Revenge and Poison: Lord Dinero's Past

Trigger Warning: This chapter has depictions of violence and some discussion of sexual assault.

"Seguaro? Is it really you?" Avisa's voice trembled as she watched Lord Dinero slowly walk across the room towards her. He had his black leopard mask on and wore a black suit with a black vest and dark red tie. She resisted the urge to run from him. This was literally her worst nightmare come to visit her in reality, but she knew James' life was still at stake.

The man before her lifted the leopard mask off his face and stopped several feet before her as he replied, "Don't you recognize your old man?"

His face had a large burn scar across the left side, but his pale green eyes looked at her coldly and she knew it was true. He was alive somehow.

"But...how?"

Seguaro smiled. It sent chills down her spine. He answered, "Your mother and that lover of hers were smart, but not that smart my dear. Setting fire to a house to kill the person inside is so impersonal." He shook his head and frowned. "And they didn't bother to check to make sure I was truly dead. How silly of them."

Their conversation was cut short by the clearing of a throat to Avisa's left. James suddenly appeared from the shadows. He glanced at her coldly before looking at Seguaro and saying, "You promised if I led her to you that you'd give me the title deed. I've done my part—now you do yours."

Seguaro looked annoyed but smiled genially before he replied, "Of course. Luiz is on his way with the papers. In the meantime, you should explain to your sweet sister here why you've stabbed her in the back. I really want to see that."

What?!

James glared at Seguaro and muttered harshly, "She's not my sister." But he crossed his arms in acceptance before he explained, "He told me about the poison. I know it was you who gave it to him. You were the only one on the island—and probably in existence—who could make a liquid concentrated potion of Death's Kiss that would kill that fast. And I figured out that's what killed dad when I studied the symptoms of poison for becoming a physician." James moved closer and his voice was thick with disdain as he said, "It's your fault my dad's dead."

Avisa's eyes blurred with tears as she nodded. "I did sell it to him, but I didn't know who he was at the time."

Seguaro laughed. "You knew I was trouble. I came in a mask and asked for the best lethal poison you had. One that would be virtually untraceable." He grinned widely. "You knew I planned to kill with it, and you sold it to me anyways. You're my accomplice—whether you like it, or not."

Tears started to escape her eyes as the reality of what was happening began to crush her. Her voice cracked a little as she turned to James and asked, "So you were the one? You told him I was D'Angelo?"

James looked at her with malice. "Of course I did. I trusted you like my own sister and believed you were looking out for us, but after I figured out the poison was yours, I confronted Lord Dinero and asked him where he bought it. I said that if he told me who it was that sold it to him, I would work for him and be loyal to him in exchange for a job and for my family's land back."

Seguaro shrugged. "How could I refuse an offer like that?" Then he chuckled and continued, "Imagine my surprise when I realized that Alexei D'Angelo—the eternal pain in my ass—was really Avisa Moreno—or I guess I should say, Avisa Seguaro."

Realization suddenly dawned on Avisa as she took in their words. She turned to Seguaro and her face paled as she said, "But you would have known who I was when I sold the poison to you. You knew where I was all along." Then her heart twisted as she realized, "You came here to kill Carlos and I gave you the weapon to do it."

He bit his lip as he smirked and got closer to her. This time she did take a step back in fear as he responded, "I always pay people back for what they do to me. You know that, my dear. That's our family motto after all. Revenge is ours. It's what makes the Seguaro family strong."

"How did you find us?" Avisa shivered a bit as she realized she had never been safe from her real father. He'd been here the entire time—bringing her more and more pain.

"After I survived the fire, I started to build my empire and wealth up again under a new name. It wasn't easy, but I did what was necessary and rose from the ashes as Lord Dinero. I soon used my contacts to find out where Carlos was from, and I found out that his folks were farmers and merchants of poisons and medicinal ingredients. Imagine my delight when I realized that this land was famous for rich soil too. It seemed my wife had found a guy to run away with that had excellent prospects." Seguaro then looked at Avisa coldly and explained, "That's when I came up with a plot to kill them."

