We own nothing you are familiar with.


Raen's POV:

I remembered that funny sensation of being ripped into another place against my will, the way the air and feel of everything shifted and became alien…

Blackness and swirling white, mixed with a buzzing silence that tore at my ears…

Then the world came rushing back at full blast, disorientating and overwhelming.

I remembered laying there on the ground for a long time, before three strangers entered my field of vision. They looked almost exactly alike; silver hair, green-blue eyes, all garbed in black leather…

I had no idea what these three were, but warning bells set off in my stomach when the lead one stared down at me with those greedy, devious eyes… eyes just like-

They took me away, prodding, asking me things that I didn't understand, things that I didn't know.

Who the hell was this "Mother" person they kept asking me about?

I was confused, lost. The lead guy had given up on questioning me, and had left me in some strange little room. It was cold and empty, until-

Until he walked in. He was the tough looking one, but he hadn't said anything since I had gotten there. I watched as he walked up to me and put a plate of food down on the floor.

"Eat," he said.

I had tilted my head at him. His appearance was rough, but his eyes were different. And not at all like the leader's or the other one. No, his eyes were softer, but cautious. I couldn't feel malice from him, more of a child-like innocence…

There was something about him… I felt a strangely protective of him; probably because of those eyes of his…

Eyes that were locked on me as I stared up at him.

I smiled.

"Loz…" I groaned, sitting up. Now why did that memory come springing back so suddenly? It had been years now, many years since I had seen any of those remnant guys. And that had been one of my first missions…

"Damn…" I groaned as rubbed at my eyes and yawned; my body was tired, heavy...pain was beginning to seep in.

"AH!" I cried suddenly, jumping to my feet. The suddenly force made my side feel like it was being torn open; I screamed and staggered backwards, feeling blood pooling around my bare feet. AH kuso!

My hands slapped onto it and stemmed the bleeding as I stared off into the dark, my memory of earlier flooding back at full force.

`The demon woman, Aella and myself on edge outside the vampire's mansion…the rushing feeling of an attack, followed by something grabbing hold of me…Raio screaming my name as I was wrenched into the mist…and then blackness…

"What in the hell was all that?!" I cried suddenly, my voice echoing back at me. Blood ran down my fingers as I pressed them against my side; I realized that when I had been torn away from Raio, the damned thing had taken a chunk of me with it.

Come on now…stop bleeding and heal up… I thought, green hado light illuminating the dim area around me. I felt my skin pulling together over the wound and sealing itself up; it was itchy, but successful.

"So…where in the hell am I?" I asked, looking up.

"The hell if I know," replied a familiar female voice. I flinched slightly.

"Ehh? Demon-uh-Aella-san? You got dragged here too?" I called out, my eyes searching but not spotting her. I couldn't see a thing; this place we were in, whatever it was, was pitch black.

"Yeah," she growled, slight pain in her voice.

"You alright?" I asked, rubbing at my eyes to see if they'd adjust. They didn't.

"I'm fine," she replied, "That thing took a piece of me, but I'm already healed."

"Damn, I need some light," I growled, cracking my knuckles. "Uh… Shokkaho!" Red flame shot out from my fingers and slammed against something, before bouncing off and going…haywire?!

"Agh!" I cried, ducking as my own hado came whizzing past my head. I twisted around and caught it, letting it hiss in my hand. I stood upright, wincing at the acrid smell of burnt hair.

"Are you trying to kill me?!" shouted Aella; I turned to see her somewhat slumped against the wall, a few strands of her shiny silver-white hair smoking. "At least warn me if you're gonna do that!"

"Eheheh, sorry…" I replied, looking around. As I got a bearing of what was around me I let out a whistle and dropped my hand slightly.

"Jeez, just what is this place?" I asked. It looked like we had been dropped into a box. There were white walls, a while floor, and a white ceiling. I kicked at the wall nearest to me, before jumping back and letting out a painful howl, my foot throbbing.

"Agh! It's friggin Seiki-Seiki stone!" I hopped in a circle, holding my foot.

