High in the London skyline, atop a building in the dead of night, stood the tree Joshua, Neku, and Seras. They had been silent for minutes now.

"You've made a mistake," Seras said.

"No, I'm sure I haven't," Joshua retorted.

"But I was never some 'Composer' when I was a kid," Seras argued. "I would remember if I was!"

"Would you though?"

"I have memories from back then: I went to school, I played with other kids, I did normal stuff. I never dealt with ghosts or 'Players' or whatever!"

"Memories are a tricky matter Seras. What's to say that you don't only remember PART of your childhood?" Seras struggled for words. This was all too ridiculous, she knew that it wasn't true. She remembered all of her childhood, she couldn't have forgotten anything. She couldn't have been in contact with the dead because then... because...

Seras stiffled the memory. "It's not true," she said simply. "It's just not." Joshua scratched his head, considering how he could convince her. Neku watched silently. She's surprisingly cool about all this, he thought. Most people wouldn't have even talked about the idea of being a Composer, it's really too unbelievable. Then again, vampires aren't that believable either.

"Look, Seras," Joshua said. "I know that this is hard to believe, but you need trust me on this."

"Trust you," Seras said, becoming annoyed. "Why should I trust you? I don't even know you! In the time I've known you, you snuck into my room, dropped me down a hole, and attacked my head! Now you want me to just accept that you're here to help me regain some title that I never had or wanted. No, that's not something that's going to happen! I don't want any of this!" And with that, Seras turned around and walked away from the two.

Joshua was about to object when suddenly something fell on top of Seras. A giant black thing in the shape of a wolf grabbed her in its jaw and shook her violently.

"Noise!" Neku snatched a pin from his pocket and pointed it at the giant wolf Noise. A bolt of lightning shot down and struck it in the back. The Noise growled in pain and dropped Seras, who was nearly torn in half. She was lifted off the ground by nothing and carried over behind Neku and Joshua.

She pushed herself up and looked at the two in front of her, and then at the Noise beyond them. It was looking dead into her eyes, snarling horribly.

"You should stay there," Joshua said, flipping open his cellphone. "We got this." Seras could swear that she saw the two boys smile at the wolf like it was a present on Christmas morning. They reminded her of Alucard at that moment.

The Noise charged them, slobber splashing from its fangs. Neku raised his arms, showing a pin held perfectly between each of his fingers. One flashed as he swung his arm, and three large ice stalagmites jutted out of the building's roof into the wolf. With another swing of Neku's arm five great boulders appeared in the sky and crushed it. A cloud of shrapnel hid it momentarily, then suddenly it was in front of Neku, jaw open and hungry. It bit down hard where Neku was, but Neku was no longer there. He appeared from nowhere behind it, and with another swing of his hand cast a flaming ball into the Noise's back.

Joshua jumped high into the air, but did not return to the ground. He floated in the air, above the Noise, typing into his phone. A beam of blinding light shot from the sky onto the beast, and it roared angrily. It turned to Joshua and leapt at him snarling. Joshua smiled at the beast and another lazor came from behind him, sending it back down to the roof with an incredible thud. Seras could feel the structure shake under her from its weight.

Neku appeared in front of the Noise and, to Seras' additional astonishment, slashed into its flesh with his finger tips. She saw gashes go into it, but no blood came from the creature. It reared back and snapped at Neku again, but he was gone as quickly as he came. Seras saw holes open up in the sky, like the one she had fallen through previously, but instead of people, cars fell from them and landed on the Noise, only to disappear once they bounced off it.

Joshua returned to the roof in front of the wolf Noise, and Neku stood behind it. A blue aura overtook Joshua, and he smiled, looking past the wolf at Neku.

"Work for you?"

A red aura engulfed Neku. "What do you think?"

They thrust their hands at the Noise, and suddenly ice and fire burst out from them. The elements met on the beast, and with a final great cry of pain and anger, disappeared under their power. When the flames settled and the ice melted, all that the wolf was was nowhere to be seen.

Seras watched this show awe-stricken. What incredible power these two posessed! It was unreal, and almost as horrifying as the power she'd seen from Alucard, if not more so.

*Click* Seras froze when she heard the metalic strike behind her head. She dared to turn her head back, and then a bullet burst through her head in a spout of blood. Neku and Joshua turned and ran to her at the sound, and the winged man with the gun began to flee. He took off into the air, flying as fast as he could.

Then he felt a hand grasp his ankle and slam him down into the building roof. He crunched into a ball and looked up to see Seras, with two holes in the sides of her head still leaking blood, looking down on him with red eyes.

