Hey guys, you know YOU can review too, it doesn't have to be just Emma-sempai. And don't worry; he won't come after you because of things I shall now explain below, which are rather obvious. Better get to explaining then, and sorry I was late with this, a friend of mine (if you've been reading it, the Flora story's true author) was talking to me about her story and my guest-appearance in it, some things she wanted to ask me if they were okay or not, and some dialogue she wanted to get down, stuff like that.

There are some things you can never get back, no matter how much effort you put in. And there are some feelings of despair that you can never ever shake off.

-Ciel Phantomehive

Kage's POV:
 I stared at DK, Akuma doing the same. He stared back at us, obviously nonplussed. His hair was short and inky black, sticking up in ragged tufts from his head, and his skin was deathly pale, almost pure white. His nails were longer, and they were a shiny black that looked like nail polish, but when I squinted I couldn't see the difference between a normal nail and the "polish". Many faint, ghost-like scars were branded over his bare arms, and a thin, nearly invisible one went down from his forehead to his chin, diagonal across his cheek. He was skinny, almost anemic, and his black T-shirt was draped over his frame in a way that emphasized it. His nose was bony and short, and his cheekbones were high over colorless lips. His eyes were the ever-familiar red-black, but I saw a faint black X in the center of his red iris. "What? I'm fine. Aren't I?" he asked nervously, his voice slightly different from Akuma's. It was deeper, but also younger for some strange reason.

"Yeah…it's just weird seeing you on your…own." I said after a moment, making a helpless gesture with my hands as he nodded absently. "Yeah. Feels strange too. I haven't had my own body for…nine hundred years? Give or take a decade…" he mumbled, looking down at himself as if fascinated by his body, lifting his arms and turning them over several times. "I think it's cool." Akuma said staunchly, and I nodded, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and stretching as the shadows fetched my coat for me. Akuma did the same, and we watched as DK looked up at us, ten licked his lips with a faint pink tinge in his cheeks. "Uh…I kinda forgot how…" he mumbled, the rest trailing off in a mutter as we leaned closer curiously. He sucked in a deep breath and suddenly shoved us away, grabbing the metal railings of the bed and heaving himself, standing on the grimy concrete floor of the lab with shaky legs.

"You wh-" I started to asked, but before I could finish my query his knees buckled, and only his grip on the bed kept him from faceplanting on the ground as his legs folded on the ground, limp. "Oh." Akuma said numbly as I nodded silently, DK glaring at both of us. "It's been nine hundred years since I had my own body. I've completely forgotten how to use one." he snapped, his cheeks definitely pink now as I sighed in annoyance, running a hand through my hair as Akuma hoisted the demon's arm over his shoulder and helped him to stand, watching as his knees buckled and his grip around my brother's neck tightened, eyes shut tight in annoyed fear as my brother managed to dislodge him and shove him on the bed. "But you controlled Akuma's body a couple times-" I tried, and DK snorted, hands in his lap as he glared at his legs. "I used his mind to make him move. His brain sent all the signals to his body, I just triggered them off." He explained sourly, and I sighed again in frustration.

We scowled at each other in silence for a second, and I bit my lip. "We need to get you out of Stein's lab first of all. Can you transform?" His cheeks reddened further, and my heart sunk. "No. I'm a meister, not a weapon. Technically I'm just a Kishin." He spat, and I blinked in unison with Akuma. "But-" we started to say at the same time, and DK held up a hand, cutting us off. "Yeah, I transformed with Akuma, but then I was just a mental projection, the sword forms weren't mine, I was just in them. Get it?" he muttered, and we both growled in annoyance as he stared at his legs some more, a decidedly ugly twist in his mouth. "I liked being in his body more…" he grumbled, giving Akuma a disgusted glance and then sighing and looking back down at himself. "Well, I had one once, it shouldn't be too hard to get this one moving too." He said absently, shoving himself off the bed again and standing, his legs wobbly but firm as he gave us a triumphant grin.

"Good. Now try to walk."

His smile vanished.

