Law hated that there was not much he could do right now about the fight going on around him lest he waste what little energy he had left. He was grateful that Penguin had found Kikoku and returned it to him, as he had felt rather defenseless without his weapon. Even if the dark haired pirate could use his powers to avoid harm, he preferred to have something to return an attack with rather than to remain defensive throughout a fight. Law tapped the sheathed blade silently. It had felt weird for the short time that he had not held it with him, though the Heart Pirate captain wouldn't have been able to when he had been shackled. Nonetheless, the loss of his weapon had been in the back of Law's mind as he had been taken down by Kaido and subsequently trussed up by the emperor's crewmembers. Law shook that unpleasant thought away as he used his sheathed weapon to keep himself upright, since he did not yet trust his own body to remain upright due to how worn out he felt. It was then that the Heart Pirate was struck by the thought that he was now surrounded by his crewmates, who in fact were not dead, as he had feared. The shock of it all had not yet worn off, but Law was relieved all the same that he had not lost his crew to unforeseen circumstances.

"Are you all right, captain?" Penguin questioned, as he blocked a punch from a Zoan user that resembled some kind of monkey. "You seem more tired than usual."

Law watched Penguin send the Zoan user flying backward with a few precise punches and a feigned kick. The Heart Pirate captain cast a sideways glance at his crewmate and flashed a tiny smirk, half at the action, and half at the words that had been spoken,"More so than usual, yes. Being attacked by an emperor tends to do that to a person. Especially when one is unaware of their approach and failed to predict it." Which Law had certainly done, and Shachi, safely on the Thousand Sunny, had all but warned him to be careful.

Penguin shook his head but said nothing, as he kept his eyes on the Zoan users that milled about around their crew, as well as Kidd and Killer. Law's crewmate looked like he had wanted to say something in response to his captain, but due to the threat of Kaido's crew around them, chose to remain silent. For now, anyway.

Law could sense this, but decided that he and Penguin could always talk about any problems that had risen from having the crew off the shore of Zou. Specifically the failure to not entertain of the possibility that Kaido might be closer than any of them had believed. Law turned his eyes back to the activity as well, silent as he spotted Doflamingo as the older man sent out attack after haphazard attack with a wide, manic grin, as if he were having the best time of his life. The vicious attacks didn't always make their mark, as sometimes they either landed short of Kaido, or tore through an unfortunate Zoan user that had not been swift enough to get out of the way of the two powerful men. Neither Doflamingo or Kaido appeared to be taking the dual seriously, and that alone disturbed the dark haired pirate as he watched them. Both men were already doing enough damage as it was, and Law feared for his crewmates safety if either Doflamingo or Kaido grew serious in their furious blows. What they were doing right now was more of a test than anything, as though to gage the other's power.

Law shuddered slightly as his mind unwillingly dwelled on the dead bodies from earlier when Doflamingo had come across him. As the Heart Pirate captain saw another of Kaido's crew fall to the ground in pieces from Doflamingo's Devil Fruit powers, Law felt that he should try and recover as quickly as he was able to. Law would not put it past Doflamingo to change his mind again in the heat of battle and go back to attempting to murder him as he had been earlier on another island. Or at the very least, the older man had appeared to have contemplated it before he had changed his mind again, and twice more while they had been in Dressrosa. Law frowned. Well, Doflamingo had tried his best to incapacitate him at any rate, but to Law, it was almost the same thing as the older man trying to kill him.

The dark haired pirate went back to silently taking in the battle, and was doing his best to come up with a plan that would not get himself or his crew killed by one of the four emperors. And found that his options were extremely limited.

-x

Kidd stood near the Heart Pirate captain, and while he didn't like to show that he was in rough shape, he nonetheless had to rely on Killer's support to remain upright. While he would have wanted to get into another verbal sparring match with Law, Kidd knew that it wouldn't do any good with the zoan users all around them. The redheaded captain was displeased in any case that he was not on the battle field himself, and made his thoughts clear to his blond haired crewmate after another moment of purusing the area around them with his eyes, "I wanna get in a hit against Kaido."

