Chapter 20- Apathy

"You! What were you thinking! Didn't I say NOT to over do it!" Ai shouted as they ran down the stinking sewers holding tightly to Conan's wrist, almost ready to break it.

"I didn't over do it. She's still alive, isn't she?" The dragged boy shrugged indifferently, causing her rage to increase.

"That, and proving to her that you are not just insane but dangerously so.! What if she manages to convince the others and then they throw you in a white to rot away forever? What would you do then?"

"Nothing, we'll just run away. "

"And go where exactly? If you can't return here then you literally don't have a hole to return to! Do you understand how important that is? Apathy, say something!"

" What do you want me to say?"

"Weren't you supposed to keep Conan under control? Then, why did he go so far?"

"Relax, it's not like he would've been able to go any further than that, plus all the equipment in there were rendered harmless. Thus, there is nothing to worry about."

"Still! What if another police officer came by? What would you do then?"

"Conan tells you 'We are manipulative bastards, we would easily get out of it'"

"No, that would be exactly proving what she just said!"

"So? Knowing it and using it are two different things. Relax, worst-case scenario we'll run from the asylum. The streets have always been my home, so there's nothing to worry about there."

"I don't like it!"

"Why would they take you to an asylum because of us? We won't say anything to get you in trouble."

"No, I don't like the idea of you getting sent there! What would I do without you? Who'll make sure the Black Organization won't catch me?" Haibara's voice trembled on the verge of a panic attack.

"Ai, I assure you, if that happens, we'll find a way around it then."

"But why didn't you think about the consequences before you did what you did? That's not like you! Not even Kudou would be so reckless!"

"I… have no logical explanation…"

"That's NOT what I want to hear! Ah, Forget it! Just go back home and STAY there until further notice! You could all reflect in the mean time. And Jeez I can't believe, I'm literally grounding you. How much more older are you trying to make me feel?"

"Aye, aye Ma'am"

"And drop the dry sarcasm. I'm not in a mood to hear it." Sigh~

They spent the rest of trip in deafening silence, neither willing to talk to the other, one out of rage, the other out of respect and to avoid the other's bad mood, shameless to what he has done.

When they reached back home with Apathy leading them down shortcuts, Haibara simply pointed towards a bedroom with a controlled expression and immediately went to another side of the house, the basement laboratory, in need of staying the furthest possible distance from the other.

Conan, or Apathy to be more accurate, went obediently to where she pointed and locked himself in for the rest of the day. He didn't reflect on his, or his other half/third's doing, rather he focused more to his current situation and how he got into it. With that, his thoughts took him far, far into where it all started…

Ever on the run from his lunatic wants-to-kill-him mother, the six years old him, from almost two and a half years ago, was doing what he always did in such a fine autumn afternoon, walking around and haunting for food that didn't exactly reek. Hard feats for a street kid, but hey! 'Beggars can't be choosers' though he had it nicer than the other homeless people. He may have just barely turned six back then but he was a veteran. He was raised on the streets, and being smart it didn't take him long to take control of at least a small territory. Even if his territory was so small and barely held any authority on any grown ups, he also had attained the favor of all the neighboring scary and most feared gangsters. Although most of them were just purely pedophiles, others just taken in awe for his cuteness and brains, the rest tended to like to have a 'little brother' or 'son' they could take care of – it would surprise anyone the amount of 'big caring bears' that wandered the streets in control. Regardless of the exact reasons they helped in surviving the cruel environment that Apathy had grown accustomed to, plus neither pride nor virtue helped in putting food in your grumbling tummy, so why should he care if was played with a little in exchange for a better chances of not getting his throat slit by some psycho while he's in the middle of a much needed sleep? When they like you, no matter the reasons, they tend to keep you safe for their own selves, be it pleasure or sense of responsibility they had taken upon themselves.

The point was, he was very well liked among the old-timers, that were in control, a well-respected or feared men. Thus he had almost nothing to fear, if by some ill luck that someone tried to kill him, they'll have to worry over the very possessive 'friends' he had backing him up. They'd probably either make use of his then lifeless body to keep those little fires burning throughout the cold night, or have him as a rare good quality meal for dinner. Cannibalism wasn't far from thought when in hunger.

