Author's Note: This chapter is long, but provides important back story on the villain, so you need to read it to understand him better. Again, please review! I really appreciate it.

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Weed ran quickly, feeling the ground underneath his paws change its texture again, as it had multiple times over the hours he and the pack had been running South towards their destination. It was roughly mid-day, and Weed was getting both hungry and tired, but his determination to get to Ronin and Takeshi and stop them overrode both sensations. The exhausted panting around him though, told him that some of the lower ranking soldiers didn't quite have the endurance that he and the other high ranking dogs had, so he slowed to a halt right as they reached the edge of a small forest that they had to go through to continue on their way.

"Hold up, everyone!" he called so they could all hear him. "Let's rest here for a while!"

The rest of the pack stopped near him at those words, not needing further encouragement, and flopped down on the ground to rest. When they were all settled, Jerome walked up to Weed.

"Weed," he said, subconsciously adding an 'o' at the end of his friend's name the way he always had. "We should go hunt for some food for the pack."

Weed nodded in agreement.

"You're right." he said. "I'll go. But I'll need a few of you to help me."
"With all respect, Weed." Akame said, suddenly standing to address him. "I need to talk to you if I may."

The akita blinked in surprise, then nodded.

"Of course, Akame-san." he said.

"I'll go instead." Mel said quickly, looking to Weed for approval.

Weed nodded at him and the golden retriever looked pleased.

"You sure you can do it?" Kyoushiro asked him skeptically from his position on the ground.

"Hey, I can do it!" Mel protested. "You know I can!"

"I know you've failed before too." Kyoushiro answered. "And I'm really hungry right now Mel, so you'll forgive my lack of faith in your hunting skills."

"You know," Mel said, clearly irritated but knowing the kishu was playing. "You're welcome to try and beat me if you think you're better. But I'm still going."

Kyoushiro looked up fast, having put his head down on his paws.

"Oh, it's on now!" he said, licking his lips excitedly at the challenge and jumping up next to him. "Let's do this!"

"Let's!" Mel echoed and the two ran off in different directions to go hunt.

The rest of the pack looked after them as they disappeared from sight and Kurotura snorted, looking at Gin.

"Remember when we were young like that?" he said half-sarcastically and Gin chuckled.

"Dad," Kagetora said from a few feet away. "Were you ever young like that?"

Kurotura turned fast and snapped at him with his jaws, making the younger Kai dog jump aside as the rest of the pack laughed around them. Weed grinned, but then saw Akame motion with his head away from the group and he turned and followed the ninja dog into the trees. They stopped when they were just out of earshot of the group and Akame turned to Weed.

"Weed," he said, "At the pace we're going, we may run into Ronin and Takeshi in about a week's time if we're lucky enough to find them quickly."

"I know." Weed said. "I don't want to move any faster if we don't have to, though. I want the dogs to be ready for the battle when we get there, not exhausted."

"I agree." Akame said sagely, "But it's what happens when we do get there that I want to talk to you about."

"What do you mean?" Weed asked, frowning slightly.

Akame looked at him almost apologetically, but with a slight air of suspicion.

"Leader." he said, sounding like was choosing his words delicately. "You know I trust you, both as a leader and a friend. They all do. You're as good a leader as your father. But there are things about what might happen that…well…concern me."

Weed stared at him, nodding slightly in understanding.

"You're worried I won't have it in me to kill them when we find them aren't you?" he said.

Akame looked slightly caught off guard, but masked his surprise very well.

"Yes." he answered bluntly. "You've never had to deal with this kind of situation before. I'm just trying to figure out if you'll need help deciding how to handle it."
"Akame," Weed said, knowing the ninja dog meant well, but unable to hide his slight irritation. "Those dogs forfeited my good will the minute they decided to kill again. I won't spare them a second time when they clearly didn't deserve a first."

"I'm not trying to doubt you, Weed." Akame said after a brief pause. "I'm just trying to advise you like I did your father."

Weed looked him in the eye.

"I know." he said. "And I thank you. But I promise you I don't need guidance on this. I may be a very easy dog to get along with, but that doesn't mean I don't have a sense of justice. And now that justice will be directed at them."

Akame nodded, smiling slightly, clearly happy the exchange had gone as well as it had. Suddenly, his ears perked up and he turned his head sharply towards the pack.

"What is it?" Weed asked, noticing.

Akame shushed him and turned towards where they had come from, looking hard though the trees.

"Someone's coming from the path we've been taking." he said. "And there's more than one of them."

"Enemies?" Weed asked, looking in the direction he was.

"I don't know." The kishu said, glancing at him.

Weed kept looking but still saw nothing.

"Let's get back to the pack." he said and Akame nodded and followed him as he bounded off.

