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Explanations

Ace and Sabo stared down at Luffy as he slept surprisingly peacefully between them, neither willing to let go of his hands or risk shutting their eyes and seeing the images that were waiting for them in sleep.

God but they were so scared. No one would deserve that, especially not someone as naive and happy as Luffy. To hear that they were going to sell him, that it was likely that they were going to do exactly what it had looked like if they hadn't arrived, had both their stomachs rolling and hearts beating in such a way that made sleep impossible.

'What's going on, Ace?' Sabo muttered as he looked at his brothers bandaged face. 'This didn't happen last time. I mean, Luffy got kidnapped, but that was because we stole their money, and they didn't say anything about selling him off that time. He's also more beat up now, even though we got there quicker.'

Ace was silent for a moment, before talking very quietly so as not to wake their sleeping brother. 'Maybe they hadn't, but we don't know that they wouldn't have.'

Sabo looked at him, Ace shrugged before trying again. 'Blue Jam was, is, obsessed with money. During the fire,' Sabo flinched, 'he demanded that me and Luffy show him where our treasure was, even though he knew it would mean he couldn't escape. It wouldn't be to out of line for him to order something like this. Porshemy I'm fairly sure died after he lost to us, so neither of us really know him that well.

'What I'm saying is, just because we're the only ones changing things doesn't mean that what we change doesn't effect something else. This time round we were stronger, and had a larger reputation quicker. Even before Luffy arrived the people in Grey Terminal knew us all by name, once we had Luffy we were even worst. Is it so surprising that Blue Jam would kill a couple of kids because people are talking about how much they had managed to steel in the last three months and that one of them is an actual devil fruit user?'

Understanding flickered in Sabo's eyes, and he continued Ace's train of thought. 'Last time Porshemy was just trying to get back what we took, this time any old money would do. Also, then he had the dead line of returning the money to Blue Jam on time and he knew Luffy knew where it was, but he didn't know how we were connected, now the whole terminal knows about us three. Fuck!' he swore a little loudly. Ace placed a finger to his lips and looked down as Luffy stirred in his sleep, letting out a breath when he settled back down.

Sabo glared but went back to whispering. 'Does this mean that by refusing to do everything the same we change things a lot bigger than us, even though what we do might not seem that big in the long run? That by simply treating Luffy like a brother earlier we may have lost our advantage and made things worse?'

Ace just shrugged helplessly. He had pointed out what he had noticed, now it was Sabo's turn to think things through. After all, he had always been the kind, smart, sane(ish) brother, if one of them was going to finally understand things it would most likely be him.

Sabo's glare turned into a frown as his brain worked over time to try and get things to make sense. Eventually he started to think out loud so that Ace could chime in if he wanted to.

'We still don't actually know how all this is possible. You woke up after dying in your new born body as if you had just had a really weird nap. I remembered the exact same way I remembered the last time I got back a whole lot of forgotten memories after about ten years of not having them. We don't know what caused it, when it caused it, or even what it did in the first place. We don't know the rules, or even if we're the only ones.' Ace went pale at that implication. If they didn't know what had made them start over they didn't know who else might be in a similar situation. They had worried about Luffy remembering, but he didn't even want to think about if someone like Teach had remembered, or Akainu.

Sabo saw the look on his face, and continued grimly. 'We can only hope that we're either the only ones, or the others were all friends, either way it's not something we can worry about now.' Ace nodded, Sabo kept trying to figure it out.

'Both times Luffy was kidnapped it was around the three-month mark from when he first arrived. On one hand it could mean nothing, but it could also be a sign that even with us changing things, some stuff is just going to stay the same, or at least similar, to how it was the first time.'

Ace frowned, thinking about what Sabo had said. 'So, because we don't know the rules, we don't know if what we change will make this whole thing unrecognisable from what we lived before, or if somethings won't change no matter how much we try and stop them.' Ace concluded.

'There is also the possibility that, like with Porshemy, some events will still happen but slightly differently, and it's up to us to try and figure out how to change it to something better rather than something worse,' Sabo added. 'We also don't know which events fall into which category, some we might be able to avoid all together while others may happen exactly the same no matter what we do.'

Ace looked rather disgruntle all of a sudden. 'I have to change my plans, don't I? Things like Thatch's life are a little too important to trust on one, long distance, move and hope that everything changes the way I want it to.'

'Yeah, we might have to rethink some of those and keep a closer eye on them than we were originally intended. We might also have to bring Luffy in on it if we really were planning to follow him as our captain.'

'Fuck,' Ace hissed, copying Sabo from earlier but making sure it wouldn't disturb Luffy.

Speaking of their little brother …

'He's stronger, way stronger than he was at this age before. He couldn't aim to save his life, and as far as I knew he hadn't come up with that move until around the time I left to start the Spades.'

'So, does this mean he remembers and just isn't saying anything, or that he doesn't remember but us being here is affecting him more than just not having to spend three months of his life trying to survive while you try to kill him?' Sabo asked. Ace gave him a look at the comment on his less than clean record with attacking future family members, but responded as if Sabo hadn't been making a point.

'You really think we'll ever be able to answer that question?'

'No.'

The hours, or it could have been minuets, passed quietly as both boys just lay back and carefully watched their younger brother sleep in the flickering fire light. They needed the visual confirmation of watching him breathing after the fright they had had earlier that day.

'We need to get stronger, all three of us. Just because were stronger than before doesn't mean it's enough.'

