Author's Note: This week it's from Russia with Love. That's right. It's all about Russia this week. I just had to do it. I have been sitting on some ideas from this halo for quite some time. Now, there were parts that I had to scrap for time's sake. (I wanted to write a scene with Vorona and Minotaur!Shizuo but in the end, I felt like it didn't fit with the halo. I will have to fit in sometime later this season.) Despite not working too much on Halloween to get the specials up, I still managed to pull off getting this halo up on time. I already know what I am doing next week. Look forward to that. For now, enjoy this post-Halloween halo!

Halo Fourteen: Siren:

Valya made her presence known around December 20th. By now, she started to look prettier. She could put the tadpoles to shame. Someone shot a video of her flying in the sky in the early hours of the morning. The image was kind of grainy. At first, no one could make out what they were looking at.

"What is that?" Shinra asked as he looked at the two-minute short video. Shingo's stomach turned. He walked to click away but his hand froze on the mouse. Mikado froze in the doorway. He walked into the room and looked at Shingo's laptop. Flashes of memory sparked in his head. Mikado doubled over to his knees.

"A siren," he said in a whisper.

"What?" Shinra asked. Shingo and Mikado turned to him with worried looks on their faces.

"A siren," they said. The video kept getting more hits.

Moments later, everyone was gathered in the living room. Everyone had seen the short video by now. The tadpoles didn't have comfort looks on their faces. It was like they were daring someone to talk. Yukio lifted his chin.

"We appear to have a little problem on our hands," he said. Megumi looked up at him, sneering.

"Little? Are you serious? We're fucked!" she said.

"Language!" Naomi shouted. Megumi wrinkled her nose.

"Whatever," she said under her breath.

"Anyway," Yukio said. "This is a problem."

"No shit," Megumi muttered to herself.

"Um… what the hell are you guys talking about?" Tatsuya asked with his hand up. "What are these sirens?" The tadpoles didn't say a word at first. How were they going to explain this?

"Um… They are like us but not," Naomi said. She let it hang there as she tried to come up with something else to say.

"They could kill us," Itori said. She held her hands to her stomach. Everyone normal and Celty gave them a puzzled and stunned look.

"[Does your dad know about this?]" Celty typed to Shinra.

"I don't know," he said, shaking his head. The tadpoles tried to come up with an easier way to explain this. It was clear their memories of those vile creatures were coming back. Some even wished that Shingen was here.

"How exactly can they kill you?" Seiji asked.

"We're not sure about that," Yukio said. He looked like he wanted to say something else. The tadpole nervously chuckled.

"What?" Risa asked. Yukio had a sheepish look on his face as he lifted his chin.

"We're also attracted to them sexually," he admitted. His face was so red, admitting that. Some of the other tadpoles looked embarrassed hearing this. Even Megumi and Yamato were squirming in their seats.

"Oh…" Shinra said. The tadpoles struggled to say something else.

"What is one of them doing here?" Shinra asked. "Do you know?" The tadpoles didn't have an answer for that.

They have already begun their own invasion. Vozrozhdeniye could easily blend into the crowd. That was how they worked. So far, their Siren project was a success. However, they really needed to test it out. They were going to need to grab onto an actual tadpole to see the full results. Adrik was scrolling around on YouTube.

"The views keep rising," he said. Karp leaned over and looked at the screen.

"What are they saying?" he asked. His comrade scrolled through the comments.

"They either think it's fake or they are amazed by her," Adrik said. Alisa loudly cleared her throat.

"Enough of that!" she snapped. "We've got work to do!" Alisa snorted when she looked at the video.

"That's not even a good video of here," she said in a cold tone. "Cut that off."

"Fine," Adrik said. He closed out of YouTube and shoved his phone back into his pocket. The other men gathered around Alisa.

"Everyone," she said. "We may not have cell phone reception in this city, but that changes nothing. We made our mark and now Kitano will have to take notice."

"So… are we going to make more of them?" Lazar asked. Alisa broke into a huge grin.

"Of course," she said. "Look around you. We have plenty of test subjects to work with. People will do anything for money. Especially the homeless." She smiled as said this. They arrived at the best time too. So many homeless people wanted to get warm and eat during the winter.

"When can we start?" Boris asked.

"Fyodor said we can begin now," Alisa said with a grin. "Half of us will work with Valya and the rest will get new blood." Her group liked the sound of that. Alisa threw her hands up in the air.

"Come with boys!" she shouted. "We have work to do!" Her crew cheered. Alisa threw back her head and laughed. Did anyone notice them? Probably. Did they even care? Of course they didn't. The Vozrozhdeniye had just declared war after all. Now, they were going to push the game even further.

Last night, she tracked him down. Mikado was stunned to see her waiting for him in Michiko's apartment. She sat on the bed, waiting for him.

"Hello, Moi horoshiy," she said in a flirty tone. The tadpole took a step back.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. Lilith gave him a hungry look.

"I came here to see you," she said. "What else?"

"You can't be here!" Mikado hissed through clenched teeth. He quickly looked behind him. Lilith cocked her head to the side.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because Anri's here!" the boy said quickly.

"So?" she asked. Mikado's stomach turned. This wasn't good He had the feeling that Lilith wasn't going to listen to him.

"I'm not going to do this," he said. The ghostly woman pouted at him.

"But I missed you," she said. She rose to her feet. Mikado's eyes widened as his face felt hot. Lilith's light blue gown was see-through. He tried to look anywhere but at her. Lilith gave a little smirk.

