I'm so ashamed... I can't believe it's been over a year since I updated this. Note to self: never start more stories in order to avoid writer's block. I started the My Sempai is a Creepy Stalker AU because this one's plot was so difficult to manage, and then started A Whole New World because I got writer's block there too! Now I'm just suffering through all of them...

This year has also been pretty awful, so I haven't been writing much. Let's hope that changes! Thank you for your support of this story and for all the wonderful reviews you all wrote. I swear I felt twice as bad reading through them and rushed to put out a new chapter because of it. I'm so sorry for the wait T-T.

Quick recap: Reborn is a bounty hunter that decided to capture the Sky Lion Crew, newbies who had just made it to the Grand Line. He and Tsuna flirt badly, Mukuro decides to repair their ship and then everything goes to hell. That's what you get when you mess with the Estraneo, which is precisely what the crew did when they saved Chrome from an evil institute that experimented on her. The Estraneo henchmen, who took on Mukuro's appearance in order to use his illusions, recapture Chrome and Yamamoto is taken along as well. Lambo, Gokudera and Ryohei are targeted by Reborn. However, they manage to escape in time to save Tsuna - who just revealed his Sky Dying Will Flames to Reborn - and in the aftermath, they heal and go to the Estraneo mansion to save Chrome and Mukuro. Reborn chases after them and sexual tension flies between him and Tsuna. Eventually, they find Mukuro and see his terrible condition after being forced to walk the paths of hell in his family's experiments. Against his better judgment, Reborn agrees to save Mukuro while Tsuna destroys the machine that's sapping Mukuro's life energy. Meanwhile, Lambo finds a prisoner and then he, Ryohei and Yamamoto fight Chrome, who is possessed by Mukuro. Lambo is severely injured and is looked after by Ryohei, while Gokudera secures for them an escape route before he and Yamamoto go to fight Chrome. Tsuna passes on Reborn's instructions to the recovering Lambo and tiring Ryohei, before joining in the fight to save Chrome.

(Also, Reborn likes to listen to the voices inside his head... kinda).

Chapter 9: A Lion to Believe in

"Name yourself!" Gokudera snarled.

"My my, have you forgotten me so soon? And yet I spent the most time with you out of all the crew." It was eerie to hear Chrome's melodic voice speaking so sarcastically, so sadistically vicious as a trident twirled in her hand. With every cycle, something new was released: a lion, fire ants, large-as-a-house spiders. Luckily Tsuna was taking care of it, but Gokudera remembered well what his Jyuudaime's half-healed wounds looked like.

So it's the same as in Hellora. Gokudera thought. They can take over her temporarily, but can't access her memories. Why did Jyuudaime have to pick up such a pain-in-the-ass crewmate?

Last time they just needed to knock Chrome out to get her back. And if they blew up this place like they did Hellora, they wouldn't have to worry about her attacker either. Last time, however, she wasn't possessed by a strong illusionist. Reluctantly, with his wounds, they definitely needed to change plans.

"Formation three!" he yelled, and aimed his guns at the newest illusion. Seemingly distracted, Chrome came at him, but before she could touch his flesh, Yamamoto was bearing down on her. Their weapons clashed, and Yamamoto clumsily hooked a sword into the tines of Chrome's trident. She frowned and tried to pull back, but Tsuna was right behind, and pounded viciously into her arm.

With a cry, Chrome released the weapon and rolled back. "How cruel! Do you not care for this body at all?"

"Bones can be remade," Tsuna said darkly, "but nakama can't!"

Yamamoto tossed the trident at Gokudera's feet, and then he and Tsuna renewed their attack.

Surprisingly, Chrome didn't summon a new trident. She did, however, continue to make illusions, but they were becoming less and less real as they pushed her. Blood was running from her eye, the iris of which had turned red. Tsuna noticed it as he drew close, and suddenly – coinciding with a sharp pang in his head – he knew who it was.

"So you're the real Mukuro then?"

"Kufufu, you figured it out." Mukuro huffed in Chrome's body, picking up a sword from the ground. "Not that it helps you at all."

"Mukuro…" Tsuna's face was pained. "Don't do this. There are other ways-!"

"What do you know?" Mukuro snarled back. "This body is mine! The original is useless now! But with this girl, I can finally be free."

"She's a human being, you fucker!" snarled Gokudera. "You can't just take over people as you please!"

"Oh, but I can." Mukuro's smirk was dark. "Don't you know? My family raised this girl – fed her, clothed her, kept her alive – solely to be my vessel. She owes me her life, and yet I only take her body. A fair deal, is it not?"

"People are not objects!" Yamamoto protested. "Give her back!"

