Thank you to: Kildosad, RoxanneTheGreat, NeroAutore, LiterallyMetaphoric, BrokenBlackCat, Rikkai and hyotei lover, Azrayah, Iwataki, animebaka14, Neukiri, Swanfrost15, Ayz283, Momoxtsuna123, Zylia16, and Kaidou Shouta for reviewing!

Congratulations to all the people who guessed correctly! It was indeed Shoichi!

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 25 Time is Ticking Away

"Is everything ready?" Giotto asked the group before him. "I don't want any mess ups tomorrow."

He was taking on the role of the leader. He was calm. He was confident. He was in charge.

"As ready as we'll ever be," G informed his friend. The crimson haired boy was portraying the calm before the storm, ready to let loose and release his unending fury on those deserving.

"W-wait!"

The group swiveled around to see a stranger standing by the door. The groups' eyes narrowed, but it was their leader who spoke up.

"Who are you?" Giotto studied the nervous red-head as she clutched her stomach and took a step back in fear. But there was also determination in her eyes.

"M-my name is Irie Shoichi. Tsuna-san sent me here to help."

Before anyone else could speak, Alaude snapped his head around and stood up, glaring viciously. "You are the head of the technician department, as well as one of the 13 student council leaders at Millefiore Academy."

In a blink of the eye, the entire group turned hostile.

"Y-Yes I am, but that was because Tsuna-san asked me to!" The red headed girl interjected before anyone else could start talking.

"Tsuna would never send someone into someplace as dangerous as that!" The blond president rebuked immediately, angrily.

"Tsuna was too kind hearted to be able to place a friend in that position, so there's no use lying," Lampo added. "Byakuran is crazy. If you were actually a friend, then Tsuna would have brought you here or something."

"Mmm! That's just how dangerous this situation is!" Shoichi shouted. "Tsuna-san knew this day was coming, so she did everything she could to try to help!"

"You liar!" Gokudera yelled. "If Tsuna-sama knew, then she would have been able to avoid this!"

Shoichi frowned. "Don't you think she tried that!"

"You should just show them the video, Shoichi," a new, and extremely laid back, voice cut in.

Once again, the group looked around, this time spotting a blond in a green jumpsuit and a laptop tucked under his arm strolling in. The boy took out a strange wrench looking lollipop and stuck it in his mouth. "I'm Spanner. But you should listen to what Shoichi has to show you."

"Tsuna said all of you would be too hard headed to listen, so she made this video some time ago while we were setting everything up," Shoichi explained calmly.

"Shoichi hadn't become a member of the student council yet, had you?" the laid back blond asked his red headed companion.

The girl shook her head and took the offered laptop, pulling it open and typing away. When she turned the device around, everyone saw their beloved little sister on the screen.

"Is it on?" Tsuna asked someone in the background. "Good. We have to make this quick. I only have an hour to make it back to the door before it closes. Look, Giotto, everyone…If you're watching this, then my other plans didn't work out. I can't explain it to you and I don't have time to try, but Byakuran and I are linked. Again, I don't know why, but I know that he's going to try and take it. The three of us have had a connection that transcends time and space, and nothing anyone tries to do will stop it from happening. At this point, I'm not strong enough to stop him, and neither are the rest of you. I know you're going to want to come after me, and I know this video or anything else I could possibly say won't stop your attempt. So I'm doing the next best thing. Shoichi is the best strategist I have ever met. And Shoichi, I am so, so sorry for doing this to you. I wish there was another way, I wish it more than anything. But the information you could gather as a student under Byakuran would be invaluable. Please don't do anything reckless. We haven't known each other long, but you're my friend and I don't want to lose anyone else. Reborn…This next part is for you…"

The hitman perked and moved over so that he could see the screen directly.

"When next we meet…I need you to shoot me."

Immediately the room was in uproar, but Reborn only had room for the brunette's face.

"I know-…I know that everyone won't believe me. But…If Byakuran has me, then I'm sure he's already broken what's left. I can't-…I just can't bear the thought that everyone will end up hurt or worse because of me. Shoichi and I have been working on a special bullet, I may have even asked Verde for help at one point or another. But I need you to take that bullet and aim to kill. This is a crucial part of the plan and I can't trust anyone else to do it but you. There's only going to be one window of opportunity and if you don't do it, then everything that we've done will be for nothing. I'm trusting you to do this."

"Tsunayoshi-san, someone's coming!" A person off to the side hissed.

