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Sometimes, the nature of Revolutionary work meant not so much earning a victory for one’s own side, but rather, denying a victory to the enemy. And for Sabo’s latest mission, that meant preventing the World Government from getting their hands on a young Devil Fruit user.
The nature of her fruit? He didn’t precisely know. Something significantly more impressive than most powers, if not quite up to the legendary status of the Ope-Ope no Mi that older members of the Revolution spoke of in whispers. But, exact specifics didn’t mean much in the heat of the moment, with a handful of Marines pursuing them, a warship full of reinforcements on the way, and the target of their extraction unable to keep up a fast pace thanks to the wounds she’d already sustained.
Small mercies that she’d gone quiet instead of screaming from the pain.
“There,” Sabo said quietly, pulling tight the last knot of his makeshift bandage. “That should hold you together until we reach our ship.” He offered a reassuring smile, for all the good it would do.
The young lady - the child, really, she couldn’t have been more than fourteen years old - sniffled, and weakly grasped at his hand. “A-and then?”
“Then we’ll use a much better medical kit to clean you up better, and soon enough we’ll get to a safe place with an actual doctor!” Koala met his gaze over the girl’s head, and grimaced. They both knew how unlikely it was the Devil Fruit user would survive that long, but Sabo just smiled wider. Right up until the bitter end, he would keep up a confident facade - and then, if and when their target died, he’d file a report about preventing a win for the government, and move on to the next mission.
That was just how things worked.
The girl sniffled again. His reassurances didn’t seem to be having much effect. “I’m, suh-slowing you d-down.”
“We’re not leaving you behind,” Sabo told her sharply.
“No,” she agreed, wiping a hand against her eyes, leaving a smear of blood against her forehead. “Th-thank you, for tha-at. But- but-” Her tears started spilling in earnest, and they didn’t have time for this, Sabo knew they didn’t even without Koala flashing him a warning signal. Two minutes until the approaching Marines reached their position on the forested ridge.
“Come now, you can save these until we’re away on our boat, alright?” Sabo wiped away what tears he could, ignoring the blood that got onto his hands. There was plenty enough already, from trying to bind up her bullet wounds.
Her dark eyes gave him a knowing look. Her own hands gripped onto his, as tightly as they could with her flagging strength. “Tha-ank you, for try-trying.”
Sabo realized her plan a moment too late.
Those eyes and all her spilled blood began to glow: soft blue light that flowed into the air, surrounding Sabo’s body. Koala hissed something about being seen - he could hardly hear it, over the sudden pounding in his ears.
One, two, three
“Wait-” The glow around Sabo remained, even as it died away from the girl responsible, as her eyes rolled up in her head and the grip on his hands went slack. “Dammit!”
One two three
The Devil Fruit user let out a final breath, and her power strained, reaching, seeking, one-two-three points of pressure, Sabo’s left hand and his right and a spot directly between his eyes, ow-
One Two Three
The blue light vanished.
Something went thump on the ground directly behind Sabo.
For a moment, all he could do was continue to kneel and breathe heavily, wait for the pounding in his skull to fade. He didn’t look at Koala; didn’t look behind himself, either. When his hands ceased trembling, Sabo reached up to gently rest a finger over each of the dead girl’s eyelids, and ease them shut. Not-so distant shouts rang up from the forest below. At least another twenty minutes of hard running would be needed for Sabo and Koala to reach their small boat, and slip away into the oncoming dusk.
Along with whatever the Devil Fruit user managed to summon before her strength gave out.
Sabo took a deep breath to steady himself, rose, and twisted on his heels to get a look. And promptly wobbled in place, the spike of pain between his eyes worse than ever.
Small figure. Skinny limbs. Short strands of fine, dark hair, sticking out from beneath-
Beneath-
...beneath a too-large straw hat, with a bright red ribbon.
Sabo couldn’t see the child’s face.
Sabo knew, he couldn’t let himself see, or else the roaring in his ears would grow loud enough for the Marines to track them down. Else he might start screaming and never stop.
