I am soooo sorry this chapter is WAY later then I had planned! I've been busy working on some other writing stuff and even busier with school stuff! I know this chapter is shorter than the last too but I wanted to publish it as soon as I could. I promise that this time, it was REALLY worth it. I swear!

By the way, last chapter I realzied I didn't really make the timelines between Yuuma's group and Miku's group very clear. Last chapter I meant to have had that scene with Yuuma at the motel set the night before the day where Rin and everyone get attacked, if that makes sense. So there was supposed to be a small time difference there, if that helps. I really did jump around quite a bit with that so hopefully this helps to know now.

(I'll list reviewers next chapter, too lazy right now, but you know who you all are~!) Enjoy as always,

~Tiruneko ;3

X~48~X

"Lapis, can you drive a car?" Gumi asks, throwing Miku a little roughly into the backseat of the van and slamming the door behind her with a loud thud. She swings the crowbar outwards and it connects with the side of a Watcher, sending them down with a painful cry and a crunch of bone against the asphalt.

"S-sure?" Lapis stutters, locking the doors after Gumi flings herself down in the passenger's seat.

"Never mind that…" Gumi says, watching Meiko comes scrambling out of the house with Gakupo and Luka not far behind.

"H-here!" Lapis hands Gumi a pistol she took from an unconscious Watcher. Gumi immediately recoils, dropping the gun onto the floor of the car and tensing instantly.

Gumi crawls over Lapis and pushes her out of the driver's seat, forcing her into the passenger's side. "Pick up the gun." Gumi orders a little forcefully. "Cock it and start shooting." Gumi rolls down the window and begins to speed out of the camp recklessly as Lapis shoots like a crazy person out of the window. Her aim is decent enough but the kickback is too strong for her and the noise seems to bother her a lot. She does okay though and their newly stolen car speeds along quickly onto the freeway.

Gumi makes an erratic turn onto some back roads until their driving along a nearly abandoned dirt road parallel to a hiking trail. Only after this does Gumi release a long exhaling breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

"Miku?" She turns around, looking over her shoulder into the backseat. Her face is pale and her eyes are a little sunken. She turns her head, previously bent in an uncomfortable position looking out of the window, and nods at Gumi. "You okay?" Miku nods again, turning back to look out the window.

"Alright. We're going to meet Len now, you know. They got out, Miku. I watched them." Gumi says, giving Miku a flawless, yet fake, smile.

Lapis sighs, looking at the gun in her hands and remembering Gumi's reaction. "Gumi?" She asks, turning to her.

"Mm?" Gumi says, reaching to turn on the radio of the stolen car.

"Are you afraid of guns?" Lapis asks her, pushing a strand of neon blue hair out of her swimming eyes. Gumi pulls her hand away from the radio controls and cackles loudly. She reaches her hand out for the radio controls again and responds blandly.

"Hell no. They just…", she sighs as she tunes the radio to a rock station. ", remind me of stuff I'd rather not think about."

"Oh." Lapis turns away to look out the window.

"Len?" Oliver asks, glancing out the back window.

"What?" Len tenses, gripping the steering wheel even tighter than he had been before. His scraggly dark blonde hair falls in his flaming red eyes. He growls a little under his breath as a sharp pain juts through his side from where he was kicked by Gakupo.

"I think we're being followed." Oliver gulps. In his lap Rin tenses, coughing a raged bloody breath and splattering blood on herself. Blood is still steadily seeping out of her back and onto Oliver's clothes and the seat of the car bellow them. Her eyes are clenched shut in pain but she is fully conscious and groans as Oliver finishes speaking.

Len curses under his breath and glances upwards into the rear view mirror. Behind them is a silver car with a figure sitting in the driver's seat. The windows are too tinted to see inside of and Len growls under his breath again, speeding up instantly. Oliver lurches in the backseat. He's always been motion sick, and looking down at Rin's gruesome injuries and state doesn't really help.

She moans in pain and wretches forward, eventually collapsing again back onto Oliver. He moves at first to put his hand on her head, and pulls away at the last second, grimacing and turning away.

"It's probably just Gumi, right?" Oliver says, hopeful yet cautious.

"I don't know. We should assume the worst, just to be safe. If it was Gumi, she would have waved to us by now." The other blonde says.

"No… they look like they're about her height." Oliver says, glancing back again. The car is further away now. It hasn't sped up at all.

"It could just be a tall person slouching if they really wanted to mess with us, Oliver." Len hisses.

Just then, from a turnoff in front of them, another car peels onto the freeway. Len squints to see up through the back windshield of the car to see a hand raised into a thumbs up. Gumi.

