The two warily entered through the door, being met with what look like a backroom of a kitchen, tall stacks of shelves on carts blocking another door.

The scent of rotting food got stronger, Mono covering his nose from the offensive smell. Seven walked in, motioning for the other to follow him. Mono could tell his question seemed to be swirling a bit in the other's head, not that Mono himself could blame him.

The events that happened... he never meant harm to the other. He knew Seven would have kept his feelings a secret if it wasn't for that gas making them feel and act funny. He normally believed in sharing feelings and opening up, but Seven...

Mono hadn't realized he was staring off into space until Seven gave a whistle. The boy in the trenchcoat snapped out of it, looking upwards, seeing Seven had climbed to the top of one of the trays, a broken window being their entrance.

The boy hurried to join him, climbing upwards into getting to the top rack. He pulled himself up, before a fuzzy feeling seemed to pull his attention to the door across from them. A door stood behind another rolling rack of trays, no broken window at the top. The scent of rotting meat seemed to grow worse, perhaps hiding the meat in that room it hid from them.

The fuzzy feeling made his fingers twitch, like he wanted to go to whatever it was. It was almost like the TV static, wanting to lull him towards it. He remembered feeling that fuzzy feeling before, when they were at the hospital, when he met that strange child in all black.

Was it another one? If it was, would there be more like them? His fingers twitched again, he wanted to touch it, he needed to touch it-

"Hey, I said c'mon." Mono jumped when Seven's voice snapped him out of his small trance. He looked over, seeing his friend hop through the broken window. Mono came over to it, looking over his shoulder one last time to the door across from them.

The boy in the trenchcoat hopped down, landing next to the pyro tech. The sound of loud clattering, yelling, smashing, and more had grown a lot louder, way louder.

"Sounds like a whole ass group of them," Seven muttered. Mono nodded in agreement, it definitely sounded like it. He looked around, seeing knocked over kitchen equipment, racks and shelves on their sides, knives, ladles, a hammer was there, and-- wait what was a hammer doing here?

Mono was snapped out of his thoughts by the sounds of scurrying clunky footsteps, making the two take on the defensive. Great, it sounded like they are found out already.

Just as he thought, two bullies hopped down from one of the racks, snickering growls escaping them.

A voice from above sounded in their weird language, Mono looking up and finding the bully that had Seven attacked, his face still crumbling from the bite.

"!gnir eht ni meht worhT" he shouted. The bullies jumped forward, grabbing ahold of the two by the shoulders, pulling them forward. Mono tossed and turned, kicking at the bully that was dragging him. The bully growled in frustration at his struggling, before finally flinging him into a knocked over shelve, knocking the wind from the boy's lungs.

Mono groaned as his lungs were forcefully emptied, eyes watering. He could hear Seven shouting and yelling at the bully that was trying to wrangle him, the sound of a struggle continuing.

A cold hard hand wrapped around Mono's throat, the boy grabbing onto it in an attempt to get it off of him. The grip got tighter, to the point Mono could feel his airway be drastically smaller, making it harder to breath.

He was dragged to the side, off to the side of the shelve and thrown onto the floor. Mono coughed loudly, finally able to wipe his eyes clear of his tears.

Seven stood next to him, a growl coming from him as he looked around. Mono pushed himself up, looking around with him.

They were practically incaged by more knocked over racks and shelves, a counter blocking their way as well. Bullies perched themselves on top of the few stacks of trays that still stood, snickering and chattering to one another as they gaze down at them like vultures.

Prey, that's what he was now. He was prey for these bobbleheaded airheads. He and Seven both. He couldn't take on all of them, not even with Seven's help. No, no, he could kill them, he could smash their heads in and make them scream. Stop it, brain, not now with the dark thoughts.

"Sev, can you take out a few of them like you did before?" He asked over his shoulder, his back pressed against his friend's, eyes looking up at the bullies above them.

"I don't have control over that!" Seven hissed quietly back to him. A growl came from the boy in blue as two bullies jumped down, beginning to circle them.

Both were boys by the looks of it, judging by the rather ugly bowl cuts and suspenders. They seemed to hissed back and forth to one another, seemingly coming up with a plan on how they aimed to taking the pair out.

"Sev?"

"Shut it, I think these things smell fear."

