CHAPTER 4

THE DARK RETURN

Gaining a new goal I lived solely for revenge. Going against someone like Doflamingo can easily be classified as suicide but if that's what it took to bring that demon I would go all the way to the pits of hell! I did well enough with the life Corazon bought for me.

I became a pirate, got a crew and joined the shichibukai, (An elite team of seven pirates who carry the title undefeated. In exchange for working for the government their bounties are erased. But pirates mostly join the shichibukai to gain access to government restricted areas and less to help the government at all), the moment a space presented itself.

My crew consisted of 21 members with my first mate Bepo being a Polar Bear mink who I'd met sometime after Corazon's death. Together we sailed the grand line achieving many feats but there was just one I really cared for and that was…..the downfall of Doflamingo. Better yet, his death.

13 years. I spent 13 years plotting the destruction of a man I had once looked up to. Plotting the downfall of a monster in the visage of a man. I kept a track on Doflamingo and everything he did. I was aware of when he became king of Dressrosa as well as all his underground business under the name Joker. I found out about his deal with Kaido for whom he produced artificial devil fruits called Smile. But Joker was sloppy and his deal a shaky one. One the emperor stopped receiving Smiles he would take out his rage on the Joker and kill him. This made Doflamingo very protective of the only scientist that could produce the Smiles, Caesar. I couldn't help but grin to myself barely holding myself from breaking out in mad laughter.

You're too sloppy Doffy. I was quite surprised he made no move against me when he found out I joined the Shichibukai, he probably didn't see me as a threat, his first mistake and it worked in my favour well. I made a deal with Caesar and formed a partnership with him. In exchange for allowing me on Punk Hazard I gave the scientist my heart. I soon came to regret that decision.

Not long after the marines came snooping around but they were no match for my power. The troops were led by the Vice admiral Smoker. I liked him as much as I liked the government. I made a quick work of his crew and stole the Vice admiral's heart. Though a marine he wasn't as dumb as I thought. He expected every member of the Shichibukai to turn against them at any time because according to the Smoke man 'A pirate will always be a pirate'. He wasn't far off from the truth but he had learnt too much for me to let him escape alive. As if the marines weren't tough enough I ran into the Straw hat captain, Monkey D. Luffy. The straw hat captain greatly interested me, after all, he also possessed the secret name 'D'. I ended up forming an alliance with him to bring down the Yonko Kaido. That's what I told him but in truth I figured it would be to my advantage to use him and his crew to settle my old score.

My plan was to destroy the Smile producing factory and then kidnap Caesar. Earlier Doflamingo had sent a snow based devil fruit user called Monet to guard him so I had to add her defeat into my equation. She had to be a new member of Doflamingo's crew as I'd never seen her before. I knew he considered her family but Caesar was just an important tool. The Vice Admiral was an annoying addition to my equation, and so was the appearance of Vergo. I never thought he would come to Punk Hazard to help guard Caesar. Somehow he got a hold of my heart and gave me hell. Having my heart out of my body was distressing enough but in Vergo's vice like grip the pain he afflicted me with was agonizing. It was difficult to move, difficult to breathe, even twice as difficult to think while he crushed my life organ in his fist. I cursed him from the bottom of my heart. He had been my mistake with Corazon. I could not let him be my death once again.

My decision to spare the Vice Admiral turned out to be my salvation. I returned his heart to him and black mailed him so he would not reveal what he had seen, then I handed Monet's heart to Caesar and told him it was Smoker's. The result was while Vergo crushed my heart the avenging Vice Admiral challenged him for lying to the navy and pretending to be a Vice admiral! I was very grateful to Smoker for taking the brunt of Vergo's punches, I managed to steal back my heart while they fought. Once Smoker the fell I had already won the battle and sliced Vergo in two. Revenge felt sweet but I would never be satisfied until I had condemned the demon the way he condemned me.

Caesar stabbed the heart I'd given him in an attempt to kill off Smoker and of course killed Monet instead. One less enemy to worry about.

I captured Caesar's heart and held him as my hostage. We hauled Caesar into the ship and set off with the straw hats for Doflamingo's kingdom. I was playing a risky game, a very risky game. I'd almost died for it the first time with Vergo's surprise visit but I wasn't going to back down, no matter what it took. I blackmailed Doflamingo into giving up his Shichibukai status in exchange for Caesar which of course would enrage him. He'd have to give up Dressrosa in the process too. The loss of Vergo and Monet should be messing up his cool and he should be like a storming volcano. That was good, I needed him angry. Angry villains made mistakes.

The most unstable part of my plan however was Straw hat Luffy. I had no idea what to make of the child-like Captain and spent many a time wondering how a guy like Luffy ever managed to end up with a 300,000,000 million beli bounty on his head. Luffy seemed to think a good number of people his friends which included the Vice Admiral Smoker and myself. No matter how many times I tried to explain it he could not fathom how a pirate alliance did not mean instant friendship. He impulsive, playful, jolly, childish, in short he was 3 year old in the body of a scarred teenager and the appetite of a bottomless pit. I began to worry a great deal of the success rate of my revenge. His crew wasn't much better. There were a lot of them crying when I mentioned black mailing Doflamingo while a few brainless idiots, very similar to their captain, thought it was cool. The closest semblance of a brain among the crew would be Nico Robin, the demon child and archaeologist and the closest thing to an ideal pirate was first mate and swordsman Zoro. Yet Luffy had proved something to me back in Punk Hazard and that was even though the Straw hats can be considered ridiculous on sight they were nothing less than efficient and over the top. Luffy did not at all respect the word boundaries as Law found in Dressrosa. The plan was to return Caesar to Doflamingo while Luffy and the others destroyed the other Smile factories on the island. I would buy them as much time as I could fighting Doffy. If Doffy had no more Smiles to give Kaido then Kaido would kill him, I was ready to die to ensure it happened. When it turned out Doflamingo had been lying about resigning we had to change plans fast. Straw hat was in charge of destroying the other Smile factories on Dressrosa but he dumped his job to partake in a stupid tournament! Okay, okay, so the prize was his dead brother's devil fruit but still. I could froth at the mouth for his lack of priority! I was risking my life and getting shishkabobed by Doflamingo to buy them extra time to destroy the factory and he was playing a stupid game?!

Needless to say Doflamingo beat me black blue and many more following under tones, I could barely get a hit in. The pain was marvellous too, I couldn't move a single finger when he was done. Then he kicked me into the town square and shot me three times. I'd managed to get Caesar away from him and still keep him as my hostage but the factories…? That's right people. They were still standing! Halfway in and out of consciousness I questioned forming an alliance with Luffy at all. Why did I even bother? I might as well have stepped out of the crate those 13 years ago and let Doffy kill me. It wouldn't have made much of a difference. Doflamingo picked me up as easily as he always did back when I was a child a carried me back to his palace to ''educate'' me. I told him my alliance with the Straw hats had ended and I had no idea what they were doing which was mostly the truth I was done with Straw hat.