"A Helping Hand"

Yuki

Yuki peered down at the hysterical girl sitting on her hotel room floor. Her brown eyes shone from the tears that had yet to fall. Shaking and most obviously confused, Yuki did not know what to do. She just opted for staring at her. Not that she didn't want to do anything, she just didn't know how to help. The small girl's gaze went up to her little brother, Kai. He stared down at her with an almost indifferent look on his face. What she didn't see was, underneath his blank stare was fear.

"Mind telling me what is going on, so that I may assess the situation? Perhaps then I can help." The white haired diclonius mumbled in a low monotone, staring at him while she stroked her hair. Luna had always told her that helping others was a good thing. Though Yuki could never understand why doing good things was... beneficial to her at all.

"We were pulled aside on our way toward the lobby to get to the elevators." Kai looked deep in thought as he scratched his chin. "It was my father's assistant, but... something seemed off about her."

"Would you mind clarifying?"

"Well, she handed me that note right there." He pointed at the piece of paper that Mika was clutching, like it was the only thing keeping her alive. "She ordered us to leave the premises immediately, but just as she said that a large explosion could be heard just down the road." Pain seemed to flash within his eyes as he said the last part.

Mika let out a strangled sob from where she was curled up, making Yuki look down at the girl. Seeing her in pain, fear etched into her features. She did not like seeing that emotion on a human's face. Whenever it was directed toward her, an uneasy feeling in her stomach made her want to curl up in a dark corner and hide. At least she wasn't the cause, that she knew of. From the sounds of it, their parents must be deceased. The explosion and that note made sense to her, as she pieced two and two together.

"I see..." Yuki mumbled, looking back over at the young man. "I understand, so you ran up here because you did not want to be seen by whoever killed-" Kai's features twisted in an odd way and Mika squeaked, crying even harder. "Your parents." She finished.

"My dad...he..." Kai stumbled, his fists clenched at his side and his eyes focused on Yuki's. "He worked for this mega corporation that was helping the distribution of what he called 'super soldiers'. Not even he would tell me much about it, but I read some of his files one day and I knew that he would be in deep shit if he did not play his cards right. Not only him, but we would be hunted down as well if he turned on them."

Yuki's eyes widened, if it were possible for them to get any bigger. Super soldiers. Distribution. This was no coincidence. Her stomach did a flip as she thought of what Luna might be doing right now. What was going on wasn't just by chance, something was happening and she knew it. The young girl didn't like it, not one bit.

"Give me a moment.." Yuki padded over to the bed that sat closest to the window. Luna's laptop lay next to the pillow on the unmade bed. She flipped it open and flicked her right wrist across where the webcam would be, successfully unlocking the computer with her microchip.

"Welcome, Yuki." An automated female AI greeted. She flipped through the files that she had stored deep within the hard drive, and finally came upon the folder. Swiftly entering a number of passwords before it finally unlocked, she peered through the information for this mission in particular.

She was meeting with a man named Daniel, who she was supposed to eliminate. He had a partner, unnamed. Luna was commanded by the contractor to wait for the arrival of his partner and kill them both off. Seemed simple enough, however...

"Kai." Yuki addressed, snapping her eyes in his direction. He flinched, but grunted in response. "Your father, did you notice anything off about him these past few days?"

He seemed to think for a moment, before he came up with an answer. "Well... Yesterday he was arguing with my mom about something I didn't really quite understand."

"Do you mind relaying that information to me?" He almost looked hesitant, probably not wanting to trust her so easily. "I am only trying to help. What have you got to lose, after all?" His frown deepened at her words.

"It started off with him getting really upset about what his boss was doing. He was ordered to...hire an assassin so that his boss could capture him. He was angry because..." He growled, ruffling his own hair in the process. Mika had seemed to have quieted down by now, probably curious about the commotion.

"He was yelling about innocent girls." Mika spoke up, her voice still sounded raw. This was probably because of screaming, Yuki noted. "About how they didn't deserve...something?"

