Disclaimer: I don't own KHR or stuff.

Word Count: 8363

Intermission 24

I remember a time when everything was simple.

Well perhaps not simple, but it at least felt that way.

As much as I try to control myself, my emotions always get the best of me, anger especially and I don't want to label it, I don't even want to say it, but I feel crazy. I feel not like myself, I feel suffocated and so lost and I still have a responsibility to my daughter, to keep moving forward and being her pillar of strength.

There are moments where everything is okay and I absolutely live for those moments, because for a second I can forget the deaths, the tragedies that have struck. There's only me and Malana, my family and friends.

There is only us.

And everything is fine.

Everything is okay.

….but it's not, I'm not fine.

I'm losing my mind, slowly losing myself and no one deserves this.

/ | \

The candle flared high and Natsume opened her eyes, feeling as if she couldn't breathe. There was a lump in her throat and the fire was way too hot and holy hell how was she supposed to control that if she couldn't control herself?

She shuddered, breathing out shakily, imagining that the air that left her was strong enough to blow out the fire. It flickered and then smoke lazily wafted through the air as the fire was put out and the wick merely glowed, before going black.

How much longer would she be able to hold up? Especially now that she sort of understood what was happening, why exactly her pain wasn't getting any better.

Natsume inhaled sharply when a wet nose, followed by a raspy tongue licked her cheek. Turning her head slightly she was greeted by her box weapon's amber eyed gaze, the jaguar chirping before nuzzling its face against hers.

"It's hard to find a balance Kalani," she murmured, one hand coming up to pet the feline's head. "At least I understand why now…but still…" she trailed off.

Natsume felt herself relax, the familiar and rather mindless task of petting the jaguar making her feel much more settled than she was before.

"Only four more days and we'll see what happens," Kalani made another chirping sound, his head tilting as he considered her amber eyes. "There's no holding back this time, we'll kill whoever is in our way to get to him."

Part 65: We're Not Exactly the Best

(Past)

"Oi Sawada!"

Natsume turned when her name was called, noting the four people approaching her and only recognizing one of them, while the other three were only vaguely familiar.

"Mochida, what do you want?" The now high schooler hadn't approached them since the last time he had tried to talk to them and to this day she still didn't know what Takeshi had said nor how the other teen convinced Mochida to leave them alone.

If he was as hot headed as the rumors said, he would have continued hounding them until he got his point across, especially because he was crushing hard on Kyoko.

(Wait…was he still crushing hard on Kyoko?)

The Kendo captain, pointed with his thumb at the three boys, "They're wondering where your boy wonder is."

She gave them an unimpressed look, raising one brow as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, "Who are you talking about?"

There was a muttered of 'I told you she wasn't going to get it', followed by the sound of a light wheeze as the one on the left elbowed the middle one, the one who had spoken. The one on the right rolled his eyes, before deciding to clear up his meaning,"Do you know where Yamamoto has been? Spring training has started and he's been out the last couple of days."

"Uh, no…why would you think I would know?"

That earned her four deadpanned stares, "Sawada…he's always with you or your brother…"

"Not to mention your brother and Gokudera have been missing, so we figured you'd know what they are all up too since they always disappear together," the fair haired middle one spoke up after clearing his throat.

"Ah, ya," she started, clucking her tongue. She ran a hand through her loose hair, finger getting caught in a knot near the end, "Uh, well surprise I've been trying to figure out what they've been up too."

The baseball player on the left huffed, "No way! With how close you and your brother are, how can you not know?"

Natsume shrugged, pursing her lips when she noticed how they were looking at her., "Oh, so after all your watching out for him, little bro leaves you when he makes new friends." This time she raised a brow at the same time the one on the right brought a hand down his face in exasperation.

(That wasn't true at all. Sure they weren't glued to the hip like they used to be, but they were still close….weren't they?)

"Shut up Deki," the middle one shoved the one on the left, "You want to get your ass kicked?"

'Deki', the dark haired one snorted, crossing his arms against his chest and giving her a cocky smirk, "What can she do, bite my ankles?"

Mochida coughed into his hand, failing at masking his laughter, "I've always wondered why everyone from your elementary school said to be careful around you, I think it was just all talk and you scared them with that face of yours."

"You came here to ask about Takeshi and now you're talking about my face," Natsume said, fighting the urge to cross her arms against her chest, instead keeping them at her sides. "If you're about done wasting my time, I'm leaving."

"Oh come on, don't be like Sawada, there's just no way you don't know," Deki said, putting his hands on his hips, sounding annoyed. "Stop lying and just tell us."

"Crowding is against the rules," Hearing Hibari's voice and seeing the reaction that got from the four, almost made Natsume double over in laughter. The stuttered apologies and how quickly they all left, did make her snicker.

"Your timing is perfect," She said, giving into the need and crossing her arms, giving Hibari a half smile. "How long were you watching?"

