A/N: Why is writing these little notes so damn hard?!

I literally have nothing to put in these anymore but I cannot for the life of me upload a chapter without putting these in here, it just feels wrong.

Well… I guess that is something, so I'll just leave it off there.

Enjoy.

Scene 38:

Breaking Chains

Reborn was leading their small group through the area, stopping every once in a while to hide from the swarming black-clad hired arms as they tried to maneuver themselves towards the old worker's entrance at the back of the factory.

With Hibari at the front of the factory in the courtyard, there weren't all that many guards surrounding the rest of the building, but a few of them could still be spotted lining the wall. But they weren't around for much longer with a quick shot from Reborn's silenced gun.

Of course, seeing that much death was hard on Yamamoto, but he locked away those emotions behind his narrowed eyes, his serious expression.

He was on a mission, and he would see to it that it was successful.

They finally reached the back of the factory, or more accurately, the large metal door set in it.

Just like they had suspected, the door had a small metal box set up on the wall next to it.

A modern looking box consisting of a black screen with glowing areas representing the buttons that would eventually allow the one with the password to disable the security system and unlock the door.

Gokudera was all over the box within seconds.

Butterfly knife in had, Gokudera expertly opened the box, revealing the wires and hard drives within the soft metal casing.

Making good of his long fingers, Gokudera expertly picked at the wiring, using thin tools to pick at the hard drives until he finally deemed his work to be done and closed the box, settling it back in the exact same position as it had been in before, no sign of any tampering in sight.

The screen lit up a bright green.

ACCESS GRANTED.

Wasting no movements, Gokudera moved towards the large, rusty lock on the metal door, skillfully inserting the thin instruments and moving them around with a halfhearted concentrated expression, as though what he was doing wasn't even all that hard.

How many times has he done this before?

Unknowingly, Yamamoto's hand clenched around the handle of his bat.

Suddenly, a gem was held out in front of him.

Looking up, Yamamoto found himself looking at Reborn holding out his communication device in his face.

"Take it." the older man said.

At Yamamoto's confused expression, Reborn let out a long sigh.

"It's got the floor plan of the factory on it." he forced the device into Yamamoto's hand, immediately turning to unscrew the silencer off one of his two guns.

There would be no more use for remaining unnoticed, at least until they got Sawada back.

He glanced at Yamamoto as he stuffed the silencer into his pocket.

"You're going to need a map int here."

Suddenly, he raised the gun, firing a series of loud shots directly at the approaching guards, efficiently shortening the window of time the teenagers needed to get into the building.

He released a groan of annoyance.

"How did Roamers afford all of these guards in the first place?" the older male asked.

"My sister probably gave them her allowance." Gokudera proposed, sounding equally annoyed.

Reborn gave a grunt in agreement.

Yamamoto tensed up rather dramatically at Gokudera's words, his head snapping in the other teenager's direction, his eyes wide.

"Your family's loaded?" he asked, sounding very shocked.

A loud groan escaped Gokudera's lips, turning his annoyed face towards the athlete.

"We don't have time for that," he growled angrily.

Removing the thin tools from the rusted old lock on the door, Gokudera pocketed them again, an angry expression still firmly on his face as he took a few steps away from the door.

He gave the athlete a glare before he raised his leg, giving the thick metal door a hard kick at a very precise spot on the door.

A satisfying 'click' sounded from the metal.

An equally satisfying smirk spread over Gokudera's mouth before the delinquent practically attacked the handle of the door, brutally shoving it open when he realized that the hinges were rusted.

The door swung open with an ear-piercing noise that most likely alerted everyone within a one-mile radius of their presence.

For a moment, the three males just stared into the opening, seemingly waiting for something to happen.

"I agree with Gokudera," Reborn stated, readying his gun. "Now go."

The boys followed the older male's order, sprinting straight into the building, leaving Reborn at the entrance. Yet another distraction the draw the majority of the hired hands, hopefully leaving the corridors of the factory much more open for two teens to run through.

Shortly after the boys had gotten inside, gunshots sounded from behind them, sending them to a screeching halt.

