X~45~X

"I know this is a lot to take in, and you are probably teeming with all kinds of questions and concerns, but it is vital that we have your answer quickly."

"Why… why me?"

"Teto, is that okay if I call you that? Teto, we're raising an army, and Demon's Crow has seen you as fit for our purposes."

"An army?"

"We cannot discuss the parameters and specifics due to recent security concerns until we have a confirmed response. Do I have an answer?" Haku leans across the table on her elbows.

Teto casts her soft gaze down to her lap. Her hands fidget restlessly with each other and she bites into the corner of her mouth. About two days after her brother's disappearance, Teto realized she was being watched. It terrified her, and, unsure of what else to do, she confronted one of the Watchers hiding out around her school. They immediately escorted her upstairs and she was forced to stay in a locked room for two more days, when, at last, she was taken to this meeting room in one of the upper floors.

Teto gulps. "Y-Yuuma disappears… and I get f-followed… and you ask me to join your army? Can I see my parents at least?"

"Teto, I'm sorry but they are not allowed in the building."

"Why?"

"That is classified." Haku leans back in her comfy meeting chair, her coffee cup now empty. She has to say, she is enjoying the lap of luxury a little more than she thought. But this… This was a complication she didn't need. At least now filing all that tedious paperwork is no longer relevant. She can go about her plan now with a new sense of urgency, at her own discretion. It was ideal.

"What happens if I refuse?" Teto finally looks upwards.

"Are you refusing?" Haku asks.

Teto merely shakes her head. "Can I ask one question before I commit to anything?"

Haku nods. "Be aware we have the liberty to refuse your question at our whim."

Teto gulps. "Yuuma left, didn't he?" A Watcher behind Haku shifts. "E-Em, if I may intrude, Master Haku, judging by the behaviors exhibited by the three Watchers behind you I would conclude I'm correct? But there seems to be something more I'm missing…" As if Haku is watching a puzzle be formed before her eyes Teto begins to raise her head a little, tiny tears wetting the corners of her eyes. "H-He did something really stupid… D-did he try to free the Akuma?" Teto hangs onto the edge of her words as if they're a knife.

"Yes, Teto. This information is being kept strictly quiet from the public, which is why it is impossible for you to be released or seek contact with family members for the sake of this information."

"Oh no… that idiot!" Teto finds her hands shaking, her already filthy face being covered in sweat. "H-How could he… do this?"

"Teto, your brother is highly dangerous right now. Not only is he a threat to the entirety of creation, he is a threat to the Middles and the Pure. He is a threat to every stranger and a threat to every friend. Your brother is armed as well as a murder and a thief, and more importantly, he has betrayed the Lord." With each word Teto begins to feel her eyes welling up with more and more tears. She tucks her knees up to her chest and hugs her legs tightly, weeping silently, brooding.

"Y-you want me to help you find-find and k-kill him for the-the good of h-humanity?" Teto wretches painfully after speaking the sentence, as if the words themselves would cause her to puke.

Haku nods. "Teto, I understand this is a lot of pain to take in, but know that we haven't picked you solely on your connection to Yuuma. We have monitored you closely and your instincts are unmatchable. You are physically able and mentally capable. You need the minimal amount of training as well and… well… many other categories fit you perfectly."

"I-I'll do it."

"I'm sorry?" Haku is slightly taken aback.

"B-but can you p-promise me my family will be taken care of? Mom and Dad? Can you just… tell them I'm n-not-not dead…? 'Cos that's what th-they'll think… they'll think me and Y-Yuuma are… d-dead…"

"Teto, I promise you, your parents will be well accommodated for. Unfortunately we cannot give them any details regarding the states of either you or your brother. But we will see to it that they are taken care of well." Haku smiles warmly at Teto. Her smile may seem warm but Haku can only fully comprehend the true intention behind her gaze. After all, the face is her own.

