85. Well

"Here, take Lambo."

Ryohei handed me the cow child carefully, slipping him as gently as his flamboyant instincts could will itself to, and finished with one bright, sunny smile.

"He did really good!" Ryohei assured me, his smile an incredibly contagious symptom I couldn't resist catching.

Cradling Lambo gently in my arms, I brought him closer. "I'll bring him back," it was like a promise, "somewhere safer."

Lambo was now sleeping soundly-- a light snore in the air, already drooling into my shirt. He was covered in dust in some places, but I hugged him close regardless. 

"Be careful," I warned Ryohei, the emotion escaping my lips before my mind could remind myself of the outcome of this battle, "And please don't get too hurt anymore." I was genuinely worried, genuinely concerned-- despite my knowing of the events that will then occur.

"Don't worry!" Ryohei patted me on the back, surprisingly gently for his boisterous nature, "We'll be extremely fine!"

His bright grin shone like the sun-- Hibari, by the side, let out a huff in slight, dismissive agreement. Or perhaps, he was just sighing, I couldn't tell.

I gave Mukuro one last look-- and catching my gaze, Mukuro's lips curled up slightly. "Go on now," he urged, "Before you get caught up in the battle." 

My eyes ran over everyone one last time-- then, with one curt bow, I turned around, then ran through and out of the Mist Barrier.

-

"Rei, what happened just now? We lost contact for thirty-five seconds." 

Reborn's voice in the communications device was stoical, as usual, but now it seemed a little rushed. He was worried.

I was now walking back toward base-- walking, because I wouldn't make the whole way back running. 

"Sorry, Reborn. I got kinda caught up in the battle. I'm headed back to base right now, carrying Lambo and-" I fumbled over my words, trying to focus on the receiver, Lambo and the way back at the same time, "You'll be hearing about the battle condition from Gokudera in a moment."

"Are you uninjured?"

"I'm uninjured," I assured him irritably. Irritably, because an annoying thought had come to my mind. Lambo, littered with wounds and dust and mud, even a child like him was suffering, having fought in the battle.

Yet here I am-- without a single wound, unlike everyone else on the battlefield. I'm the coward that runs from fight, just lurking in the shadows.

The Dirty Rat of the Vongola, not just a name that bragged his information gathering skills, but also boasted his incredibly shameless cowardice.

I bit my bottom lip.

"I'm okay," I whispered, a promise to myself. Clutching Lambo tighter, closer to me, I told myself and forced myself to acknowledge, "I'm okay."

I'm okay with being a coward.

Reborn had probably heard it too, but he spoke nothing of it.

-

It was a blinding flash of lightning. 

Lightning, on a sunny, cloudless day-- Just one flash, with not a sound, with not a rumble. The light shot out brighter than the sun, enveloping the large of the forest and rendering the area to naught but a clear white silhouette.

The shadows had fled-- and for one moment, I felt I was in pure white emptiness.

Lasting for just one short moment, colour began to flow back in. My steps having come to a stop I don't recall, I was struck in a daze. My footing felt empty-- but my feet were stable. 

It took me another moment to regather the fact that my feet were on ground.

Another moment later, I noticed I was in a forest, and that Lambo was in my arms.

The next moment, I began walking again, remembering that I had been doing so.

I managed to realize the identity of the light at the fourth moment.

"Ghost is here," I had to tell myself to put the thought in my mind,"which means-" I was unable to compose my thoughts that now felt like a sheet of white paper. As if someone had cleared the browser history of my mind. As if someone had pushed the reset button on my thoughts.

How had one flash of light affected me this much?

Was it simply too sudden of a surprise?

I tried to physically shake the daze out of my mind. 

"Rei?"

"I need to get out," and the moment I said it, I felt my heart sink, "I need to get out," I repeated, my head repeating the fact over and over-- "Get away from here, now, fast--"

The Awakening of Ghost. Ghost can drain Dying Will Flames from a person.

If I don't get out of here soon, I'll die.

"Rei, are you listening?"

"I need to run," I realized, "Or I won't make it in time-"

"Rei?!"

