Disclaimer: I don't own Ib or any of the characters
The silence in the room had become almost a physical presence. Not one of the four dared to speak for fear of shattering the very air around them into tiny pieces. All eyes were trained on the tattered book in between them. Ib raised her unsteady gaze to Garry in an attempt to gain some measure of reassurance from him.
He looked just as thunderstruck as she had been.
Veil had known.
Every step they had taken had been predicted and manipulated by his hand.
He pulled them back to the gallery.
He drew Mary away from them with Ib's rose.
And now…
Ib suddenly found it very difficult to breathe. How could she possibly worry about something like drawing in air when her sister was in the hands of a monster?
Red was the one to break their collective silence.
"Care to explain?" She asked, glaring at the only person in the room who was currently restrained. Thomas jumped at her voice before formulating a response.
"W-Well, it sounds like you found some pretty important stuff." He replied. "Some pretty important stuff that I brought you." The addition was largely ignored.
When Thomas had been tied up, Garry and Red had taken on the job of interrogating him personally. Much to Red's disappointment, he had proved to be very cooperative. It seemed as though he had no problem handing over whatever he knew about Veil's plans, which admittedly wasn't all that much.
This had all changed when Ib burst in the door and, quite literally, shoved the book in Garry's face. It had been a view into the inner workings of their enemy. Frustratingly enough while it answered a few questions, it raised far more.
"The last page." Red began. "He was talking about an assassin. I'm assuming that means Mary?" Thomas did his best to shrug through his restraints.
"Can't think of who else he would be talking about." He said. "After all, she killed mister tall, timid, and terrified once already."
Red looked as though she was going to be sick. "We'll have to prepare then." She said. "Garry, she'll be coming for you so we need to keep you under watch. If you die now things will go from bad to much, much worse." Garry nodded numbly at her words, hardly seeming to hear her.
Ib could hardly believe what she was hearing. "Have you all gone insane!?" She cried. "This is Mary we're talking about! She's my sister! She won't turn on us!" Garry continued to look down while Thomas did his best to avoid her glare. Red was the only one who met her gaze directly.
"Ib…" She began. "No!" Ib cut her off. "She isn't like that anymore. We need to focus on getting her out, not hurting her more!"
"If she thinks your life is in danger then there's no telling how far she'll go. Veil won't let her know he doesn't have your rose anymore." Red replied.
Ib could feel herself shaking with rage. "You're wrong." She hissed through gritted teeth. "Mary will see through it. She won't hurt us just because Veil lied to her."
"Believe me Ib, I really wish that were true." The sympathy in her voice did nothing to soothe Ib's outrage. "But I know Mary, and I know Veil. I know how this is going to turn out."
She did not just say that.
"You know her…?" Ib's fingers curled inward, her nails digging painfully into her palms.
"You KNOW her…?" Red refused to drop her eyes as Ib's glare intensified.
"You don't know anything about her you heartless BITCH!" Thomas and Garry both visibly flinched, though whether it was due to her language or the amount of venom in her voice she couldn't tell.
"I'm the one who she grew up with! I'm the one she ran to whenever she was scared or hurt! I'm the one who snuck out of school to keep her company when she broke her leg! Where were you when all this was happening? Oh, right you were stuck in here playing hide and go die with whatever poor idiot got dragged in next. I would kick your ass for even suggesting that you know her, but you don't have one!"
The room went deadly quiet after that. Garry stared openmouthed at her while Thomas tried to make himself as small as possible. Ib didn't pay any attention to either of them, as her focus was directed solely at the Lady in Red. There was a cold edge in her eyes, but Ib refused to take back any part of her outburst.
"How old are you Ib?" She asked with an eerie calm. "Eighteen? Nineteen? Something like that?" Ib nodded slowly. "You've known Mary for about nine years now. Would you like to guess how long I've known her for?" She sincerely didn't want to guess.
"I have known Mary for well over a hundred years. I have seen her at her best and at her worst. I know every little dark secret and hidden fantasy she has. I have spent my entire life looking after her while she struggled through the gallery. I have always loved Mary as if she were my own daughter, and the day she left with you was one of the most painful ones I have ever experienced. But I was happy. Do you know why? I was happy because I knew she finally got what she wanted. I want nothing more than to see her happy, but that doesn't mean I'm ignorant enough to blind myself to her imperfections. She is unstable, and in Veil's care she could easily be turned into a weapon. We can't afford to be caught unprepared."
"It won't come to that." Both of them started as Garry's voice interrupted. "It won't come to that because we are going to get her out before it does." His eyes contained an unwavering determination that was enough to silence Red's noise of protest.