When they emerged from the trees, Weed saw that Mel and Kyoushiro had returned with food already, the former looking annoyed and put out and the latter looking smugly pleased with himself, both of them gnawing on pieces of squirrels and other small animals that they had brought back for food. The others were eating as well, and when they saw their two friends return, they looked up at them.

"Here guys." Hiro said, tossing each of them a dead field mouse from the pile the group was taking the food from.

Weed thanked him and ate it, warily watching for any approaching dogs.

"So," Rocket said as Weed lay down near him. "What did you and Akame talk about?"

Weed looked at him, pausing.

"The future." he said cryptically and Rocket frowned.

"HELP!"

Weed stood up fast and so did Akame, who was next to Gin. The whole pack stopped what they were doing and looked around in confusion.

"What the-" Ken started to say when a figure appeared on the rise of the hill they had just come from.

Weed stepped forward in front of the pack as they stood and tried to see the figure better as it approached. When it got closer and he recognized it, he straightened up in surprise. Before he could say anything though, Jerome beat him to it.

"Lydia!" he barked in concern, and ran at her as she approached.

Rocket and Kagetora started to follow him, but all three of them stopped dead in their tracks when they saw what she was carrying towards them. When Weed saw it too, he let out a gasp. Slumped over her back, unmoving and with his hind legs jutting out at an odd angle, was Hook. Jerome supported Lydia as she walked with difficulty up to them and gently lay Hook down on the ground, being careful with his head. Weed walked up to her quickly with most of the others crowded behind him and looked intensely at her.

"What happened?" he demanded and Lydia opened her mouth to answer.

Before she could, though, another voice interrupted.

"…W-Weed?...Is that you?..."

Weed and the others looked down and saw Hook moving his head in their direction slightly, looking as if he were struggling to roll over.

"Yes, Hook." Weed said. "It's me. We're all here. What happened? I thought you were down in-…"

He trailed off as Hook looked over his shoulder at them and heard grunts of shock and horror from the others around him. His own heart had jumped up into his throat and he found that he couldn't make himself speak. Hook stared back at them with two empty eye sockets, the rest of his face bloody but surprisingly untouched. The sight was so horrifying that he almost didn't notice the other major injury the dog had sustained: his back was broken. The fact that he had not even attempted to move anything but his head told Weed that his friend was paralyzed, and he closed his eyes in a combination of fury and sadness. Hook nodded slowly, his face showing his own sadness well even without his eyes.

"It's fine." he said, though his tone of voice suggested otherwise. "I'll live."

"W-What happened?" Weed repeated, staring uncomfortably at Hook's eyes.

"I was…I was in Oroshi Territory, near Kyoto." Hook said. "We were attacked."

"By who?" Gin asked, an angry edge to his voice.

Hook paused for a minute and seemed to be composing himself.

"At first we-we thought it was a local troublemaker and his pack," he said, "But then there were other dogs with them and…and they killed…everyone."

Weed knew the answer to his next question before he even asked it.

"Was it Ronin and Takeshi?"

Hook nodded and Weed felt himself almost trembling in fury. He heard growling around him on every side and could tell that the others were as angry as he was.

"But they weren't-" Hook started and Weed looked at him again.

"Hook?" Akame said.

Hook turned his face up to them and they could tell that he was very troubled. After a long pause, he answered.

"They weren't in charge."

Weed was caught totally off guard. He looked confusedly at Hook.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"There was another dog who was the boss." came the answer. "He was the one in charge."

The Ohu army looked around at each other. Could this be true?

"Are you sure?" Gin asked intensely and Hook nodded again.

"He's the one who had the others do…this to me."

"Who was he?" Tesshin asked.

Hook shook his head.

"I don't know." he said. "He told me his name, but…I don't know where he came from or who he really was."

"What did he say his name was?" Jerome asked from his position by Lydia.

"Scimitar." Hook answered. "He said his name was Scimitar."

Lydia suddenly made a noise and they all turned their heads to her. When Weed looked at her, he noticed that she was trembling. Her eyes were wide and terrified and she was looking at Hook with an expression of absolute horror. Jerome nudged her lightly with his snout.

"Lydia?" he asked. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

She didn't acknowledge him and looked right at Hook.

"Scimitar?!" she said in a soft, quavering voice and Hook nodded. "He-He's here?!"

"Do you know him?" Gin asked her and her eyes whipped back and forth at all of them.

She nodded, backing up a few steps in shock.

"I-I thought he was dead!" she said and Weed moved over to her, lowering his head down to her level.

"Who is he?" he asked in a determined voice and she looked at him and then Jerome, who was on her other side.

"He's a-a warlord." she said, "From where I come from. From Russia."

Weed looked at her intensely, his father, Akame, and Kurotura walking up next to him.

"Lydia." he said. "I need you to tell me exactly who this 'Scimitar' is. Everything you know."

