Disclaimer:No money is being made in the production of this story; it is merely a fan-made story. KHR belongs to Amano Akira-san.

Warnings for entire story: Violence, Hibari, Alaude, Daemon, and Mukuro (they deserve their own warning of course…), swearing, possible slight OOC, blood, mafia, darker themes at moments, slight angst sometimes, spoilers up to latest chapter, possible bad grammar ( Kitsura E: I am my own beta reader and fanfiction often screws up on uploading).

Timeline:Story starts right in the middle of when the 10th generation are being sent back and a couple of years after the the Vongola starts turning into a mafia group.


"Dreams"

'Italian'


Above the Vongola hideout, the winds raged violently under the stark black sky as it slahshed relentlessly through the dark forest, frightening squirrels and other night creatures from their earlier peace. Dark storm clouds loomed above, ensnaring the sky in its violent, but protective grasp, and only a sliver of the moon could be seen through a slight gap before being covered again. Thunder boomed like a giant stomping across an open field.

However, beneath the surface where the storm brew, the Vongola hideout lay hidden from prying eyes, as most of its occupants slept in blissful ignorance of storm above. Even Giannini, Spanner, and Shoichi, who were the only ones still wide awake preparing for the trip back to the past were in a relaxed state. No one was worried about anything for the moment, and why should they be? After all, they had beaten one of the most cunning criminals of their generation no matter how misguided he was. They had a right to let their guard down for just one day at least, and they were taking advantage of their well-deserved break and resting up.

That is to say, mostly everyone.

Soft whimpers and mumbling could be heard as a young brunette tossed and turned in his bed, his demeanor matching the panicked animals heading to shelter above ground, as he tried desperately to escape from his own nightmare.

Ragged breathing cut through the silence in the forest as a person ran, stumbling as he tripped over a root sticking out from underneath the leaves.

...Tsu...yoshi...

...Tsuna...shi...kun

Tsuna widened his eyes in fear as he heard the singsong voice nearing him from behind and hurriedly scrambled to his feet, continuing along the path that led to who-knows-where.

The voice chuckled,"You..can't...scape...e."

Tsuna ignored the voice and blinked as he suddenly ran into a strangely familiar clearing. His heart gave a jolt as he realized it was the very same clearing he had beaten Byakuran. He winced as he slowly started forward. Even though he didn't want to acknowledge it, he knew that he had killed Byakuran. He had burned him to such a degree that not even his bones remained, and now his conscience was probably getting revenge on him by giving him this horrendous dream. But he didn't regret killing Byakuran. Yes, he felt horrible about it, but he knew it was necessary.

He would do anything as long as it meant his family was safe.

Tsuna stopped mid-step when warning bells rang in his head and he moved to dodge the hand that had suddenly appeared from behind the shadows. Swiftly backtracking, he turned to face Byakuran and unconsciously gaped in surprise.

If Tsuna had thought Byakuran to be insane before, the monster facing him now was without a doubt, a demented, psychotic demon.

With his tattered, burnt clothes, dirty, singed hair, crazed eyes, and that more than a little creepy smile, he truly did look like a monster. Tsuna unconsciously took a step back as Byakuran took a step forward. He could clearly hear his voice now, but he wished he didn't.

"Tsunayoshi-kun, I'm hurt. Did you really think you got rid of me that easily?"

Tsuna adamantly shook his head.

"N-no, you're dead, everyone saw, you're not here." Tsuna closed his eyes and resolutely shook his head."T-this isn't real...it's j-just a dream, an illusion!"

When he opened his eyes again, Byakuran had disappeared, but the clearing was still there.

He yelped in pain as a pale hand grabbed his hair and yanked his head backwards as another arm wrapped around his neck in an almost loving embrace. He gasped in pain and the teen widened his eyes when his gaze captured the wide and cruel smirk on his enemy's face. He didn't even sense his presence.

Tsuna felt a chill run down his spine as Byakuran leaned down and shivered when warm breath hit his ears as Byakuran whispered.

"'I' may have lost to you..." Byakuran chuckled gleefully and shadows seemed to spread across his face as his smirk widened and his teeth glinted in the dim light of the cleaning.

He tightened his grip,"...but 'I' haven't lost yet."

SNAP!

"NO!" Tsuna screamed as he swiftly sat up, nearly giving himself whiplash in the process. He placed his hand on his neck, and nearly fainted in relief when yes, he was still breathing, yes, his neck wasn't broken, and most of all, he was still alive. Then, before he could contemplate on what just occurred, several things happened at once.

"JYUUDAIME!" Gokudera's panicked face popped over the side of the bunk bed and at the exact same time, the door slammed open.
"TSUNA!"

"THE HELL BASEBALL FREAK?"

"Gokudera?"

