Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Read or Die, Read or Dream or ROD the TV, I'm just borrowing them for a bit. This is also a self-insert fanfiction with shoujoai, so if you don't like either, I'd recommend skipping it.

Read or Dare! Five Years Ago...

"Ack.." Shane staggered through the headquarters of the British Library, the smoke choking the long brown haired man as he raised another wall of paper sheets, blocking out the rapidly spreading flames.

"Grab as many books as you can," Joker called as he limped along, his short blonde hair blackened with soot and the leg of his pants charred, "but don't slow down!"

"The doors are jammed," Wendy yelled at the entrance, the little blonde tugging on the handles weakly.

"Damn it," Shane muttered, trying to think faster. He had never used the paper like this before, he was just a normal librarian. He hadn't even known that he could do it, not until a falling beam gave him no choice.

THOOM! Suddenly the heavy doors were slammed open from the outside as two figures quickly leapt to help the others outside. One woman wore a black leather bodysuit and the other had on a long coat and glasses.

"Yomiko, good timing," Joker managed, then his eyes widened in surprise as he got a good look at the other woman, "Nancy...?"

"It's been awhile," the leather clad Nancy Mukahari nodded as she assisted a older gentleman clutching books to his chest.

"Time for reunions later," Shane yelled, feeling the rising flames on the other side of his paper wall, "let's get going, please!"

"Hai," Yomiko agreed as she moved over to Shane's side, giving him a sweet smile as she helped reinforce the paper barrier, the Library employees streaming by them. "Well done," she said to him softly.

"Thanks," Shane agreed. The flow of people slowed, then stopped as he looked back at Wendy, "Is that everyone?"

"There were fatalities in the original explosion," Joker spoke up grimly as he helped people outside, "including Mr. Gentleman."

"Oh, no," Yomiko murmured softly. Her eyes narrowed, clearly angry, "They'll pay for this, whoever they were.."

"Time to go," Nancy forcefully grabbed Yomiko and Shane, phasing them all as they broke and ran away from the burning building.

As they gathered outside Shane took in Yomiko more closely, and saw a red stain slowly spreading on her arm. "What happened?" he frowned.

"Someone tried to kill Sumiregawa Nenene," Nancy moved over to stand worriedly at Yomiko's side, "if we hadn't been there..."

"When, exactly did this happen?" Joker asked thoughtfully.

"About half an hour ago," Yomiko winced in pain as Nancy carefully pulled her long coat off to tend to the cut in Yomiko's upper arm.

"Almost the same time the fire started," Wendy murmured, while Joker looked up at the burning building, his expression unreadable.

"Joker," Yomiko worriedly asked, "where's Drake-san?".

It was a few hours later that they had some of the answers, gathering in a temporary meeting place in an expensive Tokyo hotel. Most of the people in the room were cleaned up, but all of them carried an edginess, as if they knew the worse was to come.

Drake Anderson restlessly paced the open area between the couches of the meeting room, waiting for word. His daughter had been clipped by an explosion, one that occurred almost exactly at the same time as the other incidents, and her condition was still critical. The muscular blonde scowled, "What's taking so long?"

Nancy spoke up from where she was braiding Yomiko's hair, "I'm sure that Joker is doing everything he can."

"Thought you were dead," Drake gave her a look.

"I got better," was Nancy's dry answer.

"Does anyone know why Joker asked me to be here?" Shane asked, his brown hair roughly tied back out of his face.

"I'm sure there's a good reason," Yomiko gave him a gentle smile.

Just then Wendy opened up the door, the younger woman giving Drake a tired smile as she reported, "The medical team Joker brought in have successfully pulled her out of danger, she'll be all right."

Drake visibly relaxed, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Joker limped inside, leaning on a clearly new wooden cane as he said grimly, "when I suspect that I may in part be at fault." There was a moment of stunned silence as he sat down and added, "These events were part of a organized attack on the British Library itself and specifically this Special Missions group."

"But why attack Nenene?" Yomiko blurted out.

Joker gave her a wry smile, "She's the person that you're closest to, at least from what they could tell. Much like Drake and his family."

"Who are they, exactly?" Shane leaned forward to ask. "You sound like you already know who they are."

"They're called Dokusensha," Joker admitted with a weary sigh, "we've even done business with them in the past."

"Obviously they've decided we're a problem," Wendy said tentatively.

"The attack on the library was intended to shut us down," Joker said grimly, "though thanks to Shane that failed, at least in part. I think that the personal attacks were to convince our best agents to stay out of this."

"When I get my hands on them!" Drake growled.

"No Mister Anderson, you won't," Joker said quietly.

"Why.." Drake blinked in surprise.

"There's your wife and daughter to consider," Joker reminded him, "I cannot in good conscience allow you to continue on when I can't guarantee their safety."

"Damn it," Drake growled, but he didn't argue.

"So it'll just be me and Nancy going after these Literary Mystics?" Yomiko asked worriedly.

"We won't be going after them immediately, in fact we'll be going underground for a while." Joker smiled grimly, "I want them to think we're dead and gone, ideally."

"I don't like the idea of Yomiko and Nancy operating alone," Drake muttered.

"They won't be operating on their own," Joker said, giving Shane a smile.

"Ah, me?" Shane blinked in surprise, "but I'm just a plain librarian, I can't..."

"You're also a Paper Master," Joker reminded him. He looked over at Drake, "Do you think you could train our Mr. Llewellyn?"

"Probably," Drake looked over at Shane thoughtfully, "from what Yomiko and the others tell me, he's got some potential."

Shane pushed his glasses up as he softly admitted, "You've got a point."

"This going underground," Yomiko said softly, "does that mean I can't see Nenene?"

"For her own safety," Nancy agreed grimly.

Yomiko reached up to adjust her glasses, her expression grave. "As long as it keeps her safe." she said softly.

