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Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

Anybody could see that Adrian had made some kind of attempt to be reassuring, saying things like, 'She wasn't bad!' and 'She was real nice to me.' But nothing the boy said from there on could mask what he had mentioned earlier.


Some woman had cut his legs off. How or when he got them back did not matter; Jackson could almost feel the steam coming out of his ears as he continued to think. Somewhere, at some point during those three months of agonising separation, somebody had blown a hole through the middle of a kid's life when he was already suffering. They cut his legs off. They took away his ability to move.


After that, Jackson sent Adrian up straight away for fear of losing control of his actions again. He made himself look away from the ghoul who was so nearly identical to him, and led the group into the living room as he mumbled something about organised chaos.


***


Callum held Tommy-Jones' hand on the way to the lounge. It was unlike anything either of them had ever seen. Sofas, tables, lights and a television... Tommy-Jones kept trying to break away to go and touch things and play with the little trinkets scattered around. He would not admit it, but Callum had come quite close to doing the same thing. But being stiff and stubborn as he was, he simply led his older brother down into a corner so that they could stand together by the end of one sofa and watch the scene unfold.


Jackson had turned around to rest his back against the wall. He faced a wide arc of ghouls old, young, scrawny and dirty. Even though his sense of smell was nowhere near as acute as theirs, the stench that these people brought with them was overpowering. He made a mental note to prioritise showering should any of them end up staying over.


"Did you see those stairs?" muttered somebody in the crowd. "There have to be at least three floors to this place."


"That other guy said he could feed us," somebody else pointed out, starting a little wave of murmurs about a potential meal.


"They have flesh?"


"I'm starved."


"He's human, isn't he? We could just take him."


The whispers grew louder with every passing second. Jackson could almost feel the words pressing against his sides, until one familiar voice spoke up above the rest in a shout.


"Hey!" Callum called out. He scowled into the crowd. "Are you gonna tell us what's actually going on or what? We don't even know who you are!"


"Yeah!" chanted several young adults.


"Yeah!" Tommy-Jones called, slightly later than everybody else. Callum pinched his brother's arm again but stared hungrily forwards, waiting for anybody at all to answer.
 
"I don't think he's for eating." A voice came from the hallway as Diana walked back into the room, "And seems we're gonna have to wait a minute, there's an argument going on in there." She sighed, leaning against a wall. The argument had been between, Dane and Daryl, with Bella getting involved at that moment. Dane had sent Caleb upstairs with Adrian, since the boy had been spooked and Jackson obviously didn't want Adrian around everyone else, but then Daryl had showed up and asked what the hell was going on and started shouting. Which was just him as a person, he was confused so he yelled. 


"Dane! Dane, I'm serious! Come the fuck back here!" 


"Shut up for two seconds Daryl." 


"Fuck you."
 


"You're still mentally a five year old, grow up. Bella can you please just calm him down or something?" 


"Calm me down? Don't be a fucking asshole Dane, you can't just do this shit without tell any of us, there's other people here y'know." 


"Yeah? Well Bella knew, you just weren't invited." 


"Son of a-" 


"Daryl." 


Suddenly the arguing stopped and there was the sound of footsteps coming towards the living room, seconds later Dane appeared, holding bags of something or other. He hadn't been given a break, and now he had to fight with Daryl about what was morally right, sometimes the guy was an asshole, but he'd get over this. He was just a little upset that he'd have to hunt again. 


"Everyone quiet for a second!" He didn't shout, but he raised his voice a little bit so that he could be heard, "I've got food for you all, but if you want an explanation I'm sure I can get you that as well." For a moment he looked to Jackson, then to the woman leaning against the wall, "Diana, mind handing this out?" 


"Yeah sure." She pushed herself away from the wall, taking one of the bags from Dane and starting to walk around. He would have gotten Jackson to do it, but he was human...so it would be less than pleasant. 


"My name's Dane." The man started, "And that man in the corner? That's Jackson, he devised this whole thing, why? I'm not quite sure, you want to...elaborate on that?" He looked towards Jackson, he was trying to explain, but he'd just been asked to join them, he didn't know much about Bella and Jackson's overall plan. They'd been involved the longest. 
 
"Callum, they're fighting again," the brown-eyed boy pointed out quite loudlyand with little thought. He had stared nervously back at the doorway through which the crowd had awkwardly shuffled in a tight shoal. People were reaching out to grab the little packages as Diana came around, tearing the bags open and burying their faces in the meat inside, tearing chunks of flesh off to chew like they had never eaten before in their lives.


Callum snatched both his package and his brother's straight out of Diana's hands. "Yeah, not anymore," he replied absent-mindedly as he grabbed Tommy-Jones' portion and handed it over. Tommy-Jones blinked down at the thing in his hands and did not appear to hear when Callum spoke again. "Anyway, quiet a moment, I wanna listen."


Dane had begun to speak up with an introduction, but there was another noise in the way. Tommy-Jones had finally realised what he had in his hands, and had begun to eat straight out of his palms. 


"Tom, shut up! You eat like a horse," Callum hissed. He jabbed his brother in the ribs with the point of his elbow, but Tommy-Jones did not look up. He was busily picking at his long-awaited meal. Eventually the younger male caved in. A long sigh passed through his lips and he began to pick pieces out of his own package to suck on and savour.


It was inevitable that the sight of so many ghouls feeding on what were once the bodies of living people made Jackson queasy. He tried to ignore the noises, making sure to also keep his eyes away from those blood-crusted lips. There were things to say.


"Uh... Yeah. Th-thanks, Dane," he said quickly. This had turned into more a political conference, or maybe even a lecture, than he had intended. At first it had been supposed to have been a quick explanation, after which he could send everyone on their ways. But these people had nowhere else to go.


"What's he saying?" Tommy-Jones mumbled through a mouthful of meat.


"I dunno yet," said Callum with another jab to his brother's side.


Jackson attempted to clear his throat again. "So basically, now everyone's here, I thought - maybe you might want to know some stuff, like what's going on. Basically what Dane said, I was in charge. Of this. I'll try to keep it short and stuff, but anyway, this is basically the story. We learned exactly what Zeplin were doing when they abducted Ad- someone close to me. Well, I mean - not exactly, we don't know precisely the stuff they do, but we got a good idea." He decided that it would perhaps be better to leave Caleb's name out of it. The boy could be thanked privately when this was over. "But - err - that's the thing. We didn't know everything. So we went to their warehouse a few times to find out, and then worked out where, uh, you were. All of you. And thought maybe..."


As he often did, Jackson trailed off, suddenly at a loss for words. Callum tapped his foot impatiently on the floor, and a couple of older, more cranky-looking ghouls called out prompts to continue. That only made the man's face turn a deeper shade of red.


"Maybe..." He continued first by repeating what had already been said, but finally managed to force something out, which he hoped would make sense. "We could get you out. Kind of like payback, but not - I mean, nobody deserves that, right? There wasn't really a reason, we just did it and it happened, and... Well, now we're here."


He threw his arms up and rolled his shoulders back in a shrug, prompting a few skeptical glances from person to person within the crowd.


"So what happens now?" called out a child above the whisperings around them.


Jackson paused to think for a moment. "Well... I'm not sure. Y-you can go. I think, if you have somewhere." A few shufflings of the feet from a number of the youngest and oldest escapees told him that perhaps some of these people really did not have anywhere to go, not even a street or shelter or any familiar alley. Maybe they were alone. "Or... If you don't - uh, I dunno. Dane, is there space to take some more people for a while? Any free rooms?"
 
Soon enough Diana had finished handing out the meat and had resumed her position against the wall, next to the door. She had her own little package in her hands and had quickly opened that, placing pieces of flesh into her mouth as she listened to Dane start to speak. She had the same look on her face as always, laid back and calm, watching with keen, light brown eyes. Her attention followed the speakers voice, so the moment Jackson started his mini speech she was looking at him. 


Holding people up in the house might be a good idea if they had nowhere to go, and the place looked big enough, they probably had enough rooms if people doubled and tripled up, though if they were wary Diana would not blame them. These were a bunch of strangers, strangers they knew nothing about. 


"Ah..." When asked the question Dane put a hand to the back of his neck, scratching it. They had the room, but Daryl would kill him... Keeping this many people in their house was a recipe for disaster, but he couldn't let them go out there and live on the streets. Still, he didn't want a bunch of freeloaders. Plus...they had their own family to think about... If people were going to stay here then he needed to lay down rules there and then. With a sigh, the man dropped his arm and nodded. "Yeah, we have room, people will have to double up and stuff, but we have room." 


For a few moments he stayed quiet, thinking of what to say next. "Okay. Look, if you're staying here then rules need to be set now. We're not having freeloaders, we have our own families to support y'know and we work our asses off for them, so we can't have people being lazy and moping about in this house. Everyone pulls their weight or gets out, how you pull your weight we'll decide. Jobs, housework, whatever else, we'll work it out at a later time. There's other people living in this house who won't be used to this, so I expect everyone to at least try to get along and play nice with everyone else, I have a family to think about and their well being means a lot to me. There's a lot everyone is going to have to get used to, but I'm sure we can all get along fine." 


He didnt know what else to talk about, but he knew he just had to make sure that these people knew where everyone stood. "You can mostly go anywhere you like, as long as you're not disturbing anyone else, there's not really any taped off rooms... Uh... I guess I'll sort out sleeping and room arrangements and we can get everyone who's staying up there. I hope that's good." He knew that having so many people in the house may cause problems, but they had no choice, they'd let these people go and now they needed help. Daryl and Bella had helped him, Caleb, and Kedin in the same way a few years back, it was only right of him to do the same for others. But they'd had rules, and there were rules now.