-

[POV: Third Person]

"What's going on over that side, Reborn?" Tsuna couldn't help asking frantically, being pushed with pressure on both sides. "Onii-san and the others are in peril too, what's happening?"

"Rei's acting weird," Reborn said quickly, "It's like he's... running away from something. He's not hearing me."

Reborn flinched as one sharp screech cut off his final link with Rei.

Tuning the device back to the line with everyone else, he gritted his teeth in frustration. "It's gone," he muttered, "That idiot."

Tsuna felt his heart sink at the word.

They'd now lost contact with Rei.

-

[POV: Rei]

I was backed against a tree.

Lambo clutched tightly in my arms, asleep, I covered as much of him as I could with my arms and prayed it was sufficient protection from harm. 

Right before me, looming over my presence and blocking a way out with one arm, dominating my figure was none other than Byakuran himself. 

In his other hand, he'd crushed my communications device and tossed it aside.

With his gleeful, cheshire cat smile-- he chuckled slyly. "Well," he said, "Seems like someone almost gave out my secret plan?" 

A rhetorical question-- no, a roundabout threat. 

I gulped, my knees buckling as I lowered myself to the ground, my back straight against the trunk of the tree, my fingers pressed against the bark as if it was finding a way to meld right into it and, slipping through, I could perhaps escape.

But that wasn't happening.

My mouth was shut tight, lips pressed together-- my eyes flew to the side, unable to face the taller male. He was a domineering, stronger being I could not hope to face. It went without saying. I felt like a stray puppy being reprimanded, stood up against a hound.

Afraid.

"For someone with many years of experience behind you, if you truly are what you claim to be, I thought you would have more control and sense of stability than to freak out like what you did." He continued speaking, each word the curse of a serpent, poison to my chest, each emphasis a pang in my consciousness.

He lifted my chin, getting my eyes to meet his.

"Perhaps I should get rid of you now, so you won't get in my way any longer?"

His smile looked to me like a monster, like the devil, like he was just going to eat me up. I hated it. It was scary, Scary, Scary. Scary. Scaryscaryscary.

Is he going to kill me? He did say so. I need to run away. I need to get away. Away from him. Right now, he's not the friendly Byakuran we know in the later ons of this story-- right now, he's just a villain. An antagonist. A murderer and an evil mastermind.

I need to run I need to run. Move. Why am I not moving? Why am I paralyzed like this?

"Ahaha," Byakuran giggled, "Are you scared?"

Ah, this fear... Fear so, so, painful; so, so, agonizing; so, so, terrifying.

The fear of Death, was it?

I don't want to die, I begged to nothing.

Deep down, something was trying to assure me that I wasn't going to die.

But the outer, mentally unstable side of me-- the side that had been confused by everything, exhausted by the continuous events, brainwashed by this thing called 'fear'...

That side continued to panic and hyperventilate.

I don't want to die, no, not again.

Byakuran's hands slid down, and crawled around my neck. 

"You're so weak, even more so than the other guy you were with," he said, "I could probably snap your neck, just like this."

I felt something wet run down my cheek, and I realized I was crying. 

"Hey, are you just the type that would let things happen?" he asked, but his voice was now a muddled mess in my foggy thoughts, "Can't you resist a little?"

I don't want to die. No, not again.

Russo-- yes, Russo. 

Eve's here with me now. Eve's with me now, I can't die. Not again. I can't leave him again. I don't want to leave him again. I shouldn't, wouldn't, and will never leave him again. I'll be with him now. Forever. As long as I can.

A chuckle rumbled in my throat.

"Sorry, Byakuran," I spoke, my voice laced in a mix of tears and laughter and-- madness, I guess people would call, "I'm a little... messed up in the head now."

My left hand reached up to take Byakuran's hand on my neck--

"Well," Byakuran was incredible amused, "Would you look at that!"

Looking down, I noticed it too.

The Void Ring was lit up, with one bright, flickering purple flame. At the sight, Byakuran let go of my neck-- and his hand dropped down to pat sleeping Lambo on the head twice.

"What the hell, man," the mad grin was on my face, but I didn't feel the least bit happy, "I didn't want a dying will flame."