(More strong language. You'll find out why c: )


It was maybe half an hour later that the gunshots started. At first they were just far-off noises, lost in the night and easily mistaken for fireworks or people going crazy at a party in the block across the road. Then they slowly became louder, as if they were coming right towards them, as if guided by an unknown source.

Minoru became increasingly edgy and worried as the bangs grew louder right outside their window. They tried opening a window, but there was no sign of anyone outside, nothing that could be causing the gunshots.

"What's going on?" Maria said uneasily.

Canaan said nothing. She was in another world completely. Ringing up Liang Qi hadn't gotten her any closer to contacting Alphard. How were they going to see each other again? Warning bells began to ring in her ears. What if Alphard didn't want to see her again? What if she still thought she wasn't good enough, or was secretly still jealous of Maria? Was that why she hadn't left Canaan any way to keep in touch with her?

A chop-chop-chop sound caught their ears overhead, startling the two reporters. Minoru sprang to his feet in disgust.

"I'm going out to see what's making all this racket," he grumbled, and then disappeared out the front door of the flat.

The noise shook Canaan out of her reverie. It sounded exactly like the sound of the helicopter that Alphard had taken her home in.

Alphard? Is that you outside?

She had to know. Her heart in her mouth, Canaan ran through the door after Minoru. The gunshots would make sense too. Danger followed Alphard like a moth followed fire.

"Canaan, where are you going?" Maria called after her, startled. Then she ran after the synesthete too, all three of them dashing outside for completely different reasons.

Canaan raced out to the open, standing on the balcony which overlooked the city below. They were five floors up, but she could clearly see what was going on. As soon as she appeared, all the shooting instantly came to a stop.

Minoru had made it out the door fast. He was standing in front of her fearfully with his hands raised above his head. He had every reason to be scared, and that was because there were four marine soldiers with automatic rifles aimed at him.

In fact, the entire balcony around them was full of soldiers. They all snapped to attention when Canaan appeared, and then looked surprised to see Maria. The focus of their weapons shifted away from Minoru and towards Canaan.

Minoru slowly lowered his hands, aware that he wasn't the one with dozens of weapons aimed at him right now.

"What the hell?" he mouthed at Maria and Canaan.

Canaan shrugged and walked to the edge of the balcony. The guns followed her movements. None of the soldiers fired. None of them shouted at her to stop in her tracks, or made any threatening gestures towards her friends. It was if they were just there to keep her in check.

She looked down towards the ground floor, where the helicopter had landed. Her heart beat faster in her chest, looking down to see if it was Alphard who had come for her...

A figure stepped out of the helicopter, and pierced her with a look of pure hate. She was dressed in an assortment of black and blue colours, short hair curling up by the sides of her neck. Her hands were clawed into fists at her side, and even from this distance Canaan could see the harsh emotion etched against her skin.

She wasn't Alphard. She was a little bit shorter, and just a little bit more insane. She was not the kind of woman you wanted to come after you in the night.

Canaan had a pretty good idea who it was. When Liang Qi had threatened to come over to their house and kill them all, she hadn't realised she was being serious...


"Canaan!" Liang Qi screamed up from the ground. "Get down here and fight me like a woman!"

Canaan cast her gaze around the fifth-floor balcony and the dozens of soldiers who had their guns trained on her. She knew she could easily incapacitate every single one of them without much effort. She could also leap down those five floors right down and have a decent attempt at knocking Liang Qi out before she really did kill them all.

It was Minoru and Maria she was worried about, though. Liang Qi was the kind of person who would wind up using them in some kind of hostage situation. Of course, so was Alphard, but Canaan forced that unpleasant thought from her mind. It was her aim for her to change that. If she even saw Alphard again...

Canaan wondered why the soldiers around her – and yes, they all worked for Snake, she could see that close-up now – why they hadn't just escorted her down to the ground floor if Liang Qi wanted to fight her that badly. Maybe the woman just wasn't thinking rationally. It was a safe bet.

She leaned over the balcony and peered down towards Liang Qi. Yep, she was definitely pissed.

"Do I have to come down?" she called down to her.

