Disclaimer: I don't own Claymore

"Mama."

The rain beat down on the battered form of a young girl as she slowly, painfully raised her self onto her haunches. Her metal plated white outfit in bloody tatters from Agasa's sneak attacks. The seven tentacles impaling her back weren't helping matters much either.

If she had the capacity for hindsight at the moment she would have realized that maybe pursuing the blind Galatea so mindlessly might have been not such a brilliant idea. After all while while the former number 3 was a formidable opponent, their previous battle having proved this. But Galatea was literally nailed to a wall, and missing an arm, while the giant, naked, tentacle swinging, CRAB lady was completely unscathed. Indeed she was the greater threat, what with her ability to not only attack from a distance, but to do it so subtly and swift for the young girl to not even notice her injuries until she was reduced to this pathetic state.

But Miata was never known for the those qualities. Indeed all the young number 4 was known for was her ability to ruthlessly slay her opponents with an animalistic single minded devotion. To make matters worse, the crab bitch had threatened the color hair, her precious person, her "Mama." This robbed Miata of what little ability to think she had left.

"I will forgive... ANYONE who bullies mama..."

THUNK-THUNK-THUNK-THUNK!!

Four more tentacles speared the poor girl through her midsection, taking the wind out of her sails before they could properly fill. Miata could do little more than cough as her strength fled in the face of her injuries. Her light blond falling over her face as she fell, landing facedown on the roof of some ruined building.

Agasa smiled cruelly at her opponent, "You can't even move... and yet you still talk big."

Miata's vision tunneled as her blood spilled out onto the shingles, robbing her of the ability to do anything other than whimper, "Mama...mama..." as if she would magically reappear and everything would be alright...

Agasa's smile widened slightly, "Alright, let's start with you."

As she prepared one last tentacle to remove this little pest she mocked, "JUST DIE!"

The wooshing sound of a body moving the air was all the warning Agasa had as a claymore streaked down at her head, "Hm?"

Then the blow landed, glancing off her raven-black hair/tentacles and slamming into her base right next to her, causing a formidable impact, "Wha-?" was all she could say when she realized that the colored-hair, the reject, number 47, the lowest of the low was attacking her.

Swiftly sending tentacle in retaliation, Agasa was even more shocked to see the weakest warrior of the current generation dodging her attack, and to make matters worse, the (relatively) dark haired girl had severed the tentacles pinning her young charge to the roof, and bodily carried her to safety.

All of this took less than 30 seconds.

That is not to say that this was an easy feat for the current number 47, Clarice. In fact the effort had thoroughly winded her, leaving her panting as she still held on to her battered charge with one arm, her claymore in the other, her whole body shaking until...

"GUUUAHHHH!!" she burst forth as her final wall crumbled, and all the terror she had been holding back came rushing to the foreground

"Why, why do I do these things?" she sobbed, "I was scared, there was no chance to win, or to escape!"

"But I didn't want to die! I don't want to die!" she admitted through the burning tears.

Miata looked up at her crying "mama', and tried raising her arm to comfort the only woman she saw as family, a soft, "Mama..." escaping her lips.

Unfortunately this had the opposite effect on the mentally strained Clarice, and Miata was rewarded with a glare, "I even thought you were scary too!" Clarice thundered causing the poor girl to nearly leap out of her skin, "Why...Why are you so much more powerful than I am even though you're smaller than me," clearly the orange haired girl was at the end of her rope.

Miata felt tears form in the corners of her eyes as Clarice continued, "You've faced many awakened beings alone up till now, and you've always come back unharmed. SO WHY ARE YOU BEING WOUNDED TO THIS EXTENT!"

Miata's tears were flowing freely at this point, "I'm sorry," the girl sobbed, "I'm sorry mama."

Her young charges response finally registered in Miata's mind, and she embraced the young girl fully, as a mother would her daughter, screaming at the top of her lungs to further purge herself of her fear, gripping the deadly young girl tightly, waiting for death.

-Claymore-

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Rabona, a cloaked figure looked upon the burning, war torn city, and sighed.

"It's been seven years, and they still can't do anything by themselves," the cloaked cynic said, palming his forehead, "looks like I'll have to save them this time."

