AN: Surprise!
Here is another update!
Hope you enjoy the chapter and please do leave a review or comment, and let me know what you think!
If you have any specific questions or suggestions, please feel free to PM me.
Another thing while I am at it, is this. I am a part of a discord group, there are tons of others there, plenty of writers. Feel free to pop along and say hi, I'm always happy to chat about the stuff I am writing. So if you fancy it please do join by sticking this: discord .gg / elibrary into discord, with no spaces, or using the link on my bio.
But yeah otherwise, thanks for reading and please do leave a review, or feel free to PM or find me on Discord, I am usually much better at answering those!
Also as a tag on, when I have the time I am going to be dipping into some of my older chapters cleaning up the grammar and typos that I missed in the past. Nothing major will change, just a bit of polished and minor editing.
But yeah, otherwise, please do enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Ghoul or the MCU.
( - )
(Last Time)
Focusing on the form of his ever-mutating appendages, Kaneki concentrated hard for a moment, even as he felt his kagune surge to obey his will, stiffening and conforming to his will, before with a sudden lurch he stopped free falling.
Pulling the blonde closer to his chest, Kaneki couldn't help but smirk as he started gliding through the air.
His kagune now resembled the wings of a giant demonic insect.
Chuckling despite himself at the sight of his new appendages, Kaneki couldn't help but ponder what fate had in store for him next.
A part of him hoped it wasn't anything too dramatic, as after the last couple of weeks he needed some downtime.
That, and a good cup of coffee.
( - )
Chapter 16
( - )
(With Yelena)
Pain.
That was the first thing Yelena felt as she returned to the waking world.
Her back hurt, and her head was pounding.
Carefully opening her eyes, she tried to make sense of her surroundings.
It was chilly, and she was in a dark room.
Shifting her position, she quickly noticed she was also lying on what felt like a stone slab.
It was cold, hard, and unyielding.
Kind of like her mother.
Roughly shoving her intrusive thoughts away, she refocused.
There was a musty smell in the air.
It smelt of decay and neglect.
It wasn't a familiar smell.
It made her hackles rise.
Moving her gaze to the other side of the chamber, she quickly noted that it was likely daytime.
She could see a single beam of light streaming through a small opening overhead. Looking closely, she could also see dust particles floating about lending credence to her initial observations. Wherever she was, it was empty, abandoned and decaying.
Just like her sister's heart.
She licked her lips bitterly at that thought, even as she took a breath and strained her hearing.
It was as silent as a crypt.
The only thing she could hear was the distant scurry of rodents, and a repetitive drip, drip of distant trickling water.
Opening her eyes and hissing in pain, she pushed herself up and into a sitting position.
Her back cracked and her body protested in pain.
But despite that she preserved.
"Fucker," She spat out in Russian, her eyes flitting back and forth as she eyed her surroundings cautiously.
She was in a dusty stone chamber.
There was an iron-banded, wooden double door at the far end of the chamber.
It had no obvious locks.
Rolling her shoulders she swivelled her body, so she was now in a sitting position, her legs hanging over the edges of her impromptu bed.
She couldn't spot any cameras, hidden or otherwise in any of the gloomy corners.
As far as she could tell she was alone.
Licking her dry, cracked lips again, she took another deep breath.
Where was she?
What had happened to her?
And more importantly, why was her head such a mess?
It had been a long time since she had felt this… confused.
Since she had felt anything in general for that matter.
Her heart skipped a beat at that thought, even as she gingerly got to her feet.
Something strange had happened to her.
She wasn't sure what, but it had changed something inside of her and had undone the indoctrination or chemical control, or whatever the fuck had been done to her.
She just didn't know.
It was an irritating feeling, to know that something was wrong, but to be unaware of just what that something was.
Taking another breath and trying to rein in her chaotic feelings and thoughts, she looked back at her former resting place.
"Huh…," She hummed, her heart dropping into her stomach.
It was a grey slab of stone.
Very similar to the six others she could see, all lined up in a row.
She'd just slept on a person's tomb.
Which surely meant that this stone chamber wasn't just a random room.
No, it was a mausoleum.
She worried at her bottom lip nervously as she looked around.
Annoyingly most of the writing on the tombs was all in Latin, which she couldn't read. Latin unfortunately was not one of the seven languages she was fluent in.