Just as he thought he was done, he remembered something, someone who he'd completely forgotten would be severely affected by all of this. "Actually, there's one room you guys need to stay clear of, and I mean it." His voice had a harder edge to it than before as he spoke, "When you go up the stairs, there's a bedroom to your right. Don't go in there. No one is allowed in there for any reason unless the owner of that bedroom allows it okay? There's people in this house who aren't used to so many people, and well especially from-" He sighed, they didn't need an explanation on this one, he just didn't want Caleb to freak out because people started to invade his personal space. He was bad enough with everyone who was normally in the house in one room, there was no way he was going to be able to stand all of these people...and on top of that the guilt he'd feel after knowing they were all from Zeplin... It'd be too much for him. "Just don't go in the room." He finished, crossing his arms, "Jackson, anything else?" 
 
Every single word that came out of Dane's mouth made Tommy-Jones' eyebrows dip a little lower down his face. The boy was squinting through slits by the end of it. He looked down to Callum for help, but his younger brother was not having much better luck, at least from his perspective. Callum was scowling again, standing with arms crossed and one bare foot tapping rapidly at the floor like this meeting was not going anywhere close to quickly enough.


"...C-Callum?" Tommy-Jones said slowly, his tongue catching slightly like he wasn't sure as to whether or not he was supposed to be talking again.


As expected, Callum tutted and sighed, "What now?"


The taller brother rubbed his twiggy hands together, folding his fingers into his other palm. His face straightened out, but his big brown eyes turned to the ground. "That room, the man said-"


Tommy-Jones never got to finish whatever he had been about to say, because Jackson had apparently just realised that it was once again his turn to address the group. He jerked in his place like somebody had grabbed him from behind. His head shot up to make eye contact with Dane, and then quickly turned around in an arc to look at the ghouls, who were all looking expectantly towards them.


Chewing on his lip again, Jackson rubbed at the nape of his neck. "Oh. Uh, maybe, I don't know. Is there anything else? We've g-got stuff so far: rooms, no freeloaders, uh... Housework. And don't go in that room." It was not exactly impossible to guess who Dane had been talking about. Caleb stuck to that man's feet like a shadow whenever he got nervous, so much to the point that they were essentially inseparable. But it wasn't just Caleb that Jackson had concerns about; somebody else living in this house could cause trouble. "And there is something else, actually. Uh, another room. Look - I don't know where it is exactly, but-"


"There's not going to be space for us without both!" someone shouted out, cutting the man off mid-sentence. Other people joined in too, "I'm not sharing with a guy." "Those room owners should just suck it up!"


Jackson stiffened and cast a quick glance back at Dane. Two bedrooms out of bounds were a lot when all these newcomers were considered, but there was no way he could let anyone room with their owners. So eventually he silenced the hecklers with a sharp, "Shut up!"


The room fell quiet again. Tommy-Jones jumped and whimpered, but bit his tongue when he received another one of Callum's pinches.


"L-look, I know it's not ideal," the man tried again, holding his palms out towards the line of ghouls like he was holding up an invisible barrier around himself, "But - but listen, I'm serious. We're making do with thatever we have, and it's not like we have a bigger house anywhere nearby for everyone to sleep in. So - y'know, this is how it is. Nobody goes in the room where Adrian sleeps - uh, that would be the short kid with the black hair, you should be able to recognise him pretty easily."


Several pairs of eyes turned to face Callum, but the boy turned his head away and went pink. "It's not me," he said quietly.


The boy's brother joined in. "It's not him," he repeated, and the others made themselves look away. Attention soon turned back to Jackson, who was frowning at something far away, his mouth opening and closing noiselessly as he worked out his next course of action.


"Well," he said finally, causing some stirring in the crowd. "If - if anyone's got a problem, then they can feel free to f- to leave now. No?"


Nobody moved.


Jackson nodded to himself, then seemed to realise that his hands were up. He snapped them back down to his sides, turned in a half-circle and then gave Dane a sidelong glance. "S-so, uh, Dane can probably sort out everyone's rooms and who's rooming with who. You're going to have to share with a few people, probably, and... Uh, yeah. If anyone's got m-mobility problems, or there's no room upstairs, there's probably - I think - space in my room for one or two more, but apart from that... Dane?"


Twenty faces turned from one man to the other. They knew both males' names well by now, after hearing the speech passed from person to person. A few people were nodding in agreement. Most of them were just staring with blank faces - except for Callum, who was still scowling, but this time with a pink face and towards his feet.
 
Complaints were expected, especially after Jackson added another room that everyone was to avoid going into though Dane understood why...he just wanted to protect Adrian, but neither of them were going to budge for a bunch of stranger. In fact, it annoyed him that they expected them to just make people who would either be very uncomfortable with them being around or just generally shouldn't be around them to room with them. They were doing everyone there a favour, so they should be the ones to suck it up and accept it, if they didn't like it then they could leave. 


If Jackson hadn't told everyone to shut up, Dane most likely would have. They didn't understand the situation, he was letting them come into their home, he fed them, they were housing them, if they wanted to be ungrateful then they could get out, because no way was he going to make the people he considered family uncomfortable because random people they'd helped out were being moody. No way. If they couldn't respect that rule, then they could leave right that instant. 


Once Jackson had finished speaking about how they weren't to go into Adrian's room and about sharing and so on Dane simply nodded, crossing his arms once more. 



"I'll get Bella and we'll make sure everyone is sorted by tonight. I'll take a few people at a time, until them, feel free to do whatever, but stay on the ground floor please, just so I can keep track." 


---


Once Dane had left and come back with his female companion it had taken awhile to get everyone into their rooms. First of all they'd decided to move Adrian to the second floor, in the room across from Caleb, just to keep an eye on him, then they'd had to inform everyone they had guests and ask who was okay sharing with who. Bella had decided to take Rachael and Kedin into her room instead of them having to stay with random people, and since they had two more rooms free they could have more people on that floor. Dane had moved into a room with Daryl, deciding it would be best to have those two arguing rather than Daryl possibly getting mad at a bunch of other people that were already spooked. Nathan had agreed to share his room with some of the other kids, in fact he was surprisingly excited about it. 


After that everyone had been allocated a room, most of the children were with Nathan, some of them were in a separate room if they had family or people they trusted in there. Once all of the rooms on the second floor had been filled, Dane moved onto putting people on the third floor, there were less rooms, but they were bigger. Converting them all into bedrooms wasn't hard, and after everyone had finally been allocated a room they got onto cleaning up and giving everyone fresh clothes. Some shopping would definitely have to be done. 


---


"No." Dane shook his head, leaning it on his hands as he spoke to Bella, "He hasn't come out since everyone arrived..." They'd been discussing the topic of Caleb, after everything went down he was lucky to see the boy at all. He hadn't meant to make Caleb so afraid, or upset he didn't know which one, but it had happened. 


"Do you think he's still mad at you?" Bella drank a cup of coffee, sitting in a chair at the table, she didn't know what to think about all the recent...changes...but she guessed that it hadn't been so bad, it was just going to take awhile to get used to. Still, she did wish they'd informed the others before bringing so many people back, everyone had been shocked. 


"Hell yeah I think he's still mad at me." He muttered, shaking his head, "He hasn't talked to me in days, he isn't coming out of his room, he won't let me in there. Of course he's mad. But he's going to come and tell me he's mad, so we'll just have to wait it out." It was annoying sometimes when Caleb took the passive aggressive route instead of straight up telling Dane that he was angry at him. Instead he'd give the man the silent treatment, ignore him, avoid him, and just all around keep his involvement with him to a minimum. Of course, that could also be to do with how afraid he possibly was of the situation. There were a hell lot of people. 


"I can try talking to him..."


"Don't bother. He's not going to come out. We'll just have to wait." 


"Mmn..." 


During the silence that followed, the two heard thumping from upstairs, like the sound of a door opening and closing over and over. What was someone doing?



"What the hell..." Dane pushed himself off of the desk, moving to the doorway of the kitchen, "Who's doing that?"


"It has to be one of the kids." Bella had put her mug down and also made her way to the door. 



"Well, whoever it is, they need to shut up. C'mon." 
 
There had been many changes over the last few months worthy of the term 'monumentous', but it quickly became apparent that out of everything so far this was going to take the most time to get used to. It was only to be expected that not everybody already living in the house would be pleased about their new guests; Caleb seemed to have disappeared into safety either out of fear or resentment, which was causing problems for Dane. Adrian had been handling things... Well, not necessarily horrendously, but better than had been expected at least. Some of the guests had shown to be quite moody as well. For example, there was one mother who had refused to let her six year-old son sleep anywhere but the corner of Jackson's room, the least threatening place of all. It was understandable, Jackson could not deny - in a house full of ghouls from God-knows-where, the safest room for a child was the one housing only an immobilised human. He would have been fine with it too, had he not woken up one morning to one of Nathan's toys being jabbed into his eyelid whilst a small boy screeched, 'wake up, wake up!' in his ear.


Those occurrences had become something of a routine since then. Every day at the crack of dawn Jackson was woken up by a little round face and chattering voice asking questions upon questions, but at this precise moment in time, he was free. The child's mother had taken her son out on an errand run for her keep, so he had the room to himself again. Apart from a guest knocking to ask him something or pass on news every few minutes, he could finally wallow in the darkness like he had longed to do for what felt like years.