The silence was agreement enough, and both lay down with eyes wide, taking in every sift of their little brother in fear and worry, until exhaustion finally pulled them under with the new light of dawn.

ASLASLASLASLASLASLALSALSALSALSASL

The next few months saw very little sleep for the older two of the trio. During the day they trained, hunted, and worked to finally compete their tree house so as to gain more freedom from Dadan and the bandits. During the night they would plot and plan as they began to try and piece together the circumstances of whatever the hell was going on with being able to remember what was going to happen as well as the past. Needless to say, the last one failed miserably.

The following months the brothers also made it a habit to actually keep track of what the date was and the events mentioned in the news, since those had proved the best so far at allowing them to figure out exactly what to expect and how long they had to try and prevent Sabo's kidnapping and the fire that the nobles had planned.

They also, at some stage, needed to figure out what the hell they were going to tell Luffy. Both brothers had secrets that were less secrets, and more just things they didn't know how to tell him without the original prompt and not have it come out just sounding completely random. They also didn't know how to break it to Luffy that they knew what his dream was and were rather hoping he would allow them to join his crew.

Yeah, that was going to be a tough bullet to swallow, Sabo thought. As easy as it was to say they were going to follow Luffy, it was another thing entirely to tell your little brother that you recognised him as Captain. It was one of those things they agreed could wait till later.

… did Luffy even know what the treasure was for? Ace honestly didn't know; he thought they must have said it at some point, surely.

In the end they told Luffy the same way they had last time, after Sabo's father had caught sight of him in the middle of a dine and dash.

Sabo looked very uncomfortable as Luffy tried to demand an explanation, and downright betrayed when instead of backing him up, Ace took Luffy's side. Eventually he cracked and told Luffy everything.

'I'm the son of a noble … the truth is, both of my real parents are still out there … I'm not a real orphan … and I wasn't born on the trash heap either. The man who was trying to stop me just now was my father. I'm sorry I had to lie to you.'

'Well, if you're sorry then it's fine! I forgive you.' Luffy, he really was too good to survive in this world without someone to protect him.

Sabo decided to explain anyway, even if he was already forgiven. Ace knew so it was only right that Luffy did to. 'All they ever cared about was having an heir to protect the family status and fortune. They never cared about me! If I couldn't marry into the royal family, then I was worthless. They made me work day in, day out, to improve my chances. My parents were always fighting because I wasn't good enough for them. There never was any place for me in that house. This may be kind of rude to you guys, but … I was "alone" even though I had parents.

'The nobles always scorned and despaired the trash heap … but compared to that horrible elite district, where I didn't even have room to breathe … where my whole damn life was planned out for me … I'd take the trash heap any day.

'Ace … Luffy! We have to make it out to sea someday! We'll leave this country behind … and gain our freedom! I want to see the world in all its glory and write a book about what I find. If it's sailing I'm studying for then I don't care how hard I have to work! We've got to get stronger, and become real pirates!'

'Eh? Pirates? That's the same as me!' Luffy seemed so happy at the idea of them all being pirates together, Ace and Sabo on the other hand were wondering how they could have gone so long without telling their little brother that that was what they wanted to be, and feeling slightly guilty at the same time as they questioned Luffy's intelligence.

Ace just laughed, 'You don't have to tell me Sabo. I'm going to be a pirate that can defeat everyone who stands in my way … someone who can protect what's important to me. I don't care if the whole world refuses to except me, I don't care if they end up terrified of me. So long as I can keep my treasure with me it doesn't matter!' Luffy laughed, not understanding that the treasure Ace was talking about was him.

'Then I'm gonna be the Pirate King!' He declared.

Ace and Sabo could have told him it wouldn't happen, could have looked at him in shock like they had last time, could have ridiculed him. Instead they just smiled, because at least one of them had seen him complete that dream in another life time.

'Of all the things you could have come out with …' Ace said with a fond smile.

'We'll have to keep an eye on you, that's for sure.' Sabo could barely control his laughter.

And just like last time, Sabo realised that he would have to point out the original problem with their goals, no matter how potentially embarrassing the rest of that conversation may prove to be.

'Isn't it going to be a problem if all three of us want to be the captain?'

Ace just shrugged, 'Could be an issue, I always thought you would be the navigator, Sabo. I'm not sure I need to be captain, but I wouldn't mind it.'

'What? You guys should join my ship!' Ace and Sabo looked at each other and laughed at Luffy's statement. Accepting an invitation was slightly less embarrassing than trying to figure out how to ask.

'We'll think about it,' Ace eventually got out. 'It might be hard to follow the orders of my weak younger brother, then again someone has to keep you out of trouble.'

Luffy stuck out his tongue, 'Meanie Ace.' Sabo wondered that their brother couldn't hear the words for what they were, a promise to never leave him alone.

'Well, it doesn't matter in the end. We're all three brothers, we drank to it, and that's a bond that will never die.' Luffy and Ace cheered at Sabo's words, and with that they were running back to the tree house.

And so, life continued and seasons changed. The three of them trained to get stronger, and Ace and Sabo began to put in place their plan for trying to save the people of Grey Terminal and deal with the fire. Both kept careful tabs of the day and if Luffy was confused as to why they suddenly started avoiding the trash heap and town then he didn't ask. If Luffy was upset when Ace eventually told him who his father was one night when neither could sleep then it didn't show. If all three of them suddenly got very clingy as the day of the Celestial Dragon's arrival got closer than no one mentioned it.

And a week before the fire was supposedly going to be lit, Ace and Sabo were ready.