They didn't look behind though, they couldn't do that.

Before they continued running, however, Yamamoto couldn't help but ask himself just what he had gotten himself involved in.

The woman kept her eyes pinned on the girl, watching as her shoulders heaved with apparent exhaustion, noticing how her skin was steadily growing paler and paler with each second that passed by.

She had been at it for several minutes now.

The more the woman watched the girl, the more she couldn't help but think that the girl was not that used to keeping up a steady flame hot enough to melt metal for a longer period of time.

She found herself wondering just how many times the girl had ever activated the flames to begin with, seeing as she had looked uncomfortable for a lot longer than she had been looking exhausted, which had begun about a minute after she had first activated the fires.

Still… this was the first time she had seen the orange flames.

At least, the first time in person.

Gradually, the girl's breaths were becoming legitimately labored, the strength in her neck has long since left her, forcing her to either lean her head back towards the concrete wall or allow it to bob forward, dangerously close to her blazing wrists.

The woman had to hold herself back from rushing over to the girl and hold her head up just to make sure her hair wouldn't catch fire, actively reminding herself that the girl was a DiLeone, and the DiLeone tended to be extra resistant to heat and live fire.

For someone capable of producing the flames directly from their skin…

A few more minutes passed, and the woman could now clearly see the effects the flames had on the shackled.

The metal was now glowing a bright red, looking a little less solid than they had been before.

The younger female had obviously noticed it as well.

Eyes narrowing in determination, she latched her hand onto the metal.

The woman jerked forward on sheer instinct, her mind screaming to stop the girl only to stop short when the girl didn't cry out in pain. She just frowned, even more, her fingertips digging into the opening in the shackles before giving a violent jerk.

The metal gave way, molding like sculpting clay that hadn't been warmed up yet, cracking as the old metal bent out of shape.

The woman jerked again when she noticed the girl flinching, a piece of the cracked metal having cut up her wrist, but the petite thing ignored it, letting the misshaped shackled finally drop to the floor, smoldering on the dust-covered ground as the girl attacked the other shackle, going through the same thing all over again.

And then they were gone.

Her wrists were free.

But they were still burning.

She was openly staring at them now, watching the head obviously lowering as her concentration wavered, but they were still burning.

This bewildered the woman.

"Why aren't you stopping them?" she asked, making the girl turn her attention towards her.

It took a while before Tsuna found it in herself to answer.

"I don't know how."

The woman's eyes widened.

"What?"

"My lessons didn't get round to actually turning the flames off," Tsuna spoke slowly, turning her attention back to the flames licking at her skin, still not leaving the blackened markings that would have been left behind on a normal person.

The woman's blood-red mouth opened and closed in a very spectacular impression of a fish.

She blinked rapidly, shaking her head, sending her long locks flying around her head.

"How can you keep it up for so long?" the woman practically demanded, feeling the temperature in the room drop enough for her to take a step closer to the girl.

"My core is exceptionally large," Tsuna answered almost automatically, not sounding at all proud about it. "Almost dying does that do you."

Slightly dazed, the woman walked closer to Tsuna, stopping once the heat started to become too much for her, crouching down in front of her to put herself at eye level with the younger female.

She took a deep breath, ignoring the stifling hot air that entered her lungs before she looked Tsuna right in the eye.

"You said you've activated the flames once before." she reminded the girl, successfully turning the girl's attention back towards her. She waited for a moment for the confirming nod. "So..." she breathed slowly. "Haven't you had to turn them off before too?" she cocked her head to the side, her long hair fluttering dangerously close to the flames. "Or did your tutor just knock you out cold then?"

For a split second, Tsuna flashed back to that first day. The first time she ever truly saw the flames, the first time she became aware of the fact that she wasn't normal.

The first time she met Reborn.

What had he told her back then?

"Calm down."

The deep voice practically boomed through her memory.

Well, that wouldn't help, she's already calm enough due to the training making her able to actually look at the flames without immediately reacting in fear.

But…

What about her core?

Taking a long, deep breath, Tsuna allowed herself to fall into the routine Reborn had practically forced upon her. Her eyes falling closed as she lifted her hands up in front of her face.

