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Chapter Text

“Well, Luffy might be quite the handful, but look after him, okay?” Sabo requested, tucking the ripped corner of Luffy’s vivre card into his pocket.

“Yeah! Leave him to us!” Robin and Cyborg Franky agreed, smiles on both of their faces. Pirate Hunter Zoro smiled too, looking at Sabo with something soft and amused in his eyes.

“Ha! Ace asked us the same thing…” he said, half to himself.

Sabo tipped his hat at them one last time, and then turned towards the door.

His Observation Haki pinged just an instant before the door flew open. Standing there was a pirate in an ugly green shirt, emblazoned across the front with the Donquixote Jolly Roger. Sabo vaguely recognized him as the captain of an allied crew, who hadn’t been present for the day’s earlier battle. The pirate threw his hands out like he was throwing a double-palm-strike, but he was too far away to strike anybody.

Sabo was immediately on alert, grabbing his seastone pipe from where it was slung across his back and holding it out to guard in front of him. The pirate’s palms started to glow, and a sudden bright light erupted from them, flooding the room and blinding Sabo.

“LINK TO PAST DAYS!” the pirate shouted.

Sabo could fight blind, but his Observation Haki was going wild. The pirate had disappeared from in front of him, along with several of the people within the house, including his little brother’s samurai allies, the injured blond man, and Kyros. The house itself had also disappeared, leaving them abruptly standing (or laying or sitting) in the middle of what appeared to be a desert.

Sabo could already feel sand working its way through the layers of his clothes.

Usopp leapt suddenly to his feet, slingshot poised in front of him. He blinked heavily, still clearing the sleep from his eyes.

“What the hell was that?” Zoro demanded, also now on his feet. “Where the hell are we?”

“That appeared to be a Devil Fruit power…” Robin said. She hesitated for a beat. “I don’t recognize which one, sorry.”

“It’s okay, Robin,” Sabo reassured her. Luffy was still asleep, but his crew was on their feet around them, and Sabo was here, so he could stay asleep. He would be perfectly safe.

Even the Surgeon of Death, Trafalgar Law, was slowly-but-surely waking up from the discomfort of suddenly lying on sand. Sabo couldn’t blame him for being slow, though. From what he had heard about the battle, Trafalgar was one of the most heavily injured, and definitely the person in their group who took the heaviest emotional toll.

“All this sand isn’t gonna be good for my repairs…” Franky fretted.

“We just need to figure out where we’ve been sent,” Zoro decided. “If that pirate just wanted to hit us in revenge, he might have sent us somewhere random. Same if he just wanted us out of the way to try and re-overthrow the country. If this was an attack with any thought behind it, he would have sent us somewhere where we would be surrounded by enemies.”

“That, or this is a desert island with no life, where we will all starve to death without any need to waste the lives of his own men,” Robin countered.

“So morbid!” Usopp shouted back, though his knees started to shake.

Sabo closed his eyes, stretching out his Observation Haki to see if there was anything around them to lend proof to any of the theories. A few dunes away, he felt a small group of people.

“There’s a group of about seven or eight people that way,” he said, pointing in their direction. Zoro furrowed his brows and then nodded firmly, clearly having double-checked with his own Haki.

“I’ll go check it out,” he volunteered. Sabo quickly shook his head.

“No, I’m the least recognizable here. You stay here and guard Luffy. If these people can help, I’ll bring them back over here,” he countered.

“And if they’re enemies?” Trafalgar asked, raising one skeptical eyebrow. Sabo grinned, already anticipating the viscous crush of eggshells beneath his fingers. Trafalgar looked vaguely disturbed and leaned subtly backwards.

“Then I’ll take care of them, of course!” Sabo said happily.

“Good luck, Sabo-kun!” Robin chimed in, smiling sweetly. Robin was such a gem; Sabo was glad she was on his little brother’s crew.

He stepped away, following his Observation Haki over the sand dune to his right. The sand sank into smaller dunes behind it, like the tall dune he had just climbed acted as some sort of shelter from the wind. The group of people he had sensed were only about fifteen meters away, and moving towards a rocky outcropping that sprung from the ground in the distance.

Actually, the group looked kind of familiar… Sabo squinted at them like it would somehow help him recognize them.

Ah, well, the familiar feeling didn’t carry any negative connotations with it, so they were probably allies! Sabo climbed down the other side of the dune and approached the group until he was within proper calling-out distance.

“Hey!” he shouted, causing several of the group to jump and spin around to look at him.

“Hey! Who are you?” someone shouted back. Wait, but they sounded like… they looked like… Luffy?

Sabo would know his brother anywhere, now that he had his memories back. He had memorized his face from his wanted poster, and watched as much of the Marineford recordings that showed Luffy as he could bear (anything after Ace died was both unlikely to show Luffy and, if it did, it was just… painful. Sabo’s brother should always be smiling).

But Luffy was behind him, being guarded by half of his crew and Trafalgar?

Sabo did a quick scan of the rest of the group. It seemed to contain six out of the current nine Strawhat Pirates, plus one Princess Nefertari Vivi, and…

Ace.

Sabo was staring, but Ace could deal with that. Clearly something was wrong with time… Sabo ran through a few other explanations but discarded them. He knew the current user of the Clone-Clone Fruit was in Impel Down (and could only mimic one person at once), and if this was an illusion then he wouldn’t be able to sense these people with his Observation Haki. Whatever Devil Fruit power they had been hit with must have thrown them back into the past.

“Woah!” Past-Luffy shouted. “Are you okay? Why are you crying?”

Was he crying? He hadn’t noticed…

Chapter Text

Sabo’s Observation Haki registered someone approaching from behind him, but he couldn’t be bothered to stop them. Obviously the group in front of him was of higher importance. Plus, anyone behind him was someone he already knew. Sure enough, Zoro came to a stop on Sabo’s right, looking over the group in front of them with a confused expression.

“What the hell?” Past-Zoro shouted. “Why do you look like me?”

“You with an eye gone,” Blackleg Sanji commented.

“This isn’t what I was expecting,” Zoro remarked casually. “I guess we can’t ask them for help after all.”

That snapped Sabo out of it, which was probably a good thing because Ace’s uncomfortable-face had started edging into hostility.

“What do you mean?” Sabo asked, turning to look at Zoro (keeping Ace in his peripherals).

“Well. How the hell would we explain this?”

“We just tell the truth? I’m sure Robin will be able to explain it if one of us can’t.”

“But Ace is here,” Zoro said, pointing right at the guy. Ace stiffened like he was offended.

“What, did I do something to you? You need help but not from me?” he questioned, obviously picking a fight.

Zoro turned to look at him, scrutinizing him up-and-down. “I don’t have anything against you, but if Luffy sees you, I don’t think he’ll be able to handle it.”

“What are you talking about?” Past-Luffy demanded, pouting. “I love to see Ace!”

“Not you, Luffy. My Luffy,” Zoro said. “Uh, Future-Luffy?”

“Future-Luffy?” the Strawhat’s echoed, obviously alarmed.

“Yeah, some jerk hit us with a weird Devil Fruit power,” Zoro explained. Just then, a clone of Robin bloomed into being on Sabo’s other side.

“I think I know where we are, Sabo,” she reported. “I’ve been using my powers to scout the area, and it seems as if we’re in the country of Alabasta.”

It was as if she had dropped a bomb on the small group. Rage crossed every face in front of them, and only then did Robin notice who exactly was standing there.

“Ms. All-Sunday!” Princess Vivi shouted, rage burning in her eyes. She was suddenly holding swinging blades on thin chains, and twirling them like she knew how to use them, too.

“How the hell do you know that name?” Ace demanded, hands on fire and attention on Sabo. Ah, yes, his dead brother who thought he was dead. This was about to be nasty.

And then there was Luffy. It was like he didn’t know who to stare at. His sharp gaze directed rage at Robin (possibly an enemy at this point in the past, Sabo had never made Robin talk about things she didn’t want to discuss, but was aware that she had been at odds with the crew before she joined), and yet he seemed to scrutinize Sabo at the same time. Holding him against an image of the lost ten-year-old brother, perhaps? It took Luffy a minute to recognize him in the coliseum, too, and that was without distractions.

Sabo took a deep breath. The Luffy behind him, his time’s Luffy, was heavily injured, and he wasn’t the only one. Thrown through time to the past or not, their first priority needed to be getting out of the sand and into a room where they could properly recover.

“Never mind all that, would you? Can you point us towards the nearest city?” he requested, pushing it all to the back of his mind.

“Why the hell are you using his name?” Ace demanded, fire slowly crawling up his arms.

“You’re obviously with Baroque Works! No way will we let you go!” Princess Vivi declared.

“Eh, you want to take them prisoner?” Past-Usopp asked. “How will we guard prisoners?”

“I’m sure we’ll find a way,” Past-Zoro said blithely.

“Okay,” Robin interrupted. “I’ll let the others know that we’re prisoners now.”

The clone dissolved into petals, whisked away by the wind.

“Well, Torao’s going to be mad about that,” Zoro said.

“We can’t travel along with your past-selves, we have to get to a city!” Sabo said. “Luffy’s hurt!”

“Luffy’s been hurt worse before,” Zoro replied.

“That doesn’t make it better!”

“Hey! I’m right here, I’m not hurt!” Past-Luffy cut in. Ace looked anxiously between Past-Luffy and Sabo, obviously undecided on what he should be doing.

Soon, Robin came back over to join them, this time in her real body. She was supporting Usopp, while Franky followed them, carrying Luffy. Trafalgar trailed behind the rest, clearly the most apprehensive about whatever it was that Robin had told them.

Past-Luffy straightened up, staring at his future self.

“Woah, that guy has my face!” he exclaimed.

“That guy has mine!” Past-Usopp screeched, pointing at his future self and attempting to hide behind Sanji.

“I think we need to do a round of introductions before we become your prisoners,” Robin proposed, gently releasing Usopp, who could stand unassisted but was apparently having trouble walking in the sand.

“A ROBOT!” Past-Luffy yelled excitedly, noticing Franky.

“Will you focus?” Ace hissed at him.

“Eh? Ace? It’s really Ace?” Usopp remarked, staring at him. “Robin, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“We don’t know what kind of Devil Fruit power we were hit with,” Robin explained. “We don’t know how long its effects will last, either. All we know is that we have been sent to the past, somehow. We need somewhere to stay while we figure that out, right? The safest place is always with our crew.”

Princess Vivi scoffed. “Our crew? This isn’t your crew, Ms. All-Sunday!”

“Hey, be nice to Robin!” Usopp shot back, directing a hurt look at the Princess.

“No, it’s okay, Usopp. After all, at this point in time I was an enemy, and she believed I was responsible for the death of someone she held dear. She’s well within her rights to be suspicious of me,” Robin said. Usopp frowned, but didn’t say anything else.

Ace was no longer visibly on fire, but he was still eyeing their small group warily.

“I think Ms. Sunday or whatever was right when she said we need to do some introductions,” he suggested, in a way that was more of a command than a suggestion.

“Yeah! Why do some of you look like some of us?” Past-Luffy asked.

“I suppose I should go first, seeing as how my identity is the most controversial here,” Robin volunteered. “My name is Nico Robin. You know me as Ms. All-Sunday, but in the future I am the archeologist of the Strawhat Pirates.”

