Chapter 3: The Hiding Begins
Maria's voice lacked its usual overbearing aura and the effect of her power on the assassins was by no means instantaneous. Cross was tense as the light blue barrier formed around them and he wasn't surprised when they weren't attacked. He knew this whole thing was a trap. A trap to learn more about what they knew of the Fourteenth. A trap to see just what the Order's spells could do against some of the most powerful Innocence. And a trap to learn about Cross's ability to control Maria...and he'd just given it to them on a silver platter, not to mention he'd only proven he had a soft spot for his only apprentice.
It irritated him that he'd knowing, and willingly walked into someone's trap - the worlds' most obvious trap, for another human being. He didn't like to think he had any weaknesses but he clearly did when it came to Allen Walker, and he couldn't have made it more obvious. But the stories he'd heard of the torture of the Tower's prisoners had forced his hand. The guards and assassins were known throughout the underworld for their savagery, and he simply couldn't leave the boy with them.
Allen was struggling to keep his eyes open now, and the General swore again. The draining effect of the Tower's defences weren't helping the boy's condition and some of his wounds needed immediate attention. "Maria!" he growled, looking across at the woman. She was still being greatly weakened but the magic binding her Innocence to Cross was forcing her to use her power despite the spells trying to disable it.
After what seemed like an eternity, the barrier was completed and they vanished from the sight of each and every enemy in the room, and could literally walk from the building.
As soon as it became clear that the Generals had managed to leave the area, Inquisitor Marcus strolled to his office and dialled a familiar number on his telephone.
"Sir, you were right, General Cross Marian was here," the Inquisitor said, "...With General Klaud Nyne."
"Did everything go according to plan?" Inspector Rouvelier asked on his end.
"Yes, sir, they barely got away. We believe we now know how the forbidden Innocence, Maria works, and the limits of her power. The magic used to animate her was weakened by our spells, and her Innocence was much more vulnerable then others to our charms."
"Good work."
"Sir, if I may...though it had its benefits, by allowing the Generals to escape, we may never find Allen Walker again; General Cross is capable of disappearing for years at a time..."
"Yes, but now we know partly how he does that," Rouvelier said, "And now we need a method to counteract it."
"Yes, sir."
"The status of all three is now; traitor, we have reward money lined up for anyone with even the slightest suspicions, and there are Squads being deployed as we speak. It won't be long before they're found. Allen Walker may not know anything about the Fourteenth, but the General certainly does."
"Yes, sir," the Inquisitor repeated, and the Inspector said his goodbyes.
"Nii-san!" Lenalee hollered as she all but ran through the halls of temporary HQ. She entered her brothers office, which had seemingly been coated in a new layer of papers overnight. "Why? Why is everyone saying Allen-kun is a traitor?!" she demanded.
"Because..." her brother began, putting down the telephone he'd been using to speak to Chief Officer Bak of the Asia Branch.
"He'd never do anything..." Lenalee was saying.
"...I know, but I didn't..."
"And General Cross...where is he anyway, why didn't he do anything to stop this?"
"Lenalee!" Komui cried, "None of us can do anything because it was the people of the Vatican that made Allen-kun, General Cross and General Klaud, traitors."
"What? Generals too? Can they do that?"
"Lenalee-chan..." Bak-san muttered, his hives once more breaking out despite the seriousness of the situation. His outbreak went largely unnoticed by Komui and Lenalee, as did the loud, booming voice that subsequently shouted: "Bak-sama!"
"They went looking for Allen, and they're traitors because of it," Komui said to his sister.
"Why couldn't we have helped?!"
"We didn't want you to throw your lives away..."
"Wait...'we'...you mean you knew about it...where Allen-kun was..." she furrowed her brow and her brother sighed.
"I'll call you back," he told the other Chief Officer, then walked over to his sister.
"I can't say too much, the situation is dangerous, but the Generals chose to help him and they're old enough to make that decision. They've had their career, you don't even have that yet."
"But..."
"You doubt that they could find him?"
"Well, no, but...General Cross said..."
"Whatever he told you; he's a good person...it's just hard to believe sometimes..."
"Mmm," she smiled.
"Just be careful about what you say; Rouvelier's still got eyes and ears everywhere...and we believe he was behind Allen's kidnapping," Komui said as calmly as possible, choosing to leave out telling his sister of the barbaric place that Allen had been taken to. He was also worried that the Generals hadn't contacted him yet.
"Rouvelier?!"
"Hmm," he nodded, "But unless you act as though you believe everything he says about Allen-kun running away, he might lock you up as well."