"Your leg, Kidd." Killer reminded his captain in a quiet tone. Not that it would do any good if Kidd didn't care or decided he could still do some damage despite the limp and pain he was obviously in.

Kidd eyed Doflamingo as the other man launched several rapid fire Bullet String's at Kaido, at the same time Luffy came in for another punch as the taller pirate danced out of the way. Luffy went flying past him, but did not make contact with Kaido with his fist, as the emperor merely sidestepped the attack, the distain clear on Kaido's face. While Kidd found it odd that Doflamingo hadn't bothered to attack Luffy as well as Kaido, Kidd growled something under his breath. Screw his damn wounded leg. And fuck Killer telling him what to do. He was not going to be left out of all the fun, and even if he couldn't directly participate, his Devil Fruit powers would allow him some measure of satisfaction.

The redhead flicked a few fingers of his right hand at the thought, and drew in what metal he could from the island around him that was the closest proximity. Notably, some of Kaido's crewmembers' weapons. Kidd angled a finger and jabbed it in Kadio's direction as soon as the emperor had sent Luffy flying backward again after the Straw Hat captain's next punch was attempted. Kidd grinned as some of the weapons made their mark, which caused a few gashes along the emperor's torso and arms. What Kidd had not thought about in advance was how an attack was likely to bring Kadio's attention back to him, as well as Killer, Law and the Heart Pirate captain's crew. Hawkins' crew, the redhead noted, had been driven further into the surrounding forest by some zoans.

Killer noticed immediately what had happened, and cursed under his breath as Kaido's man-beast form turned to face them, "Dammit Kidd, think sometimes before you do something so stupid!" Killer snapped, before he let go of his captain and brought his weapons out, "Are you trying to get us killed?" Killer knew that he shouldn't have been surprised, but he would have thought that Kidd would have a bit more common sense than to attack someone so powerful while injured and clearly not up for any kind of fight.

Kidd's injured leg shook now that he had to put some pressure on it, but he stubbornly remained standing as he began to draw in as much metal as he could to his left arm. The redheaded captain knew retaliation was unavoidable, and since he was not going to risk losing another arm, he would not strike out at Kadio with his good arm. He wouldn't put it past the emperor to try and tear it off if given the chance. Kidd grinned and gathered more metal into a metal limb he could use in an attack. Or as a shield, as Kidd's actions would depend on whether he could hit Kaido or if the emperor would get to him first, and he would need a way to fend him off.

Killer sliced throught two zoan users before he caught sight of what Kidd was doing, and while Killer knew that it was a good form of defense, he couldn't help but feel that Kidd was going to try and attack again. It would just figure that his captain didn't know when to quit, and most of the time it was beneficial to him and the rest of their crew. However, right now, against an emperor it probably wasn't the best course of action that Kidd could have chosen. The masked pirate cursed under his breath and started toward Kidd to try and prevent his captain from doing something else stupid. Unfortunately, the momentary distraction of breaking off from an ongoing fight was enough time for a few more zoans to join together to sideswipe Killer and separate him further from his captain, "Kidd!" Killer called out in warning, though he doubted that the redhead was in any shape or mood to move from where he stood. And most unfortunately, there was little Killer could do as he now had to worry about himself as he began to prevent various fangs and claws from piercing vulnerable parts of his body.

Kidd mostly ignored Killer, if only because the sight of an emperor charging toward him with malicious intent required his whole focus. As soon as Kidd determined that the emperor was within striking range, Kidd lashed out with the metal coated artificial limb. The redheaded captain laughed as his heavy swing made direct contact. He could feel the metal give as it pressed into the emperor, and in Kidd's mind, it had opened up more than just some superficial scrapes. Kidd felt rather smug about getting the upper hand over an emperor until he felt a give in the metal that he had under his control. Kidd set his jaw as he heard metal grind together, accompanied by Kaido's voice, which had become scathing.

