Minion Island

(Ten Days Later)

"So, you've finally called me up now, Rosinante my old friend?"

Rex grinned from ear to ear as he looked at Donquixote Rosinante cradling a frail Trafalgar Law.

"Yes." Rosinante says with a sigh. "It seems that I have nowhere else to turn to. So now, I must turn to you, a pirate, and beg that you help me and Law!"

Rex clicks his tongue, given the timing, Rex knew exactly what Rosinante was going to ask of him. He wanted his help in stealing the Ope Ope no mi from Diez Barrels.

Because of Rex, or more specifically 'Jacket D. Hoodie', Barrels had ramped up his security. He was terrified that his 5-billion dollar treasure would be robbed, leaving him a penniless pauper.

"So, what do I get for it?"

"Eh?" Rosinante says in confusion. He hadn't even explained the task yet Rex was already in agreement.

"You want me to help you steal the Ope Ope no mi, don't you? Well, what do I get in return?"

Rosinante's eyes bulge to the size of baseballs at this statement. He had never even told Law about his plan to steal the Ope Ope no mi. How in the wor…

No, that was normal. This Vesta Rex character knew all kinds of things he shouldn't.

"What do you want?"

Rex smiles at Corazon's cooperative state. After all, he was banking on this favor for a very important plan of his.

"Well, ideally, I would ask for your boy Law after he had eaten the fruit but since I know you…"

"No!" Rosinante shakes his head. "Me you can take anything from but you leave Law out of it."

Rex and Rosinante look at each other in a tense stare before Rex sighs.

"SINCE I know you won't go for that, my request is three uses of the fruit. Three operations."

"Three uses?" Rosinante asks, surprised at how tame the request was. Then, he thought about it. "You want Law to sacrifice himself to give you immortality? No, absolutely not!"

"Get your knickers out of a knot, I don't care about some phony garbage immortality. I have my eyes on… another ability that I know the fruit to possess. As long as Law learns that surgery and does it for me three times, I will help you."

Rosinante squints his eyes. He wants to ask Rex what this 'surgery' is, but he has the feeling that Rex will never admit it. Still, as long as it wasn't the immortality operation and it wasn't to be used on the Marines, Rosinante felt that those were acceptable terms.

The two then shook on it.

"Well, what are we standing around for, we have a robbery to plan!?"

Rex grinned, two Devil Fruit robberies in two weeks, what an exhilarating life he led. Of course, this robbery would both be lower and higher profile than the previous one.

On the one hand, Diez Barrels was a pathetic weakling compared to Doflamingo. On the other hand, the wrath of the World Government and Doflamingo would crash down on him if he failed.

The stakes made it so much more interesting in Rex's eyes.

"So, for this robbery, we should only bring the senior officers. Anyone more than the senior officers might alert the Marines monitoring the Diez pirates."

Rosinante nods, feeling a pit in his stomach about betraying the Marines, but when he thought about Law, his heart was put at ease. In Rosinante's eyes, the World Government owed Law this devil fruit for their actions in Flevance and Law was just collecting what was due to him.

"Ok, now onto the actual robbery. We'll split off into two teams. Me, Gem and Kid will go acquire an asset and then head to the neighboring Sparrow Island and arrange an emergency exit method in case the Marines discover you. Meanwhile, Rose, Bonney and Killer you go with Rosinante and Law to ensure the operation is a success."

Rex said, withdrawing detailed plans for the operation he had kept.

"Wait, you were planning on stealing the fruit even if I didn't come to you!" Rosinante realizes, seeing all kinds of in-depth notes about the Diez pirates' security.

"Well, of course I was. The fruit's worth five billion in fruit mode and tens of billions in the hands of a competent doctor, why wouldn't I want it?"

Rosinante raises his finger to protest, saying Rex would be foolish to make enemies of the World Government and the Donquixote Pirates, only to realize Rex had already done both of those things. He really had nothing to lose and everything to gain in this robbery.

