I Can't Look into the Future (I'm Drowning in the Past)
A/n at the bottom
Warnings: Kawahira bashing of sorts, brainwashing, erasing memories, fake identities, abuse, broken trust, lashing out, personality death
He has been sitting here for a long time. He doesn't have a name; when he comes back he'll give him a name, like always. He isn't sure how he knows this, but everything seems familiar like it's happened before.
Then he arrives.
" Hello, I've found the new set. You need to walk up… Skull, the Immortal Stuntman."
Ah, so my name is Skull.
Skull wasn't really sure how this came to be. He was a kid, like literally, he was seventeen. The other people in the room are crazy. There was no other way to describe it. A hitman, a mafia boss, a scientist, a C.O.M.S.U.B.I.N. trainer, a magician/ illusionist (whatever that is), a martial artist, and a stuntman walk into a room. No that is a joke that is his life currently.
The mafia boss offered Skull cookies. Well not just Skull, she offered everyone cookies. Still is he the only one that finds something strange about this They keep talking about "flames." What the hell are "flames?"
At the same time there is something in the back of Skull's head telling him, screaming at him that this isn't the first time he's done this.
Skull is cursed. He looks like a toddler, but for some reason this body is far more natural for him to move around in. Reborn had a hissy-fit when Skull was already up and walking steadily after being cursed for two minutes.
The Man in the Iron Hat is familiar and not in a good way. Seeing him makes Skull's stomach twist painfully. Skull feels shivers run down his spine. He feels himself choke back down his own vomit. This isn't because of the curse.
What did this man do to him?
They separate after Luce dies. Skull needs to find out more about The Man in the Iron Hat. Skull wastes thirty-three years on false leads, being fought over for his "arcobaleno" status, and various other little delays.
It's hard. They don't want Skull as a part of their familia. They want The Cloud Arcobaleno. This incidentally is what gives Skull his lead.
Skull only wants acceptance for who he is not what he is. He tries thinking back to his family that must have accepted him, but there's nothing; it's blank. It feels normal not to have any memories of childhood, of family, of birthdays, of his life before Skull. He knows it shouldn't. That this isn't right the same gut wrenching feeling that The Man in the Iron Hat brings is back. Skull knows that that man had done something to him.
Skull asks Enma for help. He can't think of anyone else that would or anyone else he'd rather have fighting for him. This does not work out as planned.
Enma is losing, in danger, and Skull acts because holy fuck this kid is only fourteen and taking on trainned assasins. Skull doesn't anticipate the Vindice. He's happy to say however that he took the brunt of the damage. Skull doesn't want Enma to get any more hurt than he already is. When the Tenth (just call me Tsuna) asks for his- for everyone's- help he can't say no.
The Man in the Iron Hat his name is Kawahira and he has been under Skull's nose this whole time. Skull doesn't rage not like normal clouds. Maybe that's his problem. He isn't like any other cloud and not in the "good" sense.
He can feel invisible chains holding him down. He doesn't have a name. Sometimes he comes and he isn't sure how to feel about him. He knows deep in him some part of him should be a burning fury like no other. Be he can feel the chains that aren't even there dig into him.
He holds the other end of the chains that can't be seen. He manipulates them moving him like a marionette. Every fiber of his being screams this is wrong.
"You will do as I say even if I have to kill you, after all… no matter what I do you won't stay dead.
That's right I'm a puppet.
Verde works on a machine to make them the age they were before the curse. It takes months, but it works. How does Skull know? He got to be the test subject. It was not fun.
The ex- Arcobalenos don't age immediately. Oh, no that's not Verde's style. They are stuck for weeks in constant growing pains. The only thing that makes Skull feel better is that his tormentors are suffering the same as him.
Only they're not Skull stops growing at seventeen. Everyone else has another two weeks to continue growing. Skull can't help, but grin viciously when every he sees anyone grimacing in pain.
Only the feeling doesn't last. He begins to have dreams of the other cloud guardian's lives. A couple of subtle questions and no he's the only one with these dreams. Skull is starting to feel the weight of these dreams. So he goes to even in his opinion isn't a good idea, but hey if anyone knows about cloud arcobalenos it would be him (even if they are just Skull from different universes).
In the end Skull should have kept it to himself. Byakuran aside from being zero help, also tells Yuni. Yuni bless her heart, overreacts. This causes Reborn to become more violent in response so does Colonello, Verde, and Lal Mirch. Mammon, who Skull hardly ever sees anymore, offers to look into his mind for a gargantuan down payment and several monthly payments that rival the cost of Reborn's entire wardrobe, each. Fon seems unaffected and unperturbed.
Skull is desperate, not just desperate, but frantic for something, anything to explain why. They aren't just memories anymore Skull is waking up with scars from whatever these visions are. He wakes up in the middle of the night sobbing for reasons he can't comprehend. There's only one person left to go to. Skull's stomach churns at the thought; he swears he can feel chains wrapped around his body. He has to confront Kawahira; Skull knows he has something to do with this.
