EDIT: I'm sure you have all noticed the changes by now.

Disclaimer: I do not own God Eater or any of the franchise associated with it. I do, however, own Lexi and any other OCs that will make an appearance.

Chapter Three

Lexi twitched at the sensation of cold water dancing across her lips. Dark blue eyes opened slowly only to immediately clamp shut again as the bright glare of the sun nearly blinded her. With a groan that usually escaped from her whenever she stayed up late well into the night reading a good book, the girl turned to her side and shielded her eyes from the harmful UV rays with the back of her arm.

Also, why did her head hurt so much?

"You're awake!" A female voice she didn't recognize exclaimed loudly much to Lexi's chagrin. "Guys, she woke up!"

Lexi groaned again. Squeezing her eyes shut tight as if doing so would block the noise, she honestly wished that the girl would just shut up. She could barely hear herself think with the headache that was threatening to break out from inside her skull and the girl's voice was just making things-

Wait.

Lexi's eyes snapped open again and she shifted herself so that she was staring at the owner of the voice.

Huh?

Lexi's dark blue eyes stared blankly at the green and pink blurry figure that was standing over her. But before she could comment on who this stranger was and how in the world did she get into her house, the sound of approaching footsteps made her pause. Blinking several times to try and clear her fuzzy vision, two more dark shadows joined the green and pink blur.

Now three blurry figures loomed over her, shielding her from the sun. Something pressed against her lips and instinctively, Lexi's lips opened slightly. A cold liquid poured down her throat and Lexi found herself drinking as much as she could take in. When she could finally see straight again, she saw that the figures standing over her were a girl, an older woman and finally a man. The object tilted towards her lips was a water bottle that was supplying her with the cool liquid that initially woke her up.

"About time." It was the woman of the trio who broke the silence between them."You picked a pretty dangerous place to take a nap. Out in the open with no cover. A perfect target for a hungry Aragami looking for a meal."

The woman who spoke had striking white hair and plum eyes, though one of them was hidden behind an eye covering. She wore black pants and a black and purple jacket over top a raspberry coloured shirt with a plunging v-neckline that partially revealed her 'assets'.

...?

What was she talking about?

Out in the open with no cover? A perfect target for hungry Aragami?

Weren't they in Lexi's house breaking and entering?

And why did the woman have to wear such a revealing shirt?

As Lexi lifted her hand to try and soothe the agonizing headache she had, she froze. Her hand brushed against the ground and for the first time since she woke up to the sun trying to burn her eyes out, the blonde haired girl realized that something was off.

First of all the ground felt weird. It was soft, but it there was a gritty, uncomfortable texture to it and it felt nothing like the flooring of where she had been living for the past eight years.

Second was that the last thing she remembered had been-

"That's right. Your freedom is once again yours."

-was that she was talking to Arielle.

Lexi's head throbbed and she found herself unable to ask these people about where she was.

She couldn't have been outside...

...could she?

Part of her mind argued 'where else could she be?' while another flatly stated 'no way'. Lexi was more inclined to agree with the latter. But the white haired woman had said that she was 'out in the open'.

Which was impossible.

For one thing it was outside.

Lexi hadn't been outside for eight years.

"I don't think anyone would willingly take a nap in the middle of the City of Mercy, Gina." The only male of the group sounded exasperated at his companion's conclusion. "She must have collapsed while she was walking around. What's the verdict, Kanon?"

Lexi was glad for the interruption to her thoughts. If the ongoing argument in her head been allowed to go on, her head would have probably exploded from the war. Anyways, it drew her attention back to the fact that there were three people whose identities she didn't know standing over her.

Actually, it was just the guy now.

Since the man had referred to the white haired woman as 'Gina' and he didn't strike Lexi as the type to refer to himself in third person, that left the other female of the group to be 'Kanon'. In Lexi's opinion, Kanon was kind of a weird name. It reminded her of a weapon.

She estimated that the girl who the man addressed as 'Kanon' was around her age. So that would make her either eighteen or maybe nineteen. She didn't look that much older than Lexi.