"Seiki-Seiki?" called out Aella, "And just what's that?"

"A special kind of stone that rejects reitsu…which explains why my Shokkaho nearly gave us a new hairstyle…" I growled painfully, turning to her. "Which means I can't use my shinigami powers to break out of this place…"

"That's not a problem," said Aella, standing up. "I can break us out." As she stood, she winced and fell back against the wall, her eyebrows contracting in a mixture of pain and confusion. My eyes flashed over her, taking in how she clutched at her arm, before I spotted the black star on her hand.

Kuso! I thought, clearing the distance between us. There was no doubt at what the marking was, and as I was now closer, I saw more of them.

"You've been hit with akuma poison," I commented, reaching out to take her arm. Aella didn't move.

"I'm fine. I'm a quick healer…but why don't you have a reaction to it?" her eyes moved over me as if to search for an akuma star.

"Akuma poison only works on corporeal bodies. Shinigami are basically like ghosts, so it wouldn't have an effect." I rubbed the back of my head thoughtfully, "With the exception of gigai of course…"

I remembered my little "run-in" with the Exorcists; during my mission, I had obtained a gigai, and used it, only to have it get infected and explode into dust. It had been alarming for both me and that cute white haired boy with the funny scar on his face, but when the dust cleared, I was just standing there in my normal form…

But now was not the time to go down memory lane. I tilted my head at Aella, reading her expression.

"You may be a strong demon, but your composition is still compatible with the poison…" I poked her arm lightly; she winced. "You're lucky though…any normal life forms that come in contact with it turn to ash within seconds."

"Yeah, yeah, that doesn't change the fact that I'm going to bust us the hell out of here," she growled, standing up. She reached for something behind her, before looking around wildly.

"The hell?! Where is Rebellion?!"

It took me a moment to realize she meant that huge sword of hers; yes…that's right…she had it on her when I was standing next to her…and then-

"AGH!" I yelled suddenly, my hand slapping to my thigh, "Kuro's gone too!" I ran from one end of the room to the other, looking around. Aella was doing the same, a cry coming from her as she realized her guns were gone too.

I ground to a halt, kicking the wall in anger. "They took our weapons, dammit!" I reached up to push my hair out of my face; my hands froze. "My…head…phones…" My eye twitched, before- "I'M GOING TO KILL WHOEVER DID THIS!!!!" I roared, "GODDAMIT I HAD JUST GOTTEN A NEW PAIR! AND SKULLCANDY ONES TO BOOT! AGGGHHHH!"

Fire was in my veins; I was pissed. I turned my red-tinged gaze on the demon woman.

"This is…your fault!" I snapped, running at her. She stared at me in surprise, before her expression darkened as well.

"What?! You're pinning this on me?!" she hissed, her aura suddenly fearsome. But I didn't care.

"Yes!" I shrieked, "You're the one who went and just had to go outside!"

"No one said you had to follow me!"

"We're not supposed to spit up!" I retorted, somewhere in the back of my mind noting the sound of a mechanism moving.

"Says who!?" she snarled, stepping towards me.

"Me!" I snapped, rising to my full height-which was a few inches shorter than her. That somewhere in my mind also noted that air had suddenly whooshed into the room, but I was too wrapped up in my argument to pay attention.

"And just who the hell are you?!" she yelled, "I have no friggin reason to listen to you in the first place, so stop bossin' me around!"

"Ahem…" interrupted a voice.

"I'm not bossing anyone around!" I snapped, "I'm just trying to stay alive! And furthermore, you should at least be grateful! I could have let you bleed to death!"

"I didn't ask for your damned help so shut up will ya?! You're givin' me a headache!"

"Excuse me-"

"I'll give you more than a headache!" I shrieked, "You're pissing me off-!"

"LADIES!" yelled a voice.

"Shut up!" Aella and I both roared in unison, before our eyes widened.

I wheeled around to see a figure standing in a doorway which had just appeared out of the far wall. I could tell by the shoulders and voice that the person was a guy, but it was too dark to make out his face.