"But, Allen-kun..."
"Could well be with the Generals as we speak, he's safer than the rest of us."
"Yeah...I guess so..." she sighed, "Then...what...Rouvelier said some thing about Allen being unstable...a risk...what did he mean?"
"I...I don't know..." Komui said, "I really don't know. But there's something in Allen's past that they think makes him...some kind of risk...Cross knows about it...he's trying to protect Allen."
"But..."
"And we can help him by not making Rouvelier any more suspicious than he is already, alright?"
"...Well...okay..." Lenalee nodded, sceptically.
Klaud Nyne rode swiftly with Lau Shimin sleeping in the folds of her cloak; the effects of the Crow's spells had drained him and she was riding as carefully as possible. They'd been riding for hours and they were pushing the horses to their limit.
Cross meanwhile, was having to keep the horse travelling where he wanted it to, and trying to keep Allen awake so that he didn't fall off the animal. The General was sitting behind the boy, with one hand on the reigns and the other round his apprentices' torso.
"Did I give you permission to sleep?!" he growled, as he felt the boy slump forwards.
"...S...shut up..." Allen muttered back, "...I...I'm tired..."
"Don't tell your master to shut up, brat!"
"...Just did," the boy replied.
"Che," the man scoffed, "You're getting way too rude for my liking, and you're filthy...again. You're rude and filthy. You know how I feel about that," he added, but Allen didn't say anything. "Oi!" Cross shook his apprentice to wake him up.
"Huh...wha..." Allen muttered, shaking his head. His vision had started to blur hours ago, "Why won't you just let me sleep?" he moaned.
"We need to treat his wounds," Klaud frowned.
"We've not gone far enough yet," Cross shook his head.
"We've passed almost thirty miles, and we've been pushing the horses for too long; they need rest and so do we."
"If they find us it'll all be a waste of time."
"If they were following us we would've lost them miles ago. They got what they wanted, so for the moment at least, we're as safe as we're ever going to be. We need to find some shelter," she said, looking across at Allen's slumping figure. Cross's arm around him was now the only thing from keeping the boy from lying flat on the horses neck and it was straining the mans' arm to keep Allen upright and steer the animal.
"Fine, you find somewhere - we rest, if not we keep moving."
So, they rode on slowly, Timcanpy flying ahead in search of shelter, and he soon returned, flapping his wings madly in the air then circling around Allen's unmoving head.
"There...it looks abandoned," Klaud said, straining her eyes to see what the golem had done. It looked like a small, wooden hut with a broken roof which had been reclaimed by the flora. "We can't ride further without treating his injuries," she added with emphasis.
"Yeah," Cross agreed, staring at the back of his apprentice's head, "Alright," he said, steering his horse towards the shed.
It was a purely wooden structure and looked like it had been abandoned for good reason; it showed signs of mould and damp, and in places the wood was flaking away.
"Maybe we'd be safer outside of this thing," Cross said to himself, frowning at the sight. The thought of having to spend any amount of time in such a structure was beyond disgusting to him.
"Don't start," Klaud scoffed, dismounting her horse and taking the reigns, keeping Lau Shimin in her other hand. "We're fugitives now; we can't afford to be picky," she said and Cross sighed.
"Oi," he turned to his sleeping apprentice, "I mean it this time, ride's over, wake up," he said, shaking the boy.
"Hmmm..." Allen managed to mumble.
"Cross, leave it, he's not waking up with those wounds," Klaud frowned. She gently placed Lau Shimin on the ground and walked over to the other horse on which Cross was still sat, trying to wake the boy up. "Let me help," she said, and together, the Generals manoeuvred the sleeping child so that he was in Klaud's arms, allowing Cross to dismount his horse.
He took of his cloak, leaving him still with an unmarked black coat atop a white poet's shirt, and he handed the cloak to Klaud. Then he carried Allen into the wooden structure and gestured to his companion to lay out the dark garment on the dirty floor; she did so with a stony expression. "Poor kid's in tatters," she remarked, putting her simian down and nestling him in her own cloak, letting him sleep.
"Still had some fight in him though, didn't he?" Cross replied, kneeling beside the sleeping boy, wondering just where to start treating the numerous wounds.
The chains and seals around Allen's arm were difficult to ignore and it was probably keeping his body from even trying to heal itself, since the boy was had a parasitic Innocence. The General reached a gloved hands out to attempt to remove them, but when his fingers came into contact with it, he received the same type of shock that Klaud had.
"Useless...we can't get rid of it like this," Cross growled, pulling his hand away again.
