Yeay! New chapter! XD it's probably the longest chapter that I ever made. 4 pages and 3 lines, even without the babbling here.
I'm afraid if anybody being OOC. Please tell me if it happened. Keeping Lin in character was hard. I mean, he's not the 'read-able' (does that word exist?) type of person. But hopefully, he's not OOC.
Okay then. Please enjoy this long chapter (as a made up from the previously short chapter)
Disclaimer: I'll never own it. Not a chance.
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Sven pushed the heavy door aside. Some rude comments were thrown to him. Elena cringed at the comments. She hated when people looked down on others. She had heard about Sven Vollfied from her previous partner for several times. And she wasn't surprised as she felt Sven's very slight worry.
'Glad that you got a partner that cares about you, Train,' she chuckled, thankful that Sven's worry wasn't big. If he was worried sick about Train, Elena wouldn't be able to do her job. Being an empath wasn't easy to do. Sometimes the emotions were too strong for herself to handle.
Just then, a commotion happened. The only woman in the group kicked a black haired man that just said "There's no place for old people and women." The atmosphere was suddenly tensed; Elena had to grit her teeth to prevent herself from yelling at them.
Xiao Li put his hand around her shoulder comfortingly, his other hand patting her black wig. "Take a deep breath, El. Everything's going to be alright. Just focus."
Elena nodded. Her ability will do no harm if she could stay focus, and her current focus is to keep her face cheerful. That's her character for this job. "Let's start it." She stated firmly. Xiao Li nodded and walked forward, approaching the group.
"I do not approve internal feuding," Xiao Li stepped forward to the group. Elena, putting on her act, clung affectionately on his hand. "It's a pleasure to welcome you here, former IBI agent, Mr. Sven Vollfied," Xiao Li's glasses glistened in the dark room.
"My name's Grin, an informant," he introduced himself quite secluded to the green haired man.
"And I'm Velvierra. Nice to meet you all!" Elena chirped cheerfully. Her usually cold voice was annoyingly piercing. She had to try the hardest not to wince at her own voice.
Xiao Li started his well-prepared speech, as Elena hum childishly on his side, one hand still clinging to his hand, and the other's playing with her shirt, acting as if she's ignorant to the serious matter.
'Urgh. Should Xiao keep it this long?' she grumbled in her head. The act started to annoy her. Meanwhile, her partner still had the cool composure to act as the fictive informant, Grin.
But then, another argument started. This time, it's about who should be the leader of the group. Elena could feel the emotion in the room, yet she still focusing to her act, not taking a single glance to the group.
"Stop bickering over trivial matters," Sven sighed, slapping his forehead. "More importantly, do you know the Apostles of The Stars.. rather.. Creed's whereabouts?" he turned his attention to Grin.
All of the sweepers exhaled.
Xiao Li took a moment before answering, "Of course I know."
Elena lowered her humming. It was almost like background music now. Except, that the tune was unrecognizable.
"Where are they?" Sven asked Grin again.
"I shall tell you if you become the Alliance member," Xiao Li answered wisely. Elena almost tensed, but managed to calm herself.
"That's right! You join us, we tell you! That will be fair!" she chirped again.
"A counter-proposal, huh." Sven mumbled.
"It's business after all," Xiao Li answered. The other Sweepers agreed to the proposal.
"Yeay! We are going to go together!" Elena threw her hands to the air right after she heard the acceptance.
"Then, from now on, we are officially The Sweeper's Alliance." Xiao Li smiled. Elena started jumping up and down, shaking each Sweeper's hand cheerfully.
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"Do you have to greet Train in THAT way?" Elena yelled furiously at her partner. "If you said nothing to him at Madame Freesia's mansion, Train wouldn't be involved in this plan! What exactly do you want, Xiao Li?" her grey eyes flickered in frustration at her partner's behavior.
She's very irritated to the fact that Xiao Li decided to greet Train by calling his old alias as Chrono's Number XIII. She knew how much Train hated if someone resurfaced his dark past. But the worst part was, Xiao Li mentioned about the Apostles, and of course, Creed.
"Do you have to tell him Creed's hideout?" Elena couldn't hide the vibration in her voice. She was holding her tears of anger.
"That was part of the plan. We need his power to help." Xiao Li reached his hand out, wanting to comfort the girl.
But Elena was very upset. She snapped her head and shouted, "That's not what you said! You only told me that we need the Sweepers to distract the enemies. Train's not a tool! All of them neither!" and she ran away from him.
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Elena stormed out of the room, too angry to pay a good attention, she collided into somebody.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't looking at my way," she mumbled as she kept her head low. She was about to walk away when the person grab her hand.