Hibari shrugged, beginning to walk away, Natsume following along just because, "Does it matter? They were starting to be annoying."

"If I knew you wouldn't hit me, I would hug you Hibari," Natsume said, though that still didn't stop her from poking his side, earning an over exaggerated flinch from the boy and giving her enough time to wave at him cutely and disappear, but not before saying, "Bye Hibari~ See you later!"

There was a slight cracking sound at her disappearance, the door to his 'office' opened and Kusakabe peeked out his head, "What was that?"

Inhaling deeply, Hibari opened the door further and stepped in, "It was nothing."

Intermission 25

I closed my eyes that night and what had happened in that dome played out again and again. It wasn't until I had enough and I finally woke up – this time I was actually awake, I wasn't stuck in another dream – and just stared at the ceiling.

That was what I was bringing my family and friends into, that's what I had wanted to avoid, yet here we were, stuck in a future fighting a fight that wasn't ours. Or perhaps it was ours, but it wasn't our time, it isn't our time, for us to be putting our lives on the line.

You holder of the Sky Ring, do you have the resolution to inherit these past sins?

No.

There was no inheriting anyone's sins but my own. Vongola's past had nothing to do with me (yet it had everything, because if it wasn't for that connection with Primo…then they would be a normal family) but its future had everything to with me.

I don't care if the past Dons ghosts cringe and scream in anger, I don't care if they're rolling in their graves. I would do what they couldn't, what they only dreamed of doing and I will turn around Vongola's ways or destroy it in the.

I've told Reborn that before and I'll tell it to these old relics of the past as well,

Vongola will change, whether it wants too or not.

It will be a revolution like the underworld had never seen before.

/ | \

(Future)

Tsuna woke up, hands coming up to wipe the sweat at his brow. He breathed heavily, pressing his palms against his eyelids as the image of Irie Shoichi standing in front of a large round, white machine was burned into his mind eye.

'This is my help Tsunayoshi, do inform the others, but take care not to mention it to Natsume. She would not appreciate what I have done to get this for you.'

"Mukuro?"

The teen, no, man's laughter floated about his head, 'Ah Tsunayoshi, as much as I would like to converse, there seems to be an issue on my end…do take care.'

While Tsuna sat there in his room considering what the hell had just happened, in another room of the base, Lal and Ryohei were with Gianni and Fuuta. They had just received both an unfamiliar and familiar signal. The images began to pour over the screens, some of them fully viewable, while others were blurred or completely black.

"What is this?"

"This," Gianni breathed, leaning closer to his screen as more codes began to show up. He tapped at a pair of images that marred the bottom of each page, Fuuta hovering over Gianni's shoulder, "Do you know that?"

"That's Mukuro's and Chrome's symbol," Fuuta answered, looking over the winged monocle, "Where did they get this from?"

"I'm sure that's more Rokudo's doing," Lal said, looking at one of the screen's closer which showed a layout of the no longer secret Millefiore base that was in Namimori. "Chrome's been playing hostage for Glo Xinia."

"When did that happen?"

"Why is it every time those two are involved there are more questions asked than answered?" Ryohei mumbled to himself, running a hand through his already mused up hair. "We'll find out everything once those two are back with us so we can find out exactly what they were thinking," the Sun Guardian decided, "For now Gianni could you organize these and see which ones Mukuro has marked as the most important."

"I'll help with that," Fuuta volunteered, "I'm more familiar with their coding, so this won't take as long as it should."

"Call me up if anything vital shows up," Ryohei told the twenty year old who nodded, leaving the room once he got that, only to nearly bowl over Tsuna. "Tsuna! Can't sleep?"

"Dream…Mukuro spoke to me, I don't know if I'm losing my mind or if that really happened."

Ryohei refused the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, did it anyway and sighed. He put this hand on Tsuna's back and guided him towards the room he had just left. Tsuna gave Ryohei a confused look as the white haired man uttered something about 'people being too extra and not straight forward enough', "Here's someone who could probably make sense of all this."

"Tsuna-nii?"

"Shouldn't the runt be sleeping?"

"Hey, I'm as tall as you, what does that make you?" Fuuta smothered a snicker, while Ryohei straight up laughed. Lal Mirch gave Tsuna a stare that made his insides freeze in fear. Ryohei put an arm around the fifteen year olds shoulder and kept him at his side, "…sorry…"

Lal merely looked away, going back to looking over at the screen's, Tsuna staring at her for a second before following her gaze. "I've seen that," Tsuna pointed at a large, circular metal machine. "In my dream, Irie Shoichi was there too."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, Mukuro spoke to me after I woke up saying that was his help, but not to tell Natsume," Tsuna frowned, looking up at Ryohei who was frowning. "Why can't we tell Natsume?"

There was no answer, only Fuuta cursing loudly, drawing attention back to him, "Byakuran has Mukuro, that's why and she'd be livid if she found that out."