The bullies stopped pacing, crouching down and readying themselves to charge by the looks of it.

"As soon as they pounce, get ready to roll," Seven whispered. Mono glanced back at him in confusion, before letting out a small squeak as the bully threw himself at the boy in the trenchcoat.

Mono dove out of the way, rolling to the side. He looked up, just to see a rather comedic sights of the two bullies bashing their skulls together and falling onto the floor in a tangle of porcelain limbs.

Giving a small snort of laughter, Mono got to his feet, finding a ladle resting not the far from his foot. He picked it up, the weirdly shaped scoop thing much lighter than the hammer.

The sounds of a war cry coming from behind him made him jump, swinging the ladle and bashing it into the two bullies' empty harden clay heads. The two bodies fell down, sharp jagged edges littering the floor around him.

"Lucky swing." The boy looked over to the other across from him, seeing Seven looking back at him. Mono gave him a small smile, before tightening his grip in his weapon of choice, turning his attention to the spectators above them.

The smashing of the other bullies seemed to anger the rest, shouting and yelling as another pair jumped down from their spot.

Four circled around them as quickly as they could, shouting and cheering ringing around them. Two bullies each surrounded both boys, Mono's arms tensing as he readied to attack. Seven remained weaponless; but by the way he was hovering his hand over his jean pocket, that likely wasn't true.

A bully jumped at the pyrotech, letting out a shout as it pounced at him. Mono jumped out of the way as another bully tried to tackle him, tripping him with his foot, just seeing a flash of a reflection of something.

Before he could look to see what the other had, the scout brought the laddle down with all his might onto the tripped over bully. Dust and bits of porcelain flew off of it, even more flying as he swung the laddle to the side and bashing in the other bully's skull.

The sound of the final bully's head caving in came shortly after, Mono glancing to check on his partner. The pryotech held a silver flashlight tightly in his hands, the head held tightly in his hand as the butt end of it looked scuffed from being forced into doll's heads.

Adrenaline still seemed to flare in Mono's system, his grip tight as his jaw was tense, as were his muscles. His good eye could make out of the peering eyes of their predators, whispering to one another rather then shouting like before.

The bully with the splintering head hissed from his spot, which overlooked the battlefield of broken doll bodies. He gave a huff, eyes narrowing, his shoulder strained to keep itself together as he crossed his arms.

".revetahw tub, thguoht I sa kaew sa toN" he chattered. He looked over to the bullies still surrounding them. He let out a sharp shout, pointing to a few others and pointing down to the boys. The bullies shook their head, small growls and grumbles coming from them as they spoke.

"!emit on ni ni sdaeh ruo hsams ll'ehS. ?su no ni sklaw rehcaeT ssiM fi tahW. sknaht, gnivil ekil I" one shouted.

Suddenly, all the shouting from the room next to them stopped, an eerie silence following.

Click, click, click, click

"!rehcaeT"

All at once the living dolls scrambled to leave the arena, tripping over and crashing into one another in a desperate attempt to leave. The bully with the shattering face gave a small shout, angry by the sounds of it that his colleagues left him.

The shouting sounded once again, before a hush swept over the room once again. Mono could feel the hair on his neck stand up, a sudden feeling of dread crawled up his spine.

The boy dropped his laddle, and came to Seven's side and took his hand. Seven looked at him, going to snatch his hand away, but Mono kept his grip tight.

"Let go of--"

"Shhh!"

The boy in the trenchcoat pulled him and Seven into a cupboard that had been opened by the frantic students leaving.

Creeeeeeeek...

Through the cupboard, Mono could hear the door on the other side of room open, the clicking of heels being heard once more.

"Lunch is over, get back to class, everyone," said a voice. It was strained, like the person speaking hadn't had a drink of water in months. It creaked and had a rusty tone to it, making it very unpleasant sounding to the ears. Who was that?

".rehcaeT ssiM, seY"

Retreating footsteps sounded in a steady and rhythmic fashion, almost soilder like. Suddenly, the rusty voice spoke again.

"Tazzy, what happened to your face?"

",llef I"

"Deary me, go to the nurse's station and get patched up, will you? I don't want porcelain pieces scattered around my halls,"

".ma'am seY"

Shortly, the sound of a door closing made Mono let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. The boy looked over to the other, his eyes barely making Seven out in the darkness of the closed quarters.

