I do not own One Piece.

"Come not between the Dragon and his wrath." William Shakespeare.

"I hate this place," Luffy muttered angrily as he trudged over a rickety wooden bridge that crossed over a deep ravine. It had been a little over three months since his grandfather Garp had dumped him on the outskirts of the Goa Kingdom to live with mountain bandits of all people.

He hated it, but the only thing he hated more then mountain bandits was being alone. That was why he found himself trudging after the only other person around his age in these mountains, an older boy by the name of Ace. So far, Ace had scoffed at any attempt at friendship, even attacking Luffy when he tried following after him. But Luffy was determined and stubborn, something that had only increased since he ate his devil fruit.

Which was why he now found himself trudging after Ace through the woods outside of Dadans bandit camp. He took another step over the bridge where he knew Ace had walked and stopped when he heard it creaking.

The rickety bridge suddenly gave way, and Luffy quickly sprouted a large set of black wings from his back. With all his might, Luffy began to flap his new wings as hard as he could, which allowed him to hover, and with great effort, he began to clumsily fly towards the other end, lest he fall into the deep ravine.

Luffy flew with all the grace of an eagle that was piloting a blimp. He hadn't yet mastered his new powers, and his black wings flapped rapidly and out of sync as he struggled to fly towards the other side. After what felt like an hour, although in truth it had probably been only a minute, he was hovering over solid ground and ceased his flapping.

He fell onto the dirt in a heap; he was breathing heavily while sweating profusely. He had been training with his devil fruit quite a bit but made very little progress. He could turn portions of his body into that of a dragon, but the appendages were strange, hard to control, and exhausting to use. Attempting to turn into a full dragon wasn't much of a better choice either; whenever he fully transformed, he was overcome with either rage or greed. He felt either an overwhelming desire to gather treasure; whether it be gold, silver, or anything shiny, he ended up wanting it. Even when in his normal human form, he found himself being more attracted to treasure, he loved it almost as much as meat which was just wrong, but he couldn't help himself; he just loved shiny things. He had stopped turning into a full Dragon after his grandfather had to beat him up to stop him from stealing all the money in Fuusha village.

"This damn fruit has turned me into a fire-breathing magpie," Luffy muttered as he picked himself up and focused on the task at hand. "Now where did Ace go…" It was tempting for him to use his compass; ever since Shanks had given it to him, he had found it endlessly helpful when it came to looking for anything. But he wanted to focus on training his senses.

Luffy crouched down on all fours and sniffed the ground. His senses had grown far more sensitive since his transformation; his sense of smell, in particular, had significantly increased; he could hunt down anything with his new and improved nose. So he focused on the smells all around him. He could smell rotting vegetation, numerous animals, sweat, blood, and Ace. "Ace smells like treasure…" That was another thing Luffy found himself able to do more and more of lately. He could smell and sense treasure. Anything golden or valuable he could pick up on either with his nose or through some strange new sense he now possessed. Ever since meeting Ace, the boy always smelled like treasure.

Luffy followed the scent through the woods but soon, the smell of Ace was overcome by the smell of rotting garbage and burning trash, and just about everything smelled like some sort of waste until Ace's scent was utterly drowned out. Not knowing what else to do, Luffy followed the smell until he reached a massive mountain of garbage sitting just outside of a gigantic walled city.

"Wow..." As disgusting as this place smelled, Luffy couldn't help but be amazed at its size and majesty. Forgetting about Ace, he quickly set about exploring his new surroundings; he spent hours talking to random people and seeing every inch of this unique place. Luffy learned that this was the Goa Kingdom; he knew about it since it was the main settlement on Dawn island but hearing about it and seeing it were two entirely different things. He explored as much as he could until suddenly, his exploration of his new surroundings was stopped by a group of armed men trudging through the trash heap.

"I hear that Porchemy is close to finding Ace and Sabo." One of the men stated as he walked at a brisk opaque towards the woods.

"Good, if we don't find the treasure those kids stole, then captain Bluejam will have his head and outs." Another rugged man replied.

"Yeah, let's go finish those brats off!"