"Yeah, especially after all that time she spent getting him out of the Vindice's prison," Ryohei muttered, shaking his head, drawing a hand down his face, not at all ready for all this to blow up so suddenly. "And then disappearing on her and Chrome…yeah, Mukuro's whereabouts are still unknown and that's how that will remain. This information came through from an undisclosed ally that may or may not be Mukuro, is that understood?"

"It's not like she'll look at this anyway, so we can get away with it," Lal added in, one hand gripping the side of her neck, the other at her hip. "She won't be happy once she finds out, but she'll deal."

"Why are we keeping this a secret?"

It was Fuuta that spoke up, leaning back in his chair and giving Tsuna a tight smile, "Let's just say it'll keep the calm for now."

/ | \

Malana was more than happy to settle herself between her mother's legs, head falling back as her mother plaited her hair. Natsume quietly spoke with Hana, informing her of what had been happening at the base while she was gone.

"I wish I could see the younger Kyoko and Haru," Hana sighed, holding out a bright blue beaded hair tie to Natsume. "How are they handling everything?"

"Well enough, your husband did a good job in that," Natsume responded, slipping the beads through the loops and making sure it was tight enough to hold Malana's hair, before lightly drumming her fingers atop Malana's head. "You're done sweetie, if it unties ask Kawahira to do it for you."

There was a scoff from the front and what pretty much sounded like a chirp from the girl as she bounded to the front to spend time with her jiichan.

"Hmm, Haru was so feisty back then, but Kyoko's always been good at handling hotheaded people," Hana said, shaking her head as they overheard Malana ask if Kawahira could give her a piggy back ride to the snack shop down the way.

"That kid…" Natsume snorted, shaking her head, an exasperated, but very fond smile quirking her mouth. "I can't believe she's four…I wonder what Daisuke would think of her."

"I'm sure he'd adore her," Hana murmured, bumping her shoulder with her friends. "Even if you guys were already broken up, I'm pretty damn sure he would have loved that girl."

"Yeah…"

Hana didn't like the look that crossed her friend's features, "Being back isn't helping you…I'm sorry Natsume…I shouldn't –"

"I would have eventually come back around this time, Hana," Natsume interrupted her, looking at her friend, expression smoothing out and becoming blank. "Perhaps the one good thing about coming back is that Millefiore is here," she pushed herself up and made her way over to the kitchen, Hana following after her.

"How is that good?"

"Byakuran sent Irie Shoichi here, if enough trouble is stirred up Byakuran will have to come himself," the glint in Natsume's eyes unsettled Hana. "And then I'll be able to talk with him myself."

"What exactly…you know what…I'm not going to ask."

The sharp grin Natsume gave her, followed by the wink reminded Hana that her friend, as well as Sky, wasn't the innocent little image she put out. Not to think bad of her friend, but she wondered if The Black Witch was enough to stand up to Byakuran.

After all ever since Byakuran rose to power the most powerful have fallen, among those Reborn and Tsunayoshi.

Hana sent a quiet prayer to whoever was listening, to protect and make sure her friend survived whatever was to come. She was tired of losing people and she didn't want to lose this one at all.

/ | \

"Not bad, you've progressed," Reborn told him after he cleaned up the room. There were some scuff marks on the floor that would have to be buffed out, a couple panels replaced and the walls repainted, but other than that the room was as clean as it was going to get.

Takeshi nodded, "Will it be enough for what we're doing?"

"Only if you keep it in mind," Reborn answered, before he jumped up onto his shoulder to give him a light smack against the head. "Doubting yourself leads to doubting me and I know I taught you well to not do that."

Takeshi chuckled lightly, his left hand coming up to rub the back of his head where Reborn had hit him, "Ah, habit…I can't help it."

Reborn hummed, "We'll break that habit and you'll assume the best of yourself always," Takeshi missed the way Reborn smiled at that, but he felt a chill go up his spine at the promise that the small hitman made him.

"Don't forget the videos Ryohei brought you, I would hate to hear Squalo complaining about how we don't take care of his things."

Perhaps one of the odder things that had happened during this future trip was the gift that Ryhoei came bearing. It was a small package of videos that Squalo had filmed, documenting his victories over other swordsmen and while interesting and proving why exactly the man was named 'The Second Sword Emperor', Takeshi was still trying to figure out why he had sent them.

It's not like they had 'clicked' together after the Ring Battles and Ryohei wasn't telling on how well they got along now. Takeshi doubted there was much animosity between them now, Tsuna had probably led the way to getting along with them, especially after that deal he made with Xanxus.

Maybe this was Squalo helping in his own way? But the idea of Squalo being helpful just to be helpful wasn't a sound one, so there must have been something more in those videos.

"Hey Reborn, I'm going to head to my room…"

"It's good to relax after a long session," Reborn said as he got down from his shoulder and continued in the direction of where the kitchen was. "Keep your mind sharp Takeshi."

