"Yuu, wait."
"Don't call me that, what?" Kanda snarled. Wait? This dumb fucking rabbit was telling him to wait after opening his eyes to the fact that the moyashi was most likely in danger right now. Admittedly, Kanda should not have left the cell but he figured no Noah would be able to get in if Allen couldn't get out. As much as Kanda insisted on acting as Moyashi's personal body guard he knew the kid had power.
"Based on our info it's likely that a Noah named Skinn Boric is going to attack Allen and – wait, wait, Yuu! Listen!" Lavi yelled after Kanda turned curtly to leave.
"Fuck you, I'm going to Beansprout."
"That's great, Yuu, but give me a second to explain what you're going to be up against."
"Then hurry the fuck up!" Kanda said, turning around to face Lavi.
"I know, ok! Just shut up! You're the one who left him but you're here now so listen up! Skinn's a big guy and his physical characteristics are the best match up for Allen who specializes in hand to hand combat. No amount of punching, kicking, or grappling is going to take this guy down, and on top of that he utilizes weaponized chains."
"Chains?"
"Chains."
"How?"
"Brute strength and electricity. Calm down, I know." Lavi said, holding a hand up to the swordsman whose sculpted eyebrows were practically touching due to a furiously knit brow. "We've avoided them coming into contact until now so the Noah don't know. They only matched them up due to Allen's fighting style. But the moment Skinn uses his electrified chains the battle will likely be over. So, you need to get in and join forces with Allen to take Skinn down before the chains come out. You're skillful, Yuu, but you don't have the experience Allen has, and no matter how skillful you are, getting tased is going to screw thi- Yuu! Work with Allen! Skinn's playful so he'll take his time before taking out the chains since Allen's sick and can barely fight!" Lavi screamed down the bloody hall after Kanda who had bolted back the way he came.
Komui sighed from beside the flustered redhead. "It's alright, Lavi. I know you want him to be prepared but time is of the essence."
"I know, Komui, I know…" The redhead looked at the tiny red dot representing Allen on the large map of the order and followed an invisible line tracing through long lengths of hallways until he reached his own tiny green dot in a far-away room. Kanda wasn't the only one who felt responsible for Allen. There was a small boy with a shock of white hair and a traumatized red arm that Lavi held in his arms countless times, wiped away an ocean's worth of tears from small pink cheeks, and felt the most immense happiness when his efforts to make the boy smile worked. Whatever remained of that sweet boy was now working in a secret organization, governing his own team and fighting his own battles, sometimes with the people who gave him that arm and caused those tears. Lavi had been forced, forced for years, to watch from a distance and even now he was kept at a distance, but not by supervisors from the Black Order or from the Panda. This time his own shortcomings held him back. If there was any way he could help Allen remain unhurt he would do it to the best of his abilities.
"Komui, is Lenalee safe?"
Komui smiled. "Do you really think I'd leave my dear sister in the way of those brutish Noah."
Lavi closed his eye. "Are you sure?"
Komui's face gained a look of serious pride and he pushed his glasses up his nose. "Believe me, I've left her within a specially made fortress robot that is currently stealthily ushering her out of the building."
Normally the idea of someone actually being placed inside of one of Komui's creations would create a sea of red flags in Lavi's mind, but this was Lenalee they were talking about. Komui wouldn't put her life in the hands of a shoddy prototype. Therefore, with Lenalee safe within her brother's protection and a certain idiotic swordsman on his way to protect Allen…
"Ready to go, Komui?"
"I certainly am, Lavi."
…
Pools of sweat and blood reflected in hazy silver eyes. Stumbling feet disturbed the liquid on the ground that was still accumulating from a steady drip, drip, drip. The hair on Skinn's meaty wrist rustled under the shaky breath of the white-haired child he was holding by the throat. The little brat had put up quite a fight for being so small and ragged, like a fucking monkey climbing, pulling, and punching Skinn until he became fed up with the pain and pinned the boy to the wall. Too bad for the boy Skinn was not a fan of being hurt.
Allen fell to the ground when Skinn released his throat and immediately pressed his hands to the damp floor to get the leverage to sweep his opponents legs. When Allen's shins met Skinn's ankles and barely budged the larger man he leant further into his hands, scrunching up over top of them and then shooting out to launch his feet into the Noah's angry face. Skinn stumbled backward, managing to grab onto his young attacker's ankles and lift the boy up, quickly learning that Black Order generals were not against fighting dirty. He dropped the white-headed scrapper for the second time and knelt down, curling over in an attempt to ease the pain from a white skull crashing in between his legs.
"You'll pay for that, you brat." Skinn hadn't expected the boy to have so much energy left.
"Try me," Allen huffed. Allen wasn't dumb enough to think he could take Skinn head on. The Noah had at least 100 pounds on him, not counting the fact that Skinn donned a golden cuirass and Allen didn't even have on a shirt. He was at a clear disadvantage. But if he could just stall… if he could just push his exhausted body on for a few more minutes there was no doubt that his gritty, growling, profanity-spewing tornado of a man would come for him. There was no doubt that Kanda would come. Allen just had to hold on. Thankfully, stalling was indeed in Allen's wheelhouse. Skinn was large and slow and Allen was flexible and quick. Allen might not be able to do much damage, but he could easily evade until help arrived.