“Why would you join us?” Nami asked, scrutinizing her. “Why would we let you join us?”

“Wait, Nami! No spoilers!” Past-Luffy protested.

“We need to know if we can trust her!” Nami rebutted.

“You can trust her,” Usopp cut in. “She’s been on the crew for two years now.”

Princess Vivi still didn’t look entirely convinced, but she at least put her weapons away. She did move to be standing a lot closer to Past-Zoro, but Sabo couldn’t blame her for her wariness.

“I’m Roronoa Zoro, swordsman and first mate of the Strawhat Pirates,” Zoro introduced himself. He nodded at Usopp to go next.

“I’m Usopp, the legendary sniper of the Strawhat Pirates!” he declared, holding an unsteady hand to his chest.

“I’m Franky, the SUUUUPER shipwright of the Strawhat Pirates!” Franky said enthusiastically. His feet shifted like he was posing, but he was holding his unconscious captain, so he couldn’t complete his pose.

“ROBOT!” Past-Luffy cheered.

Trafalgar and Sabo stared at each other for a moment before Trafalgar decided he was too tired to fight about it and went next.

“I’m Trafalgar Law, captain of the Heart Pirates and an ally to the Strawhat Pirates,” he sighed. Past-Luffy looked very interested.

“I get allies?” he cheered. “Cool!”

“And you?” Ace prompted, staring straight at Sabo.

Sabo took a deep breath, straightening his spine and steeling himself.

“My name is Sabo. I’m the Chief of Staff of the Revolutionary Army, and Strawhat Luffy’s older brother,” he declared.

Chapter Text

Just like the coliseum. It was fine. Luffy would be happy to see him no matter what. The only risk was Ace.

“BULLSHIT!” Ace roared. He leapt forwards, both fists on fire, and Sabo was forced to block him with his pipe. The seastone put out Ace’s flames, but he wasn’t out of range of Ace’s hands or feet or teeth.

“Woah!” Nami shouted from somewhere behind Ace.

“Sabo…” Past-Luffy said, still a tinge disbelieving. Well, of course. He would follow what Ace said until Sabo proved himself to be telling the truth.

“IT’S TRUE!” Sabo yelled back, using his pipe to dunk Ace into the sand. He felt the Ace he carried inside of him roar to meet this Ace’s flames, but he wouldn’t allow it. If Ace saw proof that he would die sometime in the future… Sabo had no idea how Ace would react, but it wouldn’t be good.

Past-Ace (real-Ace, the adult Ace that Sabo never got to meet, tangible and in front of him through a Devil Fruit-induced miracle) leapt up from the sand, blasting fire towards Sabo’s face in a deadly spin kick, which Sabo leapt into the air to dodge. Ace aimed for an uppercut, taking advantage of Sabo’s midair position, but Sabo jammed one end of his pipe into the ground and used it to vault backwards, away from Ace.

“Eh… Sabo…?” Luffy muttered, stirring in Franky’s arms.

“Woah, they’re really going at it!” Sanji exclaimed.

Ace grabbed the base of the pipe, wrenching it out of Sabo’s hands and tossing it away. Sabo lifted his hands into a guard position, blocking Ace’s next few punches with Armament Haki on the backs of his forearms. Ace’s eyes went wide at the display of Haki, then narrowed again as he visibly decided to keep up his assault despite the fact that Sabo was very likely to be stronger than him.

Did Ace ever learn Haki before he died? He sailed the New World, but Haki wasn’t exactly a requirement. Ah, but hadn’t he fought First Son of the Sea Jimbei to a standstill after five days? Jimbei definitely knew Haki… unless Ace was just that strong, even without it.

“Ace…” Luffy called out, grimacing and shifting where Franky cradled him. Franky frowned, gently lowering his captain to the sand.

Sabo risked a quick Haki-reinforced punch to the solar plexus, hard enough to warn but not to seriously injure. It clearly winded Ace, but it did nothing to slow his assault. He used fire from his feet to launch himself into the air, raining fire down on Sabo from above. He did a fancy flip and then landed on the top of a nearby sand dune, placing the larger group of Strawhat Pirates to Ace’s left and Sabo’s right.

It was then that Sabo realized Ace hadn’t used any of his bigger moves, probably out of fear that he would inadvertently hurt Luffy or someone on his crew. Now, with clear sightlines, he was gathering a larger amount of fire in his hands.

“Ready, asshole?” Ace shouted, teeth bared in a feral rage.

“Ace,” Luffy muttered, just meters away.

“BURN!” Ace yelled, launching the fire like a cannonball towards Sabo.

Luffy leapt up, awake but eyes clouded with incoherence, and leapt towards Sabo.

“ACE!” he shouted, pushing Sabo to the side and coating his arms and upper torso with Armament Haki. The fireball crashed into his back, burning away the bandages and reopening wounds sustained in his fight with Doflamingo.

Ace stood, horrified, as he registered that their baby brother had just taken his attack.

“LUFFY!” Sabo shouted in horror, dropping to his knees and catching Luffy as he collapsed. “You shouldn’t be awake yet! Why would you—what are you doing?”

“Eh? Sabo?” Luffy realized, some of the cloudiness receding from his face.

“Wh—Why would you jump in front of that, idiot!” Ace scolded, rushing over to kneel on Luffy’s other side. At least, even if Ace didn’t trust Sabo, he believed that this version of Luffy was Luffy.

Ace reached out and gently pulled Luffy out of Sabo’s grip and into his own, fingers delicately tracing over Luffy’s now-exposed wounds. Sabo let him, knowing that Ace took their brotherhood seriously and would never hurt Luffy on purpose.

Trafalgar looked at them all and sighed heavily. Probably because he was a doctor and this was not proper wound care. He turned to the group of Past-Strawhats, zeroing in on Cotton Candy Lover Tony Tony Chopper.

“Tony-ya, please tell me you have bandages in your bag?”

“Of course I do!” the little reindeer bristled. “I’m the doctor here!”

“I’m a doctor, too,” Trafalgar explained. “And I would greatly appreciate some help in making sure that your captain doesn’t die.”

“Of course!” Chopper responded, grabbing his bag and rushing over to where Sabo, Ace and Luffy were sitting.

“...Ace?” Luffy asked, looking up at their older brother.

“Yeah, I’m here, Luffy. It’s okay,” he said.

“Wasn’t Sabo just here?” Luffy asked, expression screwed up in a sort of pained confusion.

“I’m still right here, Luffy, I just passed you back to Ace,” Sabo answered, taking Luffy’s hand in his. Luffy slowly turned to look at Sabo, then back at Ace. Comprehension dawned on his face and he relaxed into Ace’s grip.

“Ah, I see,” Luffy said. “I’m having a dream.”

Trafalgar paused from where he and Chopper had been making some kind of ointment off to the side.

“Strawhat-ya, why do you think you’re dreaming?” he asked, then looked accusingly at Ace.

“What’s that glare for?” Ace barked, glaring back.

Past-Luffy apparently got bored at this point, and wandered over to crouch behind Ace so he could see his future self over Ace’s shoulder. He cast some questioning, confused glances at Sabo, too, but most of his attention was on his future self.

Trafalgar ignored Ace, smearing the ointment over Luffy’s wounds instead. Chopper quickly followed with bandages, pronounced Luffy okay now, and promptly ran to hide behind Sanji.

“Of course I’m dreaming, Torao,” Luffy answered. “Ace and Sabo are here together! But that’s impossible, since I only have Sabo now. So I have to be dreaming.”

“What do you mean, you only have Sabo?” Ace demanded. “This guy can’t really be Sabo. Sabo died.”

“But Ace,” Past-Luffy cut in quietly. “We never saw him after he died. Maybe…”

“Dogra said his boat exploded!” Ace insisted to Past-Luffy, completely ignoring Sabo in front of him.

“It is really Sabo,” Luffy insisted. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have let him have Ace’s Fruit.”

The wind had been knocked out of Ace’s sails. Sabo suddenly felt the urge to run, but he didn’t. He knew he deserved whatever Ace did next.

Trafalgar was making a weird face, clearly not comfortable with this level of family drama, but also unwilling to leave Luffy’s side. Ah, Luffy always did have that effect.

“Huh?” Past-Luffy asked. “How can anyone have Ace’s Fruit if Ace has Ace’s Fruit?”

Ace was making a face like he had been shot through the heart wounded, looking down at the Luffy on his lap.

“Luffy,” he said, hesitating. “Do you know what happens when a Devil Fruit user dies?”

The rest of the Strawhats had also gone still, clearly stricken by the implications and also, blatantly eavesdropping. But Sabo could allow them that—really, this was probably good information for them to have.

“Huh? Why does that matter?” Past-Luffy asked.

“Because when a Devil Fruit user dies, their Fruit reappears somewhere in the world. So someone else can eat it,” Ace explained.

“That makes sense, I guess.”

“So this weird Future-Luffy is saying that that guy who’s claiming to be Sabo ate my fruit. Which means I died.”

“EHH? ACE CAN’T DIE!” Past-Luffy shouted. “You promised you would never die, Ace!”

“That’s why I’m dreaming,” Luffy said, like it was obvious, staring at his past self. “Ace broke his promise and died two years ago. But Sabo showed up and helped me in Dressrosa. Because Sabo survived!” A sudden smile bloomed across Luffy’s face, breaking through his melancholy like the sunrise through a foggy night. “It’s a miracle!”

Chapter Text

“Wh-what do you mean, Ace promised he would never die?” Past-Usopp questioned nervously, obviously hesitant to break into their little bubble. “What kind of promise is that?”

“I made Ace promise me he wouldn’t die after Sabo died,” Past-Luffy answered blithely, as unconcerned by the horror his words invoked as ever. Sabo felt a deep guilt well up and grab his heart, choking him on the time he had missed. “But it looks like Sabo didn’t really die after all!” Past-Luffy cheered.

“Why do you both think Sabo died? I mean, clearly he’s around in the future…?” Nami interjected, stepping closer to scrutinize Sabo.

“I got into an incident as a kid. I just explained this to Zoro and the others,” Sabo explained.

“You did?” Luffy asked.

“Ah, you were asleep, Luffy,” Robin said, picking up the thread of Sabo’s story. Did she know somehow that he didn’t want to repeat it? He wouldn’t put it past her. “Sabo told us that he was rescued by Dragon-san when his boat was blown up as a child. He lost his memories in the accident and joined the Revolutionary Army, and only got his missing memories back once he saw the results of the Paramount War in the newspaper.”

“Thanks, Robin,” Sabo said. Robin smiled understandingly at him.

“What, so you’re saying that there’s some past version of you out there right now, missing his memories?” Ace scoffed. “That’s a lie if I’ve ever seen one.”

“It’s true!” Luffy was quick to defend. He pouted. “Why is Ace being so mean in my dream?”

Suddenly, everyone was looking at Luffy.

“Luffy… you do know that this isn’t a dream, right?” Sabo asked.

Luffy gaped. “What! But that’s impossible! Ace is here!”

“Maybe I’m like Sabo, and I miraculously survived,” Ace suggested. That wasn’t going to work, but Sabo caught it: the first hesitant acknowledgement that Sabo was telling the truth!

