Two words come to mind: cold, purple.

There was a tender warmth on Akino. His upper back and under his knees is where it was.

'Listen!' A scratchy, frantic voice could be heard from the distance before it grew closer.

Quiet.

Audible.

Loud.

Ear-piercing.

'Listen!'

Akino listened.

'The world as we know it has been ruined by our own hands. Wherever you find yourself, you must find the truth, no matter who befriends you or stands in your way! Return us to our birth place, otherwise we may never know the feeling of humanity ever again! Akino! You are the only chance we have! Use your resources, remember this message, and guide your people back to humanity! You. Are. In. Danger!'

'Stop,' Akino mumbled. 'Stop it with this! What are you saying?! Why are you doing this to me, I don't understand?! I don't understand! Just tell me what I'm supposed to do! Where am I supposed to bring us, what is the truth?! What path do you want me to go?! I'm human!!!'

Matoi cradled Akino's head, her fingers running through his dampened hair. The rain was loud, but not loud enough to drown out her cries. Tears blurred her vision of the dark, colorless sky above her. Her teeth chattered in the cold. Her body twitched with her heaping.

Makina sped past the Compactor, slicing its stomach on the way. As she slowed down, the creature's tentacle wrapped around her ankle and threw her into the bus. She slid back to the ground, bleeding from the shards of the glass from the bus window. She stumbled away, dodging as the Compactor slammed its tentacle into the bus again, sending it and several others tumbling over.

The Compactor turned its head towards her, it's neck clicking with the movement.

Akino shut his eyes in misery, grabbing his throbbing head as he tumbled to the ground, holding back his anguished cries of frustration. He leaned over himself, his stomach churning with anxiety. His heart beat slowed as he steadied his breathing before opening his eyes.

A white void surrounded him, gone unnoticed before.

He stood up, frantically looking around for anything. Anything at all.

A voice, just like before, emerged from the mindless ringing of the void. This time, the voice was different; it was female.

'Akino!'

He looked around, puzzled and frightened.

'Sakagami?!' He spun his head. 'Saka-?! Sakagami?'

'Akino, where are you?! Akino, it's getting hot!'

Akino started running around, his legs shaking underneath him. 'Sakagami?!'

'Akino? Akino! Akino!!!' The voice screeched in pain, the pronunciation being hindered by the lung-bursting screams.

The boy shook his head in denial. Lifting his hands back to his face and covering his eyes, he groaned to himself, 'it's not real, it's not real, it's not real, it's not real.'

'Akino!!!!!'

'IT'S NOT REAL.'

Flames erupted from the mound of buses in a deafening explosion, shaking the ground with it. Matoi stayed kneeled on the concrete between the buses, traumatized, unable to remove her eyes from the eyes of Akino's bodiless head, even as the ground trembled.

A group of Omegas, including Asuka and Kiku, approached Makina, who was slumped over her weapon.

"Captain!"

Makina looked behind her, surprised.

A group of ten or so young women stood lined behind her. Each had their heads up high and their chests pushed out proudly.

"Although it isn't official yet," Asuka stated, "we are still assigned to your squad and we are still Omegas burdened, no, gifted with the opportunity to save Division-A's citizens. So I, your pupil, ask if we may help you in this battle."

Makina sneered, baring her teeth. "No, I can do it by myself." Makina stood back up straight, grabbing her weapon and walking off towards the monster as it scoured through the wrecked buses. "Stop talking so professional, also. You are my subordinate, but I'm not your captain."

As Makina sped her pace towards the creature, a tentacle slammed into her instinctively, digging her into the street itself.

"Captain!" Asuka ran towards her, lifting her out of the crater. "Are you okay?"

"I told you not to call me that!" Makina pushed Asuka's arm off her shoulder. The two of them drew their attention towards the Compactor. It was slouched over the top of the tilted bus, eating what appeared to be a bus driver. "When the Compactor attacked me with its tentacle, it didn't even pay any attention to me. It was too focused on its damn meal."

"Alright, what do you mean?" Asuka questioned as the other Omegas surrounded them.

