A/N : Just a fair warning, this might contain some blood and gore but I don't know if I should change the rating to M instead. As for the pairings, I won't promise there will be any but there are hints.
Disclaimer : I don't own HxH, but I do own the plot.
The annoying sound of drops of water dripping onto the cold surface of the floor blended in perfectly with the sobbing and pathetic whimpers from the other occupants of the room and it agitated Killua more than anything ever does during the span of his 16 years old life.
The metallic, almost coppery scent that lingered in the air gave him an eerie feeling, and he couldn't help but curl tighter into a ball, knees on his chest and arms locked around his two folded legs. Killua wished they would just keep quiet – crying over spilled milk was going to do nothing to save them. They needed a plan, a carefully devised plan that would surely get them out of this place.
Killua had been racking his head for any ideas at all for the last twelve hours, but as he sat curled against a cold, greasy wall at the corner of the spacious room that held no windows, he found that he could come up with none at the moment.
Killua had always been proud of being able to get out of the stickiest situations in his life – his parents were one of the world's most wanted criminals after all, he was a formidable criminal himself who'd never once been caught. Now that he carefully thought about it, it was stupid that he ended up in such a mess. How could he, Killua Zoaldyck, be easily caught and locked inside a room with some weak, sobbing mess of teenagers? Killua clenched his fists, nails biting into his skin that it almost broke.
They had used Alluka. They hit him in the spot where he's most vulnerable and brought him here for god knows what reason. Carefully thinking back on it, the people who abducted him – the thought came to Killua and he winced, shameful that it was true – had to know about him pretty damn well to the point that they know that Killua would do anything to keep his little sister safe and sound.
Killua tried to think of the people he'd met so far, if any of them could possibly pull off such a trick, but came up with none. Could Hisoka possibly do this? Killua shook his head in dismissal just as the thought came to him – the peculiar magician was unpredictable, but he wouldn't do something like this. Illumi would certainly kill him if he ever did.
No one else Killua knew was smart enough or strong enough to be able to do something so impossible. Killua raked a pale hand through his hair, careful blue eyes started to scan the room he was currently held captive in. The light bulb above them flickered as it struggled to stay lit, and eerie coldness hung in the stale air that surrounded them.
Killua carefully scanned each and every occupants in the room, he counted thirty in total, and took note of that they were all about the same age, the oldest probably being eighteen. Killua threw that observation of his away just as he spotted a few older-looking men at the other corner of the room.
Well, most of them were teenagers, anyway. Each of them varied in every single way possible – some of them black, some white and the rest Asian, and Killua could tell from looks alone that some of them were awfully rich, while the rest of them looked as if they had been begging for all their lives.
Killua also noticed that most of them were male, but they looked as if they came from different countries. Hair colours varied from black to brown to blonde and all the way to red, green and silver. The majority of them were crying, their faces held evident fear as they sat away from each other while the small remaining number were calm, or most probably numb just like Killua felt. Well, there might be an exception, a boy, with dangerous-looking spikes as hair was sitting with his legs folded against the wall as he watched the others mind their own business.
His worn out green shirt was an obvious contrast to Killua's designer clothes, and he matched his dark jeans with a pair of sneakers. His skin was tanned, Killua was willing to bet that he used to spend his day under the sunlight, and he was fairly tall and muscular. He didn't look sad, or scared or even numb – he looked ridiculously energetic for some sick reason.
Killua swiftly averted his gaze just the bright amber pair of eyes locked with his, cursing himself for staring too long. He almost banged his head on the wall as the other teenager came closer and took the spot next to Killua.
"Hi, I'm Gon!" he offered, bright smile on his face. Killua suddenly found himself willing to participate in a conversation, even if he never felt the need to talk to strangers before. "Killua," the other boy visibly perked up when Killua replied.
"I'm so glad you want to talk! Most people here just ignored me when I tried to be friendly," he said, eyes scanning the rest of the room, and suddenly Killua felt as if the small space that Gon and Killua took was much more livelier than the rest of the room. Killua felt the urge to roll his eyes, but settled down with a shrug instead.
