Chapter 10:

Vegeta and Trunks stopped flying and looked back towards the island they flew away from. They were close enough to it that they noticed the disappearance of the small ki's of the injured Hawkins and Apoo. "What? What happened?" Nami asked the two who turned around suddenly and stopped flying.

"The guy with red hair just killed those other two," Trunks stated to fill in his friends.

His father had been giving him a few subtle pointers about the fight by mocking Tien's loss. He'd say things like, 'If he had been more focused as he charged his final attack, he would have realized Hawkins was coming from behind him.' And Trunks instantly knew his father was telling him not to let his guard down in any circumstance, which he just nodded to.

The two of them continued to fly again but this time, Trunks asked a question which made all three of the people on the platform above his head freeze up and listen close over the rushing wind past them. "Hey Dad, why are you always hanging around with the guy in the pink coat?" He didn't call him the 'birdy guy' like he always did with Goten, solely because it was his father he was talking to.

Vegeta chuckled at his son's question and cast a glance up to see the three pirates above him were also awaiting his answer. "Well, I've decided to join his crew for a little while."

Trunks frowned at the answer while the three above him tried not to freak out. "His subordinate, Caesar Clown," the twelve year old stopped where he was and looked his dad in the eyes. "Is really evil," the boy ended it there, not going to go into detail with his father. Vegeta noticed his son was holding something back from the darkness hidden in the boy's eyes. Trunks changed the direction of the conversation though and said, "That makes us enemies while we're on Dressrosa."

"Guess it does," the father said with a grin on his face as his son was challenging him somewhat. "There are a lot of strong people on Dressrosa right now," the Saiyan elite mentioned.

"I'll show them what I can do," Trunks replied with a smirk.

HAHAHA, you better! I'd like to watch you in action as well son. Show me what you can do. He'd never really watched his son fight intensely before, and this was going to be a great place for it. "Actually," he decided he'd tell his son now, instead of risking the chance the boy missed the sign up altogether. "There's something on Dressrosa that you might be interested in."

"Is it the Phoenix Fruit?" Trunks asked with a small smirk and his dad looked surprised which made him smirk wider. The man was about to ask how he knew already, when Trunks continued. "I saw Ace the other day, he told me he was coming here to find it."

"You interested?" His father asked, chuckling to himself a little as Doflamingo and his men thought Trunks would be jumping on the opportunity to get the fruit, yet the boy didn't seem too excited.

"Not really, I don't think it's worth it not to be able to swim," the boy said. Dad mentioning it must mean he knows how I feel about Marco's death. He knew how Ace felt about getting that fruit, and wondered how Marco would feel about someone like him getting it, the person who let him die.

"You should see some of the people who are trying to get your friend's fruit before you say that," Vegeta wasn't finished and if he was going to be helping Doflamingo, he might as well start here. "There are some bad guys trying to win it as a tournament's prize."

Trunks grimaced and imagined someone with a bad heart using Marco's power to kill people. It made him angry and he clenched his fist a little, cracking the wood above him and making the pirates flinch. "A tournament huh?" Trunks responded a little quieter. There were so many strong powers on the island and a lot of them were focused on one spot. They're probably all there for it. If one of those strong people gets Marco's fruit, they'd be crazy strong. The boy grinned and saw the island of Dressrosa in the distance; they were almost back. "After watching Tien's fight, I'm pretty pumped up. I guess I could go for a fighting tournament right about now."

"Let's just hope it's not like the WMAT," the boy continued. "My only fun opponent there was Goten." Even as he said it, he already knew that some of the fighters in that arena were going to be a lot of fun to fight.

"Well, give it your best son," Vegeta said and then sped up to triple the speed they were moving at, shooting over the coast of the island where the Sunny Go was, and back towards the palace.

Trunks felt Brook's ki rise as the skeleton freaked out from seeing the streak over his head. A second later, he dropped back down on the ship holding the platform with the other three on it. "Ah!" Brook screamed and then looked back and forth, "H-How did you do that?" He was skeptical the whole time that Trunks would be able to arrive quickly if something happened, but here the boy was a second after he saw something weird.

"Hahaha, no no," Trunks smiled, "we were already back. That was my dad you saw flying over your head, he came with us."

Chopper was the first one to step off the wooden platform. It was sturdy, but they hadn't left it in a while and it felt weird not to be flying anymore. After that, Nami picked up Momo and took him off too, where all three finally sighed a deep breath of relied.

"Wow Trunks," Momonosuke said, wiping some sweat from his forehead. "Your dad, he's pretty intense." The samurai child thought his dad was rough with all the rules samurai had to follow. One word out of Trunks's mouth that his dad didn't like though, and he was smacked out of the air and into the ground so hard that he made a crater.

