Disclaimer: I do not own Noblesse. The Story in the Characters belongs to Son Je Ho and Lee Gwang Su.

Summary: When the Union gets problems in its own ranks. A Noblesse AU about the Trio.

Notes: The story takes place outside the Noblesse frame xD The union has begun a hidden war against the noblesse, the traitors of the Noblesse and werewolves have already revealed a long time ago. Thanks to Pandora-Twist for the translation AND the beautiful Fanart!

Chapter 1

With empty eyes, he looked through the drizzle to the person in front of him. It was a kid, a fucking runt stood before him whose blood dripped slowly to the ground, while he clutched his arm trying to stay upright. Behind him lay a girl dressed in a torn black robe. Her own blood coloured her white hair red at the points, the hair same as the boy. Rain fell into her half-open eyes, and M-21 wondered quietly whether the runt was trying to protect a corpse from him, then he saw her chest feebly lift.

They were both Noblesse, M-21 did not need to see the red eyes to know. They radiated an aura that told him that they were not human. Besides, he casted a discreet glance aside. The corpses of two hunters lay in the ruins, on the cold soaked earth. Inventions of the Union scientists, designed to kill the Noblesse. M-21 was not so sure whether these machines had once been humans. He himself could not feel the cold, for years he had felt nothing but a hole in his soul which the death of his comrades had torn.

M-21 watched as the drizzle washed the blood from her face. His short inattentiveness caused the runt to try to attack him. M-21 caught him and slammed him with ease against the remains of a wall. The boy was badly hurt, so much so that even a lower agent like him could defeat him, the girl seemed even worse. If the two were to fall into the hands of the Union he would rather kill them, and then bury their bodies somewhere the Union can never find. This may sound cruel, but it was more gracious than anything the Union would do with them in the name of the war it had been waging against Noblesse for centuries.

He did not know much about the war himself. He was a bait, decay to play the decoy to lure the enemy into a trap or just to collect data, He had no idea how much microtechnical implants had been implanted in him. He was the peasant on the chessboard and no more. Just like all his comrades and so... Damn he had hoped to meet a strong opponent who would kill him and not to two half-dead children. He could not kill them, not as long as he kept M-24 remembrance in his heart. M-24 always had a weakness for children, even if it was a Noblesse.

The transmitter lay in his ear; he knew exactly what the Union wanted from him. But when did he do what these bastards demanded of him? M-21 took the transmitter out of his ear and crushed it between his fingers. The runt looked at him in surprise, but M-21 ignored him. A destroyed transmitter from a bait would cause a stronger unit to be sent to check the situation, he did not have much time.

He bent down and took the girl in his arms. He could have lifted a feather as easily, so light she was to him. She groaned softly and he could see the resistance in her eyes as he looked down at her exhausted face. The boy croaked and came back to his feet. M-21 turned to him and pierced him with a stinging look.

"Do you want to survive this? Then hurry"

With these words, he trudged off to the next building, which was still half-way. He could hear the boy follow him and entered a steel door that hung obliquely in the hinges. The room itself was half tumbled but this was not important at the moment. M-21 moved around the rubble and laid the girl on the ground in the cover of large concrete brakes on the ground. Her blood had soaked his coat in the short time. M-21 took it off and pressed it as a makeshift compress on her wound.

Finally the boy stumbled in. M-21 immediately grabbed him and dragged him to his side, to the side of the girl. The boy looked at him with a mixture of rage and confusion as M-21 made him press the compress on the wound.

"Not a sound after I leave from here, understand?"

The runt stared.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" snapped M-21.

At last the boy nodded. M-21 got up, went to the door, and then gave a last look back. Two red eyes followed him until he slammed the door behind him.

The children were safe as far as one could speak of security in this situation. But to be really sure it needed something else. M-21 looked down at his hand. No, that would not look convincing. Instead he broke a blade from one of the hunters. What came next was definitely not his favorite part, he thought idly as he put the pointed object on his shoulder. Biting his teeth, M-21 pulled the blade with a quick movement from his shoulder down to his hip. Hot blood ran over his skin and stained his shirt scarlet within seconds.

M-21 grunted and let go of the blade, stumbling to the nearest stone to hold on to it. Shit, his heart beat accelerated due to the shock of the self-inflicted wound. Still, he managed to push the blade into the mud to hide that he had hurt himself.

And not a minute too late. From the rain veil came a command of three people. The task force of the DA-5. Of all the groups that could have appeared ...

M-21 lowered his head as their leader approached him, and eyed M-21 contemptuously, "Report."

"An attack of two Noblesse, they destroyed the hunters and then disappeared" replied M-21 tonelessly. He could taste blood on his lips, had the blade penetrated too deeply in his zeal? Well, it hopefully only made him look more convincing.

"Pfff... what a pity!" Growled a gaunt man with unkempt appearance as he played with a knife in his hand, "And the garbage they had was not even eliminated right..."

M-21 did not respond to this insult. He was a bait, which was like being a broken tool that isn't really needed anymore, except for the dirty work.

Krantz did not go into Shark's words; he observed the area and M-21 disparagingly. "Takeo you had the area in view. What did you saw?"

M-21s heart clenched as he heard this. As inconspicuously as possible, he looked over to the long-haired sniper. The DA-5 had been nearby all the time? Of course, because of the destruction of the hunters! M-21 bit his teeth. Why had he not thought about it? If Takeo had been watching him all the time, he could do nothing but try to buy some time so at least the boy could flee. In anticipation of a fight, his hand tightened around the stone and his fingertips itched.

"It is true."

M-21 froze and held his breath. What?

"Two Noblesse fought the hunters. The bait came; they attacked him and left him before they disappeared northward." The sniper described in a flat voice. Neither his voice nor his facial expressions suggested anything off.

