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Sabo was, without a doubt, the best undercover agent the Revolutionary Army had to offer. And it had nothing to do with his “wriggly-hand suggestions” as Koala had so crassly put it in the past.
His proficiency in the use of Force was merely a very useful bonus.
Confusing people into believing he was where he was meant to be, even if Sabo had to wear a Marine uniform to blend in—he was fantastic, but he wasn’t a miracle worker—was only one of the talents which being force-sensitive had granted him.
Being able to unlock any lock he encountered with just a little bit of effort was another one of such boons.
And it usually worked well—hell, it worked well on every other door in Marineford—except for this one last lock separating Sabo from the information he came to collect.
Glancing around the deserted corridor, Sabo crouched by the doors, trying to focus on getting it open.
That was the exact moment when the doors swished open, leaving Sabo nose-to-chest with a very exposed body.
He looked up slowly, taking in the weirdly-shaped helmet—it reminded him a bit of a cowboy hat someone welded on top of a regular helmet, complete with the strings and a bull-shaped signet hanging off of them—covering the stranger’s face. There was no need to see his face, though; Sabo could read the surprise in his body language and his Force signature.
“You’re a whiteberad,” he blurted out. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
The whitebeard tilted his head, clearly taking apart Sabo’s admittedly lackluster disguise, the sleeves of his rather recognizable robes sticking out from under the marine uniform. “Something tells me you’re not a marine, either.”
“No need to fight, then.” Grinning, Sabo got to his feet, stepping back as the whitebeard exited the room. “I’m just here to grab something. Anyways, won’t bore you with the details-”
In an impressive sleight of hand that bordered on the use of Force, in Sabo’s frank opinion, a data chip appeared between the whitebeard’s gloved fingers.
The implications of the chip’s presence wormed themselves into Sabo’s brain.
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share?” He asked with a sigh, already knowing the answer.
There was a very obvious air of smugness emanating from the whitebeard.
Sabo was about to try and convince the whitebeard that there was virtue in sharing—as much as that pitch was worth to a pirate, anyway—when they both stiffened, sensing something approaching before the tumultuous noise of footsteps came close enough to be heard.
They exchanged a glance—or thereabouts thanks to the helmet—before deciding that they could put aside their differences for now in favour of running away.
Sabo turned on his heel, but he barely managed to take a step before something launched itself down the corridor like a missile, crashing into both of their backs with unerring aim.
Three bodies crashed to the ground, and Sabo just barely managed to make sure he didn’t crack his skull open.
“Shishishi,” a new voice giggled, the sound accompanied by a weirdly loud swallow. Sabo craned his neck, noticing the whitebeard doing the same, turning to look at the small figure sprawled over them. “You guys are dressed funny.”
“Haar'chak!” the whitebeard shrugged his shoulders roughly, crawling out from under the kid while patting the floor around himself. “Where did it go?”
“The data chip?” Sabo clarified, sensing an opportunity. If he could grab it before the whitebeard-
“I ate it!”
Both Sabo and the whitebeard froze. Blinking, Sabo slowly turned to look at the kid.
“You… ate it?” The whitebeard asked slowly, incredulous.
“Mhm! It wasn’t yummy at all though.”
Obviously it wasn’t yummy, Sabo thought. It’s electronics.
A marine appeared around the bend of the corridor, seemingly out of breath. “There- There he is!” He gasped out, though not loud enough to alert anyone.
Not yet.
Sabo scrambled to his feet and, in wordless agreement with the whitebeard, they both grabbed the kid by the arms, dragging him up and away.
Clearly the whitebeard had done his research, if the fact that he never turned to go in the wrong direction was anything to go by. Even when Sabo’s decision was made based on the force, the whitebeard followed flawlessly, likely guided by instinct or experience.
Whitebeards were famously good at anything that had to do with fighting, afterall, and “strategic retreats” were certainly an important aspect of that.
The only time Sabo and the whitebeard disagreed on where to go, however, was right after making it out of the base.
They bolted in the opposite directions, the kid’s arms stretching out unnaturally far before rebounding, dragging them both back and slamming into a pile again.
“My ship is hidden in the dunes over there,” Sabo offered, pointing a thumb behind himself.
“And my striker is right behind the shed,” the whitebeard countered, pointing to where the edge of a small striker could be seen under a haphazard disguise. “It’ll be faster than running.”
Sabo conceded.
The kid kept laughing as they raced towards the striker. Sabo helped the whitebeard get the tarp off of the solar sail and piled the kid and himself out of the way while the whitebeard took up a spot at the feet of the sail.
