I teared up at all the reviews for last chapter. So many of you said I tugged at your heartstrings and brought tears to your eyes and here I am with tears in my own thanks to your reactions and reviews.
You have no idea what that means to me- that the response to Slip Up is so powerful. I just—
GAH.
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The Arcobaleno thought they were ready.
They knew their Cloud had gone into that forest to die. They knew he had walked into Voldemort's sight line with no intention of defending himself.
It was purely a move of sacrifice. Of a martyr.
They knew that.
It doesn't stop the instant reaction to watching their Cloud die watching as his body falls to the ground in front of Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and Hagrid (who had been captured during the battle and is utterly horrified to see Harry walk out of the forest) like a puppet with its strings cut.
It doesn't stop the near synchronized flashback to Skull standing in that clearing in the Not-Future, the last line of defense between Yuni, the others, and Byakuran's minions. It doesn't stop the knowledge that this is the second time they have seen their Cloud die for others, die without hesitation. (The sight of it will leave scars upon them, and will leave them with a burning resolve that there will be no 'third time'.)
It doesn't stop any of that.
The Flame Storm that rises up from the Arcobaleno, their Flames flaring out of their control and mixing together in the utter harmony of their rage and denial, is so powerful the Arcobaleno find themselves flung from the Pensieve itself.
They come back to their bodies as if they had been thrown, each taking a step away from the Pensieve as if they had been shoved, their Flames still flaring and mixing into a Flame Storm of dangerous size.
They rage around the room destroying everything they can break in their quest to calm themselves.
It doesn't make anything better.
O~O~O~
Yuni had seen some of these memories come to pass already. She had known her Cloud had died willingly before he met her.
That doesn't prepare her for watching it all play out.
No amount of forewarning was enough to prepare her for watching the war and sacrifice that haunted her Cloud play out like this.
She is crying, but she does nothing to stop herself. She will cry for Skull who had run out of tears, for the Arcobaleno who will not allow themselves to cry.
And she knows even now that it is not over. They have still not witnessed the last of the battle, the aftermath that shaped their Cloud, the events that led him to their side.
O~O~O~
Colonnello's hands are bleeding.
He knows they are but he can't find it in himself to care at the moment, because he needs to punch things, needs them to break under his hands and if that means his hands bleed, Colonnello will punch things until his hands are stained red.
He is disgusted with himself. Years he had called his Cloud weak, called him 'Lackey' ordered him around to his whims and hit him when Skull failed to obey fast enough or well enough.
He'd hit and ordered a survivor, a veteran, a prisoner of war, around. An abuse victim that had been raised to be a sacrifice.
And when Skull- Harry- had put all those facts together, had realized what he was meant to be, he was strong enough to look past his anger. He was strong enough to blame the right people, and to still walk into the forest and sacrifice himself for the children he had promised would leave the Chamber and find Voldemort was only a memory.
Colonnello is seconds from throwing up.
So he hits things, because if he doesn't, Colonnello knows he will have time to think, time to wish harm on himself. That he will shatter apart.
He slams his eyes shut and chokes back the urge to scream. After a moment and an eternity Colonnello opens his eyes, steels himself, and turns to face the Pensieve sitting untouched in the center of the destruction.
He will not dishonor his Cloud by not finishing these memories. He owes it to Skull to see the full scope of his mistakes, and he owes it to himself to see these events play out so he can begin to make amends.
O~O~O~
Lal is still.
She's angry, she's horrified, she wants to break things, but she can't move.
Skull had walked willingly to his death for children. He was a soldier who had been built up to be a martyr. A symbol who had grown into himself, who had gone out of his way to learn, to grow, to love. A symbol that had become more.
Her Cloud.
And she had just watched him die.
(Again. She had watched him die again, and in the same way. Standing as a wall between the enemy and those he had chosen to protect.)
He was one of the strongest people she had ever seen…and she had missed it for years.
She was part of an information gathering Famiglia…and she had missed it all.
Lal is still because she can't bring herself to move. Her world view has shattered and the broken pieces have rearranged into a whole new picture.
Her eyes close and she takes a deep breath, automatically straightening up into an 'at attention' position. She's not finished yet. There is more yet to see.
Lal turns to the Pensieve and takes a step forward as if she is marching off to battle.
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Verde's hands are clenched tight enough that his knuckles are bone white and he can feel blood welling up from the crescents in his palms.
He has never failed like this before.
He is a scientist. The Best. They called him the new Da Vinci. He prides himself on the information he gathers, on his observational skills. On his ability to gather information and variables no matter the situation and see the results.
And yet…
Verde had not only failed to gather information, but he had failed to see.
But he is seeing now. Oh, he is seeing now and he had been blind.
His mind is flashing over every situation Skull has ever been in, every reaction or lack of reaction he has had, every conversation, every series of events.
He has the proper knowledge now, the proper observations, and some of the variables. The picture that makes up 'Skull' rearranges in his head, pieces slipping into places they hadn't fit in before, other pieces breaking, disappearing, or changing shape entirely.
He had missed so much.
And Skull had been so much more than he had given the Cloud credit for.
The blinders had been forcibly removed however, and Verde swears to learn from this mistake.
He turns to the Pensieve, his eyes flashing.
It holds the answers.
And Verde refuses to fail again.
O~O~O~
Viper had known what happened in Britain.