But the names on the tombs at least looked a bit French.
Not that that narrowed things down much. After all, multiple countries spoke French, or at least partly; such as Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg.
On top of this most of Western Europe was highly multicultural nowadays. Which meant that a person or even a family with a French-sounding name could be buried anywhere on the landmass.
Checking her belt, she felt her heart clench at the absence of her guns and knives. Reaching into her boot though, she let out a sigh of relief as her hand found the handle of her berretta.
Drawing her pistol, she quickly went back to scoping out her surroundings.
Her muddled mind was starting to fill in the blanks of what had happened.
She had been on a cargo plane heading east, transporting a dangerous mutant/ aberration back to the Red Room for experimentation, vivisection and potential breeding.
Her gut twisted in disgust.
Had she really been doing that?
She shook her head and pushed her traitorous thoughts away. She could deal with her newly rediscovered conscience later.
For now, she needed to focus.
Frowning as she reoriented herself, she looked around.
The cargo they had been transporting had escaped and had slaughtered her team…, no he hadn't just escaped, she had practically allowed him to escape.
Guilt tugged at the edges of her mind.
Her grip on her berretta tightened.
The last thing she remembered was the screaming of alarms, the dying gurgles of her comrades, and the rush of wind.
She had been on a plane, and the plane had been going down.
Which did beg the question of how she had ended up in a mausoleum of all places?
She didn't remember having a parachute.
No, all she remembered was bloodstained teeth and a burning, kaleidoscopic eye filled with hunger and rage.
Her heart thudded in her chest, and fear rose within her as she remembered everything.
"Fuck!" She spat, her stomach rebelling on her, even as she leant over against the nearest tomb and dry heaved.
There had been so much blood.
So much death.
Her sisters… no, they hadn't been sisters.
Her frie-, nope, not friends.
Her fellow Black Widows.
Yes, that fit.
Her fellow Black Widows had all been slaughtered.
She spat a mouthful of bile onto the ground.
And she'd been the next on the butcher's block.
Which once again begged the question of how she ended up here and alive instead?
As if in answer to her internal monologue she suddenly heard approaching footsteps.
Reacting in an instant, she ignored her body's violent protests as she instead hurled herself back and behind the nearest tomb. Her berretta was cocked and aimed at the door, even as it was pushed open and cold wind blew forth causing the fine hairs on her arms to stand on end.
The moment she saw that distinctive white hair, her heart clenched in fear and her hands unconsciously began to shake.
Her mouth felt as dry as the Sahara Desert.
It was the prisoner.
His skin was incredibly pale, and his facial features were very delicate and distinctly East Asian.
Japanese, from what she could tell.
He was short.
That was the first thing she noticed.
He was probably the same height as her if maybe an inch or so bigger.
He was thin too, boarding on skinny, with narrow shoulders, and slim arms and legs.
The baggy jumpsuit he was wearing only emphasised the slightness of his figure.
He didn't look strong at all.
Instead, he just looked like a normal, everyday guy.
But only on the surface.
Beneath his thin outer veneer lurked a true monster.
She'd seen it personally.
The being in front of her wasn't human.
No, he was something far more monstrous than that.
She'd dealt with mutants before and with freaks with superpowers. Her own stepfather, the Red Guardian, was one of them. Though he was more of a failed science experiment than either a mutant or a superhero. He was also a dick.
She met and at times worked with, or killed, all manner of serial killers, assassins, murderers, sociopaths, psychopaths, vegans, torturers and all manner of other depraved beings.
They were nothing on the white-haired man.
They were the sheep, and he was the wolf in their midst.
An apex predator.
The monster that even other monsters feared.
She licked her lips, and her finger ghosted over the trigger as Kaneki stepped inside.
The small calibre bullet probably wouldn't even hurt him.
Considering the lengths, her entire team had had to go to just to catch him, and that was with high-tech equipment, a perfectly coordinated ambush, a numbers advantage, and high-powered weaponry, the chances of her even hurting him were slim to none.
Especially considering how easily he had slaughtered her entire team the moment he had gotten free.
They hadn't stood a chance against him.
The moment they had lost the initiatives was the exact same moment that they had lost their lives.
