Hope you like this chapter, and as always read and review :)

~8~

"Cowboy boots!" Hide gawked at the pair of white leather cowboy boots in his hands, but they weren't all pointed at the tip though like what most cowboy boots were, "How are white leather boots supposed to help me fight!"

"Who knows," Reborn shrugged, "Better get them on quick though."

Hide did exactly what his tutor suggested and kicked his sneakers off before pulling the cowboy boots on his feet. Something small and shiny fell out of the boots while he was putting them on, but Hide didn't pay it any attention.

"Cowboy boots?" Morpheus snickered and then turned the snicker into a hardy laugh, "Oh man, that's hilarious!"

It stopped its laughter abruptly and picked another pipe that was lying on the ground and held it in a throwing position, "But they won't help protect you from much."

Reborn looked down when something small and shiny rolled to his feet; he smiled and picked it up, "Oh? I haven't seen one of thesein a long time," he said happily.

Hide screamed as he started running away when the pipe landed just in front of his face, "Eeek!" he screamed again in horror, he felt something grab his foot and saw that Morpheus was holding it down. The Mist Box then pulled the boy up by the foot until he was dangling in the air.

"Sorry, I really don't like messing up the building any further than it already is," it sighed and threw the boy at the wall as if he was a ragdoll. Hide landed on the other side of the wall, covered in pieces of wall and plaster.

"Hm, that was easier than I expected," Morpheus wiped its hands satisfactorily and looked over to Reborn, "Or that's what I would say if I was an idiot."

Reborn grinned with a lime green handgun in his hand that had smoke coming from the tip of its muzzle. The handgun turned into a chameleon that quickly crawled its way up Reborn's arm where the infant smiled and said:

"That's correct."

~8~

Its cold…Hide thought, he felt his body quickly become numb all over and surprisingly sleepy as he kept drifting in and out of consciousness, Am I…dying? Wow, that sucks…I don't even feel like Itriedto save my friends…I guess this is the end everyone…sorry this is all I can do...

He cracked open an eye and stared at his hand, it was covered in blood and blisters. A cold mist was creeping around his red fingers, probably coming from the freezing cold room he was laying in front of…It was too much for me…all this pain, all this fear…

"Oh my, what a selfish boy!"

What? Mom?

Hide could now see his mother in the hospital lobby; she was sitting by herself in a chair with her elbows on her knees and her head resting the palms of her hands. She frowned and said out loud haughtily, "That boy, oh my, leaves his mother to worry over things! He didn't even say good bye when he left!

Why is mom here? Hide thought, Is this a dream? Another illusion?

The image faded out into blackness and he now saw something else.

"What is this!"

He heard someone sigh disappointedly, he could see rain and Rosario was standing in front of his house swinging a door in and out while yelling, "Geez, what is this? The young Twelfth left the door open before going out? What kind of Boss is that?" she took out a clipboard and wrote something down, "Careless."

Rosario-san…? Why is she at my house?

"That's right, don't worry."

Now it's Gramps?

Hide saw his gramps in his restaurant, he looked like talking on the phone to someone, "Yeah, I'm sure he'll be fine without my help! He's a little on the weak side and all, but he's got strong people with him!" his gramps laughed heartily.

Eh? Why am I seeing all these things?

"That's the effect of a special bullet I shot you with," said Reborn, the infant was now standing before Hide with his hands in his pockets, "You were hit with the Rebuke Bullet, what your seeing and hearing now are the rebukes from everyone you've every known."

Rebukes!...w-why do I have to listen to what everyone is saying behind my back…? I don't want to be reminded in my last few moments of how much of a loser I was!

"He was a little bit boring…"

Eh? I-is that Megumi-chan?

He saw Megumi staring at a puddle on the sidewalk as rain was dripping down it, "I hope he and Morita-kun make it back though," she said with a wry smile.

