You never said I'm leaving

You never said goodbye

You were gone before I knew it

And only God knew why

A million times I needed you

A million times I cried

If love alone could have saved you

You never would have died

In life I loved you dearly

In death I love you still

In my heart you hold a place

That no one could ever fill

It broke my heart to lose you

But you didn't go alone

For part of me went with you

The day God took you home

-Amy Shiba

Sabo ran his fastest to Grey Terminal, and along the way, he stopped and asked if they knew about the plan to burn off what made up half of the kingdom. What made them, them.

"Yes, I know about it. What of it? Whose son are you?" A nobleman said as he sipped on his cappuccino, with extra froth, with a hint of cinnamon and a tall spoon of sugar, with a side of a cookie, baked with high-class vanilla and the most extravagant flour, and of the only egg from the rarest chicken.

Sabo was shell-shocked. Who would just ignore such a plan, which involved killing half, or even more, of the population!?

"Yes, I know about the fire. But we're not meant to talk about it. Don't want anyone outside the highland getting a word of it... We're special. If you're a son of an aristocrat, then you should..." Sabo ran before listening to what the old man had to say. It was worth nothing anyway.

Meanwhile, Natsuki was talking to *cough*torturing*cough* Blue Jam to get some information out of the man, wondering why a pirate willingly worked under someone, much less listen to a noble's order.

"You're going to burn trash mountain!? Why would you do that!?" Ace yelled at him.

"It wasn't my idea. The oil and explosives we planted yesterday are going to be used to make a fire that will exterminate all the people here." He explained with difficulty; well anyone would have trouble speaking. Especially when your whole body has bruises patched on every part of your skin, not a single part, a normal, tan colour.

"I gotta tell everybody at trash mountain! He is a bad guy after all!" Luffy exclaimed.

"I guess you're just children after all, getting upset like this."

"If being a child means to have empathy to people around them, I'd rather stay a child forever than to lose such emotions to become an adult." Natsuki growled lowly at the man. He shivered slightly.

"Where are the explosives?"

"Won't tell you."

"Oh really? Would you like to enjoy the excruciating pain of losing a limb then?" She smiled, taking out her Kusanagi, flashing it for show in front of the man.

The pirate gulped, but sealed his lips shut, and he didn't open them for another hour, when the fires were beginning to spread, with the price of both arms, and one leg.

Sabo, meanwhile, watched as the flames burnt the skies, lighting it up with blood red light, accepting the shrill screams and deafening yells from the citizens being burnt alive. A tear slid past his face, onto the ground, hissing as it touched the scalding hot ground.

He watched as the giant gates closed shut, dividing the flaming terminal and the highland apart.

"ACE!!! LUFFY!!! NATSUKI!!!" Sabo screamed out. This couldn't be happening.

No.

This just couldn't be real.

A dream.

A really, awful dream.

He couldn't lose them...

The soldiers captured him, and Sabo didn't even try to defend himself, deaf, dumb and blind as the soldiers kicked him around, eventually leaving him on his own.

A cloaked man approached the bleeding boy, asking what was wrong.

"The ones responsible for this fire... are the royal family and the aristocrats! It's true... please believe me..." Sabo answered in a raspy voice which had been filled with smoke. "This town stinks worse than trash mountain!! It's filled with the stench of rotten people! If I stay here... I'll never be free!" Dragon stared at the poor child who began to sob.

"!!!" Sabo fell to the ground, all his power lost. Dragon couldn't believe they had the capability to do such a thing to one of their own. He picked the boy up, when he felt a presence jump over the walls, and over to the safe side.

She carried two boys in her arms, both unconscious, and several more people on her back, carrying the total of six people by herself. She then left them there, before jumping over the wall to save some more. She came back with eight, and she kept going back into the fire, then back, into the fire, then back.

Dragon watched the girl in awe. She gazed at the people with sadness, her teeth clenched, not a single tear stain left on her cheek.

Gradually, the number of people she carried died down, until she came back with no one after some time of searching.