It didn't take long before she felt her core, and sure enough, it was anything but calm, pumping out flames at an almost frantic rate.

Letting out the breath, Tsuna seized control over her core, forcing the release rate to slow down, carefully, slowly, until finally, there were no more flames being furiously pushed straight into her bloodstream.

Now, the only fire that remained, was the fire still coursing through her veins.

Keeping her breathing steady, Tsuna allowed her eyes to open, watching as the flames on her wrists gradually began to flicker away into nothingness.

Once the last flame flickered out, Tsuna allowed herself to sag back against the wall, her chest violently heaving as her arms fell at her sides.

The woman stared at the girl in absolute bewilderment.

Despite everything, Tsuna still managed to let a light laugh escape between her panting breaths.

"I wasn't too sure I could do that." she wheezed out, voice barely audible.

"Turning off the flames?" the woman asked, her tone surprisingly kind.

Tsuna chuckled again, shaking her head before she allowed it to loll forward, fooling like every bit like a drunken person.

"Activating them." she corrected, words slightly slurred. "You kidnapped me before my tutor could make me activate them in front of his 'watchful eye', as he would put it." she raised her hands, putting up sluggish air quotes, although she almost fell to her side when she did.

The woman's face positively drained of color.

"We..." she gulped, trying to properly form the question on her tongue. "We took you during a training session?"

Groggy, Tsuna raised an eyebrow as she looked at the woman.

"What did you think I was doing?"

The woman threw a pointed glance down at the girl's slightly ruffled up clothing.

"Jogging."

For the third time, Tsuna found herself laughing.

"I'm pretty sure you guys know I don't live out in the forest in the middle of nowhere," she said through her giggling. "And I hate exercising just for the sake of exercising." she saved a dismissing hand in the air, her head moving in a small circle as the strength was slowly returning to her shoulders. "Ballet is enough of a work-out for me."

With her movements, Tsuna accidentally pressed her wrist against the concrete floor.

Winching at the sudden shot of pain running through her arm, Tsuna raised the offending limb in front of her, allowing her to see her raw, bright red, partially cut and visibly smoking wrists.

She didn't need to touch them to know that they were terribly sore.

They would bruise, she knew that.

Letting out a sigh, Tsuna allowed her arms to fall back over her knees.

"The fire will take some getting used to," she muttered to herself, letting her head fall back against the concrete wall, desperate for the cool stone that had previously been oh so uncomfortable, but now was very much welcomed.

Of course, it wasn't there anymore.

She was pretty sure the cell was hotter than an oven right now, the only ventilation being the wide-open door.

Suddenly, the woman reached out towards Tsuna, allowing her manicured hands to land on her fragile-looking shoulders.

"We need to get out of here." the woman informed Tsuna, looking right into her tired eyes. "We've wasted enough time."

She was right of course, but that didn't mean Tsuna had to like it.

Sighing, she tried to force her legs into movement.

It didn't work.

"I don't think I can walk." she panted, glaring down at the offending limbs.

The woman's eyebrows furrowed in light irritation before she quickly shook her head, taking a deep breath to calm herself down.

"You don't have to."

Quickly, the woman reached down a hand, grasping onto Tsuna's wrist.

She wasn't all that surprised to find that her skin was feverish to the touch, seeing as there must still be some flame residue in her bloodstream.

With a pull, Tsuna was up on her feet.

As she girl barely had the strength to keep standing, the woman took Tsuna's arm and wrapped it around her shoulder, her other arm locking around the girl's stick-thin waist.

Sharing a meaningful look, the two women stumbled out of the room.

The walls all looked the same.

Well, not exactly the same, as the weathered cracks and certain parts of certain walls actually having been broken all the way through, but otherwise, it was almost as though someone had drawn up an actual maze underneath the factory.

The factory itself had been very open, with lots of light streaming in through the open windows, but after having climber down what had probably been a hidden staircase once upon a time, the two teens were now navigating themselves through a labyrinth of hallways lit up by bright white electric lights and lined with thick metal doors, the majority of them open to reveal the dark concrete rooms inside.

