Disclaimer: I own the OCs, the rest is Akira Amano's work.

Fratellanza

We were working as a team with Jie, Nadja, Arro and the remaining guy, Parker. A month flew by since I accepted to make a deal with my father, but still nothing from him.

Moretti, when he came, gave me one of those small computers I used to infiltrate the Estraneos on the Vindices' order. It was improved. Arro managed to get us to see Verde, who seemed concerned by what we were implying. The ex Lightning Arcobaleno loved science and wasn't above using people for his experimentation, but he wasn't using them as guinea pigs, especially against their will. I had never really though about what his stand on the Estraneos was.

It seemed he had some morals after all.

"So basically, what our target truly is is a particular department in the research center," Nadja summed up. Jie sighed and looked at me.

"That's why you were pissed at the hostage, the one responsible for the hostage taking must have seen something and he was silenced." I nodded. Parker ruffled his hair furiously.

"I didn't come here for some crazy conspiracy!" Arro slapped him in the back with a grin.

"It's your first time?" Parker widened his eyes comically.

"Because it's not yours!?" Arro shrugged.

"I've been in my fair share of very bad battles."

"Same," I replied in sync with Nadja.

"Digging under the surface to find what's really happening is nothing new," Jie stated casually. Parker gaped at all of us.

"Come on now! I shouldn't even be here in the end!"

"It's better than this Rossi dude," Nadja whispered and I nodded.

"How do we get inside though? They don't have the best relationship with the control center."

"Leave it to me. I know a guy who likes a challenge." They all looked at me and I pondered over it. "I mean, I guess he's done in Vendicare now." Nadja, Parker and Jie all paled.

"Vin...Vindice?" Parker stuttered weakly. "How...how do you know a..."

"That creepy guy who flirted with me?" Arro asked me with a deadpan. I nodded. "As long as it's not that asshole who works there."

"In what kind of situation did you find yourself to be so casual about the Vindice!?" Nadja shrieked.

The kind where we had to fight them in order to survive and break the Arcobaleno Curse?

"Let's say Japan is a weird place sometimes," I muttered under my breath. "I'll give him a call." I stood up and left them. I dialed Min Jae's number.

He picked up after a few seconds.

"I bet you have something to ask me."

"Yes. Hello, by the way."

"Hi, how are you?"

"Fine, you?"

"Vendicare's system was so old it took me time to redo it and explain it to them. They don't understand technology very well." You bet...Bermuda was a few centuries old. "But there's this cute guy who keeps avoiding me."

"Oh...I think I know him."

"So he told me. I can't really move from there Luciana, so whatever you want from me it's..."

"Actually..." I started, remembering one of our laws. "Bermuda might be interested in what I want to ask you."

"'Bermuda'? Wait, were you a part of that big battle two years ago when the Boss was defeated?"

"Yeah. Anyway," I looked around quickly. "Human experimentation are punishable, I fear it might be happening where I am at the moment. I need you to hack into the system to let me in."

"I see. The Boss will be interested."

We talked some more and I hung up.

A few days later, when he sent me all of the information and software in needed to hack into their system without being detected, I widened my eyes and took my gun, aiming it at the corner of my room. A man raised his hands and walked forward, the light of the moon illuminating him.

He had military clothes on, brown hair in a short crop haircut, brow eyes, tan skin...He wasn't particularly tall, maybe a few centimeters taller than me, but there was something familiar about him.

I froze when I read the tag on his breast pocket. 'FGNE'.

Didn't Alaric say…

"Cristobal?" I asked hesitantly. He widened his eyes and they started to water.

"You...you know who I am?"

"Alaric told me about you. You're my Lightning Guardian who joined the army, aren't yo..." I was choked to death by his embrace.

"I'm so happy you know who I am!" I tried to remove him from me but he kept me in his arms.

I kneed him in the crotch and he was kneeling.

"It's good...to get rid of guys..." he admitted from the floor.

"Yeah, I just proved it. Don't fucking hug me out of nowhere, I don't know you."

"Sorry Espe..."

