I've been working on this story for just over a year, and I am both nervous and excited to finally share my creation with you! So, the way this story works: it is told in alternating timelines which will be clarified with a heading at the beginning of each chapter to tell you where we are in the timeline. Tokyo Ghoul strictly follows manga canon. Tokyo Ghoul: re does NOT. The characters will generally be the same, but the storyline and situations are drastically different. This was one of the hardest things I've ever written partly because I've never diverged from canon as much as I did here, but I hope I did a good job with what I came up with.

A special shout-out to user, OFSA, for being an awesome beta reader and Tumblr user, hannycho12, for the AMAZING commission of Corie that makes up the cover photo!

Reina=27

Sasaki=22

The shrill screech of the morning alarm pierced what was once a peaceful quiet.

Reina groaned. "Five more minutes," she pleaded of the infernal clock whose sole purpose was to disrupt her sleep.

She flopped over and pushed the 'Off' button to silence the horrid noise.

Tempted to call in sick and sleep the day away, she forced herself out of her comfortable bed and prepared to begin her day which was probably going to be just as similar as the three hundred before it and no less awful.

Reina dressed in her business shirt and jacket and her black slacks, just as an office employee should dress. She then tied her black hair into a bun with her bangs hanging to one side just beneath her eyebrow.

She hated dressing this way. It felt constricting. She certainly missed the days where she could wear jeans and a t-shirt and let her hair down. It felt like an entire lifetime ago.

As she slipped her black-rimmed glasses over her green eyes, she was once again struck by just how plain and ordinary she looked. She was the kind of woman who easily faded into the background.

But that was okay. It was how she wanted it.

After completing the rest of her morning routine, she quickly grabbed her bag and headed to her place of employment.

The large building greeted her when she was still a mile away. One would have to be living under a rock to not know of the purpose for such a monumental structure.

The Commission of Counter Ghoul Main Office.

Their purpose for existing was to eradicate all ghouls who walked the streets of Japan. It didn't matter who they were or what they did. If they were a ghoul, they must be exterminated.

Reina sighed heavily as she entered the building and bypassed the RC scanner gates. She hated that part. If it malfunctioned and went off on her, she didn't even want to think about what might happen.

As she headed towards the administrative department where she worked, she passed by several investigators who seemed to be prepping for their next mission or going out to gain intel on their current mission. She wondered what it was like to be an investigator and constantly put your life on the line, never knowing if the next mission was going to be your last.

A particular investigator with white and black hair passed by from a distance.

Haise Sasaki.

He was rather new, only having been an investigator for about two years, but he had potential. He was also quite famous for being the leader of the Quinx squad and a Quinx himself, or a hybrid ghoul. He could use kagune like a ghoul, but as far as everyone else at the CCG knew, he was essentially human in every other way.

Though Reina had never spoken to him, she'd heard lots of stories about him, both from people who admired him as a leader and an investigator and from people who despised him because he was too similar to a ghoul for their taste.

Reina reached her cubicle and with a deep breath, she quickly began to finish the whopping amount of paperwork sitting on her desk.

The CCG has just wrapped up a huge mission dealing with a ghoul known as 'The Shadow', named for his keen ability to disappear into the shadows shortly before being apprehended by investigators. Unfortunately for him, several squads had been sent out to dispatch him and they had succeeded. The Shadow was no more.

She never knew the sheer amount of paperwork that went into extermination missions. There was paperwork for before the mission started, paperwork for when the ghoul was caught, paperwork for when the ghoul wasn't caught, and a whole lot of paperwork for after the mission was completed.

And considering the amount of missions that took place in the CCG, the administrative department was certainly never bored.

When her workday concluded, Reina made sure her desk was neat and tidy and left the office, ready to come back in less than 24 hours. Office jobs never suited her, and she almost felt like she was wasting her life away by working here, but this was her choice and she wasn't going to start regretting it now.

While her day may be over, the investigators rarely ever got a break. They rested when their mission had come to a pause and for a little bit in between missions but no more.

So it was no surprise that as she left, she witnessed a few squads departing as well, armed with their quinques.

Among them was Haise Sasaki. However, unlike the rest of the investigators, he ran out the door with a sense of urgency.

Urgency. That could only mean one thing.

Reina quickly exited the building, thankfully not having to walk through the RC gates again to leave, and began to discreetly follow the investigator just as she had several times before.

As she walked, she shrugged off her business jacket and replaced it with her large black hoodie just in case she ended up needing to move quickly which was a very real possibility.

It wasn't long before Sasaki and Reina (who stayed out of sight) found themselves joining the other investigators who made up his small squad. The three hybrid ghouls were currently up against an all-too-full ghoul.

Reina knew this one. He had been given the alias 'Black Rose' for the blackened rose he left with the remains of his victims. Only truly overconfident and foolish ghouls left calling cards. The rest only knew to survive.

Black Rose's kagune, a blur of red and blue, loomed above all of the junior investigators. It was one of the bigger kagunes a ghoul could have, that was for sure. And it was painfully clear that the Quinx had been fighting the ghoul for a while and yet he didn't have a scratch. Maybe if they had the other member of their squad, they could've done at least a little bit more damage, but Saiko was nowhere to be found as usual.