He had begun to nod when he was roused suddenly by the sound of knocking. No, wait, he thought after his mind seemed to surface from his doze. That's not knocking.


Bang, bang, went the noise. It sounded like it was coming from upstairs, so Jackson pounded his door open and wheeled down the hallway. He almost went straight for the staircase, but skidded to a halt by the kitchen when he caught sight of two of the most familiar faces looming ready.


Bella, and Dane too. They must have heard the noises coming from upstairs. Maybe, being ghouls, they would be able to tell exactly what all the sounds were for. "H-hey, guys," he said quickly, his face reddening as a grey-haired woman skirted around him to get to the downstairs bathroom. Jackson had to swerve so that she would not trip over him, and since he was already moving, he kept going until he was facing up the first flight of stairs. He cast a glance back at the others and shrugged, then called up, "Hey! Wh-who's making noise up there?!"
 
"Mmn!" There was what sounded like a high pitched whine from the top of the stairs, "Caleb! Come out!" The voice that could be heard was loud and child-like, unmistakably Adrian, although what he was doing wasn't exactly obvious from the position of everyone downstairs. Anyone upstairs would be able to see him clearly standing by a door on the landing, pushing at it as someone else barged into the other side to keep it shut. 


"S-Stop it!" Another voice could be heard through the constant slamming, except it was a lot less sturdy that the other male's. Caleb's voice cracked and broke as he spoke, by the sounds of things he was very distressed, "Stop! STOP!" He couldn't get a single word out without his voice changing pitch for at least a second, Adrian just wouldn't leave him alone...and that was upsetting him. The boy had tried to come into the room originally and Caleb had been at the door in seconds and booted him out, but then he wouldn't stop trying to come in... 


"G-" Suddenly there was a rather loud slam, the sound of footsteps, and Adrian's form flew out onto the landing, falling to the floor just next to the stairs. He blinked of a few seconds, then shook his head, his grey eyes moved from the ground to look at someone who wasn't quite in view from the thin stairs. He'd been thrown off balance after Caleb had unexpectedly pulled the door open, flinging it against the wall, and had pushed Adrian. It wasn't hard enough for it to hurt or anything, it was more of just a warning for him to leave, and Adrian didn't seem bothered by it, he was back up in seconds, standing in place at the top of the stairs. "Hi Jackson!" 


Upon hearing Caleb's voice Dane had suddenly ran past Jackson and ascended the stairs, getting to the top just after Adrian was thrown to the ground, he looked to the individual on the floor and then to the male standing in the doorway to his right. Of course Caleb hated attention, and this was drawing a lot of it, so as he caught Dane's eyes he tried to quickly shut his door again, but the other got to the door and jammed it in between. It didn't take Dane long to realise that Adrian had been doing something or other that had caused Caleb to become distressed, it was disconcerting how quickly Caleb had attempted to shut that door on Dane of all people. 


"Caleb..."


"N-No." 


"Caleb you're-"


"I-I said no!" Although Caleb tried to sound at least a little threatening or angry, he just couldn't do it, he didn't even seem able to raise his voice to a level that would cause people to become concerned. His voice just kept cracking and breaking like he was terrified or upset. "Move...- M-Move y-...your foot..." 


"Caleb you're upset, I don't want you to-"


"Just mo-ove i-it!" 


"Okay, alright. Fine." Listening to Caleb made Dane realise how stressed he was, someone had just tried to enter the only space he had left to himself, and now Dane was getting in his way...it probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. So he moved his foot and immediately the door was slammed violently in his face. "Shit." 
 
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Jackson could not quite remember what he was expecting or even hoping to see emerge at the top of those stairs, but when Adrian appeared at the top of the stairs it became clear that the weird look on that kid's face was exactly what he had not wanted to find.


The man should not have been surprised when Dane darted up the stairs in pursuit of Caleb's voice. He had to push himself backwards, far out of the way so that he would not be knocked over. Then as soon as his back had pressed against the front door, he was swept to the side again by somebody coming into the house from the outdoors. The person was about average height for a grown man, but he was skinny, with shaggy black hair and round brown eyes. He was hanging two enormous shopping bags from his stick-like fingers, swinging them like pendulums so that the contents rattled and chimed from the movement. Not only that, but he did not seem to notice that he had almost pushed Jackson out of his chair. Instead, Tommy-Jones' eyes were fixed on the boy at the top of the stairs.


"Callum?" he called quite loudly, his jaw dropping open as he struggled to make sense of the sight atop the stairs. Of course to Tommy-Jones Adrian must have looked exactly like his younger brother. They were almost identical, but for a few minor details in the face. But Tommy-Jones did not appear to realise that the person who had been thrown down on the landing was not the child he was looking for.


Jackson's chest tightened. He saw as the ghoul next to him dropped the shopping bags on the spot with a loud crash. He saw when he began to move towards the stairs, and immediately regretted not holding the boy back as soon as he had walked in. Caleb was up there on the other side of that door. If Tommy-Jones went to find Adrian, believing him to be Callum, it wasn't going to make things any better. No, quite the opposite.


Jackson made a move to grab at the bottom of the boy's shirt, but it was too late. The ghoul powered up the stairs with heavy, clumsy steps that seemed to thunder through the whole building, but he misjudged the last step and stumbled to his knees at Adrian's feet.


Oh no, thought Jackson as he whipped his head up to look at Dane. This wasn't good. Caleb was feeling terrible enough as he was, and if even Dane could do nothing to help then it must have been incredibly painful. He felt awful for the kid. It wasn't like he had asked for any of this, and now every face he saw had to remind him of how much he hated himself. "Tom!" Jackson yelled out at the brown-eyed ghoul. Tommy-Jones paused and glanced down, but then turned back to Adrian and placed a hand on his wrist.


"I went shopping, Callum," Tommy-Jones explained to Adrian with a big grin. He held up his arm like there were still shopping bags dangling from his fingers. "Like the man said. I got things from the shop like he said, and I got it all here."
 
"Caleb... What're you doing?" Dane knew that Caleb didn't have a lock on his door, and for good reason, which was why they'd had to tell everyone to stay out. He wasn't allowed a lock on his door. Though now Dane could hear the younger male pushing something around, it sounded heavy, but he didn't seem to be having too much trouble with it. "Caleb. Don't put something in front of the door." Although he waited there was no answer, that's how he knew that Caleb was doing the exact thing he'd told him not to, "Your stuff is going to get ruined if someone tries to push it open. Caleb." He knocked his hand against the door once, but didn't put much effort into it. "Caleb..." With a sigh, Dane turned back around and hit the wall, he couldn't say he wasn't annoyed. This whole situation was dumb, and he didn't trust Caleb being in there with something against the door when he was clearly distressed. 


"Uh." Upon hearing another voice, Adrian turned his head, but before he could do anything someone had fallen at his feet and grabbed his hand. He cocked his head to the side, confused. Tom? That was the guy's name, he knew that much, but why was he doing that? It wasn't until the boy started to call Adrian Callum that he started to understand how confused he was. 


Sure, the two individuals looked the same, but their way of speaking and general demeanour were vastly different. Adrian was a lot more peppy and excitable, he hadn't seen that so much from Callum, it definitely wasn't his personality...but...if Tom was really convinced that he was his brother... 


The boy grinned, before looking down to Tom again and smiling as normally as he could manage, trying to copy Callum's reaction. "That's good. You should probably go and get them from downstairs though. You dropped them." Yes, he wasn't great at it, he was only trying to play after all, and who could really copy that guy when he was so cynical. "Hey. If you're down there, maybe you should go put them away. Or give them to someone, y'know?" This was annoying, how did Callum act to serious and...normal all of the time? He didn't seem like much fun, but his brother was interesting. 


However, Adrian's attention was dragged away for a moment by the loud smashing noise that came from Caleb's room, it sounded like glass shattering or something. "What was that?"


Dane's attention was taken again, and his voice was raised as he spoke. 


"Caleb what the hell? What the fuck are you doing?" He didn't like this, not one bit, and it was starting to seriously worry him. "Just sit down Caleb, sit in the middle of the room, take a deep breath and sit down." 
 
The deception was weak, but it did not take much trickery to fool young Tommy-Jones. Adrian had said nothing questioning or made any objections; it looked as though he had simply played along, and now the younger of the two truly believed that the boy he was speaking to was his brother.


Tommy-Jones nodded earnestly and stared between Adrian and his empty hands. His face scrunched up as he tried to remember what he had done with the shopping, but he did not need to for long. Jackson had caught on to the game and found the opportunity when it arose. "Tom, here!" he called, pointing down towards the bags on the floor where they had been dropped. Hopefully there was nothing too expensive in them, because if there had been then that fall had cost it its value.


The reaction was instant. There was a great scuffling noise at the top of the stairs, and Tommy-Jones craned around to stare first at Jackson's hand and then the shopping bags. He turned back to Adrian. "Yes!" he said keenly. "I will give the shopping to..." Once more his face contorted in deep thought. Eyes drifted down to the bespectacled man staring up from the ground floor, and suddenly Tommy-Jones was tottering down the stairs again. He bent down, swept the shopping up in his arms and then proceeded to dump them down on Jackson's lap.


"Err... Th-thanks," Jackson made himself say, although he winced at the sight of it. The boy beamed at him and clapped his hands together, but his triumph went mostly unnoticed; those bags looked like they had been filled with bricks, they were so bulging and heavy-looking. Still, though, the man gathered them up in his arms and nodded. Good. Tommy-Jones was out of the way, and now they could deal with Caleb. Speaking of whom...


