Being pressured, controlled, manipulated and tortured by Doflamingo was something a great many people had the tragedy of experiencing, Vergo had made that very clear upon their first meeting, thus teaching Anberlyn a very valuable lesson. Ruthless and cunning, Doflamingo used anyone who could get him what he wanted or needed. He promised many people many things and threatened just as many but, only his threats were guarantee.

Most people never knew what had hit them until it was too late and Anberlyn had been one of those people. He was like a tornado, tearing up everything in its path and occasionally even picking things up. Some of the things, the people that were picked up were… 'let go'…while others weren't so fortunate.

Only, instead of being used and then thrown away like most of Doflamingo's victims, he had sunk his claws deep into her flesh and refused to let go. He had picked her up, polished her and then showed her off to the rest of the world like a priceless gem found in the rough. He had picked her up, dusted her off and then dragged her down into his darkness.

The best part was that she had turned out brilliantly, almost as dark as the master himself. From a little, law abiding citizen, he had built a notorious criminal known though out the seas. A girl such as herself should have broken.

But, she had not.

No, Anberlyn had come out stronger. He had changed her, but had not damaged her too terribly bad. A healthy amount of fear had been instilled within his little project, though, she always had the tendency to speak or act before thinking.

The journey to Anberlyn's current state had not been an easy one. It had not been smooth sailing. There had been a lot of bad times, a lot of good times and a hell of a lot of close calls.

When Anberlyn woke up, she was cloaked in cool darkness, clothed in only a bra and underwear, lying in a large bed, surprisingly enough; there was no one, namely Doflamingo, occupying the space next to her.

Rubbing her eyes, she got up and stumbled out into the light, confused as to how she had gotten back on the ship. The last thing she clearly remembered was being tossed into a boat and being set adrift in the ocean. After that, there were flashes of the hot sun, of a looming shadow, of hunger, the sound of the ocean and a disembodied voice that had no owner.

"About time Sweetheart." Doflamingo said with a smile as he stumbled over to him. As if his voice was some kind of spell, her fists went to her hips, her eyes narrowed and she stood between his wide spread knees.

"Why am I naked?" She demanded.

Instead of offering a response, he reached and ran his hand through her hair, chuckling when she flinched at his touch.

"You cut your hair."

If she didn't know better, she would say that he was disappointed with her choice. Tense with the expectation of pain, she snapped, "So that there is less for you to manhandle me with."

Her fears were well justified because, his almost loving touch turned violent. Her hair was twisted around his long fingers as he clenched his hand into a fist. As she cried out in both pain and surprise, he used her hair for leverage, yanking her off of her feet and bringing her face close, so that they were nose to nose.

Her feet scrambled to regain their footing on the deck, her eyes wide, fear clouding their depths, and when his breathless laugh danced across her face, she flinched.

"Sweetheart, if that was the desired result you should have shaved your head. There is still plenty of manhandling I can do with this."

"Obviously." She grumbled, daring not to move, hands fluttering across his, trying to unknot her hair from his fist. Her efforts were not exactly paying off but, at least she was trying. "Now, are you going to answer my original question? Why the hell am I naked?"

"For starters, you're not naked." He chuckled. As close as she was to being unclothed, she was still in her undergarments, which was quite unfortunate.

"Have you got anything for the intermediate class?"

Who knew that a starved girl would have so much energy? Anberlyn had been floating about the ocean for at least two days, no food, no water, and no shelter from the sun. Her body had to be exhausted, and he was wondering when it was going to hit the girl.

"If you insist upon knowing-"

"I do."

"I couldn't have the Marines claiming something that isn't theirs."

Not surprised, but quite offended at his word choice, she haughtily asked, "So now I'm yours?"

Doflamingo's response came without a second of hesitation. "Damn straight Sweetheart." There was a pause and then the words, "After all, you worked so hard to get into the family."

"You wanted a show of loyalty." She snapped. "I belong to no one Doflamingo. Not you, nor your messed up 'family', or anyone else."

"That's not what the Marines think."

"Well fuck them. Have you forgotten that I'm trying to kill you?" She growled.

In all honesty, she didn't care what the Marines thought so long as they stayed out of her way and she was able to accomplish her mission. In fact, if not only Doflamingo, but the World Government was fooled then that meant that she was doing something right. And, with her loyalty 'proven', all that was left was to get strong enough to kill Doflamingo and then purge the world of such a vile man.

He put his free hand to his chin and pretended to think about her question for a moment. "Actually, I had…"

Even if she didn't know it yet, he had won. She wasn't going to kill him as she planned. If she wanted kill him so badly, she would've fought him tooth and nail about going to the Marine base on Angel Island. She had been too complacent, even as far as going beyond what he had wanted from the mission. She had placed ah island under his control single handedly. That's not what traitors did for their captains.

A furious growl escaped her throat. She had just taken down a Marine's base, an entire island and had killed a good deal of his enemies, and he still wasn't worried! Even though that was to be expected with this man she could not believe that he had gone as far as forgetting her goal.

Well, it was he who it was going to hurt in the end, not her.

His response left her speechless. Anberlyn couldn't find the right words to express the anger, so she just stood there, in the most awkward of positions, suddenly hyper aware of their closeness and her lack of clothes.

Suddenly though, after a stretch of silence between them, he said, "Eat with me." Before he got to his feet, his fingers uncurling, her maroon hair slipping from his grasp as his hand slid down from the crown of her head down to the small of her back.

The thought of food suddenly had her salivating. "Yes please." She muttered, not needing much guidance or encouragement.

Once they were seated across from each other, Doflamingo nodded at her several plates and asked, "Got enough food there?"

