Ripples in the Sea of Time by InsaneScriptist

Beta'd by the prolific Umei no Mai

Summary: Choices have consequences. Faking your death has large ones. People are not always sensible in their grief and that's not a combination that should be allowed to a teenager that grew up with time-travel technology at hand, in a future that's so bleak.

"Voi! What are you doing here trash?" Squalo's loud as always, but he's not as loud as normal and his tone… brr. It could flay a man to bits.

And Lambo was only a teenager, but he was on a mission. He had his plan; he was going to carry it out.

"I'm here for my own reasons."

"And don't you know you're a persona non grata?"

As was the Decimo, and the rest of his 'Guardians.' As Lambo knew. It didn't change his mission. "Yes."

"Then get out before I kill you and unlike Boss I'll make it quick." The best offer of mercy, from Squalo that Lambo could expect. "I've got other things to do." The swordsman added, just to specify that it wasn't offered out of kindness.

"Ah, but you should be interested in what the great Lambo has to say." His voice almost cracked on the 'great', but Lambo liked his masks and wasn't about to let go of them. Not even now.

"And you have no authority to make me listen. You don't have the Ring." Squalo pointed out with deadly accuracy.

The Vongola Rings were something that Tsuna-nii had decided to destroy and Lambo failed to understand why he had done that. The Rings couldn't be counterfeited, had a potency beyond others and more importantly were a symbol of power.

A symbol that this man or woman spoke for the Vongola and that any organization affiliated would listen. A symbol of authority. Of power.

Destroying those had fractured the Vongola beyond all understanding, but it wasn't like Tsuna-nii could understand that now. Being dead and all. He hadn't even understood it before dying.

"It's an idea, I've got, to prevent all this. Erase this particular time-line or at least cancel it out. Because that can be done." The specifics and consequences of choice and time-travel is something he grew up with; where most had at best a theoretical understanding of parallel worlds, Lambo had lived and experienced them.

"You're talking nonsense, trash." Squalo stated.

"No, no, let the cow-scum talk." Said another voice that Lambo knew. It was pretty much the only sound the Boss of the Varia made as he approached and it was unnerving to see his eyes bright like that in the dim light. No wonder why the man was said to be a demon. All his instincts said to run, but he was fucking scared stiff.

Remember the mission. He reminded himself. And to breathe. The mission was his purpose now.

"I've had this bazooka for years now. I know all it's quirks and how to make them happen. Like sending a mind back and extending the time." Lambo explains in a rush, proud his voice didn't crack during it.

"That's all well and good-" Squalo starts on a rant, voice climbing in volume with every word.

"Useless, scum." Xanxus cuts in and Squalo shuts up. "Whoever you sent back would eventually come back and then their past self has to adjust to whatever their future self did, blind."

Pretty much what happened to any user of the bazooka. No matter which direction.

"Usually." Lambo drawled, agreeing with that. "There're a few specifics that I've managed to work out. It's not like the Bovino would give their most cutting-edge research to a child of five, especially one with all my bad habits."

Neither of the Varia say anything, although Squalo scowls. Lambo tries to remember to breathe because he tends to forget precisely how terrifying Xanxus is; the air is thick with power around the Varia's Boss and Lambo feels the weight of it pressing on his lungs.

"Who were you planning this for?"

"Either you or Squalo. Maybe both. You'd have to get to the Sky Arcobaleno, so that you don't wake up one morning with no clue of what you've been doing the past few days or maybe months. The Sky Pacifier can make miracles of time and space possible, as I heard Reborn say, which is how I think Byakuran and the Millefiore are winning so blatantly. Yuni's younger than I am, so it's not like it's impossible to manipulate her to work for him. It's highly likely."

"Aria of the Giglio Nero was the previous Sky Arcobaleno… the Vongola are neutral with them. Then." That Xanxus is considering the idea is good, better than he hoped for. Considering all his hopes pretty much died when Tsuna-nii died. "But still only ten years."

"Not always." Lambo manages to smile as he says that. "Ten years is a safety mechanism. Disable that and I can get back further, or a little less than twice since that'll put either of you old enough to be mostly independent and able to travel on your own if you disregard the age laws for driving. Back when the Vongola had more than a single bloodline candidate for heir."

Squalo gives him a wide-eyed look, but Lambo doesn't stop.

"I love Tsuna-nii and I believe in his dream of a more peaceful world, but at some point idealism meets reality and fails to match. Taking weapons away from those that would misuse them, sure. Try to avoid killing more than absolutely necessary, not a bad idea. Trying to destroy the mafia? That's madness. You're talking about an idea, which as bloody and messy as it is has structure, reasons for action or inaction and isn't absolute chaos. It's business. It's a culture and one shaped by human nature at its worst and has been here, shaping politics and lives for decades upon decades. Destroying the mafia's not going to work, so I think he tried the next best thing and tried to destroy the Vongola. It's just his timing sucked and no one managed to explain to him that the Vongola might be part of the mafia, but the Vongola prevents the absolute worst from happening by being the best."

"And he broke you." He hears Xanxus say, which sounds about right. Something broke in him.

"He died. He died believing in his dream, without a single one of us around him to prevent it. Fuck, Bakadera and I were the ones who got his body first!"

And a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day didn't even begin to cut it. Ryohei was called in first, as Gokudera tried to revive Tsuna-nii, but then all Ryohei did was call in Hibari, after pulling them both off Tsuna-nii's corpse.

Hibari who at least had the decency to inform Mamma that her only child by blood was dead. Lambo had pulled himself together well enough for him and I-pin to take care of her until Iemitsu whisked in and left the mess of a hurricane in his wake, the day after she had realized that Lambo and I-pin had removed everything she could have killed herself with. Which was not the first day she had tried but the first time Lambo could remember Mamma being so full of utter contempt towards them.

Lambo had left as Gokudera started pulling funeral arrangements -such as they were with the Vongola being hunted by the Millefiore- together.

Lambo has no idea how he ended up on his knees, tears in his eyes, but he gets no placatory words of condolence from the two Varia. A firm warm hand on a shoulder and that's it. He looks up.

It's Xanxus' hand which makes Lambo choke on a sob, because sympathy from a devil? Who would have expected it?

Except Lambo doesn't want it, so he throws the hand off and stands up. "So, who's going to the past?"

Because that's his mission: to prevent this from ever happening. And then he'll go to the girls, to Haru and Kyoko and see about protecting them, as Tsuna should have been. For however long it takes before this future ceases to exist.

Izzy has issues with 10YL!Tsuna's 'plan' in all kinds of ways. He pins all his hopes on his younger self and the Vongola Rings, which their younger selves are shown to be able to protect, so their older selves have no excuse to not have them, other than older!Tsuna destroyed them. Which would have complications within the Famiglia.