He nodded, brow furrowing as he looked down at the small box in his hands, considering which of the videos to watch next. He began walking to his room, having already memorized the way and didn't look up the whole time he rummaged through the box. He only had tonight to do this seeing as tomorrow night they would be heading out to the Millefiore base.

"Oi, watch where you're going!"

Takeshi blinked, looking up to see a roughed up Hayato, chewing on the end of a cigarette, "Those are bad for you," he thoughtlessly said, which earned him a scoff.

"So is breathing, and you still see me doing that," Hayato said, a bit on the quiet side so Takeshi had trouble hearing him. "What's with the box?"

"Squalo sent me videos," Takeshi answered, tilting the box forward a little so that Hayato could see inside. "I think I forgot to mention them, but Reborn and I have been watching them before every training session."

"It feels like we came here to get our asses handed to us," the silver haired teen sighed, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. "To think we'd gotten better at this shit," at that he clenched his fist, the ring on his thumb lighting up. "Seems like things are only get harder."

"What's the point if there isn't a challenge?" Ryohei's sudden appearance both surprised the two, Hayato actually dropping his cigarette and Takeshi almost dropped his box of videos. The white haired Sun Guardian beamed at them, thumbing at his nose sheepishly, "Sorry, force of habit to be quiet."

"Just how?" Takeshi heard Hayato mutter as he bent down to pick up his cigarette.

"Practice!" The older man smiled, eyes closed, hands formed into fists and propped on his hips. His mood shifted quickly, from the warm, dorky Ryohei he knew, to a much more serious, more adult Ryohei. "You shouldn't get used to anything, always expect to push forward and get better."

Ryohei put his hand on his and Hayato's shoulders, giving them a brief squeeze, "I'm sure you guys know how wild and out of the blue things can get," he looked at them both, grey eyes trying to convey an emotion that Takeshi couldn't describe. "Don't get comfortable you two, that's when things go bad."

"Where the hell you'd learn that from?" Hayato asked a few seconds later, shrugging off Ryohei's hand feeling uncomfortable from being lectured by Ryohei of all people.

(Or maybe it wasn't that, maybe it's because the knucklehead they knew, who wasn't there very often, was reaching out and giving them sound advice? Was that the weirdness?)

Hayato realized he regretted how he asked his question when Ryohei gave him a tight smile, "You meet a lot of people in ten years, you learn just as much too," was all Ryohei said, before turning away from them. "Don't forget about dinner, you'll need that energy."

The two watched as Ryohei walked away, "You know how you expect some people to never change," Hayato said after a while, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, eyes closed and head tilted to the left, "It's weird to see it actually happen."

Takeshi nodded, "Yeah."

Another couple seconds went by, "Alright well I'm done with you, I'm going to wash up."

"Don't drown."

"I'll drown myself if I want too."

"Have fun with that then~" With a good natured jostle, Hayato purposely walked into him as he headed towards his room just down the hall from his. Takeshi rolled his eyes, heading into his room as he considered the box in his hands again.

Now which video was next?

/ | \

"You look like you were hit by a train," Natsume said, her fingers pressing lightly against his forehead and gently pushing his head up. Tired brown eyes looked up and Natsume could only give him an odd smile, before shaking her head.

"Hibari-san counts as a train, no?"

"Well, you're not wrong," Natsume chuckled, shrugging as she pulled her hand away letting his head almost fall back onto the table. He caught himself before his forehead thumped against the surface, the chair scraping against the floor as he pushed it back so he could prop his chin on the back of his hand and rest against the table. Tsuna kept his eyes on the older woman as she moved towards one of the cupboards he knew they kept the teas and coffees in, before moving over by the stove and heating up the kettle.

She took two mugs off of the mug tree, put a tea packet in each, before turning around to face him, arms across against her chest as she looked him over again.

"How does everything feel?" she asked and Tsuna was about to answer 'painfully', when he felt the gentle prodding of her flame.

He sat up straighter, brow furrowing and eyes closing as he focused on within, feeling out that warm fire. It came up easier, much smoother and feeling stronger than before, but that had been obvious when he first came out of the sphere Hibari put him in.

There was something different, but he couldn't tell exactly what it was, "I don't know," he answered, the whistling of the kettle bringing him back and soon a mug of hot tea was placed in front of him.

"Your flame feels more mature," she said, taking a seat to his left and grabbing the hot cup with both hands. "Tell me are you having issues controlling the balance of it?"

It was something he had been working with Lal and Hibari, finding the balance, but even when he did find the middle ground, his flame would hiccup, and he'd be thrown off.

"Your flame wasn't ready for what Kyoya put you through," she frowned, shaking her head, before taking a drink of her tea. "But as everything that has happened to you so far, you had no choice," she drummed her fingers along the side of her cup, eyes looking at him, squinting slightly as he knew she tended to do when she was trying to figure something out.

