A Dragon's Priorities (A SaboxKoala story)

Part 17: Break in/out

This chapter gonna be kinda strange since its in Doflamingo's POV.

(Doflamingo POV)

All well and good that I'm in Impel Down, but what happened today really didn't do justice to that statement. I usually receive a newspaper a day in level 6, and I was just reading it when I heard a thumping outside the cage. I thought nothing of it, when the sound of yet another thump, paired with a yell from one of my guards reached my ears.

After that, I could swear I saw an orange glow in the corridor. It took me a few seconds to realize that I had only ever seen that kind of glow before twice. The first time was when a prisoner set fire to an escort ship back when Impel Down was being relocated to the New World (part of the story is Impel Down's relocation). The other was when... No, it couldn't be him.

But it was.

I first caught sight of his white cravat in the near darkness of my cell. As he moved closer, I became more and more aware that this was one of those Revolutionary Army insurgents. Nonetheless, his entrance meant nothing to me since the only reason he was here would be to release another of his little group of wannabe regicides.

As he approached my cell, Magellan stood and asked what the hell was he doing, and was promptly met with a blow on the head with a pipe, rendering him unconscious. Yep, it was definitely that man. He fought Diamante and ate the Mera-Mera no mi. Real shame, it would've looked good on my collection.

"Donquixote Doflamingo."

I noticed that boy had Straw Hat next to him. No good fighting now. Seastone on my hands' gonna slow me down and I hear that Straw Hat recently awakened his fruit.

"You... I know you."

"No surprise."

"Why have you come here? Breaking out the man who attempted to have you killed would be... quite insensible, no?"

He took the keys from Magellan's body and opened the cage door with relative ease. He took a few steps toward me, and I almost started worrying that he would kill me. Not that death bothered me in the slightest. He reached into his coat and took out a photo of a girl. I recognized her from Dressrosa. The Fish-Man karate girl.

"I have a proposition."

To me, that sounded foolish since the most likely scenario is that I did something he wanted in return for my freedom. The latter would obviously be first, so I could kill him and just be done with it as soon as he freed me. And so, I pretended to listen.

"This girl. You know her, don't you?"

"Hmm. My mind doesn't quite seem to run properly. I can hardly tell who she is."

He took a seat right in front of me.

"So what about the part of you that remembers her from Dressrosa?"

So he saw through me. I guess my time here has made this pencil slightly blunt.

"Do continue." I said.

"This woman has been poisoned."

"What could I care? If she's poisoned, get an antidote."

"SHUT UP!"

He yelled loud enough to slightly shock me. I remained quiet, since he was in power now and could kill me as soon as he wished with my shackles on.

"This is no ordinary poison. She's been infected with one I'm sure you're familiar with. PR-18."

The memories of that horrible poison resurfaced in my mind. I've forgotten them for longer than Corazon's been dead. When I was 24, an adversary of mine had laced my food with that. I nearly died, but I was saved when a then 41-year old Caesar Clown had synthesized a cure. I was astonished that the World Government even allowed usage of such a thing today, and so I implored him to continue.

"She's been hit for over a day out of the 5 she had initially. I will free you, but on the condition that you help me find the spares of the cure which I know still exist on Punk Hazard in a safe, blast-proof compartment on the other side of the lab that isn't severely damaged. Do you agree? If not, I can leave and they'll put it down to you mustering enough willpower for a burst of Conqueror's haki."

Well, it was slightly unfair that he had me so trapped, but I guessed being free would no doubt be at least triple the comfort that I feel here. And I won't have to worry about that "sea rising" issue. I wasn't anyway.

"All right, but get these damn cuffs off me, I wanna feel free again."

He unlocked my cuffs and warned me not to do anything dumb.

"Don't try anything, or my brother's going to cut a loose end." Yeah, he was serious.

"Where do we start?" I asked, stretching my long-time stiff body back into shape as they sent the elevator back to the entrance.

"Where the hell else? Punk Hazard."

I felt my heart drop an inch. I personally had no problem holding up my end of the deal, but going to Punk Hazard always made me emotional, which I never understood, but came to fathom once I realized that it only started when...

When Monet died.

Obscure Doflamingo x Monet reference here, but I'll see if that can escalate a bit more. Drop a comment!