She walked over to the first two boys she carried over, and as she lifted them up, Drago gulped, recognising his own son. He then saw Ace, his best friend's captain's son. He recognised the girl, but couldn't place his finger on it, until she took off the hood which protected her from the flames, letting her red hair tumble down.

Shanks' daughter.

She ran around the place, using some sort of glowing green energy to heal the people, when after a while, she lay down on her back on the ground, limp.

Dragon panicked, wondering if she had gone unconscious, though it wasn't surprising. To carry over forty people, jumping over a twenty-meter-tall wall, land safely, and heal them, was the work which even a few marine admirals wouldn't, or couldn't do. She got up another minute later and went over to the two boys. Hugging them tightly when they woke up. She turned around, observing her surroundings, when she suddenly whirled to Dragon's direction. Could she use observational haki?

Dragon erased his presence and hid in the shadows, though it turned out the girl wasn't after him.

"SABO!!" She yelled, using the green energy she had used earlier to heal him as well. The bleeding stopped and the bruises faded, and the unconscious boy woke up.

"Natsu? Is this heaven? Have I died?" He asked dreamily. Though he jumped when Natsuki slapped his cheek, then immediately hug him.

"Don't make me worry like that you idiot! LUFFY!!! ACE!!! GUESS WHO I FOUND!?" She yelled at her two other brothers to come, who at first were groggy and limp, but after noticing who it was, ran at Sabo as well.

"SABO!" The two shouted together. Leaving the four for a pleasant reunion, Dragon slipped out of the shadows silently, and disappeared with his fellow revolutionaries.

The four of them smiled. Even if their town was burnt to the ground, they were together, and that was all that mattered for them, now.

A week later, early in the morning, Sabo got changed, folded his mattress and blanket, placing a small letter for each sibling on top, and took his belongings.

He gently climbed down the tree and slipped away from the treehouse.

He stole a fishing boat at the port, and rode it, taking the paddles and rowing away from his home. He saw a giant ship next to his own small one, and moved away, though what he didn't know was that the ship belonged to a Celestial Dragon.

"What's that?"

"It looks like a fishing boat, sir" Came the captain's curt reply.

A man with the ability to miss, even when shooting a target larger than an elephant at point blank distance, shot a small ship more than a hundred metres away, hitting the main mast perfectly. A rare spectacle which happened only once in a billion tries.

The man, with the title of Celestial Dragon jumped around, tripping on his own feet, as a near twenty men went to help him up, all cheering him for making the shot.

Natsuki on the other hand, woke up with a sudden jerk. Her body moving as if having its own will, using a jutsu.

The hiraishin.

She reappeared on top of her brother's body. Aboard a ship, in the middle of the sea, next to a ship a hundred times its size. Looking at the mark on its mast, the symbol of the world government, Natsuki frowned.

She looked at her brother.

A tear rolled down her cheek,

then another,

another.

Until her face was a complete mess of tears.

She hugged his body closely.

She wished for a pulse.

But no matter how long she waited, nothing was felt under her touch.

She yelled in frustration. Because of her inability to gain strength, because of her weakness, because of her lack of power, she lost something once more. This time much more important than her father's arm.

She lost her brother's life.

Howling in pain, she sent a massive wave of haki at the World Noble's ship, letting no one slip past it. She smirked with venom and watched the ship swerve direction.

There wasn't a single person who was able to control the ship anymore.

Natsuki hugged her brother once more and let him lie on deck of the burning ship. He would have died on the sea. A place he loved the most.

She ignored the burns she was getting from the fire, kissed her brother's forehead, and reappeared on top of the cliff where they swore to be siblings. Ace and Luffy were already there, letters written by Sabo, in their hands, and the burning ship in their sight.

Looking at the horizon, tears blurring their sight, they watched as the burning ship slowly sank to the bottom of the sea, taking a pirate with it. Taking a young man with dreams for the future with it.

But most importantly, that day. The ocean stole their brother, to be kept, forever.