Chapter 24

Don't give up. All of your
hard work will pay off soon,
stick with what you're doing
no matter how hard it gets.

- unknown

"This disguise is stupid," Ace grumbled from his seat on the deck floor on one of the Revolutionary's ship that was pretending to be a merchant ship. They were currently docked in an underground cove with some of the other shady ships. "Why white beards? We look like old geezers!"

"Hush. Who cares about the stupid beard?" Sabo chided him. "I'm more worried about Luffy. The Tontattas hasn't seen him in a month, and the last time they did, he wasn't looking so good."

"Stupid selfish brother, just had to give us more work," Ace crossed his arms. "It'd be so much easier just to save him and get out. But noooo. He tells us we have to help save some toys, a princess, steal some files from a lab, and destroy some factory."

"At least he was able to get us some useful information," Law said.

"You guys ready to go save the boss's son?" a girl, Koala, from the revolutionary army asked them cheerily.

"Luffy. We're saving Luffy, not your boss's son," Ace growled.

"Same thing," she waved it off. "So Hack and Law will be joining the tournament to see if they can find Luffy, Ace is going to incapacitate this Sugar person, Sabo is going to infiltrate the laboratory and capture Caesar, and I'm going to destroy a factory. The rest of your division, who will be mingling with the people, will cause some sort of commotion. Hopefully, that will be enough to make them want to run and into the safety of the Marine ships. After all that, some of your commanders will come and help us with the rest of your crew members, while we storm the castle."

"Right," Sabo nodded. "We'll leave the princess to the Tontattas. First we need to meet up with them to see if they have any updates. No need to worry about our men. Division 2 has all the best people and equipment to cause mass mayhem, if needed."

"Go guys go on ahead," the green fishman, Hack, said. "I'll go on ahead and sign us up for the tournament. Call me if there's any new information."

"Six months," Ace grumbled. "Six fucking months! I can't believe it's taking us this long to save Lu!"

"Calm down, Ace," Sabo said. "There was a lot of preparing to do, and what with getting all these groups to work together, of course it was going to take time. Not to mention, this tournament is a great cover for us."

"He's right," Law said. "It also gave Lu-ya time to send us useful information. I'm quite surprised he was able to think so far ahead. Or to be able to think at all."

"That's because he doesn't think," Sabo said proudly. "He just does what he wants. It's all instinct."

"I can't tell if you're proud of him or insulting him," Koala said. "This brother of yours sounds crazy from all the stories you've told us. He even trusted you guys to come save him after he left without saying anything to anyone."

"That's because he is," Ace grinned before frowning. "And why wouldn't we? He's our brother. We're not going to let some stupid flamingo take him."

"Whitebeard, Akagami, the Revolutionary, and the Marines. Yeah, Doflamingo isn't going to regret it," Sabo grinned evilly.

"This brother of yours is amazing, to be able to move that many fractions just to save him," Koala said. "As soon as Dragon heard, he just immediately said he's helping, even though you guys didn't ask for help. Guess his son means more to him that he lets on. None of us even knew he had a son until then."

"Better that way," Sabo nodded. "If too many people knew about Luffy's bloodline, a lot of people would be going after his head. I still can't believe Dragon had the guts to tell Grandpops that he's keeping us for four months."

"Yeah," Ace grumbled. "At least we were able to learn a few things, though he could have gone about a different way. It was almost like training with Gramps all over again."

They reached the base of Flower Hill, where they had agreed to meet a representative of the Tontatta Tribe.

"You people must be Lucy's comrades," a small toy soldier greeted them.

"It's a toy," Ace deadpanned. "Not just any toy, it's a tiny one-legged toy soldier."

"How rude," the toy said. "Too think Lucy held high regards for his comrades."

"Sorry about that," Sabo crouched as best he could to be eye level with the toy soldier. "My brother is a little high strung right now. We were told to meet someone here to see the Tontatta Tribe?"

"Yes, that would be me. Come," the toy hopped on one leg and turned to show them the way to the hidden tunnel to Green Bit. "We don't have time to lose. Lucy seemed to be unwell the last we saw him."

"Can you tell us how he looked?" Law asked.