The boy in blue had his ear to the wall, clearly listening for any stragglers that stayed behind. Mono pressed his ear to the wall as well, waiting for any noise on the other side.

Nothing. The coast was clear.

Seven pulled away, letting out a sigh. "My mouth and arms hurts," he grumbled. Mono looked over, giving a small chuckle.

"Mine too, not my mouth though. Is it just me, or was that whole fight almost a blur? I think that adrenaline rush is finally calming down," he said, rubbing his slightly sore arm from where the laddle would come to an abrupt stop when it smashed into the doll heads.

Seven looked over to him. "Yeah, I guess. Good work back there. Gotta admit, it's nice having someone trying to help rather than screw shit up, especially you, even though I still have no idea why the hell you're pretending nothing happened or are even alive for that matter."

At the moment, what Seven had said earlier sounded in his head. 'I'm supposed to be dead...'

"Hey, Sev?"

"Call me Seven, and what?"

"What did you mean earlier? Why am I supposed to be dead?"

Mono noticed Seven tensed up after he spoke.

A few heartbeats went by, then a solid minute was spent in a silence Mono wasn't comfortable with. Seven hadn't spoken, his nails were gripping into his jeans, his knees being pulled up to his chest.

Maybe... maybe he shouldn't have asked. Maybe he just hit his head and forgot something after teleporting, maybe his mind decided whatever nearly killed him wasn't important, or-

Mono stopped his train of thoughts as he saw Seven turn his head to him, a small gap in his bangs letting him see dark blue eyes that contrasted his pale colored face.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Seven asked.

The last thing he remembered? "The hospital, me and you went to go get supplies for something you were making. A Molotov I think? Anyways, we just left the elevator with that weird gas... after you... ugh... yeah... after that, I remember meeting a kid dressed in all black. I couldn't get a good look at them."

Another silence existed between them, the quietness making Mono feel anxious for some reason. Was something wrong? Did something happen?

"Three years..." Mono looked up as he heard Seven mutter, "three years worth of memories... I'm a fucking idiot."

Three years?

Seven rose his voice, "You don't remember be Commander? You don't remember trying to kill me?"

Mono flinched as the other got to his feet, shouting at this point. "What about sending my ass to The Maw! Leading the rebellion into a fucking bloodbath! Trying to kill Squeaks! I don't even want to know what the absolute hell you even did to Rain, but stars above, I swear to whatever deity you believe in, I will chop your damn di-"

"Seven, stop before you get us caught!"

The statement seemed to set the other off even more, a growl coming from him again. Mono got up from his spot, hands up in an attempt to keep space between him and the angered other.

Mono had no idea what the other was shouting about, but...

Mono looked at his hands, noting things about them he didn't remember before. They looked older, scarred, and stained with ink and dirt. His arms actually fit his coat sleeves, no longer hanging off of him.

He... he had grown...

Seven noticed the change of attitude from the other, stopping his shouting to study him. His brows frowed under his bangs, confusion in his dark blue eyes. "What?

Three years... three years of missing memories... he missed three years of his life. How old was he? Seven said he was Commander of the rebellion, but that can't be right, Four would be a much better leader. Rain would obviously choose Four over him.

Rain... he hurt Rain.

"Hey, Mons, I got you something,"

"Rain, please don't come up on my bad side..."

"Oh, sorry. Look what I found while I was out scouting!"

"A paper bag?"

"Yeah! You can use it to help hide your scars, I even cut eyes holes for you, Oracle Eleven helped me,"

"You... got this to help with my scars?"

"I know you don't like them, so I thought it'll help you feel better about yourselves. Try it on!"

"... Well?"

"I think you look great, Mons,"

"Thank you, Rai."

"Hey, dipshit, I'm talking to you." Mono blinked away his tears, making out Seven's blurry shape through the tears lining his eyes.

"Seven... what happened?"

Instead of answering, Seven gave a groan, turning and pushing the cupboard door open, stepping out onto the tile floor.

"I'm not the one you should be asking. We need to get going, we wasted enough time."

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Finished - August 16th, 2021

This took way longer than expected.

I can't write fight scene ;-;

Also, sorry for any typos and errors!

Hope you all enjoyed!

Take care!