Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Katekyo Hitman Reborn and I don't earn any money with this story.

Author's note: Damn, this chapter fought me every step of the way... But now it's done and I'm looking forward to your thoughts on it!

Rating: M

Warning: Angst and some gruesome stuff in the third section.

Beta'd by the lovely NonchalantxFish, as usual! :)

Harry gaped at the steel bands snugly wound around his arms and torso.

The dystopian change in their surroundings could be explained away by illusions, but snakes turning into physical and inanimate tools of restriction? That wasn't stuff he'd ever associated with Mist Flames. Was Mukuro a wizard? That was the only explanation Harry could think of, because those snakes had been real and then they had transformed.

Harry struggled against his shackles, but quickly stopped when they tightened enough to make breathing difficult. He didn't see a lock, but tried an Alohomora , one of the few spells he was capable of wandlessly, anyway.

Nothing happened.

Harry was running out of options quicker than he'd have liked and hoped that help was on its way.

Mukuro erased the space between them. His smug grin, tinged with cruelty, might as well have been fused to his lips. Harry wanted to punch it off his face so much, his fingers twitched. Mukuro faltered in his next step. A hint of surprise bled into his expression for a split-second before it was washed away again. His hand closed around Harry's chin and turned his face from side to side as Mukuro studied him with a satisfied gleam in his heterochromatic eyes.

"Well, at least it's a pretty vessel I spend the next few weeks in. Could be worse."

"So what? You want to wear me like a meat suit?" Harry hissed. Anger was better than the apprehension that wanted to break free and coat his words. He was perfectly capable of throwing off the Imperius, so attempts at mind-control wouldn't have scared him at all. Possession however… Could he fight against something like that?. "You won't get away with this! Do you really think nobody will notice, when I suddenly act differently?"

Mukuro patted his cheek condescendingly, before he stepped back a bit with that creepy chuckle.

"Possession is exactly what we're talking about." Mukuro positioned the trident in his hand between them and nodded to the one tip that was missing. "When our dear Luca met you and shook your hand, he pricked you with part of this trident. You probably didn't even- Oh you did?"

Mukuro grinned in delight when Harry twitched. Harry remembered when their hands had met and he'd felt the Sun's Flames on his skin. It was quite possible that it had happened at that moment and the wound had healed too quickly for pain to register.

"So? What's that got to do with anything?" Harry asked. He might as well find out as much as possible from this villain monologue. Well, currently it was a dialogue, but whatever. Either way, stalling for time was the way to go.

"It marks you. It's a prerequisite for this." Mukuro held up a bullet with embossed markings Harry didn't recognise. "The possession bullet, created by the Estraneo Famiglia and forbidden by the rest of the mafia world, who..."

Mukuro's expression had darkened, but Harry barely noticed the other teen's souring mood. As soon as that cursed name had left the other teen's lips, memories surged towards the surface of his mind, which he'd rather never think about again. He still remembered the day they'd broken into his grandpa's house. The fight and the death on that day had been bad enough, but what had come after had been so much worse. Harry had tried to banish all memories of his drug-induced, inescapable nightmare to one spot in his mind space. A box represented the barrier he'd put into place to keep them at bay as much as possible.

He couldn't go back to that... or even something worse . He couldn't !

But even as those thoughts crossed his mind, Harry felt the barrier burst and the world around him splintered like broken glass.

Reborn idly wondered if his curse-induced baby-body was capable of gaining gray hairs. Everything pointed towards yes, when Harry Potter was involved in any shape or form. It was a surprise that Severus and Shamal didn't already showcase the salt-and-pepper look. So far he hadn't completely ruled out the use of hair dye.

Trouble followed Harry — it was a fact of life even Reborn had experienced at close quarters for several times now. Dino and his men never had a chance to prevent the disaster in the making, which hadn't kept Reborn from putting the fear of God into his former student when the man had appeared at his door to confess.

The Arcobaleno had promptly kicked (unfortunately only metaphorically) everyone out of bed to face the issue at hand. Each and every one of Harry's Guardians (and Blaise) had worn their own brand of Harry in Trouble TM-expression, when they'd learnt what was going on. It was a nice mix between exasperation and worry. Shamal had even face-palmed, while Severus' take on it included pinching the bridge of his nose. Reborn feared he was slowly but surely developing his own. He was already concerned about his blood-pressure, if Harry really became his Sky sometime in the future.

"We're here!" Mohawk guy, who'd been on watch duty in front of Harry's room, stopped after turning one last corner and waved his hand at the apparent dead-end.

"So if the entrance to the rooftop garden is concealed with Mist Flames, how do we get there? Just go in blind?" Spanner asked, squinting at the wall. "I didn't bring any reconnaissance equipment with me. I might have some SpidBots in my bag somewhere. Should I look for them?"

"The illusion is pretty good. Even I can barely feel the Mist Flames," Reborn replied, also studying the concealed opening in front of them. "But I think we shouldn't waste any time." And with that, he stepped through the wall, without a by your leave, trying to ignore the physics in the back of his mind, which was trying to convince him of the impossibility of his task. He was met with some resistance, but then his surroundings rippled and finally he was standing on the other side.

The barrel of his gun was pointed at the two teenagers standing there, before his brain had caught up with his reflexes. One was an apathetic looking guy with a beanie, the other one a blond with a scar across his cheeks and nose. They looked vaguely familiar, but Reborn couldn't put his finger on where he'd seen them.

"Looks like we have a welcoming committee," Blaise, who'd followed him within seconds, was eying their potential enemies suspiciously, wand already in hand but still mostly hidden.

