A/N: What's up! My beta is back and so am I! Bad news though, my laptop blew up like a month ago or something so I can't type my stories. I've been trying to do it on my phone but it's actually harder than I thought. I still haven't bought a new one because blah. Anyway, there's another chapter after this but I won't post it right away, perhaps I'll wait for a week or two before posting or whenever I have time.

Summary: They weren't sure whether they were in the right time or place but what they were sure of was that they were in deep trouble.

Warning: Violence, child abuse, attempt rape in future chapters, character death.

Rating may change.

No pairings but now that I'm reading the fic, there might be hints of 0027 and 9618.

Beta'd by Pure Red Crane. Thank you very much!


"We'll be home before dinner. Until then, behave yourselves, alright?"

Giotto patted each of the kid's head, his lip tugging upwards as most of them who gave him a smile in return. It had been three days since the children decided to stay in the mansion. They still hadn't told them their purpose, but Giotto's trust never once wavered. Having the kids wasn't a bad thing as it made the mansion livelier. Most of the guardians' moods improved as well.

The children bid the guardians goodbye, closing the door behind them as the guardians warned them one more time not to leave the mansion until they returned.

Tsuna felt exhausted. Who would have thought that pretending to be a child was this draining? He tried his best to imitate how Lambo or I-pin would be, but sometimes, he thought he was trying too hard.

Now that they had the mansion all to themselves, the small guardians immediately headed back to their room. Hibari, though, went in the opposite direction, wanting to spend the rest of the day in solitude. They didn't know where he was heading, but no one stopped him as the skylark had been extremely moody these days. Perhaps he was starting to get bored? They had been doing nothing besides thinking, after all.

Once they reached their room, Gokudera started muttering to himself, "There's no information to go on, ergo I can't prove a good hypothesis." Every minute, without fail, the bomber would think about Reborn and the bazooka's malfunction. His boss had been way too stressed about it. So, to help him, Gokudera had been producing theories, calculations and a lot more, but reached to a conclusion that baseless speculation won't produce results.

"Did you say something, Gokudera-kun?" Tsuna asked, facing the bomber. The other boy shook his head, replying that he said nothing then went back to thinking.

Tsuna and the others sat down on the bed, downcast. It had been days since they arrived in their ancestors' era, with no memory and all. Figuring out the reason had been fruitless so far and basically having nothing to do was starting to make them feel callous with each passing day. They were making no progress!

Yamamoto, as if remembering something, suddenly laughed, the other kids casting their gaze in his direction with confusion. "I'm not sure if it'll be helpful, but last night I had a dream, haha. Well, it wasn't really a pleasant dream because there were dead people, but..." He paused, but didn't have the chance to continue as Enma interrupted, his eyes wide.

"W-Were you dead in the dream?" the redhead inquired, making the others widen their eyes at his question.

The swordsman had his mouth hanging open, his breathing slammed to a stop like he had instantly fossilized. "How did you-? Y-Yeah. I was dead. Uh, if I recall correctly, you had a stake driven into your heart and I was... my arms and legs were amputated." As he finished his sentence, Yamamoto shifted uncomfortably at the edge of the bed. He wasn't really sure if it was really a dream as the feeling of being killed felt extremely real. Not to mention the sudden nostalgia that rushed in his veins like adrenaline, like it already happened before.

"Y-You had the same dream!?" Enma's eyebrows shot half way up his forehead, feeling alarmed. "U-Uhm the dream was pretty unsettling, but I'm pretty sure we weren't the only ones in there."

Tsuna's intuition suddenly kicked in, the boy making a vague sound in his throat. He wasn't sure why it was acting up, but he knew it wasn't because his companions were lying. It was something else. It acted like an alarm, in a way, but the brunet pushed it down as he listened to his companions.

"Huh? Wait a minute..." Ryohei, who was busy punching the air moments ago, halted his actions to look at the redhead. "I remember having a similar dream. Hmm...I was with Lambo though and there was someone else in the room, I can't remember, but what I know is that we were already dead."

They barely ever see the older boy so serious, but when he was, it meant that he was talking about something really important.

"A-Ah. Actually, I-I had the same too." Chrome fumbled her words, her eyes skipping around the room; left, right, anywhere but in her companions eyes. "I remember the other person who was there. They had a mask on and a black robe. And..." She paused, a feeling like stage fright churned her stomach, though she didn't understood why. "Boss and two others were running towards a room, after that, I remember being impaled by a long sword before blacking out." By the time she finished, her breathing came in short, irregular gasps. Remembering the dream was frightening and it terrified her even more than most of the dreams she had of them dying.

