An annoying buzz ripped through the 3AM silence of the old, degraded apartment, and K tensed up as he heard Vice snarl.

"Who the fuck is calling me at three in the morning?" K pretended to be asleep as Vice checked the caller ID, "Why the fuck is Fussa calling me?" His shout went down a notch as he answered, "Fusataro Fussa, do you fucking know what fucking time it is? You better have a damn good reason for waking me up!" Vice quieted for a moment, letting Rage's master speak. Then; "That's your fucking problem, not mine!" He snarled, now more than a little pissed. K dared to open his eyes a crack to look at Vice, who was glaring out the window into the trashed alley below. His face suddenly softened into a look of pure confusion, "He—He what?" Vice narrowed his eyes, "How the hell did you not hear anything?" He out his free hand on his hip, "I—…Fine. I'll be there in a minute. I'll get Jealousy, too." He hung up and sighed as he slid on his jacket.

K sat up, "What's going on?"

"Go the fuck back to sleep." Vice snarled before leaving, slamming the door behind him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Vice stared at Rage's room from the doorway. It was trashed. An absolute disaster. Rage was typically neat. Fussa had explained Rage's apparent OCD a while ago as some shit about him 'controlling what chaos he could' because he couldn't control his own chaotic anger…or something like that. His first thought was that Rage probably had a tantrum, destroying his room. Though that was unlikely; Rage had recently blown off a lot of steam and no one was expecting him to snap again for a while. Plus there was artificial blood all over the place and the surveillance camera was torn off its mount and lying now as a mangled piece of metal and plastic in a corner of the room. There was a big stain in the middle of the room that stank of oil. Whatever had happened, Rage was wounded enough that his actual mechanics were damaged. He narrowed his eyes; he knew no human could do that to any doji, so he automatically assumed it was another doji, someone with a bone to pick with the wrathful doji. One of the evil doji most likely. But it was still odd that Rage was missing. Gone. And through the whole thing, Fussa was in the next room over, and hadn't heard a thing.

"What do you guys want?" Jealousy had come in so silently that both Vice and Fussa jumped at the sound of his voice. Vice growled and rolled his eyes.

"Rage is missing. You said once that emotions cling to certain areas of distress or some shit like that, right?" Vice asked, and then continued when Jealousy nodded, "Figure it out." He pointed into the room, stepping aside. Jealousy sighed and walked in, looking around. Vice turned to Fussa, "So how the hell did you find out that he was missing?" He raised an eyebrow.

Fussa sighed, "The smell."

"I thought you guys said Rage was missing." Jealousy suddenly spoke up.

"He is." Fussa answered, glancing back at Jealousy, "Did you find him?"

He was staring up at the lowered ceiling. He nodded and got up onto Rage's bed, lifting up one of the tiles in the ceiling. A surprised whimper greeted Jealousy as he stuck his head in the ceiling, "Why are you up here, Rage? Come back down."

"I-I can't…! It'll come back…!"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It took at least until dawn to coax Rage out of the ceiling. Vice had at one point gotten frustrated and tried to force him down and quite a literal shock for it. But when Rage was finally calmed and brought down, he immediately lapsed into unconsciousness the moment he realized he was safe. Only then could they get a good look at him, when his arms had finally released their death grip around his chest. His entire chest had been ripped off, a few metal ribs sticking out with the glistening red and browns of his fluids. His sphere was protected tightly by the limbs that usually made the pledge, forming a last resort defense. The edges of the wounds were long claw marks and what looked like bite marks. The human shape of the bite marks just further embedded it in Vice's mind that whatever attacked him was a doji. He'd have to ask when Rage came back to his senses. For now he paced angrily outside the room as Jealousy patched Rage up. He would NOT have his inferiors fighting each other.

Jealousy brought Rage into the living room and set him on the couch. Vice walked over, "Jealousy. Go to each of the other sins. Find out who did this so I can properly punish them." Jealousy nodded and left. He looked down at Rage and snorted. He'd never really liked the guy, a bit too mouthy at times, but his noh was very useful. Especially when it came to making a distraction. Power outage over there, massacre over here. It confused the humans quite a bit.

He snapped at Fussa to fix him something to eat before going to stand on their balcony. After a while of staring at the city, a black shape flashed by on the street below. Vice blinked a couple of times, not sure if he'd really seen anything. He rolled his eyes and shrugged it off as his eyes playing tricks on him as he went back into the large apartment.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Inhuman hisses and crackling noises escaped the mouth of a figure, seemingly that of a small girl, as she slipped out of the sewers. Metal claws extended from bloody holes where her fingers should have been. She stood up, her rusting spine making a creaking noise. No one would hear it, though. Her body creaked, popped, and screamed from her movements as she jerkily limped down the alley. Any one watching her wouldn't hear a thing. She lifted her head, stringy blonde hair falling away from her face as she sniffed the air. The skin on her face was burned away from a horrible electrical burn, revealing the rusted, singed metal that made up her body. The wound was thanks to her last, failed prey.

