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Sabo is ten, or eleven maybe, when he wakes up blinking in an unfamiliar bed on an unfamiliar ship with an unfamiliar blank threatening void instead of his memory and the knowledge that the only place he wants to be is not here. Some of his belongings point him to his name, and the man who calls himself Dragon points the ship a course far, far away from the island that he supposes he once called home, in a time beyond memory, tinged all around with the rot-stains of confinement.
Sabo is eleven, or twelve maybe, when he meets Koala, who ran away from her family and begged one of the agents to join until they finally took her to Dragon and he took her in. Her and Sabo bond quickly, the children of the revolution, always facing forward away from the pasts they want nothing more than to leave behind.
Sabo is twelve, or thirteen maybe, when one of the fishmen with the revolution, all set to scold him and Koala for skipping out on lessons to go mess around on one of Baltigo's little beach inlets, stops in shock to stare at the Sun mark on Koala's back instead. She bonds with Hack almost instantly, and before Sabo knows it he's been abandoned to endure Dragon's (oddly familiar, and also, way too harsh) teaching style alone while she learns Fishman Karate with her new friend.
Sabo is thirteen, or fourteen maybe, when Koala steals a bottle of Hack's too-sweet sake and they swear formal siblinghood, and Sabo nearly collapses then and there as faint memories rage and scream somewhere deep in his mind. He doesn’t, though, and snipes right back through the headache when Koala mocks him for being overly sentimental.
Sabo is fourteen, or fifteen maybe, when he and Koala are sent on their first official mission as members of the Revolutionary Army under Hack's strict supervision. It’s a simple thing. The entire base worries itself sick. Sabo knows for a fact that Dragon abandons his duties to shadow them personally the entire time, and he's not sure whether to feel flattered or offended or worried for the state of the revolution, if that’s what their leader spends his time doing.
Sabo is fifteen, or sixteen maybe, when he awakens his Observation Haki after months of relentless pounding by either Dragon or one of his devoted followers, the sadistic bastards. Kicking Koala's ass in a spar for the first time in six weeks is more than worth the suffering, though. He has a sudden flash of a scoreboard, and then shakes his head, because since when have they kept count of their victories?
Sabo is sixteen, or seventeen maybe, when Dragon promotes him to officer based on the progress he has made with his Haki and — apparently — his incredibly charming smile. Koala gets promoted too, so that they can stick together. They throw a massive party and Dragon deigns to stop his affectionate mockery for all of the five seconds it takes him to pour Sabo wine instead of juice. Sabo doesn’t know when he started thinking of Dragon as something vaguely resembling a father — but despite the man’s calm, intimidating outward countenance, Sabo knows the way he smiles, warm pride, and his reckless, familiar, familial love, and that is the only shape he can quite make the relationship fit, for all he knows nothing about fathers.
Sabo is seventeen, or eighteen maybe, when some Super Rookie named Fire Fist Ace makes a stir. Sabo isn't quite sure why he finds this so important.
Sabo is eighteen, or nineteen maybe, when Koala drags him and Hack across half of Fishman Island to catch up with nearly every single member of the Sun Pirates, although they are both sad to have missed the Warlord captain himself, who is apparently conducting some business with the Whitebeards. Sabo has never felt the absence of his memories more acutely than in the full color of Koala's childhood saviors.
Sabo is nineteen, or twenty maybe, when Dragon, after an unexpected detour to Loguetown he refuses to explain, abruptly promotes Sabo to Chief of Staff. Sabo notes that there is a bounty poster propped up against the back of Dragon's desk for some East Blue rookie named Straw Hat Luffy. He's definitely sure that wasn't there before, and equally sure that somehow, it’s important, and he should probably be fussing. But he dismisses the thought in favor of worrying about all his new responsibilities, instead.
Sabo is twenty, no need to waver, he remembers his birthday now, when his brother Ace dies in his little brother Luffy's arms, and he realizes why the sake ceremony felt so familiar. No, Koala, I will not be leaving the revolution. His little brother, alone on a battlefield, Ace dying because of the father he hated, and Sabo couldn’t even be bothered to remember their names. It's kind of funny, he thinks, that he hasn't hated himself this much since he was ten years old. Wasn't a person supposed to go through all the self-loathing stuff as a teen, not as a child and then as an adult?
Sabo is twenty-one, and he spends every moment he has and some moments he does not have begging Nico Robin for facts, details, stories, anything about his little brother, her captain. Luckily, she is glad to speak after an initial and very reasonable wariness, and he is more than glad to listen. They talk late into the night, secluded away in Baltigo’s hidden interior, brilliant white canyon walls soaring up beside them to indicate all the stars of the sky. Sabo feels small against them, and smaller against the unbearable love in Robin’s voice. Even Dragon’s war, the way the revolution spits defiance against the world, seems small against Luffy doing the same for the sake of one friend, with a crew Sabo can count on less than two hands. Oh, seas , Sabo misses them. He misses the two of them so much, now that he can remember them.
Sabo is twenty-two, and Luffy is crying in his arms, and Sabo has not been this happy in years.