Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN!

AN: Sorry for the lateness, I just haven't had any inspiration, for anything. Depression is a lovely bitch to deal with. But, better late than never I suppose.

Orchamus: Galatea is a smart cookie, and I figure that she'd take advantage. Plus, it said in the manga that she disappeared amongst the chaos from seven years ago, so I thought I could just go with that. Their ignorance can only last for so long n_n

I: When I read this, it made my day, seriously, thank you :) Randomness is my thing :P Hope you enjoy

algebraiya: I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for reviewing :)

EVA-Saiyajin: thanks, I'm glad you liked it :) I'm twisting it all, it's not just events that are speeding up. Characters ages change too. Also the Organisation's plans are accelerated too :)

storyreaderlovespie: Yay, thanks :) Hope you enjoy and thanks for reviewing

kyuubicannon: Oh no no, I have a lot of plans :) I'll make sure not to go too fast, but I also have seven years of free time, if I really wanted to use all that filler for my own story. Thanks for reading.

marc: Oh no, don't worry, it's fine. I hope you see this update :) She's just too cool not to have :) I'm pretty sure just including Noah made this story AU :) Thanks :)

nothost: Thanks a bunch, that means a lot to me :D

kyjori: We shall see :)

: Mmmm, nah, I like things the way they are :) but thanks anyways

X-elemental: Why? If I just started from the bit where real changes were made, then no one would understand what's going on. Even if he made no real changes, him being there is a change, and I had to write that so people would understand what was happening. Isley didn't care what happened, he'd already moved on, the Awakened beings were always going to be able to move on once Rigardo intervened. They never expected him to die, but that didn't matter in the end anyway. Riful is being diplomatic, she needs Noah. She's still scheming, but she'll play nice until she has what she wants.

DON'T MIND ME I'M A LINE BREAK

You've been acting awful tough lately
Smoking a lot of cigarettes lately
But inside, you're just a little baby
It's okay to say you've got a weak spot
You don't always have to be on top
Better to be hated than love, love, loved for what you're not

You're vulnerable, you're vulnerable
You are not a robot
You're loveable, so loveable
But you're just troubled

Guess what? I'm not a robot, a robot
Guess what? I'm not a robot, a robot

~ I Am Not A Robot, Marina And The Diamonds

DON'T MIND ME I'M A LINE BREAK

"You're going kind of slow, do you think you could pick up the pace a little?"

Galatea glared at Noah, about to verbally abuse him, but the look on his face stopped her. He looked unusually serious, and she answered the question, rather than the cutting remarks she had planned. "This is the fastest sustainable pace I can manage, or I'd become fatigued before getting to where ever we're going." He silver eyes narrowed. "Why do you ask?"

He grimaced a little, "When I came to find you, I left Clare and Jean with Luciela, and Rafaela."

Galatea gaped at him, "Are you insane, or just stupid?"

Noah's gaze darkened, and he suddenly appeared in front of Galatea, clutching her chin in one pale hand. He looked straight into her eyes, and her breath caught in fear. She could feel his yoki, subtly flowing through his body, and pressing against her own, malicious and oppressive.

He leaned forwards, and his free hand clasped hers, preventing her from drawing her sword. He stayed silent for a second, before smiling slightly, and blowing wind into her face, causing her to blink and recoil. He released her chin, and backed off slightly, causing the sense of fear to diminish, but not vanish, although she did take her hand off of her sword.

"It's been a long time since someone was brave or idiotic enough to talk back to me so disrespectfully." He paused, and appeared to be pondering something.

He looked up at her and smiled again, bigger this time, "It's refreshing." He quietly chuckled at the look on her face, before he disappeared, and she found herself swept off of her feet. The former Number Three barely managed to stop herself from punching the smirking Abyssal One in the head, and she snarled at him.

"What do you think you're doing? Put me down!"

He chuckled, and took off running, reaching incredible speeds. He spoke, and Galatea had to strain to hear it over the rushing wind. "We need to get back quickly, and your top speed isn't going to cut it. So, I'm going to carry you."

She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off, "Would you prefer that I carry you on my back?"

