Kanone woke up in a cold sweat, sitting straight up in his bed, panting. Next to him, vibrant, blue eyes opened lazily at the movement next to him. Eyes turned over to face Kanone, and studied his lover, "Are you alright?" he asked, noticing that the older one seemed very distraught.

"I...I'm fine." Kanone said, not very convincingly.

Eyes didn't like the look he saw on Kanone's face. He had only seen that look one other time, "Nightmare?" he asked, which was confirmed with a nod, "About..." he trailed off, not sure what to call that place...hell? It certainly seemed like it.

Kanone got what he was talking about, and nodded, "Why? Why would I have that nightmare now?" he wondered. The same place they had ended up after they had disappeared in front of Ayumu's eyes that night. It had been only a month ago, but everyone had already forgotten the entire ordeal. Now, though, this nightmare that he had brought back horrid memories that Kanone wished he didn't have.

Flashback

Kanone's eyes slowly opened, and he rolled onto his back, groaning. Slowly, he sat up, and surveyed his surroundings quickly. Seeing no major threats, he glanced to the form next to him, and started shaking it, "Eyes, wake up." he said in a hushed voice, not wanting to speak too loudly for fear of alerting something to their presence.

After a few more moments of shaking his husband's shoulder, Kanone was finally rewarded with a soft groan as piercing blue eyes snapped open in alarm. He quickly sat up, wincing slightly at the pain in his rib cage where his seventh rib was missing. He looked around the pitch black room, and finally adjusted his eyes, turning them from blue to yellow. He glanced to the older one to see he had made the same transition, "Where are we?" he asked, slowly standing up.

Kanone followed suit, "I can see about as much as you can." he replied. Though their cat-like eyes did help in darkened surroundings, not even the felines themselves can see in a darkness like this; it seemed almost consuming the way that it thrived around them, feeding off their uncertainties. Almost as if it were a man made darkness, created especially to keep the Blade Children blinded.

Several more groans were heard, and ten minutes later, six sets of glowing yellow eyes were looking at each other. Finally, Kanone ventured a little farther into the darkness, feeling his way around. The others quickly followed suit, searching for a light switch of some sort. Then, as consuming and foreboding as the darkness had come, it was swept away in a flash of light as Ryoko stumbled upon the light switch.

Their eyes quickly adjusted back to their normal colors, and the six turned to each other, and gazed upon a sight more horrid than their worst nightmares. Hiyono buried her face into Kanone's shirt, who held the girl's head close to him, "Shh, it's alright, dear." he whispered, though his own voice was cracking from the sight before him.

Blood. It was everywhere. Spilt onto the tile floors, splashed onto the white walls, even soaking through the ceiling, signaling even more gruesome happenings on floors above this one. The room was far from empty, and Kanone was surprised that no one had run into anything with the cluttered mess that lay before them. Papers were scattered all over the floor, charts and notes written about the experiments going on in the building. Machines that appeared to have run those tests that the charts were referring to were long ago put out of use, and were now crackling with electricity.

What might be most noticeable were the giant containers lining the walls of the room. 20 glass containers, reaching from the floor to nearly half way up the 30 foot walls, filled with a murky green substance that resembled polluted lake water ran along three of the walls, excluding the one wall that contained the light switch, door, and other electrical outlets. It was very obvious they were once used to keep something, though what was beyond any of the Blade Children's imaginations, alive for further experiments and testing.

Though, once your attention was taken from that, it would most likely turn to perhaps the most horrifying sight that particular room had to offer. In the middle of the giant room there was a single, metal table that resembled a stretcher. Straps had been added to the table, as had wheels for restraint of the experimentee and mobility of the table. On top of the table, was a sheet, very clearly covering something. The material may have been white at one time, though it would be impossible to tell giving that the entire length of it was soaked in the blood of whatever had fallen victim to these gruesome experiments. The straps were still buckled, holding the thing in place, and the wheels seemed to have been locked, suggesting that whatever was going on had taken quite a long time.

