A/N: Alright, the last chapter has probably left you with some questions.. Oh well, I hope I'll be able to stuff the answers in this one somehow.

Yeah, the story's getting grim, and I hope you like sad stuff because these last few chapters will have a lot of such, and the feels train ain't stopping for no one.

Brief review of the last chapter:

The attacks of the shadowed beasts continue, counting in more and more fatalities each week, and along with it Rin and Tachiko are being victims of severe insomnia and frequent, repetitive nightmares. Bothered by the fact that he has no clues to move forward Rin sets off to find the old dungeon separated from this time and space again, and doesn't lose hope even upon learning it's been destroyed. After finding any remotely helpful or familiar thing he returns home and gives in to his weariness, waking up after another weird dream to discover the contents of it have changed and having a nervous breakdown after realizing his mortal enemy has figured out his weakness.

Alright, onto the new chapter!

Chapter 17:

The United Families Of

Mankind's Traitors

Friday, October 9th, 10:56 PM - DWMA Dormitory

"Well, it's really getting late, I should head back home." Black haired meister stated, getting up "Thanks for having me, Yoshiki"

"No problem!" her brown haired Weapon replied, smiling kindly "Just get home fast, they said it's going to snow again today"

"My, it's really unusual for it to be this cold this early." The taller sibling of the weapon spoke in his usual, soothing tone.

"I will, take care you guys" Tachiko replied before closing the doors and hurrying out the hallway

"Well, I should probably get going too, it's really getting late." Seiyu spoke, getting up carefully; he could almost brush the dorm's ceiling with his head, "I'll tell the old man how everything's going with you, so just don't mess school up again before they send me again."

"Aw come on, it's just one bad mark. Besides, there's plenty of time before the holidays and you're sticking in this part of the city for a while, no?"

"That's true, but keep in mind, getting bad marks isn't a proper exchange just to get a smart little damsel explain it to you.." he continued in a more mocking tone

"Don't be a jerk, she's just my meister!"

"Sure sure" the tall man chuckled at his remark, "Though, where's that short, black haired friend of yours? I haven't seen him for a while.. Rin, was it?"

"Heh, to you everybody is short.. And now that you mention, it has been a while since he last came to school. Though, knowing how little sleep he's getting lately it's not really a huge surprise if he got sick."

"Oh, insomnia?"

"Nightmares." The younger brother sighed and paused for a shorter while, looking to side

"… Now that I think about it… He has been acting a bit weird around you, hasn't he?"

"Has he?" Seiyu said, looking down to his brother in confusion

"Yes, he looks at you like he saw you do something terrible, like he's judging you, or is just plain disgusted… That's really rude, counting you had never done anything bad to him as far as I know, and practically saved his life last summer, though he always changes the subject when we ask him about it…"

Seiyu listened to his brother ramble about his friend's strange behavior, but seemed distracted.

"And I… Hey, what's with the weird expression?"

"Huh?" Seiyu snapped back into consciousness "What face expression?"

"You had a really grim look on your face, is something wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing, I'm fine, I just remembered something I must do and I was already supposed to start." he said, grabbing his black and gray knee-length coat and headed outside, "Take care, little brother." He said with a smile before turning back.

Yoshiki just sat in silence for a second

He could've sworn he saw something weird in Seiyu's eye before he turned away.

A green glimmer.

"… What a weirdo… Well, that's what I'd usually say…" he stood up and took the tray with an old beaten down kettle and tea cups and went to put it away "But now seems something's really off.. … Hm?"

Yoshiki's eyes stopped at a long piece of gray fabric

"Oh, that distracted tallie left his scarf.." He put down the tray and picked up the soft scarf, "Welp, he's not gonna remember to come back for it before it's too late, so I might as well"

He put on his shoes and jacket, closed the door behind him and headed outside. It was long since dark out and snowing and Seiyu was nowhere to be found. Nevertheless, the young weapon kept walking.

