Disclaimer : I own nothing except for the plot :D

A/N : Okay, this is the next chapter of the Academy! Sorry for the long wait (well, if you wait for it) because the senior year is very, very busy and all that... Do people read this anyway?

Ah, well... as usual, this chapter is dedicated to my lovely beta-reader; Lieutenant Jayden (thank you so much!) and to those who left me some review to boost up my energy and spirit (thank you so much!) and to the silent-reader who read this story and love it (thank you so much!).

Anyway, if you see any mistakes here feel free to tell me... And if you want something with the story, you can just tell me...

Now, on with story!

Chapter 6 : Dum Spiro, Spero ~While I breathe, I hope.~

Hope is the only universal liar who never loses his reputation for veracity.

~Robert G. Ingersoll

Hershel von Shepherd III, the leader of The Academy, the head master, or whatever you want to call him was pacing in his office furiously. It's been several days after the "Incident" which caused a lot of chaos in the Academy. Everyone kept asking question about the one behind the "Incident" and how could the intruder passed all the security of the Complex. The Academy isn't a normal school. With high-tech security and facility, this place can be called futuristic fortress for research. And Shepherd kept thinking about how they could breach all those security.

A knock on his door was the only thing that stopped him from his activity. The door hissed open, and his eyes met Price's and Al-Fulani's.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," Shepherd greeted. "Take a seat."

"We need to talk," said Al-Fulani.

"About the 'Incident'…" said Price.

"I understand."

"They started to ask questions about it, Sir," said Al-Fulani. "Why the third floor became restricted area, why Mr. Sanderson and Mr. Riley along with Mr. MacTavish was in the hospital when they know that two of them didn't suppose to be on the third floor."

"But the worst questions are; why all the teachers rushed onto the third floor? Why there was a bright blue light coming from the third floor?" said Price. "Your little cover up story has a lot of holes."

"We don't have a choice," said Shepherd.

"Yes, we have, Sir," said Price sharply. "Why don't we tell them the truth? I already asked the witnesses; Ramirez, Archer, and other students who were there to keep their mouth shut. But rumours spreading fast. We all know who the master mind of this mess is."

"Yes, Price. We can't tell them truth," said Shepherd. "I'll handle this. Just do your duty as usual. Good afternoon, gentlemen."

"I can't just let it go," said Price as soon as they left Shepherd's office. "We can't just keep them in the dark. What if they choose to attack again soon?"

"But there's nothing we can do. I know all that you wanted is to tell them about the danger, but there's nothing you can do, Price. The head master already said that he would handle this," said Al-Fulani. "Al-Asad can avoid my 'Persuasion' by breaking the eye contact just in time, but I'm not sure with the other man. What was his name?"

"Alejandro Rojas," said Price. "Too bad, they escaped."

"Yeah. Listen, I got to go to check the new building for my Division, if you'll excuse me," said Al-Fulani. Price nodded his head and watched as Al-Fulani pacing through the corridor. He looked at his watch and decided to go to infirmary to check his students. Soap already released yesterday, while Ghost would leave the infirmary today. With a small knock on the door, MacMillan appeared and smiled at his old friend.

Price could hear Soap and Ghost talked quietly. He walked to the bed, and greeted them. Ghost sat on his bed while Soap sat on the chair. They stopped talking when Price came. Without his dark-red sunglasses, Price could see Ghost icy-blue eyes stared at him. Ghost reached up his sunglasses and slipped it. He wore his skull patterned balaclava, as usual. Soap didn't do anything.

"It's nice to see you, lads," said Price.

"Mr. Price, I really need to see Roach…" said Ghost. "I've been here for three days, and I really need to see my brother…" said Ghost.

"I tried to talk to MacMillan about that, but seems like he don't like the idea of Ghost leaving the infirmary," said Soap. "They didn't let me see him either."

MacMillan came up to the bed with several papers in his hand.

"We brought him to the research facility, since we have better medical equipments in that place. It's a restricted place to students actually…" The glare that Price sent him made MacMillan stopped mid-sentence. "But we can manage it. Just follow me."