She nodded after a pause and looked up at him after composing herself a little.

"Scimitar was one of a group of 5 warlords from where my brother and I used to live as military dogs in Russia." she said in a surprisingly calm voice. "They were all wolves, and they were called 'The Watchers'."

"Watchers?" Kagetora repeated from his position next to Ken and George and she nodded at him.

"The pet dogs and the friendly wild dogs of the area nicknamed them 'The Watchers' because they thought they were watching them and their families for signs of dissent." Lydia said. "They controlled most of northern and eastern Russia and Siberia."

"And he was one of them?" Weed asked and she nodded at him too.

"Scimitar controlled the furthest eastern territory." she said. "The one closest to the ocean. He was the youngest and most mysterious of the group of them. And according to my father, he was also the most vicious."

"How bad was he?" Hiro asked from his position in the back near Mel and Rocket.

Lydia seemed to shudder.

"He was a monster." she said in a subdued voice. "The other wolves called him 'Scimitar the Kinslayer' because he killed so many of his own kind. He even killed his own brother to become the leader of his pack and that's when he got really bad. The other 4 warlords were all horrible too, but…they all had a reason for doing what they did, being as brutal as they were. Some wanted territory, some just wanted more and more power, but not Scimitar. He never tried to get more land or increase his pack size, he just seemed…"

She paused and then dropped her voice to a near whisper.

"He just seemed to like watching other dogs suffer." she said and Weed felt a chill go through him. "He seemed to get off on it. Like he had no greater plan than to inflict as much pain as he possibly could on as many dogs as he could. My father and brother were trying to rally dogs together before we came over here to try and overthrow 'The Watchers'. I assumed that when Maxime went back to Russia that's what they had done."

Kurotura stepped forward a little and the pack glanced over at him as he looked hard at her.

"How do you know all this?" he asked half-suspiciously. "Have you ever met this bastard?"

Jerome gave him a warning glare for his tone of voice but the Kai dog patriarch ignored him. Lydia looked at him and nodded.

"My father told me most of what I know about him." she said. "But I have met him. Just once."

She straightened up a little and looked at Weed and Gin.

"When you're a military dog you can't show fear." she said, sounding almost proud. "You can't let things scare you, especially if you're the only female in the pack. There have been very few dogs that have truly scared me, but…but he was one of them. He just…he seemed to know things, things he shouldn't have known. He always had some way of getting dogs and wolves he hardly knew to follow his every order, no matter what it was. And his eyes were just…"

"Frightening." Hook finished from his position on the ground and the pack turned back to him.

"What does he look like?" Weed asked him and Hook raised his face to him.

"He's a wolf," the dog said. "With black fur and a long mane and icy blue eyes. His left eye has two scars through it that form a sort of upside-down cross."

"That's him." Lydia said fearfully. "Oh god, what is he doing here?!"

"He told me to give you a message, soudaishou." Hook said and Weed tilted his head warily.

"What message?" he asked.

"He said to tell you: 'All's fair in love and war'." Hook answered.

Weed frowned slightly at this, but Kyoushiro voiced what he was thinking.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Hook shook his head.

"I don't know but that's what he said to tell you." he said.

"It's a warning." Akame said in response, looking troubled. "It means that he'll stop at nothing to accomplish his goal."

"Which is what?" Ken asked next to him and Akame shook his head.

Weed looked back at Lydia and Hook.

"Could he really be doing this simply for the sake of hurting others?" he asked. "Could he really have no greater purpose?"

"It's possible." Lydia said but Hook shook his head.

"I'm not sure." he said. "But I can tell you this. He seemed to show a particular interest in you, leader."

The dogs looked uneasy and Weed nodded, feeling the same way.

Then he shook his head a little to clear his thoughts and looked down at Hook with pity and compassion.

"Whatever his agenda is, we'll deal with it later." he said. "Try and get some rest. You and Lydia will return to Gajou when you get your strength back."

Hook didn't respond and looked at him strangely, even without his eyes.

"Yes Leader." he half-whispered and Weed nodded and turned away to the others to talk with them about what to do.

Hook turned his head and sniffed the air. When he caught a particular scent, he called out its owner's name. Mel turned and looked at him, walking quickly up to him.

"Can I talk to you alone?" Hook asked softly and Mel, knowing that something was wrong, nodded.

Looking uncomfortable at his friend's condition, Mel picked up Hook in his jaws and carried him away from the others until they were back over the hill and out of sight and earshot of them. Then he lay him down on his side and looked at him concernedly.

"What is it Hook?" he asked.

Hook gave him the same strange look he had given Weed.

"Mel," he said. "We've known each other a long time. I've known you longer than I've known even Weed and I trust you with my life."

Mel looked touched and nodded at him.

