Chapter Twelve: Rude Awakening

Author's Note: Yo. To put it bluntly, I'm sorry this took so long. But I just finished watching some movie called "Planet 51", and I got hit with a punch of inspiration that had nothing to do with the movie. Please read and review.

The room froze. Despite the chilling air that had already enveloped the room and swirled in invisible wisps of currents, nothing moved. The darkness outside blended in with the ebony floors, and white cracks along the walls signaled where either Train or Sven were slammed against.

The said Heartnet clutched Hades in his hand to a painful point that he couldn't notice. He was so enraged that he couldn't feel the angry mass of being curling and yelping in his gut. His face was straight—bruised and blood smeared but straight—as he stared at the limp figure of Lil' Princess lying in a pool of her gold threaded hair, eyes closed and deaf to Sven's frantic screams.

From the corner of his shocked unwavering eyes he might have been able to see Trevaunne's sick face, twisted with both physical and emotional agony, his fingers twitching on the hilt of his revolver.

"It seems that the serum has taken its toll," Doctor remarked unwisely, a grin lousy in his tone. "A pity; once they've run loose her entire body will be failing. She's not worth dissecting anymore."

Trevaunne wanted to bark at him, to scream at him to shut up and shoot him several times in blurring pain and head wracking places that he knew exactly where to shoot…and he was surprised when his father's words flowed smoothly and steadily:

"You mean to say you knew this would happen?"

Volfeid carefully glanced up. He knew that voice. A voice that could set about a cloud of heavy emotion that smothered any good spirit, and Doctor's smile faltered, then disappeared entirely.

That was the voice of the Black Cat.

"You knew that Eve would respond to the serum this way?" his eyes were blank beneath chocolate bangs, and were staring at an empty spot on the floor.

"She responded to it faster than anticipated…"

Don't speak! Sven screamed frantically, mentally. But as the first syllable of his thoughts materialized in his mind, Doctor was already collapsing, his face inhumanly caved in and blood delayed flow as he fell, crimson blending into the dark colour of the floor.

Sven warily looked at the slightly grinning Train who was standing over him, fingers twitching and blood stained, Hades sheathed; he had killed a man with his bare hands.

In less time than a human had to blink.

Was that the power of the nano-machines? Trevaunne thought as the scene finally registered to his mind and his stomach lurched. Could they have reawakened here?

He flinched at a sickening thump and crack that sounded wet and splintered, and Trevaunne's sick feeling raged as he watched Doctor's internals being ripped barbarously from a limp unmoving body. Train kept going, golden eyes hidden beneath bangs as he continued to…

"Train!" Sven shrieked, awkwardly cradling Eve on his shoulder. "You're beating up a corpse! There's nothing left, we have to leave!"

Train paused.

"Train…?" Trevaunne asked skeptically and flinched again when Doctor's body was flung past his ear and snapped—literally snapped loudly—against the wall behind him.

Sven managed to stand with Eve on his back, and weakly snagged Trevaunne's sleeve as he tried to follow his father out the window.

"It's no use," he said hollowly. "Train's more or less lost his sanity. Let him wander."

"He might kill someone else…!" Trevaunne started, and stared when Sven shook his head.

"He's blown it off." He assured, and adjusted the unmoving Eve on his back, "Don't worry, the stray cat always comes home. Right now I'm worried about Eve."

With a last reluctant glance at the window, Trevaunne assisted Sven out of the mansion. Three miles away, there was still no sign of Train.

The screen still showed the steady heartbeat at the occasional bleep that made the older Hades click. Seated backwards on the chair, Trevaunne pointed the barrel towards the blue tinted flickering screen…

"Easy," Sven spoke up gruffly and amber eyes flickered to his apathetically. More or less crippled, Sven's left leg was in a cast and his crutches were propped up against the back of his wooden chair. His white hat tipped over his head, he looked tired, but still sent a copper glare to the anxious young Heartnet, who after half a minute, finally withdrew his hand.

Tearju appeared around a corner not too long after, glasses slightly crooked and hair tied back in a rushed ponytail. She smiled weakly. Like everyone else, she hadn't been getting much sleep.

None at all actually, for the past three days. Those three days in which, Train was still nowhere to be found.

"There's no need to be so tense," Lunatique said wearily, "Eve's recovering."

"At a painfully slow rate," Sven butted in. "It's slow, especially for her."

"It's the serum," Tearju said soberly. "Her nano-machines are recovering from the equivalent of a war. I myself don't know how long it could take…"

"Years?" Trevaunne growled pessimistically.

The room was tense, and Sven held his tongue at Tearju's considering stare on the floor.

Seriously? He thought, Years?

Suddenly Trevaunne stood and two pairs of eyes in the room followed him.

"I'm going to the roof," he stated. And he shoved his hands into his pockets and strode out of the room with that familiar long nonchalant stride that was the most perfect in hiding his true emotional state.

Sven smirked after him. "He is his father's son after all," he muttered.

"I find phrases like that ridiculously redundant." Tearju replied.

