Chains
*The Mansion: A place known in the underworld as the house of the Fallens, where they are captured and sold off. Also a place where normal people are forced to awaken as Fallens.
Introduction:
In this alternate universe, there are three kinds of people: The first kind is the Fallen; they are humans who were once normal, but were turned to become killing slaves. To become a Fallen, it is either hereditary, and will only awaken when puberty comes or awakened by force. Awakening by force means that the person is tortured until the brink of his death, and survives with his past memories erased. The Fallen have different abilities, and they have extraordinary strengths.
The second kind is the Master; they are humans who have been chosen by the Fallen because of their own reasons. But one optional qualification to be a Master is if they are stronger or in par with the Fallen who chose them. A Master can have more than one Fallen, but that depends on his strength to control them. The last kind are the humans who has nothing to do with the two kinds.
A fallen has a symbol on their wrist, under the palm. The symbol is a circle. The image of the symbol changes when the Fallen has chosen his Master. And a Master can only be one when the same symbol appears on the back of their necks.
In this world, during daytime, the Fallen and the Master have become a myth for the normal people, for they never believed that these kind of humans ever existed. But when the night comes; criminals, politicians, Mafias, Yakuzas and other dark organizations live secretly to do their own dirty works. And in the underworld, the Fallen and Masters are always present.
Chapter One: Midnight Snow
Inside the Mansion: The Laboratory
In the underground part of the mansion, a man in a lab gown known as Verde was looking at his watch, waiting for the moving hand to strike at the right time. And when it striked at twelve, the room he was in was lighted by hundreds of screens that covered each wall, showing different types of computer and other technologies that controlled the whole place.
Inside, four persons were on each side of the room, typing through the unusual keyboards as soon as the screens lighted.
"It's the right time...Start the Re-awakening now." The man in the middle said, putting his hands inside the pockets of the lab gown, smirking madly.
"Operation-N Starting..." A woman in a black fitted suit said as she pushed a red button before typing a lot of numbers. She was wearing a head gear that covered her eyes for her to only see the commands on her screen.
"Opening Cell 445 for Experiment..." A man in the same suit nodded, pulling the handle beside him before switching different lights on. On the main gigantic screen in the center of hundreds of others, a large white room was lighted, and after three seconds, the screen was divided into 4, showing the center of the room in different angles.
"Entering Subject XX18..." Another man said, typing different codes while looking at the screen in front of him. On the main screen, the gate at the right side of the white room opened. A robot-like machine called Mosca entered slowly, pulling hundreds of chains that were connected to a huge cylindrical tube wrapped in larger chains and was placed at the center of the white room. After sixty seconds, the Mosca exited the room.
"Entering Top Soldiers..." Another woman said, typing continuously.
One hundred people in black and violet suits and in armor entered the white room with varieties of swords, surrounding the tube.
"Releasing Subject Container..." A man announced. And on the screen, the chains fell from the container, showing the insides of the tube. It was man who had a pale skin and a very black colored hair. He was dressed in white hospital gown with matching plain white pants, eyes closed as he floats inside the tube filled with green water. And on one of the small screens, a camera was focused on his wrist, showing a black circular mark.
"Commencing Operation..." The first woman said before pulling the switch beside her.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
After the countdown, all of the people inside the control room halted from typing, And at that same time, the first ten soldiers attacked and broke the tube, spilling the green water and stabbed the man with daggers before he fell on the ground, on the shattered glass shards with a very disturbing sound.
An eerie silence lingered inside the room. Anticipating eyes waited in anxiety, and others, in excitement, waiting for the subject to move after being attacked. XX18's blood was flowing continuously from the deep wounds, mixing with the green liquid that was spilled on the floor, creating a dark color. The man was silently breathing despite the daggers that was deeply stabbed into his body parts; his legs, thighs, shoulders and the sides of his stomach.
More seconds past, making the soldiers wait in more anxiety, before the raven coughed in blood, his body twitching.
The green haired man smirked.
The soldiers stepped back little by little to ready themselves for battle, as they observed XX18 rise slowly from the tainted floor, wiping his mouth by his sleeves. His hair was wet from the green liquid and blood, that was still flowing from his wounds and scratches. When he was already standing strait, he opened his eyes, glaring while observing his surroundings. He looked at his body with confusion, before pulling the daggers out from where they were buried; eyes never flinching like he didn't feel any pain.
The first ten soldiers who were ready to attack him suddenly fell down with a silent growl, surprising the other soldiers. The soldiers who fell had their necks stabbed with daggers, and the remaining soldiers readied themselves with caution.
"Turn the lights off and switch it to Night Vision." Verde said, adjusting his glasses.
"Instruction received." A woman said before typing, switching the turning off the lights of the white room.
Screams of pain and agony were heard as soon as the lights disappeared. And after waiting for minute, the lights were on again.