A hand briefly touched his shoulder, and then Koala crouched, pressing her fingers to a scrawny neck, checking for a pulse. Her gaze met Sabo’s. She bit her lip, head tipping slightly to one side. Alive. Bring?
...after a too-long moment, he nodded.
They managed to make it through the rest of the forest and down a steep slope to the island’s far side. Their boat remained hidden in a narrow inlet; Sabo stepped aboard first, to double-check no nasty surprises had been deposited, followed then by Koala carrying the- the kid. The little boy. The one Sabo knew but didn’t.
(A decade with the Revolution, and those were the years that mattered, that was all that mattered, after he’d woken up with no memory of himself but still a bone-deep conviction there’d been nothing to return to in the Goa Kingdom but why did he still feel such an ache inside-)
Lines secured and sail unfurled, he and Koala went through the familiar gestures of slipping away from hostile territory as fast as they could, vanishing into the darkness of the open sea on a heading north-by-northwest. Only when night truly settled in and the stars fully emerged did Sabo dare to stop his constant movements, and finally, finally, let himself take a proper look at the unconscious child in their tiny cabin.
The same handful of physical details ticked through his mind. That hat remained on the boy’s head, hiding his face-
“Ahh, no! My hat!” A hand stretched out, little fingers grasping, and they caught the brim just before it could vanish on the wind. Different fingers grabbed a dirty red shirt, hauling bare feet back from the edge of a cliff, you idiot, be careful-!
Sabo’s fingers gently, oh so gently, touched the hat’s brim, and nudged it aside.
...he really did know that face. He knew- those round cheers, and that tiny nose, and that scar, where the stupid doofus hurt himself on purpose, don’t do anything like that again, Lu-
“Luffy,” Sabo whispered, and it was like flipping a switch, because that limp little body stirred, and the seven year old’s face scrunched up, and Sabo’s baby brother blearily peeled open his eyes.
Koala tried not to eavesdrop, really she did, but being stuck on a boat that wasn’t much bigger than a dinghy didn’t exactly leave a girl very many options.
So she couldn’t help but hear a startled yelp, and then some soothing noises, and her partner awkwardly introducing himself without a trace of his usual flair. Apparently he didn’t need any, because a moment later, the unknown kid gleefully shouted, “Sabo got BIG!”
That seemed to open a door, because her partner started laughing and crying at the same time, which finally drew Koala from the bow of their boat into the cabin.
Sabo sat on the floor, leaning between the narrow cot and tiny workdesk with their unknown guest in his lap. Some sort of odd cable wrapped around him- or, no, those were the little kid’s arms, stretched to unnatural length. He’d started crying too, hugging Sabo, and neither noticed Koala paused awkwardly in the doorway. At least not until she coughed, which made her partner jerk his head up. He kept on smiling through his tears, and didn’t make even a pretense of trying to wipe them away. “Koala- Koala, this is- this is my brother.”
Oh.
...oh.
“You, remember him?” She asked, cautiously easing closer, to perch on the edge of the cot.
“Yeah,” Sabo answered thickly, grief and joy mingled on his face. “I remember. I remember-” The grief surged, along with more sobbing, and he buried his face in that tangled mess of dark hair.
Well then.
Whatever their target’s Devil Fruit had been, Koala decided she’d light a candle later, as thanks for that final decision to use it.
One two three
Elsewhere, on a ship in the East Blue, daylight woke the stretchy captain of a small crew, who took a long moment to realize someone else was curled up against him. A tiny someone else, which didn’t make sense, because the someone in question was supposed to be bigger. “Ace?”
One two three
Further elsewhere, on a massive vessel in the Grandline, eating in the mess hall with people he’d allowed to start calling him brother but who didn’t yet know all of the old sorrows in his soul, a certain Second Division Commander startled at the soft blue light that began glowing around him, and paled when a boy wearing a tophat appeared out of thin air. “Sabo?!”
One two three