-squeaks out- 600 Reviews. I'm over half-way to 1000. I might scream. There may be tears, Also: I wrote a oneshot called 'Burned' and another called 'Burned Cloud' that take place in the 'Burn Me With Fire' universe by the lovely inspiration known as Shadowblayze (With Permission) if y'all wanna take a look. (Go read BMwF if you haven't. It's gorgeous.)

3/28/16: Edits! I used some bad wording down near the bottom in regards to Skull and scars so I am fixing it up.

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Skull remained silent for a few moments, just to give the Arcobaleno a chance to absorb what he had told them before he takes a deep breath.

He describes the summer before with the house elf who was trying to 'save him.' He speaks of the barrier and the flying car. He tells them of getting to school and describes the ponce that took the position of DADA teacher that year. He's quick to summarize all the way up to the point where Lockhart managed to vanish his bones.

He has to stop there because Reborn had to get up and go destroy something. Skull doesn't flinch away when Reborn reaches forward with Sun Flames flaring on his hands. He lets the man look. There was nothing for the Sun to fix, but he knows it will bother Reborn the rest of his story and the Sun will likely just look anyway once he was asleep if he didn't let him look now.

(Reborn then curses in various languages as his Sun Flames tell him the age of the bones in Skull's arm which doesn't match the age they should be.)

He describes the attacks that take place over the year and the dueling club and his ability to speak to snakes. And then he mentions the resulting isolation from the others of his year (apart from Ron and Hermione) of how students had either fled in fear from him or followed him to keep him from petrifying the other students.

His face clouds over in anger for a moment as he pauses. "And then" he purrs, voice low and dangerous and deadly "the creature attacked my heart-sister." Skull's eyes gleamed dangerously. "I had never" he explained after calming himself down "experienced a Cloud's temper until this point. Not truly. I had been angry. I had been upset. But until that point nothing had trodden so heavily over my instincts. Instincts I didn't know I had. Instincts I didn't know how to control. I raged on her behalf. She was mine and this creature had dared to touch her. This person had attacked one of mine…and the situation was made all the worse by the fact that Ron was a Classic Storm."

Skull's eyes drifted to Fon "Storms are possessive people. They are protectors by nature once they find something they deem worthy of their protection and are fierce in their defense of it. Storms also tend to obsess over something to a ridiculous point. We know this. You all know this. Ron was a Classic Storm who had obsessed over strategy who had chosen to shield myself, his family, and Hermione in the eye of his Storm. He was a Classic Storm who had failed to protect one of his own. He raged as I raged. The Cloud was writhing and so the Storm was stirred. We fed each other's tempers."

Skull shook his head. "Ron obsessed over seeing what he had missed. Hermione had figured it out- we knew that much. Whatever this creature was that was petrifying students Hermione had put it all together and was coming to warn us what it was when she was attacked. That made it worse for the both of us."

Another pause "We put the clues together of course…but not before a warning was painted across the walls in blood. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' And then Ron discovered his little sister was missing while the school panicked over the message. He came to me for help. We did try to take Lockhart with us. He was the defense teacher after all- but the man was packing to leave in a rush." Skull's eyes gleamed again glowing with his Flames as he growled "He was going to abandon the children he had sworn to teach and defend at the first sign of danger. I…made clear my views on the matter. And if I had to lead the man down to the Chamber at wand point…well." His smirk was tinted with a bit of bloodlust.

Harry had taught students. He had taught children to defend themselves in a war against people who had years more experience than they did, people who had lived and fought in another war. He had sworn to teach them what he could, and protect them where he had could. He had watched those who he had instructed die when he could not help them.

Harry Potter did not go back on his word. He had sworn to teach the children and protect them and had in fact died to keep that promise so long ago.

So Skull did not take kindly to those who did not teach and protect children as they were meant to.

"He went down first. I shoved him in." the smirk tinted a little more in satisfaction before he frowned. "And then the fool tried to wipe our memories. Tried to hide everything we had seen, tried to make this mess into another of his books. Except he used Ron's broken wand and the spell backfired. He hit himself, could not remember his own name, and managed to collapse part of the chamber. I once again walked forward to face the mess on my own."

"The creature that I fought was called a Basilisk. They grow larger and longer as they age and this one was well over 1000 years old." He used his magic to recreate the large beast in the living room, curling the snake into coils when it grew too large to just be in the room with them. "This was the beast I slew at 12 years old with a sword I had no idea how to use." Skull snorted as he stared at the beast. "It could kill you by just looking at you. No going back, just meeting its eyes and then dead. Those it petrified all saw its eyes indirectly."

