Work Text:
Garp could only hold Sabo's broken body and curse himself and his foolishness. The passage of time suddenly felt meaningless now that he realised what little he actually accomplished. He'd tried to reform the marines from within and failed, utterly. He'd saved innocents, but sacrificed his family instead. Managed to rescue Koby, knowing it could be at the cost of his own life, out of a sense of twisted guilt because he had been able to do nothing for Ace. Betrayed the trust of a man he had respected when all Roger had asked for was for Garp to protect his family. And for what?
They lost. All of them. Despite Luffy's boundless enthusiasm, despite Dragon's plans, despite his own help - too little, too late - they had lost. Even if Imu was dead, even if the Elders were dead. Too many had died and too much blood drenched the earth and Sea to consider this a victory. And now all that was left was an old man too stubborn to die and the echo of a god parading in his grandson's skin.
Luffy had died, burned from within by his devil fruit powers and what remained was Nika, watching Garp with a heavy gaze.
"I am sending you back," the god decreed. Not asked, not suggested. Merely stated his decision as simply as one would state the sky is blue. No longer laughing, no, Nika had stopped laughing since Luffy had stopped existing. Now he was serious in a way that made Garp understand he had no choice in the matter.
"Back to the beginning. Back to when you could have still changed things."
"Why?"
The man couldn't help but choke out the one word question. Why me, when he was worthless, had done nothing that could convince the god he could actually change things. Why now, why not earlier, when Luffy was alive, when Sabo was alive, when children who had actually made a change would have had the chance to go back.
"My vessel tried," Nika answered, kicking at dust and allowing a cloud to manifest under his feet. It was wrong, so very wrong to see this white haired, red eyed version of Luffy's body that took away his grandson. Garp couldn't help but hate him. "But he was tired. I was tired. It is a fault that lies in the past not the present. Nothing you could have done until now would have changed this outcome."
"So what?" Garp bit out with a snarl. "I'm supposed to what? Believe it was fate for Luffy to die? For Sabo?"
"Of course not," the god laughed, a distorted thing that made Garp's skin crawl. Bitter and wild and furious. Almost mourning. "This is why I am sending you back. You will change things now."
Pink-red eyes homed in on him and suddenly the former vice admiral felt small, a bug under a lens studied by something infinitely more powerful.
"I will not do this again." Nika said coldly. Garp was unsure whether this meant the god did not wish to go through everything that led them to here and now again in case he failed, or if he could not reverse time again. "Make sure I don't have to."
Before he could answer, the ground lurched under him, everything dissolving into something Garp could not have named, a kaleidoscope of nonsensical colours and a whirl of sensations that made his stomach churn, eyes closing without his volition to protect themselves from the onslaught of colour and light.
In a moment he was airborne, flying or floating or falling, he could not tell. The next it felt like he was crashing, all his limbs aching and head pounding even if he was upright, moved somewhere or sometime he did not know. Not yet, at least.
He opened his eyes. The view before him was familiar, so very familiar even if decades had passed. From back then that was now and from now that had become a future which would not come to pass. Imu's haki pressed on them, his eyes the same uncanny red as he turned his attention to Rocks and commanded.
"Domi reversi."
Garp's fists flew before he could think better of it. Before even considering - remembering he had no chance. He flew, but not towards Rocks, no. Even if there was no chance of turning him back now, that did not mean Garp would not try. Instead he aimed at the shadow parading in Saturn's body, towards the man who considered himself a god and stole so much of Garp's precious family.
Ace, kneeling on the ground of Marineford, a fist punched through his chest. Sabo skewered under his eyes on the sands of Laughtale. Dragon, dead, his body unaccounted for. Luffy burning and burning and burning until all that remained was a god in his place.
"Galaxy Impact!"
The island rippled around them, shockwave after shockwave sweeping everyone off their feet, the trees tilting and breaking. Galaxy Impact was not an attack for close quarters and Garp had not used it before, back when they had first fought in this battle. Now he did not care. He didn't care when it did little damage, cared even less when a hand curled around his fist hard, Imu's shadowy form faltering for a moment, an echo of the man behind it rippling behind Saturn.
