Summary: Awakening someone does more than draw out the power within a person.

Initially set after season 1, but goes through the other seasons, up to season 5.

Twisting what happened at the end of season 1 a bit, and then some liberties are taken with some of the other canon scenes because of it.

Uh. I'd written this in 2013 but didn't like the ending so I wanted to work on it before posting it elsewhere. I promptly forgot about it. Oops?

Ties that Bind

By Dark Ice Dragon

M-21 shivered, overlooking the destruction around him. Where... He didn't have that kind of power. He was only experimental material, something that scraped the bottom of the barrel-

He flinched at the disapproving weight in his mind; he didn't know how, but he'd already categorised the two different presences as Frankenstein and his Master and whatever Frankenstein's Master had done to him, it was both mind control and not. Their presences were in his mind, slipped in like he hadn't created any barriers through his fights with M-24 (a sharp pain in his heart, of loneliness and shit, what was he going to do now?) but they weren't fucking doing anything either, just connected to his brain, knowing every thought he had, but not trying to make him do something either.

Was this what a contract felt like? But he'd thought a contract was only with the noble who had created the contract, not with anyone else the noble had created a contract with (could nobles contract with each other? But what did he know? Everything he knew was wrong).

"Master hasn't contracted with you," Frankenstein said, smiling. "But it is, in some ways, similar."

M-21 frowned. Was it going to be better or worse than a contract? …Did it really matter? Either way, he was tied to Frankenstein and his Master. "Yeah?"

Frankenstein nodded. "Our minds are connected because he awakened the powers within us."

He eyed at Frankenstein. His Master had done that with him as well? Was that why he was so powerful?

Light amusement from both of them.

No, obviously.

"But Master is waiting for you," Frankenstein said, tilting his head towards his Master.

He was? But even before he'd asked that, M-21 knew that was true, feeling his patience at the back of his mind.

And... Shit. Whatever it was that connected their minds together, it was a two-way street, different from mind control. Mind control was a fist slamming into someone's mind, the attacker trying to force the other to submit to their will - there was no exchange, apart from what the mind controller want the other to do. This... Just as M-21 knew they knew every one of his thoughts, he also knew what they were thinking, their minds completely open, not trying to hide anything.

They had no intention of using him or experimenting on him.

M-21 swallowed, and started following them back.

xOx

M-21 had poked around the house and apart from the size, it seemed like what a 'normal' house would be like. He'd paused at the balcony on the second floor, where he saw he could see anyone coming down the street. They could also see him as well, but it gave him the best vantage point without being on the roof.

Frankenstein and his Master's presence was still in his head, but he'd slowly gotten used to it - it wasn't something that he could change anyway. They didn't try to pry into his mind, and they ignored his thoughts (or maybe they were keeping track and would use that against him in the future, but he hadn't felt that from them either. Maybe they were better at hiding parts of themselves from him.).

He'd gleaned some things from them as well, information about the school Frankenstein had made, the reason why he'd founded it, his sweet tooth, and something they hadn't told him in words, but their very ages were a different kind of weight in his mind, something that was almost tangible.

There was a soft touch at his mind, wanting his attention. Frankenstein. M-21 pursed his lips, sending a fumbling reply back and he realised that Frankenstein was just on the other side of the balcony door, feeling how close he was.

It opened, Frankenstein stepping out. "Dinner is just about ready," Frankenstein told him, and M-21 raised an eyebrow at him.

"It would have been faster if you'd told me over the link." Neither Frankenstein or him had talked to him yet over it, but he'd caught snippets of conversation between them, only half-formed because the receiver already knew what the other was going to say before he'd said it.

"It's best to not get too used to the link, in case you start trying to use it with other people out of habit," Frankenstein advised.

Mm. That would draw attention. "All right," M-21 said, turning away from the street.

He felt Frankenstein's pleasure at that and - huh, they thought he wasn't eating properly.

xOx

The next morning, M-21 left the house and went up to the rooftops, watching the sun rise over the horizon. It had been something he and M-24 used to do, since they didn't need that much sleep and had needed something to do while they waited for their plans to develop. They'd look down at the unmodified humans far below them and sneer at how oblivious the humans were, how easily they could die without knowing what had killed them.

He clenched his hands, burying the memories, because if he dwelled too much, if he stopped walking forward and towards their names, what would his comrades think? Their deaths would have been meaningless.

After that, M-21 started exploring the city properly, avoiding the main streets, keeping to the lesser travelled back alleys.

He found the school that Frankenstein had built and was making arrangements for him to work at, the image he'd seen from their minds confirming it. It was large compared to some of the schools M-21 had seen in other places and he snuck in, wandering the grounds. No-one went to confront him.

No wonder Frankenstein wanted him there – the security was shit. If there was any.

