….It's not even four chapters in and I almost have 100 Reviews.
WHAT?!
Like. I blinked and it just- BOOM there it was.
Thank you so much. (seriously like-what?)
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He drops the man like he burns and whirls for the door. He doesn't notice the man he dropped being burned into ash by his Flames and his Magic behind him. He sees the Arcobaleno frozen behind him, but he's so angry it doesn't actually register that they've seen him, that they've seen the Man-Who-Conquered that lived in his mind. It doesn't register that they have seen him as a soldier as a member of a war (even if they don't know that is what they have seen) that they have seen his instincts wake up and take over.
He needed to know why so he had found out.
Snape hadn't taught him much of anything all those years ago, but Skull remembered how he had attacked his mind, ripped any shield he had made into shreds, how he had dived into memories and how much it had hurt.
He had learned how to attack a mind. How to dive into someone's head and find what he needed. He'd done it accidentally all those years ago when he had snapped back and attacked Snape's head. When he had found that memory of his father being a bully. He had succeeded where Voldemort had failed, had gotten into the man's head- even if had only been for an instant- as a novice someone who hadn't even known it was possible to dive into someone's head even a week before.
It hadn't been much of a surprise when- due to the war- Harry had dove into really learning the art of the mind- shielding and attacking it and had been really, really good at it. He hadn't wanted to physically torture anyone for information he had needed- it hadn't stopped the necessity of it before, and Harry had done what he needed to survive, but learning had prevented the majority of any physical torture for information he had had to do. (It hadn't stopped it, hadn't stopped the nightmares after, hadn't stopped him from throwing up the first few times, hadn't stopped him from feeling sick every time, and especially hadn't stopped him from getting really, really good at it so he wouldn't have to take too long, but it had helped)
(It was also the reason Skull was good enough to keep Viper out of his head why even she had not known of his past as Harry, any mist user that had tried it had never succeeded in getting anything Skull hadn't wanted to be found, because if Harry wanted to get the information he needed he would have to attack the minds of the very best- which meant he had to be better so he had been and still was)
His hands are shaking, but Skull doesn't notice as he stops out the door. He doesn't notice the bottles and glasses he walks by shaking so hard they crack, doesn't notice the lights all shattering in his wake, doesn't notice windows vibrating as he passes, doesn't notice how the door flies open before he touches it, doesn't notice how he's leaving actual footprints in the floors where he walks or how after he clears the door the Arcobaleno unfreeze and lunge after him.
He keeps walking. All he can think is that he needs to get away so he can lose it, so he can have a moment to feel so he can work through it before he has to leave and fix it all. All he can think is "Not here, not yet. Steady…steady. Wait."
His hands are still shaking.
He had been done.
They had tracked him down. They wanted Their General. They wanted Harry.
He was Skull now.
But they wanted the Man-Who-Conquered.
He had left it all behind, all the memories, all the rage, all the pain, all the expectations.
And they had still found him. Still expected Harry to lead the charge and he couldn't do this again. He couldn't but he must.
His breath hitched.
He was so angry.
Skull makes it to the forest further up the road away from the bar he had left and he keeps walking, the Arcobaleno on his heels (not that Skull notices this in his state. Not when he had long ago stopped considering any of them an actual threat to his life, and as such stopped registering them as threats and instead recognized them as friends so he doesn't automatically lash out at them). He keeps moving until he finds a clearing where Skull hits his knees and screams.
His Magic and his Flames flare and seethe around him, filling the entire clearing and causing the Arcobaleno to stagger at the pressure in the tree-line.
He screams because he had left Them, he had been done, he had been healing and They had called him back. He screams because he had seen that They would force him back. He screams because he is a Cloud and They are chaining him. He screams because the memories are all rushing back and it's too much and he can't. He screams to cover up the screams of the dying he can hear in his head. He screams so he can't hear the voices of friends and family screaming in his memories. He screams so he doesn't cry. He screams so he does not destroy the forest around him.
