#Sabo can only ever remember Ace as the child he was on Dawn Island

[temptingtortilla]

:(

There is something deeply heart wrenching in knowing that only in death will these brothers ever truly reunite. The only way Ace can be with them in the land of the living is through the weight of his memory.

[alexoreality]

Forgotten Bonds(Rewrite): MEMORY 1

That was a decade ago... 

Monkey D. Luffy was his name. That’s what his dad said. He was a cheerful child with no care of the world whatsoever, he had lost his memories... How and why is something he’ll figure out on his own. 

His dad told him to avoid going to the East Blue at all cost, but why? It was his home sea, why shouldn’t he visit it? 

The catalyst of it all were three young siblings and sake. The two older kids were looking for their youngest and somehow; Luffy found himself helping them. The kids didn’t mind how sketchy he looked with his two scars, he kind of hated them to be honest. 

That was only the scars on his face, his body and torso was littered with it, they find the youngest of the three and one of them reprimands while the other comforts. 

Then next thing he knew was that a jolt of pain had erupted in his head, he retreats, away from the kids and back to the nearest Revolutionary Base. Memories... 

Of two older boys, so blurry but he can make out certain aspects, one with black hair... Small blurry dots, those were freckles, right? The other had a missing tooth and was blond, his mind notes his love for the color blue. 

Luffy remembers this phrase with the same young voice, the brand name of the sake they used to announce their brotherhood. 

“Did you know? If you share sake; you become brothers?” 

He HAS brothers! Brothers! They were probably looking for him, worried about him! It had been like... What? A decade ever since he lost his memories? Were they still looking for him? Was he missed? Don’t get him wrong, the Revolutionaries treat him right but... It just doesn’t seem like he can fit in and he doesn’t want to force himself to fit in then he already has. 

Forcing himself to wear tight, constricting leather suits while having to fight in missions, he preferred wearing some sort of apron skirt... Or a mid-asymmetrical wrap. Something a bit more... Ah, how should he...? Something that allows you to move more freely? Shorts? Cloaks? You know, that stuff. 

Dawn Island is where he’s headed, on a small ship with traders and sailors. They were kind enough to let him board their boat, Luffy was thankful for them. That specific island is where he was first found when he had asked how he was located. 

‘I’m sorry, Dad...’ Luffy smiled sadly, it was necessary sacrifice. He might receive punishment for this but once he gains more memories of these two boys; he’ll know it’ll be more than worth it! 

*** 

It was just another ordinary day in the Partys Bar. 

There was said to be a boat with returning villagers on it, why they left? Well, the fire in Grey Terminal can speak for itself. And the bombings, the way the nobles ignited everything in flames with no one to stop them had terrified them. 

Makino doesn’t know what was keeping her forward now, the dark green-haired woman with vacant eyes had kept polishing the wine glasses and shots ‘til they were shining. Then to washing the dishes, serving some customers, nothing too eventful. 

Everything in this village used to be so lively... With a rubbery boy at the center of the bright light that made them all happy, he was so sweet and innocent, then he was taken to the mountains by his grandfather. A few months later, he came down by himself, or did he?  

No, he came down with two older boys who seemed shy? Unnerved? She remembers basically interrogating everyone if they gave the two boys a look. Which they truthfully answered; “No!” 

Luffy... Gosh there were tears pricking at the corner of her eyes again, Luffy introduced her to his older brothers, boasted about how they took care of him when she wasn’t around. Makino thanked the two older boys, who were now big shot pirates who had bounties over their heads. 

Hiken no Ace and Ryousuken no Sabo, how the blond young man managed to get a hold of that fighting style was beyond her but if it helped him in those harsh seas then she doesn’t mind. 

Makino knew how much of a good influence little Luffy had on them, Ace, who was usually a hot-headed person and preferred to be isolated (from what she heard from the mountain bandits), was actually interacting with Luffy. Hell, one of the bandits said they saw the freckled boy’s fist immediately make contact with some assholes face after he hit Luffy. 

