So hey guys! (Literally two followers, lol) I realised how f #king difficult to upload twice a week, so I'll now be sticking to once-a-week updates. But besides that, I don't have much else to say. Have fun reading! And if you do, then please! Leave a review! It makes my day!

-Making Contact-

The both of them ran, silently, with naught but the silent pants, and the hammering of the rain to accompany them. They two didn't talk, trying to conserve energy, but each was lost in their own thoughts anyway, in a myriad of pondering and theories. Which were, admittedly, mostly about whether one would backstab the other.

And then a shot rang out through the narrow and messy streets of the ruined buildings. Valka jumped, Aster smiled. The tip of the bullet suddenly popped out, revealing a small note that was scribbled on with pencil, a single sentence.

The fuck have you been?

Valka looked at him, like he was crazy, before opening her mouth, and asking incredulously,"Who the hell is that? And why is your head still on your shoulders?"

Aster only looked back at her with an amused expression on his face, "That would be a bit of an abusive relationship, wouldn't it?"

"So she's your-"
"Yep, she's my girlfriend"

They spent the next two minutes climbing up multiple flights of stairs. Panting, and cursing the useless elevator, all the way until they reached the penthouse, where Aster held Valka behind him, giving her a serious look.

"Now, I should warn you before you come in, she doesn't take very kindly to strangers. The name is Kinaver, and don't call her anything else besides that. Call her a 'ranga, and you most likely won't wake up tomorrow morning."

Then he opened the door, to a ramshackle and bombed room. The place was extremely messy, and a cold draft drifted throughout the place. There was one, large room with two beds in it, which both had various miscellaneous things strewn about from old instant-noodle boxes, to large books on philosophy.

Aster walked in slowly, eyes darting from side-to-side. As if he was hunting his prey. Valka followed before him, and only stopped to stare in puzzlement at a single, orange hair, floating down, slowly, calmly.

"Hey Aster-"
Her voice was cut off by a deafening *Bang!*. In shock, Valka looked up, straight into the icy-blue eyes of a girl with soft orange hair which had a strange, brown streak in one small part. She herself was wearing a peculiar orange hoody, which was patterned with glowing yellow hexagons throughout its entire frame. Additionally, wrapped around her neck, she wore a Crimson-red scarf. On her legs she wore a pair of faded denim jeans.

Three facts worried her. One, the girl had two large UMPs. Two, they were pointed straight at her face. Three, Kinaver didn't look like she was going to have any second-thoughts about shooting her, multiple times, in the face.

The redhead's eyes narrowed, sizing Valka up and, never taking her eyes off Valka's for a second, she called out to Aster softly, danger in her voice,

"So, care explaining who this girl is?"

For his part, Aster stood stock still, even though his wound was still bleeding, and looked like it hurt immensely. He answered calmly, voice unwavering,

"Her name's Valka, I found her being chased by some of Miyabi's goons. Most likely, she was being chased, hunted. Kinda like us."

Kinaver looked between the two suspiciously, before lowering her weapons, and shrugging.

Then, when everything seemed calm, she saw the pool of blood that had been slowly forming at Aster's feet. To make it worse; he seemed shaky, swaying on his feet, like a drunken man. This in itself was worrying, for as far as Valka and Kinaver knew, the Genesis couldn't get drunk.

And then he collapsed, and Kinaver ran to his side, her expression one of complete concentration. She had obviously done this before, Valka noted, looking on with narrowed eyes.

"Oi, Valka, was it? Go get that med-kit from the bathroom."

She ran off, and grabbed it, noting with surprise at the lightness of the white box. Her suspicions were confirmed when Kinaver popped it open. It was nearly empty. All in all, there was a single roll of bandages, a needle, and a small spool of blue nylon thread, along with a tiny bottle of dressing alcohol.

"Aster? Can you hear me? The venom, it's of a spider's. You're a Genesis, so you'll be better off than a human."
Kinaver paused, stroking Aster's face.

"We don't have any anti-venom."

Aster looked up, straight at Kinaver and smiled, before sitting up, with a wince.

"Hey, I'll be fine, don't you worry. I've always pulled through, haven't I?

"Well, at least stay sitting, the more you move, the more the venom spreads."

Aster sighed, but bowed his head in consent, and, with reluctance, Kinaver walked into the next room. In not much time, Valka followed, walking straight into a room that had an entire wall bombed out, so that it ended in a sheer drop off the side. Kinaver was laying prone on the edge, staring into a sniper rifle that was coloured a carbon-black, and had straight lines through them that seemed to burn away at the air around her, creating a faint, orange hue.

Valka sat down next to Kinaver, smoothing down her gothic dress, and looking out at the view that beheld her, feeling the icy-cold wind blow into her face. Kinaver stayed completely still, looking out through Loop Seven, and the small spirals of smoke that drifted up over the damaged, and sad looking place.

"So, Kinaver, why's your hair that colour?"

"Because I want it to be, genius."

Valka shut up, and looked away yet again, as the awkward silence came back.

She heard an exasperated sigh come from the redhead, and they both heads at the same time, meeting each others' eyes.

"I used to be a natural redhead, before I 'evolved', the recessive gene that cause my red-hair was taken away and fixed, along with my freckles. But I always did look more natural with red-hair. So I dyed it. Back before the crystals took me, I was living with my parents in Australia. When I came to, I was in a realm of crystals. Inori came, and Mana turned feral. So I joined up with the other queen. Eventually, when we got out of Shu's arm, I made a bolt for it, in the other direction, running away from all my sins."

"And then I found this place, and I was finally alone. Well, until Aster showed up one day, running down that place with half a dozen goons chasing him. I would have shot him, if I hadn't seen his void. His pursuers were short work, by the time I was done."

She laughed, and looked back through her scope, keeping watch.

"You can imagine my expression when I heard that he used to be a Mananite! Especially a captain of The Shadow Blades. Thankfully, he was a runaway, a deserter, which I took for neutrality. Since then, we've saved each other's arse a dozen times each. He's the only one keeping count though, and makes it a point of honour to keep it even."

She stood up, face grim, both SMGs on her back.

"He's gonna owe me big time for this, there's a convoy of medical supplies coming in, shipped by Mananites, likely to Mananites. We'll take over those supplies, grab what we need, and leave the rest to the civvies. You're gonna help me at ground-zero, I'll support you from the back."

The sniper-rifle she'd been holding dissipated slowly into smoke, which curled up, and into Kinaver's body, where she gasped lightly, chest expanding outwards.

She looked at Valka with a foreboding glance, as if saying, Don't fuck with me.

"Let's go."

And then she jumped off the building.