Hello, Crimson here. As I was reading some of the fics I really like, I came up with the need to write this story. I hope you enjoy it a lot because I really like the premise behind it. Also, as I write this I'm constantly trying to figure out every canon character's age during events throughout the series. I do apologize if they aren't 100% correct but sometimes they just aren't provided. Anyway, let the fic start.

*13 years before the start of Luffy's Adventure*

"Hahahahahaha" laughter rang out in the dungeons. Charloss the World Noble sauntered into his dungeons, a wicked grin spread across his face. His obnoxious laughter sent chills throughout those chained inside the cells. "Who shall I play with today? Perhaps one of my fishes, hmmm? Or maybe I can have some fun with my dragon?"

As he moved down the rows of cells, he peered into a few of them, cruel intent obvious in his sickening grin. Within the third cell he passed sat three young sisters. The eldest of the three, a girl no older than 16, threw her arms in front of her two younger siblings. Charloss only smiled at her attempt to shield them before he continued on, his laughter echoing as he walked away. At the far end of the dungeons sat a metal door with three iron bars acting as a window to glimpse through. Inside was a young child, at most 9 years of age. He sat chained to the wall, unconscious and unmoving.

The World Noble knocked on the door, startling the child into consciousness. As his eyes began to focus on his surroundings, Charloss' face came into view through the window in the door. Immediately, he began to tremble, his fear making the man outside grin with malice.

"Dragon it is then." Charloss pulled a key from his pants pocket, slid it into the keyhole, and unlocked the door. His laughter started up again. The child shook even harder, tears welling in his eyes.

"No… no please…" he begged. His pleas fell on uncaring ears. Finally, Charloss opened the door.

"Time for us to have a little fun," the twisted noble grinned savagely as he entered the cell. Before the boy's body could once again experience the intense pain it knew was coming, he passed out.

*Hours Later*

9-year-old Mason Grant awoke with a start, before groaning and hunching forward in pain. He scanned his cell and his person. Once more, the young boy had to deal with the sight of burn scars as well as cuts and bruises littering his arms and legs. The pain he felt from the rest of his body told him that Charloss gave the same treatment to the rest of him as well. He groaned again as a new wave of pain washed over him.

"Are you okay?" a girl's voice rang out in the darkness. Mason raised his head from where he had hung it in despair.

"Would you be?" he spat out, anger and sadness giving edge to his voice. Instantly he regretted his harsh tone. "I'm sorry… I'm just so tired…" he sighed.

"It's okay." The girl tried to reassure him that he didn't hurt her. "What's your name?" she asked him.

"It's Mason. Mason Grant," he told her.

"I'm Hancock. Boa Hancock," she responded with her own name. Slowly the two began talking, getting to know each other. Through their conversation, he learned that she and her sisters were from the Isle of Women, Amazon Lily. They had been captured by a raiding group of slave traders 4 years ago. Since then, the World Nobles had fed them Devil Fruits as a way to entertain themselves. Hancock had control over the Mero Mero fruit, which allowed her to manipulate the feelings of lust and perversion in others to turn them into stone. Her sisters, Sandersonia and Marigold had been fed the Hebi Hebi fruit, Models: Anaconda and King Cobra respectively. As he learned these things about the girls, they too learned that he was from an island in the East Blue called Goa. He had been taken from his family when he was 2 by the World Nobles after he had consumed a particularly rare Mythical Zoan fruit, The Doragon Doragon no mi, Model: Crimson Dragon of the West. Since then, his daily routine consisted of torture at the hands of Charloss.

Upon hearing each other's stories, the 4 young people shuddered at what the others had to endure. But they persevered through it all, clinging to hope that one day they would escape the hell that was slavery, and the "Holy" land of Mariejois.

Weeks passed by and the 4 became closer. After each torture session, they would talk to each other. They talked about what their parents were like, at least from what they could remember. They talked about what they would do when they got free. The more they talked, the more their hopes and dreams began to grow, unbridled even before the previous despair they felt.

*Midnight 6 weeks later*

*BOOM* An earth-shattering explosion woke up the 4 slaves.

"What the hell was that?" Marigold cursed, loud enough that even Mason could hear her. More explosions rocked the entire structure. Loud voices could be heard all outside the dungeons. Suddenly, the door to the dungeons burst open and in strode a massive fishman.