And Sabo, he just seemed to follow Ace’s lead, but was also keeping some secrets and kept to himself; that included some of his feelings. With their little contagious sunshine around, he lets loose from his self-restraint. 

Despite not being related at all, these three were so similar. 

The doors swing open, plastering a fake smile she had practiced over the years of mourning, she turns to greet the new customer that might be a one of the returning villagers. She had already heard crying just outside the bar- 

The plate she was wiping slid from her hands, her entire frame frozen all over, wide eyes frantically scanning the customer. “Hello, uhm... I’m kind of lo- Lady, are you alright? You dropped that plate!” 

It was the same voice, its tone got deeper and sounded more mature but... “Luffy...?” Her own voice wavered; the name rolled out of her tongue naturally. When the young man met her gaze, Makino saw the same round ebony brown eyes. A burn scar on the upper right side of his face, and a familiar (again) crescent scar under his left eye. His skin was no longer just a regular tan, it was sun kissed. Wearing a forest green cloak and she barely made out a greyish-red suit under it. What was even more surprising was that he now wore shiny leather shoes. 

“Y- Do you know me?” 

“Luffy!” The woman threw her arms around the grown young man who she considered her own. 

*** 

YEEET, PArt 1 done. Dear goodness... 

[yukipri]

How do you think the ASL brothers would change if it was Ace that was separated and Sabo stayed with Luffy on Dawn Island?

Hey there! I’m so sorry for taking my time with this ask! It’s a really great question and I wanted to take my time thinking about and typing out my answer...and well. It got LONG ^ ^;;;;;

Bc oh man do I think things would change a LOT, but in order to answer this question, let’s first sorta picture the scenario itself. How did Ace end up the one separated?

This could go a number of ways, but here’s one that comes to mind.

~~

The boys are running back from causing mischief in High Town, when Ace overhears some gossip.

Did you hear, the marines are coming! Apparently they found a terrible, terrible criminal, hiding right here in Goa, and they’re coming to get rid of him before the Celestial Dragons arrive!

A terrible criminal?

Oh dear, what terrible crime did they commit?

Well, nothing, apparently, or at least nothing yet.

What do you mean?

They say he’s the son of the most wanted, most terrible man in history. But don’t worry, the marines’ll take care of him before--

Ace feels like the world’s suddenly gone black and white. He feels numb, barely hearing Sabo shouting at him to hurry, barely registers Luffy tugging his hand and looking up at him with worry.

They’ve come for him. He should have known. Gramps may have tried to hide him, but there’s no escaping Gol D. Roger’s infamy.

Ace knows once he would have sneered, said See, Gramps? I knew this would happen. But now, he feels fear.

Ace doesn’t fear death, and will look it in the eye and punch it when it comes for him. But fear grips him now, as he stares blankly into the campfire Sabo’s set up, finally registering that Luffy’s calling his name and still tugging at his arm.

He doesn’t fear death for himself. But when they come for him, to end his life because of his blood, will they spare Sabo and Luffy? Will they spare the brothers of the Pirate King’s son?

Somehow, Ace doubts it.

And so he knows he’s got to go. He’s got to leave now, before they find him, before they find Sabo and Luffy, before they can steal away his family.

An adult Ace, looking back regretfully, would lament the timing of his brash actions. But Ace had never been a thinker, more of a doer, and he couldn’t bear the thought of losing his brothers--even now, he can’t.

And he couldn’t have known back then that the island had had two boys considered the sons of the worst criminals in history.

So he doesn’t blame his younger self for writing a sloppy letter, tucking it under Sabo’s head, and then fleeing into the night to steal a boat that he’d use to leave the island on come daybreak. Running away, leaving his brothers behind, making Sabo vow to continue looking after Luffy like he always had, until one day, the three of them could be reunited once more.

Young Ace doesn’t even know what a Celestial Dragon is. All he knows is that an enormous ship, the likes of which he’d never seen before, is approaching--

And then everything is FIRE, and then, blank.