Skinn swung a log-like arm at Allen's head which quickly disappeared underneath. Allen ducked down even further and rolled between two monstrous legs. He would've smiled at the slight twitch of the Noah's muscles that remembered what had happened when Allen's head was last that close to his crotch if he weren't so incredibly exhausted. The act of tumbling forward sent his head reeling and blurred the small room. Head still pounding, Allen clumsily leapt as far away from Skinn as he could to give himself some breathing room, slamming into a wall that he remembered being further away. Just keep moving. Don't let him catch you. Silver eyes tried desperately to focus on the source of the sound of raging footsteps coming closer. Allen dove to the ground just before a large gray body smashed into the wall. Go, go, go, don't throw up, and go. Allen leapt again, this time holding his hands out to brace his impact against the wall.
"Stand still, you little rat!" Boric screamed, angrily smashing a large gray arm into the already flayed open iron wall that he had broken through originally to enter the room.
That's what I'm trying to do. Allen found himself in a peculiar situation where his immediate need to get away from Skinn could ultimately result in his death. Skinn had made a large hole in the previously impenetrable iron room through which Allen could make a swift escape. But if he left this room, the chance of him being assisted by Kanda diminished greatly. Kanda would come back to this room for Allen. So Allen had to be here when he did and sadly Allen knew that there was no way he'd be able to loop back to the room if he left it to gain some distance from Skinn. So it was either run away from Skinn now, get lost, and eventually get caught when he couldn't force his body to keep moving, or try to avoid Skinn while in the same small space until Kanda returned. The latter had a much greater chance of success, so Allen continued to twist and dive away from Skinn's attempts at incapacitating him.
But he was fading fast. Heavy breaths became labored and his limbs were becoming more and more uncomplying. A monstrous arm slammed into his side, knocking out what little breath he had. He fell to the floor, gasping and clutching his ribs that were probably broken with the searing pain he felt. Grey eyes looked up to golden ones that thinned as Skinn smiled. "I've got you now, boy." The words slithered out of his mouth as he dropped his foot down on Allen's heaving chest.
Allen gasped and struggled, trying everything he could to get his weak body to squirm out of Skinn's hold and only stopping when a golden cuirass fell to the floor. Oh fuck. Allen's mind shifted into neutral while his body shifted into nth gear trying to get the hell away from the chains being uncoiled from their caddies on the Noah's thick, grey torso. Finally, he managed to free himself from underneath his enemy's giant foot but found that he was barely able to crawl away. He could hardly see, the place on his abdomen where he had gotten surgery only days before felt like it was about to burst, and he could feel life threatening amounts of bodily fluids in the form of puddles of sweat and drops of blood beneath his hands. Allen had been too focused on Skinn's size and lasting with his handicaps to remember the main reason he had never fought the Noah before. Allen tried one last time to move himself forward but collapsed flat onto the cold, damp ground. From behind him came the sounds of crackling laughter and electricity.
…
Kanda ran as fast as he could, leaping over strewn weapons, bodies, and blood. Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit. What the fuck. What the fuck. No. Just no. His back could still remember the sting of fingernails digging into his flesh. And that was when the dumb brat heard lightening from miles away. Thankfully, or maybe unfortunately, the orphanage the dumb beansprout had dragged him back to didn't have any electricity, so Kanda had no fucking clue how Sprout would react to electricity up close and personal. Kanda didn't want to find out.
So he ran, clutching Mugen at his side as he did. As he got closer to his destination his worries subsided; he didn't hear any signs of battle. No sounds of weapons clashing or flesh hitting flesh, no labored breaths or pained yells. It dawned on Kanda that just because Lavi thought this Skinn guy was going to show up didn't mean he actually was. Nevertheless, he kept a quick pace until reaching Allen's cell, unlocking the door and pushing it open to reveal two tan men with dark hair chatting calmly before turning their faces to the new presence.
"Oh, if it isn't my host's little pet." Allen's tan mouth smiled, opening his arms to Kanda as if inviting the swordsman in for a hug.
Kanda's eyes flared with rage. "What did you do to the Moyashi?"
"This is the man Tyki mentioned?" Skinn sneered, ignoring Kanda's question.
"Man?" the tan Allen questioned innocently. "Oh no, certainly not. Just a scared little boy that can't do anything without leaning on this body."
Kanda glared at Allen, or whoever the hell that was supposed to be, Komui called him Neah, and the large hunk of muscle standing next to him and settled his gaze on the smaller figure. "What did you do to Moyashi?"
"Me?" Allen's mouth said. "Well now that's the fun part isn't it? I did absolutely nothing!" Neah gained a crazed look in his big golden eyes. "The plan was apparently for Skinn here to beat him down enough to where I could take over his mind without too much trouble, but they of course didn't know about our boy's little phobia. Oh, he tried so hard to stay strong, to keep on going until you came for him. But about 30 seconds of 50,000 volts he actually asked me to take over. Begged even."
