Alright... this actually started as an one shot, but i got too many ideas and so it will turn out to be a bit longer.
And maybe a bit dark.
No boys-love intended, don't worry :3
Disclaimer: Grand chase belongs to KoG. NOT to me.
Lass stopped attacking that huge monster in front of him for a second and listened. It was loud, the clanking of swords, Armes firebolts, the yelling of Jin, Amy and Asin as they attacked, Maris building of things, Arrows exploding. Gunshots. No. That's what made him listen in the first place. The gunshots had stopped. Not that he liked Rufus that much, but he was a member of the chase, and even though he didn't got too close to the others in a battle, or anywhere else, he always fought with them. Someone jumped at him and pulled him to the ground. "Watch your back Lass!" Ronan hissed at him. He had a cut on his cheek, looked tired. Lass couldn't remember how long they had been fighting already. That monster suddenly appeared in the castle, no one knew where it came from, not what kind of monster it was. It was burning, turning everything it touched for too long to ashes. And it had claws. Sharp ones. Sieghart was the first who got to know them. "Get off!" Lass yelled at the heave armored knight and shoved him off his back. Ronan nodded and stood, rejoined the others. He noticed Elesis looked at him for a second, blocking a claw, then yelled at him, "Just look for that useless guy! I bet he wandered off 'cause he was too lazy!" Lass nodded, making a face. He would never admit that he wanted to look for that guy out of his own interest.
Quickly he wandered off, trying to figure out where the demons could have vanished to. The other could finish that weird monster off. It wasn't that much of a loss when two members didn't fight. A while later when he entered that part of the castle that had been destroyed a few weeks earlier (due to a fight between Ley and Dio), he heard the gunshots again. They weren't as fast as usual and completely stopped for a moment, before he heard them again. Lass grinned. At least that guy didn't run away without having an opponent. He got closer to the noise, noticing a monster, about the same height as him, glowing in a purple light. It was standing in the hall and was also no monster he'd ever seen before. He quickly looked around, noticed Rufus sitting on the few bricks that still held onto the wall after the rest of the floor crashed down one or two stories. Under him nothing but darkness and probably a few deadly spikes. He was leaning at the wall clutching his side. The wall was stained with blood. Lass lifted an eyebrow. The guy who was faster with the gun than some could say Kanavan was sitting there on the ground, obviously in pain and did nothing but shoot at the monster that didn't even move. As lass came closer he noticed it was just a stone that looked like a monster. "Don't touch it!" I heard Rufus yell. The moment he did, he coughed, blood dripping from his lips. Lass nodded, quickly turning serious.
"You know how to disable it?" the white haired young man asked, moved around the stone. Rufus shook his head. The bullets obviously did no damage and the stone didn't seem to attack. "What are you shooting at anyway?" Lass asked, a bit confused now. "Souls." Was the short answer. Lass was confused, but since he didn't know anything about that guy he decided not to ask. He noticed the demon had a deep cut on his leg, seemingly making him unable to walk, or even jump back at solid ground. "How did you end up here?" Lass wanted to know. "None of your business." The demon muttered. Lass sighed. "Alright, I get Arme to heal you or something. Just wait." Rufus shot him a glare that made him shiver.
He watched Lass leave, still glaring at him as he shot at more of these unholy souls. The stone was more like a portal, dead souls seeping out from it. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have a problem with that, but this time they surprised him, invading literally save ground. Never before did they come so close to the place where he resided. And he didn't have a clue why they were here either.
He felt the warm blood streaming down his side, all attempts to stop the bleeding failed, since he didn't have anything useful to being with. And his hands grew tired. He dropped one of the two eyeteeth as he'd been hit, and the hand holding the remaining gun was shaking badly. He needed more than one shot to actually hit something, and his sight slowly grew dim. Lass came back the moment he decided that it was no use anymore. Didn't care if he'd die now, or if his brother (Who still didn't know that he was) tried to save him. He felt the red gun slipping out of his hand as he lost the strength to hold it up and slowly closed his eyes.
Lass' still not very impressed face turned into a concerned one as he watched the demon slipping into unconsciousness. Arme and Amy had been unconscious, Ryan too busy fighting the monster, so he just ran through the castle grabbing some healing potions and bandages. He saw something purple floating over to the unconscious demon and quickly threw a kunai at it. It disappeared into thin air, and he hoped for it to be gone for good. He started to run and jumped over the gap to join the brown haired demon. "Hey!" Lass yelled at him, slapping his cheek. Immediately the demon opened his eyes, staring at Lass for a second before coughing again, more blood ran down his lips. Now Lass didn't only look concerned, he was. Quickly he grabbed a potion and opened it, handing it to the demon who was to wee to even lift his arms now. The taller man sighed, helping the demon to drink the potion. It was a weak one, since Arme had used the stronger ones a few days earlier and until now no one had bought new ones. The reason why Lass had brought more with him. The demon choked on the fluid, needed a long moment to calm down again. Lass fought off another one of these purple lights and turned back to the newer team member.