He was at least 10 feet tall. Long black hair adorned his head, with a beard on his chin and peach fuzz just above his mouth. Muscles stretched across him frame, his upper body a wall of flesh. Below his torso were two almost comically thin legs supporting his whole weight. Pure anger was etched on his face. Silently, he made his way over to the Boa sisters' cell. He ripped the door off its hinges and pulled the shackles from their wrists.

"You're free. Escape before you are caught again." With no more words, he moved onto Mason's cell. This door too he ripped free from its hinges. He paused, taking a moment to look at the boy locked within. The first thing that his gaze picked up on were the burn scars. Then, the knife scars and the bruise marks. Nobody, whether fishman or human deserves this kind of treatment without good reason. The fishman freed Mason from his shackles as well, before wordlessly moving on to other cells within the area.

"Wait!" Mason called after his savior. The fishman paused, turning back towards Mason with pity on his face. "What's your name? Who can I thank for my freedom?"

"… My name is Fisher Tiger…" was all that was said to him before the now named Fisher Tiger began systematically freeing slaves left and right. Soon the whole of the dungeon was free from its holdings. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Mason took this chance to finally see the three girls he's been speaking to for all these weeks.

At first he couldn't believe his eyes. In front of him stood Boa Hancock in all her glory (or as much could be had after 4 years under the tyranny of the World Nobles). The first thing he noticed about her was how beaten she looked. It was as if she had gone 10 rounds with a professional boxer. Bruises covered every part of her skin that he could see. Her sisters looked no better. The larger of the two, who he assumed was Sandersonia, had a black eye that was swelled to the point of almost being closed shut. The other sister, Marigold, was the only one to look the least marred by past torture. The worst affliction she had at the moment was a large bruise on her hip.

"It's nice to finally put faces to the voices I've been talking to." Mason smiled at the girls, and they returned the gesture.

"I for one am going to take up that Fisher guy's offer, and get the hell out of here." Sandersonia spoke up to them. Mason and the other two girls nodded and ran towards the exit.

For the first time in 4 years for the girls, and 7 for Mason, they experienced life outside of the dungeons. And it was hell. Hundreds of fires littered the courtyard they had walked out into. Bodies of civilians and a few of the World Nobles littered the ground. The evidence of mass destruction could be seen and heard everywhere they looked. Screams of agony and fear echoed throughout the air.

Mason grimaced at the sight before his eyes. This was not what he was expecting for his first glimpse of the world after so long.

"Let's get moving. We need to escape before they reorganize and capture us." Hancock motioned to the other three, pointing at a large archway in the distance that seemed to be the main entrance for the city. "We should make our way over there. I think that's the exit to this place."

"Alright," Mason agreed, "But we have to be careful, and make sure we aren't seen." The 4 began the long trek towards the archway. Along the trip, they crossed paths with very few other humans. Any they did see were too preoccupied with getting to safety to question why four young people were walking towards the city entrance. Just as they reached the large archway, one more earth-shattering explosion rocked the city.

"Holy crap…" Mason breathed. He pointed back behind them, towards what was quickly becoming a very large mushroom cloud. The girls turned around just in time to see that the shockwave from it was racing towards them at an alarming rate.

"GET DOWN!" screamed Hancock. All four of them plopped to the floor, just as intense heat and wind rushed past them. Finally, after what felt like eternity, the explosion dissipated. Feeling like they had just been run through a fire, the 4 of them groaned in pain. Mason, being used to the pain that burns brought, was the first to recover just in time for a city guard to see them.

"Hey! Are you 4 okay?" He rushed over to them. Once up close he noticed the slave marks visible through their tattered clothes. "Escapees!" The guard raised his weapon to Mason's chest. However, before he could utter any threats, his body turned to stone.

"Don't. Touch. Him." hissed Hancock, her fruit's ability protecting the young boy. Mason's eyes widened at the display of her power.

"Thanks," Mason told her. He pushed himself up from the ground, quickly surveying the area around them. "We need to get out of here before anybody else shows up. Come on, we're almost home free. Just got to get away from the evil city."

They made their way through the city exit, however all around them was nothing but vast open earth. For miles all they could see was horizon. Stretched out in front of them was a single road that continued on into the distance.

