"If any of you have things left, please settle them. The fight against the Organization and the Abyssal ones will be one of true brutality. Not only that, those unknown beings are becoming more frequent. I have no idea what's ahead of us... so just in case, make sure you leave no regrets."

()()()()

Three cloaked figures wearing similar leather underneath came upon a lone well kept shack in what amounted to the middle of nowhere in some large valley near the city of Terkan, a few birds chirping here and there. An armless figure, a platinum blond woman with long hair in dark leather outfit, stood in the middle of the doorway with a neutral expression. "A familiar face." She said simply. "It's good to know you still exist." She took a moment to give the other two a once over. "Tell me, who are these two with you?"

The figure s removed the hoods of their cloaks to reveal more silver eyed warriors. The usual bob cut of Clare, a woman with her hair in plaits over her shoulders, and a woman with long straight blond hair. "Yuma and Cynthia." Clare answered, a small smile on her face. "The healers of our group." Both girls smiled and voiced a greeting to the warrior now hermit.

"My name is Cynthia. Nice to meet you Irene-san." The plaid girl said. She seemed warmer than other warriors.

"Hello Irene-san, I'm Yuma the former number forty." The long haired girl said. Clearly a bit nervous to be here.

An elegant eyebrow rose on Irene's face. "Are there more of you?"

Clare nodded. "Seven of us. We're deserters of the Organization just like you now." She looked like she held back a morbid chuckle. "Rather similar process too."

If Irene could fold her arms right now, she would. Instead she just leaned against the cabin's door frame. "What do you mean by that?" She asked.

"Deceit and treachery brought on by the Organization. Our generation had become too troublesome in their eyes, so they had us slaughtered." Clare answered with a cold tone. "Only seven of us survived. We chose not to return." That part wasn't so cold and more sullen.

"Unsurprising. Still, rather bold move of the Organization to deplete their own forces like that. Must've been quite the insubordination." Irene mused, rather intrigued on what drove the Organization to do this. She sighed. "So I take it you brought them here as a way to heal me?" Her answer came in the form of a nod. Irene shook her head. "I doubt it will work." She wasn't necessarily pessimistic, but given how long her body has been without arms, she doubted any could restore them.

"At least let us try." Cynthia spoke up softly. "Given what we've learned over the years and from the apparent state of you condition, we might able to restore at least one at the very least." She reasoned.

Irene looked between them, her slight frown fading away before she gestured for them to follow her. She lied on her bed and closed her eyes. "Give it a go. What you offer is a gift and I won't shun it away." Yuma and Cynthia looked towards to each other and nodded, holding out their hands to Irene as they began to sync their yoki with hers.

Irene winced and gritted her teeth as her yoki reacted to the syncing. Less than a second and pain began to shoot through her. She writhed and groaned in agony as she felt the stubs of her arms ripple and move. Her flesh was struggling to remember and the pain increased as this went. As the pain increased, so did another foreign feeling. Her arms were growing, regenerating as Cynthia and Yuma intertwined their yoki with hers.

Bones, sinew, and skin finally came back through a quick yet agonizing process. When the two former warriors were done, they slumped a bit and released their breaths after the intense concentration while Clare remained stoic as she moved up to Irene.

Irene took slow and easy movements. Pain still lingered in her arms, like pins and needles sticking in her renewed limbs. First she moved her fingers as her arms jerked a bit. Then she slowly lifted up her arms. She proceeded to wiggle them, wide eyed they were there, moving, and could feel. Her first words after the rebirth of her arms. "This... this is more than what you owed me." She breathed out, shock and awe on her face.

Clare smiled while her friends giggled a bit. "I suppose it is." Clare replied, not at all surprised at the former number two's words.

"How was this possible?" Irene asked, actually folding her arms in a literal sense.

"A lot can happen in seven years." Clare Answered, her smile fading back. "Since you don't have any chairs, mind if we take a seat next to you on the bed."

