A/N: Moving right along today, not gonna dilly-dally, just gonna start in on this.

Disclaimer: I own a replica of Red Queen? That's the closest I got.

You Know What I Mean

Nero was still reeling from entering this strange, pocket dimension? He wasn't sure how else to think of it, Katherine called it a dream and entering into it had felt like waking up from a nightmare but… it seemed far stranger than that… He wondered if he was going to have to see that horrible monstrosity every time he entered this place… The thing's voice rang in his head with little care to what damage it did as it clattered around. Katherine had surprised him as well, he knew she was a fighter and she had those eery eyes but… the last thing he'd expected when he'd confronted her, frustrated about the whole situation, was for her to stand up and whirl around and bare a rather impressive set of fangs at him. A long couple of breaths later and they were gone, causing Nero to wonder if it was something every time she got upset or if it was something that she had control over. After the confrontation she seemed more open to sharing information, perhaps between the two of them they'd figure something out about this place.

"The most straightforward instruction I received stated to 'Seek Paleblood to transcend the Hunt'..." she said this seriously and Nero was suddenly wondering if he'd made a mistake in asking for information, nothing in this place made any goddamn sense.

"Okay, I think I'm missing a lot of pieces here, what the hell is paleblood?" he asked, rubbing his hand over his forehead. He was suddenly missing Lady and Trish and how whenever they handed off a job, most if not all of the investigation portion was already done and all he had to do was show up and kill demons.

"I do not know." Katherine said "I've seen nothing more on it since, it was something that I must've known of before that first transfusion though… I remember asking the doctor about it, however I don't remember why I asked. Perhaps I thought it would help cure my disease…" she sighed and began shucking off the large coat she was wearing, draping it over the back of the chair when she was done.

"Okay," Nero made a mental note to ask her later about the transfusion and whatever disease she had before "so we're looking for something that we don't know what it is. What about the hunt? Is that a specific thing?" he asked "It sounds like it's a specific thing."

"The Hunt is the night upon which Hunters clear beasts created by the scourge from the streets. Often times many, many Hunters will join in on the Hunt to assist, though I've seen a handful…"

"But… I thought that that lady down there said-"

"Not all those who are Hunters are connected to the Dream." she interjected "And most of those whom I've seen are not… well they are no longer in their right mind, they became beasts themselves. They needed to be put down."

"So this scourge turns people into monsters…" Nero said, mulling over the information that she'd already given him. "And you guys initiate this Hunt to get rid of them, makes sense, don't want dangerous monsters wandering the streets but… what's causing people to turn into monsters? What's the source of this scourge as you put it?"

"The Old Blood." she said, pulling the blood filled vial from her pocket once more. "Those who are not ascended enough become corrupted by the blood, become little more than beasts."

"Wait, so the crazy stuff you've been injecting yourself with is what's spreading the disease that turns people into monsters, why do you keep putting that in your body?" he paused, meeting those strange eyes. "Is that what was going on earlier? Are you infected too?" the red seemed almost brighter for a moment, though later Nero would swear it was a trick of the light as she smiled.

"Yes. Though the dream seems to help keep the Scourge from taking full hold inside of me, but none of us are immune to the beast-plague. As for why I continue… it helps me, keeps me healed and whole when often I would be unable to continue to fight. It allows me to keep obtaining more power. I think… you know what I mean when I say that power, once given a small taste, is something that one cannot help but chase." Katherine stared at him as she said this and Nero shifted uncomfortably as she saw right through him. He didn't feel as behind and useless as he once had but he wasn't sure he'd ever stop trying to get more power…

"I… yeah. So, where do we go, looking for this Paleblood thing?" he asked, more to change the topic than anything else.

"I was under the impression that it was associated with the church, but that did not yield as many answers as I would have liked, nor did Byrgenwerth when I continued my search there. I have recently stumbled into something caused by a curse upon the Hunters, a Nightmare. It appears to be dreamt of the past, perhaps the Church of days gone by holds the answers." she said.

"Okay, so let's go there." Nero said with a shrug, he wasn't going to be able to stand sitting around here with nothing to do for very long.

"The beasts there are far more aggressive than in the waking world." Katherine warned, Nero just smirked

"Good, sounds like my kind of party."

"I need to prepare a few items first." she said, holding up the old-school gun that he'd seen her wielding previously "Perhaps you should speak with the Doll, she may be of some use to you." Katherine settled into the desk as she had been before she had tried to explain some of the nonsense logic of this place. Nero sighed and looked out the door to the creepy lady.