Crash!


Jackson backed up against the wall and craned his neck to see up, but the angle was too high for him to make out much more than Adrian and a sliver of Dane's heel. "Caleb!" he yelled up. "Caleb, d- Dane, what's he doing, what - what was that n-noise?!"


"What's going on?" Callum, the real Callum, emerged from the living room with a puzzled scowl on his face. It took him barely a second to half-scuttle, half-storm through the hall and check the stairs. Tommy-Jones stared at his brother like he had just witnessed somebody being transformed into a frog.


The grey-eyed boy stared back at Tommy-Jones. "What are you looking at? What's going on up there?"


Tommy-Jones looked to Jackson for help, but the man's eyes were glued to the top of the stairs, so he simply pushed the tips of his fingers together and said very slowly, "I... Went shopping."


"Yeah, good, well done. But what the hell's that noise?"


"The other Callum is upstairs."


"What?"


"The other Callum is-"


Callum pushed past Tommy-Jones and rocketed up the stairs. He grabbed at the collar of Adrian's shirt as soon as he saw the boy, but it was only after a moment that he seemed to realise something else was going on. The forbidden bedroom. Someone in that room that they were not allowed to look in was doing something, and it was making that Dane guy all pissed off, judging by the language.


"Hey Dane, what's wrong with the loony?" he piped, Adrian's shirt still curled in his hand.
 
Adrian had been staring at Caleb's door when he heard someone else ascending the stairs, he found it funny that Tom believed him so easily, but he guessed to everyone else the two boys looked very similar. Still, to anyone, but Tom apparently, it should be obvious who was who. They didn't carry themselves in the same way at all. The real Callum was at the top of the stairs in an instant, his hand wrapped around the collar of Adrian's shirt, which honestly didn't do much but give the other a handful of material since the shirt was wall too large for the male he was standing opposite. Still, Adrian didn't attempt to move him, he looks so...mad... Why was he so moody?


"Oh, hello." His greeting to Callum was innocent and clueless, like he didn't have any idea why the younger male was so pissed off at him. He really didn't realise what was wrong, he'd only been playing with Tom, was it that big of a deal? Was he really in trouble because of that? Still, the simple thought of Callum trying to attack him made Adrian excited, he hadn't gotten to fight someone in awhile...but...then again, if he hurt Callum would Jackson be mad with him? He didn't want that... 


At the thought Adrian sunk back into his shirt, moving backwards a little as Callum's attention was taking off of him... He wanted to tease him...but he didn't want Jackson to get mad. He hadn't gotten mad so far, so maybe it was okay, maybe as long as no one got hurt physically then he was okay... That had to be how it was! 


"Shut up." Dane's gaze didn't turn to Callum, but his voice was sharp, "He's not a loony. He's just having a hard time." That wasn't helping anything, Caleb could probably hear them for a start, plus Callum didn't get why he was like this... Calling him a loony was just going to make things worse. He gritted his teeth and took a step away from the door to look down at Jackson, "I don't know. I think something broke!" He called, moving back over to the door. Pushing on it wasn't doing much, whatever was in front of the door was heavy, so unless he wanted to possibly break that and spill everything everywhere, stressing Caleb out more, he shouldn't push. Which meant he had to talk. 
 


"Caleb..." At first his voice started off slightly hard, but he tried to soften it in an attempt to keep Caleb calm, "It's okay. Everything's okay, you're fine. If you don't want anyone in the room then no one's going to come in, okay? I promise. I promise you I'm not going to try and force my way in. If you want to be alone that's okay." Reassuring Caleb was the only way to calm the situation down a little bit, he needed to know that he was safe and that no one was going to try and come in if he didn't want them to. "I just, I want to make sure you're okay, that's all, and you're kind of blocking the door so..." He sighed and leaned his back against the door, sure, all he wanted to do was kick it in and see if Caleb really was alright...but that wasn't going to do anyone any good in the long run. For a few moments he stayed quiet. "Can you at least talk to me? I'm sorry, I didn't want to go behind your back, but it's not like we could just tell you and have you be alright with it." 


No answer. Caleb didn't reply at all to anything that Dane said, which only cause the man to become more anxious. 


"Caleb..." 


"I-I..." The start of a sentence was uttered from inside of the room, it was quiet, almost silent compared to the voices of most of the others in the household, "I...t-told him..." 


"I know." Dane didn't know what to say to that, it was obvious what Caleb was referring to, but he didn't know how to reassure him with just that information. 


"Sh-She'll...c-...come back...-" 


"She's not going to hurt you." 


"You-... You d-don't...know that..." 


"She's not going to hurt you. I promise. They don't even know, they can't know." 


"Th-They'll f-figure it...o-out..."


"They won't hurt you Caleb. I won't let them. I promise."
 
Either nobody knew the answer or nobody wanted to tell him, but when Jackson contemplated out loud how close Caleb had come to doing something drastic that day, he got no answers worth their own time. Perhaps that was for the best in the end. Those noises had been shaking for everyone in the house, par Adrian, by the looks of things. That boy had apparently been the cause of all this.


When everything had finally calmed down, Jackson made sure to sit Adrian down in a quiet room and give him a few stern words. 'You can't bother him like that, do you understand?' he had said slowly and loudly as he looked into his friend's eyes. 'It's not safe. Not for him, not for anyone. Try and keep your distance.' Then the talk was over, and they made their separate ways again, kept apart only by trust and hope that the other would not forget his instruction.


After that, the changes continued to progress through the days. Callum became more irritable whenever he was in the same room as Adrian, and Tommy-Jones had once made a big scene on the middle of the staircase when he was overwhelmed by the sight of two copies of his brother in one place. The majority of the visiting ghouls seemed to finally settle into their new routine, with shoppers going out to run errands and all the children briefly swarming one room at a time to run about with broomsticks, cloths and bottles of polish. Apart from the times when people came to him to ask questions like he was their leader, the freedom of no housework gave Jackson a lot of time to think and a lot of time to talk.


"They hunted us 'cause of thief'ry," Callum said reluctantly. Jackson had sat the boy and his older brother in the kitchen for conversation after a spontaneous decision to ask all of the newcomers everything they knew about Zeplin.


Jackson nodded. "Thievery," he corrected, but paused when the boy turned his head away, too stubborn to face criticism. It was unhelpful; whatever knowledge this child could provide, he needed to spit it out. So far all that he knew about the prisoners was that they were pets and livestock, so to hear of a thief being convicted for their crimes... Well, it was intriguing, to say the least. Jackson decided to try and press Callum again by continuing, "A-anyway, same thing. Doesn't matter. Come on, what happened?"


The boy stiffened, like he was getting ready to turn his entire body around to face away but was having second thoughts. Tommy-Jones straightened as though someone had dropped ice down the back of his shirt. "Wh-... What happened?" he echoed back, glancing nervously at Callum.


"Alright, alright!" Callum tutted and leaned forwards again. "I heard it the first time, Jesus... It's like I told you already, we were around and they found us after we-"


Knock-knock-knock.


Callum was cut off by a very clear, ringing rap at the door. Within a second Tommy-Jones had flown out of his seat and raced to the front of the house. He had just put a finger on the handle ready to open it when his younger brother smacked his paw out of the way.


"Who is it?" Jackson called out. The man backed away from the table and peered out through to the hall. Odd. None of the guests bothered knocking anymore, they came in and out so many times during the day that more often than not nobody bothered locking up until dusk anymore.


Something about the way Callum didn't respond was unsettling. He had to stand on the balls of his feet to see through the peep-hole, and for a while he did nothing but stay frozen, one eye squeezed shut as he drank in the picture of whoever was outside.


"Well?"


"It..." Callum pulled away, exchanged a nervous look with Tommy-Jones, then went back to stare out again. "I dunno. She's dressed like a dove."


Jackson felt as though his heart had stopped. "Hold on," he hissed. "Okay, d-don't answer it yet. What does - what's she look like?"


Another moment passed so that Callum could look again. "Uh, I dunno. Black, short hair, weird-kinda hipster glasses."


"Does - d-does she have t-tattoos on her - her arms?"


The boy's grey eyes widened to circles. "Yeah, how'd you-"


Before he even knew what he was doing, Jackson had raced out of the doorway. He sped through the hall just as the person at the door knocked again, grabbed hold of a wrist from each of the brothers and jerked them to the side. Tommy-Jones whinnied in surprise, but there was no time to think about how rough the act had been. He just needed to get these two out of sight. "Both of you, my room," he barked as Callum stumbled.


"But-"


"Now!"


Jackson followed them both into his little bedroom, which had barely enough space for them all now that another family's belongings were clustered at one edge. But once they were in, the door slammed shut and they were were all drowned in darkness away from the CCG's eyes.


For a moment he thought they were safe.


But then Jackson had another thought. "Shit," he said out loud. "Where's Adrian?"
 
Adrian hadn't expected to get told off that one time he'd apparently upset Caleb, it wasn't something he'd meant to do, but his actions had caused the older male to panic and go into quite the state. Jackson hadn't been happy with him, the tone the man had used when talking to him had clearly displayed that, and Dane hadn't been happy with either...he'd yelled at Adrian after everything had calmed down. Which wasn't very nice since he didn't really like loud noises, especially not when the person creating them was right up in his face, but...he didn't realise that he'd upset Caleb enough to make two people mad at him. 


Still, he'd tried not to let it bring him down, Jackson was upset with him, but at least he didn't want to hurt him or anything...that meant he'd only done something slightly wrong. He could fix that. 