Avisa shook her head in confusion. "What? Them? What do you mean? You killed Carlos, who else do you..."

Avisa's heart shattered. "You killed mom too?"

Seguaro sighed. "That death wasn't as dramatic perhaps, but it did increase suffering for all of you, which was a bonus. You know Devil's Breath, don't you?"

Fuck.

"It mimics the symptoms of most chest sicknesses and colds. It's taken one time by the victim and can stay in their body for weeks before it slowly starts to kill them off if not treated with the correct antidote," Seguaro explained.

Her voice became thick with hatred as she glared at Seguaro. "That's how you killed her? You let her suffer for weeks? And you let me watch my mother's life fade before me?"

He smirked and answered, "I hate you just as much as her, so why not? Everything I did—the buying of the poison, the sickness, the taking of the deed—it was all part of my revenge against them, but it was also to leave you in ruins."

"But why?" Avisa's eyes began to fill with tears again and she looked at her father.

Seguaro's eyes darkened as he answered, "Don't you remember? She left to save you."

Oh shit. That's right.

Avisa nodded. "I remember."

Avisa's memories of that night flashed before her in her mind. Her mother had come into her room and woke her up to tell her they needed to go. When she asked her why, her mother had said, "Your father doesn't want a firstborn daughter anymore. The family has decided to get rid of you to make sure the right to the estate is not given to a woman or contested due to your ranking. He wants to kill you."

Seguaro smiled and said, "I'm glad you understand now. She left me for Carlos—a meddling widower who had no business getting involved—and burned down the estate in her escape." His voice took on an edge of hate as he continued, "She took everything from me and my future heirs to protect you—nothing but a timid little girl."

Then he cocked his head a little and looked her over as he seemed to consider something. "You know, the night we conceived you, I distinctly remember—while your mother was crying for me to stop—that I wondered what kind of child might come from a consummation of marriage built on my hatred. It was too bad your mother's father hadn't done more research on me before he arranged the marriage with my father. I was—and am—known for being a bit violent." He paused and grinned at her while he asked, "How does it feel to know that? That you were conceived in hatred and violence rather than love?"

I'm going to fucking kill him.

Avisa ground her jaw to avoid saying something too rash. She knew he was trying to get a rise out of her. She knew if she tried anything though that he wouldn't hesitate to kill James still. James stood to the side and seemed to be watching this exchange a little nervously.  James had betrayed her, but she understood why and didn't want to have another death on her hands. Plus, Jaimie would be heartbroken to lose his brother. Her knuckles started to go white as she clenched her fists in fury.

Seguaro chuckled. "Look at that. I've left you speechless. Well, I'm sure the feeling you feel is a lot like hatred itself." He smiled at her thoughtfully before he said, "You know, I am a little proud of you."

What the actual fuck is he talking about now.

He moved another couple steps forward and lit a cigar before taking a drag and putting his other hand in his pocket casually. Then he continued, "I remember having the thought that it would be interesting if my nemesis Alexei D'Angelo was someone from my past coming at me for revenge. I kind of thought that would be interesting. But I never suspected it to be my useless, timid daughter. D'Angelo was always so ballsy." He gestured at her with the hand holding the cigar and said, "You take after me more than I expected. Your thirst for revenge proves you to be a Seguaro after all. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so hasty to try and get rid of you. It seemed like the smartest option at the time, but now, I'm not so sure. You could have some strong Seguaro heirs after all."

"There's no fucking way that I will ever take on the name of Seguaro ever again. And my revenge is about justice, not malice. I wanted to help those you hurt and balance things so that people weren't taken advantage of. That's nothing like your brutality."

Seguaro laughed. "Oh, that's funny. You disappoint me. You of all people should know that justice doesn't exist. What does that even mean? You can't make the world fair or bring balance to people's wrongs. Only the strong could do it anyways and they almost always end up oppressing the weak." Seguaro shook his head and said, "No, justice is just revenge justified, and anyone can justify their revenge if they want to."

