I am super sorry for the incredibly long wait. I started university and have been busy adjusting schedules around that. I have also lost interest in this fandom for a while so it was a bit of a struggle to get the end piece in. Good news though! I was recently told by my psychologist that I am now officially not depressed anymore! Hooray!

Viper was furious. As were the other Arcobaleno, but they felt a certain pressure since Skull was the one who protected them. They could all feel Skull struggling through their bond and a permanent chill permeated through their bones. He was freezing. More than that, he was slowly, slowly slipping through the bond. There was only one upside to the fact he was so cold; They could now eliminate most areas of the map because of the temperature.

Colonello was pacing metres away from Viper having finally gotten back from Mafia Land. He would stop every minute or so to stare at the map they had pinned up and cross more areas out. Verde was busy preparing the medical supplies and Fon was heating up some soup for when Skull was found.

A loud bang startled Colonello from pacing. Reborn entered the room, fedora shadowing his eyes. "He won't say anything."

The Rain swore and closed his eyes briefly, entertaining thoughts of entering the interrogation room himself. "Did you get the contactor's name?"

"No." Reborn slammed his fist onto the table harshly. "Skull is somewhere, dying for all we know, and this bastard won't say a goddamn word!"

Viper hovered by Colonello. "I could try a new technique I've been working on," He shrugged. "It's worth a chance."

"Why didn't you say anything before?" Reborn questioned.

Colonello stared piercingly at the Mist. "You don't know if the technique will work, do you?"

Viper tilted his head in agreement. "Ideally, I would go into his mindscape and retrieve the information. The worst-case scenario is that I break his mind and the information is lost, along with my consciousness."

"If you retrieved the information," Reborn said slowly. "Successfully, I mean. Would his mind still break from the pressure?"

"I've never used this skill before," Viper reminded him. "I haven't had time to finetune anything or find out if it even works."

Colonello leant against the table, tapping his hand. "This is the best suggestion we've had so far," Thoughtfully, he glanced at the Mist. "If there is even a remote chance of success, it would go a long way to further the information we already have."

"Are we in agreement then?" Viper asked sharply.

Reborn looked at Colonello for a moment. "I'm in."

"So am I," Colonello declared.

"I'll get started then," Viper said with a wicked smile.

Reborn mirrored him, "Make him scream."

XXXXXX

In Florence, Skull sputtered as he breached the surface of the ocean. He crossed his fingers before opening his eyes, for once let him have some good luck. Skull opened his eyes and sighed in dismay; Surrounding him was miles of cold, blue water with no land in sight. "When I said I wanted to go to the beach, I didn't mean like this."

While surveying the area around him, Skull caught sight of a bobbing piece of something around three hundred metres away. "Better than nothing…" He started swimming over to the object, pausing every now and then to rub his arms roughly- it was freezing! He was nearly five feet away from the object, now identified as a water cooler, when he ran into trouble. Something had brushed against his leg, and he could feel the rough, sandpaper-like sensation through his soaked bike suit.

Skull stilled his strokes as he saw a triangular fin breech the water close by him. "Please don't let that be a shark." The fin, definitely a shark, cut towards him abruptly and through the pale light of the moon, he could see a large, grey body. Skull was not ashamed to say that he panicked. A high- pitched scream was issued from his hoarse throat and he thrashed his limbs in an attempt to scare the shark away. "Go away, go away, go away!"

Furiously paddling towards the water cooler, now only a foot away, he had to quickly backpedal when the shark cut into the space. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins and propagated his strength to send the creature flying into the air and away from him. Skull clutched onto the water cooler and relieved tears fell down his face in rivulets. "Fuck my life right now," The Cloud managed to gasp out. Hysterical laughter bubbled up between the tears and his stomach rolled unpleasantly as all the conflicting feeling affected him physically.

The laughter cut off quickly as the icy coldness of the water started seeping into his bones. He had almost forgotten about the temperature problem; Last night the news had reported that Italy was going to have a few cold days, but this was ridiculous! The only piece of good luck he had was that it was still light, being the middle of the afternoon, but it wouldn't be long until the sky began to darken.

Skull sighed and draped himself against the floating cooler. At least he didn't have to constantly swim anymore… The gentle waves made him bob up and down, and he dropped his head onto his forearms. Hopefully the others would find him soon. Others? Friends? Lovers? He had no idea how to address them. His thought drifted in different directions as he floated in the sea.

XXXXXX

Colonello fought the urge to rub his fingers together as phantom chills wracked his body. Skull was clearly not having a fun time wherever he was. A warm blanket was draped over his shoulders and someone sat with him under the blanket; Verde. "What are you doing here?" Colonello asked, wincing when his voice came out hoarse. He cleared his throat.

"The cold," Verde stated. Emotions swirled behind his closed off face, but they didn't show through the bond. "I'm worried."

The Rain looked over at his lover. "Elaborate, Verde. Why are you worried?"

Verde shrugged and got nudged in return by Colonello. "If we don't find him in the next two hours, Skull is going to get hypothermia- bad hypothermia. It's why we're all so cold right now; Our symptoms won't deteriorate further, but Skull's will."

"There's more," Reborn said perceptively as he entered the room having received a nudge by his Rain. "Tell us."

Verde curled into a lanky ball. He whispered with held back emotion, "I don't like being cold. It reminds me of the past."

Rain Flames flickered into the physical realm and soothed the agitated scientist. Reborn sat on the other side of Verde and pulled his head onto his lap, Colonello doing the same with his legs. Verde sighed as both massaged their Flames through his body. The tight tension in his body gradually relaxed and he let a contented purr out. Warmth flowed through his body and made him forget about the cold that had plagued him moments before.

Viper materialized close to Reborn and their eyes softened as they looked at the scientist. "I got everything I could." They reported.

