Disclaimer:

I DO NOT own anything mentioned in this fic, other than the OC's, and the T-shirt…so what? I saw it in a gothic clothing shop and so what if it's a men's? I love it! So comfy and warm! And the pants are also mine as soon as I save about £50!

Summary:

Rei has lost his best friend Lee and Satanist Max comes and offers him a solution to his misery. But what if it goes too far? What if Rei starts hurting those he holds dear? What if his new alias 'Fang' takes over and makes him less and less like he used to be?

NOTE:

Very little of what I have written and will write reflects true Goth nature. This is my fanfiction so I will do what I want in it. Not all Goths are Satanists either.

Yin or Yang? My God or Yours?

"Your god is different to mine. You must pray to yours in order to keep him with you. He allows you to suffer. He sends tragedies to hurt. You say your god is gracious…that everything he does is a test to make sure you won't turn to the devil? I say he is the devil. My god, the supposed 'Fallen Angel' Lucifer, is the gracious one. He is described as the Lord of Hell, the King of the Underworld. The Master of the House of Sinners. But does he allow suffering? If someone has wronged another to a certain degree he will not permit them a chance to redeem themselves. Your god summons all sorts of people into his midst, rapists, murderers, and thieves. He gives them a chance to repent. Gives them the opportunity to forget the pain they've caused and be allowed eternal happiness."

Rei's eyes widened as Max finished. He had been struck speechless. Was this really the happy carefree teenager he had travelled around the world with? What had inspired that dramatic piece from Max was the discovery of Rei, crying over the loss of his best friend Lee who had been lost to a savage murderer, in his room. During the tear-filled explanation, Rei had divulged the knowledge that he was a Christian, despite his Chinese heritage. Max was instantly filled with anger. He knew that Rei's god would allow both Lee and his murderer into heaven despite the great sin committed.

"Ma…Max?" Rei stuttered, wiping his teary eyes in disbelief, his hand still visibly shaking. "Wha…who…" He couldn't think of anything to say, so shocked by Max's sudden and surprising change in demeanour was he. Max sat on the edge of the bed that Rei was currently sprawled on, both having stayed the night at Tyson's home. Gently he rested his hand on Rei's back, slowly tracing circles up to the neko-jin's shoulder blades. Rei wanted to shrink away from the caress on his upper back but couldn't. He had become exhausted by his teary episode earlier and felt vulnerable. He also felt that he should move away from this Satanist but he couldn't. The slow and steady circles had become hypnotising in his fatigue.

"Come Rei. I want to show you something." Max finally whispered, his mouth dangerously close to Rei's ear. His body wouldn't listen to him, he found himself rising from his bed and slipping out of the house, his hand joined with Max's as they stole down the street. "Listen to me Rei…I'm going to show you what it's like on my side of the world."

Rei suddenly came crashing down to his senses. "What's going on Max?" He asked, wrenching his wrist away from Max's vice-like grip. "This isn't you. Well…it's not the Max I know."

The blonde just in front of him turned around and faced him. "No Rei." He paused for a moment studying his friend's facial features. He took a deep breath and stepped forward slightly so that he was facing Rei. As he had gone through a growth spurt in the previous year he was a few centimetres taller than Rei, as was evident now as his eyes stared Rei down. "This is the real me. The Max you know…knew…was my alias. I mean…how do you think my mother would feel knowing her innocent little 'Maxie' was a Satanist like me?" He sighed and broke eye contact with the raven-haired teenager.

Rei had no answer to that. He knew that…Max…was right. Judy was so proud of innocent Max that she would never accept him as this dark sort of person. Each time he opened his mouth to comment he ended up closing it soon after. This sudden change in Max had completely thrown him. The knowledge of Lee being killed was hard, but at least he thought he had his friends around him to help him through his best friend's passing. Now it turned out that one of his friends was not who they originally seemed.

After a while Max smiled and took Rei's hand. "I just want to show you some things." He said before leading Rei towards the bus stop. Rei was about to point out that he had no money for the bus when Max pulled out a large pouch full of money. At Rei's questioning look he simply smiled and waved his arm out for the upcoming bus.

Once they'd paid to go into the city, Max led him to the back seats where around four gothic looking people were sat. As Max raised a hand to greet them, Rei suddenly took notice of what Max was wearing. Huge black boots were on his feet, whether he was wearing socks under them was not evident as his black pants were long and baggy with metal chains coming out of pockets that adorned nearly his entire leg. 'Bob Marley much?' Rei found himself thinking, referring to A Christmas Carol where Scrooge's old business partner appeared covered in chains. Max was wearing a tight black T-shirt with the word REBEL in white letters over his chest. Over the T-shirt he was wearing a long black leather trench coat, again completely covered in chains. 'Where the hell did he manage to hide all this stuff?' Rei couldn't get it out of his head. A silver skull ring glinted in the dim light of the bus.

He was brought to earth by Max pulling his arm down to sit next to him. As Max introduced him to the group Rei's eyes took in Max's face. As the had been outside in the dark he hadn't actually seen the American's face, but now that he had, he wasn't even sure this was Max anymore. Maybe it was a female version of Max? Sure, Rei had worn make-up before, before being quite often, nothing quite like foundation and mascara to bring out the long curve of his eyelashes and the delicate complexion his face had, but Max was taking it to a whole new level. He was wearing blue eye shadow, and not a soft shade either, an extremely vibrant blue that made his eyes look really eerie, and the eyeliner that covered the brim of his eyes didn't help! On his lips he wore black lipstick so dark, he made his normally pale complexion, extra white.