"Yeah," Trunks agreed, "but he and Goten's dad are the strongest beings in the universe... except for the Gods," he thought about how easily Bills beat them all and shivered a bit.

Leaving the Gods for later, Nami started talking rapidly to make sure they just saw what she thought they saw. "Your friend, he just took on all three of those Supernovas and their crews."

"Yeah, but he lost," Trunks said with a small chuckle. "If he was going all out from the beginning, it might have ended differently, but I think he was looking for a good fight and didn't realize how strong his opponents were going to be. He underestimated their Devil Fruit powers like I did with Krillin." The boy looked inland and turned back with a small smile to the people behind him who were talking all about their little adventure to an amazed Brook. "Well, I'm gonna go join in that tournament my dad was talking about. If I win," he looked at Nami since she was the only one here without a Devil Fruit power, and he trusted her a lot, "do you want a really powerful Devil Fruit?"

Nami's eyes turned into Beli symbols and she nodded her head up and down quickly. The boy frowned at her and her eyes turned back to normal, "Not to sell. I want to know if you would eat it?"

The woman with orange hair stared at the kid for a few seconds and then shook her head slowly. "No, I think I'm fine without one." She continued quickly to try and keep the topic open, "But Trunks, a normal Devil Fruit can go for a hundred million Beli! If this one really is strong, we could be super rich..."

"That would defeat the purpose," Trunks said quietly and his face darkened a little. "If you sell Marco's power, someone bad might get it. I can't let his, essence, get in the wrong hands."

Marco, Marco the Phoenix! Nami remembered reading the paper that had Luffy all over it so many times. She read all about the War of the Best, and heard that first division commander of Whitebeard's Pirates, Marco had died. "Why does his fruit matter so much to you?"

Trunks's eyes became shadowed and he clenched them shut. In his mind, he saw as clearly as the first time when he was actually there, Marco was standing in front of him, protecting him, with a large magma fist coming out of his chest. "Because, he died saving my life."

The four standing on the deck of the ship gasped. Nami was going to say something, but the boy lifted off and flew away as fast as he could, leaving a streak of white behind him. Brook mentioned something about not being very protected anymore, but all of them were thinking of their young friend.

Back when Luffy was talking about the boys in the war, he never mentioned anything like that. Maybe he didn't know, maybe he forgot, or maybe he just didn't realize how much Trunks blamed himself for it. Nami's heart wept, He was in a war, at ten years old. Goten would have been nine! The woman felt horrible for the little boys who always looked so happy, but had so much darkness hiding within them. She wished she never suggested selling that fruit.

"I can't believe I lost," Tien muttered as he leaned back on the wall of the palace. Most of his injuries were healed fairly quickly, but the work on his right arm left a large scar across his bicep almost all the way around it. He was thinking about everything he did wrong in his fight, and scolding himself for stupidly dragging it on for that long.

Goku was talking to Piccolo and his oldest son near the front steps of the palace. Gohan asked his dad if he knew what Vegeta was doing, and Goku shrugged before talking all about the strong fighter who did the most damage to Tien. Piccolo was going to mention that the man also killed lots of civilians, but he decided against it. If he said something, Goku would disappear and take care of the man, bring him to prison or something. This is Tien's fight, the Namekian thought. It was already over, but when the triclops woke back up from being healed, the determination on his face was obvious.

The only reason Tien didn't fly back down to beat Eustass Kid, was because he was too honorable. Sure, the man was horrible, and a pirate, but he was still a warrior. Tien injured him badly, and the man was probably resting his injuries now, unlike him who got magically healed by Dende in a few seconds. If he flew down now to beat up the man, he'd never live it down. As soon as he's back at full power, I'll go back for a rematch. Next time there's no playing around, I'll defeat him and take him to prison where he won't be able to hurt anyone. Though he thought it, he also knew that he was going to be watching the man very carefully, and if Kid got near any civilians with malicious intent, healed or not, he was going back in to finish the job.

"Vegeta's picked the wrong side," Piccolo stated to the two Son men next to him. Popo and Dende walked over and Tien decided to stop moping and join in on the conversation as well. "A battle is about to begin on Dressrosa, maybe as big as the War of the Best."

"Really?!" Goku exclaimed like an excited kid. Gohan grinned too, though a little less than his father considering he remembered some of the worse things that happened during the last war. Tien sighed and let himself smile, allowing himself to focus on future fights, while still lecturing himself over his last one.