He screams because right now, right now he is not Skull, he is not the Man-Who-Conquered, he is just Harry and he is being called to stand in the front lines again.
He screams because he knows he cannot escape Their call.
He screams because he can feel the chains snapping onto his soul and it hurts. No Cloud is ever meant to be chained, to have their freedom taken away and that is what had happened.
In the moment it had taken Skull to look into the wizard's mind he had seen it all laid out.
There would be no escape for him.
And it makes him rage.
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The Arcobaleno had followed after their Cloud as soon as he left. There was no doubt they would follow him, especially after seeing his reactions to whatever he had found.
The Arcobaleno see his hands shaking as he walks. They notice how he has suppressed his Flames as much as he can. They notice how despite that his Flames are writhing under his control.
They can see his hands shaking harder as he goes.
Then Skull reaches the clearing.
They are seconds from following him into it, when his Flames snap out from under his control alongside something else, something only Viper recognizes as very powerful magic and the entire clearing is scorched under their Cloud's Flames.
But that doesn't hold their attention for long.
No.
Not even a fraction of a second, because almost as soon as that wave of power presses in on them and forces them to stop, Skull screams.
It's unlike anything they had ever heard from their Cloud.
It's wrong.
He screams and he keeps screaming and it's painful to hear.
It is rage and pain and hurt. It is denial and disgust and horror. It is soul searing to hear from their Cloud.
Almost like Skull's very soul is being shredded apart.
It sets them all on edge, fans the instincts that come with being Elements in the same Sky that whisper to protect each other to blazing infernos.
This is nothing like hearing Skull scream when Reborn or Colonnello push him around, nothing like all the times Skull has thrown fits about one thing or another, nothing like anything they had ever heard from Skull before.
This is something that their Cloud feels down to his soul that is tearing into him.
Skull is lost to his rage-pain-anger as the Arcobaleno all move to circle the clearing he is knelt in.
He doesn't notice at first as each Arcobaleno raises their Flames higher and higher from their places circling around him. He doesn't notice as all the colors of the rainbow join his violet in the clearing. He is oblivious to each type slithering through the mass of writhing Cloud to reach him.
He is unaware of the way his own Flames are responding to his fellow Elements reaching for him, unaware of the way his Flame output is slowly shrinking down and allowing the Arcobaleno closer to his kneeling form.
He doesn't notice when the violet Flames fade enough that the Arcobaleno can reach him.
He has stopped screaming at this point and is now hunched over himself, his forehead not quite touching the ground as he heaves for breath.
The Arcobaleno still.
Their Cloud looks like the weight of the world is crushing him to the floor, like something has pressed down on his back heavy and hard enough that he cannot stand under its weight.
That is concerning when they consider that not even discovering the Mafia, being pulled into the Mafia nor the Curse itself had caused this in their Cloud.
Viper curses the fact that Skull had burned the body of that man-wizard into ash leaving her without a way to find answers as to why their Cloud is hunched in on himself and why he had screamed like his very soul was seared. She cursed whoever had caused it. She is surprisingly fond of Skull, who will do favors for her without charge and pays her for favors with her favorite desserts all handmade, with gold, with small favors of his own. She rages that someone her Web had missed this, had allowed something through to harm their Cloud.
Verde had been ready to question Skull within an inch of his life after the scene in the bar. This was new information, a new facet in the Cloud, something to explore and map out. Seeing him like this…hearing the way he had screamed…Verde bites his tongue to stop the questions from pouring out. This was actually serious, something was wrongwrongwrong he didn't have all the variables. He needed them all to figure out how to proceed.
Fon had trained long and hard to become the 'eye' in his own Storm. He had spent endless hours training to keep his mind steady and clear even when he raged. He was one of those closest to Skull- he knew their Cloud, for where did the Storm he carried spring from but the Clouds themselves? Fon lifts a sleeve covered hand to block the frown on his face. He had planned to corner their Cloud and ask about his behavior at the bar after the meeting, but then all of this happened and Fon had to set questions aside as he witnessed Skull bend in a way he had never seen before like he was being crushed. Fon had to take a breath to still the Storm inside.
