Ikaika called Geraldo into his office one day, maybe a year after Karmen's disappearance, and he found Doflamingo sitting on his boss' desk next to two small chests. They contained a new experimental version of artificial devil fruit, he explained. SMILE, he called them. He opened the chests, revealing two large apples with spots instead of swirls. One had white spots, the other gray. The artificial bat-bat devil fruit, gray bat model, and the artificial moth-moth devil fruit, silk moth model.
"So what do you think?" Ikaika asked leadingly. "Do you want one?"
Power. Powers. The hunger inside him was too great to deny that he wanted one, but he also wanted to be smart about it. "You said these things are experimental," he said. "What are the drawbacks, besides the usual?"
Doflamingo's grin widened. "A smart man," he said. "You're right in thinking that there are side-effects. Your personality might change, you'll probably grow a set of horns, and you might develop strange appetites. There may be others. We haven't discovered them all yet. But with SMILE you can do so much more than regular Zoan types. You aren't limited to three transformations. You can choose what and where you want to transform. I'm told it's liberating."
"Who were you planning on giving the second one to?" Geraldo asked, a thin smirk spreading on his lips.
"Anyone who wanted it, not myself, of course," Ikaika said. "What did you have in mind?"
"I say we test it."
Five minutes later they were carrying the fruit with the gray spots down into the basement, Saaresto being told to stand by upstairs. They passed nondescript wine barrels, racks, and storage crates before getting to a large furnace. Ikaika turned a gauge in a quick combination and a portion of the wall slid away silently. Down another set of stairs, there was a sub-basement that filled Geraldo with deja-vu. It was dark and damp and the smell of human filth permeated the air. Around the corner, the clink of chains could be heard along with indistinguishable mutterings.
"Did you drive the boy mad?" Doflamingo asked with a gleeful expression.
"Perhaps a little," Ikaika said with a shrug. "Though I suspect he talks to himself to make up for lack of human interaction. He usually only sees one person a day when he receives his meal and two when he's taken down to use the restroom. We keep them rotating so no one gets any funny ideas. I never understood bonding with prisoners, but I find it troublesome and best avoided."
Doflamingo chuckled darkly. "I always find ways to use dependency in my favor."
The first thing he saw at the foot of the stairs was an oil lamp on a table in the corner. Next to it were several folded pieces of paper and empty envelopes. There were dozens. He wondered why Ikaika would keep them in Pierce's cell. When they came in sight of the prisoner in question, Geraldo had a hard time distinguishing him from the other bodies on the floor. Several women and children were strewn about the room in dried pools of their own blood. Doflamingo and Ikaika acted as if the bodies weren't even there, so Geraldo did too.
When he was able to pick out the one still moving, Geraldo almost didn't recognize him. He was kneeling, chained to the wall with his arms stretched out above his head. It looked like he'd crouched in this position to rest. He wondered if the muttering they'd heard was a prayer. Pierce's hair had grown, perhaps a foot and a half, and it draped over most of his body. When his head turned towards them, his hair fell over one shoulder and they could see what it had been hiding. His skin was marred with so many horizontal wounds that his once muscular body looked like it might as well be a tapestry that had been used for target practice: frayed and useless. Many of the wounds were infected and oozed with pus and blood. He had sores on his wrists from the shackles and his pants were on the verge of becoming rags. He smelled ghastly and what skin was untorn was purple and bruised, with blood congealing beneath the surface and some areas dying altogether from lack of sufficient blood flow. Despite his wounds, Pierce seemed relatively clean, like he'd been bathed recently. The sound of something moving in water behind them answered his unspoken query. He turned and finds a medium-sized tub set against the wall with dark, sleek bodies slithering inside. Eels. Electric eels.
Whatever Ikaika had been putting Pierce through all this time, he approved. He laughed and knelt down next to him. "You look like crap," he told him, lifting the man's head by grabbing a fistful of hair. "Why don't you just die already and get it over with?"
Pierce made a small noise in response that may have been laughter, his gray eyes filled with amusement as he stared back at him. "Tell me, Antwan, do you have to style your hair with an electric eel to make it stand up like that? When I get out of these shackles I'll be sure to flatten it for you."
Geraldo shook his head. "Half-delirious, half-dead, and still fully brainwashed. She's never coming back for you, you know that, right?"
He grinned tiredly in response. "And why would I ever expect her to? You're keeping me alive for no reason at all. You'll never see her again." Geraldo let go of Pierce's hair and his head drooped back down into a comfortable position. He thought he may have seen those gray eyes flash towards the papers on the table for half a second, but if it happened it wasn't long enough to confirm it.