She'd followed the events religiously, found all the hidden radio stations, listened with her heart in her mouth every night as she wondered if this would be the night that Voldemort killed Harry Potter and his reign of terror spread beyond England's borders.
She'd had her own informants feeding her information.
She'd known it was bad. She'd even had some knowledge of what happened during Harry Potter's school years. She'd thought she was prepared for what sat in the Pensieve. Thought to herself that the other Arcobaleno would have their world view shattered, but that hers would remain mostly the same shape even if the colors changed or some pieces rearranged.
She had been wrong.
She had known what happened during Harry's school years, had followed the war from afar…but she hadn't understood what she had heard
She thought she had. She had thought she knew what was coming.
She had been arrogant.
Arrogant to believe that just because she had kept up with news of the War and kept up with that happened with Harry she was prepared for what lay in the Pensieve. Prepared to see firsthand the events of the war from the front lines. Prepared to combine Harry Potter and Skull De Mort into one person, to see what her Cloud had been through.
And so it is that Viper realizes that her world view has shattered alongside the others.
But she is an Information Broker. She gathers information not only because she likes to know what is happening, and because she likes the money that comes alongside it, but because she needs to know what is coming after her Elements to properly shield them in Mist.
So it's simple. She needs to finish the memories in the Pensieve and follow after her Cloud.
O~O~O~
Fon liked to think he was a calm person.
He hadn't always been one of course. He was a Hibari as well as the World's Strongest Storm. He had been one of the biggest hellions on the face of the planet in his youth. It had taken him years of grueling work to find the 'eye' in his temper, the eye of his Storm.
Very little was capable of rocking that calm, of stirring his Storm into action.
Threats against those Fon considers his were at the top of that list.
(It was why the Triads had never tried more than once to control him through I-pin. Fon had wiped out an entire cornerstone of the Triad structure when they had tried it, and made it perfectly clear he would do it again if the situation found itself repeating.)
Watching one of his own grow up in an abusive home was bad enough. Finding out that Skull had fought in a war was worse. Discovering that he had been targeted from all sides, that children had had to step up against an adult threat, that Skull had led the effort, that he was a General, a Boss, a leader…
That Skull was all of these things, that he had suffered so much, that he had chosen to die for people who did not deserve him, for children that no one else would stand up for…
Fon is very much not calm.
The room suffers many losses when Fon can't quite manage to stifle the Flames of his soul and finds quite a bit of the furniture gets disintegrated when he gets tossed out of the Pensieve.
(It is the Storm the Clouds stir in times of trouble, the Storm that hides the Clouds from view when it is necessary and Fon is in a fighting mood.
Someone needs to die for this.)
O~O~O~
Reborn lashes out the moment his feet meet solid ground.
Furniture falls apart in the face of his wrath, but it is not enough.
Eventually Reborn stops destroying things with his Flames and guns. Eventually he stills beside the Pensieve that had shown him those damming memories.
He has never missed so much in his life.
As the World's Best Hitman missing something meant you died. Reborn had hadn't kept his title by being unobservant.
And yet he had not only misjudged his Cloud, but messed up so utterly he had seen the complete opposite of what his Cloud was.
Reborn is ashamed.
(He doesn't like the feeling.)
His world view had been cracking from very near the start of these memories Skull had left for them. Pieces had fallen away and shifted places…but seeing Skull so very young and still stepping forward on behalf of those who came to him for protection…
Watching as Skull stepped forward with his back straight and his eyes unyielding, not an ounce of doubt or fear showing in his eyes as he chooses to die for the children he had taught, for those he had hidden away beneath the school…
Reborn had the upmost respect for that sort of sacrifice, for the sacrifice Lily Potter had made for Harry in the face of Voldemort, the sacrifice her son was now making on behalf of those in the school.
And so this is the moment his world view completely shatters apart, because the man he had called Lackey, had called weak, had kicked around…was one of the strongest people Reborn had ever met and Reborn is ashamed he had missed it, that he had looked down on a man who had sacrificed so much of himself over and over again with no expectations of anything being given back.
Reborn is a Sun. He is the one to heal those he calls his own. It's a part of his very being to shield his family with his body, to heal them when they are hurt. His eyes have been opened where he was blind.
Skull was very, very hurt for all his strength. He had spent so long with only himself to count on that he expected nothing from the Arcobaleno now. Reborn- and the other Arcobaleno- refused to let that continue.
It was his job to heal Skull.
And in order to do that- his eyes turned to the Pensieve- he needed to know exactly what injuries his Cloud had been dealt.
O~O~O~
It is the job of a family to look after their own.
A choice, a privilege, something that is done willingly and to the best of the members' ability no matter the blood relations or lack of them.
When the world turned against them, a family stood together. When one member walked forward into Hell, their family was supposed to march beside them. When there was nothing, no hope, no joy…there was always family.
Skull had left his past in the hands of his family so they could understand the war he was marching into.
He had forgotten their views on family. Had forgotten that that loyalty and strength went two ways. That he was not the only one that would stare gods in the eye and tell them to 'back the fuck off' for the members of his family.
Skull marched to war, he marched into Hell alone to face his past and the pain of all that he had lost, and all that he could lose if he failed.
He marched and so his family would follow.
He would not remain alone for long.
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The winner of my cover contest is tsukasa913! Congratulations. All the pieces were beautiful and it was quite the challenge to pick a winner, but here it is.