Luffy crouched low to the ground and followed the group of men hoping they would lead him to Ace and maybe some treasure. Luffy shook those thoughts from his head. Just Ace, I don't need treasure, no sir, I don't need any of that golden, beautiful, valuable treasure. He shook those thoughts from his head; he didn't need to embrace his more Draconic aspects right now; he needed to help Ace so that the boy could become his friend and he wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

Luffy followed the men to a forested area where they joined another group of men gathered around a massive tree. There were maybe a little over a dozen men, all of them surrounding two young boys hanging from one of the trees' huge branches by long thick lengths of hempen rope. One of the tied-up figures was Ace, and the other was a boy that Luffy didn't recognize; he was a blond boy with a large hat.

"I don't have much time." The lead man stated he was a brute of a man with numerous tattoos etched onto his muscled body. "I know you two took the treasure that I was going to deliver to captain Bluejam, so tell me where it is, and I promise to only break a few fingers on each of your hands instead of gutting you where you hang."

"Never…" Ace replied angrily; it looked like he had put up quite a fight before being captured if his bruised and bloody form was anything to go by. "If you needed it so badly, maybe you should have protected it better."

"Brat!" The man yelled angrily as he delivered a punch to Ace's face. "I'm a dead man if I dont give Bluejam his money, so I've got nothing to lose. If I'm going to end up dying and going to hell, I'm going to drag you two with me! So I'll ask nicely one more time, where is my money?!"

Luffy felt a fit of familiar anger building up inside him; it was the same type of rage he felt in Makino's bar all those months ago. His body moved on its own as he stepped out of his hiding place among the bushes.

"Let him go!"

Ace was considering telling Porchemy where their treasure was; the man was a monster and would not make empty threats. As much as it pained him to give away the location of his and Sabo's hard dishonest work these last five years, he didn't want Sabo to suffer torture and death over some treasure.

"Let him go!"

Everyone's eyes turned to the figure of Luffy standing alone about a dozen yards from where they were all situated. Ace couldn't believe his eyes; that stupid brat from Dadans bandit camp had followed him all the way to the Gray Terminal and was putting himself in danger for him. "This isn't your business Luffy!" Ace called out, angry that he had been followed. "Go back home and leave me alone-" he was cut off from speaking further due to Porchemy delivering a vicious punch to his chest that knocked the wind out of his lungs.

"Who the hell are you, brat?" Porchemy asked, taking his attention away from Ace. "This has nothing to do with you; get the hell out of here unless you want to be strung up like these two brats."

"I said to leave them alone…" Luffy growled; he was looking at the ground, his eyes covered in shadow.

"Oi Ace…" Sabo spoke up weakly. "Who the hell is this kid?"

"A brat from Dadans…" Ace croaked as he regained his breath.

"What's a kid like you going to do to me? Are you going to punch my shins?!" Porchemy let out a laugh that his men were quick to join. "You an idiot or something, kid? Get the hell out of here before I kill you."

"No…" Luffy replied, his voice growing colder. Ace felt a chill run up his spine; it was as if his fight or flight instinct had finally kicked in. He had never run away from a fight before, but for the first time in his life, his body was telling him to run.

"Then you get to join these brats, you little punk!" Porchemy yelled as he started to approach Luffy.

Ace knew Luffy ate a devil fruit; he had seen the boy's skin turn black, had seen the boy sprout a tail, and even a set of wings. But his abilities seemed more like a hindrance then anything else. But now he could only watch as the boy's entire body turned black with dark scales, and his body grew in size until it was as large as a horse, not counting the long neck and massive tail that had numerous spikes along its edges with a massive one at its tip like a spear.

"You really are a Dragon…" Ace found himself muttering as he watched the boy change before his eyes. Porchemy and his men were in even greater states of shock as they tried to make sense of what they were seeing.

"What is that thing?!"

"It's a Dragon!"

"Idiot Dragons aren't real!"

"I don't care what it is; kill it!" Porchemy ordered loudly as he drew his blade. "Show this creature the strength of the Bluejam pirates!"

One of Porchemy's men obeyed immediately and ran at the Dragon attempting to cut it with a saber. However, the dragon used its tail much like a scorpion and impaled the man through the chest with the massive metallic bard that tipped the tail before being flung aside as if he were garbage. Several other men attempted to avenge their comrade, but they were sent flying with a tail swipe that sent them crashing into trees or onto rocks where they lay motionless.