She reached forward and pulled on the chain around his neck pulling out the crystal that he tucked underneath his shirt, "I'll take this for tonight and I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"What are you going to do?" he asked, slipping it off and handing it over to her, wondering what she was planning on doing with it.

Natsume gave him a cheeky looking grin, eyes crinkling shut, "For always teasing my younger self about it, it seems you've forgotten about my 'witchy' ways."

"Oh here you two are," both the knock and Fuuta's voice got the attention of the two, Natsume looking particularly amused as Tsuna's chair lightly screeched against the floor in his surprise. "Dinner's ready."

"Go on, I'll clean up here," Natsume flicked her wrist at him as she stood up, picking up both of their mugs as she stood up.

Tsuna listened, more keen on both getting food and remembering the times his sister gave him an annoyed look when he jokingly called her a witch. Maybe buying her that wand had pushed the joke to the point she kept going with it?

Fuuta watched a bit amused as Tsuna walked out, the younger teen scratching his head in thought as he made for the main kitchen that everyone was in. The twenty year old sighed, turning his attention back on Natsume, who was a lot brighter than she had been a few days ago.

A definite improvement, at least for the moment, Fuuta quietly hoped that this moment would last for Natsume, until this situation was dealt with. There was no telling what could happen if she lost that and couldn't control herself.

The last time she had lost herself was the reason she had left for so long and this time there was no other Sky user strong enough to calm her down. (This Tsuna would not be able to hold against Natsume, he was still growing and figuring things out, he would be completely drowned if forced to do that.)

"You're thinking too hard Fuuta, your face will wrinkle if you keep that up," Natsume lightly prodded his cheek and he smiled sheepishly, shaking his head slightly.

"Then I'll finally look as wise as I feel sometimes."

She rolled her eyes at him, holding her arm out for him and he took it, more than happy to do so. They walked in a comfortable silence and by the time they reached the main kitchen, Fuuta felt as if he had stepped back in time hearing how cheery and loud it was.

He eyed Natsume, who looked taken back before she controlled that and she gave him a simple smile, "I believe I smell smoked brisket and I'm not about to be left out on that." Fuuta rolled his eyes, stepping in behind Natsume who sat beside I-pin, quickly thanking Bianchi as the magenta haired woman handed her a plate of food.

He'll remember this and he hopes they all would too.

(This is what they were fighting for….wasn't it?)

Part 66: Is This the Real Life?

They all heard the explosions, the younger ones felt uneasy as the sounds and the trembling that accompanied weren't from that far away.

"What's –"

"Go!" Ryohei cut off Takeshi, signaling for them to go ahead. Lal took the lead, googles on and showing her the path to take to get to where they needed too. Natsume and Ryohei kept to the back, keeping watch as Lal pulled up short at a dead end.

A large vent, big enough to allow Ryohei to crawl through was there and Lal crouched down, fingers moving up along the sides of it. There was a click and Lal pushed aside the covering, looking over her shoulder and nodding, "Move as carefully as possible, we don't want to make too much noise and alert them, understand?"

Getting nods from the younger boys, Lal set forth, Natsume being the last one in and setting the cover back as it had been. The boys didn't move as quietly as they could have, but it being one of their first times doing a 'mission,' they couldn't exactly blame them.

Red beams glowed up ahead and before they were vaporized the vent was cut open beneath them. "Shit the traps been triggered!" While everyone else landed down below, Natsume kept herself floating near the ceiling, watching as they defeated the one that had triggered the traps.

She sat cross legged, her skirt billowing beneath her like black tendrils, before she appeared beside them, "Keep heading towards the destination, I'm going to do a pick up."

"Is that wise?" Lal asked, already knowing the answer. "Will you be able to find your way to us?"

"Do you doubt me?"

"Fine," they all watched as Natsume fell away, nothing of her remaining as she went off to wherever it was she was headed. "We're off this way, stay in the formation we talked about, Sawada in the middle, Yamamoto and Gokudera in front and behind him, Sasagawa in the back."

Lal held her hand up to the side of her googles, pressing a small button at the top of them to change the view, "This way."

/ | \

Chrome curiously watched Glo Xinia's aide checking over the cuffs he had put on her. She wondered if they felt the change in the air, but when they fell over gasping, struggling to get air into their lungs, she assumed they hadn't.

"Chrome~"

She hummed in response, not at all surprised when the cuffs around her wrists broke apart. Chrome didn't flinch when a hand pressed itself against her forehead and although the figure with the wide brimmed hat before her should have put her off, she was familiar enough that she didn't flinch at their touch.

The same could not be said for the next aide that came in.

It was always funny, in a sad kind of twisted way how quickly their face drained of color and how the figure before her didn't even acknowledge them still concerned with her than them.

