Chapter 28: Songs of the Sirens

"In the end, your plan didn't work," Reborn snorted, leaning against a marble pillar.

The esteemed Sawada Iemitsu narrowed his eyes.

"I didn't want to bring her to Italy, didn't I say that before? You insisted," Iemitsu growled, none too welcomingly. Reborn snorted in return.

"Well, there was always this saying that refuge is best sought closest to danger. They'd never expect to find you right next to where they are. Then Mukuro came wearing a brilliant pink tutu and pranced in, didn't he?"

"…"

"Ah, but at least I know she's safe…"

"And that's all you're concerned about? If Byakuran really cracks the code behind Tsuna, it might be the end of free will as we know it. Are you unconcerned about that?"

"The first and only beta-brand Leucosian– "

" – She was an experimental failure, right from the start, wasn't she?"

Iemitsu peered up at Reborn.

"That's because I made her a failed experiment."

Natsusa panted as she ducked into a tight corridor. There was no other escape strategy to be used at that moment, so she tied Byakuran up while forcing him into a deep coma with her voice. While she would have ordered him to guide her around the center, she knew the man would have tricks up his sleeves. He would not be so easy to maneuver, so she saved herself the trouble by leaving him behind. However, she was now faced with the issue of escaping the research center unscathed. There were guards roaming the place, and she knew – because there were eyes everywhere.

Exhausted. Natsusa was exhausted. She had used too much of her power deceiving the guards sent after her, and finally found a resting place where she was sure none of the electrical eyes would reach her, especially as she blended herself into the surroundings.

She was already at her limit.

Any more time spent delaying was a second less Byakuran would lay asleep. Unfortunately, being in a coma for a long time, Natsusa was unable to grasp the full extent of her original powers, limiting her severely in both the amount of manipulative powers and the stamina that she had. Faced with no choice, she decided to inch along further into the narrow walkway, hoping that it would lead her somewhere.

Indeed, it did lead her somewhere – a thick, metal door. Natsusa took a chance, and to her surprise, the door was left unlocked – atypical of a tight and well protected research facility such as this one.

"Guh…!"

The roots that bound her mind did not help either. They seemed to be severely handicapping her movements now, but the pain had subsided ever since she stopped resisting them. As long as Byakuran did not have his hands on her, he would not be able to extract the information from her mind that the roots gathered.

The room contained no lights and no sound, but was illuminated by a dim glow at its heart. Its ceiling was high, Natsusa could gather, as a pillar stretched from the ground and disappeared into the darkness overhead. The pillar was wide; it was a cylindrical tank. A cylindrical tank that contained a naked, floating body inside.

She approached the tank with caution. Inside, a young woman was held in a fetal position, bound by countless wires and strings that stretched across her body. Wires and pins were attached to her head; the wires floated upwards in the water, presumably attached to some machine above the pillar – Natusa could never know for sure, because they faded into the pitch black that lay above her.

The woman was emaciated, as if skin wrapped around her bones alone, with barely any flesh. Her lips and skin were pale, almost white, untainted, untouched – but Natsusa knew otherwise. It was a cruel purity after all; the girl probably had not been awake in a while, what chance could she have taken to experience harsh reality? Natsusa drew her finger along the face that was enclosed behind the glass wall, curious.

"I see you've met my cousin. She just arrived here," footsteps approached from behind.

The voice was foreign – at least, foreign to Natsusa.

"Who are you?" she replied coldly, backing up against the pillar.

"How hurtful. Just because I've betrayed you once, you've decided to completely forget about me?"

"I don't know you. I've never met you, much less have been betrayed by – "

"Ah! But how did you think you got here?"

Mukuro emerged from the shadow behind the pillar that lay directly opposite Natsusa. She bit her lips in frustration. Now that she thought about it, the man sent familiar vibes through her. It was as though it was not the first time that he was taunting her.

"Hn," Natsusa grunted.

"Well, now that we've gotten our past relationship out of the way," Mukuro purposely dragged his syllables, speaking slowly and pensively. "I suppose you want to know more about –"

He stepped towards the cylindrical tank, bringing up a gloved hand. Gently, he stroked the surface of the glass.

" – My dear cousin here, Chrome Dokuro."

"I have more urgent things to do than that, you cur," Natsusa growled. She did not dare to retaliate physically however, for her fatigue would drive her over the edge sooner or later.

"Is that a no? Then do you want to know more about me? That's strange, I would've thought you'd have known everything about me," Mukuro gave her a twisted grin.

"After all, everything I hate, you hate as well. Everything I've gone through, you've gone through. You should feel the same…same revulsion towards the people I hate. Isn't that right?"

Suddenly, he took a swift step in her direction and grabbed Natsusa. His fingers crawled behind her neck, caressing a mark that was imprinted there. Then, he whispered softly into her ear –

"Isn't that right? Because we have the same brand."

"Mukuro-san? What are you doing here?" A voice cut through the stale air – not just any voice, but one that sounded so innocent, so naïve.

Mukuro was taken aback for a moment, as he shoved Natsusa away. He took in a deep breath and scanned her eyes quickly, under the tank's dim glow. The pupils were no longer golden, but brown. That meant that…

"Oh, is that you, Sawada Tsuna?" he said casually.