"No shit, who would want to talk in this kind of situation?". Gon laughed good-naturedly, his white, large teeth showing as he cracked a grin. "Well, I do. And I think you do too. I've only been here since...Well, probably a few days ago. You're the latest one, Killua," Gon informed, eyes glinting with excitement despite the current situation.
Killua absorbed the information as it was obviously useful, and questioned, "The latest one? You mean these guys were brought here one by one?". That was sick – for what reason could one possibly do this? If there's anything Killua despised, it was facing the unknown. He was an assassin – he killed without anyone sensing his presence.
But now that the tables were turned, Killua could almost feel the dread of not knowing who his enemy was. "Yep. I was the fifteenth person. What do you think they would do to us? Will they kill us?".
Killua found it frightening that there were no hint of fear in his voice as he said that. Killua had been taking lives for years now, but as the thought that he might be killed dawned on him, he found himself fearing for his life. All he knew was that he didn't want to die, at least not this way.
"They won't kill us just like that. There must be something they want from us," a stranger's voice piped in from Killua's left, and Killua turned his head to see a slender blond sitting a distance away from Killua, knees on his chest.
His feather-soft blond locks were longer than average, and his skin was pale, but nowhere near Killua's own white skin. He was dressed in a blue shirt and a pair of dark, skinny jeans. Killua also noticed the nail polish that matched the colour of his eyes and the new-looking pair of sneakers. Killua eyed him suspiciously, before asking, "Why would you say that?".
The blond was silent for a moment, and Killua almost thought his question was never going to be answered just as he replied, "If they want to kill us, they would've done so long ago instead of locking us up in this place and adding in new captives one by one.
They want something from us, but I'm pretty sure they didn't do this for ransom". The blond had a point, a damn good one and Killua found himself thinking deeper into that matter. If it was for ransom money, it would be ridiculous that they had carefully captured Killua long with the crowd of teenagers as Killua's family would probably track them down and kill them right away if they ever demanded ransom money from them. That, and they would also laugh at him for eternity, for getting into this stupid mess.
"Why not? I'm dead sure they want money from us. For what other reason would they keep us here alive?" another voice kicked into their conversation, and Killua found it funny that people were suddenly interested in this conversation.
The voice belonged to a tall, lanky man in a ridiculous cheap-looking dark blue suit and a pair of tiny, round sunglasses. He looked like an annoying direct seller who'd talk your time away and force you to buy his stuff, Killua distractedly noted.
The look in his eyes were almost challenging the blond as he propped an elbow on his knee, giving the other male a hard stare. The blond looked away, seeming almost annoyed as he deadpanned, "That a stupid statement that I have nothing to say to".
There was a small stretch of silence that passed between the four of them and Killua had to stop himself from snickering. "Who the hell do you think you are?! Have you never been thought to respect those who are older than you?!" The tall guy said, face red from both anger and embarrassment.
The blond ignored the other man, which angered the latter further, and Gon had to jump in to stop a physical fight from taking place in that small space they had to spare. "Hey, what are your names? I don't think I've spoken to you before," Gon said, trying to take their attentions from the rift that could be felt lingering around them.
The other two seemed to have taken the bait, one of them forgetting their anger, the other stopped ignoring every word that was said. "The name's Leorio," the tall man in suit said, a small grin on his lips as he scooted in closer to the rest of them.
"Kurapika," the other offered, turning towards the rest of them. It was funny how Gon could bring four complete strangers together, especially under the given circumstances. The said boy grinned, satisfaction evident of his face as he said, "Well, it's great to know that not everybody here wants to be left alone."
Killua breathed in the cold, stale air that surrounded them, suddenly feeling much better than he did before. Killua was never the kind of person who need to be kept accompanied, but he was surely glad that he wasn't alone this time, and that the others were as clueless and afraid as him.
"I was fishing at the lake when someone hit me on the neck from the back. The first thing I know when I woke up was that I'm here. How about you guys?" Gon inquired, successfully leading the conversation back to where it was supposed to be.
Just as Killua tried to decide whether or not he should tell them the truth, Leorio gave them his answer. "Well, I was just going back home from the restaurant I worked part-time in that night when someone knocked me out from behind too. The next thing I knew was that I'm here and the others were too".