Dane had managed to get into Caleb's room and talk to him, but no one really knew what happened after that. Caleb didn't come out and Dane said nothing about it, it was his private information, why should he? Still, Adrian did want to go and see Caleb again...but he knew that everyone would be angry with him if he did, plus it didn't seem like Caleb like him at the moment. Maybe he'd like him when he felt better.


Instead of having him cause mischief, Bella, Dane, Rachael, and Daryl had all agreed to take turns in watching Adrian when Jackson couldn't. He was pretty attached to the man, but keeping him busy gave Jackson some free time to sort other things out and talk to everyone. With everyone else out at that moment, Daryl had been left to deal with Adrian, but he wasn't being much of a pain for the man at that moment, he was just silently sitting on the bed, watching the television and occasionally looking over to Daryl, who was on the computer. 


Neither male would have been disturbed much if it wasn't for the loud thumping at the door. Originally Daryl didn't plan on answering it, leaving that to someone else, there were enough people, but then he remembered that anyone else who could possibly be responsible for these people was busy or out... That was a pain. 


With a sigh, he got up and made his way to the bedroom door, taking a glance back at Adrian, who was suddenly very concerned with why Daryl was leaving him, before he stepped out of the room. It didn't take long for him to get across the landing and down the stairs, heading towards the door. No one else had tried to answer, which was definitely an issue, but...maybe that was for good reason. 


Instead of being stupid and straight up opening the door, the man looked through the peep hole to check who it was. Wait...what? He didn't really recognise the face, as he saw a lot of those people's faces, but he recognised the clothing... What were they doing here? There wasn't a possibility they'd somehow found out right? Because...he really didn't feel like fending off an army of doves at that time of day. 


"Well this is just a pain in the ass..." He muttered to himself, grabbing the handle and turning it, he had no choice but to open...they'd just get on his nerves until someone did. So why not him? At least he could handle the situation. Daryl pulled on the door, immediately locking his slightly annoyed, green eyes with the lady in front of him. "Yeah?" He raised an eyebrow, looking at her as if she'd just interrupted something, "Can I help you?" 


Adrian had followed Daryl down after slipping on a jumper over a shirt that might as well have been a dress on him, although he didn't go the full way down, and was now leaning over the banister of the stairs, attempting to see the person at the door and watch the interraction. What was going on? He was interested? Black hair hung down over his face slightly as he moved his neck, and he had to shake his head to stop it obscuring his vision. They never got visitors, so who was visiting? 
 
It was difficult to sit in the darkness with only their ears to tell them the story. Jackson understood that, he ached to open that door himself, but when Tommy-Jones went to go outside he pulled the boy's hand back. "Don't," he warned almost silently, and Callum seemed to understand. He held his brother back and the two slumped down on the mattress together, falling away from the man in front of them.


The woman at the door had a tired face, with dark circles hanging heavily beneath her eyes like she had not slept in days. She wore the signature trench coat of a ghoul investigator, with rings of black leather wrapped around the cuffs of her sleeves. In her hands was rested a wad of paper, the white colour smudged with dusty fingerprints at the top.


By the time Daryl had come to open the door, she had already turned away, but the sound of a handle creaking within made her freeze. She whipped around again instantly and plastered a smile on her face, but her eyes jittered as she did so like it was the hardest thing she had ever done.


"Oh! Hello, sir," she said cheerfully in a rather synthetic voice that did not match her demeanour in the slightest. A practiced hand slid out from beneath the paper and went into the neck of her coat. A second later she produced an open wallet with a card on display. The name read, in block capitals, 'I-R-E-N-E G-A-R-C-I-A'. "I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm with the CCG."


Jackson swore inside his mind. Somebody had answered the door. If this person really was who he thought it was, then... Well, they were probably in trouble. There was a chance that it would be fine, but only a chance. Something was going to happen, and he wanted to hear it.


The woman carried on, "We were just wondering if you've seen these two men." The wallet and identification card went back into her coat, and she swiped a clean sheet of paper out from the middle of the pile between her index finger and thumb. When she turned the sheet around, it became clear what it was: a little flyer depicting mugshots and full-body photos of two investigators. One of them was short and wiry, with dark hair and large eyes which were as grey in real life as they were in the colourless print-out. The other man was sat in a wheelchair. He had a clear face somewhere between hard and round, circular spectacles rested halfway down his nose, and long, fair hair. The names, 'Adrian Sanister' and 'Jackson Lambert' were written beneath the images.


"They're missing investigators. A few people in the area say they've seen them around here lately. You wouldn't..." There was a slight pause. Irene's eyes flitted down to her feet and back up again, and her head cocked to the side ever so slightly. "I'm sorry, sir. Is anybody else inside? Would you perhaps mind if I came in to ask you a thing or two? Oh, it shouldn't take long."
 
Now Daryl had dealt with CCG in the streets before, but none had ever come to his door like this, he couldn't say that it didn't worry him a little bit, the had a household full of ghouls...one dove finding out could cause them to all have to move out. If she someone worked out their secret...he'd have to kill her and dump the body, but he'd have to think more about it than that. If neighbours saw her walk in...and never come out...well they'd have an entire unit on their asses in no time. That and the cops... Which would be horrendous. 


'Irene Garcia' was the woman's name, it wasn't hard to tell she was with the CCG , it didn't really need to be stated, but he didn't complain or show any emotion apart from discontent. He thought that he would be able to get through this meeting without any problems, that they'd be able to go their separate ways without any issue, but then she had to go and pull out mugshots of two of the people in their household didn't she? It didn't surprise him in the slightest, considering he'd already known the two were former CCG, but it did worry him...especially since he was aware of someone's presence on the stairs... Wherever Jackson was...he hoped he stayed hidden. 


She was talking, and then she wasn't talking, it didn't make sense. She just stopped and looked down, then asked to come inside and ask some things... Had she seem Adrian? On the inside Daryl was panicking slightly, but he knew he had to keep a straight face, and so he did. 


"Uh. Well, yeah there's other people here. Why?" He asked, if he put up a fight it was only going to make him seem more suspicious, "I mean if you really need to? But can you make it quick? I'm kinda busy." His voice was completely flat as he spoke, he didn't want to invite her inside, he didn't want to possibly get others in trouble, but at the same time he didn't want a whole squad on his ass for slamming the door in her face. Little resistance, just tell her what she needed to know and get her out. "Whatever, come in." He turned from the door, leaving it open and moved to the doorway to his right, "Hey! Diana! Can you clear the living room, someone from the CCG is here and the kids'll be kinda loud in there." At first there wasn't a reply, but then there was the sound of a woman's voice. 


"Oh. Yeah, sure!" Compared to Diana's normal tone it was very upbeat and unaware, completely unlike her, "Come on kids. If you need anything just call!" 


"Thanks!" Seconds later Daryl had turned around again, it was just a way of warning Diana to keep everyone out of the way, that was all, and she'd played along perfectly. He was so thankful for it. The man walked back over to the door, grabbing hold of the handle so that he could close it once Irene walked in, at least they would be inside and not out... She was in their domain, and there sure were a lot of them. 


"Hey...who's that?" Adrian's childish voice chimed in from the staircase, he'd moved from leaning over the banister to sitting on it, arms on either side of him as he swung his legs backwards and forwards, watching the door. As it was opened further his eyes widened for a moment in recognition...he...knew that person... He recognised her. He knew her. Who was she? What was it? It was...wait...CCG...investigators...fight...Qui... Adrian shook his head and blinked, looking down for a moment. 


Irene Garcia. He knew her...he couldn't put it fully together...but he knew he recognised her. 


"Oh." His grey eyes locked onto the woman and he just stared with that oddly demented look, chewing on his lip as he watched her. What was she doing here? Was she looking for something? "What's wrong?" 
 
Her gaze faltered for a moment when Daryl opted to let her in, but Irene made quick work of nodding and smiling like she was supposed to. "Great," she said far too joyously for her sunken and tired face. Once more she beamed with that brilliant white smile, and then she followed the man indoors with the pile of flyers hugged to her chest.


Something else appeared in her hand as soon as she was inside. It looked like a little black box with a screen on the back, something resembling a smart phone but with a row of buttons along one edge. Its screen was displaying a live feed from the front camera.


It was only after Daryl had turned around that the woman subtly raised her device in the air and pointed it at wall, floor and ceiling. The shutter clicked silently as she took a series of photos, and then she swept around and saw something else on the screen.


Irene's eyes flitted back away from her little device and focused on the person at the stairs. Black hair, a little longer than she remembered. Short, skinny. When she moved her head to the side, she could catch a glimpse of those grey eyes. At first she was understandably skeptical, but in the end it was that voice that gave him away.


'What's wrong?'


Still hidden in the darkness of his room, Jackson cursed again. He heard that, and it was starting to make him panic. Little beads of sweat were rolling down his neck, pooling in the crevice of his shoulder blades and making him feel much colder than he should have been. Irene was inside, and wherever Adrian was, he had not figured out that he needed to get out of sight and fast. Now it was over. It was over, it was done, they had found him, they were going to take Adrian away again.


Jackson had begun to list all the horrific tests that the CCG might run on the boy when Irene spoke again. Very much unlike her, she stuttered at the beginning as though somewhat taken aback. "I- I'm sorry?" she breathed sharply. She stared at Adrian through the lenses of her glasses and turned her eyebrows up in thought, but in a second or two she had stuck on a poker face again.


That's it, Jackson thought. She had recognised him.