Megumi-chan…

"Wow I'm wet!" Hide saw Adam underneath some trees that he recognized from around the shrine. The boy was squeezing out water from his shirt as the rain was pouring harder; Hide noticed that he was only doing it with one arm though while the other was hanging limp at his side.

"Can't believe I was so careless there," he said thoughtfully, "I'm sure Boss is handling things better up there though."

Even Adam?

"I have confidence," Adam grinned hopelessly and shook some water out of his hair, "He's my Boss, I have to have confidence."

…Confidence? In me…?

"What do you think, sir?"

Huh?

Hide now saw the inside of some sort of large office that was wall-to-wall with books; a large oak desk was in front large windows that gave a beautiful view of the sky and grassy hills. Sitting in the chair at the desk was an elderly man that was writing something down; he put down his pen and asked, "What?"

"What do you think, sir?" a voice asked from somewhere Hide could not see, "About your grandson?"

Hide had never heard this voice in his entire life, but something was familiar about the old man at the desk. The boy noted that he looked a little bit like him as well, like an older-version of Hide.

"Um, he's an alright boy," the old man coughed and resumed writing; he then stopped abruptly and asked, "Why?"

"Oh, no reason sir," said the voice, it sounded like a young lady.

The old man put the pen down again and said, "Well, I only met the boy once. I'm not that good of a judge of character. But I know that Hideyoshi-kun will make a fine leader for the Vongola, he's very caring, that boy, and he knows what he wants. That's very important."

"Anything else, sir?" the voice asked.

"Hmm…" he rubbed his chin thoughtfully and, this part shocked Hide a little, seemed to look straight at Hide, he smiled and said, "Yes, he has a lot of people waiting for him."

Is that…?

Hide's hand started shaking, he looked at Reborn who smiled, "I don't have to say my Rebukes, now do I?"

Hide closed his weak and tired eyes and thought about his friends, his family, all the people he was leaving behind. All the people that he was never going to see again. Those times he was chased around by Reborn, when he was training with Adam, getting blown up by Hanabi, being begged to do things by Morita, helping Suzuki deliver sushi, all those things that Hide really didn't like doing were all flooding his head…and the strangest part of it all was that he wanted to protect those things with all his might…even if he was dying…

Do it! Do something! That voice yelled at him, Hide opened his eyes again and sat up.

"Oh? You have enough strength to sit up?" Morpheus questioned, it disappeared and then reappeared right before Hide, "But I can put a stop to that."

It moved in to kick Hide in the gut, but was surprised when the boy dodged out of the way quickly. He then stood up and moved out of the way from Morpheus.

"So you're a little bit quicker," it said and charged towards Hide, "So what?"

"Morpheus," Hide spoke calmly, his eyes gazed at the Mist Box as it ran towards him with a fist in the air, he stopped it in a second. He dropped down on his hands kicked his feet up so that he was now upside down and he kicked the Box, it blocked the kick but widened it's eyes in shock.

"Morpheus," he said again, "Even if I'm dying, I'll protect my friends to the very end!"

Hide's eyes were now a clear and sharp, beautiful orange color, and a large orange flame erupted on his forehead. Along with other changes, his white leather cowboy boots were now black steel-toed boots that had 'XII' in metal lettering on the sides. The Boots were covered in the same orange flame that was on his forehead.

Morpheus quickly withdrew the arm that it blocked the kicked with and held its arm close to itself, it looked at it and saw that the arm was now dried and cracked and looked like petrified wood.

"M-My arm!" it yelped.

"That would be the effect of the Sky Flame's 'Harmonization' affinity," Reborn stated, "That thing that fell out of Hide's boots a little while ago was a Rebuke Bullet, it brings out the calm fighting side of the Dying Will effect. With this, his power is enhanced and dramatically increased."

Morpheus frowned and said, "You're still no match for my skills." The Box then disappeared and reappeared behind Hide while running, "Like this!"

The boy didn't even have to turn around to know Morpheus was coming; he spun on one foot and did a back kick into Morpheus' face.