"Yes Goku," Piccolo repeated in an annoyed tone. "I'd mention again that none of us should involve ourselves with pirates or with Dressrosa at all, but I figure you won't listen anyway. So I have something to say that I want you three to keep in mind when you go there." None of the three in front of the green man had ever been there before, so they listened close as Piccolo spoke. "I'd appreciate it, as would Dende," the smaller guardian of the Earth nodded with a frown, "if you could defeat Don Quixote Doflamingo."

"Really?" Gohan asked his master with a tilt of his head.

"Yes," the Namekian stated crossly. "Usually, I'd prefer it if we stay out of human matters. However, this man is strong enough to be a threat to the world if we weren't here. He can use his ki and is quite powerful." Gohan had told him what happened back on Punk Hazard, and if the man could effortlessly land a hit on Gohan hard enough to knock the boy flying, he was a danger to the planet. "We have two options:" Piccolo began and everyone looked at him, "Either he continues to get stronger, and we make one hundred percent sure that he doesn't use his powers for evil." He was skeptical about this option, not seeing a way that the horrible pirate could be redeemed, but then again, he and Tien had both done bad things in their life and were here right now as protectors of the Earth.

"Or?" Tien asked, already guessing what the second option would be.

"Or we should kill him," Piccolo stated. "There isn't a prison in this world that can hold him now."

"Wow, he really sounds strong," Goku said and shook his head disappointedly. "Too bad Vegeta already called dibs on him. I'd love to fight him!"

"What?" Piccolo said, deadpanned.

"Oh yeah," Goku said and scratched the back of his head with a good laugh. "We can't fight Doflamingo, Vegeta said that he reserved that fight for himself."

Piccolo grunted and grabbed his face angrily, These Saiyans are too much for me. He didn't really know what to say to that, considering Vegeta didn't seem to be fighting the man now and they were with each other. He was fine with Krillin being with the man, and he'd hoped the small human would be a good influence on those pirates, but it wasn't working and he didn't think Vegeta would do any better. If it comes to it, I'll take him down myself. Sorry, Prince Vegeta, but this isn't your planet. He looked at Dende and then around at the circle of people around him, We have to protect it from monsters like him.

"How was your comrade's battle?" Doflamingo asked Vegeta as the Prince walked into the room with the executives in it, except for Krillin and Diamanté.

"Surprising," Vegeta responded. "Seems the pirate alliance in the paper that wasn't Law and Straw Hat's broke apart. Kid, the one with red hair, came out on top."

"Hmmm," Doflamingo mumbled and scratched his chin.

"He's probably looking for the open Yonko position," Pica said in a high-pitched squeak.

Trebol sniffed up a booger and added, "He felt pretty strong. If the Marines name him a Yonko, then the odds are gonna be lower that they try to go after Blackbeard and Shanks to finish off the other two emperors after you kill Kaido, Doffy."

"If it comes to that, I'll just kill him too," Doflamingo said as if killing was the solution to all his problems, which in this instance it probably was.

"Where's Krillin?" Vegeta asked the King of the island.

"He's at the Coliseum with Diamanté," the pirate responded with a grin. Can't really give away something as priceless as the Phoenix Phoenix Fruit. But we'll lose credibility if we don't give it as a reward after promising it away. Diamanté, Krillin, win!

"We're closing entries from the public for today's competition!" a blonde lady wearing a mask shouted from in front of the sign up table. She sighed and looked down at the papers she had, "I don't think anyone from the public wants to enter. They're all cowards."

"I'll see you later Luffy," Zoro said with a small wave back to his captain and the others with him. Goten and Franky had to keep reminding Luffy about their mission, but Zoro was dead set on entering the competition.

Franky shouted over to him as he walked away, "The table is over there!" The green haired man was walking in the wrong direction and he blushed angrily as he spun and walked over to the lady at the table.

"Wait!" the red toy soldier who was joking around with them called out. "You shouldn't enter the tournament, it's too dangerous!"

"Don't worry about him," Goten said to the funny toy with one leg. "He's really strong," the toy soldier looked at the child for a few seconds and then shook his head, going on about how strong the competitors were going to be.

"Oh, are you thinking about entering?" the woman asked Zoro as he got to her.

"What?!"

"That old man is entering?" the people thought Zoro was old because of the white beards the pirate crew were all wearing as disguises to not be recognized from their wanted posters.

"Is he nuts? Doesn't he have any idea about the other competitors?"

Zoro signed his name down as Zolo so that no one would recognize him and then ignored all the people around him as he walked towards the gates to the Coliseum. "Alright, that just about ends the public sign ups for-"

"Wait!" everyone gathered in front of the large building turned their heads and stared at a child walking through the crowd towards the open gate where Zoro had just entered.

