The ambush had come out of nowhere. They had been walking along minding their own business when they had been attacked. Box weapons had jumped to empty hands and dying will flames had ignited on every ring.
Every guardian was tied up in an opponent while the Vongola Tenth evaded several lackeys. Yamamoto Takeshi and Gokudera Hayato finished off their opponents and turned to see the Tenth backing up directly into the line of fire of an unseen enemy. Gokudera raced for him screaming a warning but before he could reach him Yamamoto used his longer reach to snatch the tenth by the collar of his shirt like a puppy and hurled him towards Gokudera.
Foot!
A dart sank its needle deep into Yamamoto's side startling the Guardian of Rain. Wincing slightly he pulled it out and looked at it, he waved at Ryohei who by now had finished off his own opponents, "Oi! Ryohei! How are you with poisons?"
Tsuna whipped up his eyes full of concern and self-blame, "Poison?"
Yamamoto grinned and waved a hand in the air, "It's all right Tsuna, I don't feel anything yet and my rain flames will slow it down by a good amount."
Ryohei jogged over, not too concerned, "Ah…well my sun flames would probably just aggravate it but I'll take a look". As Yamamoto shrugged out of his suit jacket and blue dress shirt Gokudera yelled at his sister to, "Get over here!"
Bianci came over and began sniffing and dabbing at the dart while Ryohei tracked it in Yamamoto's body. Bianci shrugged and said, "I'm not finding anything, whatever was on it must have been a natural substance, maybe amped up in efficiency but nothing that our bodies don't have natur—"
Yamamoto made a sudden noise that was something between a gasp and a cry of pain, it was short and quiet but the fact that the usually stoic guardian had made a sound at all made all eyes turn to him.
He looked around his golden eyes bright and joking, "Wow, it's like being surrounded by a group of sharks," he joked. Then his whole body twitched, as if he was a puppet and someone had just smacked the puppeteer's arm. He folded his non-sword arm around his middle and smiled wryly, "Ah…I'll meet up with you guys la—!" With a cry not unlike that of a wounded dog, Takeshi Yamamoto fell to his knees clutching his stomach and biting his lip. Tsuna dashed over and fell beside his friend. He grabbed his shoulders and turned him over so that he was looking into his face.
His breathing was heavy and labored and his eyes were going in and out of focus, the metal bright gold going cloudy at the edges as the inner ring of black expanded. Tsuna put a hand to Takeshi's face his voice trembling almost as bad as his hands, "Yamamoto? Yamamoto? Come on, you've got to talk to me or we can't help you!"
Yamamoto smiled up at him. Trying to speak past his convulsing lungs he forced out, "Sorry, I …I don't know …what's… going on…" he gasped, "My insides feel…funny…like….like their bubbling…inside me…" his normally calm and easygoing expression twisted horribly as his back bowed out at a near impossible angle. He screamed, the smooth gentle tones of the rain guardian shredding into the cries of a wild animal caught in a trap, knowing it was stuck in a deadly situation and knowing there would be no escape.
"Takeshi!" Tsuna screamed.
Bianci and Ryohei pushed him out of the way, Bianci gestured to Hayato, "Come here, use what rain flames you have and try to calm the poison if we can delay it we may still save him!"
As he dropped to their side his ring blazing Yamamoto began to convulse badly, he curled around his stomach screaming hoarsely.
Ryohei swore, "Somebody hold him down he's moving around too much!"
Out of nowhere Hibari Kyouya dropped to the ground, giving no mercy he locked his arms around Yamamoto's upper body and leaned back while Dino Cavallone sat on his legs, immobilizing the Rain Guardian. As he did so they got a full view of Yamamoto's bared torso. The golden skin was shivering and twitching uncontrollably as the poison was pumped through his racing heart faster and faster, something from the corner of his eye drew Hibari's eyes back to Yamamoto's chest. Black and purple bruises were blossoming from underneath the skin as the blood vessels beneath burst.
The strength began to wane from Yamamoto's struggles, his limbs twitched weakly and his breathing began to bubble up through his lungs as he fell into shallow shivering.
Gokudera screamed at Lambo, "Go back to base, get help! We're losing him!"
Hibari Kyouya wasn't worried until the Rain Guardian's head lost its support and fell to rest on his shoulder, the bright eyes clouded over and his breath barely slipping past his lips. As the Cloud watched a bubble of blood burst at the corner of the Rain's mouth, speckling his chin and Hibari's shoulder with crimson.
From the dark shadows of the woods another voice spoke up, "He's dying you know".
All but Bianci and Ryohei stopped their work to look at the speaker. Verde in his adult form stood at the edge of the clearing. Reborn bit back the snarled accusation he had ready to hurl on the tip of his toungue at the sight of the other arcobaleno. "What are you doing here Verde?" he asked, "And why are you in that form…?"
Verde's eyes glittered behind his glasses and he smirked, "I am, as always, furthering my research Reborn." He gestured to Yamamoto, that was intended for your precious Vongola Tenth but Yamamoto was a prime candidate too."
Reborn hopped up much closer to Verde, "What kind of research requires the death of the Guardian of Rain?"
Verde smirked and dropped the bomb, "Oh it isn't meant for Yamamoto, it's meant for you." At the shocked silence that followed a vial of some orange liquid rolled to Reborn's feet, "You have to drink that to get the antidote for Yamamoto. You're choice of course." He smirked.