"Do bring your leader, I have a few choice words for him," the woman spoke softly, finally pulling her hand away from Chrome's face and bringing it down to her side. The aide merely gaped at her for a second longer before taking off, a stuttered shout of Glo's name leaving them.

"They didn't do anything to me," Chrome brought up as she stood from her bed and made her way over to the dead man on the floor. "They were just following orders."

Chrome missed the way the figure shrugged uncaringly, but felt the way they were weaving their flame, "What do you plan on doing?"

The figure just brought down the brim of the hat lower on their face, casting more of a shadow and making it harder to see distinct features, "There's a lot I want to do, but I'm at a whim, depending on how Glo Xinia greets me, it could go either way."

Chrome pursed her lips, "At least let me make the introductions."

The woman chuckled and Chrome looked back to see that she had created a throne, a simple ornament of a crescent moon with an arrow going through it was all the decoration it had, along with her box animal sitting right beside it, "Nothing too grand, please, I'm a simple person y'know."

"What is the meaning of this!" the shout came from down the hallway and the two in the room could sense the use of Rain flames beginning to spread around the area. Glo's tricks of drowning the area in tranquility would have worked with someone else, but the two Mist's in the room were too good.

When the fuchsia haired man stepped through, Chrome felt delight in the way he blanched when he noticed not only her but the other person in the room. She straightened up, giving a brief courtesy before she gestured to the woman, who tilted her head slightly to the side.

"Glo Xinia, you asked if I believed in La Strega Nera…would you like to believe in her too?" Chrome may be enjoying Glo's shock a little bit too much, if only because he had tested her patience and spoken badly about those she cared about the most (who could trounce him so easily). She smiled at him, "Would you like to see what exactly a tale can do?"

/ | \

Gamma wasn't the only one who felt the surge of power, but he was one of the only ones that decided that that was his cue to leave the headquarters. Getting the others to go along was a bit of a hassle, one that he would more than happily struggle with.

Of course it didn't end up being easy, Nosaru was questioning why they were leaving and Tazaru was eyeing him, but not questioning his motives. At least not yet, Gamma would be relieved if the man's silence lasted until they left the Melone Base, but he wouldn't be surprised if it came up soon.

"No! No! I'm at your mercy please!"

The trio paused in their steps, looking in the direction that the screaming had come from.

Gamma furrowed his brow as he considered whose voice that was, another rather blood curdling scream and he could probably assume that it was Glo Xinia. Had someone finally done it and kicked the man down a notch? What exactly could it be, or who had the ability to push the usually cocky son of a bitch to the point of screaming that fearfully?

One of the doors to the right opened, Glo running into the room panting and instantly sealing the door behind him. The man was breathing heavily, his usual clean appearance completely ruined by the various tears and red spots in his uniform, along with his disheveled hair.

Gamma held up a hand to cut Nosaru from saying anything, instead waiting for Glo to notice them, which the man did seconds later.

"You! Black Spell, I need –" his words were cut off as a high screeching sound started, a purple seam appearing in the door he had just shut before slightly opening, an inhuman arm poking through it and pushing through the man's back so that the long fingered hands appeared through his chest.

"Tut, tut," a voice that gave Gamma the absolute chills, uttered, sighing wistfully as she easily stepped through the metal door. "Running away in mid conversation is rude," the silhouetted woman in a large wide brimmed hat chastised, arms crossing beneath her chest.

The tear in the door grew wider and a creature with no eyes, only a shaved bald head and a large mouth poked through, its other arm coming out and wrapping around Glo's waist and dragging him backwards, "If you want to run so much, I'm sure Rigo would have fun in chasing you."

The creature screeched something akin to nails on the chalkboard sound, needing just those words to pull Glo through. The man's strangled cry was silenced as the tear sealed up not leaving a single mark on the door.

"A pleasure Lightning Gamma," the woman spoke up a few moments later, head tilting towards him to show that she was looking at him.

It's me~

"Now gentleman, I'm not here to pick any fights," Gamma could feel her smile, could tell that it was more teeth than anything as the woman glided over to them. "I'm just here to teach a lesson," she continued once she was a few feet from them, tendrils of indigo flames curling around her feet and spreading out.

"Who the hell are you?" Nosaru finally asked, his voice cracking toward the end.

"Oh dear," she brought her hands up to her chest, holding them over her heart as she bowed her head in apology, "Forgive me, you may call me The Black Witch."

"We made a deal," Gamma spoke up before either of the two with him could say anything to change the woman's mind.

The woman chuckled, "So we did, do you wish to leave here?"

"We can manage that ourselves," Gamma answered, not wanting to take any more help than he had already gotten from her. "Just keep to our deal and that's it."

She lifted her head enough that he could see her mouth curling at the corners, before it became shadowed again, "A good day to you then, gentleman." And without another movement she was gone.

The silence rang loudly, "Big bro…was…seriously?"

