Dead Knight Walking

By: oONekomataOo

Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Knights, Halloween, chupacabras and for better or worse, I don't own Thatz's wide assortment of old Valentines candy.

Warnings: Some OOCness

Neko: Like my other stories, a translation table's at the end for any non-English word or any strange phrase that needs explaining.

Garfakcy: That thing's annoying.

Neko: Shut up.

Garfakcy: Well it is.

Neko: Don't you have psychotic poof-heads to wait on?

---------Response to Reviewers--------

xxDKGurlxx – Haha. Here's my theory. (holds up a pic of Rath and another of Heero Yuy)

Rath: Oh, god…not another one of her "theories" again…

Neko: (ignores) Suicidal bishounen obsessed with death and destruction meets…suicidal bishounen obsessed with death and destruction. They're practically twins personality-wise. They even talk the same to their love interests! (deep, angsty voice) "I will kill you!" lol

Rath: (deathglares)

Neko: I'm not pro-Cesia or anything, but I tolerate her. She could be worse. She could be Relena.

And yeah, I love DK's cast! I don't really have a favorite character …too hard to choose! I really like the Knights in particular, though! Thanks for your support!

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Chapter 2: Assembly Required

With some coaxing, Alfeegi had agreed to let the boys use the old fishing shed by the royal pond as their Haunted House. Let's hear it for Lykouleon, Raseleane, and Rune!

"I still don't know, sire…" sighed the White Dragon Officer. "With Rath and Thatz working on a Halloween attraction, there's a lot that could go wrong and we might be held legally responsible."

"You worry too much," laughed the Dragon Lord. "Rath and Thatz aren't the only ones building it. Rune is a very dependable Dragon Knight, and I'm sure they'll get the girls to help out too."

"But…"

"Oh, Alfeegi!" Raseleane giggled. "Doesn't it sound like fun? I'm sure the public will love it! You could think of it as a way to improve our relations with our subjects."

Now that wasn't fair. Lady Raseleane was the one person that Alfeegi just could not get mad at. Not only was she his superior, but she spread her soothing aura wherever she went. Damned Knights had planned that.

"…Fine," replied the defeated teal-haired secretary. He watched the three Dragon Knights from the second story window walking off towards the old shed. "But if something happens, don't say I didn't tell you so!"

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"I can't believe Alfeegi actually agreed to that," stated Rath.

"I know, my face hurts from all that fake reassuring smiling," Thatz grimaced as he cradled his sore jaw in his hand.

"In that case, you should be more grateful to Alfeegi instead of talking behind his back," Rune said sharply.

"Oh but I am," grinned the brunette. "Never has such a perfect opportunity for making millions come to me!"

"Opportunity for making millions?" repeated a disembodied voice.

The three Dragon Knights looked around in surprise.

"Who said that?" growled the Demonslayer.

They were met with a string of "Oh, ho, ho's" before a pink-haired figure slowly descended from the tree above them. Upside down.

"Gah!" exclaimed Thatz. "What the hell are you doing there, you fruit bat?"

"Enough of the stupid names, brainless pig, I wanna know more about this million dollar-making opportunity!" Kitchel demanded.

Before Thatz could point out that "brainless pig" would qualify as a "stupid name," Rath cut in and answered her question.

"We're making a Haunted House. Why do you care?"

"Silly boys, I take any chance I can to make a decent profit!"

"Oh, would you like to help then?" asked the Water Dragon Knight.

"RUNE!"

"I'd love to."

"No way, fruit bat!" Thatz shouted. "There is no freaking way I am letting you in on my Haunted House project!"

"Why not?" inquired the elf, still not getting it.

"Because she'll try to steal every single penny from under our noses!" the ex-thief yelled knowingly. He'd been robbed, slapped, and outdone by the pink-haired bandit before, and wasn't about to fall into another one of her traps so easily.

"Aw, c'mon Thatz-chan! It's for a holiday, I'll behave!" she promised. "Pleeeease?"

Thatz grumbled something about "Thieves never taking off for the holidays" which Kitchel took as a "Yes."

"Is anyone else helping?" Kitchel asked. "Cesia? Tintlet? Lim?"

Rune paled as soon as he heard the last two names mentioned.

"No, we haven't really gotten a chance to ask anybody yet," replied Rath.

"I see. Do ya want me to ask them so you can get a head start on building?" Kitchel smiled. "I was just gonna go visit them anyway."

'From the tree?' Thatz angrily thought. 'Now you just wanna get out of all the work.'

"Sure. Thanks."

The four went their separate ways. The crafty cherry-head strolled off to see her friends in the castle, while the now grumpy conman, indifferent Demonslayer, and panicked elfin squeeze-toy headed towards the old fishing shed.

"So…" Rath started once he got a good look at the abandoned shed. "It might need a little work, huh?"

Thatz took one look at the loose floorboards, layer upon layer of dust, strange odors, and laughed.

"Are you kidding, this'll just add to its charm!"

"Shouldn't we at least get rid of the loose nails on the ground?" asked Rune.

Deciding multiple punctured foot infections would be bad for business, Thatz agreed. "Yeah, I guess the old canoe can go too…anything else, guys?"