Kanone noticed one thing dreadfully eery about the whole situation, and that was the dripping of blood off of the table onto the already blood soaked floor. Dripping blood meant there was something bleeding, and everyone in that room, save Hiyono, knew that something bleeding was something alive. Taking a deep breath, Kanone handed Hiyono to Eyes, who took her and mimicked his lover's motion of holding her head close to his chest, as to not let her see the horrors of that room. Slowly, but surely, Kanone stepped into the middle of the room, and approached the table. Every single eye in that room, other than the two that were tightly closed and pressed against Eyes' chest, was on Kanone as he grasped the very edge of the blood-soaked sheet. His face was emotionless as the crimson substance spread onto the fingers that it touched, and in one swift motion, he ripped the sheet off, letting it come to rest on the floor by his feet.

The once stoic face turned into an expression of complete horror and disgust. He heard Ryoko whimper slightly, and Rio gasp at the sight. Even Eyes' face faltered slightly and he swallowed hard, but kept his gaze glued to the form on the table. If it could even be called a form...What might have once been a human being was laying, strapped to the table, the large, leather, black straps biting into what might have once been flesh. It looked as if the skin had been stripped from the, what Kanone could only was a, girl; her entire body was soaked in her own blood. Her face, though still intact was right out of a horror movie; stitches ran up both sides and across her face and forehead. Her hair's color was undeterminable having been soaked with blood, most likely from the incisions made upon her face and chest.

Her stomach made even Kanone nearly sick to gaze upon. From her diaphragm down was split open, and her intestines had either been removed or cut open, for god knows what reason. The rest of her was no different, covered in blood and stitched up. Why whoever cut her apart in the first place put her back together was beyond Kanone's understanding, but he wondered if they were done yet, seeing as how she still had her midsection ripped open, "Perhaps they found something interesting..." Kanone thought, and wondered what would possess someone to defile another's body like this, and who this girl was and what she had done to deserve such a fate.

No one had spoken in the longest time, so when Kousuke finally did, nearly everyone in the room jumped, "Hey, Kanone...look at this." he said, motioning to one of the machines he had been standing by.

Kanone joined him, and saw that there were x-rays of several parts of the girl's body. The one that Kousuke was holding up interested Kanone the most, mostly because it the area that was still split open. His olive green eyes gazed over the x-ray, not noticing anything particularly interesting, until he glanced over the ribcage. More specifically, a certain spot on the right side. What he saw there made him drop the x-ray and stumble back a few steps. Eyes looked at him worriedly, "Kanone?"

"Are you alright?" Rio asked, finally finding her voice.

Kanone slowly nodded his head, then turned to gaze upon the girl's mangled form, "She...she was a Blade Child." he informed the others.

"You're sure?" Ryoko asked, not wanting to believe that someone would do this.

Kanone nodded once more, and turned his attention to the papers scattered on the floor. One small notebook in particular grabbed his attention, and was as blood-free as anything else in that room. He flipped to the first readable page, and silently read the entry there:

June 28, 2006

We have finally captured another of the cursed children, and hopefully this one will prove to be more useful in our experiments. He seems to be more cooperative than the last, so I have high hopes for him. Testing will begin immediately.

August 19, 2006

We may be running into difficulties with the new Blade Child. Due to such a young age, it is hard to tell the effects of his curse as of yet. While he is missing the trademark 7th rib bone, his blood is coming back negative in all tests. If he truly is a Blade Child, then he is not exhibiting the more dominant traits as of yet. Perhaps 5 is too young of an age to experiment. If so, perhaps it is too young of an age for us to hunt them?

Kanone's eyes widened at this last entry, "Five years old? How could they do such a thing?" he wondered, "So, this place was run by the Hunters, and they did these...experiments." Shaking his head in disgust at the Hunters, he read on.

