Update as of [12/11/2012] – I suggest that EVERYONE rereads this because I've decided to completely revise this series. It feels wrong that I haven't been updating it. I figure if I revise it I might be able to get back into updating… So… please be patient with me.

Update as of [26/04/13] – I now have a beta, so everyone can thank the wonderful mercyn for making my writing a little more understandable.

Well hi,

This is my first Fanfic so please be gentle. I am always looking for constructive criticism. In my humble opinion it is the best way to improve. My spelling and grammar aren't the best, but I do try to make my work as easy to read, and understand for you readers. I mean, it's the least I can do since you take your time to read my story.

P.S.

Don't hesitate to tell me if I have something critically wrong. Spelling, story, or if my characters seem completely OoC. Anyway, enough rambling. Please enjoy this kind of 'Prologue' to E'la Nostra Ora Incisa Sull'anello.

Please enjoy despite the spelling and grammar errors I am prone to.

E'la nostra ora incisa sull'anello

"E'la nostra ora incisa sull'anello"

"Our hour was engraved on the ring"

That was the first thing I told him when I 'met' him.

That first time we 'met'. That was the first time I had hope for my family. I also had the greatest worry and fear for our downfall. Though I loved that fear more than I should have. It wasn't the dreaded fear one feels when faced with a phobia, no it was that fear/excitement/thrill one is faced with when the unknown looms overhead.

"Then I will destroy the Vongola!"

That is what he had said when we met. When we first saw eye to eye. When he was trapped, when he had to watch me and his predecessors scorn him and press our sins into his hand. It wasn't really fair that we met in such a way, but that was the will of the rings.

My descendent. That is what they call him. My incarnation. Though, we are very different. We met and I left with my descendants- his predecessors. Left him sniveling and scared from the meeting where his innocence was shattered and the truth of what exactly it was he was inheriting was given to him on a platter as softly as it could be given. That is what he thought when he was left in the black of a cloud guardian's weapon.

What he doesn't know is that I have been with him all along. When my soul was torn in two halves, like it always is, he was the one to keep me sane. He was the one to keep me hoping for the survival of my family.

The half-blood Vongola ring. Such a stupid tradition. Though, I suppose if we weren't separated our power would destroy the family. Only one person seemed worthy of our power; Tsunayoshi.

A simple child. That is what Vongola Decimo was. Simple. A child. Perfect. Our lives- the Vongola's lives -are drowned in a sea of blood. Stained with the sins of our eight other generations.

However, a mafia is to be expected to be bathed in crimson mercury right? How could we be called a 'mafia' if our leaders' hands were always pure and clean.

To the outside world. To everyone around us. To the civilians who were caught up in our explosions. We are evil. We are blood thirsty. We thrive on the murder of the innocent, and the blood of our enemies. That is what a mafia is. That is what the Vongola is.

Protecting those who we love. That is what I started. However, the Vongola blood, as tainted with mafia heritage as it was, was eventually led into a spiraling downwards fall. I suppose that is what happened when Secondo took over after my time as family head. You can take the bullets from the man but you cannot take the blood from his hands. That is why I believe we strayed from what my family and I started those almost ten generations ago.

G always told me while we lived on in our rings that Xanxus was the perfect leader. The Secondo's reincarnation. But even split, I could tell he was cold. Unmoving, like ice. His fire was simply rage. That rage could never protect anyone. Even Secondo, as full of rage and hatred as he was, had a flicker of other emotions, had a spark of humanity. Xanxus was simply, purely; Rage.