Killua frowned to himself, what could their captor possibly want, to have gone through such length to bring thirty teenagers in such a place? What could they possibly have planned to do with them, and why was Killua a part of this group held captive?
There were so many questions, each of them lead to more questions and no answers were to be found. "I was shoved into a black van when I was walking down the streets," Kurapika offered his story, the others watched as he tucked a few strands of silky blonde hair behind the shell of an ear.
Judging from the way they told their stories, they were all taken during different times of the day – which was a valuable information. From Killua's own experience, the time range of a certain crime speaks volume on the criminal's identity. For instance, crime that only occur during the night suggests that the criminal goes through a life during the day, probably have another job.
But such sporadic time of abduction suggests that their captors weren't amateurs with second identities – they were like him, professionals. "They used my sister against me and made me turn myself in," he said, fists clenching as he recalled the look on Alluka's face as they held her, demanding that he give himself up.
The four of them fell into a deep silence then, each of them trying to think of the same thing – who were their captures and what do they want from them? Their silence was broken by a sudden sound that felt so out of place in the room they were currently held captive in.
Killua's eyes immediately darted up to a small speaker that was hung up on the ceiling, right beside a closed circuit camera that watched them intently, a small red light flashing every now and then . Killua almost jumped in surprise as a voice filtered in through the speakers – he definitely wasn't expecting it to be booming with sound any time soon.
"Now that all of you are here, let the games begin!" An irritatingly cheerful voice filtered in, as if unaware of the current condition they were in. A muscular young man stood up, glaring right into the camera with an accusing finger pointed at it as he said, "What do you mean by that?! You bring us all here for a freaking game?!".
Killua was actually glad that someone had the nerves to speak up – saves him the trouble of trying to figure it out all by himself. A chuckle that came through the speakers angered Killua, and he found himself scowling. Who ever their captives were, they professional and sadistic – even Killua himself wouldn't be so sickeningly unfazed by the current situation even if he had the upper hand, no matter how many lives he'd taken before.
Killua was brought back to the present as a scream pierced through the silence, broken and in pain, the guy who stood up earlier was curled up on the floor, screaming as he clawed the electrical device around his neck – Killua had almost forgotten about that. Each and every single one of them had their neck connected to a suspicious looking device that Killua would bet was either bomb or something that could produce electricity. Or maybe even both.
"See what happens when you interrupt my speech? Now, listen," the cheerful voice said, making a point of finally releasing the poor guy from his pain just as he looked as if he was about to die. "The aim of this game for all of you is to get out of this place.
I'm going to tell you, there are a few missions you need to accomplish before being able to get to the next level of this game. There are ten levels in total, and each time you clear a level, you will be given the permission to get to another floor. If you complete the game and reach the final floor, we will let you out and you can go tell the world about the game you played."
Killua made sure to make a mental note that there were more than one person behind this whole game, judging from the word 'we' this person used. A game. That's what this all for – Killua felt his stomach churn uncontrollably at the thought that someone would do something so sick for the sake of a game.
What's this? The Hunger Games? Killua isn't a saint, but he would never have done something so purely evil. "There are no rules in this game, you just have to do whatever it takes to stay alive until the end of the game and reach the final floor.
If you do something that I don't like, though, I will not hesitate to kill you by detonating the bombs on your necks." Killua felt sick as he wondered what was it that was laid for them behind that metal door at one corner of the room. Killua knew he had higher chances of survival, if it was him, he might be able to make it to the final floor because he was perfectly trained to handle any kinds of situations. But as he looked at the rest of the occupants of the room, he felt as if the only thing that awaits them behind that door was death.
He glanced towards his three companions, and wondered if they stood a chance to survive. Probably not. "Now, form a group of five in twenty seconds," the words sent a wave of panic flaring through out the entire room, the occupants had gone from silently sitting away from each other to panicking and demanding for the others to join their group.
Killua, Gon, Kurapika and Leorio was naturally decided as a group, with and an addition of Tonpa, a short, square-nosed man who asked to be in a group with them and was approved by Gon. The twenty seconds were up, and those who failed to find their groups were tortured with pain from the device around their necks.
