Skull knows numbly where he needs to go when he clears the doorway of the ally Reborn had swooped them down into but.. nothing really connects.

He knows this is really bad, knows that he needs to run now that the others somehow found out he's in the city, needs to change up his plans but-

'Can't keep a Territory safe, can't be a Proper Cloud, can't even Harmonize with the strongest Sky in the world. Tell me, Skull. What exactly can you d-'

Reborn was right.

Reborn was (always) right, Skull couldn't do anything. The only thing he'd ever done correctly was dying and even that hadn't been permanent. Not really.

It didn't matter how hard he tried, nothing ever worked—

(Blank Space)

Skull took to the rooftops quickly after clearing the end of the alleyway. He didn't want to look back to see what Reborn had decided to do but he couldn't help it. Something (you know exactly what it is you liar—) pulled his attention behind him while he climbed.

And there Lal Mirch was, standing in just the right spot where they could lock eyes before he disappeared over the edge of the rooftop, not even thirty feet apart. She stared at him with dark, unfathomable eyes. She'd always been an intimidating woman, always ready with a quick fist and an even quicker tongue. She hadn't ever done much to Skull personally, at least not like Reborn and Colonello had, but that hadn't been any better.

Lal hadn't ever had any problem ignoring him, looking and walking right passed him like he wasn't even there more times then he could count. She had a way, with those shrewd eyes, of making you feel as if you were the most insignificant thing to ever breath on the planet—

(Blank Space)

They could catch him right this minute, Skull realized, staring back at her. They could catch him and drag him back straight into hell. They could force him just like they always had, corral him and beat him down until he finally broke entirely.

His hands ached with tremors that had nothing (everything) to do with his fear as he held onto the concrete like it was his only connection to the world, his head hurt from all the emotions he'd been forced to confront with Reborn, and he realized, probably to late that Lal wasn't going to tell the others he was close enough to grab when she turned her back to him pointedly to yell at them all. He couldn't hear the words from where he was, but after so long together Skull knew Lal's yells intimately. The one she was using right now? Was her, 'You Better Goddamn Listen To Me Before I Start Bashing Heads!' yell. Not her, 'Our Target Is Getting Away You Fuck Faces, Go Chase After It!' yell.

He almost lost his grip on the edge when a full body shudder that went through him at that realization. For whatever reason, whatever favor she owned him in her mind, he was getting a free pass this time. Skull had no idea what he'd done to get this gift from god but he wasn't going to test it.

He had a feeling he wouldn't get another one.

Skull pulled himself over the edge of the rooftop and he didn't look back again.

As he ran across apartment buildings and store fronts on light feet, Skull tried not to think. Tried not to feel anything more about what just happened. About his god awful luck to be caught, tonight of all nights. His legs hurt but that would fix itself the minute he stopped running, his lungs ached but they always did that from the scaring he couldn't seem to heal with his Cloud Flames. All transport, all things that would happen over and over and over again, something he could focus on that wasn't his own grief and ohgodidiedidiedidiedidiedidied—

His mind wasn't—

(Blank Space)

—Skull didn't think he'd been running for that long but the safe house was coming up in the distance. Huh, it hadn't felt like he'd been running for over twenty minutes but seeing how Cloud Flames were definitely a cheat in the universes code it wasn't very surprising he'd made it there in record time.

Sliding on the concrete rooftop wasn't the most well thought out idea he'd ever had, seeing as it told everyone inside the building someone was on top of it when their feet busted through. But they were all waiting for him and this safe house would be emptied by tonight anyways so who really cared?

A flash of light colored something registers to him seconds before feet collide with his side and he goes flying through the air. It happens so fast all Skull has time to think is, 'shit!' before his heads impacting the ground for the first time and he's tossed ass over end like a yo-yo over a good fifty feet.

Now, normally, he'd sit and try to process what the fuck just happened, take stock on what hurts, if anything's broken horribly enough that he can't run away. But he has shit to do today and emotions to avoid so his normal routine is shot to hell. Unfortunately for the blonde blur that Skull's pretty sure he knows, all this means is a pissed off Cloud is the first thing Colonello sees when he drags Skull up by his shirt.

"What the fuck, kora! We've been looking for you everywhere!" Colonello yells right in his face. Skull's pissed off expression doesn't seem to phase the Rain since he starts to shake him back and forth furiously, to get across how much they've been looking for him.