Rooms sporting shackled chains hanging from the walls.

Looks like the brewery was just a front for some sort of slave storage once upon a time.

This really did not sit well with the teens as they kept running through the corridors, following the map on Reborn's phone as best as they could, but there was just one problem.

Where was Sawada being kept to begin with?

Every once in a while, the two teens would encounter one or two guards running towards them, but they were easily taken down by a precise bullet shot expertly with Gokudera's strange three-barrel gun, the bullet piercing its target with such accuracy that they wouldn't be able to stop them, but they wouldn't die from it either.

If they weren't shot down, Yamamoto would take to his bat and strike at the guard's legs or deliver a swift blow to their stomachs to knock them out long enough for them to pass.

Sure, he was using his left arm for the swings, but he had been building up the more delicate muscles in that arm, having had to do so in order to be able to write with that limb as well.

Once that cast was removed, Yamamoto was sure he would be borderline ambidextrous.

They had passed what felt like the tenth for in their path when Gokudera forced them into a stop, pulling out the gem Yamamoto had handed him before entering the tunnels once again to check the map all the while skillfully changing the magazine for his gun with one hand.

This was the second time he changed it.

Yamamoto frowned at his reluctant companion.

"Where are you getting everything?"

The delinquent just glared at him, lowering the phone.

"We don't have time for questions."

Suddenly, one of the guards walked into the corridor. A tall man dressed in black like usual, but this one had a rifle clutched in his hands, eyes moving down the concrete pathway.

He had obviously heard them talking.

Apparently, Gokudera didn't think this was a problem at all.

Before Yamamoto was able to say or do anything, Gokudera had raised his gun, and with precision he really shouldn't have been surprised the silverette possessed seeing as he had become quite famous among the archers in the school, pierced the guard right in his left arm, sending him tumbling to the ground, screaming in pain as he clutched at his bleeding limb.

The teens rushed over towards the man.

Yamamoto had been prepared to run right past him like they had done so many times before, but apparently, that wasn't what Gokudera had in mind.

Yamamoto watched in shock as the delinquent stopped right in front of the man, raising his gun and pointed it at the injured guard's head, absolute murder in his eyes.

"Where is the girl?" the delinquent demanded, voice low and murderous.

The man glared back at the teen before turning away.

Obviously, this hadn't been the right response.

Growling, Gokudera stood up, glaring down at the man before he raised his leg, knocking the man over so that he was lying on the ground before he started pressing down with his foot over the bullet wound in his arm.

The man's eyes tightened as he howled in absolute pain.

"Where is the girl!" Gokudera repeated, pressing down even more violently.

Yamamoto stared at the scene in absolute horror, not knowing what to do or even think about what was playing out in front of him.

He watched as the man raised his right arm, pointing down one direction of a squared concrete tunnel.

"Down the corridor," he gasped, gritting his teeth through heavy breaths. "Straight on for five turns, then turn left, right, right, left, down the middle and another left, first door on the right." each word came out in a week stutter as the man fought through both his pain and fear, not able to look away from the murderous teen.

Having gotten the answer, Gokudera didn't waste one second before he jumped off the man and sprinted down the corridor.

Despite himself, Yamamoto found himself hesitating.

He had known that Gokudera was a violent guy, but what he had just done was…

He didn't want to think about it.

He hoped that, whatever happened after this day, Sawada would be able to remove this aspect of Gokudera, because Yamamoto knew that, despite everything, there was a side of Gokudera capable of being a really, really good man.

The way he treated Tsuna was more than enough proof.

Now he just needed to extend the range of people he could act like that around.

Shaking his head, Yamamoto turned back tot he man who had managed to press himself up against the concrete wall.

"Thank you." Yamamoto said, an apologetic smile on his face before he took off down the corridor, following his classmate.

The woman had been practically dragging Tsuna through the maze of corridors that Tsuna had been surprised that she wasn't surprised was behind the metal door.

Every other corridor, the woman would stop, pull out her gem, look at it for a few seconds before she continued down another corridor, keeping her grip on Tsuna so that she wouldn't drop her somewhere and so have to pull her back up and that would take up far too much time that the two of them really didn't have.

