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Free Captivity
Chapter Two
Survival of the Fittest
It was a dream. She was positive. However, why did it feel like a memory?
A young girl around the age of 13 was curled up on a carpeted floor, crying so hard she was shivering. She was on the floor by a bed, where a person had once lay, since there were indents in the bed and sheets were scattered.
Numerous times, her father would come and make an attempt to move her, but she would only cry harder. This frightened him, so pushing his red hair out of his eyes, he exited the room to give her peace.
At this point, she had stopped crying, feeling far too worn out to expel any more tears.
Her mother had died today. Her dear mother, who had always seemed so strong and full of life, and just died.
She didn't want to be around anyone right now. She only wanted to just sleep. However, she was afraid her mother might visit her in her dreams, that she might say things she wouldn't want to her. The thought made a few more tears escape.
A shadow appeared in the doorway. It was probably her father again.
"Go away." She croaked. "I'm not moving from this spot."
"Really? Guess I should just leave you here then."
She sat up at the sound of the gruff voice that was clearly not her father's.
"Its you!" She said with surprise as she turned to face him. He was not much taller than her, and had snow-white hair. For whatever reason, she couldn't see his face. It was blurred.
He chuckled. "Look at you, sitting here and crying all day. I thought you were better than that, Maka."
She only shrugged, and made an attempt to wipe her face with her sleeve.
"Did my father send you?"
"No. He actually recommended I not go upstairs."
She lowered her head in understanding.
She didn't even notice when he came to sit beside her, and ruffled her hair.
"You'll get through it at some point. Just act like you usually do."
She was about to say his name, but her words were replaced by shrill beeping...
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Maka almost fell out of bed as her alarm clock sounded. She groaned. Three hours of sleep. Horrible.
She scrunched up her face as she tried to remember her dream. It was slipping the more she tried to remember. She mostly remembered a gruff voice that sounded vaguely familiar, and a vacant bed.
With a shrug, she changed out of yesterday's clothes and changed into new ones.
Feeling dazed and lightheaded, she dragged herself to the kitchen, immediately making coffee. She would need gallons of the stuff if she wanted to make it through another long night of desk work.
Stifling a yawn, she poured herself a cup and flopped down at the kitchen table, to tired to stand.
She glanced at the kitchen clock. 7:10. With a groan, she lifted herself up, grabbed a couple pieces of bread out of the refrigerator, and downed the last of her coffee. She grabbed her trench coat off the floor where she had thrown it last night and rushed out the door, the bread in her mouth.
She didn't slow her pace as she entered the lobby, pulling her hood up as it was raining lightly outside, since she had neglected to grab her umbrella before running out the door.
Damn. She was exhausted and so not in the mood for work right now. If the Lieutenant gave her any crap today she would not hesitate to punch the woman in the face.
She entered the office in an even fouler mood that she was last night. She mumbled a greeting as she passed the secretary's desk.
"'Morning Tsubaki."
"Good Morning Detective Albarn." She gave a polite little bow before answering the ringing telephone.
She shuffled into her office, her partner already present as he shuffled and organized papers.
"Good morning." He stated.
"Morning Will." She grumbled, flopping down in her seat, head in her arms.
He sighed. "Rough night?"
"More like morning, and you have no idea. I cannot possibly run on less than seven hours of sleep or I turn into a real bitch."
Will only cleared his throat at this and continued shuffling papers, clearly unsure of what to say to that.
Maka's mood worsened considerably when she heard familiar footsteps accompanied by the most obnoxious voice in the universe.
Lieutenant Jane Near was not a woman to be crossed. She was tall, busty, had ice-blue eyes and light brown hair pulled back into a tidy ponytail. Maka was sure she was hiding a forked tongue behind those full lips of hers.
She made a beeline for Maka's desk and slammed a massive stack of papers down. She could feel the desk shake.
"Detective Albarn, sleeping on the job? Since you seem to have so much leisure time, maybe you ought to have more work?" She laughed lightly.
Maka wanted to claw her eyes out.
