Disclaimer: Wowwy, 2 chapters back-to-back. Y'all are lucky.

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Murdoc scowled at the girl and then took another step closer to her. He was considerably taller than her, and was trying to use the height to his advantage in an attempt to intimidate the guitarist. "Listen, if you think I won't reach down there and get it, you are sadly mis-"

"Oh, you don't scare me." Noodle cut him off as she pushed by him to exit the bedroom. "And actually, I don't think you would reach down there and get it." she replied curtly as she mimicked his voice and scrunched her face into a mock frown. He turned to follow her, and then roughly spun her around by her shoulders so she was facing him.

"Listen ta me, yew don't understand this. Jus' leave it alone."

"And what if I don't want to? I want to know why you've been making it a point to avoid being in the same room as me. I think I deserve to know after everything that happened." her face softened as her gaze moved upwards to meet his. For a moment, it looked as though she was about to cry. " I think something happened down there in Hell. And you're not telling me everything." Murdoc said nothing, and looked away from her and back at the ground once again. She frowned.

Suddenly, the young Jap broke free from his grip and stormed out of the Winnebago, into the car park. "And until you decide to tell me everything, you're not gonna be getting this back!" she yelled to him as she held up the cross over her shoulder. Murdoc was left standing in the doorway of the mobile home yet again, watching the small figure walk away.

*********************

Noodle marched angrily through the corridors of Kong studios. The black, empty hallways would normally have kept her very aware of her surroundings, especially at night with the countless zombies wandering the property. But tonight was different, she was so distracted with all the new feelings and strange energy coursing through her body, she hardly noticed anything around her. Until she ran straight into 2D.

"Ugh! Oh surry, Noods. Didn't see yah there. S'dark in 'ere, eh?" the singer regained himself after being knocked back a couple of steps.

Noodle straightened herself up and shook her hair out of her eyes. She caught herself cringing with every word that came out of the man's mouth, almost as if his voice seemed to irritate her.

"-Listen, I'm not feelin' the greatest right now." The young girl cut him off and tried to push past him.

"Oh, wull...are yah sick or sumfink?"

Noodle cringed again. Suddenly that cockney accent just seemed to cut right through her.

"No, I'm not sick. I'm just tired. I'm going to bed." she lied.

But as she tried to leave again, the singer grabbed her arm and tried to take a look at her face. She kept her head down and turned her face away from him. He was really starting to get on her nerves now, why couldn't he just leave her alone?

"'Ey, maybe you should go to tha doctors. Yew ain't lookin' so good. An' wot's wrong with yo' eye?" Stu tried to lean in closer and study her face, not even realizing she was scowling at him all the while.

"Look, I'm fine. Will you just get OUT of my way!" the guitarist finally snapped and shoved him aside. 2D watched her storm away down the hall with his mouth hanging open in shock.

"Erm...mus be tha' time of tha month or sumfin..." he mumbled to himself.

Once Noodle entered her room, she found that she was not able to calm down from her angry state. She felt like a little girl again, everyone telling her what to do and not giving her all the information she needed to know. The frustration inside her was rising and she angrily ripped all the covers of her bed. She threw her pillows across the room and knocked everything off the top of her dresser. The girl took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down as she looked around the room. It almost felt like she couldn't get enough air, her chest was so tight it was like somebody was sitting on top of her.

She burst out of her room and ran quickly towards the lift, not really sure of where to go. Still trying desperately to get enough oxygen in her lungs, she leaned up against the wall as she waited for the elevator to reach her floor. Suddenly, her vision went blurry and she felt very weak, she looked up from the ground as she heard the familiar "It's there" from the lift. Noodle tried to make her eyes focus as she took a few shaky steps forward.

Then she collapsed.

***

The room was spinning. This was bad. Noodle felt like she might going to throw up as she quickly sat up from the bed and held her head in pain.

"I told yah ta leave this alone."she heard a gruff voice from behind her. "But noooo, yew jus' wouldn't listen."

Noodle looked up to see a blurred version of Murdoc standing over her. Where was she? She opened her eyes to take in her surroundings and was surprised to find herself back in the bassist's Winnebago.

"M-Murdoc...why am I-"

"Don't talk. Jus' listen." The Satanist seemed angry as he took a few steps closer to her. He held a cigarette loosely in his right hand and took a long drag before throwing it in the ash tray in front of him. The girl coughed lightly as the smoke billowed in front of her face.

Noodle slumped down a bit and silently looked up to meet his gaze. She didn't feel angry anymore, though the sick feeling seemed to be getting worse.