“We’re in the shadows, though-” Sabo pointed out right as a plume of fire appeared from the whitebeard’s outstretched fists, rendering his point moot.
The striker took off just as some marine ships rounded the perimeter, helpfully herding the whitebeard away from the direction he had been planning to go into and towards Sabo’s ship instead.
He smiled when the helmet turned towards him, clearly unhappy with that turn of events. The smile was all he had the time to do before the whitebeard increased the speed, throwing a wall of fire to cut their pursuers off for good measure.
It wouldn’t stop them—marines were known for being annoyingly tenacious—but it would hopefully delay them for long enough to initiate the take off sequence.
Some of the marines started shooting their blasters, though less than Sabo would have expected. Maybe the kid was important enough that they weren’t willing to risk him getting hurt?
He palmed his lightsaber, just in case, but the whitebeard seemed to have it well in hand, changing directions rapidly in order to avoid the shots.
Sabo outstretched his hand right as they rounded the dune, opening the loading bay just in time for the striker to make it in with barely any decrease in speed.
They almost crashed into the back wall. Sabo wanted whatever brakes that ship had, honestly, but he didn’t let himself get distracted by that as he jumped out of the striker, slamming the doors closed with the Force and making it to the cockpit in record time.
He wasn’t really supposed to use force to go through the take off sequence—something about it messed with the electronic bits the way it didn’t affect the mechanical ones, Hatch always said—but speed was of essence.
The electronics would deal with it.
Sabo didn’t even bother sitting down, focused on getting the ship off the ground as soon as possible. The marines only just began rounding the dune when the ship got clear.
“Hold on to something!” Sabo called out as a courtesy to his passengers before pulling down on the thrusters, shooting straight for the atmosphere at an angle slightly steeper than was advisable.
Despite the angle, his two passengers managed to make their way into the cockpit, throwing themselves into the spare seats and finally making Sabo realize he should probably sit down, too.
“Wooow,” the kid plastered himself to the edge of the visor, sitting in the seat behind Sabo’s, while the whitebeard was bold enough to take the co-pilot seat. “It’s so pretty…”
“What, never seen space before?” The whitebeard asked, arms crossed against his chest, and Sabo couldn’t help but reflect on that sentiment.
The kid pouted, though Sabo could only see it in his reflection in the glass. “Gramps never let me get on a ship. He thought I’d run away or something, I guess.”
Sabo hummed as he inputted the codes he had prepared for the getaway. He launched them into hyperspace as soon as they breached the edges of the atmosphere, leaving the marines and their only-now-taking-off ships in the dust.
As the weightlessness enveloped the cockpit and Sabo switched on the fake gravity, he could finally relax.
…And figure out what to do with the eaten data chip.
“I still don’t get how you saw what was clearly an inedible piece of electronics,” he says, twisting in the seat to be able to see both the whitebeard and the kid at the same time. “And decided that, yes, that looked like something you should try to eat.”
The kid pouted. “I was hungry,” he said simply.
“I could always just…” the whitebeard trailed off, somehow having manifested a massive knife out of nowhere, twirling it between his fingers. The kid wedged himself closer against the window, arms around his torso and heels resting up on the seat. “He’s just a marine-”
“I’m not a marine!” He protested vehemently. “I’m Monkey D Luffy and I’m gonna become the King of the Pirates!”
The words almost echoed in the sudden silence.
“...the hell’s a Pirate King?” Sabo asked, baffled.
The whitebeard scoffed. “It’s bullshit,” he waved it off. “They label anyone who goes against the marines a pirate; pirate king was just a meaningless title given to a jackass for getting to a hidden planet or some such bullshit.”
“Hey!” Luffy protested. “It’s not stupid! Being a Pirate King means you’re the freest person in the universe, you know? You could go anywhere, do anything!”
“To be fair, most pirates already do that,” Sabo pointed out, turning back to his display. “Heads up, we’re about to get out of hyperspace. I did a short one just to get us to-”
The hyperspace-typical vision of streaked stars disappeared as they fell out of it with a slightly worrying churn, appearing in the middle of what should be an empty stretch of space.
It was very much not.
“Hailing the vessel,” a bored voice sounded through the half-asleep den-den-mushi. “State your clearance code.”
The kid was about to say something, but Sabo pressed his hand against his mouth before he could make a single noise. He outstretched the other hand towards the den-den-mushi, trying to focus. He’s never done it like this but… “You don’t need to know our codes.”
“Um,” the marine said. “Yeah, I do? That’s my whole job.”
Sabo, distracted as he was, didn’t expect the kid to bite him until it already happened.