Dragon and the Revolutionaries had been in the area, but not just to rescue people from the Gray Terminal fire. They had intel, and Dragon had reason to believe that the marines may have found Luffy, and his connection to Dragon. The commander of the Revolutionary Army kept his distance from his son, but he wasn’t going to let the child get slaughtered for his relation to a father he’d never even met.

He’d briefly run into Ace while he was stealing a boat. He hadn’t stopped the child, but had been curious about his raw desperation, his bitterness towards his blood, and his determination to protect his found family.

Dragon is surprised to find the boy in the wreckage of an utterly destroyed sailboat.

The boy is terribly burned, and has no memory of anything, not even his own name--but he is immediately terrified at the suggestion that they return him to the island, shouting that he doesn’t know why, but he can’t go back there, they’ll find Them and kill Them if I go back there, and it’ll all be my fault--!

He decides to let the boy stay. His name is Ace, they think, the name found among his belongings. With the Celestial Dragons come and gone, marine presence on the island also fades, and Dragon concludes that Luffy is safe for the time being. He sends a coded message to Garp to be careful, and then disappears back to Baltigo with his new charge.

After regaining his memories, adult Ace grudgingly admits that while he still wishes it’d never happened, there were some perks to memory loss.

For one, he’d completely forgotten that he was the son of the late Pirate King. He still had a weird fixation towards fathers, but after getting attached to Dragon, and Dragon accepting his protege’s need for a father figure, the desperation fades.

While not the best at studies, Ace is physical strong, and takes to Revolutionary Army training like he was born for it. He masters both Armament and Observation Haki by fourteen, and with his private training sessions with Dragon, is becoming terrifyingly proficient with Conqueror’s Haki as well.

Ace is still learning, but the power he exudes when unleashing Conqueror’s Haki makes Dragon curious (and some of their peers, nervous). He’s only ever heard of one person exhibiting the kind of power Ace seems to have the potential for.

There are also other perks to being a member of the Revolutionary Army. Dragon isn’t the most wanted criminal in history for no reason. The location of the Army headquarters in Baltigo is a tightly kept secret, one that the World Government has desperately been searching for ever since it was built, but to no avail.

Even as the Marines track the rumors of Gol D. Roger’s child, as long as Ace remains in Baltigo, it’s like he vanished into thin air. And should they have discovered Headquarters, the Pirate King’s son would have been the least of their concerns.

And so Ace grows strong, no longer shackled by self-hatred of his blood, but also haunted by nameless whispers that keep him up at night, a sense of foreboding and aching longing that he’s forgetting something vital about himself, something that he both needs to remember, and doesn’t dare to touch.

~~

On Dawn Island, on that fateful day, Sabo wakes up to find a letter written in a child’s familiar sloppy hand. He tries not to panic, knowing that Ace’s long gone, and tries to think rationally on how he should move next. Even with Ace’s clumsy words, Sabo understands what his brother had been trying to say.

They’d discovered Ace’s parentage. Ace felt that he would endanger Sabo and Luffy by staying with them. So Ace left the island early, by himself, entrusting Sabo with their younger brother.

Sabo doesn’t know how he can possibly tell Luffy that Ace left to protect them, and to convince him that they need to stay.

And then Sabo suddenly doesn’t need to, because suddenly there’s shouting below the tree house, and Luffy’s blearily sitting up.

Ace is dead.

~~

Sabo tries to maintain a level headed facade in front of Luffy (even if he cries, screams his lungs out for Ace in private). He needs to support their little brother, now more than ever. Ace is gone. Ace entrusted Sabo with Luffy.

Sabo will not lose Luffy.

~~

~~

What next?

There’s the chance that Sabo would act as Ace did, continuing training and then leaving the island at seventeen as promised.

But what if he didn’t? Seventeen is a number that Sabo chose, because noble-born children become fully fledged nobles at eighteen. But now there are other, more important things at stake now.

Given what happened to Ace, and the possibility of the marines returning, Garp tells Sabo about Luffy’s heritage (he hadn’t told Luffy yet, at Ace’s request, Ace not wanting Luffy to hate himself as Ace did. Garp doubted Luffy would react that way to Dragon, but he lets Ace have this, this attempt at protecting his little brother).