"Shit. That's Gumi. Which means…" Oliver gulps and glances behind him again, his voice dropping off. The car behind them speeds up and then swerves violently until straightening out again on the road. It's getting closer.

Len honks his horn loudly and Gumi lurches forward, dramatically speeding up her car and pulling it to a stop in the middle of the road, creating a sort-of block. Len does the same.

"Shit Len! The hell do you think you're doing?!" Oliver shouts, gripping the door of the car to not fall out of the seat.

"Dealing with the problem." He picks up Rin's gun off of the passenger's side and he crouches below the window of the car and watches in the rear view as the car behind them screeches to a stop. Len turns his head to see Gumi flop out of her car, crowbar in hand. She crouches behind it, waiting.

Len slowly creeps out of the side of the car facing Gumi's, so he has protection on either side. He crouches down, creeping forward until he's at the front of the car. All he has to do is reach an arm out and shoot.

He hears the bang of their car door shut and footsteps on the asphalt, hot from the heat of the afternoon sun. Len thought they had been driving long enough for Luka and the others to not have followed them. Or at least he thought so.

Len creeps back behind the car and loudly whispers to Gumi. "Stay behind me, I'll be your cover. I'm almost out of ammo though."

"Alright." Gumi slides over the hood of her car and Lapis behind her. The three crouch behind Len's car, waiting. "Where's Rin?"

"Car. She hasn't… died yet." Len says, grimacing.

"Let's just get this over with." Gumi sighs, following Len to the other side of the car.

Len inhales deeply and rockets out from behind the car, gun outstretched. At the sight of bright pink hair Len pulls the trigger. The gun shot rings out, but the figure had dropped in time. Len shudders as the figure pulls themselves upright again, standing warily. It's not Luka.

A tall boy with light pink hair mostly concealed under a black beanie hat stands, hands up above his head. He looks a little flustered, but not really afraid. His skin is bizarrely pale and a grey hoodie hands around his shoulders. Black cargo pants swoosh around him as he stands to his full height beside the car, waiting.

"Lenny!" A high pitched child's voice wails from inside of the car. The passenger's door immediately and violently swings open, two figures crashing out. One of the figures is below the other, and lands face first on the asphalt, nearly trampled by the other. The figure on top scrambles from off of the figure below them and bolts upright, running forwards.

The distance between the two cars is long and the pink haired boy throws out an arm that the small figure crashes into.

A girl with extremely pale blonde, nearly white hair that reaches down to her calves stands behind the boy's arm, her red eyes swimming with tears. Her mouth is pulled into a wide, ear-to-ear grin and her hands grip around the boy's arm, nearly jumping over him. The boy mouths something to her and the girl stops. She is wearing a pink skirt and an orange and white striped oversized hoodie. Len's hoodie. She has no shoes on. Two face framing strands of her hair are braided and the rest of the cascading strands are free of tangles and matts.

The last figure pushes himself off of the asphalt and slowly walks to stand next to the girl with a palpable air of uncertainty. He has scraggly pale-blonde hair almost the same shade as the girl's and is wearing a crème colored pull over hoodie and jeans. His shoes are white Velcro sneakers with red laces. As he approaches the girl he stands very close to her, yet immediately behind her. Like a close following shadow. His mouth is pulled into a frown and his red eyes scowl at the small trio behind the cars.

"IA…" Len immediately drops his gun to the ground and takes one step forward. Yuuma tenses, stepping backwards abruptly. IA steps back with him, his arm still outstretched in front of her, preventing the girl from going any closer.

Yuuma whispers to IA. "Are you sure it's him?" IA nods, eyes full of tears of joy.

"Yes!" She nearly shrieks.

Yuuma begrudgingly and slowly lowers his arm. With a surge of energy IA runs forward as Len takes another step. Len slowly reaches out both of his arms and IA throws both of her arms out and above her head. She jumps suddenly and with a soft thump she crashes into Len's arms.

He scoops her up as is she's light as air and IA throws her small and frail arms around his neck. IA buries her face in his shoulder and Len stands, holding her, dumbfounded. IA begins to sob into his chest, clutching him with all the strength the weak girl can muster.

Gumi and Lapis creep out from behind the car. Gumi lowers her crowbar and puts one hand on her hip, smirking. "Well. This was unexpected."

"Who are-"

"IA. She's the last one of them. She got kidnaped when Demon's Crow showed up last." Gumi explains. Miku slowly eases out of the car and creeps up behind Gumi and Lapis.

"Is that-…!" Miku rushes forward as Len lowers IA out of his arms. IA runs into Miku's legs, wrapping her arms around her.

"Miku!" She cries.

