Utter Lunacy by InsaneScriptist

Beta: Umei no Mai

Summary: When the white demon with angel wings took over Magical Britain few were left still fighting. Luna is captured only to later win her own private war. What it means for the future is anyone's guess. MoD!Luna.

Warnings: AU!HP, EWE, HP!Character Deaths, AU!KHR, Alt!Byakuran, torture, physical violence, implied rape, Crazy!Byakuran, KHR!Character Deaths and more that I'm probably forgetting. Why am I writing this?

"War is hell and all that, but it has something to recommend it. It wipes out all the small nuisances of peace-time, like nargles for all that wackspurts are everywhere." Luna Lovegood declared as she was in the process of breaking out of the evil angel's current base in Britain, despite the injuries she had gained in the process of being captured.

It wasn't that hard as when he took over the Ministry of Magic's underground building he had also destroyed a lot of the spells woven into it. Spells such those to keep prisoners where they were supposed to be. Spells that if it were peace time would have kept her trapped.

The restraints and cell were easy enough to get out of. A simple use of wandless magic, an opening spell that she had practiced repeatedly so that she could use it on any physical lock. She had learned her lesson during the Blood War that dominated the latter half of her Hogwarts years. She would not be kept prisoner by magic or by technological devilry.

Fighting the minions was not what she wanted to do, but had to in order to get out of what was formerly the Ministry of Magic. They outnumbered her and the few other prisoners here that she let out. Those prisoners were practically worthless as fighters, but as saboteurs and distractions they might be worth something.

She had learned a lot from Harry, Hermione and Ron. One of which was to create as much chaos as possible to cover your escape. She lacked a dragon to ride out of here on though. The Ministry frowned on keeping a dragon as a pet anyway.

She unfortunately had learned not to emulate their mercy. The Golden Trio were all dead now. The main leaders of the only active rebellious group in Britain that she knew of were her, Neville and Ginny; others helped but a great many had been killed. Not that she even knew where Neville and Ginny were now, although she had her suspicions. Dumbledore's Army had once operated out of Hogwarts, but that option was lost once the magic of those colorful and dreadful flames had been turned on the wards. They had barely saved the great Hogwart's Library.

Harry had died during that battle, as had Ron. Harry had asked Luna to disarm him before that battle for reasons Luna wasn't sure of but was sure related to the Deathly Hallows. Hermione had been expecting her first child and so had evacuated the castle, the infamous cloak keeping her hidden and the entire library in her beaded purse. It was in that library that they had found the mention about those flames.

Hermione had found out of course. They were a type of soul magic that most of the Wizarding World would never be able to use, as they didn't have the will and magic tended to respond first to emotional distress of any sort. It was a type of soul magic that could even be used in theory by even muggles. The flaming soul magic was nothing foul like necromancy but it could and had been weaponized; Hermione had died when someone had used one against her despite how cute the animal was. Now that power was taking over the world.

Luna had later returned to the Forbidden Forest and summoned 'death's stone' while under the cloak. She then meandered over to Dumbledore's tomb to make sure the wand was still buried with him before she took the wand and broke it over her knee. She had then apparated to the coast and tossed the stone into the sea. Then she passed the cloak on to Ginny who had turned into 'Mama' for a disturbingly large number of orphans the rebels had taken in; first was Teddy, then came others as they were found and born including Hermione's child.

Luna hadn't noticed any difference having held all three of the Deathly Hallows, but maybe the title of 'Master of Death' was just human arrogance or needed all three items to be used by the same person. Even then, it seemed to be nothing more than superstition.

It hadn't made Harry immortal after all.

Unfortunately, their enemies weren't as stupid and arrogant as the Death Eaters had been and had already blocked all entrances and exits except down. One of the few wards they had managed to use with those soulful flames was anti-apparation; not the modern kind that would bounce witches and wizards but the older kind that would splinch them viciously. The other ward they could use was anti-portkey as portkeys just didn't work. Not that many people knew how to make portkeys, but she made sure to learn and then teach it to Ginny and Neville. It gave them plenty of mobility at times, right up until they enemies learned to ward against it; they had learned to find, attack and kill those that could make those wards if they wanted escape should they be surrounded.

Magical transportation for everyone was particularly crippled when the Ministry had been invaded and they lost the floo network. Floo had been proprietary in Britian, with only one firm having the patent and only the government capable of setting up a network, so it would be impossible to recreate.

So down Luna went, feeling remarkably like Alice in a twisted wonderland. Level Six was also blocked and so Luna collapsed the ceiling above those waiting for her and hoped it would delay them. Then she put a few magical can-trip traps behind her as a determent to follow. That was the extent of the magic she could use wandlessly and the dropping part of a ceiling was powered mostly by desperation.

Her feet took her to first the time chamber. There she had noticed a hidden time turner; it was under wards that would keep muggles away but they were so subtle that those technological devils hadn't noticed yet. One of the Unspeakables must have made and hidden to prevent misuse be when those same devils were taking over Britain. Luna wrapped the long chain necklace around her waist like a belt, and the wards were attached to the device, so it would remain unseen even as she wore it. She hoped. Muggle-repelling wards and notice-me-nots only worked so well...

Hoping to mislead her pursuers further she went into the Death Chamber, and ignored the murmurs from it. She had ignored them the first time so she did so again. One, two, six hours back. Enough time for most of the enforcers to be out, fighting herself hours earlier.

Then the white devil appeared as if he knew to be waiting. Luna sighed.

"Taking over the world must be dreadfully boring if you already know what to do and how to take out all your enemies." She replied, suddenly so very tired.

"Oh, already figured this out? How very astute of you." The white devil himself said.

"It wasn't that hard to notice, not if you look at the world from the right angle." She replied.

"Many people across numerous worlds, all of whom are noted for their intellect don't figure it out until told. How did you, ignorant little witch?"

"I don't listen to public opinion, fake angel."

"Public opinion?" The fake angel laughed.