She glared, being carried like a weak, ordinary human was embarrassing enough, but being carried like a child would be mortifying. She turned her head away, and stayed silent. The silver haired woman could feel Noah's laughter rumbling through his chest, and her glare deepened.

DON'T MIND ME I'M A LINE BREAK

There was a heavy awkward silence in the camp. Noah had left over an hour ago, with barely a word, shouting over his shoulder for the two warriors to continue the exercises until he returned, no explanation of where he was going, or when he would come back.

The rudeness still had Luciela seething, occasionally mumbling to herself. Rafaela was leaning against a tree, watching the two Claymore's suppressing their yoki. She pushed off of the tree, and walked closer, unable to stop herself.

"Trying to force it will just cause your yoki to expand. You need to draw it into your core, calmly and slowly."

Clare's eyes slid open as she gazed at the former Number Two, but she heeded the the more experienced being's advice, and took a deep breath. She fell into a light trance, slowly shrinking her yoki, much as she used to do in a battle to be able to predict her opponents movement.

Jean also listened to the advice, although it was less meaningful to her, as she had been doing much the same already. The former Number Nine's iron will was a great asset in this case, allowing her to reign in her yoki with startling proficiency, despite having only just started.

Rafaela watched as the short-haired warrior feel into a trance, eyes drawn to the girl's right arm, and she frowned. She steeped closer, reaching out with her yoki, face going blank as she realised the truth.

Clare's eyes sprang open, and she leaped to her feet as the foreign yoki washed over her. Jean joined her slowly, tense, but unsure what had happened. Rafaela spoke slowly, watching the tense warriors closely, "This arm, it belonged to Quicksword Irene, did it not?"

Clare's eyes caught her own, and the former Number Two was caught off guard by their intensity. The younger woman narrowed her eyes, "And how would you know that?"

Rafaela slowly shifted, unsure of the warriors reaction, "My last mission from the Organisation, was to hunt down and eliminate the deserter, former Number Two, Quicksword Irene-" The red-haired woman was cut off as she leapt backwards, avoiding a flurry of sword blows, which carved through the ground she had been standing on.

Clare continued the attack, eyes flaring brilliant gold, slitted and full of rage. Jean drew her sword to enter the fray, if only to protect Clare, who despite her rage-driven proficiency, was clearly outclassed. But as she moved to her comrade's defence, she was caught, something wrapping around her chest and arms, pinning her in place.

"Now, now, she's got to learn, you don't pick fights with some one far, far beyond your your abilities." Luciela's voice came from behind her, and Jean strained her neck to look at the female Abyssal One.

Jean glared at her, a fierce expression from the normally level headed warrior, "Let me go. I can calm Clare down." Even with all of her bravado, deep inside, she was unsure of her claim. She had no idea why Clare had reacted the way she did, or if she could talk her out of it. The tails wrapped around her began to squeeze, cutting off her air supply.

Luciela smiled and ignored the girl, feeling the warrior beginning to struggle within the grasp of her tail, and watched the fight unfold. Rafaela was staying on the defensive, while the blond-haired girl had yet to land a blow, despite her tremendously fast sword strikes. Secretly, the Abyssal One was hoping that her sister would kill the Claymore.

The two Claymore's were only slowing them down, and without them, they could move against Isley and his woman much sooner. Her fists clenched as she thought of the oldest of the Abyssal Ones, reminded of the humiliating defeat she had faced at his hands.

After he was disposed of, the balance would be re-established, and the three of them would continue their impasse against each other and the Organisation. The natural order would be restored.

A smile crept across her lips and her eyes glimmered as she thought. Unless she could convince him to join her, to ally himself with her against Riful. Then they could end that irritating little girl, and destroy the Organisation. Then it would just be him, and her . . . . . . . . until she destroyed him too.

The idea of being the undisputed ruler, the Queen of the land was almost too much to resist. But she chided herself, knowing that it would take time, and that she had to remain patient.

Too embroiled in the fight to pay attention to her sister's mental state, Rafaela began to move to the offence, feeling her bones and muscles shift under her skin as she transformed into her Awakened state.

"Enough!"