Luffy scowled at Ace. Past-Luffy looked like maybe he didn’t want to hear this conversation, but also he was concerned about Ace so it wasn’t like he was going anywhere.

“That’s impossible!” Luffy shouted, raising his arms up to cover his eyes. “Ace is dead! He died right in front of me and there was nothing I could do!”

Robin, Franky, Zoro, and Usopp had gravitated together, and they all reached out and grabbed onto each other as their captain cried in Ace’s lap. The Past-Strawhats watched them, shocked at Luffy’s wailing announcement.

“Wh—right in front of you?” Ace stuttered out, clearly unsure how to handle this conversation. It couldn’t be comfortable for him. Nobody wanted to discuss their own death. Sabo closed his eyes and took a bracing breath.

“Ace, I know you’ve never really cared if you live or die, but there’s plenty of people out there who want you to live,” Sabo said, not opening his eyes. He couldn’t stand to look at his brothers right now. “I want you to live, okay? And so does Luffy.” An idea occurred to Sabo then. They were in the past, but they had no idea what the rules of it were. Who knew how long they would be stuck here?

Silence reigned for a minute. Sabo opened his eyes. Ace was staring at him, something raw and stricken splashed across his face. Past-Luffy had his arms draped over Ace’s shoulders in a loose hug, probably needing him close after the announcement of his impending death. Luffy was staring up at Ace’s face from where he still lay in his lap, but from that angle could probably only see Ace’s chin.

“Stop chasing Blackbeard,” Sabo said.

Ace jolted like he was shot, and Luffy curled his fist into the sand, face contorting with rage.

“Who the hell are you to give me orders?” Ace growled back, no longer looking stricken but now looking murderous.

“Blackbeard…” Luffy hissed. It was enough to shock Ace out of his kill-immediately instincts, and he looked with concern at Luffy.

“What, you actually remember his name? I only mentioned him to you once, here in Alabasta,” Ace said teasingly, though he was obviously fishing for information.

“Yeah!” Past-Luffy agreed. “You said he killed a crewmate.”

“He did,” Ace nodded, running his hands through Luffy’s hair. “So I have to bring him in.”

“Don’t,” Luffy rasped, lifting one bandaged arm to grab at Ace’s bicep. “That bastard—if it hadn’t been for him, Ace would have lived!”

“You’re saying this Blackbeard guy kills Ace?” Sanji blurted out from the group of Past-Strawhats. They all shuffled closer together, like they were unconsciously getting ready to defend themselves.

“Blackbeard turned Ace in to the Marines in exchange for a Warlord position,” Robin clarified. “If Blackbeard hadn’t done that, then Ace would have never been executed. Though as I understand it, Ace isn’t the only death Blackbeard is responsible for.”

This part Sabo knew. “According to Ivankov, Blackbeard met Luffy’s group before they made it out of Impel Down. If Ace hadn’t tried to stop Blackbeard at Banaro island, then his next target would have been Luffy.”

Ace immediately stilled. “What?” he asked, quietly.

“Why would a defected Whitebeard Pirate come after Luffy?” Nami demanded, stepping towards Sabo and flinging her arms out. “Luffy has nothing to do with any of this!”

“He wanted to be a Warlord. Who better to exchange for the position than the man who emptied the spot?” Zoro explained casually.

“Eh?” Past-Luffy questioned, not getting it.

“You beat Crocodile, so there were only six Warlords instead of seven. Since that’s your fault, the Marines would probably award the empty spot to any pirate that turned you in, Luffy,” Zoro rephrased his explanation.

“Hey! That’s spoilers, Zoro! You can’t just tell me that!” Past-Luffy shouted, annoyed.

“Even so, you haven’t done it yet!” Princess Vivi interrupted. “My country still hasn’t been saved! Even if these people from the future say it has, who’s to say that this very conversation hasn’t changed that? There are still so many things that can go wrong!”

“Here’s an idea, then,” Robin suggested. “Let’s all stick together as a group. We can give you more information about the coming war, and help you in your quest to save Alabasta. In return, all you have to do is let us travel on your ship.”

Past-Luffy straightened up, adjusting his hat on his head. “There’s no need to make deals!” he declared. “Zoro says you’re nakama, and I trust Zoro. And if you’re nakama, then of course you’re coming with us!”

“Even Ms. All-Sunday?” Past-Usopp shrieked, hunching his shoulders and lifting shaking fingers to his lips.

“If Zoro says she’s nakama then she’s nakama,” Past-Luffy said, with an air of finality.

“I want to walk with her, then,” Princess Vivi decided.

“Absolutely, Princess,” Robin agreed amicably. “We should probably all get moving, so please lead the way.”

“Can we really move in this state?” Usopp groaned, looping an arm around a helpful Zoro’s waist. “I can barely walk, and Luffy’s definitely more injured than I am.”

Actually, Luffy was being weirdly quiet. Sabo redirected his attention to his younger brother, and realized that, while his hand was still gripping Ace’s arm, Luffy himself had actually passed back out.

“He passed out,” Ace announced. “It’s fine. I can carry him on my back.”

“Are you sure?” Trafalgar questioned immediately. “I don’t know where we’re going, but it’s probably a long way.”

“The town of Yuba is about a day's walk from here. That’s where the rebels are, so that’s where we’re going,” Princess Vivi supplied.

“It’s fine, I carried Luffy around when he was injured all the time as kids,” Ace dismissed with a wave.

“No fair, I want a piggyback ride!” Past-Luffy pouted.

“Lazybones! Get up here and walk with the rest of us!” Past-Zoro snapped. Past-Luffy laughed and jogged up to rejoin his crew. The Strawhat crew from the future, plus Trafalgar and Sabo, trailed after them as they slowly made their way through the dunes.

Chapter Text

Sabo wasn’t stupid. He knew Ace was keeping an extra-careful eye on him as they walked. Apparently, Past-Luffy realized it too, because after a few minutes he circled around the group and then stopped so that he was walking next to Sabo, on the opposite side from Ace. Clever, making sure his protective brother would have a clear view of their whole conversation.

“Hey,” Past-Luffy asked. “Are you really Sabo? Did you really survive, but forget us?”

Sabo pasted a smile on his face, breathing through the swell of memories. “I didn’t mean to forget you, Luffy. It happens sometimes, when someone hits their head too hard.”

Past-Luffy frowned. “Ace doesn’t think you’re really Sabo.”

“Ace will come around. He just has to get used to the idea. I mean, with everything else we’ve thrown on top of it, that’s a lot to absorb.”

Past-Luffy was quiet for a while, expression contemplative. Finally, he asked, “Is Sabo free now? With good nakama?”

He could have melted, and not from the desert sun. How did Luffy always ask the perfect questions?

“Yeah, Luffy. I’m free, and my nakama are the best. And the Sabo in your time, he’s free too. He just needs some reminders so he can remember you and Ace, and then everything will be perfect,” Sabo said, beaming down at his little brother.

“Good!” Past-Luffy declared, tearing up and starting to sniffle. “I’m really, really glad that Sabo’s okay!”

And, well, how was he not supposed to hug his brother?

Sanji waited until they had stopped hugging to ask, “So can we ask questions about this whole war thing now?”

“Yeah, Ms. All-Sunday said she’d tell us more if we let you come with us!” Nami added.

“Don’t call Robin that!” Usopp protested, glaring at her. “Her name is Robin!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Nami dismissed. “But she did say that.”

“Of course, if there’s any war, I’m sure my 8000 men will swiftly—”

“Shut the hell up,” Zoro growled, cutting off Past-Usopp’s shaky declaration.

“Oi, you got a problem?” Past-Zoro growled back, flicking the hilt of his white sword out from its sheath with his thumb.

“Don’t do that,” Usopp said, addressing his past self. “The Paramount War was really, really bad, and we weren’t even there. I don’t even know if we could have changed anything if we had been there.”

Past-Zoro let his word drop fully back into the scabbard.

“Yow! Wouldn’t it at least helped if we’d been there for Luffy?” Franky questioned. “Even if just in the aftermath…”

“He didn’t want to see us after. You gonna disobey a Captain’s Order?” Zoro challenged.

“Obviously I didn’t, bro!” Franky protested. “I probably understand the best about where Luffy-bro was coming from. It’s easy to forget what I was doing before joining the crew, but I’m used to leading, too. No way would I want my men to see me grieving!”

“Ugh. I forgot you used to be a gang leader,” Usopp grumbled.

“You forgot?” Zoro exclaimed. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Usopp nonchalantly replied.

“Ow! I’m so sorry, bro,” Franky said.

“Obviously it’s forgiven! We couldn’t ask for a better shipwright than you, and you helped us with Robin! We definitely wanted you on the crew!”

“Yeah, some days I think I can still feel that pain,” Franky joked. Sabo… was missing something there.

“Why would joining the crew cause pain?” Past-Luffy asked, a furrow in his brow betraying that he was not happy with that idea.

“Ah, I can answer this, captain,” Robin answered. “We had to take him into the crew by force, because otherwise he would have stayed on his home island, abandoning his dream and likely getting arrested by Marines soon. So we stole his pants and I grabbed him by the balls.”

Every male in the group winced at that.

“So she is evil…” Past-Usopp whimpered.

Franky burst into bellowing laughter. “That was a nasty trick, Nico Robin!”

“Wait, Nico Robin?” Ace asked, eyes going wide.

“Ah, you’ve heard of me?”

“I think everyone’s heard of the Devil Child,” Ace replied.

“We’re quite similar in that way, aren’t we?”

“What?” Ace exclaimed.

“Well, we’ve both been wanted since we were children, and called monsters for our heritage,” Robin answered simply, smiling at him.

“Woah, what are you talking about?” Nami asked. “Ace is Luffy’s brother, right? What ‘heritage’ could he have that’s so bad?”

“Ace doesn’t like talking about that,” Past-Luffy stated, glaring. “So we’re not gonna talk about that.”

“Actually, if you want to talk about the war, we’re gonna have to talk about that,” Zoro contradicted him.

“Oh, going against Captain’s Orders, shitty cyclops marimo?” Sanji needled.

“Shut the hell up, mini-cook.”

Ace sighed heavily, a dark look staining his expression. “So they found out, huh…”

“I promise I didn’t tell anybody!” Past-Luffy shouted, instantly gluing himself to Ace’s side. Ace wrapped an arm around him and squished him closer like a person-sized stress-ball.

Awkward silence reigned for a few moments.

“Ace, do you want me to explain this one?” Sabo offered. “I know you don’t—you don’t trust me yet, and that’s fine, but if there’s anything I can do to prevent you from dying then I want to do it. And if the Strawhats know, they can help. I don’t think anyone on Luffy’s crew will hate you, y’know? It’s Luffy’s crew.”

“I can’t even get away from that man’s legacy in death, huh…” Ace muttered, which wasn’t an answer.

“Ace?” Sabo prompted. His voice came out a lot weaker than he meant it to. He wanted to squish their oldest brother in a hug too, dammit!

“Can we wait to talk about this until Future-Luffy’s awake?” Ace asked, finally raising his voice to be properly heard. “You said he was there, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I want to hear what he has to say.”

“Okay, no problem. Do you want me to take him? Since Past-Luffy is trying to climb you?”

