Oh. Hot. Damn. I haven't updated in forever. (Shields self) Don't hurt me! My computer went down and I had to beg my friend (who now thinks I'm crazy) to let me use her computer. But to show my apologies, this is a super long chapter!

Thanks for all the wonderful support and all the love, guys! I also had AIMS exams (state test that determines the smart to dumb people ratio in Arizona high schools), online school to work in-and lets face it, I'm lazy. Alrighty then, lets get rollin'!

Disclaimer: If I owned anything, L.J. would be a canon character.

"Hey, Mikey. Yeah, it's me Junior. Uh, hey, where are you? Spain? Why the hell wasn't I- no, never mind, that's not why I called. Look, did you hear about the stolen serum thing here in Nevada? …No, I did not get my ass kicked! What does Damian know, he was in the nurse's office when it happened! Ugh, anyways, are you okay? …No, it's just…has anything weird happened lately? Like, weirder than usual? …Okay, well I want you guys to be careful. Stick together, you know. …Mikey, just shut up and be serious. And tell the other Jr. Forces to be on the lookout, right? I don't know what for! Please, just, Mikey…okay. And I need a favor…" I sighed and adjusted my position against the payphone in front of the school.

It was always difficult to hold a mature conversation with my cousins. For guys who were supposedly the sons of Love, they weren't very sensitive. However, as Life's daughter and someday replacement, I was forced to deal with them often. Not fun. Fun at a party maybe, but not fun when having intelligent conversations.

"I need you to sneak into the archives-and don't give me that, you guys are the best thieves around, I've got the missing journals to prove it. Look, just find out if there's any more of this serum for me, okay? I don't want to talk to my mom about it! Like you're one to judge who needs family counseling! Ugh. Can I talk to Pete or something? Okay, thanks man. Love you too. Bye." I sighed as I hung up and covered my face with my hands.

"There isn't anymore serum."

"Ack!" I jumped violently, banging my knee into the telephone pole and leaving an incriminating dent in it.

Smooth. Kid was standing behind me calmly with his hands in his pockets.

"Don't sneak up on people. With that getup, they'll think there's a vampire loose on the city."

I could've sworn I saw his eyebrow twitch upwards ever so slightly, and did a little hoorah of victory inside.

"Our parents only made one sample of the serum." Kid went on, choosing to ignore me. "It' was experimental. They saw how powerful Forces could be, and made it in case any Force, including themselves, were ever compromised. However, seeing how the serum itself was equally dangerous, they locked it away beneath DWMA.

"I suppose your father told you that." I said, folding my arms and attempting to lean on the now-crooked pay phone.

"No. I went to the library."

Oooh, the library. Where all the smart people go…to read…

"Nice. So, was there something you wanted? Or were you just, you know, standing there?" I was being a bitch, I knew it-but there was a lethal serum out there, all my fellow Jr. Forces were either unsupervised in England or scattered across the world with little to no contact with us-I was on edge.

And it was a hard edge to be on, considering my own cousins were in Spain and didn't even tell me. If something did happen, would we even know it before the balance slipped? Or would it be months before we realized that one of our own were gone? And then here I was, in Nevada instead of England like I should be, and engaged. Where did it all go down hill? Oh, when I snuck out. Karma's a real bitch. And I should know, I had to baby sit her daughter two summers back.

"I would like to apologize."

Heh? I took a moment to register what he was going on about. For what? Oh, for bashing my head into the ground. As a matter of fact, last night's usual night terror of Stein chasing after me with a scalpel had been replaced with a fever dream about DWMA floor tiles cannon-balling off a diving board and into my forehead. But despite what Mike says, no, I did not have my ass kicked! Seriously!

"Uh, it's no problem." I said awkwardly. "After all, I'm all healed up, so…"

Sure, I had permanent stains of my own blood on my cashmere sweater, but other than that, I was fine. Being an immortal didn't mean we didn't feel pain. We felt it. We probably felt it in more…detail than humans, because our nerves were more sensitive and closer together. We still suffered blood loss. But the cuts would heal up pretty fast. Unfortunately, living forever meant the psychological pain never went away. Ever. Sometimes I wondered if that was why my mom was so distant.

