Bermuda's greatest moment of triumph was in the death of another person. The woman's blood flooded the wound above her pregnant stomach as she fell to the hard cement, she knew she was dying. She was a freelance assassin hired to kill a small time drug lord. Too bad her client failed to tell her about the mercs. Now she was paying the price, her and her unborn baby were dying. As her back hit the unyielding floor she sobbed something on the night air. Like a mirage the Vendice appeared. She knew she didn't have time "keep him safe" her hand on her stomach was the only thing he needed to know. Bermuda nodded and watched the pained smile the washed over her face before watching her soul depart her body. That was the pain of being Vendice, being caught between life and death.

He jumped off Jager's shoulder and flicked open the scabbard and pulled out the long knife. "forgive me Ambra…" the blood soaked baby in his hands let out a weak whimper instead of a full force cry. Although it had been centuries since he had been a parent he immediately understood how weak this new born, for lack of better term, was. The baby would live in their home. He would drink of their vengeance. He would be a living Vendice.

Bermuda gently bounced the tiny one in his arms "little Anastasio" he cooed and the baby opened his eyes. Black sapphires.

The man wreathed on the ground as did his guardians. Pain corroded his sanity, the very air seemed to be destroying him. One man made twenty people beg for death just with his aura. Insane would be the thought of anyone who didn't know who this figure was. Cloaked in black, dressed in the finest clothing of an era long dead, as if going to the banquet hall of Lucifer himself. Vendice. That word drove men into a panic. They were the most feared of all the mafia.

Bermuda's glare cut through the wrappings on his face and burrowed deep within the leader's mind. Suddenly shooting that whore didn't seem like such a good idea.

A different time in a different place…

A voice called "Wake up, it's time for your gift! "

The boy groaned "great" before shuffling down the stairs. His shaggy black hair fell down and hid his face as he walked into the room filled with the scarred corpses of the Vendice who sat around the room in different lounging positions. At this place none of them wore their bandages, here was the one place on Earth were they were normal, the one place they could relax. His mother sat before him, she had been made a Vendice after the desperation to see her son reached the level that Bermuda could change. She sat at the table in jeans and a t-shirt, warm blue eyes were blocked by long white hair as she smiled at him. Anastasio scratched the back of his head and knelt in front of his mom and his ancestor. Bermuda handed him a small package and he reverently unwrapped it. Bermuda looked on with a small smile as he watched the boy he regarded as a son open the package.

Inside was a knife, the boy nearly dropped it, it weight so much more than it should have. His child's face showed supreme happiness. His first weapon. The first step in proving his family proud.

Bermuda looked at Ambra who wrapped her arms around her five year old son "it's about time you started training…" his bright smile infected everybody. He was all their children, he was what they believed in, not God, not fate, but this small child in front of them. Yes, they believed in him.

Bermuda sat in a hammock watching Anastasio's training. His body had been broken down and reformed. He looked like a sixteen year old athlete, his training these past five years had been beyond brutal. The boy went flying into a wall hard enough to rattle the steel frame. With blood smattered across his face and his eyes dark with determination he looked like some sort of demon, he glared at Jager "again" and rushed him.

She was waiting in pain, he could feel it in his marrow, a splinter in his soul. Two years she had been missing. Two years since she had been taken. He needed to find her.

Bermuda felt his anger, anger at the world who took his mother, anger at Jager for asking her to go, anger at him for siding with Jager, anger at the others at their perspective. And rage beyond belief at himself. He loathed himself for allowing it to happen, for not being strong enough. Although this last point was one of great debate, for a human he was already immensely powerful, amongst the Vendice and some other famiglias he was weak. Not just weak but utterly powerless. And he felt it.

As he rushed towards Jager, his body fell. He curled into a ball and coughed as blood poured from his lungs and onto the hard ground. His vision was reduced to black as he crushed his eyes shut trying to relieve the pain that light brought. Too much pain. His body wouldn't move to his will and he felt like he was drowning in his own blood. A obliterating sense of black fell over him. Too much pain.

He woke to find himself strapped to the bed with all the Vindice standing around him with several doctors. He tried to speak but blood flooded his lungs and he coughed up the crimson liquid. Alejandro rushed forward and held a handkerchief to his face and spoke softly, like he was trying to reassure the ten year old on the bed "we're here, we're here for you…" and he gently rubbed circles on the boy's back. Bermuda hopped on his Anastasio's shoulder and put a hand on the back of his head. They all huddled around him in support as his entire world collapsed for the second time in his short life. He was dying. Slowly. It was inevitable, in all the parallel worlds he died. This reality was no different.

Lifetimes later and only moments after…

Anastasio walked with Bermuda on his shoulder, the smaller of the two spoke "it's been 12 years and you're still searching?"

Anastasio walked amongst the water tubes that held the prisoners looking every inch the Vendice he had grown to be "I will never stop searching for her" he pressed a hand against the glass as a person twitched, against all latitudes of understanding he murmured a single phrase "dream well, and sleep deep. We are here" he said it like it was some sort of comfort that the avengers were surrounding a prisoner.

Bermuda continued on "your new assignment. You are to go to Namimori and advise the Vongola and their allies. We have supported them after they freed us from our curse. They need to understand our rules." unspoken but still understood part crept over him 'your time is nearly up. Pass these final days in peace'

Anastasio knelt before his leader and adoptive father "I will do what I must." and the he forced a portal of flames of night to open before steeping through.