Give him back.
A girl sat before elaborate gates looming before her, something incomprehensible lurking behind them. The gates to the Abyss. The girl's emerald eyes bore into the depths lurking behind the indomitable golden bars.
Give my brother back.
There was no answer, of course. The Abyss just took whatever it pleased from her, and supposedly she had no right to challenge it. So she was just supposed to continue her life, and forget all about her older brother?
Right. Like that'd ever happen. And as such once every year, on the anniversary of the day everything changed, Ada Vessalius ventured to the depths of a shrine she had no right to know about to challenge a power she had no right to question.
Or no right to an answer, at the very least. Over the past years Ada had come to expect as much and an indignant fury continued to grow as she stared at the vast nothing beyond the bars.
For the next several hours this would continue, her own form of protest against the actions fate had seemingly taken. She would not merely accept her separation from her brother... Ever.
And in the back of her mind, Ada's thoughts wandered away from her intended purpose. She wondered if it would happen once again; that as she finally left, would the image of a crimson eye would once more emerge unbidden in her mind?
"So, Elliot,"
Said Nightray turned to his companion, a short boy with dark hair and near black eyes, heeding the other's words.
"Have you read the latest Holy Knight book?"
His companion wears a smile that is content and pleased, and Elliot returns it with a delighted grin.
"Of course I have! It was great! What did you think of that new character, Adam?"
The two walk down the path leading to town, returning from a visit with a friend whose rural tendencies sparked Elliot's ire to no end.
"Hmm..." the other considers as he stretches his arms behind his back, "I'm not actually quite sure of that yet, come to think of it... I guess must have just kinda forgotten about him... I mean... Edgar died."
Elliot stopped walking, and his friend turned, questioning.
"That... I didn't like that part..." Elliot said, his voice uncharacteristically quiet.
The other frowned, "I didn't think you would. I thought you'd be yelling and ranting about it., like you usually do whenever the author decides to write more than three sentences on Edgar.." The anomaly bothered the companion, and he took a few steps closer to his friend.
Elliot closed his eyes and tried to banish the nagging sensation that that particular event in the Holy Knight somehow managed to arouse in him. It was true he disliked Edgar, and yelled at his companion at great length about the man more or less every time he was brought up. The man's tendency to not value his own life and the troubles he made others go through because of it irked Elliot to no end; the guy was truly despicable as far as Elliot could care.
"Yes, but... There's something about that part that just... Bugs me..." and it made no sense to Elliot, so with an angry scoff he plunged further down the road. With yet another frown his companion followed, although altogether disconcerted at his friend's unfamiliar behavior.
What was it that bothered him about that character's death? It was entirely characteristic of Edgar, why did it keep throwing Elliot off again and again and again? It was as if something was at the very brink of his mind, but whatever that thought was, it kept eluding him and eluding him and eluding him, much to the Nightray's great ire. An ire that managed to let the ground beneath his feet escape his notice, and the next thing he knew his feet shuffled over an unfamiliar surface, lost his balance, and came crashing to the ground.
"What the hell?" he cursed, rubbing a scrape on the elbow that caught on a stray branch. A stray branch which was not what he tripped over.
"Elliot!" his companion ran the two steps separating them and gave the other a hand. Together they looked at what Elliot had tripped over. Two legs covered in long, black but stained pants, infringing on the edge of the path, the body they belonged to obscured by the bushes.
"Um..." the companion murmurs, at a loss of what to say. Elliot kneeled by the culprit and tried to haul him out of the bushes.
"Give me a hand, Leo." The other hesitates a moment before doing so. Together, they manage to drag the body onto the road.
Leo was silent for a moment, and then, "I don't like this, Elliot."
Elliot checked for a pulse on the face-down body, belonging to a boy perhaps a year or two older than them. "He's alive," Elliot announced and grabbed the boy's shoulder.
"I really don't like this. We have no idea why he's here, or who he i-"
Elliot had turned over the body, and didn't wonder why his companion's words had trailed off, his would have too. The boy on the ground had an uncanny resemblance to Leo. "What the hell... Leo...?"
But his companion only shook his head, he had no idea what was going on either. Elliot frowned and returned his attention to the boy that Elliot would believe in a heartbeat was Leo's brother.
"Hey." He shook the boy's shoulder, curious and baffled, and the best bet for any sort of answer was the boy himself. "Hey." He shook harder, and then the boy stirs of his own volition. Dazed, the stranger opened his eyes, struggled into a sitting position, wincing as he did so. An unease rose further in Elliot, and he wasn't sure if it were for the boy's disturbing similarity to Leo or the number of tears in the boy's clothes, rimmed in dark, dried blood.