Keeping her voice as light as possible, Maka spoke. "Oh no Lieutenant, you know me, I would never sleep on the job considering that I had about 3 hours of sleep last night because someone requires that I stay until 4 am." This was accompanied by an award-winning smile.
She frowned slightly. "If thats the problem, then you should finish your work more quickly rather than lolly gaging and wasting precious work time."
With that, she left the office. Maka threw a paper ball at the door just as it closed.
"She's the Wicked Witch of the West." She grumbled, pulling the typewriter close to herself as she began typing up more documents.
Will only sighed as he signed another contract.
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Soul twitched as he heard the door open again. The metal of the cage felt especially cold against his inflamed skin. The venom had done its work; he was feeling weaker than a baby.
"How are you my boy? Ready to speak yet?"
Despite how much his throat burned, he spoke anyway. "I told you already, I know nothing. Or have you gone senile already?"
His insane smiled twisted into a grimace. "It would seem not."
He began rummaging in a drawer for something.
Soul's stomach flipped when he saw the object as the madman brought it closer. He was careful not to let it show on his face though.
"Ready to talk yet?"
Soul glared with all of his might.
"I see."
He opened the nozzle on the bottle of acid.
"It seems you still don't understand."
He squeezed the trigger on the bottle, and the room was filled with the scent of burning flesh. Smoke was curling off of Soul's body.
"How about now?"
"How about never?" Soul spat through his pain.
The last thing Soul remembered was the nozzle being pointed at his face.
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Maka stretched joyfully, she had actually finished early! What a relief.
Even usually stoic and pessimistic Will was smiling a little as he went to fetch the Lieutenant.
The woman grimaced. "It would seem that you're done for the day."
Maka nodded obediently, careful not to say something stupid that could ruin this chance.
She sighed in resignation. "Alright, we need backup for field duty. Get your stuff and get moving."
Maka almost leapt up at the opportunity. As the woman left, Maka grinned proudly.
"See? I told you we'd get out chance someday!"
She grabbed Will by the shoulders and shook him violently in excitement. Will was pretty sure his brains had sloshed around inside his skull.
Maka released him and clapped her hands once.
"Alright. Help me pack up Will, we have to show them that we can handle this job."
"Yes, Maka." He grabbed his leather briefcase and began packing various things.
Maka grabbed her two pistols out of her safe and stowed them in two holsters hidden underneath her trench coat.
"This is gonna be great." She beamed eagerly. Her first field job.
First field job, here I come!
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Covered in burns and hardly able to move even if he wanted to, Soul honestly wondered if this is what it would feel like to burn in Hell.
He had been left alone after his usual dosage of torture. Thank whatever God there was that he wasn't one of the unlucky bastards who had to be experimented on. The experiments were was currently occupied the madman's time, for which he was grateful.
He didn't even really know the guy's name, he only knew that the guy was very interested in weapons, and was trying to get information out of him despite the fact that he had no idea what the guy was talking about.
Wincing as he rolled over onto his back, he knew he had to get out of this. Somehow, one way or another, he had to.
He glanced at his reflection on the metal floor.
He looked horrible.
He had a good sized burn on one side of his face, as well as a few on various parts of his body. Dried blood, bruises, and welts covered him, and his once white hair was stained with his own blood. He was paler than usual, and his skin was blotchy from the chemicals that had been injected into him. He was contained in nothing more than a simple cage, but was far too weak to even attempt to escape.
No matter how weak he was, he had to try.
He transformed his left arm into a scythe, and held the edge of the blade to the bars. This wasn't going to be easy, that was for sure. Clenching his jaw, he reared back his arm and swung as hard as he could against the bars. They gave way easily from the force of his scythe.
He winced as a grin spread across his sore face. So he could cut through metal. Cool.
Stumbling out of the cage, he felt as though it had been ages since he last stood up. His legs weren't too battered, so he forced his tired body to move forward, towards the only window in the place, and it was covered in bars. Well, that wouldn't be a problem.
The bars were soon in pieces and he squeezed through the tiny space, landing on his rear on the dirt below. Muttering a string of curses, he forced himself up and ran towards the road. He glanced back at the warehouse. No one seemed to miss him just yet. That was good. Hopefully it would stay that way for a while.