"You dare?" He - it - hissed, angered, red eyes narrowed in slits and Garp laughed. Laughed and laughed and laughed even as he was punched back and rolled down the sands, landing at Roger's feet because he dared. He dared so much more than that. And one day Imu would pay for all he had done.
Looking back to everything that had happened on God Valley, Roger was not sure what had been the most surprising part. The monster they had fought - the World Rocks had called it. Imu, Garp had hissed at it as he tried to punch it again and again, until Rocks' transformation forced them to turn their attention to the man. The battle itself, where no matter what they did, how much haki they used, they were not able to keep their enemies down for long until the very end.
Or the fact that Garp had accepted his offer to join them on the Oro Jackson and was now there, having dragged his own son from the wreckage of the island - Roger had not even known he was there, but Garp ***had***. Had fought Dragon who wanted to remain behind and save as many civilians as possible, regardless of what fate would befall him for going against orders.
That was without even mentioning the babies. The one they had found in a treasure chest his crew had taken from the island and the one Garp had later appeared holding, a tiny identical replica to the first.
Dragon was bleeding and wounded, reminding Roger they really needed a doctor like yesterday but Kureha refused them last time they had asked and Crocus kept being stubborn just like her and bottom line Rayleigh was now stitching Dragon while Garp was still on their ship. With a baby.
"Captain, what just happened? And why do we have a marine with us. Or well two marines, I guess, Garp's kid is one too."
Momora's question was valid but truth be told Roger had no idea how to answer. Not when his sometimes enemy, sometimes friend, was looking at the horizon with eyes that looked lost and mournful. Garp had the air of a man who had lost someone, the air of a grieving man and Roger had not failed to see that switch happen just before the marine - former? - charged at the shadow they had fought with no regard to himself. Almost as if he was trying to absolve himself of something through this battle.
"Not to mention the kids," Momora added when it became clear Roger was still struggling to give him a proper answer.
"They're twins," Dragon interjected, pointing at the red-haired babies that were flailing their limbs in the makeshift crib Gaban had made out of an apple crate. "Their mother asked me to take them away. Their father killed her. I tried -"
The kid stopped, frustration etched in every inch of his face and Roger wanted to say something, convince him he'd done his best, but he didn't get to. Not when Garp simply placed a reassuring hand on his son's shoulder, the action more gentle than anything Roger had seen from him before and simply shook his head.
"You did the best you could. You got Shanks away. And I managed to get Shamrock. It's enough."
"How do you - ?" Dragon gaped, looking at his father as if seeing him for the first time. "How do you know their names?"
"It's a long story," Garp grumbled. "It's a fucking long story and I hate it, but you all will have to listen to it so sit your asses down."
And well, Roger had never seen Garp this serious. So for once he allowed someone to order him around on his own ship.
Roger thought he might need a moment or two or eleven. A way to come to terms with everything he had heard from Garp. To all the man had admitted to, even though the pirate captain was sure he had not even been told everything.
( Roger has a son. Will have a son. And Garp fails him. He has a son and Garp watches as the marines kill his child. He has a son and he is still the one who fails him the worst for not being there in his life. Not in the life of his future wife that Garp refused to name, saying simply that Roger will find her one day. )
To his side, Dragon was looking at his hands as if he'd never seen them before, trying to come to terms with the man he'd become. Leader of the Revolutionary Army. Most wanted man in the world. Father of the one to bring the World Government to the ground even if none of those who should have been there at the end lived to see it.
Only Garp. Alone. And something that might be a god who decided he needed to be sent back to right things.
"Nika sent me back. I thought it might be to the moment you died, Roger. To be able to find your wife and child faster. Or maybe to the day when Dragon gave me Luffy. Give me a chance to make things right for the kids. I didn't expect -."