"I'm glad." He put his hands back in his pockets, looking as if he had absolutely no idea what to do next.

I didn't blame him-the longest time we'd been in the same room together was when he was redecorating the entrance hall with my blood. Can you spell awkward? I mean, I would, but Kid might realize it only has seven letters. (A/N you just went back to check, didn't you? XD)

"Junior!"

'Oh thank gods.' I praised silently as the awkward silence was broken.

Marie came over, looking slightly exhausted. I figured she'd gotten lost on the way here. The first day I met her, she'd been in the locker room looking for the teacher's lounge. Which was two floors above us.

"Thank goodness I found you!" She said cheerily. "Stein asked me to come find you. He says that you're ready to get the tracker removed."

"R-really?" I asked excitedly. "But my time limit isn't up yet."

"He said that you'd learned your lesson. And that it was already full of enough data."

Fwah! ? You mean it was all just a ruse to get the scratch on my blood sugar levels! ? How did I not see that coming! ? There was no shame in admitting the guy was surely a worthy adversary…

"Thanks…" I muttered, trying to keep the irritation from seeping into my voice when I noticed her looking kinda sadly at me. "Is there something wrong?"

Her expression cleared up and she shook her head. "Sorry, I was just thinking of how lucky you are to be so young and already engaged to a good guy."

And the awkwardness was back. Thanks a lot, Gods.

"…I'm gonna go now."


"And there we go." Stein put the damned ring of metal on the table.

"So…why'd you decide to shorten my punishment?" I asked wryly, watching my nemesis out of the corner of my eye.

"Oh, I'd already collected the maximum amount of information available for this model. It was designed for the wolves I worked on, so your data filled it pretty fa-"

"AHA!" I pointed at him. "So you don't deny that you took advantage of the situation to get the DL on my brain functions!"

"Eh?" Stein lit a new cigarette.

Yeah, light 'em up all you want. The more you smoke, the less time I'll have to be afrai- troubled by your existence…

"Hm…no, not really." He said, swiveling around. "And?"

"Uh." I sweat-dropped.

I hadn't thought that far ahead.

"I…oh, whatever." I hopped down from the counter and immediately found myself re-acquainted with my old friend, the DWMA floor.

Hey, they cleaned up that coffee stain under the desk!

"Oh, I forgot-you'll be a little disoriented an hour after removing the collar."

"I hate you."


"This is so cool!" Damian gushed in weapon form as we trudged down the road.

"Hm." I looked around at the soft clear skies and rolling hills.

I'd never really been to the country. In fact, I'd never really been out of Life Metropolis. My mom was kinda protective (i.e. paranoid) about me leaving the Greater London county and was reluctant to let me go abroad. If DWMA was focused on collecting the souls of the dead, we were about protecting the souls of the living. I wasn't sure if there was a big difference, but mom said there was. Sure-I bet she just didn't want people to think she and Lord Death had anything in common. We didn't collect kishin eggs at the Institute, though-not deliberately, at least. Mom was more about not interfering too much with the workings and cycles of the world unless absolutely necessary. If you ask me, that's what she and Death clashed about the most. We were more of a shelter, a network for chosen humans and resident godlings. Maybe this more chill concept of work was connected to how a student of Life was more likely to party on their Saturday nights. Seriously, ask any of the kids here where the action'll be this weekend, and they'll point you to the sparring room. No joke. But anyways, a few months of promising not to do anything stupid, this was our first mission for DWMA. It wasn't required, considering my mom would probably die if I told her I was working to make my weapons into Death Scythes, but what can I say? I wanted to finally get out- even if it did mean that a DWMA escort was camped out only ten miles back.

"Oy L.J.? You awake?" John prompted.

"Eh?"

"I think this is it."

"Oh." I turned and looked around at where the road had taken us- at the charred remains of a town that had been burnt to the ground.