"Then lets get started," Joker said gravely. "Drake, you get to take Shane under your wing, I want him weapons ready in a few weeks, ideally. Nancy, Yomiko, we've got information on additional copies of some of the books that were destroyed," he said, "I'll need you to go after them."

"Yes sir," Yomiko nodded eagerly.

The beginning...

Read or Dare Two

Wendy Earhart hurried up the hallway of the temporary headquarters of the British Library, the papers clutched in her arms as the young blonde raced to be on time. "Mr. Joker," she said as she opened the door, "I have the files you requested."

Joker looked up from his cluttered desk, the blonde haired man looking impeccably neat as always in his dapper suit. "Thank you Wendy," he said as he got up, shifting stacks of books aside as he added, "put them right here."

"Yes sir," Wendy smiled as she put the reports down with a soft thump.

Joker looked over at the pile with a wry look as he asked her, "You had a chance to look them over?"

"Skimmed them," Wendy conceded.

"Can you give me a summary?" Joker asked hopefully.

"I'll try," Wendy said, quickly looking around the small, book filled office. Finding a chair she took the books off the seat then dragged it over as she asked, "Do you have any preferences where I start?"

"Dokusensha," Joker said with a serious look on his face.

"Hmm," Wendy took a notebook from her back pocket and flipped several pages before she sat down. "With the death or Mr. Gentleman their sponsor Ms. China also died, we believe due to a previously unrevealed connection between them. However, even without her they are a formidable force, with operations throughout China and the far east."

"While we're based in Europe, the United Kingdom and to a lesser extent in Japan,' Joker calmly noted.

"Precisely," Wendy noted. "We believe Dokusensha were involved in the attack that killed Mr. Gentleman, possibly in revenge for our defeat of them in the Ijin case. They also have established a corps of superhuman agents like our own, including their own papermaster."

"The infamous Sonny Wong," Joker nodded thoughtfully, "also called the Recycler. A killer of the worst sort."

"Exactly," Wendy agreed. She checked her notes, "We believe they're continuing to observe Nenene Sumerigawa, so I'll continue to urge Yomiko and the others to stay out of contact with her."

"And our new paper master?" Joker asked thoughtfully.

"The Word is training up nicely, according to Drake," Wendy noted. "He's passably good with rifle and pistol, and he failed unarmed combat. However, he's a prodigy in paper defense, producing barriers superior to Yomiko's, even if his attack skills are less than stellar."

"We'll have to keep that in mind," Joker noted. He rubbed his fingers together thoughtfully, "And our allies?"

"The American Library has offered whatever support we require," Wendy kept the sarcasm out of her voice, "assuming we join with them as a lesser partner."

"Lovely," Joker made a face.

"The Russian Library has been somewhat more helpful," Wendy added, "mostly due to their own run ins with Dokusensha."

"Dokusensha did do them some damage over the Rasputin papers," Joker recalled.

"And they still owe us for recovering those papers," Wendy agreed. "I think we can use that leverage to get replacements for some of the tomes lost in the fire."

"And our agents are still scouring Jinbo-cho?" Joker mused.

"We're digging through the world's major book markets, but especially there," Wendy agreed. "So far, we've recovered twenty-eight percent of the lost books."

"A good effort," Joker acknowledged, not pointing out the large remainder they had to go. Besides, he was aware she already knew. "And the report on the cloning issue?"

Flipping through her notebook again Wendy found the section she was looking for. "A unanimous vote has banned further superhuman cloning efforts," she reported, "at least among Great Britain and the United Nations."

"Wonder how long it'll take Dokusensha to break that one?" Joker wondered.

Wendy hesitated before saying, "They already have, though apparently it hasn't worked out too well for them."

Joker brightened, "Oh?"

"They spliced paper master DNA into two women who they programmed as agents," Wendy revealed, "Maggie Mui and Michelle Chan. They proved effective so when a third paper master child had difficulties, they placed Anita King into the two women's care."

"What happened?"

"The two women developed such a strong bond with Anita that they destroyed a Dokusensha instillation getting her back," Wendy sounded smug, "apparently Dokusensha has decided to avoid antagonizing the trio at all costs. They're now operating as the Paper Sisters Defective Agency."

"Oh, good show," Joker clapped his hands cheerfully, then a oddly thoughtful look appeared on his face.

"We've been concerned about keeping Nenene Sumerigawa safe..." Joker trailed off thoughtfully. A smile teased at his lips, "Is Agent Linho still keeping an eye on Sumerigawa?"

"Yes sir," Wendy confirmed, faintly surprised by his memory of such a odd bit of trivia.

"Have someone check over these Paper Sisters and confirm their story is true," Joker said with a merry twinkle in his eye, "then suggest to Agent Linho that he should hire them to look after Ms. Sumerigawa."

"They aren't the most stable of people, according to the report," Wendy cautioned.

Joker smirked, "Neither is Yomiko."

"Sir," Wendy scolded, even though a smile tugged at her lips.

"Besides," Joker noted a bit sourly, "it might stop the young lady from filing missing persons notifications on Yomiko."

Wendy giggled, then promptly shut her mouth. "I'm sure it must be difficult killing all those reports," she said sympathetically.

"Yes it is," Joker gave her a faintly suspicious look, "maybe I'll pass the job on to you."

Wendy's eyes widened in horror, "Oh, no sir!"

"Heh," Joker smiled as he picked up the top report, "we'll see." As he began reading he asked, "Could you fetch us some tea?"

"Of course sir," Wendy smiled as she headed off.

To be continued...

Notes: this is a alternate universe to ROD, including the Dream manga version of the Paper Sister's battle with Dokusensha, as well as details from the Read or Die Novels about Mr. Gentleman's counterpart, Ms China.