Knowing that Luffy’s the son of a man rapidly growing to be as infamous as the Pirate King kicks Sabo’s overprotective instincts into overdrive.

Sabo will not lose Luffy.

From here out, there’s three possible routes. The first two routes assume that Sabo’s parents never end up coming for him (they forgot about their son for five years, who says they wouldn’t for more).

1) Pirates Route:

Sabo swallows his pride, and agrees to join Luffy’s crew, much to the younger’s delight. The thought of being captain of his own crew now seems pale in comparison to keeping Luffy safe and also keeping his last promise to his lost brother. And so Sabo vows to stay at Luffy’s side as his guardian. They leave the island to become pirates together.

2) Marines Route:

Sabo demands that Garp take him and Luffy to be trained as marines. Sabo feels nothing for disdain for both the marines and World Government, and has every intention of taking Luffy and ditching as soon as they’re safe. But right now they can provide several things that he wants and needs:

1) He feels it’s too dangerous to remain on Dawn Island with potential government eyes on them, and Garp is a relatively secure way of ensuring they can leave. They know too little about the outside world now, and carelessly leaving on a boat and getting blasted like Ace is the last thing they need.

2) He wants training for both himself and Luffy, not just combat, but on how to survive at sea. The marines, at least, should be able to provide plenty of that experience.

3) Sabo doesn’t want to be caught unawares ever again. Ace fled because he’d overheard a rumor. If Sabo had known, perhaps the outcome would have been different. Sabo’s always been the thinker, the planner among the brothers, and he wants information, especially if there’s a chance that the government will make a move on Luffy. Sabo’s goal is to work his way up the ranks until he not only has access, but is in charge of investigations hunting the Revolutionary Army, and more importantly to him, the existence and location of the Commander’s rumored child. As Chief of marine intel, Sabo will be able to control what information goes to the higher ups, and which information needs to be quietly eliminated.

(and if his investigations into the Revolutionary Army leads him to become curious about the powerful fire logia user who is their Chief of Staff...)

3) Royalty Route:

Sabo’s parents find him, shortly after Ace’s “death,” and demand he returns to High Town and his noble heritage. With Ace gone, abandoning Luffy to a life by himself isn’t an option, but neither is letting his little brother be killed. So Sabo decides that he’s got to do what he must. Protect Luffy at all costs.

He strikes a deal with his parents. He’ll return to them, and he’ll be their perfect little noble son, but ONLY with the condition that Luffy comes with them. His parents are unhappy with the deal, but grudgingly agree, warning that if Sabo doesn’t truly impress them, they have no problem with, ah, eliminating both Sabo and his tag along because they have Stelly as a perfectly viable replacement.

Sabo can excel when he puts his mind to it, and although inside he froths with rage and hatred, he will do anything to keep Luffy safe.

Luffy is his one and only saving grace who keeps him sane. Luffy, who is now trapped in this birdcage alongside Sabo, and it’s all Sabo’s fault. He’s called Sabo’s “servant,” despite being incapable of doing chores, and is ignored by the entire household other than Sabo.

And while Luffy’s clearly uncomfortable, he doesn’t complain. He senses Sabo’s pain, and his suffering, and takes it upon himself to soothe his older brother, to keep him company, to love him. Luffy will never leave here, if it means leaving Sabo. Because nothing is more terrible than being alone and Luffy knows that best. 

So Sabo keeps moving forward, vowing to Ace every night that he’s going to protect Luffy, no matter what. If this is the hand that he’s been dealt, Sabo will just have to make do. Sabo wonders how far up the hierarchy he’ll have to climb in order to guarantee Luffy’s safety.

(or, Sabo eventually becomes King of Goa, and Luffy is his “servant.”)

~~

~~

Are just some possibilities I came up with! To anyone who made it to the bottom of this post, thanks for reading!

Do any of the three scenarios I came up with sound interesting? Which is your favorite/do you think is most likely? Should I write a follow up??

EDIT: >> Follow Up

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