"What?" Sven asked quietly.

"His father's son," she clarified. "It's obvious he'd be his father's son; he can't be his uncle's son."

"Tearju," Sven said quietly and she turned to him. "It's just an expression."

"I know, but it makes me sick." She said flatly.

Eve's like her, Sven thought straining himself to remain silent and force himself to sleep.

On the roof of the mansion, air was cool and slightly forceful, and the roofs of trees across the environment played with the wind nymphs. Trevaune kept his footing easily, both born with instinct and years of using escape routes.

That escape route shared with all four of his siblings.

"When were you planning on coming back?" Trevaunne asked the wind and glared at the ripple of brown at the peak of the slant of the roof; no response came.

Trrevaunne glared down at his half asleep father. A familiar eye peeked at him and then closed. "I'm here now, aren't I?"

"After three days," Trevaunne hissed, sliding in beside him. "Where were you?"

"Out."

"Where?"

"Elsewhere."

"You're infuriating," Trevaunne growled and gave up, leaning on his back and glaring at the grey storm clouds that were forming.

Train side-glanced at him. "Trev-chan, can I ask you something?"

Trevaunne mimicked his expression. "Don't be surprised if I answer the same way you did."

Train smirked. "Railgun," he started, "how are you able to do it?"

"I told you, didn't I? My nano-machines are more active than…"

"Not that," Train interrupted, "Hades isn't pure orihalcon. Railgun can't be stored effectively enough in any other metal or alloy to begin activating railgun. How are you able to do it?"

Trevaunne's gaze remained on the moving sky for a moment, then he raised his palm. Train stared as it grew black, then glossy. Ebony like metal. Deep black like…

Orihalcon.

Train sat up with a jolt. "If you can do that, then who's your…?"

A shrill scream cut him short.

They were within the mansion in a heartbeat.

They both recognized the voice as Eve's, and though Train had heard her frightened scream before, Trevaunne hadn't, and looked next to terrified for her. They skidded into the room to find the young girl thrashing sheets and pain etched into her face, eyes closed and hair rising unnaturally as though she wanted it to transform.

"She's forcing her nano-machines into action," Tearju yelled over the shrieking, "they haven't recovered! She could kill herself like this!"

"Eve!" Sven staggered on his one good foot and stumbled to the bed, grabbing her shoulders. He called her name again, and again, but she continued to suffer from her over active impulses.

Train glanced down at Trevaunne who readied Hades.

"What are you doing?" he couldn't help asking, and readied himself to block if needs be.

"I can control the levels of railgun," he explained hurriedly, "if new electric currents are introduced to her system, that should calm her down, right?"

"What sort of twisted logic is that?" Sven yelped angrily at him, keeping a parental hand on Eve to pin her down.

"It would work in less serious cases," Tearju said to both Sven and Trevaunne, "but in this fragile situation we can't risk it."

Trevaunne lowered his revolver, keeping a said trembling gaze on Eve.

Train blinked with thought, a memory that lapsed out of nowhere. The first time he'd seen Eve, when she was about to kill someone on instruction—as though she were already intoxicated by the serum but hadn't touched a drop by then—Train had distracted her with a gun shot: shooting the ground.

The sound made her stop.

Throughout these years of hearing various guns go off he was skeptical if it would work again…but nonetheless he drew Hades and it was Trevaunne's turn to ask him of his plans.

"Tearju," Train called with a sorry smile, "I'm going to have to burn a hole in your floor."

Her expression was blank and half surprised at the same time, yet she gave the gesture "by all means" and Train pulled the trigger. He had intentionally used "Burst Bullet" to add for more impact, more sound and he was satisfied at the thunderous abrupt bang that ricocheted off the bare walls.

Eve woke up with a start, eyes blurry as she blinked at Sven's white hat. Her voice was a hoarse whisper: "Sven?"

"Eve!" He hugged her and she flinched sorely, but smiled weakly and tiredly.

Trevaunne's sick look was gone, as though he had recovered from Eve's condition, and Train abstractly noticed as he slowly turned his attention to the dim scene outside. Cautiously, he drew the curtain and stared for a long pause before he addressed Lunatique: "Where you expecting any guests?"

She frowned slightly and shook her head, glancing mournfully at the floor. "Aside from the five of you, no."

From Train's serious gaze outside, Trevaunne loaded his revolver.

"It would seem safe to suffice that we are approached by new faces."

"Got that right."

Author's Note: In advance I'm sorry! When Train was beating up Doctor all I could think was, "Suppsoing when Saya died if he would have killed Creed without Hades as Creed feared, that's why he ran away." This is all manga based, and wa~a~y later chapters if you want to check it out.

Anyway, that's what came to mind when I thought of the scenario; a wild beast kind of theme, and though I wasn't sick while I wrote it, after I read it over my stomach was begging for mercy.

And can you guess who Trevaunne's mommy is? C'mon, I put two hints in this one! Okay, an easier question: Who's visited the gang at Tearju's mansion?

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