Reborn is in his safehouse in Paris when something painful tears through him and he screams.

It's slow, the pull of Skull's bond slowly being dragged out of him, the roots ripping scratches and tears through Reborn's flesh.

It's slow because it's a slow death.

Reborn's mind doesn't even have the decency to black out, oh no, he hits the ground but he stays awake and perfectly conscious through the whole thing, feeling Skull leave him bit by tiny bit, feeling the life drain from the bond, feeling his other Guardians screaming along with him as Reborn's pain feeds through them before they can put up mental barriers.

Skull's bond is ripped away and Reborn is left with a gaping hole through his chest, bleeding thick globs of Sky flames that still try to reach out to a dead Guardian, an empty bond, flames that drip down Reborn's body and sink into the floor leaving black scorch marks.

Sun flames rise to the surface, trying to heal something that isn't physical, that can't be physical because if it was an injury then Reborn would be dead.

Reborn curls up there on the floor, trembling in pain, until the last flickers of Cloud flames slip away from him.

His Sky flames still pour out, spilling across the floor, but at least it's a slower bleed now. The flames darken, deepen, turn something very close to black, and heavy like tar.

It's wrong. There's something wrong. Reborn's flames are wrongwrongwrong, breaking off from him, he's not controlling it anymore, it's not his, it's trying to find Skull.

"-born! Reborn!"

Reborn flinches, looking through tears to find a little cube robot sitting in front of him, projecting a hologram of Verde, the scientist rumpled and grimacing in pain.

Reborn whimpers because he doesn't know how to talk yet.

"I know," Verde sighs. "I know, Reborn, just stay with me. Viper is going to pick you up and warp you back to my lab. Are you injured anywhere?"

Reborn looks down at the hole in his chest, bleeding orange flames that spill out, turning into a black churning mass that crawls over the floor, weakly trying to search out the missing Guardian that it knows is alive

Skull is dead now Reborn felt that but

the Cloud Guardian is alive and Reborn is just lying here on the floor useless

get up get up find the Cloud

Skull

is

dead

shut up he's dead

he's dead

use le ss

The cube robot turns its camera and Verde sucks in a sharp breath when he sees the damage.

"Fuck," comes Lal's quiet voice in the background behind Verde.

Reborn doesn't understand what's happening, where did Skull go?

His Sky flames wrap tightly around his remaining bonds and flood through, pushing past the barriers and locks in place to try and protect each other's privacy, thrown up now to block out Reborn's pain from hurting them too.

Reborn forces his way through it all and spills into his Guardians, fills them up and then uses them as outposts to continue spreading his flames, trying to find familiar Cloud flames.

Verde is screaming now and there's the sound of something clattering and falling over and Lal groans and the flames of his Guardians try to desperately bulk up and keep Reborn from burning them out.

Where is Skull, where did he go, did Skull leave Reborn, why is the cute Cloud cuddly Cloud gone-

aretheothersleavinghim

notheycan'tgo

theycanneverleave

Sky pushes himself up and staggers to his feet. It's not safe here, this far away from Guardians.

Sky needs to bring them to him, keep them safe.

Keep them from leaving.