"Burn in hellfire!"

The Dragon then turned to the remaining pirates and let out a massive breath of fire, and Ace winced as the temperature in the clearing rose dramatically; he heard the sounds of screams as numerous pirates were engulfed in flames. They ran about the clearing trying to put themselves out to no avail; the fire burned them until they were nothing but blackened husks.

Porchemy himself was backing away from the Dragon as it approached him, its blood-red eyes narrowed in anger. "Stop, please spare me; I never meant to-" He was cut off by the Dragon opening its maw and lunging forward, its jaws closing around the man's torso; Porchemy wailed as he was shaken back and forth before being let go and flung into one of the threes in the clearing where his body landed in a bloody heap. With all his foes dead, the Dragon approached Ace and Sabo.

"Please don't kill us, Mr. Dragon!" Sabo wailed as he struggled against his bindings. "You can have all our treasure; just don't eat us!"

"Treasure?" The Dragon asked, its voice sounding both deep but also light and childish. "You have...treasure? Where is Ace? Where am I?" Suddenly, the Dragon began to shrink until all that remained was a very dazed and confused-looking Luffy.

"On crap…" Luffy muttered, eyes scanning the environment around him. "I did it again…"

Luffy looked around at the death and destruction he had caused and felt….calm. "Is there something wrong with me?" He asked himself as he inspected himself while Ace and the other boy had managed to get themselves down from the tree branch. The last time he had killed people, he had been broken up about it; it was only thanks to Shanks that he was able to forgive himself and move on; now, all he felt was slightly annoyed at having to deal with this entire situation. Before he could consider his situation more, Ace walked right up to him and shoved Luffy back with such force that he almost lost his balance.

"Why the hell did you follow me!?" Ace growled like a rabid dog. "What is it you want from me, and why did you get involved in business that isn't yours?"

Luffy cocked his head to the side curiously. "All I want is the same thing I've been asking for the last few months." He stated. "I just want to be friends; being alone with those mountain bandits is torture, so I was hoping we could be friends and go on adventures."

"That's it?!" Ace yelled angrily. "You followed me through woods infested with wild animals, searched through mountains of trash, and killed a bunch of pirates just so we could be friends?!"

"Yeah…" Luffy replied as he picked his nose. "That's what I just said. Are you some kind of idiot that needs to be told something a bunch of times to understand it?" He turned to the other boy who had gotten himself free from his bindings and came up to stand next to Ace. "I have no idea who you are, but we should also be friends!"

"Okay!" The boy replied cheerfully as he smiled, revealing that he was missing a tooth. "My name is Sabo; who are you, and how can you turn into a Dragon?"

Luffy was more then happy to explain and did so with gusto. He told Sabo about Shanks, how he ate his devil fruit, its powers, and about how he was sent to live with Dadan by his grandfather. He would have kept talking, but Ace stopped him.

"How did you even find me?" Ace asked as he gestured to the woods around them. "Did you seriously track me through the Gray Terminal and the woods?"

"I sniffed you out." Luffy gestured towards his nose. "Ever since I gained the ability to turn into a Dragon, I've been able to track things through my sense of smell alone. You were easy to follow since you smell like treasure; my nose is extremely good at smelling treasure."

"You can smell treasure?" Ace asked, his voice filled with evident skepticism. "How is that possible?"

"It makes sense." Sabo chimed in. "In all the stories I've read, Dragons have a nose for treasure and use that sense to gather massive piles of it to sleep on!"

"Yup." Luffy nodded, happy to be believed. He sniffed the air and got a good whiff of treasure. "In fact, I smell a great deal of treasure nearby." He began walking around the clearing until he reached the tree that Ace and Sabo had been hanging from. "I don't know why but for some reason, this tree reeks of treasure."

"You really can smell treasure…" Ace muttered.

"This is great!" Sabo cheered happily as he walked up to the tree. "This is where Ace and I have been storing treasure and money we've stolen from people here for the last five years. We plan on becoming pirates, and this treasure is how we're going to afford to buy a ship and sail out of here."