He left the school after a few minutes (he didn't want to explain to anyone what the hell he was doing there when he could be recognised when he started working there) and went further out into the city, using the rooftops because it was faster and less crowded that way.

Eventually M-21 stopped and turned around. Even with all the miles between them, M-21 still knew exactly where Frankenstein and his Master was. It was like he had a compass imbedded into his brain and they were his north.

And if he could do that, then they could do it back to him as well. It meant getting the hell away was impossible if they wanted to track him down but... He would see. He didn't want to leave, or had a reason to yet.

xOx

'-surprised they haven't dropped dead yet. Why are you even-'

'M-21.'

'-them? They'll just fail the mission. ...Oh, heh, I see - gonna wring them until their usefulness is completely sp-'

'M-21!'

M-21 gasped, his chest heaving as his blood roared in his ears. Shit, he was restrained - he wanted to transform his arms, to free himself, but if he revealed he could do that here-

'M-21. It's all right.'

-What?

'You were having a nightmare.'

He stopped, trying to order his thoughts, trying to figure out where he was. The room was dark, no lights were on, and it didn't hold the oppressive reek of chemicals or bleach. He was on something soft, and his restraints covered all of him, not just his wrists and ankles.

M-21 relaxed, closing his eyes while he tried to get his breath back, make his heart beat normally. Right. He wasn't in the Union anymore. He was...safe.

And he'd just woken up Frankenstein and his Master because of his nightmare. Fuck.

A light chuckle. 'I wasn't asleep in the first place,' Frankenstein assured him. 'And neither was Master.' There was something behind Frankenstein's words there but M-21 couldn't figure work out what it was. 'You didn't disturb us.'

Hm, Frankenstein seemed sincere. M-21's heart had finally settled to a more regular pace and he started sorting out his blanket so he wasn't as tangled up in it.

'If you wish, I could make you some hot chocolate,' Frankenstein offered gently.

He drew in his eyebrows, and then snorted - Frankenstein couldn't see that.

Amusement. 'No, but I can still feel your emotions - it can help you sleep. If nothing else, it may give you something else to think about.'

M-21 lay there for a few seconds before nodding. 'All right. I'll try it,' he...thought towards Frankenstein as he got out of bed. It was different from speech, just trying to push his thoughts towards a person.

The living room lights were bright to M-21's eyes when he got there, but they adjusted quickly. Frankenstein was in the kitchen area, two mugs in his hands, his Master sitting at the table.

Frankenstein handed him one of the mugs, smiling at him in greeting as they both went to the table. M-21 peered at it after he'd sat down - it was slightly lighter than coffee, smelling a lot sweeter, which wasn't surprising, considering the name.

"How do you feel about starting your first day of paid work?" Frankenstein asked, sipping whatever he'd made for himself.

M-21 glanced at him. But it was a distraction, so he'd go along with it. "Fine. It's more of the same, right?" He was given a task to do and he had to do it - the only difference was he wasn't allowed to kill anyone. Intimidate, scare the shit out of, bodily throw someone out if the situation really needed it, but no killing.

Frankenstein chuckled. "Try to diffuse the situation before you do that, but yes."

M-21 nodded, taking that information in and tried the hot chocolate. It was thicker than he expected, sweet (and if it was sweet for him, did he have it with even more sugar?), but the taste wasn't overwhelming either.

"I'll introduce you to the security team in the morning-"

Oh, so he did have security.

Frankenstein paused, peering at him. "Ah?"

…Fuck. "I checked out the school this morning," he said, taking another drink of the hot chocolate. "No-one noticed." He studied Frankenstein's features while he said this, but Frankenstein wasn't angry - he was pleased, the emotion warm. M-21 looked away, pursing his lips.

"You are a modified human," Frankenstein pointed out, smiling softly. "But I see that you will be a good addition to the team."

M-21 didn't know how to take that compliment, dropping his gaze as he drank again. Huh.

It didn't take him long to finish his drink, and Frankenstein and he bid him goodnight as he left to go back to bed. The warmth of the drink seemed to be seeping into the rest of him as he went up the stairs, and he fell asleep as soon as he lay on his bed.

xOx

The first couple of days of working at Frankenstein's school had been uninteresting, only patrolling the grounds and the janitor talking with him for some reason. The biggest highlight had been when that Korean idol had tried to park his car in the middle of the grounds and finding out how much Frankenstein had decided to pay him for his work.

But when M-21 returned to the house, the white-haired kids were there.

'My apologies,' Frankenstein sent him as he got a glass of water to stay away from them. 'It had slipped my mind to warn you with all that had happened.'

'It's fine,' M-21 said, his teeth gritted, and he knew Frankenstein and his Master knew he was lying. 'It's your house; you do what you want.'