“Code Alpha Sierra Ligma Oscar Uniform Tango!” The kid yelled out before he could be stopped.
“Couldn’t you just say that in the first place instead of playing stupid games?” The marine grumbled. “I swear, newbies are so annoy-”
The voice cut off as the marine cut the connection, the den-den falling back asleep.
Sabo and the whitebeard both stared at the kid incredulously.
“I told you I’m not a marine,” he said, crossing his arms petulantly. “But that doesn’t mean Gramps didn’t make me memorize all the boring codes.”
As Sabo turned to look at the whitebeard, he could tell they were both thinking the same thing: the knowledge Luffy held was worth a thousand data chips.
“Pero-pero-pero-” A den-den started chirping but when Sabo looked down, it wasn’t his.
The whitebeard shifted, pulling the snail out of his helmet. “I need to take this,” he said, picking up immediately.
“Ace!” A voice called, clearly anxious. “Are you okay? The ground team said there was a disturbance near the base-”
“I’m good,” the whitebeard—Ace, Sabo thought gleefully—grumbled.
“Do you have the datachip?”
“It… is inside the ship,” Ace glanced towards Luffy. “But it’s also inside Luffy.”
“...What’s a luffy?”
“I’m not a what!”
“He’s a marine cadet who… accidentally ate the chip.”
“I’m not a marine, either!”
“...right. Where are you now?”
“Near Sabaody,” Sabo supplied, when it looked like Ace had no idea.
“...Who’s this? And didn’t they set up a blockade there recently?”
“We cleared it,” Ace said quickly. “Anyways, that’s just a random utreekov who was also after the datachip-”
“Wow, thanks,” Sabo interrupted dryly. “I’m Sabo the Revolutionary. I’m happy to deliver that hotheaded asshole-” “OI!” “-through the Red Line and into the New World, provided that the Whitebeards are willing to share a copy of the data.”
“I’ll have to speak with Pops, but I don’t see why not.”
***
The Red Line was a very dense asteroid belt separating the New World from pretty much the rest of the universe. It’s impossible to avoid it through the use of hyperspace, and passing through was pretty much unthinkable outside of a handful of heavily controlled passages.
Thanks to Force, though, Sabo was more than capable of bringing them through without a scratch.
Ace didn’t seem to believe so, flinching any time an asteroid passed them by a little too close for his taste.
“I should be the one to steer,” Ace grumbled, holding on to the dashboard.
“It’s my ship,” Sabo smirked, glancing over at him. “And I’ll have you know-”
Luffy clambered over the top of Sabo’s chair, yoinking the steering stick sharply and avoiding the one rock Sabo and Ace had both somehow missed.
“Why can’t you just share?” He asked, folding his arms on top of Sabo. “Don’t you need two pilots to get through the whole of the Red Belt, anyways?”
…The kid had a point.
“Fineee,” Ace sighed, getting out of the chair. “I’ll go rest.”
“Eat something, too!” Sabo called after him, trusting Ace would find his way to the kitchen.
When he turned back to face forward properly, there was a face very close to his.
Sabo sighed, remembering Luffy’s earlier words. “The kitchen is through the corridor behind me,” he said. “Bring me something, will you?”
***
When Ace returned a couple hours later, Sabo was only too happy to hand over the steering.
He stretched lightly before plopping to the ground, settling into a meditative pose.
Luffy was quick to plop himself right beside him, and Sabo could almost feel the eyes drilling holes into him.
“You’re going to find this boring,” he warned, opening one eye just a bit.
“Nuh-uh,” Luffy claimed and nodded off within five minutes, head lolling to rest on Sabo’s shoulder.
“He’s had an exciting day,” Ace said, still facing forward.
“Mhm,” Sabo brushed a strand of hair off of the kid’s forehead. “The Force use must have been a bit much to him, too. Don’t think he’s accustomed to using it the way you and I are-”
Ace twisted to look at him, but quickly thought better of it. “I don’t have the force,” he said. “It’s just great reflexes.”
Sabo didn’t have the energy to argue.
***
By the time they finally cleared the length of the Red Line, Sabo was more than ready to set the hyperjump to the coordinates Ace supplied and get this whole adventure over with.
So, of course the alarms start blaring the second he flicked the last toggle.
Ace was the one to flick it back, reverting back to their previous course.
“Whas happenin’?” Luffy slurred, popping his head over the top of the ladder connecting the cockpit with the rest of the ship. Sabo had put him to bed, earlier.