M-21 closed his eyes. He had lied; he had to have seen that M-21 hid the children. Why was he lying?

Krantz grunted indignantly and turned away from M-21 "Back to camp. Takeo take the bait."

"Why Krantz?" Shark scornfully replied, "The thing is already as good as over. From which one learns determination nothing else."

"He's not part of our department, but Dr. Crombel's," the sniper of the DA-5 told coolly, reaching for M-21's arm to pull him up. "Tao is supposed to read his chip in the base" with these words he pushed M-21 forward. "Come on, we do not have time."

M-21 tumbled and gasped as his vision blurred for a moment. He pressed his hand to his wound and followed the DA-5 as they got moving. Takeo remained at his side all the time and kept an eye on him.

But he had done it. He had bought them time. M-21 did not look back as they made their way to the base.

~.~.~

The camp of the DA-5 turned out to be a downsized shed which perhaps had the function of a warehouse. Inside, some objects and furniture stood around. M-21 forced himself to follow Takeo in one of the side rooms, as no other of the DA-5 felt compelled to take care of a bait.

M-21 had previously heard only rumors about the DA-5 and in them the sniper was described as the most repellent member of the DA-5. But why had he lied and supported M-21? As far as he knew, Tao was the hacker of the DA-5, if he read M-21s chip he would find out that there had never been any fight, so Takeo would also be in trouble...

"Tao" Takeo pushed M-21 into the room and closed the door. M-21 stood exhausted in the room not sure what exactly he should do now. On a table in the room sat a lanky man with short black hair, with a laptop on his lap. He looked up as Takeo entered.

"Yo Takeo and ... who is that? I thought you were looking for two hunters?"

"The hunters have been destroyed."

"Woah ... By Noblesse? Are they still alive?"

"Tao you have to delete his chip."

Please what? M-21 still had enough energy to stare at the sniper.

"Huh?" Tao blinked and slid off the table. "Why? And who even is that?"

"The two Noblesse who destroyed the hunters were children and seriously injured. He has hidden them and Krantz bought him here." Takeo seemed amused and serious at the same time. "So would you please?"

"Oh, clear, understood" Tao waved M-21 to himself and pulled a chair up. "Will you please uh... what is your name?"

"M-21" answered M-21 and sat down slowly in the chair. What was going on? Why was Tao too now…?

"You are betraying the Union," M-21 said softly.

"Hehe, looks quite like it ..." Tao rubbed his nose and looked for some cables on the table.

"..."

"You also betrayed the Union."

"I'm a damn bait" M-21 spat out every single word "I hate the Union with every fiber of my being and what they have made of me. For me it does not matter if I die here, main thing is that I could spit on these bastards faces... You two are high-ranking agents of the Union, why the hell are you pissing them on the leg?"

Tao rocked restlessly on his chair, his eyes fixed on the wall behind M-21. "For the same reasons, I think," he finally gave his answer and turned back to his laptop. M-21 snorted softly and closed his eyes for a moment. Did he trust them? Actually it did not matter. If it came out that Takeo had lied, he was screwed. Gradually, his body warmed up and his wound became more noticeable, so M-21 pulled out his T-shirt and tore it.

"What are you doing?" Tao asked puzzled, but M-21 did not answer. Instead, he bandaged his wound with the rags. His fingers were cold and stiff, and he needed a few minutes for it. The two DA-5 members looked at each other briefly.

"I still have a T-shirt," said Takeo calmly and left the room. Tao waited until he closed the door before turning to M-21.

"Where is your chip"?

M-21 put his right arm on the table. "Somewhere there."

"Somewhere? How did the scientists come to the thing?"

"The last time, they slit my arm."

"..."

Tao grimaced, "Excuse me," he muttered, taking M-21s arm, groping muscles and tissue. He stopped at his wrist. "Well, he's already there and I do not need Shark," he joked, raising his hand. At first, M-21 did not understand what he was talking about, then he saw the black cable that snaked up Tao's finger. With mild fascination he observed how the cable split into many fine strands, which then drifted into his skin. It did not hurt very much and Tao could simply disconnect the cables and connect to a device which was connected again to the laptop.

As Takeo came back to them, the hacker was almost finished and M-21 dozing. Takeo put a T-shirt, and a bottle on the table and leaned against it. M-21 blinked and ran his hand over his face, looking at the bottle suspiciously but the seal had not yet been broken. He opened the bottle and took some big sips. The water was lukewarm, and so M-21 did a favor to his frozen body. Modified or not, but standing in the rain for days and then losing a lot of blood could not be healthy.

"How far are you?"

"Nearly finished" the hacker gnawed on his nails with thought "Fortunately or not the chip is outdated and has already had some misfires. If I delete the data now, they will not notice further, and will just dismiss this as another wobble contact. Unfortunately, it took a long time because it was so old." He paused briefly "We should do something like that more often."

"No, that cannot be done," Takeo said, his voice sounding sharp, for a moment the two members looked at each other, it was Tao who gave up first. Then Takeo left the table, "I will make report to Krantz," he said, and went outside.

Tao sighed and threw M-21, who had followed the exchange with his brow furrowed, a forced smile as he pulled the cables out of his arm "Well, as you can see our hands are tied."

M-21 reached for the T-shirt. Right, just because Tao and Takeo counted as successful experiments, it did not automatically mean they had it easier. They were better treated, but they were also better guarded. M-21 pressed his lips together and pulled the T-shirt over his head. After that, he made himself comfortable on a small stack of cardboard boxes.

Nevertheless, they had helped protect the two children. In the meantime, he hoped that the two of them were already far away, and would not return.