"I'll do it then." Teto wipes away a trail of tears off of her face and lifts her head up. Her eyes blaze with a focused intensity. "I'll join your army."

Long after Master Haku and her Watchers have left, Teto is escorted into a large room on the twelfth floor of the buildings. The room is massive with a large mauve king-sized bed in the center. The bed has velvet blankets and crisp, ironed sheets. The pillows are each the size of windows and are the softest things Teto has ever laid hands on. Teto's room is void of furniture besides some fighting equipment and hand weights as well as a vanity dresser and walk-in closet. Teto wanders around for some time until she opens the bathroom door.

Inside, hanging by her shower, is a uniform. The uniform looks to be fitted perfectly for her, some of the colors matching the shade of her hair. It consist of three pieces, each made out of light and breathable silk-like material. The first piece is a colored white button up shirt with sleeves that stop at the shoulder. The next piece is a white long shirt with sleeves longer than the under-shirt's, but they stop at the same place as a T-shirt's sleeves would. This shirt allows for the white color of the undershirt to show, just as it would in school uniforms. A hot pink ribbon, meant to be tied around the neck, dangles around the hanger. The last and final piece of the uniform is a pair of tight shorts that reach down to Teto's knees. Attached to the shorts is a white miniskirt that stops about a foot before the leggings. It's all white.

Just white.

Teto kneels down in her shower and lets the steam fall around her in gentle circles for a long time. She never lets the water touch her. Time passes before Teto turns the water off and steps out into her bathroom. She stares at her dripping form in the mirror and turns to look at her uniform. She reaches out to touch it and feels her fingers gently dance over each thin seem. Teto grabs the uniform around the waist and pulls it up to her face. She smears water all over it and inhales deeply before collapsing on the floor.

"Yuuma… what have you done to me?"

~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~X~ ~ ~

Miku shifts uncomfortably on the crowded couch. She gulps a lump that had been forming in her throat down. She plays with the tassels on the ends of her scarf. Lapis sits in a chair on the other side of the room, Rin in the chair next to her. Gumi stands like a shadow in the corner of the room, Gumo folded under her arms. Across from that side of the room are Oliver, Len, and Miku.

"So, you find a chick in the street and 'cos she's hot you drive her to a gas station and drop her off. She calls her dad, who works for the company trying to kill you, and then she just then finds out that he works for an organization that kills people. So, little miss hot chick tracks us and follows us, accidentally leading her psychopathic father to us. Then she stalks us from the woods, Rin nearly kills her, and you bring her back to our camp. Len, what the hell are you thinking?" Oliver seethes from his position on the couch. Len glares at him.

"U-um…" Lapis bows her head respectfully before speaking. "I'm sorry!"

"It doesn't matter." Len says.

"Okay, well, let's get to business, 'cos I don't think anyone else here has the balls to say it. What do you know?" Rin says from her chair, facing Lapis and propping her feet up on the arm rest.

"Huh?" Lapis jolts up, still covering her bleeding eye.

Len slowly leans in towards Miku, getting so close to her head she can feel his breath on her shoulder and in her hair. Honey suckle and cinnamon. "Miku, go get the first aid kit, okay?" Len whispers gently to her. Miku nods, hiding her face in her scarf and scurrying out of the room.

Miku enters the kitchen and looks up at the cabinet above the stove where the tea is boiling. Miku thinks for a long moment before developing a plan. She slowly moves over to the kitchen table and grabs one of the wooden chairs, pulling it open with great difficulty. To her weak body lifting a wooden chair is like lifting a weight. With a groan she thumps it down on the tile and staggers on top of it, balancing only by holding the back of the chair. With a shaky hand she reaches upwards and pulls open the cabinet.

Immediately a wave of objects and dishes loosens and comes clattering down on her head. Miku falls backwards out of the chair, flailing for a handhold. Her palm smacks down on the burning stove as she falls and her skull smacks into the tile and a pile of shattered dish glass. A red first aid kit crashes down into her head and the wooden chair topples on top of her. She's falling, just like then, falling through the air that morning.