"Oh Trunks," Goten waved over from where he was standing. "Are you entering the competition too?"

"Yep," the boy said with a smile and walked over tot he table, signing himself down on a sheet of paper that said they weren't responsible if he died.

"WHAT?!" the citizens shouted as the boy just laughed and walked towards the metal bars.

"Are you sure about this kid?" the woman seemed to be having moral doubts about allowing this young boy in the contest.

"Don't let him in!"

"He'll be killed for sure!"

"You know that kid?" The toy soldier asked the bearded men next to him and the boy with black spiky hair. They nodded with smiles and he rose his voice at them for the first time since he met them. "Are you insane?! There's no way he'll win! He'll be horribly injured at best!"

"Actually," Goten corrected the toy, "Trunks is the strongest person in that building."

The two older men started laughing at the toy's flustered expression and Franky walked over to the gate as Trunks and Zoro walked in. "You can kick all their asses, but try to keep a low profile, we don't want them knowing we're here."

"Understood," Zoro said and kept walking.

"I'll be back with the Phoenix Fruit," Trunks said a hundred percent sure of himself.

The three remaining Straw Hat Pirates in the Destroy the Factory Group watched as the two of them walked off. They turned and were ready to leave, but Franky paused as he saw the toy soldier staring at the list of entrants next to the gate. "As I feared, she entered... Rebecca."

Franky walked past the toy and then stopped the others by putting a hand on each of their shoulders. "Hold on a second, I'm going to ask that toy a few questions," he told the captain and the small child with him. He turned and bent down in front of the red toy soldier, "Were you born in this country?"

"Huh?! Yes, I'm a Dressrosan, born and raised!" the toy answered quickly, sounding flustered.

"Do you happen to know if the big guns of the Don Quixote Family are here today?" again the toy seemed flustered and asked to know why they needed such information. "Alright then," Franky wasn't getting anywhere and had to keep quieting the toy down, "do you know anything about the factory..." The toy's freaked out expression and loud response told them he did, but they had to make him quiet again because he was being too obnoxiously loud.

"I thought the factory was supposed to be a secret?" Goten wondered out loud. "So how does he know about it? Are you working for Doflamingo?" He asked and the toy's flustered expression switched dramatically.

"No," it answered, its voice full of rage, "I would never..." he seemed to realize what he was saying and stopped himself short before he incriminated himself further in front of these people. The toy soldier looked back and forth, then looked back at these three people who didn't seem to be part of the Family. "Come with me," the toy said in a hushed voice before running off towards an alleyway.

Franky, Luffy, and Goten looked at each other and shrugged. They decided to follow the toy soldier, at least for the time being until they found out what he knew.

Inside the Coliseum, Trunks walked forward like he owned the place. They were in a waiting room full of muscular men: pirates, gladiators, all above average strength for humans. The half-Saiyan boy didn't look around at all the peons he walked past though, he couldn't care less which weakling had a little more power than the other weaklings.

"You sure seem calm about this," Zoro said as he walked on the short boy's right side.

"I've been in a tournament before," Trunks said, thinking back on the last World Martial Arts Tournament. "Besides, the strongest powers on this island are all outside of this building."

Zoro shut his mouth while he walked with the kid, then after a few seconds spoke up, "Can you explain again how to do that?" He requested, making the boy look up at his green haired comrade who was wearing a fake white mustache to make him look older. "Sense ki's that are far away," the swordsman clarified.

Trunks tilted his head, and then nodded with a smile, "Sure-"

"Before the tournament starts," Zoro stated, interrupting the boy before he could explain how it would take a while. Trunks sweatdropped as Zoro looked down towards him through the black sunglasses he was wearing, "I will learn it fast." The man promised, though Trunks didn't have anything to base Zoro's statement on that would prove it.

Then again, the boy thought, I should trust my nakama. Trunks grinned, "I'll try," the boy said.

Zoro smirked too, but suddenly a shadow cast over the two of them. The two members of the Straw Hat crew looked ahead of them to see a giant of a man standing in front of them. He was at least five times Zoro's height, with long curly black hair, wearing only an orange cape and tights, showing off his very muscular body.

"You think this is a joke?" Spartan yelled down at the two of them. The champion of the Coliseum growled at them, "This isn't a place for an old man and a child," he looked back and forth between the two of them. Trunks glanced around as dozens of other muscular fighters shouted their agreements with the gladiator as he told them off.

The giant man continued angrily, "I should teach you a lesson-"

Before Spartan could finish his threat, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slowly fell backwards. Trunks was a single second away from jumping up in the air and punching the man through the closest wall, but he never got the chance. The lavender haired boy and most people in the room had shocked looks on their faces upon seeing Spartan fall backwards.