"And this is exactly why you supernovas are never going to get very far in the new world." Kaido broke through some of the metal as if it were nothing, and seized Kidd's artificial limb in a crushing grip, half on the metal limb, and partially on the redhead's shoulder, "Blindly swinging such a large and cumbersome attack will get you nowhere with an opponent that is superior to you."

Kidd grit his teeth as Kiado held him in place as he began to tear through the remainder of the metal convering the rest of the arm, to get to the redhead himself. "Shit." Kidd hastily tried to reform what little of the metal that was left into a barrier, but he knew it was a useless gesture as soon as Kaido increased his grip on his left arm and dragged him forward. There was a grinding screech as Kaido broke through the last of the metal with his free hand, before his other clawed hand dug painfully into Kidd's left shoulder. The other sharp nailed hand curled into a fist and struck a blow to the redhead's abdomen. Kidd choked on a cry of pain, though he was winded and no sound would have come anyway. With a grimace, Kidd tired to free his left arm and shoulder from Kaido's grasp, and felt that now would be a good time to put some distance between himself and Kaido. But the emperor's grip was firm, and would not let go until Kaido had landed another unavoidable strike.

Kaido paused for a moment, clawed hand ready for another punch, before he lowered it as if he had thought of something. Kaido shifted and his tail lashed back and forth in thought. No, he was going to cause just enough agony to be painful, but not enough to kill or completely incapacitate. Kaido wanted this upstart alive but down when he decided to kill him. Which was going to be as soon as the redhead landed. Kaido wasn't going to let any of these upstarts live. They could become trouble later on, so it was better to deal with them now rather than later. Kaido turned again as he snarled a few words. "Stay out of my way!" With a swishing sound, Kaido struck Kidd across the chest heavily with his tail.

Kidd's concentration shattered with the strike, the tail hitting his already sore abdomen squarely. Dimly, the redheaded captain thought he heard something crack, and vaguely wondered if some of his ribs had cracked. The remainder of the metal that Kidd had gathered crashed to the ground as Kidd flew a short distance across the clearing and into a nearby tree. Kidd let out a sharp breath as the impact shocked him and sent a painful sear of pain up his spine. For a brief moment Kidd's back was against the tree, before he let out a faint sound and collapsed to the ground below, limp. Kidd was out of breath and unable to do anything as Kadio moved in to either incapacitate or kill him. The latter seemed more likely from the gleam in Kaido's eyes, "Fucking...bastard...I'll kill you..." Kidd wheezed, his voice barely a whisper. It was lost on Kaido, which pissed Kidd off for some reason. If one of the four emperors was going to kill him, Kidd wanted to go down fighting. Not lie on the ground twitching, barely able to insult an opponent. Kidd would have been more offended if he didn't hurt so much and feel like absolute and utter shit. He could barely hear Killer calling to him, but it was due to the fact that Kaido was still his main focus.

Kaido halted before Kidd and considered the redhead half-curled on the ground with a tilt of his head, a look of bored indifference on his face, "I suppose none of you know when to give up, or when you've lost." Kaido crouched, one hand raised to finish Kidd with a single strike.

"Room! Shambles!"

Kaido blinked, momentarily surprised to find that Kidd had vanshed before his eyes as a rock took his place. But the surprise lasted only for a brief moment. Kaido slowly turned to face Law, before his slit pupiled eyes glanced down to where Kidd lay on his side, gasping in breath and apparently unaware that he had just been saved from death. For the moment, anyway. Kaido brought now narrowed eyes back to the dark haired pirate, "That Devil Frut of yours is troublesome, Surgeon of Death."

Law's lips quirked at that, though he was unable to retain his room, and had had to drop it immediately after he had rescued Kidd.