Reborn sighed and reached down picking up the vial, Tsuna was caught between a rock and a hard place and he knew it, Reborn knew it too. He smiled at Tsuna's tortured expression and said, "You worry too much no-good-Tsuna." He tipped back the potion and drank it. Before the last drop had entered his mouth another potion had been dropped this time next to Yamamoto.
Verde smirked and waved a lazy hand, "Thank you for your cooperation." He turned towards the woods, "It's been fun." And with that he was gone.
As Yamamoto was given the potion and began his slow road to recovery Reborn noticed slight differences in the world around him. The ground was getting farther and farther away from his eyes. As he looked up he met Bianci's gaze. Her smile was bittersweet, "Welcome back, Reborn."
Picking up his hat from where it had fallen he watched the subtle play of light on the back of his hand, much larger and bonier than any baby's. "Yes," he murmured, his voice a deep reverberating baritone, "I'm back."
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Gokudera Hayato had never liked hospital rooms. Granted this was nowhere close to a hospital, being it was several stories underground and sealed off with steel, several thousand volts of electric current and insulation however the fact that the 12 by 12 room was lined from floor to ceiling with beeping and hissing machinery that all was somehow attached to a prone figure in the center, more than made up for the location.
Tsuna dashed to the figure's side, his normally stern eyes wide and frightened for the sake of his friend. Yamamoto Takeshi, he of the eternal smile and calm strength was stretched out on the gurney paler than Mukuro and barely breathing, those bright golden eyes closed. The tenth Vongola turned to Bianci who was busily taking readouts and adjusting machinery with Fuuta.
"What happened?" he demanded.
"We weren't sure until we got him down here and took a few x-rays and an MRI but it would appear…" she murmured, "That Takeshi-kun is recovering lost organs."
Chrome broke in, "What do you mean?"
Bianci turned and murmured something to Fuuta before answering, "I mean that the first drug wiped out most of his inner organs and the second is regrowing them at a rapid rate".
Gokudera mused aloud, "Why would they destroy his organs just to regrow them? Seems like a lot of work if all they wanted was to scare us, they'd have been better off just letting him die".
Tsuna looked aghast at the very thought, "Hayato!"
"He's right" Chrome said, her breathy little voice startling them all, "It doesn't make sense, they could have made him dependent on Mukuro-sama as well and who knows, perhaps the drug would not have stopped until all of his inner organs were destroyed…and Mukuro-sama might not have had anything left to save".
They all shuddered at the prospect and Tsuna wrapped his hand around one of the rain guardian's. His voice was low and controlled, "Do we know who is responsible for this?"
Reborn's voice was abrupt, stronger and much deeper than it had been at any other time they had known him, startling all of them from their shocked stupor, "Not yet, but we have some definite leads for you to follow."
The tenth Vongola turned to his mentor and friend asking eagerly, "You found something?"
Reborn nodded his head, his dark shadowed eyes unreadable in his knew face, "Yes and no, either way we don't need you figuring it out, Tsuna."
Tsuna flinched and looked incredulously at the hitman, "What do you mean? I'm not going to sit here and do nothing!"
"You won't be doing nothing", Kyouko's mellow and even tone was soothing to the frayed nerves of the guardians and their charge, calming in the way Yamamoto Takeshi's voice was. She stepped through the doorway behind Reborn and smiled at Tsuna, "How is he?" she asked, nodding at Yamamoto.
As he drew breath to answer she was beside him and holding his hands between her own as Reborn began to gather and coordinate the guardians behind her. Her amber gaze held him fast as she spoke, "Tsuna, I know you want to do all you can for him, and I know you want to be in the thick of it to help but right now we need you more."
As he began to protest she shushed him gently and pushed on, "You can do what no one else in the family can, you can lead us. You are our shield, you are the face of our family, by continuing in your usual work as our boss you can prove to the other families that our strength is still there and let them know that we are not done, not by a long shot!" She hissed, "I know you want to stop whoever did this, and trust me the rest of us feel the same but right now the best thing you can do for Takeshi is to take the gift he gave you and fight for all of us by being the Vongola Tenth."
She smiled at him gently rubbed his shoulders restlessly as she finished, "I am in the same place every time something like this happens Tsu-kun." She whispered, "And after all this time I have finally learned that sometimes the best thing to do is to smile and carry on".
Tsunayoshi, the Vongola tenth, sighed and rested his forehead against his fiancée's, "Thank you Kyouko, I know you're right it's just…" he sighed, "It's just so frustrating".
She smiled at him and cupped his face between her hands, "Then we'll just have to be frustrated together!"
Reborn coughed to get their attention, "Tsuna, Fuuta has something to say to us".
The two tore their attention away from each other to look at the younger brother of the Tenth. Fuuta was sweating nervously and was shifting from foot to foot. He cleared his throat and began, "A few minutes ago I went to look at the latest MRI scan of Takeshi-ni. Ah…I think we might know now why they did what they did". He held up one of the scans and pinned it to a board where the guardians leaned in to get a better look. He coughed and finished, "Yamamoto Takeshi's organs were destroyed by the first drug, particularly those in the pelvic and abdominal region. The second drug began to regrow said organs however," he pointed to a specific area on the chart a little above the hips, "Takeshi-ni…" he croaked, "Now has the internal organs of a…woman."