Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-man. I wish I did but sadly, that dream will not become a reality. But Sida is of my own imagination. Thnx for reading.
That afternoon, after the issue of the lack of soba had been taken care of, everyone was sitting around in the lounge relaxing. The whole room remained quiet as they watched the dark haired woman.
Sida sunk to the ground as low as she could and slid across the room as quickly and as quietly as she could, her eyes on her target. The people surrounding her watched her out of the corner of their eyes, some smiling, some backing off as if knowing something bad were going to happen. The woman had the stealth of a cat as she crept her way towards Kanda, scissors gleaming in her hand. When she finally reached to where she could touch him, she opened the scissors and had them positioned to cut a chunk off of the long ponytail when he turned around. Sida threw the scissors across the room in one swift movement and started playing with his hair, smiling a ridiculous smile.
"What are you doing?" Kanda asked, staring at the woman confused.
"Just playing with your hair. I think it needs a trim though. You need to have it cut like Lavi's or Allen's. It'd be so much easier to handle." As she spoke she pulled a second pair of scissors out of her pocket. Kanda noticed them and pulled back, his eyes blazing.
"Try it Sida and I'll slice you in half." Kanda's temper got the better of him again. Sida merely stood with her arms crossed across her chest.
"Now is that any way to address your mother." She smirked. Without warning, she threw the scissors in such a way that they curved then clamped down onto Kanda's ponytail, cutting off the bottom two inches. Kanda stood wide eyed with shock at the pile of hair that was now at his feet. Fire seemed to erupt around the room as he drew his mugen and charged Sida. She artfully dodged his opening blow.
"Hold still old woman." He shouted. As he kept swing his mugen, sending illusions after Sida who was still dodging each of his movements. Her strategy seemed to be to wear him out before making her move.
"Hey Captain, you tell me; is 29 old?" she asked as she jumped across his blade.
"Nope. You're as agile as ever." Reever answered.
"Really? I don't know. I'm feeling a little out of shape." She answered, smirking again as she pushed off against the wall to end up on the other side of Kanda. "You're too predictable son. You're slowing down too. We should have worked on your endurance more." With that, Sida kicked the mugen out of Kanda's hand and into her own. She held it to his neck in a victorious stance as he fell to his knees in exhaustion.
"Good job, Sida. I didn't know you still had it in you." Komui walked in at that moment, clapping. Sida bowed to everyone's applause and handed Kanda back his weapon.
"Keep in mind son. I taught you everything you know about how to wield this thing. I never taught you everything I know." She said as Kanda walked out of the room frustrated. Sida shook her head at him.
"I don't understand how she was that fast earlier. She works in the science department. If she's that fast, she should be out fighting akuma with us." Allen said. He and Lenalee were having dinner together as usual when the subject of that afternoon's duel between mother and son came into the conversation.
"Sida's a retired exorcist." Lenalee said much to Allen's surprise. "I heard she was one of the best the Order had. She was also in line to become one of the generals."
"You mean like General Cross?" Lenalee nodded. "Well, why did she retire then?" Both Lenalee and Allen jumped as the answer came from behind them.
"I got hurt." Sida sat on the other side of Allen with her meal. "Do you mind?"
"No, go ahead." Sida settled into the seat before she continued her story.
"Hevlaska told me one day that my synchronization rate was nearly high enough to become a general and that I should take that path into consideration. I told her I'd think about it and on my next assignment, I got hurt. Something caused my innocence to backfire on me and I lost the majority of my sync rate. Hevlaska allowed me to keep my innocence to try to get the rate back up again but I haven't used it in so long I don't even know if I can activate it." She took a bite of her pasta with a shrug. "But that was a long time ago; before they even brought Lenalee in."
"Sida used to come in and take the cuffs off of me at night so I could sleep. She'd stay up every night to make sure that I didn't run." Lenalee explained.
"Lenalee and I were complete opposites. She had been taken away from the only family that she had. This place was a prison for her. I didn't have a family to be taken away from. I was living on the streets and taking care of myself when General Weathers found me. After he trained me for a couple of years he sent me here. The Order was a paradise for me.
I wanted her to feel as comfortable here as I did."
"Captain!" Sida ran down the halls of the order after the sandy haired man. Reever turned around at the title.
"Good morning Sida." He said with a smile as she caught up to him.
"Good morning. I have a request." Sida caught her breath as she straightened her robes. "Please allow me to contact the girl's brother."
"I don't know about that Sida. You know we're not supposed to bring family members into the Order without direct orders or if they are under similar circumstances." Reever explained.
"Captain, if we want to train her, we need to bring her brother here. He's the only person she's going to listen to."
"I know you care about that girl, Sida, but I don't have time to take the necessary measures, much less get him here." Reever said frowning. He understood how she felt about the child. Sida had always had that mothering side of her. She and Cloud Nine had been the only women in the order for the longest time. She had become a mother to every exorcist and finder and staff member there; particularly to her adopted son, Kanda, when he arrived. He turned to walk away when she stopped him.
"I'll do it. I'll prepare everything that needs to be done. Just tell me what to do." Sida had a determined look on her face. It was an expression that Reever couldn't say no to and she knew it. He sighed in defeat.
"Fine." He smiled at the excited spark in her eye that was the result. "You need to get the idea approved by Hevlaska. She'll tell you if there is a position open for him to take and an open room. Other than that, the only problem would be that I can't send an exorcist to ensure his safe arrival."