Kaido turned away, obviously disinterested now as he found heard Luffy hurtle through the air at him. Again. Kaido snorted softly. No matter, Kidd and Law could be dealt with soon. Neither was going to be able to get anywhere fast with the shape they were in. Better to take care of the ones with more stamina before picking the weaker ones off. With a sigh, Kaido leaned to one side to avoid Luffy's kick, but stiffened as a jagged bit of metal tore a light scrape of a wound to his upper shoulder. Kaido slowly turned his focus back to Kidd, who had been responsible for the attack. Kaido studied the redhead silently, as if baffled by such a foolish move.

Kidd had somehow managed to get to his feet, but it was, from the look of it, hard for him to stand. The redhead's right arm was wrapped around his abdomen, gingerly, as he was not sure just how bad of shape his ribs were in. The redheaded pirate's artificial left limb was limp at his side, the power to maintain it with his Devil Fruit powers simply too much of an effort at the moment as he breathed heavily. Kidd looked about ready to topple over and pass out, but he still had enough fight left in him that he grinned wearily upon being noticed by the emperor.

"You are a fool." Kaido said softly, as he began to walk toward the other pirate, "Why do you insist on continuing to fight? You are weakened from your wounds."

Kidd coughed but managed to maintain his grin, "That ain't going to...stop me from trying." Kidd didn't notice Killer as his crewmate tried to reach him as he was preoccupied with the sight of Kaido moving purposefully toward him. Kidd barely had time to wonder if he would be able to put up a fight when another combatant in the sudden wide scale battle made himself known. Kidd flinched backwards as the ground between himself and Kaido was torn up in front of their eyes, ground breaking apart in chucks and leaving deep gouges in its wake. Kidd shakily ended up on his ass after he twisted his leg from stepping backward too quickly. Kidd looked up in time to see Kaido dodge out of the way in a brief blur of beast form, and if Kidd had not been so damn tired out he might have bristled at the graceful movement, compared to his embarrassing fall.

The redheaded captain remained seated as he turned to the important question of how the hell he was supposed to get back on his feet. The previous effort had almost been too much for him to begin with. And Kidd knew that there was no way in hell that Kaido would waste a opportunity to pick him off while he was down, but as Kidd watched, he noticed that Kaido appeared to be distracted by Doflamingo's appearance. Kidd grumbled something under his breath before he bit his lip as the pain in his leg came back to him in a searing throb of agony. Kidd hissed a curse in response to the pain.

Being injured sucked.

-x

Kaido wore a slightly irked expression as he shifted back into his man-beast form, as if he found Doflamingo more irritating than Kidd at this point in time. He had no words to waste on the grinning pirate, however, and merely stood his ground as he waited for an opening to attack.

Doflamingo, the one responsible for the torn up ground, wandered casually over to them. He didn't seem overly bothered by the fact that the emperor was looking for a misstep on his part to attack. Instead, Doflamingo continued to grin his amusement as he spoke, "Fufufufu. Were you going to ignore me? I thought you made sure that your opponents didn't come back for more." Doflamingo leered at Kaido as he stopped several paces away from the other man, "Are you losing your touch? You are nothing like the man I remember meeting." The blond pirate was all but daring Kaido to come and attack him, as he had taken on an almost relaxed pose. The effect was ruined as Luffy got back into the clearing from where he had flow off after he had missed striking Kaido earlier.

Luffy skidded to a halt, looked between Doflamingo and Kaido, before he focused on Doflamingo, his voice indignant, as if the smiling man had somehow offended him, "Hey! Mingo! I'm gonna kick Kaido's ass!"

Doflamingo stared at Luffy for a moment, before his smile stretched and he threw his head back to laugh. He laughed even harder when Luffy, apparently believing that Doflamingo was trying to fight the emperor again, went after the laughing blond instead. This reaction apparently amused Doflamingo even more as he began to dodge Luffy's attacks. He was only sorry that he wasn't in the mood to crush Straw Hat just yet. He just didn't have enough energy to exert to deal with the damn brat right now, but once he did, he would not allow Straw Hat Luffy to do what he was doing right now.