Noah entered the clearing in a blur, swinging the long-haired warrior in his arms to her feet, and then storming towards the fight. Clare was kneeling, clutching a deep gash across her stomach, while Rafaela's body was rippling and growing larger with every second.

The Abyssal One's yoki flooded the clearing, an overwhelmingly malevolent presence, that drew everyone's attention. His eyes began to glimmer, "I leave for barely an hour, and this is what I come back to." His eyes flicked over to Luciela, who was trying to subtly unwind her tail from Jean.

Noah glared fiercely and the female Abyssal One retracted her tail, mind whirling furiously. He spoke slowly, putting emphasis on each word.

"What, exactly, happened here."

Luciela opened her mouth, but closed it again as Noah gave her a scathing look. He instead turned to Jean, and gave her an encouraging nod.

With a cautious look at Luciela, the former Number Nine, elaborated on the entire fracas. "Clare attacked Rafaela after she admitted to taking part in a mission from the Organisation, and then Luciela prevented me from attempting to calm Clare down." She stepped away from the female Abyssal One as she spoke, not willing to remain within striking distance.

Noah turned back to Luciela, aiming a blistering glare at her. He clenched his hands, and willed himself to calm down. Unfortunately, along with the blood lust and the hunger, possessiveness was often a trait that the newly Awakened being inherited upon creation. The four Abyssal Ones were no exception to this general rule.

In fact, they seemed to show greater tendencies of possessiveness than ordinary Awakened beings, as shown by Riful and Dauf, Luciela with Rafaela and Isley's domination over Rigardo.

To Noah, Jean and Clare were his, not friends, and not minions, but his none the less. Admittedly they were still mostly human, but it was starting to dawn on him that he wouldn't disagree to them Awakening. True, they'd need to be . . . . . educated . . . . . in who was in command, but he could do far worse in the search for lieutenants.

Unluckily for the female Abyssal One, she tried to speak again, glaring at Noah with indignation. "You're just going to take her word for it?"

By now, both Clare and Rafaela had calmed down, although in Clare's case, it was due to her injuries bringing back her control, not her necessarily shedding her anger. Jean moved to her side, and helped her limp over to Galatea, where the three exchanged nods of greeting, and began to watching the growing argument.

Rafaela stood behind her sister, staying in her Awakened form, making small nervous movements. She could almost smell the fight brewing, and although she would fight to the death for her sister, the malevolent yoki still surging from the boy put her on edge.

By this time, Noah and Luciela were snarling at each other. The female made the first move, both tails lashing out at the seemingly younger male. He dodged, allowing the prehensile appendages slip past his body as he rushed forwards, hands morphing into claws.

She backed off, trying to stay out of arms reach while she lashed out with her tails. Noah tried to dodge again, but he was too close to have enough room, and was sent flying with a tremendous blow. He disappeared from the sight of the watching warriors, and Luciela was forced to leap out of the way of several thick tendrils tearing through the space she had been in.

Rafaela leaped to her aide, but she was batted aside by another barrage of tendrils. Luciela growled in rage, and with an enormous burst of yoki, transformed into her Awakened form. Dashing over to her sister faster than the blink of an eye, she tore through the tendrils pinning her to the ground, and roared out her defiance.

The two sisters faced off against the still human form Abyssal One, who scowled, "Fine, if this is the way you want to play." Noah knew that they could risk bringing the Organisation down on their heads, but at this point he didn't care. No matter who they sent, he was stealthy enough to escape, and it shouldn't be too much trouble to outrun any pursuers, even if he took the three warriors with him.

Rafaela and Luciela could fend for themselves, if they were still able to do so after he was done with them. It would be tough, but he was reasonably sure that with Luciela's lingering weakness, and Rafaela's inexperience, he would hold the upper hand.

He motioned for the warriors to back away, and gave up holding back his yoki for the first time in decades. Other times he had let it loose, but he had never released it all at once before, except for when he first Awakened.

It was . . . . . . . exhilarating.

He cried out as his human 'shell' cracked and split, feeling energy rush through every part of his body. Everyone assembled watched in awe and fear as flesh exploded out of the delicate looking human form.