They followed MacMillan out of the infirmary, into the Centre Garden of The Academy, toward a door at the end of the white corridor. The door opened with a soft hissing sound which led them into another corridor. This corridor had several doors, until they reach an intersection; MacMillan led them into a room, which looked like a hospital's ICU. There was a big glass window to see the inside of the room.

Ghost stared at a familiar figure that slept on the bed, with so many equipment and machine attached to his small frame.

"Roach…" Ghost whispered that name quietly.

"Can we get inside?" asked Soap. MacMillan gave him a nod.

After they did several procedure that the facility required, Ghost quickly walked towards the bed and take Roach's hand in his. Soap placed his hand on Ghost's shoulder while watching the younger boy slept serenely. When he saw Ghost's expression, Soap took a deep breath and patted Ghost's shoulder.

"I'll wait outside," he said softly.

But before he could leave, Ghost's hand grabbed his wrist. Soap gave Ghost a questioning look.

"Stay here, Soap," said Ghost.

"Okay. I won't go anywhere." Soap took two chairs nearby and placed them at one side of the bed, so that Ghost could sit down and so could he. Roach's skin was paler than before, and there was a slightly dark shade of his eye bags. He looked tired. Ghost brushed the brown bangs which covered Roach's closed eyes. Behind his balaclava, Soap couldn't really make out Ghost's expression.

"You know what… If trouble comes near us, why it is Roach who always ended up on the hospital bed with the worst condition?" asked Ghost softly. "I mean you and I, we faced the same person, and that man knocked me out first, you jumped up to protect me but it's always Roach who ended up here while both of us only stared at his sleeping figure."

"He tried to save you, Ghost. That man almost hit you with his blue lightning or something. Roach only ran up to you, he stood between you and that… man, to protect you. After the explosion and the flash of that blue light, Roach was unconscious along with the man," explained Soap. "After that, the man's friend grabbed him and they escaped before the teachers could do anything."

A flashing blue lights sent a massive shockwave towards the entire area, knocking down almost everything and blinding Soap's vision. He couldn't see it clearly. The roar of the wave itself deafened his hearings.

ROACH!

He tried to move, but something was holding him. Ghost was safe… But Roach…

The blue lights vanished with a loud boom, as if it was absorbed by a small figure that stood in front of him. Roach glanced towards them and smiled… Suddenly, Roach fell down, but before his face could hit the floor, he stopped mid-air.

At the end of the corridor, Yuri stood and held up his palm towards Roach. Soap knew, that the guy was trying to help them.

"I know, Soap. What if I hadn't run toward him?" asked Ghost. "I tried to save Roach, but it only ended up by Roach being hurt."

"You shouldn't blame yourself! You want to protect your brother…"

"But I failed, Soap!" said Ghost.

"For God sake, Ghost! You're a human! Just like me, Roach, everyone else in that place!" said Soap firmly. "Look, don't blame everything on yourself because there are things that we have no control over. And all that we have to do is just accept it."

They both fell silent. Soap glanced out of the window. MacMillan and Price were gone somewhere. He looked back at Ghost. The boy still held his brother's hand tightly. Like he would never let it go.

"Get out of my sight!"

His father's voice rang up from the dining room. A loud crashing sound and the man stormed out the door, slamming the door shut. Same shit different day, Simon watched his father did that again. The ten years old boy quickly ran to the kitchen. Gary was there, on the floor with several bruises on his face and arms. The corner of his mouth was slightly bled and his brown hair was a total mess. Gary smiled at him.

"Simon… I just wanted to show you this…"

The boy pulled out a crumpled paper and showed it to Simon. There's a picture. A well drawn picture of two boys both looked familiar; the smaller one holding the hand of the taller one. They were standing in the middle of a meadow with blue sky above their head. The picture itself was drawn using watercolour paint. Looking at this picture, no one would believe that a nine years old boy was the one who drew it. Simon smiled at his little brother.