"You also want to be pirates?!" Luffy asked, not believing what he was hearing. Not only had he found new friends, but they also shared the same dream as him. "I'm the guy who is going to be the Pirate King!"

"Are you now?" Sabo chuckled. "I like this guy, Ace we've got to cut him in!"

"No!" Ace spoke up angrily. "You want us to split our treasure three ways! It took us years to get the amount we have!"

"But with his nose and our skills, we can make up the difference and then some!" Sabo stated cheerfully as he turned to Luffy. "How about it, Luffy? Want to join us in our quest to rob the uppity nobility like real land pirates?"

"Of course!" Luffy cried out, excited at the prospect of having two new friends and going on all sorts of adventures.

Luffy smiled as he counted the latest treasure haul; it sat before him like an ocean of gold, silver, and gemstones. The only way the sight could be even more beautiful was if there was meat mixed in with the treasure.

It had only been a year since he had become friends with Sabo and Ace, six months since they had shared drinks and become brothers. Yet, it felt like he had known the two his entire life as if they had all been born into the same family and had grown up together.

Luffy shook those thoughts from his head as he opened up a black book and started counting the haul. He wasn't sure if it was his devil fruit, his greed, or some new development in his brain, but he had grown extremely good at math. Specifically when it came to counting up and dealing with large sums of money.

The start of it all had been the issue of taking all the forms of currency they had stolen, the gold, the silver, the beli, and numerous types of coinage and turning it into a common value. So Luffy drew up a table that allowed them to do just that. In fact, all forms of money-related math such as compound interest and numerous other things came to him as easily as breathing. The ability to do math hadn't been the end either. Luffy had also taken up reading for fun, the result of his brother Sabo shoving books in front of him as a way to relax, to give him a break from the constant bookkeeping he did for them. Luffy had been skeptical about reading at. At first, math and reading had been a necessary evil to him more then anything else. However, Sabo had been right, and reading was fun; his favorite books were ones about pirates, such as the Sparrow pirates' adventures, the very books that made Sabo want to become a pirate when he was a child.

Using his reading and writing skills, Luffy began to add up the haul and write down its details into the log. As he started counting up the haul, Sabo and Ace joined him in their own personal fort, where they counted up the money before storing it away in a secret hiding place.

"I got some more good stuff," Sabo stated as he emptied out numerous pieces of jewelry and coins into the pile. Sabo favored pickpocketing nobles in the Goa Kingdom, and as a result, most of his loot was expensive jewelry and finery.

"I got some too." Ace dropped several small gold bars and other odds and ends onto the pile. Ace preferred robbing people by the docks, mainly wealthy merchants and pirates on shore leave.

"Wow, great haul, guys," Luffy said as he looked at the various treasures. He had a sixth sense for treasure and could tell the value of something with just a glance. He looked closely at the gold and gave it a big sniff with his nose. "Eighteen karats, with two pieces of twenty-two karat gold...multiplied by three, and with the common exchange rate, we have a haul of about twenty million beli assuming we can sell the gold-embroidered silks."

"It's freaky how you can tell an item's value by sniffing it." Ace pointed out as he leaned against one of the walls of their wooden hideout. "It's cool but freaky…"

"That's the part you find weird?" Luffy asked as he added up all the money and wrote the grand total at the bottom of the page. "Not the part where I can turn into a giant black scaled fire breathing lizard?"

"I think that's the cool part," Sabo added as he sat down next to the treasure and began stuffing it into bread bags for easy transport to their hiding spot. "Although it would be cooler if you didn't go on a rampage half the time you changed."

"I'm getting better," Luffy argued, although sometimes he wondered if he was. He made very little progress with his hybrid form; the strange combination of human and draconic limbs was hard to balance. His body was simply too small to handle the new appendages. As for his full-size transformation, he had to be of a perfectly calm mind to change into a full-grown dragon. Otherwise, he would run off in search of treasure, hunt animals, or if someone had pissed him off or threatened him or his brothers, he would attack that person wildly. However, he could control himself well when he did transform under calm conditions. He particularly enjoyed flying around the island with his brothers on his back; his draconic torso was just big enough for both boys to ride comfortably.