The marine - ex? Roger was still unsure -curled his hands in fists, gaze turning away from all of them before they could see the tears that had been gathering in his eyes start to fall. He hadn't expected to be sent so far back, that much was clear to Roger. To be given a chance to right everything he had ever done wrong, or felt he had done wrong. They hadn't managed to save Rocks, no, but already there were twin babies on the Oro Jackson when before there had been only one.
"Shamrock," Rayleigh interjected, picking up the second twin. The one that would not be theirs, Roger could already tell Garp was not going to let them raise the twins together. It made sense, it was safer. And yet - "he didn't get to be saved last time, did he?"
"Not until it was too late," Garp acknowledged with a nod.
"Because I failed him," Dragon spat bitterly as if he wasn't simply a cadet that had been put face to face with a holy knight.
Roger was not expecting Garp to hit Dragon over the head - not just a slap, an actual fist -, but something about the hit must have been important to the kid, because his bitter look faded for sheepish fondness. The next moment the ex-marine pulled the boy in a tight hug that had Dragon flailing a bit to get away.
"You listen here!" Garp grumbled. "You didn't fail anything or anyone. I failed. I failed all of you. Again and again and again. But not anymore, hear me? Not even if I have to accept you want to woo Eddie's kid who's still a brat at the moment luckily for me."
Dragon wiggled out of the embrace, biting on his dad's arm until he got let go. Wani? The kid was going to get together with Wani? That brat was as prickly as they came and from the look on Dragon's face he too knew it. The pirate captain couldn't help but wonder if Wani would be the other parent of Dragon's kid, of their supposed saviour, or if there was anyone else in the future Revolutionary's life. Wani having a sunshine child did seem a bit of a stretch.
"For now, we're gonna make sure to ruin as many plans as the Marines have. Your Revolutionary Army will be stronger and better than before, Dragon."
"So you're -" Roger could see the faltering in Dragon's words, the way he was afraid to ask. And it was understandable. Garp had always been so proud to be a marine and now he what - wanted to leave? To become a revolutionary as well? "You're gonna desert?"
"Desert?" Garp laughed, sharp and angry. "No, I'm gonna make sure to become their problem. If their attention is on me, well they won't look too close at you now, will they?"
One of the babies gave a short laugh at that, almost as if agreeing with Garp's plans and Roger couldn't help but turn to the crib and smile at them. It was Shanks that was laughing, Shamrock's tiny hand fisted in his brother's onesie.
"That banana haired bastard's gonna try and get him back," Garp said, turning his attention towards them.
"He can try all he wants, we're not giving him up," Roger snapped. Figarland Garling was no threat to him and neither were the other Holy Knights. Shanks was theirs now. Theirs in a way Roger had never expected a child to be. Theirs in a way his own blood son had not been in the lost future that Garp had returned from and that ached even if Ace would not be born for decades.
"Hmph, I know. You did a good job with the brat. With the blue haired one too."
Blue haired one? What blue haired one? Part of Roger really wanted to shake Garp until he spat out all the information he had about the future, not just the half stories he'd been telling them.
"Lawless troublemakers the both of them, but good men." Garp gazed at Shamrock softly before sighing. "I'd leave him with you as well, if I could. But it's better to give that asshole two wild goose chases instead of one. As soon as Dragon gets better we'll have to leave, but I'll be dropping by. Can't have the twins not knowing each other. There was enough bad blood between them before."
"And what are you planning to do now, Garp?" Gaban asked, a hand on his axes, gaze on the horizon, already anticipating trouble. "You talk as if you're leaving the marines."
"Who knows? Maybe I'll beat you lot to the last island," the man laughed, the first true laugh of the day and Roger sputtered, grabbing a fistful of his jacket and pulling.
"Don't you fucking dare. That's cheating!"
"Well I dunno about that. Didn't you say piracy is all about cheating? And Pirate King Garp has a nice ring to it."
Roger was going to kill him. That was it. No way was he going to let Garp reach the last island.