"Luciana!" I corrected him harshly. "Don't fucking call me 'Esperanza'!" He stared, blinking.

"Luciana? But that's not your na..."

"It is! I don't care if it's the first or third one, my name is Luciana." He pursed his lips and got up.

"Alright then." He took a file from under his military jacket and handed it to me. "The Boss said you made a deal with him and ordered me to deliver these to you. It was a pain to get here!"

"How did you get here by the way?" He showed me a small device, looking like mine.

"It allowed me to use my Lightning Flames. Basically, the field force around this island prevent anyone to use Dying Will Flames. This little thing acts as a counter field force around me that allowed me to use my flames." So that was the science behind them.

I sat down on my bed and turned on the lights, Cristobal looking around curiously.

The man who stole from my father was named Dave McConnor, an Irish scientist who fell into criminal activities and joined my father years ago. I swallowed when I saw a picture of him.

It was the guy who was taken hostage.

We were right then.

Shit.

I was no scientist and I might need Arro or Verde to make me fully understand the complexity of what was written, but he had stolen documents from my father about how the human body reacted to Dying Will Flames without how the mental also played a role. It was...I guess it was like when you injected vaccine or diseases to mice to see how they'd react to it?

"Do you need help understanding?" I shot Cristobal a look.

"If you don't lie I guess." He grinned, nodding enthusiastically before stealing the file from my hands.

"We all have seven waves running through our bodies, right?" I nodded. "Basically, what the Boss 'lost' was his research about how a human body reacted when it was injected with a particular flame. I...won't go in detail about what was done to check what the injections were doing, but if you take Romain for instance, he was injected Sun Flames. As he was predominantly a Sun, he reacted well and became painfree and can heal automatically, even from mortal wounds."

"He's a Cloud now." Cristobal nodded.

"So are you, but you both can reach your original Flames as long as they're still here. I know that for him, since he's…'finished' if I may, the change from Sun Flames to Cloud Flames stopped." It wasn't my case though, hence why my Sky Flames were…

It was a side effect.

Why did my father do that though when I wasn't a Sun?

"The Boss...rarely injected his subjects with Flames that were not theirs. Of course some died because it was...not something your body should be subjected to. We were all born with a certain Flame-capacity, if you overdose it your body can't handle it." I bit the inside of my cheek.

He placed a hand on my head. I shot him a surprised look. He was looking more serious than before.

"I'm sorry Luciana." I blinked. "I couldn't do anything to prevent him from doing these things to you." I pursed my lips.

"How old are you?"

"I was born on July 15th, 1985 so I'll be twenty-five in a couple of months." He was Dino's and Superbi's age then.

"You were a kid, there's nothing you could have done." He smiled faintly.

"I guess...but in a way, it shouldn't have been surprising, really. The Boss...is like that." I raised a brow. "He likes gifting the younger ones to make sure they'd be loyal." He lowered his collar, showing me what looked like an old scar. It looked like a hole though. "When you're young and someone who saved you from a pathetic life decides to do this, you feel honored and doesn't want to do wrong but...I guess it's not worth it in the end."

"What did he do to you?"

"I'm a natural Lightning, so he did what I just depicted you. I have a ridiculous amount of Lightning Flames and can use it as a shield, to reinforce myself and attack but so far, I haven't found any ring that can handle me." He chuckled dryly. "Anyway, what McConnor might be doing is, instead of injecting people with their own Flames, he tries to force them to develop another flame."

Of course. We were the only ones who could use our flames. Helios mentioned all of the disappeared ones had used them a lot. We were being watched and then…

I wanted to puke. None of them handled the experimentation.

I had to put an end to this.

"You can't go blindly now." I frowned at Cristobal.

"Why not?"

"Because of how this place works. Several Mafia Families and the Italian government put money and work in this place. There's not a chance they do not know about this." I widened my eyes.

The guy Iemitsu was wary of and who made the Vongolas invest in that place, the same guy who wanted Xanxus as the Decimo.

Cosimo Lentini or something.

I didn't find any interesting thing from what I stole at the control center. I probably needed to dig deeper.