Avisa sighed. Just as she was about to respond to her father's ramblings, a man came from the shadows and cleared their throat.

Seguaro turned in surprise but then said, "Oh, there you are Luiz. Did you bring what I asked?"

"Yes, sir." Luiz handed him a folder.

Seguaro gestured for him to leave and handed the folder to James. "There is your precious land."

James took it but seemed to hesitate as he said, "What do you plan to do with her?"

"Well, kill her of course. Does it look like she brought the devil fruit? She probably sold it to the highest bidder the first chance she got. Who knows? Maybe she stashed some of the money at your farm or something. That would be lucky for you. They're worth a fortune. Plus, I suppose it's only fair you should end up getting a cut since you're the one who found it for me in the first place."

Avisa stammered as she looked at James in shock and said, "W-wait what?"

He cringed a little but said, "Yeah, I'm technically what Lord Dinero's crew calls his apprentice. I've been helping him find certain items of value and concoct new potions with my medical training. Meanwhile he's been teaching the business to me a bit so I can take on some of his tasks."

Avisa wanted to slap him, but she tried to calm herself as she said, "But he's the man who killed your father. I may have sold him some poison, yes. And I regret that every day, but this man purposefully used that poison and made your father drink it. He murdered him."

Seguaro laughed. "Actually, it's a bit better than that."

Avisa looked at him and tried to contain her rage as she asked, "How?"

"I didn't make him drink it. I simply revealed to him who I was and what I had done to your mother. Then, I gave him a choice. I told Carlos that he could drink the poison, or I could kill you. I explained that in either case I wouldn't touch his sons. I expected that the man would give you up first than let his own children go fatherless and lose their inheritance, but he simply nodded and took the vial from me. He told me all this stuff about what a bad father I was but then he drank it. I watched as the life drained from him. He seemed peaceful though unfortunately. I would've liked him to be more desperate to save himself. But, I guess he liked you more than I thought. Strange."

"You fucking bastard." James looked at him with dark anger. "You didn't just kill him. You tried to torture him too."

Seguaro chuckled and moved closer to James as he said, "You knew that. I think deep down you knew. Yet, you were so angry at Avisa that you were willing to betray her to me. I think you've gone past being able to judge me. Don't you think?"

James seemed to shrink back into himself a little as he heard this. Finally, he looked at Avisa and said, "I'm still angry at you for not being honest with me, but I'm sorry for what I've done. I wanted to get back what was stolen from us, and I was desperate. I've had so many sleepless nights wondering how I could get us back on our feet and feeling ashamed that I wasn't doing more like you. But then later I questioned why you did what you did. I knew Carlos wasn't really your dad, so I started to think maybe you just didn't care about him the same as me and Jaimie. And when I realized that Lord Dinero was your father all along...I lost it." He looked at her desperately as he said, "I'm so sorry Avisa. You don't deserve to die. I wanted to get revenge and get our land back but...not like this. I thought you had the devil fruit and that he'd just hurt you maybe."

Avisa's eyes blurred with tears as she listened to James. She felt hurt and betrayed, but she also wished she'd been honest with him from the start.

Seguaro looked at him baffled before he said, "What did you think I was going to do if she had the devil fruit? Did you think the pain I concocted for her would be better than death. Really? Are you that naïve?" He sighed. "You wrote the letter. You should have known that I was threatening to hurt her and kill her if she didn't have it, but it wasn't a much better option if she lived. You're such a coward. You just don't want to live with the guilt now."

"No! James!"

Avisa screamed as James lunged at Seguaro with a dagger. She wanted to stop him, but Seguaro had snapped the final thread of patience and fear that had kept James from getting his revenge on him. James didn't seem to care that Seguaro would try killing him.

She watched in horror as a dagger appeared out of thin air and stabbed James in the abdomen. James folded in pain and Seguaro kicked him so that he fell on the floor and blood began to pool under his body.

She locked eyes with Seguaro then and watched as he summoned several more daggers and they came flying towards her.

Shit.