"Jet Stamp!"

Doflamingo twisted out of the way of the kick, while at the same time slashing one hand in Kaido's direction to prevent the emperor from interrupting right away. The situation was too damn entertaining to Doflamingo that he wanted it to last a tad longer. And then, as soon as it had started, it ended as the green haired swordsman called out to Straw Hat. Doflamingo was disappointed, but supposed he'd rather have the time and energy to make Straw Hat's life miserable for daring to stand against him back in Dressrosa.

"Luffy!"

"Hm?" Luffy halted his attack and threw himself backwards and away from Doflamingo to land next to Zoro.

The swordsman shook his head, even though he himself stood next to a pile of injured and unconscious zoans. Zoro held up a transponder snail, "It's Kin'emon." He said by way of explanation.

'Luffy! We were besieged by numerous odd men. Your comrades have been hurt!'

Usopp's voice took over as the sound of swords clashing against one another rang out, 'We're ok but there are too many of them for us to handle!'

Sanji's voice spoke over as Usopp screamed something, and, apparently, ran a good distance away from whatever it was that had prompted said scream, as the scream grew quieter. The Straw Hat cook's voice sounded worn out, 'I hate to say it, but we're outnumbered. We need to get out of here, Luffy. We need to regroup and think this out.'

Luffy frowned, and Zoro could tell that his captain was relunctant to leave, but obviously upset that his friends were hurt. The green haired swordsman was interrupted from trying to speak to his captain as Doflamingo wandered over to them, seeming to completely dismiss Kaido's presence.

"Straw Hat Luffy…I wouldn't bother with this one." Doflamingo chuckled at the sight of Luffy as he tensed up. Unperturbed, Doflamingo indicated Kaido by waving a hand in the other man's general direction, "He isn't who you think he is."

Zoro regarded Doflamingo suspiciously with a narrowed eye, hands on his katanas' hilts, "And we should trust your word on that?"

Doflamingo carelessly sent off a few bullet strings over one shoulder, more or less ignored the screams of a few of Kaido's crew, before he spoke again with a wide smile, "I don't care if you trust my word or not. Would it be more useful to tell you that I would rather crush your captain at my own leisure?"

Luffy struck a battle ready pose at that announcement, "You wanna go now, mingo?"

"Luffy, the others are injured. We don't have time to deal with him." Zoro reminded his captain, even if he did think that something should be done about Doflamingo. The crazy bastard most certainly would follow through on his words, though when and where were entirely up for debate. And right now, it would only slow them down to try and figure out what Doflamingo had planned.

"Yeah, you're right." Luffy turned and followed after Zoro, though he did call over his shoulder at Doflamingo, "I'll get you later, mingo!"

Doflamingo's laughter followed the Straw Hats as they ran, though the man himself followed along after them as some of Kaido and his men gave chase.

Kidd and Law, as well as the rest of the Heart Pirates ran after Luffy and Zoro as they avoided some of the still mobile zoans' attacks.

Kidd cursed as Killer none too gently hefted him to his feet and pulled him along. Kidd let it slide, as he knew he would have not been any help getting himself to his feet on his own. The redhead did try and help to move along faster, once Killer had muttered to him under his breath that he had gotten a call from Apoo and his crew. It had also included the fact that they and Hawkins' crew, who carried their unconscious captain along, had had to unfortunately retreat from their battles as well.

Kidd was too tired out to find it funny that they were all getting their asses handed to them by a bunch of damn Zoans.

How embarrassing.

Doflamingo ran along with a smile, and it only grew as he noticed that Law had given him a look as Penguin helped him along. He merely let his smile remain in place, amused that it made Law narrow his eyes at him. The smile lessened when Law smirked back, and spoke.

