When Murdoc arrived at Kong he saw Russel sitting outside of the large studio next to a young girl with purple hair that fell down over her face. The bassist approached the two and they stopped whatever conversation they were having before the older man arrived. He studied the drummer and swore that he was two times larger in height than he had been a few years ago and something about him just seemed rather off like something was missing. He turned his attention to the young girl next to him who appeared to be in her mid teen years, her hair just reached her shoulders.

"Noodle, t'at really yew luv?" He asked tilting his head to the side as he studied the young girl who was almost his height.

She smiled brightly as she jumped to her feet wrapping her arms around him tightly; he wrapped an arm around her and patted his free hand on the top of her head.

"I missed you a lot, both of you. I missed being with family, when is 2D-san coming back?" The young girl asked as she broke away and looked between the two men curiously.

"He said he'd be here by tomorrow morning, she's grown a lot hasn't she?" Russel asked looking up at Murdoc smiling slightly.

He could only nod in reply, she looked so different. Part of him was relived she was no longer a little kid and that she could speak decent English now, but part of him did miss the small girl in the FedEx crate.

"So wot 'appened to yew lot while we were all away?" Mudoc asked as the three made their way inside of the vacant home.

"Well I tried to get help for something, I was thinking there was still a demon inside of me….I was right, but when they were removing it I lost my friends too….I was out of it for a long time afterwards and when I finally came to and they told me Del and the others were gone too….I just couldn't handle it, losing my friends twice in my lifetime…I couldn't handle that, I just got really depressed, and after awhile I decided it was time to come back here." The drummer said looking off in the distance like he was still lost in his mind.

His vacant white eyes made the grave tone of his voice even eerier. Murdoc had always liked the ghosts caged up in the younger man's head; he really couldn't imagine what he was feeling. He'd never really had friends and he never had any who would want to possess him once they died.

"Wot about yew luv?"

Noodle sat down on the large gray couch and stared up at the two men. There was still something off about her; he remembered how before they left Kong she hadn't spoken. She would scream at night, sometimes words, but mostly just shrieking. He was still getting used to hearing her speak, especially hearing her speak in English even though her Japanese accent was still quite thick.

"The man who shipped me here originally was a doctor, he had been taking care of me….I was part of an experiment….A child army, there were twenty-three of us, they had trained us to be cold blooded murderers designed to kill and nothing more. Once they were done with us they planned on killing us, but I managed to survive, the doctor who took care of me refused to let them kill me like the other children. He helped me become…Human, I learned to play guitar when I was living with him….I don't have my nightmares much anymore, I feel finally like I am at peace….I still do not really know about family though, where they are, or if they are alive." She said bowing her head.

Part of him waited for her to cry, he glanced over at Russel who seemed as lost as him. He wanted to say he couldn't believe they would do such things to little kids, but nothing really seemed to surprise him when it came to wars. He hated it had to happen to her though, she was like a little sister to him, and all that time of seeing her lost and confused not wanting to say anything had killed him. It'd killed all of them, he hated himself for wishing she'd just come from an abusive home. He shuddered when he thought about the things she had to do; it was a bit disturbing to hear. He wondered if she could snap, it explained how well she could fight, but it still bothered him the more he thought over it.

"You're with family Noodle, we're your family." Russel said finally breaking the ever growing silence.

The young girl looked up at him smiling sadly.

"Yeah he's right luv, yer safe 'ere wit' us, and dullard whenever he gets back 'ere."

The larger man shot the bassist a look.

"When D gets here you need to lay off of that shit." The drummer warned.

"Excuse me, why should I?" Murdoc asked feeling annoyed and offended.

"That's the kind of shit that got him upset before the break. The kid's been really confused all of this time, but he seemed happy when I was talking to him in the past couple of months. I just don't want you screwing it up by knocking more of his teeth out or making him leave the band again."

"Ah bloody hell he never left in t'e first place."

"Yeah only cause that was the day Noodle arrived here, if it wasn't for her he would have left." Russel spat back angrily.

"Could you two please not fight, we have only been together an hour so far. Russel-san is right; you need to be kinder to 2D. I know he is not very….Smart, but he does like you a lot and it does hurt him when you scream at him."

Murdoc could feel the anger welling up inside of him. He bit at his tongue deciding it was better to just leave the room instead of screaming. He stormed off into the kitchen grabbing a bottle of rum and made his way back into the rec room and towards the elevator.

"Oh by the way man your skin looks kinda green." Russel said sounding confused.

"Yeah and ya look fuckin' fat."

With that the elevator doors closed and he was headed down to the lower parts of Kong. There were a lot of vacant rooms he had discovered over break, a lot of places to go, and just get piss stinking drunk. That's what he planned to do tonight; he knew it was stupid to spend the first night with his band mates locked up in a dark room getting drunk. He couldn't help it though, old habits were hard to break, and he really didn't want to break them anyways.

Be nice to the idiot, why did he have to be nice to him? So what they had shagged a lot, yeah he'd said and done a lot of cruel things to the singer, but that was his fucking fault for taking it. He deserved all of the shit that he got for never really standing up for himself, even if it resulted in Murdoc breaking every bone in his body. He just wanted 2D to stand up to him, hit him, or kick him, something.

He never did though and it drove him to the brink of insanity, no he was already there.

He went into the first room he came to, it was filled with boxes. Mostly weapons, rum, and pornographic material. He had a lot of boxes like that sitting around the studio, nobody really knew about them. He liked it that way, he thought about visiting his portal to Hell, but he really wasn't in the mood for dealing with those things. He just wanted to get good and drunk, pass out, and wake up in time to greet the singer of his band. He wondered for a moment if anything had changed, all of them had changed some obviously, but picturing a changed 2D was near impossible. He would be the same submissive over sensitive idiot he had been all of those years ago.