"One should respect public opinion in so far as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny." The witch informed him.

"That does make sense little moon-child."

"Moon-child? I'm older than seventeen years of age."

"But not quite eighteen yet, either, now are you witch?"

"I suppose that makes me underage by non-magical law. One would think a person that has no problem taking over the world by force wouldn't care for that."

"You're quite right. I don't."

Negotiations have clearly failed.

So it comes to a fight and they fight.

It's a fight Luna knows she's bound to lose. She has no wand because it broke in the confrontation her past self is having now, she lacks the physical strength and training the faux angel has and she wasn't in optimal condition to begin with. Collapsing a ceiling isn't easy for all that it was semi-deliberate and more desperation that she can physically feel.

Fighting a losing rebellion means a number of nights spent hungry even if magic can be used to keep clean, warm and hidden. That's not even taking into account those boxes that operate on those damnable flames and all the secrets those same boxes hold.

This didn't really seem to matter much to the white devil.

Their fight was as much physical as it was with words.

Then Luna realized that he was flirting with her.

It was a sickening realization, but it made Luna fight all the harder and reach not for her own panicking magic but the strength of her very soul itself.

Being able to use those same devilish and colorful flames doesn't help either since she doesn't know how to fight with them.

He just laughs at her efforts.

Luna is prisoner once again. She's very well practiced at it now. The humiliation, the degradation, the utter lack of rights and privacy. The time-turner is gone; she has no idea where but she hopes that it fell off while they were fighting. Her hips are boyish enough for that to happen.

It's also for the same reason.

Luna doesn't think along the same lines a normal person does. It makes her so very brilliant at planning strategies, tactics and rebellion. She enjoyed being a complete non-conformist. Still does.

In other words, 'Your version of sanity bores me.'

Partly for the same reason.

It allows her to think unorthodox plans, bring victory from the jaws of defeat and dance through destruction to rain death upon those who face her. That is Luna's true genius.

She is still however, a young woman, barely past girlhood.

But a hardened prisoner, nonetheless.

She knows how to endure pain, cruelty and the gnaw of the unknown at the mind. She knows how to avoid the worst of the drugs and can use magic to negate them enough to remain clear-eyed and steely-hearted.

The Death Eaters had taught her all of that, first at Hogwarts and then in that dreadful basement.

This was a repeat of that made worse.

Pure blood doesn't grant her any sort of protection here.

The fake angel was brilliant in his madness and found her to be a fascination. Not just in her steadfast refusal to join him or in her ability to work around his drugs so she wasn't forced to join him either. The drugs weren't potions but his insanity was still genius and so a number of them tried to have effects like a number of potions. Unctuous Unction was an easy enough potion to make but despite his devilry and mad genius he still hadn't managed to make that.

She doesn't want to think and believe he is her friend by the influence of outside forces.

Instead he had to rely on more old fashion methods.

Kindness.

The Death Eaters hadn't taught her how to resist that.

She's still going to learn.

The white devil is named Byakuran.

He's utterly brilliant, completely isolated by it. No one can keep up with it.

Luna is special because she can guess where exactly his mind will run to next. Its not exactly that hard for anyone that cared to look and not turn away, keeping themselves intentionally ignorant in a futile attempt to spare themselves further pain. That sort of brilliance burns those who look and aren't prepared; it causes them to bow their heads and worship.

He fixates on that, starved for emotional connections beyond the worship of his subordinates.

Byakuran is not an angel or a devil; just an utterly pitiful man with an astounding sense of genius taking all he can from the world to find what he longs for even though he doesn't know what it is he's even searching for.

He doesn't know what he's looking for -his mind is too brilliant for his heart to be heard- but on an instinctual level he knows.

It doesn't temper his cruelty in the least.

His subordinates follow his every demand without question.

This issue is this:

'Without question' sounds an awful lot like 'without support.'

The problem with following, only following, was that the one in front was always alone.

And he's breaking there.

Luna was a pureblood witch, and had only passingly interacted with muggles in the village near where she grew up. Even when traveling on various expeditions with her father, they were either in the wilderness of magically protected lands or in magical districts.

Despite all the colorful fire, the Millefiore live without magic. It's all technology.

Even those amazing dreadful boxes are technology.

And he's letting her learn about them and everything.

It's his kindness, indulging her curiosity.

It's his mistake too.

Luna is a Ravenclaw and enjoys learning if not education. Learning was optional and enjoyable while education is something that has to be endured, with annoying classmates, bullies and endless homework and social expectations from both people her own age and adults who should know better. She spent years friendless, mocked and tormented by those wearing blue and bronze and any number of other colors.

In many ways she's utterly ignorant of everything not-magical. It makes her realize how much she has been sequestered in the magical parts of the world. How safe. Even Voldemort was safer; she had some protection for being born a pure blood. Some value in being a hostage against her father.

Her ignorance also entertains him. He likes to 'educate' her.

She doesn't like those lessons.

Luna still remains Luna.

Not a whore.

Not slut, cunt or any of the other vile words he says into her ears.

This too, she learns to endure.

Luna is kept captive but she still manages to meet a number of his subordinates.

Some are those she is passingly familiar with as enemies. They taunt her, but it isn't anything she hasn't heard before. Another is a young girl, her eyes and heart dulled by drugs that keep her pliant. Those same drugs that keep her subordinates hostage to her deluded self.

The ones she hates the most are not those same flame using mafiosi -a new word to her that she comes to detest- but the dusky skinned, eerily alike women with pink hair.

They are homunculi. Dolls shaped to look like women, programmed with a purpose and far older than they appear.

They belong to a mafia famiglia by the name of Cervello, sub-servant to the Milliefiore.

Luna knows them by a different name, an ancient Greek one; the Cervello were created to study and record history, charged by a secret society of both magical and non-magical intellectuals and innovators long before Rome was even thought of, much less made an empire.

Luna knows this because her mother once belonged to that same society.

And those dolls gone wild killed her for it, not an experimental spell.