"What... Happened to you?" he demanded, but Elliot swallowed before continuing, "Who are you?" And then the boy blinked, jerking to attention so suddenly Elliot was taken aback. A silence continued as the boy just stared, looking at Elliot with an expression of sheer disbelief and wordless, blank shock.
"What?" Elliot shouted, annoyed at being looked at in such a manner, but the other gave no reaction. It was really starting to piss him off.
"Elliot..." Leo's voice trailed off. He stood at one side of the boy, and opposite him Elliot was on the ground.
"Leo, go to the town and get some one," Elliot muttered, glaring at the weirdo they had stumbled across.
"No." Came Leo's short reply, carried in a voice that held no room for argument. There was no way he was leaving Elliot alone in middle of the woods with such a suspicious person. Elliot scowled, and the stranger looked at Leo, some questioning silence lurking in his gaze. A gaze Leo refused to meet, the other really did resemble so much so it could almost be a mirror, even if the stranger seemed older and his hair was different.
Oh. And his eyes. Eyes that could've been identical to his own, except they weren't, and it put every hair on Leo's body on end. It wasn't just the dazed, unbelieving emotion they held, no, it was something far less subtle than that. It shouldn't have been possible for something like it to exist, but Leo could swear he saw some sort of unreal lights imbedded in the stranger's eyes. More than anything else about the boy, about the whole situation, that disturbed Leo the most. And a bizarre fear, frightfully familiar, threatened to drown him at the sight – no, even the thought – of the stranger's eyes. Perhaps it would have been a relief to run the rest of the way to town and summon help, but abandoning Elliot in a situation like this would be unthinkable.
"G... Glen..." the boy muttered after a long pause, his attention turning from Leo to Elliot. "My name is Glen... I guess..."
Elliot's eyebrow twitched. "You guess? What does that even mean?, you 'guess'?" 'Glen', still lost in dazed shock, didn't answer. Elliot scowled, then rolled his eyes. At least he got some answer. "Well, Glen, what are you doing here?" He eyed the tears of the boy's clothes, unaware whatever extent of damage lay beneath. "What happened to you?"
For a moment, Glen only watched Elliot, and somehow Elliot found himself entranced by the other's eyes. Just like Leo's, they were beautiful. Except perhaps even more so, something gorgeously strange dwelt in them. Gorgeous, but at the same time- Glen's eye contact snapped away with even more ferocity then when he had noticed Elliot. Glen broke more than just eye contact. He entirely lurched away from Elliot, facing the ground, fingers wrapping around strands of grass at the edge of the road, his body stiff.
Elliot moved towards Glen, concerned at the other's fearful reaction. "Hey-" he reached out to touch Glen, but he flinched violently away.
"I..." Glen's fearful, whimpering ghost of a voice trembled, his breathing ragged, "I..." and the boy's tone shifted as he lowly hissed, "I don't remember anything." And at that Glen turned, meeting Elliot's gaze, his face unreadable. A chill ran down Elliot's spine, and Elliot was left once again guessing at why, was it because Glen was an amnesiac, or the empty chill, tinged with practically palpable resolve, the boy's tone assumed seconds after quavering on the brink of breaking down? Doesn't remember...? Elliot thought, observing Glen as his breathing slowly calmed. I suppose that's why he said "I guess"... That explains it...
"Yes... I can't remember..." Glen climbed to his feet, a solemn, grim expression on his face as he took in his surroundings. His gaze crossed over Elliot's form, still on the ground, and then that expression completely evaporated as if it had never even been there. Instead he were a positively delighted smile, and his eyes shone with happiness – or was there tears as well? All in all, Leo, who had been watching the proceedings with a close and wary eye, found Glen to be completely overcome with joy, infinitely more so than any child would be on Christmas. There shouldn't be any reason for such elation, and it disturbed Leo as much as it increased his distrust of this Glen.
"Hehe," Glen chuckled, half walking, half skipping, half dancing a couple steps down the road. "Hahaha!" Elliot looked over his shoulder, baffled at this boy they had come across, and rose to his feet, standing beside Leo.
Glen spread his arms out to his side, now lost in ecstatic laughter, and pivoted around, running back closer to Leo and Elliot, the latter taking a small step forward, placing himself between Glen and Leo. As Glen reached Elliot, his laughter stopped, and he looked like he wanted to say something.