Irene forced herself to draw in a deep breath. She thumbed through the posters in her arms and slid one out to show to the boy, then said in a very forced, stern and professional voice, "You there. Nothing's wrong, but tell me: are you or are you not Adrian Sanister?"


By some kind of miracle, a panicked mind made for a creative one and a new idea suddenly dawned on Jackson like some kind of blessing. Without a moment to stop, he leant back, grabbed hold of Callum's wrist and thrust the boy up at the door. "Go!" he hissed quietly, hoping not to be heard. Callum stumbled and fell into the door handle, but stayed inside.


"Wh-"


"Pretend he's your twin, just go!"


Nobody would dare to argue with the urgency in that man's voice, and Callum was no exception. He slammed his weight down on the handle and slipped through the crack as the door clicked open. Jackson pulled it shut behind the boy and leaned in to listen.


"T- duh- Fred!" Callum stammered as he fell into the hall. A moment later he had scrambled to his feet and was staring between Irene, Daryl and Adrian. In the face of an investigator he had turned quite pale, but all the better, for now he matched Adrian almost perfectly.


Irene had to move her arm out of the way as Callum zoomed past and clambered up the stairs on all fours to grab hold of Adrian's hand. It took him a moment to come up with something to say, anything that would excuse his sudden burst from a little room beneath the stairs.  "There you are! What are you doing? You were supposed to to - uh - come down and help make lunch, but you disappeared."
 
Daryl worked so hard not to cringe when when he heard Adrian's voice, of course the kid had to follow him now of all times. If he'd just stayed upstairs dealing with this nosy bitch would have been a lot simpler, but Adrian just had to be curious now...he'd never get a break with that guy.... How wasn't Jackson dead yet? 


Irene was already on questioning Adrian before Daryl could jump in to protect the boy, so the man could do nothing but stand as he waited for Adrian to give an answer... An answer he knew would have ruined everything had someone else not darted out of the back room before hand. 


Both of the other males turned their heads to look at the newcomer. Callum. Callum had come out and shouted a name that no one recognised, although he'd run up the stairs and grabbed Adrian's hand quick enough, saying he was supposed to come down and make lunch, but that he'd just disappeared. That was good... Daryl involuntarily sighed out of relief, although it probably wasn't heard by anyone, Callum could pull of being Adrian's twin...and as far as the CCG knew Adrian didn't have a twin... So it couldn't possibly be him. 


"Um." Adrian had been about to answer when Callum appeared and grabbed his hand, what was he doing? For a few minutes he stared, unsure of how to reply, in fact it didn't look like he was going to reply at all, but then he raised his head again and smiled, giggling. "Sorry, can we do it later?" He didn't wait for an answer, instead he pulled his hand from Callum's grip and jumped off of the other side of the banister, landing silently on the floor below. Adrian's gaze had moved back to Irene, she'd spoken to him in such a formal way...and it just didn't work for him, it seemed off. It wasn't meant to be like that. 


The small male bounced forwards, getting awfully close to the woman, a grin on his face as he looked up at her, "That's awful formal, ain't it?" His movements were as quick as lightening, in seconds he'd wrapped his hands around Irene's and attempted to pull the woman's towards him. "Whatcha got there? Searching for something?" One of his hands left hers as he grabbed at a flyer, pulling it out of its respective position and turning it around to face him. It was clear to him at that point that the CCG were still searching for them; they still wanted their blood. "Oh. You lost people?" For once Adrian realised when to keep his mouth shut, he played the clueless card upon seeing his own face and Jackson's upon there, "That's sad... That's not nice... Losing people isn't nice." Seconds later he'd dropped the flyer, the hand that was still over Irene's tightened its grip a little. 


Daryl watched in utter disbelief, was he not at all frightened at seeing his own name on those flyers? Or seeing someone searching for him who could take everything away then and there? No...no he supposed he wasn't, because Adrian didn't realise the severity of the situation should they let this person go... They really might have to disappear, and with all these people...oh that was going to be difficult. 


"So, whatcha got there?" His eyes never left her hands, but his voice held the innocence and curiosity of a child, "You work for the CCG, right? What's that like? Do you guys kill a buncha ghouls every day? Or is it like a one day thing? I dunno." He shrugged, "It seems cool. Do they teach you how to fight and stuff?" Playing dumb, that's all he had to do, as a former CCG investigator he should have known the answer to all of his questions, but Adrian's mind had been broken over and over again...although he was mostly asking question to confuse her...he genuinely wanted to know the answer to some. He wanted to remember. "What rank are you? Are you like super strong or something? Or do the super strong guys like hide in the background, never seen... Y'know, like the ghouls do!" The boy giggled, moving onto his tiptoes, but never letting go of her hands. His balance was perfect. "You're here, so c'mon, you gotta tell us!" He wasn't afraid of Irene, he couldn't be, he remembered her as a friend...not an enemy. She wasn't threatening to him. 
 
At Adrian's first touch, Irene nearly recoiled. It took every ounce of effort within her to keep still and stiff, standing with a straight back and a scornful frown on her face. "Hey," she said suddenly in her normal voice as she regarded Adrian from above. "Please, just - lay off."


"A- uh, Fred, c'mon," Callum insisted. Instead of jumping down like his false twin had, he took the stairs to the ground with quick, hurried steps. With both arms he reached out and grabbed his 'twin' from behind and pulled him away from the woman, who proceeded to back off a couple of steps and brush herself off.


"Thanks," said Irene flatly.


Callum shook at Adrian a few times. "What are you doing? Stop being weird, you're gonna get me and Tom in trouble!"


Unsurprisingly, Irene had elected to ignore the majority of 'Fred's' questions. Not only did they come far too quickly with little breathing space between, but it also made her wonder why. Why did this kid seem so interested? Why had he insisted on getting up in the woman's personal space? And why the hell did he have to sound exactly like that sweet kid Adrian when he had such a creepy look in his eye? His twin did not look like that. In fact, Callum had a scowl on his face, and his arms were crossed over as he looked about ready to bark something rude in the other boy's face.


Wishing not to look at the two children again for fear of seeing the person she was looking for in them, Irene turned back and eyed Daryl cautiously. Eventually that fake grin spread across her face again. "Well!" she sighed in a light voice. "They're quite lively. I hope you don't mind if I go and talk to some of the others, it's just all part of the investigation, and-"


"Ca-allu-um!"


There was, of course, no time for Irene to finish. A door in the wall beneath the stairs exploded open, and a skinny boy with Callum's black hair and someone else's brown eyes tottered forth from the tiny snug. Tommy-Jones had not been able to hold himself back after hearing his name through the door, and despite Jackson's best attempts to hold him back, he was now out in the open.


But it was not Irene's biggest concern when another boy burst from a little room to go and greet his brother in return for a pinch and some harsh words. What caught her eye was the hand that whipped out to grab at the door handle and pull it to, that little sliver of a foot resting on a metal plate.


"Excuse me a moment," she said. One arm hugged the posters closer to her chest so that the other was free to whip out that little camera-device, which she held out in front of her as she edged towards the door. A wrist pressed down against the handle, and then it clicked and swung open.


Jackson squinted at the light, but as soon as his eyes adjusted, his face turned pink.


He looked different, that was for certain. His glasses were a little more crooked and a little less well-fitting. On his face was a thick, round beard, his hair had turned from its usual golden blond to a darker brown, and instead of perfectly clear skin he now was a selection of scars around his forehead and beneath his ears. But there was no question about it. Those nut-brown eyes were the same. Those thick, musclular arms and little skeleton legs were the same.


Irene whipped around to stare at the two boys who were meant to be twins. Oh, they looked alike, alright, but it was becoming clear now that the brothers act was just that now - an act. One of Jackson's spontaneous save-the-day plans. 


"What in the hell-"


"Irene." Jackson swallowed hard and put up his arms as though he were being arrested. "Yeah. Uh, sorry, it - shit, it looks bad, but just listen for a moment, okay? W-we were in trouble and-"


"Save it," she sighed, and then grabbed at the arm of his chair before he could object. It did not look as though she were taking him anywhere yet, but that it was more of a precaution. He could not run away. "It can wait until I get you out of here. Which one of those guys is Adrian?"


Jackson didn't answer, so Irene smacked him across the face with the wad of posters. It was impossible to tell what was going on inside her head, but he could almost hear her mind whirring. There were no rusty gears turning inside that head. It was all switches, little light bulb moments and different paths of logic, like a supercomputer trying to solve a problem from insufficient input.


"Which one?"


"I - I don't know, I have to see them."


"Bollocks.." Irene brushed herself off again. There was no point putting on a smile for Daryl now. Somehow, these two run-away investigators had got themselves in a house filled to the brim with ghouls. They did not know yet that she was aware of what they were, but it did not stop her from wondering. How? Why? And for how long? All questions that the man with the green hair would need to answer, and soon. She ducked out into the hall again and stared at Daryl from afar. "Excuse me," she said politely, although it looked painful to do so. "Could you come here for a moment?"
 
As soon as Irene told him to lay off Adrian's mouth curled downwards into a frown, he didn't get why she was being like that... They could talk, right? Why didn't she want to talk to him? The boy had rocked back onto his heels to stand normally, his hands dropping to his sides. Just as he'd done this Callum had pulled him away as well, causing Adrian to stumble and turn to look at the boy. 


"Oh." He blinked, unsure of how to react, as he was shaken by the younger male. He didn't try to struggle or get away, instead he just let Callum shake him and waited for him to stop. The other only stopped when the sound of Tom's voice could be heard down the corridor, Adrian turned his head to look in the direction of the noise. "Tom too..." He mumbled, mostly to himself, he was in a strange state...he felt a little dejected, but at the same time he didn't really know if he cared or not... It was confusing. Maybe he should care, because he felt like Irene was someone he'd liked, but...did he? Did he really care?


