Tadaaaa! (Gawd! i just LOVE saying that x3) Contrary to popular belief, i did not give up and I am not dead. =O
I missed you all!!!! Not writing FF for more than 2 months totally SUX. I'm SOOOOOO glad to be back! Rawr. x3

***Just to let you all know, i replaced the crash notice with something else so you may or may not check that out ^_^

Beware! This chapter may suck. I really have no clue. =X

Disclaimer: Alas, i do NOT own GA. Duh. =P

Normal POV

Mikan was still running. Running as far away as she could from the training field- from where the dead bodies of the student and her teacher lie. Tears streamed down her face at a steady flow as she cursed once again for her mistake and having lost control.

"Damn it!" She cried. "This wasn't supposed to happen...! I don't want to be a monster!"

Mikan screamed in what was a mixture of frustration, anger, guilt, and sorrow and began running even faster through the forest, dodging all of the obstacles in her way.

She finally collapsed hours later. Exhausted from running and out of breath, Mikan curled up where she lay, eventually drifting off into a troubled sleep.

The familiar brunet shifted where she lay underneath one of the many large trees of the northern forest, sweating hard from a nightmare that she was currently having- a nightmare of the past. Meanwhile, a pair of feet began walking towards her from very far away.

----

"Faster thirteen!" A voice ordered through the girls earpiece.

She was currently running through a dark maze- another test she was forced to take. Mikan complied, picking up speed as she ran through the dark, gracefully and skillfully avoiding each and every obstacle that they had planted in her way. That is, all except for one...

Mikan tripped hard over the fallen tree branch that they had set up.

Pain.

That was all that she felt as the fall jarred her bones, adding to the injuries that she already had and opening up old wounds. Blood and mud caked her face and hands.

"Get. Up." The voice commanded through the ear piece. Mikan didn't move. "Get up!"

A jolt of electricity shot through her body as the collar around her neck was activated. Mikan screamed in pain and forced herself to stand on her shaking limbs, wincing as she did so.

"Good." The voice congratulated with a flat tone. "Now run."

----

Mikan groaned in her sleep and rolled onto her side.

----

"Mikan...." A voice filled with concern said softly to her right.

She had just finished her training and was now back in her "room." She herself preferred to call it a prison. That's what it was after all. Mikan turned around in the large metal cage she had been locked into. Though they had cleaned and dressed her wounds, every movement hurt and she winced as she turned to look at the source of the voice.

Blonde hair and blue eyes met her sight as she looked into the face of a girl her own age. Her best friend smiled softly.

"Hello, Mikan."

"Hello.... Elaine." Mikan murmured.

----

Footsteps were approaching the sleeping figure, distant and unheard.

----

"She's starting to disobey orders. She attacked one of the doctors! Eliminate her!" A male voice said angrily, arguing with another figure.

Mikan's eyes widened from the place that she was hiding.

"No." the figure disagreed calmly. "She's too important to kill. I know why she started to disobey anyways... We just need to get rid of her and everything will be back to normal."

A dropping feeling began to form in Mikan's stomach.

The man nodded and turned took out a cell phone. He dialed a number and waited a moment for them to pick up.

"Bring eleven here. Now."

----

The approaching footsteps were now within earshot and coming quickly.

----

BANG!

Smoke rose slowly from the barrel of the gun. Elaine fell to the floor with a thud, her golden curls splaying across the cold tile floor. Blood began pooling around her dying body, soaking the golden locks and dying them red.

"NO!" Mikan screamed in horror. "No, no, no! Elaine!"

She struggled to break free of the grip of the scientist, but combined they were too strong.

"Elaine!" Mikan screamed again. Desperation filled her voice as she thrashed and fought to get out of their hold and aid her fallen friend.

A tall man walked forward. His eyes were black, as was his hair and he had a smirk on his face.

"This is a lesson," he began in a deep voice, "to teach you to never defy me and that freewill is not an option. Not now. Not ever."

There was a sharp pain in her neck and all was black.

---

The footsteps stopped in front of the brunet. Mikan continued on sleeping, unaware of the person standing above her.

---

She cracked her eyes open. She felt nothing.

Nothing.

She was floating inside a tank that was filled with some sort of strange pinkish colored liquid.