"When I say twenty, I mean twenty,"the same person said, his voice was now slightly darker before bouncing back into it's cheerfulness, "Well, now that you have formed six groups, I will open that door for you. You will be watched, wherever you go and you need to dodge any obstacle we throw your way. It wouldn't be fun if you die way too early, right?".
As if on cue, the huge metal door opened, revealing complete darkness. "Get set, Go!". And just like that, everyone was sent fighting their way to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Killua chose to let them out first, just in case if any danger was waiting for them outside of the room.
His group seemed to think of the same thing, but Gon probably let the others get out before him just because he was being nice. Soon, it was only the five of them inside the room, and Killua took it as their cue to walk out of the room. Killua shoved his hands in his pocket, suddenly loosing the fear that he felt just now.
Now that he knew this was a survival game, he was confident that he could walk out of this unharmed because of his exceptional abilities. There would be a point where the players would have to kill each other, and judging from the look of the others, Killua was pretty sure that he wouldn't have to break a sweat doing just that.
"Just why the heck would they want us to play this game? Did they capture us just for this? That's sick," Leorio complained, with a prominent scowl on his face but his voice was hushed, probably afraid that his protests would be heard by their enemies.
"Well, if it's a game, wouldn't it be fun?" Gon said, probably trying to lighten the atmosphere, but was met with four long stares instead. Most of them sweat-dropped, but Killua could tell that Gon was serious, and he almost face palmed. How could an idiot like him ever survive this game?
"W-well, that's very optimistic of you, Gon. But I don't think you understand the current situation – this is not just any game. This is a survival game, we might me killed just as we are playing," Kurapika explained, and Killua was glad that someone even had the heart to tell Gon the truth because it was clear that none of them was too fond of ruining that optimistic view of Gon's. Gon nodded, taking in Kurapika's words so seriously it almost seemed comical, before saying, "Well, that's dangerous. I guess we just have to work together and stay alive, then".
The other four found themselves speechless – how could one be so simple-minded? Killua wasn't sure about that, but he knew that he appreciated the way the spiky-haired boy lightened up the mood and made him forget about the tense situation he was in.
"Well, that's one way of putting it," the short, square-nosed man said with a grin, but he just have this aura that Killua didn't like – he'd been in the dark bussiness long enough to be able to tell when someone was about to take advantage of the others.
They led their way through the dark, narrow corridor, and Killua could see nothing but walls of brick and an endless one-way path that stretch before them. The other groups were ahead of them, but making a point of keeping their distance from one another as they navigated through the darkness.
Killua put a hand on the wall beside him, and felt the cold, greasy surface of the bricks as he walked, fingers lingering on the uneven surface of the wall. It was dark enough for Killua not to be able to sense if there was anything at all waiting them, and it almost felt as if the path they were walked down on was endless.
Killua spared a glance at the rest of his group – Gon was on guard, walking while still keeping up his energy, which seemed impossible as everybody else wary of everything they came across to, even the walls and floor. Tonpa was walking, a bit behind because of his short legs, and Killua could feel his stare burning at the back of his head. He was definitely trying to figure them out.
Leorio was glaring at everything and everyone that wasn't a member of their group, occasionally mumbling and grumbling to himself. Kurapika had his arms crossed over his chest, probably from the coldness and otherwise seeming passive, both physically and emotionally.
Just as Killua thought that the corridor really has no end to it, they found themselves inside a huge chamber, hexagon in shape with six wooden door perched up on each side. More cameras and speakers were installed inside the chamber, and Killua found himself standing at the center of the chamber, looking around.
As if on cue, the voice from earlier chimed in from the speakers, "Now, all of you, in your respective group, choose one of these doors and open it. You will not be allowed to get out until all of our demands have been met. Good luck". Yeah, they'd probably need that – the best damn luck.
Killua and his other group members stood before a door that they claimed as theirs, wondering what was it that laid behind. Gon gave each of them a glance as if asking their permission before opening the door. And so, the first level of their game began.