Realizing that nobody in the room was going to be listening to her logic any time soon, Red changed the subject with a sigh. "What about this other stuff?" She asked Thomas. "He was talking about a way out. I know for a fact that the only way out is by replacing someone on the outside."
The doll just shrugged. "Beats me. I wasn't exactly important enough for him to share his secrets with."
"What about the link he mentioned?" She persisted. "He said something about using it to draw in Ib, but that wouldn't work would it? Wasn't his link exclusively with Garry?"
This seemed to have a much more significant effect on him. "Uh, yea… But that doesn't mean another link can't be made." He looked decidedly nervous about the subject.
Red wasn't in the mood to deal with evasiveness. "Does that mean he's linked to Ib now or not?" She demanded, giving him a hard look.
"N-Not exactly." Thomas replied, squirming uncomfortably. "He can't have a link with her since he's already linked to Garry, but that can be fixed." He paused, trying to think of the most delicate way to explain the situation.
"He may have… sort of… might have… made another you." He said, nodding towards Ib.
"Made… another… me? You mean there's another one of him that looks like me?" Ib didn't want to consider what it might be like to go up against her doppelganger.
"Oh, no." Thomas reassured her quickly. "She's nothing like Veil. Heck, she's hardly even alive at all. I can't tell you much about her other than the fact that she lives in a dingy little cell, and has been refusing to help Veil ever since you arrived."
"Why is that?" Red questioned with a frown.
Thomas shrugged again. "You'd have to ask her, not that it would do any good. I had the misfortune of being her caretaker a few times and she never once said a word."
Ib, Garry, and Red all silently pondered what the implications of this could be.
After a pause, Garry shook his head and brought them back to reality. "We can't keep going on like this." He said. "We need to start thinking about getting Mary out, and finding a way to get the two of you home."
"And how do you propose we do that?" Red asked. "Mary already tried to sneak in, so sending someone else likely wouldn't work out very well. Not to mention Veil has an entire army at his disposal to deal with any force we send."
"So do we." He said quietly.
Red stared at him in disbelief. "You can't possibly be suggesting-"
"I am suggesting that." He said, cutting her off. "We've been stuck in a stalemate for too long. If we stay like this Veil will have all the time in the world to play his little games while we get picked apart by his forces."
Red pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Garry we don't have enough soldiers." She said. "Attacking him directly is suicidal, not to mention he still has Mary. What's to stop him from using her as a way to force us into submission?"
"He won't be able to." Garry explained. "While our main force is attacking the front we send someone in the back to break her out. They would even have a shot at hitting him directly, and I'm willing to bet the cloth men wouldn't put up much of a fight without their leader."
"Who would we send?" She asked, convinced Garry had finally lost it. "Nobody here would stand a chance against him alone."
"Who do you think we would send?" All eyes immediately turned to Ib.
"No. No! Absolutely not!" Red said. "She doesn't know the path, and she wouldn't stand a chance against him."
Garry gave a humorless chuckle. "Oh come on Red." He said. "She took the worst the gallery could throw at her and beat it all, and that was when she was nine. Out of all of us, she's proven herself more than capable of handling killer paintings. Besides…" Garry reached into his coat. "She'll have a secret weapon."
Pulling out a small object, he tossed it through the air towards Ib. It shined briefly in mid-air before she caught it and took a better look at what it was.
Her breath caught in her throat as she saw it.
"Where the hell did you get that!?" Red asked in horror.
Garry just smiled. "I hung onto that lighter since I was first stuck here. Recently I've been keeping it in case I ever ran into Veil face to face. He might be able to take a lot of punishment, but I'll bet he isn't fireproof."
With trembling fingers, Ib traced the G on the front of the small metal object. A sense of nausea hit her as she remembered how much Mary hated fire, but it was quickly erased. She could use this to help free Mary, and get rid of Veil.
Permanently.
Red interjected again. "She still doesn't know the way." She argued. "This is too dangerous a job to be going in blind."
Garry leaned back against the wall with a satisfied expression on his face. "Then I guess it's a good idea we have someone who is very experienced at sneaking in there." For a second confusion coursed through Red's features before realization hit her.
"Him?"
"Me?" Thomas shrieked. "No way! I'm never going back there, do you hear me? Do you have any idea what Veil will do to me if he catches me again?"
Garry stepped up to the tied doll and leaned down until he was right in Thomas's face.
"Do you have any idea what I'll do to you if you don't?" He asked. "You want to make up for your mistakes? Well here's your chance to do it."