Gamma clenched his teeth, nodding his head, "Let's get out of here first, then we'll talk."

I'll protect your little princess on the condition that you leave the Millefiore.

While he may not have liked many of his fellow Millefiore members, he felt like a cowardly traitor leaving them all to the mercy of that woman. Family was supposed to stick together, have each other's back and band together when shit got tough, but what had been the cost of that?

He had promised Aria and he had promised Uni, he would protect them until the day he died. If it meant getting that woman's help to not only save Uni, but return her to how she was, he wouldn't care how many of the Millefiore died.

It's not like they were a real family anyways.

/ | \

The crystal around his neck felt warm and Tsuna was curious what it exactly it was supposed to do. He hadn't had a chance to fiddle with it, but now that he was captured he had some sort of time.

The teen sighed, if only his hands were free.

"So why are you helping me?" Tsuna asked, once again raising his hands up to his face to inspect the cuffs around his wrists. Earlier he had tried seeing if he could twist his flame inside the little keyhole to free himself, until Spanner idly mentioned that if he did get out of his handcuffs, the Gola Mosca's around them would immediately identify him as an intruder.

Though they may look like they were in for a repair, the Gola Mosca's around them still looked like they could do some sort of damage and he could only do so much.

(He could probably chance it and luck would be on his side, but he'd rather not push it now…he was kind of curious as to what Spanner had in mind to do.)

"Your move isn't perfect, powerful yes, but not perfect," he heard Spanner say, the sound of metal tools being moved around getting Tsuna to look over at the blond. "I want to see it at perfection, see what the great Vongola Decimo is capable of doing."

Tsuna blinked, before snorting and looking back over at the mosca's, not realizing that he had gotten Spanner's attention, "The Vongola Decimo you know of and me, are two different people, so whatever you're expecting…" Tsuna trailed off and shrugged. "Just don't expect much."

"Huh," Spanner uttered, head tilting as he looked over the fifteen year old, who in this time would be twenty five and although he was the 'enemy', would be one of the greatest men anyone could know of, yet also one that shouldn't be crossed. "Tell me –"

The shaking started suddenly; a couple of the Gola Mosca's falling over as the room literally felt like it was moved and nearly burying Spanner under them. There was a tug around his collar and Spanner was spared a really bad time of either hauling himself out from underneath the hunk of metal or getting squished like a bug.

As soon as the shaking started, Spanner spared a glance at the Young Vongola Decimo and noticed that his cuffs were gone.

"Shit," Spanner uttered, having nothing in hand to be able to keep the brunet from running away, just the tools he had been using to finish making the tool he had in mind to perfect the kid's technique.

"I'm not going to do anything to you," Tsuna said, taking in the blond's reaction. He let go of Spanner's collar and seated himself on one of the upturned boxes, arms crossing against his chest. "You should finish what you started."

"…you have a chance to get away," Spanner started, being mindful of the delicate plastic in his hand and relaxing his hold on it. "Why not just go when you can?"

Tsuna shrugged, head tilting slightly as he considered the blond before him, "I'm curious to see what you think would help me."

"Should I then expect more than what you told me?" Spanner asked as he stood up, checking over the plastic device.

The sly smirk that crossed Tsuna's features, but smoothed out quickly into a serene smile would have given others pause if they had seen it. Spanner had missed it and only saw the kind, if nervous looking smile the boy gave him, "It could go either way, perfection is different for everyone y'know."

Part 67: We Don't Play Games

"Well, well," Natsume tutted, dusting her hands off as she barely gave the motionless bodies of the Milliefiore a second glance. "It seems we can try to find our young ones now."

"Everything has gotten mixed up," Chrome murmured, opening her eye after trying to find the direction she had mapped while being held prisoner. Instead of leading towards Shoichi, it led to a lower level of the Melone base. "There's two, no, three nearby."

Natsume hummed, letting the illusion that hid her face finally fall away, "Shall we greet them?" She knew for sure the two that were staying still were Takeshi and Lal, the third one that was creeping on them from a distance wasn't, so it'd be that one they'd have to watch out for.

Or stand back and see how Takeshi handled it, judging from the way Lal's flame was flickering, Natsume would be making sure the ex-arcobaleno managed to get out alive.

As Chrome led the way, easily passing through the door, Natsume was greeted with the sight of Takeshi kneeling before Lal, whose head lolled to the side, not strong enough to keep herself held up. Takeshi looked up, tensing up as one hand went to the handle of his blade, only to seemingly deflate as he recognized them.

"I wouldn't relax just yet," Natsume said, kneeling beside Lal and putting a hand against her forehead. A brief pulse of her Sky flames over the woman, told her enough of what the older woman had done. "What happened?"

"She got really bad after we faced some guy named Gingersnaps."

Natsume pursed her lips, knowing who Takeshi was already talking about even though he got their name wrong.