"My face!" it screamed as it covered its face with its hands.

"An illusion," Hide muttered calmly and moved aside right at the moment another Morpheus appeared and tried to punch him.

"This is an illusion also," he said and then looked to his left as if he had noticed something, Hide jumped onto his hands and did a somersault in the air with one of his legs sticking out so that he could do a drop-kick. His Boots made contact with something that screamed shortly after.

"Graaagh!" Morpheus screamed out as it fell to the ground, it then stared in horror at its hands and gasped, "W-What is this feeling! This isn't an emotion!"

"Its pain, Morpheus," said Hide in a deadly calm tone, "Reborn told me that God Boxes couldn't feel pain, he also told me before what this orange flame is called," he looked down at his Boots, "It's called a Sky Flame, and its affinity is 'Harmonization' meaning it can neutralize the effects of any other Flame type and it's effects on Box Weapons is that it petrifies them."

"What's this? Acting all clever all of the sudden?" Morpheus hissed at Hide angrily.

"No," Reborn shook his head, "This is also another effect of the Rebuke Bullet, instead of enhancing Hide's Will the Rebuke Bullet allows him to realize his hidden will power and releases his body's limiters, while also releasing the limiters on his internal sense. In this case, it's Hide's ability to 'see through things', a talent that is inherited by all of the Vongola bloodline: Hyper Intuition."

"What?" Morpheus scowled; its face was dry and cracked-looking, like its arm, from being kicked in the face by Hide. A small chip of its face fell to the ground and if you looked closely you could see a glowing mixture of something that was indigo colored and swirling around constantly.

"I'm glad that you aren't human," Hide said as it walked towards Morpheus.

"What did you say?"

"At least this way, I won't be upset later," he continued and kicked Morpheus again; it was thrown back at the large computer in the back.

Amaterasu was still standing perfectly still and the computer was reading: Uploading… a white bar was underneath the text that had just a little bit that wasn't quite white but more of the color of the computer screen. But the whiteness was growing inside the bar.

"Wait, wait!" Morpheus yelped as Hide started walking towards it, "Do you really think that killing me will stop the upload? Do you?"

He stopped for a second and then said after a lengthy pause, "It's impossible to kill a thing that was never alive."

"B-But I know how to stop the upload!" it said with a pleading look on its face, "You need me don't you? Because, trust me, you do not want to mess with that woman!"

"That woman?" Hide stopped and questioned, "What are you talking about?"

"What do you think the computer is uploading onto Amaterasu?" Morpheus asked shakily, its gaze shifted nervously as the cracks on its face seemed to threaten to chip, "Its uploading software, but not just any software too, no, the computer is uploading the software of the Base's own processing software, the brain of the computer is being uploaded onto Amaterasu!"

Hide's glowing orange eyes narrowed and he said, "You're not making any sense."

"It's uploading a person," Morpheus said nervously, "Once this upload is done, that woman will kill you and me, now that I've told you all this. But I can tell you how to turn the computer off!"

"We should probably listen, Hide," he heard Reborn suggested, "This is a good idea."

Hide muttered something and Morpheus asked, "What?"

"An illusion," he repeated, "Reborn would never say that. When are you going to stop this foolishness?"

"Hmph," the Box smirked, "Then you saw through it."

The God Box soon faded away from its spot, but Hide could tell that the time he had kicked Morpheus all the way to the computer was real since there was dent where the Box Weapon had landed. Hide turned around to where Reborn was supposed to be and saw the infant standing exactly where he last saw him.

"Are you an illusion?" he asked bluntly.

Reborn smiled and said, "What do you think idiot?"

Hide took this as a 'no' and believed it, because that sounded like something that only Reborn would ever say. He surveyed the room and little and looked down at his Boots, the cold air was circulating around them was like a cool mist as it poured out from the vents by the ground.