"A month ago, the last time we saw him, he gave us a drawing with what we think is the layout of the castle. It was a crude drawing, so we're assuming it's the layout of the castle."

Ace whistled. "Didn't think he had it in him to think that far ahead."

"Yes, well," the toy hesitated, "that was when he told us that he can't meet us anymore and to keep away from him when we do cross path again. I'm not sure what that all means, but right after he told us to leave right away. So we had no choice but leave Flower Hill, where we've been meeting. Before leaving, we hid ourselves in our tunnel and looked to make sure the boy was alright, but he passed out where we left him. And then Doflamingo showed up."

"Lu probably knew Joker was coming and told you to leave, to keep your meetings a secret," Law mused.

"They're probably experimenting with him again," Sabo said worriedly. "Maybe that's why he wants us to steal some files in the lab. He doesn't know what drugs they are or what they're doing to him."

"Again?" Koala looked taken a back.

"You heard right. Again," Ace growled. "There's a reason why that bastard only wanted Lu back, rather than taking us with him."

"Doflamingo was acting strange that day," the soldier interrupted them. "He actually looked worried about the boy. Viola said that wasn't the first time he did something out of character. After an incident where Luffy was hallucinating about monsters coming after him, Doflamingo actually comforted him and let him sleep in his room."

"Viola, you mean Violet? The person that Mingo's forcing to work for him, right?" Sabo confirmed.

"That's right," the solder said. "She's the second daughter of the former king of Dressrosa. Doflamingo wants her for her Devil Fruit ability. She has the ability of clairvoyance. He's using her to over-look the kingdom for any disturbance. She agreed to work for him in order to keep her father alive."

"So the former king is still living then," Law concluded.

"That's right. We're here," the toy soldier opened the door at the end of the underground tunnel.

The four humans widen their eyes at the sight of the little people, having never seen one before. After their introduction, they went down to business and started their planning.

-*/-*/-*/

Law had safely made into the coliseum to meet up with Hack, without Luffy's bad drawing of the castle layout. He made sure to memorize it before handing it back to the Tontattas so they could make use of it to save their princess. The drawing was bad, but at least it gave them the gist of where things were, especially the underground passages.

Law and Hack walked around the coliseum, observing the other contestants. Hack paused in his walk when he felt a tapping on his shoulder.

"I see him," Law murmured and inconspicuously pointed out a small thin boy with shaggy black hair.

"He seems pretty happy despite being a prisoner here," Hack said as they watched the boy in the helmet bounce from one place to the other, talking to other contestants, though, most were giving him a wide birth, and then get into an argument with someone. "We should go help him out."

"No, wait," Law said. "He knows we're here, but he's not coming to us. There has to be a reason. Let him do his thing. If we approach him like we know him, it may cause some problems." He pointed to Luffy's leg where the bomb anklet rests.

Hack only nodded with disgust clear on his face. "How are you sure he knows we're here? Would he be able to recognize you through the disguise?"

"Trust me," Law grinned to himself. "He knew we were here before we even set foot on this island."

After looking around for a good half hour, Luffy bounced right in front of them. "Hiya!" He greeted them. "I'm Lucy. Nice to meet'cha."

"Hack," the fishman replied slowly, unsure of how respond to the exceedingly happy prisoner.

"I'm Tora," Law said as he looked the boy up and down, checking for any visible injuries. "Are you a contestant also?"

"Yup! I'm in Block C. What about you two?"

"We're both in Block D," Hack answered.

"Are you sure you should be participating? You're just a scrawny brat," Law taunted with a grin, happy to see no visible injuries.

"What?! Take that back! I'm super strong. Just you wait til I kick your ass!" He was about to continue his tirade but was stopped by a man super short shorts and a horned-billed cap.

"Lucy, you shouldn't be talking to them," the man chided.

"Delli! Aww, but why not?" the boy pouted.

"Because you might be fighting them eventually."

"So?"

"So? Ugh! You know what? Forget it. Doffy wants to see you."

"Oh, okay!" the boy skipped away a few steps before turning around. "Where?"

"On the top floor of the viewing area."

"Right!" He took a couple of steps before walking back again. "How do I get there?"

