Author's Note:

FIRST of all, special thanks to my AMAZING girlfriend ChewyLoon! She both proofread and approved this chapter for upload, and helped clean up the grammar and spelling problems and just made the chapter even better! She also helped me with past fanfics like 5ervice with a 5mile, and she's even read the first chapter of Natural Selection five times (she doesn't even LIKE Spider-Man OR Elfen Lied)! Holy Shit! I don't know how I found perfection either, guys, but if you find someone like her, NEVER LET THEM GO! Please, help me say thank you by supporting her fanfictions, her tumblr, her youtube, her everything! 3

AND NOW, ENJOY THE CHAPTER!

ALSO PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW FOR THE CHAPTER AFTER READING, IT REALLY HELPS US A LOT TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS!

Natural Selection

Trennung

Months Earlier…

Darkness. Blackness. Oblivion.

There were no memories, no thoughts, no feelings. No sense of awareness, purpose, or being. No concept of good, bad; right or wrong. Empty… like death. It's quiet, not painful or pleasurable; just quiet. Eternal blackness. Until, there was a sudden spark of cognitive thought, a tug of awareness brought upon by a distant voice calling out to her.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity of silence was a thought in her mind, "Follow it." And so, she followed, but she didn't feel the step of her foot, or the waves of her hand; she just guided herself towards it. As the voice grew louder and louder, she began to feel more aware, and she began to question now; where she was and who she was. The voice was becoming clearer now, clearer for her to understand. Closing her eyes, and holding her breath, she listened closely.

"Nyu! Breakfast time!"

Only a fraction of a second passed, and Lucy's eyes were wide open. The feeling of complete oblivion suddenly rushed away from her as thoughts and memories began to reform in her head as if it had never left. It wasn't oblivion, it was a dreamless dream. It was the absent of her consciousness, it was nothingness; and she was back to the world of the conscious… Back from death itself.

Sharp beams of light trickling into the room through the windows made her vision blurry. Her lips felt crusty, her mouth felt dry and her stomach was empty. And yet, she couldn't feel the dirt under the nails, the stings of her scars or the pickings in her teeth like before. She felt clean; refreshed. She could feel it as well as she could feel the soft sheets covering her body or the light feathery pillow that supported her head.

"Nyu, it's time to get up, sleepyhead!" The voice was clearer this time, but still distant (she was in another room). She couldn't remember who the voice belonged to, but she has heard it from somewhere.

As she laid still and perfectly comfy in her bed, she peered groggily around the room. Everything in the room felt distantly familiar, like she's been here before, but she wasn't actually here before. It would be hard for her to describe. It was like the memories she had of this place wasn't her own. Lucy formed a soft frown on her face.

And so, a new and more important question formed in Lucy's head: "How am I alive?"

Her last bits of memory traced back to her final stand at the bridge, she was at dead end with dozens of soldiers with guns all aimed at her. She… she COULDN'T have survived it!

Lucy gritted her sharp teeth, sitting up in her bed, she pushed both of her hands against her forehead. She couldn't have survived the attack. She DIDN'T want to survive that attack! She didn't want to continue on... She wanted her final moments, her final memories to be with Kouta on the stone steps. She wanted her final memories to be the feeling of her lips pressed against his. She wanted her final moments to be of her feeling like a human being!

"Ugh, Kouta! Go wake up Nyu! It's time for breakfast!"

K-K-Kouta?

She could feel a rush of panic course through her body. That voice, this house, this… it's Kouta's house!

"Kouta, if you fell back asleep I swear; I won't make breakfast for you ever again! I really mean it!" And that was his cousin's voice alright, and she didn't sound any less irritating to Lucy than she sounded eight years ago.

"Ugh, alright, alright; Yuka. I'm up! Sheesh..." She could hear the tired voice from the room right beside her own. It was him. It was Kouta's voice.

"I'm not suppose to be here…." Lucy murmured softly to herself. She continued to look around her room, painfully confused. She could feel her heart clutching in her chest, and the growl of her empty stomach. She couldn't stay here, she had to leave! She couldn't let him see her here!

"Nyu, hey! What's the deal? You're usually the first one to breakfast!" Kouta chuckled as he peeked his head into the room.