"It's ba..."

"Lulu, I can't sleep," Arro said, opening the door as if he owned the place. His eyes found Cristobal. "The...the hell is..."

"You must be Arroganza!" Cristobal exclaimed in glee as Arro closed the door behind him.

"...yes?"

"Alaric told me a lot about you. I still don't know if he has you in high regards or is just plain annoyed that you drag Luciana in all of your stupid plans, it's so hard to tell with him!" Arro shot me a confused look.

"Cristobal."

"Wait wh...dude, let go!" He was being embraced by Cristobal.

"I've always wanted a cute little brother! Rose said you were kind of living up to your name!"

"Rose?" I repeated.

"She said she fought him when you fought Nick." I widened my eyes.

"That chick!" He nodded.

"That hottie!" Arro said a second after me.

"You're taken."

"I can admit when a girl's hot Lulu."

"You can call me 'Cris' you know!"

"Yeah...we'll wait for nicknames..." Arro muttered. "The fuck are you even doing here?"

"I heard Luciana had troubles so I came to help!"

"How did you eve..."

"I mentioned it to Alaric, he must have told Cris."

I didn't think telling Arro about my father was a wise decision for now. He already freaked out enough when he came to the hospital after the fight against Bermuda.

"You're being annoying!" I yelled at Kyoya, who was dragging me away from Kokuyo.

"Then don't see that man!" Kyoya replied angrily.

"Stop being so jealous, I was seeing Fran!"

"Well don't see that brat either!" I bared my teeth and forced him to release my wrist.

"What's your fucking problem!?" He turned around, a dark glare on his face. "You've never said once you loved me Kyoya, you told me I shouldn't have said to Kyoko you were my boyfriend so stop being so fucking jealous when I spend time with people other than you!"

"It has nothing to do with that."

"Then why are you so fucking obsessed with whom I decide to hang out?" He grabbed my collar and pulled me closer to him, the cold fury in his steel-colored eyes meeting the raging fire in my ruby ones.

"You're my property." I widened my eyes in shock.

What?

"I've decided you were mine so you should just do as I say but you can't do that."

"Is that the nature of our relationship Kyoya?" I replied in a whisper. "I belong to you but not the opposite?"

"Yes." I smirked wryly.

"So you're not in love with me either?"

"Obviously not." He let me go, pushing me away a little at the same time.

His behavior started changing since he knew I was sick. He was more possessive as ever, but each time I'd say I loved him he'd pretend he didn't hear.

He never said those three words back to me either.

Did I imagine or overthink things he did to me?

"Then why do you treat me that way?"

"To keep you to myself. It has nothing to do with a stupid thing such as love."

"Does it mean the moment you're tired of me you'll just throw me away?"

When did our relationship turn like that? I always did what I wanted, like him, and we both understood the other needed that so…

When did it turn like that?

He didn't respond to that.

Every single time he was protective, or when he comforted me after he woke up...was everything empty from any kind of love? Did Tsunayoshi's Hyper Intuition get this wrong?

Tears were prickling the corners of my eyes.

"I'm going home," I whispered quietly.

"I don't care." He turned away and I heard his bike leaving.

I smirked.

Did he understand I meant Italy?

It didn't seem to matter anyway.

I sniffed deeply. Did…

Kyoya really didn't love me at all? Not even just a little?

"Senpai, are you okay?" I gulped at Tsunayoshi's voice. "I just saw Hibari-san on his bike and he seemed angry, did something happen...senpai?" I blinked at him, a tear rolling down my cheek.

"Wh...why are you here?"

"Reborn said it was my job as a Boss to see how Mukuro was doing because he was a part of my Family and he always keeps to himself but...senpai, what happened? Did you have a fight with Hibari-s..." An ugly sob escaped me and I fell on my knees, sobbing. "Senpai!" He didn't hesitate to hug me and I clenched his coat as much as I could, crying on his shoulder.

I didn't know if he understood what I was saying.

The only thing I knew was that I wanted to go home to my brother.