The white room that was once white was turned into a crimson red room, with the bodies of the soldiers lying everywhere, bathing in their own blood.
"Perfect." Verde said as he watched subject XX18 standing in the middle of the bodies, with his clothes soaked in red liquid.
The scientist was about to announce that the operation was successful, when red lights started blinking and alerting sounds startled the people in the whole place.
"Doctor Verde, XX69 has escaped from Cell 87!" A man shouted, typing before his monitor showed that an indigo haired man in white clothing was running in a corridor while destroying all surveillance cameras.
"Tch. Close all the gates and release all kind of soldiers, take back all experiments, dead or alive, now!" Verde commanded. He went to the main screen and started typing.
"Doctor, all of the gates have opened and cannot be closed, other experiments destroyed the command room in Cell One. XX69 acted as a decoy. Five other experiments have escaped." A woman said, her voice was calm but sounded panicked. Verde glared, frustrated.
On the main screen, XX18 smirked and escaped the room before the gates of the room closed.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
"Are you sure you're okay on your own, Tsuna?" The baseball player asked, standing by the door frame, the loud music bursting through the corridor behind him.
"Yeah..." The brunet nodded and looked down to check whether his shoe laces were tied neatly, before looking up again at his friend. "Um, I'm really sorry Yamamoto, I can't stay until midnight. I really want to, but I have work tomorrow." Tsuna said, giving him an apologetic smile.
"Nah, it's okay...but you know, I don't understand, it's supposed to be the winter holidays...hmmm, I guess your boss is really strict." The taller man cocked his head on the other side.
He's more than strict! He's an evil incarnation! The brunet thought.
"Well, it's not the job's fault." Tsuna answered quickly. It's his insane boss' fault. If it wasn't for his boss, Reborn, saying that he should-must-work harder than everyone, then Tsuna would have got to spend the Christmas vacation with his dog, Natsu, and have celebrated this Christmas eve with his best friend, and his best friend's colleagues. Why he should work harder than anyone and everyone in work, he didn't know. What he only knew was that his Boss was an insane, inhuman, sadistic creature who was born to live to torture people. Tsuna let out a heavy sigh.
"Oh, and sorry if my teammates suddenly barged in and threw a ...loud party." Yamamoto looked back, chuckling as he heard one of his teammates singing with the deafening music.
"It's fine, really. Well, I have to go now..." The smaller male smiled at Yamamoto. "Thank you for the movies by the way." Tsuna said before walking ahead on the snow path, waving back at Yamamoto.
"Call me if you need something!" Yamamoto shouted, smiling; before closing the door of his house.
Tsuna gave the house one last look and a smile before looking back on his path, wrapping his orange scarf tighter on his neck and rubbing his hands together. He was wearing a short sleeve white shirt and beige cargo pants. He knew it was snowing, yet he forgot to wear his thick sweater and white mittens because he was late for work that morning.
Work.
He sighed for the umpteenth time that day, remembering his job.
The brunet was working in a weird secret agency where his father recommended him to apply. It was a Do-It-All agency; where the top ranked workers do the dangerous jobs: they would either catch a criminal, protect the President of some country, or assassinate someone dangerous to the society. It may be a dangerous job for them, but the amount of money given to them were more than enough to buy an island.
The middle rank workers do the average-but-not-easy jobs; like pretending to be a third wheel in a relationship to separate a couple, or to dig a grave to bring back a jewelry with the corpse.
All the jobs mentioned were the jobs Tsuna knew he would never try to do nor think of doing. That's why he was placed in the lowest rank; where the workers would do house chores, be a janitor at some company, babysit, and be a waiter at some restaurant. Well, for Tsuna, house working is the best thing he could do; that's why he was satisfied with his job and with his salary. What he wasn't satisfied with was having a boss like Reborn; who would make him work out of his schedule without any additional amount in his salary, and let him clean the whole building of the Vongola Agency, which was seventy-nine floors. And like it wasn't enough, the top ranked workers would always bully him by giving him an errand to run, like instructing him to buy bottles of orange juice from another country via telephone.
Though his life at work was not what he imagined it would be, at least he was still thankful that he had a job for him to survive without his parent's help (Well, except for his father's job recommendation).
Tsuna snapped from his thoughts, remembering that he needed to buy dog food for Natsu and some grocery supplies. Rubbing his hands the second time, he opened his messenger bag to grab for his wallet. He noticed the CD's he borrowed from Yamamoto earlier.
Tsuna took out his wallet and one of the CD's before changing his route to the direction of the grocery store.
The brown haired male was staring at the silver disk while walking, reminiscing his past memories when he was in High School, the time when he met Yamamoto, his first friend ever.
And his first love.
Well, it was a cliché encounter for someone who was always bullied during their High School life.