Taking a deep breath, she raised her hands above her head in an international sign of surrender and stood up.
Unfortunately, the downside of being free from Dreykov's programming was the fear and survival instincts that came with that freedom.
Whereas before she had been able to look death in the face and fight on like an autonomous robot.
Now, she felt the primordial terror that came hand in hand with certain death.
She felt a lump form in her throat as the man's inhuman eyes locked with her own, even as she released her gun and allowed it to clatter to the floor at her feet.
She was totally at his mercy.
Which wasn't a comforting thought.
Especially not now she could fully see him, including the blood staining his face, and the half-devoured human leg he was carrying in his right hand.
He was carrying it around; in the same way, a fat American child might carry a KFC drumstick.
It made her gut clench and her bladder contract.
Fortunately, as her dry mouth attested to, she hadn't had a drink in a while, which thankfully meant she didn't piss herself.
Dying was one thing.
But at least she could say she went to her death standing strong, and not wetting herself like a fucking child.
"Do it," She spat in accented English.
The white-haired monster cocked his head curiously.
"Kill me," She said, her eyes burning with unshed tears.
This was it.
For all she had thought it was bullshit, as she stared death in the face, she really could see her life flashing before her eyes.
She remembered growing up in the orphanage – it hadn't been a happy time but neither had it been entirely miserable –, and the day that man in a suit had come and taken her away.
She could see the quaint suburban home she had lived in with her family while in America.
That had been the last time she had actually been happy.
The memory of badly dyed blue hair, a kind smile and the warmth of a gentle embrace flashed through her mind.
Natasha.
She would never get to see her sister again.
She'd never be able to confront her for leaving her.
No, for abandoning her to a life of pain, suffering and emptiness.
Fear gave way to anger.
"Well come on you fucking cunt! Kill me!" She shouted, her arms spread wide and her green eyes boring into his fucked-up, placid, kaleidoscopic ones.
Fuck dying like a mewling lamb.
She would die like the warrior kings of old.
She'd go down fighting like the motherfucking war goddess and would carve her death into the fuckface's memory!
"What are you talking about?" Kaneki replied in equally accented English.
The words almost made her stumble.
Not that he seemed to notice as he instead continued into the room and threw a bundle of clothing onto the stone slab in front of her.
Her heart was still thundering in her chest, even as blood rushed to her cheeks.
Well, that was embarrassing.
His eyes shifted curiously over her as she gritted her teeth and looked away, before with a shrug he also turned away.
"Get dressed and meet me outside," He continued bluntly, not even looking at her as he headed for the door again. Pausing only long lift the leg in his hand like a normal person might a BBQ rib and rip a chunk of flesh off it.
Her spine strained as she heard the wet ripping sound.
"What?" She asked, her throat was dry and her mouth tasted sour.
She felt like she was about to throw up again.
He ignored her though, and instead stepped, leaving her to her thoughts.
Looking down as the door closed, her gaze fell on the dark blue jumpsuit he'd thrown in her direction.
It was like the one he was wearing. Dark blue, dusty, and made of thick, durable-looking cloth.
They were workmen's overalls.
Biting her lower lip, she resisted the urge to shiver as she instead looked up at the closed door.
"What the fuck?" She reiterated.
What the hell was going on?
( - )
(With Kaneki)
Biting into the leg, Kaneki resisted the urge to gag as the taste of the flesh assaulted his senses.
The meat was fetid and sour.
Pushing down his disgust, he forced himself to swallow.
It tasted like shit, but the meat was still meat. And besides, he was his regeneration would probably keep him safe from any bacterium he was ingesting.
Spitting out a hunk of chewy tendon, he looked out at his surroundings.
They were in a large, wooded cemetery.
One not too far from where he landed following his escape from the plane.
It was quite lucky.
After all, the cemetery was an old one and had multiple large mausoleums within it.
Which was convenient as the mausoleums had not only been a good place to hold up for the night. But some of the more freshly dug graves within the cemetery had provided a decent meal too.
He had been more than able to satiate himself with the scraps he had found, even if the meat itself was a bit spoiled.
Still, beggars couldn't be choosers.
He hummed to himself at that thought, even as he ripped another chunk of flesh off the leg.
Life was strange.
