Sometimes we don't change the future

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

Who: Dera, Yama, Chrome? Kinda!
When: After...everything.
What: A brainworm from Plague. Plague's fault.

Alternate timelines were a bitch, ad one reason he really fucking hated time travel. Didn't hate the Bovinos for their ability, JUST THE ABILITY ITSELF, because when it was possible, mapping was possible. Where mapping was possible he should have done it, just as he'd figured out how to help the Tenth not die when they were kids there should have been a way around this one.

Who cared if 'this' hadn't even been a mafia problem?

If this hadn't even been an Italy or Japan problem?

HE SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT.

Worlds were...fragile things. The joint project launch platform initiative was greenlit by the UN in 2028, a better way they said, to assemble colony ships and make the first real push for the stars. Both Earth's dwindling resources and the limited success of colonizing both the moon and Mars made humans feel they were ready. Like any good opportunist, well, the mafia was right there with the rest, supply, engineering, etc etc. Hell Tsuna had even sent him and Spanner to aid in completion protocols. Vongola could out-design most people on the planet. Lock them up in a space box with the few they couldn't? And beautiful things happened.

It still took Skype calls to make him remember meal times, and he picked up Spanner's candy addiction since he couldn't smoke, or justify the light stick (dynamite, not an option in space no), but he, no THEY were doing good. Actual, bonafide, complicated GOOD.

It felt really fucking good.

The real fucking bitch was being in the design box, in rotation around the original I.S.S, when the platform, and the neophyte colony ship were sabotaged. Just a touch too damn late on punching a shuttle to the main edifice and...hell fire rained from the sky. His transmission of "GET TO THE FUCKING BUNKERS!" may or may not have made it.

When he and the scientists finally managed to cobble together something to get them planet-side it was...a disaster zone. Of course it was a disaster zone. Even these eight months later. It had taken a while to make something without compromising life support systems. Hell, if he could have talked himself into a 90% die off rate among the remaining scientists he'd have built a god damn teleporter but...Spanner was part of the calculations and fucked if he'd risk the man unduly.

Eight months later and parts of the world were still smoking. Continental plates had been cracked as far as he could tell from the hellish elevator ride down, and the sky was going to be black for years at least. Welcome to the new ice age, probably. Those parts that weren't going to keep burning anyway.Italy had been sunk, the Mediterranean sea flooding up as high as Austria, the family estate was gone, the bunkers empty.

It took too damn long to get to Japan.

Spanner was probably ready to strangle him for the intensity. Or the lack of sugar available now. Either or, strangling was on that guy's agenda.

Japan, like Indonesia, had lost several islands, but really that hadn't stopped the natives really. They were fucking stubborn as shit, even digging into fucking volcanoes to pie to warmth to the greatly reduced islands. He recognized the innovation honestly, it was one of his old, idly jotted ideas after he'd watched too many Iceland documentaries. God bless Tenth, he'd fucking made his tech blueprints freeware.

Namimori bunker was also empty. Or rather converted into fucking hydroponics tanks where thin, hungry looking people worked in the hopes that they'd manage a harvest of the alfalfa and other greens before vitamin deficiency killed them. Likewise additional nooks had been carved in the stoneworks to grow fish; to be honest those fish might be the last of their kind unmutated and safe. Rising ocean levels led to desalinization, led to die off or mutation so...

...yeah.

The plaque said 'In honor of Tsuyoshi'.

Fuck.

Long story short he caught up with Tenth in the damn makeshift hospital. He'd been running in dying will flame since the hit and it was...hollowing him out from the inside. Chrome had layered defenses on the bunker against a stray hit, the strain had stopped her heart. Ryohei had burned Sun on every person he met when the bunker opened, dropping after healing a whole damn city. Hibari was never found, but Namimori school was pristine, everyone could take a fucking guess. Lambo had joined a traveling info caravan, people dedicated to traveling and setting up necessaries for food and shelter...

...and Yama had picked up Chrome's body and simply walked off.

He found a carved headstone next to Takeshi's mother, Yama's sword by the rock and a badly decayed body.

Fucking hell.

Fuck.

Ing.

Hell.

"God damn it." He settled on his knees, painfully covering the body and shifting to start adding another name to the stone. Everything.

Everyone.

Punching the rock barely even registered honestly.

Fine.

FINE.

They'd left...

...he'd wait.

Lambo still had that damn bazooka, he liberated it and disappeared, off to his lab as the world tried to find a new ideal of balance. He had the bazooka, and it's data, which meant he could fucking project energy probabilities now couldn't he?

He damn well could.

Huh.

His lovers energy signs showed back up in a few years...

...could he wait?

Fuck.

Fine.

He left the lab, locking it beyond what anyone else should be able to unlock, tucked Uri in his hood and with a sword and boxes in his pack. He'd need to make sure they could fucking survive in the world by that time so they weren't reborn as fucking lizard people or something.

Gokudera wasn't a savior.

Spanner wasn't a people person.

Together they drifted, re-engineering cities after the end of the world until Dera could find his balance again. With luck they'd pop back up as energy signatures when they tapped into their inherent flame abilities...

...he had no fucking clue what he'd do if he met them as babies.

Comments

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

Spanner was pretty sure that not caring probably wasn't healthy, but then again, he was a fucking engineer. None of his loves woke up remembering they used to be a motorcycle or something. "All the guardian stuff is so weird," he finally sighed.

So. Weird.

"...how much will you spare him? Time wise? I can get a lot of groundwork laid, that's normal by now, but specifics for each town tends to need the twisty brain guy."

[kuromu_dokuro]

They probably weren't healthy. Then again, well, yes. All the guardian stuff. Weird. Their lives had always been weird.