For a short moment the two teens were looking at them like deer caught in headlights, but then they shifted their weight into battle-ready stances. A useless endeavor considering more and more people stepped through the barrier, making it a one-sided battle in numbers alone.

"What the hell? I thought nobody could get in here!" The blond yelled at his comrade, while eying all of them in quick succession. His panicked gaze lingered on Reborn the longest. The Arcobaleno wasn't sure whether to applaude his determination to stand his ground or to call him stupid. Finally, the teen put something into his mouth, which looked suspiciously like a set of teeth. "We won't let you disturb Mukuro's plans!"

Reborn idly noticed dots spread across the teen's face as he kicked him in the chest, halting any attacks the blond had planned. Next to him Dino parried a spiked yo-yo with his whip, before he made the dark-haired teen fall by yanking his feet out from under him.

"Chikusa Kakimoto and Ken Joshima. They escaped together with several other convicts from prison," Shamal, well-informed as usual, announced darkly as he coaxed one of his mosquitoes back into its capsule. Considering neither of their adversaries was moving a muscle anymore, they were probably paralysed somehow. "Formerly part of the Estraneo Famiglia."

While Dino gave orders to inform the Island Security about possible convicts on the island and Severus tried to glean more information by combing through their captives' minds, Reborn looked through the glass door leading to the rooftop garden. The light was dim and flickering, making it hard to see what was going on outside. He could see neither Harry nor Mukuro or whoever else might be hiding in the dark. Reborn didn't hear sounds of fighting, which was worse than a battle.

Without waiting for Severus' new insight, he opened the door, all his senses on alert. His trusted gun was still in his hand as Reborn silently moved towards the center.

"We found something!"

The hitman grit his teeth, cursing the stupidity of whoever had blared their presence, when scouting undetected was the better choice. Reborn contemplated returning to take a look at what had been found, when he noticed something in the dim light further ahead.

"Oya, where did this come from? "

Paying attention to Mukuro was currently the last thing on Harry's mind. His horrified gaze was locked on the vaguely human-shaped, faceless creature, whose sharp, long claws were slicing through his brother's chest. Spanner's gurgling pleas for help echoed in his ears as if Harry was kneeling right next to him. He wished he were. Then maybe he could've helped him.

In the back of his mind Harry knew this wasn't real, that it was one of his darkest memories, twisted by Mukuro's Flames, but that didn't stop the wild thumping in his chest or his brother's name breaking free from his lips. As if the gruesome scene in front of him wasn't enough, more monsters shimmered into existence, digging into the defenseless bodies of his friends and family.

One of them appeared a few feet in front of Harry, stalking towards him on all fours with a low growl. Harry stumbled backwards, but the metal bands fucked with his balance. He fell backwards and in the next moment clawed hands were pushing him into the ground. Foul breath assaulted his nose, even though there was no mouth. Harry was just glad he didn't have to deal with fangs, too.

He had to get a grip on himself.

Mukuro was already in his head. Harry didn't know when the possession had started, hadn't noticed the transition, but he was sure now. Being confronted with another one of the Estraneo's inhumane inventions must have triggered a flashback or something. His corresponding memories had escaped the box he'd banished them to in his mind space and now they painted their gruesome picture all over his mind.

With ragged breath Harry tried to put them back into their space, to seal them away again, but the struggle was almost worse than during his first Occlumency lessons with Severus. Claws pierced his skin, dragging a bloody gash down his chest, where the metal bands didn't reach. The pain was only imagined, but that didn't mean it didn't feel real.

Harry grit his teeth, but didn't look away from the disgusting creature. Reaching Hyper-Dying-Will mode felt like wading through hip-deep mud, but he finally managed. Sky Flames sprung into existence on his forehead and hands just as Harry headbutted the monster on top of him. It screeched and stumbled back, but didn't give up quite yet.

Harry heard cursing and dared to take a quick look over the monster's shoulder, where Mukuro was fending off another one of the them. Whatever he'd tried to create with his Mist Flames faded out of existence, before it had formed completely. Now that the both of them were stuck between whatever possession trick Mukuro had attempted and Harry's scrambled mind space, they also had lost some control over their abilities. Great.

Reborn cautiously approached the unmoving body curled up on the ground. Recognizing Harry was easy enough, but the Arcobaleno knew something was wrong with the Sky and he didn't only mean his unconscious state. After he'd rounded the teen and stopped next to his head, he'd found a clue if not the reason. One of Harry's eyes was orange, while the other one was red with a kanji in the center. Checking his carotid revealed a quicker heart-rate than was probably healthy.

"If those Estraneo bastards weren't all dead already, I'd raze their territory myself," Shamal growled as he stopped next to Reborn and flicked something at the Arcobaleno, before checking his Sky over himself.

Reborn ignored the arrival and frantic questions of Harry's younger Guardians and friends in order to study the object in his hands. It was a bullet with a slightly altered Estraneo crest embossed on the metal.

"A possession bullet," Severus revealed what Reborn had already suspected. His voice was suspiciously calm. Reborn idly wondered what state Joshima's and Kakimoto's minds were in now that the man had scoured them for helpful intel and no doubt found something unpleasant. "The plan was to destroy the mafia using Harry's body. The corpse they found close to the door was Mukuro's, so he's already used one of the bullets."

Spanner, who'd dropped to his knees next to his brother and grasped his unresponsive hand, looked at all of them in turn. Determination was burning in his eyes.

"We have to save him. I don't want to sit around, unable to do anything like the last time."

"If you want to save him," an ominous voice sounded behind them, "do it quickly, otherwise we will take Mukuro Rokudo's new body with us."