Is it a good idea to follow the invitation of an enemy, and thus possibly walk straight into a trap? Of course not.

Is it a brilliant idea to walk into the lion's den without having the faintest idea what exactly would await him in it? Definitely not!

So why exactly was he here, in a queue at the ticket booth of a huge city hall, where a convention is about to start? Well. Less than one of these Sci Fi one's as of these bad mafia-like convention.

Tsuna had asked himself this question in the last few hours many times. And he knew the answer. He must not hesitate now. He was his goal here as close as never before.

Yep, the meeting of the probably most evil organization of all, of whose objectives I actually have no idea, is disguised as a convention held in the city center. However, there is no programbooklet.

Shortly before, he had visited the man from the restaurant and convinced him how Tsuna would like to pursue a career in this direction. His acting skills were just not to be underestimated. From him he also got the ticket.

From several sources, he had heard the name Checkerface in connection with the organization. And also, the name was whispered only with the utmost respect.

This Checkerface seems to be a pretty big number here.

It did not take long before it was his turn and was allowed into the hall. From thereon, it was said: don't be noticed under any circumstances. Or how Spanner put it: Just be not yourself, otherwise it will guarantee something goes wrong!

Tsuna sighed. How exactly should he do that, please? Not being himself. Such a silly suggestion.

Chapter 16: Dreams are but shadows

"The dreams of yesterday are sometimes the nightmares of tomorrow."Friedrich Nowottny

"Look, there he is. That's Checkerface," said a man next to him to another. Tsuna looked at a stage that was built in the middle of the hall. And now he understood why he was called Checkerface. The checkered mask left no doubt about it.

But Tsuna felt something else. Something distinctly gloomy. From this man came an all-pervasive darkness that he had felt from nobody 'til now. Tsuna was too reluctant, but if he even looked at this man, he wished to just be far away. Tsuna felt fear.

But when Tsuna looked around, he seemed to notice this aura as the only one.

And there on the stage, next to Checkerface, was Adriana. Tsuna unconsciously made a step forward, but quickly withdrew back. Here were too many enemies.

Checkerface was about to speak.

"Welcome my friends. Nice to see you all responding to my invitation."

He paused. Tsuna did not know if he should consider himself lucky to be here. Or curse it.

"I will not hold a long speech. Time is precious and runs ringing and our schedule is very tightly considered. So I will make this brief.

I have all of you gathered here to tell you that the realization of our plans is within reach. Look at that."

Adriana, who has been in the background, now came forward, with a glass container.

There they were again. The reason why Tsuna's last years had been so hard.

The pacifiers.

Tsuna counted six pieces. Green, blue, yellow, purple, indigo and red.

"As soon as we also have the last of the Acrobaleno pacifiers, we will dip the world into eternal darkness. And then we can achieve our ultimate goal."

How to clarify his speech, suddenly such a dark energy flowed through the room that Tsuna was afraid to faint. On stage now were two fires. But none were among the flames of the sky.

No. These were black as night.

And Tsuna felt paralyzed at the sight. What's this? This time, it was also felt by the surrounding members. But instead of cowering in fear like Tsuna, they called the name of their leader in a choir. Just where have I gotten myself into?

Ever since he left Namimori, for the first time, Tsuna questioned if things weren't really way over his head.

The window shattered and from the entrance of the hall the sounds of a battle could be heard. Judging by the faces around him, Tsuna decided that that probably doesn't belonged to the show.

Something flew through the air and landed not far from Tsuna. He bent down to a better look. It was small and round. And it...beeped?

"A bomb!"

Tsuna immediately responded and jumped backwards with a dive role. Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Until the explosion came.

Tsuna was thrown away and turned a few times around himself. He could hear only a loud beep. When he tried to get up, he groaned in pain. A hand towards the chest.

Shit. There went a few ribs.

As much as Tsuna wanted to take a rest, he knew that, where one bomb came from, more were sure to follow soon.