Only wild things bite the hands that feeds them.

For how tame and pretty the dolls appear, they're still utterly wild.

Worse are the debates as he tries to sway her to his views.

They rarely end well.

"All power is the same. Magic. Physical strength. Economic strength. Political strength. It all serves a single purpose-it gives its possessor a broader spectrum of choices. It creates alternative courses of action." He states.

She tries to sway him to her views.

"All power is not the same. It comes with responsibilities. The first of which is learning how to use it wisely, which include when, where and why to use it."

"Oh, is this an attempt to sway me to stop taking over the world? To let it 'right' itself after I have already succeeded?" He jeers, the purple tattoo under his eye looks like a trio of daggers.

Luna can only sigh at the knowledge that it is likely that everyone she knew is likely dead.

This knowledge does not break her, for she is not defeated. Just in another stalemate in a losing battle. Who is losing isn't clear, but while Luna is often bloody, her head is not bowed. Her path and eyes are clear despite the white devil's blinding brilliance.

"No, this is to remind myself that words have power."

"Are you expecting me to say 'sorry for killing your friends?' That's not going to happen. Even magic cannot restore the dead. Nothing does." He laughs. It is full of bitterness.

"I am aware of that." She states.

"Then what is your point? What are you so afraid of?" He taunted.

"I'm sorry." She says quite suddenly, overtaken by a surge of Gryffindor bravery. It has to be a gift from Ginny. Neville was quite nice but he had never given her gifts before. Ginny on the other hand had often given her things, even when they weren't really friends anymore.

"Oh, like those words, 'I'm sorry' are magic words, witch? Doesn't your kind prefer bastardized Latin? Whatever happened to pretty please?"

"I'm sorry," she repeats, voice steady and eyes steely, "that you're so confused, lost and lonely that the only method you have to find anything you long for is violence despite your remarkable intellect."

He throws her against the wall and pins her there by her neck. She chokes as he breathes hot and heavy. Her head hurts, its hard to breathe and she has to stand on her tip-toes or else she'll hang herself on his hand.

"Sorry? Sorry! Lonely?!" He laughs bitterly, brokenly and Luna knows her words have hit their mark. "I'm sorry too. I was born too soon, so those that would even attempt to fight me won't do so. I've even subverted them to my cause. To follow me."

He's crying now, salty tears to prove he's human despite the wings he often wears and the devil-may-care attitude that goes along with it.

He carelessly tosses her towards another wall.

Luna feels something in her arm crack from impact.

It hurts but she refuses to cry. The pain of a broken arm is nothing compared to Bellatrix's torture curses.

The concussion on the other hand is something far different as the world splits into multiples before her eyes.

She refuses to call for help because it won't be given. Instead she picks herself up, balancing against the wall as she fights the nausea the concussion has given her. She eventually stumbles into the piece of furniture across from the weeping man.

Unwilling to let weeping angel have the last say, Luna draws on both herself and everything she is. Then, gently, like a mother to child she says to him, "I'm not sorry to have said that to you."

Then she passes out.

She wakes alive, in a well appointed room.

Luna tries not to be disappointed, but it's there. The white demon often lied, but the faux-angel did not especially when the truth served him better. Byakuran was the one that couldn't be trusted ever because he didn't know what he wanted and would lash out at everyone.

She is brought food by one of the Cervello.

Luna ignores it, thinking about dreams and innocence lost in a nonsensical fashion that her father taught to her that she had since surpassed him at. Greek legends, wizarding history and images connected to names all passed before her eyes in a blur.

She is not Psyche, who saw Eros' face.

Instead she is like Persephone, and he Hades but there is no weeping mother and concerned gods out to bring order to the world again. No Zeus to order his brother to return his young bride stolen from her mother for Zeus is dead, as is Athena. Ares is also lost, as is Hera and others.

Apollo is brilliant in his madness.

Except she is not Persephone for her mother was Pandora, not Demeter.

She is Luna, daughter of Xenophilius.

The Cervello bring her fruit this time and it is not drugged.

She eats even though she knows what happened to Persephone.

The murderous dolls are plotting her demise, even as they say otherwise to those they serve. They know she knows about them, their hidden history and the bid for freedom they made in murder.

Anyone who knew how to control them, to order them, was to be killed or otherwise neutralized.

Luna knows her mother wasn't the only one.

Byakuran avoids her.

It's understandable.

He's still human.

She caused him pain.

Luna reads.

She takes notes.

She understands.

She's still a prisoner.

Freedom is an illusion.

Happiness is a dream.

She is strangely content regardless.

She still fights when she's able. She doesn't have the ability or the knowledge to outright sabotage things from the inside.

It could be too easily traced to her.

Instead she fights on a different field and realm.

Magic isn't something Byakuran is interested in but she can manage a few subtle things that add up like grains of sand on a beach.

Human creations are so fragile and the human mind even more so.

What part of the workings of an Empire can she gum up today?

How can she do it so that it cannot be traced back to her?

Time is a strange thing to Luna. She knows it passes day by day, hour by hour but as a prisoner she has no sense of time beyond when meals are brought to her.

She knows there are days she goes hungry.

It's therefore not surprising that one day she wakes to find the genius in the bed she uses as hers, with his head using her body as a pillow.

It is his bed after all. She's wearing his clothes. She is his prisoner.

He does as he pleases, because it's all his.

Including her for all that she fights. She fights because while he has her body, he does not have her mind or her soul.

She will not let him have that.

He looks different sleeping.

She considers strangling him -he's still stronger. She considers breaking his neck -she doesn't know how. She considers poisoning him -the Cervello have removed all their poisoned gifts.

She considers using magic -she has no wand, and beyond a few tricks and desperation she cannot use wandless magic with any sort of reliability or lethality. She considers using flames -he's still better with them than she is.

Her hand is already reaching towards him.

It pets his hair.

He smiles in his sleep.

"You should eat more, little witch." Byakuran says as he watches her read between bites of marshmallows.

