/Wow, how long has it been since the last chapter? Three and a half months? Well, shit. Anyway, here you go.

Krizalid opened the trunk and looked down at the cooler. It had been a few hours since he'd tossed in its occupant, the young K' clone Krizalid had accidentally hit with the car. Krizalid debated with himself exactly how to go about waking up the clone, who would no doubt be rather displeased about being hit with a car. And an angry flame user with flames even hotter than Krizalid's own wasn't something he was looking forward to dealing with. But it had taken Krizalid longer to reach their current destination than he had anticipated, shadows long and skies red as the sun descended into the horizon. And every minute lost was another minute until the clone's flames went out of control again.

Well, might as well do this sooner rather than later.

Krizalid reached out and knocked on the top of the cooler. "Hey kid, wake up."

No response. Krizalid rolled his eyes.

Oh, seriously? Is this kid another brat like K?

Krizalid knocked on the cooler again, harder this time. "Come on, you've slept enough. Now wake up!"

Still no response. Krizalid squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Goddamnit! I finally get around to waking him up, and he just decides he won't do it.

If this had been anyone else, Krizalid would've lost his patience already, dragging them out and throwing them on the ground. He'd done it plenty of times to K', and even a few times to some of the Kyos. Kyo 14 was the worst about that. But they had been under Krizalid's command. They disobeyed his order to wake up, so of course he'd tossed them to the floor. He wouldn't be able to command his men well if he let them just do as they please.

But this kid isn't one of my men. He's probably not even a soldier. Just a lab rat NESTS experimented on to see how far they could push the Kusanagi flames.

Krizalid a deep breath to calm himself and opened the cooler. The clone was there, sleeping soundly, ice and water rising up to his chest.

Krizalid placed a hand on the clone's head and attempted to shake him awake. Again, no response. Krizalid frowned, patience rapidly diminishing. He shook harder. "Listen, kid," he began. "If you don't wake up right now, I will pull you out of there and drag you to that NESTS lab, so help me-" The clone's eyes snapped open.

Krizalid smiled, quite pleased that the clone had woken up. "Well, well. Look who finally decided to wake up."

The clone looked up at him with panicked eyes. "Did you say-" He struggled to get everything out, his voice low and shaky. He swallowed and tried again. "Did you say you would take me to a NESTS lab?"

"Yeah, that's right." Krizalid responded. "So get out of there alread-" One of the clone's fists launched up from the water, aimed at Krizalid's jaw. It caught Krizalid off guard, only his battle-hardened instincts allowing him to catch it in time, the fist coming an inch from his face.

Krizalid's inner flames intensified at the prospect of a fight. Krizalid grinned. "Ready for a fight as soon as you wake up? I like that attitude." Krizalid pushed the clone's fist away from his face and released it. "But you should save that energy for NESTS."

The clone stared at Krizalid with wide-eyed disbelief. "You want... to fight NESTS? But you're-"

Krizalid cut him off before he could finish. "A NESTS clone like you. Sure. But NESTS decided to mistreat me. So now I want to destroy them." He nodded at the clone. "And you?"

The clone took a moment to respond, debating with himself whether or not he should trust the man in front of him. Trust won out. "NESTS mistreated me. I'd like to destroy them too."

"Alright. But first, we need to get into there." Krizalid pointed to something in the distance. The clone leaned out of the cooler to see what it was. It looked like a nondescript utility building, a simple gray slab of concrete and metal poking out of the ground, with a simple fence surrounding it.

"That's a NESTS lab?" the clone asked. He looked back at Krizalid, unsure.

"Yeah. Or something like it anyway." Krizalid met the clone's gaze with a reassuring smile. "Trust me. I was the commander of all NESTS's clone forces." He tapped the side of his head with a finger. "So I know where all these little NESTS facilities are. Places where they grew some clones. And equipped them too."

It took a while before the clone caught the implication. He looked down at his left hand then back at Krizalid before he ventured a guess. "Power dampeners."

Krizalid nodded in approval. "Exactly. There are bound to be some in there, and we can use those to prevent your flames from going out of control again." He looked down into the cooler and frowned. "And we should probably get on that. Looks like we're running out of time."

The clone looked down into the cooler to see what Krizalid meant. He realized that all the ice that had been in the cooler with him minutes ago had melted. His flames were coming back to life. They were running out of time.

The clone then realized that he was also stark naked and had nothing to cover himself with. He blushed in embarassment and meekly tried to cover himself with his hands.

Krizalid's head reared back in laughter. "Come on, kid," he made in-between chuckles. "We're cloned from the same person. There's nothing down there I haven't seen before." Krizalid moved to the backseat of the car to retrieve something. "Here, you should put on some clothes." He returned and held out some clothes to the clone.

"But I still need to dry-" was all the clone could make out before Krizalid grabbed him by the shoulder and sent a surge of heat flowing through him. It took only a few seconds for the heat to completely evaporate all the water in the cooler and dry off the clone. "Thanks," said the clone, somewhat shaken by the sudden, full-body combustion.

"No problem." The clone wasn't changing, and Krizalid guessed it was because he was still shy. Krizalid chuckled. "Fine. I'll turn around for you then." He did so, and heard the clone begin to change behind him. Satisfied, Krizalid began to make smalltalk. "My name's Krizalid, by the way. What's yours?"

"I don't have a name," the clone replied.

"Really? NESTS didn't bother giving you a name?"

"No."

"Well, how about you give yourself one then? Have anything in mind?"

The sound of the clone's changing stopped. "No."

Krizalid frowned. "You're not very talkative, are you?" Krizalid turned around to get a good look at the clone. And as soon as he did, he put a hand up to his mouth in an attempt to stifle his laughter. He failed.

The clone looked absolutely ridiculous. Unfortunately for him, the only clothes that would fit him after Krizalid had taken the man's clothes were the woman's, and they were not flattering. A cream camisole that hung loose from the clone's chest as he lacked the obvious "assets" it was shaped for. And a pair of dark shorts that extended only a few inches below his hips.

"I look ridiculous," the clone said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah," Krizalid admitted, voice high from his laughing fit. "Yeah, you do."

"Is there... anything else for me to wear?"

"Sorry kid. The only other clothes that fit are the ones I'm wearing." Krizalid pointed to his own, rather tight-fitting and uncomfortable shirt.

"Could we-" the clone began to question.

Krizalid icily replied "No," while fixing the clone with a stern look. He looked rather disappointed at that.

Krizalid rolled his eyes. "There are bound to be some better clothes inside, OK?" He began walking towards the NESTS facility. "Now come on and let's get this over with." The clone followed after him.

/Nameless and Krizalid begin their grand quest to get better clothes. I mean, defeat NESTS. Yeah. But for real, I haven't forgotten about my chapter summary. I will bring up Isolde sometime in the next few chapters.

/...Whenever those chapters happen to be, since school starts back up again pretty soon. I will try to at least put something out during that time so that gap between chapters isn't quite so large. But I can't make any promises. Sorry.