Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Lost But Found
The war was over. Marines, Pirates and Celestial Dragons alike lay strewn across the shattered landscape of Mariejois. Fires roared in the distance, the smoke curling into a sky darkened with storm clouds and sorrow. The Red Line was cracked had cracks within it and like a damn ready to burst, the seas pushed through and converge for the first time in thousands of years as the flags of the World Government burned, torn and scattered like the pages of a forgotten story and at the heart of it all laid on the ground a boy glowing with white hair and violet eyes.
The boy laid on the ground with burns strewn across his body, a body that still glowed white. His strawhat had holes on it, from bullets that had been fired at him. Nearby his crew lay either dead, dying or unconscious. His violet eyes looked to the left of him and saw the red haired pirate he had admired, looked up to and saw as a father figure; whose left arm had been given to save the boy years ago.
"Luffy…!" A voice screamed out causing said boy to turn his head to his right. His breath stolen as he saw his only surviving brother rushing towards him.
Sabo dropped to his knees, cradling his brother in his arms. Sabo carefully held the boy in his arms, as blood gushed from his own stomach wound. He couldn't find Koala, Marco or Luffy's own ship doctor, Chopper. He saw that blood stained Luffy's straw hat or what was left of it and as he looked around he could smell that the air was thick with the smell of iron and ash.
Looking down he saw that Luffy's body still glowed with a faint eerie white. Not with life but with something older. Wilder. Divine. The power of the Nika fruit. It had never been the Gomu Gomu Fruit. Luffy's rubbery fingers twitched, his grin wavering like a flame in the wind.
"I… I did it," Luffy whispered, barely audible. "We're… free…" His breathing was warbled, sloshy like his lungs were full of liquid.
"No," Sabo choked out. "You don't get to go now. Not after everything."The embers of the Flame-Flame Fruit crackled around him, uncontrolled, as if the fruit itself mourned. His hand, burned and shaking, pressed against Luffy's heart. "Please," he whispered to the light glowing within his brother as he pressed his forehead to Luffy's. "I'd give anything. Anything to go back… just one more chance. Let me… save them."The light within Luffy pulsed around them before it then flared like an erupting supernova. The heartbeat of the Sun God thundered through the ruins. The world seemed to pause.
Time then hesitated. Inside that light, something heard Sabo's desperate prayer.
Nika. The true spirit of liberation. Of joy. Of freedom, but even gods had limits.
"I cannot return to the past," the voice said, gentle and mournful. "But I can give you a world where the story is not yet written. A place where your brothers might still be saved."
Sabo's eyes widened as felt the coolness of the light rush over him. It was like a warm hug, filled with love and a promise. Then everything went dark.
Sabo woke to the scent of pine and soft dirt. The sky above him was a vivid blue and impossibly bright. Birds chirped in the distance. The warmth of the sun felt too real. Like the universe was mocking him.
Sabo gasped as he sat upright, his chest rising and falling with shallow, panic set in as he tried but failed to place where he was. He looked down in shock and stared at his trembling fingers. His body, it was small. His hands were tiny, no burn scars. He was a child.
"No way…" he whispered, standing up on shaky legs. His clothes were tattered, he was once again in his old blue noble's clothes, dirty from the woods, but it was unmistakable. He remembered this. “No way…" he said again, louder this time. "I'm a kid?" His voice squeaked. He touched his thoat and it hit him like a cannonball. He was back. Back before Ace died at Marineford. Back before Luffy set out to sea. Before the tragedy of his supposed death, the war, the agony of loss. Before it all had gone wrong, so very wrong.
As he sat there, on the Goaian jungle floor absorbing all that was around him, and in that moment, he knew what he had to do. He had to save them, but first, he had to find both of them. "Ace…" he breathed. "Luffy…" He didn't waste a second. He ran, sprinting down the familiar paths of the jungle, ignoring the shocked faces of vagrants and bandits alike as he burst through foliage and ran through the terminal. He knew where Ace would be, it was simple to find him. Focusing, he engaged his observation haki easily and quickly spotted him.