"I found yah in the lift, passed out cold. Yew looked like shit." Murdoc continued as he sat himself down in the old chair across from the bed. "I knew it was gonna happen. Tha's why I brought yah back 'ere."

She nodded slowly.

"I wanted tah tell yah...I jus'..." he paused, having a hard time finishing the sentence. "...yew were right."

Noodle looked at him oddly. Right about what? None of this was making any sense to her, but she felt too horrible to care. She just let him keep talking.

"I...have some thing I needa tell yah. About....what happened. In Hell." his voice was quiet, almost a whisper.

There was a long silence that seemed to drag on for an eternity. Noodle had never felt more tense in her life as she sat across from him. He was staring at her, not taking his eyes away. She had never seen him act this way before today.

"Yew gotta understand, Noodle. Yew had been down there for a year an' a half. Nobody had any hope left for yah." He paused again and his voice cracked. She could tell it was hard for him to talk about. "But then I found yew...after lookn' for so long." He stopped again and then leaned forward. To Noodle's surprise, he reached across to her and grabbed her hand, giving it a hard squeeze. "....Noodle..."

She looked up at him with tears in his eyes.

"Yew were... dead."

Noodle felt a tear roll down her cheek. She didn't remember anything from the ordeal and suddenly the weight of the situation seemed too much for her.

"I couldn't handle it, I needed to get you back somehow. It was only because I had experience there before that we were able to escape." He choked again. Noodle felt more tears roll down her face. Seeing Murdoc in so much pain right now, he could barely speak...it was so hard for her to see. He was supposed to be the brazen rock star who could handle anything, the strong one, the rock.

"I...everyone needed to have yah back. An' I sure as Hell wasn't gonna leave yah down there ta rot. So I..." Murdoc stood up suddenly, and fumbled to get another cigarette from the pack in his back pocket. Noodle edged closer to him so she could see him better. She was hanging on to his every word, her chest felt tight and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

"I had to make a deal..." he finally finished.

Noodle felt her stomach drop. "A...deal?" she could barely speak.

"I had already sold my soul to the devil. Yew knew that. There was nothing I had to offer that Satan didn't already own." he lit the smoke and took a look drag. Murdoc starred at the ground, no longer able to face the girl.

"So...what happened?" she finally felt brave enough to ask even though she was afraid of the answer.

Murdoc looked at her from under his dark hair. He opened his mouth and let out a long stream of smoke from his lungs.

"I sold 'em your soul."

Noodle blinked. The words he had just said didn't even seem to register in her mind.

"My...my..." was all she could keep repeating over and over again, she was not able to finish the sentence.

"Murdoc...what have you done..." she clasped her chest tightly, feeling for a moment like she was going to pass out again. Murdoc watched her, just waiting for her to yell or scream or hit him...or do anything. He expected her to be beyond furious, but the way she was acting now seemed more like depressed. He hung his head down.

"'M surry, luv. I didn't know 'ow else to get yew back. It was selfish and horrible I know. If yah hate me forever I'll understand." Murdoc stood up to leave the room, but to his surprise, he felt her small hand grab his arm and pull him back down.

She clenched her teeth and gripped his arm tightly, "You....you are one of the worst people I have ever met. You have no compassion for anyone else and only ever think about sex, drugs and liquor." she snapped at him. Murdoc flinched like someone has just burnt him with fire. Noodle looked him dead in the eye as she continued, "But... you risked your life to save me. You brought me back...to my home. I know you do care about me, and you saved my life the only way you knew how."

She was angry, confused and still having an extremely hard time taking in everything that had happened to her and processing the information she had just received. But, part of her was grateful, and happy to know that Murdoc did care for her. She couldn't ignore his intentions.

Murdoc let a small smile play on his mouth. "Of course I care about yah, luv. I always have." He squeezed her hand again, she felt cold. His expression changed again to one of concern as he watched her. She seemed grateful, but sad. Confused and angry at the same time, she was so close but so far away and distant.

He needed to continue, she had to know the whole truth. "Luv, listen to meh, Noods. This is really important. Because of what I did...it completely changes everything for you. And me."

Noodle expression went blank as she continued listening.

"You see, the devil already had my wretched, old soul. But you...your soul is different. The whole reason yew ended up down there was because they sensed your good, pure spirit. And to them, it's the most desirable thing they could ever get their hands on."

The teen nodded again, suddenly getting that sick feeling back in her stomach. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could handle. But Murdoc kept going.