"If you would just slow down and wait for me, I was going to take you there," the man grumbled as he led the way. "Seriously, why does Doffy even keep you? You're just a pain in the ass." He continued grumbling, while Luffy laughed merrily as they walked away.

"That boy…" Hack wasn't sure if it would be rude to continue that train of thought.

"Has a few screws loose? Yes, I know," Law sighed.

"Hey, hey, hey! You can't talk to that person that way," a man with green hair styled standing up came up to them. "Don't you know who he is?"

"Who? The kid?" Hack said confused.

"The kid? The kid?! You don't call that person an old man! He's the Great Lucy-senpai. The one and only champion of the coliseum!" The man looked about ready to faint from over excitement. He quickly recovered and continued on normally. "You guys must have just came." They nodded. "You should have came a few days earlier. Lucy-senpai was still fighting the gladiators up until yesterday as a demonstration of what to expect from their champion.

"Two days ago, he even fought the previous champion and won. There's a rumor going around that Diamante, oh, that's the previous champion, was jealous that Lucy-senpai is the champion or something like that. So the king let them duke it out. You should have seen it! It was awesome, nothing like the demonstration. It was like he wasn't even trying in the other matches. Diamante came out a bloodied mess and dead. The best part was Lucy-senpai came out mostly unscathed. He's the best!"

"You wouldn't happen to know if there's a recording of that match somewhere, do you?" Law asked.

"That's a good question. If there is, I want it," the man gushed before walking away to sing his praises of Lucy to someone else.

"Who was that?" Hack asked.

"Who knows?" Law shrugged before taking a slip of paper out of his pocket.

"What's that?"

"Lucy-ya gave it to me before he left. 'Protect Rebecca.' Who the hell is that?" Law glared at the note.

-*/-*/-*/

"I would like to thank you for lending us a helping hand, even though we didn't ask for your help. I know how you revolutionaries like to keep a low profile. All we needed was to make sure we didn't get any of your men caught in the crossfire," Whitebeard said to a tall cloaked man standing next to him on Moby Dick, both facing Dressrosa. They were docked close enough for them to see the island but far enough that they wouldn't be recognized.

"Nonsense," the man said in a deep grumble, "That is something I should be saying. You've been taking care of my son in my stead. You've done more than I've ever done. Seems the ability to raise children never made it to the Monkey family. Even so, I will not sit by while my son's freedom is taken from him again."

"I've done nothing but to give him a safe place to live. It is those three other brats that have been raising him. If anyone is to be thanked, it should be them."

Dragon nodded and sighed in exasperation. "Law, Ace, and Sabo. So I've heard. Many times. Those two brats wouldn't shut up about him and would talk about him every chance they got. The men they brought with them were no different."

"Yes. The crew loves him as if they were their own children. Ace and Sabo included. Seems those two raised your boy since he was about two, so I heard. Law joined us a few years after and grew attached to the boy he calls his sister."

"And you ended up being their father figure," someone yelled, causing the rest of the crew still on deck to laugh.

"And how did Akagami get mixed into all this?" They both looked to the ship anchored not too far from them, where the red-haired captain stood facing the island with a scowl, ready take down any unexpected ships that comes their way. He was to fight the Marine ships that Sengoku is sending with Vergo and his men, while letting Garp's ships slip by them to house the civilians.

"He's entrusted his treasured hat and his left arm to that boy's future," Whitebeard smiled. "That boy of yours has this charm that makes people flock to him."

"Just like his mother," Dragon smiled.

"Just be happy they didn't spoil him to the point that he can't function normally once he decides to set sail-yoi," Marco smirked from behind the both of them, causing everyone who heard to laugh merrily. They were all excited to finally get their youngest brother back.

"I have no objection with him wanting to be the next Pirate King," Dragon said proudly.

-*/-*/-*/

Ace impatiently snatched the baby den den mushi out of his pocket and answered it. "What," he growled.

"Someone's a grouch," Law replied. "We ran into Luffy, and he passed on a message. Does anyone there know who Rebecca is? All his note says is to protect her."

"Rebecca is the daughter of the first daughter of the former king of Dressrosa," the toy soldier answered. "I don't believe they've ever met."