"Elena?" a very familiar voice called her name.
Elena raised her head to meet Jenos' eyes. Her eyes were blurry because of the tears that were threatening to fall at any moment.
"What's wrong? How did the mission go?" Jenos stroked her hair brotherly, "You're not hurt, aren't you?"
Elena said nothing as she buried her head in Jenos' chest, her body shuddering in anger, as her hands clutched on Jenos' side. "I just don't want him to join. I just want him to stay away from dangers. I just want him to be safe," she sobbed, "That's not too much, right?"
Jenos sighed and circled his arms around his little sister. "It's his own choice, you know," he stroked her back slowly.
"I know. I know. But he's almost uninvolved! But then, Xiao Li has to call him and asked him to join The Alliance. What does he want? A good tool for the battle? Be serious! None of the Sweepers are tools!" Elena growled angrily.
"Of course none of them are. We need their help, and they need our support. It was kind of cooperation," Jenos tried to explain to the younger girl, and led her to her bedroom.
"No, it's not! If it was, Chrono would directly ask them! Not by pretending as we do now!" She gritted her teeth, disgusted by her involvement in the plan.
"They won't join if we did that," Jenos scratching his head. "By the way, Anubis, Emilio, and David will join the party. It's not bad at all, is it? You'll be able to meet them again."
Elena sighed. Jenos had a point, really. "It won't matter whether the Sweepers join us or not. Anubis, Em, and Dave will still be there even though there're no Sweepers. I don't really want to meet them in a battlefield however," she said, turning her back and entering her dark room.
Jenos stayed in front of his best friend's door. His eyes focused on it. He already knew that everything would likely turn out this way, though he never expected that Elena would be this upset. So upset until she shed her tears. Elena wasn't the emotional type, although she could be emotional at times, but still, never Jenos saw her cry. Even when Train left them, she didn't cry although Jenos knew that she was heart broken to be all alone again.
Finally, Jenos inhaled deeply and turned on his heels. 'Maybe I should talk to Xiao Li.'
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"Xiao Li?" Xiao Li heard someone knocked his door. "I need to talk to you. Do you mind?" He realized that it was Jenos.
Xiao Li, who was daydreaming on his bed, turned his head to the door and walked toward it. He let Jenos stepped into his room, before closing the door again.
"Sorry. I must have made her upset." Xiao Li smiled grimly.
"It's alright, really. You're just doing things for Chrono's sake. But surely, Sephi-nee has told you about her protective being?" Jenos turned his head to Xiao Li. He earned a single nod as an answer. "I have to admit that she was being over protective when it consist Train." Jenos paused for a while. "This is a really, really long story. Get yourself comfortable, Xiao."
Xiao Li nodded and moved to the sofa.
"Her health is unstable. That's why Chrono never let her act without any partner. Therefore, she's allowed to choose her partner. Black Cat was the first who gained her interest. Their age was only a few years apart. When Heartnet entered the Numbers, she instantly asked him to be her partner." Jenos took a deep breath.
"Just like she asked me," Xiao Li stated.
"Yes. Except that time, she didn't faint." Jenos added playfully, before continue on the story. "Heartnet accepted. Together, they were the second greatest team in Numbers, after Cerberus of course. That was until Heartnet decided to leave Chrono. He even asked Elena to join him. But of course, Elena declined."
"She claimed that she enjoy being here, in Chrono, with Numbers. But Heartnet, being her partner for too long, knew how much that girl hates being a part of Chrono. She almost never killed anybody in the mission. She's mostly in the distracting part, though she won't hesitate to kill if it's to protect her partner. Black Cat knows exactly how she was really stressed every time she killed a person." Again, Jenos paused and turned his head to Xiao Li, "She previously told you about her digestion problem, correct?"
"Yes. She has told me about that." Xiao Li nodded without hesitation, "She can't eat if she's stressed."
Jenos nodded in approval. "That's why the Black Cat asked her to leave this organization. But she never intended to leave Chrono, no mater how much she hates being in it. She has no family left, and nowhere to go. Chrono is her home, Numbers are her family. That's why, no mater how much she loves being together with Train, she decided to refuse."
Xiao Li stared at him confusedly. "Then why she's being so upset if Chrono is so precious for her?"
Jenos stared back at him, shaking his head. "Don't you get it? Even though Chrono is very precious for her, her top priorities are those who are important for her: those who she loves from the bottom of her heart."
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That's the 7 chapter. Now, for all of you who read this story so far, please send me a review. Chapter 8 is still in progres. The more reviews I get, the more ideas I get. X)
-Aria+