Cloud AU's

Losing Game

It was in the Future that never was. Skull was the last of the original Arcobaleno to survive the longest against the virus that was made to kill them.
And when his remaining allies wanted him to get into bunkers, hideouts or something, anything? To cower and hide?

He refused, disappearing.

He was mourning,
couldn't they see that?!
He lost his family!
He was the last survivor!
The LAST Arcobaleno!
The last of his kind!
They had protected him!
And now he's...!

After the death of the other Arcobaleno and without anyone else knowing (-killed Millefiore, but you know how it is; 'dead men tell no tales' - only the undead do), Skull had become pessimistic, bitter, cold, quiet - deadly.

Byakuran had pushed an inverted Cloud too far, taking the people he had long ago claimed as territory, dear, only HIS-HISHISHISHISHISHISHIS!

He destroyed Millefiore bases one after the other and Millefiore realised they couldn't fight, capture or attempt to kill him beyond the radiation.
He was in the possibly coldest and calculative rage known to his flame type in recorded Mafia History, displaying the sheer bloodthirst and ruthlessness they were known for.

And it was focused. Lasting.
He didn't stop.

...They could only hold out and hide the fact from Vongola's scattered allies; they were getting destroyed from everywhere and nowhere!! Each attempt a failure.
All the while they were counting on the Anti-Trinisette to eventually -soon, fast!- kill him or that they would get the power of the Trinisette before that.

~

One day, he doesn't know what time it is, grief making nearly everything irrelevant, as he's hiding out in the woods of -he forgot, where? It doesn't matter. Nothing does- rageavengehim. Skull's pacifier glowed. 'Uni-HIS, SHE'S HERE, SHE NEEDS HIM!' He hurried to her location, his bond calling him to her, seeing a glowing orange orb flying in the sky, like a daylight star. 'MINE!'

By the time he arrived he saw two other spheres on the ground, holding him- Byakuran/Murderer- the Enemy and a very much alive but young fluffy brunet.

??

He might be in Cloud Rage, he knows he is, and that's not fine, but he vividly recalls that the brunet Sky wasn't immortal and had died. He recalls death itself welcome him while dark curls had wept and raged. How he and the Sky's elements broke from their loss of home.

Yet there he is, a smaller- no, he was distinctly younger... getting strangled by the former in a giant, ghostly hand.
Uni's bubble merged with the other two and he now realised what it was, he could feel it with his pacifier. A barrier for the Holders of the Trinisette.

How troublesome.

They held a small discussion, Byakuran talking the most out of the three Skies like a stereotypical villain, while the rest -oh, ther e were others, Lal- tried to break the barrier to get a choking Tsuna and endangered Uni out. Skull chose to observe the situation for now, to calculate his next move in the back.
He hasn't been noticed yet, a clear advantage in his plans; Byakuran wouldn't injure Uni, that he knew.
He kept her alive even as a puppet since he needed her as the current Sky Arcobaleno.

Even if he was seething with Rage (always angry, unending vengeance, avenge blood debt!! Avenge despair!!), he knew he needed to be prepared and judge where and how to strike him when it would utterly pain the Mare Sky.