"You may be right." I stepped over the debris.

It looked like it may have once been a quaint country town, but now it was in shambles. Glass was broken all over the cobbled street, wood splintered and the air completely still.

"Damn, something just wiped this place off the map. But who'd do that to an out of the way place like this?" Damian asked.

"Someone who thought no one would miss it, maybe."

We explored the scorched remains, but couldn't find a single clue towards what caused the destruction. Eventually, it began to grow dark.

"Ugh, fantastic. Well I guess we can-"

Creak.

"Did you hear that?" I asked, looking around and squinting through the darkness.

"You mean that creepy noise in the middle of the spooky ghost town at nightfall?" John asked.

Creeeeak…

"I didn't hear anything." Damian said quickly.

I rolled my eyes. "I've been having the feeling that we were being followed, but was waiting for them to make a move."

"Gee, thanks for the heads up."

"Hey, I've been carrying your lazy metallic asses all this time now, the least you can do is stay on guard."

Damian and John's weapon forms were dual swords, about 3 feet long each. I spun the daggers around my palm before turning to the small home (which had been reduced to a smoldering shack) and stepped towards it cautiously. I peered inside, wishing I'd brought a damn flashlight as the sunset stained the sky red. Each step made the thin floorboards creak beneath my feet.

"You hear that?" John whispered. "Listen."

I held my breath and listened. And sure enough, I could hear the sound of faint, but ragged breathing.

"Hello?" My eyes began to adjust, and there in the dark, I caught some movement.

When I moved closer, I realized that it was a girl. Possibly my age, with bright green eyes and hair that brushed her shoulders. Her arms were encircling her knees as she stared blankly at the wall and slowly bobbed back and forth.

"Hello." I said as kindly as possible, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

The girl didn't look at me, just kept on rocking.

"I'm L.J. I'm from the DWMA. Do you know what happened here?"

"They told me you would help." She said finally, wringing her hands. "Told me to go to you. But I don't like going out where I can be seen."

"There are other survivors?" I asked, looking around. "Other people from your town?"

The girl shook her head. "We're all that's left."

Trying not to be creeped out by the girl's monotone, I held out my hand. She flinched back.

"Were you here when this happened?"

"Not all of us. Only Kira was here. We came afterwards. When everyone was gone. Kira hid. We waited with her for them to come back, but no one did."

My eyes looked from side to side uneasily, as if something in the shadows held the answer to what this girl was talking about.

"Can I... talk to Kira?" I asked finally.

The girl shook her head. "She's too scared."

All of a sudden she grew stiff, and looked around. "It's dark. They always come after dark."

"They? Who are 'they'? Are they…the ones with you?"

She shook her head. "These ones patrol throughout the streets. Every night."

"L.J…." Damian's voice said shakily. "This girl is creeping me out..."

"Come on, let's just get you out of here." I took her wrist gently.

"They won't let anyone leave." Kira shook her head frantically, tugging me into the shadows. "We need to hide."

I tightened my grasp on the blades. "You go and hide where you usually do. When I say it's safe, and only when, come out and I'll get you out of here. Is this you're-uh, Kira's only home? No family?"

"Kira's from San Diego, but she had to come here."

"So that's a yes?"

"Her family is… gone."

Snap.

I heard footsteps and rustling outside and lowered my voice.

"Go and hide now. Stay quiet, and don't move." I turned to go outside, but Kira clutched the sleeve of my old Institute uniform (I'd taken to wearing it, despite the school swap-it got me a couple dirty looks).

"Don't go! They- Oh, just let her go!" My eyes grew large as her tone completely changed and the small, shaking girl became an obnoxious teen. "We need to hide, and if she wants to bleed, let her! Have fun dying, lady."

And with that, the girl stormed down into what I presumed was an intact cellar.

"…I think she has some psychological disorder." John said finally.

"I do say, thanks for the bloody newsflash, Holmes!" Damian hissed as we crept to the broken doorway.

