A/n: Does the title makes sense? Lmao.

170 years in the future.

With Reborn and Skull.

It's been 3 days since Kyomi and Hayano left to the past. Nothing much has happened. The captured enemies didn't utter a thing.

More like, they can't utter a single word because Verde keeps torturing them mercilessly.

Reborn, who was waiting outside the interrogating room oh so patiently, finally snapped and decided to do some things himself, dragging an unwilling Skull with him.

"Fuck you, Reborn! Why do I have to come with you!?" Skull screams from his seat on Reborn's sports car. The man merely grunted as he takes a hard turn to the right, throwing Skull against the door.

Skull groaned as he feels a dull throb on the side of his face.

"Just be grateful that I didn't force you to sit on the roof of my car." Reborn retorted. Skull rolls his eyes and looks out, half-lidded eyes looking at the land escape that they pass by at a rapid state. "Where are we going anyway?" he asks.

"And answer me this time. The least you could do is answer one of my questions after dragging me here." Skull spats with an angry frown. Reborn remained calm, chuckled even. With amused onyx eyes, he glances at Skull's side profile with something akin to amusement.

(A/n: 👀)

"When did you get gutsy with me, huh? You were so submissive."

"Shut up."

"..."

Fast-forward.

They arrived at an old town, it's small but the atmosphere is vibrant. There are some people around, walking and talking.

"What is this town called again?"

"You should check your head for short-term memory, Lackey. I just told you." Skull scoffs, kicking a pebble of the dirt path.

"You didn't tell me shit. You freaking pushed me out of your car." He says in a whiny voice. Reborn's chest rumbled with another chuckle, "I caught you though."

"That doesn't change the fact that you pushed me out of your car, Sideburns."

Reborn stuffs his hands on his pockets and looks around, ignoring all the leers of the women, "We're at an old town called-" he stopped his answer, staring at Skull tripping over thin air, unimpressed.

"...Grimaldi."

170 years in the past.

"How big is this place?" Kyomi clicks her tongue as they turn to another hallway. The basement is ridiculously large with many halls and many doors.

"You're starting to irritate me." Kyomi says and Alaude heaves a suffering sigh, "I didn't say anything." he deadpanned, "Are we there yet?" Kyomi asks, like a child.

"Just a little more."

And as he said that, he stops at a double door, strangely new from the rest, cautiously, he plants a hand on the wood and pushed. The door did the rest of the opening, it was dark as expected but-

Kyomi reflexively slaps a hand over her mouth as a foul odor whiffs to them, the platinum blond scowls and also did the same thing, his hand went to the side of the wall, in a hot second his hand grabbed something metallic and pulled.

To his luck, it's a lantern, fairly new too with kerosene. 

Turning the wick, they stare as the flame come to life. The brighter the flame gets the more the two Cloud guardians can see inside.

And it wasn't a pretty sight.

170 years in the future.

Reborn gathered a small group of Vongola subordinates to tour them around the small town, showing them all the nook and cranny of the old famous place.

None of the town people bothered them, only shooting them curious glances and smiles when they connect gazes.

Reborn has everything not under control. But under his control, which he likes.

The subordinates, mainly one man called Gabriele, gave them a much more detailed tour the more they ventured into the woods, some of Gabriele's men spit up from the group to go to their own duties, leaving three men including Gabriele.

"A few kilometers in the woods, there's a very old shed that we discovered about 5 years ago and to our surprise, it belongs to our Famiglia, Signor Reborn. Specifically, a hideout that belongs to the first generation Cloud Guardian." Gabriele gestures to the faraway old shed that looks like it's about to crumble at the slightest touch.

Skull narrowed his eyes in suspicion, crossing his arms over his chest as he scrutinizes the building. "That shed looks shitty." he said bluntly, Gabriele merely chuckled, "It's an illusion right?" he continued.

Gabriele smiled slyly, "Yes, Signor Skull. The first time we saw it, it was barely holding on, it was even more surprising when we found out clues of when it was built and to whom it belongs to. It's a mystery how it remained intact after a century and a half has passed." he directed them to the entrance and instead of pushing the door open, Gabriele lits up his flame ring, revealing a light purple flame.