"Dad hit you, didn't he?" asked Simon.

Gary hesitated before he answered the question. "I spilled the paint on the kitchen counter. I'll clean it up."

Gary stood up and reached for washcloth. He cleaned the counter diligently; Simon quickly grabbed another washcloth and helped his brother. After they finished, Simon pulled his brother towards their shared bedroom and sat him on the bed. Simon pulled out a first-aid kit's box under his bed and cleaned up Gary's wounds.

Gary looked at his brother's icy-blue eyes, and smiled at him.

"Simon, I'm okay," said Gary.

"No, you're not," Simon took out the bandages and band-aid from the box. He cleaned up the wound, gave them antiseptic, and covered them with band-aid and bandages. Gary didn't say anything. He just watched his brother working on his wounds. "Gary, you don't have to hold it."

"Holding what?" asked Gary.

Simon stared at that soft smile. He ruffled Gary's hair. Gary just stared at him with his big brown eyes. Gary was a soft, kind-hearted boy. Gary was the type of the boy who would forgive someone even though they were hurt him or anything. Just like their father or their mother. Gary always found away to forgive them, and after that put the blame for himself. He always put everyone else first, and put himself in the last of the list. Gary's selflessness always amazed Simon under any circumstance. And all that Simon wanted to do is to protect his selfless little brother from any harm. But when he looked at the bruises, it looked like he failed at his duty.

All that he could do now was to offer some comfort for his little brother.

Simon pulled Gary into a hug, and spoke to him in a shooting voice.

"It's okay, if you want to cry, Gary. Cause no matter what happened, I'll always be there for you…"

"Mr. Riley, can I talk to you?"

MacMillan stood in the doorway. It had been two hours since they came to the room, and now, MacMillan came, along with Price. Soap looked at Ghost with concern.

"Soap can come too if you want him to," added Price.

Ghost nodded and followed them outside, into an empty room, next to Roach's room. MacMillan pointed two chairs in front of a large table, and he sat on the comfortable leather chair, while Price stood near the door, hiding behind the shadow.

"I have several things that I have to tell you, and it's concerning Mr. Sanderson's condition."

"What is it?" asked Ghost.

"I've been doing this research, focusing on people abilities, especially for those people who possessed Unclassified Ability for many years, Mr. Riley. There's so many things in their ability that is still unknown by human. It's been a common knowledge among the researchers, especially the ones who's focussed on this area, that the Unclassified couldn't live long, because of their ability. The safest Unclassified Ability that we know called Nullification, which a person nullified another person's ability. The owner of this ability died in her thirtieth birthday, because of Cerebrovascular disease which was almost impossible for her.

"As for your brother's ability, Annihilation has a unique pattern to cause death. From what we observed from the latest research, this ability has five stages which included with the development of one's ability. They have the same pattern. In the first stage, Annihilator—that's what we called them—would find a new ability which we called Psychometry, where ones, can read or see the past of an object just by touching it. This ability will get stronger, depends on the usage of Annihilation. But as you already know, the Annihilation shortened one's life-span.

"The second stage would be Precognition, where ones can see the future. It can be like some flash of picture, a dream, or something like that, and also, this ability will get stronger before the Annihilator reach the third stage, which we called Dream-walking. In this state, most of the Annihilator loses their life with different causes; it could be heart-attack, suicide, infection, and so on. One of our subject, reach the fourth stage, with a new ability.

"We called it 'Healing' but it's not just ordinary healing where you touch a person and then he or she will be good as new. It's stronger than that because this 'Healing' can control the flow of life. Even if you're one step from the brink of death, with this ability you can bring them back to life. But this ability has the other side of the coin. It could take another person's life instead of give it. But to use this ability, it needs a lot of energy for one's body. Our subject died, after she reached the last stage known of Annihilation.

"And it's 'Resurrection', where you can bring the dead to live, just like the way they were. But we haven't done much research about it, and it's still an assumption. For these thirty years, there's only five—including your brother—who have the same ability. Four of them died because of their ability which cause dysfunctions of their organs, or mental stress of their mind," MacMillan ended his explanation.