It didn't make any sense, he left just a minute ago.

"Seiyu!" he called out after a few seconds

No response

"Hey, you tall doofus, you left your scarf!"

After receiving no response he let out an annoyed grunt and continued walking, following the fresh shoeprint trail in snow.

"Jeez, he really was in a hurry.." Yoshiki mumbled, a cloud of his breath soon after fading and disappearing into the unforgiving cold air.

Though, after a short time, he halted when he saw that the shoeprints trailed off into the forest.

"What is he, nuts?" Yoshiki stood and looked at the dark forest; the trees' branches were still dressed in a thin layer of dry leaves, and some even completely naked, covered in snow. With no lights to guide the dark way ahead the forest looked threatening and scary. Why would his brother go there? Was there some kind of a shortcut there?

"That idiot is going to get himself killed…" Yoshiki said, and after giving it a quick thought he walked forward, following the big shoeprints in the snow.

He walked and walked, the forest was eerie and silent, and only his already concerned voice could be heard breaking it

"Seiyu!"

"Seiyu, you idiot, answer me!"

"This isn't funny at all!"

"SEIYU!"

Shout after shout, getting no response, he leaned against a tree, exhausted. He was by now lost in the woods, the shoeprints faded as the snow fell over them, both his and his brother's.

He was cold and tired, absolutely sick of walking.

"Fantastic…" he sighed, pushing himself back up and continuing to follow the almost nonexistent traces of his brother's shoes shuffling through snow, maybe even hours ago.

After he got far into the forest where the tree branches were so closely grown together that the snow didn't seep through them, but just fell onto them and froze over, making it even darker, and leaving no traces to follow as there was no snow.

Beaten down, Yoshiki slid down under the biggest tree, tired of hours and hours of pointless searching.

"Where the hell did he go..?"

He was cut off by a silent rustle.

Thinking it was some animal he recoiled at first, but after a while followed its source

After passing only a few more trees he could see a dim, green light in the grass. He walked over to it; it was some sort of a green orb, the size of a marble

"The hell?.."

"Brother."

A shiver as cold as the voice he heard went down his spine. It was Seiyu, Yoshiki was so relieved, so angry for a moment, he wanted to turn around to let all that out at the taller sibling but for some reason he was unable to.

Was he scared?

Scared? Scared by his own brother? Nonsense, right? Right?

"S-Seiyu.."

The tall man walked to in front of him

"What is it?" He kneeled in front of his brother, speaking in a soft tone, but his expression was awfully unsettling. His look went down to the scarf in the boy's hands

"Ah, so that's where I left it." He took his favorite piece of clothing and walked back to behind him

Yoshiki had just gathered courage to turn around as he heard growling

"Down you two." Seiyu spoke, putting the scarf around his neck where it belonged

"Seiyu, what…. What is this place?" Yoshiki said in a voice that sounded so weak it made him sick to stomach. His legs were frozen in fear and beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead

He heard a quiet sigh behind him

"It's by the time you learnt.." Seiyu replied, like he was bored "Let's save all the formalities for mom and dad to resolve and skip right to the point.. Our family has been a part of an union, using things such as dark arts, magic and performing rituals using human souls.."

"H-how.. Why-? What the hell Seiyu!? Telling me that now!?" Yoshiki shouted nervously, "And what's that about mom and dad!? We both know the only thing we have left from them are two gravestones!"

"Pssh, please.. Don't tell me you believed that bunch of poppycock.." the tall man spoke with a small smile on his face, eyes narrowed into slits trailed off to meet his brother's gaze

Yoshiki was standing there, staring at his brother in shock. It felt like years for him.

"Y... You're sick!" Yoshiki shouted out so loudly that his voice seemed to ring through the trees.

The growling behind him got louder

"Now now, you wouldn't want to anger those two.."