The corridors could be filled with hired guns, every turn could very well be their last, and so, the woman needed to be quick and on her toes, only turning a corner after she'd looked around it for over two seconds.

It was during one of these moments that Tsuna felt it.

The woman had, as usual, leaned Tsuna up against the wall, making sure that she wouldn't fall over before she pressed herself up close to the turn, Tsuna following her with her eyes as she, just like a hundred times before, peered around the bend, looking expectantly for two minutes before she once again took Tsuna's arm and wrapped it around her shoulders.

Only, unlike all the other times, as they closed the distance towards the bend, Tsuna suddenly felt a sense of absolute dread building in the pit of her stomach.

She didn't know how, but she knew what she needed to do.

Just as the woman was about to round the corner, Tsuna pushed as much strength as she could into the soles of her feet, pushing them into the ground, silently thanking her sneakers for having rubber soles as she brought the two of them to a violent halt.

With the remaining strength she had, she forced herself and the woman back against the wall.

It was a good thing she did. The second she forced them into a stop, the sound of rapid gunfire reached their ears from around the corner.

Thankfully, the concrete surrounding them wasn't as sold as it had once been, so the bullets simply pierced the weathered stone, breaking it and shooting into the cell it had once sealed off.

Those were some bullets...

One of them had even managed to graze the woman's arm, nothing too serious, it wasn't even bleeding.

Shocked, the woman glanced back at Tsuna.

Either, the graze wasn't serious enough to bother her at all, or she was an expert at holding back the expression of pain, for shock was the only thing Tsuna could see in her expression.

"How the fuck did you know that would happen?" the woman asked, having to raise her voice over the sounds of rapidly firing bullets.

All Tsuna could do, was shake her head.

"I don't know," she answered, looking over at the rain of speeding bullets, smoke and dust revealing the path they were taking through the air. "I just felt like we shouldn't round the corner, so I stopped us from doing it."

For a long moment, the woman just stared at Tsuna, taking in her pale sweat-covered blood and dirt-caked face. She looked absolutely sickly in the light of the hallway, and she really couldn't hold it against her for looking like that.

But the feeling she'd had…

The woman had read about how certain member of the DiLeone bloodline had proven to have a better sense of intuition than the regular human being, some of them going down in the records for having a better than normal sense for danger than the people around them.

But this girl… she was just ridiculous.

Apparently, the girl had gotten enough of the woman's shock.

"It doesn't matter right now," she said, nodding in the direction of the shower of bullets. "How are supposed to get past that?" she asked, motioning sluggishly towards the corner. "Wait until they need to reload?"

Coming out of her shock, the woman shook her head.

"No." she answered swiftly, looking towards the corner as well. "They all have different kinds of firearms with different amounts of ammunition per magazine." she let out a breath of annoyance. "Waiting for them to run out would be suicidal." she gave the younger female a meaningful look. "They could also be faking it and we would be rounding the corner to our deaths."

Tsuna frowned.

"Aren't you like..." she waved a hand in the air. "One of their bosses or something?"

The woman groaned, hitting the back of her head against the wall.

"Even if I did use that to my advantage there is no way they would believe anything I could come up with were you are concerned." she sighed heavily, reaching one of her hands into her back pocket as she glanced back towards the turn. "The direct orders were that you would be taken by all five of us or not at all."

Tsuna watched in confusion as the woman brought out two breathing masts, transparent, made of plastic, but with what looked like a tiny device attached to the strap at the back of the head, a tube connecting it to the mask itself.

Both masks were way too large to have actually fitted into the pocket of the woman's tight leather pants.

For a moment, Tsuna stared at the masts in confusion.

The woman ignored Tsuna's look, shoving the one mask into her hand as she allowed the younger female to lean on her own against the wall.

"Put it on," she ordered.

"Why?" Tsuna asked, turning the mask over in her hands, feeling just how heavy it was.

The woman herself put her own mask on, using only her one hand as she once again reached her hand into her pocket.