Ace grimaced, but didn’t let go of his one-armed hug on the littlest version of their little brother. “Yeah,” he agreed. Sabo moved closer to their huddle, and, in a maneuver they must have done a million times as kids, transferred Luffy from Ace’s back to his own.

“Tell us something different about the future then!” Nami broke in.

“No spoilers!” Past-Luffy shouted instantly.

“I’m sure we can find something to talk about with no spoilers, Strawhat-bro!” Franky assured him.

“Ah! Torao! You should tell us about your adventures!” Usopp suggested, to the obvious chagrin of their grumpiest companion.

“No.”

“Aw, c’mon! Can’t you even just tell us about what happened on Dressrosa from your side of things?”

“Doflamingo shot me,” Trafalgar grumbled. “And cut my arm off. And Strawhat-ya made a mockery of my plan, refused to listen to me about anything, and saved my life when I threatened to kill him!”

Zoro let out a sharp bark of laughter. “Yeah, join the club.”

Everyone was looking at Zoro now.

“When have you ever threatened to kill Luffy?” Robin asked.

Yeah, everyone wanted to know that.

“Very first time I met him,” Zoro answered.

“Well, I didn’t know he was my captain then,” Past-Zoro said dismissively.

“Also Whiskey Peak,” Zoro mused.

“Hey, that was Luffy trying to kill me!” Past-Zoro protested.

“I already apologized for that!” Past-Luffy whined.

“More of us have tried to kill Luffy than I thought,” Robin mused absently.

“I want to clarify that I didn’t try to kill him,” Usopp interjected nervously.

“What?” Past-Usopp shouted, eyes wide.

“Bullshit!” Zoro fired back.

“Oh, I forgot about that!” Franky laughed.

“When was this?” Robin asked.

“After you disappeared on us, but before the mayor was shot,” Usopp answered. “It’s not exactly something I’m proud of.”

“Why would I ever fight Luffy?” Past-Usopp questioned.

“Hey, no spoilers!” Past-Luffy whined.

“Does this really count as spoilers?” Nami sweatdropped.

“You do look a lot stronger now, Usopp,” Sanji chimed in.

“Thanks! It took ages to really start building some muscle, but I had someone really cool helping me. Hercules’n was a lifesaver,” Usopp answered, preening subtly.

“Hercules’n?” Past-Usopp immediately parrotted.

“No spoilers!” Past-Luffy insisted.

“Nah, this isn’t a spoiler for you, Luffy. Hercules’n didn’t come on any of our adventures.”

“Is he who you were with these past two years?” Franky asked.

“Yeah! He was the only other person on the island I wound up on, and he taught me all sorts of cool stuff!”

“What kind of cool stuff?” Past-Usopp asked.

“I think that would be spoilers, sorry!” Usopp shut him down.

“Hey, I’ve been wondering… where are the rest of us?” Nami asked. “Me and Sanji and Vivi and Chopper?”

“Well, Vivi’s in Alabasta,” Usopp said.

“They went ahead, right? After what happened on Green Bit?” Franky said.

“Yeah, they went ahead,” Zoro agreed. “Apparently Big Mom’s ship showed up, so they had to go ahead of us to Zou.”

“I’m sorry, why the hell would Big Mom show up?” Ace broke in. Sabo was surprised he hadn’t said anything earlier, since throughout the whole discussion he had been slowly looking more and more distressed, tightening his grip on their littlest brother.

“Is Big Mom someone important?” Past-Luffy asked.

“Luffy pissed her off at Fishman Island,” Zoro answered Ace, ignoring Past-Luffy.

“Wait, he did?” Sabo asked. This was definitely the first he was hearing about it!

“Why would Big Mom be doing anything on Fishman Island? She never leaves Tottoland! And Fishman Island is under Oyaji’s protection, so she definitely shouldn’t be there,” Ace prodded.

“That’s one of the things the war changed, unfortunately,” Robin supplied. “But you wanted to wait for our captain to wake up, right? We can discuss our current conflict with Big Mom after he’s awake.”

“So, just making sure, me and Sanji and Chopper are all okay? We just weren’t there when the time travel happened?” Nami clarified.

“Yeah, you’re good,” Zoro confirmed.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Chopper sighed.

“You alright, Chopper?” Sanji asked. “You haven’t been saying much.”

“It’s this heat. I’m dying!” Chopper cried dramatically.

“Well, you are a reindeer, you’re not exactly built for it,” Past-Zoro pointed out. “If it gets too hard, I can carry you.”

“Thank you!” Chopper dissolved into grateful tears, and Past-Zoro scooped him up and placed him on his shoulders right there.

As they started climbing a larger dune, the group fell silent, the exertion of climbing sand stealing their words. Sabo, due to having eaten the Mera-Mera no mi, was luckily unaffected by the heat, but other than Ace, everyone else was sweating bullets.

As they crested the dune, Past-Zoro turned to his future self and blurted out “What the hell happened to your eye, anyway?”

“Oh, I’ve been wondering that too!” Usopp chimed in. Zoro grimaced, then looked hard at Usopp like he was contemplating the consequences of just dropping him in the sand instead of helping him walk.

Sanji turned as soon as he sensed any weakness, raising his visible eyebrow. “Oh? What happened, marimo?” he said teasingly. Zoro growled at him.

“It was that stupid monkey,” Zoro finally admitted, through gritted teeth.

“A monkey?” Usopp and Franky exclaimed in synch.

“It was a really strong monkey.”

Past-Luffy dissolved into laughter, throwing his head back and wrapping his arms around himself as he guffawed.

“Oi, what happened to your vow to never lose?” Past-Zoro frowned.

“Luffy wasn’t there, it doesn’t count.”

“Sure, buddy,” Sanji said smugly.

“Shut up, shit-cook. I could beat you into the ground now!”

“That’s not as much of an achievement as you make it sound like, Zoro,” Usopp said. “I’m pretty sure I could beat this version of Sanji.”

“Well, shit,” Past-Zoro sighed. “If Usopp can beat Sanji, we’re totally fucked against Crocodile.”

“Hey,” Zoro snapped, voice abruptly taking a dangerous turn. “Don’t say that shit. Usopp is strong. Even back now, Usopp was strong.”

Past-Usopp looked at Zoro with shiny eyes. “You really think that?”

“You’re the best damn sniper I’ve ever met. You think that’s not strength just ‘cause you lose in arm wrestling? You’re not weak, you’re just specialized. That’s a good thing.”

“Yeah!” Past-Luffy cheered, jogging up to jump onto Past-Usopp’s back. “Usopp is awesome!”

“Oof—get off, Luffy! I can’t walk in this heat and sand and carry you too!” Past-Usopp complained, poorly disguising a smile. Past-Luffy simply laughed and jumped back off.

Sabo liked listening to their conversations. They were a good crew, even, as Zoro had put it, “back now”.

The group got quieter as they trekked further into the desert, conversation trailing off in favor of exhaustedly putting one foot in front of the other.

As the sun sank lower in the sky, they came across a rocky formation that cast some shade over their group. Vivi proclaimed it a good spot to stop for the night, so everyone gladly threw down their baggage and collapsed. Sabo lowered Luffy onto the sand gently, then stood up to help set up camp.

Trafalgar, especially, seemed to appreciate the chance to rest. Looking at him for too long made Sabo wince involuntarily. He was just so fucking injured.

“So, we have a problem,” Sanji announced.

“Eh? What kind of problem?” Ace asked, not looking away from where he was carefully pulling Luffy's head into his lap.

“We have twice as many people as I originally thought I was going to be feeding, meaning that we have half the amount of food that we actually need in order to make it all the way to Yuba.”

“Yikes! That’s bad!” Past-Luffy shouted.

“That’s really bad!” Past-Usopp agreed.

“Does anything live in the desert that we could hunt? To make up for the deficiency?” Sabo asked, addressing Vivi more than Sanji.

“Oh! I suppose there are a few breeds of giant lizard…” she mused.

As if her words summoned it, a giant purple lizard came thundering towards them from over the crest of the next dune.

“Woah!” Past-Luffy cheered. “It’s huge!”

“Is that thing edible, cook?” Past-Zoro asked.

“Should be,” Sanji answered.

As the lizard approached, Past-Luffy, Past-Zoro, and Sanji leapt to action. They landed simultaneous attacks, and the lizard was dead before it could hit the ground.

Sabo was impressed.

“Uh, what’s with the camel?” Past-Usopp questioned. Sabo was confused for a second, and then he saw what Past-Usopp was talking about. In front of the lizard (running from it?) there was a camel, already fitted with a saddle and everything.

The camel finally seemed to realize that the lizard was dead, and came to a stop at the edge of their makeshift camp.

“Well, that’s not something you see everyday!” Sabo laughed. If Dressrosa had taught him anything, Luffy would be befriending this camel momentarily. He had charmed that fighting bull with ridiculous ease.

“It doesn’t look wild. It’s got a saddle and everything,” Princess Vivi remarked.

“We can ride it! That’ll be so nice,” Nami said.

“Yeah, good thing. I bet two people could ride on it,” Past-Usopp agreed.

“You really do need camels in the desert,” Princess Vivi said.

“I wanna try!” Past-Luffy decided, clambering halfway into the camel’s saddle. The camel shook him off, making a surprising amount of noise. Sabo hadn’t known that camels made noise.

“OW! WHAT?” Past-Luffy shouted, scowling at the camel. Chopper ran up to stand beside them.

“He says, ‘I am just a passing camel. Thank you for rescuing me. I’ll let you ride me, but I won’t let any guys ride.’ That’s what he says,” Chopper translated.

“Woah, you can understand animals, little guy?” Ace asked, impressed.

“What? He’ll only let girls ride?” Past-Usopp exclaimed. “Pervert camel!”

“Pervert camel!” Past-Luffy echoed.

“Oh, don’t be mean to him!” Nami scolded, running up to the side of the camel. “I’m sorry my boys are so mean to you,” she said, addressing the camel. “What a good boy. What should I call you?”

“Idiot,” Past-Luffy volunteered.

“Moron,” Sanji suggested.

“Dumbass,” Past-Usopp chimed in.

Nami climbed up onto the camel’s back and looked contemplative for a second. “Okay, how about ‘Eyelashes’?” she asked.

“That’s worse than the other names…” Past-Zoro said. Future-Zoro snickered.

“I forgot how bad all the names were,” he laughed.

“He likes it,” Chopper announced, seeming a little disturbed.

“Get off of him for now, Nami, you can ride him in the morning,” Usopp said, making a come-here gesture.

“Yow! You never mentioned your camel friend when you talked about Alabasta, dudes! It’s nice to have a fellow pervert around!”

“What, the ero-cook isn’t enough for you?”

“Shut up, marimo, and help me move this lizard!”

Sanji got to work cooking, and everyone settled down along the base of the rockface. Sabo broke a few branches off of a scrub brush, arranging them as kindling and lighting it with Ace’s Fruit.

The firelight obscured Ace’s expression with flickering shadows, but even across the gap of twelve years, Sabo could still read his twin. Ace met his eyes, lips pressed in a thin line. Luffy laid in the sand next to him, but Ace had pulled him close so that their brother’s head was cushioned in his lap.