"Well, if you master your devil fruit, then you can become a sky pirate," Sabo said happily. "You could just fly around and rob all the rich people of this world just like a real dragon."

"Yeah, I could. " Luffy reached over to a nearby bag and produced a beautiful tobacco pipe that Sabo had stolen from a nobleman a few months ago. It was supposedly made from rare wood, and the nobleman used it as a status symbol. It was primarily black with golden designs worked into the wood. Ace and Sabo had tried to smoke with it like they had seen grown-ups do, but it set them coughing. Luffy, on the other hand, found the act of smoking enjoyable. He put some tobacco leaves into the pipe and breathed lightly into it, his breath igniting the leaves.

Ace coughed as some of the smoke flew towards him. "I cant believe you enjoy that; just breathing that stuff makes me feel like I'm inhaling glass and ash."

"I like it," Luffy stated as he took a deep puff from the pipe before breathing out the smoke. "If anything, it makes my lungs feel great." After smoking, Luffy always felt refreshed and found that he could breathe better.

"I guess it makes sense; Dragons like to breathe smoke, fire, and brimstone," Sabo muttered as he waved the smoke away from his face. "Just don't let your grandfather catch you smoking that thing."

Luffy winced at that thought; his grandfather came by occasionally to train him, Ace, and Sabo. His grandpa's idea of training is beating the crap out of them and dropping them into dangerous situations. He put out his pipe and set it aside as he helped Ace and Sabo gather up their ill-gotten gains into bread bags to haul off to their stash.

Once the loot was packed up nicely, they took it out of the hideout they made, and Luffy started to transform into a Dragon. His body grew long and serpentines, his once pink flesh turned midnight black as scales erupted from his once smooth skin, a massive tail lined with jagged black spikes erupted from his backside, and from his back, two enormous night black wings sprouted forth.

The wings and tail were always the strangest for Luffy, his Zoan transformation was weird in general, but the new appendages were the hardest to control. He took a few experimental flaps with his wings as Ace and Sabo strapped the loot to his body, securing it with hempen rope before hopping on his back themselves.

"Alright, Luffy, let's go stash this stuff!" Ace called out as he gripped the ropes, using them to secure himself.

"Yeah, let's take the scenic route!" Sabo added happily.

"We always take the scenic route…" Luffy grumbled as he began running and flapping his massive wings in an attempt to take flight.

"Don't complain. The scenic route is great!" Ace called out over the sounds of Luffy's wings.

"That's because you get to relax while I carry you!" Luffy called out as he took flight and began to soar higher and higher into the air. All his complaints dyed as he gained altitude and began to enjoy the freedom the sky offered him; despite it being a long way, he did indeed take the scenic route. He flew over the Goa Kingdom forests, stirring up numerous flocks of birds that flew around him as he flew over the tops of massive trees.

Eventually, he entered the northern Corvo mountain range, where he flew up alongside the peaks of the small mountains where numerous mountain goats were prancing upon the rocky cliff sides. Luffy was about to swoop down on one and take it for a mid-flight snack, but Ace yanked on his harness. "No snacks Luffy, if the goat struggles, we could lose some loot!" Ace grumbled out loud. Luffy frowned but obeyed his older brother as he turned away from the mountains and headed towards the ocean.

Luffy had always loved the ocean despite never being a great swimmer; even before eating his devil fruit, he had always struggled with merely staying afloat. When he had eaten his devil fruit, he thought enjoyment of the ocean would always be beyond his grasp now that the sea rejected him.

He had never been so wrong about something in his life.

Being able to fly nullified whatever weakness he had at not being able to swim. He glided over the surface of the ocean, allowing his bottom claws and tail to dip into the water as he flew over its beautiful blue reflective surface. Numerous fish jumped out of the water before him, and he managed to catch one in his maw and devoured it greedily, flying tended to make him hungry. All around him, seagulls and albatrosses flew alongside him as his brothers cried out in joy and excitement. Flying was something that none of them grew bored of, and while Luffy would complain about having to haul his brothers on these voyages, he knew that he only enjoyed flying so much because he got to experience it with them.

