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“Seas Damn it, Luffy,” are the first words out of Sabo’s mouth as they land.
He doesn’t know how, but it has to be Luffy’s fault. He knew he hadn’t been anywhere near his baby brother when whatever happened swept him off his feet. But he knew it was the little shit’s fault.
A whine to his left tells him he’s right, before Luffy’s voice sounds, “I didn’t even do it on purpose, Sabo!”
Sighing, he’s sitting up to look around him. Frowning as the trees around him look familiar in a way that he can’t place. Additionally, his haki does ping with others close by, but none that stand out in the fact that he or Luffy (and least of all together) can’t take them.
However, it’s someone else’s gaze he catches that has him freezing. Looking into gray eyes he knew he would never be able to see anymore. “Lu, what the fuck did you do,” he asks as he turns to look at his baby brother and stops.
The Luffy that is sitting there is not the one he had seen not too long ago. This one is older, broader in a way they had known he would be as he looked so much like Garp. There is a scruffy beard on his chin, if one knows where to look, as well as a new scar on his shoulder. One Sabo hadn’t seen before, even if it looks old.
Licking his lips, he looks from Luffy to Ace, and snorts out a laugh at the notion that he is still the Middle Child. But Ace, from the looks of it, is just twenty. His torso is bare and from the looks of it he does wear the Whitebeard Jolly Roger proudly on his back. He also looks shocked, and Sabo can understand that, Ace as he is there wouldn’t have known Sabo was alive and he’s expecting a wiry and skinny Luffy not the muscled (albeit still skinny) man in front of him.
Ace does seem to have caught on to something, his eyes flickering from Sabo to Luffy and back as realization seems to seep into his eyes, “Sabo? Lu- Luffy? What in Calipso’s left tit happened?”
His voice is what has Luffy looking up, before tears start gathering in his eyes, “A- Ace…”
As their older (younger) brother nods, Luffy is on his feet and hugging Ace close. Standing taller than the oldest at this moment. A full head and a half taller than Ace was, but not letting that stop him from using his devil fruit to wrap around him. It just looks funnier as Luffy is the tallest one out of all of them.
Sabo never did grow taller, and right now he’s still a little taller than the Luffy he had seen a few weeks back. He knows that this Luffy is even older, probably also Pirate King or very close to it (given that he still wears the hat). But he looks like he’s been through a lot, more than the Luffy he remembers. Although the scar on his chest still stands out through the open front of his shirt.
“Luffy, how old are you,” Sabo finds himself asking.
Humming, Luffy pulls back from hugging Ace, “Twenty-five. You’re not my Sabo, are you?”
Shaking his head, Sabo mentions being twenty-four right now, with his Luffy being twenty-one.
With a groan, Ace moans, “That isn’t possible, I’m the oldest and I’m just twenty right now.”
Laughing, Sabo explains that things change in the future, very obviously keeping some things hidden as he shares that Luffy’s devil fruit isn’t the Gomu Gomu no Mi, but rather a Mythical Zoan called the Hito Hito no mi, model Nika. After the Ancient Sun God, which the Luffy Sabo knows had full control over so an older version of their brother would be even better.
With a grin, Luffy nods, “Yeah, it’s because of Nika we’re here.” There is a soft smile on his face as he shares that he made it to Laugh Tale. That he is Pirate King and with the way the world changes they are able to explore more and more places. “The Red Line is free for all because the Revolution already took place and there is no World Government anymore. It’s on the Red Line we found this cave that had a Mystery voice asking if I could change one thing that I would change.”
Sabo gaped, they had accomplished a lot in his time. Namely the Celestial Dragons had been taken care of for the most part. There were still God Knights around, but they hadn’t been quite as strong, or as numerous as when he invaded Marigeose. Luffy had clashed with the ‘Ruler of the World’ but there had been a tie, but to hear that this had changed brought a smile on his face. A smile that softened soon, “And you wanted to change this?”
Shrugging, Luffy flushes as he mentions that he didn’t want Sabo to leave, he wants to have all three of them together as he’s certain that if Sabo was there they would have made it out alright. There is grief and hurt in his eyes as he looks at Ace, “I lost you…”
Ace had already figured this out. Especially as he was the youngest right now. A tear running over his face before he’s opening his arms and allowing Luffy to wrap around him in the hugs they secretly loved. Gray eyes take in Sabo, who admits that the blast that occurred when they were ten didn’t kill him, but rather took his memories until he saw the newspaper announcing Ace’s death. Stumbling into the embrace as well, hoping that at least like this they’d have a second chance.
With everything being told, Sabo does not want to think of the option that he too is lost in Luffy’s time. He hopes not, wouldn’t be able to cope with the loss his little brother would be forced to go through. But Luffy hadn’t hugged him like he did Ace, so that seems like a good sign. For now they just need to enjoy themselves and see why they were spat out here.
The answer to that comes when a blast of uncontrolled Conqueror's haki lights the air and they all look up. Luffy frowns, “That’s Ace’s haki…”
His eyes widen as if suddenly realizing where they are. Taking in the trees and whatever else is around them, “We’re on Dawn. We’re… That… This is the moment it all goes to shit because Sabo’s shitty dad takes him, only for Sabo to set out and be saved by my dad.”
