Dead? What did he mean he was supposed to be dead, was there an accident? If it was an accident, he was pretty sure getting angry at the person was not the right response, especially if you were best friends since forever.

"What are you talking about?" Mono asked. Seven seemed to grow more angry, clench a fist as he seemed to force himself from lashing out at him.

"Don't play stupid with me, you asshat, I watched you die. I had to get Rain off your body before she shattered your head in, but I should of just let her," he hissed.

"What? Sev, what are you going on-"

"Don't 'Sev' me, why the hell are you here? Trying to finish your grand and glorious plan to take over the city?"

Plan? Taking over the city?

"I have no idea what you're saying, honest!"

It just seemed to set him off more and more, until Seven finally had enough, letting out a loud angry yell, his hands gripping his hair as he closed his eyes, trying to force himself to calm down.

"I can't take this! Just, stay the hell away from us. I'm going to go find Rain and Squeaks, and if you come near us again, I'll finish what Rain started," he threatened, before coming to and climbing over the knocked over locker.

Mono stood there, trying to process what the heck had just happened. He was supposed to be dead? Rain tried to kill him? No, that didn't seem like her to do that... Wait, who was Squeaks?

He looked at the locker, before stepping over to it, weakly climbing on top of it with his dwindling arm strength and tired legs. Seven walked a bit aways from him, growling and grumbling under his breath as he continued on down the hallway.

Mono rose his head a bit as he heard a noise, it sounded heavy, and weird, and hollow, and-

Seven let out a noise of surprise as a figure jumped out from around the corner. The kid was far larger, with unnaturally shiny black hair and dead, void like black eyes. It let out a laugh, before growling, getting ready to jump at the boy in blue.

Rolling himself off the locker, Mono tried to run over, but stumbled a bit from poor balance. The porcelain child leapt, crashing and rolling him and Seven to the ground, the boy in blue angrily kicking and thrashing to get out from under him.

Mono bit his tongue to hold back a cry as the living doll wrapped his hands around the other's throat. Something shiny came from the corner of his eye, and looking over, he reached for it without a second thought.

A hammer.

He took it, bringing it to them in a rather slower speed than before. Seven's cheeks had started to turn blue, through red lingered ever so slightly. With a huff, Mono picked the hammer up, swinging it.

The porcelain child looked up before it made contact with his head, the whatever material caving in and shattering from the blow. The body fell to the side, laying limp, hands finally letting go from the boy in blue's throat.

Seven gasped for air, gulping down air in a frantic manner. Slowly, his face regained its normal coloring as his breath finally started to calm down. He looked over, wearily glancing between the other and the hammer.

He got up, not saying a word. Mono dropped the hammer, stepping over to him, only to stop as Seven jumped to attention, growling loudly. "Don't, touch me."

He stopped before he set the other off, did he do something wrong? Was he hurt? Why isn't he thanking him for saving his sorry ass?

Seven turned around, carefully stepping out into the hallway, looking both ways. "Hey, get the hammer, may come in handy," he said to him in a quiet tone.

Oh, he was okay than! That's good. Mono gave a smile, picking and dragging the hammer up by its handle. Coming over to him, Seven motioned forward with a nod of his head.

"You first."

The boy looked over to his friend, but didn't argue. He had a weapon, it was only natural he went first. He gave a nod to him, past scout training taking over as he carried on through the hallway, Seven following behind him.

Admittedly, yet unsurprisingly, seeing was a lot easier without his bag. He still didn't like the lack of security without it, it didn't feel right without it covering his face. He had to keep pushing the feeling off, rather focusing on helping find Rain and that feral (what did Seven call her again?).

The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he stepped down on a wooden plank, feeling it drop down and slotting back into its place in the floor. Seven quickly ducked, and Mono quickly spotted why, letting out a small cry as a rather heavy bucket with numerous objects came swinging at them full speed.

He let go of the hammer, falling onto the ground as the bucket flew past him, the wind off of it making his coat tail flutter slightly. The rope strained to keep the heavy object up as it dangled an inch over him.

Seven looked up, before glancing down st him, groaning and narrowing his eyes, as though disappointed over something. He got up, dusting his blue jacket off, looking over and waiting for Mono to get up as well.

Mono rolled out, getting up to his feet in a quick jump. "You okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine, let's keep going," the other growled.

Seven started walking away again, but Mono noticed how he seemed to keep him in his field of vision. He didn't want to think too much of it, yes it was weird, but there were more urgent manners. Picking up the hammer handle, he followed.

They passed more and more rooms, jumping out of the way of boobytraps, staying hidden from more of those porcelain kids, some having to meet the blunt end of his weapon of choice.

Seven stayed quiet throughout most of the trip, occasionally telling him to stop if he heard something or to watch his step when they came across another boobytrap.

It was weird to hear his friend hardly mutter a word, normally Seven would be pumped to go and explore new territory, hoping to find new things to explode or bring back with him. He didn't scowl or have such a stone cold expression on all the time, but Mono hadn't seen him seem to relax this whole rescue adventure.