"Well, this is it. We're finally free. Now to figure out where to go from here," Mason said to the sisters, "I really hope there's a way down to the normal seas close to here. I'm not sure how far we'll be able to get without food and water on hand."

"That's true," began Hancock, "We should try to get some supplies from the city, so we don't starve out there. Escaping just to die before at least seeing home again is not something I want to do." The others nodded their agreement. They all made their way back into Mariejois, varying levels of apprehension on their faces.

Not wanting to stay any longer than they had to, the 4 only searched the first few buildings that they saw near them. Luckily for them, the 2nd one had a substantial amount of spare food and enough portable water for them to last quite a few days away from any type of civilization. They hastily left Mariejois again, only now they also continued out in to the Great Nothingness, as they later called it.

*1 week later*

They trudged along, the sun beating down on all of them without any respite. When they had set out from Mariejois, they thought the time they would spend in the land around them would be short. They thought they would find the end to it within a couple days. However, life, as it often does, had other plans for them.

For the first few days in their travels, the 4 young people were able to relax once a few miles away from the city. During this time, they all took this chance to experiment with their devil fruit powers, seeing as before that they had been unable to ever use them. It wasn't long before they had to stop though, as the 3 Zoan users found that transforming used up a lot of their stamina and energy. Their limited supplies gave no room for argument.

After that, they had traveled as much as they could during the days. Once the sun reached its highest point, the ground became too hot for everyone but Mason. They had to stop and make camp during that time. As such, they ended up traveling a lot during the night, when it was cool enough for them. Now that their supplies were beginning to run low, tensions were rising quickly.

"What are we going to do, huh?" Hancock asked them, "If we can't find a way down from the Red Line then we're going to die out here."

"I'm aware of that," Mason told her, "but agonizing over it instead of trying to figure out a solution, or just moving faster when we can, is counterintuitive to our survival."

The back and forth continued between them for a few days longer.

Soon, with their enhanced sense of smell and lack of distraction, the two younger Boa sisters were able to catch a whiff of ocean breeze.

"Guys, we can smell the ocean. We have to be getting close by now," Sandersonia told the two bickering people. And sure enough, after a few more hours' travel, they reached an edge to the Red Line. Some ways off from them, they could see a large building with what looked like elevator lines descending down the side of the cliff face.

"Look! We should be able to get down from there. Then we can finally get back to our homes and families." Marigold said wistfully. Hancock smiled at her sister's hopefulness.

"In that case, I think it's about we start heading our own directions." Mason's words dropped on the sisters like a bomb.
"What?" Hancock gasped. She stared at Mason incredulously, her sisters behind her, faces mirrored after her own. "Why?"

"Because we are going different directions. I'm heading to the East Blue sea and you're going to the Calm Belt. Obviously, we'll have to split up at some point. I'm just making that point now. And to be absolutely honest," Mason continued on, holding his finger up to stop Hancock from interrupting him, "I think I can make it really far on my own. After all, since I am a dragon, I can fly." He smiled at the three girls, suddenly seeming a lot older than 9 years old.

Of course, they protested adamantly. And Mason would hear none of it.

"Please don't leave yet, Mason! We wanted to show you our homeland," Sandersonia and Marigold said to him in unison. They made more pleas for him to stay, ultimately to no avail.

"I'm sorry girls, but I want to get back to my family as fast as possible. I haven't seen them in 7 years." Mason gave them one more smile, before he started moving towards the edge of the cliffs.

"Wait! Let's at least stay together long enough to figure out which side we're facing. For all we know, we could be heading down into the New World." Hancock locked her grip onto Mason's arm. He turned his head back to her, staring, before he sighed.

"Fine." She smiled back at him, before turning her attention back to the building. They made their way over to it, attempting to seem inconspicuous the closer they got. Once within 50 feet of the building, they noticed security guards posted all around the structure.

"Damn," Marigold cursed, "What are we going to do now?" They all stared at the guards, trying to think up any way they could get past them, or at least learn where exactly they were. Suddenly, Hancock's eyes lit up with mischief.

"I think I have an idea." Her smile looked downright demonic.