Miku's heart begins to beat with rapid furry, adrenaline pumping through her veins with raging ferocity. The blue haired man's voice rings sharply through her ears as she feels her body hit the ground again. She raises her hand slowly and out of her blurring vision sees a jagged chunk of blue grass lodged in between her index finger and middle finger. Red, oh god, so much red.

She can no longer contain her own breathing and she begins to utter a high pitched panicked whine. She closes her eyes, panting. She feels someone bend down at her side and hears voices. Miku can't gain any ground over her body as it struggles to cope with what's real and what's a flashback. Len's body after diving off the roof for her jumps into her mind and she stifles a scream with all she has.

"Shh, shh, shh…" A hand touches the side of her face and Miku forces her eyes open. They burn as if they're on fire.

"Oh my gosh!" Lapis jumps backwards, nearly stumbling into the table. "Her eyes."

"Yeah, they're red, genius. Now stop standing around and do something! Oliver, move the chair." Rin barks orders around.

Gumi bends down on the other side of Miku and pulls her leather gloves down over her hands. "I'll deal with all the glass." She begins to sweep away the shards around the floor, beginning with the heaps that are largest.

Rin reaches over Miku and Len on the floor and switches off the stove, removing the scalding tea pot. Lapis runs back into the room with a bundle of towels from the bathroom. Her hands are shaking and she can't contain her breath. "I-I-I g-got some t-towels f-for-for the b-blood-oh God the bl-blood…!"

"Oh great! See Len, she's afraid of blood!" Rin shouts over the noise.

"Rin, look!" Oliver shouts back, pointing at Lapis. The blood from the cut over her eye has begun to run through her fingers. "She's lost a lot because you decided to interrogate her first rather than treat her wounds. She clearly hasn't eaten in days and she's dehydrated, look at how sunken her eyes are and how dry the skin around her hands are. Are you guys all this stupid?!" Everyone is silenced but Miku and her pained and panicking pants of breath.

"I'll get her, Rin, take care of the glass, Oliver, start helping Len move Miku into the living room. Lapis," Gumi moves over Miku and the wreckage and uses Gumo to prop up Lapis on one side. "Oliver, first aid kit." Oliver picks up the large red bag and tosses it to Gumi. It's surprisingly heavy. No wonder why Miku panicked.

Oliver, after a moment stops. "Did Gumi just take control?"

Len slowly lifts Miku up from the pile of glass. She winces in pain and pants heavily with the strain. "You're fine…" He coaxes, picking her up like she's a piece of paper. "Get the pain meds from Gumi, not too many, we need to save them." Oliver nods and runs down the hall.

Len carries Miku out of the room and Rin cuts in front of him to make it to the couch first. She sweeps off all of Oliver's blankets and pillows and other stuff and Len lies Miku across it. Gumi comes rushing out holding the first aid kit.

"Len, hold her arm up, Rin, take this," Gumi thrusts a bottle of cheap pain medication and a needle into Rin's arms. "Fill it with…" Gumi calculates something in her head, mouthing words and numbers. "…six milliliters. Shake the bottle first. Oliver, bring Lapis out here." Gumi digs in the red bag and grunts in frustration. She runs out of the room for a moment and comes back holding some sort of an elastic strap.

"Where'd that come from?" Len asks. Everyone buzzes around in a flustered and disorganized panic.

"My bra." Len's face turns a horrid shade of red. "You asked!" Gumi wraps the elastic around Miku's upper arm and puts a towel in Miku's hand. She taps Miku on the cheek gently and her eyes flutter open.

"D-don't drop me… no, no more, don't drop, don't drop, Len… don't drop…" Her voice is raspy and disconnected.