It felt like a lot had happened in a very short period, and most of it had been bad.
Still, for the moment things were peaceful.
He was no longer in the devasted city of New York.
There weren't any aliens.
He was off SHIELD's radar, as far as he knew.
And, so far as he could tell, he wasn't in danger of being ambushed again either.
For the first time in a while, things were peaceful, and dare he say it, almost pleasant.
Sure, he had lost his job and his apartment, but that didn't mean much in the grand scheme. His co-workers had been pleasant enough, but they'd not been friends. As for his apartment, well it hadn't been great. It had been small, mouldy and in a bad area. Which was still pretty good considering he had worked part-time for minimum wage and tips.
Still, he wouldn't miss it.
He let out a soft sigh, even as he cast away his last lingering feelings of loss.
It was a beautiful morning, the birds were singing, and the sun was slowly making its presence known.
He had food in his belly and was wearing warm if slightly dirty and smelly clothing.
Upon waking up that morning after a slight midnight feast, he'd paid a visit to the groundkeeper's office and helped himself to some overalls, a new pair of boots and some petty cash.
The clothing was old and didn't fit, but it was at least warm and comfortable. He'd even got an extra set for his companions.
Ripping off a final chunk of meat, Kaneki threw the leg into a nearby hole.
He'd already filled in the graves he had previously desecrated and was using a newly dug hole as a refuse pile for his leftovers.
With a grunt, he summoned his kagune and shaped it into a wide blade, even as he scooped a waiting pile of earth into a hole and then patted it down.
The earth still looked disturbed, but after brushing some leaves and twigs onto it, it didn't look too suspicious.
Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Kaneki hazarded a glance back at the mausoleum.
A part of him still wasn't sure why he had saved the girl.
It had been a spur-of-the-moment thing really.
The plane had been going down, everyone that had tried to fight him was dead, and she had just looked so… lost, and scared.
Sighing again, he wiped the drying blood off his face, even as he saw the door to the mausoleum open and Yelena step outside.
Her gun was no longer visible, and she was now wearing the clothing he had thrown at her.
She now looked less like a trained assassin, and more like an overly pretty janitor.
"Why did you save me?" The girl asked the moment she saw she had his attention.
Kaneki frowned at the question.
The blonde noticeably took a step back at his response. Her shoulders were tense and her hands had balled into fists at her side.
She looked like she was about to either piss herself; or attack him.
He wasn't sure which.
"Would you rather I had killed you?" He finally asked.
The blonde scowled, putting up a brave and quite convincing front. "Of course not. But that still doesn't explain why you helped me when you could have just left me to die."
"Maybe I just kept you around in case I got hungry later?" Kaneki shrugged.
Yelena paled for a moment, before with a scowl she shook her head. "Bullshit."
Kaneki hummed in response.
"Why do you think I saved you?" He asked after a moment of contemplation. A part of him genuinely wanted a proper answer, as it could actually help him decide what to do with her next.
After all, the only advice he'd had so far from the mercifully absent Rize and Loki – they'd both fucked off not long after he had eaten his fill the night before – was to, in Rize's opinion kill her, bathe in her blood and finally eat her. Or in Loki's opinion, to chase her into the nearby town, use her to spread terror, and then massacre the entire populace to the last man, woman, child and goat.
Suffice it to say, he had firmly ignored both of his annoyingly persistent, and hopefully imaginary, confidantes.
Yelena bit her lower lip in response to his question.
"You want to use me?" She finally said.
"Oh?" Kaneki asked.
He was curious now.
"You are alone, hunted, and have no resources." Yelena continued her eyes hard. "The Red Room wants to catch you, the American government would happily kill you, and SHIELD would probably lock you up for the rest of your pathetic existence. You are in a foreign country, probably don't speak the language, and likely have no idea how to disappear or disguise yourself."
Kaneki's heart sunk at her depressingly accurate summation of his situation.
"Which is why you saved me," Yelena scowled.
"And how would you help me?" Kaneki asked, even as he tried to act like he already knew the answer.
He'd always been more academically smart than street smart.
Sure, he'd learned a bit while keeping a low profile in America. But he had clearly not done a good enough job because Nick Fury and SHIELD had not only noticed him. But had been able to track him, spy on him and finally confront him over his activities.