January 12, 2007

We've made...a horrible error. The boy...he wasn't a Blade Child. Apparently some accident resulted in a loss of his seventh rib...How could we have overlooked this so horribly? This will not be taken lightly. If word ever reaches the others, there could be disaster ahead for this company. We pledged to protect people, not destroy them...We're no better than those cursed children now. We must redeem ourselves, we must find out the Blade Children's weakness.

"An innocent boy?" Kanone thought, glancing over to Eyes, who was holding Hiyono, "No older than my own daughter..." He shook the thought of Hiyono being part of the Hunter's experiments, and turned his attention to the latter part of the entry, "Weakness? They were trying to find a physical weakness to use against us?" Kanone glared at the body on the table, "Is that why they stopped, have they found something?"

March 23, 2007

We have captured another one. We must be certain this time that she is one of the cursed children. If we make another mistake like last time, I fear that the guilt will be too much for me.

April 18, 2007

After many, many tests, we have come to the conclusion that this girl is indeed a Blade Child. Other than her missing rib bone, she showed several other traits of a Blade Child, and even dared to ask if we were Hunters. Yes, she is surely a Blade Child, and almost at her end as well. Her death will give us new information to bring destruction upon the cursed children. If we do not learn of a weakness soon, it may be too late. I will not give up hope, though, I believe that these monsters can be stopped, and I will dedicate my life to finding those means.

May 30, 2007

I hate to admit that we are failing to make any progress with the newest captive. We have refrained from drugging her, as to not alter the test results, but the restraints alone aren't enough to keep her still. I fear if she continues like this, she will bring too much harm to herself and will interfere with our testing, perhaps halt it all together. That may prove fatal for us, and is a possibility we cannot afford to overlook.

July 10, 2007

We have finally found a way to restrain the Blade Child so that she remains still enough for us to experiment on her. It was quite a simple method, and I feel foolish for not thinking of it earlier. It seems that the surrounding ribs above and below the missing one act as a sort of achellies heel to the Blade Children; especially those more influenced by pain. If the proper amount of pressure is applied to either of those ribs, it seems to stop all movement entirely. It also seems to put her in a great deal of pain, but that is not what we are concerned with. Perhaps this new development will lead to a fool proof method of stopping the Blade Children on a larger scale?

October 25, 2007

As the day quickly approaches, I fear that we will not find a fool proof method to stopping these cursed children before it's too late. We have been hesitant to kill her because it will interfere with the test results, especially concerning her blood work. So far, nothing useful has come back from the lab, and we are hoping that more extensive testing will provide us with more efficent answers.

September 1, 2007

I am certain now that all our efforts have been in vain. We have been working round the clock to find some method that works one hundred percent of the time, but we are starting to fear there is no stopping these creatures. Perhaps... perhaps we should have focused our efforts more on hunting them rather than experimenting. Though, regretting our actions now won't give us the time we need. While there are those that have worked hard to eliminate the Blade Children by simply killing them, the majority of us have been in this laboratory for so long, we forget what the outside world looks like. We've heard word from the outside, though, that the attempts made by others have been unsuccessful as well. Is there really no stopping them? If so, then is mankind doomed to suffer at their hands? I fear tomorrow, so unsure of what is to come. We have not killed the Blade Child yet, but have kept her alive to see what effects the Sacred Day has on her.

"Sacred Day?" Kanone thought, "What could that be?" It was obvious that today was this Sacred Day, but what was so sacred about it?

September 2, 2007

The day is finally here. The Sacred Day. I only received an explanation of this day myself a year ago. Ever since then, I have worked non stop to make sure the predetermined events never came about. It seems it was futile to fight against what is so clearly our fate. I wish I had seen this truth sooner, but I cannot wait in regret any longer. If today is the day that I am to die, than so be it. I will accept my fate with open arms.