"What do you mean?" Klaud asked.
"Magic put it there; magic has to remove it," he said.
"Then you...could you..."
"Mmm," he nodded, "On. Amata. Ira. Masagarati. Kikero. Bara," Cross whispered, his right index and middle finger glowing a light blue as he spoke.
Slowly bringing his own magic to clash with the spells bending Allen's arm, Cross could feel the foreign power invade his own and the magic crackled on his hand. The seals started to dissolve away at the edges, like simple paper in water. Klaud watched as Cross grimaced; it was taking longer than he'd hoped and using magic took its toll.
"Most people know you use magic...it's not exactly a secret," Klaud remarked, "They'd know especially...so why use a seal they knew full well you'd be able to break?" she furrowed her brow, still watching the seals slowly fade away.
"They wanted me to," Cross shrugged, "There's no other answer."
He gave a long, shaky breath once the last seal had gone and he was finally able to stop the magic flowing through his hand, "...Didn't make it easy though," Cross added.
"Maybe their plans are less obvious than we thought," she said but he only scoffed lightly at her. Klaud returned her attention to the ailing child with a heavy expression, "This could take a while," she said, staring at each wound in turn.
"I'll do it," Cross spoke suddenly, startling the woman.
"Huh?" she blinked, "You'll...dress someone's wounds...since when?" Klaud was surprised by his lack of disgust for such a 'filthy' task as tending to the wounded.
"Since about four years ago," Cross growled, "Now move."
"...Alright...alright..." she held up her hands in defeat, "...There's some things in my bag...let me boil you some water at least," she said with a frown. "We can't light a fire, it'd be like setting off a flare...I have something better," Klaud added, her voice trailing off as she rummaged through her bag.
"What's that?" Cross asked, watching her as she took out a canister filled with water and a small, silver device about the size of a large matchbox.
"It heats water without having to light a fire," she explained, "I found it in Germany a while back...I've been on the run before, you know...kind of..." she said at his surprised expression. Klaud then unscrewed the lid from the canister and dropped the device into it.
Leaving the water and some clean cloth for Cross to use, she returned to her back and took out a gun, and a holster which she wrapped round her right thigh, and a two small knifes which she concealed in her boots. She then walked to the door, "...I'll go...scout around..." Klaud said. She could feel the other Generals' eyes on her so she turned back and crossed her arms.
"Problem?" she raised an eyebrow.
"You have a gun," he grinned.
"Just in case," she answered simply, "I never rely on just the Innocence to protect me...there's worse things than akuma out there, you know," she said, turning to look at the still sleeping Lau Shimin. "And not all of us can use magic," Klaud added quietly.
"...Never would've took you for a gunslinger," Cross couldn't help but smile slightly as she shook her head, walking from the shed into the woodland. "She could've used those sooner...don't you think, Allen?" he said to the sleeping boy, not expecting an answer.
Timcanpy rested himself on Allen's head, making himself comfortable in the soft, white strands as Cross stared to peal away the tattered remains of the black cotton shirt that had gotten stuck in the boys' wounds. He then had to clean each one and bind it carefully, but it wasn't like he'd never done it before.
"M...master?" Allen muttered a while later, his voice hoarse.
"You owe me for this," Cross said emotionlessly, as he wrapped a bandage around Allen's right wrist, "You're gonna pay off whatever debt I make, starting now."
"...No...no more debt...please, master..." Allen croaked, his confusion forgotten, "I...hate that...that word..."
"Well, I hate the word 'work'."
"...How...why is that...my fault...why'd I get...debt?"
"That's your job; you're my apprentice," Cross explained, only noticing once he stopped speaking that Allen was sleeping again.
It didn't take him much longer after that to finish bandaging the last of the boy's injuries and when he was done, Cross leaned back against the wall and lit a cigarette. Knowing the Allen wasn't going to be much conversation, at least for a while, since the boy was asleep, Cross also took out Judgement and began polishing its silver surface with a scrap of the remaining cloth. It wasn't much of a task for the man because the weapon was already flawless to begin with and it wasn't long before he was letting out a deep sigh. He turned his head when the door creaked open and saw Klaud calmly stand there, holding it open.
"I'm going to contact Komui, come on," she said.
"It's fine, he's not waking up any time soon," Cross told her, glancing across at Allen for a second.
"All the same," Klaud replied sternly and he shrugged, then pushed himself up from the floor and followed her to stand outside the shed. As they walked several feet in the night air, Cross felt the cool breeze ruffle the cotton sleeves of his poets' shirt. "Komui? Are you there?" she tried her earpiece.