"What just happened?" one man shouted.

Another dropped his shield and took a step back, "I didn't see!"

An old man with a fat body and bumpy head turned their direction. He didn't care about what Spartan was going off about a minute ago as he sensed great potential in the other two fighters, but now Don Chinjao whispered, "Conqueror's Haki." His two grandsons at his sides, Sai and Boo, snapped their heads over as well.

Everyone turned their heads back the way Trunks and Zoro just came from as they heard laughter coming from that direction. Trunks lost his shocked expression and smiled as he heard the laughter, laughter of a person he recognized very well. Now that he sensed over that way, he felt the man as well. Zoro was sweating when he saw someone had knocked out the tall muscular man with Conqueror's Haki. He didn't think Spartan was as strong as he was making himself out to be, but for him to be overpowered by another man's will like that, it amazed him.

The green haired man started turning and could see Trunks turning as well. The small kid was smiling wide, making Zoro wonder if it was another one of these crazy warriors he was learning about recently. He turned more and his eyes widened at the sight of the person walking towards them completely wrapped in a white cloak that had a hood, though currently pulled down so it bunched up behind his neck. Instead, on top of his head was an orange hat, and Zoro could also see down to his neck and the necklace of red beads on it. He recognized the guy's freckles, and the smirk on his face, but when he lifted up his head the swordsman dropped his jaw to see the exact same white mustache he was wearing on the other man's face.

"Fire Fist," Zoro whispered, but then saw the pirate before him lift up a finger to his smirking lips and go 'Shhh.' The green haired man lost his shock after a few seconds and a smirk took over instead, Seems Trunks won't be my only competition here.

Two other figures in white cloaks moved out of the shadows so they were in a triangle formation, but unlike Ace, they had their hoods up. Trunks walked towards the figures as Ace said in a loud voice, "Oooh? What could have happened to poor old Spartan? I do hope he wakes up before the matches."

Officials for the tournament were running into the waiting room and looking around for whoever attacked Spartan, but with that last sentence Ace cleared himself of the guilt, proclaiming it wasn't him who used the Conqueror's Haki. Many people doubted what he said, but there was no proof he was the one who overpowered Spartan so they couldn't say anything. Trunks smirked at the taller man who was hiding his Whitebeard Pirate tattoo under his cloak as he walked towards him.

"Sup..." Trunks began, waiting for Ace to tell him what he should call him.

"Paul," Ace stated, making Trunks chuckled.

Zoro walked up with Trunks and continued to grin as he said to Luffy's older brother, "Long time no see A-"

"His name is Paul," Trunks stopped Zoro before the man said something stupid.

Ace, or Paul, smiled at the green haired man who he recognized despite the disguise. "It's good to see you again too-" he paused, waiting for Zoro to tell him what name he was using to cover up his real identity.

"Zolo," the swordsman replied, making Ace sweatdrop as it wasn't much different from his actual name. Then, the older man started laughing, telling him he liked it. Zoro nodded his head at the Whitebeard pirate and then stated, "You here for the Devil Fruit too?"

The Pirate Hunter knew why Trunks was there, so he suspected the same of Fire Fist. Ace nodded, and then he looked back down at Trunks who never mentioned coming to the tournament. Back at Whitebeard and Marco's graves, he mentioned how there would be the tournament at Dressrosa, but he never expected the kid would actually show up.

Trunks felt a weird twinge as he looked at Ace, and he turned to the pirate's left where one of the cloaked figures was standing. The figures were wearing white cloaks with a touch of gray to them, but this man's hood was puffed up pretty high, making his head look like it was twice as tall as a normal man's, maybe more. For some strange reason though, Trunks recognized the person's energy inside the cloak.

"No way," Trunks whispered as he finally placed his finger on it.

The man behind Ace to Trunks' left grinned and Zoro and Trunks both looked at him. Trunks had a shocked look on his face, while Zoro just looked confused as he didn't recognize the man. He only didn't recognize him for a few more seconds, as his new scruffy beard and thicker mustache made him look different from the last time he saw him. It was when the man removed the hood on top of his head though, that Zoro's mouth dropped and his good eye opened wide. "Ehhhh?" the swordsman exclaimed, turning back to Ace, "What's he doing with you?!"

Trunks' eyes widened more as he smiled wide. He looked at the large amount of hair on top of the man's head which was why his hood was pushed so far up, and once the hood was down, his hair reformed in its normal shape. "Three!" the boy exclaimed.

A/N Mr. Three?! What is he doing with Ace? Find out next time along with the start of the tournament! Hope everyone enjoyed, and leave a review below telling me what you think! 'Till next time!