"Maybe if there were less drugs in the food." She replies.

She feels him frown, the air in the room moving to his will; the will that had destroyed her world and the rest of it too, all under his heel.

Her next meal is entirely not drugged for he knows and has known that those he uses on those he wishes to keep compliant don't work on her. They haven't since she learned to counter his medical brilliance with her innate magic.

Poison on the other hand is something else entirely.

Trapped as she is, she still hears about his rampage.

The Cervello disappear.

Good.

The Cervello are meant to be unbiased, but they still want and are threatened by her.

It makes them strangely human in some backward fashion; dolls imitating but not understanding.

Luna doesn't care about that.

Her plan is working.

The war is not lost, not while she still fights.

She remembers a quote.

"The two things no man can ever understand; Women and what makes all men complete damn fools over women."

Politics between women have always been dangerous in way men could never understand.

He's clingy and cruel countered by generous and affectionate.

She's still fighting.

She entertains the hope that she might be winning but realizes he's still to strong for that, for all that he's broken.

He is her superior in so many ways and she's a lonely prisoner.

The answer is grain by grain, chip by chip until his strength and will are in ruins like his empire.

An unexpected complication arises.

War is no place for a child.

Especially not her private war; she'll have to stop because she won't be like Dumbledore and turn a child into a weapon or a martyr. Especially not her child. Won't have him or her hate her because the child has been told lies about her. Small cruelties add up.

Harry Potter was such a lonely broken child.

The boy-who-lived was such a figure of noble suffering and chivalry.

That is not a fate to wish on her child for all that there is no prophecy and her enemy knows where she lives at his sufferance.

How? How? How? Circles around in her head.

No, she knows how, but why is nothing more than chance and circumstance.

He finds out about it and sticks close. His obsessive fascination with her is a mockery of love.

It's a blessing and a curse.

She waits to find out which one it really is.

Nature takes care of it for her.

She did nothing but miscarry.

It nearly kills her anyway.

He doesn't know that as a rule, witches and wizards tend to have less children because it's difficult for them to conceive. Some can't even manage it unless they're a certain age even if they're physically mature. He is a genius yet there are some things he has never bothered to learn or investigate.

It is even harder to carry to full term, especially should the mother be stressed.

Not necessarily because some lineages might be too close but because some lineages are incompatible. There was a reason why some Houses preferred to marry within the family; it was the only way to be certain of continuing the line.

So many purebloods have forgotten why the obsession over lineages began.

Luna knows because her mother told her.

Magic is not a natural human trait and there are so very many magical species out there, few of which can interbreed productively; at least initially.

He is again furious, convinced that it is anything but natural.

He assigns her a guard for when he's not with her.

He has handed her a weapon.

She smiles.

Her guard rarely speaks and prefers to sleep when and if it is possible. Luna out of discretion and survival instincts also stays silent. Constantly reading, learning about technology and the world outside of magic. What rules govern it, what natural laws occur when and how and how to measure it with math. Chemistry, psychology, physics and more.

Her magical knowledge is useless, especially without a wand; she acquires more knowledge of the mundane as she plans. Magic hasn't entirely been forgotten but...

Her war with Byakuran is a private one, but one fought with much patience.

She can and does outlast her guard's store of it.

His name is Xanxus and he is responsible for the destruction of the Vongola.

He pays lip-service loyalty to Byakuran. He knows that he owes Byakuran for bringing him and his mother out of the streets, out of poverty, and for giving him ways to become strong.

Xanxus is very bad at gratitude for those he does not respect and the white devil has recently lost it; how recently, Luna doesn't know. He is the only one to notice the resentment and rage that is her private war.

He's a fine weapon but not enough.

Grains of sand accumulate. Like calls to like.

She is not Persephone because she's going to carve her way out of the underworld -her prison- with her own will and knowledge.

She is the daughter of Pandora. Hope is her Demon.

Another rebellious servant of the faux-angel is called Mukuro. He's far younger than she is but just as jaded.

He is an illusionist, but Luna is quite comfortable to know and accept reality as it is, instead of what it isn't. Luna doesn't blind herself to reality.

His illusions are excellent but Luna does not fall for them. Then Mukuro makes them real and Luna breaks them.

She has no wand, but she still has magic. She has no ring, but she has a purpose.

It is enough.

Xanxus is surprisingly good with his hands. He is very adept with technology for all that he's very much a killer through and through. His mind is equally brilliant. Inhumanly so in some ways.

He smuggles her an empty box container. Two of them.

One he fills with Wrath.

It's her choice about what she wants.

She makes it.

Luna has grown far too used to the white devil's attentions.

He's still just as fascinated with her as ever.

It makes her plan so much simpler.

'Come into my parlor,' said the spider to the fly.

Luna is not a spider, but she has made a plan. Kept it secret from any cameras or recording devices or any curious loyally listening ears.

She learned cynicism from the Death Eaters too. To not trust the surface.

Appearances of a prison left alone and forgotten about are never true.

Especially when she's so personally important to all the various fragments of him.

Most important to that broken human part of him.

She plans on killing all of him.

Luna lacks a wand, but she has the steel in her soul that has allowed her to survive and even thrive despite years of captivity.

She has other weapons now, so magic, is a last resort except for getting there.

Luna has the perfect place in mind too, so all she needs to do is get him there.

A portkey would be easiest.

Apparation however requires no wand.

Most damning is that apparation has its limits.

How to convince the devil to bring them both to England? As close to London as possible?

Mukuro might be the age of a first year, and Xanxus maybe a few years older than her, but they're very good at fulfilling their parts.

The person that holds the wards to that particular base suffers a small accident; it's not even lethal, just enough to knock him out of it for a while under the guise that he annoyed Xanxus. Her guard's general ill temper makes the incident nothing out of the ordinary.

Mukuro re-writes the wards the swordsman holds and then the swordsman's mind.

The boy really is that good.

The Ministry of Magic has long since been abandoned and left to rot. It makes it perfect.

