Series Title: Abs Calamitas

Exodus 0:1 - Salvation

Anime: Witch Hunter Robin

Rating: PG-13 (for death references?)

A/N: "Exodus" begins during the last episode. The quote in italics at the end is from a fansubbed version of the show, which I cross-referenced against the Dub translation as Best Buy thwarted my attempts to buy the series for myself. -shakes fist at corporations- If anyone would like to correct my Latin on the title, please feel free to do so. Comments and questions are always appreciated. Please enjoy.

"This way!" Karasuma shouted, leading the way down the hall. During her time spent under Zaizen's watchful eyes, she had been paying attention to the layout of the facility, both below ground and above it. She thanked her training, as she ran down the smooth metal corridor, for that sort of attentiveness, and in thanking her training, she silently thanked Amon. "There's an access panel in the wall that leads into the external ventilation system. If we can make it there before the complex is sealed up tight we'll be ok!"

Robin stared at the 'plant' door for a long moment, tears welling in her eyes.

"Robin," Amon said. He felt the pain of his wound, but forced it to the back of his mind, his thoughts training themselves on survival above all else. His training at Solomon headquarters took over, both the recent refresher course and the more in-depth lessons of long ago.

She turned sad, crystal green eyes on him. Always the dutiful watchdog. She nodded once, closing her eyes, and ignited the entire room and the trapped souls within.

The two of them started running, Karasuma a few feet ahead. Miho reached the panel in question and lifted her gun, shooting it without hesitation. The screws broke, even with the Orbo bullets instead of real shells, but the thick grate covering the shaft didn't budge. Karasuma reached up to press her hands against ventilation shaft, her heart racing. She slammed her palms against the thick metal.

If she couldn't get it open in time...

If the other end was sealed…

If there were HQ hunters waiting for anyone running…

If Zaizen…

Amon rounded the corner after Karasuma and saw her fighting with the front of the ventilation shaft. He started running faster to try and open the grate, but a burst of flame shot forward and the seal around the grate melted away. The grate fell from its place in the wall, Karasuma jumping to the side of it as it clattered against the metal floor of the hallway. He breathed a bare sigh of relief, slowing to collect himself. The end in sight.

"Whatever you're going to do, Michael," Sakaki said, snapping his final clip into place and ducking a bullet aimed at his head, "now would be a good time."

"You can't rush me any more than I already am, Sakaki," Michael replied, typing quickly on the slim keyboard.

Across the hallway from them, the elevator doors opened once again, and Michael closed his computer. "What's this all about?" Sakaki asked.

"We're going to climb up the elevator shaft," Michael said.

"What about Amon and Robin and Karasuma?" Sakaki asked.

"We can't help them now," Michael said. "Everyone has to get out on their own at this point. Even you have to have realized that. In a situation like this the tactical goal is to recover as many endangered team members at possible, which means-"

Sakaki made a face, interrupting with, "I don't like leaving them behind."

"Under the circumstances," Michael said, looking meaningfully at the pile of empty gun clips, "I don't think we have much of a choice."

Haruto started to protest, and then followed Michael's eyes to the clips, and nodded sullenly. Michael was right, of course. He was always right. Haruto leaned out the alcove and fired off another series of shots. "After this round of firing, dive across the hallway," he says.

"How do you know-"

"You found us the way out, now use it," Haruto said, meeting the amber-glass covered eyes of his somehow superior meaningfully. He knew he wasn't a perfect hunter, and he certainly knew he wasn't a computer ace, or even always on top of things… but this he could do. This he knew.

Michael nodded, feeling his pulse racing. He knew he belonged behind a computer and not in front of a gun. Getting captured by the black-coated men at his family's home years ago had proven that to him. He had never wanted any of this, in the beginning. But then Robin... He shook his head to clear it, waiting tensely. The firing continued.

"Come on," Sakaki said under his breath, getting up onto his feet on top of the computer panel and bracing his back against the wall in preparation of following Michael towards their escape. "Everyone has to reload sometime."

The firing stopped and Michael sprang out of his crouching position, heading across the hallway as fast as he could.

Bullets followed Michael's feet across the hall and Sakaki leaned out into the hallway to fire at the person trying to hit the young hacker. There was a cry at the end of the hall, and Sakaki took the opportunity to sprint across after Michael, diving off the terminal he was crouched on and rolling into the section of the hallway leading to the elevator shaft.