Eventually, they reached their destination; it was a small island made up entirely out of massive rocks where waves beat against its sides constantly, sending up huge waves of white foam into the air. It was a rock where no ship could safely dock, nor would any ship want to since the giant rock held nothing valuable; that's what made it a fantastic place to stash their loot.

Up near the top of the rock was a large flat area big enough for Luffy to land, and from there was a cave, small enough to be hidden from view but large enough for two grown men to walk alongside each other. Ace and Sabo hopped off Luffy's back and took the treasure bags off of his sides, allowing him to transform back into a human.

The three of them made their way into the cave, which was dark, but that was easily solved by a few well-placed blasts of fire along the walls, which ignited several well-placed torches. Soon the cave glowed brightly as the light from the torches illuminated chests full of gold, silver, and various other bits of shiny treasure that Ace, Sabo, and Luffy had gathered.

Ace and Sabo unloaded the bags with their latest haul of wealth and began to sort it and add it to the various chests around the room while Luffy found a comfortable spot in the corner. A large pile of the very best gold, jewels, and various other valuables was put into a vast and disorganized pile in the said corner. Luffy plopped down on top of the pile and let out a tired sigh. Flying always took a toll on his stamina, and nothing soothed him better then a nap on top of a pile of treasure.

After sorting the treasure, Ace and Sabo caught some fish from the waters outside and promptly cleaned them and put them on skewers which Luffy cooked with his fire breath. Soon all three were sitting around the cave talking about their prospective futures.

"I'll call my crew the Spade pirates." Ace said, his mouth full of cooked fish. "That seems like a good name."

"I don't get it," Luffy muttered as he swallowed a fish whole, bones and all. Ever since eating his devil fruit, he could easily digest bones, gaining nutrients from the marrow. He liked it since it made eating meat easier since he could eat it bone-in. "Why Spade?"

"It's like cards." Sabo pointed out as he munched on his fish. "And since your name is Ace, that would make you the Ace of Spades."

"You got it!" Ace said happily. "Every crew needs a cool name."

"Not sure what mine would be..." Sabo said as he grew contemplative. "I guess we have years to figure it out; I could try playing up the former noble angle. Something like exiled noble pirates, or bastard pirates, or ahh who am I kidding, those names are terrible."

They all shared a laugh at that; it had been a little over half a year ago that Ace and Luffy had learned that Sabo was born a noble. They didn't care, of course, he was their brother, and nothing would change that. So they sat around their cave and dreamed about the future, which was filled with endless possibilities.

"Leave them alone!" Sabo called out as he was dragged away from his brothers by the thugs his damned parents had hired. He couldn't believe they would go through all this trouble just to take him back.

Sabo had hoped that between his and Ace's fighting ability and Luffy's devil fruit, they would be able to fight off any foe, but his parents had gone all out. Surrounding his brothers were the Bluejam pirates, all armed with swords, pistols, and giant bazooka's that could launch a metal ball with a cannon's force. All of them aimed at Luffy as if urging the boy to transform.

Sabo saw Luffy was going to transform into a dragon, but with all these guns pointed at him, Sabo wasn't sure if the boy could do it before he was riddled with lead. He couldn't bear to see his brother die before him. "Don't you dare, Luffy!" He called out, drawing the boy's attention. "If you do that, I won't forgive you!" That seemed to work as he saw his brother back down.

"That's enough, Sabo." His father said in a condescending tone. "You will return home immediately, you are my son, and you have to live your life according to your parents who brought you into this world. I won't have these urchins corrupting your mind; they are no doubt just after my fortune."

"We could care less about your fortune!" Ace argued. "Sabo is our brother!"

"Be silent, trash." His father replied. "I won't have you corrupt, my son, any longer, Bluejam, get rid of them."

Sabo saw the Bluejam pirates getting ready to execute his father's orders and made a decision. "ENOUGH OF THIS!" He called out as loud as he could, making his vocal cords ache. "I promise to do what you say, dad; I promise to be a good and noble son, just dont hurt Ace and Luffy!" He pleaded, he could sacrifice his dreams if it meant his brothers could live.

He heard his brothers protesting, but he ignored them and focused on his father. The man seemed to consider his words and nodded.

"Very well, son, I'll let the urchins scurry back into the trash and live like the vermin they are. But should you ever run away again or disobey me, I'll have Bluejam remove them permanently. Understand?"

