10 Year Mishap

24

While Tsuna and Kyoya was in(between) the walls, Reborn and the rest of the Guardians were freaking out and no amount of Takeshi's Rain Flames were helping. Lambo had locking himself in his room shortly after Tsuna had run away from him and Ryohei was trying to get him to come out with no luck. Mukuro and Chrome were updating the castle staff via Mist Flames. Hayato was trying to keep his composer, but was slowly fading. And Reborn was watching all of this happen like he was babysitting toddlers. Which, in a sense, was accurate and anyone who argues otherwise needs to go to a daycare for a day.

It took a total of two hours to calm everyone down enough to communicate coherently, though Lambo still refused to leave his room and was now not answering anyone. Now with a semblance of control over the situation, Reborn told everyone to use their Flames to locate the child. It was a good idea in theory, but the results sent everyone into a collective panic attack.

They couldn't feel Tsuna.

Not in the sense that he wasn't in the castle, no. 'They couldn't feel Tsuna' as in he's dead. Logically they all know he's not dead, but the link shared between Sky and Elements was not unbreakable. With their Sky being away from them for so long, the link - the Harmony - that held them as one concise unit was breaking; unraveling. It was no wonder they were all getting more high-strung as the week went on! Their Sky was basically dead to this world and their bond. No matter how strong they thought it was, it could not hold over the Horizontal Time Axis because it wasn't meant to.

The Vongola are over the Vertical Time Axis, meaning that their bond as Sky and Elements would hold over for as many reincarnations and lives as they go through. The Gesso are over the Horizontal - Parallel - Time Axis, so they'd always be together no matter the parallel life. The Arcobaleno were a special case, but they'd be together - no matter the Time Axis - as long as they had been cursed as a group and not separately.

This begged another question, though. They couldn't feel their Tsuna, but they should be able to feel where parallel Tsuna is, right? It didn't occur to any of them that the two's Flame Signatures would be different. Yes, they're the same person made by the same basic blueprints, but they are still two different people from two different worlds.

Another bout of freaking out and calming down later, Reborn instructed the group to search for any foreign Flames and go from there. Locating the new Flame Signature was easy enough, until they realized that Kyoya's Flames were nearby, seemingly chasing the Sky Flames. That could mean one of two things in their heads. Either Kyoya's chasing down a hostile who snuck in or he's chasing down Tsuna. Either way, they figured getting to him would be a good idea. That's when the next problem presented itself. The two Flames Signatures were inside the goddamn walls!

"How the hell did they get inside the walls?" Hayato was the first to verbalize the question. No one had an answer, so they were left wondering.

***

Lambo couldn't tell when, but at some point in the past few hours a song had gotten stuck in his head and he couldn't help but think it was appropriate for how he was feeling. He'd snapped at Reborn, probably earning himself a ticket to Death's Row, and he'd made the kid feel like he was nothing but a burden and a placeholder. So, yes, 'Shit' but Bo Burnham was a very descriptive song for how he was feeling. Nonetheless, he had a job to do. The others could find the kid.

He made sure to block out all noise from anywhere but his head. The song stuck there didn't make concentrating very easy, but it kept him from wander thoughts, so he'll take the w. He did feel a bit bad about leaving everyone to clean up his mess, but he couldn't really bring himself to care to much at the present moment. He was stuck cleaning up someone else's mess, so someone else could clean up his.

The fact that the two messes conenside with each other is a very important point that will be ignored. No, parallel Tsuna is not a burden and he should never have to feel like that. Then again he shouldn't have ended up here in the first place. Lambo couldn't help but wonder if things were supposed to turn out like this. Was there a greater chain of events at play in this? It wouldn't be a stretch to think about. He and the others can manifest their Wills to Live as physical entities in the form of flames or lightning, can and have traveled to the future, have allies that have been cursed for who knows how long, are grudging allies with an immortal and Talbot who is in a category by himself, and have allies who can see into the future and parallel worlds respectively. Not to mention the ghosts. So, with all of that in mind, why draw the line Fate?

"Wait a second..." Lambo focused all of his attention on the papers and blueprints scattered in front of him. "That's it!" He quickly wrote everything down before he forgot, and input everything into his laptop. If he's correct, then he's just figured it out. Maybe the ADHD is good for something. Did he take his meds today? He wasn't sure, but he doubted it. Thinking about it, he probably hadn't taken his meds since the parallel switch on Monday...Oh, well!

He quickly made his way to the labs and put his laptop on the counter. The simulation had worked the first time, and now he was presenting his work to his colleagues with a smile on his face. Judging by the looks they all gained, the three had come to the same conclusion he had. With their desired result now visualized and theoretical instead of hypothetical, the four geniuses got to work.