The brunette nodded curtly and turned back to the camera one last time. "The rest of you probably came up with some idiotic plan. Listen to Shoichi and let her plan this out, she knows this place better than anyone. You have to make sure to bring everything. I have to go. Beware of the non tri-ne-sette radiation! Good-bye!"

The feed cut, leaving the slightly blurred image of Tsuna reaching for something.

"What the hell are you trying to pull?" Gokudera growled. "Juudaime would never ask something like that!"

"We should look at this at a logical standpoint," Verde interjected, pushing the bridge of his glass up.

"Are you trying to say that Juudaime would actually tell us to kill her?" The silver demanded. "This is obviously someone's attempt to fool us!"

"We're not saying that Tsuna would say something like that without reason," Fon jumped in. "We're just saying that we need to analyze the situation."

"I have to agree with Gokudera on this one, senpai," Yamamoto added to the fray. "The Tsuna we know would never ask her friends something like this because she knows it would hurt us."

"From what I hear, you didn't know everything about Tsuna-san until just recently," Spanner drawled. "How do you she didn't tell you everything."

"Of course she told us everything! She said so!" Gokudera hissed, refusing to let the hurt he felt from that statement show.

"She couldn't have told you about this or all of you wouldn't have let it happen!" Shoichi argue.

"You didn't see how scared she was!" Daemon rebuked. "We could all see it, clear as day. When Byakuran kidnapped her on that video."

"Of course she was scared! Even with everything she was planning, there's no way that she wouldn't still be scared of someone so much stronger!" Shoichi shot back.

"I EXTREMELY don't understand!"

"Of course you wouldn't you stupid idiot!" Gokudera yelled.

Verde scoffed. "Like any of you simpletons would understand anything."

"What was that!"

Words on top of words. The arguments increased into nonsensical shouts. A mob of anger, fear, and violence. Everyone was yelling at someone.

The group was dissolving.

Bang!

Heads swiveled around, expecting to see Reborn. But to their surprise it was Luce who stood with a smoking gun.

"Everyone needs to calm down," the sky Arcobaleno said soothingly. "Think about Tsuna would say if she saw all of you like this. I'm sure she would be very disappointed."

"Have you seen something?" Lal inquired.

The young woman nodded solemnly. "I have seen shadows of this event for some time now, but nothing ever made sense until now. Still, I cannot yet interpret further visions of the future. "

"And what else are you holding back exactly," Giotto growled.

Luce's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Keep your head and your wits about you, Giotto-kun. We-"

To everyone's shock, each member of the Arcobaleno collapsed abruptly.

"W-What's going on, kora!" Colonello managed.

"Mugya! I can't move!" Mammon struggled to sit up, but found himself immobile.

Even Reborn was just barely holding himself against the wall.

"Oh no!" Shoichi gasped. "Quick, Spanner! We have to set up the filter!"

The two got to work, pulling out strange devices and typing away on the laptop once more. The red head tossed a bunch of the devices to the student council.

"Attach those to the windows, quickly!" She urged the group while Spanner went behind her and started setting up the same devices on the doorframe.

"What?" G mumbled, unsure what to do.

"If you don't hurry, then they'll die!" Shoichi cried.

Giotto didn't trust the duo, but he trusted his intuition. He grabbed one of the devices and ordered the rest to help. It was only the panic of the moment, which caused the group to work together. Whatever was out there must be more dangerous than they could imagine, for what else could bring the strongest eight in the world to their knees?

Darkness.

Darkness consumed and revolved around her.

It was nothing and it was everything. Binding, freeing. Light and heavy.

But it was only lonely.

Where was she?

…

What…was she?

She was a person?

…

Perhaps a thought?

…

What time was it?

Then again, what was time?

…

There was something she was supposed to be doing. But what was she do? And what was this something?

Importance? No importance?

How curious, how uncurious she could be.

"Tsuna-san."

Was she a she? Or was it he? An it perhaps? Or a was?

"Tsuna-san!"

Was it here? Or there? Or everywhere?

Day, night…Dark, light…Yin, yang…Water, fire…Sky, earth…And there were seven to twenty one, plus another seven on the side. It was a rainbow over the horizon.

"Tsuna-san!"

Oh?

What was that?

Was it a who or a what?

"A who, Tsuna-san. A person. A girl. A friend."

A friend?

What was a friend?

Could she eat it? Play with it?

Would it stay with her when she needed it and take away the scary darkness?

"Yes and no. I will stay with you, but our other friends will get us out."

