Reborn is still and silent, perched on a roof and layered with Mist Flames to keep his form and all he does from notice. Usually he would not need the Mist Flames, not when he was the best at what he did, but with Magic in play they were erroring on the side of caution. They couldn't afford to screw up.
His eyes are sharp and focused as he sets his sights down the barrel of his chosen gun, tracking his target easily. Most would call what Reborn is looking at an 'impossible shot'.
Reborn calls it fun.
His finger caresses the trigger lightly, eyes narrowing as he runs the math through his head one last time. And then he fires the gun without a sound to give him away.
A body falls, and burned into the forehead, just between the eyes, is a tribal sun made with his Flames, the bullet hole perfectly centered to the sun mark. People are screaming as Reborn takes a moment to watch the chaos he has just caused, golden eyes dimming back to black as his Flames fade, allowing the enhanced vision Reborn has used to track his target without a scope or aide of any kind to fade.
He slid back across the roof he had chosen, slipping easily down the side and back to the ground as Leon returned to his perch on Reborn's fedora. Black eyes glint as they meet the violet that are waiting for him.
Reborn is adjusting, but it's…strange. Uncomfortable, like walking into his home and finding someone had moved all the furniture inside two and a half inches to the right while he was away. After they managed to get through all his traps without setting them off.
He had called Skull 'lackey' for three decades. It went against everything he had learned in that time for him to fall in line behind the Cloud.
He kind of wants to hit the Cloud, for hiding all of this from them. But he can't- he won't. Not when he has seen what Skull's sorry excuse for human relatives had done to him. Not when he is finally seeing who Skull actually is, no matter how uncomfortable he is in the face of it.
It is against all that he has learned in the decades he has known Skull, and yet…here he is, standing next to the Cloud and following his lead.
It had been following Skull's plan that saw him laid down on the roof taking the shot. It was Skull's plan that had Viper amongst the enemy now, easily gathering information. It was Skull that had made the calls of where and how the Arcobaleno would complete this mission to save his family.
And it was disorienting to see the Cloud he called Skull De Mort merge and twist with Harry Potter. To see 'Lackey' fall aside for 'General'.
Reborn was a hitman. He worked in the shadows, stepped behind the scenes, shifted things around to fall in favor of himself and the one to hold his contract.
Skull was a General, and it took a different kind of man then the Arcobaleno were used to seeing to be one. To be the face of the army, to lead them into helpless situations. To be responsible for everything and everyone that followed him, to win despite the light focused on him.
Reborn had stepped back to stand at Skull's side in this, but for the moment, he was slightly out of synch, his steps a moment too late, or a moment too early next to Skull's steady march.
He would adjust though- he wasn't known as The World's Best without reason.
~O~O~O~
Fon frowned at the wall.
He was babysitting.
He was babysitting the Juvenile Sky the Arcobaleno called their own.
He wasn't very fond of being reduced to babysitter in this situation, even though his instincts as a mature healthy Storm Flame bristled at the idea of Yuni- a young impressionable Sky Flame- in the middle of hostile territory alone.
He knew the others felt the same. It was instinct for Flame users to shelter and nurture young Flames, and the more powerful the Flame user, the more intense the instinct. This was especially true when the Flame user was a young Sky.
As one of the Arcobaleno- the Strongest Seven Flames in the world- Fon and the others had very powerful, very insistent instincts. Instincts to protect and nurture the young Sky that had once died for them in that Future, until she could stand on her own.
Adding in the upset one of their own had suffered, the fact they were in the middle of hostile territory, and the knowledge he had just recently gained on Skull's past…Fon knew there was absolutely no way they could have left Yuni alone. It wasn't like their world, where they knew everything they needed, had traps and trusted allies to watch over her. So it had to be one of them.
It didn't mean that Fon was very happy to be the one sitting still when he wanted to rage.
He'd taken to meditating in the middle of the shop they were using as Base, his Flames pulsing in time with his heartbeat, and spread over the entirety of the building. It worked to smooth the desire to burn everything in sight into ash. It wasn't gone, but it made it manageable. He looked forward to the moment Verde made it back from his experiments to switch out with him so he could go do some damage.
His eyes opened from his position kneeling in the center of the room, flaring bright ruby red with his flames, a slow predatory smirk on his lips.
He would show this world the rage of a Storm.
O~O~O~
Colonnello stood with Lal at his side. The two of them were murmuring to each other, soft meaningless small talk that helped their image amongst the people of the alley. Skull had given them Alley-appropriate robes and clothes before he left with Reborn, allowing them to slide between and around the civilian people as they gathered information.
They were not as good as Viper, but they had worked with the CEDEF and Mafia Land. They had to be good at gathering information.
Viper had been sent among the enemy, they would make themselves useful and gather information amongst the civilian populations.
As far as the wizards were concerned, they were simply a couple enjoying the alley. They made sure to appear to have casual touches, relaxed if careful body language alongside that casual small talk…
No one stopped them.
O~O~O~
Viper was a little bit insulted.
She was the best Illusionist in the world, a member of the Varia, one of the Strongest Seven…but these wizards…they were just as pathetic as she remembered from before. They were supposed to have Mind Shields. They were all aware of the danger of mind readers and yet, not one person she comes across makes her pause as she systematically pulls information from them.
She wants to crush their minds as she goes, but she refrains only because she knows Skull's Cloudy tendencies will be monstrous if he is denied the right to crush the enemies himself. She's rather impressed with his delegating as it was. Inverted Clouds tended to…not share 'prey' when they went hunting.
Perhaps, she wonders as she pulls secrets away from another Neo-Eater, it is because he had once been a General.
Perhaps it was that he had had to do so in his childhood years and could better handle doing so now because of it.
She frowns sharply as she comes across a piece of information. Skull will want that tidbit immediately.
O~O~O~
Verde would have called this fun in any other situation.
He was endlessly fascinated, interested, in what he was discovering. This was something new, something no one had touched before. He was the first of his level, the first professional scientist to touch magic with the intent to pull it apart.
He is the first to try and use technology to work around and effect magic itself.
He is the first to succeed.
If this had been any other scenario, if he had come across this naturally, and if his results were not needed to save Skull's family, Verde would have called this fun.
Once this was over, he resolved to pull Skull to the side and pick his brain, have him help Verde dive deeper into this magic and its workings. He'd have to be sure not to do so in a lab. Skull didn't like them, and Verde now understood why.
His eyes gleamed.
Flame technology responded very, very well in his use to disrupt various frets of magic so long as he layered the Flames used in it properly.
His head tilted as he observed the explosive response of Storm Flames paired with Mist and Magic.
Usually, he would never have been able to pair the two together without Fon and Viper working consciously to make it so. The disintegration of Storm tended to ruin and Creations of Mist when there were no Flame Users to twist their uses just so.
With magic, Verde had just discovered pairing of Flames that didn't usually work, could suddenly be used. This opened potential roads and future experiments he had never thought he could manage properly before.
Verde was unaware of the way sparks danced in his hair from his Flames at his excitement.
With this he may have just found a possible solution to Skull's Warding problems. If anyone had been around, they would have heard a worrying cackle fall from Verde's lips.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
I LIVE.
I had an entirely different chapter planned, rewrote it literally 15 times, argued with Skull for THE ENTIRE TIME, the other Arcobaleno, and my own muses. Eventually I just kinda went 'fuck it' and did this instead. Hope you all like it despite the wait!~
(And holy fuck you guys, 1,500 reviews SDFSDFGDFSGDSFG.)
On another note: Silverseed has posted a story called 'Being Yourself' inspired by this, and it looks really fun, so you should all go check that out.