His shoulders twisted as a set of arms many times larger than his main set burst from his shoulder blades and flexed menacingly. Another two sets emerged from his sides, leaving the Abyssal One with four sets, each tipped with vicious looking claws. His legs merged together and began to lengthen, skin forming a thick bark like outer layer. Across his forehead, slits appeared and opened, to show additional eyes, two above, two to the side and one in the centre of his brow. His hair twisted into thick tangles, clumping together into vine like locks no longer resembling the fine hair of his human disguise.

The assembled Claymores and Awakened beings watched as the serpent like Abyssal One stretched, obviously relishing in his freedom.

Noah was a little smaller his fellow Abyssal One, but the amount of yoki pouring off of his body was staggering. His eyes slid open, and he smirked at Luciela.

"Let's dance."

He vanished, moving terrifyingly fast even to Galatea and Rafaela's sight. The Abyssal One used his tail to slither along the ground, using the densely muscled appendage to push off the ground for bursts of speed and to force himself into the air. The former Number Two was sent flying, crashing through several trees before skidding along the ground. She'd never even seen to blow coming until it was too late.

Luciela was able to dodge, and sent her tails slicing through the air in response to the punch that cratered the ground where she'd been standing. Unfortunately for her, Noah ducked under, and sent his own tendrils against her, attempting to slice through her arms and legs.

Several mouths opened across her body, and seized the few tendrils she couldn't avoid, tearing them apart and chewing them up. She grimaced as the taste as scraps of flesh were devoured. "You taste sickeningly sweet. How revolting!"

Noah appeared behind her and chuckled, fending off strikes from both of her tails. He twisted through the air, and smashed his tail into her back, sending her spiralling away through the air. He spun again, catching several bone spikes that Rafaela had fired at him, and threw them back her, forcing her to bat them out of the air. This cost her, and Noah flew above her, and smashed her down into the earth with a single punch.

Rafaela felt her skeleton, reinforced by her bone armour, creaking in protest, and rolled out of the way of Noah's follow up punch. She took the advantage to lash out with her claws, raking them down his side.

To her surprise, he merely smirked, and kicked her, sending her skidding across the ground. Noah stood, and looking into Luciela's eyes, watching her surprise as she saw the wounds had already healed, only the splash of blood revealing their short existence at all.

He tilted his head, "Defensive type, remember?"

The female Abyssal One growled, "Time to stop playing around then." She threw back her head and roared, fully releasing her yoki. The ground around her cracked and crumbled, the force of her yoki creating a vivid red explosion of light. She started moving before the light had faded, crashing into Noah.

Luciela pinned his smaller form to the ground, and started to tear into him, cutting through skin and muscle with her talons. She almost tore deep enough to reach bone when something seized her by the throat from behind and smashed her into a nearby tree.

Noah's tail tightened around her neck and dragged her across the ground, liftin her into the air and brought her crashing down. It repeated this, forcing her to wildly lash her tails in the hope of cutting off her attacker's.

While she had the ability to open mouths across her body, there were some places that she couldn't, such as her neck, face, hands, and her feet. There just wasn't enough room to open a mouth on these places, and that left her a little vulnerable to attacks in these areas.

She rose to her feet, and was joined by Rafaela quickly. The two of them watched in disbelief as Noah's flesh knitted itself together, quicker than anything they'd seen before.

He just smirked at them, "Defensive types almost never get into the high single digits, but I was always good enough at regeneration to make up for any lack of combat skills, and experience easily covered up for the rest. If you want to beat me, you're going to have to try a lot harder than that."

Luciela roared, and sprinted forwards, enraged by the blatant taunting. She'd show this arrogant bastard just how much damage she could cause.

Suddenly, she stopped, skidding to a halt. She glanced down, and saw that part of her hand was missing, torn away. She moved her focus to the human appearing female that was noisily munching on it, and growled in confusion. She quickly lashed a tail out, and split the thing in half at the waist.

She turned her gaze back to Noah, but he was watching the corpse and gaping. She looked back, and stared as the two halves of the abomination were pulling themselves together, and it climbed back onto it's feet. She swiped at it and tore it into shreds, relieved that it didn't attempt to repair itself this time.