In a world of spies and subterfuge, he was at a disadvantage.
Yelena though, seemed to have much more of a clue. After all, she was either an assassin, a contract killer, or a mercenary. Which suggested she was probably far better at navigating the underworld than he was.
Where he was adept at best, she was a master.
But more than that, she was also shit scared of him, and completely at his mercy.
"I have contacts and the know-how. I can help create a new identity for you and can help you disappear. I could even rebrand you if you want to keep playing the game of superheroes and villains." Yelena said boldly.
With every second that passed, the blonde seemed to get more and more confident.
It was like she was getting into her stride, even as she set out her case for why he shouldn't rip her head off and eat her brains like some zombie from an old-school schlocky horror film.
"And why do you think I would trust you? You hunted me, captured me and probably would have stood by without a word as I was tortured and experimented on?" Kaneki asked in a bland tone, deliberately hiding his inner anger so he didn't scare her.
He wasn't so much pissed off at her though, as was at his situation.
Where life could go wrong for him, it did.
Every time he tried to settle and build a life for himself shit hit the fan, and something fucked up happened.
It had happened when he was a kid and his mum had died. It had happened when he was still a human and trying to live the best life he could as a depressed student. And again, when he had been turned into a Half-Ghoul and had almost found happiness at Anteiku. Even after somehow jumping worlds bad fortune followed him.
SHIELD had ruined his peaceful life as a barista,
Aliens and bad timing had ruined his short-lived career as a sort of SHIELD agent/ superhero/ Avenger.
A clandestine group of female assassins had ruined his chance of maybe building something with the Morlocks – they might have been freaks, but they had been more accepting of him than most humans had ever been.
It was enough to make a person paranoid.
Fixing Yelena with a hard gaze, he noted the way her body tensed, the pupils of her eyes contracted, and how her breath hitched.
He could almost taste her terror.
If Rize were still lurking around, she'd be almost begging him to rip her throat out.
But that was because the purple-haired woman was not only a complete lunatic but a very convincing one too. Which, when he was hungry, made it very difficult for him to ignore her sly suggestions.
Fortunately, he was currently satiated.
"I didn't free you, but I didn't stop you from getting free either. When I noticed that the Novichok wasn't keeping you sedated, I didn't tell them. Instead, I stayed quiet, fully aware that you would probably break out." Yelena replied bluntly, her head raised.
She put on a good façade, but he could see her uncertainty.
"And I saved your life in return," Kaneki said carefully. "Some might say we are even."
"You saved me from the plane, da," Yelena nodded. Before taking a deep breath and seemingly bracing herself. "But you also freed me from the Red Room's control too."
Kaneki frowned in confusion.
He didn't know what the Red Room was, nor did he know how he freed her. After all, he didn't remember doing anything to the girl when they had fought.
"How?" He asked.
"I don't know," Yelena admitted, her tough tone breaking slightly to reveal the rawness beneath her outer veneer. "But you did something, something that broke their control. You gave me my life back, so I will help you get your life back. That way we will truly be even."
Kaneki eyed her cautiously.
She seemed to be being honest.
Yet there was something else there too.
"You're scared," He finally said.
"Of course, I fucking am! You're a superhuman cannibal that fucking slaughtered my team, ripped the literal fucking God of Thunder's arm off, and yeah, we observed you long enough to work that out! You weren't fucking subtle. And you also somehow survived a ten-thousand-fucking-foot fall!" Yelena snapped, her voice raising with indignation. "I'm not a fucking retarded, da! Of course, I'm scared! You fucking terrify me!" Yelena snapped.
Kaneki almost took a step back in surprise at her vitriolic outburst.
Breathing heavily, Yelena fixed him with a gimlet eye. "How did we survive that fall anyway?"
Holding back a grimace as he digested her words, including her reference to knowing he was the one that maimed Thor, even if he had done so on accident, Kaneki shrugged half-heartedly. That bit of info wasn't something he wanted to get out.
"I grew wings…"
"Of fucking course you did," The foul mothed Russian spat, with a half laugh, half sob.
She looked like she was on the verge of having a complete mental breakdown.
"Is that why you are willing to help me? Because you're scared." Kaneki finally asked.
Yelena glowered at him as if asking silently if he were stupid.