Mukuro frowned. "How about a deal? I will keep her mind alive inside of this body, but possess it still. We can travel together and she will experience the world, so long as you leave with me now."

"No!" all three shouted.

"That's no life at all for Chrome!" Tsuna argued.

"It is more of a life than she ever expected." Mukuro shrugged. "It far exceeds the standards her birth had promised her."

"You're only saying that because you're about to lose." With no illusions around them yet, Gokudera grabbed the discarded trident. "We have the weapons and the numbers to end this. Stop grasping at straws and maybe we will be merciful."

Mukuro grinned manically. "Have it your way then." He flipped the sword and aimed for his own – Chrome's – exposed abdomen.

Screams echoed through the dusty chamber.

Lambo tried not to wince as his wheelchair screeched to a halt outside another room. Thank god Ryohei-nii had thought to tie him to the chair, or he would have probably dashed his brains on the tiled floor by now.

"Extreme punch!" Ryohei yelled and smashed down the locked door. A peek through the splinters revealed a storage room, but Lambo insisted they check for hidden panels before moving on. "You need to rest!" Ryohei grumbled, and Lambo didn't have the heart to tell him that there was nothing restful about the breakneck speeds Ryohei used to push them along.

Their inspection yielded nothing, and so Lambo found himself hurtling along to the next door. Really, he would like nothing more than to go hide with the prisoner he had found, but his nakama were still in danger. Besides, Tsuna-nii had given them a (rather foolish) errand to fulfil. There had to be a reason why their captain had specified machines. If he could get to central control, he could figure it out (hopefully) and avoid the destruction that Tsuna had originally called for. There was no way they could set off explosives while their nakama's fate was yet unknown.

"There!" he called and Ryohei roughly pulled back until they had stopped. If only the brake hadn't broken off this damn chair the first time they had tried to stop it…

The room produced a strange machine, and a few of the Mukuro clones, but Lambo was not yet satisfied. They returned to their search, and doorways flew by. It might have been the sixth or eighth one (he lost count amid their occasional opponents) that yielded the grand prize: a secret room filled with whirring machines and screens.

"Finally!" Ryohei pumped the air in triumph. He rushed to begin shutting down the machines, too tired to destroy them. Hopefully, it would be enough.

Lambo, on the other hand, pushed himself closer to the screens. They reflected various parts of the castle, although many were blank from all the structural damage caused by the Sky Lion Crew. He began tapping various buttons, until luck smiled at him and he was able to switch screens. He rapidly bypassed practically static images of rubble and prone bodies, keeping an eye out for any strange machinery and his nakama.

He paused, horror-struck at the latest projection. Looking rather annoyed and surrounded by blood and destruction was Reborn. In front of him was one of the many clones of Mukuro that they had seen, but yellow flames were dancing around them both. "How?" he managed to gasp, then noticed that Reborn seemed to be talking. He tried a few buttons that seemed to fit his purpose before sound crackled into his speaker.

"-foolish Lion. I should never have agreed to this. How hard is it to find and destroy the right machine?" He cursed and the flames flickered before became brighter. "Tsunayoshi probably just abandoned me here in the hopes I will die."

So Reborn was the reason for Tsuna-nii's words! The hesitation was only a second, but Lambo grabbed hold of his courage and pressed the opposing button. "What machine are you talking about?"

To his credit, the bounty hunter didn't show any indication of surprise. He simply turned towards the hidden camera and asked, "To whom do I speak?"

"L-Lambo, of the S-Sky Lion Crew!" Dammit, now was not the time to stumble over words!

"So your captain didn't break his word after all…"

"Tsuna is a true man! He would never break his word!" Ryohei-nii yelled at the screen. Yet his brow was furrowed as he looked, his confusion over the flames practically palatable.

Reborn didn't grace Ryohei with a response. Instead, he turned back to the prone form lying on the bed and said, "There should be a machine there that has multiple connections. Its piping should lead to things like the ventilation system or something similar. It's how these mass illusions are occurring, but it is also leading to the death of Rokudo Mukuro. Find and destroy the machine, and his power will be gone too."

"I don't trust you," Lambo declared, but the world's greatest lover didn't reply. Huffing, Lambo turned to look over the machines.

"That one!" he and his doctor declared together.

"No detonations in your condition!" Ryohei-nii immediately followed up, and took one of Lambo's grenades to hook it to the machine in question.

Lambo began flicking through the screens again, hoping to see his nakama. Nothing, nothing, nothing… why was Tsuna on the ground, bleeding?

"Tsuna-nii!" he managed to scream before he was pulled out of the room. "Let me go back!" he yelled at his nakama. "Tsuna-nii needs our help!"