"Garry you can't be serious!" Red exclaimed. "He already betrayed us once, are you really going to trust him with Ib's safety now?"
"No." He stated flatly. "I'm going to trust in her ability, and his understanding of what will happen to him if she gets hurt."
"This is utterly insane." Red stated, shaking her head. "Ib, you don't have to do this. Just tell him it's too much and we'll find another way." She pleaded.
Ib still hadn't looked up, her gaze was fixed on the lighter in her hands. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face Garry.
"Where do we start?"
Garry let out an enormous sigh as he sat down in his chair. The past few hours had been filled with hectic movement and energy as the inhabitants of the Fabricated World prepared for the attack. Weapons were distributed, orders were given, and soon they would all be ready to finish this.
Not once during all of this had he even paused to stretch his sore muscles, and now he was paying for it.
A knock at his door caused a groan to escape from his battered form. "Come in." He said, trying to imagine what was so important that the officers couldn't handle it. He was more than a little startled to see that it was Ib's head that poked through the door.
"Ib." He called. "Is something the matter?" This was the first time he had seen the girl since they had left the interrogation room, and she seemed fairly nervous.
"No, no, nothing's wrong." She assured him. "There was just something I wanted to give you before tomorrow. Hold on a second." With that she disappeared back outside the door. "Close your eyes." She said.
Wondering what she could possibly be doing, Garry decided to humor her and shut his eyes. "Ok, their closed." He called.
All he could hear was the sound of the door opening, and a few muffled grunts as Ib lifted something into the room. "Can I open my eyes now?" He asked.
"Not yet. Just a minute." She replied. He waited for a little while longer, and heard her steps as she worked her way up to him. "All right, you can open them now." She told him, with a tremor of uncertainty in her voice.
Not knowing what to expect, he opened his eyes. The sight that greeted him took his breath away. Ib stood directly in front of him, and in her hands…
Was the single most ornate spear he had ever seen.
It had been painted a mixture of reddish-gold along the shaft, and each swirl was decorated with a blue rose. The detail didn't stop there either; each rose consisted of at least a dozen different shades of blue, all melding together until it was impossible to tell where one ended and another began.
Despite being so well designed, it was clear that this was not just for show. Ib had thickened the end in order to give it weight during a stab, and it's tip looked far sharper than anything he had made during his time in the gallery.
"I-I've been working on this for you, but I had some trouble getting it just right." Ib looked down nervously as she spoke. "I thought that since you would be leading us, you needed something a bit… fancier than what was stashed in the armory. D-Do you like it?"
"Ib…" He said with a shaky voice. "This is incredible. Where did you learn to do this?"
She blushed self-consciously at the compliment. "Well, I guess I took a bit of an interest in art ever since I left the gallery." She said. "Mary even got me a sketchbook once. And…" Her sentence drifted off as tears stung her eyes.
Garry rose up from his seat and wrapped his arms around her slender form. "It's ok Ib." He said. "We'll get her back."
Ib sniffled against his shoulder as she tried to hold back her tears. "What if it's too late?" She asked, giving voice to her fears. "What if something happens to her?"
"She'll be fine." He said gently. "Her rose is still intact, and we're not going to give Veil a chance to hurt her anymore."
The two of them stood there, each drawing strength from the other.
Whatever was coming, they would face it together.
How long had it been?
Mary couldn't tell.
All she knew was the crushing sense of terror that infused itself into every fiber of her being.
"I can't…"
She couldn't kill Garry.
"I can't…"
She couldn't let Ib die.
Never in her life had she felt so utterly helpless.
If only two of us could leave this place, who would you choose?
Her words came back to her with an agonizing jolt.
Who would Ib have chosen if she had known Mary's secret?
Who would she have chosen if she saw Mary now?
Mary couldn't even curl up into a ball and cry due to the restraints holding her in place.
Was this normal? Would a real person be feeling this kind of horrible conflict in a situation like this? Or was it just another cruel mockery of what being human was.
Obsession…
Mary wanted it to be a lie. She wanted to cast away any doubt about what she felt for Ib. But how could she when she didn't know what the difference was between the two?
Had she ever really felt anything for Ib beyond her own desires?
"I can't…"
She had already exhausted her tears when the cloth men had finished with her. Now, she wished that they had never left. The pain of their claws was physical at least.
It was real.
She didn't react as the door to her prison creaked open.
She didn't react as a tall figure walked inside and knelt down in front of her.
It wasn't until his finger gently caressed her cheek that she finally looked up.
Veil looked back with his cruel smile.
"It's time Mary." He said, undoing her restraints.
"Time to get to work."