Luciela was stunned as several more leaped out of the trees, followed another few. There was a dozen of them now, shuffling towards her. Suddenly, they dashed forwards, some of them leaping through the air.

There was several sickening thuds as Rafaela launched a series of bone spikes at the creatures. Only one stayed down, a spike perforating it's head, while the others just kept coming. The Number Two yelled to the others, "Aim for the heads! It's the only sure way to keep them down!"

Noah leapt through the air, and extended his tendrils, grimacing as several were countered by the abominations, who grew blades from their own bodies. They morphed and twisted, as though their bodies were made of liquid metal.

Even the three Claymore's had joined the fight, ganging up on a single abomination, and cutting it to pieces. It seemed as though the creatures were getting more dangerous as the fight wore on though, as if they were learning from the deaths of their fellows. The abominations were harder to kill, flesh growing tougher and regenerating faster, while they moved more smoothly and were using teamwork to attack Luciela, who they focused almost exclusively on.

Noah speared another one through the head with his fist, and shouted, "Kill them all! We don't want any getting back to the Organisation to report!" He lashed out and cut another one in half vertically, grimacing as it grew spikes in it's death spasms, punching several holes in his abdomen.

As the numbers of the monsters dropped to four, they suddenly took off, sprinting surprisingly fast. The three Awakened beings gave chase, while the three Claymore's took a quick breather. The fight had been short, but intense, and none of them had been well rested from the start.

Rafaela sent volley after volley of bone spikes at the creature she was chasing, and though most of them hit trees or non-vital areas, after several seconds, a lucky shot burst through the monsters head, and it dropped to the ground, dead.

Luciela was having her own troubles with her prey, as she had no long range capabilities. Surging her yoki, she put on a burst of speed and leaped through the air. As she soared over the abomination, she spun and whipped her tails along the ground. As the female Abyssal One landed, the creature fell apart, foul smelling blood spilling across the ground. Luciela just looked at the thing in disgust, and sprinted after the next one.

Noah slithered along the ground, unable to match the creatures' speed as they leapt through the branches above. The larger arms on his back lashed out, lengthening as they swiped through the tree tops. The entire area was filled with falling branches and splinters as he closed in on the creatures.

One of the abominations was caught in his assault, and was promptly shredded along with several metres of forest. The other escaped, leaving an arm behind.

The last one was desperate to escape, and was putting all of it's energy into running away. Noah swooped down, but it ducked at the last second, avoiding his slash. The thing moved to the side, trying to put more distance between them, but Luciela leapt from the trees, and pinned the monster beneath her, crushing it's head with a single powerful punch.

She moved to stand on her feet, but her head was shoved down, and ground into the bloody mess spread across the earth. She tried to stand, but several tendrils helped restrain her, and even though she opened several mouths over her body to tear them up, more tendrils just moved to keep her down.

"Now, Luciela my dear, we're going to have a little talk."

DON'T MIND ME I'M A LINE BREAK

Again, really really sorry for the delay.

About the Abyssal feeders, the reason they were able to get them out so quickly was because they already had the subjects broken and trained, all they really needed was to implant the Awakened being flesh and deploy them. But, they were a bit hasty, they let them out too early, so they're unprepared for combat. And while this would normally be adjusted for as the survivors would return to base to add their experience to the collective, with more opposition than a weakened Abyssal One, they were killed off and hunted down.

Isley was alone when he faced these things, and he could never have hunted them all down in time. With Noah and Rafaela helping her, Luciela fared much better than her male counterpart.

Hope that pre-empts any questions or complaints about those.

Thanks for reading, please review and let me know if anything needs to be changed

Phoenix

EDIT: Alrighty, I'm trying to make a comeback on this story, because I do miss it. So, I've made some changes, mostly to the end of the story, because it was pointed out to me that Noah is basically a male version of Priscilla. So, I've changed his Awakened form, and there will be more differences in future chapters. Please gimme some feedback.

Should I continue the story with these changes, or should I ditch it and start again?

You be the judge.