Summary: When Luffy wakes up on the Going Merry he's shocked. When the crew suddenly looks younger hes confused. When he sees Ace hes devastated. The crew find themselves appearing on the Merry in Alabasta, but how could this be? They were almost at Raftel, not Alabasta! And why was Ace suddenly... alive! How will they handle this, and more importantly, how will they get back to their time?
Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12081521/1/Future-Meet-the-Past
Word count:68k
Chapters:21
Chapter:1
Warning:If you havent seen up to the end of the Dressrosa Arc there will be spoilers!
"Oi, Luffy, what did I tell you about stealing food?! Im making dinner so be patient!" Sanji's shout could be heard across the whole Sunny as he, literally, kicked the rubber Captain out of the galley.
"Stingy, I just wanted a snack..." Luffy whined, pouting. Nami lowered her sunglasses from the deck chair she sat on, not too far from where he had landed, and frowned.
"If we let you have snacks whenever you wanted we wouldn't have any food for tomorrow." She said sternly. Luffy, choosing to ignore the navigator, walked over to Zoro, causing Nami to sigh. The first mate and swordsman of the Straw Hat Pirates was once again napping peacefully against the Sunny's railing, but peaked his eye open when he heard Luffy slouch beside him, peering over to his rambunctious Captain.
"They're right you know." He added, causing Luffy's pout to deepen.
"Yeah... But it doesn't mean I have to like it!" Luffy cried. Zoro's lips twitched into a small smile at his Captains childishness.
"The witch said we were close to an island not too long ago, if there's a forest we could go hunting and you can eat all you want." Zoro replied. Luffy's pout disappeared instantly and changed into a grin.
"Really?! Promise?!" He asked, practically bouncing on the grassy decking. Zoro's small smile widened slightly and he nodded.
"Promise." He said, causing Luffy to whoop in joy. The hyperactive boy settled back down beside the green haired swordsman and they sat in companionable silence for a while. When the silence was broken it was Luffy who did it.
"You know, Ace, Sabo and I used to hunt all the time back home." His voice was solemn and it caused Zoro to peak his eye open again in interest. The topic was one that he hadn't been expecting and he wanted to show that he was listening fully.
"Oh?" He asked simply, causing Luffy to nod, a small smile on his face and a distant look in his eye.
"Yeah... The animals on my home island were huuuge! There was this one, we called it the tiger lord, because it was giant! Bigger then the dinosaurs on Little Garden!" Luffy said, the excitement from the memories building up until his voice was loud and boisterous once more. Zoro smiled again.
"Those dinosaurs were pretty big." He replied, humoring his Captain. It wasn't often that he brought up his past, especially when it involved Ace.
The thought almost made him frown.
"Right? When we were little, Ace Sabo and I could take down almost any animal in those woods, but not the Tiger Lord! We promised that whoever beat the Tiger Lord could be the Captain of our crew, but in the end we beat it together, so we all became separate Captains... Well, Ace and I did." Luffy said, his voice drifting off again, though he still had a soft smile on his face. The silence drifted back over them soon after and Zoro had closed his eye once more.
"Hey Captain?" He asked, causing Luffy to turn to him, expectant.
"Hm?" Luffy asked.
"Could you beat the Tiger Lord now?" Zoro asked. Luffys face split into a grin and he nodded.
"Mm! Of course I could, Im a lot stronger then I used to be!" Luffy said happily. Zoro smiled back.
"I would expect nothing less from the soon to be Pirate King."
"Mellorines, dinner has been served! Oi, shit heads, dinners ready." Sanji called to the crew. Luffy jumped up in excitement from where he had been napping beside Zoro. The crew was thankful for the peace and hadn't bothered him, but dinner was one thing that would wake him up every time, whether they told him about it or not.
"Fooood~!" Luffy cried, charging to the galley, the rest of the crew following as Sanji stopped Luffy at the door so Nami and RObin could enter first.
Dinner passed as normal, food was eaten, conversations were had, Luffy stole off of plates, and Sanji stopped him from taking off of the ladies plates. Normal.