Lucy spun towards the direction of the door, making eye contact with Kouta. Her body went stiff like a statue, and yet her heart was pounding in her chest and sweat trickled down her forehead. She felt like she was going to puke, but her stomach was empty. Kouta didn't look the least bit surprised to see her.

"...Kouta." Was all she could say under her raspy and tired breath. She spoke just like she has always spoke. Sad, mixed with a hint of dread; and a sense of awe.

"Nyu…?" Kouta's expression turned into that of confusion and slight worry, but then his face suddenly turned red with realization. "Oh! Sorry! I didn't knock!" Kouta squealed, quickly yanking himself out of her doorway and closing the door harder than he meant to.

"Kouta, did you go into her room without knocking again!? I told you, it's rude to just walk into a ladies room uninvented; you pervert!"

"Pervert?" Kouta muttered, clearly annoyed, and loud enough for Lucy to hear within her room.

Lucy however, continued to sit in a mixture of shock and confusion. She ran her eyes over the room she was in another time, as if she was going to discover something she hadn't seen before; though everything was still. Everything was… normal. Lucy then realized something; she couldn't feel them; she couldn't feel her...

"My arms! I can't feel my arms! There… Where are they!?"

Lucy haltingly slid through the door and peeked her head out into the hallway, where she could here numerous distantly familiar voices from down the hall. She could faintly hear Kouta being one of them. Something definitely wasn't right here, and without her vectors by her side she felt oddly vulnerable. Not completely powerless, of course; but it was an odd feeling. Those arms were practically her own children at this point; her only friends. When she was eleven she even gave them names: (Isabell, Madison, Rika and Kana). It was silly, but it was one of those rare moments in her life when she wasn't surrounded by doctors doing experiments on her or soldiers aiming at her with equalizers. It was just another shell for her small box of happy memories; right next to those curtale days with Kouta's visits.

"Hey, Nyu! Are you still not up!? Come on, breakfast is going to get cold!"

Lucy lumbered to the kitchen cautiously, she did not know what she was expecting to find; but what she saw was everyone kneeled around the table. No one had touched their food yet, everyone was just chatting, but Nana was looking especially beset in waiting for Lucy's arrival.

"Nana, you can wait a few more minutes! Nyu is going to be here any- Ah, here she is!" Yuka smiled with grace.

"Thank goodness! I thought I was going to starve!" Nana exhaled, her tongue flopping out of her mouth and her eyes halfway closed like a starving dog.

"Starve? At this rate you might just outgrow your new clothes; Nana." Mayu tittered innocently, shaking her head.

"Hey, that's mean!" Nana's face went cherried with embarrassment, she puffed her cheeks and raised her shoulders.

"Come on, Nyu; sit down so we can eat!" Kouta beamed brightly at her, gesturing for her to sit on the pillow right next to him.

Instead, Lucy gave him a blank stare for a moment, before sweeping her eyes at everyone else at the table. An idea suddenly grew in her head... Kouta must have lost his memory again. Somehow, he must have forced all of it back after what happened, after the stone steps; which means he doesn't remember finally finding resolution with her…

Lucy sighed and closed her eyes. Somehow, Lucy must have regressed back into that other version of her; the one they called 'Nyu'. Somehow, her body survived the shootout, and… 'Nyu' had made way back to the house. It was odd, even she wasn't sure if Nyu was just her without her memories; or a different persona entirely. She had faint memories of being her, but a lot of it was blurred. Either way, she couldn't stay here; as much as she wanted to, as much as she just wanted to sink back into Kouta's life and pretend to be the innocent and naive girl that he thought she was... But that wouldn't be fair to him. She couldn't stay in his life like that. Kouta may not remember what was said and what was done, but she would; and that was not okay with her.

"Nyu…?" She could hear Kouta climbing up to his feet now. "Nyu, what's wrong? What happened? Did you have a nightmare?"

"She's never had one of those before…" Yuka mused ambiguously, and looked to Kouta, then to Mayu.

Lucy opened her eyes, taking a step back from Kouta. She spoke, "I'm sorry, I have to leave…"

"Leave-?" He froze. "Wait, you can talk? When- when did this happen?" Kouta stopped advancing towards Lucy; and merely stared at her in complete shock. "You- can't just leave out of the blue."