"Pretty much," She finally said. "Or mostly at least. I also do feel indebted. I meant what I said before, I owe you my life and my freedom, and so will help. As for backstabbing you, well I'm too fucking scared of you to do that!"
Despite the seriousness of her words, her voice broke again.
He wasn't sure whether she was about to cry or burst into laughter.
The girl was weird.
Eyeing her carefully, Kaneki made his decision.
He might be being stupid and gullible, even if he didn't trust fully her.
But at the same time, he was desperate and she was offering him a much-needed helping hand.
It was a risk, but one he was willing to take.
"Fine, I'll take you with me, and we'll work together," Kaneki said.
It was either that, or he let her go and risk her reporting back to either her paymasters or dobbing him into SHIELD, the Avengers, or the US government.
In the worst-case scenario, he could just kill her. But that wasn't something he particularly wanted to do. After all, she didn't seem all that bad. Sure she was a bit coarse foul-mouthed and rough around the edges, and yes she was a trained killer.
But she had also helped him when she didn't have to.
Additionally, he wasn't too keen on killing someone in cold blood.
It was one thing to do it in self-defence of himself and others, and another when he just lost control.
Neither was a good reason really, but at the same time, they were better than just committing cold-blooded murder.
"Good," Yelena said, her voice was harsh and her green eyes were cold.
She looked almost resigned to her fate, like an executioner that had just signed her own death warrant.
"So," Kaneki said, looking around at their peaceful surroundings. It was messed up, but he felt pretty at home in a cemetery. "What do we do first?"
"Well, we need to find out where we are for one," Yelena replied, her expression sour as she also looked around at all the gravestones, monuments and statues. "Once we find that out, then we can find a place to lie low, get some money, and sort out some fake IDs."
"We're near Rouen, France, I think," Kaneki said after a moment's thought.
Yelena gave him a deadpan expression.
"We landed near a town or city, and there was a letter in the groundkeeper's office," Kaneki shrugged. "I can't speak or read French, but I at least know how an address is written. I also know that la France means France in French."
Holding back a sigh, Yelena nodded.
"Okay, Rouen, France. I can work with this." She said, giving him a contemplative look. "You know, if we get you a pair of glasses or something and some decent clothes you could easily pass for a normal guy. Plus, for a murderous cannibal, you're surprisingly... easy-going?"
"Err, thanks, I think…." Kaneki said nonplussed.
He wasn't sure what the future held, but from what he could see, he at least wouldn't be facing it alone. Or at least not for the moment.
( - )
AN: So there we go. Hope you enjoyed it. Admittedly this chapter was mainly character-based development. But it is setting up the next arc.
In addition to which the next chapter will occur after a time skip. I think it is about time to kick up the pace and move things along.
The next chapter will have a POV from the Avengers, which I was hoping to do in this chapter. That POV will give insight into wider happenings and where the story is in the MCU timeline. Not that there will be much of the canon timeline left unchanged.
After all, basically, everything is off the rails at this point.
The next chapter will explore some of this, even as it picks up with Yelena and Kaneki sometime later and what they've been doing.
So yeah, there will be a lot happening. And the next arc will start off slow, but get pretty balls to the walls quite fast, even as everything continues to escalate, as the ripples from Kaneki's presence continue to spread causing more and more changes. Some good and some bad. As an addendum, it should be noted that although I have discounted most of the stuff post-Endgame, save for a few notable exceptions from this story's 'canon'. I will be including elements from the X-Men, Inhumans and Agents of Shield to pad things out.
Also at the moment the only canon events that have not been drastically altered by Kaneki, are the events in Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel, and pre-Avengers 1 events, as he can't go back in time, and isn't changing things on a galactic level, yet. Everything else has changed though, some a large amount, and some a minor amount and these changes will become more apparent.
So yeah, lots to look forward to.
At the moment I have a lot of stories, so I am prioritising based on a mix of popularity, Discord requests, and how I'm feeling at any given moment. So can't give an exact date for the next chapter.
If you are hankering for more Tokyo Ghoul though, please do check out my Tokyo Ghoul/ My Hero Academia story, 'What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stranger'.
Either way, thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions or questions feel free to PM me or find me on Discord.
Catch you later.
Greed720.