"Bullshit," Kanda barked angrily, taking a step toward Neah. Moyashi could stand his ground like a fucking brick wall when he wanted to. No phobia would make him give up his mind.
"Oh, you don't understand, do you?" Neah smiled, walking towards Kanda who gripped his sword, not quite able to unsheathe it against the body of the boy he lived for. "You don't understand how much pain he was in fighting Skinn. The poor boy could barely move towards the end. Thankfully my mind hasn't totally connected with this ragged body yet so it barely affects me, but your poor boy felt excruciating pain and weakness. He would've run away. He should've run away. But he was waiting for you to come for him. He was sure that you would come to save him before his time ran out. So, when his worst nightmare occurred and you hadn't shown up yet… well, let's just say he didn't have the 'heart' to fight any longer."
Kanda sneered, choosing to focus on the bastard's last words. "So it was Moyashi."
"Well, his mind to be exact. We just needed to break it down. Which is what we're going to do to you now." Neah spread an arm out, motioning to Skinn who growled and unhooked a golden cuirass which fell to the ground, revealing two coiled masses of thick iron chain stationed beneath each arm of the giant Noah.
Kanda smirked as the larger Noah stepped forward, happy to have an enemy that he could bare his sword against. Unsheathing Mugen. he spoke, "Bring it o-" Kanda stumbled forward as something hard and heavy moved into the back of his legs. "What the fuck?" Kanda looked behind him so that three pairs of baffled eyes rested upon a squat, bullet-shaped iron contraption… wearing a black wig and a white beret.
A robotic voice shot through the shocked room. "Excuse me, KomuKastle™ made a wrong turn. He shall leave now. Have a nice fight." The robot began to turn around but its movements sputtered and stopped when one of the shards of wood from the broken door became mangled in one of its wheels. "Excuse me, KomuKastle™ is stuck. He shall require help now. Strangers, please help KomuKastle™.
The three men in the small room stared at the dubious contraption. The first to snap out of it was Skinn who growled and charged at the robot, grunting and launching a furious leg into the hunk of metal which emitted a muffled scream as it fell to its side.
"… Lenalee?" Kanda muttered, barely recognizing the voice coming from within the thick robot. He raised his voice as Skinn raised a leg to continue smashing into Lenalee's fortress. "Lenalee! Can you get out of that thing if you need to?
A muffled yell replied, "Kanda?! Yes, I can! Are you alright?"
Kanda bore his sword and stepped quietly towards Skinn who was too preoccupied with smashing Komui's robot look-alike to notice Kanda. Kanda shot a look to Neah who was simply leaning against the cell's wall and smiling. The Noah put his index finger to his lips, signaling his silence. 'Whatever', Kanda thought. Everyone in this fucking place was insane. If Neah didn't want to help his compatriot then that was fine with the swordsman.
Kanda continued to sneak towards the large Noah. When he was only a few feet away he pounced forward, sinking his sword into the tan man's side. "Lenalee! Run! Now!" He had tried to stab the Noah straight through the stomach but Skinn had noticed Kanda's attack and shifted away at the last moment.
A hatch on the robot popped open and Lenalee scrambled out, cambering onto her feet and running away from the room as fast as she could. Skinn roared in pain and shoved Kanda to the side, beginning to chase after the pig-tailed girl. He stopped when a black-haired swordsman blocked his path.
"You're not going anywhere," Kanda growled, slicing downward with Mugen.
Skinn slammed his hand against the side of the sword about to cut into his shoulder. He grunted and glanced to the wound on his hand before sending an arm flying in Kanda's direction while uncoiling his chain with the other. Kanda regained control of his sword and spun with his swing to get the momentum to slice through a counter, but before his sword could connect with flesh his side buckled as a strong force slammed into his ribs.
"Actually," Neah started, smiling at the angry swordsman he had just kicked, "you're the one who's staying put. Skinn. Go get the girl. I'll take care of Allen's guard dog."
Skinn smirked, eager for the opportunity to go after his pray, and ran after Lenalee, leaving Kanda and Neah alone.
Author's Note
Remember when I would joke about not uploading in "like three years". HAHAHA. Nearly 4 years and I come crawling back. Anyway, I read the newer chapters of dgm, got nostalgic for my favorite duo, and, of course, came to this site to get my fill. Eventually I became curious enough to read my old work and I actually really enjoyed myself. So here I am. Don't expect quick updates, but I have the whole story figured out so I'll definitely be finishing it.
If any of my original readers are here right now, god bless your poor souls, I'm sorry for making you wait.
I edited/updated every single one of my old chapters. I mostly just did spell checking and corrected grammar mistakes. But I also admittedly tried to subdue the weird hick accents I gave everyone when they were still kids. I tried to keep most things the same though and didn't remove any chapters in respect to the people who liked the original versions and to my younger self that wrote them.
Special thanks to Painted Dreamscape, one of my original readers who commented 3+ years after I stopped updating to say that I should continue. This wouldn't be up if it weren't for you.
Thank you to all the others who reviewed while I was away, amenokuma, Firediva0, dragonmunchies, B4wuzden, Nonumaru, YugiKitten, and all of the anonymous reviewers as well.
Please review even if you hated it! I'd love to hear what anyone thinks.