'Who am I...?' she wondered. Her own voice was foreign in her mind. 'Mikan.' the name came to her out of nowhere.

"Mikan..." she murmured aloud. No one in the strange room noticed as she began awakening.

Everything was blurry at first as her eyes opened completely.

Voices.

She faintly heard voices, murmuring and conversing. Papers were shuffled and buttons were pressed.

'where am I?' Mikan wondered groggily. 'What is this place?'

"Erase her memories." A someone said.

That caught her attention. Mikan strained to hear.

"All of them?" questioned another.

"All. She needs to forget any and everything that has to do with Eleven. When the memories are gone we will proceed to create 'X'."

---

The person reached into their blazer pocket.

---

"X?" A melodic voice questioned.

The voice sounded miles away.

Someone chuckled.

"It's sort of an alternate personality, activated either manually," they replied, " or whenever the subject is feeling particularly threatened or is in danger. Once activated, X does not stop working until the threat has been eliminated or taken down.":

---

When she came to awareness once more, she was still in the strange liquid. Only now did she notice the various wires and cords that were attached to her body.

"What do you mean, 'terminate thirteen'?!" A man shouted. "She is our most successful project! She survived the X implantation!"

"I mean," a voice countered cooly, "exactly what I said; terminate thirteen."

They turned on their heel and began walking away.

"I want it done next week. We need to record some final data first."

---

Their hand closed around a firm metal hilt and withdrew a sheathed dagger.

---

"All of the data has been recorded. Commence termination."

A dark liquid began to seep into the fluid that Mikan was being contained it. Poison.

Danger.

Her eyes snapped open. Her mind was hazy.

"I will not be eliminated."

Blank.

---

The metal flashed dangerously in the moonlight and blue eyes shined with glee.

"Mikan," Elaine said with a grin, bringing the blade down to the sleeping girl's throat. "Wakey, wakey...."

---

Normal POV

Wake-up, Mikan...

Danger!

The words echoed throughout Mikan's mind, waking her up with a start, only to sense someone standing above her. Mikan's breath hitched as cold fear settled over her. Someone chuckled from above her and she tensed.

"Took you long enough." a familiar voice drawled. "It took me forever to wake you up, baka."

Mikan sat up and turned to see Natsume Hyuuga standing above her. Her eyes widened slightly.

He took a moments pause before adding, "You look like hell," gesturing to her red eyes and the leaves stuck in her hair. He reached over to pluck them out, a bemused expressed on his face. "What have you been doing? Rolling around on the ground all day?"

"Natsume Hyuuga." she stated softly, relief washing over her.

The crimson-eyed boy snorted. "Glad to know you know my name."

Mikan just stayed silent, her hazel eyes trained on him before making a sweep of the area with her eyes. Other than Natsume, no one else that she could see or sense was around. So then what was that?

"Something wrong?" he asked boredly.

Mikan shook her head and brushed it off as her imagination, never noticing the person hiding in one of the trees above them, blue eyes annoyed by the interruption. Elaine hissed in annoyance. She had been so close to getting thirteen! But then he showed up. Completely silent, she slipped down off the tree and using the shadows to help cloak her presence, dashed away from the two.

"Nothing at all," Mikan murmured, completely unaware of the other girl.

Natsume nodded slowly before sitting down next to her, one leg spread out and the other bent, resting his chin on the bent one. Mikan settled for sitting simply cross legged, staring at him with her usual blank eyes. He paused for a moment before speaking.

"Persona was murdered today." he began. Mikan stiffened. "Along with a high school student. Do you know anything about that?" Natsume asked calmly.

He wasn't sure why, but he was nervous about her answer. He wasn't sure what do do if she confessed to being the killer... but why did he care anyways?

Mikan stayed silent for a while and Natsume tried to read her face but she was, as usual, completely unreadable.

'What to do?' Mikan wondered. What would happen to her if she told the truth about the deaths of her classmate and teacher? How would she even begin to explain in all? Tears began pricking in her eyes once more as she remembered what she had done.

Why not lie? A voice inside her suggested.

"Mikan?" Natsume asked, gaining her attention once more. He eyed her suspiciously and the brunet blinked back her tears.

"No." she said simply. "I don't know anything about it."

The fire caster was obviously not convinced.