Miraculously, neither of them were grazed by a single bullet.

The elevator shaft, as Michael suspected, was connected to a deeper emergency ladder shaft. He dropped down into the tunnel and crossed to the grated door leading tot he ladder, pulling on it to try and get it open. Behind him, he could hear Sakaki's grunting and the continued firing of guns.

The locked door didn't move. "Sakaki, over here!" he called back.

Backing up quickly towards Michael, Sakaki stumbled on his entrance to the elevator shaft, turning his ankle painfully. He forced himself to keep moving, knowing it wouldn't be long before the men with guns came to investigate their disappearance. Immediately he saw the problem. The ladder Michael stood before was faced, for six or seven feet, with a grate too small to climb, even with fingers and toes.

"Stand back," Sakaki said, glancing over his shoulder at the open elevator doors, and fired one of his last bullets at the lock on the door. Luckily, he hit the target exactly, and the lock broke with a spark.

Michael moved to grab it, but Sakaki grabbed him by the sleeve. "It's hot." He lifted a leg and kicked the lock loose, nodding. "Let's get moving."

The hallway echoed with Amon's footfalls, and the lighter footfalls of Robin behind him. Karasuma beckoned to them both, waiting for the rest of her team to reach her before entering the ventilation shaft. She was always a good leader, in this regard. And then the sound of everything was drowned out by something louder. Something more commanding. Amon didn't notice that his own footsteps slowed further, or that Robin stopped behind him.

Karasuma jumped as the exit was separated from them by a panel that snapped shut, almost catching her clothing in the swift snick of it falling into place.

Amon stopped running altogether, glancing up as though he could see through everything between him and the outside. The noise of wires releasing permeated even the sealed underground. And then there was the slow, steady grinding of the massive stones coming down from above.

"We're too late, aren't we?" Robin asked, wobbling on her feet behind him. So much power in her blood... so many things she had done in such a short while. So much pain... Amon nodded once, staring at the closed panel before them. "Well then…" Robin said, steadying herself and bracing her feet farther apart to keep herself upright.

"Robin-" Karasuma started, moving back towards the other two, but there was a flash of brightness that surrounded her. Lifting her arms, she covered her face. For a moment Karasuma feared that the fire was payback... she worried, and then it was gone, without so much as a flicker of warmth added to her skin temperature. Miho found herself on the far side of the ventilation shaft, barely fitting and crouching. Her eyes widened and she moved forward, beating her fists against the panel that was in place between her, Robin and Amon.

The noise got louder as the stone picked up speed, descending faster through the levels of the underground complex. The hallway shook around them. Amon's eyes widened and he looked at where Karasuma was standing. He wondered if Robin... And then he heard her banging against the panel, faintly over the noise. "Amon! Robin!" Miho's voice shouted, sounding muffled through the metal.

"Karasuma," he said, turning and looking evenly at Robin, adrenaline suppressing his body's weakness, the Orbo's affects, and even his own fears. He raised his voice, "Go. We'll make our own way out."

Miho's breath came unsteadily at hearing Amon's calm words. Somehow his voice cut through the noise like a knife, and she felt a stab at her heart to hear his dismissal. It had never hurt her before, but something was different about it this time. Something… She started to argue. "Amon n-"

"Go now!" Amon shouted over his shoulder.

Robin felt the walls close to her, the air tight despite the fact that there were only two of them in the complex underneath the factory. She closed her eyes against the claustrophobia that threatened her. She wanted to send Karasuma to the surface, but she was just too tired to do it. And she wasn't sure how she was doing any of what she was intending, or if she would be able to do more... her thoughts fixed on Amon, and a hidden reserve of strength seemed to bolster her. Her muscles felt stronger, spine straightening as though there was a pole strapped to her back holding her upright.

"Did you bring your glasses?" Amon asked, needlessly. He took a step towards her, grabbing her by the forearm, and tugged her forward towards the panel. He could almost see the weariness in her small body, and then something changed about her.

"There is no time for the panel," Robin said, keeping her eyes closed despite the staggering steps he drags her forward. The rigidity holding her together got stronger, despite his rough treatment of her.