"Room."

Doflamingo grinned again as Law and the others vanished from his view. Interesting, he had thought that the dark haired pirate was too worn out to make such a large room. Doflamingo chuckled as he veered off into the forest. He presumed that Law was attempting to leave him stranded on the island, which was rather pointless. It would only leave him stranded for as long as it took him to gather enough energy to make a sky path.

Behind all of them, Kaido's voice rose in a furious roar.

"You cannot continue to delay the inevitable!"

-x

"Do you hear that?" Nami asked, as she looked over the side of the ship and into the surrounding forest. She had a bad feeling about anchoring off shore, and couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen. Something always happened when Luffy ended up on a new island. It seemed to be an unavoidable fact in the Straw Hat crew's life.

Robin turned to face the direction Nami was looking in, and agreed, "Yes, it sounds like someone is headed this way."

"What's that?" Momonosuke asked as a thin spherical dome appeared over the Thousand Sunny. He was still in dragon form.

"Isn't that...?" Nami was cut off by the arrival of the rest of her crew, Law's entire crew, Kin'emon, as well as Kidd and Killer, all of whom had various degrees of injuries. The orange haired navigator noticed the Zoan users as they came out of the forest to stand on the shore, and that was that. She had not been waiting there with the ship for Luffy and the others to draw their enemies toward them. They were supposed to be taking care of the problem and leaving it behind on the island. Nami stomped over to Luffy and whapped him over the head, "What the hell are you doing bringing Kaido's crew this way? I hope you at least found some treasure."

Luffy rubbed his head and whined, "But Zoro said we had to get everyone away." And just like that, Luffy crossed his legs, hands on his knees as he started to grin, "That emperor's really strong! But I can beat him after I eat some meat."

"That isn't the problem right now!" Nami sniped, not even sure why she was bothering, as it was obvious that Luffy had already made up his mind.

"Sanji! I want a lunchbox so I can go beat Kaido!" Luffy called from where he was seated, raising his hands and waving them at the blond haired cook.

Sanji leaned up against the wall near the open cabin door as Chopper went behind the half open door and peeked out from behind it. Sanji lit a cigarette and let out a sigh, "There isn't really any time for that with them already within range of the ship." The hand not occupied with the cigarette rested across his chest, "Besides, we're all hungry and tired. And Usopp got some nasty gashes from one of those zoans. We weren't prepared for this."

At that, Chopper disappeared into the cabin, before he returned with medical supplies and went over to Usopp.

"But I'm hungry!" Luffy whined at Sanji as he flopped over onto the deck, "I'll be fine as soon as I eat something." Luffy rolled to one side to avoid a kick from Nami.

"Not all of us are going to recover that way!"

Luffy frowned up at Nami, "Huh? But don't you want lunch too?"

Nami sighed, and knew she'd have to answer that, "We should really pay attention to all those zoans, but I am a little hungry..."

Sanji was suddenly more than willing to go make lunch despite his injuries and initial reluctance now that Nami had mentioned it in passing.

Law watched the exchange between Luffy and the rest of the Strawhats as even more of them joined in on the conversation, with varying degrees of ridiculousness that cumulated in a mock fight between Zoro and Sanji. The latter had called the former a 'shitty one-eyed moss headed loser swordsman' in response to Zoro calling the cook an idiot for tripping over himself to please the ladies when there was a threat on shore. The Heart Pirate captain couldn't believe the stupidity he was witnessing, but he was far more concerned that Kaido's crewmembers looked like they were ready to try and find a way to the ship to continue the earlier battle. He could only hope that Luffy and the others would take things seriously when Kaido showed himself.

"Fufufufu. That was cold of you to leave me behind, Law."