Liang Qi held out her gun in front of her, aiming it at Canaan's head. "If I hear you mock me again, you pathetic bitch," she raged, "your beloved Alphard will have nothing left of you to love!" She clicked back the safety catch. "Get down here and fight me!"

"So...you're not going to shoot me?"

"Shut up! Shut UP!" Liang Qi fired and Canaan quickly dodged it, her synthesis kicking in. "I'm not going to fucking shout at you when you're standing all the way up there! Get down here this fucking instant!"

"You could come up here instead," Canaan suggested helpfully. "You're the one with the helicopter. It might be faster."

Liang Qi gave a howl and fired several more times, the shots going into the building framework around them. Minoru gave a muffled yell and quickly ducked into the doorway for cover.

"I'm only trying to help."

"Shut UP! I'll kill you, you fucking bitch. I'll kill you!" Liang Qi fired again, this time her aim completely askew, and almost hit one of her own soldiers. "No one touches my sister, my Alphard, my everything! I'm going to come up here, and then I'm going to - "

"So you are coming up here?" Canaan frowned. "I'm confused. Do you want me to come down or not?"

"NO!" Liang Qi roared. There was a click ran out of ammunition and she quickly clawed at a second one from her belt. "You don't move a fucking step. You. Don't. Move. I'm coming up to kill you all." She fought to control her breathing and ran for the helicopter. "Cummings!" she yelled once she was inside.

The three of them waited patiently for the helicopter to ascend to the fifth floor. The Snake soldiers around them had stopped pointing their guns at Canaan for the time being. They looked rather bored and fed-up with the whole thing. She felt a little bit sorry for them, but not that sorry, considering what they did for a living the rest of the time.

As the helicopter drew level with them, with Liang Qi and Cummings inside it, the sound of the chopper blades was so loud that it drowned out whatever Liang Qi was yelling at them. The helicopter dipped down a little, as if looking for somewhere to land, but there was nowhere to set down in this block of flats. People were peering out their windows to look at the strange spectacle, then quickly hid back inside when they caught side of the armed soldiers outside their doors.

Eventually, Liang Qi gave up on trying to find somewhere to land the helicopter and opted to have it offering. They still couldn't hear her over the noise of the helicopter, so she was using a megaphone that Cummings had found her.

"CANAAN!" she hollered through the megaphone at last when she'd managed to make the helicopter level at last, her gun-hand trembling. "You listen to me." Her eyes blazed with fury at the mere sight of the synesthete. "Give my sister back or I'll fucking kill you!" Her gun shifted to Maria. "And her!" She caught sight of Minoru, who was gibbering in half-view. "And whoever he is!"

"Can we talk about this?" Canaan tried.

"No! I'm not going to fucking talk to you! You've taken her away from me!" Liang Qi looked ready to cry. "I worshipped her and would do anything for her, and now all she talks about it you! It's Canaan this, Canaan that! I can't fucking stand it anymore!" She tried to fire the gun in a fit of rage, forgot the safety catch was still on, and then threw the gun at a soldier before grabbing another gun at her belt. "I'll put an end to you, right here, right now! Then she'll pay attention to me again. She'll have to!"

"She's not going to," Canaan said quietly, annoyance clouding her senses.

"What?" the terrorist shouted, unable to hear her over the roar of the helicopter blades.

"I said she's not going to!" Canaan repeated, raising her voice. "If you kill me, she'll ignore you even more! She doesn't care about you in the first place!"

She regretted the words the instant they were out of her mouth. Liang Qi looked like she was about to go into a seizure.

"LIAR!" she screeched. "She has to! She's all I've got! And I'm all she'll ever have!" The gun trembled, and then pointed right at Canaan's face, too close to miss. "I'll destroy you and force her to love me! Die, Canaan!"

She fired and Canaan took the shot dead-on, shock registering on her features before she crumpled into a heap on the ground. Maria screamed and ran to her friend's side, and even Minoru ran from his cover fearfully. There was no response from the synesthete. Slowly, Maria looked up into Liang Qi's hateful eyes. The blonde camerawoman's face was pale with rage herself.

"You murderer!" she shouted. "You killed Canaan! Now Alphard will never love you!" She ran to the edge of the balcony defiantly. "Are you proud of it?"