"Hey, hey, Miku, squeeze really hard okay, squeeze real tight!" Gumi coaxes her like a child. Rin comes back in holding a now filled needle. Gumi takes it out of Rin's hand and injects it into the vein on Miku's wrist. Instantly Miku lunges forward like a wounded animal, thrashing and screaming beyond recognition. She pants and breathes heavily while she murmurs and shouts incoherently.

"You're okay, you're okay!" Len gently rubs the side of Miku's face. Her eyes burn so bright they look as though they might burn up into ashes.

"Has she fallen before? This looks like a psychiatric meltdown trigged by a trauma!" Gumi snaps her glove back on and grips either side of Miku's skin around a shard of glass between her index finger and thumb. She breathes in deeply.

"Yeah, she was thrown off of a roof… wait, what are you doing?" Len says, watching. The buzz of commotion around the room is thick and frustrating to someone even as focused as Gumi.

"It has to be removed in order for her to heal properly, ne?" Len nods. Gumi suddenly squeezes so hard Miku yelps and just then Gumi tugs the shard out of Miku's flesh. Blood splashes onto the lenses of her goggles. "See, useful." She taps the lese.

"Gumi!" Oliver shouts.

"Len do just what I did, the sedative should calm her down." Gumi turns and bends down, facing the coffee table. Every paper has been swept off and is being carried around the room and being dumped in random corners by Rin while Oliver tries to clean Lapis' cut. Gumi kneels over Lapis. "Oliver did you hear what I said to Rin, when I gave her the sedatives?" Oliver nods. Gumi thrusts the vile and needle into Oliver's hands. The green haired girl pulls Lapis' hand off of her eye and begins to wipe the blood off of her eye lids and away from her actual eye. "Rin!" Gumi shouts.

"Yeah?!" Rin yells from in the kitchen.

"Water! Now, lots of it!"

Gumi bends over Lapis' cut. It's really a bad one. The cut is deep and jagged with little pieces of bark lodged in. The cut is fairly old and wasn't formed when Lapis was attacked by Rin. It is an existing cut that became infected and didn't heal before Rin attacked her. When Rin re opened the injury dirt and wood got in and posed a risk for infection. On top of Lapis dehydration and exhaustion plus her adrenaline and heightened blood loss from her encounter with Rin, her body can't take the strain anymore.

Gumi injects the sedative from Oliver into the same vein she did on Miku.

"Oliver, take this…" Gumi pulls out a small pack of pills. "Crush two up put them in a cup filled with shallow water. Make them into fine powder and stir it so every part of it dissolves."

Rin walks into the living room holding a Tupperware full of water. She sets it down beside Gumi and Gumi dips a washcloth into the bucket. She soaks the hand towel thoroughly and opens Lapis mouth. Gumi crams the cloth inside and closes Lapis' mouth around it.

"Pillows, I need pillows…" Rin hands Gumi all of Oliver's pillows and the two girls prop Lapis' head up so she won't choke on the water.

"Here." Oliver comes back with a cup with little water in it. Gumi takes the washcloth out of Lapis' mouth and dips it into the cup and she doesn't take it out until every last drop of the antibiotic infused mix is absorbed into the cloth. She places it back in Lapis' mouth. Now she addresses the cut.

It isn't serious enough to need stitches but it will need a course of antibiotics to prevent infection and it should be kept covered.

"Band-Aid." Gumi says. Oliver picks up a white self-adhesive rectangular bandage and after thoroughly cleaning out Lapis' cut Gumi places it on. She opens Lapis' mouth slowly and removes the washcloth. It's merely damp now. "Oliver, re-soak this every time the top gets perfectly dry." The eye patched boy nods and Gumi stands, leaving Rin and Oliver with Lapis.

"She's healed herself but she's unconscious." Len says. He places a handful of glass shards on the ground. His face is dark and stoic.

"You didn't do anything wrong. It's not your fault, or your problem. What happened to Miku happened because of her actions. Len, you had no influence in this." Gumi's voice is cold, emotionless, sharp. Every word is perfectly calculated, just like every word has been since she took control.