The frost around the floor tiles and the cold mist did not seem to be affected by the orange flames on his Boots. Hide then noticed that the flames were neither hot nor cold, it didn't even feel like anything. He could see the flames as clear as day but he couldn't feel them at all, Hide bet that if he closed his eyes he would easily be able to forget that they were even there. But he didn't mention this bet out loud of course.

The boy quickly shook his head and got back to trying to 'sense' Morpheus, since he couldn't not see illusions whenever he felt like it, it wasn't like he had a switch in his head that he could turn on and off when he didn't want to see them. He just knew that when ever there was an illusion was going on something was always just a little bit off. Like things would just get too surreal for no reason or the details to things suddenly appeared as if they were a last minute detail and only when you looked actually at it.

He stood perfectly still and waited silently, his eyes glowing orange in the dark, cold room. The flames on his Boots swirled around them softly. Hide took a deep breathe in and warmed his cold palms, there wasn't any sign of Morpheus around him so he thought that warming his hands up would make for better time and possibly make the God Box try to make fun of him.

"Getting cold are we?" Hide nodded to himself that he was right, "Do you want me to take the cold away? I can do it, I can-"

"Stop," he interrupted and said, "Morpheus, Reborn said that each of you God Boxes represented an emotion, I think I just found out what yours is. It's cowardice, right?"

The cold mist seemed to move unnaturally now and room became darker. Shadows crept from the corners of the room and started to move closer and closer to Hide.

"I know that Poseidon's is fear, but fear and cowardice aren't the same," he continued, "You always have fear even when you're standing up to something, but cowardice is just when you're too scared to even face your problems. You keep all the other Boxes under your thumb to make sure they don't hurt you, and even now you are probably cowering somewhere in a corner of this room and using your illusions as a veil."

"You're wrong," Morpheus's voice spread across the room.

"You put on the illusion that you're a big shot, but in reality you are just a coward," the shadows began reaching Hide's feet and then crawled up his Boots, "Even now, this is an illusion," the darkness was now up to his waist and stopped right there.

"How?"

"You coward," Hide swung his whole body around and kicked the air; there was a satisfying thudwhen he hit Morpheus.

Something went flying across the room and the shadows quickly retreated to wherever they went. The Boots ignited themselves and pushed Hide off the ground, he flew towards where Morpheus went flying and kicked an invisible body.

It made a 'gak!' sound but Hide stomped once more and the body screamed. The illusion soon fell away and Morpheus was revealed with cracks all over its body except for half of its face. Morpheus screamed loudly in pain and looked at Hide with spite.

"Y-You bastard! You-" it began shakily, Hide stepped on its cracked and chipped leg which it then started to shrivel away into dust, "M-My leg! What's going on!"

"Harmony," Hide answered, its other leg started to turn to dust and then it started to lose its waist.

"My body!" it screamed, "What are you doing to my body!"

"Nothing," he said calmly, "Your body has been stressed enough, and it's about time you were put away, Morpheus. If it helps, I think only your head will be left since it's the only thing intact."

"Don't touch me!" it hissed, its cracked hands began to into dust and spread to its arms, "You touch me and those hands will turn me to dust, like the rest of my body!"

"No, they won't," he said, and looked at his bare hands, "I'll protect the ones I love with these hands, and these feet will stomp out anything that threatens them. You aren't going to threaten much if you're just a head."

"Shut up! I can still use my illusions!" it yelled.

"And then what?" he asked, "You will silently make people go crazy, but what will you do afterwards? There's no point in it anymore, you need to go back to your Box, Morpheus, and then maybe you'll be less cowardly in the next life."

The Box stared at him with wide, indigo eyes, its body turned to thin grains of pale dust and sand. Its face looked completely dumbfounded and Hide had seen this expression before the first time he had seen Poseidon. It was a child-like expression, but this one was sadder than Morpheus's, it was like a lost child.

"Upload complete." Hide spun around to the computer and saw that the white bar was full. Morpheus blinked and then regained its composure.

