Guh! This was so long! D: Well no matter! The chapter is finally up, and thanks to Natsumo, GenderlessPerson and Kuroi Rin for reviewing (I promise to get to the name, it just won't be until later)! :D

Enjoy!

The trip back to the starting point of this horrible maze-like structure wasn't so bad. Especially when I had company (I wouldn't be going insane anytime soon).

I did give a few shivers here and there, with Mukuro offering to give my clothes back (I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted, after all I did give my clothes to him when I had been insane), but I remained stubborn and stuck to the point of that he would end up getting hypothermia quicker than I would (he did come from the inside of a water tank). He finally gave up (after I threatened to call him a pineapple forever) and we continued to be on our merry way.

I had my fair share of pestering Mukuro as well. Most...

were useless points. "Hey Mukuro,"

"Kufufufu, what is it Cannon-kun?" For some reason whatsoever we decided to speak in Japanese.

"What the heck did you do for you to get thrown in Vendicare?" I glanced at the male beside me. My curiosity revealed itself not so long ago, and ignoring it would result in me being flitty and nervous. I experienced it once, and it felt like I was some serial killer on the loose... funny thing was, I happened to be accused with a serial murder, which I had no connections to, and was nearly put into jail, all because my curiosity decided to kill my personality over some gum being priced too high.

"Oya, oya, what's gotten you so interested?" Mukuro gave a smirk.

"Just answer the question, pineapple." I blatantly stated, ignoring the murderous air surrounding him.

"That is quite rude, Cannon-kun," Mukuro gave a creepy smile. "I wouldn't be able to hold back, and we just might return with you already having left this world, kufufufu,"

"Try, and your one way ticket out of here burns in the hellfire." I pointed out. He gave a twitch but didn't say anything more. The rest of the way was rather unnerving, especially with having previously broken down from the pressure that I was now hyper aware of. I bet that if some random citizen of some country came here, they would lose sanity forever… a bit dramatic… "Do we turn left here?"

"Kufufufu, we walk for a few more, then we turn," Mukuro answered.

I nodded vaguely. "You never did answer my question."

"I have my rights," Was he miffed? Great, the pineapple was childish, was he now?

"Well, think of it this way," I elaborated. "if they, the Vindice, tell me instead, my view may change and I might just leave you here."

I nodded at the well thought idea… well not really thought out, but it worked if Mukuro paled. I continued. "Whereas, if you tell me, I can come up with some argument to have you free from this prison."

"Kufufufu, you could be a lawyer if you keep this up, Cannon-kun," Mukuro smirked, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

I gave a shrug in response. "I was going for a politican, but that could work too."

"Very well, I shall tell you my story, that is if you can handle it." He gave me that creepy smile of his again.

I returned it with a glare. "I have been through my fair share of weird crappy moments."

"Enlighten me," I wonder if the blender would be able to wipe off that smirk… it's really getting on my nerves…

"If you insist," I shrugged as I began listing off the events. "there was pink cloud overload, that led to many weird moments, and I had ended up breaking down because of them. I can't make myself go into a public washroom stall because of one of those misadventures. Then there was the incident with me being trapped by Bakugan-sama, and now I can't look at marshmallows the same way… ever."

I paused letting my reasons to sink in. Mukuro rose an eyebrow. "Bakugan-sama?"

I gave a shrug. "I later found out that his name was not that, and instead it was Byakuran. Though it wasn't my fault, I hardly knew of the Japanese language and had been taught by Kikyo."

"You really did have it hard," Mukuro mused.

"That isn't all either," I nodded in agreement. "before I had even set foot in Japan, I had my fair share back in America as well."

"Is that so?" I gave a nod but didn't answer immediately. Mukuro hummed as we kept walking in the abyss of a room. "We turn left here."

"You going to spill your story?" I asked after a moment of silence. "I've told you mine."

"I'd be devastated if you turned your back on me once I've told you my story," He turned to glance at me, stopping in his strides. "How can I be assured that you won't just up and leave after I spill everything?"

"Why are you so stingy?" I grumbled.

"Kufufufu, it's merely a precaution that one attains after coming in contact with the Mafia." Mukuro chuckled.

"Then you want me to say that I'll give you my life?" I retorted, arms crossed.

"A good deal," Mukuro hummed in approval.

"You've got to be kidding me." I muttered, running a hand through my hair. "Anything close to that, 'cause I value my life quite a bit."

"Do you value anything close to your life?" Mukuro suggested.

I rubbed my chin in thought. "Does a blender work?"

"A blender?" Mukuro deadpanned.

I shrugged, giving him a grin. "You don't know when you want to make a smoothie right?"