Yoshiki finally moved and backed off a few steps. His angry expression faded a bit from his face and just made him look extremely nervous and troubled.

"Th... This isn't funny at all!" The brown haired weapon stuttered, now sounding even more scared; he knew altogether too well what happened to people that got attacked by just one of those things, but two? He was screwed

Two masked beasts closed in on him, but backed off as they heard Seiyu aggressively say some words on, some would even say funny ancient language

"Now, Yoshiki, you have to make a choice. Either join us easily, without fighting, or we'll have to persuade you."

"Rin was right… You are nuts…" He threw the glowing marble at him and ran, but soon found his feet rising more and more…

He was floating in the air, a green light radiating from his chest. He felt his stomach turn as he looked over his shoulder to his brother, who had his hand up in the air, pointed at him, radiating same green light. An eerie chuckle was heard from Seiyu

"I really thought we could do this peacefully."

His chest felt like it suddenly went hollow, like he suddenly lost balance, he fell to ground. No, rather, was slammed into it at full force, then risen back up into the air

"Still not out?" Seiyu's eyes sparkled with dark pleasure and mouth bent into a creepy smile as he proceeded to ram him into the ground and nearby trees

Once Seiyu finally let go of him, Yoshiki fell to his knees then face first onto ground. He could feel his heart beating behind his eyelids. His whole body ached, and he was losing focus. Despite his best efforts to stay awake, he passed out, Seiyu's eyes looking down at him, faintly glowing green being all he could see before everything went black.

At the same time Rin was locked up in his room, listing one of the notebooks he'd found a few days ago, in the ruins of the pyramid dungeon, a stray cat feeding on his dinner he'd again left almost untouched.

After a while of dully looking at the notebook his look slid to the forest. It was dim but he could see it;

A green light.

He knew it was smart and for now only right to stay away from it. He knew the source and that it had already got the best of him multiple times, and catching the culprit red handed wouldn't help because he'd get discovered. Though, he noticed, this time, it wasn't just glowing, it was flashing violently.

This got him slightly concerned and after only a few seconds his curiosity had got the better of him. He changed clothes and snuck out yet again, quickly heading for the spot where the green light was radiating from. Not even a minute after he arrived, but the light had just went out moments ago. He knew it was too late but still proceeded.

He saw that some trees and spots in grass were slightly done-in. Just what the hell had happened there?

Then, he saw something hanging on a tree branch; Yoshiki's jacket.

"Oh no." he suddenly spat out in a hoarse voice, taking the jacket off "Nononono.. Yoshiki?" he started turning around, trying to shed any light on where they went, but nothing was in sight except grass, naked trees and snow. He did see some shoeprints, but they disappeared completely; not under snow, but as if whoever was making them just disappeared.

"This is bad… This is really bad.." Rin said, digging his bony fingers into the leather jacket, then looked up into the sky; the moon was already low, he's got at least an hour before the sunup; Yoshiki couldn't wait that long.

The boy let out a quiet whimper, pulled his scarf up and ran against the wind; an awful blizzard was just starting

Saturday, October 10th, 08:09 AM - DWMA Dormitory

"Yoshikiiii!" Tachiko voiced as she ran down the corridor towards his room.

"Wake up you doofus! I've got us the best mission!" just as she knocked on the doors rather recklessly. Much to her surprise they opened wide with a long creak.

Checking if she had broken them or something she realized the doors just weren't locked.

"Hey, that's not safe y'know, leaving the doors unlocked overni-" she peeked in as she spoke, but stopped as she saw there was no one in there.

"Oh…" she said, walking in and looking around. It was all almost the same as when she left the night before.

"Just where did he go off to?" she said looking around

"…. Well he definitely didn't get up so damn early to miss me. Did he go off somewhere later yesterday?" she thought out loud, silent for a minute before her face lighted up in her previous joy again "… Maybe he went over to his brother's place!"

She locked Yoshiki's room with the key he gave her a while ago and went back outside, pulling her hoodie over her head again.