"Oh? Look at that!" it said triumphantly, "The upload is complete! You don't stand a chance now! Hahahah!"

Hide looked over to Amaterasu and immediately noticed that something was different about her. The God Box opened her brown eyes which flashed into an onyx black, the straw-blond hair that was tied in a neat bun suddenly became erratic and messy and turned black. Amaterasu's skin color also changed to a much paler tint. The clothes she was wearing also seemed to change shape and color as well.

"You know," Morpheus grinned, "It's quite hilarious actually, Amaterasu had it in her head that she was a Sun Box. Hah!"

"What?" Hide eyed the Mist Box with his orange-glowing eyes.

"You don't even know your own culture's beliefs?" it smirked and said knowingly, "Amaterasu, goddess of the Sun and everything underneath."

Hide's eyes widened as he looked up sharply at the God Box's changing shape.

"Her realname isn't Sun Amaterasu," Morpheus spoke, "its Sky Amaterasu."

"Geh," the Box's mouth twitched.

"Oh? She's waking up," the Mist Box grinned again.

Amaterasu's whole body was now completely different. For one thing, she was shorter, and smaller. She looked like a completely different…what ever she was.

The woman before Hide now lifted a hand, Hide took a step back cautiously, and then the hand grabbed a hold of the wires in her ears and pulled them out. She dropped them on the ground and slowly took a step forward, the plug from the back of her neck pulled itself out along with the wires in her other ear. The mist that the cold air stirred silently under her feet with each step she took.

Morpheus grasped her ankle with a desperate look on its face.

"Help me, master," it croaked, "Make me new again."

She eyed him for a second before waving a dismissive hand and moving forward. The Box's indigo eyes widened with fear.

"Wha-what are you doing?" it yelled as its body of sand was sucked into a small indigo cube that was hidden somewhere in the corner of the room, its head then turned to sand as well and was sucked in like a vacuum.

"What happened?" Hide asked cautiously, "Where did Morpheus go?"

"Back in its Box," said Reborn, "it is a Box weapon after all; she's probably storing up energy."

"For what?"

"For that."

Hide snapped his head in the woman's direction but was then hit underneath his chin by a palm being thrust upwards. And then she punched him in the gut.

"Gak!" Hide coughed as he was stumbled backwards while holding his stomach.

"Sa…wada…Tsu…nayo…shi..." she muttered while staring at the hand she had just punched him with.

"What?" he coughed and quickly backed away from the woman once he had caught a glimpse of her eyes.

"Alone…" she muttered to herself, "So…alone…"

"What?" Hide asked again.

"You…left me here," she said and looked up at HIde, "Alone…so alone…"

"No I didn't," he shook his head.

"She thinks that you are your grandfather, Hide," Reborn explained.

"No," she suddenly said, her voice was now picking up the pace, "You are not the man I'm looking for, you are…different, but the same…What is your name, child?"

Hide shivered when he made eye contact with the woman, her eyes glinted like black pebbles and the computer was glowing just behind her and silently humming.

"Sawada Hideyoshi," he answered.

"Sawada…so you are related?" she asked.

"I guess we are," he said cautiously, "Who are you?"

"Me?" she looked a little surprised for a second and then said, "It's been a long time since anyone has asked me that…My name is Tsukamoto Yuuko."

"Tsukamoto?" the image of the wall on one of the floors arose in Hide's mind, he remembered the bold black lettering that read: TSUKAMOTO V.1.

"You're the…computer?" he asked cautiously.

"That's technically correct," she answered, her black onyx eyes glanced downwards and said thoughtfully, "I remember it being such a long time ago…"

~8~

My, my, this is a looong chapter, I had a little trouble writing it in the middle parts and the end. I kept on thinking, 'wow this is going to be super long, should I stop it now?' but then I reminded myself that the next chapter shall be the last! At least the last of this arc.

Stay tuned for the next chapter: Going to sleep

KHR belongs to Amano Akira