The beeping in his ears subsided slowly and Tsuna picked himself up again.

People were running frantically past him. Some took cover behind tables, took out their weapons and made themselves ready to fight. But who were their attackers?

Crap! I should...

The idea was forgotten when he saw her. Just a quick eye contact was needed to identify the other. Just a few meters away from him Tsuna's mentor stood.

"Adriana," Tsuna whispered, barely noticeable. The world around him became quiet. The explosions he tuned out completely. For him counted only one thing now.

"Tsuna?" Adriana seemed to be flabbergasted to see him here. It was probably the last place which she thought he would go to. Or his determination to finally face her again was greater than Adriana had thought.

But instead of pulling her weapon and attack him, she turned on the spot and rushed in the opposite direction. Tsuna swore, but continued after immediately.

Adriana has unfortunately always been faster and more nimble than Tsuna, and to throw things his way made the whole thing guaranteed not simpler.

At some point in their cat-and-mouse game Tsuna noticed a mist which spread quietly across the floor. Somewhere he saw and heard people collapse. But that was only secondary to him: Adriana slowed down!

Tsuna instead put on pace and held out an arm. Only a small way, then he could grab her.

Two meters.

One meter.

Someone bumped into Tsuna from the side and he was thrown to the ground. He quickly looked around for Adriana, but found no trace of her. She was gone. Tsuna banged his fist on the ground. So close!

The guy who ran against Tsuna squeaked in shock. Tsuna looked at him a few seconds before he shrank himself.

"You!"

Before him, the guy from whom he had learned of this meeting was sitting on the ground. The guy, which through his living room window, Tsuna had overheard and had hit him k.o.

He was quite pale, jumped then as if stung by a tarantula and ran away as fast as he could.

Only now, as Adriana was no longer there and he was able to concentrate again on something else, Tsuna was aware of what was happening around him and the danger he was actually in.

He could not scream. He could not breathe. The smoke was getting thicker and took Tsuna gradually the view. He pressed his hand hard against his mouth and nose. Not since the earthquake under the destroyed prison had he felt such a panic.

I need to get out of here! Immediately!

Although the ceiling wouldn't fall on Tsuna's head here yet, but whoever attacked the organization here in their "own garden", Tsuna did not want to encounter rather soon.

Almost blindly, Tsuna stumbled through the area. Until now, he hasn't met anyone - except a few members who were on the ground unconscious. Also Adriana he had not seen again. She knew where exactly the exit was. So it's safe to say that she's far away by now.

I've been so close to my goal! How can one go within an hour from "Seeking the truth from my mother and mentor" to "The world will fall into a dark abyss, if I don't do anything"?

He felt like his eyes were getting heavy and his legs no longer went as fast as even a few minutes ago. He couldn't go on for much longer. With his other hand he held onto the wall. Just close my eyes for a few...

"Tsuna. Tsuna."

Quick as a flash, the young assassin raised his head. Before him stood Adriana. He pushed himself off the wall, but stumbled after only a few steps and fell limp to the ground.

Adriana laughed at him. "You are weak. Why have I even adopted you? You are really good for nothing. You're no-good Tsuna."

She walked away. Tsuna held out his arm. "Wait." When Adriana disappeared into the fog, flames shot out of the ground. Tsuna was hot. Sweat ran down his forehead. On his right side, out of the fire, there came a groan.

People were burned alive. But not just anyone.

"No," whispered Tsuna. He desperately tried to get up but to no avail.

Before him screamed Takeshi, Hayato, Kyoya, Mukuro, Chrome and Lambo in the flames. Behind them fluttered the flag Vongola's. They looked at him accusingly.

"Why did you let us down, Tsuna?," shouted Takeshi. "Why did you leave us? Why were you so selfish, and left us back when you all but knew that they're looking for you!"

"No, I haven't ..."

His friends screamed as the fire flared up and took them with it. Took them from him.