Was that so? Or is that so?

So curious, yet uncurious.

"You need to get a hold of yourself, Tsuna-san. Or they won't be able to find you."

Find you? Find who?

Perhaps the color blue?

No, yellow was better.

Find yellow. Yellow was warm and reminded her of something nice.

"Tsuna-san, concentrate on that warm feeling. Who does it make you think of?"

Who? Or a when?

There are lots of when's.

"There's people in those moments. Think about those people. There's also a special someone. Think about him too."

Hm.

No people. But there were colors. Lots of colors.

There was a smarty-pants green, a loud blue, a calming-scary orange, an annoying-crybaby purple, a greedy indigo, a sergeant blue-indigo, a calming-windy red, a crybaby-bratty seaweed green, a crybaby-bratty cow green, a happy-go-lucky-flutey blue, a loud-bright yellow, a calm-bright yellow, a happy-go-lucky-baseball blue, a big brother orange, a flarry-stormy red, a calm-thoughtful-sometimes-loud red, a big creepy indigo, a little creepy indigo, a nice-shy indigo, a scary big-bird purple, a scary-not-scary little-less-of-a-big-bird purple, an angry red-ish orange, a stalker green, a ushishishi bloody red, a pedo-creepy yellow, a loud-sharky blue, and a faint set of earthy red-browns tinted red.

"You're missing one."

One?

Why one?

It's two.

Yes two.

A nice, warm, wonderful, powerful, reliable, lion yellow. That's a nice color. She likes this color. It's a good color.

But then there was a darker, more sinister yellow. It was annoying, and dangerous, and scary, yet sometimes nice. But it was mean, and it pulled pranks, and it was a Spartan tutor, and it annoyed her.

And he pissed her off, even if he was nice sometimes. And he was always getting into her business, and breaking into her dorm.

"And dammit Reborn! Get out of my head!"

"There you go."

"Ara, who's there? And where am I?"

"I'm a friend. You've been a little out of it since you've been stuck here for so long."

"That doesn't answer where we are. Although, you do seem faintly familiar. Have we met?"

"We have." A giggle. "Can you guess? If you can, I'll tell you everything."

She thought. And then thought some more. "It's very difficult to think here."

"So don't search for those memories. Let your thoughts come to you."

"I don't like games much."

"But you have to think like a game, because there can only be one winner. The bouncing marshmallow has the lead, so it's time for you to catch up."

"This sort of talk messes my head up."

"But again, it's a game. Think like your enemy to win."

"An enemy, a friend, and a delusional no-thought. What a fine threesome we make."

"But skies should stick together, no?"

"Even when we fade to night."

"Is that resolve or have you given up."

"Depends on the frame of mind."

"And why is that?"

"Because we give up on tomorrow to fight for today."

"And why is that?"

"Because tomorrow never actually comes."

"I see. Then what will you do?"

"Well if dancing marshmallow-"

"Bouncing marshmallow."

"Dancing, bouncing, whatever it is! If the marshmallow moves to the side, then we should move up! And then when time and space aligns…"

"The rainbow shall appear."

"Correct! Because through it all, the skies will stand together, yes?"

"Yes."

"Then we have already made our move."

"I see that now. You are very different than what I remember, Tsuna-san."

"As are you, Uni."

A smile. "I will be here to keep you mind in order."

"That's good, because I need to keep my wits in order. Space thinks he has the lead, but the Rainbow is just waiting in the wings and the Clams have yet to run asunder."

"The In-Between is ready as well."

"And Time has started ticking away."

There were a lot of hints for the upcoming battle in Tsuna's and Uni's conversation. Did you see them? ;)

WINNERS OF GUESSING CONTEST (Also on profile.)

Part One; Elena:

UnfadingPromise, xXxMentalPancakesxXx, Iwataki, TheKawaiiStar21, Kildosad, Connection of Complication, Akainokami (? I'm going to assume you knew), Silent Orange Summers, PurpleSong, lolo MN, Secret29, Kaidou Shouta, Hoshi Yuhi, and TsuKiLo!

Part Two; Shoichi:

Kildosad, RoxanneTheGreat, NeroAutore, Neukiri, Swanfrost15, Momoxtsuna123, and Zylia16!

Grand Prize of your choosing goes to:

Kildosad!

Everyone else who guessed correctly (for either one), you can ask for either a spoiler or something else that's small!

Thank you very much everyone! I hope you had as much fun as I did, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

Reviews equal food for thought~!