A perfect place to kill a man.

For all that he's a undeniably a devil, he's still so very human.

Xanxus signaled that Mukuro had performed his part in bringing everything she wanted over there.

Luna nodded.

It was time.

Byakuran expected it.

She expected him to.

He wouldn't dare expect the lengths she'd go to.

Those are secrets that she'd never tell to anyone, no matter their relationship in any world.

Because if they had such a relationship that would make her a very different Luna, making the knowledge useless.

The Death Chamber was a fitting place for a rematch.

The whispers from the veil are screaming and Byakuran doesn't have the same amount of practice as she does at ignoring them.

She held at best theoretical knowledge with very little practice but that put into use was enough to surprise him. She further capitalized on it with a ruthlessness that had always been there under her placid exterior.

She wants to keep the broken human part out and suffering. He may be unpredictable but he wasn't intentionally violent for all he lashes out; Mukuro aids by giving him an excessive amount of targets. That was all the white devil and the fake angel.

And that was the part of him most hindered by love, twisted as it was.

Right up until she commanded a box weapon to open and spew its contents with magic.

Wrath Flames and Fiendfyre were quite the combination.

She finds and picks up the lost time-turner.

The upon severing the hand with the ring off, Luna apparated out.

She pretends she couldn't read the 'thank you' on his lips.

Luna does not fall for any illusionist's tricks so they know the hand is real. Xanxus and Mukuro watch as the combination of dark magical flames and Xanxus' unleashed Flames of Wrath devour London.

"Kufufu... any idea when that will die out?"

"Fiendfyre feeds off of magic and will seek it out until it runs out of magic. It then becomes normal fire after that."

"My Wrath Flames don't do that."

"I opened the boxes with magic, so that's probably the reason." Luna replies because before she took his ring, Luna didn't have one.

"Overkill."

"Justified."

The two males have both been aware of what had happened to her for some time and pause for a moment before they agree.

"Check back next week?"

It's agreed.

They somehow fail to separate. It isn't due to a curse or any physical means. They just don't want to, until it settles in that Byakuran is truly dead and ashes. The three of them had worked together to kill what amounted to the Boss of the World.

Not entirely unexpected but it inconveniences them.

Especially when all of Byakuran's subordinates are going to be after them and they all want to go different directions.

Xanxus has killed dissenters to Byakuran's regime in practically every country and rebellious force that had ever existed or has plotted a coup against Byakuran; then he even helped to kill the man masquerading as an angel and demon by turns.

Everyone is out to kill him and he knows it. He revels in the knowledge and knows he's equal to the challenge so long as he has time to recover between bouts. Quantity has a quality of its own and Xanxus is still subjected to mortal limits.

Mukuro has been more subversive, in that he has probably led an equal number of men and women to their doom for Byakuran; the man who had rescued him and his fellow test subjects and then kept the other survivors hostage to keep Mukuro's talents his.

People will be out to recruit him or kill him if its not possible. He is still not even in his teens. He cares too much and knows it is his weakness; he tries to hide it behind an utter and complete cynicism on humanity and a hatred of the mafia in particular.

Luna has always held her own private and personal war against Byakuran and his subordinates. Manipulating the Cervello was easy as despite their centuries of learning they weren't human no matter how they acted; they didn't understand what they were doing or why, not really. Breaking Byakuran was hard and for all she hated making use of her gifts for it, and making him fall in love with her was worse. Waiting was nearly impossible.

She was well-known and resented among Byakuran's upper ranks because of his obsession with her. If they didn't want her as a figure head -unlikely as she had killed him- then they wanted her dead.

"The beach." Luna declares.

"Someplace warm."

"Private."

"Mafia Land?" Someone suggests.

"Works for me."

Mafia Land is deserted except for them. Understandable as any of the mafia that opposed Byakuran is dead or renewing a claim on their territory now that he's dead. It is also keeping all of Byakuran's subordinates, those that willingly served him, busy now that he's no longer drugging others who having recovered their senses are happy to smash his empire to bits with whatever tools they can.

Everything is still functional, although any perishable food is long out of date and swiftly destroyed by Wrath Flames. It gets a raised eyebrow, but no comments.

The non-perishable food stuff can be supplemented locally in a lot of ways anyway.

A lot of supplies are handy here too, including but not limited to everything any a criminal mastermind and their subordinates could want or need. Luna is quite fond of several of them.

Luna enjoys wearing as much or as little as she wants, using sunscreen as she wants; she tans leaving strange and whimsical parts of herself pale as some sort of reverse tattoo. She's getting used to having more than four walls and books all day and relishes that.

Xanxus is the scavenger and hunter; he spends hours fishing for supper, occasionally sleeping and soaking in the sunshine, which makes up for the time he spends roaming the island at night looking for the latest piece of technology to hold his interest; long, roaming patrols to let his energy out.

Mukuro is strangely the motherly one; he is the one that can actually cook and is actually interested in what's going on in the world now that Byakuran is dead. He is also the one to care most about keeping hidden, to the point that the entire island is hidden behind a barrier of Mist Flames while they're on it.

Mukuro turned on the wireless, listening to the news. The public news anyway, as even a neophyte to the mafia's ways knows that a lot of mafia business doesn't even make the news.

"Turn that off." Xanxus barks.

"Why?" The only person of this little group that has the right to be considered a child still if only by physical age asks.

"The only gossip I'm interested in is things from the Weekly World News - 'Woman's bra bursts, eleven injured.' That kind of thing." He replies sarcastically.

They are now well acquainted with each other's preferred type of sarcasm. They've had time to adapt to each other. They had done that while plotting Byakuran's doom.

"I don't think that I could injure eleven." Luna remarks as she looks down at her bikini clad and much tanner self.

Xanxus cackles like her deadpan humor is the funniest thing ever and even Mukuro doubles over snickering.

Mafia Land is nice, but not a place they want to permanently stay. Not that they've said anything about it but they make a pretty great team. They killed the Boss of the World after all.