Len is somehow upset by this, but he can't figure out why. "That's- that's so-"

"Right. I'm right Len." Gumi's face is bland and blank of all expression. To be blunt it's scary. "I'm not insulting Miku, which, by the way, is why you think you're mad. You're mad at yourself because you think that because you sent her in there it is your fault she got hurt."

Len's face becomes twisted into a look of disgust. "How do you-"

"I'm a people-reader, Len." Gumi smiles, removing her goggles and placing them back on top of her mass of green hair. The room is dark now, the only light coming from the lamp in the corner and the flooding in kitchen lights. "It's too dark…" Gumi stands and walks out.

A little while later, after the kitchen has been cleaned and every light in the house is on, everyone somehow meets back in the living room after spending all that time doing their own things. Lapis has been moved into Miku's room and Miku has taken Oliver's usual spot on the couch. Len is sitting beside her, unmoving, but back to his normal self. Rin is in her chair with her feet up as usual, watching some horror movie with zombies in it, and Gumi is sitting on a pillow on the floor, polishing her crowbar. Oliver is sitting in the chair next to Rin.

"Gumi?" Len asks. Rin turns down the movie.

"Mm?"

"How did you know what to do? You know, with all the medical stuff?"

"My mom was a pediatric surgeon." Gumi says, not looking up. She says it normally with a totally bland expression.

"I thought you said you had no family." Rin says.

"I don't." Gumi responds, disinterested.

"Then, what happened?" Rin asks.

Gumi looks up, a new and slightly frightening glazed look in her eyes. "People die, Rin. It's part of life. She died a long time ago. I used to sit in the gallery sometimes when I was younger and watch her perform surgeries if my babysitter wasn't around. I read some of her medical books too instead of coloring books. Some of it stuck, I guess."

She sets aside the polishing rag and lies the crowbar across her lap, she turns her attention to the movie. "Oo, turn it up, I love this part!"

Oliver, after a minute or to, steps outside. The cold night air freezes his skin but he remains. Oliver stays there for a long time before he hears the door behind him open.

"Hey." Rin says, standing beside him.

"What do you want?" He doesn't look at her.

"Everyone else has gone to bed. Len moved Miku into our room so you have the couch back."

"Where're you gonna sleep?"

"Not going to. My turn for watch anyways. Besides, who else knows who's stalking us out here… we've been here too long. We need to refocus. Get back to finding IA and Miki. We're all too soft now. The trauma softened us. Gumi took control today. Gumi. And it was just over a couple of accidents and we were all running around like headless chickens. It can't happen again. We shouldn't waste time with any more petty distractions again." Rin sighs, kicking a piece of hair out of her face and pulling her jacket tighter around her waist. Her breath hangs in the air as warm mist before getting devoured by the cold.

"Rin…" Oliver starts to say something.

"Yeah?"

Silence.

"Nothing, it's fine." Oliver sighs dryly, leaning into the wall of the house and pressing his finger to his temple.

"Yeah..." They stand there for a long time. "Oliver? Do you blame us?" He glances at Rin from out of the corner of his eye. He looks away quickly. Rin's feathery blonde hair whips around her face in the frigid night wind, her bangs only kept out of her face by the four pearl white clips she treasures. Her bow flaps gently on top of her blonde head. Her eyes burn brightly against the dark abyss of the night sky.

"Yes."

"Yeah."

They stand there for a long time.

Character Pole:

Miku- 8

Rin- 8

Gumi-8

Len-6

IO- 3

IA- 2

Lapis- 2

Oliver- 2

Gumo- 2 (Yay crowbars X3~! +1 from my loving crowbar, Stanley)

Luka- 1

Haku-1

Thanks to reviewers:

`XxKingArthurlllxX

`zhane17

`MinaBlahBlahBlahAnimeFan

`Black White and Superstitious

`MT's Souless6

`awesome dt

`icelandicpuffincat

~Tiruneko ;3