Title: Chapter VII: Her

Writer: Madame aZure

Fandom: Noblesse;

Pairing: None

Genre: Family;

Rating: T;

Warnings: this chapter contains violence. Read at your own risk.

Disclaimer: I do not own Noblesse or any of the characters. No trademark infringement or profit is meant from the writing of this fanfiction.

Raizel, Regis and Seira entered the living room, finally home after spending the whole afternoon with the children at the arcades. The Noblesse suddenly stopped in his tracks and frowned, his scarlet eyes clouded with sadness, but before Frankenstein could ask him what was the reason for his reaction, M-21 appeared in the doorway. The little child was crying, sniffling softly, his hands gripping the hem of his shirt, his lithe body trembling with every shaky intake of air. One glance at Frankenstein and he ran to him, the other kneeling and picking him up.

"What happened?" he asked softly, knowing that the child should've been taking his afternoon nap. He cradled the little child to his chest in a protective manner, rubbing comforting circles on his back to calm him down. The child hugged him with trembling arms, hiding his face into the scientist's neck.

"Mommy," that simple bundle of words resounded in the room like a thunder, as if the mere air shattered at the impact of its importance. Every member of the household unknowingly held their breath, fearing that a simple draw of air could disturb the fragileness of this moment. "I dreamed about mommy," the child continued sniffling.

"How?" the scientist asked, knowing that it was practically impossible since M-21's memories were erased through drugs – he couldn't have remembered his mother, he couldn't have remembered anything at all from his youth. Of course, there was a small chance that some memory fragments were still intact despite all the drugs he had been forced to take, but at the same time, there was another, crueler possibility: M-21 could've simply remembered some woman he had met while working for the Union and miscalled her his mother.

"I saw her," the child insisted, gripping Frankenstein's shirt. "They took her away…" more tears started flowing down his cheeks. "They took mommy away…" his voice broke with the last word, biting his lips to suppress his cries.

Frankenstein kept silent. He knew he should say something to soothe the werewolf's anguish, but no matter how much he through, he couldn't arrange a few words to form a sentence that could fit this delicate situation. After all, was there anything to be said that could ease the pain of a child crying for his mother?

"She was brave," Raizel spoke in a gentle voice, making the child look at him with teary eyes. He came to them with unhurried, steady steps. "She protected you," he reached to run his fingers through the child's hair, hoping to comfort him even a little. But even the Noblesse couldn't ease the werewolf's pain and he started to cry again.

No one said another word, letting the little one express his sorrow trough his bitter tears, as this was the only way for him to calm down now. The only thing they could do was be there for him… and they felt it wasn't enough.

~Z~

"Master, had M-21 really remembered his mother?" Frankenstein asked quietly, cradling the werewolf's sleeping form to his chest after the little one had cried himself to sleep. The child's eyes were red and puffy, his lashes wet with tears, and from time to time he would whimper and sniffle, gripping the scientist's shirt as a reassurance that he was not alone.

Raizel looked at the teacup in his hand, his gaze lost somewhere in the amber liquid. When he arrived home, his mind instinctually reached out to M-21's as the child's anguish was so great, so raw he almost thought he had been hurt physically. In the werewolf's mind, the same scene repeated over and over, too painful to remember, but too important to forget.

A woman with long silver hair struggled relentlessly, trying to shake free from the hold of the two soldiers holding her, until a third soldier hit her in the stomach with all the power he could muster, using the stock of his rifle. She gasped as the hit stole her breath away, the pain making her reflexively hunch forward. She screwed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, refusing to cry out and give them the satisfaction of seeing her like that. After a few moments, the pain had dulled enough for her to reopen them and glare at the soldier who hit her.

"That ought to calm you down, livestock," he laughed mockingly at her, before turning his head to M-21.

She paled when she saw where he was looking, but in a matter of moments, her expression changed from desperation to a ferocious determination, her golden eyes shining fearlessly. With a snarl, she yanked one of her hands out of a soldier's hold, punching the other straight in the face, forcing him too to release her. Without a second thought, she attacked the third, pushing him to the ground and wrestling him for his rifle.

With a gunshot, the memory fragment came to a sudden end. Being nothing but a shard, it was incomplete and insufficient, not attached to any reliable detail such as a name, a localization in time and space, or a specific reason for those soldiers to do what they did. That memory shard survived in M-21's mind only because it was so tangled in his emotions, it became a fundamental part of himself. That memory marked the turning point in his life, when he had lost everything he had, the root of who he has become. It was so small and so deeply buried in the werewolf's subconscious, it was almost impossible to recall it voluntarily and yet, something forced it to resurface into his conscious mind. He had instantly recognized his mother, as his bond with her could not be shattered through mere drugs, being part of his most basic instincts.

"He had," Raizel finally answered, those two words weighting heavier than they should've.

"Have you seen it? His memory?" Tao asked in a serious tone, having lost his usual cheerfulness after what happened.

"Unfortunately, I did," he regretted having overstepped the boundary of the child's consent regarding his own mind, but at the time, he felt the werewolf suffering greatly and he instinctively reached out to help him.

"Was there any detail, no matter how small, that could help us identify him or his mother? A name? A place? Anything?" the hacker asked, knowing that even the most insignificant part could be used as a starting point in searching more about his comrade's past, but much to his dismay, Raizel shook his head.

The noble looked at the sleeping child. There was a chance that there were similar memory shards hidden in M-21's mind, but searching for them would be extremely painful for the child and under no circumstances would the noble want to hurt him. Perhaps, when the werewolf returned to his normal state, the Noblesse could tell him about it and let him chose whether he wanted to force the shards to resurface or not.

TO BE CONTINUED… :)