Anxiety came on the rise. "K-Kouta, you don't understand. I-... I can't be he-" Lucy found her words suddenly stuck in her throat upon a glance at Nana out of the corner of her eye. Lucy widened her eyes like plates in dumbfounded awe and confusion, she was barely able to get the words out of her mouth; facing directly at Nana, she exhaled: "You- your horns!"

It took Nana a moment to realize that Lucy was looking directly at her. "Hm? Horns?" Nana paused in confusion. She ran both of her hands over her head, where there weren't any horns. At all. "Nyu, stop playing with me! Humans can't grow horns!" She laughed dismissively.

H- Humans?

Lucy halted, her heart rate was now exhilarating. She moved her hand across her head only to find… nothing! There were no horns. No… no horns.

Her legs began to tremble and shake spastically, her heart was pounding so hard it was sending surges of pain, and the room became a huge; dampening blur as tears filled her eyes. She felt disoriented and confused, she didn't know how to feel: she felt happy, she felt angry. She wanted to demand right now what was going on, but at the same time; wanted to curl up in Kouta's warm lap and pretend like her past life was a complete dream… A dream!

"No, no, no, no! This is a dream, a dream; I know it is! YOU'RE not real!" Lucy shook her head with vigor, hot tears flying everywhere. "I know this isn't real!" She faced the ground, closing her now-pouring eyes shut and gripping her head tight as ever with both hands.

There was a long, white silence. In the stillness, there was a foreign chuckle; followed by a single clap.

"Huh- Wow… you really aren't as dumb as you look!" There came another alienated but sick chuckle. "Of course it isn't real, Nyu!" The voice spoke with utter, spitting scorn. Lucy felt the words cut into her chest like a kitchen blade cutting a fruit. Her head snapped up unnaturally fast to meet Kouta's eyes. What met her was a traumatic sight.

Kouta returned her gaze, azure eyes glazed as if he was dead; and with a thinly-curled smile… and there was a huge gaping hole in the side of his head, nearly seeming to decapitate him; the blood and the flesh showing openly. Blood trickled down his face before it started pouring like water, his white shirt entirely stained with the familiar color of blazing red.

A sick shrug met his scrawny shoulders. "Like I said- I could never forgive you for what you did to me. You killed my family. You knew that. And so-" His grey eyes grew hints of crimson, growing like the rest of his body. "And so, you killed me."

Something was caught in her throat; and it was strangling her. "No!" The words were cried out with great pain.

"You killed me, and you liked it, didn't you, Nyu?"

"No-! NO! I- I didn't; I couldn't! I-" Her grip on her head and hair was getting so tight she felt her nails creating tiny punctures in her scalp, and her fingers throbbed like they were broken.

He took a step for her, and her shaking body nearly flung itself back. Crimson had almost entirely engulfed him now. "You promised me that you'd stop with the bloodshed. You're a liar."

You're a liar.

Lucy felt like she was drowning, her heart was pulverizing, cold beads of sweat dripping down her entire face and her throat clenching up tighter and tigher until she was choking. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't; the motions refused to be made. Everything started become incomprehensible. She could hear the hazy voices, voices of so long ago.

Aw, man! The dumb dog stopped moving!

You should've figured it out by now. This world wasn't made for people like me.

Make it stop! Just- God, make it stop! All of it! Stop it! All she could do was still try to scream, try to force her throat wide open and release her agonizing shriek; but she felt arms, out of the void, were gripping at her arms and legs, pulling her down; forcing her under the ground.

You know who isn't human?

Why would you do this to me?! I thought we were friends!

You know who isn't human?!

STOP IT! STOP IT NOW! PLEASE! STOP IT! NO MORE!

PEOPLE LIKE YOU!

"KOUTA...!" Lucy gasped. Her heart was beating with dark intent, a irregular beat, and cold, fleshy sweat drenched her entire body. Her arms and legs felt like they had been transformed to jelly. In a few seconds, Lucy had haphazardly put together that she was no longer in the maple house, but in a small; confined metal room. Narrow and linear in it's size.