I had ten to fifteen minutes before the diversion caused by the others was over and that people would come back. I didn't know what they had planned, only that the highest ranked at the control center were out. I now knew the president of my university had an office here, so I decided to investigate his computer.

I plugged my mini computer in their bigger one and left Min Jae's software do its magic. The guy was a genius when it came to computer, there was no doubt about it. I copied everything and left.

I spent hours going through everything I copied. It was only after three hours I found a file with the name of the Italian president.

I opened it, blinking in astonishment when I realized it was the agreement that gave birth to the island. I gave it a closer look, widening my eyes when I saw Lentini's name and signature alongside the president's. As I kept reading, my eyes kept widening at what they were seeing.

Shape the future generation my ass.

It was not a university at all.

The government allowed the Mafia, or more like that Lentini dude, to create this place to have materials to work on for Dying Will Flames experimentation and in return…

The government was turning a blind eye on what was happening because the army would erase every proof. The only reason the government accepted was because it would wreck havoc in the Mafia world and Families would kill each other to know who was the responsible. They would also get money out of us apparently. Meanwhile, Lentini had…

He would get data from the experimentation happening here and would make sure the Vongolas remain at the top. It was even written he recommended MacConnor himself, the very guy who used to work with my father.

It meant that...the Vongolas were responsible as well. In my opinion, there was no way the Ninth would know or allowed this. I had my issues with him but he wouldn't do that. Iemitsu told me it was Lentini who convinced Timoteo to invest and that there was a deep trust between them.

Deep trust my ass, Timoteo was fooled. Tsunayoshi would change the Vongolas radically, there would be resistance.

It was our job to try to prepare the ground. Removing such a trash from the Vongolas was a main part of it.

Lentini was also the head of the Northern HQ, who knew how many people…

I saved the document and kept looking.

I froze when I saw my name. I clicked on it.

It was an email exchange between Lentini and the university president. They talked about how I was clearly on a different level from others and he was asking Lentini who I was exactly. He replied by saying…

My throat went dry in a second.

'The girl I spared when I killed the third heir because she's Xanxus' sister.'

My arms became limp by my side, my lips mouthing silently the words I kept reading.

When he killed the third heir.

When he killed the thir…

He was the one responsible for that day? He was the one to steal Federico's and Leo's dreams?

I grabbed my head and bent forward, my forehead against the desk.

He was the one who took them away from me?

I bit my lower quivering lip, tears falling on my lap. Federico was reduced to bones, what...how could he do that to the Ninth? Weren't they long time friend?

I took a deep breath and decided to continue reading.

Lentini was bragging and I could taste bile in the back of my mouth.

He was calling the Ninth an idiot for wanting Primo's Vongolas back as the ones from Secondo's were stronger and would remain in power.

He was saying how having a Decimo with that pathetic mindset would be the Vongolas' downfall.

He was saying that except for Xanxus, all of Timoteo's sons had that will and they had to be removed for the good of the Vongolas. He was basically of the same opinion as my brother during the Sky Battle.

It was treason with death penalty.

I frowned when I read Arro's name and exhaled slowly.

'That Silvanio stopped working for us when he got married but still knew too much, he had to be silenced.'

He orchestrated Arro's dad murder.

We could expose him and sentence him for so many things but...doing it without seriously thinking about it would destroy the Vongolas from the inside. Who knew how many people shared his opinions after all?

Who knew how much trash we had to get rid of to change the Vongolas?

"Shit, what do I do now?" I muttered to myself.

If it was revealed that the Vongolas had participated in experimentation like the Estreanos did, their reputation would be ruined, the Alliance screwed and the whole balance of power would change. The Vongolas were not perfect and some Families wanted them to fall, but everyone recognized their power and how their story shaped the whole Mafia.

If it was known, Tsunayoshi would never be able to clean up their name.

I bit my lip until it bled.

If...we had to trade carefully. I still didn't have solid proof about what was happening in the research center, but once I had them...I couldn't just expose them for the world to see and let the Vindice do their work.

The Lentini trash...Xanxus wouldn't want the power that way if it meant his brothers were assassinated without having a fair fight. He loved them all, I knew that.

