In the middle of the night a man with silver spikey hair who wore an red coat, walked through the very dark forest at the middle of the night. Only the very light rays of moon light would seep through the leaves of the tall tree to offer a little of guidance to anyone who would dare to travel at such a time. Who knew what kind of creatures learked within the shadows of this forest.

Although he didn't care. He had a goal and wasn't going to stop just because of an creepy forest that laid within his path. Once the man came to an clearing within the middle of the forest he looked up towards the dark blushish sky above with its hints of silver sparkles. 'So much for reaching Kagutsuchi before sunset... Great calculating skills, Ragna.' He thought to himself as he flexed his shoulders a little to loosen the tension he felt in his body.

He had been travelling among the Hierarchical Cities for the past couple of months, sneaking into the NOL bases at the middle of the night and destroying their cauldrons that were kept at the bottom of each base. For all of that he was branded as a terriost and named an infamous title, 'The Grim Reaper' Or his other title, 'Ragna the Bloodedge'. He is also the man that carried the highest bounty of all criminals in the history recorded, his bounty was worth an whopping 90,000,000 Platinum dollars.

Ragna breathed in lightly as he felt the heavy air on his lungs. ''The seithr seems too thick around here." He mumbled to himself as he glanced around. Scanning his nearby surroundings before trailing their view to his right arm that began to glow an blackish-blue color as it begun to absorb the toxic mist. Since seithr when in larger quantities, would end up killing anyone who breathed to much in.

"Damn it!" Ragna growled as he clutched his right forearm, although while Ragna was too busy focusing on how he could prevent his arm from absorbing so much seithr, he failed to notice a gothic looking princess strolling towards him with her parasol up above her head.

"Good Evening, Ragna!" She spoke in a upper classed tone.

"Rabbit." He growled as he looked at the way her hair was being held up with two pony tails that were held by two large black ribbons that looked almost like rabbit ears.

"Hmph! Your being your rude self as usual, Ragna. You can't even show a little manners when it comes to a lady. No wonder you scare all the girls off." The girl name Rachel teased.

"Shut up!" Ragna groaned in annoyance. "What do you want now anyways?" He demanded an answer from her.

"Oh my... You really do lack manners, don't you?" She noted as she let out a sigh. "Oh, well... Not everyone is blessed with grace and manners." She said, causing Ragna's face to scrunch up.

"God, damn it. Why are you even here? Are you just here to annoy me with your useless bulls*** as usual?" He growled as he placed his hand onto the hilt of his sword.

Rachel then let out a sigh as she said, "Well I was planning on telling you something... 'interesting', but you don't really deserve it."

"Just tell me!" Ragna demanded in an angered tone.

Rachel smirked slightly as she said, "An old friend of yours is heading to Kagutsuchi."

"I don't have any friends!" Ragna quickly answered back as he looked down to the ground.

"Hehe, oh... not even a certain young lady whom you used to train with?"

At the mention of the girl Ragna's eyes widen in shock. It had been a rather long time since he's seen her and not to mention he didn't even get to say goodbye to her before she left. Ragna slowly turned his head towards Rachel and said, "Rachel, you better not be f***ing with me. 'Cause I swear if you are I'll-"

Although before Ragna could finish his sentence Rachel interrupted him. "Why do you honestly think that I would fib about such a thing? No matter, I'd best be off now." Rachel said as she turned away from Ragna. "Hopefully she won't distract you from your mission... at least too much." With that Rachel clicked her fingers as she disappeared leaving rose petals behind.

"Hey, WAIT!" Ragna called out but didn't receive any response. "What the hell was that about? Was the rabbit telling the truth about 'her' being here? In Kagutsuchi." He mumbled to himself as he looked up ahead, seeing the 13th Hierarchical City of Kagutsuchi in the far off distance. "I better go and find out!" Ragna said as he began to run towards the city. His gut filled with curiosity and his mind slightly clouded by the thought of seeing his only friend once more.

As he continued to run through the forest his mind slowly recalled the first time they met. Him and his friend.

Ragna was in the darkest depths of the forest practicing using the power of the Azure for a while now and after a couple of hours of training he wiped the sweat from his forehead and decided to take a break. "Jezz, I'm parched!" Ragna puffed out before sitting down on a nearby log on the ground. He then grabbed the water bottle that was sitting near him and drank from it.