"Why're you asking us, it was your idea," the Knight of Fire pointed out.

"Sure, but I haven't actually been actually been to a Haunted House thing before and you two have, right?" the brunette explained.

"Uh, actually I didn't really get a chance to look around," admitted Rune. "I was too busy chasing Rath around to make sure he didn't kill anyone."

"I was hunting the demons, Rune, not the people running it!" the obsessive hunter said in his defense.

Rune shook his head.

"Nearly ten years of going to these things and you still don't understand the concept of costumes…"

"Okaaaay," laughed the brunette nervously. "Let's just make a list of scary stuff, then."

On the small notepad he had, Thatz wrote NO MONSTER DISGUISES across the top with several lines under it.

"What else is there…oh! Candy! We gotta have candy!"

"Why?" asked his companions.

"To draw customers!"

"Right. We make the place look creepier than Nadil's castle and then hand out candy. That's absolutely brilliant, Thatz." Rath said sarcastically.

"Why not? I still have some left over from Valentines Day!"

"Valentines Day was over eight months ago,"

"Your point?"

Apparently food poisoning wasn't a huge concern for the Dragon Knight of Earth. Rune wrote it down anyway, but in small letters. Thatz had given him the notepad once his hand got tired of adding exclamation marks after the NO MONSTER DISGUISES line.

"Anything else?"

"Ghosts? I dunno…"

"Let's try a different approach," suggested the elf. "How did you think of making a Haunted House, Thatz?"

"I saw a butterfly almost get eaten by a spider," he replied proudly.

"A Demon spider!" interrupted an excited Rath.

"Too late, dude. I squished it good."

"That's relevant, how?" asked the skeptical Knight of Water

"I kill spiders to save butterflies!"

Ignoring the incredibly stupid reference to Trigun, Rune returned to writing down "scary stuff" until it was time to head back to the castle for dinner.

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The next day, the boys were joined by Cesia, Tintlet, and Lim. All three had agreed to help out, but only Cesia had bothered to look at the list of items to get so far. The other two elfin girls were…preoccupied.

"Oooh! Rune, I've never been to one of these before!" gushed Lim as she grabbed his arm. "It sounds so scary!"

Tintlet was having none of that, of course.

"You used to live in the Demon Lord's castle! I'm sure you'll be fine!" snarled the princess before reverting to her sweeter voice. "You'll show me around when we're all done, right Rune? I wouldn't want to get lost in here, I'd get so frightened!"

"Uh…" stuttered the sweatdropping Knight.

"Honey, you've been to Kainaldia. You can take it," smirked the smaller girl. "Besides, Rune already agreed to take me!"

"He did not!"

On the other side of the old fishing shed, the others were successfully ignoring the constant fighting between the two elfin chickies. Thatz was thinking up even more crazy things that they just had to add to their little attraction while Rath was polishing his sword and humming a song about demons. Cesia was busy eyeing the ever-growing list wearily.

"Um, what if we can't get everything on the list, Thatz?" she asked.

"Oh, I can give it to Kitchel. She agreed to get us anything we couldn't find."

"Legally?"

"Uh…Rath! What are you doing? Let me help you with that!"

The wind witch frowned as he fled over to Rath.

'Good thing Kitchel never gets caught…' Cesia thought. "Ah, that reminds me! Kitchel had something she wanted added to the list."

"And what was that?"

"I can't really remember exactly…she said she had heard a rumor from one of the stable hands that some monster had been attacking livestock recently," the fortune teller said as she struggled to recall her conversation with the female bandit more clearly.

"Like a demon?" squealed Rath.

The others let out a collective shutter. Rath had managed to raise their freak out level 70 when his gleaming sword was easily outdone by his gleaming eyes. The creepy grin didn't help either.

"No!" the girl put in quickly. "Kitchel said it was an invasive species from the south. I think she called it a chupacabra or something."

"Oh…" said the disappointed Dragon Knight, his enthusiasm completely drained from his voice.

"Sounds neat," Thatz countered. "Why don't you let her know? If we capture it, I bet it would go perfect with all the other decorations."

He had to make sure he annunciated "decorations" whenever Rath was around. Every time the brunette had tried to ask his fellow Dragon Knights about their annual trip to a local Haunted House, Rath got that…glint in his eye, and Rune started mumbling incoherently. Thatz eventually decided that he didn't want to know what happened after all.

"What have we got so far?" Cesia asked. That list looked kind of long. "Maybe we should do it in small parts?"

"Sure, just read a couple of 'em, and we'll call out if we want to get it," the lazy leader of the project said as he waved his hand dismissively.

"Okay," the wind witch cleared her throat. "…Mysterious Green Goo…?"

"That's me!" laughed Thatz. "I got that one!"

"Random bones?"

"I'll get those," Rath grinned.

"Before I go on, I'm going to remind you to get fake bones, Rath," Cesia said knowingly. Rath would think nothing of running off the castle grounds, killing some yokai, and then tossing their bones all over a Haunted House that a bunch of children would walk through.

"Sure, sure…"

"Rubber chicken and creepy music?" Cesia continued.