Yuni was the Sky for the Arcobaleno now. She would never quite Harmonize with them the way Luce had, she was not their true Sky, but the Sky they called home none the less. She knew her Elements. She could feel Skull's Flames and the way they raged. She could feel him could feel the way he withered under whatever he had found and for the first time she found she wanted to rage at someone. (It didn't help that her visions kept shifting and changing too quickly for her to see)
Reborn was a possessive kind of man. The people and things he claimed as his were his and he took care of them. Skull was his Lackey the Cloud that shielded others from the Sun when it was too intense for everyone else or when the Sun needed to be dark for a moment Skull was the Cloud that his him away. They took care of each other in various (usually violent) ways, and that was an excepted thing between them. He had never heard Skull scream like he was dying this way before, like something inside was being shredded away. He had never seen the Cloud allow his spine to bend under the weight of the world or lower his head this way and it set ever damn protective possessive instinct he had ablaze.
Lal was a soldier. She had been for most of her life. It was what she had wanted to do since she was little and a soldier had saved her and the kids that had been with her when she was young and on the streets. She had only ever heard a scream like the one Skull released one time. It was something she had hoped to never hear again. She knew this sound, what this scream meant. She had watched the soldier that released it wither away into a shell. Hearing it from their Cloud was jarring and unwelcome in the most violent of ways.
Colonnello has seen a lot of things. Watching Skull- the Lackey, his Lackey crumble like this? That was new, and Colonnello did not like it. Skull was proud even if he didn't show it in ways most people would recognize. He had never bowed his spine or head in the face of anything. Oh he had flinched and screamed and flailed, but Colonnello had never seen his head bow or his spine bend. His Flames had always been a bonfire warm at their back and ready to flare in their defense. All the Arcobaleno had known this- he may be the weakest of them all but he was still the seventh strongest in the world. There was a reason the Arcobaleno- the Seven Strongest in the World- trusted Skull at their backs even if they had not treated him the best. Something had brought that bonfire first into a wildfire of rage and then to embers. Something had bowed their Cloud's spine, had brought his head down. Colonnello would destroy it.
Skull's eyes snap up from where he had bowed under the feeling of chains snapping into place on him, where he has bowed under the knowledge that he would need to go back, where he has bowed under the knowledge that he is walking back to another war when he feels the soft hands of his Sky on his cheeks.
The sight of his eyes- dull-dying-desolate-pained- pushes the Arcobaleno further into their rage. They resolve to ask questions after they have demolished whatever had been the cause of this in their Cloud.
"Skull-nii…? What happened?" Yuni asks softly.
Skull exhales shakily at the sight of his fellow Elements gathered around him.
He cannot tell them.
He cannot explain that he is to go to war again.
How could he possibly explain that he would be forced-chained- onto the front lines, asked to lead the charge to save Them again? How could he explain that They were asking the ultimate sacrifice from him again? (Twice was not enough? They asked him for a third sacrifice? How dare they, but especially how dare they give him no choice, how dare they chain him as they were?) How could he explain that the 'weakest link' amongst them was being called upon to take the crown of General once more? That he would need to make the hard decisions again.
How did he explain that every nightmare he had was coming to life once again? The nightmare of screaming friends, the phantom pains of the scars hidden under his makeup, gloves and suit? The memory of digging grave after grave for those he loved until only he remained standing in the ashes? How could he explain that They would hunt him until the end of time? How could he explain that his presence amongst them threatened their safety with things they couldn't even conceive of even with their experience with Flames? How did he explain the nightmare of having his place among them disturbed, of the fear that he presence would put them all in danger, that nightmare was happening right now?
How did he tell them he had lied to them all?