Sabo nodded as he continued to ignore his brother's protests. His happiness didn't matter so long as his brothers were safe.

Luffy watched as the environment around him turned into a hellscape, piles of trash burned, and the flames reached up high into the sky. He found it quite pleasant, the smoke made the air nice to breathe, and the heat made him feel nice and toasty. His brother, on the other hand, was on his knees, sweating and coughing.

After Sabo got taken away, they had been forced by Bluejam to place boxes all over the Gray Terminal, which turned out to be ignitions for setting the terminal alight and burning away all the trash and people living there. Bluejam had expected to be rewarded for his efforts by being made a nobleman. Only for him to be betrayed and left to burn like everyone else.

"You promised to make me a noble!" Bluejam cried out as he wailed and smacked the gates, desperation evident in his voice as he clawed at the massive gates that led into the Goa Kingdom.

Ace and Luffy could only shake their heads and make their escape as Luffy turned into a Dragon, and Ace hopped onto his back. As Luffy prepared to take flight, Bluejam and his men came running up to them.

"Wait, don't let us burn. We can-"

Luffy took flight, not even bothering to acknowledge the pitiful pirate. Ace, on the other hand, wasn't of the same mind. "Have fun burning; it'll be a nice warmup for when you go to hell!" His older brother called out as they took to the sky. "Enjoy your eternal reward, courtesy of the Goa nobles and your own stupidity!"

They ignored the pirate's cries and left the pitiful men in the Gray Terminal to burn. They were both tired, but they made an effort to help the people around them. Ace warned people who weren't aware of what was happening, and they even managed to save a few people here and there, but soon they made their way home to Dadan, who was outside of her house with some of her men.

Luffy and Ace explained what they knew, that the nobility had hired Bluejam and his pirates to set fire to the grey terminal. There was nothing that could be done except hope for the best.

Ace watched as Luffy practiced his hybrid transformations; it was only yesterday that the Gray Terminal had burned, and life had returned to something resembling normal, albeit normal without their brother Sabo.

It had been hard to accept Sabo leaving; it had been evident that Sabo had been trying to protect them; even so, Ace couldn't help but wonder if the boy was happy. Being born into nobility and living in the Goa Kingdom's noble district had its perks; perhaps their brother could be happy there.

Ace watched as Luffy transformed his right arm into a scaled Dragonic once with five razor sharp claws, but the arm was much too big for the boy's young body, and Luffy fell onto his side, weighed down by the muscular scaled appendage.

"This is why you've never beaten me in a fight." Ace pointed out as he watched his brother struggle. "You need to learn to control your transformation better, or grow your normal body bigger for it."

"You could try encouraging me, you know!" Luffy grumbled as he reverted his arm to normal. "Sabo would have encouraged me…" Luffy paused. "Do you think he's happy?"

Ace scoffed. "It doesn't matter anymore; he's made a choice. He is also rich and-" He was cut off by the sounds of Dogra, Dadans lieutenant bandit breaking into the clearing.

"Sabo was killed!" Dogra called out as he came up to Ace and Luffy, joined by Dadan and several other bandits who came out of their home to see the commotion. "The visiting World Noble shot him in the harbor!"

Ace moved without thinking and pinned Dogra down. "What the hell are you saying!?" There was no way Sabo could be dead; he was safe in the Noble district with his family. "You're lying; Sabo is with his family! He chose to go back to them and live his life as a noble!"

"I'm not lying!" Dogra proclaimed as Ace was pulled off of the man by several other bandits. "I thought I might have been hallucinating or dreaming, I doubted my eyes for the longest time, but it was real! Sabo set out with a small boat and flew a jolly roger! But he got in the way of the world nobles ship and was killed by the noble!"

Ace couldn't stop the tears from falling as he realized what a fool they had been. "I knew he wouldn't be happy! He sacrificed himself for Luffy and me, and now those bastards killed him!" He reached over to where his trusty pipe was and grabbed it, intent on avenging his brother. He only managed to take several steps before he was pushed face-first into the ground, and the great weight of Curly Dadan was holding him down.