Tsuna wasn't sure of what to think of that as he didn't have the dream himself. He turned his head to Gokudera, who shook his head when asked if he had similar experience. So maybe the other two people Chrome was talking about were him, Gokudera and Hibari. Still, most of them having the same dream was strange. How did that happen? Was that even possible?

"Ah!" Yamamoto suddenly gasped, startling everyone in the room. Gokudera threw a pillow in his direction, effectively hitting him on his face, but the swordsman merely laughed it off. "You're right, Chrome! I remember someone! The masked person with a black robe! They were in my dream too!"

Enma tried digging deeper into his memory before exclaiming, "W-Wait! I think they were in mine too. Uh, the mask they wore was smiling, right? I can't recall the colors of the mask very well, but I'm sure it was the mask you see in a drama club poster, the smiling one!" The redhead wasn't sure if he had described the masked person correctly, but their sun guardian perked up, placing a bandaged hand on his chin.

"Oh! You're right! They were laughing eerily, if my memory is correct." The boxer tried recalling the exact color of the mask when Enma mentioned it, but aside from the information he had unravelled thus far, nothing else came to mind.

Collective unconsciousness? Perhaps autosuggestion created a shared delusion of… No, there were too many coinciding points for that. Gokudera didn't have enough information to construct a reasonable hypothesis as to how they had similar nightmares.

"W-Wait a minute. Why are you the only ones who had the dream?" Tsuna asked, his jaw muscles jumping as he considered his friends' words. The brunet also noted that the ones who shared similar dreams encountered another person who wasn't a part of their group. Even worse, said person might be the one who killed them in their dream too.

There was a heavy silence in the room as the occupants tried their best to come up with a reason for how their boss and the bomber didn't share the dream, "U-Uh, like I said earlier, I saw Boss and another two people enter a room…so uhm, maybe it's because you didn't die in the dream?" Chrome whispered, unsure if that was the answer Tsuna was searching for.

"Hngh, not enough data to go on." Gokudera drew in a long breath and let it hiss out slowly. So many hypotheses to verify and he didn't even know where to begin with.

Perhaps they should ask Hibari if he had a similar dream. After all, they weren't really sure if the third person Chrome remembered was Hibari.

"Hey, why don't we as-?"

It had happened before either of them could comprehend.

An explosion.

...

Giotto and his companions had just finished talking to one of their clients, who had provided them some nifty information. Before parting with said client, the blond and the rest made sure to thank them for their support. The client happily replied that if they find something new, they wouldn't hesitate to send them a letter.

After leaving and making their trip back to their base, Alaude had gotten off the carriage to go back to the station and finish some business he didn't bother mentioning to the others. They bid him farewell, Giotto telling him to make sure to come back in time for dinner if his schedule permits.

"Ugh, I wanna sleep." Lampo sighed, his face crumpled into a rueful grimace. After talking to the client, the thunder guardian felt oddly exhausted. He didn't know why, but he guessed that perhaps it was because the discussion itself was so boring that he didn't even remember half of what the client said.

G gave the other a smack, telling him it was his way of waking him up. An argument ensued, but the other occupants of the carriage were already used to the two bickering almost every day that they just chose to ignore them.

"Why're you so keen on abusing me!?" the thunder guardian hissed, ready to pounce at G once the carriage halted, making both guardians stop in their tracks.

Curious, Giotto looked out the window to ask their driver why they suddenly came to a halt, only to see a familiar lump of red hair walking towards them. He smiled, opening the carriage door in order for the other to enter.

"Hey there!" Cozart smiled at the occupants inside the carriage once he entered, closing the door behind him and sitting beside Giotto.

"Huh? When did you come back from France?" G asked, ceasing his argument with Lampo, who seemed to be satisfied with his decision.

Cozart had been staying in France for a few weeks due to some business he had to tackle as the boss of his family. He was actually supposed to return next week, but the redhead had finished earlier and was given the liberty to leave whenever he wished to.

"Hmm, this morning, I guess? I was on my way to your mansion when I spotted your carriage." Cozart stated. He also told them that he had just sent his carriage back to their mansion and that he was lucky he saw them.

As if realizing something, the redhead rummaged through his pocket to pull out a letter, with the Vongola crest on it. "I received this letter two days ago. The reason why I wanted to visit is because I wanted to see the children you speak of, Giotto!" Cozart beamed, adding that the reason he also left France in a hurry was because of the kids stated in the letter. He was intrigued because Giotto mentioned that there was a child who looked a lot like him.