“It’s different,” Ace said. “Being told you ate it, and actually seeing you use it.”

“I think of the flames as you,” Sabo confessed, in a low voice. “It’s the only piece of you I can carry with me.”

Ace’s eyes turned wet, and he looked down, carding his hands through Luffy’s hair.

“You’re really Sabo…?” he asked, voice now sounding as wet as his eyes.

“Yeah, Ace. Would you have trusted me with Luffy if I wasn’t?” Sabo asked back, knowing that Ace knew the answer.

Instead of responding, Ace hunched further over their injured brother, tears leaving dark spots on their clothes and the sand. Sabo looked away politely, pretending the haze of twilight disguised Ace’s sorrow.

Unexpectedly, Ace grabbed him, dragging him into a hug. Sabo threw his arms around Ace’s shoulders, and the relief felt like a great weight had been lifted off of him. This was the brother, the adulthood he had missed out on due to that damn Celestial Dragon shooting his boat and causing his amnesia.

They stayed like that for a while, clutching each other with Luffy resting on Ace’s lap as past-Luffy wrestled with his friends for food across the campfire. Eventually, Ace pulled back, but kept his hands on Sabo’s shoulders.

“I’m really, really glad you’re not dead!” Ace cried. He smiled, then, and it was breathtaking. Sabo couldn’t help but compare it to Ace’s widest smile in their childhood, when they had poured sake and sworn brotherhood.

“I’m really happy I get to see you again!” Sabo sobbed, and pulled Ace in for another hug. His shoulder was soaked with Ace’s tears by this point, but he was sure they would dry overnight. Sabo didn’t mention it to Ace, just like Ace didn’t complain about Sabo’s own tears soaking into his clothes.

An impact into Sabo’s back marked the moment that past-Luffy noticed they were hugging without him, and they were both swiftly wrapped in rubber limbs.

Once they detangled themselves from Luffy, they ate and turned in for the night, sleeping back-to-back like they used to as kids, only this time both of them got to be next to Luffy, because there were two of him. Sabo draped a careful arm over the injured Luffy, and Ace got the clingy past-Luffy. Hazy with exhaustion, Sabo could have sworn that he felt the familiar floorboards of their treehouse beneath them, with the noises of the sprawling jungle surrounding him… though he knew he was laying on sand, surrounded only by rocks and sky.

He slipped from nostalgic memories to dreamland quietly.

Chapter Text

In the morning, Luffy woke up. Sabo woke up when he felt Luffy moving, and groggily opened his eyes to see his little brother’s face only inches from his own.

Only a childhood of Luffy doing this same shit constantly stopped Sabo from flinching backwards. The wide, staring eyes of his little brother roamed over his face, and he was wearing one of those inscrutable expressions that meant he was either about to drop one of those insightful sentences that felt like an emotional bombshell or ask the dumbest question in the world.

Luffy opened his mouth and asked, “Why are we laying on sand?” which was about 10 times less dumb than Sabo had braced for.

Sabo thought about how to explain to his little brother that time travel was both a real thing and something that had happened to them, and decided to start with Luffy’s delirious fighting yesterday, when he had said he was dreaming.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” he asked.

“Mmm… I had a dream that Ace and Sabo were sparring, just like when we were kids! Ah, but for some reason Ace asked about Blackbeard. It was nice! Uh, before that, I beat Mingo’s ass and we went to sleep in Kyros’s house!” Luffy answered.

“Okay, I’ll start from there then,” Sabo said. “I came to see you one more time before I had to leave, because of Revolutionary Army stuff. I told your crew about what happened when we were kids and why I was only showing up now, and I gave Zoro a vivre card that I had made for you. But when I went to leave, there was a Donquixote Pirate grunt outside, and he had some weird power that he hit us all with.”

“One of Mingo’s crew hit us with his power? What did it do?”

“He sent us into the past. We crash-landed in the middle of the desert, and my Observation Haki let me know that there was a group of people nearby. It turned out to be your past crew, plus a tag-along. They let us know that we’re in Alabasta,” Sabo explained.

“All the way back in Alabasta?” Luffy exclaimed. Sabo nodded. “Wait… so the tag along you mentioned…” Luffy trailed off, eyes going wide and wet.

“You didn’t exactly dream about me and Ace fighting, or Ace asking about Blackbeard,” Sabo said delicately.

Ace groaned behind him, voice rough with sleep. “Why d’ya keep repeatin’ my name?” he slurred.

“ACE?” Luffy shouted, clambering over Sabo so that he could see him, bracing his elbows on Sabo’s ribcage. OUCH. How did a boy with rubber bones have such pointy elbows?

“Good morning, Luffy,” Ace said. “And… Sabo. Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Sabo replied, craning his neck so he could see Ace.

“I can’t believe you’re really Sabo,” Ace said, his eyes tracing over Sabo’s face wonderingly.

“It’s really Ace!” Luffy exclaimed, extending out his arms and wrapping Ace in a rubber hug, slamming Ace into Sabo as his arms retracted to hold their older brother as close as possible.

Sabo loved hugs from his brothers. He really did. He just also liked breathing.

“Ugh… Luffy… gerroff…” Sabo grunted out, breath gone with the weight of two idiots on his torso.

“Hey, you can’t have them both all to yourself!” Past-Luffy protested. And then suddenly they had a fourth brother in this dogpile! Great! Sabo loved that!

Okay, Sabo did actually love that, putting aside the dramatics for a second. He simply did not like being on the bottom of the dogpile. If he didn’t have sand in his clothes before, he definitely would after this.

“Ah, all the black holes are awake,” Sanji said, somewhere across the campfire. “Breakfast is ready, by the way.”

Sabo expected his brothers to jump up at the news of food, but they lingered and got up slowly instead. When Sabo was finally able to climb to his feet, he saw that Sanji looked just as surprised as he felt.

“Woah, they didn’t immediately attack breakfast…” Nami said in wonder.

“Well, I was hugging Sabo!” Past-Luffy explained.

“Well, I was hugging Ace!” Luffy explained.

“I had twice the normal amount of little brothers on top of me,” Ace complained. He wandered over to where the food was and started loading up a plate.

“Don’t complain!” Sabo snapped. “I got crushed into the ground!”

“Oh, are you admitting you’re weaker than us?” Ace teased.

“Like hell! I’m saying maybe you don’t need all this breakfast!” Sabo teased, snatching a piece of meat from Ace’s plate.

“Hey!” Ace shouted. Sabo snickered.

“Wait,” Sanji interrupted, face paling with something like horror dancing behind his eyes. “Don’t tell me you all eat like Luffy?”

“Four black holes!” Past-Usopp exclaimed.

So Sabo, Ace, Luffy and Past-Luffy proceeded to horrify Past-Luffy’s crew with their appetite and general lack of manners (Sabo swore he had manners, just… not when faced with his brothers at a meal. Sorry, Inazuma, all of your hard work disappeared when faced with Past-Luffy stealing the plate right from Sabo’s hands).

After breakfast was over, they packed up camp and kept heading towards Yuba. This time, Luffy was awake to walk by himself.

“Shishishi! It’s really Alabasta, huh?” he said, as they started out. “Ah, Vivi is here too! I’ve missed you, Vivi!”

“Ah, the Usopp from the future said I stayed in Alabasta…” Princess Vivi remembered. “I suppose that answers the question of if I join the crew, huh…”

“What do you mean?” Luffy frowned, turning around so he was walking backwards and facing Vivi. “Of course you’re crew! You’re still nakama, no matter what! Even though you had to leave to stay with the country you love!”

Princess Vivi looked taken aback. “Oh… thank you!” she exclaimed, leaping forwards and wrapping Luffy in a hug. “You have no idea how much that means to me!”

Luffy laughed and hugged her back. “Vivi is Vivi! Of course we all still love you!”

“Aw, I want in on this!” Usopp decided. He was healed enough to walk on his own now, and he promptly joined the hug.

“Zoro, get in here!” Luffy demanded. Zoro rolled his eyes, but he did join the hug, and he squeezed them all so hard he lifted them several centimeters into the air. When he put them down, they all broke from the hug, giggling.

Damn, Sabo’s little brother was so cute!

“They’re awfully sweet, aren’t they?” Robin said, coming up beside Sabo. She smiled brilliantly. “I find myself constantly in awe of our captain’s ability to love.”

“He’s always been like this,” Sabo said.

“I’m glad he’s surrounded by good people,” Ace agreed.

“Yosh!” Luffy shouted, punching the air. “Let’s go kick Croccy’s ass again!”

“It’s the first time!” Princess Vivi shouted.

“I want to kick his ass!” Past-Luffy complained, jumping on Luffy and bowling him over. “You already did it!”

Something occurred to Sabo then. He frowned. “Luffy, why do you want to kick Crocodile’s ass? Didn’t he save your life?”

“Huh? I’ve never met him!” Past-Luffy answered. “And he’s hurting Vivi’s country! Of course I want to kick his ass!”

Sabo tilted his head to one side, staring at where Past-Luffy was sitting on Luffy’s stomach after their little roll through the sand. “Sorry, Luffy, I meant Luffy,” he said.

“Okay, no! That doesn’t make any sense!” Nami shouted. “We need some way to differentiate you future people from us!”

“Eh? Hmm… nicknames maybe?” Usopp suggested.

“Oh! Did I ever tell you all about the time I became the nickname champion, after traversing the great Nickname Labyrinth and only surviving after giving a nickname to each of the ten thousand monsters that prowled its halls?” Past-Usopp bragged.

Everyone else ignored him, so Sabo did too.

“Hmm…” Zoro brought one hand to his chin, visibly contemplative. He pointed at Sanji. “Swirly-brow.”

“I don’t need a nickname!” Sanji shrieked, launching a kick towards Zoro’s head. Zoro caught it nonchalantly, and it seemed to rob the wind from Sanji’s sails.

“Pfft. If that’s the best you can do, then it’s not even worth picking a fight,” Zoro grumbled. Past-Zoro was looking at his future self with a calculating sort of admiration. Clearly the kick he had just caught was not one that Past-Zoro was capable of blocking yet.

“Why not go by your monikers?” Sabo suggested.

“Eh? Isn’t Luffy the only one who’s wanted?” Ace asked. Sabo raised an eyebrow at him.

“We’re from over two years in the future, Ace. Luffy’s whole crew is wanted.”

“What, even me?” several of the Past-Strawhats asked, in wildly varying tones.

“Eh? Was I the only one with a bounty back now?” Luffy wondered. “Wow, it really has been a while!”

Oh, he also called it “back now” even though he hadn’t been awake to hear Zoro say that yesterday…

“We really all have a bounty?” Nami asked, her face twisted with dread and despair.

“Yeah! Shishishi, you cried when you got yours! Sanji did too, but for different reasons.”

“Eh? What the hell does that mean?” Sanji asked. Zoro snickered. Sanji glared at him. “What the hell does that mean?”

Nobody from the Strawhats would look at him. Sabo got the idea that they would not be elaborating. So did Sanji, apparently, so he went to go sulk near where the girls were riding Eyelashes the camel.

“I think Sabo is right. We should use normal names for those of us who have doubles in the group,” Robin said. “Therefore, Sabo, Torao-kun, Franky and I will be referred to by our normal names, and everyone from this time should also go by their normal names. Our captain will be referred to as ‘Strawhat’, Zoro will be referred to as ‘Pirate Hunter’, and Usopp will be ‘Nagahana-kun’.”