Kanon was a pinkette (pink?) with blue eyes. Her bright pink hair was shoulder length and some of it had been tied into a braid that crowned her head. She was wearing a green sleeveless dress that fell just above her knees and underneath the dress she wore a black sleeveless zipper turtleneck accompanied by black tights. And to complete her look, a pair of white boots held together by brown belts adorned her feet.

"Judging by how flushed her face is -HEY!" Kanon let out a startled exclamation as her 'patient' sat up all of a sudden, causing her to spill some of the water she had been getting the girl to drink.

As grateful as Lexi was for their help, she didn't appreciate being talked over like she wasn't there. Her impatience hitting its peak, Lexi lightly pushed the water bottle aside before forcing herself up into a sitting position.

Bad move.

The sudden movement of sitting up only intensified the agony in Lexi's skull. The dizziness that resulted from her spontaneous action caused the girl to rest her head between her knees for a moment as she resisted the urge to vomit. When the pain finally died down to tolerable levels she looked up, curious to get a good look at all of the people who had helped her.

She already guessed who Gina and Kanon were. So that left only the man whose identity she still did not know.

The man in question had messy dark brown hair and brown eyes that told those who looked into them just how much of a kind person he was. His outfit, which was pretty simple in comparison to the females standing on either side of him, consisted of a red jacket worn over top an orange shirt. Wrapped around his waist was a black belt that held up a pair of white pants with extra black pockets attached.

"Hey," The man spoke softly when her curious gaze landed on him. "Are you okay?"

"...what do you think?" The sarcastic comment slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. Lexi immediately reddened at the bluntness of her words. Whether her head was killing her or not, that didn't excuse the rudeness she had shown towards them.

The guy didn't seem offended by her statement. In fact, he laughed and everyone turned to stare at him like he was crazy.

"Alright, maybe I shouldn't have asked that. It's pretty obvious to us how you're feeling." He turned towards Kanon. "I'm guessing it's dehydration?"

"Yeah. How did you guess, Tatsumi?" Kanon looked surprised and a little put-off.

Tatsumi.

So that was his name. It sounded Japanese so that must have made him... Japanese.

Well. It was nice to know that her deductive skills were as brilliant as ever. She should probably leave the detective work to the protagonists in the mystery novels she read.

"I came down with dehydration when I was still a rookie, so I'm pretty familiar with the symptoms." He took the water bottle that Kanon was holding and gave it to her. "Here. This should help until we get back to the Den."

"The Den?" The girl accepted the water gratefully and gulped down as much as she could. Wasn't the Den a nickname for-

Almost as if he read her thoughts, Tatsumi answered her unasked question. "The nickname for the Far East Fenrir Branch. The actual title's a mouthful, so we just call it The Den for short."

Blue eyes widened before she could stop them.

Far East Fenrir Branch.

That had been her home before she was taken.

And for the first time since they had met, Lexi noticed the weapons they were carrying. Both girls were wielding guns while Tatsumi had a blade with him.

The girl drew in a sharp breath when she realized who these people were.

They were God Eaters.

Just like her parents and aunt.

Lexi opened her mouth to ask if they knew Kirsten, Uncle Johannes and Soma but someone else spoke before she got the chance to.

"Do you think we should take her back to the Den?" Gina interrupted. "I mean, what was she even doing here? We're nowhere near the Outer Ghetto and no one but God Eaters would be this far out into the city. How do we know she isn't part of an anti-Fenrir organization?"

Anti-Fenrir?

The girl's head was beginning to hurt again. Why would she be against the place that had been her former home?

"Gina!" Kanon snapped at her companion.

"It's a possibility." Gina shot back at Kanon unabashed. "Do you really want to take any chances?"

Before the dehydrated ridden girl could speak up in her defense of not being part of any anti organization, Tatsumi spoke for her.

"Gina." His voice was level and there was an undertone of authority in it. "Whatever her alliance is, we're not going to abandon her in the middle of an Aragami infested area. If she does turn out to be part of an anti-Fenrir organization, we'll deal with it if we have to cross that bridge."

The tone of his voice stated that the discussion was over.