"The air will soon become no breathable," she answered, her voice coming out muffled from behind the mast as she gave Tsuna a pointed look. Watching like a hawk as Tsuna succumbed to the pressure and awkwardly put the mask on, pulling the elastic strap over her head. The woman inspected her to make sure that she had put it on correctly before she turned back towards the shower of bullets. "We'll have to wait a few minutes before we can move." the woman said. "I haven't been able to make it work faster without it causing damage even with the mask on."

Tsuna chose not to ask the woman anything about this, even though she really wanted to.

She watched as the woman once again took out something that really shouldn't have been able to fit into her back pocket.

This time, it was a metallic sphere the size of a tennis ball, shined and painted with neon pink designs around a small red button where cracks in the metal met.

Tsuna didn't have that much time to study the sphere as the woman pressed the button on the thing, holding it for five, long seconds, keeping her eyes closed as she did.

Suddenly, the woman brought down her arm, thumb releasing the button before she swiftly threw the sphere down on the floor, sending it rolling over the concrete floor out of sight.

It didn't take long before the entire hallway was filled with a dark purple smoke, oozing out over the floor where Tsuna and the woman were pressed up against the wall, the woman having removed Tsuna's arm from around her shoulder so that she could put her arm over her chest.

Tsuna stared at the smoke in wide-eyed fear, feeling the effects the woman was hinting on over her bare skin.

The air was now poisonous, and her sensitive skin was picking up on it.

Beside her, the woman nodded her head in time with the seconds, keeping her eyes closed as she did so.

Fifteen seconds after the smoke first appeared, the rain of bullets began thinning out, each passing second apparently getting rid of one firearm, until there were no more sounds firing.

But the woman still didn't move.

She kept on counting the second, Tsuna beginning to count them with her just to figure out hold long the woman wanted them to wait.

Turns out, it was two minutes after the smoke had first filled the corridor.

Despite being a little bit afraid of the woman now, Tsuna allowed her to wrap her arm around her shoulder, pulling her away from the wall as she forced them to walk through the smoke covered ground, and round the corner.

What they saw almost made Tsuna bring them to a stop once again.

It was horrible!

What could have been around twenty men laid all over the ground, eyes closed as some of them laid on top of each other in a slew of meat-based piles surrounded by firearms and shell casings.

Tsuna stared over the men in absolute horror.

"Are they dead?" she asked, though her words came out muffled through the mask.

This was the second time she had asked that question were the woman was concerned, though it was also the second time she had used something purple on other people.

"Just unconscious." the woman answered in an almost dismissive manner.

She glanced at Tsuna from the corner of her eye.

"Is it safe to keep moving?" she asked, making the girl turned towards her.

For a split second, Tsuna was completely thrown off that the woman would ask her this, then she recalled the strange feeling she had had before the men started firing at them.

The woman was asking if she was having that feeling again.

This made Tsuna feel a strange sense of satisfaction.

She had never been useful for anyone before, not really, and it was a nice change.

She gave the woman a serious look and nodded.

Dylan was starting to lose his patience.

He wasn't called the Cornell for nothing, he had an end to his patience, and when that broke, someone was going to be facing the consequences.

He had been the leader of their group for a long time, having been chosen by the other men, the Scorpion hadn't even been a part of their group at the time and so, she was the only one in their group that didn't see him as their leader, the only one in their group that still dared to defy him every now and then.

He would have to deal with that fact at a later date.

Right now, they were on a mission, a mission that had been going wrong ever since they had first gotten their hands on the girl.

They had gotten her, sure, it had actually been surprisingly easy. But now, they were having serious problems going through to the second phase of their mission.

If they couldn't succeed with their task, they wouldn't get their money, they would probably end up getting killed by the ones that had hired them to begin with.

But even worse…

They would never become Initiates.

"Vincent," he called out, turning towards the Worm, the only sitting man in the room, his glasses almost pressed into the bridge of his nose in concentration as his fingers frantically flew over the keyboard connected to the three large computer screen in front of him. He didn't even pause as he nodded, showing that he'd heard him. "What's taking so long?"