"Never is a long time, sonny," Doflamingo crooned, joining in. "She's too restless to stay hidden forever."
"Ah, Mr. Feathercoat himself. I was wondering who it was dragging their abandonment issues down the stairs."
The Warlord howled with laughter. "You are trying to die, aren't you?"
"Not that you'd be the one to do it," Pierce said, suddenly lucid. "You want me alive just as badly as they do, don't you? You never did respond well to not getting your way."
"We'll see how you enjoy it for a while longer," Ikaika said. "We have all the time in the world."
Pierce's eyes rolled towards him and he stood, wrists staying locked in position to the wall. "What's on the agenda today? Whips? Knives? Eels? Acupuncture with feathers?"
"We were thinking of something a little different," Geraldo answered. "You haven't had much to eat recently, you must be hungry."
The boy's eyes narrowed and his lips stayed firmly shut. He wasn't stupid, Geraldo had to give him that. No matter, he didn't have a choice.
Doflamingo opened the chest in his hand and lift the fruit from the box.
"No, thank you," Pierce said in a more even tone than Geraldo had expected from his earlier wise-cracks. He had that look on his face. The one he hated. After all this time, he still had that bodyguard fortitude. It wouldn't do any good, but it was enough to frustrate Geraldo.
"Now he chooses to be polite," Doflamingo said with a chuckle. Invisible threads sliced the SMILE fruit into three large chunks. "If you do ever see her again, be sure to mention that I had the good graces to feed you."
"Ikaika here believes she's rather fond of me. She won't look on this kindly."
Geraldo chuckled again. "Then it's a good thing she's never coming back for you, isn't it?"
Ikaika unlocked whatever was holding the chain against the wall and gave it a sharp tug, forcing Pierce to fall on his back. He stepped on one of the bodyguard's arms and Geraldo stepped on the other, adding his other foot to the boy's stomach so he couldn't get up. Doflamingo handed out the slices and used his strings to tilt Pierce's head back and force his mouth open. Though they couldn't see the strings, they could see where they were digging into the skin on his face. The three of them set on him all at once, forcing the fruit down his throat while his legs kicked out uselessly. When they were finished he stilled and they stepped back, panting slightly. Pierce looked like he was going to be sick.
"You two should probably stand behind me," Doflamingo said.
They move to the far side of the room and wait as the Warlord releases the strings as Pierce's skin began to boil. "Donquixote?" Ikaka inquired.
The man cackled. "Get ready for a show."
Pierce pushed himself up onto his knees, breathing heavily. His body convulsed and he fell onto his side, curling into the fetal position. Geraldo thought he was dying, and from the looks of him, Ikaika did too. He took a step towards the stairs, presumably to get Saaresto, but Doflamingo gave a twitch of his finger and Ikaika was spun back towards the bodyguard. After a minute the convulsions stopped. He lay there, like one of the many corpses surrounding him, deathly still and unbreathing. Almost imperceptibly at first, Pierce began shrinking and small gray hairs began sprouting from his body. The flesh of his armpits darkened and stretched along his side and arms, between his elongating fingers. His nose extended into a snout and his teeth into fangs. His ears stretched and pushed upward until they nearly sat on top of his head. Two long horns sprouted an inch behind his hairline and curved low over his scalp, sleek and black. Soon the bodyguard had disappeared and all that lay before them was a large, motionless bat.
The creature gave a shuddering gasp, drawing in breath as if it was painful for it. Its wings drew out of the shackles, narrow joints easily slipping from the bonds. A sound came from its mouth like mewl. The lips pulled back as it took heaving breaths and saliva dripped from its long white teeth. It kept its eyes closed, rubbing at its ears and crying softly every now and then. They watched as its eyes finally opened, large and black and glistening in the dim light. Its new eyes scanned the room and fell on the body of a small woman with dark hair, matted to her scalp with long-dried blood. It crawled to her, mewling and making small screeches as its claws tapped against the stone floor. As it moved, it shook its head, as if the smells and sounds around it grated on its senses. Once it reached the body, it began sniffing and prodding it with its wing and snout, giving little cries as if it was expecting the woman to respond. Finally, it rolled her over and looked at her open, unseeing eyes. The bat let out a screech of anger, mouth spreading wide over the corpse's face as it cried its protest. For a moment Geraldo thought it was going to bite into her flesh and rip the skin from her skull, but it turned away in disinterest. Its eyes turned back towards the three of them as if finally deciding to give them its attention. It stared blankly, but the fur on its back prickled with recognition.
Slowly its eyes constrict until the gray irises could once again be seen and Geraldo could recognize Pierce's consciousness in the animal before him. Doflamingo chuckled. "Welcome back."