Skull has to face him, Kawahira, and what he did to him whatever it was. He doesn't tell anyone (the only people that would miss him are Enma and Yuni) if he doesn't come back he knows they'll get over it.
"I'm surprised to see you here." Kawahira doesn't sound very surprised.
"I need to know what these visions are." Skull is two seconds away from hurling.
Kawahira smiles it's not a nice one,"Why, they're your memories of course."
Skull balks back," Wha…"
Kawahira continues grinning, "You see you have the most powerful cloud flames I've ever seen, you can't die, and you're so very moldable. At first I was hesitant, you were a Estraneo experiment and rather expensive. You were so susceptible to manipulation. A little bit of mist flames and I could change your personality. It isn't too hard to change how you look either. So to put it bluntly, you are every single cloud Arcobaleno."
Skull is starting to feel dizzy. It can't be true he was seventeen, hell he still looks seventeen. How old is he 300, maybe even 400 years old can he- does he want to- regain his old memories. How many generations of Arcobaleno are there? How many has he out lived? Did he get married? Have kids? Then have it all ripped away? The sad part is he can't even be mad Kawahira doesn't think he did anything wrong and nothing he says will change that.
Skull (Is that even his name?) turns away. He doesn't know what to think. He leaves and Kawahira doesn't do a thing to stop him.
Severianus looks at the people at the table and scoffs they're, but children. They have never seen the horror of the battlefield.
Foka glanced nervously around the room. Theses people are dangerous. What if he isn't meant to be here? What if it was all a mistake. He isn't powerful.
Koa has to be brave. He looks around at the group gathered and he knows this is something big. For his family he thinks.
Adrian wonders how he got here. He looks around and tries to act like he knows what he's doing here. He really had no idea what he was getting into.
Lenox sat in that dingy room as if he were a king. He didn't care who these people were as long as they could be useful to him.
Marin takes a deep breath he'd been here fifteen minutes and he was already so very done with these people. Why couldn't they shut up.
Skull is a little freaked out right now there was a mafia boss offering him cookies.
Who was he?
When Skull returned from wherever he was he was not the same. He snapped more. He didn't respond like the rest of the ex-Arcobalenos were used to. He had mood swings one moment he was Skull the next he was… someone else. Yuni was worried that the dreams were causing this. Reborn was annoyed that Yuni was worried about that lacky. Colonello, Lal Mirch, Verde, and Mammon soon followed suit after having Skull snap at them. Fon yet again seemed to be indifferent.
Skull was shutting himself in his room. It was even more odd than the attitude changes. Sure Skull didn't exactly spend a lot of time with them per say, but he didn't lock himself away. He often went outside be it to do stunts, nap, work on one of him many picked out of the garage motorbikes, or to tend to the garden he insisted he need if he was going to live with them.
Skull was drowning in memories. Severianus was a war veteran and had PTSD. Foka was paranoid at everything and everyone, especially the people they were living with. Skull couldn't fault Foka's logic or reasoning. Koa and Adrian had self-esteem issues, Lenox's ego could rival Reborn's, Marin was mentally exhausted and had depression. And then there was Skull himself with different people living in his head that were all him at the same time.
Skull didn't know what to do once he knew about these other people living in his head. Sometimes they would just seize control. The other day Marin yelled at Lal MIrch for talking too loudly granted they were all getting headaches from the noise level, but still. Anytime Reborn was around Foka would take control making sure to avoid him. Severianus couldn't stand Verde and recently tried to punch him in the face, repeatedly. Lenox hatted everyone in the house based on the fact they thought themselves better than him(or rather Skull). Adrian hated Fon's attitude and disregard for what everyone was doing to him. Koa despised Mammon because of their greed.
Still Skull had no one he could got to with this. He couldn't bourbon Enma with this information. Yuni was no help, the other ex-Arcobaleno don't make him laugh. He was bottling up and didn't know what to do.
END
So this is based on a prompt I found on Tumblr. Which was something like "Skull is all of the Arcobaleno clouds and Colonello and Reborn find out." anyway it's somewhere in my favorites. I was like "Yeah Skull." but I was also "Who cares about Colonello and Reborn when I could write about Skull finding out and angst" and because I am a dementor and must suck the happiness out, this happened.
It's like three pages shorter than Invalid and my Kawahira was like super shitty, but hey it's fanfiction.
There might be more, but probably not like I kind of hate how this turned out, but want to publish it out of spite for not agreeing with me. Why doesn't Fon care? He's an enabler, he doesn't actively beat up Skull, but he doesn't stop them. Where the future-arc man it fucking died. Tbh I hate that arc like least favorite arc sorry. I love Fran he's my son, but don't fuck with timelines.
So here is Skull having his personality rewritten to suit the needs of each generation of Arcobaleno. My poor son who did this to you oh wait, it was me.