The restraints held, amazingly, but she put up quite a fight. It was amazing to watch, from a safe distance, of course. It started around 11:00 a.m., she struggled against her restraints, crying out in pain and agony. From what, we will never be certain. That had lasted nearly an hour, then she stopped moving completely, and we all hoped for the best; perhaps she, and all the Blade Children around the world were dying right this moment. Unfortunately, those hopes were shot down as she opened her eyes once more. I'm not certain of their color before this incident, but they were a glowing yellow when she opened them again. Soon, she started struggling again, but this time was different than the last. The first time she was writhing in pain, this time she simply seemed to want to be released. Once again, we will never be certain what for, but we can only guess it was to slaughter us. We waited a good half hour and she never stopped, very persistent. We finally silenced her, quickly and painlessly; she had suffered enough already. After running a few more tests, someone pointed out a very interesting fact. It appeared that where her seventh rib bone was missing, it had grown back! We're almost certain that this occurred during that first hour. Though, what conclusions to make from this, we are clueless.

The entries stopped there, and Kanone dropped the book to the floor, "It grew back?" he thought, "They were here...today. Moments before we appeared, where did they go?" Of course, his first thoughts traveled to the upper floors, though what he would find up there, he had no idea. If there was enough blood to soak through the floors, then he wasn't sure he wanted to see. He definitely didn't want the others to see, and was satisfied with not knowing this one thing. Though, the little voice in the back of his head told him he already knew, and it wasn't good.

Turning to the others, he realized they were all waiting for him to explain what had happened, and what he read, "Well?" Kousuke asked, impatient as always.

Kanone hesitated, "Nothing that I could understand." he lied, "A bunch of experiments, but nothing of any merit. Just a crazy man's writing." He hated to lie to them, but he knew they would be better off naive to the entire thing. The horrible things that had happened; they'd seen and knew enough already. Heading towards the door, Kanone yanked it open to be welcomed by a rush of cool night air. Surprised that the exit was this simple to find, but also extremely thankful, Kanone turned to the others, "We should go." he suggested. The others nodded, and followed him out of that hell.

End Flashback

"I was so hard on Ayumu, yelling at him because he sent us to that place, when perhaps I should have been greatful to him. Everything I saw there...it opened up my eyes to a lot of things." Kanone thought. He realized that all of his efforts had been useless as well. Trying to kill Ayumu and show Eyes the truth. Kanone realized he was a fool; he hadn't known the entire truth to begin with, how could he have possibly tried to show it to anyone? No wonder Eyes thought he was crazy.

Eyes shook Kanone gently, now worried about his husband, "Kanone?" he repeated once more.

Snapping back to reality, Kanone smiled at Eyes, "Sorry, just thinking."

"You're alright?" he asked, not convinced.

The other man sighed, and laid down, wrapping himself in Eyes' arms, "I am now." he replied. He felt Eyes tighten the hug for a moment, and knew why. Kanone had never explained what he had learned down there, but Eyes knew it must have been horrible to haunt him for so long. Finally relaxing, Eyes drifted off to sleep once more, leaving Kanone alone with his thoughts, "The girl's rib grew back, but mine didn't. In fact, none of ours did." he thought, then suddenly felt cheated and angry at Ayumu. Their missing rib bone marked them as Blade Children; if they had gone through the hour's worth of pain and gotten that missing part back, then would that have meant they were no longer cursed? Did that mean they were truly able to live? He knew it was foolish, but he felt jealous of the Blade Children who had become whole. Then again, "The report also mentioned that the girl went just this side of crazy, and if she hadn't been in her restraints, then she most likely would have killed them all; I can believe that. We, however, didn't get the urge to kill at all. Perhaps gaining our rib bone back came with a price." If that were true, then Kanone couldn't thank Ayumu enough. He then realized that being sent there, and learning all of this, pointed to the conclusion that their seventh rib bone was missing for a reason, and getting it back could prove fatal. Perhaps there was a reason Ayumu sent them there, whether he knew it or not; perhaps it had all turned out for the best. Smiling to himself, Kanone decided on that, and snuggled into Eyes' warm embrace, "Thank you, Ayumu."

And there you have it. I combined the first two chapters, so now it's only 40 chapters instead of 41. I suppose that's all I have to say. Thanks again for reading!