Luna needs a wand to fully make use of her magical talents and materials if she wants to make use of her long hours upon years of research. Both cannot be found here. The Statue of Secrecy is ignored entirely between the three of them; magic isn't as great a secret as it once was.

Xanxus has a serious case of wanderlust when not engaged in a project or sleeping, plus he's as curious as a cat.

Mukuro is also very curious about magical people in general, not to mention has no one to return to -distancing himself from his fellow surviving experiments keeps them safe- so attaches himself to both Luna and Xanxus in a distinctly child-like manner.

This fact is clearly picked up on which makes Luna the mother, and Xanxus the father since Mukuro is clearly the child of their little family.

Sarcasm abounds when a trip to a magical district to get a wand for Luna is mentioned.

"It'll be fun for the whole family." Xanxus says. The destroyer of the Vongola is fond of irony.

"There's no such thing as fun for the whole family." Mukuro retorts.

This brings up another issue.

"When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money." Luna says. "That's what my mother always said."

"Sentiment." Xanxus snorts.

"We're broke." Mukuro mentions.

Despite thorough searching only spare change has been found in Mafia Land.

Luna is just happy that the clothes are her very own, stolen from unmanned stores yes, but still hers.

Somehow Mafia Land is closest to Japan, following prescribed routes across the oceans, which is good as Luna has an idea of where its magical district is.

It's bad because while she was reasonably fluent in her understanding of the spoken language she couldn't read a single thing in Japanese. That's something of an issue because there are signs hidden by magic that she'd overlook because she didn't know what they meant.

As they discussed things, they learned that Xanxus was absurdly fluent in more languages than he cared to list and that Mukuro was fluent in the Underworld's most influential languages. Luna was fluent in mainly western languages, living or dead. She had passable Hindi and understood Chinese more fluently than she spoke it but she couldn't read it and especially not Japanese for all that the characters are similar.

"I repeat, there's no such thing as fun for the whole family." Mukuro repeats, this time more humorously as he was proven right to a degree.

Compared to a number of other places in the world, Japan is fine. It's reestablishing its government after it had been ruled by Byakuran for who knows how long. However Japan is a place of tradition, and Byakuran had not reigned anywhere near long enough for those traditions to have been forgotten.

Luna does not want to know exactly how long she has been a prisoner.

It's not exactly peaceful but there's no open looting or people killing each other for food. Money is still worth something here because people trust in its value.

A bit of pick-pocketing later -apparently Xanxus never lost the touch, and Luna proved surprisingly good at it while Mukuro just robbed a mundane bank- and they're enjoying a meal at a ramen bar when they meet the strange, not quite human fellow.

She and her boys have become quite close as a unit so when she picks up the possible danger, they also tense.

"I believe this is a conversation to be held elsewhere." Luna remarks in English because her Japanese is just horrible.

The strange not-human man then explains his curiosity about the ring, in English.

Luna is quick to catch onto his lie, the other two only seconds behind.

Then Kawahira, as he introduced himself as, explains about the Tri-ni-Sette. When he hesitates, Luna pushes him further, getting him to part with more information than he's comfortable with.

It isn't a pleasant tale and an even worse system, but at least they're used to that.

Luna frowns as she looks at the ring she wears on a necklace. It rests long and heavy between her breasts.

"Find a system without sacrifices." Luna tells him.

"We won't be it." Xanxus declares.

"Trying to convince us otherwise is futile." Mukuro adds.

Then, because Hope is Luna's Demon of choice she informs him, "Chances are that working together with others instead of lying to them for the Greater Good of the World will eventually find a way. Maybe you'll even make peace with those you've betrayed and all their ghosts haunting you."

"And the Mare Ring?" He asks.

"Who knows? I might just toss it in the sea. It wouldn't be the first suicide stone I've tossed that way."

"So that trash could see into alternate universes with that ring."

"It explains a lot." Mukuro comments, before he laughs his signature laugh.

"Including how he knew everything he did."

"Including the future, which is built on the past." Luna states.

Both males make noises of interest but actually say nothing.

"He once mentioned that he was born too early and had suborned his greatest detractors into working for him."

Both males make unhappy noises. It's a backhanded compliment at best. Happy that they really are that good and unhappy that Byakuran had their talents willingly at his disposal for a time. That Byakuran used their talents for his goals annoys them because they both dislike him.

Luna smirks. She has a plan, but first a wand.

The wand is simple enough to get. Both males are unimpressed about what amounts to a magical stick, but they haven't really seen what magic could do yet as they wander back to the mundane areas after a brief shopping trip for the basics.

The magical basics that is, since there are a number of potions and books. All now in her tiny looking purse which does impress both males since it was a small item and previously mundane. She even buys a tent, just because it will be handy.

Ravenclaw that she is, books are a favorite.

Time as a prisoner hasn't changed that.

Even if the wand and magic made witches and wizards have an incomprehension of logic, it doesn't exactly make them stupid. Not so stupid like the one person who was hawking love-hotels to them.

"Hey man, love is a beautiful multi-tentacled thing. No need to suppress your feelings. Just get a room first, and clean up after yourselves." The sign he was carrying suggested where and the fees for the rooms.

The guy says this to both Luna and Xanxus. Luna's choice in clothing is the reason for it; her yukata is patterned heavily by octopi, and they're eating takoyaki. Xanxus cuts an imposing figure no matter what he's doing -even if he's sleeping- so the assumption is easy to make. Xanxus seems very much like a yakuza and Luna keeps close to him; the assumption about them being together isn't entirely unexpected, but...

Luna stiffens at the implications and Xanxus is intense in the way that says he's weighing the cost of this guy's life against the crime of making a scene.

Mukuro had been staunchly ignored in his entirety by the man soliciting them, as if his existence didn't matter. He then retaliated and the man started screaming about pineapples.

He slapped at Xanxus' patronizing pats to the head as Luna sniggered at them both.