DK's POV:

I forced myself to move, feeling oddly disjointed and strange, managing to stumble my way to a wall and lean against it, panting slightly as I gripped it with one long-nailed hand. Damn…I'm as helpless as a newborn lamb in a body of my own, not to mention just as coordinated. And now I can feel pain, exhaustion, and I can't shove it off to someone else because there's just me. I thought, feeling extremely lonely, cut off, and abandoned for a split second before both Kage and Akuma tapped my shoulder, making me glance up at them as they peered at me, concerned. I felt another flash of disjointedness. No one had cared for me, ever. In any way. Queenie had been more protective of me because she saw me as her one true ally, not as her brother. It was like watching a scene from behind glass, knowing what was going on but not connected to it in any way, shape, or form. "You okay?"

I swallowed, licking my lips before managing to reply. "Yeah…it's just a bit much." They both nodded in understanding and backed off as I straightened again, pulling myself to the bathroom where Stein had a mirror, staring at it with my hands on either side of the reflective glass, studying my new body. It…it was eerily close to the original, my human self. I reached up, touching the side of my face and watching as the specter in the mirror followed the movement, its eyes dull, blank. I suddenly felt like that wasn't me. Gekido didn't have black hair or unnaturally pale skin or those demonic eyes and fiendish nails. Gekido didn't have the faint grey soul I saw in my own chest, pulsing gently in time to my heartbeat. "DK?" I jumped, my nails accidentally nicking my cheek as I looked at the source of the sound, mind blank. Who? That wasn't my name. I was… "DK, you okay man?"

I sucked in a shuddering breath, closing my eyes for a moment as I felt something sticky and cool trickle down my cheek, wiping it away with my thumb and blinking as I saw the dark smear. "Yeah. I'm fine." I whispered hoarsely, clenching my other hand as the black nails cut into my pale skin, leaving angry little crescent marks, staring at the ground in front of me. I was…I was the Demon King. Not Gekido. Not anymore. I smirked a little, lifting my gaze to see Kage and her brother in the doorway, looking worried. A strange surge of power pulsed through me, and my smile widened, showing them my sharper, more jagged teeth than their blunt human ones.

"I'm just fine."

Hazel's POV:

I gasped, freeing myself at last as I wrenched open the door, feeling my heart pounding in my chest as I transformed my arm again with a hiss of effort. I ran to the cell block, seeing all my friends there and many more that I didn't know, quickly stopping in front of the mass cage. It was dirty, the product of dozens of teens and children forced to endure and wait in the cold, grimy dark for weeks, months on end. Waiting for escape. Waiting for hope. Waiting for experimentation. "Everybody back. I'm gonna break the door down." I said shakily, and their dull eyes flickered into brightness, all of them quickly edging away, far away from the metal door as I aimed my arm at it, slightly unsure of what to do. I blinked in wonder, feeling my fingers in the metal, and squeezed them like I was wrapping my hand around a stick. A huge boom sent my flying as the door was bust open, my back slamming into concrete as I panted and it transformed back against my will, my eyes aching and head pounding as children began streaming past me, Birch and Linden quickly grabbing my arms and hoisting me up as Rowan and Berry ran past me, both heading for the exit.

I struggled free of them once my head stabilized, summoning up the weapon form in my arm as we ran and getting ready to use it, on the front doors. "CLEAR!" I shouted once we came into the gigantic entrance hall, swinging my arm up and bracing my feet before squeezing my fingers, a huge blast of heat and light booming as the doors shattered into flak and debris, the others running out as I quickly followed, stopping a moment to aim it at the many vehicles and helicopters in the hanger and firing twice, once on each side to blow up the transports before following the others, panting with fear as I caught up to my friends and we ran as one into the forest, the branches and scrub clawing at our faces and limbs, hooking into our tattered lab outfits and tearing bits away to traitorously bear them to our trackers, who would no doubt be following very, very soon.

Dun dun dadum…*organ playing* Nice chapter for you all I'm sure, aren't you happy with me. *weary grin* Sorry, it took me a while to hammer this out. Just kidding, it actually only took me about a standard high school class period to think up roughly the last two and next five, I'm just that inspired for this. *shrugs* Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get moving and start writing the next chapter, if you please. Review, Request, Rcomment, Auf Wedersien.