Mukuro gave an irritable sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Then how about we go back to that life of yours."

"If it's that, I have my terms and conditions, you ever read them?" I asked dismissively.

"The smartest deal I've ever made," Was the sarcastic retort I received.

I snorted. "You should, they really are funny."

"I don't have the time, now state your terms and conditions." Mukuro brought the topic back around. If I hadn't known any better than I would say that he was quite eager to take my body… okay that just sounded wrong…

"It depends on how you use my life," I mused.

"Does possession satisfy that?" He answered with a raised brow.

I blinked and stared at him, before frowning at the thought. "What are you? A magician?"

"No, an illusionist." He supplied.

I nodded, vaguely knowing on what they were. Wasn't Torikabuto one too? "I see, well first things first, when you do possess give a fore-warning beforehand, I don't want to randomly be plucked out of my body for who knows how long."

Mukuro didn't say anything to it, so I continued. "Don't randomly pick and choose whenever, since I do have a life here and I don't appreciate dropping whatever I do just so you could play your possession game. Also if you do telepathy, that would be nice, it would help out a lot."

"Telepathy?" Mukuro questioned. He really doesn't get a lot of terms to agree on does he?

"Mmhm," I nodded, pointing to my head. "like talking to me through my head, you've heard of that, haven't you?"

"Of course I have," He snapped.

"Okay, okay," I raised my hands in front of me. "no need to blow up. Anyways, continuing on with my terms, I'd also like to have my freedom, if you don't mind. After all, all Americans' are bitchy if their freedom is constrained, me inculded."

I continued, ignoring the rather perplexed look that I was receiving. "That concludes on the exterior, from here I get rather personal. First off, don't do anything weird with my body. That includes no touching, no getting touched… on purpose or accidently same thing, no perverted thoughts, no hooking up with guys… or girls for that matter, no evil thoughts, no straining, I don't want to come to a body that has so much pain, no getting severely injured, no inflicting pain, no drugs, no alcohol, no fattening, no marshmallows, no – "

"Is that all?" Mukuro sighed wearily.

"I was nearly done," I reported, thinking back on what I was going to say before he kindly interrupted. "Let's see, where was I… ah, no murdering animals or humans, no peeking at girl's skirts, no pranking the boys, no eating peanuts, I'm allergic to those damn nuts and they may end up ending my life before I even reach a hundred… and I think that should be all… unless you'd like me to go on forever?"

Mukuro shook his head frantically, and I nodded satisfied. "Good, now you tell me your story, the possession comes afterwards."

"Kufufufu, this is where I interject," He immediately put in, his smirk back in place.

"And why should I agree to this?" I huffed as I gave him a stern look.

"It takes a while for me to get used to another's landscape," He started, mist forming around his hand. "so it is for the best if I get used to it starting now."

"I don't quite follow you." I sighed. My curiosity was overtaken by the mist that seemed to be solidifying into an object. I pushed it away for later, right now my concentration needed to be on this debate.

"Kufufufu, it's complicated, so spare me the explanation," He wasn't joking if he looked so strained.

I lifted my chin a little and tossed the arguments given to me. I could pester him until I knew what he meant, or I could let it go and spare his pretty little face from getting strained. After a moment of debating the pros and cons, and let it go. "Only on one condition."

By now the mist had formed into a trident, a perplexing thought, but a thought nonetheless. Mukuro looked like he wanted to strangle me, I couldn't blame him. He did hear all of my previous terms and conditions, and adding another one was going to be the end of the rope for him. "Alright, state it."

"You will tell me about this later, and no not five, ten, twenty years later." I stated with conviction. "I would want to hear it as soon as possible, maybe after we get out of Vendicare."

"Oh the things I do…" Mukuro gave a weary sigh, then nodded. "Alright, it's a deal."

I nodded, satisfied. "So, how you going to the possession?"

"With this," He motioned over to the trident that was now in his hand.

"You're going to stab me?" I looked at him bewildered. What happened to me not getting any pain?

"That is one way," Mukuro clarified. "but a simple scratch would do the trick."

I processed the information in my fried brain, and nodded at the sense it gave. I held out my arm. "Okay then, a scratch and you must spill your story, if you don't, I swear I'll forever keep torturing you."

"Kufufufu, how do you plan on doing that?" He questioned, clearly amused.

I gave a grin in reply. "Oh nothing pleasant that's for sure."