He lifted his hand to the scar in his arm without thought. "I ended up with a fang stuck in my arm. It almost killed me." The Arcobaleno flinch "It would have killed me, except a phoenix was there to heal me on sight, and this was the moment I shifted from an Inactive to an Active Cloud Flame. It wouldn't have been enough- the phoenix tears and the basilisk venom in my blood stream would have destroyed me from the inside as they fought each other. The strongest healing substance we had and the strongest poison next to undiluted Nundu breath. It was my will to survive, to save Ron's little sister, and to fight the living memory of the man who had killed my parents, the constant pain of dying from the venom, but being healed by the tears at the same time that caused it. My Cloud Flames manifested spectacularly and the propagation ability of my Flames boosted the tears ability to heal me."

Skull stares blankly at the floor as he voices this next thought- a thought he has held close to his chest, terrified it was true "I believe" he whispered "That it is the phoenix tears innate ability to heal…even the most grievous of injuries…mixed with my Flames innate ability to magnify the potency and ability of the tears that has kept me from dying."

"No matter what happened to me after this point" Skull continues to whisper "I would just wake up with nothing to show for whatever had happened to me except for a scar if the wound was bad enough, or if the magic in whatever had hit me was dark and strong enough. No matter how badly I was injured it would take me no time at all to heal. Wounds that should have killed me I would wake up with nothing but a scar to show for it. "

And Skull throws his head back and laughs and it's bitter and sad, angry and jaded, and so, sotired. The Hallows had only enhanced the issue from what he could tell. "Immortal Skull." He whispers in the sudden horrified tension in the room.

He sighs and continues before the others can voice anything "I didn't realize any of this back then. I was just determined to live and take the memory of Tom Riddle down. So I forced the issue and I moved. I ripped the fang from my arm, and I stabbed the diary the memory came from. It worked beautifully. And then I staggered my way up, picked up Ron's sister Ginny, and I staggered back to Ron who had managed to clear a path just large enough for us to get out."

He allows his magic to play out the memory of the fight with the Basilisk out to distract the Arcobaleno away from him.

He frowns around the room at the others.

He doesn't have time for this. Not really.

Even if he wanted to tell them everything, he has work to do. A family to save. He had been interrupted so he needed to speed things up a bit. And he wasn't fool enough to believe the others would let him walk away without finishing his explanations.

A hand wave brings him his Pensieve and he begins to quickly pull memories out with one hand and place them into the Pensieve. He covers third year, fourth year, fifth year and sixth year before he stops. He hesitates.

On one hand he didn't want the others to see the soldier in Skull. On the other they already had seen the soldier in him. On the third hand…Skull sort of wants the Arcobaleno to see his strength. They called him weak for so long that Skull kind of wants them to stare the facts in the face and understand.

He hesitated another moment staring at the silvery strands of his memories.

He makes a choice.

His hand raises to his temple and more memories join the others.

Let them see.

The last memories he adds to the Pensieve are the basics of what he had learned from the man in the bar what seemed like years ago. The plans the Wizarding World has to lure their General back to the front lines on their behalf, or the plans the Neo-Eaters have to draw him out.

Let them see.

Let them understand.

Flames were who a person was at their core. They represented what a person was like without lies, without masks, without society's rules binding them or blinding them. The Arcobaleno had dismissed the fact that Skull's soul manifested as a Cloud.

The Elements all lived in the Sky but they revolved around the Cloud and his or her actions and it hadn't crossed the others' minds.

The Cloud that was the first line of defense for the Sky the only other Element as endless as the Sky itself for there was no part of the Sky that did not have clouds to drift across it, Clouds who stirred the Storm and allowed their own Clouds to become Storm Clouds- bringing the Rain and Lightning with them- the Cloud who shaded the others from the intense Sun when it became too much, or shielded the Sun from the eyes of the others when it was too much to shine for the family. The Cloud who was a mirror to the Mist for what was the Mist but a ground bound cloud?

They had been selectively blind because Skull hadn't been Mafia from birth. Because he hadn't known how to use his Flames like everyone else, too used to his magic and to the subtle things he had learned to do with his Flames on his own. Because Skull had been struggling with the aftermath of a war when he first met the others, and all the instincts that told him he could trust no one, he was on a warfront. Struggling with the instinct to use magic that he couldn't use in front of muggles- even Flame using muggles.

Well.

It was time to open their eyes.

He lifts his head to stare at the Arcobaleno who are staring at him.

Yes.

Let them see the Cloud (the world's strongest Cloud) they had dismissed as weak.