He was snapped out of his reverie by a nudge from one of Max's 'friends' who had sat the other side of him. "So you're a neko-jin huh? That's pretty cool. You got amazing reflexes too?" He asked, prying for more information. Though scared of these strange people Rei answered their questions and soon he felt pretty relaxed around them. They didn't even mind that he wasn't dressed as they were, which Rei thought quite refreshing as he had always dressed as similar to the group he walked around with so as to avoid standing out.

Max was happily chatting away to others about different films and books they had read or watched, most of which Rei recognised as horror material. Then they started discussing bands, most of which the neko-jin had never even heard of. Bands like Nightwish, Evanescence, Muse and Green Day, that group Rei recognised, though he hadn't listened to any of their music. "Hey Drac we gotta get your boy kitted out if we're going to Roxie's tonight." A girl with more facial piercings than anyone the Chinese boy had ever seen before said.

Rei looked around for the one called Drac and was surprised when Max answered. "Don't worry Shelley. We'll go to GothRock before we meet the guys." Max looked in Rei's direction and smiled at Rei's confused expression. "GothRock is the place where we buy our clothes and boots, and Roxie's is sort of like a night club specially for our type of people."

Rei nodded and then, to his companions' amusement, asked why he responded to the name 'Drac.' Max couldn't hold back a chuckle at that. "Sorry Rei. Guess I kinda threw you in at the deep end huh? Drac is my nickname here. We all have nicknames so that if we get in trouble no one can trace us…well…that's why we have nicknames anyway." He chuckled.

Rei straightened up in alarm. "Trouble? What sort of trouble?" He asked fearfully.

Max just waved his hand. "Don't worry. We rarely get in any kind of problem. It's just to cover our backs." He turned to the girl who had suggested Rei was 'kitted out.' "As you will know; this is Shelley, real name Marie." He turned to the boy on my other side. "That's Nightshade, real name Andrew, the girl in front of him is Mel, real name Louise and the last guy sitting next to me on my right is Yo-Yo, real name Joey." Rei went over the names carefully. Seeing the confusion still evident on Rei's face Max added, "Don't worry if you can't remember them all. Hey! You need a nickname!" Suddenly all five of the group started murmuring together trying to decide on a name that would suit Rei.

Rei looked from one to the other as they shot out different names. Nightshade came up with the idea of "Kittykins!" To that his eyes were nearly torn from his head with a very indignant Rei declaring that, though he may be a neko-jin he was not a kitten!

"Not a kitten…" Max pondered something for a while. "How about Fang?" He suggested. Rei looked around as the others nodded in agreement before looking at him expectantly. "What do you say Rei? It's your name…you should have some input." Pondering the name carefully he thought about the significance. It made him out not to be as weak as most people thought he was. And with a name came a new identity, he just had to look at Max for proof of that. Reaching a decision he looked up and smiled his affirmation. "All right!" Max yelled, causing a large number of passengers to turn his way and glare. "I dub you Fang!"

As the bus pulled to a stop a pleasant voice rang out over the intercom, "This is the end of the line, we hope you enjoyed travelling with us. Please make your way to the nearest exit. We hope to see you again." As the group got to their feet and left the bus, Rei followed them timidly. He had never been into the city before. Before he could even get his bearings he found himself being dragged into the centre and into a shop with a neon sign out the front saying 'GothRock.'

As they entered teenagers behind the counter looked up. These people had lip rings, earrings, nose rings, eyebrow rings and even cheek rings. Rei noticed that one boy had a metal thing in his ear that was in place of normal earrings. Max whispered to him that it was called a Flesh Tunnel, seeing the gaping hole in the boys ear made Rei shudder so he passed the counter quickly, quickly regretting that action as the entire group ran around the shop gathering clothes that he may fit into. Max seemed to be the man in charge for this mission as they all surrounded him with the clothes set out for Rei.

About an hour later, with Rei fully clad in slightly ripped pants, a black Green Day sweater, a similar trench coat to Max's and heavy boots, which Rei found out were called 'New Rocks,' they left for another part of town, a little bit out of the city centre. Max stopped suddenly and pulled Rei over to the public toilets. Winking to the others before he went in, he pulled out a few containers.

"What's going on Max? How is this going to help me get over Lee?" Rei queried, but before he could go any further Max had put his containers on the side and turned Rei's face to him. His new height definitely had its advantages, he mused as he turned Rei's face one side to the other, applying make-up, near enough identical to his own that Rei had been admiring earlier, to the older one's face. Stepping back to admire his handiwork he smiled. "You really look the part. And later…" At this point he stepped closer to the raven haired and huskily murmured in Rei's ear, "If you're good…I'll show you how to act it too." He stepped away, grabbed his make-up containers, winked at the newly dubbed 'Fang' and left to wait for him with the others.

Snapping out of the trance that both Max's closeness and his seductive tone of voice had sent him into, he shakily turned towards the mirror, double taking as he caught sight of his reflection. Just like Max, he'd been completely transformed from his previous self. He was no longer Rei, The Neko-Jin from China, the master of Driger. He was now Fang. At least, he appeared to be Fang. "Oh hell." He muttered, not caring that he was blaspheming, "What am I getting myself into?" He asked, his eyes rising to study the ceiling.

::..END CHAPTER..::

The end of this chapter but not of the fic. Is it me or are my chapters getting longer? Anyway…I want a load of reviews because I'm really getting into this! And besides…IT'S SEME MAX! HOW OFTEN DO YOU GET THAT IN A REIXMAX PAIRING!?

Merry Christmas to all (even those who read and don't review because they're stingy!)