AN: The next chapter is being really difficult so here's a scene that really doesn't fit anywhere in the chapter schedules but makes a perfect intermission. You all wanted to know who the Arcobaleno ghouls are, right? well here they are

Chapter Seven: Intermission: In a Secret Base Far away

There was blood in his mouth.

It took Reborn a moment to realize that. It took him even longer moments to realize that his eyes were open and, while his limbs were bound flat to whatever it was he was lying on, he was moving. What told him this was that the thing in front of his eyes, what was that again…. Well whatever it was it kept moving above him.

"That's a ceiling," said a voice, "and ceiling lights. We're almost there now."

Oh. Had he said that out loud?

"Yes. And that too."

Reborn groaned.

A face ducked into his vision, blocking out the lights that passed overhead. The lights illuminated blond hair and a green bandana tied over bright blue eyes. "Good morning, Reborn!"

Reborn's fingers twitched for a gun or even just to reach out towards, was that Colonello? What was he doing here in Italy? ...Were they even still in Italy? But when he tried to move, pain lanced up his arm and he let out a grunt.

Colonello looked away from him, "He's making pain noises again, Fon. Did you give him the right amount?"

There was no verbal reply, but the cart? Table? Bed? Thing that he was bound to jerked forward a little faster. Colonello crouched down, getting closer to Reborn as he grabbed something to stabilize himself. "Sorry," Colonello said, his face completely unapologetic. "Fon's in a bit of a mood. It took a bit of time to get here through all the security and customs and ah, who am I kidding? Smuggling doesn't have any of that kind of shit! Fon's just pissy because it took so long for us to get you here. We hit traffic between uhhh… one small shitty town and the next, you know? Shit happens when you don't the helicopter like I suggested in the first place!" He said this with a look backwards again.

The cart-table-bed jerked again and Reborn grunted again in pain. "So you… fucked up… and I have to suffer?" he said through each painful grunt.

"Hey now," Colonello said, getting in his face again, "I'm not the motherfucker who joined the fucking Vongola and encouraged little baby ghouls into fighting for their lives against experienced ghoul-killing assassins."

"Half," Reborn protested. He was waking up more, now, and the pain was lessening. "Tsunayoshi is half."

"Yeah. And pretty impressive for being a half-breed too." Colonello pokes him hard in the forehead, "At least he fucking was, anyway. Then you Vongola bastards had to walk in and shit all over his life. That does not please me in any way, maggot."

"What?" Reborn tried to turn his head away from the poke and discovered that his head was being held down too. And he wore a brace on his neck. A quick twitch of fingers and toes and everything in between told him that he was not only broken in a hell of a lot of places but that he was bandaged, in casts and still strapped down with thick leather. "Why do you even care?"

Colonello held his chin in one hand, forcing Reborn to go still and stop evaluating his body's situation and stare up at him. Between one blink and the next, Colonello's bright blue eyes go ghoulish. Reborn whimpers.

"Good," Colonello says, "You're catching on."

They come to a stop. There's a light above them and the soft dinging sound of elevator doors opening. Colonello shifts back as another weight joins him on the bed. Fon appears in Reborn's line of sight but he's only gets a quick, silent glance before the Storm Arcobaleno steps away again.

"This is so stupid," Colonello says. "Who has four floors to their secret base anyway? Who needs this kind of space?"

Fon says nothing.

Reborn tries not to whimper again and succeeds.

It's the quiet elevator music that makes Reborn's pulse start to race. It's so normal that it's the most surreal thing in this whole experience. His breathing speeds up, becomes erratic, as the elevator comes to a slow stop and the doors open with another chime. The music fades out as Fon drops down and starts pushing the cart again.

"Oi!" Colonello shouts, "We're here!"

"You're late," comes the reply, distant and somewhat distracted. Reborn can smell blood in the air and… and something else.

"There was traffic over the bridge. Well. There used to be a bridge. That's why there was traffic."

"Didn't you say you were going to take the helicopter?" A slightly more interested tone in this reply.

"Fon said not to get any attention. Vongola's looking for Reborn and they've got Lal helping. I agreed because I'm not about to get her into any trouble."

"Tch," Fon's voice, "You're too soft on her. You always have been."

"Don't be jealous, Fon, wrinkles can still ruin your baby face."

There's a series of thumps and shouts as Colonello rolls out of view, and, for a split second, Fon is in the air above Reborn, going after him.

"Hey, Hey!" The third voice. Reborn is struggling to place it. His head is aching and his body throbs in time with his heartbeat. He's pretty sure at least a hundred of his two hundred and six bones might be broken. "Watch the equipment! If you two are going to bounce around like the little kids you resemble then do it outside. This operation is difficult enough on an adult, it's going to be hellish on someone like him."

Operation? Reborn tries to sit up again but is held down. He struggles, in vain, and only ends up hurting himself more. "What are you doing to me?"

Fon appears above him, looking down at him with his normal face. That does nothing to calm Reborn down. After some silent evaluation, Fon looks up, "Are you ready yet? I don't have all day. I need to get to Namimori as soon as I can."

"I'm ready, I'm ready!" Another body joins them on the bed and Reborn's eyes widen at the sight of Verde. Verde adjusts his glasses and looks him over with a clinical expression. "Dear god, Fon, is there even access to his body with all these casts? How long did you beat him?"

"Not long enough," Fon replied, "Everything broke and he got boring. And there is certainly access. You said you were going to do a koukaku type on him so I left that area of the back free. His ribs are only broken in the front."

"What operation?" Reborn tried again, this time asking Verde.

"Why," Verde said with a small little smile. The lights flashed over his glasses. The eyes beneath were dark- a ghoul's eyes. Reborn visibly flinched at the sight of them. "Enacting your punishment, of course. Fon says you won't ever learn just from a beating or two. If that were true, you wouldn't have done such monumentally idiotic things. You need a permanent consequence- as permanent as, say, removing memories. That's why he's so graciously allowed me temporary rights to your person."

"...You have my body rights?" Reborn looked at Verde and then turned his head the fraction of an inch it was able to move and looked to Fon, "You gave him my body rights? Do you have any idea what he's going to do with me?"

Fon stared back at him, his expression unchanging. "I do."

"Fon!" Reborn shouted.

"That's enough chatter from you," Verde said, reaching for something. He found it- a plastic mask with a tube attached to it- and placed it over Reborn's mouth and nose. "Time to go to sleep little one. When you wake up… You'll be a whole new you." Verde smiled at him, sweetly, as if Reborn were the child he looked like.

Fon leaned over, obscuring Reborn's vision of the room's ceiling and of Verde, who leaned back to give him space. As drowsiness from the anesthetic began to pull at Reborn's consciousness, Fon said quietly, "If you hadn't given up what we had… If you hadn't given up your memories, my friend, this wouldn't be necessary."

Reborn opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His eyes fluttered closed, the last thing he saw being Fon's bitter expression as he sank into a drugged unconsciousness.