We peered about in the dark, only seeing the stillness of the buildings. But I could've sworn I heard footsteps… I had inched a little further out when a strange whirring swung through the air. I jumped back, just in time for something stark white to spiral past and stab itself into a nearby tree.

"What in the hell-!" Upon closer inspection, I realized it was… "A sharpened bone?"

"Whoa…that is hard core…"

"Thank you Damian, for complimenting the enemy."

"I'm just saying-"

"Get down!"

I sprung out of the way of more bones, and turned in the direction from which they had come.

"Oh snap."

What he said. Because at that moment, maybe a dozen walking skeletons were advancing upon us-and apparently using their own parts as projectiles. I spun the daggers through my fingers.

"I think we've found our home wreckers."

"Agh, good god man, was that a pun! There are NO puns on this team!"

"I don't judge your one-liners!"

I tuned them out before jumping into the fray. Dodging their blows was easy enough, and the skeletons would fall to pieces with every kick or slash. It was a mere ten minutes later when I stood before a stack of bones. My partners morphed back into human form, Damian crouching down to inspect the pile.

"That was lame."

"Yeah. Pretty anti-climatic, if you ask…uh…" John stepped back as the pile began to shift and move. "This looks ominous."

The bones were becoming a huge mound, lopsided and uneven, but with a definite and threatening shape. Basically, if Kid saw it, he'd faint. It mounted its jumbled figure on an arm made of femurs and ribs so that it stood ten feet taller than us.

"Damn."

Apparently something dead couldn't die. Who would've thunk?

It swung it's spiked arm at us-John and I leapt back, but Damian was slammed into an old wall, which crumbled and broke upon impact.

"Hey!"

The creature turned its attention on him-perhaps it heard Damian's fickle comment, despite its lack of ears-raising its arm to attack again, I thrust my hand out to John.

"John! Let's go, Soul Resona-"

'Swish….BAM,'

A slight whistling rung through the air, followed by an intense explosion of heat and fire. I immediately shielded John, instantly feeling a particularly pointy rib bury itself in my shoulder. When the haze cleared, I saw the bones were nothing more than shattered fragments.

"Damian!" I shouted, swiping at the smoke.

"Here!" I heard his voice call gruffly, and saw that he'd ducked behind a mound of rock.

"What the hell was that?" John asked as I yanked the rib painfully out of me and watched the gaping wound close itself up.

Aw, well. Another blouse ruined.

I turned, and dropped my arms to my sides. "You're joking."

The girl stood there, arm raised-well, it had been her arm, but it had been morphed into what looked like a miniature launcher.

"Hello there. I'm Kira. Sorry about before- the voices can get kinda protective sometimes. Are you okay?" I blinked multiple times.

"W-why didn't you do that sooner! You could've left this place!"

Kira looked puzzled for a moment. "The voices told me not to. I had to wait."

Damian, who lay on the ground, was repeatedly hitting his head against the rock.

I didn't blame him. Because everyone knows a psychologically unstable chick that can turn into a firearm is a sign of the apocalypse.


"So…" I said, sitting in the nurse's office. "What's wrong with her?"

"Kira Aslen has secondary schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder." Nurse Nygen said, speaking through her bandages.

"What does that mean. Use one-syllable words." I said brilliantly, mournfully plucking at my bloodstained shirt.

"It means she hears voices and has multiple identities."

"How'd she get that way?" John asked, leaning on the back of my chair.

"It's not easy to say. Doctors have been debating over schizophrenia, its causes, and whether or not it even exists for years."

"Well, I'd say it exists. A few hours ago she was about to speak in tongues and have her head spin around her head, now look!" Damian pointed at Kira, who was humming and coloring.

"I'd say it's the trauma of being the only survivor of that town that caused her to develop the disorders." Nygen sighed, putting the clipboard down and picking up a small bottle. "I'm giving her a medication that should help control the mood swings and personality changes. I can't make any promises, but so far she's stayed within her current, and apparently true identity."

"Do you have any idea what she just said?" Damian asked me.

"Nuh huh. My body's still generating new blood for the gallon I lost on my shirt." I said, clutching my dizzy head.