Rex then continues to explain the plan in excruciating detail. After all, if it went down even remotely similar to how it did in the manga, Rex knew that the moment Doflamingo showed up, all hell would go down. As such, Rex planned for his people to be in and out before that happened.

"After you three make it to the island, our support will be limited so I will need to trust that you will succeed. Killer, you are in charge. If the situation is dire, pull out immediately. Remember, the number one rule of the King Pirates is…"

The entire crew looks at Rex quizzically, not remembering any 'number 1 rule'.

Rex sighs and shakes his head. "Real K's move in silence like knowledge, dropping a knife on all the fools who don't understand their swag! And nobody dies!"

"Nobody dies!" The crew shout in unison, not wanting to say that first part.

Then, the plan was a go.

Killer took the life boat, bringing Rose and Bonney with him. Due to Rosinante being there, Bonney was limited to her martial arts only, but Killer knew rex wanted her there for a reason.

Namely, Rex had revealed that he was worried Rosinante might turn them into the Marines. With Bonney's fruit, the trio would be able to hide on Swallow Island safely, using the 'underground railroad' to escape.

Killer then closes his eyes, meditating in peace, feeling that he was very close to mastering the ability to cut through steel. While meditation wouldn't help in that, it would get him into the right mindset for what was to come.

Meanwhile, the two girls were talking to Law and Rosinante.

"So, Captain tells us you were once a Celestial Dragon. How'd it feel to be a god? You have any special powers?" Bonney asks sarcastically.

Rosinante just gives a bitter smile.

"I never really got to live much of that life. My father took me and Doffy out of Mary Geoise when I was only six years old. I barely remember that life anymore." Rosinante says with a far-off look.

"I remember the story." Rose says. "My father called your father a fool for giving up all the power in the world just to make a point."

Rosinante laughed dryly at this. "He was a fool, my father admitted it himself. Only a few weeks after leaving, my father regretted that he didn't stay, try to reform Mary Geoise from within or help the civilians with his influence. Still, he was a righteous fool, and I will try to live up to his legacy. That's why I joined the Marines with my new father."

Meanwhile, Law, who was on the side, cocked his head, finally hearing the origin story of Rosinante and Doflamingo.

Law had to admit, he and Rosinante had a lot in common in that regard. Idealist parents, death of his family due to the sins of the government, being found by a marine who whisked them away from the brink of death.

"So, what's he like? The head honcho?" Bonney asks. "Rex called him a bunch of times, but we never got to listen in on any of the calls."

Rosinante laughs, recalling his father's reaction when he mentioned a run-in with Vesta Rex. He then goes on to talk about Sengoku and a wide variety of other matters with Bonney, the two passing the time quickly.

Rose and Law also talk with them being similar in age, unbeknownst to Law, and having similarly… complicated childhoods.

Rose tries to secretly use her poison pink on Law's amber lead poison, but is barely able to remove a fraction of it with immense difficulty. She was still far too inexperienced with her power to attempt something like metallic poison extraction.

Eventually, Killer's eyes fly open.

"We will soon arrive." Killer says simply, looking out to the island in the distance.

(Interlude)

Between Swallow and Minion Islands, North Blue

Meanwhile, Rex's portion of the plan was going along splendidly. His mini crew had gone with him to a large, wilderness island with numerous large beasts. There, Rex had found a nice, honey badger which, through arduous work and a bit of trickery, Rex had convinced to wear him in jacket form.

From there, team Rex had relocated to Swallow Island, where Rex and Gem began using their devil fruits to dig an underground passageway connecting the two islands. Of course, Rosinante wasn't aware of this, and what he believed the 'exit plan' to be was a merchant ship Rex had chartered to the island.

"We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig in our mine the whole day through…" Rex starts, singing the famous Disney song as he digs.

Kid and Gem try to block it out, but the voices resonate their way through the tunnel, bouncing off walls attacking their ears from all sides. Eventually, they stop fighting it and join along in the song.