"Thank you." he said.

"Which is why I need you to do something for me."

"Anything." Mel said.

Hook sightlessly looked him right in the face.

"Kill me." he whispered.

Mel's eyes went wide with shock and he took a step back from Hook's prone form.

"What?!" he barked in shock, sure he had heard wrong. "Hook, what are- "

"Listen to me!" Hook growled suddenly and Mel fell silent.

The older dog lay his head back down and Mel saw a few tears slide down his furred cheek.

"I'm a soldier of Ohu." he said. "Like you are. It's the greatest life I've ever known and you all are my family. But I can't help defend you all like this…"

He turned his head back to Mel.

"Mel, please." he said, voice almost quavering. "I don't like to beg, but I'm begging you now. I can live with being blind, but not like this. I won't even be able to go to the bathroom without one of you helping me, let alone help protect our pack. Please…"

Mel clenched his eyes shut and shook his head.

"Hook, don't ask me to do this, please." he pleaded. "Not me."

"Weed would never do it." Hook said. "And you know that. I'm sorry to ask this of you but you're my friend. And if you consider yourself my friend, you'll do this for me."

Mel kept his eyes shut and looked like he would've rather been anywhere but there. Deep down, he knew that he couldn't talk Hook into changing his mind and he couldn't say that he wouldn't have wanted the same if he were in the same position. Despite that, he tried to fight his own loyalty as long as he could until he finally had no will left to do so. Tears streaming down his face, he walked up to Hook and nudged him over onto his back. Then he grabbed him gently by the throat with his jaws. Hook smiled and didn't struggle.

"Thank you, Mel." he said. "But don't tell Weed, not right away. He has enough to deal with right now."

Mel trembled as he tightened his grip.

"I hate you for this." he said and Hook's smile remained on his muzzle.

"I thank you for this." he answered, then added softly. "I'm ready. I'll tell GB you said hello."

Mel bit down hard and pulled.

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Weed called everyone to attention, looking determinedly at his comrades. When they were all at attention, he spoke.

"I've decided that we need to split the pack up." he said and a murmur went through the dogs, but Weed continued. "We need to get more help if we're dealing with a warlord, especially if this wolf's as dangerous as Lydia says. So we're splitting the pack up into three groups, all of whom need to go gather as many dogs as possible to help us bring these bastards to justice."

Gin walked up next to him and nodded supportively.

"I agree." he said. "We need to be prepared for anything."

Weed nodded back at him and then turned to the others.

"My father, Akame, Hiro, Rocket, and Mel will take one group and go back up north towards Hokkaido." he said. "Get Suzaku and his pack and anyone else you can. Meanwhile, Tesshin will lead a group including Ken, George, Sasuke, Kyoushiro, and Kurotura west and gather dogs from the territories over in that direction. Get my brother's help while you're there. Jerome, Kagetora, Shigure and I will take the remaining dogs and gather allies from the east, then head south and try and slow down Scimitar and his pack. We need to do this quickly before these bastards hurt any more innocent dogs. Is that understood?"

The dogs yelled in support and Weed looked satisfied.

"Be careful all of you." he said seriously. "I forbid any one of you to die, down to the lowest ranking soldier."

Everyone looked proud of their leader's speech and he met their gazes.

"Alright, everyone," Weed called, "Let's move!"

As the dogs moved into their respective groups and began saying their goodbyes, Weed saw Mel emerge from the path they had come from and he stopped.

"Mel," he said. "Where were you? Where's Hook?"

Mel stopped and looked at him, and Weed could tell that he'd been crying. Before he could ask him anything else, though, Mel answered:

"He's waiting on the other side of the hill for Lydia to…to carry him home."

Weed frowned in suspicion and concern but didn't push the matter.

"All right," he said. "You're with my father's group Mel. He'll explain what's happening."

Mel nodded and walked towards Gin and Akame. As he passed, he exchanged glances with Jerome, who saw in his eyes what Weed had failed to see and nodded at him slowly, clenching his eyes shut in sorrow. Then he turned to Lydia to tell her what to do about it and say goodbye. Over by Tesshin, Ken looked at over at Kagetora from George and Kurotura's sides.

"Kage!" he called and when the Kai dog looked at him added. "Be careful."

Kagetora grinned over at him.

"Worry about yourself, Ken. We'll be fine." he said and his friend returned the grin.

"Protect Weed, Kagetora!" Kurotura added, not letting on how proud he was of his oldest son.

"Yes father." Kagetora answered and went to Weed's side as Jerome joined him too.

When the groups were separate and ready and all goodbyes had been said, the leaders of each one called to their subordinates and the Ohu army went their separate ways, splitting their ranks to get help to combat the evil that threatened them, none of them knowing that Scimitar and his pack had already unwittingly done the exact same thing.

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