"What?" Elliot snapped, reaching his wit's end with this freak. Yet as his euphoric grin faded, Glen only gave Elliot an undecipherable smile before turning away.
Leo let out the breath he had been holding since Glen approached them. "Elliot," he whispered in his friend's ear, "I really don't like that guy." Glen had gone a couple paces a head of them and sat squarely in middle of the middle of the road, his back to them and his head upturned, and to Leo's dismay he noticed it was already dark and stars were out.
"I know, Leo," Elliot murmured, watching Glen, "He annoys me too." And Leo wanted to protest that it wasn't annoyance that he felt at Glen, no, instead the other boy outright disturbed Leo. Leo wanted nothing more than to take Elliot and run away from that boy that looked too much like him. Flee the area and never have to meet those damnable eyes ever again.
"But I can't just abandon him here," Elliot continued, and Leo wanted to yell that yes, they could. Could, and, beyond any trace of doubt in Leo's mind, should.
"Hah," Leo muttered, disgust lacing his voice. "That's awfully kind of you, Elliot," sarcastic venom ran along the length of his words. It wouldn't work; Leo knew it wouldn't work.
Elliot glared at Leo, then scowled. "Look, he's lost and doesn't remember anything. I doubt anyone knows him, and am less sure anyone would help him... He's too... Weird..."
Leo rolled his eyes, "Yeah? So, we should get involved? I mean, really, is he even acting like he wants help?" Leo whispered, keeping his voice down so Glen wouldn't overhear. "And how do you know he's telling the truth anyways? We don't have any idea who he really is or what he's up to. And you saw the state he's in! Do we really have to get embroiled in this trouble?" Leo gushed, desperately trying to convince Elliot and trying even harder to keep his voice down as his anger – no, fury – started to rise.
Elliot, who had been watching Glen while quietly listening to Leo, turned to his closest friend. "So, then, you aren't curious? Why that guy looks so much like you?"
He wasn't, not in the least. No, Leo was down right terrified of finding out. But Elliot's face carried a quiet, thoughtful expression, and in his heart Leo knew Elliot had already made up his mind. And that knowledge made his heart sink like a stone. "You're going to help him?" Leo asked, voice quiet. If this was Elliot's choice, he'd support him in anyway he could manage. Elliot nodded. "Fine..."
What? What? Ugh, I'm sorry. This story ran away from me at the end. I somehow ended up on autopilot, the thing started writing itself, and as such it'll probably be even more ooc than it already is. Which is annoying. Except I haven't been able to write, at all, in the longest time, so it's kind of good. But, yes, I'm terribly worried about ooc-ness in this story. On one hand, due to the scenario, it is inevitable, but on the other... Okay, I'm a horrible person. I was supposed to write the whole thing before posting this, because I really don't have the commitment to properly do chapter stories, so I was going to write the whole thing as a one shot, but, um, I felt like I needed a break, and hopefully, feedback. Except now that this thing has become with chapters, I guess I need to properly fill in all the gaps that were in my original outline. Gaah, what is this doing? Well, this has been interesting, I've managed to write something rather easily (finally) even though I really think it's rather poor writing. When I first thought of this story, I never thought I'd actually bother writing it. Hopefully someday I'll rewrite this whole monster and make it better. But, even though I'm pretty sure it's not that great, I'm rather satisfied with this. Unfortunately, I now can't use the summary I had been planning to use. Harummm... A summary I agree to for this fic is hard... And unoriginal title is unoriginal, but it is rather apt, better than anything else I've thought of, so I'll keep it. Except for maybe Paradox Hearts. But that's still rather unoriginal. Oh well.
In any case, reviews and critiques would be much appreciated. I'm not entirely sure how well I'm doing with this story, and if there are any outstanding flaws I'd much appreciate having them pointed out. Or minor flaws. Or thoughts.
Oh, and in the ph manga Elliot and Leo were (I believe) 16. In this fic, they're 14; it's set two years earlier for some arbitrary reason that the best excuse I can come up with is I wanted 'Glen' to be older than the others, in part so that Leo and Glen wouldn't be as close in appearance, in part because... I just wanted it that way... Oh, for clarity's sake, it really is rather arbitrary. If I really wanted to I could write this in the same time period as the manga with out too many changes.
But, um, I'm really worried about how I'm portraying the characters in this, so any tips in that regard would be much appreciated.