"Yamamoto?"

"Eh?"

The three stared at each other in bemused confusion. Yamamoto had been making his way to the kitchen tot get a drink of water when he heard the scream and on pure instinct, he had rushed to get there.

"Um, is everything...alright...?"

Gokudera and Yamamoto both turned to look at Tsuna who blinked at the sudden attention.

"Eh? O-oh! Yeah, everything's fine." Tsuna sheepishly laughed and smiled at his friends."I just had a weird dream. S-sorry, if I woke you guys up."

Tsuna could tell by the looks on their faces that they hadn't bought what he had just said, but relented nevertheless.

"If Jyuudaime says so..."

"Haha, it's fine, I was planning to wake up soon anyway." None of them mentioned that it was probably 2 in the morning.

After a few seconds of debate, Yamamoto gave Tsuna an unreadable look before stepping out of the doorway and the door slid shut with a soft swoosh. Tsuna sighed and lied back down placing his arm over his eyes.

"Jyuu-"

"I'm fine Gokudera, really."

Tsuna could almost see Gokudera frowning in shame, at the fact that he couldn't help his boss. Honestly, he was very grateful to have such great friends. In the past he didn't have anyone who worried, or cared for him besides his mom, sometimes his dad if he was even around, or the occasional teacher who had long since given up on him. But at the moment he really didn't want to worry his friends about anything. Not when, they could finally return home.

Now that he was more in control of his thoughts, he felt a little stupid that he had overreacted over such a stupid dream. He had seen Byakuran get defeated with his very eyes, and Mukuro and Fran had even checked to see if it was an illusion. There was no way Byakuran could not have been defeated.

Tsuna turned over on his side.

But what the hell was that dream about?

(Bunny~Clam~Bunny~Clam~EXTREME~Bunny~Clam~Bunny~Clam)

A few hours later...

"Alright! Everyone here?" Irie Shoichi gave a quick glance around before nodding to himself. Good, so far everything was going according to the plan. Or at least he hoped it did. He sure as hell didn't spend the rest of yesterday working with Giannini and Spanner preparing just to have everything blow up in his face.

He cleared his throat and shouted over the cacophony of voices and tearful farewells to get everyone's attention"It's almost time, but first, I want everyone to leave their Vongola boxes here!" The bespectacled man let a small smile spread across his face as he watched everyone else.

It had been a few days after the final battle with Byakuran and everyone was worse for wear, but everything was finally back to the way it had been back before the Trinisette became unbalanced. Everything was finally over

...but for some reason, Shoichi felt a little uneasy.

He paused for a moment as he let his eyes roam over the equipment one last time, but shook the feeling off. He was probably just being overly paranoid because of everything that had happened so far. There was no need to over-think things and give himself another stomachache.

Once everyone had relatively calmed down, Shoichi turned towards the time machine," Okay, we're going to start the time warp and don't worry," he replied in response to the glances around the room, "the Arcobaleno will return once they've finished sealing the Mare rings of the past."

After he had finished punching in the coordinates, he paused and said," Oh, and before you leave..."
He then turned to Tsuna and his guardians not quite knowing what to say. "Thank you...for everything."

Tunsa gave him a small smile in return.

"Goodbye."

The guardians gave various signs of acknowledgement, from Hibari's 'hn' to Ryohei's EXTREME reply.

Shoichi gave them a sincere smile and pressed the button that would start the time warp as he watched Tsuna, his guardians, and their friends disappear in a flash of light. Soon after, the arcobaleno and everyone's future selves returned, but Shoichi's uneasy feeling came back with a vengeance.

Then, everything went wrong.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Red lights started flashing and, everyone turned towards the machine, stupefied and disoriented from just returning. Spanner who was one of the first to gather back his wits, quickly turned towards his laptop, and started typing in codes, and figures, seemingly unfazed, but you could see that he was silently worried.

Shoichi whipped his head towards the arcobaleno," What's happening?"

Collonello looked grim,"We couldn't do anything when we were separated from the others, kora! I'm not quite sure what happened, but it seems as if Byakuran placed a fail safe on the chance that his plan didn't work, kora."

Hibari narrowed his eyes,"Explain."

Gokudera glanced between the alive Tsuna and arcabalenos including Reborn, and the time machine, not knowing what to ask first, and settled for,"What the hell is going on?" colorfully repeating Shoichi's earlier question.

Shoichi had a sudden flash of intuition,"No...it can't be..."

Collonello's imploring stare seemed to reinforce his thought, "This is just my opinion...but it seems as if the damn Byakuran modified the time machine so that Sawada and his guardians - basically those with Vongola rings - would not return to their correct time when they are sent to the past is used, kora!," he gestured twards the time machine that was now looming forebodingly on the wall. Its sinister face seemed to stare at them with mocking cruelty.