"And?" Colonello perked up. "What did you find?"

Viper floated down to the floor and pulled their hood off. "He didn't know much," He admitted. "He just had a vague thought in mind when he teleported Skull away."

"He went with Skull too for a few moments though," Reborn stated. "How is it possible he didn't know where he was!" The hitman slammed a fist on the table before wearily dropping into a chair. "Did you get anything useful at all?"

Mist Flames flickered around Viper's form. "He's in an ocean and he's still in Italy."

"Fuck," Colonello summed up.

Verde gathered his wits about him. "At least we know Skull's close to us and not halfway across the world."

"What do we do now?" Viper asked aloud.

Reborn took a deep, calming breath and stood up strongly. "Here's what we're going to do-"

XXXXXX

Skull moaned as nausea rocked his body once more. He was becoming ridiculously sea-sick and he swore he could feel his temperature dropping by the minute. Shivers wracked his body periodically and his fingers were becoming numb. "Never again," Skull pledged. "Someone else can deal with this shit next time. I'm out." Another wave of nausea made his gag and he turned his head to retch, the constant gagging irritating his dry throat.

A massive shudder rippled across the Cloud's body and he had to fumble for the cooler as he sunk lower into the cooling ocean. The sun was slowly setting across the ocean, sure to be a magnificent sight if he wasn't almost drowning in the salty water.

Something wrapped around the Cloud's leg and he shrieked loudly, kicking out both legs to free himself. The grip grew stronger and the creature travelled up his thigh and attached itself to his side. Skull stared, half-hysterical, at the octopus that was looking at him dolefully. A little tentacle was waved at him, and Skull melted. "You're so cute!" Skull cried out. "Why are you here little buddy?"

The octopus clung tighter to his side and squeezed his ribs enough to be almost painful. "Okay," Skull let out a wheeze. "Got it. You can let go now!"

The small octopus searched Skull's face before relenting. Skull chuckled airily, "You're a smart thing, aren't you?"

The pair floated in peace for a while before the Cloud broke the weighted silence. "You act sort of like Leon. He's a chameleon who is partnered with my Sun." The octopus gave him a confused look. "Sorry, I'll show you. I'm a Cloud so my Flames are different, but you'll know what I'm talking about."

Weak Cloud Flames lit the dark sea around them, flickering intermittently. The octopus reached a tentacle to touch the Flame that was quickly dissipating. "Don't touch buddy," Skull warned. Before he could yank his hand away, a slippery tentacle touched the Flames. A massive spike of Cloud Flames burst outwards, draining the last of Skull's strength, and the octopus rapidly enlarged with am alarmed whistle.

The massive octopus clicked in alarm when Skull slipped under the waves with a weak exhale. A large tentacle pulled Skull to the surface, the last thing he saw, other than the odd octopus, was a hooded figure reaching their hand out to him and yelling something.

XXXXXX

Viper interrupted the hitman with a startled cry, and before anyone could say anything, they disappeared with a wreath of Mist Flames. The Mist was only gone for half a minute when the room was filled with some sort of mutant octopus that was carrying their Cloud.

Reborn was at a loss for words and stood still trying to comprehend what the hell a giant octopus was doing here. Colonello was thinking along the same line as he grasped his rifle and sputtered weak curses. Verde on the other hand was very unprepared for the insanity that came his way.

"How is that thing breathing!" Verde screeched as he ducked behind a flipped chair near the Sun. "What. Just, I mean why?"

Viper materialised in front of the huge sea-creature and gave it a stern look. "Down," they ordered and took Skull into their arms.

The three elements watched as the creature lowered their Cloud gently before huddling in a corner and letting out distressed clicks and chirps. Upon seeing Skull, Verde pulled himself together (still not looking at the octopus) and tugged Viper out of the room.

"Wait!" Colonello cried futilely. "What do we do with the octopus?"

Reborn eyed the large creature up. "Normally, I would say eat it but look at it."

Colonello didn't spot what his Sun found so interesting. "It's a massive octopus that's defying the laws of natural. What else can there possibly be to it!"

"You're an idiot," Reborn scoffed. "Why is it a massive octopus? Use your head for once!"

Colonello scrutinised the octopus, "Is that… Are those traces of Skull's Flames?"

"Finally," Reborn sighed. "He's bonded with the octopus, it's the same as Leon and I." The aforementioned lizard crept over the hitman's hat to poke his tongue out.

The Rain twirled on his heels and marched out the door. "I am not paid enough to deal with this."

Reborn gave a bark of laughter. "You're not paid full stop."

"Shut up," Colonello pouted. "I'm going to see how Skull's doing."

Reborn waved a hand in acknowledgement and focused his attention on the now-shrinking octopus. He tutted, "What am I going to do with you?"

XXXXXX

Skull woke to the sound of vicious cursing and the all-around sounds of chaos. Where was he? Irritated eyes opened while dripping tears and revealed the ceiling of the medical room he was so familiar with. It took a moment to register the world wasn't swaying anymore and he was pleasantly warm. Flushes of heat surged from his toes to his ears and back again.

"You awake?" A voice whispered above him.

Skull hummed hoarsely. "Yeah. You got me?"

"Viper dragged your dumb ass out of the sea," The voice- no, Reborn said.

"She mad at me?" The Cloud asked guiltily.

Reborn snorted quietly, "Damn right she's mad at you. What were you thinking Skull?"

"I wasn't," He admitted.

The hitman gave an exhausted sigh. Shuffling sounds were made before the blankets were pulled back and he was joined by Reborn. "Go back to sleep."

Skull nodded tiredly, "Okay." This wasn't the time to be arguing and he was sleepy.

From the side table, the octopus watched from its hastily arranged tank. It clung to the glass as it guarded its friend from any who seek to harm him.