It was a white shirt, okay? I'm upset!

Nygen didn't get to reply, because right then the door opened. It revealed Liz, who was unceremoniously dragging Kid, who now had spirals for eyes.

"Oh wow." I blinked. "What happened?"

"He broke a vase."

"Symmetrical?"

"Yeah."

"Ouch."

"L.J.! Psst!" Kira waved me over to the other side of the office, Damian and John following.

"What's up?"

"Who's he?" Kira nodded to Kid, who was laying limply in one of the beds as if he'd bravely took a hit for some small child.

"That's Death the Kid, Death's son." I couldn't keep the boredom from seeping into my voice.

It was nothing personal. It's just that he reminded me of what a suckish situation I was in. I was free until I turned 18 and the bam-I'd be living the life of a person who irons their jeans and eats cookies over the sink. But I'd be like this even if Kid wasn't OCD. I'd find some flaw of his and completely spazz over it-got that sweet trait from my mom. She and I had independence issues, if you will. I needed freedom. Being punted over to some random guy would freak me out even if it was a Prince Charming riding a white steed.

"He's kinda cute." Kira said carelessly, plopping back onto her bed.

"Huh?" I looked at her as if she'd said he came from an alien race- which frankly, I wouldn't put past her.

"Oh, you don't know? Kid's L.J.'s f-"

"Friend." I cut John off sharply. "He's my… friend."

I died a little bit inside while saying that. Just thought you all should know. Might have to scrub my tongue later. But I did not need a mentally unstable girl judging me! Yes, my pride is huge. But that makes it all the more worth defending!

"Could you introduce me?" Kira asked hopefully.

"Er…" I jerked out of my jumbled thoughts and looked over at Kid, with his eyes rolling back in his head.

"M-maybe tomorrow."

And I keep digging my ditch deeper and deeper. It'll be my grave before this is over.

And so was the day that Kira Aslen was enrolled into DWMA, taking a dormitory in the basement next door to Chrona. Hey, they could be unstable together! Or at least I thought. Apparently not too many of the other kids liked being around her too much, what with her suddenly talking to herself every now and again. When she wasn't babbling to herself, she was actually kinda pleasant to be around, but that only happened when she was completely at ease. Secretly, I thought she was forgetting her pills on purpose. But that was just me.


"L.J.!" I turned and saw Kira jogging over to me.

"Hey Kira." I nodded.

"So you're going to introduce me to Kid today?"

"Uh…sure…once we find him."

"He's right over there." Kira pointed over to the bulletin board, where Kid was examining the new missions.

After my last mission, I hadn't been planning on going over there in a while. Before long I would have enough yahoos to film my own asylum-based sitcom.

"Alrighty then." I sighed. "What's the harm?"

I should know better than to tempt fate like that.

"Oy, Kid." I walked over to him.

"Good morning, L.J." Kid said, looking away from the board. "I see you're well."

That means I looked nice, right? Or maybe just healthy. Ugh, did this guy ever stop talking like a politician?

"Uh, I don't think you've met Kira yet, the new student?" I asked, motioning to her.

"Very nice to meet you." Kid had probably heard of her condition, which is probably the only reason he didn't spazz at the sight of Kira's uneven highlights.

I did notice his twitching, though.

"Hi." Kira smiled back widely. "Do you wanna go out?"

"Eh!" How my neck could support my eyes now that they were ten times their usual size was beyond me as Kid looked completely stunned.

As if he didn't notice the hordes of fan girls he had. But still, Kira was definitely the first girl to be so direct.

"…" He blinked and looked at me as if unsure of whether he expected me to save him or to be upset.

Why would I be upset? What was there to be upset about? I mean, it was totally cool with me. I mean, it's not like we were a thing. Or an item, or anything. We were just engaged. …I had no idea how weird that sounded until now.

…Anyways…Kira was looking at him patiently.

"Ah…actually, Kira, I'm engaged." He finally blurted out.

Smack!

Scratch that, my eyes went 20x their usual size. And my jaw dropped to the floor, because Kira had just slapped him clear across the face.

