Red as he had been called by Sabo, stood at the stern of the small fishing boat they had stolen. This felt so natural, the sea breeze ruffling his hair, the small little splattering's of sea water thrown into his face was so nice. Even though the island was fine, this felt so much more natural to the young boy.

Sabo had told Red that he thought that could be a pirate, somehow when he had mentioned it, something inside himself had agreed. He thought so too. However, he had no idea who his crew was or how he had even wound up in that little shack to begin with. His first memory being Sabo's concerned face.

He looked down into the palm of his hand when his Vivre card sat, it was jumping around towards the east, the R written on it almost looked familiar. It would of been nice if the persons name had been on it instead, it may have helped him to remember something else. But he did know one thing, he wanted to find who ever this R person was, not just because of his broken memory either. He definitely missed who ever they were.

"Red, is it still moving east?"

"Yeah! I think it's moving slower now."

Sabo had jumped down from their small mast from letting the canvas loose, the wind gathering behind the sail, pushing them onwards. The small boat rocked as he landed, the red-head watched him carefully, making sure he didn't fall. Sabo had explained to Red that he had a devil fruit, so if he fell in the water he would sink, though once again this didn't feel like news to the boy. Maybe he knew someone who had eaten one?

They had been sailing for at least a few days at this point, the two had fallen into a somewhat normal routine, while the boat was small it did need to be manned by more than one person. Red surprisingly understood all the ship jargon Sabo came out with, as well as having a good understanding of how to sail. Overall Red felt very at home, much more so then he ever did on the island.

They would take turns steering, while the other would be look out. They would rotate every other hour or so. Red was just so thankful that he had met Sabo, he wasn't just a competent sailor, but also a really genuinely nice guy. Not to mention the luck he had meeting someone else that had amnesia, if it wasn't for Sabo's reassurance the boy doubted, he would be doing nearly as well as he was.

"If it's slowed then we must be getting closer."

Red beamed excitedly, looking back over the ocean. "Really! So, we'll find them soon then!"

Sabo chuckled coming over to ruffle his hair, Red just let him, he was just relieved. This whole thing would be over, he'd get his memories back and he would find this R person and everything would go back to normal.

Then he came to the sudden realisation that once he found his crew, he would have to say goodbye to Sabo. His heart sank, his grin slowly dropping. "Red? What's up? Aren't you happy?"

"Yeah of course... but you're gonna leave."

Sabo sighed, giving the boy a soft smile, gently resting his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we'll always be friends, I'm not going to forget you, are you gonna forget me?"

"No! Of course not!"

"Then what's the problem? We can always meet again; this isn't goodbye forever. But your crew are probably really worried about you, they'll be over the moon to see you again."

Red nodded quietly; he did understand. That didn't stop the kid from worrying about Sabo. "Maybe I can help you fight Blackbeard; I could help you find your brother too..."

Sabo groaned, crossing his arms. A look of sternness had come over the blondes face, in a firm voice said "Red, we've been over this. Blackbeard is dangerous, no offence kid but I can't protect you and fight him"

"Don't worry you don't need to protect me! I can protect myself! Let me help Sabo, I don't want you to fight Blackbeard on your own... I can help!" Red implored, he tried to make himself as menacing as possible, all he ended up looking like was an angry red-haired poodle, not quite the look he was going for.

Sabo did appreciate the gesture; however, he could not let a young kid fight somebody as dangerous as that man. The guy had already beaten the kid up enough, he did not want that happening to Red again.

"Sorry Red. That's not happening." Sabo went straight into big brother mode; he was putting his foot down. There was no it's or but's.

Red pouted, his beaten-up face scrunching up in a way that looked painful. He opened his mouth, yet Sabo cut him off before he could say anything "Red, no! That's the end of it!"

Red slumped down, suddenly very interested in watching the sea speeding past. His eyes were pulled down in a sour frown, making it very clear he was angry with Sabo. Once again, the gentleman sighed, he hated being the grown up, that was normally were Koala stepped in. He really hoped his friends were safe.

Sucking in a wary breath, he opted to leave Red alone, he wouldn't be mad for long. They had been over this subject a couple times over last few days, the boy would sulk for a little while, then give him an hour and he would back to being his normal chipper self.

The time ticked by little by little, Red was sat on top of the mast watching the waves splash by. He was still kinda annoyed, why couldn't Sabo let him help? He just really wanted to pay him back for all the help he had given him over the last week, also Blackbeard was a jerk, he really hated him!