The smell of oil, sweat, and garbage was so familiar it made Sabo's chest ache. His legs carried him fast and light over garbage heaps and hollowed out crates, skipping over gaps in the rotting boards like he'd never forgotten this place. He hadn't. Not after remembering Ace.
Then there he was, half hidden between the rusted hull of a broken ship and a makeshift shack, a boy sat cross legged on a wooden crate. His black hair stuck up in wild spikes, and his arms were crossed as he stared into a cracked can of stolen food like he was daring it to taste bad. He was small, malnourished and wore clothes with holes in them. He looked around six or maybe seven.
"Ace!" Sabo shouted, breathless as he rounded the corner.
Ace looked up immediately, frowning. "Huh? Sabo? What—what're you yelling for?"He looked the same. Scruffy, sharp-eyed, and already carrying that spark of something fierce behind his scowl.
Instead of explaining, Sabo did what came naturally to him, he flung himself forward, wrapping his arms tightly around the other boy. "Wha—HEY! Get off me, weirdo!" Ace tried pushing Sabo away but when he felt the other boy begin shaking he pulled back only to realize that he was crying.
"Ace," Sabo cried softly gaining a pout from the other boy who reluctantly allowed Sabo to hug him. "I thought you were gone…" Sabo's voice cracked, tightening his grip around Ace's middle. "You died, Ace. You really died."
Ace blinked, completely frozen. "What… are you talking about?" he said after a pause he pulled away and looked Sabo into his eyes. "We talked this morning. Did you hit your head?"
Sabo pulled back, eyes glassy, but focused. "You don't get it. Not yet. I'm not—I mean, I am me. But not this me." He stammered and knew it was coming out like gibberish.
Ace looked at him like he was insane or having a stroke. "What?"
Sabo sucked in a shaky breath. "I remember everything. How we grew up and when we met Luffy and-" He stopped himself, jaw tightening. "I remember a war that burned the world. I remember losing you. Watching the world fall apart. I think I died too, but now I'm here again. We're kids…again."
Ace stared, the frown never leaving his face, but something in his eyes shifted. Just a flicker. That deep, secret fear he always carried, the one that never left him. "You're serious," he said softly.
Sabo nodded. "I am."
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the distant sound of laughter and dogs barking in the trash heaps. Ace finally looked down. "You said I died?"
Sabo nodded again, more carefully this time. "You tried to protect Luffy. It was Marineford. You were so strong, Ace. You saved him. You saved everyone. But you…"
He trailed off.
Ace didn't speak for a moment. He picked at a crack in the crate with his thumb.
"…Was it worth it?" he asked, not meeting Sabo's eyes.
Sabo knelt down so they were face to face. "It was brave, you were so strong, but we lost you. Luffy never got over it. I never got over it."Ace looked away, his mouth tight. "I'm not letting that happen again," Sabo continued. "Not this time. I don't know how, or why, but I got a second chance and I'm not wasting it."
Ace's voice was quiet. "What are you gonna do?" He was still frowning like he was trying to figure out a puzzle.
"We're leaving," Sabo said firmly. "You, me, we're finding Luffy. Before Dadan's people mess him up, before the Marines come sniffing around, before anything gets worse."
Ace blinked. "Luffy? That name again. Who is he?"
"He's more important than you know. He's going to change the world." Sabo's eyes burned with something deeper than any child should carry. "He can't do it alone. We have to protect him. We're his big brothers!"
Ace sat in silence for a long moment. Then, he stood. "…Okay."
Sabo blinked. "Wait, really?" He asked a bit shocked that Ace believed him so easily.
Ace nodded once, firmly. "If you say something bad's coming, I believe you."
Sabo stared at him. Ace scowled. "What? You hugged me and cried like a baby. I'm not that cold."
A grin tugged at Sabo's lips. "You kinda are."
"Shut up," Ace muttered, already walking ahead. "Let's go get Luffy and if this turns out to be one big weird dream, I'm blaming you."
Sabo laughed quietly and followed obediently but deep in his heart, he knew; this wasn't a dream. It was a new beginning and he was so very happy because maybe, just maybe, they'd be able to do it right this time around.