"We're not going to cart Hayato off." Chrome said, softly, "We're just going to join you, and help as best we can. We've always been better together."

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

All the weird as hell guardian stuff. Glad he wasn't one honestly, cool as it had seemed when he was younger!

"...no but I figured you'd hole up with him for a bit," he shrugged, just a roar rolled from ahead.

"Uri found bandits," Dera noted, peering ahead.

"And has been running at eat your face easily size for years now, she'll be fine," Spanner laughed.

[kuromu_dokuro]

"If there was time," she said, "we would."

"We grew up in this world, though," Yama pointed out, "we know what it's like for people without powers or technology." So they wouldn't steal too much time. Not too much.

"In the end...it's up to Hayato." Chrome turned to press a kiss to Gokudera's cheek.

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

"Shouldn't have had to," Dera noted quietly. No, that he was convinced about. It was also, possibly, more words in a single hour than he was prone to these days.

"Personally? I don't think he'll manage to let you guys go for a while yet, but it's just a nonprofessional opinion."

[kuromu_dokuro]

"Hayato Gokudera, you are not to blame yourself." Chrome stated firmly, "It took a lot of people to mess up the world, not just you."

Yama just smiled wryly at Spanner, "You're probably right. I don't mind, though."

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

"It took a god damn ring of falling debris," he snarled, hands tightening on the other two.

"...whoa," Spanner blinked. He...hadn't heard Dera cuss in years.

[kuromu_dokuro]

"Which you didn't blow up." Chrome stopped and cupped his face in her hands, "It wasn't you, treasure." The cussing was reassuring, in a way. Yama squeezed Dera's hands tightly, but let Chrome do the talking. "You need to stop blaming yourself."

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

He was the most surveillance skilled operative up there, he should have seen that shit coming miles, and weeks, ahead of time. He'd been fucking distracted by the shiny of building space shit. "...not going to happen, Dokuro," he admitted tiredly.

Fuck, was that even her name now?

"Uri's on the ridge, keep moving," Spanner prodded gently.

[kuromu_dokuro]

Chrome kissed him, lightly, then retook her place at his side to walk on. Dokuro want her name in this life... but it wasn't the one she was born to last life, either. If he asked she'd tell him it was 'Chiyo', but she didn't care that much. Who she was...was Kuromu Dokuro.

"Well, we'll keep telling you." she said quietly.

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

He'd ask them both...when he could handle it. That wasn't here and now, no, for now he'd remember to avoid names. Uri was practically a behemoth when they got to her, as much flame as fur as she looked the new arrivals over. At least she offered a pleased little chirrup instead of growling?

Yup.

"She's fucking missed the other too."

[kuromu_dokuro]

"Uri!" Chrome called out, "Hello, darling!"

Yama reached out his free hand to let the storm cat, if she'd let him. "When you're ready," Yama said, "we'll get the boxes and open them." And let the others out.

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

Chrome got a very large paw in her chest and a cat perfectly content to pin her down for head bonking! Yama would be next, obviously, for now petting was allowed.

"When we get to town I'll fucking let go enough to go through my boxes."

[kuromu_dokuro]

Chrome put up with this the way only someone who would literally die for cats can. She didn't let go of Dera, but petted Uri with love.

"Not yet, though." Yama said, "Not yet."

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

A bit more rumbling and scent marking and the girl was allowed back up so Yama could receive the same. "Not yet," Dera agreed, "fuck Uri you're going to break one or the other of them that way..."

[kuromu_dokuro]

Chrome just shrugged and scratched Uri's ears as she marked up Yama, "She's sweet. I'm sure she missed us too."

Yama just laughed as he was held down.

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

"...less sweet these days," he admitted. "More juggernaut and pushy fucking death machine." She had notions, Uri did. Probably overcompensating for Dera, all told. Maye with the other two back she'd be willing to be small again.

[kuromu_dokuro]

Chrome thought she was still sweet. Regardless, once Yama was let up again they resumed walking towards their goal. "She's beautiful. She's always been beautiful, but this is a different level."

She leaned her head on Dera's shoulder as they walked, enjoying the world feeling right for the first time in this life. Sure, he wasn't the same. Neither were they. She was only worried because he seemed so broken and she wasn't sure where to start putting the pieces back together.

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

Past the ridge were the remains of the bandits, so no, not sweet. Effective though, Spanner glanced at the bits and clucked, "feh, nothing worth salvaging...bet the wall at Two Bridges messed their raid plans up."

"Better have, last round we fucking made it terrifying."

[kuromu_dokuro]

"Good." Chrome said, kicking a bit of bandit out of her way. "Bandits deserve to die."

"The encampment we're from had a real problem with them for a while." Yama added, "They stopped coming around the last couple of years we were there, though."

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

"Initially they were re-educated, given other options and shit. Now, years out? No excuses," Dera admitted grimly. He'd tried Tenths way, many had, worrying about populations and shit.

[kuromu_dokuro]

"No excuses." Yama agreed, shrugging. People only got so many shots at life, really.

Chrome was just glad that 'Dera was talking again. The silence had scared her a little.

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

It was a lot like a needle skipping on a record, there were many kinds of storm after all, he'd been ice these years, silent, numbing, just as deadly but removed...he wasn't thawing now, no, but he was remembering how with the familiar grooves.

At least Two Bridges wasn't that far? And their wall was Vongola levels of impressive. How not?

[kuromu_dokuro]

They walked another while, then Chrome asked in a tiny voice, "Hayato? Are you...unhappy we found you?"

[unrelenting_rhapsody]

"No." That was immediate and clear. No, he couldn't be. "I just...can't think."