"Heigh-ho, heigh-ho! It's off to steal we go! Heigh-ho, heigh-ho! It's off to steal we go!"

With that, the happy miners dig their passageway singing in good merriment.

(Interlude Over)

Minion Island, North Blue

Killer and his crew had long dismounted from their rowboat, with Killer reducing it to sawdust. With all the Marines on the island, the boat couldn't be hidden for long.

"Okay, where is that map of Diez's possible locations?" Killer asks, turning to Rosinante.

This was the main reason Rex had agreed to a cooperation at all. Rosinante, through Sengoku, had access to a list of potential locations where Diez was likely holed up.

In fact, if the Marines weren't worried that Diez would eat the fruit just to spite them, they would have searched all the locations to find him. However, Killer and Rex didn't have the same concerns.

"Let's move as quickly as possible." Killer says, wanting to clear all the locations before Doflamingo or Tsuru arrived. While Rex's plan allowed some wiggle room for a foreign arrival, Killer didn't want to push it.

In a situation like this, time was of the essence.

"You guys all recall the formation?" Killer asks.

The trio nods.

"Then let's move."

In Killer's eyes, Rex's formation excelled in being brilliant but simple.

The first step was to block all but one entrance to the target location. The second was for Rosinante to create a massive calm field to block out any noises that would escape. Then, Rose would enter, bathing the venue in a pink, paralytic mist, to which Killer and Bonney had been immunized to through mithridatic methods. Killer would then go through, knocking out the paralyzed targets, tying them up, then hiding them away, while Bonney searched the venue for the fruit.

The plan was easy, fast and repeatable as long as Rose re-inhaled the poison mist each time.

As such, the four were able to clear five of the seven sites within an hour.

"Ok, the next site is probably Barrels' hideout as we've suspected the last site to only be an armory of sorts for the Diez pirates." Rosinante explains, loading his guns.

Killer's fingers wrap around his blades, staring at the large casino. If Rex were here, he would probably remark about how ironic it was for a casino to be the site of the last 'gamble'.

Killer knew that Doflamingo and the Marines would likely have gotten word about his presence on the island by now. Within a half hour, Killer expected this island to be swarmed by their respective forces.

"Let's move."

This time, Rosinante went in with the trio, feeling that this particular venue would be much more guarded than the previous ones.

The casino was an excellent distraction. With all the bright flashing lights and whirring sounds, it was almost impossible to see all the shady activity going on in the background.

Still, Rosinante's calm field helps with this, muting the noise such that the crew can zero in their focus on the target.

"There." Rose says, seeing a man peel away a poster on the wall to sneak into a back room. "That should be where they're hiding."

Killer nodded, looking at Bonney and Rosinante with a stern glare.

"We go in hard, and we go in fast. These should all be vicious pirates so we show no mercy. One slash, one kill."

Rose, Bonney and Law all nod, while Rosinante looks a bit squeamish, but remembering his cause, he nods.

The four then all rush into the base.

Killer's eyes sweep the room in a matter of seconds, counting twelve goons in the room. Seeing a Den Den Mushi near one of them confirms Killer's target.

Slash!

The goon doesn't even have time to blink before his head goes flying. Killer grabs the Den Den Mushi, throwing it to Law before moving on to the next kills.

The Diez pirates were above average for a North Blue crew, but even against Rosinante they were far too weak.

The pirates try to scream out, begging for reinforcements, for mercy, but their voices remain forever trapped in their throats as not a peep is heard. In seconds, they are all dead.

Then, the crew moves to the next room. Seeing a large, metal safe where the Devil fruit was likely contained. However, as Killer sweeps this room, he pauses for a moment on one of the figures, recalling something Rex had told him.

"There are only two people in the Diez pirates you need to worry about. The first, is Diez Barrels himself. As for the second…"

"Diez Drake." Killer says, squinting his eyes at the seventeen year old.

Bonney and Rose who had been similarly briefed on Drake stare at him with apprehension. It was rare that the captain was cautious against someone.

Killer immediately engages with Drake, swinging his dual blades at Drake's head.