Anberlyn just shrugged. "Not sure just yet." And with that, she dug in, shoveling food into her mouth as though there were no tomorrow. Fork full after fork full, one plate was cleared and she was on to the next, all the while her stomach was slowly filling and her appetite being quenched.

"So, what do you plan on doing with the files?" She finally asked around a mouthful, her stomach half full.

"Selling them to the highest bidder." He answered, eating much slower and more delicately than the girl before him. It was not to say that the man was a delicate eater, he just didn't have food stuck to his face or covering his chin and cheeks. He had never once seen a woman eat like that.

"You've already got enough money." She pointed out during the brief moment where her mouth was actually empty.

"Power Sweetheart. This isn't about money. Just think about what the Marines will do to get their hands on their precious Angel Island back and to keep those wonderful files you sent to me out of other pirate's hands." The smile on his face broadened. "Now, imagine what pirates would do to have the information or the island."

"I see." Anberlyn said, suddenly realizing what she exactly she had just done. Mentally, she cursed and prayed that god would forgive her for her crimes.

Was her goal really worth the lives of so many people?

Well, if she didn't kill him, then even more people would die by his hand, or by the hands of his crew. More people would be manipulated, slaughtered and tortured.

Anberlyn's resolve set then.

Even if she had to lie, cheat, kill and steal, she would do whatever needed to be done in order to rid the world of Donquixote Doflamingo. She would destroy homes, tear apart families, crush hopes and dreams just to stop this man.

And while that wouldn't make her any better than the man she was going to kill, Anberlyn wasn't looking to make it out of their final showdown alive. Maybe then, when the light was fading from his eyes, would Doflamingo realize that she had been serious, dead serious, all along.

"Are you disappointed?" Doflamingo crooned reaching across the table and tilting her head back so that she wasn't staring at her food any longer, demanding her attention.

"A bit. I was expecting a bit…more."

Of course she had done all of that work for nothing. She had stroked his ego sure, but that wasn't reason enough to turn an island over to Doflamingo or give him Marine information that was essential to them.

His quiet chuckle captured her attention as his hand had captured her chin. "Don't worry Sweetheart. You won't be disappointed."

Disappointed? No.

Sorry? Most definitely.

God forbid Doflamingo was going to hand everything over to other pirate crews and not even consider giving even the envelope the papers had been delivered in back to the Marines.

"Trust me, I believe that."

"Oh, I've got some good news for you Sweetheart-"

"Anberlyn." She automatically corrected.

He just waved correction away. "Aren't you curious?"

"Practically dying." She grumbled, weary eyes watching as he reached into his shirt and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Look at what you've racked up Anberlyn." He snapped the paper open, holding it from the top and bottom. In the middle, was a picture of her, in her short haired glory, clothed in a white top, the sky and ocean meeting in the background.

Had they taken that while she was running? She wondered before her eyes slid down to the bold print. Wanted dead or alive it read. Then, under that was a number that she'd never imagine would be associated with her name.

"One…o-one-one…"

Seeing that Anberlyn was having a difficult time reading the number, Doflamingo decided to help her out. "One hundred and sixty-nine million Beri, that's right. You should be proud of yourself Sweetheart. That's an increase of fifty-six million Beri." He grinned widely, watching Anberlyn's reaction.

Proud? He wanted her to be proud of herself. In reality, she was horrified. It wasn't near as grand as his own, somewhere close to, three hundred million Beri.

But, she smiled and took the poster from his hands. "Surely I'm not really worth this much…" It was a damn good thing that there were people out there who had higher bounties, like the Whitebeard Pirates, they were still in their prime for God's sake!

"Now, you don't really believe that do you Sweetheart?" Doflamingo asked, slightly frowning, but it wasn't a serious frown. At this point of time, anything could wipe the frown right off of his face. It was like a leaf on the sidewalk, the frown was just resting there until the wind blew it away.

"Obviously, I shouldn't."

"Are you worried?"

She looked up at Doflamingo and said, "No I'm not."

She was very afraid! She couldn't go anywhere without looking over her shoulder every few seconds and checking the shadows for people who wanted her head. A dead person is a lot more to handle than alive one, so they were probably going to take her dead.

And that was the wind that brushed the frown from his face. "I'm glad to hear that Sweetheart." He then rose to his feet and started walking away.

He bought it. She mentally sighed as he looked over his shoulder and asked if she were coming even though she still had one more plate to polish off. Unfortunately, his question wasn't really a question, they never really were.

So, Anberlyn got to her feet and rushed to his side.

She might not have followed him had she known that he was going to start the 'negotiations' for the island and the Marine's information. Already, the word had spread and so the blonde man was having at least five different conversations at the same time. How he kept them and the different things he told each of them straight was a mystery to her.

Unfortunately, when she tried to leave, he had not allowed it, forcing her to stay and listen to all of the lies and sprinkles of truth he told them.

Between a round of calls, she voiced her honest to god opinion of Doflamingo. "You're awful."

To that, he just smiled, nearly all of his teeth showing.

A/n: Well I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I had a bit of writers block, but I think I have a vague direction…really vague. I've point A (the beginning) and point C (the formings of an end) But, now I need point B, which is the 'everything in between' . . . so another update might take a bit while I figure things out…

Oh! Also, I changed a few things in the last chapter…nothing major, just some little details…so if you want to go back feel free, if not, don't feel obligated or anything.

Guest: No, no I don't hate you. I like stronger willed characters as well. Maybe this chapter makes up for it…hell maybe my plans will make up for the chapter. I know I can't make everyone happy, but I try… So I hope I managed to make you happy.

Review please. I would be delighted to hear your thoughts and opinions. Please, if you think that I have gotten anyone OOC, tells me. Thank you much for reading and I hope to see you next chapter.