Right across from her was a modest, shiny metal toilet, with a chrome-plated sink and mirror right aside it. On her right was a chrome-ish wall of metal, but a few good feet to her left- there was a odd barrier of some sort… It wasn't a wall, or a large window; it was some sort of light beam pulsating a green color.

Lucy placed it together. She has been captured again; but not by the same people. But it couldn't have been- This... was not where she had been kept before. This place was different, exceedingly different. She had seen a lot of the area she was kept at before; but she never saw anything like this. That was when she noticed, on the other side of the beam, was a colored man sitting in a chair. He was sitting back, relaxed; with his legs crossed outwardly and his arms resting on his lap.

Lucy glowered now, just like a cooped up tiger who just spotted nearby prey; and she made an abrupt climb to her feet, but she was stopped by a sharp pain in her abdomen. She growled with unrest, relieving herself back onto her metal bed, with her arm kept lax around her stomach. She stared back to the man, eyes glowing with malicious intent.

He looked back at her with an analytical, hard but unemotional eye. "I wouldn't be so quick to move, sunshine. You were hardly alive when we found you. You had a bullet lodged in your stomach so far that it's amazing how your legs are still functional." One eye narrowed. "I expect you're probably really confused as to your surroundings right now… to be expected, of course." The man's voice reached across the room.

Lucy didn't respond, only shooting the man a blank but still maliced stare, her eyes like the metal that surrounded her.

A hint of a sneer was on his face. "You can stare at me all you want. Those walls you're in are made of one of the strongest metals on this planet. It'll take your little vectors hours to get through, if at all." He gestured to the illuminating wall of light. "That force field you see front of you will fry any part of you that touches it, so-" Finally, a smile grew on his hard face, and he said with thin speech, "I'd get really use to where you are right now."

Lucy, again, didn't respond with a voice of intimidation or fear, but she continued to gawk coldly at the man with an animalistic gaze. He, unmoved by her maliciously overhanging stare; stood up from his chair and put his hands together with a dull clap.

"I've been itching to get my hands on you for a while; on account of your history, but the Japanese Government understandably doesn't appreciate it when we invade their country without asking- and we could not exactly negotiate all the details given the current situations... so we had to make sure we were extra quiet."

Lucy raised an eyebrow with cognizance.

"That's right. You're not in Japan anymore. You're in a place where people like you, people with extraordinary powers who use them to do very disgusting and inhuman things; are kept to ensure the safety of the world." His hands lowered, and the single eye grew darker than she'd ever seen. "To be quite honest," he spoke icly, "if it were up to me, you wouldn't be here right now. But, the law states we have to give you a proper chance in confinement before popping you clean through if you're not a world class threat; or if you are a minor. You just happen to be the latter."

Lucy's face had softened from violent malice to her sterle and unemotional face. She took another sweep at her surroundings, sinking in the room she was being kept in; but never giving the man any real indication of what she was thinking.

"You'll be here for twenty four hours a day. If you're nice, we might just put a TV in here. Maybe a Scrabble game. We'll feed you regularly. Now, we do need to get the food to you somehow, so as precaution; if you try to attack that force field, or these walls; or anyone or anything, this entire room goes up in flame just like that." The man snapped his fingers with an echo. "Any questions?"

Lucy remained utterly silent, until she asked in a completely chilled and almost uninterested voice, "Who are you?"

"Me?" The man chuckled, taking a single step forward so the light better caught him. He was tall, with dark skin, a bald head; and an eyepatch. "I, sweetheart, am Nick Fury, head of S.H.E.I.L.D. That's the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. And your name is Lucy, if i'm not mistaken."

Fury turned away from Lucy on a heel, walking out to the front dull with a dull clack of his shoes, and Lucy could have sworn out of the side of his face she saw a smile; filled with contempt.

"Welcome to America. We hope you enjoy your stay."

Greed. Regret. Mistakes. Power. Responsibility.

A young man who turned blind eyes to the waking world for the pursuit of his own selfish desires now spends his days helping anyone who can't help themselves. It has cost him much and gave him much; though it is now the world who has turned on him in exchange. Yet, the good samaritan dives into the battlefield time and time again to live up to his responsibilities and his mistakes.

All this on the next chapter of Natural Selection: "Responsibility."