"W-what did you do that for!" I exclaimed, watching a red handprint develop across one of Kid's cheeks.

"The voices told me that it was an appropriate action." Kira said, looking at me as though it were obvious. "Let's go."

And she promptly marched down the hall, head held high.

"Kira!" I was about to go after her when Kid held his arm out to stop me.

"L.J., wait."

Uh oh.

"Y-yeah?" I asked, rubbing the back of my neck nervously.

"Can you hit me on the other side? It won't be symmetrical otherwise."

…It was officially official. I was surrounded by crazies.

…Ugh.


Catching up with Kira wasn't hard. I just had to follow the path of broken objects and confused people. I finally found her walking down the trail that led to secondary campus. Thank goodness-the only things for her to smash out there were rocks and trees.

"Kira!" I hesitated before calling her name, but I knew I couldn't let an girl like that roam alone.

That would be like setting a violent duck loose on an unsuspecting crowd. The madness and dark hilarity that would ensue would be devastating.

"L.J." Kira smiled, and stopped to wait for me. "You wouldn't believe how many weird people go here!"

You have no idea.

"Uh, Kira, I have a confession to make." I sighed, rubbing my arm. "I'm the one who's engaged to Kid."

"Oh." Kira blinked. "Okay."

Say what now?

"You're not mad?"

"No."

"Then why did you hit Kid?"

"The voices thought the stripes in his hair were annoying."

Not going to comment on that.

"So you're not upset that-"

"It's no big deal. I mean, I may have been holed up in that hell for a few days, but even I get that a girl who talks to voices isn't exactly desirable."

I wasn't sure what to say.

"Kira, you're um, a really nice girl. And one day, you're going to meet a guy who understands your…extra qualities."

Kira brightened. "And maybe he'll have voices of his own for us to talk to together!"

"Uh, yeah…that could be…yeah…" I was so out of my league right now.

But looking, up, I'd realized we'd walked in a circle through the trees, and were approaching DWMA's main campus.

"You think we could find Kid?" Kira asked. "If I'm going to be going here, I think I should apologize."

"Sure." I nodded. "Hey Kira, are you okay? I mean, you did lose your parents only a short while ago."

"Huh? No I didn't. I'm an orphan. I get shuffled from place to place. I hadn't been in that place for very long before it happened. My new family was some doctor who was going to try to help me and his mom, who lived with us." Kira said. "I feel bad about what happened. I already told Lord Death everything I know, but when I heard the screaming, I just hid. I don't know what happened. I have a hard time remembering a lot of things too."

"Oh. I get it."

No, I didn't. But I did have a lot more respect for Kira now.

"Ooh, there's Kid! Hey, KID!" Kid looked like he truly wanted to pretend he hadn't heard her, but I motioned for him to come over.

"Yes?" He asked once he'd made his way to us-I noticed he was standing out of arm's reach of Kira, and looking at her wearily.

"Kid, I'd like to say I'm sorry for hitting you. My voices overreacted, and I will give them a good talking to."

Oy. I resisted the urge to smack myself.

"I'd like to apologize to you too, L.J."

"Oh?" I turned to her.

"You saved us, and we're very grateful. I had no idea Kid was with anyone, and you've been so nice to me." Kira folded her arms behind her back thoughtfully. "After all, you two must really be in love to get engaged this young!"

And thus ensued the longest awkward silence ever recorded in history.

"…I'm gonna go now."

I needed to take a nap.

TEN PAGES! WOO-HOO! I said I was sorry for being late, so here you go! Sorry if this story is becoming an OC overload, but Kira will play a definite part in the story! Everything will make sense later on, promise! I'll edit this later-I wrote this all in the late night-early morning time frame, so please excuse any writing mistakes.

So how is L.J. doing? I don't want her to come off as judgmental or bitchy, but I want it to be made clear that she is most definitely not perfect-but still making some steady progress.

Next up:

Chapter 7: The Very Late Valentine's Special.

So get reviewin'