Triggered by the topic, the guardians droned on and on about the kids, except for Lampo and G, who decided to stay out of the discussion as they had nothing to brag about. Well, G had something about his lookalike, but he didn't know if it was worth talking about. Lampo, on the other hand, was just tired of taking care of the baby. Was he like that when he was an infant?

Asari mentioned Yamamoto and how he would be a skilled swordsman when he was older. Knuckles stated that Ryohei had the potential to be a boxer if he had enough training, not to mention that the child had a lot of energy and spirit to do it. Daemon mostly mentioned about Chrome's fear of him and asked them if they knew any reason as to why she would be afraid of him, but no one came up with anything. G thought to himself that it was probably his face, but didn't say a thing about it. Giotto bragged about Tsuna's presence and how he was calming.

Their bragging only fueled Cozart's curiosity as he wanted to see the kids more than ever now.

The conversation continued until they realized that they were already nearing the gate. The sun was beginning to set when Lampo lazily looked outside the window, wanting to get out of the carriage as soon as possible. He couldn't stand all the bragging. The sight he saw, however, was certainly something he did not expect to see.

He could see black smoke, pouring into the sky from a single concentrated point, noting that it was coming from the end of the forest, where their mansion was located. "H-Hey, hey!" Lampo yelled, grabbing G's sleeve and shaking him. "Look at that!"

He pointed a finger towards the smoke. G took his sleeve off the other's grip then looked towards whatever Lampo was pointing to, the others doing the same, only to have their eyes widen in shock.

"That's where-"

A thought passed through G's head. The mansion was built of sandstone, the thickest even, and it surely wouldn't be that easy to burn, but the smoke rising from its direction said otherwise. He could only hope it was one of the trees burning, but if that were to happen, the blaze would spread and their mansion would still get caught in the fire.

"Let's go!"

There was no time for discussions as all of them left the carriage, Giotto and Cozart transforming into their Hyper Dying Will Mode before speeding towards the Vongola Manor. The others left behind explained the situation to their driver and then followed suit.

...

The explosion startled everyone in the room. At first, the children sat on the bed dumbfounded before everyone marched towards the area where they thought the explosion happened. Chrome had taken Lambo in case something was to happen in their room.

When they left the room, they saw Hibari running towards the kitchen with both his tonfa in hand. Tsuna wanted to call out to him, but stopped as the rooms on their opposite side began to explode. That was when the kids realized they were under attack. The hallway was now a mess as debris, making it hard for them to run after the skylark.

Tsuna and Enma were ready to transform into their HDWM when the brunet stopped, making the other stop as well. His intuition suddenly acted up, telling him not to go into his HDWM. Tsuna debated at what to do, but Enma, sensing that the other's unwilling to transform, decided not to do so and grabbed the other's hand, dragging him towards where Hibari had gone.

The others followed behind them in a hurry. Before they could enter the room where they saw the skylark enter (the door was already open), Hibari came flying out, his body slamming against Tsuna and Enma. Although not heavily wounded, the children noted the scratches and blood seeping out from the cloud guardian's arms.

Their attention was focused to Chrome next, when they heard her gasp, followed by Yamamoto who only pointed a finger at something inside the room. Even if they didn't enter the room fully, they could see someone in black robes floating and that was when Gokudera realized something: it was the person Yamamoto and the others had described in their dream.

Chrome fell to her knees, feeling nauseous. The memory of her being killed felt extremely real now that she knew that it probably wasn't even a dream. Perhaps it was a sign of the future, but whatever it was, she couldn't care enough as she clutched her chest, the burning pain of being impaled with a sword swelling something up inside, making it hard to breathe.

Enma, Yamamoto and even Ryohei stood there, dumbfounded as if they have just seen a ghost. Was that really a dream then? If the person who was present in their dream was really a person that existed, then...

Whatever they were thinking was cut short as Gokudera and Tsuna snapped them out of their daze to drag them towards the stairs. Hibari had stood up once again to fight, but the bomber had yelled that it was not the time for revenge as the mansion could break at any moment and they could get crushed. The skylark didn't stop though, only for a moment, before Tsuna thanked whatever gods there were when a huge section of the ceiling collapsed to block access to the room. The brunet was also thankful for another god because Hibari didn't get crushed underneath.

The explosions continued and fires broke out, the blaze spreading throughout the mansion, making it hard for them to breathe as their lungs became clogged with smoke. They didn't know what happened, but they heard a much louder explosion and the person clad in black robes floated behind them, black arrows flying everywhere and exploding once they hit the ground.