A small sigh. 'It's your house as well.'

M-21 paused at that, but he retreated to his own room without saying anything else.

xOx

'-n't that interesting. Not exactly what I expected, but if I can see where this change originated from, I could-'

M-21 shifted in bed, grimacing at the commentary echoing in his ears. Except he wasn't really hearing Frankenstein's voice (but at least it wasn't a faceless scientist with too much interest in him) and Frankenstein's thoughts slowed to a stop, surprise and then embarrassment winding from him.

'Ah, my apologies. Did I wake you? I didn't mean to, but this discovery is just-!' He hummed happily.

'I think you did,' M-21 said. 'It's fine.' He paused, considering his options. He could try to go back to sleep, but with Frankenstein still working, that was probably impossible, or he could help Frankenstein with whatever he was doing. It would give him something to do, rather than staring at a wall in boredom.

He started getting out of bed.

'Oh?' Frankenstein peered curiously in his direction and then M-21 felt his gratitude. 'Thank you.'

M-21 snorted. But if this was going to happen most nights (had he just been sleeping more deeply the previous nights or had Frankenstein just not been as reserved about his findings this particular night?), M-21 wasn't sure if he'd be able to sleep that much.

Fondness from him. 'You get used to it.'

He hoped so. Or else he was never going to get any sleep.

xOx

"Could you get the calorimeter?" Frankenstein asked, his attention on the screen in front of him, but the connection gave M-21 enough additional information -even if it had only flashed by in less than a second- to know where it was and a general sense of what it looked like.

When M-21 brought it over, Frankenstein started using it straight away without double-checking, already knowing it was the right one.

xOx

Asking Frankenstein to allow Tao and Takeo to stay at his house had been nerve-wracking, exposing something that he had wanted, wanted enough to ask for it, rather than let it slip through his fingers.

But he'd known the answer before Frankenstein had answered, because Frankenstein had known the question before he had even asked. And maybe that was why he had been able to ask in the first place.

xOx

"Okay, so," Tao said, nudging his elbow. "Did the Boss give you some special training, or did you come by that naturally?"

M-21 frowned at him. "What?"

Tao waved his hand towards Frankenstein, who was humming as he studied some new data he had collected on a lab computer. "You've been here longer than us, but I didn't think you'd know his procedures well enough to know exactly which beaker he wanted."

...Ah, right. M-21 sighed, Frankenstein distractedly being interested in his direction before being consumed in his work again.

He jerked his head towards the exit and led Tao and Takeo out the lab and towards his room. It wouldn't make much difference when Frankenstein and his Master knew what they were talking about (Frankenstein would eventually), but it would distract Frankenstein less from his experiments.

M-21 tried to think how he would explain what had happened while Takeo and Tao settled themselves and where he would start. Starting at the most important place made sense.

"Frankenstein's Master has an ability that calls out the untapped power in a person's body," M-21 started, recalling that fight, that rush of power that could not have been his own but was.

Should he tell them-? It would be easier telling them now in one go rather than in bits and pieces. "He called out the power from my werewolf heart." M-21 stopped, letting that bit of information sink in and then continued. Tao's eyes were wide, his eyebrows high, but he didn't try to interrupt. Takeo was frowning slightly.

"That's not the only thing an awakening does." He sighed, feeling his curiosity brush his mind before withdrawing. "It connects the mind of the person being awakened to the noble who awoke them. As well as anyone else the noble awoke."

Takeo's eyebrows drew in. "So, Frankenstein...?" he asked.

M-21 nodded.

"Huh," Tao said, rocking back on his heels. "Interesting. I wonder if that means you'll be as strong as him one day."

The disbelieving laugh slipped through M-21's lips before he could stop it. "Right." He'd had that one taste of power before it had faded after those few minutes and even then, what he'd had was nowhere near what Frankenstein could do. He knew now why they had been so amused when he'd made the same assumption.

"Hm?" Tao studied him. "You don't think so?"

"I'm sure of it."

Tao quirked a grin at him. "Ah, fine. This is Boss we're talking about."

xOx

"Hey, M-21?" Tao murmured, standing at his bedroom door. Takeo was standing next to him, and the smell of their own blood, whatever Yuri had poisoned them with still curled around them even after they'd washed.

Surprise, curiosity, and that wasn't - ah, shit. Of course. M-21 closed his eyes, waving them in.

They settled around him. "Sooo, this is what it feels like to have your mind connected with each other, huh?" Tao said, his fingers tapping his thigh, and he was wanting to stretch, his wrists still throbbing, but he was more focused on what he'd designated as 'M-21's area'.

"Yeah." He hadn't noticed with everything else that had happened. He'd assumed the whirling confusion was his own, the pain his alone, and the sick feeling in his stomach had been all of theirs.