Soon enough the woman had moved away from him and had instead gone over to check the room out that Tom had came from. Wasn't that Jackson's room? Adrian took a step back, attempting to break away from Callum and Tom and head in the direction of the room, she was going to go and see Jackson...but would Jackson want to see her? He seemed a little worried about all of this, and he hadn't come out yet either.


There were voices coming from the room, but Adrian couldn't say he was really listening to what they were saying, he just wanted to look inside, to make sure that Jackson was okay. She wasn't going to hurt him, was she? Irene wouldn't do that... At least...he didn't think she'd do that. Hopefully not?


"Huh?" Daryl already knew that they were in deep shit the minute the woman opened that door, he didn't need to be told to come over because he was already making his way there. After this conversation he'd have to figure out what to do with her, now that they'd found out about Jackson and Adrian being here there were going to be a lot of questions one way or another. They had no choice but to leave eventually, but letting her go was dangerous, and keeping her there was just as stupid, they needed to have a plan... They needed to let her go, but somewhere else, and at the right time... A time when they were ready to get out. 


The man put his hand's in his pockets, keeping that same bland, bored look on his face, "You don't need to question me about it." He replied, "I get who they are." There was no point playing the clueless card now, they all knew that they were in shit, they just had to find a way to get out of it. Adrian hopped up behind him, grabbing hold of the bottom of his own jumper with small hands, his grey eyes locked on Irene. "So, let's skip questioning, yeah? I'm gonna ask you something first. What're you gonna do about it now?" Of course, he wasn't stupid, he knew she'd go and tattle to her little friends at the CCG, which would get everyone in deep trouble...and they couldn't just abandon Jackson and Adrian. They needed a plan...but...what?


Daryl was completely blocking Irene's escape route, he wasn't just going to let her leave, not until they had sorted something. No one would suspect anything unless she was in the house over night or after her working hours, so they had time... She wasn't going anywhere. 
 
Irene's lips tightened, the same way they always did when she was forced to contain that whip of a tongue waiting to lash out from inside her mouth. There were several things that woman would have liked to say to Daryl right then. Unfortunately, to act upon those whims would be most unprofessional, and the fat cats at the CCG would not appreciate a little slip-up when she had already managed to get herself knee-deep in the worst kind of trouble. If only those bastards could not listen to every word she was saying...


A little squirm of discomfort from Jackson brought her attention back to herself. She suddenly became aware of where she was again, but knowing her place was not going to do her much good. She was barricaded in the house by somebody she would not be stupid enough to attack alone, bound by a question she was fighting her stubbornness to try and answer.


"I think I'll ask you the same thing," she said quite tautly at last. One high-heeled shoe slid forwards and clicked challengingly on the ground a foot closer to Daryl. "You've been harbouring fugitives right under our noses. What exactly are you planning, huh?"


Jackson chimed, "I-Irene, w-"


"And you!" The man flinched as Irene thrust the papers towards Jackson again like she was going in for another hit, but she just held them up by his throat until he fell silent and focused his eyes on her face.


"Nothing! I mean, we weren't - w-we weren't going to d-do anything, we were j-just hiding out for a while because... Uh..."


As Jackson trailed off, the papers went back up in the air. The woman's fingers unfolded and around a hundred posters fluttered down to the floor, images of man and boy dancing as they layered down on the carpet. "Y'know what, I despair. Four and a half months, and that's the best you can give me? Seriously?"


Silence.


"Great," she said finally. Every word she said was sounding less and less strained professional, and more like her normal self. That normal self did not seem particularly happy. "Well, whatever. Hey, Greenie!"


"H-he's Daryl."


"Daryl, then. Look, I know the game you're playing, trying to keep me in here, but it's going to be easier for you to listen. Got it? So how about this - you move, I take the boys back to headquarters and then you can slip under the radar. Or I could just call someone... What sounds best to you, sir?"


Jackson stiffened. This wasn't happening. He knew why Irene had come here, he knew all about what she was looking for with those flyers and that electronic device in her hand. But now it was all becoming too real for him to even believe. If this woman was allowed to get her way... She was only doing her job, what she had been told, but this was dangerous. The CCG could not get hold of him or of Adrian, that would mean the end of everything for them both.


"Daryl," he said, a little sharply coming from himself. His eyes locked with the other male's, and there was a moment of quiet connection. "We can't let her go back to them, they're gonna find out if she does."
 
"Well, I mean there's one hundred and one things I could do." Daryl didn't flinch, he didn't move, no matter what Irene said or did he refused to take his eyes off of her. He was scanning her form, making sure there wasn't anything she was hiding from him, he wasn't going to let her have her way. There was no way she was getting out of here scot free, she couldn't be allowed to go back and tell them, all of them were screwed them. 


He raised an eyebrow when the woman referred to him as 'Greenie', sure, that was the colour of his hair, but he had a name. She sure was a rude once. "Greenie. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" The man raised an eyebrow, taking a step forwards, "Don't worry about it Jackson, I've fucking got this." The entire time he was speaking his arms stayed crossed and his eyes stayed on the target in front of him, "Listen up, bitch." His hand moved quickly, going to grab her wrist, he'd seen the little device in it and he really wasn't a fan of it... She was doing something whilst they talked. "How 'bout we make this a little more private, huh?" After a moment of waiting he brought his other hand over and grabbed the little camera-like object, "What's this shit then?" He took the device and turned it over, turning off the feed in the process once he realised it was still streaming. Once that was done he dropped his hand to the side, keeping hold of the box.


She didn't really think that was going to work, did she? He couldn't help but snort at her stupidity, of course they were going to figure it out at some point. "Don't worry Jackson." He started, "We're not gonna just let her go, she's stupid for walking in in the first place." Refusing to move out of her way, Daryl took a step back, just to make sure she knew there wasn't really anywhere to run. "She should be dead, but she's not, and I suppose now your little buddies are gonna want a piece of this too, aren't they?" Without giving her a second to reply, he continued, "Well tough shit. They ain't gettin' any." He turned his head to Jackson, "We're gonna move, we gotta get everyone and leave, I dunno where to, but we gotta leave..." Who cared if they were saying they were leaving in front of the woman, it wasn't like they were going to tell her where they were going. They'd be gone before she could do anything about it, "It's gotta be today."


"And y'know, slipping under the radar is kinda my thing." Daryl had turned his attention back to Irene, "Don't think I need your help with that one. Call whoever you want, they're not gonna be tracking your call to here I can fucking assure you that. Don't fucking threaten me, you're lucky I don't end you where you stand, be grateful fucker." His words were sharp, easily matching her own, only with a lot more cursing. She thought she could just take Adrian and Jackson, like he was going to let that happen. "Y'know, Jackson doesn't need your shit right now, and I think the kid's been through enough to last him a goddamn lifetime, you really wanna add to that? If your answer is yes to that then you're possibly the biggest goddamn monster I've ever met, but you CCG shits always are monsters... Nothing but fucking monsters." He shook his head, "Going with you would be the death of them, as if I'd let you execute them like that." 


"Hey..." Adrian tugged on the back of Daryl's shirt, drawing his attention, "Whatcha gonna do?" His voice was quiet and inquisitive as he looked up at the other male with those large, grey eyes of his. "Jackson!" The boy turned his head to look at the man, "What's he gonna do? Where're we going?"


"Don't worry about it." Adrian had tried to move around Daryl's side to get closer to Irene, but had quickly been guided back behind the male again, "Just stay there, yeah? Everything's fine."
 
It must have been like keeping your feet on the ground in a category-five monsoon, but through the barrrage of taunts, insults and hard retorts, Irene remained still and taught. Her lips were tight. Her legs remained glued together and straight. Had Daryl not snatched up her wrist to seize the camera from her hands, she would have kept her arms down by her sides, too.


"Well..." The woman's body seemed to thaw from its frozen state. She took a step backwards and curled her now-empty hand into a fist. The corner of her lips turned up in a forced smirk. "I guess I know what your favourite word is."


Back in the little room, Jackson shuddered again. He was beginning to feel heavier as the clock ticked the seconds away, like he could sink right through his chair and into the ground. And yet his heart was still floating in the air, feeling so detached that it would make one wonder if it was still beating at all. Maybe it wasn't, he decided when he caught sight of Adrian.


No, he urged the boy silently. Down, get down, go away! It was unlikely she would get past Daryl, but if Irene ever got her hands on the real Adrian then everything would be over. But no, it wasn't just that. That guy was talking big now, saying frightening things and making vicious threats about death. He was going to kill her, Jackson just knew it. If he carried on, then Irene was going to die right where she stood.


Irene, of course, could hear none of what was happening inside Jackson's head. She had her own thoughts to keep her busy, and there was little to no doubt that she knew what kind of danger she was in here. That was brave of her, standing her ground against someone so much stronger than she was. But then again, it wasn't like she had much of a choice. She was trapped.


"Trapped," Jackson said out loud suddenly, surprising even himself. But even when he blinked in confusion, he carried on as the words seemed to build themselves in front of him. "D-Daryl, she's trapped."


"Thanks for your input," said Irene through the corner of her mouth with a tut.


Despite the sarcasm, the man carried on, "Look, you know - th-there's no point killing her, okay? She's trapped, just as long as nobody gets Adrian then that's - that's okay. Irene stays here, nobody gets hurt..."