"And what you tried to say is that my brother can die any time soon?" asked Ghost harshly.

"It depends on how many times he use his Ability Annihilation, Mr. Riley," said MacMillan. "Mr. Sanderson just used his ability a few days ago, and it sent him into comatose and from what I've heard from Price, it seems like he successfully Annihilate Rojas' ability. I'm sorry to say it, but if he could live for the next ten years, I'd say it's a miracle. Look, I'm not telling you this to upset you, but I told you because you should know what happened to your brother and you have right to know about it."

"If… If the fifth stage is 'Resurrection'… how could my brother died, then? Isn't that means he could be… I don't know… Immortal?" asked Ghost.

"It's just our assumption again, but we believe that it's not how it works. They can resurrect other's life, but they can't resurrect their own. In our theory, we believe that in order to do this, just like 'Healing', they need huge amount of energy, and mental strengths. If we are dead, how are we supposed to do that?" said MacMillan. "But it's just a theory."

Ghost stood up from his chair and started pacing in the room. Soap looked at his friend with a concerned eye. After heard MacMillan's explanation, he couldn't believe that Roach's ability could be very dangerous, not only for other people, but also for Roach himself.

"I've known that Roach's life is in danger since we discovered his ability, but you talked to me, and told me that my brother is dying?" asked Ghost, nearly shouting at MacMillan. "Is there another way to save him?" asked Ghost after his short outburst.

MacMillan didn't answer, but Ghost could tell from his expression. It'd be better if he didn't hear the answer from MacMillan. Ghost stormed out of the room and got himself into Roach's room. He sat on the bedside chair, and held Roach's hand tightly. He tried to hold up his tears. There was no way he would let Roach seeing him cry. For so many years in their life, it was always been Roach who held his tears and always cheerful for Ghost's sake. And Ghost knew, he should be the strong one, in order to protect his little brother. His selfless, kin-hearted, clumsy little brother.

"Ghost…?"

The voice was barely a small whisper, but Ghost heard it and he quickly stared at those tired brown eyes and a small soft smile on the face.

"Roach…" Ghost whispered back.

"Ghost… are you… crying?" asked Roach.

"I… No, no. Of course not. It's just… a little bit sleepy… that's all," said Ghost. He let out a fake yawn.

"Yeah, sure… You're a terrible liar," said Roach.

"How's your feeling?" asked Ghost softly.

"A little bit dizzy. But I'm fine. Thanks, Ghost."

"Anytime," said Ghost. They didn't say a thing for several minutes before Roach started to talk.

"Ghost… Am I… dying?" asked him quietly.

Ghost tried to hold back his tears. No, he shouldn't cry. Not in front of Roach. Not ever.

He couldn't say it. He couldn't tell Roach. Ghost took a deep breath before patted his brother's head softly.

"No, Roach. You're not going to die, because I'm here, remember?" said Ghost. "I'll never let you down. If you fall, stumble down, I'll pick you up of the ground. If you lose faith in you, I'll give you strength to pull through. Tell me you won't give up, 'cause I'll be waiting if you fall, you know, I'll be there for you."

Roach smiled.

"Ghost, that's a song lyrics."

"Really?"

"Yup. 'Save You' by Simple Plan," said Roach. Ghost smiled at his little brother.

"I promised that I will protect you. I will be a shield to protect you and a sword to destroy anything who would try to harm you. It'll be okay. Everything's gonna be alright…"

"I hope so, Ghost…"

Ghost smiled, once again at his brother before Roach fell asleep.

There's always hope.

And this time, Ghost would hope for some miracle.

Because it was the only thing that they got.

Hope.

In reality, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs man's torments.

~Friedrich Nietzsche,Human, All Too Human, 1878

Before I forgot, the song mentioned in this story is "Save You" by Simple Plan, which means, it's not mine!

I'm not sure if I can update this story in this week nor the next week, but I'll try!

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