Chapter 30: Masks

Hunter woke up feeling rather uneasy. Well that was to be expected, it would be weirder if he woke up feeling like everything was great because of obvious reasons. But this time his unease was so much worse. He soon found the source in a forgery mask on his bed. The fact that a Forgery or someone allied with the Forgeries had gotten that close to him sent an icy chill down his spine. He hesitantly picked the mask up and noticed there was something written on the front. 'Today's Carnival Corpse G-R93 at Noon' Wait Noon? That was in about ten minutes was he supposed to show up? Screw that if he wasn't officially scheduled he wasn't risking it, he had enough Candy for two people to live for a few months. That was his line of thinking until he noticed what was written on the back.

You did nothing while she slaughtered everyone.

And got your brother killed doing so.

Hunter dropped the mask and stood in shock. Those bastards thought they could talk about Max like that!? Say it was his fault?! No they were going to pay for this! G-R93 huh? Alright Hunter was going to raise hell!

Haru slashed the mask in half. How dare they!? How did they even know about- no, no that didn't matter these forgeries had crossed a line, a mistake they would not be making again. He stomped out of the room with the message burned into his head.

One hit here, a pick me up there.

Pills one day and powder the next.

It didn't hurt you but your mother now rests.

He said he loved you.

He told them all that.

But you were stupid enough to trust him.

Rin dropped the mask and clutched at her chest while breathing heavily. She had to calm down, he was gone, dead, she had made sure of that personally. But they knew about him, and they were using her weakness over it to mess with her. Well if those fake ass deadmen wanted to throw down she was more than willing to join in. They were gonna pay for making it personal.

Alex was shaking in rage. How dare they? HOW FUCKING DARE THEY!? They thought they could talk about HIS family and get away with it? Oh no, they fucked up royal this time, Tamaki, the Forgeries, Jason. It didn't matter who was responsible he was gonna rip them a new asshole for this stunt.

You let your family die.

Both of them.

"We're not just going to let them get away with this are we partner?" Alex's trembling hand closed on the mask shattering it and cutting open his hand. He didn't care, it just saved him timed he'd waste doing it himself. With a devious smirk he threw on his jacket and walked out the door.

"Not if I can help it."

Hunter found himself in a small crowd around the very door with the code on the masks. Their were about twelve Deadmen including himself, Rin, Senji, Minatsuki, Chaplin, Idaki, and finally Ganta,. Had all of them gotten a mask? The Forgeries must have been looking to start a war. Well considering both Senji and Minatsuki were in the group it was probably going to end up being a genocide.

"So they dragged you into this too Hunter?" The usually calm and restrained voice of Haru was tense and sounded ready to burst from behind Hunter. Turning his head Hunter could see that the blond was seething with rage. Hunter didn't want to think about what it would take to make him of all people this mad. Almost to drive this point in Alex spoke up coming from behind the two. He made fourteen.

"Fucks sake was this an open invitation?" Hunter and Haru shared a glance of understanding. Those masks were bait, they all knew this but considering their messages no one wanted to back out. Haru let out a tired sigh before saying.

"Something like that." Hunter looked at the door feeling a pit start to form in his stomach. This was a trap, it had to be. Swallowing Hunter hesitantly asked.

"So what now?" Alex knew exactly what he was going to do but whether or not they joined him didn't really matter to him at the moment.

"We wait for this door to open." Hunter turned and realized something had changed about Alex, he almost didn't notice from under the hood and even once he had he couldn't tell exactly what it was at first but then it clicked. His eyes had changed from their icy blue to a purplish, almost crimson Shade. And they held a glare that made Hunter take a step back upon seeing. "Then we kill all of them." Some of the more violent Deadmen seemed to agree with this idea as they cheered it.

Tamaki watched the screen with glee. This was going to be amazing. Jason was waiting above the arena with his team waiting for Zeus and the other Deadmen to enter so they could set their trap. Pressing a button Tamaki spoke into the microphone.

"Jason, it's your show from here out, what percent should I put your limiter at?" Jason took a moment to think before responding.

"Alex hasn't shown the ability to go over twenty-five percent of his max potential. And just for that he needed to suffer a fatal blow. Thirty should be fine." Tamaki nodded and adjusted the young man's limiter. Jason could feel his veins start to surge as a faint glow started in his eye barely visible outside of darkness.

"This is it, If Mockingbird shows his face you should be able to take both birds out with one stone. Good luck Hades." Jason smiled and turned to his allies Kratos, Caladrius, and the Forgeries they each had selected.

"Get ready, we're dropping in thirty seconds."

The door slid open slowly. Most of the deadmen got ready for surprise attack but the more livid of the group were too excited to really care about this possibility and stepped into the arena. Senji was leading this group and was the first to be surprised by an empty arena. This only lasted until the last of the Deadman entered and the Forgeries made themselves known by dropping down from the ceiling. Almost everyone was shocked as they hit the ground, their limbs letting out sickening cracks and one's arm even bent to the side halfway in between the wrist and elbow. None if them seemed to care as they stood upright. However there was a murmur of confusion from the Deadmen. Why was their only six of them?