A stare down ensued between us, only to end in me being the victor. He then spilled his story, after giving me a scratch like he promised. Mukuro had told me on how he was given away by his terrible parents and how he was experimented on everyday, alongside other children who were in the same situation as he was. It was painful on how they did the operations on the children without anesthetics, and I found myself pitying them. Mukuro then went on with how his experiment had been completed and that he wasted no time in killing the whole family and gaining two followers that followed him constantly. I had been perplexed at the thought of him killing off the entire family at the young age he was at, it clearly wasn't possible, and the point was proven at every angle you looked in. He went on to explain how he had concocted a plan to eradicate the world of the Mafia, and had started off with a family in Northern Italy, that was the first time he had been thrown into Vendicare, but soon broke free, along with the others from the place. He then went on to explain how he had remodeled his plan to start from the very heart of the Mafia, the Vongola and it's successor in training. Mukuro had sent relentless attacks on the whole of Namimori from his base in Kokuyo Land, and his evil deeds had soon found him the person he was looking for, Sawada Tsunayoshi. No surprise there, since I had Reborn tell me everything, if I hadn't then I would be shocked for sure. After his defeat with Tsunayoshi coming out as victor, he was dragged back to Vendicare, with the remaining of his followers. Some were released, seeming to be guilt-free, but he stayed with the two closest to him. It was sometime after his second time of being thrown into Vendicare, did he make a break for it. Unfortunately for him he was caught, but not without succeeding to free Chikusa and Ken, his loyal followers from the beginning. He had then chanced upon a dying girl by the name of Nagi, turns out her parents were horrible as well, and allowed her to live through his power as an illusionist. The thoughts surrounding the topic was pushed away forcefully as I opted to listen to the rest of the story. Nagi had her name changed into Dokuro Chrome, a name I was familiar with but couldn't place the thought properly yet, and she had acted as a link to the outer world for him. Mukuro was scouted by the Vongola's CEDEF's, a smaller powerhouse next to the Vongola apparently, head to become a guardian for Tsunayoshi, the Mist Guardian. I held my tongue until he finished, stating that he was now here. "That concludes my story, kufufufu,"

I stayed silent for a while, allowing my brain to process everything I had heard and to remember that I needed to breath in order to live. "Okay, I can accept it, let's make our way back to front and I'll formulate a plan along the way."

The rest of the way was pretty silent, with not a single word uttered between us. I was glad for one, since I didn't have any distractions to bother me as I began making my plan. I wasn't all abysmal in school, but when I needed to get things done, I got them done. A formulating debate wasn't all too different, all you had to do was think one step ahead then the opposing party. Four, five steps with branching possibilities. It was a pain but really, I never did go back on my word in the past, so why go back on it now?

I was brought out of my thoughts, when we had made it out of the prison heart and into the familiar hallways that I had long since forgotten that it existed here. I immediately took the lead and led us to the room where I had left the others in. Sure enough they were still there, give or take that some of those creepy bandaged men were gone, I vaguely wondered why I hadn't paid attention to their appearances at first. I called out as soon as we came in hearing range. "Uncle Dean!"

My Uncle was immediately upon me hugging my life out of me, while constantly fussing. "Cannon! Oh, where have you been? I have been worried sick that you might have opened some bad door and had your life ended before you could have become an adult! You were gone for ten hours! Ten! What were you up to?"

Before I could answer his endless questions, he noticed that I was under dressed than I had been from when I had left before this all happened. He gave a gasp. "Where are your clothes, young man! You can't just discard them whenever you feel like it!"

He was interrupted the creepy voice intervened our rather weird reunion. "Rokudo Mukuro, your escape from prison will have you penalized at the cost of your life."

"Kufufufu, it wasn't me who set myself free," Mukuro chuckled.

I ignored my Uncle's cry of 'how could you steal my nephew's clothing!' and stepped in front of the chain's path, effectively stopping it. "Step aside, Cannon, it is not for you to involve yourself in the affairs of the Vindice."

"I don't intend to," I squared my shoulders, looking at them dead in the eye… well where their eyes are supposed to be anyway. "instead, I want to make a negotiation with you."

"Your negotiations are not valid, you are protecting a wanted criminal." The really are crisp with their replies, aren't they?

"Won't you hear of my debate?" I raised a brow, not moving from my spot. "It'd be a waste after all the time I had thought about it."

There was silence…

and I swear it would go on for eternity (I wasn't too happy for that to happen) if my Uncle hadn't stepped in.

I was quite relieved to see that my arguments were made to be valid and to be heard before them (if they weren't, the suicidal option was always available). I was given a moment to allow my thoughts to recollect (this was also thanks to my Uncle) and I've used this time to write in my Journal (that was in my jacket's pocket), I have confidence that my points would appeal to them, and will definitely make sure that I bear fruit from this debate.

I have little time to spare, so I should end here.

P.S. I'm only now starting to feel my nerves jumbling about… I sure do hope that I have the last bits of my sanity intact after all this…