“You’re a Revolutionary,” Ace wonders aloud, even if he does follow Luffy once the youngest brother starts making his way towards the Gray Terminal.
Nodding, Sabo shares he’s chief-of-staff, Dragon’s right hand man. Seeing as he had been with the organisation since he’s 10. Biting his lip as he talks briefly about the people he has there, and the bounds made even after regaining his memories. How he met Marco and Deuce, how much they often still talked about Ace even now.
Once there, it’s a very familiar sight. Except as kids this had been terrifying. But now, as adults and especially in their roles, nothing phased them anymore. Luffy is stalking closer, his own haki unleashing and grinning widely as most of the thugs Bluejam had working for him passed out foaming at the mouth. Sabo chuckled, a grin etching on his face as he took one side of his brother with Ace on the other. Looking at the adults that were still there and conscious.
Taking a hold of the pipe hanging off of his back, “Now then, gentleman, I do believe this is the part where we tell you to take on someone your own size.”
Outlook takes out a gun, and Sabo freezes at the sight of it. He had known his biological father would go to great lengths, but he didn’t expect this. Wondering if he would shoot a younger Sabo, or even at the younger Ace or Luffy. But he just pointed it at the three men he didn’t have on his paycheck. Only for the older Luffy to take a step forward, not even on edge as the gun gets fired. His skin catches it before he’s bouncing it back towards a tree.
Giggling as he bears down on the noble, “Are you willing to bet your life on that? Taking out a gun, especially against Pirates, it’s being willing to put your life on the line…”
He doesn’t have to say anything, as Outlook pales, drops the gun and turns before running away back towards Goa. He leaves Bluejam and his ilk alone, with Sabo and Ace taking great joy in beating those thugs within an inch of their lives.
Each of them takes a hold of their younger selves, no matter how odd that was, and makes their way back into the forest. Silence hangs in between all of them before a younger Luffy seems to gather his wits and starts sprouting that those were almost the exact same words Shanks had said once upon a time.
The older Luffy laughed, before taking out his straw hat where it was laying on his back and putting it on. Grinning widely as the younger Luffy looks on wide eyed before taking a hold of his cheek and pulling. Shrieking as his lips and cheek pull with it, “You’re also a rubber man!”
Sabo’s younger self looks at the adult version of Ace and Sabo, his mind filling in the blanks before he’s whispering, “You’re us… The three of you, you’re us from another time or place?”
Nodding, Sabo tries to explain in simple terms that Luffy did something stupid again. But it’s not really stupid as it gets them to this point in time, to have a redo. To warn their younger selves of what should and shouldn’t happen. For a moment he wonders if it would work, but Sabo can feel memories he didn’t have before slot into his mind, making him grin widely.
Ace, as he looks on, grows older too. Not stuck as a twenty year old, his face changing and while he doesn’t grow a mustache, Sabo is reminded of a bounty poster he saw of Roger as a young adult and wonders how no one made the connection sooner. He never did realize how much Ace looked like his dad. He’s smiling softly, and is telling his younger self something that seems to shock the younger version to the point he starts crying. Sabo would bet it has something to do with finding his will to live and a crew, twice over, that would follow him into hell and back.
Luffy, meanwhile is telling his younger self all about his crew, about his parents (which might be a good thing as Sabo does remember being a Revolutionary still, but not fully joining until he is 17). Adding the name of his mother too, and that is still a surprise for Sabo too. To know that the Warlord Crocodile had been a woman at one point and in a relationship with Dragon, close enough and long enough to gain Luffy. He also shares the truth of his devil fruit, as much as he can, making his younger self promise not to use it until he’s older and strong enough to use it.
All six of them go to sleep in their treehouse. Cuddled up in a pile between the adults and the kids, feeling every bit at home as they had when they slept there any other night.
Waking up in the morning is done in a cave. No doubt the cave Luffy had spoken about. Ace is standing next to him, complaining about a weird ass dream.
Luffy is the last one to wake. Blinking once before he’s hugging Ace and Sabo close, “It worked.”
They both nod, mentioning memories that weren’t there before. Going on about what did change and what did not. With Ace mentioned he made it out of Marineford and eventually took over the Whitebeard Remnant and joined under the banner of the Strawhat Pirates once it became clear that the Whitebeard Pirates were a thing of the past. He was his own Captain, knew that Luffy would never command him to do anything, but given how much smaller they were now it helped in protecting themselves from Teach, the other Emperors and Weevil.
Even if, in the end, Ace also becomes an Emperor. Joining Shanks, Buggy and Law (and making Rayleigh and the other Roger Pirates so very proud as Law only took over once Luffy became Pirate King). Forming an alliance the likes of the Old Times, showing the world what could have been and helping the Revolution in taking place and bringing the world into a new Era.
“We did get a glimpse into the future and I like to think we did what we needed to do to make sure it became a reality and overcome an obstacle that kept us apart,” Ace eventually shared. Grinning as he mentioned being the tallest brother, and the oldest by default. Hugging both Sabo and Luffy close into his sides as they stepped out of the cove and onto the beach that was there. Looking around at allies and family, ready for a party to take place.