Irene cracked a smile herself. "Considering what you've all done for me, I'd be inclined to make some chairs for you on the spot." Despite the weakness she felt in her arms as opposed to what would be her normal strength, she could and probably would do it.

Two of the three ghosts sat down. Clare chose to stand for this. "Tell me, how much do you know about the Organization. What its true goals are?"

Irene shot her a perplexed look. "What do you mean? As far as I know, they make beings like us to fight the Yoma." It wouldn't surprise her if the Organization had ulterior motives, but what exactly would said motives be?

"On the surface they do." Yuma said. Her expression became a bit grimmer. "But their intentions are far less altruistic than realized."

Clare nodded, her eyes becoming harder as they went on. "The Organization's purpose for our creation is still true, we are made to fight monsters. But not to protect the people of Toulouse..."

()()()()

"Good to know this place still keeps loads of fresh apples." Mucha wasn't that big of a town and the folks weren't too lively, but for one of the two cloaked women by the food cart, it was good enough. Underneath said cloaks were the similar leather armor outfits with their own variations. One had her hair in a straight bob cut while the other had short, choppy hair. Both being platinum blond and silver eyed. "Oi, Deneve. You sure you don't want some. They're pretty good."

"I filled up on venison, Helen. I'm fine." Deneve coolly replied.

"More for me then." Helen shrugged, taking another apple and leaving some currency before munching away. She was one bite away from finishing before she suddenly stopped, her face going from surprised to dead on serious. She looked towards to Deneve, who nodded as she too felt it.

Moments just before.

A young dirty blond woman with her hair going down in a spikey bob cut formation wearing a loose tunic with belts was whistling to herself merrily as sauntered down the streets of her old hometown, Mucha. She hasn't been here in over decades. It was nice to see the place in good condition with plentiful fruit, well kept infrastructure, and more importantly well kept livestock in plentiful condition.

"Oops." A clumsy middle aged man holding onto some leather accidentally bumped into her. He was well built for his age. "Sorry about that miss." He laughed nervously. She smiled. Just as she muses about Mucha's livestock, a select cut of meat comes her way. "Um? Miss-guh!" Before he knew it, he felt a white hot pain in his chest. A massive spike where the woman's arm should be was impaling him. Her other arm shot out to catch two more people in their chests. All of their deaths were near instantaneous.

As people ran way and screamed in terror, she turned to face one person not running away. A sun dress wearing young woman with long brown hair over her eyes calmly watching. "My first home meal of the day!" The dirty blond cheered. "You want some, Cecilia?"

She shook her head. Typical silent bored look. "Guess you've had your fill with bandits after all. More for me then!" She took her spike arm out and raked her tip of the spike arm down the man's midsection to open him up from chest to groin, allowing his guts to plop right out. She licked her lips and was about to dig in, but her instincts forced her and her partner jump back. She narrowly missed a sword strike from a swiftly incoming elastic arm. Her partner wasn't so lucky by the time she nearly reached the ground, being bisected a woman wielding two claymores.

"I have to say, you Awakened Beings are either quite bold or stupid to just cause a ruckus out in the open like this!" Helen yelled from her position atop a roof, her signature smirk on.

The Awakened being smirked back. "What can I say?! When you're as great as us, you can't help but flaunt it!"

Helen laughed, readying her sword for another swing. Shame she'd have to kill this one. Under very different circumstances, they might've been able to have a nice drink or two together. "You friend over there isn't looking so great on my end!" She snarked.

The Awakened continued to smirk as she went into her full transformation. "Don't worry about little Ole Cecilia. She prefers to go bottomless anyhow." The monster chortled as she became a giant armored bird like origami that had a long neck with a smiling face at the end of it. She was held end by her pincers that she used to impale those people earlier. "Today, you die at the hands of Catherine, the grinning death!" Helen wasn't intimidated in the slightest.