"No no no," the Reaper squeeled. "I shot you. I shot you!" He aimed his gun and shot her again, straight through the chest. Seras recoiled for a moment, then stood back up. He yelled and unloaded his bullets into her, but none of them pierced her heart.

"Die! Die God damnit!" A clawed hand grabbed the Reaper by the face and brought it up very slowly. Seras looked into his eyes for what he felt were minutes, and then she crushed his head into the cement over and over, until nothing was in her hand except a bloody mush. His body disintegrated and was blown away by the breeze. Seras looked down at her hand, covered in blood and brain matter. She seemed to study it for a while. Then she wiped it off on her pants without a word.

"That was a Reaper," Joshua said. "A keeper of the Reaper Games. Now why would one of them want you dead, I wonder?" Seras turned back to see Joshua smiling with an air of victory. She frowned and looked above her into the night.

"Seras..." This was a new voice. The three turned to see a man standing at the edge of the roof, looking at Seras with horrified shock. The man was tall, with scruffy brown hair and a lazy hooded sweatshirt. His eyes were deep blue, like Seras' had been, but now only contrasted to her red gaze. "What have you done?"

Seras' fists tightened at her sides. "You know, I'm beginning to hate it when people I don't know seem to know me." The man inhaled a short gasp and recoiled back. His feet left the roof, but remained supported by the air below them.

"Don't know... Seras, what do you-" Seras lunged at the man, eyes burning with fury. She hit him across the face and sent him falling down the side of the building. But he appeared again behind her. Neku readied his pins, but Joshua stuck his arm out to stop him, shaking his head silently.

"Seras, what are you doing?! It's me! It's Reece!" Seras spun around and ran at him again. This time when she attacked though, she reached out and struck nothing. Reece backed away from her, confounded.

Seras turned and faced him, growling. "Why did that guy try to kill me? Did you send him?!" She charged Reece for the third time, arm stretching for his throat. In a moment clouded by motion, Reece reached up and grabbed her hand, crushing it and pinning Seras to her knees.

He looked down on her for a second with only a blank, condescending stare. He squeezed her hand and felt bones snap between his knuckles, and heard Seras utter a single cry. Then, as quickly as it lasted, Reece's uncaring was eradicated and a look of confusion and horror. He looked down at his now bloodied hand, then down at Seras. She was watching him with a look of pure hatred, her red eyes gleaming in the moon light. Reece turned his back on the sight with a weak whimper and ran off the rooftop and into the night.

Joshua and Neku walked to Seras' side as she picked herself off the ground. She watched the place Reece had ran off to, but could not see him.

"That wasn't a Reaper," Neku said. Seras turned to them; her eyes were turning back to their original blue, but a hint of rage hung on her face as she cradled her mangled hand. Neku pulled out one of his pins and waved it at her, and the hand, as well as her gun shot wounds, slowly healed.

"No," Joshua said. "It wasn't a Reaper." He opened his cell phone and scrolled through a few texts. After a moment he looked up at Seras. "But make no mistake, he is in league with the party that wants you dead Seras." A little smile crossed his face. "How deep that allegiance goes, however, has yet to be seen."

Seras looked down silently, reflecting. He knew her, he was confused. He's at least associated with the Reaper that tried to kill her. Could she really have been...

"This changes nothing," Seras said, looking back up at Joshua.

He smiled in his casual way. "Of course not."

"Ah, Reece darling, you're back." Annabelle King sat atop her throne, looking down at her Producer who'd just come through the door. She smiled kindly at his return. "Is she dead?"

Reece refused to meet eyes with the Composer. He was too distraught. "She was shot through the head." Annabelle smiled and stroked the covered golden pendant over her breast. "But... Seras still lives."

Like that Annabelle's smile shattered. Her body tensed up and shook slightly. "What?"

"She... Seras could not be killed. And I'm not sure why." Reece suddenly began whimpering, and tears rolled down his cheeks. Annabelle watched him piteously, and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms about his chest and eased him into her shoulder.

"There there, my darling, don't be so sad. I don't blame you for your failure, how could you have known she was beyond human?" I wouldn't cry over that, Reece thought bitterly, but he knew better than to speak it aloud. She would be furious if she knew why he cried.

"But," she continued, looking into Reece's eyes. "We can't just give up. We have to find out why she could take a shot to the head; find out her weakness! And then we'll finish her off." Reece nodded weakly, struggling to compose himself. Annabelle embraced him again, utterly expressionless. Her mind was a thousand miles away.

NExt hapter we go deep into reece and Seras past!