Lexi couldn't help but grumble underneath her breath as Tatsumi scolded Gina. Why was it lately that she couldn't get a word in otherwise?

"So how did you end up in the middle of the City of Mercy?" Kanon asked, half out of curiosity and half to break the awkward silence that settled afterwards. "I mean, this a pretty unusual place to find people in since it isn't anywhere close to the Outer Ghetto."

"I..." She was unable to think of an answer.

How would she be able to explain that one minute she was having a conversation with the Ruler of the True Gods and the next she was waking up to Kanon screaming and increasing the intensity of an already killer headache?

And how did she end up in the City of Mercy?

Ugh.

Why was she even asking? She already knew the answer to that question.

Would it kill the True Gods to just ask for her permission for once?!

"What's your name?" Kanon tried another question when the girl didn't answer. "You do have one, right?"

"It's Ale-"

The pain struck again without warning. The girl doubled over as the headache that had dulled down to an occasional throb flared back full force, threatening to tear her head apart. This time she couldn't hold back the instinct to hurl and as a result she found herself relieving the last meal she had eaten, which had been the night before since Lexi usually skipped breakfast. Thankfully the contents of her stomach didn't hit anyone as she just managed to turn away from them in time.

But it was still embarrassing to have an audience.

After she was done spewing out everything but her internal organs, she realized there was a light pressure on her back. It was moving in a circular motion, soothing her until she could speak coherently.

Several moments of dry heaving later, the girl decided to risk looking up again when she was certain that she wasn't going to vomit on anyone, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Tatsumi and Kanon looked sympathetic and so did Gina, but the latter couldn't quite keep the disgust off of her face.

"Sorry about that." Lexi mumbled.

The situation had just gone from embarrassing to downright humiliating.

"It's okay." Tatsumi finally said. His voice was a mixture of sympathy and sincerity. "But we should probably have you checked out. Thankfully we just finished up our mission before finding you, so we can get you to Fenrir right away."

He held out a hand to the girl.

"Can you stand?"

Lexi nodded and took Tatsumi's hand, allowing him to pull her up on to her feet. She took several steps forward but nearly fell over when the resulting vertigo suddenly threw her off balance. Thankfully Tatsumi had fast reflexes and caught her before her face could get acquainted with the ground.

"Maybe a better question would have been 'Can you walk'?" He chuckled, firm grasp on her.

Had Lexi not been facing the ground she would have graced him with a glare.

"Probably not." Lexi reluctantly admitted. "Not without falling over repeatedly, at least."

What was wrong with her? She couldn't even stand up on her own.

"Right then." Tatsumi steadied Alex before turning around and kneeling into a crouch. "Here. Get on my back."

All three females stared at him like he was crazy again.

"What?" Lexi finally said.

"I'm giving you a piggy back. It'll make things easier." Tatsumi looked over his shoulder. "Now get on. We don't have all day."

Lexi continued to stare at Tatsumi like he had grown a second head. Get on? Did he think that she was five?

"I'm waiting." Tatsumi said in a sort of sing-song voice.

Hanging her head in defeat, Lexi positioned herself to make it easier for the red clad man to loop his arms underneath her legs and lift her up. She hugged his neck tightly when he stood up, nearly making him stumble as she nearly cut off his air supply.

"Grrk! Not so tight, I can't breathe!" He gasped out.

"Sorry." Lexi loosened her grip on him. She heard Kanon and Gina giggle behind them.

"Wait until we tell Hibari!" Kanon blurted out before collapsing into another fit of giggles.

"Yeah." Gina added. "I wonder how she'll feel about you carrying another girl after your endless tirades of declaring your undying love to her."

"Well Hibari doesn't have to know, does she?" Tatsumi shot them a scary grin that immediately made the two of them stop laughing. "Right, guys?"

Lexi got the feeling that there was going to be hell to pay if this Hibari girl ever got wind of Tatsumi giving her a piggy back.

Judging by the expressions of his female companions, they got the message too.

If you have noticed that a large chunk of the chapter is missing, never fear! I have only made it into another chapter! Which I will add after this!