Deneve on the other hand was a bit worried, but in the usual battle sense. With a small smile promising immense pain, the Awakened Being she bisected rose back up in a small tide of tentacles reminiscent of a tapeworm with multiple armless clones of herself with lighter hair and two dots on her forehead scattered about between the worm parts. 'She has copies of herself. Yoki finely distributed between each body from the feel of it. Which means I'm going to have to cut each one down till none stand.'

Cecilia's unleashed a volley of her tendrils, looking to either grab or impale Deneve with at least one of them. Her attack fell short as most were pushed back by Deneve's swords, some barely grazing her. Deneve rushed up and severed a two heads from her shoulder with one sword and using the other to deflect another tendril strike before slashing away at the retreating body parts. Internally, Cecilia was becoming peeved by this warrior's lack of yoki usage during their skirmish. It didn't make any sense, it was like they weren't using any yoki at all from the feel of it.

The same was more noticeable for Catherine in her fight. "Getting the feeling you think lowly of me!" She roared swinging one of her pincers only to miss and receive deep slashes along her pincer. She slammed done another one where Helen was standing, only for her to flip over her and slash her across the face with another arm-lash-slash.

"Was I that obvious?!" Helen taunted as she flipped over her opponent. "When you're as flexible as me, you can't help but flaunt it!" She lashed out with her sword when, looking to get Catherine's neck from the side. Instead, the Awakened stretched out some more blades from her body to block the strike and stretched out her neck towards Helen. She didn't get as much as she wanted, but she was at least able to take a bite out of her left shoulder before pulling back as Helen pulled back her arm with the blade.

"Don't talk like you know me, little one. You've got a long way to go before you can kill me." She shot back, seemingly less amused as the fight went on. Cecilia was having a worse time in damages given her more stationery form, but she was gaining a bit more ground in tactics.

Deneve grunted, feeling a piece of her midsection get taken out. In all fairness, unleashing concentrated volleys of tendrils may not have been so bright to use against a double sword wielding warrior. So instead, she chose to spread them out to cause damage at the very least, she drove her assailant back and slowed her down. Problem was her high-speed regeneration though. Barely using much of her yoki and her intestines came back just fine. She could feel something was off about these particular warriors. With a lucky strike against the short haired warrior, she grabbed her by the leg and was about to reel her into a nice position to get diced up.

Deneve cut herself free before she could be left completely vulnerable to an all side attack and blocked a tendril sweep, pushing her back and making her skid against the ground for a bit. Deneve herself was wondering if she and Helen should switch up or just try to focus the offensive on one. "Gah!" Helen grunted, recovering midair from being tossed and landing beside her partner.

"How are you holding up?" Deneve asked. If it was anyone else, Helen wouldn't have gotten the slight feel of jest in their tone.

"Probably better than you, considering how your outfit looks." Helen shot back, gesturing to holes in her armor in several places. "So what do you think?"

As they conversed so did their enemies. "How's your skirmish going?" Catherine asked as she darted by her companion.

"They're strong from the looks of it. I don't sense any of their yoki at all." Cecilia answered. "The dual wielder is quite good at regeneration."

Both sides were a bit winded, but far from done. With a quick talk and short plan devised, they were about to lunge yet again until both sides felt something in them. For the claymores, it was a faint yet recognizable pulse. For the Awakened Beings, it made them stop in their tracks, frozen by the faint pulse that echoed with power. They could feel it coming their way. To both sides, it was not recognizable yet terrifying in its familiarity.

"Oi, Deneve. It's just like what we sensed from the mountains." Helen muttered, feeling oddly worried again.

"Yes. It was distant the other times, but unlike then. This time it's coming closer too." Deneve replied, her muscles feeling tense. "It's flying... could it be... one of those things we heard about?"

"What the hell are you two going on about?!" Catherine yelled. The Awakened Beings, more attached to their monstrous and animalistic aspects, were cracking more under this unknown pressure of domination than the warriors. This unknown force was deep and distant yet it resonated within them. "What flying creatures are you speaking of?!"