"...Generals..." Komui's voice came through on both her and Cross's receivers, "Well, did you find him! Is he safe?"
"He's alive," Klaud answered while Cross puffed out smoke.
"Thank god, everyone's been going out of their minds...so...how is he?"
"...He'll live," Cross said.
"How bad?" the Chief Officer asked.
"Bad enough," Klaud sighed and Komui's shaking breath sounded through their ears.
"...I wasn't expecting for you to have found him so soon though..." He managed to say.
"Yeah...about that," Klaud began, "It was no simple kidnapping. It was about the Fourteenth...and they wanted something else..."
"What?
"They wanted to know about Maria's Innocence, they practically let us walk in and outta there because they knew they could get what they wanted," Cross said, "I dunno why they suddenly want to know about it so badly now."
"You didn't say anything stupid at that Central meeting, did you?" Klaud asked sarcastically.
"Of course not," Cross growled, "They're the stupid ones."
"Obviously not...we may have just given them the key to destroying Innocence."
"They already had it, we were just the first tests...that we know of, anyway, I doubt they kept it to themselves and resisted the urge to try it out sooner, don't you?"
"I suppose so," she shrugged.
"At least he's alright," Komui said.
"Well, he's alive, but he's far from alright," Klaud corrected, "Some of these injuries will take months to heal, and his left arm won't be able to activate for a while; those seals they used were barbaric. The effect probably wouldn't be as dramatic on an equipment host."
"He seems to have the worst luck," the Chief Officer remarked and Cross 'humphed.' "Where will you go?" the man asked them.
"Abroad," Cross said simply.
"We should probably keep communications to a minimum, you can always send messages to me through your golem if you have to," Komui spoke, "I expect things'll only get worse. I'll do what I can to protect people on my end, you just worry about keeping ahead of them."
"I think that's a given; we're traitors, you know," Cross smirked.
"...And unfortunately, I don't think that's going to change for a long time," the Chief Officer sighed, "It could be years..."
"I know that," Cross shrugged, "What I don't get is why you came along too," he said, facing Klaud, "You don't have any responsibility to that brat at all, and I don't buy all that 'Generals protect their own' crap."
"You wouldn't," Klaud rolled her eyes.
"Funny," the man scowled.
"Anyway..." Komui interrupted them, "I don't expect Rouvelier will be easy to shake off once he starts after you."
"He got what he wanted...for now we're safe..." Cross said.
"Until they want something else again," Klaud finished.
"I'll let you know if I hear anything," Komui said, "You'll do the same?"
"If it's important," Klaud told him and their earpieces switched off.
"Now you can explain why you're really here," Cross said to her suddenly.
"I have my reasons...you'd only laugh," she replied.
"I won't."
"You will..." Klaud insisted, staring at him, "Alright, look," she sighed, "I know we're supposed to just deal with whatever our superiors throw at us...but sometimes they can go too far...all they care about is winning the war, they don't ever stop to think about the people dying so that they can win it...We've known each other for years and all you've ever been is a useless waste of space, and as much as I dislike useless men, you're not useless to him...and he's not useless to you. I don't know everything about him, but I know what it's like to loose your team."
"He's hardly my..."
"He could be, when he's stronger. You care about him, don't try and lie to me..." she said, "Anyway...that's why...now don't ask me to explain it again," she crossed her arms stubbornly.
"...You're a good woman, Klaud," Cross told her after a minute.
"Don't start with me again, Cross. Your stupid charm doesn't work on me."
"I wasn't! Why d'you always assume everything I say is just to..."
"Because it is," she scowled and he scoffed gruffly, "Hey...have you ever wondered...if we'd all been as strong as him when we'd been his age...can you imagine how strong we'd be now?"
"Scary thought, hmm?" Cross muttered, dropping his finished cigarette on the ground and squashing it with the toe of his right boot.
"You've thought about it too?" she whispered and he nodded once, "Maybe...he scares them."
"In more ways than one," the man said ominously.
"More secrets you won't tell me?" Klaud gave a smile, "It's fine, I don't need to know; you didn't make me come with you after all."
"Just remember you admitted that when things get tough," he smirked.
"Don't worry, I'm a tough woman."
"Not just in personality, I hope," Cross replied, staring at her from under his long, red hair.
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" she demanded, balling her fists.
"Whatever you want it to mean, pretty lady."
"Heh...useless man," she scowled, walking back to the shed, listening to Cross chuckle behind her.