“Hey! That’s not my moniker!” Usopp protested immediately.

“You said we could go by our normal names, and then called me by that ridiculous nickname…” Trafalgar grumbled, tugging on the brim of his hat.

“Oh?” Robin asked, smiling that dangerous smile that meant she was about to prank the shit out of somebody. Sabo had learned to fear its power when she unleashed it on Hack and got away with it. “What would you like to be called then, Usopp? Seeing as you unfortunately have no bounty poster of your own…”

“I don’t?” Past-Usopp squawked.

“Uh…” Usopp stalled, sweating. He looked profoundly nervous. But, wait, wasn’t there something wrong with what Robin just said? Of course Usopp had a poster, it just didn’t have his real name, since all the intel from the Enies Lobby Incident had him wearing a mask and going by a codename. Was this some kind of inside joke? Zoro was snickering like maybe it was, but Usopp looked really nervous…

“I’m sure you’ll get a bounty soon, Usopp! After all, you really pissed off Mingo, and there were TONS of marines there who saw it!” Luffy said, encouragingly. Usopp seemed to gather his courage as Luffy spoke.

“Well! Until my bounty comes out, I’ll just have to borrow a nickname from my friend! You can call me Sogeking!”

“Uh… isn’t that just—!” Trafalgar started to ask, before being cut off by two arms that bloomed from his shoulders and covered his mouth. He glared at Robin, who held a finger to her sly lips and then released him. Trafalgar didn’t try to finish his thought.

“Woah, are you sure Sogeking will be okay with that?” Luffy—Strawhat, now—asked.

“O-of course! He’s one of my closest friends, after all! He would understand!” Usopp–-Sogeking—declared. He was shaking in his boots, and not from his injuries. There must be a hell of a story behind this “Sogeking” thing.

“I’m not calling you something so pretentious,” Nami said, sticking her tongue out at Usopp. “You’re gonna be Nagahana like Robin said!”

Pfft! Usopp—Nagahana, now—might as well have melted into the sand right there!

“Aw, too bad. It’s okay, Usopp, I’m sure Sogeking would have lended you his name! But if Nami and Robin agree, then I guess you’re Nagahana now!” Strawhat grinned.

“Says you! Everyone calls you ‘Strawhat’ anyway!”

“Do I have a bounty?” Chopper asked.

“Yeah!” Strawhat answered happily. “Though the marines are stupid and don’t know you’re a person, so it’s really low.”

“Low! How low?”

“Fifty beris!”

“Ack! That’s really low!”

“Don’t worry, Tony-ya, it’s just because the marines are idiots. Anyone who knows you knows you’re worth a lot more than that,” Trafalgar said. Instantly, Chopper latched onto his leg.

“Do you really mean that?” he asked, eyes sparkling.

“Urgk! Hey, let go!” Trafalgar yelled. “Yes, I really mean that!”

Chopper let go, dancing away from Trafalgar. “That doesn’t make me happy, you bastard!”

“Woah, Torao! I think that was the nicest thing you’ve said to any of us!” Strawhat cheered.

“Don’t get used to it!” Trafalgar snapped, though he started blushing.

Strawhat laughed, and then they all naturally fell into silence for a while as they tried to conserve water on their trek across the desert.

Of course, peace can never last.

Surprisingly, it was Princess Vivi who broke it.

“Robin, you worked for Mr. 0, and any extra information will help us stop his plan. I understand that this was years ago for you, but, please, I have to save my country! Is there anything you can tell us?” she begged.

“There’s no need to plead with me, Princess,” Robin said. “Luffy, since this is about the suffering of the people of Alabasta, this doesn’t break the spoiler rule, correct?”

“I’ll allow it!” Past-Luffy (wait no just Luffy now) said, giving Robin a thumbs up.

“Why is information so important?” Zoro grumbled. “If Strawhat did it once, surely Luffy can too!”

“Wait, isn’t Crocodile a logia? How the hell did Luffy beat him?” Nagahana asked. “I’m sure I was told after the fact but I can’t remember now.”

“Ah! Don’t spoil that bit!” Luffy protested. “I wanna fight him myself!”

Robin smiled at the group in the way that people smile at a group of puppies play-fighting.

“Anyway, Princess, the first thing you need to know is that Baroque Works has agents in both the Royal Army and the Rebel Army. No matter what negotiations you try to tender between them, it won’t work. An agent will sabotage your efforts,” Robin said, turning her attention back to Princess Vivi.

“But… then… then what is the point? I’ve gone through all this effort! I’ve spent two years of my life infiltrating Baroque Works just for a chance at victory! Isn’t there any way to prevent my negotiations from being sabotaged?” Princess Vivi asked.

“Of course!” Robin smiled. “You just have to expose Sir Crocodile as being Mr. 0, and being behind the violence and civil unrest here in Alabasta.”

“Don’t say something that difficult like it’s nothing!” Nami scolded. She made a fist like she wanted to bop Robin on the head like she would the boys, but because she and Princess Vivi were sitting on top of the camel and Robin was walking alongside them but about a meter away, the logistics didn’t work out.

“I’m sure if I can talk directly to the leader of the Rebel Army then I can stop this! As long as I don’t give anyone a chance to interfere…” Princess Vivi mused.

“Ah, if I remember correctly, the leader of the rebels was a childhood friend of yours, no?” Robin asked.

“Ah, yes… how did you know that?”

“Oh, Baroque Works did extensive research into all the major players here, and Sir Crocodile made it part of my job to sort through gathered intelligence.”

Strawhat, who had been scuffling with Luffy over who got to kick Crocodile’s ass, abandoned his fight and bounced over to walk next to Robin.

“Oi, Robin, will you be okay, since we’re fighting against your old boss?” he asked.

“Hm. I hold no ill will towards him, but I also hold no loyalty. I don’t mind fighting him if it helps our crew,” Robin decided, smiling down at Strawhat.

“Okay!” he replied brightly. Luffy launched himself over to continue to scuffle.

“I’m going to defeat Crocodile!” he insisted.

“No way! I’m going to do it!” Strawhat insisted right back.

“Ne, Strawhat, I asked this earlier but you didn’t answer…” Sabo asked. “Why do you want to fight Sir Crocodile? Didn’t he save your life?”

“Eh? Did he?” Strawhat asked.

“That’s what the report said.”

“Ah, I remember these reports. I’m not surprised you don’t remember, captain. From what Ivankov said, it’s a miracle you were alive at that point,” Robin added.

“Wait, was this… was this during the war you mentioned?” Ace asked, paling.

“From what I understand, this was directly after your own death,” Robin answered. Silence descended on the group like an anvil.

Chapter Text

It was clear that everyone was listening, now, even the crewmates that hadn’t been listening before. Ace paled further, swallowing nervously and clenching his hands into fists.

“I said I wanted to wait until Strawhat was awake to talk about this, and he’s awake now, so… let’s talk about it,” he said. He wasn’t looking up at anyone, and his whole stance made him look smaller.

Strawhat bit his lips, then moved to stand next to Ace. Carefully, he reached over and wrapped one hand around Ace’s wrist. Ace’s head snapped up to stare at Strawhat, but now it was Strawhat who refused to make eye contact.

“It was really bad,” he said. “Your execution was announced in the newspaper. I couldn’t let them execute you, so I decided I would rescue you even if you got mad at me for it, because Ace is so strong he never needs my help. You were being held in Impel Down, so Hancock helped me sneak in.”

“Hancock—Boa Hancock?” Ace echoed incredulously. Yeah, that was how Sabo felt about it, too. “Helped you sneak into Impel Down? Are you insane?”

“I’m not insane, I had to get you out!” Strawhat protested. “And yeah, Boa Hancock! She’s weird, she wants to marry me but I don’t want to. She’s a really good friend!”

“Boa Hancock, the Warlord famous for being the most beautiful woman in existence,” Sanji seethed. “Wants to MARRY you? And you DON’T WANT TO?”

Everyone ignored Sanji.

“Okay, okay, what happened when you got to Impel Down?” Ace asked.

“Wait, what’s Impel Down?” Luffy asked.

“Are you joking! It’s the strongest prison in the world! It’s famous for being inescapable!” Nami answered.

Well, actually, the Marines had suppressed news of Shiki the Lion escaping, and Morley had escaped years earlier without the Marines even knowing, but that wasn’t helpful information right now so Sabo kept his mouth shut.

“After Hancock helped me get in, I managed to get pretty far without raising any alarms, but then I ran into Buggy!”

“The Clown?” multiple people asked at once. Wait, weren’t some of those people from the future? Why didn’t they know?

“Some of you just asked and I feel like you should have already known,” Ace pointed out. Ah, Ace. Never afraid to get straight to the core.

“Luffy hasn’t told us about any of this!” Nagahana explained. “Everything we know is just what was released in the papers!”

“Ah, but he was very prominent at the Paramount War, yeah?” Franky pointed out. “We should have figured he met up with Luffy in Impel Down.”

“Okay, whatever, Buggy the Clown was there, what happened next?”

“Buggy helped me get down to Level Two with his Devil Fruit powers, and then we found Three!”

“Three? Is that a name, or…?” Ace prompted.

“Three is the wax guy from Baroque Works! He could make keys ‘n’ stuff with his wax, so we brought him with us!” Strawhat explained.

“That’s two past enemies he’s teamed up with…” Usopp noticed.

“It was a bad situation,” Sabo said. “Strawhat needed every ally he could get, bad blood or not.”

“And then on Level Three we met up with Bon-chan! I was so happy to see him again!” Strawhat cheered. “Ah, but he tricked me at first! I thought he was really you for a second, Zoro!”

“Eh? You thought he was me?” Pirate Hunter asked.

“Shishishi yeah, because of his Devil Fruit powers! Remember, he stored your face back when we met him before getting to Alabasta?”

“Wait, is this Mr. Two?” Princess Vivi hollered. “That’s two Baroque Works agents you’ve teamed up with!”

“Ah, but Bon-chan really is a good guy! He didn’t really care about all this stuff Crocodile is doing, I think he was just here to do a job. Anyway, he really helped me out in Impel Down! He got us to Level Four, and when I lost against the poison guy he saved me!” Strawhat announced, like that wasn’t the most horrifying part of this story.

(Sabo knew the most horrifying parts. Of course he did. Ivankov-san helped raise him, and now reported to him. He had spent many late nights pouring over those reports and thinking what if, what if? when he couldn’t sleep for fear of nightmares.)

“The poison guy—you fought MAGELLAN?” Ace exclaimed.

“I fought a lot of guys! He was the hardest. Bon-chan got me to Level Five, but then we were surrounded by wolves? I woke up a little and scared the wolves away. Oh! And then Crab-chan found us!”

“You mean Inazuma?” Sabo asked.

“Yeah! He brought us down to the place Iva-chan was running, and Iva-chan used some hormones on me and I screamed a lot. When I woke up hours had passed and I barely had time left to rescue Ace! Iva-chan helped me get down to Level Six, ‘cause he works for my dad so he said that meant he had to help me, but when we got down there Ace was gone!” Strawhat said, in that awful storytelling manner he had where he just kind of assumed you knew as much as he did, even though the point of telling the story was because whoever he is talking to doesn’t know.