"I wonder when Jubei will get back?" He said to himself, only just noticing the cat far off into the distance coming towards Ragna. "Well it's about time!" He yelled out to the cat that walked on its two hind legs. Although once the cat got in a closer range of view for Ragna, he could notice that someone was walking right behind Jubei.

Once Jubei and the other person arrived to Ragna, Jubei was the first to speak. "Well I hope yer' enjoying slacking your arse off." Jubei teased Ragan, who growled back.

"Shut up! I only just began my break a few minutes ago. Which by the way I've been working my ass off for the past three hours!" Ragna then decided to change subject as he scratched his head. "So who's hiding behind you?"

A little gasp came from the person who was hiding behind Jubei. He then chuckled as he motioned for the person to come out and meet Ragna. "Hey, com'on kid. Ragna won't bite... although if he does it won't be that painful." Jubei chuckled some more as Ragna let out an annoyed sigh.

"Ha..ha...ha, funny! You damn cat!" Ragna said with sarcasm. "Okay, but seriously are you gonna come out yourself or do I have to drag you out?" He asked just before the girl stumbled out from behind Jubei. Letting Ragna see her fully.

She had light brown hair that was half held up in a half breaded do while the rest of her hair flowed down just passed her hips. She had a rather curvy body and blue sapphire colored eyes. She was clad in a teal colored kimono top with a pair of small black shorts she also had metal plated boots on to accompany her look.

Ragna stared at the girl for a couple of minutes waiting for her to say something. Although all she didn't say anything, she just stood there staring silently at Ragna.

"Com'on, why don't you tell him your name." Jubei nudged for the girl to speak to Ragna.

The girl walked forward slight and lent down in front of him, bowing before Ragna as she said, "Hello, Ragna. My name is Catarina and I'll be training with you and Jubei for some time."

Ragna then snorted as he replied, "You're going to be 'training' with us? I don't think some princess will be able to handle herself out he-" But before Ragna could finish his sentence, Catarina held her blade to Ragna's neck causing him to sweat.

"Haha, you two are sure gonna get along just fine." Jubei chuckled as the two young teenagers glared at each other.

"Hey, Catarina. Are you listening?" A male NOL solider nudged the girl next to him that was staring off into space.

She looked a little startled as she looked at the solider she was sitting next to. "Oh, y-yes I am." She replied in a rather unsure tone.

"You'd better be!" He replied in a slightly teasing tone as he gave the young woman a creepy smile, which she returned with a nervous giggle.

Catarina was currently inside an air ship about a thousand feet above, she was sitting in one of the airships cabins getting a debriefing from her boss about her and her team mates mission.

"Okay, so Warrant Officer Nelson. You'll be staying behind on the air ship looking after any of our injured soldier's." The Field Officer told the only other female solider in this team.

"Yes sir!" She replied.

"Alright then, does everyone remember what your missions are?" The field officer asked everyone, who responded with a simple nod.

Although Catarina quietly raised her hand into the air, "Umm, excuse me sir!"

"Yes, First Lieutenant?" He replied.

"Umm, you never mentioned what my mission was." She spoke in a nervous tone.

The field officer then walked up and gave Catarina a scroll and then explained. "To be honest, you're not needed for this mission. Although you have been requested from the intelligence department."

"The intelligence department?"

"Yeah... apparently one of their guys requested you personally to assist them in their mission." The field officer explained as he scratched at his grey mustache.

Catarina frowned for a moment while she thought to herself. "I don't know anyone from the intelligence department besides Makoto. Who could've asked for me personally?"

"First Lieutenant?" The Filed officer spoke in a loud tone, regaining Catarina's attention.

"O-Oh, yes!?"

"Don't let us down!" He said giving the young officer a smile and a wink, which she returned with a smile and a nod. "Alright, I'll meet up with the rest of you guys tomorrow at 1400 hours. Make sure to get some rest and wake up at 6AM!" He said to the rest of the crew before dismissing all of them.

Catarina stood up from where she sat and exited the room. She then turned to her left and begun walking down the long hallway towards her cabin. Until one of her crew mates ran up to her. "Hey, Catarina wait up!" She turned around to see Gary running up to her. The two usually worked together during their missions except this one task.

"Hey, Gary." She greeted him.

"Looking forward to your task?" He asked as he looked at the scroll in her hand.