“The hyperspace engine seems to be busted,” Sabo offered, getting out of the way as Ace checked the settings. “We’ll just take a bit longer-”
“I can fix it,” Ace interrupted. “Just show me the access point.”
***
Out of all the ways for this mission to finish, Sabo hadn’t expected to end up a glorified storage bot to a random whitebeard while a freshly-defected ex-marine cadet held the light.
“Hand me the-” Ace started, moving backwards, only to get interrupted by his helmet hitting the top of the access point. “Shab!”
“Why don’t you just take off the helmet?” Luffy asked, tilting his head.
“Luffy-!”
“Hold the light straight,” Ace grumbled, snatching a wrench out of Sabo’s hands before diving straight back into the bowels of the ship.
Luffy pouted, adjusting the torch slightly. “It’d be easier.”
“Whitebeards don’t really do that,” he explained. “They always wear the helmets-”
Ace snorted. “Not always,” he said. “Just around aruetiise. I can take it off around my brothers.”
Luffy gasped in delight. “You have brothers?!”
“We drank sake, so we’re brothers,” he explained somewhat defensively. “Anyways, the helmet’s just made from really expensive materials—beskar and seastone—and it means a lot, so it’s safer to keep it close.”
“Oh!” Luffy exclaimed, dropping the torch as he scrambled to pull something from under the back of his shirt. “Like my hat! Shanks gave it to me when I promised to become a great pirate!”
There was now a weirdly-flattened sunhat resting on his head, and even Ace turned back to look at it. Sabo raised his hand, using the Force to bring it back to its original shape.
“I have a hat, too,” he said. “A top hat. If I ever had to replace it… It wouldn’t be the same.”
“Kinda like that, I guess,” Ace agreed reluctantly.
“I know what to do!” Luffy scrambled to his feet, bouncing away excitedly.
Sabo and Ace both watched him, bemused, before turning back to the task at hand. Picking up the torch, Sabo shifted to point it in the right direction.
There were some noises coming from the kitchen. Sabo supposed it wouldn’t be too far out of the realm of possibility that Luffy would think making a sandwich was the solution for anything...
“Here!” He finally called, putting something on the ground right behind them.
Ace sighed, but he did start to move back from the access point, so Sabo turned around as well.
There were three bowls resting on one of the nearby supply crates, along with a bottle of the good sake Sabo had stolen out of Dragon’s office once.
“If we drink sake like you did, we’ll also be brothers!” Luffy explained, a beaming smile on his face. “And I have my hat and Sabo’s, to keep your helmet company!”
Sabo blinked at him, bewildered. The kid’s got to be the most straightforward, bold and frankly, the most insane person he had ever-
Ace threw his head back, his laughter almost hysterical.
“Yeah, kid?” He gasped out. “You really want that? I could be the son of the devil, for all you know.”
“What does that matter?” Luffy tilted his head, confused. “Ace and Sabo were the ones to help me run away from the marines, not your parents. I like spending time with you.”
“So…” Ace’s voice sounded weirdly watery. “You think it was good that I was born?”
That was not Sabo’s can of worms to deal with.
….If he drank the sake, though, it would be.
“Yuh-uh,” Luffy nodded sagely.
“Would have been much harder to get away if you weren’t there,” Sabo added, because he’s well familiar with the way logic doesn’t really trump emotions, but it sure justifies them. “And we would have been toast without you here now. So, yeah, I’d say it’s pretty good you were born.”
Ace was silent, for a moment, seemingly digesting all that.
Then he raised his hands, grasping the edges of his helmet before pausing. The last second before the point of no return.
And then he tugged the helmet fully off, decisively planting it on the crate beside Luffy’s sunhat and Sabo’s tophat.
“You have freckles!” Luffy cheered, leaping over the crate to take a closer look. Sabo had only barely managed to catch the bottle he knocked off.
“I have no other sake, you know,” Sabo uncorked the bottle, shooing Luffy a little to uncover the bowls. “So you gotta be careful with this one, or we won’t be able to do this.”
Luffy was very pointedly careful as he moved around the crate, grabbing on to Ace’s arm. “Right!”
Sabo poured generous doses into each of their cups.
“BROTHERS!” They called, raising the bowls up and then to their mouth.
For a moment, they basked in the peaceful feeling.
Then Luffy gagged, pressing a hand against his mouth. “I’m gonna barf!” He warned, already running towards the toilet.
It took them only a moment to remember-
“THE DATACHIP!”
***
When they landed on Sphinx, Ace left the ship with Sabo and Luffy both right over his shoulders, the datachip in hand and his helmet under his arm… He was amongst family, after all.
FIN