I refused to think of him as someone who would make profit out of people being turned into guinea pig. I refused to think of him as his father's son.

I sent the documents to Iemitsu.

I waited for his reply. When it came, I swallowed loudly.

'Find proof about the experimentation, we can't go to an internal war without proof.'

It said it all.

I was worried about Tsunayoshi though.

I needed to find exactly when they were killed, the common point between them and try to see if...no, not 'if', but when Tsunayoshi's life would be threatened.

I ended up with my inhaler in my mouth, emptying way too quickly and at the limit of a panic attack.

I threw my phone on my bed. Iemitsu did research on his side. He wanted to intervene but couldn't.

Nobody was allowed on the island during the exam period, so right now. They would be allowed to come once we would all leave for the summer.

Basically, it would be too late and the army would have killed us all already.

Iemitsu told me to keep that to myself and I found it very hard, especially keeping it from Arro. He knew me, he knew I was hiding something from him but didn't ask.

How could I tell him I knew who killed his father?

In the meantime, I was with Jeremiah, Arro and Zelia and the lovebirds were fighting in front of us. I didn't really listen, shooting the door glances instead to see if I could leave unnoticed.

"You're a hypocrite!" Zelia screamed at her boyfriend.

"And you're too jealous!" he shot back. "How am I hypocrite!? You know I wouldn't cheat on you!"

"How are you hypocrite!?" She pointed a finger at me and I fought the urge to whine. "You say you're her best friend and all, that you support her but..." Here we go…"You never told her you were on her ex's side more than hers and that you thought she was entirely wrong about her decision!"

I blinked, taken back. I was expecting her to insinuate there was more than friendship but instead…

Wait what?

I turned dumbfounded eyes to Arro, who looked as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I stood up.

"Is it true?" I asked him quietly. His blue eyes shifted to me.

"I...I...fuck it, yes!" I almost stepped back at the loudness of his voice. "I mean, you pressured Hibari Kyoya to say 'I love you', of course the guy would say awful things to make you back off and you run away instead of confronting him!" He was panting from his rant and I just stared at him.

Slowly, I looked at Zelia.

"I'm on your side." She grinned victoriously.

"What the hell!? You know it's true!"

"I'm not saying it's not, because I know I've had a shitty behavior toward Kyoya." Arro opened his mouth. "But you could have said what you thought right away instead of saying I did the right thing. I'm going to shoot a little."

"I'm going with you," Jeremiah said, jumping on his feet. "I'm done with their quarrels."

Needless to say, the cardboard silhouette was filled with holes.

The next day, I dialed a particular number.

After a while of doing nothing at the VARIA, Xanxus said I'd get my own squad. I was slightly reluctant because leading people was not my thing.

There were three guys under my orders, all older than me. The oldest one was twenty-four, named Ahmed and Algerian. He had tan skin with fizzy black hair and was very good with poison. The second one was Italian, named Diego and was twenty-one. He was a tad too hot-headed and used that big hammer of his too much, but he was good. The last one was called Milo, Italian as well and twenty. He was the one I noticed immediately.

He ran away from the selection. When I found him, he told me his father forced him to take that test but that he hated violent situations and always ran away, hinting he was used to run away from dangerous situations.

Do you know what I call someone who somehow managed to run away from dangerous situations several times? A sharp analytical mind. I mean, to successfully run away from a Mafia fight you needed to analyze the attacks, the fighting style and the surroundings to decide when and where you had to run.

He almost laughed at my face when I explained my reasoning. He laughed a lot less when he had a VARIA jacket on his back. The way he almost cried in despair almost reminded me of Tsunayoshi.

Anyway, I was calling him.

"Captain?"

"Yo, how are you doing without me?"

"Good...Xanxus-sama is personally taking care of us." You bet he was. "Did you need something?"

"Yep, I just got you a mission."

"Really?"

As I explained, I couldn't help but think we would need pros.

Too many people here had little to nothing battle experience and it showed.

Fratellanza

Thanks for reading this chapter! Leave a review to tell me what you thought about it!

Bye!