He began to run again, breathing ragged and his body feeling heavier as he ran. A lone car drove slowly by, and he almost ran into it.
The driver got out of the car, shocked at the state of him. "Sir, are you alright?"
Soul slowly stood up, wincing at his many wounds. "I'm fine."
"Is there anything I can do for you?"
He smirked a little. "Give me a ride to the city."
The man looked a little worried. "If you're sure, son."
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Will drove quickly to the scene, since it wasn't too far away.
Maka practically flew out of the car once it stopped.
"Come on Will, we can't be late to our first job!"
He sighed in exasperation. "I know, I know."
She grinned, and half-skipped towards the small gathering of detectives. Her face immediately sobered. This expression was so different from her usual look that it surprised Will.
"Whats the situation, gentleman?"
A bearded man turned to her with a sigh. "Another Weapon. His most recent victim, I presume."
The men shifted a little so she could stand in their circle as well. She had to swallow down the bile in her throat at the sight. The Weapon was completely dismembered, and its eyes were open and glassy, an expression of horror on its battered face.
"What exactly...?"
"Not sure. A passerby found this body when going down the alley. This seems like his style though." Said another man as he took a drag on his cigarette.
She clenched her jaw, careful not to show any emotion.
"Has any testing been run?"
"Someone's just taken samples and headed back to the Agency. We're waiting for an update."
As if on cue, a car drove up at full speed, as a shorter man in a black suit stepped out. He was much younger than the other three men, and had the strangest hair she had ever seen: Mostly black with three white stripes on his left side. He seemed breathless and slightly disheveled as he approached the group with a small stack of papers in his hands.
"Who is this?" He asked calmly, directing his gaze to Maka.
"D-Detective Maka Albarn." She sad, caught off guard. "I've been sent to assist you."
Will stood behind her, giving the tiniest nod of his head.
The newcomer nodded. "Very well."
He handed the packet to the bearded man.
"It is him. He himself removed the limbs with a powerful acid that only affects Weapons, no blades were used."
The bearded man scratched his beard, frowning. "Did you figure out what the substance was exactly?"
"I'm afraid not, Sergent. It's still being tested at the lab and it will take some time to figure out exactly what it is."
He sighed. "I see. Well this is out of our hands now, we need to call a crew to come and get this cleaned up. The body as well so it can be studied."
"Very well."
He jumped back into the car and drove away.
The others all began to return to their cars as well, except for the third man, who stayed and watched the body.
She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Come on Maka, its getting late. You should head home, I'll drive you."
He smile was a little shaky. "Thanks Will."
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Maka waved to Will as he drove away. He couldn't drive her directly to her apartments, but he drove her most of the way. With a shaky sigh, she set off for home.
As she walked, she thought of the Weapon that had been brutally killed. It was so very different from reading documents about the murders, even different from the pictures. She thought she was so much better prepared than this.
She was nearing her apartment when she saw movement in the alleyway next to her that caught her eye.
She stopped, staring into the alley. Figuring it was just a cat, she took another step. When she saw movement again, her hand flew to the gun to her right. She took a few cautious steps forward, towards where she saw the movement. As she got closer, she could see it wasn't a pile of trash, but a dark mass of something.
Maka nearly jumped as it moved again. Moving more quickly, she whipped out one of her guns and jabbed pointed it towards the movement.
"Is anyone there?" She called, feeling foolish. The dark mass shifted again, and she slowly came closer. It was a person. Her grip tightened on the gun. The person raised it's head.
She took in his appearance with shock, and a weird feeling of deja vu.
White hair, red eyes. He was covered in bruises, blood, and burns, and wore a pair of torn shorts. He seemed just as surprised to see her.
It was this moment she realized that no human could survive wounds like this, and with a shocked understanding she whispered her realization aloud.
"Weapon..."
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Whew. Typing that really tired me out. I hope you guys like it, this chapter was REALLY tiring to write for whatever reason.
Please review :)