"You go out of your way to piss us all off and this is what shows up?" Alex made his grievances known to no one in particular. Agreeing with this sentiment Senji threw his own opinion in.

"Gotta agree, I'm feeling pretty insulted." Then the booming voice of the backup announcer kicked in from above.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this sleepless night!" As the backup announcer continued the feeling in Hunter's gut intensified. six versus Fourteen didn't sound like good odds even if you could one shot your opponent. There had to be more but where would- ABOVE! Looking up just as the announcer finished his speech with a loud "FIGHT" Hunter immediately saw two people he didn't' recognize, and one he did. The man he recognized as Hades gave a nod to the younger of his two companions who jumped off the platform and formed blood greaves just as Senji started running at the Forgeries.

"SENJI STOP!" Senji hesitated for a split second upon hearing Hunter call out. This split second saved his life as Caladrius hit the ground creating a small crater. This sudden force at his feet caused the large man to stumble forward just as Caladrius spun around and kicked him in the gut sending him a flying back. Moving on instinct Alex moved to catch his ally and was put on his ass for his attempt at a good deed. Both men groaned on the ground as the rest of the Deadmen looked at this newcomer in shock. Rin was the first to speak up.

"Who the hell is she?" Minatsuki immediately countered with.

"Who cares, she's with those fuckers so I saw we kill her too." A voice Hunter knew belonged to Hades called down to the psychotic girl.

"You can try." Now Jason had all of his opponents looking at him, with another nod he and Kratos jumped down with a flip before making his own crater. "But trust me, she's harder to kill then you'd think." Jason then stepped off the platform and landed in a fashion that looked soft compared to that of his underlings. Alex took a step back upon seeing his brother. Alex had been so sure that even if it had been his sibling in charge but seeing him now... Alex had his doubts, the man was still family after all. Even if he was an asshole.

"Well this is a rather interesting development." Alex ignored the voice in his head and narrowed his eyes at his brother who seemed to be staring right back as the Deadmen grew more and more tense from the inaction of their enemies. Deciding that he had to at least try he started walking only to have a hand close on his shoulder and pull him around. Minatsuki resisted the urge to slap him for trying to do something this retarded and between clenched teeth hissed out.

"What do you think your doing?" Alex didn't know how to explain it exactly. 'I was a real dick as a kid and if he's aggressive it's probably my fault' didn't sound like a good explanation so Alex decided to keep it simple.

"I'm gonna talk to him." This only angered her further as she yelled right in his face.

"Why would yo-" He cut her off with the one thing that would get through to her.

"Because he's my brother." A look of shock formed replacing the anger, she went pensive for a moment before nodding.

"Just go, I'll watch your back." Alex stole a kiss before turning back to Jason and walking forward. The younger twin had a puzzled expression on his face that was barely obstructed by his hood. Kratos was about to move to attack when Jason held an arm out to stop him.

"Leave this to me. Be ready to attack at my signal." Without waiting for a response he walked to see what his twin wanted. Hunter moved up to Minatsuki as the two brothers closed in on each other.

"What is he doing?" Minatsuki watched for another moment before explaining.

"Apparently that guy in the hoodie is his brother." Hunter felt his heart drop hearing this no, no that couldn't be right

"Oh no..." Minatsuki turned to Hunter to insult him but upon seeing the genuine look of fear on his face she decided it might be worth seeing what had him so spooked.

"What?" Hunter shook his head as the two brothers met in the center. Alex sized up his twin before pulling the hood of his jacket down.

"They can't be brothers." Alex couldn't be Zeus right? Any reason he could have come up with to deny this washed away when Jason took off his hood in response revealing a near identical face. There were a few superficial differences like Jason's scars and slightly longer curly hair. But besides that they were identical. Hunter didn't want to believe it. The twins stood in silence, Alex tried to come up with some sort of explanation or excuse for the actions that had been done in the past but ultimately couldn't. How do you excuse what you couldn't fully remember?

"How much do you remember?" Well that was probably the one thing he could say truthfully so he did.

"Bits and pieces." The younger of the two let out a soft hum of acknowledgement. Alex couldn't help but regret the past, it was such a strange feeling. Guilt. He rarely felt it in the past, being able to easily come up with a way to justify his actions even just to himself, but now there was nothing just the results of actions he had forgotten looking him in the eye. "Jason im sorry. I don't know what I-"

"Stop." Jason cut him off with a sharp and cold tone, he couldn't let Alex talk him out of this, it was many years too late for that. "There's no fixing this Alex, trying to is going to just make it harder." Alex sighed and formed his claw while hiding it behind his back.

"Well, can't say I didn't try." Alex trust his claw at Jason's throat but almost moving faster than Alex could see his wrist was caught by Jason's own variation. With a bit of pressure The younger brother fractured the elders arm before swinging Alex up into the air dislocating his shoulder before slamming him down on the other side of the ring. Alex felt something crack as he was slammed into the floor, Jason looked over his shoulder sending the Deadmen a glare before giving his soldiers an order.

"Kill them all."