Magic when used properly was something to cherish out of sheer utility and how comfortable it could make things.

It explained why most magicals were pretty much hedonists; they weren't used to enduring a lot of things people without magic had to because magic was such a utility tool that not using it to do so became masochism.

They would be working their way across the world from Japan, using a combination of all their abilities.

"For a tent, this sure has a lot of room." Mukuro commented once he was inside it. He was a bit busy marveling at the utter defiance of physics and man-made laws.

Xanxus was already investigating the other rooms, poking into everything.

Luna claims one of the rooms as hers and lays out all that she bought. Potion ingredients for a number of common and uncommon potions, a couple of cauldrons. She also unshrinks her suitcase and packs her clothing into the dressers; well some of it. Keeping some in her suitcase is preferable as they occasionally use hotels in the areas that have enough order for a hotel to be used and trusted.

"It has no food." Xanxus remarks as Luna returns from her claimed bedroom.

"So we go shopping."

Xanxus first trip brings back mostly meat; poultry, beef, pork and fish. He leaves and brings back a few more things like milk, eggs, bread and sandwich things. He then has Luna enchant a backpack for his third trip, where it appears Xanxus has stolen a liquor store's entire stock.

Luna brings back spices, tea, juice, sugar, flour and a number of cooking necessities like oil and butter as well as things like pans and crockery. Both males are stunned stupid because food doesn't matter if you have nothing to cook it in, so they accompany her to gain more of the basics like dish soap, laundry soap, and general hygiene products like towels, toilet paper and cleaners. Silverware is also added because Luna's skill with chopsticks is abysmal.

Mukuro leaves again and brings rice, a diverse selection of fruit and vegetables. Lots of them, and even tofu.

"Going vegetarian?" Xanxus taunts.

"I'm not a vegetarian. Even I was, it wouldn't be because I love animals. I would be a vegetarian because I hate plants."

"Including pineapples?"

"Especially pineapples." Mukuro hisses.

India is interesting, but is a stop solely because Luna wants a carpet.

"Going to make it fly?" Xanxus asked, dressed like a native for all that he doesn't look like one in the slightest. Neither does he move like one, even if he can speak like one down to the local accent. It is very impressive.

Mukuro's illusions make them look natives nonetheless.

"Oh, yes, so long as Mukuro keeps us hidden and undetected."

Xanxus raises an eyebrow.

Carpets are comfortable to fly upon. She has no idea why the Ministry banned them.

It's also large enough to have a picnic upon, at least with magic to make it comfortable.

"Better than walking." Luna admits.

"Trains too." Xanxus snorts, in agreement. Luna and Mukuro understand the sentiment; trains are far too crowded.

"Slower than planes." Mukuro comments, just to be contrary because planes can be private.

"Don't have to worry about seasickness." She also adds.

It's enough.

They are curious about magic and Luna doesn't care about the Statue of Secrecy anymore. She hasn't for a while. She lets them read her books. She had bought the basics and advanced ones for a reason and more than simple comparison of curriculum.

As they get closer to their destination, Luna starts informing them about various things that don't make it into any respectable book, even if the book delves into the Dark Arts or histories of torture as people with magic experimented on various magical species, sentient or not.

Things like homunculi.

They make the connection with the Cervello easily enough.

It's closer to Egypt than to Greece or even Italy, but they find it.

Luna is magical so the repelling wards have no effect and she knows where it's at so the fact that the island is unplottable is made irrelevant.

Xanxus is proven to be at least somewhat magical since the wards have no effect on him. She doubts that it is recent or from any human lines though.

Mukuro for all his gifts and talents has no magic, but that's because his brilliance lies in understanding and breaking the mind. The wards effects are broken easily.

"What's this?" The youngest asks, because Xanxus expects answers to be given to him eventually or he will find out himself.

"Alexandria's Library." Luna relates to them. "The Cervello kept records of their activities and those of the world here. Any answer you want can be found here."

Xanxus' face frowns imperceptibly but anyone sufficiently sensitive could feel the want for more information than that.

"The Cervello were created and controlled by human hands until they killed all those that did, and those that knew about that too."

Mukuro laughs as he puts things together and Xanxus smirks. Revenge is something they understand well.

"However even if they slaughtered for their perceived freedom doesn't change the fact that their primary purpose hasn't altered in the least."

"They have records of that?" Xanxus asks before he laughs at the sheer ridiculousness of the Cervello having an admittance of their guilt somewhere in there.

"Including their why, somewhere." She confirms.

Finding the answers is difficult when magic expands dimensions exponentially.

From the outside the remarkable library is a number of small stone towers.

On the inside, information from entire eras would fill any number of palaces.

It is however organized.

The Cervello are tools made by an Ancient Secret Society that has spawned and spread its grasp into every single secret society since. The Illuminati, the Masons and more.

The Cervello are tools, created and taught through ancient and not-forgotten rituals and spells. They are not born, they are created. They are not taught, they are programmed.

Their directives are inbound.

It all comes down to a clash of their programming and human nature in the end.

"So the Cervello killed their masters and everyone affiliated with them because they found people to be flawed and lazy?" Xanxus laughs at that. Possibly because he has complained about those same flaws repeatedly in the past and killed people for having them.

"Yes, it seems that they took cues from the mafia in a number of ways." Luna says stretching out kinks and laying all the relevant files down for both males to look over.

"Murder is messy, but accidents and insanity are so much neater." Mukuro remarks, going to the next report with an innate flair.

Luna and Xanxus hum an agreement with that fact. It is very much a true fact.

"The major issue is that the Cervello as we call them are supposed to be unbiased record keepers. Librarians, scribes and secretaries with the occasional judge should two parties have a conflict that they were too invested in to come to a compromise."

Xanxus makes the connection first.

"They had bodyguards, enforcers, protectors."

"They also had handlers, creators and bosses." Luna adds, because otherwise the two mafiosi are prone to forgetting it.

"And they were all so very human." Mukuro adds on.