Beside her, Cummings whispered something into Liang Qi's ear which made her face change. Whatever it was, the terrorist reacted as if she'd just been hit by a train and began to yell at him angrily before he held a radio headset to her ear. Her knuckles tightened and her eyes went wide at the sound. Then she hit him angrily and threw the gun down.

"Ow..." Canaan complained, sitting up blearily.

Minoru yelped and sprang back several paces, looking as if he might have a heart attack. "Canaan!" Maria cried in relief, reaching out to hold her. "Are you...? What happened? Are you hurt?"

Canaan held her face woozily for a moment and walked back to the edge of the balcony.

"You just shot me in the nose with a BB gun!" she shouted at Liang Qi angrily. "Don't do that!"

Liang Qi was red in the face from the last ten minutes. At least she wasn't holding a gun anymore. She still looked like she was about to blow yet another fuse, if such a thing was possible at her present emotional state.

"Alphard's sent word to me that I'm not to hurt you," she growled.

"What?" Canaan yelled above the helicopter blades.

"I said, Alphard says I can't hurt you!" Liang Qi hurled her gun at one of the soldiers on the balcony and he howled as it hit him in the shin. "I...I...she says I have to let you..." Her face was turning colour from getting the words out.

Cummings helpfully took over the megaphone. "Alphard-sama has guaranteed your safety," he explained. "Liang Qi-sama has been ordered not to hurt you in any way."

Canaan's heart started to beat faster. Just hearing a message from her could brighten her mood, even if the message wasn't to her specifically. "Where is Alphard right now?" she said hopefully. "Is there any way to contact her right n- "

Liang Qi wrestled the megaphone from Cummings and roared, "DIE IN HELL!"

Gently, Cummings laid a hand on her shoulder and whispered what looked like words of encouragement into her ear. Whatever it was, it seemed to calm her down a little. The terrorist muttered something back at him and then turned her back on everyone.

Cummings quickly took the megaphone back. "We don't know where Alphard-sama is at the moment," he said to Canaan. "She seems to have disappeared since...since this afternoon. Liang Qi-sama is most upset about this."

Canaan felt even more confused. Alphard had disappeared since their date? Had something happened to her?

"You're damn right I'm upset!" Liang Qi hollered into the megaphone again. "And the first chance I get, I'll kill all of you a second time!"

"Whatever," Canaan said mutely.

"Can we go home now?" Cummings said hopefully.

"I hate all of you! None of you understand." Liang Qi hit her heads on the door of the helicopter. "And Alphard! My sister...my dear sister...why are you obstructing me? Why do you love her? Why did you swap my real gun with a BB gun for the second week running? Is this going to be a thing now?"

Cummings glanced at Canaan and her friends, thin-lipped. "We'll be going now," he said gratefully. "Thanks for your help."

"No problem," Minoru said cheerfully.

Maria looked at Minoru. "You didn't even do anything," she said accusingly.

"I apologise for all the noise," Cummings added, looking truly sorry. "It won't happen again."

"That's all right," said Canaan pleasantly. "I just wish it had been Alphard in the helicopter and not - "

Liang Qi whirled around in her seat. "What was that?" she hissed.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

Cummings nodded respectfully. "And I wish you all the best, Canaan, in your relationship with Alphard - "

"Stop TALKING to them!" Liang Qi yelled at him. "Stop trying to be NICE! Just get us out of here, I can't stand another minute with – with her - "

"Rude," Canaan muttered under her breath.

"Yes, Liang Qi-sama," Cumming sighed. "All units, move out. Mobile Squad A, report to - "

"Never mind who they report to!" Liang Qi said shrilly. "Everyone can just go HOME!" She clawed at her head. "I fucking hate this world..."

Gradually, the helicopter began to descend and the noise receded at long last. The Snake soldiers around them muttered to themselves and began to file away out of the building. Minoru slowly looked around, as if half-expecting someone else to start firing at them as well.

He looked pointedly at Canaan. "Could you go home, too?" he said weakly. "We've had enough for one night."


(Psst, there's been a lack of Alphard lately but she'll be back next chapter.)