You would have thought that having one of the known world's greatest hackers on your team would work in your favor, but they had been trying to make contact for several hours, HOURS!

And NOTHING!

"There is too much resistance." the tallest man in their group said through gritted teeth. "Something is working against me." his eyes narrowed in irritation as his fingers moved over the keyboard, moving at such a speed that they almost blurred to those that looked at them. "It's like every move I make is being overwritten manually on the spot." he pushed up his glasses even more, even though that wasn't necessary. "It feels like there's more than one person doing it too."

Bone Breaker groaned loudly at his words.

"Who would work against us on this?" he asked, crossing his muscle-packed arms over his chest. "They don't even know what we want from them."

Suddenly, a series of loud bangs rang through the air, making the three men freeze.

Slowly, they turned towards one another, sharing a look.

"What was that?" Bone Breaker asked slowly.

"Sounds like gunshots," Dylan answered slowly, not liking what that could mean.

"You think it could have been Tony?" Vincent asked, releasing the bridge of his nose from the pressure of his glassed. "He has always been the reckless kind."

Dylan's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Why would Tony be shooting at this time of day?" he asked, looking towards the taller man. "Besides, he's not the gun type, I thought that was your job?"

Vincent just shrugged.

Simion narrowed his eyes as well, his thick fingers closing into tight fists.

"Should we check on the girl?

Realization struck Dylan like a bullet to the forehead.

He turned towards his two group members, face set into a look of anger that made the two other men back away from him, hoping to be spared from his impending explosion.

"Someone's here for the Princess," he said, seeing the color drain from his companion's faces.

"How is that possible?" Vincent asked, his glasses almost dropping completely from his nose.

"They must have tracked us somehow," Dylan stated, bringing up his hand to rub at his temple. "We have been reckless." he groaned at the last word, unable to believe that he would have to use that word when speaking of his own actions.

It just didn't seem possible.

He'd never been reckless about anything before, what had he done wrong now?

They must have gotten sloppy when they had seen who the target was, such a tiny little girl barely of age, she couldn't have that many contact-

Dylan's eyes widened.

No… they couldn't have missed something that important…

They couldn't have…

He turned back to his companions.

"Who were the Princess' contacts?" he asked, almost frantic.

Their faces grew even paler, eyes widening.

There was the answer.

They didn't know.

They had gotten too wrapped up in thinking that the girl would be such an easy target because of how tiny she was, that they had completely forgotten to research who she was connected to, who she was in contact with, who she was related to apart from the Vongola Warden, but that went without saying.

"We don't even know who her tutor is..." Dylan heard Vincent mutter from his chair.

Such an error...

Such a huge, gaping error in their plan.

How could they have been so utterly unprofessional because of a child-like face?!

"Vincent!" Dylan barked, pointing a finger at the Worm, watching how his companion stiffened at being addressed in such a manner. "Contact the Scorpion." he narrowed his eyes in anger. "Ask her about our guest."

Simion frowned as Vincent seemed to take a VERY long time to find his gem.

"Tony's been gone for quite some time," he noted, glancing down at his own gem, checking the time.

Dylan frowned at this.

He was right.

They hadn't seen the redhead for a good twenty minutes now.

"Call him too." he immediately ordered.

Within seconds, Simion had his gem out, pressing it against his ear, Vincent did the same, though he looked a lot less enthusiastic about doing so.

Tony was the only one that was a fan of the Scorpion…

It didn't take long for Vincent to frown.

"She's not answering," he stated, bringing the device down from his ear.

That was the last straw for their brutal leader.

"Damn it!" he screamed, slamming a hand on the table before turning towards the shortest of them. "Simion!?"

Groaning, Bone Breaker lowered his gem.

"Tony's M.I.A." he replied swiftly.

Their leader let out a long growl, his body stiffening in anger.

"I'll just have to take care of things myself," he muttered before turning to his companions. "Simion." the short man stiffened again. "Head to the surface, find out how they got in." the short man nodded before disappearing out the door faster than one might think someone his size to be capable of going. The Cornell turned towards the taller man. "Vincent, go to the roof." he looked him right in eye eyes, a wicked look on his face. "Go wild."