"Not entirely," Luna chides gently. "There are a number of magical species that have sentience that are in no way part of the human evolutionary line, even if they could breed into it leaving only the slightest of traces, making humanity a genetic cesspool of very human traits from some very not-human ancestors."

This is new and interesting information for both males.

"In fact, none of us are entirely human but we show it in different ways because it is that diluted, even if some of our ancestors have bred for that trait. Xanxus' red eyes, your hair Mukuro and my magic."

She lets that news settle, before she continues.

"People have a number of responses to differences and power. If it is different it is either liked and acquired, or hated and destroyed, occasionally tolerated if it suits them. If it is power then it is worshiped, maybe acquired and occasionally rebelled against."

"That is the truest human trait of all." Mukuro comments, so very cynical on human nature.

"Truth. I might have been more interested in technology as a prisoner, but I did have other interests. Namely, by genetics, if humans hadn't been breeding with non-humans we would all have brown hair and brown eyes."

"Darwin." Xanxus grunts.

"Oh, so very much." Luna giggles. "It's made the world so much more dangerous and interesting, now hasn't it?"

"Where's the proof?" Mukuro asks.

Luna's smile sharpens.

Luna's proof is a modified lineage potion. In Britain it was a very much a heavily regulated potion; usually used to prove a blood relation of bastard children to their sinning and shameful father. Magical wedding vows were binding to various degrees depending on how faithfully each side kept to the contract. The 'obey' included in traditional wedding ceremonies made it nearly impossible for witches to have an affair. It was unfair, but pre-nuptial contracts would often include penalties on the husband and a loosening of restrictions should it happen and be proven.

In Japan it is one that is considered necessary to anyone's medical file. A number of magical species were known for breeding with humans there and recent non-human heritage could render some potions ineffective; or worse, lethal from a healer's standpoint.

The potions book in Japan has a color index, to determine the type of species from a basic over-view. The Cervello also have one, a heavily expanded one.

She explains that the potion is accurate but it can be misinterpreted, unless a few steps are taken to clarify it. It doesn't make them any less or more human because that's what they identify as and humanity was what they made it. At best, maybe five or ten percent of their heritage isn't but that doesn't mean that it is worth anything or that they have species-specific traits; most people don't even manage two percent and yet can retain inhuman abilities.

Luna's lineage is made plain. Her father was a pureblood wizard, but he takes strongly after his fae ancestors. Luna's mother was a witch but a not entirely human one. Luna has some feathery ancestors according to the color comparisons, possibly a couple of centuries ago. The colors are a mix of blue, sharp silver and a hint of bronze. It's very Ravenclaw of her.

Mukuro's lineage is mostly dark, but it isn't nearly as black like any purely non-magical persons would be. It is a subtle change but the purples indicate that Mukuro is not as human as he thought he was. Knowing what she does of the boy's past and those distracted hetero-chromatic eyes, she knows he's thinking that he only survived those human experiments because he wasn't entirely human. In fact he has some sort of yokai ancestor.

Xanxus' father's colors aren't in the index of the potion book but is in the Cervello's. Not entirely human on either side, but Luna expected that; she didn't expect that Xanxus' great-grandfather was entirely non-human though. His mother also had non-human blood but she had a great deal less of it for all that it was a riot of clashing colors. Somehow, despite all odds, Xanxus is sane. Not by conventional standards maybe, but he can be reasoned with.

"See, humanity's gene pool is contaminated. People like it that way too, or else they wouldn't breed for those traits and abilities."

"So what am I?" Xanxus asks, looking at the solid color on one side and the striated on the other.

"Very much a dragon." Luna replies. "Do you want to go visit your relatives? I know of a Dragon Reserve in Romania..."

"How does that...?" Mukuro asks. It is obvious that he's asking about cross-breeding.

"Magic." Luna replies.

"But..."

"Just leave it at that." Xanxus orders, as he reads through more books on dragons. It explains a number of his habits, his general temperament and disposition including his fondness for alcohol for all that he doesn't get drunk off it. A number of dragon species have alcohol in their blood through metabolic processes; not having it makes them cranky and less able to breathe fire.

"Still that... magic... Xanxus. How?"

"I am not going to discuss the peculiarities of successfully cross-breeding any non-humanoid species with a magical human." Luna states.

"Wait until you're old enough to get the talk." Xanxus suggests.

"Still how?" Mukuro repeats some days later, looking as if he lost sleep pondering how that worked.

"Virgin sacrifices." Xanxus snaps out, sarcastically. Mukuro looks as if he might believe it.

Luna resigns herself to explaining how.

Both are utterly horrified. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, especially since it is Xanxus' great-grandfather that's the dragon and not his great-grandmother.

"You know with the mafia in disarray and Byakuran's forces scattered by the remains of them we could settle somewhere now?" Mukuro leads off.

"So we take some territory over while its weak?" Xanxus says. It obviously appeals to him, greatly.

"Which one though?" Luna asks. "Any preference?"

Xanxus' grin says he does.

Even Luna, who had grown up the most 'normal' knew that none of them would ever succeed in 'normality.' The mafia life suited them far more than civilian life did, even before their experiences. Luna knew that even a magical upbringing didn't work for her or suit her that well.

She might have burned her way out of Apollo's Underworld but she was very much at home a different 'Underworld' now.

She had eaten its food after all.

At least she has good company.

A/N: To clarify, I'm not sure what I was thinking while I was writing this; something about how some characters should say some quotes and how to get them to say it. Plus, draconic!Xanxus makes too much sense to ignore. I might leave it as a one-shot or continue it. If it is continued, then it might just become a three-shot. Tell me if you want it to be continued.

I should also point out that a lot of characters are even somewhat OOC due to Byakuran being born early and thus knowing when, where and how to recruit even the unruliest people to his side, like Xanxus and Mukuro. It doesn't mean he can keep them there though... especially since he's lacking a number of anchors to sanity like Shoichi and Yuni.