*30 minutes later*

Jed Milone had been a security guard for the World Noble's transportation service since he was 15 years old. Now at the age of 35, he had been working for them for 20 years. And in all that time, he'd never seen anything weirder or more out of place than what was happening in front of him. A young girl had appeared, wearing tattered clothing. She was shaking her body around, in what appeared to be a makeshift dance. As she did so, she made alluring motions with her hands, and attempted various things to try to seduce him.

However, seeing as Jed was a married man, and of the homosexual variety to boot, these actions backfired immediately for the young girl.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Jed yelled at the teen. Her movements stopped, her eyes locking onto him intently. Whatever she saw in his gaze, however, was not what she was looking for as she turned tail and began running away. Jed gave chase, following her around the corner of the building, and into the clutches of two very large snake women. "What the- "was all he got out before his world darkened, unconsciousness sinking its claws into him.

Mason stood over the unconscious guard, his arm still extended from hitting the guard in the head. He struggled to get his breathing under control, the shot of adrenaline going through his blood at a million miles an hour.

"I-I've never done something like this before…" Mason breathed heavily. He brought his arm back to himself and moved to peek around the corner of the building. He waved back to the other three excitedly. "Hey, the door is unguarded now. We can get inside!" He turned around and smiled at them.

They made their way inside the transportation building. Once there, they noticed that there was no one inside. They split up to search around for any info on where they were. Marigold and Sandersonia made their way to the second floor to search up there while Mason and Hancock searched the ground floor. It wasn't long before sounds of excitement could be heard from the second floor.

"We found a map! And it's marked with our location! Sister! Mason! Get up here!" Sandersonia yelled to them from somewhere on the second floor. Hancock and Mason hurried upstairs as fast as they could. They made their way to where Sandersonia and Marigold could be heard muttering loudly about their finding.

Once they got to the two younger sisters, they sat down to examine the map. Mason was the first to speak up about it.

"I can't read this…" he muttered to them.

"What?" Hancock replied. She looked at him quizzically.

"I said I can't read this…" he said again, albeit a bit louder this time. The three sisters' eyes widened at this news. He gazed down in embarrassment, his cheeks flushing.

"It's alright, it's alright," Hancock tried to console the young boy, "It's fine if you can't read. It makes sense that you can't, considering that you've been a slave since you were two." His cheeks flushed even redder, though embarrassment didn't seem to be the cause this time. Hancock noticed his eyes narrow a little bit in anger. Not wanting to make him feel any angrier or embarrassed, Hancock shifted her attention back to the map.

"Ok, it says here that we are overlooking Paradise. Right below us is the Sabaody Archipelago. If we take the transports down, we will arrive at a Marine base at the bottom of the Red Line." Hancock's eyebrows furrowed after telling the others this. "Damn it. We can't go to a Marine base, they'll wonder where we came from and who we are. Shit."

"Uh… I think I might have an idea. Is there a mess hall or cafeteria somewhere in this building?" Mason spoke up. He looked to Hancock for an answer, but she didn't know. He then turned to Sandersonia, and she indicated that she also didn't know. When he turned to Marigold, she nodded her head to him, pointing back to a room on the first floor that they could see from the room where they currently were. Not wasting time to explain, Mason hurried downstairs and into the mess hall. He began to devour any food he could get his hands on until he felt that he had enough energy to support what he was about to do.

"Ok, girls come down her quickly! And bring the map!" he yelled back up to the others. Within minutes they were downstairs in the mess hall with him. "So, here's my plan. While I know that I'm not full grown, my dragon form should be just large enough to carry all of you. If I do that, and take a bit of time to get used to the weight, I can fly us down to the archipelago without alerting the Marines." As he told them his plan, he traced the area he would fly to them on the map they had with them.

Having no better alternative, the girls agreed to the plan. Once he had the okay, Mason journeyed outside to begin his endeavor.

"Alright… Dragon Form!" Mason shouted. Within seconds, his body began to morph itself into that of a very large flying reptile. First, his arms started to grow scales, his finger nails elongating and hardening until they were claws. Then a tail sprouted from his back end, extending behind him. Large, leathery wings grew from his back, new muscles forming to control them. His body as whole grew 5 times larger than his normal size. His neck extended forwards, growing a few feet farther from his torso. His legs cracked and popped as they reformed themselves into animalistic hind legs, complete with talons on each toe. His face extended outwards, becoming a snout. His teeth elongated, becoming razor sharp and deadly. Horns sprouted from his head, snaking back along towards his neck, before tapering upwards into a point. Another, smaller horn sprouted from just above his nostrils. Two sails grew along his tail and on the back of his neck. As he breathed in and out, tendrils of smoke rose from his nostrils, while fire sparked out of his mouth. His body color changed from its normal pale peach color, to dark red, almost the color of blood.