And things stayed normal until the next day.
Luffy had been sleeping peacefully, his dream starting with the familiar darkness as his brain thought up a dream for him to visualize and, hopefully, enjoy.
"I came here because I caught word that Blackbeard was seen in Yuba."
The words floated around Luffy, like a cloud, muffled and foggy, but still there nonetheless. The voice was unmistakable and Luffy felt his heart constrict. This wasn't going to be a nice dream was it? They never were when... Ace... Was involved. They always became nightmares.
"Then your destination is the same as ours!"
This voice was also familiar, Nami's, and Luffy could only feel confusion. Normally when he had nightmares about Ace they were always about the war, and only Marines, Akainu, and sometimes Whitebeard Pirates would be in them, not his crew.
"We've just entered the Sandora River. First, we'll land at Emeralu, then head into the interior of Alabasta, to reach Yuba here!"
This voice, again, was familiar. Vivi's. This wasn't just a dream anymore, it was a memory. He'd had dreams like this and they were always the worst, because they had happened once, but now they would never happen again.
"The leader of the rebel army is in Yuba."
The words were becoming clearer and what had once been complete blackness was starting to clear up. Luffy squinted, a bright white light blinding him. He almost didn't want his brain to create a picture for him, it would only make him miss Ace more. To be able to see Ace, feel him as if he was there with you, and then wake up only to find him gone, was heartbreaking each and every time.
"I see, so your headed to Yuba next."
Ace replied to Vivi's statement before and Luffy closed his eyes, not from the brightness, but to relish in Ace's voice once more. It had been so long since he last heard Ace speak, and even then it had been hard to hear seeing as a war had been raging around them at the time. Luffy was always afraid when he would be sitting somewhere on the Sunny and realized he couldn't quite remember what Ace's voice sounded like.
"I'll follow Nami-San and Vivi-Chan wherever they go!"
"Get lost Love-Cook."
"Say what you-?!"
"A-Anyways! It looks like we can travel together for a short while!"
The interaction between his crew caused Luffy to smile. It was a familiar thing to hear Zoro and Sanji fighting, only to be stopped by Nami. It was almost comforting.
"Yeah, Yeah! His brother is more then welcome here!"
"Lets have a fun time Ace!"
The last sentence almost caused Luffy to choke up as he recognized his own voice, one that didn't know the pain of losing his last big brother, the pain of feeling all alone again. The white light began fading and suddenly he felt like he was falling, not that this concerned him seeing as he was rubber and he couldn't be hurt from the impact, unless there was something sharp below him. The light was completely gone now and he could see the clear blue sky above him, feel the wind rush past him as he fell, hear the gulls as they flew by. He spun around, hoping to deter himself from any objects that could hurt him, or move away from water if that was where he happened to be falling towards.
This wasn't the case though. As he flipped in the air, falling down like he had when he entered the war to save Ace, he saw a ships deck coming in his view. It was familiar, especially when he saw the bright green of plants on the upper deck, saw the sheep head, saw the symbol on the flags.
This was the Going Merry.
Luffy decided this dream, this memory, was not one he wanted to revisit. He just wanted to wake up now. This would all turn into a nightmare. Maybe he would watch Merry get burned again, maybe Akainu would show up and attack, causing everyone to die, maybe they would crash in the middle of the ocean somewhere with no chance of survival.
Either way he didn't want to see the inevitable end, he just wanted to wake up and forget he ever had this dream. He wanted to hear Brook playing his violin, smell Sanji cooking breakfast, play tag with Usopp and Chopper, see Zoro training with impossibly heavy weights, listen to Nami yell at them for being too loud, see Robin reading on a deck chair, laughing behind her hand, and laugh along with Franky when he changed his hair styles or created a new invention. He wanted to be awake, with his nakama, in normalcy.
But that wasn't going to happen as the deck got closer and closer, people becoming visible on board, people he knew very well, and before he knew it, he was crashing into the deck.