Gokudera noted that the arrows acted like grenades. Once they hit a solid landing, they would explode. They knew almost nothing about the enemy, so taking note of what they were capable of would always come in handy, if (putting an emphasis) they ever met again.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, another blast was loud enough to get the ground to shake, knocking them off their feet. Enma and Tsuna both fell, face-planting into the ground, while the others held onto the stairs when they lost balance. Their surroundings were starting to get filled with more smoke and breathing was becoming more and more difficult. Tsuna could barely see anyone through all the smoke!

Gokudera grabbed both Enma and Tsuna and quickly pulled them away, bringing them up to their feet as they resumed running for the exit. They could hear various things falling from the first floor to the ground floor.

Chrome screamed. She could hear the ceiling falling around them, but luckily, nothing had fallen on top of herself or the others yet. When she accidentally tripped over something she could barely see, Hibari caught her before she hit the ground. Through hazy surroundings, Chrome looked up to the other. Somehow, his dark eyes seemed to calm her slightly, giving her reassurance that everything would be okay.

Blinking through all the smoke was making Gokudera tear up. From above, he could barely see the person releasing more arrows before disappearing into a multitude of coloured lights. He wasn't sure how they just disappeared, but he vaguely saw them drop something shiny and whatever it was, the bomber decided to ignore it as escaping was their top priority.

The explosions and rumbling continued, getting more violent each time.

Enma coughed loudly as the smoke and dust entered his lungs. They really weren't going to last long. A section of ceiling collapsed in their path, narrowly missing them beneath as it came crashing down. The heat wasn't helping them at all, either.

The children sighed in relief when they finally reached the front door. Yamamoto hurriedly opened the door, but a second later after he, Chrome, Lambo and Hibari made it outside just as the building went completely up in smoke and fire, a large part of the ceiling came down and landed, right before the other children's salvation.

The other kids left inside jumped backwards from the door to get away from the debris.

Gokudera wished he could use one of his bombs, but it could make matters worse, so he didn't. He mentally cursed, feeling helpless as he tried his hardest to remove the debris, but his strength was just not enough. The bomber could hear a voice from the other side of the debris.

"B-Boss, everyone-!"

...

Giotto and Cozart arrived later than they expected. They noticed that most of the kids were already outside, desperately pushing against a rubble blocking the entrance. The two immediately crushed the debris, asking the children to stay put as they entered the burning mansion in a hurry.

The rest of the guardians arrived at the scene, watching as their Boss and the Simon boss flew out of the burning house with some of the kids in their arms. Once Giotto and Cozart landed on the ground, farther from the mansion, another huge explosion rocked the ground and the building was demolished.

"G-Guys, are you alright!?" Yamamoto and the others were immediately at Tsuna's side. The brunet and the others thought they were done for the moment their exit was blocked. If it wasn't for Primo and the Simon boss, they would have been crushed under the weight of the ceiling.

"W-We're alright. What about you, guys?" Tsuna replied, panting a little. The adrenaline he felt earlier was too much. The want to get out and not die made him want to transform into his HDWM. If he did though, he would have been caught as Primo and the other boss had arrived seconds after he considered doing it.

Now that they were looking at the children, it seemed like none of them were heavily wounded. Hibari was slightly bleeding from his arms, but aside from that, he looked fine. Chrome and Gokudera seemed fine as well, aside from the scratches they had on their faces and arms. Lambo, who had been crying, was fine as he was protected by Chrome. Ryohei's knuckles were bleeding, the child staring at his fists. It was probably from punching the debris earlier. Why couldn't it break? Usually, they would break with just one punch. Yamamoto was in the same state as Hibari, but the boy seemed to be more worried about the others as he ignored his own wounds. Tsuna and Enma had light burns and scratches all over their faces and arms, but they said they were fine and that they would heal the next day.

"W-What happened!?" G asked, looking at the kids before his gaze landed on the mansion. They were only gone for a few hours and this happened!?

Knuckles knelt down, placing his hand over each child's wounds. His Vongola Ring emitted a warm flame as he tried healing their wounds.

"Let's save that for later. First, we need to call a doctor." Giotto stated, pondering if they had enough time to head to another base until this one was fixed, but Cozart placed a hand on his shoulder, making him twist his head to look at him.

"Stay in the Simon Manor for now. My guardians have business elsewhere, so there won't be anyone in there for a while." Cozart offered. He didn't really give them any room for objections as the children needed medical help as soon as possible, so the others agreed and headed towards the Simon Manor.

Giotto and Cozart remained in their HDWM, carrying each child with delicacy. G and Daemon had stayed behind to find some clues, if there were any left, while Knuckles, Asari and Lampo suggested they report the happenings to Alaude and headed towards the station.