"Then let's get to him extremely fast!" Ryohei yelled back.

The explosion that followed his words knocked them both off their feet.

"Tsuna!"

"Jyuudaime!"

"Release me at once!" Mukuro snarled, struggling beneath Tsuna's weight. Blood stained his clothes, rushing forth from the wound in Tsuna's left arm. Mukuro had lost his sword, but if he could just end his life here, he could theoretically possess the silver-haired pirate without the others being any the wiser.

"You will not possess any of us anymore," Tsuna said quietly, his voice quelling the others. Orange eyes bored into Mukuro's mismatched ones and he found that he could not look away, not even with the distracting fire that burned on the Sky Lion's forehead. "You no longer need to."

"I will not give up and die!" Mukuro shot back, calm gone as he felt the pull of the abyss more than ever before. "I have suffered more than you will ever know for this chance."

Tsuna moved his unharmed hand to touch Mukuro's cheek, gently caressing it as he had in the shipyard just a few days before. "You will not die," he promised. "I will save you."

Mukuro laughed bitterly, but the pirate spoke on.

"An acquaintance is saving your body as we speak, but you need to return to it in order to heal fully."

Mukuro's laughter died off. "And then what?" he asked coldly. "I would sooner die than return to the life of before."

Tsuna smiled. "Come with me." His eyes grew impossibly brighter. "Join my crew as yourself, and all the world will lay before you, as it does before every man, woman and child." He lifted himself from Mukuro slightly, but the illusionist did not take advantage of his freed limbs… yet. "I swear to end the suffering that you and Chrome have endured, and make the world a better place for you both." His smile looked a bit sadder now. "Your family will pay for what they've done, even if you decide your place is not by my side."

Mukuro felt fear of a different kind now, as well as a rush of adrenaline. The cracked ceiling above Tsuna's head seemed so much closer now, and the ground infinitely softer. "I just want to be free…" he says so softly, he is not sure if Tsuna had heard it.

"You will be," the Sky Lion promised. His eyes shut and Mukuro felt warm lips touch his forehead. He did not know if it was still possible for him to cry after walking the paths of death, but blood ran from his red eye nevertheless. What a tender touch. He had forgotten how warm he could feel from a small kindness.

The scene darkened and then disappeared, carrying his acquiescence into his dreamscape.

Reborn nimbly picked his way through another ravished hallway, despite the copious amount of broken architecture littering his path. His burden was still lost to the world, but breathed still, which was reassuring. He did not waste all his time for the Sky Lion to go back on his deal because he let Rokudo Mukuro die.

As he approached the doorway that led back to the main path, he made out voices that had him ducking into the shadows.

"-supposed to look after him!"

"Quiet, stupid cow! Jyuudaime was ridiculously brave, and I think he managed to save Chrome."

"He knocked her out like last time?"

"No, he did this… thing. His head was on fire and he starting speaking all captainy-like. It was really cool!"

"Suuuure… what really happened, Ahodera?"

"…exactly what the idiot said. Jyuudaime just became… different. Before he passed out, he told us everything would be fine and his eyes… they were orange!"

"I'll give you both an examination when we get out of here…"

"Ryohei, we're fine! It really happened! And I even found my swords!"

"Stupid swordsman…"

Reborn listened to the drifting voices in horror. There was no way… after all this time… He had wanted to write the first time off as a fluke, or just unfiltered Dying Will. But this went beyond mere flames. Orange eyes, a controlled flame, changed voice... not to mention how Reborn had done his bidding, believed in his voice despite knowing what lies could roll of Tsuna's tongue.

Could this be the hope that Luce had believed in? The future that she had envisioned for him?

..Someday, you will find a new Sky. One that will heal what I broke…

Promises, promises, all by the woman who shattered his heart. He tossed the illusionist over his shoulder (he would survive… probably) and took out his gun.

"Chaos!" he called as he stepped into the light, and watched as the Sky Lion Crew whirled to meet his threat.

For those of you who decide to read this, thank you again! Also, thanks to those wonderful reviewers who got me going again: IIBlueFoxBlazinII, DragonClaw827, Niknok19, Misanthropic Goddess, Frost190, Natsuyuuki, AiMila, FallenBleedingAngel, Pandawasmyballpen, shinigame3, Dimensional Roamer, ezcap1st, rentamiya, w- easy enough and all the guests!

Hopefully for the next chapter, you can expect introspective Reborn, everyone rushing to heal, memories of a destroyed boat, and HIBARI (very very briefly because he DGAF). And maybe the identity of the other captive...

This was not edited very well, so please feel free to critique or point out mistakes...