Well it's true he is a manipulative bastard. Even when he was just born he had the charisma to make people take good care of him. Now, that didn't make him spoiled by any means. It was just his way of surviving to see the next day. But after years and years, true they were only five worth of memories but still they felt like eternity with every day's main goal is to stay alive buy then, he got bored of it. The funny thing is, even when he didn't bother to put extra effort on not dying, due to either luck or the people around him, he still managed to stay alive for so long.

One day he took a detour to watch people in Tropical Land when he found an interesting discovery. Among them, there was one teen who, for all his knowledge, might have been his long lost big brother. Out of curiosity he followed the guy on his date, waiting for him whenever he went on a ride. As he was following the teen he noticed two men in black riding behind him on the rollercoaster. At that time a murder case happened, that teen quickly closed it and, not long after, followed the suspicious men in black.

Apathy got distracted by the attraction-goers still roaming the grounds until he managed to finally get to where the teen wandered off to. He heard sounds; in fear of getting caught he hid out of their sight. When the men left and he didn't see a sign of the teen, he went in only to trip over an arm. When he looked closer he found it to be the teen he was following, lying on the ground lifeless. He found the guys clothes to be quite warm. Looking back at his tattered garments of his own, he raided the body of it's clothes and wore them himself, rolling the body to a ditch somewhere out of the public eye. Just when he turned around to leave, a chill ran over him as a sense of eeriness crawled over him. He ignored it and felt compelled to come back to where the body was to check for anything that the teen might have dropped when he died. Before he was even able to get hold of the teen's things he felt dizzy and fell unconscious.

In his unconscious mind, he felt a foreign presence. The next time he woke up he noticed something strange from the very beginning, but when his body started moving without his command he knew what had happened to him. He was possessed.

Amazed by the turn of events he sat back and watched the turns unfold silently, without alerting the other to his existence, wanting to see how it would end and to entertain himself for a while. It was funny, really, what the dead teen deduced. The teen, Shinichi, thought that he had shrunk. The moment Apathy heard that thought he had to hold himself hard from cracking up on the idea. It seems the stolen clothes added to his theory along side with the site of awakening and the lack of his original body. It was entertaining to see him panic and run to his neighbor for help and, by some hard to understand coincidence, he ended up in his girlfriend's house, living undercover. Yes, Apathy found it very entertaining.

Though he still wonders, how come 'till this day no one found the body? Sure he hid it well, but…

I hate him! I Hate him! I HATE him!

We are totally different! He is an idealistic idiot, a mystery geek, a nuisance, and a pet! How dare he talk about justice and what can and cannot be done when he knows nothing of life? This boy has lived his life in a roofed house, with guardians, parents that loved him! Food was within an arm's reach. Non-tainted, nor a used body! Total Virgin, with pride and honor absolutely untouched! With honest friend that have no ulterior nor disgusting intentions.

Worlds apart from my background. And still, he has the guts to feel as though he has had the worst fate ?!–

Actually… I shall take back my words;

He does have the worst fate…

He is Dead.

A "Edogawa Conan" and "Kudou Shinichi" chapters are up next, with those FINAL two chapter I plan to explain EVERYTHING about the story, Ayami shall have a part to clarify what she had done after the last chapter's events. Now the thing is, with college being so close by, I'm hundred percent sure I won't have time to even think about writing a new chapter! But on the same time, I'd like to keep a possibility for new chapters if I managed to write any later on. Cause I seriously LOVE this story/plot and to do put an ending that would render any future chapters impossible is very, very hard.

On the note of explaining. I hope this had cleared some of your doubts, and I was hoping you'd remind me of all those missing Variables I along writing the story so that I'd answer them within the next 2 chapters.

And I was wondering, is anyone from the one who began reading the story back at the beginning of my posting still reading? I won't be surprised if you guys got bored by me…

And Yes, sorry for the uncharacteristically short chapter, but I made my reasons clear above.

PLEASSEEEEEE Review! It makes me write the next chapters faster, to know that people are actually interested and that I'm not taking to myself…