Skulls expression flattens at his Rain's shaking and one of his hands goes straight into those ridiculous blonde locks to jerk Colonello's head back, while the other starts prying his fingers off one-by-one. All the way back. Slowly.

Dirty? Unfair? Please, if there's one thing he's learned after being forced into the Mafia for so long it's that if you fight fair your a dead man. He should know, he's been that dead man.

With Colonello trapped for the moment he can't help but hiss in the man's face, "You'd think with the whole, me DODGING YOU ALL LIKE MY ASS IS ON FIRE THING, that I don't want to be found!" Colonello's hands scramble for purchase against his chest, and Skull takes sick pleasure in pulling his head back even farther until the poor man's almost doing a standing scorpion.

He still wants to scratch that look off his face.

"YOU DIED!"

"I KNOW!"

Colonello takes an aborted step back, caught off guard but unwilling to give away his aggressive advantage. He's got the most particular look on his face, Skull absolutely hates that he knows exactly what that stupid face means.

That goddamn confused face. Those wide, stupid eyes. Like he has no idea why this is happening.

Skull can't fucking stand it.

"I died and this is the first thing you do?" Skull bends Colonello back a little bit father, he can hear the pop of his spin. "Why do you THINK I wouldn't want to be with you all?"

"Skull-"

"You're horrible to me, to everyone! You're all so fucking convinced just because your at the top, the the best of the best, that you can do abso-fucking-luty do whatever you want, whenever you want."

Colonello's hands stopped digging into Skulls wrists. He hung there, kept up only by Skull's strength. Ironically, Skull couldn't help but note, that this was only the second time in their entire relationship that Colonello's relied on him for anything.

Skull snared wobbly down at him, " But I paid my debt a thousand times over. I've done everything I could to make you all my family." His eyes started to tear up but this was it, his one chance to hopefully make Colonello actually listen to him. "You wanted nothing to do with me. I died for you. Why can't you just leave me alone?"

Colonello hung limply in Skulls scarred hands. "You're one of us, Skull. Of course we care." Colonello's Rain Flames were reaching, begging him to understand, to listen to his Dying will.

But Skull couldn't do it. Not anymore. "I've never been one of you. You can lie to yourself all you want to, but don't you dare try to lie to me."

A voice interrupts the two Flame Actives confrontation abruptly. "We've moved the Accumulation, Skull-sama. We are ready for your arrival."

Skull lets go of Collenollos front. The Rain falls and doesn't get up, laying on the ground stricken. (At least that lookisoffhisface-) "You don't actually think we'd do anything to them, just to get to you, Kora. Please don't tell me that's how far you've drifted away from us."

Skull steps forward to drag Colonello up into the air again. "I know you would." Skull can feel how sharply his smiles cuts Colonello, only because it cuts him just as deep.

"Skull, no." Colonello's protests weakly while hanging a good few feet off the ground. He's not even trying to fight back anymore.

Not that it matters now.

Skull slams Colonello into the ground as hard as he can without breaking Colonello permanently. The cement around him caves in, turning fast as a fox Skull tears us a nearby street light and digs the top part against the ground, shattering the lamp glass itself. With that done, and Colonello dazed from both how hard Skull had been able to slam him and the surprise that Skull could slam him, the few seconds it took was long enough for Skull to both strengthen the metal in the street light, and do the same with the cement around Colonello's body.

He then threaded the long piece of metal in the small amount of space between Colonello's body and the top of the hole, effectively trapping the man inside until Skull's Flames wore off (not likely) of some type of help came (more likely)

With the last piece of the unusual metal thread in, Colonello snatched a hand out and held onto Skull's shirt desperately. "Skull! Skull, wait! No! God, fucking fuck me, kora. Stop-! Just… just stop for a second and listen to me! " Colonello looked around frantically for any way out of the Cloud made prison, but it was useless. He was trapped. "I'm sorry, ok?! I'm sorry for what we did! I'm sorry you never felt like you were a part of us, but you are! I promise you, kora. You are!" His ocean blue eyes drilled up at Skull, intense and so genuinely honest.

That was something Colonello had always been.

Honest in the face of all his emotions. It showed, starkly, how very different his origins were from all the other Arcobaleno, even Lal March who had adapted rabidly once forced into the depths of the Mafia. His straightforward care for Yuni, his camaraderie with Reborn, his love for Lal March, and… his contempt for Skull.

No, one thing Skull had never doubted was Colonello's honesty.