“Hang on, there was a lot of stuff there…” Zoro said, looking between Strawhat and his future self like maybe Pirate Hunter would be able to provide clarity on what Strawhat said.

“He’s talking about Emporio Ivankov, Queen of the Kamabakka Kingdom and a commander in the Revolutionary Army, which he helped found. He was on an undercover mission in Impel Down for years, until he participated in a mass breakout orchestrated by Strawhat Luffy,” Sabo recited, like he would at any other briefing. “According to his reports, he met Strawhat Luffy in Impel Down alongside his friend, Bentham, AKA Mr. Two Bon Clay. Both were heavily injured, and Strawhat Luffy was suffering from a variety of different poisons that made it impossible to synthesize any antidote. Ivankov-san used his Devil Fruit powers to boost Luffy’s healing abilities, but it was an extremely painful process. Ivankov-san said Luffy traded ten years of his life for the slim chance of healing from the poison.”

“He also said it would take like super long, but I was up and eating in way less than that!” Strawhat said, frowning at Sabo. “Ah, it was still super long though.”

Ace had gone completely pale. He stopped walking and grabbed Strawhat by the shoulders, and everyone else stopped walking, too, turning towards the brothers apprehensively.

“You lost ten years of your life?” Ace roared. “You fought Magellan and healing from it took ten years of your life, why the hell would you do that? I’m not worth that!”

“Stupid Ace!” Luffy yelled back, just as loud. “You’re my brother and I love you! Of course your life is worth that!”

“Wait, did you say Ace was gone? You went through all that and when you got there Ace was already gone?” Usopp asked.

“Mm, yeah,” Luffy said, voice low and solemn again. “Jimbei said they had just taken him up to be transferred to Marineford for the execution. They trapped us on Level 6 with sleeping gas, but Iva-chan had some kind of blackmail on Crocodile, I guess, so he helped us escape by breaking a hole in the ceiling with his sand powers, and we took Jimbei with us because he’s Ace’s friend.”

Vivi sighed. “So you needed his help, huh… I guess a situation like that does explain why you would ally with him. It sounds like you were really in trouble.”

“Yeah, reading Ivankov-san’s report after the fact was heart-attack inducing,” Sabo agreed.

“Yes, quite. I rather thought I would simply die of worry until we received your message through the paper, Captain,” Robin added, with a smile.

Ace tilted his head down so that the shadow cast by the brim of his hat hid his eyes. Ace hadn’t worn a hat when they were children, but Sabo wasn’t surprised to see him display that mannerism; Sabo and Luffy had done it when they were upset, so it only made sense that Ace, as their brother, would have also picked it up.

“We have somewhere to be, right?” he said. “Let’s keep moving.”

The group started walking again. They were still hours out from Yuba.

“Okay, so you got into Impel Down, but Ace wasn’t there when you reached his cell, and then you picked up some allies and Crocodile helped you escape?” Nami summarized, clearly trying to make sure she understood everything correctly.

“It wasn’t a clean escape, though, was it?” Robin added, looking only at Strawhat.

“There were a bunch of weird guys we had to fight! Ah, but then…” Strawhat trailed off, placing one hand on his hat and tilting it so the brim shaded his eyes. He frowned. “Blackbeard and his crew also broke into Impel Down. I heard later that he freed a bunch of really bad guys and added them to his crew. Jimbei had to stop me from fighting him.”

“You fought Blackbeard!?” Ace exclaimed. “Wait, is this what you mentioned yesterday? How you learned that Blackbeard beat me and said he would go after Luffy next?

“Yeah,” Sabo confirmed.

“Blackbeard said that you refused to retreat, because I was his next target, and because it would stain the honor of the Whitebeard Pirates,” Strawhat said, angry. “He turned you in because you’re a Whitebeard Division Commander, and that made you strong enough for the Marines to give him a Warlord position. He didn’t know about your dad or anything.”

“You said Jimbei stopped you from fighting him,” Pirate Hunter noted. “Did Blackbeard just back down?”

“He wanted to go deeper into the prison so he could recruit people, so he didn’t stay to keep fighting. We moved on, and then the poison guy showed up again. Iva-chan and Crab-chan fought him a little, and then Three and I fought him and we were winning for a little bit, but he started doing something weird, so we all had to run! Jimbei and Crocodile stole a ship for us while we were doing that, and he called a whole pod of whale shark friends to carry us from the gate to the ship! It was super cool! Ah, but then we had to sail to Marineford and there was a big gate in the way that Bon-chan had to stay behind to open for us,” Strawhat said, continuing his story. “I wonder how he’s doing. I know he lived!”

“Jimbei is a really reliable ally, isn’t he?” Nagahana grinned. “I still can’t believe he agreed to join our crew!”

“Warlord Jimbei, captain of the Fishman Sun Pirate crew agreed to join us!?” Nami shrieked.

“Why in the world… no, of course Luffy would manage something like that,” Ace said to himself, blankly. Sabo grinned.

“Then there was a huge wave, like tsunami huge! Except it turned into ice and our ship got stuck at the top. The war had already started by the time we got there, so when we got the ship free from the ice we fell right into it! Ah, but before that, since it was a Marine ship, we overheard a transmission where they said they would execute Ace ahead of schedule, so then I was really in a hurry!” Strawhat revealed.

Sabo took a deep breath. He hadn’t been there. He should have been there.

“Typical,” Ace scoffed.

“How horrible!” several Strawhat pirates chorused.

“Then Crocodile tried to attack Whitebeard, but I know he’s someone you love a lot so I stopped him. Ah, but no matter how much you love him, I told Whitebeard that I would be the King of the Pirates! And since he loves you a lot too, I told him about the transmission we overheard.”

“Sounds like you made an impression,” Ace said, with an expression on his face like he was being pulled between too many emotions to know how to feel.

Sabo supposed that hearing about your family fighting a war at your own execution would do that to you, even without Strawhat’s whiplash-inducing storytelling skills.

“Lots of stuff happened and I don’t really remember it super clearly. I think I managed Observation Haki because I had to dodge Mihawk, since he’s Zoro’s fight! And you kept yelling at me to leave because we have different adventures, or it would be humiliating to be saved by your younger brother, but I don’t care, Ace!” Strawhat said, getting angry all over again as he spoke. “I don’t care about pirate rules or honor or who’s supposed to be looking after who! You’re my brother, and I’m not just going to let you die! I refuse!”

Ace sniffled. “You’re so damn stubborn. I’m on the crew of the strongest man in the world! Why would I need help from a weakling like you…”

He wasn’t fooling anyone. A tear dropped off his face and disappeared into the sand.

“Ah! Here, take this,” Princess Vivi said, snatching the water cask from Luffy and passing it to Ace.

Strawhat smiled at the two of them, then kept going, his voice low and serious once more. “There were a bunch of guys I didn’t recognize and a bunch of guys I had fought before. My friends and allies kept intervening so I could get closer to you, Ace. Hancock even gave me the key to your cuffs!”

“How did she have that? I don’t remember that in the reports!” Sabo asked. Ah, but after they got to the battlefield, the report shifted to Ivankov-san’s battle against Kuma…

“I don’t know! I guess because she’s a Warlord, maybe? Ah, and at some point a bunch of Marines started targeting me because Seagull-guy announced who my dad is, too.”

“Seagull-guy? You mean Sengoku?” Trafalgar burst out.

“Wait, you know who your dad is?” Ace exclaimed, at the same time.

“Eh? My dad? I have a dad?” Luffy asked.

“Yeah!” Strawhat replied, to all three of them. Then he turned to Luffy. “Ah, I guess you don’t know yet, because Gramps only told me after we rescued Robin and Franky from CP9.”

“No spoilers! No spoilers!” Luffy yelled back at Strawhat immediately. Franky laughed.

“Wait, Ace, you know who Luffy’s dad is?” Sabo asked, turning towards his twin.

“Gramps told me,” Ace huffed, crossing his arms. “How do you know?”

Sabo winced, then directed a deadpan look at Ace. “Robin already told you I got my memories back after seeing the results of the Paramount War in the papers. Also, I’m not an idiot.”

“Ha!” Ace barked a laugh, clearly remembering right then that Sabo was a Revolutionary. “Yeah, I guess not.”

In Ace’s defense, they were throwing a lot of information at him. Sabo got rescued by Dragon and has been a Revolutionary all this time was a conversation from yesterday anyway, so it made sense that Ace forgot for a second.

“Is my dad a big deal?” Luffy asked, frowning and looking between his two older brothers.

“He’s Sabo’s boss!” Strawhat provided cheerfully.

“Wait, didn’t you say Sabo works for the Revolutionary Army?” Nami exclaimed. “You’re not saying Luffy’s dad is Dragon the Revolutionary, right!?”

“Monkey D. Dragon the Revolutionary,” Sabo confirmed, tipping his hat at her. Nami stared back at him with wide eyes.

“You know him, Nami?” Luffy asked.

“Everybody knows him! Your dad is a really outrageous guy!” she shouted back.

“Dragon the Revolutionary…” Princess Vivi echoed, also wide-eyed.

“He’s the guy who saved you from Smokey at Loguetown!” Strawhat added cheerfully.

“Oh! That guy?” Luffy asked.

“Yeah!” Strawhat confirmed.

“Wait, Dragon-san saved you at Loguetown? Dragon-san met you?” Sabo exclaimed, pouting just a little. “He never mentioned that!”

“Shishishi, he saved me from Smokey! I don’t know how to beat a guy made of smoke,” Luffy said. “But I’m sure I’ll figure it out! Next time I fight him, I’ll win for sure!”

Sabo thought back to the various times Strawhat had made the paper recently. Yeah, the next time he fought Smoker he probably would win. Thank goodness his little brother had learned Haki since the Paramount War.

“Yeah!” Strawhat cheered.

“Okay, you’ll totally beat up that smoke-guy next time you fight,” Ace bit out. “Can we get back to the way the Marines started targeting you?”

“Your crew protected me a lot,” Strawhat told Ace, using a voice clearly meant to be soothing. Looking at Ace, though… he didn’t seem very soothed.

“Well, I knew they’d like you,” Ace said, a little strained.

“It didn’t really matter that Seagull-guy announced who my dad was, anyway, because all the Marines were trying to kill all the pirates. It just meant that some people started calling me Son-of-Dragon, like that mattered more than being me or being your brother, Ace! Your crew kept calling me Ace’s brother, but at least that mattered,” Strawhat huffed.

Ace laughed. “You would think that!”

“After that, a bunch of Pacifista showed up from behind us! And the Marines got tricky, they said a bunch of lies and a pirate stabbed Whitebeard! Ah, but Whitebeard forgave him,” Strawhat said.

“What? Who!?” Ace exclaimed.

“Eh? I don’t remember,” Strawhat answered.

Ace sighed. “Figures. Okay, fine, what happened then?”

“Wait, go back! You said a bunch of Pacifista showed up. What is a Pacifista?” Sanji asked.

“They’re robots made out of that bear guy!” Strawhat answered.

“They’re what?” several people chorused.