She made a high squeal of a noise as she found she couldn't smell anything she wanted to. She had to fulfill her objective. Seek and destroy Dr. Dunstan and any creation of his. Her hand twitched and she suddenly bounded on all fours through the back streets and sewage lines of the city, occasionally popping her head up to smell. Her human teeth clicked together happily as she smelled and processed the scent of another dôji. She slowly dragged herself through the small opening out of the sewers, her sinister red eyes falling on a little blue bird, his back to her as he whistled happily, a bounce to his step. He was carrying a plastic bag of some sort. By the look of it, he'd just finished running an errand.

Thanks to her silencing noh, he didn't even know what was happening until she was on him.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Rage woke up later with a groan. Vice looked over at him, "Fucking finally. What the hell happened?" He snarled.

Rage blinked a few times and tried to sit up, but yelped and laid back down, "Shit..." He looked over at Vice, "You're certain she's gone...?"

"She? You said 'it' earlier." Vice crossed his arms.

"Well it isn't really... I mean..." Rage clenched his eyes shut and whimpered, "Fuck, my head hurts..."

"What attacked you?" Vice growled, leaning forward.

"A-A little girl... but she wasn't... she was like us... not human... not doji..." Rage suddenly curled up and started trembling, having a panic attack of sorts. Vice sighed and leaned back, running his fingers through his hair as he waited for it to pass. This could take all day and night.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

She sat crouched behind a dumpster near the body, her large eyes focused on it. Others would come for it soon. She was motionless and her body was contorted strangely in the narrow space. She felt no pain; her creator had made sure of that. She missed him so. But this was her objective. If she could get this done, then she could go back. She hoped he wasn't mad that she'd messed up on her first prey. It had been so rushed, her last moments there. She wasn't really finished, her funds had been cut. She was 'too violent'. She could be a danger to mankind. After her mobility was tested, her creator shoved her into the time traveling machine as the authorities were drawing close. But she would never hurt a human. They tasted nasty. After the massive attack on Dunstan's tower, thousands of people rushed to find a way to stop him. And thus she was born. Built against every note Dunstan had left behind. Well, almost. She was still vulnerable to that electric one and the two noh manipulators. She'd just now killed one, so there were only the two left. She laughed silently as she recalled the terror on the blue one's face when he heard the terrible sounds she made when she moved. That was on purpose. Terror is her friend, her companion, her guide, and her one love. Her parts were meant to grind, creak, squeal, and scream in certain places. It didn't hurt. Her silencing noh upset her sometimes. She couldn't turn it off easily, though she loved to. Just to see the fear in her prey's eyes.

Movement caught her eyes and she snapped out of her thoughts. An old man with a ponytail stood over the body, his face contorted into confusion as he knelt beside it. A doji stood beside him-he's the middle, her interface told her-and there was worry over his face. She could sense that these weren't normal emotions on their faces, and that they didn't know she was there, but she felt too in awe of them to move. She watched silently as the two inspected the damage done to the body.

"…What do you think it was, Dunstan?" The doji asked quietly.

The old man, Dunstan, shook his head, "I don't know. But whatever it was to take Service off our radar and do this to him… It's from our time. And I doubt it was legal. Even if we tried to go back to our time and figure it out, I doubt the maker of this thing is still alive. Probably burned his notes and committed suicide." He pulled at one of the claw wounds, opening it further and looking in. A sickly, metal-against-sinew sort of sound came from the action, making the hidden monstrosity's mouth water, "It didn't leave any residue for me to take samples of, either… Let's get out of here before it comes back, Milieu." He picked up the body, and suddenly they were gone just as fast as they had appeared.

So that was him. Her ultimate prey, just standing there in front of her and she didn't do a single thing. But at the same time, she had studied them. She knew much more about them now than she did before. And one thing stuck out to her above all.

They were scared of her.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Rage had finally calmed down hours later. He'd managed to tell everything that happened without breaking down every five minutes. Vice frowned as he recalled it.

Rage had been reading a music sheet when he realized he couldn't hear the sound of the pages turning. He'd looked up and saw that a girl had appeared on his dresser, crouched. He didn't have much time to take her appearance in before she pounced on him. The desk had gotten in his way as he tried to get away, so she managed to pin him to the ground. After that, Rage said all he could remember was pain and panic until he managed to get his hand against the thing's face and let out a massive burst of electricity. Both scrambled away from each other, Rage into the raised ceiling and who knows where the thing went.

After what little Rage could describe of the thing, Vice was sure it wasn't any of the doji. Jealousy confirmed this later that none of the others even knew what had happened. Something else was attacking them. Vice was very careful not to show his own fear in front of the others, especially Rage. He knew Jealousy could feel it, but showing it to even him would be a massive blow to his dignity.

After Rage calmed down, he got more pissed than ever, pacing like a wounded lion. Worse, he was silent. No one could know what he was thinking-Jealousy knew he was angry, but his heart reading wasn't good enough to detect exact thoughts-and that was dangerous. One time he turned too fast and twisted a wound. He had to sit down, then, with a defeated growl.

Vice wanted to find this thing before it killed any more of his underlings. He was wondering just how to do that when Dunstan appeared to them, holding the body of Service.