The bat stood on its hind legs, balancing awkwardly as the fur shrank away and the body stretched and condensed. In seconds, he'd reverted back into human form. Pierce looked down at his hands, and Geraldo recognized the thought that crossed his face. He was out of the shackles. His looked like he wanted to grin, but his eyes locked on Doflamingo and he knew he wasn't going to have it easy. In all the times the Warlord had come to toy with him and Karmen, he'd never gained the upper hand. Then again, neither of them had really been serious about attacking the other. Now, it almost seemed inevitable.
Fur began to sprout along his chest and shoulders, but this transformation was different from before. His feet stretched upward from the heel and his toes turned to claws. Instead of his arms transforming, wings sprouted from his shoulder blades. They kept transforming, bubbling like tar and growing sharp appendages that might have been claws. He sprouts a second set of wings and then a third, each becoming a spiky mass which seemed to weigh on his injuries. He was panting, whether from the shock of his apparent lack of control or from pain, it was hard to tell. Geraldo watched as his hands disappeared, compressing and elongating into single giant claws with razor sharp edges. Pierce stared at these, then turned to look again at Doflamingo. If he'd had a pointed tail swishing through the air, Pierce would look how Geraldo always imagined the devil to be.
He made an inhuman sound that resembled the roar of a sea king, bending low and throwing his head and shoulders forward like a wild animal. His heavy wings beat against the ground. Letters flew from the table as he sent a torrent of wind and grit on their direction and rushed forward, claws raised for the kill. Doflamingo cackled and spread his arms wide in response. He allowed one claw to swipe at his head before he ducked it, meeting Pierce with a hard uppercut to the stomach. The bodyguard flew back and slammed against the wall. Something told Geraldo that even then, the Warlord was holding back, toying with him. He gave another wiggle of his fingers as Pierce stood, blood dripping from his mouth with a long strand of saliva. He charged again, only to be met with an invisible wall that left thin cuts on his face. Pierce roared and slashed at the unseen force with his scythe-like claws. They threw up sparks as they grated against minuscule threads that were stronger than steel.
"Will he still lose his will in water?" Ikaika asked when the roars died down.
Doflamingo grinned and looked over at the eel tank. "Would you like a demonstration?" Without waiting for a response, The Warlord bundled Pierce in strings and suspended him over the writhing water. His eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat as he was dropped. The eels slithered around him angrily, shocking mercilessly, but the body in there with them made no move to resist. With each shock they only saw more bubbles rising to the surface, nothing else. Doflamingo wiggled his fingers and lifted Pierce by his ankles. He was now back in full bat form, the only wings on him were the ones that his arms had become. He looked like a drowned rat, hanging limply like that. Still, he recovered quickly, coughing before swiping a haki-coated claw at his ankles. He managed to free himself from the strings and landed on all fours. He turned and climbed the wall, continuing to crawl along the ceiling as he planned his next move. "Hmmm. Maybe they put a little too much animal DNA in this one," Doflamingo mused as he watched him.
Pierce swooped down, wings spread wide as he glided towards the stairs. With a wiggle of fingers, his ankle became tethered. He gave a high pitched screech of protest, beating his wings to stay airborne.
"This gives a whole new meaning to 'flight risk,'" Geraldo joked, sending Doflamingo into another fit of laughter as he reeled Pierce in.
He bound his wings to his sides and dangled him upside down in the air before them. Twitch. Pierce was stretched out like a bat about to be dissected, wings extended and legs pulled taut. Geraldo licked his lips in anticipation, but Doflamngo merely examined the prisoner. It was clear that Doflamingo wasn't going to give him a chance to fight or escape, causing Pierce to fall back into his sullen silence. He transformed back into human form slowly, sweat pouring down his temple and off his shoulders. "You'll learn to control that too, in time," the Warlord told him. He returned to a partial-human form, hands transforming into bat heads that snapped wildly, trying to sever the strands that he couldn't see. Geraldo was awestruck. He'd never seen transformations like these before. All he could think of was that other fruit upstairs in Ikaika's office. How much more power could he wield with abilities like that? He was nearly salivating at the thought.
Doflamingo continued his game of catch and release for what felt like hours. Geraldo felt like he couldn't continue watching Pierce struggle without either joining in on the fun or running upstairs for the other chest, both things Ikaika would frown on, so instead he busied himself with snooping through the papers scattered across the floor. Letters. Dozens of letters, all from Karmen. He picked up a few of the envelopes. They all had stamps from different islands, no return address, with different dates marked by the postal companies on them. Why had Ikaika never mentioned these before? He could have concentrated his efforts in the locations where the stamps originated. He opened one of the letters, not caring if his master caught him in the act, picking a random line on the page.