"Well I haven't read what I'm doing yet. I was gonna go back to my cabin and read over my mission log." She claimed as she glanced at her scroll. For some reason each time she would glance at it she felt an nerve wracking aura come from it. Almost as if the mission she'll be going on will end badly for her and the others.

"Catarinaaa! You're spacing out again!" Gary said as he waved his hand in front of her face, snapping her out of her deep thoughts.

"Oppise, sorry!" She apologized while rubbing her right arm in a little embarrassment.

"Man, you've been zoning out so much lately... You're not sick, are you?" Gary asked as he leaned forward, pressing his cold hand against Catarina's head. Before she grabbed his hand, pushing it away from her as she chuckled.

"No, I'm fine. I've just been thinking.. a lot." She replied in a uncertain tone. She then gave him a smile to reassure him that she was fine.

He then scratched the back of his head as he replied. "Well, okay then..." He then turned away from her and said while stretching his body. "Well, I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning for breakfast?" He then turned his head to her and smiled. "Hey, if you need anything you can always count on me."

Catarina then smiled and nodded, "Sure! Thanks Gary." She replied to him before he took his leave. Once she saw Gary leave she too went back to her room. As soon as she was inside of her room she locked the door and let out a deep sigh as she lent against it's wooden frame, sliding down it as she sat on the floor.

'I've seriously gotta stop blanking out like that. If I act too suspicious people will end up finding out the truth.' She thought to herself as she buried her head into her knees. That was before she was startled by her familiar.

"Gezz, Catarina. Your always spacing out nower days. Learn to control it or they'll get you." A little brown tabby cat warned her as it walked through the closed door, startling Catarina.

"AH! S-Sandy? Don't startled me like that!" She scowled at the adorable short haired cat.

"I'm sorry..." Sandy said before changing the subject. "So... is those powers of yours at bay?" She asked with a dead serious tone as she stared at the young lady on the floor with her emerald glowing eyes.

"Yes, geez. I'm not a child anymore. I know how to conceal my own powers." Catarina growled back.

Sandy then smirked as she replied, "Just checking!" She then jumped onto the window's ledge and turned to look at Catarina. "Well, I need to go do some business. I'll check back with you later!" The cat told her before it turned invisible and walked through the window, leaving the young solider behind.

Catarina slowly got up from where she sat and sighed heavily. "Damn it, as my familiar she could at least be a little bit politer." She then walked over to her bed and sat on it as she lent down to grab her bag. Opening it she pulled out a photo of her when she was younger.

In the photo she stood with a middle aged woman with dark chocolate brown hair accompanied by a teenaged boy with auburn hair and green emerald eyes. "Mother..." She softly whispered as she touched the photo with two of her fingertips. Her fingers glow a light blue and a shimmer of blue sparkles surrounded the photo. As this happened Catarina's eyes began to glow neon blue and at that moment her surroundings changed as her body became transparent.

She looked around to see the lush green grass and a small cottage that was covered in ivory vines sit at the top of an hill, it also had a single tree that stood tall nearby the house and it held a little sing that was tied to it by some rope.

Catarina let out a sigh of bliss as she looked at her old home. She then saw herself as a child running up to her now deceased mother, giving her mum a warm cuddle. It was honestly something she was very thankful for, seeing the happy memories she had as a child in person.

But with an swish of her hand and she returned back to reality. Sitting once more on the bed in her cabin on the NOL air ship.

"I've got to stop playing around with my powers like that. Otherwise I'm just going to drain myself of energy... Speaking on energy." She then turned her head to her pillow as she mumbled. "I should get some shut eye." She said as clicked her fingers, no longer wearing her NOL uniform but instead a pair of sky blue silkily shorts with a matching silkily tank top. She then pulled up the covers and hoped into bed, pulling the covers up to her chin as she snuggled into a ball as she fell asleep.

A/N: Okay, I'm back sooner than I thought. First of all, sorry if I'm rusty on this, I usually am when it comes to the beginning of a new story. Which by the way, this should have been up three years ago, but I was really picky on how to begin this and I wasn't sure if it was even good enough to post up with the past... drafts of this. Even though it may still suck. Anyways, enough about my crap. Hope you all enjoyed, please feel free to leave a review or not and I may see you guys some time again this month, depending on how fast my mind and fingers are working with my stories. And the mean comments I might get….