"Yeah Nero, just go talk to the weird tall lady, I'm sure nothing will happen…" he grumbled under his breath as he headed out of the workshop to do just that.

He was anticipating seeing the strange woman standing where she'd been left; however she wasn't there. Nero wondered where she could've wandered off to as he walked down the path, staring into the strange fogs that swirled and wisped through the area surrounding this small patch of land. The path he was wandering down didn't seem to lead anywhere in particular so the devil hunter stopped and looked around, ah, there she was. The strange tall woman was kneeling next to a gravestone, she rose to her feet as Nero approached and he was reminded how ridiculously tall she was.

"Ahh, Good Hunter. What is it you desire?" she greeted him pleasantly. At least, Nero assumed that she meant it to come across as pleasant, her dead eyes in combination with the soft and gentle voice caused a shiver to run uncontrollably up his spine. He may have faced down devils and demons with a sharp word and smile but at least they had personality. This woman… just seemed like a shell, playing pretend at being human and not quite cutting it. The partial devil took a deep breath, glancing at the gravestone she'd been kneeling at just before; the words had worn away so badly that he could no longer read them, if they'd ever been in a language he could understand.

"So… uh, who's gravestone?" he asked, pointing. The woman did not glance at where he pointed, simply tilted her head, as though considering his question.

"I do not know; someone I care deeply about." she said softly. Nero couldn't tell if she was trying to stare at him like she could see straight into his soul or if that was an effect of the glassy eyes.

"How can you care about them if you don't know who they are?" he raised a brow, trying to think of a comparable analogy and coming up short.

"I care about all those who pass through this Dream and wish upon them a pleasant awakening." she said cryptically.

"You're not making any goddamn sense…" Nero sighed and turned to explore the rest of this strange pocket dimension, not caring if she thought him rude.

"Farewell Good Hunter, may you find your worth in the waking world." she said from behind him. He didn't care much for how quickly her voice faded into the eerie silence of this place. Looking up at the sky didn't help ease his nerves, the moon hung low, large and full and with a heavy presence. Nero scratched the back of his arm, quickly looking back to the ground; something tickled in the back of his mind, not quite the presence of a devil, nothing like anything he'd encountered before…

"This whole place gives me the creeps…" he grumbled, setting off down another path that wound away from the workshop. It eventually led to a dead end and a small pool located in the stump of a tree; the partial devil wasn't even surprised when some of the creepy little zombie things crawled out of the water, moaning and reaching in his direction. He sat down on the worn cobblestones, one of the zombies giving a noise that could almost qualify as a chuckle.

"Yeah me too." he said in its direction, it made no sign that it understood his words.

"Hmph, it has been a long time since we had more than one Hunter here in the dream." the raspy voice came from next to him and Nero nearly jumped out of his skin. He whirled around and saw an old man, hunched over in a wheelchair and if it weren't for the small smile on the man's lips the partial devil would have thought that he was asleep. Nero dismissed his wings once more, they had appeared when he'd immediately went to full alert, not having any indication the man was there.

"Who the hell are you old man?" he snapped, the demon hunter's frazzled nerves causing more of his temper show itself in a way that would normally have Kyrie reprimanding him.

"I am…" there was a pause so long that Nero was nearly sure that the man had forgotten that he was speaking "Gehrman, a friend to hunters." the old man, Gehrman said, the rasp in his voice spoke to either a life full of hard adventure or cigarettes, Nero wasn't sure which. The cough spoke to one but the steel in the old man's eyes spoke to the other. He sighed and looked back out at the swirling mists and pillars in the distance. A few minutes of silence passed before he asked

"What is this place?" there was a long pause and Nero was about to turn back to see if the old man had vanished as eerily as he'd appeared when the raspy voice said.

"It was once a safe haven." that was cause for Nero to turn back again, meeting the man's hard gaze.

"And what is it now?" there was a pregnant pause as they guaged each other, finally Gehrman broke the stare, looked off into the distance, and spoke; the answer was so soft that Nero wasn't sure he was meant to hear it.

"A prison."

A/N: That's it for this chapter, everyone's been commenting on my chapter length but… if I wanted them to be longer it would have to be more time between chapters, I don't have a ton of time to dedicate to Fanfiction and I like being able to do these in one sitting. So… unless everyone wants me to post more like once a month, the chapter length is unlikely to change, particularly right now in the holiday season when I'm spending a lot of time traveling to see family. Also obviously I started this note forever ago, there'll be another longer chapter coming up this week to make up for the period of absence, at least it should be this week, who knows, work may get hectic in the next two days...

Till next time,

-Winged Element