Drake withdraws a massive, four-bladed axe to block this strike, standing his ground against both of Killer's blades. Then, with his other arm, he pulls out a rapier, piercing towards Killer's body.

Killer twists out of the way of this counter strike, using Drake's own weapon as leverage to jump over him. Then, Killer goes for a slash against Drake's exposed back.

Drake swings around, blocking one of the slashes with his rapier and the other with his left arm, wincing in pain. He then heaves his axe, going for a downwards sweep against Killer.

Killer leaps back, using a kick against Drake's chest to propel him to a wall. Then, pushing off against the wall, Killer flies back towards Drake.

Drake widens his eyes, abandoning his axe which was embedded in the ground, to block Killer's strike with his rapier, holding its tip in his right hand.

Time seems to slow down for Killer as he stares at the rapier.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

"It's still not right. The breath is not right!"

"It's called the breath of all things. Once you master it, you can cut through whatever you want, but you can also not cut through something you don't want to cut through."

Thoughts fly through Killer's head as he nods. He wanted to cut that rapier.

Slash!

Drake and Killer stare at each other for a moment, eyes locked.

Then, a massive, X-shaped sword wound spreads across Drake's chest as he falls backwards to the ground. As he does, the two pieces of his rapier fall harmlessly to the side.

Killer smiles, before turning to the safe.

Slash!

Killer cuts through the metal safe like butter, ripping it open with ease. As the safe swings open, a bright golden light is emitted from the piles of gold, which serve to conceal the true treasure, a small, wooden chest. Opening it up, Killer glimpses the small, 5-billion-dollar, strawberry-like Ope Ope no mi.

Hearing a clamoring from above, Killer knew that he didn't have much time.

"Rose, it's your turn." Killer says, with Rose running to the fruit.

Rose withdraws three syringes, two empty and one full of a red liquid. She injects an empty syringe into the fruit, aspirating a few mililiters of liquid. She repeats this with the second syringe, before expelling the silver liquid into the fruit.

Rosinante has an odd expression, wondering why they weren't just taking the fruit.

"Just a little surprise for whoever gets the fruit." Rose explains, before walking up to Law. "Open up."

And just like that, the 5-billion dollar fruit becomes worthless as Law drinks up the fluid in the syringe. Killer quickly closes the safe door, then, just as Barrels and his men enter the room, he 'cuts' it open again.

"STOP!" Barrels shouts, his men drawing their guns.

"Damn it! We've been caught!" Bonney shouts, acting out her part quickly.

Killer looks around doggedly. "Blast a hole in the wall!" He shouts, with Bonney obliging throwing a Gem bomb at the wall.

The four then flee from the Barrels pirates through the hole, with several pirates chasing after them. Barrels himself rushes into the broken safe, thrusting the chest open and sighing as he sees the Ope Ope no mi still inside. He had arrived just in time.

Meanwhile, Killer and his crew shake off their pursuers, reaching an alleyway where they turn to Rosinante and Law.

"The merchant ship will arrive inside of an hour. You two take it and go wherever you need to go. We have another escape route. Remember, you owe three surgeries to captain Rex, you best make due on your payments." Killer says, turning to retreat.

However, at that moment, ships close in from the Island's waters. The north is flooded with Donquixote pirate ships while the west is the Devon and Foxy pirates with the South and the East being occupied by the Marines. The island was surrounded.

A massive net of strings flies out from the lead ship of the Donquixote pirates, enveloping the island and its surrounding waters. The strings soon congregate to form a single, massive bird cage covering both the island and all the ships surrounding it.

"FUFFUFFUFU! DIEZ PIRATES, RELINQUISH THE OPE OPE NO MI. OR BE DESTROYED!" Doflamingo's booming voice comes out from the ship.

"If the Ope Ope no Mi is not given to the World Government, I, Tsuru, staff officer of the Marines, vow that each and every pirate in this town will rot at the sixth level of Impel Down!"

The battle of minion island had begun.