"That you can say that, straight to my face and act like you have no idea where any of this is coming from, shows me exactly how much you think you know." Skull's face twisted into such nihilistic misery that Colonello looked like he'd been punched in the gut. "Nothing. You know absolutely nothing."

Skull jerked away from Colonello's hold and stood. Ignoring the Rain's increasingly alarmed yells, Skull moved quickly through the deserted streets. The Mist's Enma had loaned him to get the (Blank Space) away from their home had to be wearing thin keeping the other Arco distracted. It wouldn't surprise him in the least if Lal was already moving towards her Twin-Rain's position. Sometimes it was like those two, when they weren't being (aggressively Tsundere-like ) love-struck idiots, had some type of honing beacon on each other. Even when Verde had sworn up and down he'd never made anything of the like for either of them.

Colonello looking at him like he'd never get to see Skull again. Desperately searching for something Skull just couldn't give, not anymore, not after telling him to run, them both to run, not after watching Reborn scream, why do they only care no-

NO!

Skull stumbled to a stop against a wall to his right, phantom pain slamming into him. Even though he knew, he knew it wasn't real, that it was all in his head. He could feel those Flame's, so much weaker then he was used to ( guess Reborn and Colonello's 'training' actually did have some benefit ) trying to tear at him, drag him just far enough away that they could chase what was His but he wouldn't let them, no one was getting past him.

He would fuCKING DIE FIRST—!

No… no, he didn't want to think about them..

Skull whimpered, dropping to his knees he slammed his head down into them repeatedly. His breathing was coming in wheezy gasps and this was bad, so so bad, he couldn't have a panic attack here, not now. There was so much to do! He had to go, had to find (Blank Space) again and run, never stop running but he was so damn hot and he didn't want to think about any of it!

Didn't want to think of what Fon's face had to have looked like when he'd first heard, didn't want to think about Yuni's tears or her frantic tugging at his Flames when she'd tried to pull him back, didn't want to think of how Byakuran's forces had kept him alive just long enough for that Mad, so horrendously furious Sky to kill Skull himself.

Didn't want to think of Reborn's Flames reaching for him that day, the first and last time he'd ever felt such sweltering protection. Understood finally why the others were so protective of each other, the sheer warmth Reborn's Flames had the capacity to share.

It didn't matter.

None of it mattered.

Skull shuddered, hands clawing at the rough ground as he tried to calm his racing heart. It felt like if he didn't calm down, somehow, he was going to detach straight from his body and float away. He couldn't do that, not yet. Not while his (Blank Space) were still so fragile. Later. Later he could do whatever he wanted, once they were safe. And hey! Silver lining! He now knew for a fact he could actually die. It just took a truly overwhelming amount of Sky Flames to finish him off.

The Carcassa Family owed him so many favors after all the shit they'd made him do over the years.

Crawling to his knees Skull took a shuddering, hiccuping breath before climbing fully to his feet. A shaking step forward drew the attention of the calculating looking Mist standing off to the side of him. Ignoring them Skull managed to drag bleeding fingertips against the rough wall as he forced himself to keep walking. Just to feel something other then the numbness or panic that had chased him endlessly since waking up in this time bereft of the strangled Bond that he'd shared with the others for over half a century.

It didn't matter.

And if the Carcassa decided they were too scared of Reborn to keep their honor like all Families should, well—

(Blank Space)

The Kozato Family Mist backed away from the Cloud Arcobaleno quickly at the look on the preteens face. Word had spread rapidly from the Gesso Family that he was not to be trifled with. No one knew exactly what had happened to send that Family into a tizzy, but with the other Arcobaleno chasing their Cloud and the fight that the Mist had just had to hide between the two Flame powerhouses...

Needless to say he understood why the Mafia as a whole was in a state of cautious wait-and-see while it all played out. Because if there was one thing all Flame users had in common despite what Flame they might be, it was a strong sense of Drama. And the look of the Cloud Arcobaleno right then, famed for being the weakest of the seven screamed Tragedy. But for who, the Mist couldn't guess.

—-Skull was sure Byakuran wouldn't mind taking out the Cloud that killed both his Rain and Cloud Guardian's in the Future-That-Never-Was, no matter how 'reformed' the Mad Sky acted.

He'd make sure the other didn't mind.

No matter what he had to do.

It didn't matter. Nothing did.

The most cunning mask
doesn't alter appearance,
but expectation.

—Red Leaf Haiku by John Clark Helzer