A/N: This takes place before the events of the anime Darker than Black. It chronicles the last few missions of Havoc and her first meeting with Hei and the others, including a few OCs, before the disappearance of Heaven's Gate. Naturally whatever happens here is my imagination, but I welcome suggestions!

Disclaimer: DTB is not owned by me. Though I wish I'd come up with the Contractor-Remuneration/Obeisance concept, really.

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By that which you kill are you bound.

--- O.R. Melling, The Summer King

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#01: Prologue

The Contractor stood, watching passively, barely batting an eyelid as the man's body swelled to twice its usual size, by a force millions of times stronger than anything he would have ever known. Suddenly, the pressure on him relaxed, and the resulting rapid decompression would be his murderer. She imagined the delicate alveoli of the lungs rupturing. Hypoxia and death would follow quickly. His blood splattered onto her as he fell, staining her pale complexion with patches of red. Still wearing an irritatingly bored expression, Havoc stepped over his corpse, walking towards the little girl cowering at one corner of the dark room.

"Da… daddy..." the girl breathed, hugging her teddy bear close, "mummy…" She gazed at a large puddle of red near the dining table. Then she looked at her family's murderer and stuttered, "I… I…"

Wide, terrified blue eyes met her emotionless ones. Without hesitation, the red-haired girl drew a knife from the folds of her bloody dress. Bending down, Havoc raised the girl's wrist and made a perfect incision. She'd done it so many times; she could probably make a fatal cut even if she was blindfolded. She sat down, in front of the child, drinking the blood that gushed out from the wound. As the three-year-old girl burst into tears, Havoc jerked the arm away from her, having completed her distasteful remuneration.

Blood had a metallic taste to it, and that irritated her. Humans thought wrongly of her kind. She definitely knew what she had done, and definitely felt what every human would feel if they killed so brutally. But as a Contractor, Havoc was able to rationalize far better than humans could. It was logic and rational thinking that ruled her life, and for that, she had what they called a 'lack of a guilty conscience'. Still, whatever was said about them, she would not let this girl bleed to a slow death. The Contractor plunged a knife through the girl's heart to end her misery, and took one last look at the room in which the entire family had met their demise.

The lights were off, but the pale moonlight streaming in through the window illuminated the ghastly blood stains splattered on the walls, ceiling and furniture. Daddy and mummy lay side by side, blood flowing from their eardrums and mouth. Their beloved daughter was in the corner, a pool of blood accumulating at her feet. Making sure to avoid stepping on any bloody areas, Havoc exited the bungalow by the back door in silence.

"I see you've finally completed your remuneration," a woman's voice spoke in the darkness of the alley. "You probably really hate it."

Havoc turned, green eyes flaring. But she relaxed when the person-in-question stepped out from behind a rubbish bin. Looking away, she shrugged. "It can be troublesome, I guess."

As her eyes adjusted to the relative darkness of the narrow alleyway, she became aware of Rei, who had one hand on the metallic rubbish bin. "Rei. Who are you searching for?"

The hazel-haired Doll raised her head at the sound of her name. Then she said simply, "Shang." Her eyes, a dark black, were blank. But it was only normal, Havoc thought to herself, since Dolls were so devoid of personality, they could even be implanted with one.

"Is he coming here, or do we need to go to him?"

A pause. "He's coming here."

"With new clothes, I hope," the woman added helpfully, glancing at Havoc's crimson ones. The Contractor glared at her in return.

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They didn't have to wait long before the familiar masculine shape of a man entered the alley. Wordlessly he tossed a pile of fresh clothes at Havoc's feet. The Contractor picked them up and ducked behind the rubbish bin as Shang addressed them all at the same time.

"Your next mission will be rather dangerous, Carmine; Riane. You are to masquerade as helpers in the next wave of soldiers being dispatched to Britain's camp headquarters near Heaven's Gate; their two primary objectives are to retrieve corpses and gather intelligence. Of course, that aside, they also hope to find something concrete to explain the emergence of the Gate, naturally." Here Shang paused to take a deep breath. "But, the Syndicate wants us to do more than just masquerading. They want us to seize whatever the group might find, corpses aside… and bring it back. Also, before the end of the search, either of you are to assassinate General Klepton before leaving."

Riane frowned. She brushed her short, blond hair thoughtfully and trained wise blue eyes on him. "Aren't we supposed to side with Britain?"

"General Klepton has impotence issues with the Syndicate," was all Shang said.

"What about knowledge?" Havoc asked, emerging from behind the bin and tossing her bloodstained clothes at Shang's feet.

"Knowledge?"

"We're joining a team of soldiers, aren't we? If we're to masquerade as volunteers, we need to have the know-how. We can't just walk in with nothing but the knowledge of assassination."

"You're right. That's why you're going in as volunteers, attached to soldiers in the group. Your so-called 'mentors' are part of the Syndicate as well, and you'll rendezvous with them once past the camp's security measures."

Havoc glanced at her fellow Contractor, who came to her side almost automatically. "Well then, we'll be off," Riane said calmly. The two Contractors stalked off, with the woman giving a faint nod at Rei as they passed.

"We'll update you constantly until you guys are through to the war camp. It'll be all up to you once you're in," Shang called after them.

He received no reply, but knew the duo had heard. Turning to Rei, he smiled and said, "let's go as well, Rei. We have much to do." The Doll nodded obediently as he picked up Havoc's bloody clothes and left the alley hurriedly.

After all, it would only be a matter of time before the news of yet another family's brutal murder would cause a public uproar once again.