It was a time when Tsuna found himself stuck in the same predicament he never got used to, being attacked by street gangsters in the middle of the day. He just accidentally trespassed inside the gang's turf, for he thought it was the best shortcut he could take going to school, and apparently, he assumed wrong. Fortunately, by the time he was being strangled on the wall, by a tattooed-faced man, with another gangster pulling his khakis down, the baseball star of his school, who was Yamamoto Takeshi showed up and delivered subsequent punches to each and every gangster present, while giving them a lecture of something about righteousness and equality. And after that day, Tsuna and Yamamoto became friends and the latter would always make sure Tsuna goes home and comes to school safely by escorting him back and fort.
And yes, Tsuna thought that that part of Yamamoto was very sweet.
The brunet snapped out from his thoughts and glared at particularly nothing, feeling his cheeks heat up as he remembered those days of his sweet High School life. It was actually a surprise when Yamamoto asked Tsuna for his number so that he could keep in touch even after graduation. And today, Tsuna and Yamamoto were both already twenty four in age , the only difference is that Yamamoto became a ridiculously handsome, popular, star- baseball player. Not that Tsuna thought Yamamoto was not handsome when they were in High School.
The brunet shivered, the cool air gently touching his warm cheeks. He decided to take the long way to the grocery rather than the short cut, wanting to feel and smell more of the fresh wind of Christmas. He smiled.
The petite man turned into a corner and came into a silent street where shops where starting to close down, but still had the gorgeous Christmas lights turned on. It was a peaceful sight. Especially the big Christmas tree located at the center of the road that was filled with Christmas balls, angels, and other sparkly decorations. Tsuna felt warm and fuzzy just by looking at the tree.
Until all those feelings disappeared when he saw a man taller than him in a white clothing, covered in cuts and bruises while his hospital pajamas drenched with red stains. The man was staring at the Christmas Tree with a look, Tsuna guessed, was fascination.
With no other person in the street but the two of them, Tsuna forgot about the grocery store that was twenty meters away and immediately went to consult the stranger whether he was okay or not. Yes, Tsuna was nervous, terrified even; his soul screaming to run away, but it was his nature to always prioritize those who were injured, for he himself experienced the pain of being abandoned after a good beating.
By impulse and instinct, the brunet jogged to the direction of the man, and when he was about five feet away, the tall man snapped his head at his direction and glared. Tsuna immediately halted. While the man was glaring at him, the brunet took the opportunity to inspect the man's appearance. It actually surprised him, that on a closer look, the man was alarmingly attractive, despite the minor cuts on his face. He had a long indigo hair, pale skin, perfect pointed nose, high cheekbones, long eyelashes and fine looking lips. He was like a person who came out of a model magazine that featured Halloween. But what attracted and intrigued Tsuna the most was those heterochromatic eyes. He felt like was being skinned alive by those eyes, yet in a way, it was pleasant. Shivers ran like wildfire in his body, and an unknown feeling of excitement was building up in the pit of his stomach.
They were just staring at each other until Tsuna noticed that blood suddenly trickled from the man's forehead.
"Hii! You're bleeding!" the brunet practically ran to the man's side and pressed his handkerchief on the man's forehead. The man's eyes widened and his whole body stiffened when felt the physical contact. Tsuna immediately regretted what he'd done, but held the hanky still with trembling hands.
"I-I-um, I'm sorry, uh- I know this is really freaking you out but, um, please relax and let me treat your wounds. I know that you d-don't know me but I-I won't harm you, and I can't leave you out here bleeding,s- so..." Tsuna didn't really know what to say, so he just bit his lower lip and concentrated on the man's wound.
The man looked at Tsuna quizzically, an elegant brow raised . The man studied the brunet before the feeling of relief washed through his body. Before Tsuna could think, the man suddenly closed his eyes and fell, and on Tsuna's reflex, he caught the man, with the stranger's head on his shoulder.
Tsuna panicked, not knowing if the man was dead or not. But when the petite man felt a heartbeat against his chest, he gave a relieved sigh. So this means I'm going to take care of you, huh. Tsuna shrugged gently before repositioning the man, placing the man on his back, hands around Tsuna's neck, his head on resting on the brunet's shoulder.
And as soon as Tsuna took his first step, white particles gently caressed the ground. Tsuna's eyes widened in excitement.
"The first snow." It means it's already midnight, based on the news. Tsuna smiled, looking at the injured man while walking.
"Merry Christmas, Mister."
Author's Rant:
My first KHR fic. Hope you did enjoy reading it. But I'm warning you guys, that I'm not a fast updater, unless a miracle happens and a huge number of reviews would make me want to write.
The rating might go up to M, and it's not because of the violence, if you know what I mean .*LoLz*
Oh, and this is gonna be All27...but I think it's going to be mainly 692718...it depends on you guys...and a little Yama x Tsuna fluff.
Anyways, hope you did enjoy reading it.