The flame spreads around his arm and Gabriele plants his palm firmly on the side of the door, instead of meeting wood, the brown scratchy surface disappeared, revealing a hand print scanner.

A beep and the rest of the wood disappeared in purple flames, revealing a 12 x 6 building made in pure metal. The door opened with a small hiss and cold wind flew pass them, Skull shivered from behind Reborn. Gabriele gestures to the two men to go inside first and he entered last, locking the door.

Outside the renovated shed, the door closed and sealed with purple flames, which then spread over the metal, covering it all and the once advance looking building returned to that of a shabby shed, completely blending with the woods.

Inside, everything is shiny and new, full of high-quality things, even the chairs and tables. It looks like a very orderly house. Gabriele directed the group down to the basement where continuous bangs could be heard.

"We didn't start the renovation until last year, when one of the higher up finally gave the green light. We started from the top, then gradually going down. At first, there weren't anything, just broken old cups, chests filled with old useless trinkets and clothes." The basement is wide and open, no hallways, no door just a vast underground cave filled with materials for digging, temporary stairs and tubes.

It looks like one of this active mines.

"Although useless, we didn't throw away the things we found, we kept them in a storage above. After the top part of the shed, we found this basement just six months after the discovery of the shed, the place looked blown up, and buried and almost impossible to dig through." They entered a tent, the two men stopped right outside, guarding.

The inside is pretty bare, just a big round table in the center, a few bags and chests on the corners and a water dispenser beside them.

"So far we dig up around half a kilometer by length and fifty meters by height. We believe that there's more to this place."

Skull leaned over the table, looking down at the map with many marks on it. The place is pretty big, Skull notices, there are crosses all over, his attention is placed on one particular X.

He raises his hand and waves their attention over to him. Gabriele and Reborn, who were initially chatting, turns to him, "What is it, Signor Skull?" Gabriele inquires.

"This x here-" Skull points at the mark, the one farthest from the entrance to the cave, "Tell me what the marks are for and what's this one for."

"Ah-" Gabriele nods, "You see, every time we find anything that could potentially be important, we put a mark on the map and then a protective barrier around that place to preserve it. That mark, Signor Skull, is the recent discovery, we are still studying it."

"What have you got so far?" Reborn joins Skull's side, looming from behind. Skull clicks his tongue and elbows Reborn's stomach, "Personal space, Sideburns." he hissed. 

Reborn ignored him.

Gabriele appeared hesitant to answer, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Skull raised an eyebrow, "Well?" he asked impatiently. Gabriele rubs the back of his head, brows clashing with uneasiness.

"Well...it's hard to say." he mutters gibberish.

"What we discovered were... glass tanks."

Skull blinks his eyes in disbelief, mouth agape and quivering, "Glass tanks... glass tanks were invented initially as glass aquariums in the 1832, why are you so uneasy about it?" he asked, a bit annoyed by the anticlimactic response.

"That's not the point sir," Gabriele sighs, "It's that there's an unusual amount of them...around a few hundreds."

"HUNDREDS!?"

"Are those glass tanks like these?" Reborn throws some pictures on the table, one slides cleanly to Gabriele who picks it up gingerly. The two ex-Arcobaleni looks as the man's eyes widen in surprise, jaw unhinged and disbelief coloring his face.

"Y-Yes...they're exactly the same model." 

Skull leaned away from the table, standing tall but shoulder slacked from shock, "No way." he breathed out, in a panic motion, he turns to Reborn.

"Does that mean-!?"

"How old were the tanks?"

Gabriele looks at Reborn then at the picture then to Reborn again, "If the archeologists calculated correctly...about at least...180 years old, Signore Reborn."

Skull almost fell to the ground, as the info seeps in his mind, jumbling his thought all over. He stares at the forlorn man. His violet eyes roamed all over, hoping that the man is joking because there's no way that is possible.

If the man isn't lying then there's more to this place than just a simple old Vongola hideout, more than an old property of one of the first generation guardian. The Vongola history never talked about experiments in Primo's time, let alone Talbot who, for his old age, remembers many things from the past. 

The more he stares, the harder realization hits.

The man wasn't lying.

"No fucking way."

Something happened in the past.

Something potentially...sinister.

A/n: The plot thickens...I hope. Is it getting interesting :D?

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