"You don't think it could the creatures from the rumors do you?" Deneve asked, barely paying the Awakened Being any mind conversation wise.

"One of those... No way, it can't be true!" Helen shouted. "They're just a myth for crying out loud!" Helen was a skeptic on that sort of thing, but a part of her also really hoped that wasn't true, especially with that unknown power quickly closing in on them.

"Hey, don't ignore me!" Catherine lashed out with another spike, making the warriors tense up and ready to move. It was only halfway towards their position when she froze. At that very moment, something landed down hard atop a building aside both the duos.

A giant reptilian being, mostly dark purple in color except for its underside which was a light blue. A long snout and four large horns atop its head, long leathery purple to light blue wings with three slender clawed digits, digitigrade legs and a tail ending with a frilled barb at the end of it. The creature looked at them with baleful light blue eyes containing slit pupils before unleashing a powerful roar.

"DOVFRON KIIRRE!" The beast yelled. "HINLOS NUNON JOORRE!"

()()()()

"In a distant mainland, two sides clash for territory. One side comprised of humans and humans siding with beings known as the dragon kin. These beings far surpass mankind in combat in their base forms alone. If necessary, they can transform into larger and more monstrous forms that can't be penetrated by normal weapons wielded by normal hands."

()()()()

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING?!" Cecilia screamed, panic forming on all of her faces. The other three were just as horrified and awed, but they were stricken with brief silence.

()()()()

"In order for the pure human side to have a chance, they needed to make their own monsters. Their own versions of the dragon kin."

()()()()

"FO KRAH DIIN!" A powerful jet of frost shot from its mouth. Helen and Deneve bolted out of the way while Catherine did the same, only having to push her companion out of the way. The frost it made left nothing but a heavily chilled area, everything caught in the blast being frozen solid. Good thing they dodged because from the looks and feels of it, the warriors might've been turned into frozen corpses at best. The Awakened ones would probably be left in chilled pain.

Helen and Deneve quickly took cover behind a mostly stone building to catch their breaths. "That... is not a goddamn Awakened Being!" Helen breathed. "As crazy as they can be, they do NOT breathe the elements!"

"We have to take it down." Deneve stated stoically despite the fact she was just as panic stricken as Helen. "This creature... this beast is going to cause more havoc than most Awakened Being. We need to kill it."

Despite the fear coursing through her, Helen more than agreed. She was afraid, but she wasn't a coward. So far, this thing didn't look as dexterous as the previous creatures she'd fought. It could breathe pure frost and had a tough looking body, but could those membranes on those wings take too much punishment? And who says she can't get a shot at its eyes or opened throat? "You thinkin' what I'm thinking? Where to strike, so to speak."

Deneve nodded and readied herself for combat with a new enemy.

Meanwhile, the enemy Awakened were already in combat with the new monster, Cecilia having to use her full on mobile tapeworm form to perform hit and run tactics on the beast's body when she could. It looked like its scaly armor along its underbelly was chipping in places she struck, but not enough to cause truly serious damage or pierce and those wings were tougher than they looked. Catherine could tell you since she was just smacked away by one when she tried to pounce and felt a bit dazed. The beast itself was a fast striker and the ever flowing stream of frost kept them on the move. It also didn't help since the bastard was on the constant move just above them.

Cecilia couldn't hit it hard enough and Catherine couldn't reach it with her heavier form. The beast slammed down right on the end of Cecilia's tail and sank its maw down to reel her in before tossing her into a building. "Overgrown salamander!" Catherine yelled as she tried to crash a pincer down on it from behind. The beast barely dodged, its right hind leg getting a little chunk taken out of it. "So you can bleed!" Catherine cackled.

It hissed in anger as it twirled around to grab the Awakened by the face and her left pincer with its talons. It flew to twice the height of the buildings before slamming her down extremely hard and spin tossing her right into a building. The skin from the face was ripped off and her left pincer was ripped right off with it. The slam and getting thrown like that completely shook her, broke off good chunks of her armor, and left her insides practically swimming with internal hemorrhage.

