"I'll find him, he's somewhere down here, I sense it. I'll become his apprentice. I'll turn everything ugly into something beautiful."

The mischievous, green-haired child was gone. Sitting on the gory laboratory floor was a child's form with a blank expression and a deadened tone. He held an eyeball lightly between this thumb and index finger, crimson nerves spilling from the back. The dismembered organ was illuminated with Mist Flames, and transformed into a perfect lavender flower. He shifted his gaze from the counterfeit blossom and fixated on the trio looking down on him, "the hostages are nearby, we're closing in."

Hibari turned from the herd of young girls surrounding Fran with a low sound of contempt. His tolerance for illusionists— even fledging illusionists performing their vile kill— was low, and his patience with crowds, bottomless. Chrome rose as well, leaving Yuni to manage the girls and try and retrieve the lost boy.

"Kyoya," her bright round eyes widening even more than usual, "this is our fault. How could we have let a child get involved with this? We knew it could have ended this way. This world is not suitable for kids."

"He is not so much older than we were when we became involved with Sawada Tsunayoshi, is he?"

Before Chrome could answer, the oldest looking girl shot up from the huddled group of former inmates. "What did you call him?" she demanded of Chrome. The pair looked to the source of the unexpected disturbance, and the girl's eyes flashed with recognition. "I thought so," she said, shocked. "The carnivorous skylark…who flew the nest." Her jaw was working, and her bloodied fingers curled into fists. "Have you come back to torture us some more, you twisted heir?" she screeched.

The other girls stared, confused and startled at their senior's outburst, but already preparing to support her. The newly liberated group had their first taste of freedom, of blood. They were at their most dangerous. Fran fingered an unidentifiable lump of flesh and morphed it into a vibrant seashell absentmindedly. Yuni dragged him by the hand out of the increasingly hostile cluster.

"The little ones are too young to remember, but I do," continued the girls' leader. "What business do you have here, after flying away so early…and leaving us behind?"

"We aren't here to hurt you!" cried Chrome, stepping forward, hand clutched tightly over her chest. The treacherous company relaxed ever-so-slightly, being addressed by another woman. "We came to rescue our-" Chrome felt Hibari's eyes boring into the back of her head. "That is, my friends. We'll rescue you too, if you want to come with us!"

There was a tense silence, broken by, "we're not the only ones." A small, whispered voice from the midst of the girls. There was another beat, and the knot of bodies loosened. The girls split into smaller groups, then pairs, then filled down the room alone, leaving crimson fingerprints on the rows upon rows of suspended animation tanks that unfolded endlessly behind them.

"These are…" Chrome was breathless. "There are like…these are like where they were keeping Mukuro!" But he was released, she reminded herself. His sentence was served, and he was released. But…

But not one had seen him since his release. Not his physical body. He had only appeared as strong illusionary projections.

"You are the Flameless, correct?" Hibari addressed sinister girls. "Then these must be…"

"The Living Energy Generators," echoed scattered voices across the lab.

Chrome bolted from her companions and plastered herself to the nearest tank. Submerged in a pulsing gelatin-like substance was a boy with masses of white hair floating around him. His eyes moved erratically under his thin lids. He looked barley alive, a fading wraith. The pulsing grew more intense, his body gave a spasmodic jolt, and his fingers tingled with electric green flames. Chrome watched, aghast, as the spluttering flares were pulled from the boy, up into a tube exiting the tank and—

She ran across the laboratory, eyes fixated on the ceiling where tubes from other tanks joined together until she lost sight of the one she was originally following. She stopped, gasping, in the far corner of the room where a mass of tubes traveled up out of sight.

"Chrome-chan!" Yuni was close behind her, also panting.

"So, this is what they've been working on all this time." Hibari's voice, characteristically flat, as well. "That damned illusionist seemed to have intimate knowledge of their methods."

Chrome turned on him furiously "Mukuro-sama would never work with these monsters!"

"The monster would never work with monsters?" the Cloud Guardian returned her fiery gaze, his demeanor changing. "You may not remember this, Chrome, but when you first arrived at the base your precious Mukuro," he spat the name like something disgusting out of his mouth, "used you to demonstrate this," he gestured broadly to the captive human energy generators, "while you were in the infirmary. He has used you from the moment he slithered into your body!"

"I owe it to him to be as useful as I can!" If she wasn't so enraged, Chrome would have been utterly shocked that distant, indifferent Hibari Kyouya was yelling at her. "That's what you do for cherished friends that you love, you support them! Maybe that's something you wouldn't understand, mister aloof Cloud Guardian!" She stopped briefly for air, an ourburst like this was uncharacteristic for her too. "He isn't the only one who was knowledgeable about what has been going on here, is he? What did you call those girls? The Flameless?"

She looked like she was going to continue berating him, but just at the highest pitch of her frenzy, her head dropped abruptly into her chest, purple curtains of hair shading her face. When she lifted her eyes again they were mismatched blue and red.

"You!" roared Hibari. "I'm done with your games! I'll bite you to death!"

Chrome's hand extended out into the universal symbol for 'halt.' Not a full possession, the seething Cloud Guardian noted. The dazed, heterochromatic Chrome then addressed Yuni. "Hurry," Mukuro's voice commanded. The bewitched arm then floated to one side, directing their gazes to another door, guiding them deeper into the foreboding labyrinth. "Two enemies, four hostages."

Yuni nodded, straightened and assumed easily and naturally a sweet, commanding tone. "Backtrack to the trap door," she instructed the Flameless girls. "Don't go into the ballroom unless it is quiet, our operatives may still be clearing up. When the situation up there is resolved and you're sure it's safe, alert them of the prisoners in this room. They'll make sure everyone gets free." She shifted her attention to the once again stoic Habari supporting a now disoriented Chrome. "They're just beyond, are you prepared?"

"I'm coming with," Fran, who had wander forward, stated in a monotone, "I'm going to meet my shishou." Yuni nodded solemnly.

"We're going to raze the core of this depraved operation."