...

When they arrived in the Simon manor, Cozart immediately sent a messenger to call for a doctor. It didn't take a long for said doctor to arrive and check on the kids.

Chrome and Gokudera had a brief check-up. Ryohei had his fists disinfected before the doctor wrapped them in new bandages. Thanks for Knuckles' help earlier, Hibari's arms didn't seem as wounded as it were earlier, so the doctor only disinfected them and then dressed. Same went for Yamamoto, who had his own cuts and burns disinfected before they were covered in bandages. Tsuna and Enma got the same treatment as everyone and promptly after that, they were told to stay and rest in their room in the meantime.

Cozart and Giotto thanked the doctor as he reported that none of them were in a grave state. He also told them to make sure the kids drank enough water for the next few days. After bidding him farewell, the two sat in the living room as they waited for the other guardians to arrive. They also pondered about what happened in the Vongola Mansion earlier.

"Do you think this would have happened if we didn't leave the children alone?" Giotto asked, looking downcast as a sigh escaped between his lips. He couldn't really tell if they were taking care of the children well. After what happened, he would say they were failures as their guardians.

The redhead shook his head, patting his friend's back. "What's done is done. No one could've predicted it, so it's not your fault." Cozart replied. To be honest, he would have been excited to meet his lookalike if the situation wasn't how it was now. He did see him earlier and noted the similarities.

The blond didn't say anything in return. He felt... useless. Not only did they arrive late, but the kids were also hurt and it was because of them. Maybe G was right after all...

His thoughts were cut short when he heard the sound of soft padding footsteps coming from the stairs.

Both adults raised their heads to see the children looking at them with worried expressions. It seemed that only Hibari, Ryohei and Lambo were not present. Giotto beckoned a hand to them and the kids immediately rushed towards them. When they were beside the Vongola Boss, the blond lifted each one gently and sat them in between him and Cozart.

"Not sleepy?" Giotto started, patting Tsuna's head as he looked at each child with a gentle smile. Cozart did the same, patting his lookalike's head as he smiled at the children. Now that he was close to his lookalike, he had to wonder why the kid had his bangs on his face. Could he see anything through his hair at all?

After giving a brief introduction for the Simon boss, Giotto wore a serious expression and asked, "I know it was traumatizing, but if you still remember what happened, would you mind telling us?" It was a bit insensitive of him to ask right after they just experienced something so traumatizing, but the brunet shook his head and then looked down, letting out a soft sight.

"I-I'm sorry..." he started, his hands and shoulder trembling as he continued, "I could barely see anything through the smoke..."

Gokudera, unsure if he should mention the person they saw, looked at his boss momentarily before saying something as well, "There was an explosion before anything and then more just came after the first one."

Yamamoto and Chrome nodded at their statements, adding that everything happened right after they left.

There was a brief silence as the two boss tried coming up with a reason how it happened. Was it a family that was out for their blood? But none of the other families knew about the children yet. Not even Cozart knew about them until he sent the letter. If whoever did it had a grudge against them, then finding the culprit could take a long time.

"That's alright." Cozart stated, smiling at the kids once again. When they looked at him with curiosity, the redhead almost laughed because his lookalike indeed looked like him, but he would be grateful if he would just move his bangs away from his face. "You must have been scared. No one's blaming you."

Tsuna was about to say something, but whatever he wanted to tell them never left his lips as he heard a voice in his head.

"There's...fa...ly...%?...zzzzzzzzt..."

Huh...?

"A family...destroy...%O?...No..."

A familiar voice rang in his head, along with strong static that it made him clutch his head in pain. The other kids got worried for a moment before they too felt the sensation he was feeling once they made physical contact with the brunet.

"Past...Spirit...Vongola ...?,%...ssssssssssssttttttt."

Yamamoto resisted the temptation to bury his aching head in his hands. The static was getting worse. It felt as if someone or something was trapped inside his head, and was trying to crack open his skull to get out. The others were feeling the same pain and they all knelt to the ground, making noises at the back of their throats.

"You won't exist in the future."

And then it stopped. All at once. The voice, the static, everything. For a moment, the two bosses got worried that the others suddenly dropped to their knees and started groaning. Once they sprung back to life, they had to ask if they were alright, but none of them seemed to have heard them.


A/N: Gods, it's done. Few more to go. I'm dying. Sorry sorry for the really late updates haha. Too busy and too lazy.. Like, I'm not exactly lazy, just that my writing is too rusty for my liking, ya know? Makes me feel a little discouraged.