"Well, he says to protect her, so I'm assuming she's participating in the tournament," Law sighed.

"She is," the toy growled, "even after I told her not to. She wants to win in order to defeat Doflamingo. She doesn't know about our plans."

"How's Luffy? Is he okay?" Sabo asked, taking the den den from Ace's hand.

"He looks good. In fact, he's doing great by the looks of it," Hack sounded amused. "Saw him run around, about ready to bounce off the walls."

"We heard he fought one of the top executive, Diamante," Law informed them.

"Yeah, we just finished watching a recording of it right now. It's why Ace is being a grouch," Sabo laughed.

"You have a recording?" Hack asked in surprise.

"Yeah. The tontattas snuck in to watch," Sabo said.

"That bastard hurt Luffy," Ace growled.

"We heard he came out mostly unscratched," Law mused, "and Diamante is dead."

"Actually, Lu doesn't look right. It was like watching a crazed manic having way too much fun killing this guy. He wasn't even trying," Sabo reported, worried. "He got cut a few times from not evading. He just went in without any regards to himself. About midway through the fight, it looked like Lu was fighting with himself. I'm guessing they did something to mess with his mind just before this and let him run rampant. He was wearing a gold gladiator's helmet, with a white beard and mustache at the beginning, but lost them during the fight."

"He's not trying?!" Koala exclaimed. "That's not trying?! That man is one of the top executive! One of the strongest in Doflamingo's family!"

"Yeah," Ace sighed in defeat. "Lu's much better than this. I'm guessing even Doflamingo doesn't know the extent of Luffy's strength. He must be hiding it from them, and he struggled to keep himself from doing too much midway through. Must have gotten his mind back or something."

"That fight between Luffy and Diamante came about after an argument with Doflamingo. Diamante was upset about the fact Doflamingo doesn't trust him enough to win the tournament for him," the toy explained.

"That's right," a Tontatta named Leo said. "We snuck in the castle to look for Princess Mansherry and saw the whole thing. Doflamingo said they would hold a competition to see who would be entered in the tournament as the champion. After Diamante left, Doflamingo told Luffy to take Diamante out because he doesn't want someone who doesn't listen to him in his family. He said to dispose of the traitor."

"I see," Law said thoughtfully. "Either Doflamingo knows the full extent of Luffy's strength, or he was confident that he would win. Good to know there's one less opponent. Keep a copy of that recording." He said the last part as an afterthought.

"Of course we are," Ace grinned. "It's going with our other Luffy memories."

"Your what?" Koala said looking disturbed.

"Well, Luffy's leaving us one day to set sail on his own. We're keeping a scrapbook of sorts to remember him by," Sabo shrugged.

"You three are creepy," she said with a shudder. "Almost stalker-like."

"Speaking of stalker," Hack said, "there's this strange guy with green hair that seems to be a huge fan of your brother."

"Keep him away from Luffy!" both Ace and Sabo shouted, and Sabo hung up on them.

Then another call came in. This time it was Thatch, who was mingling with the towns people and to buy a few supplies for their kitchen.

"You won't believe it. Seems Little Lucy is a big thing here. Some of the people call him the Hero of the Colosseum. They even have merchandises of him," Thatch laughed.

"We have to buy some," Sabo said excitedly.

"Already did," Thatch said.

"Well, buy some for us," Ace demanded.

Thatch laughed and hung up on them to report back to the ship.

"Stalker," Koala and the toy soldier deadpanned at them.

-*/-*/-*/

The tournament has started and Block A just finished, the winner was some strange guy with a paper bag over his head named Mr. Store. Block B participants were starting to walk out to the stage. Luffy had wanted to stay and watch, but Doflamingo asked him to take care of some disturbance in town instead.

So here he was, walking down the streets with Violet towards the disturbance. He really wished he could control his tears, but it was hard with all the toys around. He would sometimes hear the towns people say he sheds his tears because he was crying for them when they were attacked by pirates or other unruly people. That was only because he never came to town unless Doflamingo tells him to take care of any threats.

After he lost his disguise during the fight with Diamante, the people were wary of him. He couldn't tell if it was because they recognized him from his wanted poster with his brothers or if it was what he did to Diamante. Now they treated him as before, their savior.

