A/N: I've been working on this project for months (so that's why my other stories haven't been updating), and nursing the idea for even longer, so I'm proud that I was finally able to write this. I hope you all enjoy this! This was inspired by a number of things. One of them was a prompt and another was a video game character of all things. I also may or may not have watched Astro Boy when writing parts of this.

I can guarantee that this will have weekly updates, so again, I may wait to update my other stories until this is all up. I'll try posting 1-2 parts a week.

Extremely important: I've written part between chapters called interludes, which are chronologically backwards (just saying this now, so it's hopefully less confusing later).

Thank you StarPurpleandBlue for listening to me rant about this and helping me some things. Also thanks to lunarshores for beta reading all of this in the amount of time that she did!

Prologue/1st Interlude

"You know, people would consider what we're doing a crime of nature."

"I know, I know, Koala," Sabo responded absentmindedly, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He would've waved this off, but instead continued to type away on his computer, screen glowing across his face inside his dark lab. His pupils moved from image to image, analyzing the information to make sure things from his project were running smoothly.

"I'm sure you do, but you don't have to ignore me," Koala complained. Leaning against the edge of the desk. She suddenly yelped, hand slipping on a loose paper and almost making her fall to the ground. Thankfully, she caught herself at the last second. "Take a break to clean in here once in a while! Geez!"

While Sabo usually liked to keep things neat inside the lab, there was no time for him to do so during this particular project. He had been slaving over this for nearly a year now, and there would be time for cleaning when he was finished. He didn't dare ask Koala to do it. She was his partner, not his maid.

"Sabo, are you actually listening to me right now?"

He paused, fingers hovering over the keyboard, and turned towards her. It would be unfair to ignore her, though in actuality he was listening perfectly fine. "Yeah," he said. "I'm listening."

"Good!" Koala exclaimed. She pulled up a chair and plopped down into it. "Maybe we can actually think this through now."

"You're not going to stop me now," Sabo declared, resisting the urge to turn back to his computer. If she was only stopping him to nag him, then there was no point. "I'm not stopping, not after this long, not after I've worked this hard."

"That's not what I'm trying to say!" She insisted. Koala knew how important this work was to Sabo, and she didn't have the heart to stop him. In fact, she was even helping with it since she wanted this to succeed too. They were friends too after all, but there were still problems. "What if it fails? We'll never see him again! Sabo-"

"You know I want to see him much more than you do!" he shot back, making her quiet. "He's my brother!" It was unusual for Sabo to burst out, but he was human, and his work, as much as he wanted to complete it, stressed him out from time to time.

"Hey," Koala called, attempting to calm him down. "I'm sorry. I never meant to doubt you."

Sabo's breathing began to calm. "Don't apologize," he said. "No one has ever done this before, so I understand why you would have your doubts."

"You're one of the only ones who's ever had access to the guy's research, so I'm not very surprised."

"We have Rayleigh and the old man to thank for that. He may be crazy at times, but I'm glad he let me see all this stuff, even if it put his career in danger."

Koala leaned back in her chair, shrugging her shoulders. "I think he was just proud that you wanted to do something more worthwhile than 'wreck shit up', and I quote."

"You know how Luffy is." Sabo grinned, thinking about his little brother with fondness. "He's making a name for himself, and he's happy. Besides, with the way he sees things, the future looks pretty bright ahead, even if he does 'wreck shit up' as you say."

"I guess you're right about that," Koala giggled. "He makes friends with just about anyone, so the future is bound to be good, especially for him."

"Yeah." Sabo nodded. "I'm proud of him. He never cared what his friends were, and that's why he can live with no worries when we're finished."

"Though not everything will be fine," she pointed out.

"That's why we have to work hard too when this is over."

She too nodded in agreement. It would have been nice to take a break, but they had actual jobs to get back to, and their boss wouldn't be too happy with them if they took any longer.

"Data transfer 85% complete."

They broke out of their conversation and turned back to the console. The program Sabo was using only alerted them during a milestone in their work. He typed quickly, pulling up a new window to view the progress of his experiment.

"Mind if I take a look?" Koala asked.

Sabo wasn't sure what to say. Every detail was exactly as he remembered it, which should have been impossible considering the circumstances. It was almost unreal, seeing him again. Sabo hadn't cried since he was little, but he could have sworn there was something wet running down his cheek.

"Are you crying?" he heard Koala ask.

"They're tears of joy," he insisted, wiping them away with the base of his thumb.

"If you're like this, then just imagine how Luffy will react!"

"He'll be sobbing like a baby!" Sabo mused aloud, grinning at the image of his brother's joy.

He could imagine someone else's feelings, much more intense than Luffy and his own, and it seemed that Koala knew exactly what he was thinking.

"What about that guy? How do you think he would feel?"

Sabo had never met the man in question, so he wasn't completely sure of his exact reaction. One thing he was sure of though was that the man would be overjoyed. After all, despite being strangers, Sabo was doing this for him too. He owed it to him for giving his brother so much happiness.

"What was his name again?" Koala wondered.

"Marco," Sabo answered immediately. There was no way he could forget it, not after hearing it so many times when processing those memories. The man was quite well known anyways, and his abilities made Sabo quite the fan. "One of Whitebeard's men."

"Duh! The Phoenix, right?" she exclaimed on realization. "I can't believe I forgot that!"

"To be fair, I've watched the memories more than you have."

"You have," she admitted. "I didn't have time to, but maybe..." Koala began to trail off.

"Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I watch them?"

"I don't see why not." Sabo could practically see the shine in Koala's eyes as he said that. She complained to him about feeling left out when he watched the memories the first time though. "Besides, this is part of the final step. It'll help pass the time." He pulled up a set of files, preparing them. Koala pulled her chair closer.

"Don't worry," Sabo whispered. "This will all be over soon, and then you can see him again."