"NO!" Tsuna dug his fingernails into his palms.

Something crashed behind him. The wall had a crack. Then another. And another one. Breathing hard, Tsuna pushed forward and rolled away at the last moment when the wall fell.

He landed on books. The whole floor was covered in them. Tsuna's hands were smeared with blood.

What?

Directly in front of him was the reason. Reborn's crumpled form lay before him. Tsuna lost no time and crawled to him. He had hardly any power and the world around him was moving.

This is not possible. That can't be. That's impossible.

But before him was his brother. His face was painfully distorted even in death. In Reborn's chest stuck Adriana's knife. With his last strength Tsuna grabbed the handle. A hand grabbed him by the wrist. His eyes met onyx colored eyes.

"Why were you following me? Without you I would still be alive. Why did you kill me?" whispered Reborn.

Tsuna pulled his hand from the grip and stumbled backwards. Away from Reborn's speaking corpse.

Tsuna's eyes were wide. His breathing was fast. The fire came up to him. He wanted to scream. But his throat was constricted. He could not breathe. The walls were moving past him. Reborn disappeared. Then his friends went past him, screaming in the fire. Then Adriana, who was still laughing. The world spun around.

Suddenly he was grabbed by the shoulders. Tsuna could only see the face of his attacker, before the world went completely black.

"Why?"

In retrospect, Tsuna should probably have listened to Spanner.

"I dare you, Tsuna. I catch you. Trust me, "Adriana exclaimed with a smile on her lips. When had he seen her laugh like that the last time. That he could not even remember ... how tragic their story had become.

Tsuna stood on the little monkey bars at the playground. Adriana stood with wide open arms under him and tried to get him to jump. She would catch him in any case.

Tsuna remembered. He was six at the time and this was one of the few times in the beginning, where Reborn had not been with them.

"Spring, Tsuna. I promise I'll catch you. I will not let anything happen to you." Tsuna slowly undid the small grip on the rope, closed his eyes and simply jumped over the edge of the platform, without thinking about it. In this moment he seemed to fly through the air, so close to the sky, felt for the first time in a long time freely and in peace. Where all the nightmares of the past few months would just disappear - as if they had never happened.

He felt two hands catch him gently and began to rotate him in a circle. Adriana laughed again and this time Tsuna laughed heartily with her. He did not want this moment ever come to an end - ever.

Adriana let Tsuna gently to the ground, knelt before him and hugged Tsuna, as if to never let him go. Tsuna felt his cheeks were wet, but it was not he, who cried. It was Adriana. She just sat in front of him, and cried, but smiled as if she could hardly believe her luck. Her hand stroked his cheek tenderly.

"You've trusted me," whispered the young woman.

In Tsuna's heart there was a high sense of joy and relief spread through him that he had not felt in a long time.

"Yes, I did," Tsuna said, and he meant it, for here the world was still intact and beautiful.

Adriana was beaming with happiness and took Tsuna in her arms again. Tsuna closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax.

"But you know, you've forgotten the most important lesson in our craft," Adriana whispered again, and this time her voice sounded... numb? In Tsuna's head all the alarm bells began to shrill.

"Trust no one ..."

Tsuna had not been able to react in time. He only felt a sharp pain in the chest. Slowly, Adriana pulled out the knife. The knife with flame engraving. He raised a hand to his chest. It was covered in blood. Panic overtook his heart.

"...not even me."

He could not breathe, his whole body was numb. Tsuna stumbled back and looked at her in shock. She just stood there and smiled sweetly.

Suddenly the ground beneath his feet gave way. Tsuna just made it to hold on to the edge of the chasm, but he wouldn't be able to hold out for long. The face of his mentor appeared over the edge. No feelings, no emotion, no attempt to help him. "I warned you."

Then Tsuna's hand slipped off and he fell down into the bottomless abyss, while the chasm closed itself again over him, and therefore took the last bit of daylight.

He screamed.