"I can do it. All I'd need to do is use my old uniform. I'll set up the pick up for as close to headquarters as I can so there will be less of a chance of anything happening." Sida suggested. Reever didn't like the idea of the woman running around outside of the safety of headquarters without having her synchronization level up yet but he couldn't argue.
"Okay." He reluctantly agreed. "Just make sure Hevlaska knows. Go and get that settled now."
"Yes sir." Sida playfully saluted the older man and ran off in the opposite direction towards the elevator. Reever shook his head slowly as he watched her go.
The next day, he was somewhat shocked to see Sida walk into the science department in her exorcist uniform.
"It still fits." She smiled brightly. The black cloak went down her back and the pants and top fit the same way they had when she had put them away.
"Wow, it's been a long time since we've seen you in that thing. It looks good."
"Thank you. I'm going to go finish up some last minute things with Hevlaska then I'm going to go pick him up. Apparently his name is Komui." She said. She had a hint of sadness in her eyes that mingled with the excitement and anxiety.
"So Hevlaska agreed?" Reever asked, watching Sida carefully.
"Yep." The sadness in her eyes took over for hardly a second before she replaced it with a smile.
"What's your side of the deal?" he asked, noticing her expression.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"What do you have to do to get the guy here? You made a deal with Hevlaska. I see your wrist." Sida hid her hands behind her back, pulling her sleeve over the small starred mark, the seal of a promise. She sighed, realizing that she had been caught.
"If he screws up, I have to fire him and erase his memory. The girl stays and continues her training and I'm moved back to the Asia branch where I'll be working all day and night to get my sync rate back up to become a full time exorcist again." Sida reluctantly explained. She hadn't wanted Reever to know about what her part of the deal was. In her mind, the only thing that mattered was that the girl was comfortable in Headquarters.
"Why are you putting yourself on the line for this girl? You hardly know her. What about Kanda? If you get transferred, who's going to watch over him to the extent that you do? Have you really thought this through?"
"Yes, I have." Sida was becoming annoyed that he didn't trust her decision. "I've thought all of that through. Kanda doesn't need me. He never has. I only watched over him to that extent because of what they did to him. Plus, I did want to make sure he was safe but he's fine. He can take care of himself."
"Are you doing this just so you can take care of someone like you couldn't with Kanda?"
"No I'm not, Captain. I have my reasons for doing this. I know how he feels to have the one thing you cherish at the time be taken from you without warning."
"Then why?" Reever was persistent with the young woman. She sighed with a sad smile.
"Because ten years ago, a little girl who was equally as scared and equally as alone walked through those doors to find someone who showed her that this place is nothing short of a paradise. He took care of her when no one else would and was there every time she came home from an assignment to say 'welcome back; I missed you.' He became the family she had always wanted but never had. I want to give her what you gave me and this Komui is the only one that can. So I'm going to go get him, no matter what the cost is to me." Sida looked at the man and blushed. He had been like a father to her since she could remember. Reever sighed in defeat.
"I don't know why I try to talk you out of things." He looked in her eyes. "You've become a beautiful strong young woman. I'm proud of you." He said. She blushed even deeper and turned away.
"Thank you. I've got to go. Hevlaska has the pick up plans waiting for me."
"Alright. Good luck." Reever kissed the girl on the forehead just before she turned and ran towards the elevator.
That evening, Sida was woken up by a voice. The air around her was cooling as the sun sank beyond the horizon casting shadows over the open waiting area of the train station. Sida opened her eyes to see a man who was around her age standing above her.
"Excuse me miss. I'm sorry to wake you but are you from the Black Order?" he asked timidly.
"It depends." She sat up and replaced the hair tie into her ponytail. "Who's asking?"
"I'm Komui Lee. I was contacted by-" he started but was cut off.
"So you're Komui." She started. The man nodded, clutching his bag even tighter. "Alright. Come on. Your sister doesn't know that you're coming. I figured that it would be nice to surprise her. I'm Sida by the way." Komui shook the girl's outstretched hand with his free one and followed her towards the dark building.
Once they were making their way to the building was when Komui spoke for the first time.
"How is she?" he asked.
"She'll be much better once you get in there. We've only just recently gotten her to eat something. The only word we've heard her say since she's been here is brother." Sida said. Komui's face went pale at the thought.
"Thank you so much for calling me here." He said after a long pause.
"No problem. I know how it feels. They just brought my adopted son in about six months ago. He's only a few years older than Lenalee. I don't like the way they bring them in here. I understand that we need more exorcists but that's no excuse for breaking up families like that. That's the only thing I would change about this place if I could." She explained. Komui nodded.
"I'm just glad I get to see her again." Sida smiled and opened her mouth to say something but abruptly closed it when the doors opened to reveal the gate to Headquarters.
"Gatekeeper, open the doors." Sida commanded. "It's Sida and the new director." The doors opened and allowed the pair to walk in. When they reached the main hall, Komui was nearly bouncing with excitement.
"Alright, come on. I'll show you to her room." They walked down long corridors and turned corner after corner. To Komui, it seemed to be taking forever to walk down what felt like miles and miles of tile and stone. Eternity had passed before they reached the small wooden door. Sida opened it and Komui's eyes filled with tears. The small child was chained to her bed with tears running down her sleeping face. Sida watched as Komui knelt beside the girl's bed. She woke up and a sad smile covered her face. Sida closed the door, her own expression showing the happiness she felt for the siblings.
Thanks for reading. I'll try to update as soon as ElrichLawliet updates her story. :) Don't forget to review. They make me feel all sparkly inside. Cookies to all who press the little button down there...