"Aw, what's the matter?" she asked. Lilith drew closer. She towered over him. Her lips curved into a smirk.

"I just want you to kiss me," she said. She leaned in for a kiss. Mikado backed up.

"Anri is pregnant," he said.

"I know," Lilith said. The tadpole shook his head.

"I can't do this to her," he said. This did not faze her. His words were not clicking in her brain. No, she heard him loud and clear. She just didn't care. The Russian ghost closed the distance.

"Kiss me," she said in a whisper. Mikado stared at her. This was wrong. He shouldn't be doing this. He really shouldn't be doing this. He could just tell her to leave. Tell her to leave and forget this ever happened.

How did she have this much power over him? How many times have they done this? And they still can't stop? It only took one kiss. One kiss and he folded.

"I'm back," Masaomi said to himself as he walked into Michiko's apartment. The living room was as silent as a tomb. It had to be about the early hours of the morning. He wasn't supposed to be out alone but he wasn't… at first. He used Yatabe as a cover for another hook-up. This was starting to become a habit. Yatabe wasn't enjoying this at all. Still, the boy said nothing when he called him up. After all, it was just them two Yellow Scarves. They didn't have anyone else.

"Are you okay, boss?" Yatabe asked on their way to the random girl's apartment. Masaomi couldn't look him in the eye. They all kept asking him that question lately. The former shogun swore that he was okay, but nobody is buying that anymore.

Please… Don't look at me like that.

Masaomi took off his shoes in the dark. He paused when something caught his ear. Was that… moaning? The boy took a closer listen. Yes, those were moans. Those were the moans of an older woman. Masaomi was confused. Who invited whom over? The boy slowly got up and walked down the hall. It sounded like it was coming from Mikado's room. That wasn't Anri though.

Masaomi took a look through a crack in the door.

They were both naked. Lilith was on all-fours on the floor as Mikado slammed into her from behind. His right hand pulled on her long black hair. His left smacked her on the ass.

"Ah yes! Harder! Harder, Moi horoshiy!" she cried. Mikado said nothing as he kept pounding. He smacked her on the ass again. Masaomi couldn't believe what he was seeing. He thought he and Anri were so much in love. Why would he be cheating on her? And who was she? He could've sworn that he had seen her from somewhere before. Masaomi cocked his head to the side. He didn't know what to do. The boy just sat there frozen.

Lilith's moans made it hard to think. How was anyone else not hearing this?

Natsuko sat at the bar in Russia Sushi. Simon and Denis had grim looks on their faces. The journalist looked back and forth.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked. The men looked at each other.

"Where did you get that picture?" Denis asked.

"I got it in a box delivered to me this morning," Natsuko said. "Do you know anything about the Volk?" The men turned back to her. Lying wasn't going to work.

"I've heard the story of a priest who went mad in Russia," Denis said quietly. "They say that he got turned into a werewolf."

"A werewolf?" she asked as she reached for her bag. Simon reached for her hand. The journalist looked up at him. He shook his head. Damn it, did he know what she was trying to pull? Natsuko sheepishly took her hand out of the bag. Simon let go of her arm.

"Yes…" Denis said, his voice trailing off. His mind went back to his days in Russia. There was man that not even the toughest gangster would talk about. He thought that he died fifty years ago. Everything had been quiet over in Russia.

"Who sent you this package?" Denis asked.

"I don't know," Natsuko said. "There wasn't a return address." She took a sip of her tea.

"That photo wasn't all I got," she said. The journalist looked through her bag. She laid out more photos, a small pile of letters, and two thumb drives.

"There was more," Natsuko said. "But I didn't take it with me." Denis looked at the photo again. The journalist didn't like the tense atmosphere around her. She should've sensed that something was wrong when Simon grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into Russia Sushi. He and Denis spent five minutes arguing in Russian probably about her. She couldn't understand what they were saying. When they came out, they had grim looks on their faces.

"Why do you think someone sent you this?" Denis asked. Natsuko shrugged and shook her head.

"I don't know," she said.

"And no one else knows you have this?" he asked.

"No," Natsuko said.

"I see," Denis said. He pulled out a Zippo lighter and set the picture on fire.

"Hey!" Natsuko shouted.

"Forget about this case," he said. "It is not worth digging into. You are just asking for trouble."

"So you do know something!" Natsuko said.

"Don't come back here with this shit," Denis said. She was about to ask when Simon pulled her to her feet and walked her out of the restaurant.

"Oh come on!" Natsuko shouted. She turned and walked away in a huff. Still, she wasn't going to quit. That's just how she was.

Meanwhile in Russia, Drakon knew about the Vozrozhdeniye. Even his group wouldn't touch them. However, that didn't stop him from monitoring them. The Soviet Union didn't really go away. No, instead it went underground. Everyone in the Russian crime world knew about the Vozrozhdeniye. Nobody wanted to mess with them. They've been pretty active lately. Drakon didn't like it.

He turned when he heard someone walk up to his chair.

"Yeah?" he asked. A man in a thick coat stood nervously for a moment before lifting his chin.

"They have made their move in Japan," he said.

"So they have released her?" Drakon asked.

"Yes," the man said.

"I see," the mob leader said. He rose to his feet.

"Get the car ready," he said.

"Yes sir," the other man said. They both walked back to the house. Oh boy. Things are about to get more complicated.

Kitano pulled out his tape recorder.

"Now we are at war."