Tossing the pincer away before landing, the beast moved in to finish her but was stopped by several tendrils gouging into the leg wound and a few finding places in the cracks of its armor. It hissed in pained annoyance, about to turn around and blast the impeding pest until it felt another pair of sharp things jammed into one of its wings. Deneve had rushed in and impaled its left wing with her two swords. "Tougher than they look." She growled as she yanked them out. This gave her the chance to block a repelling wing slap. She felt a light tingle in her hands and arms from the blow.

Helen's arms rushed in from the side to jab it in the throat, but it moved out of the way and simultaneously pulled Cecilia towards its tail to swat her away and into Deneve as she charged towards it again. Just as Helen tried to reel her arm back in, the beast caught it with its right wing. It was almost like it was smirking when it spoke in that horrid voice again. "FO KRAH DIIN!"

"AAAAAARRRRGGGHH!" To say Helen was feeling excruciating pain from having her entire limb frozen by that would be putting it lightly. With a sickening crunch, the limb shattered all the way to the elbow while the severed hand lie on the ground beside the beast, barely clinging to the sword.

"Helen!" Deneve screamed in a mixture of rage and concern. In her clouded judgment, she threw one of her swords as hard as she could overhand at the beast's head just as it reared up. The sword punctured its throat, probably hitting the jugular. It reeled back in pain as it tried to roar with its chocking voice and managed to rip the sword from its throat. With a yelping screech, the beast flew off, leaving a wrecked town and equally wrecked other visitors behind.

Deneve rushed over to her her injured friend as she sat against a wall, grasping her frosted shoulder. Pieces were still falling and peeling off. "Fuck." The injured one gasped. "First time I felt the cold in a long time... I could go the rest of my life never feeling it again." She groaned.

"We need to hurry up and get you to back to Rabona." Deneve replied, ignoring her still somewhat present internal injuries. She would be fine, but Helen just got her arm blasted by unnatural cold and her arm smashed to bits by a supposedly mythological creature. She needed help as soon as possible. Both quickly rushed over and grabbed their weapons. They stopped as they heard the shifting and turned to see Cecilia helping up a heavily injured Catherine, both in their human forms.

Cecilia and Deneve stared at each other for an intense moment before Deneve shook her head and turned to Helen. "Let's go."

"But what about them?" She asked as she pointed to the retreating forms of the awakened beings.

"Far too risky and they know it too. We'd all end up killing each other like this." Deneve probably would be the one to make it out alive but she didn't want to jeopardize Helen's life any further today. Her sword arm was missing and from the looks of it, not coming back anytime soon. Call it a hunch, but she got the feeling Cecilia felt the same way about her companion too. "Now come on. We need to get you some rest and tell the others what happened."

"Dragons in Toulouse." Helen mumbled as she shook her head. "What is it? The end of times?" Deneve held back on answering but she felt the answer was maybe.

()()()()

Irene wasn't surprised by the Organization having ulterior motives. She just surprised BY the ulterior motives. "I knew that all this time, we were pretty much weapons... just didn't think I was a test subject." She muttered, rubbing her forehead. She looked at Clare, a question coming to her mind. "Why tell me this?"

"Why do you think?" Clare asked rhetorically. "The Organization uses this land like a large playground for experiments. They need to be eradicated and that's what we plan on doing."

Irene looked at all the Claymores and the determination was written on their faces, even the shy one. "You might not survive." She told them bluntly. "I doubt you have much of a chance."

"We know." Cynthia sighed. "But we still have a chance, a chance to stop the Organization and prevent future monsters." She spoke resolutely.

"Think about it, Irene. We were slaves to their machinations whether human, Claymore, or Awakened. They need to be stopped before they make more monsters to fight their wars... to stop them from making more monsters like her." Clare growled out that last part and Irene knew what she meant. "Not only that, but we plan on taking down the abyssal ones."

