The small girl stared up at the sky and watched the clouds form shapes above her. The sea had finally calmed down, but at a cost. Her mom and dad never came up from the sea.

"I'm thirsty..I'm hungry..It's hot" The girl said to herself, "I want to go home..but where is home?"

She frowned, "Everything is so fuzzy.."

...

"Caption! She isn't dead!"

"Really? What a relief, I thought we'd have to throw her overboard"

"We still might have to, for all we know she could be dangerous"

"She's a kid, what harm can she do?"

"Caption..."

"She was sailing on a small fishing ship, the least we can do is get her to the next island"

The girl groaned, and shut her eyes tightly, "Where am I?" She mumbled

"Oh, she's waking up"

The young girl's eyes fluttered open and instantly focused on the faces around her. She wasn't sure where she was, or who these people were but almost all of them had smiles on their faces. Except for one lady.

"I'm glad you're alive" A man said, smiling down at her, "I thought we'd lost you for a while there"

"Lost me?"

The man nodded, "You've been sleeping for about a week" He said, "Why were you alone on a fishing boat?"

The girl frowned, "My dad fell overboard the ship when the waves started getting big and mom tried to save him but they never came back up"

The people didn't say anything instead they just exchanged glances with each other.

"What's your name kid?" The woman asked

"Avara"

"Avara, my name is Kou" The man closest to her said, "and I'm the captain of this ship"

"Are you the one that saved me?" She asked

He nodded

"Thank you"

..

..

Avara stared down at the pink den den mushi in silence, not daring to make a sound. The snail had the same grin on its face that Doflamingo always wore. She frowned and mentally cursed to herself for even picking up the receiver in the first place.

"So what do you say?" The snail asked, "Tell me where you are now and I'll only kill the captain"

She opened her mouth but shut it quickly.

Clank

Avara sighed and looked over at the now sleeping snail, "I shouldn't have picked you up"

"Oi, Avara! How long are you planning on reading the paper?" Tia asked

"Just a little longer" Avara said, "Why are you in such a rush?"

"There's a lot of news involving the new world" Tia said, "We all need some background this time"

Avara nodded, "I get it. Give me a few more minutes then it's all yours"

"Alright, come give it to me when you're done"

Avara frowned and turned her attention back to the article she'd read at least ten times. The bold head line made her feel sick to her stomach, "Shichibukai Donquixote Doflamingo takes out every pirate in his path". She knew he was ruthless man from when she sailed with him, but this was out of character even for him.

She shuddered, because in the back of her mind she knew this was his way of threatening them. Killing the weak, he'd do that all the time, but going out of his way to destroy all the pirates at whatever island he was docked at, that wasn't like him at all.

"So that's the man that wants to kill our captain?" Tia asked after she finished reading the paper

Avara nodded.

"He's taken out a lot of rookies in the past two weeks, even some pirates who were supposed to be big names in the future" Tia said as she took a seat next to Avara on the floor of the ship's deck, "He's even worse than Aokiji"

"Once we reach the new world avoiding him will be easy. For now the only real danger is him getting to Sabaody before our ship is finished getting coated" Avara said

"Isn't there a chance we'll see them at fishmen island too?" Tia asked

Avara shook her head, "He'll go through the calm belt, unlike us he can't really afford to take the scenic root there"

Tia sighed, "Well, I suppose that's one less thing to worry about"

"One less thing?" Avara asked

"Yeah, right now our biggest problem is trading in our gold for berri. We've got to do that"

Avara nodded, "Don't trust captain with money?"

"Not at all"

"How'd we wind up here?" Tia asked

Avara shrugged her shoulders but didn't take her eyes off of the large building in front of them. She knew exactly where they'd wound up. The human auction house. She'd never really spoken to him about it, but at least twice a week he'd wind up talking to that Disco guy about profits and any problems.

"We should leave this place, it's kind of dangerous" Avara said

"What even is this place?" Tia asked

"It's an auction house that sells people, civilians and pirates included" Avara said, "If we get stuck in there it'll be trouble"

Tia nodded, "Alright then, let's go"

"How do you know about that place?" Tia asked as they redirected themselves away from the house

"A little birdie" Avara said

Tia nodded, "Does the government know about it?"

"Yeah, they know exactly what it is but they really can't do anything about it" She paused, "A lot of celestial dragons use this place to buy slaves, the government isn't going to do anything that'll upset them and closing down this place without a reason would probably really piss them off"

"Is it really alright to have such a young guy coating the ship?" Avara asked as she watched over the young man who was inspecting their ship.

"Yeah" Kou said with a smile, "I found him right when he was finishing coating another ship and I made sure to keep watch for a while to make sure nothing came floating back up to the surface. Tia's still made at me though"

Avara chuckled, "Well, she did tell you to get at least three"

"This was easier" Kou said, "Plus, since when do first mates boss around their captain?.."

"Since when do you marry your first mate?" Avara questioned

"Fair enough" He mumbled after a minute of silence.