"I was expecting it feel more, I dunno, crowded." M-21 could feel Tao reaching out through the link, just testing where the boundaries were, what was considered 'too close'.

M-21 shrugged. "It's...both," he said. "We know each other's there, we know what they're feeling, but we don't go poking around either."

"Kinda like radar?" Tao mused. "You get a little bit of info, but not that much."

M-21 nodded slowly. "Yeah." That analogy worked. "We can talk to each other through it though," he added.

Surprise again, from Tao. "Really?" Tao's expression flickered with a frown as he concentrated on – 'Like this?'

Takeo's eyebrows shot up.

M-21 tilted his head in a nod. 'Yes.'

Tao grinned. "This could make communication a lot faster, and we won't have to worry about anyone hacking into it either!"

There were two people who still weren't connected, but M-21 hoped they wouldn't need to be awakened, ever.

xOx

M-21 felt Takeo's attention on him one night as he was drifting off. The brush snapped back as soon as Takeo realised what he was doing, embarrassment emanating from the other man.

He rolled over, blinking. 'Mm? What is it?'

'Ah, it's nothing,' Takeo said. 'I just couldn't sleep; I was wondering if anyone else was awake.'

M-21 directed his attention towards Frankenstein and his Master. No response from them. 'Huh. They don't usually sleep that much,' he commented. They were usually still awake when he went to sleep and up when he woke up. At times he wondered if they actually slept.

'...You really are comfortable with them.'

He nodded. 'I got used to their presences a while ago,' M-21 said, shrugging. He paused, then got up; he wasn't going to be able to sleep now.

A flash of guilt. 'Ah. Sorry about that.'

M-21 shook his head. 'It's fine. I probably wouldn't have gone to sleep anyway.' What to do to pass the time though... Well, there was that. 'Counter-Strike?'

A pause as Takeo considered it. 'Yeah, sounds good.'

xOx

"Oh, sure," Tao sniffled at the gaming room doorway, "play without me."

"You were sleeping," M-21 said, rolling his eyes in his mind.

Tao caught that, and dropped his act, going to set at a computer. He prodded at the connection, hearing the brief flashes of communication happening between M-21 and Takeo. "Doesn't that count as cheating?"

"Not really," M-21 said, peering around a corner and then snapped back, the bullets whizzing by harmlessly. Go a different route. Takeo followed his advice. "We're on the same side and it's not that different from what we'd do normally anyway."

"'Cept it's faster," Tao pointed out.

That was true. M-21 and Takeo's side won that round, and Tao logged in, joining the other side.

Tao snickered, anticipation growing in him as M-21 sighed in resignation, Takeo groaning. The next matches were going to be...interesting.

xOx

'Tao,' Takeo said warily and M-21 blinked. He was just about to tune out their conversation from habit when Takeo said, 'what are you planning?'

Ah, shit. M-21 put his cup of tea down, paying attention. Takeo and Tao were in their own rooms, Takeo cleaning his guns and Tao...hid what he'd been doing, focusing on a picture on his wall.

'Me?' Tao asked, radiating innocence. 'Why do you think I'm doing anything?'

'Because you're answering my question with a question,' Takeo replied wryly. 'And I know you.'

Tao grumbled. 'But I wanted it to be a surprise!'

'It'll be a surprise now.'

'And Seira and Regis don't know yet,' M-21 added.

Tao perked up at that. 'Hm, no, they wouldn't.' He regarded them suspiciously though when he noticed something. 'You're going to tell them though, aren't you?'

'Yes.'

'Of course.' M-21 wasn't going to let Tao spring it on them completely unawares.

'Ah, fine,' Tao said, returning his attention to his computer. 'It's this!'

M-21 frowned, trying to focus on what Tao was showing them. The link didn't really share images between people that well, but the impression he was getting was-

'No.'

'Tao, we are not-'

'Aw, come on! It's a great idea! A few more tweaks and it'll be ready to be-'

'We are not wearing that!'

xOx

M-21 flopped into bed that night. They had managed to convince Tao to not do what he'd planned - and he rolled his eyes, hearing Tao's snicker in his mind. Or maybe not as well as they'd thought.

But he was done for the day and M-21 closed his eyes, reaching out to the others, feeling safe and content. Home. He got soft responses back, 'goodnight's following him to sleep.

Ahahaha, let's ignore the plothole of why Frankenstein wasn't able to pinpoint Rai then when he went into hibernation, or we could say it was because Rai was sleeping in some sort of lead-lined coffin that stopped all responses. Also, here, have a mash-up/missing scenes of previous fics, pfft.

...This half makes me wonder if Seira and Regis will be awakened at some point in the future as well.