"You arent going anywhere, you dumb brat!" The large woman shouted as she pushed him down.

"Get off me! I'm going to avenge Sabo!" Ace declared as he struggled against his foster mother's grasp.

"Always acting so damn tough even though you're just a brat!" Dadan declared as she held him down. "All that would happen is that you would get killed, and the next day the world will have forgotten about you! Who do you think killed Sabo?! It was this country! This world! Do you think you can do a damn thing about it?! Your father died, bringing in a new age; I won't have you running off until you can do the same!"

Ace cried as he realized she was right; this entire world had killed Sabo. The whole Kingdom was set up to create misery and death. He was weak, weaker then his piece of shit father. There was nothing he could do.

"Sabo…"

Ace and everyone else turned to Luffy, who was on his knees, staring at the ground in absolute sorrow.

"They killed Sabo…" Luffy said, his voice barely above a whisper but clear enough for everyone to hear him. "The world noble, the nobles, this kingdom, this world killed him!" Luffy yelled, echoing Dadans words. His limbs thrashed wildly as his body began to shift.

Luffy began to transform, but this was unlike any transformation Ace had ever seen his brother go through before. When Luffy turned into a full Dragon, his body was the size of a large horse with a massive serpentine neck and tail. However, this time his black form just grew and grew until he was large, then the house that Dadan and her bandits lived in. He was so large that Ace wasn't sure how big he was; he towered over all of them, each of the scales on his brother's draconic form was bigger then his body. His brother's scales were each a shield; his teeth were swords, his claws were like spears, his wings were large enough to eclipse them all in shadow, his tail was large and more prolonged then a sea serpent, covered in massive spikes that could impale numerous men and his maw was big enough to swallow a ship.

Ace had read about devil fruits in as many books as he could steal from the Goa Kingdoms libraries. Zoan type fruit transformations were proportional to their users. Luffy's dragon form had only been as big as a horse because the boy was only eight years old, and his human body was small, so his dragon body was proportionally small. However, he read that a Zoan fruit user could overcome this weakness by awakening a devil fruit, which allowed them to expand their transformation to make it many times more big with very little to limit them.

"You've awakened it…"

"They will burn!" Luffy proclaimed with a roar as he took flight, an act which sent everyone flying as each flap of his wings was like a hurricane that sent them flying through the air. The dragon left, leaving everyone lying on the ground in shocked silence.

"Luffy…" Was all Ace managed to say as he watched the large shadow that flew through the sky towards the Goa Kingdom. Suddenly something dropped next to him; it was Luffy's compass, the one he claimed his role model Shanks had given him; he had seen the boy use it to find numerous items as well as pieces of treasure.

Ace immediately picked himself up and grabbed the compass, with Dadan having been knocked away by the winds caused by the dragon flying off, he was free to sprint as quickly as his legs could manage towards the Goa Kingdom.

I've already lost one brother; I'm not going to lose you as well.

Authors Note

Thank you for the wonderful reception, I'm glad many of you enjoyed the first chapter, and I hope this one was enjoyable as well.

First off I know Kaido's Devil fruit isn't called a Dragon Dragon Fruit, it's called the Fish Fish Fruit. Oda was having fun naming, basing the name on Chinese mythology where a giant Carp climbed a waterfall and turned into a Dragon. Luffy's fruit is a Serpent Serpent Fruit, I changed it up since Oda uses Dragon Dragon fruit for ancient Zoans.

I know many of you want Romance Dawn for Luffy to start his adventure. But with this new power comes changes to his childhood, and I felt like I couldn't skim over that. I also wanted to play around with the world; I want a butterfly effect that will allow me more freedom, and what happens next will be it.

Not much else to say; Luffy's Devil fruit has affected his personality in an interesting way. It's technically canon that carnivorous Zoan fruits make a user more predatory and violent. So I figured a mythical carnivorous Zoan would do the same and add other personality quirks like Luffy's obsession with treasure.

Please leave a review and let me know how you like this. The next chapter will be an interesting one.

Also, if you wish to support me, check out my profile, where you can find a link to a certain patronage site that features both my original and unoriginal work. Supporters of any amount will get chapters a week early. An early preview of chapter 3 is there now, still needs editing but still pretty good.