"I warned you Lal," Natsume muttered, searching for Lal's pacifier and nearly cursing aloud at how much more cracked it had gotten. The small amount of flickering flames kept going in and out as it did so more spiderwebbed cracks appearing over the deep grooves that hazy pacifier already sported. "Chrome, take Lal to Kawahira now."

Chrome didn't question the woman's order, already gathering the required flame and thinking of a spot of which to appear in Kawahira's shop. With a swirl of indigo flames, Lal and Chrome were gone, leaving Natsume and Takeshi behind.

"Takeshi!" Natsume called out as the figure watching them moved forward, the young swordsman's instincts already kicking in before she did so and drawing his blade to parry the one coming down on him.

Natsume only watched the two swordsman go, the corner of her mouth quirking up as Takeshi wised up. She watched as Genkishi laced his illusions around the young Rain, monitoring how Takeshi reacted. The teen shrugged off the illusion of his broken sword, throwing it in the older swordsman's face that he already understood him.

And as he moved for his next attack, he came to a slow halt, slowly phasing through a wall that Genkishi had created and hid. By the way he went through it seems something had at least stuck with Takeshi during their times of mock-fighting on the weekends when they were younger. Realizing that he was facing a Mist, he instantly coated himself in his flames in hopes of cushioning any physical illusions that were in his way.

The Rain fell down to one knee, breathing heavily. 'Get up, he's coming,' Takeshi grit his teeth trying to pick himself up and put up a defense against the slowly approaching swordsman. It seemed passing through the illusion had taken a lot more out of him than he had thought it would.

"Is this all Vongola has to offer?" Genkishi asked, "It makes me wonder how much weaker the others were for you to get past them."

Really why was Irie so worried about these children?

/ | \

"Traitors!" One of the downed men called, before being knocked out by the one that had punched him to the floor.

"Not exactly," one of the men took off a necklace, putting it in his pocket, reavling Hibari Kyoya's right hand man. Tetsuya reached into his pocket to pull out another necklace and pressed the pointed tip of the crystal against the wall. Lightening sparked, violently tearing through the walls and frying the cameras in the hall they were in.

The lights went out, leaving the three that came in the dark. A dim green light began to glow in place, coming from the clear crystal in Tetsuya's hand.

"Where do we go now?" The smallest of the three asked, tugging at Tetsuya's pants leg. The much taller man knelt down to pick the child up and held a finger to his lips, before jutting his chin towards the other man.

Kyoya stepped forward, not caring where he stepped as a pained grunt came from the man he had stepped on. He took the necklace that Tetsuya had taken off and held it out, "Take us to Natsume now."

A cool flush of dark purple and the necklace began to drift in the direction that would lead them to the woman who it belonged too. Sometimes Natsume's mindless amusement in all things magical worked out.

All things that belonged to her eventually found their way back.

/ | \

Irie received the message and could only watch as the incoming Millefiore members took out the guards, the screen going static as the cameras were taken out soon after.

He didn't know who of the Vongola he should account for now, seeing as the one that actually filled him with concern and some form of fear was watching Genkishi and the young Rain fight.

Iris had called in a few minutes ago that she had found the Vongola Decimo and Spanner and although it pained him to do so, Irie had left it up to her to judge Spanner.

Then there was the older Sun guardian and the the young Storm, who were getting closer to his position, which couldn't happen. In another of the screens there was Gamma's group and Irie's fingers hovered over the large cursor that would allow him to shift the base around as he pleased.

Gamma looked to be heading out instead of finding the Vongola and dealing with them like they had been ordered too. A glance at the screen were Genkishi was being pushed back by the Rain, moreso eyeing the woman that was almost off screen, and he neatly nudged the cursor.

Whatever Gamma was planning, it wouldn't do to have him leave just yet. If anything Irie would make it easy for him, set him onto the path of the Sun and Storm guardian's and if he defeated them, the exit would be right there.

It shouldn't be that difficult to defeat one teenager and an adult when it was three against two.

(Even if doing so made his stomach twist and left a bitter taste in his mouth. He had to do something and if he was going to be cowed down by anyone, it would be the man who he had witnessed destroy more than one reality.)

AN:

Hi all!

It's been awhile and I hope you all forgive me for that. This past year was a difficult transition in all things school related and it kind of kicked me down. But I reread this story and found my way again! I remembered why I was writing this and I've been giving a bit of time to this now.

Now everything concerning Natsume may go back and forth from here on out, and I've made it that way for a reason.

I'll also be doing some minor editing to the previous chapters, so if anything sticks out in this chapter please let me know and I'll get to it. I've always said my proofreading isn't the best.

Also a question to you, would you like to see any extra scenes at the end of chapter's, or certain AU's at the end? It obviously won't be attached to the more serious chapters, but the more light hearted ones may have alternative scenes if you would like that. Or you guys would like to see it in another separate place, I could do that too.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Sorugao