Mason let loose a roar to the heavens, signaling his change had finished. The girls came outside to see the sight, and it was breathtaking. Where there had once stood a small, beaten, and bruised boy, now stood a massive beast. He turned his gaze to them, fire burning in his irises. The girls stood rooted in place, not sure how to respond to the sight of such a powerful looking monster standing in front of them. Mason curled his lips upward into a smile.

"Hop on," he told them, his voice rich and deep. The girls moved forming, seeming to be on autopilot. The awe at the sight of Mason in his full splendor kept them from forming coherent responses to him. They hopped onto his back, each girl sliding into nooks on his back just large enough that they could sit comfortably.

"Alright, hold on tight, we're going to take off," Mason informed them. The girls held on to each other, with Hancock, who was sitting in front, gripping a back spine to keep them in place. Made moved over to the edge of the cliff, before tensing his muscles, and leaping into the air. He gave a mighty flap of his wings, and soared into the air.

"Woohoo!" the girls all screamed. They tightened their grips on Mason's back, and hollered with joy at the experience. Mason slowly began to dive down towards the ocean. He made large swooping circles, angling himself in the direction of the Sabaody Archipelago.

*Several hours later*

The 4 young escapees were arriving at Sabaody. They had been in the air for quite some time, and the girls were all numb from sitting for so long. Mason was exhausted, since this was the longest he'd ever been in his dragon form in his whole life. Just as they got over the first of the mangrove trees, Mason felt his muscles start to scream from overuse.

"Hey! I'm going to dive down and land as fast as I can! I can't fly any longer, I'm just too tired!" Mason informed the girls. He felt them tap his back to indicate that they heard him. Mason dipped his head down, his body following suit as he picked up speed and broke through the top layer of the mangroves. Shouts could be heard coming from the ground underneath them as people saw a large dragon diving at them at high speed.

As Mason neared the ground, he opened his wings up to slow their descent. He angled himself to be parallel to the ground, before doing a quick set of flaps with his wings and landing in a huff. The girls quickly hopped off his back and he changed back into his human form. Soon, the girls covered him with some cloth they had brought with them, seeing as he was naked since his clothes didn't survive his transformation.

People gawked at the rag tag group of individuals that had just made such a striking appearance on the archipelago. It wasn't long before the peoples' stares made the Mason and the Boa sisters feel self-conscious. Quickly, they moved themselves to a more secluded location.

"Alright, we're down from the Red Line, and now we need to figure out how to get to our homes. Somehow, we're going to have to get access to a ship, or at least a ride on one," Hancock informed the other three.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" someone said behind them. They whipped their heads around, searching for the source of the intruding voice. Not even five feet away from them stood an older man, white hair and wrinkles indicating his age. His right eye had a large scar running through it, though his eye was unharmed. A large, and very inviting smile was splayed across his face.

Mason and the girls regarded the man warily, years of torture and cruelty preventing them from trusting others blindly.

"Who are you?" Hancock questioned the man. His smile grew even wider, nothing but warmth emanating from him.

"My name is Rayleigh. Silvers Rayleigh."

So here's the first chapter. I'd love to hear feedback on it so far. Also, just to address some things that came to me while typing this, the reason Mason is as smart as he is, comes from his DF. In my mind, I view dragons in the light of extremely intelligent, even more so than humans. So even though he is only 9, his mind is somewhere around the age of 16. Another thing I'm thinking about is whether or not I should add lemons to this. I'm definitely planning to make some relationships happen. I won't say which ones, though I am nipping the Mason/Hancock one in the bud. That isn't happening. She's like a sister to him.

Anyway, I'd love to hear feedback on this story. As I said at the beginning, this is the first fanfiction I've ever done. The next chapter will center around the beginning of one piece, where we finally meet Luffy. And one more thing. I'm not sure I can set a date to which I will be releasing these chapters, since this one alone took me more than a month. Not the best writer unfortunately. Oh well, until next time. Crimson signing off.