At this point Yuki knew that the place their parents worked for was the place that held other Diclonius, then distributed them out to other parts of the country. That part was obvious, at least.

"What was his boss's name?" Yuki asked, finally. She just hoped-

"Daniel." Kai's tone seemed like he was pretty sure of it. "On the file, I saw the name of the man he worked for. Daniel and 8.4 codenamed 'Rin'"

"Rin..." Yuki mumbled, looking back down at the file on the computer. She knew the other dicloni that were in the facility had names, like Hannah and Miranda. Who had numbers with decimal points, however she did not know they had been deploying them as of yet. It seemed as so, now that she saw what was going on.

Yuki knew for sure, that as soon as someone started 'sympathizing' with the diclonius they were killed off. To avoid any information leaks or acts of betrayal. Luna had explained all of that to her before. Right now, it seemed as though that was the case. Mika and Kai's parents were sympathizing by calling her kind 'innocent girls' and going on about how they didn't deserve it. So therefore were eliminated. But how were these two still alive? Surely they were looking for them.

"You're still alive. How?" Yuki asked, shutting all the documents and closing the laptop.

"If it weren't for my dad's assistant, we would be. He also left us that note, that was it." Kai explained while he patted his sister's head, trying to comfort the girl. Yuki rummaged around the room, packing things up as fast as she could. In all her time being out of the facility, this was the fastest she'd ever moved.

"We need to get out of here. I need to meet up with...my sister and we can take off from there." Yuki knew for a fact that Luna knew how to run. Having avoided the facility for so long, not even police would be able to find the woman.

It was then that the young girl was broken out of her thoughts by a loud explosion across the street. The girl's attention snapped toward the window. That sounded extremely close. Kai took a step toward the window, probably wanting to take a peek. Yuki jumped on top of him, taking him to the ground.

"Ouch. What was that-"

"Shh!" Yuki shushed the younger brother, looking toward the blinds. She was secretly grateful they were closed. Luna had told Yuki that if anything like that were to occur, she was to take cover and stay away from windows at all cost. Something deep down in the pit of her stomach told her that she needed to get out of this hotel, and fast.

Luna

It was like an explosion went off. Everything around her blew up, debris flying everywhere. She didn't seem to take notice to the fact that none of it even hit her, all of it flew outward. Away from the woman's figure. Faint screaming could be heard, almost like it was muffled. On the other side of bullet proof glass.

"Daniel! Daniel!" A girl's voice wailed, she could hear the choked sobs coming from somewhere close to her but she could not pinpoint the location. It was as if she wasn't even in control anymore.

Another explosion, this time it felt closer. The ceiling above her crashed down into her vision. It was then that Luna took note that she was sitting on the ground, her arms limp at her sides.

"Nooo! You hurt Daniel!" A demonic growl erupted from the small blurry figure that sat in front of her. "I won't let you hurt him! I cannot live without my Daniel!" The figure screeched, launching herself at Luna. Another explosion erupted, sending the tiny figure flying back into the wall on the other side of the room.

'Get up, damn it. You're going to get us killed!' The voice yelled from inside of her head. It pierced through her being, made her head ache. It was like it was fighting for control, and Luna didn't want to fight back. She was done, she didn't care right now. Her body started to stand up, legs wobbling.

Another scream, the figure was much clearer now. It looked so much like Yuki, she couldn't-

The small white haired girl was sent back into the wall again, Luna's vectors lashing out without her consent. Her world went black.

Yuki

Those didn't sound like any explosion she's ever heard. She's been in car wrecks and even knew what a bomb sounded like when it blew up. But this was actually sending shock waves into the lobby. People were running around screaming their heads off, like it would help.

"Follow me." Yuki spoke loudly, over the panicked screaming of the crowd.

"Toward the explosion!?" Kai yelled, his hand was around Mika's wrist as he dragged her along.

"Trust me." She exited through the broken glass of the spinning door of the lobby. The windows in the vicinity were all shattered. Another sonic boom sounded, making Yuki stumble back. She threw a ring of keys toward Kai. "We use that black car over there!" She pointed toward the only one of that color in the parking lot. "Get in and drive away!"