The boy gaze fixed on something in the distance, what was that? A blob? It didn't look like a ship, though he was pretty sure it had sails... they were black. Maybe they were pirates? It was too far away for Red to make out, not to mention his eyes were still bruised up, so that didn't help the matter.

"Hey Sabo I can see something" The kid pointed in the direction of the thing; it was definitely getting closer. Well, whatever the thing was, it was moving at a fast rate, soon it would be on top of them.

The blonde jumped up next to him, perching quite comfortably on the thin piece of wood holding the sheet together. He rummaged around in his jacket, producing a spyglass a moment later. Peering through it to where the boy had pointed, he immediately went ridged and a sharp look in his eyes appeared.

"Shit..."

"What's the matter?" Red asked steadily, he tried to keep the fear out of his voice. He was not going act like a little kid; he was strong and brave! He was a man! Though the small drip of sweat running down the red-head's face told the Sabo otherwise.

"It's one of Blackbeard's goons... thankfully its not his main flag ship, fingers crossed he's not there."

"Isn't that still really bad?"

Sabo swallowed hard, giving the kid a reassuring smile, the last thing he needed was to scare the boy. Sure, Red acted tough, in fact most of the time he didn't seem to care about most dangerous situations. But this one clearly did bother him, at the end of the day, he was just a child, there was no beating around bush.

"Don't worry, I'll cut off their path with some fire..." With that Sabo leapt down, the boat shook heavily as he landed. Red followed after him, coming to stand close to his hip.

The revolutionary got into position, readying his fist, focusing heavily at the task at hand. The Blackbeard pirates were in full view now, he could see the Jolly Roger and even the crew themselves. Quickly Sabo leapt up and into the air, giving himself some extra power behind his attack, making sure that it was aimed away from their little vessel, he could feel the heat building in his hand, just as he was going to strike out with a 'fire fist', the flames suddenly flickered, dying before the even produced anything significant.

He dropped, slamming into their boat hard, as he was hit with a wave of sickening pain, his heart was sharp and twisting, he couldn't breath, his chest was burning, but not in the normal way his devil fruit felt.

He was writhing in agony; he could make out Red's panicked cries. Those soon disappeared into a dark pitch-black fuzzy hum in his head. Whatever Sabo tried his body wouldn't respond, then something weird happened, Ace popped into his head, he was older, not the way he remembered him at all. He was leant over him laughing "Sabo are you okay? Grandpop really did a number on you, huh?" The blonde's eye flew up to a huge figure standing over him, he looked vaguely familiar, his long blonde hair was tied up in a plate, steaks of white were mixed in, though the man's face was blotted out by the sun. He could hear Luffy's cheerful laughter. Then the vision was lost, as Red's tear ridden face was sudden in view.

"SABO! SABO! SABO, PLEASE WAKE UP!"

The revolutionary sat up holding his head in his hands, what was that?

"Sabo! Sabo come on get up! The Blackbeard pirates are almost here! There's another ship coming in the other direction. Please! We gotta do something!"

What? Blackbeard pirates... other ship?

Sabo staggered to his feet, Red's words suddenly kicked in, the fog in his head finally dissipating. They were in danger!

"SHIT!"

Sabo once again tried to set his fist a light, the flames were dull, nothing more then a splutter of smoke really. What was going on!?

He turned his eyes towards the enemy, the kid was right, they were almost in cannon fire range. Sabo shook his head, trying to get out the cotton wool clogging up his brain. Change of plan, if fire wasn't going to work then then the old-fashioned way would, first he needed to!- His thoughts were disrupted by something smacking straight into their boat, causing a loud crashing sound, splinters of wood flew into the air, it was followed by "WAHAHAHA!" Sabo span on his heel, pipe in his hand, ready to fight off whoever the person was...

The man was tall, with shaggy black hair, a long red coat and a moustache... Sabo choked on his breath, his eyes grew wide, it felt like someone had punched him in the gut.

"SHANKS WE FOUND YA!" Said the ghost, a shadow, a phantom, a man that had been dead for 30 years... he was grinning, it looked so much like his.

Gold Roger, the Pirate King said "These guys are the ones who took you, right? I'm going to kick their asses! This won't take long"

"Who are you?" Came Red's clueless voice.