After dropping down from the top of a broken door, being forced to leave the hammer behind, he tried to ask him about it.

Mono dropped down first, landing on an old, long, green colored rug with multiple stains on it. He dusted and fanned out his brownish olive colored trenchcoat, noticing how shorter the tail was. Yesterday it was barely sliding over the ground, now it went up to his ankles. Did it shrink somehow?

Seven dropped down next to him, and a dull glimmer caught his attention. A slightly rusting silver shackle was on Seven's right ankle, small remains of a chain slithering behind it like a small snake.

"Hey, where did you get that at, Sev?" He asked. Seven looked down, seeing what he was talking about, a growl rumbling in his chest.

"You know where, dipshit," he cursed. Mono flinched at the harsh tone. What was wrong with him? Did he do something wrong?

Seven didn't give him time to think, already walking off. He suddenly stopped, freezing in his spot; but Mono could tell he was checking for something than him actually finding something.

"Hear something?" Mono whispered. He was only met with a growl, and glare that was sent over the other's shoulder. Right, no talking, okay.

"Think there's a fight happening upahead, there's a lot of loud noises," he said. Mono looked to where he was looking at, barely hearing the noise he was talking about.

Crashing, shouting, clattering, not that far ahead of them. The boy in the trenchcoat gave a small gulp, a small sense of dread easing over him. Sounded like a lot of those kids, students or whatever. Actually, no, bullies fit better with their attitudes.

The quietly walked across the rug, only to jump out of the way as a locker door burst open, a bully jumping out of it. The two backed up, the boy in blue cursing to himself as they stepped away.

The bully gave a snicker, before whistling, two more jumping out from behind knocked over bookshelves and chairs, accompanying him.

",off tuc sdeah rieht htiw snekcihc ekil dnoura gninnur erew owt uoy dias ehs nehw gniyl t'nsaw rofinneJ" the first stated.

"Uhh... what did he say?" Mono asked.

The bully gave a huff, ".stoidI"

He gave a quick shout, as though giving orders, the other two porcelain children letting out snickering growls as they braced to pounce.

Mono was able to dodge when the first jumped, jumping to the side with a small squeak of surprise. Seven jumped back at the other children, the two starting to rolling a ball of blue and beige filled with angry shouting and flying limbs in an effort to take out the other.

The bully that tried to tackle Mono jumped up from its spot on the ground, beginning to chase after him, reaching a hand out to grab the other by his coat.

Suddenly, an upturned board caught the former scout's foot, tripping him and falling onto the ground with a hard thud.

The bully jumped onto his back, but before it could do anything, it was knocked of him, porcelain head shattered into pieces as a bucket swung down in a (quite literal) breakneck speed.

"!ynneB" the lead child shouted, before growling and running after him. Mono scrambled to get his feet under him, head still pounding and balance a bit unstable.

The bully wrestling with fighting Seven on the floor let out a pain filled cry, the other pair stopping and looking to them.

Pieces of sharp pottery like porcelain came shattering off of its arm, a leftover circular piece squeezed and crushing under the force of Seven's bite.

The bully got off of him, backing away, growling in a shocked and fearful manner. "!ffo mra ym tib eH"

"!ssabmud, taht ees nac ew tihs oN" the one chasing Mono hissed.

The one missing his arm only seem to grow more upset, before jumping back farther when Seven got to his feet. Blood dripping from his mouth from the sharp porcelain shards cutting him, his eyes looked shrunken and feral like, a ravenous glint in them.

A growl which reminding Mono of a wolf escaped from deep in his throat, making the two bullies back up even more as he set his gaze at them.

The bully missing his arm shook his head. "!tuo m'I siht kcuF" He turned, running passed Mono and the self appointed leader of them, down off to... well... somewhere Mono wasn't sure because as soon as he went to watch the bully, Seven lunged at the final enemy.

In a blink of an eye, the boy in blue caught the bully's shoulder between his teeth, digging and leaving cracks where it tried to splinter. The bully tried to throw him off, even slamming him into the lockers, but it didn't work.

It was like he turned into a deranged animal only set of killing its prey. He wrapped an arm around the bully, squeezing and beginning to crush the breakable shiny skin of the walking and talking doll.

Mono could only watch with both fear and awe as Seven broke the bully's shoulder with a powerful bite of his jaws. His face was beginning to crack, a strangled cry of pain coming from the porcelain bully.

It was only after a few chunk of polished clay of the bully started falling did Mono finally snap out of his short lived shock. He ran over, grabbing the other's hands and ripping them off of the bully.

"Seven, stop, you'll kill him!"

The bully jumped away as soon as he was able to. He held his face together with his hand, the other on his shoulder. "!ohcysP"

Mono saw the bully run away from the corner of his eye, down the hallway, and disappearing somewhere up ahead. He turned his full attention back on the other as he felt Seven dig his nails into his wrists.

His eyes has a scattered, dead look in them, much darker in color it seemed like. They seemed glazed and unfocused, yet there was a dull shine of want, of hunger.