Just as she walked out of the dorms Rin ran straight into her, knocking them both over

"Ow, Jeez, hey, watch- Rin?" she said, rubbing her head and getting a better look at the short boy "Aren't you at home?"

"Tachi.." he started but trailed off, resuming himself in a more serious tone "Forget it, I'll explain it later, it's a really long story…" he got up, slowly losing focus over his words yet again "… Oh man, you don't look very good.."

"You aren't exactly looking the best yourself.." Tachiko said in a mildly annoyed, but concerned voice "Besides- .. Wait, what's that in your hand?"

"Yoshiki's jacket.." Rin said, looking back up to her and quickly adding on, "Like I said, it's a long story, we've got to hurry!"

"But Rin, the school's closed!"

He ran off in the direction of DWMA like he didn't hear her last words. His feet were unsteady and shaking, he ran and ran until he finally collapsed a few feet further away, falling face first into snow.

Tachiko hurried over to him, giving him nothing more than a panicked look. Though, she couldn't say she wasn't expecting something of this nature to happen. He let out a weak, hoarse cough as she picked him up and hurried in direction of Maka's apartment, which was the closest place they could think of.

He was so light it was upright scary.

She ran against the wind towards the city.

Dust rising with the wind,

Soft green glow,

Shooting up awake

Rin looked around himself; the repetitive dream left him disoriented.

"I… Wh…?" he muttered, confused upon seeing he's in a small, familiar apartment.

"Rin?"

Rin's look darted to the doors to the kitchen. A blonde meister was standing there, looking at him rather worriedly.

"M…Maka?"

"Oh good… You're finally awake.." she let out a sigh of relief, sitting on couch beside him and setting down a tray with tea on the coffee table in front of them, "Man, you scared us all good.."

"A..all?" Rin said, still dazed but slowly remembering what happened before he passed out, "W-wait, where's Tachiko..?"

"Whatever you told her got her really worried, so she dropped you off, quickly explained what had happened and ran off to her house." blonde meister replied, pouring him a cup of tea and handing it over

The black haired boy waited for a few moments before sitting up and taking the tea.

"… Where's Soul?"

"He wasn't feeling all that well after yesterday's snowball fight with Black*Star, So he's resting now. It's probably just a cold."

".. I see.." Rin sighed and took a sip of the tea

"Though, Rin, what happened?"

"… Yoshiki vanished last night, and I think I might be onto… how.." His eyes widened as he trailed off, almost dropping the small cup

"What? What's wrong?"

"I… can't remember…"

"… Y-you're just tired, I'm sure it'll come back to you when you get some rest.."

"You don't understand!" Rin said, raising his voice slightly, "I can't! If I do, he'll lure me in! I can't offer to… I won't.. I.. I…"

Rin trailed off again, feeling his heart start to pound in his head and chest. He felt weary again, his chest start to hurt.

The cup fell out of his hands, one hand gripping shirt on his chest, he hunched over and bowed his head.

Maka was confused and afraid; After a few moments like that, Rin just flopped back onto the pillow. She checked his breathing and let out a sigh of relief; as of now, she couldn't do anything other than let him rest- no, there was one thing.

She got up and reached for the phone as she dialed in a few rapid digits. After a short ringing she spoke again

"Hello, professor Stein?

I need your help."

A/N: Yeeeee I actually finished this chapter this year. Hurray for me!

Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy this. I really think of most of the stuff I write as I write it, so I think the previews are off limits for now chaps.

Also, I started another fanfiction, so all of you who like Undertale are free to check it out. If you don't… Welp, just don't!

Allllsssooooo if that's the case I'd highly recommend not going to my Google+, Tumblr or DeviantART nor Twitter… Well, I never really do anything on Twitter so I don't really see a reason to go there at all.

Nowwww, we got a bit off subject now, but I think you get the point. Until the next time, buddies!