I saw a person with wings flying through the sky today. Soon after, they were swallowed whole by a dragon. The creature flew off faster than any ship can travel, so I regretfully I have no proof of either.
"Don't bother," Ikaika said from behind him. "They're all nonsense. I've tracked the stamps already and there has been no evidence that Karmen had even stepped foot on any of those islands. I've tried having the mail deliveries traced too, but all the letters are intercepted and mailed from different locations around the world. I have my suspicions about who might be behind it, but I have no proof." He looked irate, and maybe there was a hint of fear in there somewhere. Kuma, then? Or maybe one of his friends? Yet Ikaika's gaze turned towards Doflamingo as he said this. The Warlord certainly had the influence to pull it off, but why would he? He certainly wasn't the kind of person you accused lightly, especially if you didn't have an army behind you. Something told him the World Government wouldn't spare too many men to make baseless accusations.
The show continued for a while longer before Doflamingo became bored. With one last twitch of his fingers he slammed Pierce back against the wall, slapping him into a new set of shackles that ceased his transformations instantly. Sea stone. Geraldo doubted he'd be leaving them any time soon.
"Well, have you seen enough?" Ikaika asked him.
Geraldo nodded. "I'm more than ready." He gave Pierce one more glance before they returned upstairs. The prisoner was fuming. He watched them with a sense of loathing that made Geraldo glad he was in unbreakable chains. Those were eyes of a man who could commit murder and smile afterward. He saw those same eyes every time he looked in the mirror. They were nearly chilling when turned on him. It pleased him to no end to know that Pierce could do absolutely nothing with all that anger. He chuckled darkly as he climbed the stairs. As they pass the doctor in the basement, Ikaika gave Saaresto permission to go down and tend to him, not that there was much he could reverse after this.
They returned to Ikaika's office and Doflamingo didn't hesitate to open the chest and hold it out to him. Geraldo took the SMILE fruit without a word and bit into it. He didn't show any signs of disgust as he ate, but he thought that with all the scientific prowess it took to make the fruit, they could have figured out a way to make it taste like something other than pure crap.
He felt the changes in him as soon as the first bite was down his throat. It was like a tingling from the tips of his hair to the very marrow in his bones. When he took the last bite, he felt his whole body seize up and he fell to the floor. His muscles reeled and his body shook and his mind vacated his body. He had the vague sensation that his body was melting. It was terrifying and strangely liberating. When he came to his senses, he was inside a fuzzy white nest that was completely enclosed. His shirt was torn and his shoes were missing. As he oriented himself he ran a hand through his spiky blond hair and found two short horns there. He inspected his surroundings and found the walls made of thick, strong strings. Had Doflamingo encased him to contain him? Had he lost control of his mind as Pierce had?
He beat a fist against the wall and managed to punch a small hole through it, letting in a small stream of light that encouraged him forward. The filaments frayed around his hands as he tore himself free. When he emerged, Ikaika was leaning against his desk with a glass of whiskey in his hand. Doflamingo was sitting in the windowsill with one of his own. It was dark outside. How long had he been out of it? He rubbed his head again. "Did you put me in there?"
"You did it yourself," Ikaika said. "How do you feel?"
Unstable. It was hard to stay in his human form for some reason and his eyes kept getting pulled towards the dark window. "Different."
He turned towards the thing he'd crawled out of. It was a giant cocoon made of thick strands of silk that stuck it to the carpet. "You're cleaning that up, by the way," Ikaika said, more amused than angry.
Geraldo turned towards Doflamingo. "If I got the moth-moth fruit, why can I make string like you?"
"You can only make one kind of string, and it's more of a floss, really," Doflamingo said. "Like I said, these are experimental fruit. I made sure it had some added features. I'll tell you about them in time."
The man stood and pushed open the window. The cool breeze ruffled his feather coat and called to Geraldo. He was moving across the room before he even knew his feet were lifting from the floor. The bright face in the sky filled his vision completely and an emotion unlike anything he'd ever felt filled his chest. "The moon."
"It's probably best not to fight it for now," Doflamingo said. "Why don't you go get used to your wings?"
Wings? He hadn't even noticed he'd sprouted them. There were four in total, long and fuzzy, coated in a glossy white powder that sprinkled on the carpet when he shifted them. He saw his reflection in the window as he stepped on the sill. He too had grown horns. His were short and white, but they were slowly elongating into antennae. He stepped out into the empty air and did his best to follow the moon.