Trafalgar reached up and pinched his nosebridge. “Pacifista are cybernetically modified clones of the Warlord, Bartholomew Kuma. The Marines have total control over them, and use them as super soldiers, basically. Pacifista were brand new back then, so most pirates found them basically invincible,” he explained.

"Of course, they're not as cool as I am! I'm a self-made cyborg!" Franky bragged, striking a pose. A bunch of Strawhats, past and future, oohed and aahed.

Sabo clenched his hands into fists. Kuma-san…

They would rescue him. Now that Sabo was back in the past, he had even more time to rescue him. Kuma-san would never have willingly become a Government pawn. They had to rescue him.

“So Oyaji got stabbed and a bunch of cyborg super soldiers showed up,” Ace summarized, his face going kind of blank and shock-y again. “Okay. Okay. Sure.”

“Eh, actually I think the Pacifista showed up before the old man got stabbed,” Strawhat said. “Ah! But then your dad joined the fight! He had a really cool power! He made the whole island and the sea and everything tilt back and forth! I nearly fell in, but Jimbei grabbed me. It cleared the way to you, Ace! I almost got to you except the Marines raised these biiiiig walls, made of steel.” He raised his hands to illustrate the height of the walls. Then Strawhat’s voice dropped lower and his expression darkened. “And then Akainu attacked. He melted the ice we were all standing on, and destroyed Whitebeard’s ship, and the sea started boiling.”

“He destroyed the Moby Dick?” Ace said, face going pale.

“There was only one path left to get through the wall, but it was guarded really heavily,” Strawhat continued, not even acknowledging Ace’s interruption. “So Jimbei used his Fishman Karate to send me over in a waterspout. I grabbed a mast to use as a weapon, which was good because I landed in front of the Admirals.”

"Wait, Admirals plural? How many?" Nagahana yelled. "You can't mean all three!?"

Strawhat just nodded.

Sabo looked over at Ace, who looked like he was about to faint.

“They were going to execute Ace, but Crocodile knocked out the executioners, and then started fighting Mingo. Mm, the giant guy everyone thought was dead stood back up, and everyone started shouting about a ship, so I guess Whitebeard had another ship hidden somewhere or something? The Admirals all got distracted fighting different people, so I just kept running toward Ace. Oh, except Kizaru,” Strawhat said, with a laugh. “He kicked the shit out of me! I almost died!”

“That’s not something to laugh about, idiot!” Ace said, pulling on Strawhat’s cheek.

“I can’t die if I’m trying to save Ace!” Luffy agreed, pulling on the other side of Strawhat’s cheek.

“Hey! Don’t pull on me, you’re me!” Strawhat said, distorted a little by the weird shape his mouth was in. He reached over and shoved at Luffy. Ace let go of his opposite cheek and it snapped back, the momentum knocking Strawhat into Luffy, where they devolved into a scuffle until Trafalgar used his powers to separate them.

“Strawhat-ya, if you reopen your wounds by doing something stupid like fighting your past self, I am going to remove your arms,” he threatened.

“Sorry, sorry, Torao!”

Ace and Sabo sighed, sharing a commiserating look.

“What a ridiculous captain…” Nami moaned.

“A bunch of stuff happened while I was too injured to pay attention,” Strawhat said, picking his story back up like none of the interruptions had happened. “But Iva-chan gave me another hormone shot and I was good as new!”

“You were not,” Sabo interjected, before he could think it through.

“Sabo?” Ace prompted. He was always sharper than he let on: he probably knew that Sabo had read comprehensive reports of this whole war and could probably offer a better description of what had happened, but had decided to let Strawhat keep telling the story anyway because he wanted to hear Strawhat’s personal perspective on it all. Ace was probably beating himself up for every injury Strawhat recounted, whether Ace deserved to carry that guilt or not.

Well, fuck him. It was Sabo’s guilt to carry, not Ace’s. Just this once, Ace didn’t need to know exactly how bad everything was.

“Ivankov-san’s hormone shots wear off after a while, that’s all. It’s not actually healing, it’s adrenaline,” Sabo explained, instead of telling Ace that Ivankov-san had only caved and done it because Strawhat had said he would rather die than live without his brother. In the aftermath of Ace’s death, reading that report had been harrowing. Strawhat showed up in the papers again after he rang the Ox Bell, then disappeared for two years. There were times, usually at night when Sabo was alone with his thoughts, when he was seized with horror at the idea of having lost both his brothers and having no way to know for sure. The day Strawhat re-emerged on Sabaody brought Sabo relief like he had never known before.

“I was good as new and I could keep running towards Ace!” Strawhat said, sticking out his tongue at Sabo. “And then they tried to kill Ace again but I awakened my Conqueror’s and knocked them out! Ah, not that I knew that was what it was. Ray-san explained it to me later.”

“You awakened your Conqueror’s? What does that mean?” Zoro asked.

“My Conqueror’s Haki!” Strawhat said happily, holding up one arm and slapping his bicep. “It makes me super strong!”

“Show me!” Luffy demanded.

“Haki is too complicated to explain right now. Let’s just say it lets you knock out a lot of people from a distance, okay? I’ll explain it better once Strawhat is done with his story,” Sabo bargained.

“Okay!” Luffy agreed. Zoro and Sanji grumbled but agreed.

Pirate Hunter sent a smug grin at his past self that Zoro missed but Usopp caught, rolling his eyes. Nagahana and Robin both giggled.

“Crab-chan made a ramp up to the platform with his powers, and Gramps tried to stop me, except not really, because he just shouted a lot but then let me pass him with one punch. I had harder fights with him for training back when we were kids!”

“Ugh, don’t make me remember,” Sabo muttered.

“Gramps was there?” Ace asked. “Gramps was there and he let you pass?”

“Wait, your grandfather was there?” Nami asked. “Who is your grandfather? Why would he be there? And from what you just said, it sounds like he’s fighting on the side of the Marines!”

“Hm? Yeah, Gramps is a Marine,” Luffy confirmed, casually.

“Gramps was there,” Strawhat confirmed, his voice solemn. “But like I said, he let me knock him over with one hit, even though he said he wouldn’t let me pass.”

“What they’re not saying, Nami-ya, is that their grandfather is Vice Admiral Monkey D Garp, the Hero of the Marines, also known as Garp the Fist,” Trafalgar said, in an even voice.

Nami’s face paled. “LUFFY, YOU IDIOT! THAT’S SOMETHING YOU NEED TO TELL US!” she shrieked.

Sabo burst out laughing.

“I agree! As your crew! We need to know these things!” Usopp added. “What if he comes after us? I can’t believe you’re related to a Marine!”

“A Marine that took down Gold Roger!” Nami added, nodding vociferously.

“I can’t believe he let you pass him at my execution,” Ace muttered.

Sabo stopped laughing.

“That bastard… I can’t believe he was going to just sit there and let you be executed!” he growled. “What kind of a man does he call himself, if he just stands by and lets his family be killed when it matters?”

Ace looked at Sabo with wide eyes. “Eh? Sabo, he’s a Marine. He’s always made it clear what side he would pick if we went off and became pirates. But we wanted to be pirates anyway, so… that means it’s really my fault, you know.”

“None of what happened is your fault!” Sabo insisted, grabbing Ace’s arm. “None of it!”

“It’s Blackbeard’s fault,” Strawhat added, nodding like that closed the topic. “And Akainu, too.”

“Akainu?” Ace asked.

“That’s one of the Admirals, right?” Sanji asked.

“That’s right,” Princess Vivi answered.

“Well, after I got past Gramps, I got to the execution platform! But Kizaru broke the key to your cuffs with a laser, and Seagull-guy got all big and golden, so I was in trouble for a second. But it turned out that when nobody was paying attention, Three snuck up to the execution platform and pretended to be one of the executioners! He was able to hide us behind a wax wall and make a wax key, so we got you free! But we got targeted by wayyyy more Marines then, so…”

Strawhat trailed off, staring into the distance.

“So what? Luffy?” Ace asked, reaching over and laying a hand on their brother’s shoulder.

“Ace isn’t going to like this part,” Strawhat said, quietly.

“I need to know, Luffy,” Ace begged.

Sabo squeezed Ace’s arm where he was still holding on, then realized he might be squeezing too hard and relaxed his grip a bit so he didn’t accidentally shatter Ace’s bones.

Luffy grabbed Sabo’s opposite hand, so now all four of them were connected in a little daisy-chain line of brothers.

“Sabo?” he asked, in a whisper. He’d been keeping remarkably calm, since he knew this story was about Ace dying, but he could sense the end of the story coming. He just needed a little reassurance.

“It’s going to be okay. We’re going to change it,” Sabo whispered back. Luffy nodded, once, solidly, but he didn’t let go of Sabo’s hand.

“Whitebeard was really injured,” Strawhat said, still in that quiet, almost subdued voice. “He started shaking the whole island. He said he was old, and making his final stand.”

“No,” Ace gasped.

“He was guarding everybody’s backs so we could all make it out,” Strawhat continued. “But Akainu started chasing us. I hit my limit. I remember this next part really well and really badly.”

“Eh? What does that mean? How can you remember something both really well and really badly?” Usopp asked. Nagahana shot him a look, shaking his head harshly.

The group came to a stuttering kind of stop, horrifically entranced by what Strawhat was saying.

“I remember Akainu insulting Whitebeard, and that Ace turned around to defend him. Ace has always fought really hard for the people he loves. He hates when they get insulted. Akainu knew exactly the worst things to say to make Ace mad. Ace started fighting him, but I couldn’t join. I hit my limit and fell down. I remember Jimbei talking to me. I remember Ace’s vivre card falling out of my hat. The stone was all dusty and bloody and gross, but Ace’s vivre card was really white. I wasn’t paying attention, so I couldn’t dodge when Akainu decided to attack me instead of Ace, and because of that, Ace jumped between us. He…”

“Oh fuck, Luffy…” Zoro muttered. In his arms, Chopper looked worried, like he was barely holding back tears.

Everyone looked uncomfortable. Luffy looked desperate. The Strawhats who had come from the future with Sabo looked devastated and stricken with regret, and Sabo was sure he looked about the same. The Strawhats from the past looked horrified. Trafalgar looked like he had bitten into something bitter.

Ace looked resigned.

“Ace didn’t die right away,” Strawhat continued, now with silent tears running down his face. Robin hurriedly passed a water cask to Strawhat, but he ignored it, so she just fastened it around his neck. “Akainu kept attacking us, but Jimbei shielded us, and then Pineapple-guy and Swords-guy. Ace was so close he was leaning on me, then, and my hands got covered in his blood.”

Ace sucked in air, staring at Strawhat with horror. Even if he was willing to die for Luffy, resigned to it, from his look earlier, hearing the details was something else.

“Ace apologized for not being able to let me save him, which was crazy. And even though a doctor came running over, Ace said he knew it was too late. You told me that without Sabo or me you wouldn’t have thought to live because of all the horrible shit people used to say. You told me to thank Dadan. You told me your only regret was that you wouldn’t be able to see me live out my dream. You said that what you had really wanted was to know that it was okay for you to have been born. And with the last of your breath you shouted for Whitebeard and everybody to hear you, and you thanked us for loving you,” Strawhat recounted. “And then you died. And I don’t remember anything else until I woke up on Torao’s ship.”