"You guys okay?" Sasaki shouted to his subordinates.

"We're fine!" Mutsuki replied. "This guy's tough though!"

"We managed to clear the area, Teach!" Shirazu added.

"Good work! Come on! Let's take this thing down!"

Reina slipped off her glasses and removed her black hair, allowing her normal dark blonde tresses to cascade down her shoulders. The fresh air touched her scalp and boy, did it feel good. She hated wearing this thing more than the awful business get-up.

She shoved the glasses and wig into her bag before pulling out the item she knew she was going to need.

The Quinx squad armed themselves with their quinques and kagunes, but this ghoul was clearly ready to face both types of weapons. His large kagune split into two pieces and each piece fought two investigators.

Reina watched with worry. This wasn't going to be easy for any of them.

The ghoul laughed sadistically. "I've heard about the famous hybrids the CCG created. How sickening. Are you trying to mock us? As if we didn't hate the Doves enough already."

With an enraged shout, Urie jumped up and tried to attack Black Rose, but one of his kagune pieces easily knocked him and his weapon aside.

Sasaki went in for the attack next while his other squad members tried to quickly recuperate.

Black Rose quickly smacked the investigator's quinque with his kagune and then stabbed him in the chest with the other piece.

Sasaki fell to the ground in agony. It was his own fault. He should've been more prepared for the attack, but he'd just run in blindly and now he was paying the heavy price for it. While his wound had already started to heal, he wasn't sure it would be in time for him to mount another attack. Not that he could attack. This thing had destroyed his weapon. Sure, he had his other weapon, but it was almost just as dangerous to use that…

Suddenly, a familiar ghoul landed directly in front of him. But just like the other times, the ghoul faced his opponent rather than the investigator himself.

"It's Lightning," Mutsuki said quietly.

The newly arrived ghoul smirked at the nickname, given for the blue and white lightning streaks on the mask worn to protect the ghoul's identity.

Black Rose laughed at his new opponent. "Can I help you? Can't you see I'm trying to have dinner?"

"I'm sorry," Lightning said quietly so that the squad behind her could not hear her words. She was always careful that they never heard her speak. "But I can't let you hurt this group of investigators."

"What would people say if they heard you turned on your own kind to protect the Doves? Might get quite ugly for you."

"I'm willing to take my chances."

Four dark purple and black tentacles exited from her back and sharpened at the end before facing their target.

"Leave now, and I won't hurt you."

Black Rose just laughed again. "Oh, please, 'Lightning', was it? I could take you with my eyes closed."

Before he had even finished his sentence, one of the purple tentacles punctured his shoulder.

"Excuse me! I was talking!"

In fury, Black Rose once again combined his large kagune and attempted to crush her. Lightning moved out of the way with barely a second to spare and used that time to stab his torso with two of her tentacles.

The ghoul coughed up blood onto the pavement. With the purple tentacles still embedded in his body, his threw his kagune towards her. Lightning once again evaded it and stabbed him with the other two tentacles.

"I didn't know it was possible for a ghoul to be so fast…" Shirazu remarked as he watched Lightning move around effortlessly.

The Quinx squad watched in awe as the purple kagune ghoul fought one of its own kind. They remained just as stunned as the first time this had happened several months ago. It was the fifth time in the last year that the infamous Lightning ghoul had come to their aid when things looked grim for them.

And it made just as much sense as the first time which was no sense at all.

Lightning tossed Black Rose a few feet away. "Go."

"I'll make you pay for this," he growled. "You shouldn't have turned your back on your kind."

"I haven't."

Black Rose may have been an overconfident ghoul, but even he knew when he was fighting a losing battle. He took off before the investigators and this Lightning character had the chance to finish him.

Lightning faced the other investigators for a brief second before bounding off.

"Wait!" Sasaki called.

It was no use. The strange ghoul was gone.

"Anyone else have a clue what's going on?" Shirazu asked the rest of the squad.

"Not at all," Mutsuki replied. "Why would a ghoul fight to help us? Do you think they're a half-ghoul like us?"

"I doubt it," Urie put in. "(Idiot.) Otherwise, they wouldn't feel like they had to hide their face from us. Half-ghouls like us don't use masks. (The coward)."

"What do you think, Teach?"

Sasaki stared off in the direction the lightning-clad ghoul had left. Since the first time that person had come to their aid, he felt that there was something really familiar about the ghoul but he could never place just exactly what it was that made him feel that way.

He could still remember the first time he had ever seen Lightning. He had been in the middle of a fight with a pretty experienced ghoul, and he'd lost his quinque on top of it all. Just when he thought his life was over, the lightning-masked ghoul had appeared in front of him. He had been admittedly rather terrified, thinking that he was now up against two ghouls instead of one. But to his shock, the newcomer had begun fighting the other ghoul rather than him and only took off once he was safe.

"Come on, let's head back," he said to his squad.

Far from the scene of the fight, Reina whipped off her mask and leaned against the wall, panting heavily. Fighting had become so much harder lately. She had a pretty good idea of what the reason was, but she didn't want to think too much about it or what would happen if this continued.

Instead, she headed home to nurse her most recent wounds.