Irene's eyes widened a little hearing that one. "Now you're just speaking of suicide."

"Well, after we deal with the Organization and unite the remaining warriors. And hopefully by then, they'll have turned against each other." Yuma said a bit optimistically.

"We either live in the shadows of their dark work or at least die fighting to take them down. What about you? I'm not asking you to do this as a favor, I genuinely want you to decide. Will you fight with us or remain in solitude?" Clare asked. Irene just sat there for a moment, mulling over there words and this whole situation. About her past, present, future, regret, reluctance, fear... and what's left to fight for in her eyes.

Irene opened her eyes and sighed, yet there was a glimmer in them. "I could just live out the rest of my days as a hermit. But I doubt my peace would last too long with yoma, Awakened Beings and warriors all about are bound to find me at some point. Besides, I gave up my humanity in order to fight for humanity in the first place." She stood up from her bed and looked Clare dead in the eyes with a smirk. "At the very least, I can still can fight for that even if my makers aren't."

"Then I welcome you as a fellow ghost." Yuma and Cynthia nodded along with Clare's words, happy to welcome the number two of Teresa's generation. "Now let's head back to Rabona. You need to meet your fellow ghosts after all."

()()()()

"Galatea, you seem distraught." An enderly bald priest gently stated as he walked up to a platinum blonde woman in a nun outfit. She was blind, a large scar across both her eyes.

"I just feel... a deep unease. Whatever it is, it's fading now." She answered, still facing the direction of the disturbance. "It was is the direction of Helen and Deneve too."

"Do you think they'll be alright?" The priest asked. Unlike most, he held the Claymores in a good light.

"They'll be fine, Father Vincent. For now, I'd worry about the wild girl running around." She chuckled as they both heard the screams of a dislike for baths. The priest sighed and excused himself to help ease the super child.

While that was going on, two of the ghosts conversed with each other atop a tower. A spikey haired woman and another with her hair in a long braided plait. Both wore their own variant of the familiar leather armor. Both platinum blond and silver eyed.

"What exactly will be our plan if Irene agress to join us and come here?" The plait one asked.

"Same as usual. Just with the added bonus of a powerful former warrior." The spikey hair answered. "From what Clare said, it's not a matter of if, Tabitha. It's a matter of when." She said assuredly.

"And our chances of success, Miria?" Tabitha continued, concern growing as they came closer to enacting their rebellion.

"Better. But nothing to get optimistic about." Miria answered evenly. "Even with her strength, we have no idea of what the Organization might try."

Tabitha nodded and looked out into the distance. Between the Organization, Awakened Beings, Abyssals, and rumors of dragons, the grim situation of their lives was starting to get to her yet again. Miria put a hand on her shoulder. "I said not to get optimistic, but there's no need to dwell on the hopelessness. There's always a chance. Pieta showed us that."

Miria words seemed to have a positive effect as Tabitha became less miserable, even cracking a small smile. There little moment was cut short by a naked girl running past them like the devil was on her heels.

"I HATE BATHS!"

()()()()

AN: Sorry for the shorter chapter, wanted to get something out. Also, Dany Le Fou is an awesome partner.

Is this story going to have a harem theme to it? Yes. Hopefully, if you don't like that, you'll at least like the rest of the story and like the way the harem will be handled. This story isn't gonna be a simple sex fest if that helps ease you further. Expect character growth and relationship development.

And as you can tell, I do my best to stick to cannon personalities.

Oh, and to whoever keeps asking about my posting, please don't do that, especially in my other stories. First off, if you wanna know about my schedule, know that I will post before a year has passed and it's pretty much when I feel like it. Second, don't review about one story in another story. It's not relevant and kind of disappointing.

Dragon translations:

DOVFRON KIIRRE = Dragon kin children

HINLOS NUNON JOORRE = you are only mortals

FO KRAH DIIN = frost cold freezing