The bloodthirsty look that passed across the hacker's face would have been enough to freeze the blood of a normal man, but not Dylan.

"What are you going to do?" Vincent asked, picking up a large bag from the floor.

Dylan suddenly had a gun in his hand, a dark look in his eyes.

"I have a princess to check up on," he said.

And with that, he stormed out the door.

"Sir!" one of the men seated around the circle of advanced computers set up inside the living-room of the log cabin called out of his blonde leader.

A leader who had taken the time to sit on the couch, on his knees, staring out the window with a look of obvious worry on his face.

The blonde was at his side in seconds.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice serious.

"The contact attempt has ceased." the man answered immediately, looking up at the blonde man with a look of frightened concern on his face. A face that the blonde quickly adopted.

Something must have gone wrong.

Why did they stop?

Suddenly, it hit him.

"The roamers must have caught on," he muttered in a hurried kind of fear, patting furiously at his pockets for a moment before he screamed to the room. "Where is my gem?!"

Within the span of a second, said gem was tossed to him and he had the device pressed up against his ear, the open line beeping frustratingly slowly into his ear.

Pick up, pick up, pick up.

The back door was open.

That was the first thing Simion noticed when he stepped out of the hidden entrance to the maze of tunnels under the building, his eyes narrowing suspiciously before he marched over there.

He was already cracking his knuckles as he stepped out into the sunlight, ready to take on whatever intruder that may be messing with their very important operation.

He'd barely cleared the door-frame when something pressed against his temple.

Something cold, something circular in shape.

Something that he had felt multiple times before.

He glanced to his side, already preparing to pulverize whoever it was that thought themselves skilled enough to threaten the Bone Breaker.

His blood ran cold.

He knew that profile.

Everyone in Ombra knew that profile.

A dark eyebrow under a black fedora rose at the expression of absolute fear on his face before pulling the trigger.

Vincent finally reached the roof, looking down at the commotion taking place in the courtyard.

He did not like what he was seeing.

From what he could tell, the guards that had been a real bitch to get a hold of were all getting their asses handed to them by what appeared to be fifteen year old short enough that all of the guards towered over him on their own, and yet the kid was flinging the grown men about him as though they were nothing more than wet towels.

Scoffing, shaking his head in disbelief, Vincent bent down to unpack his sniper-rifle from his bag.

A short time later, the lanky man had the rifle pointed towards the kid.

He narrowed his eyes through the viewfinder.

He aimed…

And fired.

Rrrriiiipppp.

The distinct sound reached Hibari's eyes following the sound of a distant gunshot, forcing him into a short stop as he looked down on his left bicep, finding that his sleeve had actually been ripped.

Of course, his skin hadn't been touched, there was no way he would ever allow a group of herbivores to spill his blood, but the fact that they had actually gotten close enough to rip a piece of his shirt...

It did not please him at all.

If it was possible, Hibari's demeanor darkened even more than it had been before, turning his attention back towards the army of black-clad men that were still surrounding him, weapons drawn as they waited for him to strike first.

And he would trust him on that.

He would strike, and that would be the very last thing these people would ever see.

"You people have disturbed the peace of this town," he spoke, voice low but it carried over the men like waves hitting the shore. "You had the nerve to take the little rabbit." his eyes narrowed in absolute fury. "You will not leave this place unscathed."

For, as Namimori would soon discover, the only way for them to be safe from the prefect, was to keep Sawada Tsunako healthy and unharmed.

Hibari's hands tightened around his weapons.

"I'll bite you to death."

There were shots ringing through the air.

That wasn't what had made Reborn look up from where he'd been guarding the door having already gotten rid of the piece of dirt that had been the muscle dwarf known as Bone breaker. It was the fact that the shots were ringing from an area above his head.

There was a sniper…

That wouldn't do.

A/N: Yet another cliffhanger…

I SWEAR I do not make these on purpose most of the time.

Please tell me what you think, there are only three chapters left after this one, the end is almost upon us people!

I have no more words for this chapter I think, so I'll just leave it there.

This has been:

A message from Her Ladyship.