Law tried to ignore Doflamingo's mock hurt tone, but he could not ignore the older man when Doflamingo chose to poke him in the shoulder with a foot. Law half turned, using Kikoku to shove Doflamingo's foot away, and glared at the older pirate that was perched on the railing of the ship's deck, wearing a smile. Law's fingers traced his blade's sheathe, unable to tell if Doflamingo was going to attack now or later. "I could have left you behind in pieces."

Doflamingo's grin stretched, and he angled a few fingers of one hand in Law's direction, and smiled even more at the thin line Law's mouth had set in. "I can tell you right now that you do not want to try that with me. I am tired and Kaido is not making my day any better." Doflamingo freed Law's hand that held his weapon and twisted slightly so that he could view the zoan users with a now humorless grin, "I really do hate being made a fool of."

Law, as well as a majority of the others on the ship within viewing range, were taken aback as Doflamingo stood on the railing, and without warning, began to slash his hands in the direction of the zoan users. The resulting bloodbath on the shore was something that Law tried to unsee, but because of his close proximity, the sudden screams made it harder to forget.

Soon enough, the only movement that came on shore were from those that had not died in the initial attack, and Doflamingo, still wearing a grin, leaned to one side to avoid being punched by Luffy. It made him laugh because he didn't see why Luffy was so upset to begin with. Doflamingo had merely been weeding out the weak ones to draw out the one that he had a bone to pick with. He was tired of the charade, and was ready for it to end.

Law was relieved that Luffy's crew separated him from the older pirate. It was clear that Doflamingo had hoped for an excuse to do the same thing to the people on the Thousand Sunny that he had done to the zoans on shore, when everyone present was distracted by a clear and sharp voice from the shore that rose over the moans of the wounded.

"You won't escape so easily."

Kaido.

There was a short silence before Doflamingo broke it by laughing mockingly from where he was perched on the Thousand Sunny's railing, "Fufufufu. Drop the act already. It is getting very tiresome and I do so hate being made a fool of. Continue with it, and I really will take offense." Doflamingo's smile turned into a sharp one at the silence that followed his words, and he tilted his head as he studied the lone Zoan user on the shore. The older pirate nodded, as if he were confirming something, "That's what I thought." What Doflamingo meant by that was a mystery to those listening, until he added, with certainty clarity, "You are not Kaido."

"What?!"

Doflamingo ignored the incredulous cries from those on the Thousand Sunny as he narrowed his eyes at the man on the shore, "Tell your captain that if he was going to act, to come himself. If it is a fight he wants, he must partake in it. Not send subordinates. I won't forget this."

The not-Kaido wore a nasty smile as the surprise wore off, "As soon as my captain kills you, you will forget." The zoan user turned and headed in the forest. Everyone had gone silent, apart from Doflamingo's laughter that followed the not-Kaido, as if to let him know how he felt about his parting words.

A quiet hush fell over the Thousand Sunny.

Kidd glanced around at everyone around him before he spoke aloud what nearly everyone else must have been thinking, "What the fuck was that all about?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A/N: I had so much trouble with this chapter, which was why it took so long to get around to posting it. I hope it turned out all right. The tenses were really bad when I first started to edit it. And wow, nearly 100 favs and follows? Thanks! I guess I'm doing something right with the story, lol. I do like to write to entertain, which I think I may have mentioned before, so hopefully I can continue to keep it up for the rest of the fic. I realize that I have been updating other stories more often, so thanks for not badgering me about when the next chapter for this will be posted. I do plan to continue to update this story, it just takes me longer to type this particular fanfic because I intended to make it as IC as I can. Oh, and I'm fairly certain that I will not update during November, because I'm going to do the nanowrimo this year, but then again, I never know when the mood to type will hit me, so who knows, I might.

And when I looked over the summary that I have written out for this fanfic, I think that it is going to be longer than I initially thought (it already is anyway, and I'm not surprised I suppose), because I needed to add some things to get to the ending that I had written out when I first started it. Hopefully it doesn't meander too much as the chapters go by.