"Who else would I be?" Tsuna asked questioningly. "Also, you're grabbing my wrist. It kind of hurts you know…"

"Ah, but this is for your own safety. Follow me, we must get out of here quickly."

Now, Mukuro was playing along. Since Natsusa had made an appropriate departure, he could take the chance to return Tsuna to Byakuran. The procedures for curing Chrome would then proceed accordingly.

"Y-You'll get me out safely right? This place looks kind of scary," Tsuna trembled, looking around. The naked figure of Chrome caught her eyes, and she jumped backwards.

"Yeah," he replied. Suddenly, he jumped; however cunning or sly or smooth Mukuro was, he could not contain his shock at what she did next.

He felt a pair of thin arms clutching onto him around his waist, and a face buried into his chest.

"Save me…Save me, Mukuro-san…No, save me –" Tsuna turned her face upwards to meet his eyes.

"Big…brother."

Tsuna's eyes were golden again. Mukuro's eyes widened as he was caught off his guard. Those words rang in his ears loudly, echoing at a crescendo. It was then he felt himself being pushed down, with Natsusa pinning his arms to the side.

"Ah, I had you figured for a siscon. Looks like you took the bait, hook, line and sinker."

"Tch – "

"How did I know? Intuition, I suppose. Now, where do we start…? I guess you've always seen a semblance of Chrome in Tsuna, don't you? That's why you got close to her!" Natsusa squeezed his wrists tighter.

Behind the pair, a crack was beginning to make its way across the glass tank.

Man liked to find a way with things. He toyed with nature, shaping it in ways his ancestors may not have even imagined. If there was anything out of his reach, he would be sure to attain it. If there was something he could not change, he would try to make something to change it. That is what he believed to set him above mere creatures – the intelligence to mold things the way he wanted.

One of the things he wanted to control was emotion. Amidst the concrete jungle that he had built for himself, he found that joy was getting harder and harder to grasp. So he followed this logic: if he could not attain joy, then he would create joy.

So, it was joy he created. Upon a floating research facility, built on a ship in the sky. The ship was dubbed Leucosia (1), and that would be a rather unfortunate name in the years that had yet to come. On this ship – Leucosia – singing dolls were created. These singing dolls were not ordinary – they were organic dolls – they were mortal. Then again, man's other tools died too – they were destroyed, or spoilt. These singing dolls were no different.

Leucosians, or so they were called, were the embodiment of what the scientists hoped to be the most advanced form of sound therapy. The Leucosians would sing, and people would be happy. The latest commercial endeavor would surely earn a lot of money, for the greater good of mankind.

Well, then that just left one problem. The Leucosians were… organic. They were, for lack of better descriptions, human. Not just any human, but a human envisioned to be a product.

Of course there was naught but trouble that could follow such a plan, built on man's hubris.

Nothing, nothing but trouble.

"Chrome? Chrome, where are you?" A little boy crawled across the bloodstained floor. Unable to see anything in the dark, he groped his way about the floor, occasionally scratching himself on furniture edges or pieces of cracked ceramic.

"Big…Bro – "A weak voice called out. It was barely a whisper.

"Chrome!" the boy moved desperately towards the voice, but another piece of glass had cut into his knees, reminding him of his injuries.

"Big…brother," the voice was weak, trembling. Afraid.

"Chrome, I'll save you, I'll save you, so don't die!" he desperately called out.

"I'm scared… of dying. I'm scared."

In his hurry, the boy fell over himself. But he quickly got up again. Carelessly stretching his hand out, he felt it – soft, but barely warm flesh.

"I'm here, I'm here, Chrome."

"Save me…Big…Brother," those were the finals words that shaking voice uttered.

"I can save her for you."

The little boy looked up, and through his tear-addled vision, he could make out a tall man twirling a fedora around his gun. The boy did not know, but the man only wore a grin in the face of such a desolate image set across him.

"You'll just have to agree to…a contract, because you're a special one…"

The boy gasped as the man bent down to touch his head.

"…The very first Leucosian, created by the Estraneo."

(1) Leucosia is the name of a Siren. If you understand what sirens do, then you know the trouble that follows them...

A/N: Before anyone's confused because I didn't put it out very obviously, but yes, Natsusa = Tsuna, or rather, she's my version of Hyper Tsuna. I tried keeping some of the original canon traits, but I discarded a few, such as his undying loyalty to his NAKAMA!one!11!. Well, and I made her a lot more cunning than the canon one (?). For a good reason though; with his hyper-intuition, I always thought there was a space for Tsunayoshi to be manipulative in the canon. Of course that is slightly, well, very out of character in the canon-verse, but I can dream, I suppose.

Edit: Some grammar.

While I'm at this I figured I should try this too. Since I took such a long break, I decided to take the story in a slightly different path from originally planned. For example, I'm sure that the lack of romance or whatnot might turn people off, as this was intended to be All27 at first, but I'm running through Mukuro's backstory/arc and while I was at it I decided romance should take a backseat/secondary plot for now so...many apologies for the disappointed. I just thought to clear this up in case anyone gets disappointed later on. However there'll be romance. Just not the main focus. I do need to romance to reach my intended ending, after all. And thanks for the reviews, as always. Sorry to keep all of you hanging on for so long!