.
…
The ship of the Fire Tank Pirates hadn't made it too far away by the time Cherry had pinged them with her life sense, alongside a presumably captive Pekoms.
It was a fast ship, for sure, what with its strange tank treads that allowed it to act like a paddle boat. At the rate they were going, they'd probably make the trip to Whole Cake Island in half a day, maybe less if the winds favored them too.
Cherry landed on the stern of the ship and slipped through the wood by turning ethereal. She then carefully made her way through the ship, escaping notice by the gangsters turned pirates until she reached the outside of a particular room in the bowels of the vessel.
"So, what do you say, Pekoms? Won't you join me in my most noble goals?" Bege spoke.
"Ptui! I may have chosen to help the Straw Hats to repay my debt to them, but that doesn't mean I'll betray Mama to YOU, traitor! GAO!" Pekoms snarled back at him.
"How very disappointing and hypocritical of you, Pekoms. You've already turned traitor, there's nothing left for you to lose." Bege half-heartedly tried to change his mind.
"I'd lost my honor! Gao!" Pekoms snapped back.
"What use or value does honor have for pirates?" Bege sighed. "Loyalty only has any worth if you stick to it. Big Mom will just kill you and forget you ever worked for her."
"..." Pekoms was apparently done talking.
"I'll come speak to you again in a few hours, after you've had time to mull it over. That'll be your last chance to decide, though, so be sure to make the right decision, Pekoms. It might just be the last one you ever make.
Cherry heard someone coming and slipped into the wall behind her. A woman who looked a whole lot like another woman she had met before back on Thriller Bark. She held a baby which bore an obvious resemblance to both herself and Bege with his pink hair and mustache stubble, which made it all the more obvious who said baby's parents were.
Bege opened the door of his interrogation room and stepped outside. Immediately, his stern appearance shifted to delight when he spotted the woman and the baby in her arms.
"Oh hello there, my little mafioso~!" Bege gushed, a stupid smile on his face contrasting with his image as a brutal mafia boss.
"Pez missed his father already~" the woman giggled, with Pez grasping towards his father cutely.
The woman sucked in a cold breath and Bege froze on the spot, his heart dropping into his stomach. An arm was firmly wrapped around the woman's waist and a sword was held across her neck.
"My my, look what we have here~" Cherry almost sang in delight. "A perfectly good WEAKNESS, just lying around for someone to grasp it~!"
"What-" Bege spoke, but Cherry interrupted. "You KNOW why I'm here, Bege. Why my sword is pressed up against your pretty little wife's throat."
Bege grimaced, his fists clenching at his side. His son, Pez sensed the change in atmosphere between his parents and started to whimper.
"I wonder, Bege, are you going to follow your own advice to separate personal matters from business?" Cherry asked, cold eyes watching him closely and curiously.
"Just take him and go." Bege said, without an ounce of shame or hesitation. "Don't hurt my wife and son."
"I wouldn't hurt a baby, Bege. I'm not a monster." Cherry said, Bege didn't believe her. "I wouldn't even raise the little tike as my own just to spite you. I met his aunt a while back, I'm sure she'd take him, give him a loving home."
"You've met Lola?!" the woman exclaimed, almost forgetting the position she was in.
"She went and got her shadow stolen by Moria. Nice woman, if a bit too forward with her marriage proposals. She's got her shadow back now, if that matters to you." Cherry spoke, like they were just chatting over tea and not in an active hostage situation.
"So she's doing well? That's a relief. I've been so worried about her!" the woman exhaled. "My name is Chiffon, by the way."
"How about we have a civilized conversation, right after you let my wife go. We both know you're the one in the position of power here, with or without a hostage." Bege said, putting on a strained business smile.
"What the heck, man. Why do you two gotta ruin my fun? And why are YOU acting so calm when I've still got my blade to your throat?!" Cherry was a bit irritated.
"Oh please. I've lived under Big Mom's iron rule for decades, your little butter knife doesn't scare me. I was only concerned because of Pez, but if he went to Lola then I have nothing to fear." Chiffon said, directly stepping away from Cherry as if to prove her point.
Cherry lowered the sword and pouted like a child whose prank didn't go the way they'd hoped it would, fists on her hips and everything. "Your wife has bigger balls than you do, Bege."
"Don't I know it." Bege said, using a handkerchief to wipe the nervous sweat from his brow.
"Excuse me?" Chiffon leveled a glare at him.
Bege scrunched up his neck, thoroughly browbeaten. "Sorry, honey."
…
"This is really good tea." Cherry said, sipping from a cup. "The poison changes up the flavor profile in an interesting way."
"The poison is tasteless." Bege said.
"Useless, yes, but not tasteless. Not to me anyways." Cherry said, sipping again. "Didn't you want to 'have a civilized discussion'? Go on then."
"We're planning to kill Big Mom." Bege said straightforwardly. "You in?"
"Nah, you gotta talk to Luffy about that," Cherry said bluntly. "Can't go taking down one of his rivals all by my lonesome, it'll make him look bad."
"Why aren't you surprised?!" Bege jabbed a finger in her direction accusingly.
"I'm a little surprised that you've got the guts. I'm also a little surprised that you're that stupid. You can't beat Big Mom; you're too weak." Cherry stuffed a tea cake into her mouth.
"That's what I told him," Pekoms said. His arms were chained to his side, though, so he couldn't enjoy the tea.
"We have a plan for that, damn it!" Bege said. "And I'm NOT weak!"
"Yeah, you are. You're the weakest of the so-called 'worst generation'; using your crew as weapons from your devil fruit body doesn't count." Cherry insisted.
"It all counts, so long as you win. Besides, I could take several of them one on one if I had to." Bege defended himself.
"Yeah, sure buddy, keep telling yourself that." Cherry let him be delusional. "So what's your plan?"
"I'm not telling you if you're not joining up." Bege shot her down.
"Okay, I'll join up then. What's the plan?" Cherry said.
"Liar." Bege accused with squinted eyes.
"Kill-joy." Cherry mimicked him.