As if reading my mind a light suddenly flickered on, blinding me for a moment. When my vision cleared my jaw dropped in shock.

"Y-you?!" I shrieked, pointing at him. "T-Tyki?!"

The Portuguese Noah smiled slightly as he leaned against the doorway.

"Yo, Raen…s'been a while, hasn't it?" he laughed softly.

My mouth was too busy opening and shutting in pure confusion to answer him. W-what is he doing here?! Tyki?!

"Who the hell are you?" called out Aella as she took a step forward, her eyes narrowing. Somehow she could still sound threatening, despite being weaponless and wounded.

Tyki bowed his head politely. "Tyki Mikk. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sparda." His eyes flickered from me to Aella, before landing on her arm. "Ah… looks like you need some fixing up…" He took a step backwards. "I'll be back in a few minutes, don't go wandering off, okay?" he chuckled, the wall falling shut in front of him.

"Wait dammit!" I cried, reaching out, finally free of my surprise. But it was too late; the wall had sealed itself shut. I let out a cry of frustration, before sitting down on the floor. "What the hell are you doing here, Tyki?" I muttered, pulling my knees to my chest.

"I take it you know that guy?"Asked Aella, sitting down as well. I glanced up at her.

"Yeah… he used to be a sort of friend of mine…" I replied. Seeing as we would have to wait a while, I went ahead and told her what I knew of him and how I had met him.

"EH? How the hell did you beat me?!" I shouted, throwing my cards at him. "You must have cheated!"

"Ahahahaha, I never cheat. Stop throwing my cards around though Raen, it's a brand new deck…I'd like to keep it that way."

"Fine," I grumbled, sitting back down. The train gave a lurch to the left, nearly pulling me off the seat. He smiled, shuffling the deck.

"Want to go another round?" he asked, a devious look in his eyes.

"Nah, I wanna take a nap," I replied, "It's been a long trip after all."

"Oh?" he replied, putting down the deck.

I hadn't known just yet that he was a Noah, or that he was basically the "bad" guy (or so Lavi had called him). It wasn't until the train was attacked that I began to suspect anything about the strange Portuguese minor.

The train screeched as something struck a compartment somewhere in the middle; the force sent me rolling onto the floor.

"The hell?!" I gasped, untangling myself from Tyki's legs (I had fallen on him and we ended up in a tangled mess). "You okay?" I asked, turning to him. There was a strange expression on his face which he quickly tried to hide.

"Yeah, what was that?" he asked.

I got to my feet, my senses prickling as I felt something almost like a hollow nearby.

"I don't know, but I'm going to find out-"

Screaming filled the train as I opened the door.

"Wait-" called out Tyki, as he grabbed my arm. I glanced back and smiled at my poker partner, before dropping my Gigai and pulling away.

"What the-?!" Is my gigai stuck? I glanced back to see Tyki still latched onto me, his eyes wide. My eyes went wide too. My gigai was on the floor, and Tyki was holding onto my arm…my arm in my shinigami form.

"Oh crap…" I muttered, before breaking free of his grip.

"What…are you?" he asked, his voice surprisingly calm. "Are you an Exorcist?"

"A what?" I asked. "And how the hell did you-" An explosion rocked the train, causing him to let go of my arm. I shot away towards the explosion, drawing my zanpakuto.

I burst through a smoking, roofless compartment, where three strange creatures hovered on the outside. They looked somewhat like hollows, but they were different. And they were looking at me.

I started to invoke shikai, but a sword suddenly swung out at me; I blocked it with Kurosasori and jumped back, finding myself face to face with a dark haired guy with a furious expression….

"So that's basically what happened, more or less. The Exorcists found me and explained that Tyki was a Noah, and I never saw him again…until today." I said, finishing my little story.

"I see," replied Aella, her chin resting on her palm. The akuma markings had spread to her neck. I could see in her eyes that it was painful, but she didn't say anything.

She's made of some strong stuff, I thought, but if Tyki doesn't return soon, she might be in some real trouble…

"Ah speak of the devil…literally," I muttered, as the door opened and Tyki walked in.