The boy in blue's mouth dribbled with red blood from cuts in his mouth, falling onto the old green rug under them. His teeth were bared, another viscous growl coming from his jaws.

Mono pushed back, pinning him to the lockers behind them, the other's hands still held tightly in his. Seven tossed and tried to throw him off, even tried biting him; but to no avail.

They spent a few seconds like that, which, admittedly, seemed to feel like minutes. In the brief period of time, Mono swore he had been in this situation before, only with someone with much smaller wrists, and who would cry and beg him to stop because it was hurting.

The thought once against stared the trenchcoat wearing boy. Where were these thoughts coming from? When did he start thinking like that? Stop it, brain! No more bad thoughts!

Eventually, the two slid down to the floor, Seven's going limp and slumping forward. Mono carefully let go of the other, watching him as only after a few minutes, he started to wake up.

Slowly, Seven looked up, eyes slowly brighten back up and losing their dead glazed over shine. Before a work could be muttered from either side, Seven scrambled to set to the side of them, a hand over his mouth.

He hunched over, before a splash of black splattered on the half covered wooden floor. A foul stench made Mono scrunch his nose, cringing at the horrible sour smell. He looked away, not wishing to look at the other in the rather nasty and disturbing moment.

After he was seemingly done, the sound of soft panting caught his ears. Mono peeked over, seeing the other catch his breath.

An tense silence settled between them, Seven not turning to the other as Mono watched him. A brief couple of heartbeats passed, before a shaky voice rose.

"Wh... what did I eat?" Seven asked. Mono looked at him, confused. Eat? He didn't eat anything.

"Nothing? Why are you asking?" Mono questioned back. Seven rose a hand to his face, perhaps noticing the blood on him.

Mono heard Seven mumble, "Blood" under his breath. Seven looked over to him, before trying to push himself up to his feet. "Did I hurt you?"

"No?"

Mono watched as Seven looked around to the carnage behind them of broken porcelain. He bent down, grabbing a piece of the sharp clay, running his thumb over it.

The boy with a messy head of hair cleared his throat, trying to find a way to break the awkwardness that settled around them as Seven seemed to take everything in.

"You, uh... really did good fighting those bullies off, you're pretty strong for a bag of bones," he tried to tease. Seven looked over to him, groaning before dropping the piece he was holding.

"Fought them off?"

"Yeah! You were biting and punching and trying to crack their heads open, it was pretty cool," Mono said.

Seven didn't speak again, before shaking his head. "We need to get going," he muttered. He came over, offering a hand out to the other.

Mono smiled, taking his friend's hand. Seven helped pull him to his feet, his hand lingering for a few more seconds before he pulled away.

The boy in blue walked ahead of them, leading down the way the hallway the bullies went down, which was the only way to push on.

He looked down. "Watch your step, more traps," he whispered. Mono gave a small nod, following behind the other. He guessed they were made up again over... whatever happened before.

Wait, what did happen before? What had him so... tense and stuff? He tried to think of what had happened, but could feel a headache starting to take shape. Stupid headaches.

'Just think of a reason, just remember what happened!' He mentally shouted at himself, trying to push through the now pounding headache in his skull to try and think of a reason on why Seven was acting so weird and-

The elevator in the hospital.

Mono froze, putting his hands to his head in an attempt to calm down his pounding ache. He closed his eyes, giving a small whimper, which caught Seven's attention, his voice raising a bit to be heard.

"You hurt?"

Mono shook his head, which seemed to make it worse. "Headache..."

Seven gave a small noise of acknowledgement, and the sound of him walking away caught the other's ears. He... he had to ask.

He looked up, his mouth seeming to suddenly dry before he could give an attempt to speak. What he had hoped to be a stable voice, came out shaky.

"H-hey, Sev...?"

He stopped walking, looking over to the boy in the trenchcoat. "We don't have time to speak, we need to get to Rain and-"

"Is this about what happened in the hospital?"

Mono watched as his friend turned tense once more. A growl rose, but died down after a second. In the moment of silence, Mono saw the other's should slowly relax again.

"No, and no, I don't want to talk about it. Rain and Squeaks need help, we can't stand around all day and wasting time by talking."

The rest of the way down the hallway was quiet, except for their soft footsteps. The closer they came to the door, the louder the shouts and yelling became. The scent of old, rotting food made Mono grimace.

"Looks like a cafeteria, filled with those kids too," Seven muttered. Mono gave a weak nod, a displeased look on his face.

"Looks like we're going to be here for a while..."

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Finished - July 23rd, 2021

FINALLY GOT THIS DONE-

This took way to long to write, I'm so sorry about that, a lot of things happened.

I have a feeling people who haven't read Raincoat or Signal is going to a bit confused, so brief explanation.

Seven and Rain (Raincoat Girl) are twins, not a couple, and Six (whose nickname is Squeaks in this AU) was raised by rats and is friends with Seven, but she can't speak much English and rather talks in squeaks (hence her name).

The rest will be explained later on.

But, hey, over 3000 words, better than what I started with.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Take care!