"Violet," Luffy whispered low enough for only her to hear when they neared the area, "I know these people. There's going to be this guy name Haruta. After I finish here, go with him. He'll keep you safe. Don't worry about Mingo. I'll just make up something for you."

She nodded and didn't say anything, trusting Luffy and his friends, already knowing of their plans.

They walked another couple of blocks before turning right. The pirates there widened their eyes in surprise at seeing Luffy. One almost called out his name before a woman hiding in her flower store cheered at his arrival, followed by the rest civilians there.

"Lucy! It's Lucy! We're saved!" There were other citizens that followed her cheer. They all went quiet when the boy spoke to the pirates.

"Please leave," he said with no recognition in his eyes, pretending he didn't know them.

"Why should we leave? We're here to enjoy ourselves," a small built man said. Haruta immediately understood that Luffy couldn't risk exposing himself here. The others with him nearly sputtered in confusion.

"Go somewhere else. You're disturbing the people, and you're making me miss the next round," Luffy sent him a teary glare. Instead of waiting for another retort, he released a larger than usual amount of his Conqueror's Haki to ensure that anyone nearby wouldn't mess up their plans.

Once everyone went down, Luffy whispered, "Sorry, Haruta," and walked away, leaving Violet to 'clean up the mess.'

"He better be," Haruta muttered from his place on the ground, where he pretended to sleep with everyone else. "He just gave me more work to do." He looked up and saw Violet. "You must be Viola. I'm Haruta. Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Viola smiled. "Thank you for playing along. He really had hoped that Doflamingo wouldn't send him out for errands during the tournament."

"Couldn't be helped then. Let's get these people to safety. There's a Marine ship ready for the civilians. The others will go to another ship that's on its way here. Just leave them at the pier for now." He got to work, lifting a woman over his shoulder as he asked, "How is he? He's crying. Is he really crying for the people here?"

"Luffy? You don't know? I would have thought his friends would have known about it," she said as she picked up a few of the sleeping toys.

"Known about what?" Haruta sent her a confused look.

"He can hear the hearts of people. The toys on this island were once human, turned into toys by Sugar's power."

"That explains it. We know about the whole reading the hear part, just wasn't sure what triggered it here. I see he still has no control over his Haki. It was leaking on his way here."

"No. He says he can't control himself when presented with overwhelming feelings. The toys want to be free and to be remembered again."

Haruta nodded. "I can understand that. That boy's been through a lot."

"I know. I was here when he was first taken," she said sadly. "I just wish I was strong enough to help him."

"What you're doing now is good enough. He doesn't blame you. It's all Doflamingo's fault."

-*/-*/-*/

Hack whistled as he and Law watch Luffy fight his block. "How old did you say he is?"

Normally, the champion had the luxury of only enter the tournament at the end, but Luffy thought it'd be boring just to watch and begged Doflamingo to let him participate like everyone else.

"Just turned fourteen not too long ago. Why?" Law turned to give the fishman a questioning look.

"Never seen a kid that small beat that many armed men nearly twice his size so effortlessly. And that giant! Did you see him? He downed that giant in one punch! That was an Elbalf warrior for goodness sakes."

Law just shrugged. "He's sparred with Oars Jr. once for fun." Law nearly laughed at the face Hack made.

Hack shook himself out of his stupor to watch the match once more. "I still think there's something wrong with him mentally. Or maybe he's still under the influence of whatever from when he fought Diamante. He looks like he's having too much fun."

"That's because he is having fun. To him, this is fun. He's not killing anyone, and he knows we're here. I've never seen him kill someone like he's enjoying it. He only kills if that person is a threat to his family," Law smiled sadly. He then frowned at the noise coming from the green-haired man, the winner of Block B, Bartolomeo, a few windows away from them. The crazed man was drooling and still singing praises of his sister.

Law wasn't sure he liked that the vulgar man was obsessing over his sister.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

A/N: Almost done. Just 3 more chapters after this and an epilogue. Plus omakes! So far I have 2. Any other requests of missing scenes? I know I rushed through this story and left a bunch of stuff up to your imagination. hahahaha