The woman checked her wristwatch and tutted sideways at Jackson. If she had heard him, then she wasn't interested in anyone but the green-haired man in front of her. "Look," she said firmly, finally taking another step out of Daryl's range. Her trench coat widened at the bottom where she had slammed her feet down, shoulder-width apart in a running-ready stance. "I'm glad you've got your opinions, but you're taking this shit out on the wrong person. Go talk to the guys in charge if you've got the balls for it, or you could just stay here and see what you've got. If I've gotta get past you just to take this pair out of here, then so be it, I could go for some exercise."


"Irene-"


"Yeah? What's up?"


A clammy, white hand extended shakily to point an index finger out in Daryl's direction. "Th- D- him, Daryl, he's a ghoul."


Irene's shoulders drooped as though she had just been piled with a fifty-kilogram stack of papers to sort through. She exhaled through loose lips and rolled up her eyes. "You're late, worked that out when I stepped in. I knew there was something funny going on here," she muttered to herself. "Yeah, okay, Lambert. You know, you guys owe me one hell of an explanation, but that can wait a few minutes 'cause I guess I've got to sort this out too now, for God's sake."


Jackson had been about to tell Irene that she should not be so cocky, but it turned out that he had mistaken her intentions for something far less sensible than what she did. One slender hand slid down into the front of her coat and pulled up something clear with black lining, which she wrapped around her face like a blindfold for the mouth. It was a mask for the familiar tool that then came out of a pocket on her hip: RC-suppressant gas.


It didn't even take the woman a second. She rattled the little metal canister and then popped the lid off, and a cloud of thick white smoke billowed out and filled the room like the thickest fog England had seen in a hundred years. The substance seeped through cracks in doors, and the noises of coughing and spluttering could soon be heard coming from within the living room. Callum had doubled over and clamped a hand to his mouth. Tommy-Jones copied but was crying out and gasping in shock, which made him stumble to the floor by the stairs. Jackson was coughing, too - or he would have been, but all that he could manage was to ram a fist into his own stomach as he spat out empty breaths into the air. He took a moment to thank whoever created him that humans did not have to be as affected by suppressant drugs as ghouls.


But the others, however... No, that was a smart move from Irene. She was no longer in sight, at least for a few seconds until the gas cleared, and in the space of a second she had managed to weaken everyone around her.


It was time for a fight, and it was unlikely that everybody would walk out of this as they had come in. "Don't kill her," Jackson spluttered through his pathetic half-coughs. Then the fog cleared and Irene was standing there, one eye turned grey-and-red with a pair of twin rinkaku claws spiralling out from her back. Her gaze was locked on Daryl and her body poised to dodge a first move.
 
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"Fuck off." Daryl spat, moving his body to make sure Adrian stayed behind him at all times, since the boy was still trying to get past. He wanted this woman out of his house, he wanted to leave and get everyone out before they could say anything stupid in front of her, she was CCG, they still had to be cautious. "Yeah, I get that Jackson, that's kinda the point." He was just as quick as the woman to fire something at Jackson for his idiotic comment, of course she was trapped, he was keeping her trapped for a reason... Idiot. 


However, it seemed that the woman didn't have the intention of giving him, instead she seemed to want to fight. "Exercise? What the fuck are you on?" For a moment it looked like Daryl was going to burst into laughter from the comment, "You really wanna fight me huh? 'Kay, whatever, just know it's your death, not mine." There was a single bone in her body that was afraid of the woman in front of him, he was very aware of his own power, and if she believed for even a second that he wouldn't use it against her... Well...she really was screwed. Although, indoors was a little close quarters, they were surely going to break things. Lucky they were moving out. 


He'd been about to say something before she pulled a canister off of her hip and held it up, he hadn't managed to click on until it was too late, before he could react a gas escaped the canister, filling the room and moving up and around the house. Of course, upon realising what it was, Daryl was quick to cover his mouth. He knew that it wouldn't do much, but it might do something to stop the drug completely taking out his system. He needed to be able to focus. Adrian had moved away from behind him and was having a coughing fit against the wall, his hands covering his mouth, although taking in sharp, deep breaths wasn't doing much to help lessen the effect of the drugs. Though Daryl could worry about him or anyone else at that moment, they had an enemy in the house.


For a moment he coughed and spluttered, his head whirred, his vision was blurred, but after stumbling back a few steps he'd managed to get himself together. It didn't matter, it was only gas, it wasn't going to kill him... Sure, he couldn't use his kagune, he felt worse, but that didn't mean he couldn't fight. If he'd been taught to fight only using his kagune then he would have lost every battle he'd ever participated in, luckily that wasn't the case. He could still match her, he just had to focus. Focus was key in these situations. Train yourself on your target and never let them out of your sight. 


Speaking of which... 


Daryl suddenly stood up straight again, eyes darting around the room as the gas started to clear. He saw something that he hadn't quite expected as the woman came back into view, she had a kagune... What? "The fuck?" He coughed out, scowling and removing his hands from around his abdomen. What was this? She was human...yet...she had a kagune? Wait. No. He'd seen these people before, that one fight with Aegis, they'd been there. That had been the same time where Adrian had started to smell different from how he had when they met in that alley. Were the CCG experimenting on their investigators? Was this the product? It had to be right? Then...what did that make Adrian? A failure?


There was no time to dwell, he had to deal with this...crossbreed in front of him. 'Don't kill her', he'd heard those words choked out from the room across... Don't kill her his ass! She was trying to kill him! "Fuck off Jackson." Daryl growled, but the words had sunk in, "I'll do whatever the fuck I wanna do." He shifted his feet, attempting to get a good position, he was fighting someone with a kagune...he needed to be wary. There were so many factors to think about, his breathing, his movement, getting everyone else out of there... Too much for his drugged up mind, so he chose to focus on the fight in front of him, beat her, deal with everything else after. He could do that. It'd be easy to do that. 


"Alright bitch." He growled, his voice was low, menacing, "Let's see what you've got." With that he launched himself forwards, feigning an attack head on at the woman, however, his intentions were quite different. He was watching those kagune of hers, waiting for them to strike so that he could dodge and counter attack. She might have the kagune, but did she know how to use them? Was she trained well enough? 
 
There was a low hissing noise that pulsed through the mist as Irene drew in a breath from within her little plastic gas mask. Visibility was restored now, but the drug still lingered in the air; she could feel its coldness rolling over her hands, around her legs, between the blades of the two kagune which hung suspended behind her. "Y'know, you don't have to call me 'bitch' to spook me. That face is already scary enough," she taunted. She was poised to strike.


Callum and Tommy-Jones had both slumped down at the bottom of the staircase, nearly hacking up their lungs. Every time they expelled a first breath, the next time they gasped just brought more of the drug into their lungs, and unlike Daryl neither boy was quick-minded enough to consider holding on.


"I'm serious, Daryl!" Jackson tried to ignore the painful tingling of the gas in his throat. He told himself over and over, it wasn't affecting him. It was not doing him harm. He had to keep talking like he could still breathe normally, or else he was going to have to watch Irene's head get a hole blown through the middle. "Y-you don't have to kill her, nobody has to die - so - so both of you, quit it."


Irene's kagune twitched in the air. Her head snapped to the side, and a frown briefly dragged her eyebrows down to flat lines. "Honestly, you are the last person I'd expect to sympathise with ghouls," she mumbled through her mask. There was a moment when the man could have sworn he saw her shake her head sadly, like she was mourning something. "Now Sanister, I understand him. Just a shame I - can't - relate!"


That last word marked the finishing line for their waiting. The kagune flexed in their places, and the points of their blades seemed to sharpen to daggers. If they were not as well-controlled as a ghoul's claws, Irene certainly made up for what she was lacking in size and potential damage.


The woman slid backwards. Her kagune straightened in the opposite direction and joined at the tip in front of Daryl. Jackson saw that she was about to cut right through his middle if he didn't react in time, so his panicked mind whirled his body into the only action it could think of: sabotage.


One hand went to his side to propel him forwards, and the other reached up to grab at one of the woman's wrists. Jackson pulled Irene to the side and threw her off balance. It was a stupid idea. 


"Wait - stop!" he cried as one claw swept him back into his room. He fell halfway out of his chair as it toppled sideways against the bulk of the mattress, and had to hold himself up by clinging to the handle of the door. 


Irene tutted and brushed herself off again, re-composing herself after being thrown off by a minor interruption. "Chill out, it's only you two we need alive."


Jackson didn't care. Still clinging for dear life to the open door, which shuddered and swung left and right with his weight, he called out, "Callum! Callum, get Adrian out!" Whether or not his plea was even heard went unknown, but on Daryl's other side the second grey-eyed boy staggered to his feet. He was obeying without even knowing why, and in a second his hands were on Adrian's shoulders. Unable to speak for his lungs felt fit to burst, Callum shook his look-alike and pointed up at the staircase before starting to drag him up. Tommy-Jones naturally followed suit.


"Oh - Christ's sake! They don't pay me enough for this, remind me to get that fixed." The investigator had heard, and had put on a meaner look. Adrian was not going to get away if she could help it, and now that he was on his way elsewhere, she could not afford to wait. So without further interruption she dived to one side and sliced at Daryl with her kagune outstretched. The canister of gas was still in her hand, but she was not clumsied by its weight - instead she was nimble even in her heels, hopping about and keeping her distance as she made little cuts across the man's abdomen and legs. It was only a stalling tactic; she knew she could not fight alone forever, and help would come if only she could hold out for long enough.
 
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