Suddenly, seven dark blurs sped past him and into the city, causing the wind to whip his cloak around.

"...Then again, maybe not." the man chuckled.

There was a tense silence until air was suddenly filled with eight loud booms, followed swiftly by an unearthly roar.

"What the hell, could be fun." the man decided as he ran toward the city, his cloak parting to reveal a massive great sword.

-Claymore-

Former number 2, "blood red Agasa" couldn't believe her misfortune. She had been an instant away from killing those little warriors, when the short haired bitch and her six friends intervened, not only knocking her to the ground, but also seeing through her disguise as a towering tentacle woman, and then destroying her armor with the utmost of ease. So here she was, truly naked this time, and cowering behind her hostage, God-eye Galatea.

"You think taking hostages will work against us?" the pompous bitch with the spiky ponytail asked her. Agasa seethed at the lack of respect she was getting until a horrible realization popped into her mind.

She was out numbered and over powered.

They were former warriors of the Organization.

She was going to die.

The whore with the single braid who knew her weaknesses was separated from the other six. Agasa smiled inwardly, if she was going to die, she was going to take one of those little bitches with her.

With no fore-warning she tossed Galatea at spiky hair, catching the bitch by surprise, and momentarily distracting the warriors. Short hair, twisty arm, and two-sword all sprung into action and leapt at her, only to find that she was already rushing the whore with the single braid, claws and fangs bared, ready to tear her limb from limb. Single-braid's eyes opened in fright and she tried to escape, but there was no time, and Agasa was about to rip through the little slut like she was a wet paper bag.

Suddenly there was a brownish blur in her way, but Agasa swung anyway, her claws hitting...

The ground.

-Claymore-

Tabitha didn't know what was going on anymore.

First she and the other six "Ghosts of Pieta," had attacked Agasa, and were winning. No, scratch that, they were dominating the former number two, forcing her to not only reveal her true body, (no small part was her doing), and had her cowering behind Galatea.

Then Agasa had tossed Galatea at Miria, distracting their leader long enough for her to evade a combined assault from Clare, Helen and Deneve, and rushed poor Tabitha, who accidentally isolated herself from the others.

But instead of feeling claws rip through her, she got the wind knocked out of her as someone significantly bigger than her bodily tackled her at high speeds, knocking her out of the way.

Now here she was, being gently cradled by two muscular arms against a muscular chest. His chocolate colored eyes gazing into her silver ones,the soft smile on his lips reassured her that the threat to her person was past. Here in his arms she felt...safe.

She hadn't felt safe since before she joined the organization.

"You alright," his deep voice inquired, snapping her out of her musings. And sending a pleasant shiver down her spine.

What was wrong with her?

"You shouldn't be here, you'll get hurt," Tabitha began, but stopped when his face split into a boyish grin, and the pleasant shiver returned in full.

Seriously, what was up with that?

"It's alright, you don't have to worry," he reassured her, setting her down gently and standing to his full height, a good head an shoulders taller than the assembled women. It was at that moment Tabitha noticed the enormous sword on his back.

"No," she whispered, horrified at the thought, "You're not thinking about fighting her are you?!" she practically screeched at her.

The man just just kept walking, and unsheathed his sword. It was an impressive blade, about as tall as an average man, with a blade as wide as a man's torso. Not something an ordinary human could wield without difficulty, (if it was even possible), and yet the man swung it casually onto his shoulder, as if he was a hybrid...

Agasa, who was pretty fed up with this new turn of events bellowed, "IF YOU"RE SO EAGER TO DIE THEN FINE!!" before rushing him, claws outstretched, slashing at him, willing him to die.

SHHHINNNG!

Agasa's eyes widened, (as did everyone else's) when the man parried her strike, the enormous blade now in between himself and the crazed Awakened Being. The man's grin was visible from underneath his hood, but his eyes now had an edge as sharp as any blade Agasa had encountered. But what really startled the monster, (and all of the gathered Claymores as well), was the fact that he hadn't budged at all.

"Well then," his eyes narrowed and his grin widened," Let's begin shall we?"