"I mean it's a mindless, hungry beast," Makina explained. "This Compactor is still in Stage One, right? Well not for long. The way it's eating those people, it's stomach will be full enough for it to transform."

"You're just going to let it eat them?!" An Omega asked, repulsed.

"So," Asuka elaborated, "what you're saying is to let it finish so it's core is fully charged and force it to Stage Two?"

Makina nodded. "...and from then, we kill it."

"But," Kiku said, her eyes looking towards the ground, "how are we supposed to force it to Stage Two?

"We need someone light on their feet, like you," Makina answered.

The plan was decided. Kiku, using her steady and small feet, hopped onto the buses, thus beginning the operation. She jumped off of the pile of buses and into the air. She swung her scythe around a street light, spinning herself around and swinging towards the hungry monster, it's head buried in the entrails of its meal.

Kiku landed gracefully and quietly in front of the oblivious Compactor. She stared at it, disgusted, before tossing her weapon to the other side of the bus. The sound of its blade hitting against the edge of the bus startled the monster, resulting in it raising its head and looking in that direction. As it did, Kiku shouted, kicking it in the face, off the bus, and straight onto the blade of an Omega's weapon behind it.

"Now!"

Within a single second, the Omegas spun around the monster, slicing off its tentacles, limbs, head, and through its stomach, exposing the core. Panicked, the Compactor's body thrashed around. A blinding blue light emerged from its core and a burst of wind pushed the Omegas away from it. They watched as it's skin, organs, and skeleton spun around the light, and as it began merging together and hiding the light back inside of its body.

The Stage Two Compactor was created.

A few of the Omegas shot out grappling hooks into the creature from all angles, pinning it in its position. Subsequently, Makina jumped up and carved her weapon straight through the middle of the Compactor, cutting its core in half on the way. The Compactor screeched. It's black, gooey skin boiled and it's jaw unhinged. It's joints melted and it's skeleton crumbled until it exploded in a rain-shower of blood.

Kiku looked back towards the others, relieved, as the blood finished falling.

The Omegas erupted in cheer and chatter with smiles decorating their faces. Asuka ran to her younger sister and embraced her, holding her tight.

"Kiku!" Asuka said, "I'm so proud of you!"

The small girl giggled happily. "Thank you, thank you!"

"It wouldn't have happened without you."

"...and Makina got the killing blow, just like she wanted," Kiku looked back at Makina, smiling. "What?" Kiku stepped away from Asuka, eyes glued to Matoi who remained kneeled behind Makina. "Is that Matoi?"

Asuka nodded, following behind her. "W-what is that?"

Kiku tilted her head to see a blue light coming from Matoi. "I-I don't know."

Suddenly, all Omegas, all drivers, all government officials, and even Hideyo herself surrounded Matoi, curiously. Makina, confused as to why everyone was surrounding her, turned around.

Matoi stared down at Akino's head, reflective blue eyes wide in terror. Her fingertips could feel the heat of his scalp and cheeks again. His skin flushed with color and veins pulsed with life. Matoi, and everyone else, stared as a glowing blue thread spiraled out of his neck and several feet away. The thread got longer and closer together until it molded into the shape of a human body.

Makina looked behind her and past the people to see the rest of Akino's body being slowly unwinded in that exact same way; as a blue thread. As parts of the headless body disappeared, those same parts appeared on the bodiless head in Matoi's lap.

Gradually, Akino's neck became to look real. Then his shoulders, then his chest, all the way down to his toes, all of which were clothed- just like the corpse that was once across the street. People stared in anticipation as Akino's body was completed.

The rain came to an end. Dead silence filled the air as the dark gray clouds drifted apart, shedding a ray of sunlight onto Matoi and Akino. As he was bathed in sunlight, Akino opened his chapped lips, taking a weak breath.

Matoi's eyes filled with tears again. She pulled his unconscious body towards her, hugging him tightly, burying her sorrowful face into his chest as people watched, silent.

Makina stepped forward towards the two of them. Kneeling down, she gazed at Akino, taking note of the pattern of his breathing.

He was certainly alive.

Makina lifted his hands towards her and held it close and tight, a melancholic expression on her face.

"Akino, what are you?"