Mukuro smirked thoguh his eyes flashed dangerously," Kufufufu...so, assuming that he toyed with this machine to interrupt our past selves' trip, he might have also sent messages to his past self. In that case, that would allow that bastard's past self a second chance to take over the world because we - our past selves - will no longer be here to stop him." Everyone's eyes widened at the implications. Yamamoto looked over at Tsuna who was standing silently in the corner during the whole crisis, his eyes hidden under his bangs.

"Tsuna...have something up your sleeve like you always do?" Yamamoto smiled, as usual, though it looked very forced.

Most of the people in the room jerked in surprise, and almost in unison, turned so that they were looking towards their respective boss, and friend. Tusna looked at his friends and comrades, and smiled tiredly.

"This was not something I expected after waking up from that pseudo- death like state," his guardians besides Hibari, though slightly angry and hurt that their friend had not told them anything about his plan, looked shocked and worried that their boss, who had gone this far to stop Byakuran, had seemingly failed to stop him. It was impossible, they couldn't have failed after all they went through, it just wasn't -

"However..." Everyone looked up as that word silently brought about a feeling of hope throughout the room.

Tsuna gazed at the arcobaleno with an air of authority," I trust that you gave our past selves something for their hard work...?"

For the first time since the crisis started, the arcobalenos smiled. Fon answered this time instead of Collonello," Yes, including the sealing of the Mare rings, we also gave them the vongola boxes in a ring version and..." Everyone held their breaths" everyone who was in the battle of this timeline, their past selves received their future self's memories."

Gokudera's eyes widened," So that would mean..."

"That Byakuran would remember his future self's actions too..." Mukuro finished grimly.

Ryohei who had finally put the puzzle pieces together,"But how would that help us to the EXTREME!"

The others voiced their agreement through mumbled words.

Shoichi cleared his throat, and his stomach clenched in pain as he he saw everyone turn their heads towards him. Spanner, put his hand on Shoichi's shoulder encouragingly.

"In the past, Byakuran was more...normal, just like everyone else, kind even." Some of the guardians raised their eyebrows incredulously at that thought. "It's true though!"

"It's fine, we believe you," Tsuna voiced his thoughts. The other guardians resignedly nodded their heads. If their boss believed Shoichi, they would too. After all, Tsuna's Hyper Intuition was scarily accurate.

Shoichi nodded gratefully and nervously continued,"So...if Byakuran's 15 year old past self received his furture self's memories, if he saw what occured in the future, he wouldn't do what his future self did - that is, try to rule over all the universes. He would continue living his life, hopefully in a more normal way. If not, someone else would most likely stop him because he wouldn't be as powerful as he was in this time."

Yamamoto laughed humorlessly,"That's a bit of a gamble isn't it?"

"We have no other choice, but to trust our past selves..." Reborn spoke up for the first time."My past self will most likely be watching Byakuran, and Dame-Tsuna will always be Dame-Tsuna, that's why they will overcome this. Also, I know for a fact that our comrades will not leave things as they are and will definitely take some sort of action." Shoichi sighed, but nodded.

"That's true..."

Tsuna sighed," Was that a compliment, or an insult...?" Reborn smirked, but didn't answer.

A sense of understanding and acceptance was felt by everyone in the room.

"Haha, you're right, who can we trust if we can't even trust ourselves?" Yamamoto grinned genuinely.

"Hn." Hibari grunted.

"Tch" Gokudera scoffed,"If it's jyuudaime, then of course our past selves will overcome this."

"You're EXTREMELY right!" Ryohei pumped his fist in the air, and the girls smiled in agreement.

"Don't worry, I was called Lambo-sama for a reason. Past me will save everyone." Lambo waved his arm in the air dramatically and I-pin elbowed him in the ribs sighing.

"Some things just never change."

"That's right,"Tsuna thought as he watched his guardians and friends bicker amongst themselves,"some things really never change."

"And once, our past selves return to the correct time frame...everything will go back to the way it was..."

(Bunny~Clam~Bunny~Clam~EXTREME~Bunny~Clam~Bunny~Clam)

400-some years in the past...

Somewhere in Italy, the townspeople living near the Vongola mansion had the pleasure of seeing a spectacular light show as a black hole appeared out of nowhere, seemingly tearing apart the sky, as three sets of bright blue light flashed out from the hole, all scattering in different directions. Unfortunately, besides the townspeople, this also attracted unwanted attention from enemies, and...allies alike.

'What was that?'

'Who cares, just execute the plan.'


A/N: Ahaha...it seems as if when I write my hands have a mind of their own. I just hope it turned out properly.

And as a side note, remember what everyone has said so far is just what they assume. There is no proof as of yet and anything that has been said may, or may not be true.