"IA!" Miku puts her hand on top of IA's head and closes her eyes for a moment, smiling. "Where did-?" Her eyes fall forward on the two figures standing not too far away now. They've begun walking and are fairly close to the other group now.

Miku gasps, staggering backwards. The color of Yuuma's hair strikes terror into Miku and she shies away out of IA's grasp, falling behind Len and cowering.

IA stands just in front of Len with a confused look on her face as IO and Yuuma approach from behind, IO hiding behind Yuuma's legs.

"Gumi?" Len prompts. Gumi picks up Gumo off the hood of Len's car and places it in her hands, smacking it against her palm and walking forward.

"A-A-Alright…" Gumi says, drawing out the A and stepping next to Len protectively.

"Woah…" Yuuma puts up his hands defensively and then lowers one to put it on IO's head and keep him safely behind his back.

"Who the hell are you?" Len asks.

"Hey that's my line!" Gumi pouts.

"Yuuma. Are you Len?"

"…Yes." Len replies cautiously. "How do you have IA with you?"

"I rescued her." Yuuma raises an eyebrow, becoming slightly angry at Len's lack of knowledge.

"You?" Len scoffs. "Who are you working for?"

"No one." Yuuma states dryly.

IA turns away from Len, walking over to Yuuma and pulling on his hoodie. Yuuma lowers his other hand and threads his hands through IA.

"IA… come here." Len says gently.

"O-okay." She slowly moves forward. IO lurches out from behind Yuuma and grabs IA by the hand, pulling her back. He wraps both of his arms around one of IA's and she stops walking.

Len, Gumi, Miku, and Lapis suck in a gasp of breath when IO's eyes meet theirs. IA continues to walk towards Len with IO gripping her hand tightly.

"IA… who is he?" Len asks with a shaky voice.

"I'm IO." IO says firmly, glaring at Len.

"IO?" Gumi walks forward, Gumo slung over her shoulder. She bends down in front of IA and IO and IO shies away behind IA. Yuuma stalks forward, about to say something. "Woah, woah, calm down pinky." Gumi says, putting a hand on IA's head. IA smiles.

"Hi Gumi!" She says.

"Hi, IA." She smiles. Gumi turns to IO. "Hi, IO." IO frowns. "Are you guys okay?" She asks.

"Yes!" IA leans forward, whispering in Gumi's ear. "Yuuma saved us." She pulls away, smiling. Gumi smiles back.

"Great." She stands, walking past the two children and standing in front of Yuuma. She is almost a full foot shorter than him. "I'll say what these asses aren't, but should. Thanks, Yuuma. I'm Gumi. The blue haired one's Lapis, teal haired one, Miku, and angry blondie is Len."

"R-right. Are you with the Akuma too?" Yuuma says nervously.

"Akuma? You mean the demon kids? Hell yeah." Gumi smirks. "Have the Demon's Crow group found you yet?"

"No, I don't think they have."

"Fine, then we'll take your car, just to be sure." Gumi turns around. "Lapis! Get Oliver and Rin, Miku, you're okay. He's not going to hurt you."

"Gumi-" Len protests. "We don't even know him!"

"Len, you're being idiotic. If Rin was 'good' right now, she'd agree. Yuuma did what we didn't, rescued IA and found another one of you. We don't have a lot of time before Demon's Crow catches up with us too, so get in the man's car and stop looking at me like I'm crazy." Gumi walks over to the car Len took with Lapis and they open the back door. Oliver stares at them, surprised.

"What's-"

"Oh my God!" Lapis shrieks, looking at Rin. "She's still alive…"

"We can't move her like this." Oliver says.

"He's right." Gumi says, motioning over Len.

He glances at his twin and grimaces. "Alright… you guys go with Gumi, I can take care of Rin. Len draws his gun from his back pocket and Oliver and Lapis shout out with surprise.

"The hell are you doing?!" Oliver hisses.

"What I have to do. Sorry, Rin." Len crawls in the car and places the barrel of the gun on Rin's right temple. Oliver hurriedly tries to rush out from under her but Len pulls the trigger too soon. The back of Rin's head explodes onto Oliver's lap in a spray of blood as she dies and Oliver sits there, stunned and petrified with splatters of her blood on his face.

He can't help but feel something he know he shouldn't. But Oliver realizes it anyways.

He's afraid. He's afraid of them.

And he's afraid of her.

Character Pole:

Len- 9

Gumi- 9

Miku- 8

Rin- 8

Gumo- 3

IO- 3

Oliver- 3

IA- 2

Lapis- 2

Yuuma- 2

Luka- 1

Haku-1

~Tiruneko ;3