"..So, I had to make a deal with Satan 'imself. I offered him your soul so that you could come back upstairs with me. But what he didn't realize is that I been around tha block a few times, being the fantastic Satanist that I am. I had already negotiated my contract with 'im, an' got a pretty good deal." He paused to look at the girl, making sure she wouldn't faint again.

"What does all of this mean, Murdoc!"

"I'm gettn' there, jus' be patient, girly. The point is, your contract with Satan states your soul goes tah 'im when you reach 75 years-old or die...whicheva' comes first." He stopped as he heard the girl start to whimper and cry. "Noodle, please luv, lemme explain. You have to trust that I know best for yah." Noodle nodded slowly and wiped the tears from her cheeks. The bassist squeezed her shoulder and continued.

"Anyway, that's a pretty basic deal down there. But, what he didn't realize is there's a loop-hole." Noodle perked her head up when she heard this part.

"A loop-hole? How?" she sniffed.

Murdoc turned to look at her, a very odd expression on his face. She cocked her head to the side, confused as she listened to him go on.

"Well, tha's where I come in..." He started. Slowly, he backed away from the girl a bit and sat up straight. Murdoc cleared his throat uncomfortably as he tried to keep going with the story. "Yew see, Noodle-girl..." he paused again, rubbed the back of his neck and then continued, "There's a certain...clause in my contract with the Devil."

"...What kind of clause?" the girl asked cautiously.

"Uhhh...wull...I can't recall exactly how it goes, haven't flipped through it in a while.." he started. But seeing Noodle's frown, he cleared his throat and tried again. "Apparently, though, if I were to find a girl..." he stopped and looked at Noodle. She blushed.

"Well...more specifically...a virgin." Murdoc coughed.

Noodle felt her whole body blush.

"Woah...Stop. Right. There." the teen interrupted. "Are you going to tell me you need to sacrifice a virgin to your insane Devil-Gods or something? Cause if that's the case, I don't think I wanna hear anymore. Also...how would YOU know if I was a virgin?"

Murdoc rolled his eyes. "Okay, first of all, I'm not gonna sacrifice you to any gods. That's just cliché. And secondly, I've lived with you for a good seven years now. I'm sure I would have heard about it at some point if you had been 'deflowered'." Murdoc bent two fingers on each hand to form air-quotes. "Not to mention, Russell would have had some teenage guy's head on 'is mantel." he chuckled as he took another drag from the cigarette.

Noodle cleared her throat once he had finished, and there was a long, awkward silence between the two. "Well...fine." she finally spoke, "What do you need with me, then?"

"Well...I'm sure yew can guess..." Murdoc shifted uncomfortably in his chair and looked at the ground. Noodle looked at him oddly. He sighed, "A'wright, well, if I were to...have a pure, virgin..and say we were to be..urm..wot's that word...intimate..."

Noodle's jaw hit the floor.

"Wait a minute...THAT'S your loop-hole?!" Noodle exclaimed as she jumped off the bed. Murdoc cringed and stood up as well.

"Now, I know wot you're thinkn', but it's not like that..." he tried to explain, but was cut off by Noodle.

"Oh, really? Well please, enlighten me. Because it seems like you sold my soul to the DEVIL, but now you're telling me it'll be okay if we do the horizontal-tango?!"

Murdoc smacked his hand into his forehead. This was not how he imagined the conversation going. "It wosn't wot I had intended, I didn't really have time to think the situation through. It happened so quick, yew were dead and I had no other option." He turned away from the girl and leaned on his nearby dresser.

Noodle watched him suspiciously.

He took a deep breath. "Please, luv. This wasn't how I wanted to tell yew. The situation is jus'...fucked up, I know." He turned around to face her again. "That's why I been avoidin' yah, I felt guilty and I wosn't sure wot was gonna happen. I been sittn' here every day since, jus' tryn' to think of sum other way to save yo' soul."

Noodle felt a pinch of guilt in the pit of her stomach. She had no idea of everything that had been going on with the bassist. Now that he had explained it all, she could almost understand why he wouldn't be able to face her. Gently, she placed her hand on his broad shoulder. "Okay, Murdoc. I trust you. Together we can find a way to figure this out, okay?"

"Well, that's wot I been tryn' to do. But...I didn't anticipate wot happened today..."

"What? What happened?"

"...You...wearin' that damned cross..." he muttered. Murdoc ran his hand through his hair and turned to face her again. "S'got a hold on yah now, Noodle."

"What has a hold of me? What do you mean!" she exclaimed, almost fearfully now.