"In that case," he said, "where have you been these last couple hours? And why were you sleeping in the forest at night?"

Mikan responded smoothly, "I was training with Persona and then I was released. I passed out here. Todays training had been rather... difficult."

"Really..."

Mikan nodded.

"Are you accusing me of being a murderer?" Mikan asked, outwardly calm but inwardly scared. "Might i remind you that until a few weeks ago I had received no formal training in combat skills? Persona was a high level fighter and someone like me would have never stood a chance."

Another lie....

A lie though it was, it was defiantly something that Natsume had to take into consideration. When she put it that way, there was no way in hell that she could have done something like murder Persona and kill one of the highschool divisions best DA agents... But at the same time, he couldn't believe it. There was no one else who could have had the chance and even though he couldn't sense any lies, there was something that was just not right about the over all calmness of the mysterious brunet. That, and the fact there was blood on her dirtied uniform. A major point, but Natsume didn't say anything anyway. After all, it could have been her own blood, right?

Wrong. a voice inside him disagreed.

Natsume ignored it and instyead nodded towards Mikan and stood up.

"We should get going." he stated.

Mikan just sat there and stared as he began to walk away and towards the direction of the school dormitories.

"Are you just going to sit there and stare like a moron or are you gonna move?" Natsume snapped when he realized that she wasn't following.

Mikan stood up and began following after him. Natsume resumed walking. Together the two headed back, the moon lighting their way.

"Natsume?" Mikan asked softly, standing outside the door that led to her room.

"Hn."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

'No.' "Of course i do."

Mikan didnt look convinced as Natsume turned away and began to head down the hall and towards his own room in the boys dormitory.

Once Natsume's form disappeared from her sight, Mikan walked into her room and took a look in her full-length mirror. Some of her hair was draped across her neck and she brushed the auburn locks away, only to see a thin red line across her throat that looked to have been made from something very sharp. A few drops of blood had leaked from the wound and Mikan's eyes widened fractionally. She stared the cut with blank eyes and brought a hand up to it lightly.

Huh.

Obviously, the person didn't want her dead or they would have slit her throat when they had the chance to do so while she was asleep apparently... 'So then what were they trying to do?' She wondered. 'And who are they in the first place?'

Before she could ponder it further, Mikan flashed back to the dream that she had just had. "Why now?" she asked aloud. "Why now of all times would I remember something like that?" Mikan's voice choked up. "Remember Elaine?"

Mikan squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before turning away from the mirror and going to her bathroom to start up a hot bath. She just needed to relax in a long hot bath, she decided. She watched the tub fill with steaming hot water, her eyes blank. Five minutes later Mikan stepped into the water and sank down with a deep sigh.

---

(with Natsume)

"Haruno." Natsume called, flicking on the lights in the girls room. The middle school DA student sprang from her bead and threw a kick at the fire caster. Natsume caught her leg and she glared.

"I was sleeping, bastard!" she snarled at him.

"I need an Alice stone from you. Your time traveling one." Natsume said calmly, ignoring the death glares aimed at him.

The girl ripped her leg from his grip and rolled her eyes. "And I would do that... why?"

Natsume gave her a look. "You owe me."

Haruno shook her head and next thing she knew her hair was on fire.

"Holy-! Put it out, damn it! i'll give you the damn thing!" she creamed.

Natsume did with a grin and waited patiently as she created a pale blue alice stone in her fist.

"Here." she said, shoving it at him. "Now go."

Natsume gave her a lazy smirk and jumped back out of the window that he came from.

"Now," he whispered, staring at the stone, "I have something to do."

There just wasn't something right about Mikan's excuse to him and he had to confirm the truth for himself.

Natsume was enveloped in a flash of white light before he was transported 4 hours back near the training field where Mikan and Persona were at.

Observing from above, he arrived right at the moment to see Mikan stabbing a hand through Personas chest and him falling to the ground in a bloody mess. Mikan laughed insanely and Natsume suppressed a shiver. Even though he had only been there for a matter of seconds, Natsume had seen enough and stopped watching right then and went pack to the present.

"Kami-sama...."

Umm...... tada? -_-'

Well, hopefully this was a good chapter! i've sorta been feeling out of it when I write lately since it's been so long but I hope that this was a good chapter anyways! =D

LOL anyways.... Please review!!!!

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