There are no safe spaces on the battlefield 

~~~

What are you waiting for?
Say goodbye to my heart tonight.

Hush, hush

The world is quiet.

Hush, hush. 

We both can't fight it.

It's us that made this mess,
why can't you understand?

WHat aRe yoU WaiTing fOr?

~~~

❗❗❗ W A R N I N G ❗❗❗

BLOOD  /  GORE

~~~

"D-don't come near us, you sick bastards! Leave my family alone!" The man growled as he shielded his wife and child, the latter sobbing while tightly clutching to the fragile being, rocking it back and forth. The ragged clothes they all wore barely covered the bruised and imprinted marks, the deep cuts infected and turning black.

With two guards by his side, the scientist stepped a bit forward. "Shurororororo~! A couple of pestering lab rat are finally rebelling, huh? I guess Joker's underlings didn't discipline you enough."

"Please! I beg of you! Let my wife and daughter go." The father gulped down what it seemed like a giant budge in his throat. "Take me and spare them! Please!"

Begging was the poor man's only solution as he didn't have enough will power to withstand the torture. However, his responsibility was to protect his loved ones. No matter the price.

Clank... clank ... CLaNK ... CLANK ...

C L A N K

C  L   A    N    K

"Fufufufu~ "

Heavy footsteps followed a cheerful laughter, which stopped at the scenery before him. He amusingly leaned on the railing, both of his hands supporting the enormous weigh of the giant.

"What' going on here, Caesar? Do I sense revolting?" The blond was completely concealed by the dark, yet the sadistic smile shone through the thick layer of blackness and sent chills to the spectators all around.

A sweat-droplet glazed through the scientist's pale face and stopping right before it reached the chin. "Oh, I didn't know you were back from the business trip, Joker."

"Fufufufu~ No need to sound so surprised, doc. I just came to check up on some things. I guess I came at the right moment." The blonde spoke from the second floor, looking down at the kneeling slaves in cuffs while brusquely glancing at each and one, until his eyes, hidden by the glasses, stopped on the man and the family behind him.

"If you want to chitchat with death so badly, then you just have to ask."

A large hand rose from the dark corridor into the illuminated laboratory. The deadly gun, loaded with a single bullet, was directly pointed at the beggar.

"Let's see if I am still good at aiming at my targets as I once was." The bond licked his low lip in anticipation.

"No, please, please don't!"

"What, have you lost interest in your own family? Already? Tch, then, you wouldn't mind if I do this."

It was a fast move, but the bullet was released. And it directly went through the woman's forehead like it was just a thin layer of paper, stained with red liquid. The sound was swallowed by the hard, steel floor, and came out as a deadened thump. The woman had collapsed on her knees before she let out her final breath. The girl cried as the splattered blood painted her face with horrendous coldness and smell of iron and salt.

In death, the slave woman was ghostly pale, her lips turning bluish with each dead organ that discontinued the normal function of the living system.

With widened eyes and ragged breath, the girl's hands trembled as she hugged the soulless body of her former family member. She shook the female a couple of times and no matter how awful the sight looked like, the father aimlessly gawked at the scene with a comatose expression, staying at his own spot like a statue.

He took a few steps back as the girl, by appearance less than five years old, turned the white body around, only to come across a stiffened expression. The mouth was tugged upwards where the wrinkles prominently showed the agony she had felt when the weapon decided to shorten her life-span on this World.

"Mommy!" The tears poured down the buffed face like a waterfall and there was no denying it...The child was going to be scarred for life.

"Mommy, wake up! Mommy!"

Other slaves that stood by the side lines glanced away from the scene, their jaws clutched and hopelessness filling the void in their hearts. One even had to jam her fist into her mouth to stifle the scream.

"Fufufufu~ I speculated a more fearsome reaction? Well, at least let's end what we have started, shall we?"

The blonde's slender fingers retreated to the internal darkness as he nudged his head to the member of his clan.

"Pica, bring those three, no. 345, 346, 347 to the center ring. Caesar, will you do he honor and inject them the drug? The other doze."

"With the outmost pleasure, Joker." Caesar slurred, his grinning expression slowly turning to the cuffed men.

Pica swiftly landed from the 30 meter-high fall and marched to the third line, grabbing the first guy's head into his enormous hand and dragging the two co-tied men with him.

The bearded slave cried for help, even being enough desperate to attempt an escape with making a scratch on Doflamingo's subordinate, however, with no success.

"Wait, no! Let go of me! No, no!

NO!"

The blond pleasingly watched the true revelation of human nature as the people got closer to their inevitable doom.

Yet today, he wanted something more.

Thrilling, was the right word that could define his addiction for slaughter; the neat and steady awakening of bloodlust flowing through his veins.

"I didn't forget about you, scumbag. Here." Joker tossed one of his spare pistols to the girl's father, the hard object meeting the new owner exactly by his feet.

"Kill yourself. And let that little girl watch how your brain splatters wide open or else it won't be entertaining.

If that doesn't meet my standards, I promise your intestines will be spewed onto the floor.

Got it? 

I will destroy all scum who oppose me!"

~~~

That day, the two deaths that Doflamingo's boredom triggered, had led to an increasement of them in just matter of hours. The human lab-rats were ordered in a line, from age four to fifty, their biceps tattooed with a serial number. Limited on food and liquid, Joker starved them until there were just skin and bones, unable to resist their master.

As for the child...She became an orphan... Mentally gone and perfect for the experiment. That's at least what Caesar thought as he strolled down the underground, the keys in his hand clinging and echoing through the dark corridor. Pieces of stone and earth peeled from the walls, while the people stretched their hands from their cells, surrounded with black bars.

They were mourning and pleading for source of light.

Except one.

The scientist only grinned at their pathetic misery and continued until a soar laughter forced him to brusquely rotate on his hells and gawk at the pitch dark that mocked him.

"Who the hell is there?!"

"Why so loud? You know I can hear you clearly, right?" The man scratched his subtle beard.

"Proud, Clown? Have you killed another one today?" The stranger's voice was raspy, but confident, almost dragging to lenient. "Your mom must be partying in her grave for your most outstanding accomplishment. Torturing the weak? No wonder you're so full of shit."

Caesar was ready to snap at the man behind the bars, but he knew better not to respond to the mocking. "I see you are still breathing, redhead. There is an unspoken rule where if this many people are trying to kill you, then you should be rotting already."

"Really? Well, if that's the case then they all suck at killing." The stranger commented with a lightness in his words.

"Or they have a different priority."

"There are countless possibilities. I don't doubt neither of them." The stranger was bored. It had been a long time since he saw more than this mere cage he was tossed in. But he refused to lose hope. The mere thought of Doflamingo being the culprit for his misery, made him sick to the core.

And there was someone that the redhead would give his life away...For his daughter.

"Shororororo~ You are lucky Joker doesn't have time to play with you. He is still searching for your cute little girl."

The strands of redhead's radiant hair fell on his forehead.

"I heard some rumors, you know Shanks? That tomboy of yours joined the mafia."

Shank's mind went blank and his eyes wide as he stared at Caesar in horror. His desperately searched for anything that could steady his thoughts... thus waiting for the roar to appear.

"Shorororo~ Opps, I shouldn't have told you that! Oh, well... The damage is done.

Right?"

~~~

To be continued ...