"I mean it's already started!" Murdoc exclaimed loudly as he spun around to face her. Then, he pinched the sides of his forehead to calm himself down. He sighed deeply as he sat down next to her on the bed.

"Look...I'll come clean wif yah, luv. 'Is has been goin' on fo' a while now, but I noticed it more ever since we escaped from the Hell-Hole...I couldn't stop thinkn' about yew, Noodle. At first, I didn't fink nuthin' of it, jus' kept brushin' it off as sumthn' else. Then...I realized it was more than that..."

Noodle looked up at the Satanist, tears in her eyes.

"It's stupid, I know. It didn't make no sense to me either. But I just couldn't get yah outta my mind. And that's the other reason I wos avoiding yew...I knew I was startn' to..." he trailed off again as he looked deep into her now mis-matched eyes.

"...have feelings for you. More than just a band-mate, more than jus carin' about yo' well-bein'." Murdoc finally finished and looked at the ground. Noodle studied his expression, and for the first time since she had ever known Murdoc, she saw him blush. "And I couldn't deal with it, I wos bein' a coward, I know. But I just couldn't handle the way I was feelin' and all the thoughts runnin' through my brain. I tried drinkin'em away, tried to jus stay away from you. But it was like...I had no control over it."

Murdoc reached his hand under his shirt and pulled out the inverted cross that was back in it's rightful spot around his neck. "Why do yew think I always wear this, Noods? It ain't no fashion statement." He fingered the cross for a moment and then tucked it back under his shirt. "It's part of who I am, wot I believe in. No matter how much I try to ignore it."

Noodle found his hand on her knee and squeezed it tightly. "I know that...now. It has a power. I felt it as soon as I put it on."

"Yeah.." Murdoc replied sadly. "And the power is more than you'll evah know. Whenever I wos around you, that thing would heat up so much it was like wearin' a hot coal around my neck. An' that night yew spent in my bed...it wos jus' crazy."

Noodle, oddly enough, found herself blushing. She considered that a compliment coming from Murdoc.

"Anyway.." Murdoc continued, "when I wos in the kitchen today, I didn't realize yew were there. It was the first time I been around yah in about a month, so of course this thing went berserk." he motioned to the cross around his neck. "It was so intense, that's why I hadda take it off..."

The guitarist nodded, it was all finally starting to make sense now. "So...what did it mean when I...wore the cross?"

"It means...you're the only one, now. You're marked."

"Marked?"

"Yeah, like I said. I hadn't anticipated it happenin'. But now it's done an' there's nothin' either one of us can do about it." he replied gravely. "That power you felt...it was me, Noodle. It makes yah connect with me in a way...yew jus' wouldn't even begin to understand."

Noodle looked down sadly at her feet swinging at the edge of his bed, "So...what you're saying is...there's no other option, now?"

Murdoc shook his head. "Not unless yew wanna spend eternity with Beelzebub. And as for me...well, let's just say I might be face'n the same fate soon enough."

The girl felt tears fill in her red eyes again as the guilt and fear swelled up inside of her. "Why, Murdoc? What will happen to you?"

"Well, once the 'one' has been marked, it means that's my match, yah know? The other part of the contract. If I'm not with my match.." he looked over at Noodle "..yew..." and then hung his head as he continued, "...then as soon as this body goes..."

"...You go with it." Noodle finished sadly.

"Yew got it, kid. No more new bodies for Mudsy." Murdoc sighed.

Suddenly, he felt Noodle's arms wrap around his shoulders tightly as she let lose a whole new stream of tears. "Shhh, darlin'. It's okay. We'll be a'wright." He held her shaking body close to his.

"No Murdoc. It's my fault. I realize now...if I had just listened to you before and not have tried to force you to explain it to me..." Noodle sputtered into his shirt between sobs.

"No, luv. It's my doin'. You had no idea of wot was goin' on. I should have told you about this as soon as we got back..." He squeezed her shoulders tightly.

The two of them stayed that way for a while, comforting each other in silence for about an hour or so, until they both grew weary and fell asleep on Murdoc's bed. They slept together that night, wrapped up in each others arms and holding one another close. For those few hours of sleep, they were at peace and able to rest without worrying about their fate.

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A/N: Again, there's a lot more going on than in the first couple chapters. I am really trying hard to finish this story in a timely fashion because the idea is in my head and I'm afraid it's gonna fly outta there or get all jumbled. Please lemme know if it doesn't make sense or if there's any glaring mistakes.