"What about you!?" He yelled, almost hesitant of leaving the girl.

"It has a chip on it that lets us track the location, just go park at a rest area and lay down. Don't leave the vehicle under any circumstance." It was then the small white haired girl took off down the alley, knowing that Kai would follow orders. He seemed serious enough.

Yuki looked up at the building in which the noise was coming from, seeing a row of windows blown out, along with a rather large crater in the side of the building right next to it. Right as she noticed it, a small figure came flying out of the crater. A flash of white left her vision and a small 'Boom!' was heard. Her head snapped in the direction of the body.

It was a small girl with short white hair, unconscious from the looks of it too. Dirt and debris covered her small form. Not fully comprehending the situation, she walked up to the girl and looked at her. Beneath her short hair laid, what looked like, small bone stubs coming out of the sides of her head. Horns. Yuki's eyes narrowed, backing up.

Not getting a good look at her face, she turned around and walked the other way. Yuki was always told to be wary of others of her kind, because there were what they called 'trackers' that were sent with 'keepers' referred to as a 'unit' to locate missing dicloni.

Just as she got to the pavement another crash was heard, the aftershocks hitting the small girl and sending her on her butt. That one was much more powerful than the last. Looking up at the crater in the building opposite of the hotel with wide eyes, she saw a woman falling. A black mop of hair. Falling.

She didn't even think as she launched herself upright and jumped toward the figure, catching her just as they both tumbled onto the cement. The weight crushed the small girl, knocking the breath out of her. Hot searing pain entered her torso, making her scream.

"Aaah!" Yuki yelled from underneath the figure. She hissed, pushing her off gently. The white haired diclonius tried to get into a sitting position, only causing more pain on her end.

"Shit..." She growled, rolling over and facing the woman she saved. She was right, it was Luna. What was she doing-

Yuki's eyes widened considerably, accessing Luna's face. Blood was coming out of her nose and mouth, making the small girl panic. Pain momentarily forgotten she sat up with much more determination. The hot pain was back again, worse than before. No doubt caused by her sudden movement.

"Luna." Yuki rasped out, grabbing the woman and shaking her. "Luna. Luna." She repeated much louder than before. "Wake up!"

She didn't know why, but her heart was racing so fast it felt like it was going to fall out of her body. Her arms started to feel cold, spreading up to the rest of her body. Could she be-

Luna coughed and spit out some blood, along with bits of flesh. Had she bit someone? Perhaps the inside of her mouth? The thought seemed to calm Yuki's racing heart. Coughing up blood was a sign of internal bleeding, which would mean they would have to go to the hospital. This would have caused their inevitable capture and death.

"You're alive." The young girl breathed.

Luna groaned and pushed herself up onto her knees. Her eyes didn't seem to focus as she attempted to stand, although a bit wobbly.

Yuki mimicked this motion, trying her best to ignore the searing hot pain in her side. She let out a pained cry as she finally stood straight. The small girl walked beside Luna, holding the unbalanced woman the best she could.

The couple made their way into a nearby alley, supporting each other. All the while, Luna didn't even seem to be fully conscious of her movements. The blood hadn't stopped coming out of the black haired woman's nose, either. This concerned Yuki.

It wasn't hours until the two found themselves in the outskirts of town. Yuki was fortunate enough to find an old barn that didn't seem to be occupied at the moment. Almost as soon as Luna noticed that they were safe, she collapsed on the cement floor. Yuki's face twisted into worry as she knelt down next to her sister. The pain in her side had dulled, until she knelt close to the ground. The pain flared up again, causing her to hiss and fall next to the woman.

"Aaaaggh!" She screamed as she connected with the ground. Her thoughts seemed to get hazy, along with her vision. Water formed in her eyes. She then passed out.

Ah, right. Well, I haven't forgotten about this story. As it is, the story is coming up to about the halfway point. Something major is going to happen soon, that's all I will say.