"Me again!" beamed Thatz.

"Armored statue and fake worms?"

"I could ask Tetheus to borrow some armor," Rune offered. "And I think I saw some fake worms when we cleared the stuff out of here yesterday.

"Ghosts and cobwebs? Real original guys…"

"I could summon some Waterlights to act like will-o-wisps," Tintlet said happily with her hand raised daintily.

"That'd be great," her snooky-wookums said supportively.

"Yeah, well I can create cobwebs outta thin air!" Lim boasted. Not to be outdone, she spun several of her threads together to form a spider web in seconds.

"Perfect, Lim!" her tickle bear said in an equally supportive voice. Rune feared what would happen to him if either of the two felt left out and ignored.

"Okay, next is a spooky storm and signs written in blood red ink. Ewww," cringed Cesia. "I'll take care of the storm, but I'm not writing the signs."

"I'll do it!" Rath said…too cheerfully.

"Fine, but remember to use ink, Rath," Rune reminded him. "Ink."

"Thank you, Rune. And last is…a picture of Alfeegi?" Cesia said in a confused manner. She then burst into giggles.

"Yup, I got that one!" called out Thatz between laughs.

He earned a rock dropped on his head from the rule-abiding Water Dragon Knight. The others quickly covered up their laughter with coughs.

After a few other items had been read off and claimed, the girls decided to leave to go pick up their stuff. Well, two of them ran off thinking that it was some kind of contest, but Cesia walked off like a semi-normal person.

It was about then that Thatz had yet another great idea.

"Hey guys, it wouldn't be Halloween with out Tricks and Treats, right?"

"Sure," answered Rath. "Why?"

"Then we should pull a prank on somebody!"

"Absolutely not," huffed Rune.

"I knew you'd say that…" said Thatz glumly.

"Then you shouldn't have said anything," Rath responded in an even tone.

"You got permission to build a Haunted House from the Lord, assistance from a lot of the castle, and you want to repay them with some stupid joke?" the elf asked angrily.

"I never said we'd punk everybody here…" grinned the ex-thief.

"What do you mean?" Rath asked, taking interest.

"I was thinking that we could pull the Halloween prank to end all Halloween pranks…or at least until next year."

"That makes no sense, Thatz," Rune pointed out.

"I was thinking that our Halloween prank would blow the damn pages off the Book of Halloween Pranks and put us down in history as the Master Pranksters," Thatz rambled on. When he saw that he had his companions' attention, he concluded. "I was thinking that we could go pull the ultimate Halloween prank…..on Nadil and his cronies."

The two other Dragon Knights' eyes went wide. That was their only similarity however.

"Yeah…" Rath said maniacally. "Yeah…on Nadil…and his castle…full of demons…hehehehe…"

"There is no way…" stammered Rune. "We wouldn't ever be able to--"

"Ah, ah, ah…" tsk'd the ex-thief. "I'm sure no one here would mind us punking our greatest enemy. Even Alfeegi would be all for it!"

"Maybe, but-" the elf started to say before he was interrupted once more.

"I could ask Cesia to magic us there to an area with a lot of demons," Rath said eagerly. "Then no one there would even notice the energy pulse."

'Good save,' thought Thatz sarcastically. 'I'm sure Rune will never catch onto that…'

"What if-"

"Hey, it's 2-1 so you have to help us!"

"Yeah! Majority rules!"

"Exactly."

Rune looked from one Dragon Knight to the other. There was no way that he could talk either of them out of it now. Nadil's castle was a dangerous place no matter how many people you brought with you. The elf figured that Rath and Thatz had a higher survival rate if he went with to keep them out of trouble. Sighing, Rune slowly nodded his head.

"Alright…"

"YES!" his friends cheered.

"Rath, you get Cesia to agree to casting the spell. Rune, you go grab anything you think that we'll need," the Dragon Knight of Earth ordered. "I'm gonna go take a nap!"

The other two sweatdropped at this.

"Operation Razzle Dazzle shall commence at midnight! Over and out!" proclaimed the brunette.

He then ran from the shed to prepare for the trick, eat some treats, and go down in history. Rath and Rune stood alone in the future Haunted House trying to figure out where the hell Thatz pulled "Razzle Dazzle" from in silence. However, they gave up once they remembered the Operation Fishfry incident. At least he didn't give them codenames. Rath still had a strange psychological reaction to burn any and all fishnets after that day.

"I need new friends…" mumbled Rune.

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:A/N:

Neko: Nyaaaaa… I didn't like that chappie as much…

Rath: Ha. Can you say "Filler?"

Thatz: Fillllllllller!

Neko: Yeah, yeah. Lesson learned. Typing at the asscrack of dawn is not the best of times to be creative.

Thanks for reading!

--------Translation Corner-------

Neko: Here's the English translation of the foreign words I used. Let me know if anything's off.

Chupacabra (Sp.) "Goat-sucker" Hahaha…where to even begin? They're considered an urban legend of sorts, that attacks and drinks the blood of livestock. Its territory ranges from Puerto Rico, Mexico, and the U.S.

Bishounen (Jap.) "Pretty-boy"

Yokai (Jap.) "Demon"