Rufus shook his head as Lass told him to remove his shirt so he could bandage the wounds, on his upper body. "Come on, I'm not Sieghart, I don't have any sick thoughts." Lass muttered, obviously annoyed at the stubborn demon. "I do it myself, give that to me." Rufus hissed, his voice hoarse and weak. Lass shrugged as the older demon grabbed the bandages and removed his shirt. The wounds started healing a bit due to the potion, but they still looked bad. He turned away to give the demon some privacy, waited until he was finished. "Can you walk?" Lass asked after a few moments of silence and a few kunai the hit these lights. "I can try." Rufus muttered, looking around, only to remember that both eyeteeth dropped into that deep mess of stones. Lass noticed that he peeked into the hole, and stood. "I'll get them for you. Here. " he handed the demon a few Kunai and started climbing down. He'd done more dangerous things in the past, and he'd seen this hole from down there before. Quite a few of Arme's books had dropped down and he was the unlucky one who had to get them. Although he thought that one of those who could fly would have been better. But according to this, he already knew what was down here and where he could go. A kunai clanked down just a hair past his head and he looked up. "Be a bit more careful with these, they hurt!" He yelled at the demon. For someone who was good with guns, he seemed to be really bad at throwing. "Shut it." He heard Rufus mutter. Lass sighed, continued to search for the guns. As he finally found them he picked them up, and stuffed them into his belt. When he started to climb up again he remembered some things of his childhood. Way before he was at that circus. Way before anything like this had happened. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it felt warm and comforting. A feeling he really didn't have that often.
Back up again he switched the guns for the kunai and watched as Rufus quickly got rid of the few floating lights. "We have to disable it." Rufus told him as he slowly tried to get on his feet. Lass made a move to help him, but the demon glared daggers at him, making it very clear that he'd have a bullet in his head should he try to touch him. Lass took the remaining potions and jumped back on the save side, playing the potions on the ground and watched the demon. "I'm not exactly made for jumps like that…" Rufus muttered, suddenly seeming insecure. Lass sighed, held on to a brick that seemed able to hold him for a while and reached out to the older one. "Just jump and grab my hand, I'll pull you over." A long moment passed, before Rufus shook his head. "Not in ten thousand years."
Lass made a face. "I know I'm not exactly trustworthy, being a thief and all that, but you can trust me on this, okay? I will catch you." The white haired man told the brown haired. "I don't need your help. Go away Lass." Lass shrugged and backed off. Not even Elesis was so stoic! He took a few steps back and watched as the demon jumped, his shoes touched the edge of the other side but slipped and he was about to fall down. Lass made a quick move, grabbing the stone he held on to before, and caught the shirt of the falling demon. He pulled him up, looking at the pale face of the older one. "I told you I'll catch you. How can someone be so distrustful?" Lass shouted. Rufus flinched, quickly got back to his feet, followed by some of the floating lights. He shot them, then rounded the corner. Lass followed him. "So what do we tell the others? There is a stone that produces souls?" Lass asked in a fail attempt to lighten up the mood. "It is not a stone it is a portal. And it does not produce souls it guides them here. They are coming from the underworld and the only way to stop them is going there and seal off the portal there." Lass blinked, that was about the longest sentence Rufus ever said to anyone here. "And who is supposed to go there?"
"It is my duty to do so, so I will go."
"Alone?"
"I always work alone in case you haven't noticed."
"But isn't the underworld…. Like…."
"Dark, scary and full of creatures that no one has ever seen."
"Uh… yeah. Someone should go with you… and you have to talk to Knight master about it. And to the others anyway." Lass muttered. Not quite understanding why Rufus still didn't trust anyone, even after he was with them for over half a year now. Even he started to trust them after some time. "One of them will only cause delay. I will go alone." Rufus declared, not interested in this conversation anymore. Lass shook his head and kept following the demon. The others had fought off the monster by now, but it obviously had disappeared. "What took you guys so long?" Elesis complained, pointing her sword at Lass. Rufus backed away at this gesture while Lass just grinned at the red head. "There's a portal-thingy in the Part Dio and Ley destroyed. Rufus said there are souls coming out." Elesis lifted an eyebrow in complete confused while Dio came closer. "How did a portal get here?" Dio asked Rufus. The smaller demon took a step back, nervously moving his hands to his guns. "I asked him the same, he doesn't know." Lass lied. While he always knew when the others lied, he was quite good at lying to them. Dio glared at the tall man, then turned around. "Zero, help me destroying that thing." Dio yelled, then took off. Amy who seemed to have recovered walked towards Rufus. "You're hurt…" she muttered, her voice full of concern. "I am fine." He quickly told her. Lass knew that look in his face. When he was new at the chase, he also was afraid of them. But Rufus had never done anything to endanger their lives. There was absolutely no reason for him to be afraid.
"Let me heal you, Arme is still out cold." Amy laughed, then winked at Lass. He nodded, knowing she meant that Arme was fine. Rufus however took another step back, now colliding with the wall. Amy made an attempt to close up the distance but Lass held her back. "Let him be. Go help cleaning this mess I take care of mister stubborn." He grinned at the pink haired pumpkin face and watched her running off. Rufus glared at the assassin, hoping he'd finally leave him alone. Unfortunately their rooms where quite close so they had almost the same way.
On their way they met Arme, who was currently holding a large ice cube at her head and looked in pain. "Hey shorty." Lass greeted her. She glared at him "Hey Mister Air-Head and Mister Grumpy." Arme hissed at them. She was in a very foul mood, probably due to the massive headache the monster had given her. "One more word and you two are getting bombed all the way to Serdin!" She almost yelled, giving Rufus an extra sour glare and stormed off. Lass smiled, almost laughed at Rufus' face. "Come on, you know she's joking."
"She seemed serious about it."
"You need to understand her humor."
"Why should I." Rufus muttered, turned to open the door to his room. "Rufus?" Lass asked. The demon turned his head to the white haired man, waiting for him to speak further. "If you want to talk about something, you can tell me. I won't tell anyone else." Rufus frowned at him, then disappeared in his room and shut the door rather loud. "I'll never get that guy." Lass sighed, then aimed for his room.