"What are you doing?" Amon asked, narrowing his eyes as the noise got louder around them. 'Too tired... what is she thinking?' he wondered to himself.

Green eyes opened and looked at Amon, caringly, and with determination behind them. "If this is the end, at least one of us can survive." Robin tried to pull her arm free of his grip, but she couldn't, so she settled for leaning back in his grasp as far as she could, her eyes focused on Amon.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amon asked again. As she tried to pull away he tightened his grip on her wrist. The noise was almost deafening, and he could hardly make out the words that Robin said to him.

Robin took another step back, staring hard at Amon, finally finding the strength to wrench her wrist free of his grip, painfully. 'He is holding on tightly, she thought to herself, and then pushed thought from her mind. She focused herself on the strength she found in the thought of him, and anchored her thoughts on that, disregarding the other consequences. Her eyes slid shut once more. 'If I was never meant to be born…' she thought in a bitter voice not entirely her own, in the very back of her mind, 'And in case I should become addicted to the power of the witch blood inside me… At least he will be free.' But she found she could not be totally bitter, not about Amon. Never about Amon. Her lips moved, but no sound came out… nothing was louder than the crushing noise and the explosions caused by the falling rock above them, anyway.

Watching her closely, Amon saw Robin's eyes go unfocused just before she closed them. He looked around, but there was no fire. 'What is she using her craft on…?' The world moved very slow for Amon, and the Orbo pendant around his neck glowed green. He looked up to see Robin's lips still moving, the air around her shifting to move her bangs.

A rush of thought hit Amon and he heard, very clearly, 'At least he will be free.' He was puzzled where the thought had come from, but knew that there was only one place it could originate from.

The walls shuddered more slowly, and the loud, rushing sound became a dull roar in the background. The air warmed. He wondered how long since they had started to fall... how long had he and Robin been talking... and Karasuma...

"Robin…" Amon said warningly. Whatever she was going to do…

Amon felt weightless for a moment, the Orbo around his neck shattering and burning away before it hit the ground. The temperature of the air rose higher, and he could feel heat radiating from the air above his head. If he looked closely enough, despite a slight blur to his vision, he could make out sparks in the air. Stunned, he looked at Robin, and he saw that she stared at him, through him almost, hard with tears in her distant green eyes.

'Maybe the kid really does care about me,' Amon thought. And then a hundred other thoughts rushed in at the same instant. His mother. Toudou. Maria. Father Juliano. And lastly, Robin. Young, innocent Robin.

About to be dead, innocent Robin.

With a silent growl, Amon forced his body to move, fighting Robin's grip on him. Here and there the sparks around him seemed to try to ignite into actual flames.

Her green eyes blinked, and then focused, and she spoke to him with them, though her lips still moved silently, speaking words he could neither hear, nor is he sure he would understand if he could.

'Please,' her eyes said, 'please don't.'

Breaking her grip with a painful wrench of his near unwilling body, the world seemed to speed up again for Amon and he fell to the floor of the hallway, rolling into a crouch and springing forward towards Robin.

Overhead the stones sped up as well, a second or two slower than Amon's desperate leap, slamming down onto the lowest level of the underground complex.

The very walls began to shake. All around there was the echoing of snapping as cables were released. Doujima could not believe her eyes. The stone was falling on the lower levels of the factory. She started to run back, the only thought in her mind, 'Amon!', but Nagira grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Not this time, little lady," Nagira said. "Little brother's got to look out for himself for once."

"Little… brother?" Doujima asked, looking up at him in confusion. Her mind raced as fast as her pulse and she frowned, piecing what she knew of the two men together and stepping over the bodies of the men fallen from their bullets. "Amon's your brother? How can that be?" she asked quietly, looking to Nagira for confirmation. The brown haired lawyer nodded. "They may need our help, we've got to-"

"Nothing is going to stop those bricks from falling. Not you or me anyway. Besides, we're not far enough out of danger's way as it is."

"What do you mean?" Doujima asked.

Nagira pointed up, motioning to the shuddering of the walls over their head. "The underground sector's not the only thing rigged to collapse. We're not far enough outside to worry about anyone's escape but our own."

Robin and Amon left this world with the Factory. That's what Doujima told me, but I can't believe it. But then, can you really believe anything she says...