Wow, two chapters in two weeks. I must be on a roll! Lol no. I just found out that I have far less time than I thought.
So I have unexpectedly been showered with unplanned essays due at the time of finals in most of my classes, so I am going to try my best to meet my secondary/sooner deadline that I never thought I would make, but might be able to now. So I am going to try to use what little time I have now to try to finish this story the way it is meant to end. But considering that there are only two chapters left, I think that I'll be okay.
I can assure my wonderful readers that it won't be too much longer now before this story meets it's close, but never fear! I already have another story in the works. Different pairing, but still one in the works.
This was originally going to be two short chapters, but I looked it over and thought that it would make much more sense if it was kept together. So I hope that you enjoy it :)
On a random side note: I have been guilted into going to a Con and doing a panel about fanfiction there. If any of you will be attending CoreCon May 3-5, feel free to stop by and say hi!
Now, enough with my blabbering, on to the new chapter!
Disclaimer: I think we have established by now that I don't own anything.
Warning: Potential confusion for readers.
Chapter 24
When evening finally begins to roll around, some of the earlier routines seem to play out once again. The kittens and cubs are all rounded up once more and herded into the cafeteria for an evening meal, and in many ways it proceeded in much the same way as before with only a few small differences. The main difference being that each neko had a plate of food waiting for them, not just the bearers and little ones.
By now everyone is tired enough to take a seat without much complaint, however, once everyone is sitting at the table, the two empty seats ring much louder than anything else. Cloud has yet to return, and the tension and slight fear radiating off of Fai and Kurogane is enough to make everyone wary as well.
The meal progressed quietly and rather quickly. By the time that everyone has eaten their fill, some of the younger kittens are starting to nod off in their spots, heads threatening to become one with the plates before them. Noticing the encroaching sleep, Fai and Kurogane gesture for Allen, Kanda, and Alma to help clear away the dishes and urge, and if need be, pick up a kitten or two and follow them.
They travel down just a few short hallways before coming to a single door with guard on either side. One of the guards steps forward and goes up to each neko scanning the collars and making small notes on a device that seems to get information from the collars. Once the guard has scanned each of the collars, the other guard unlocks the door and lets the group begin to file into the new hallway.
However, once Alma tries to step through the door, the guard with the scanner grabs his arm, halting is progress.
Sensing that something is wrong, Allen turns back to see Alma standing alone outside the door, his arm in a tight hold from one of the guards. He sees the guard start to pull Alma away, as the other guard begins to close and lock the door once more. Seeing what is about to happen, Allen turns and runs towards the door.
With each step of his feet pounding against the floor, he feels as though he is moving in slow motion while the guard and door are moving at a normal speed. As Allen gets closer to the door, he can hear the lock clicking shut, but that doesn't stop him from running straight into it, as though hoping that the door and lock are much weaker than they appear. Pain immediately erupts up his side causing him to grimace while still trying to open the door.
Alma looks back after hearing a loud thumping sound. Upon seeing Allen's pained face as he struggles against the door, Alma struggles harder against the grip on his arm, trying to get to Allen, to try and reassure him that things will be all right in the end. However, the guard's grips is just too strong for him at the moment, and step by step he is dragged farther and farther away, visibly causing Allen to panic even more.
As Alma is dragged away, he catches one last glimpse of Allen before loosing sight of him. In that brief instant, Alma saw Kanda come up behind Allen and gently place a hand on his shoulder, trying to help him calm down. Guilt, and something akin to jealousy tries to rise in Alma's mind, but knowing that he does not belong with them, not like he would have to be in a place like this, helps to put his mind at ease as he is pulled further and further away from his two friends.
….
The hallway behind the guarded door happens to be the living quarters of the nekos at Breeding Program. A series of doors line each side of the hall and at the end opposite of the only door into the area is a small collection of comfy looking seats around a small table. The atmosphere at that one spot is so completely different than the rest of the hall, which at first Allen does not know what to make of it.
Allen sees Kanda further down the hall staring at one of the doors with a somewhat murderous expression. Upon closer examination it is revealed that the door has a single number painted onto it, and underneath that number is a small sick on tag with both of their names on it.
Seeing that Kanda is not likely to be making a move soon, Allen reaches past him and gently pulls the handle of the door, effectively opening the door into their new room. The inside is fairly simple, a single area with a couple of chairs, a half wall separating a bathroom area, and another wall with four doors. One of these doors is already open; the others stand blankly against the wall.
Allen walks up first to one of the closed doors, only to find it locked. He then proceeds to try it with the other two, finding that they too are locked. Eventually he goes and looks into the room behind the one open door. Inside is a fairly small and bland room with a small dresser and a single medium sized bed. The room itself is completely white, like the rest of the space, and the only break away from the same color is the occasional silvery colored object in the small room and the slightly larger room that connects to the hall.
Allen walks over to the bed and slowly lowers himself on to it, feeling the weight of the day bringing him down. The squeaking of the bed must have acted like a summons for Kanda, for not a moment later; Kanda is striding across the room, and finding a seat next to his Moyashi.
No words are spoken between the two, but there are none that need to be voiced at that moment. Instead, the two simply sit there, holding one another, leaning on each other for the much needed support in their new situation.
After what seems like mere minutes, but is a few hours in all actuality, there is a soft knocking at their door. The two share a brief look of confusion and exhaustion before Kanda stands up and makes his way over to the door. Upon opening it, he initially sees no one, but a soft cough brings his attention a bit lower.
Kanda looks down to find the blond kitten called Namine smiling shyly up at him. She looks behind Kanda and gives a small wave to Allen who is quietly coming up behind his mate. Once both of them are at the door, she gestures for them to follower her. After sharing a quizzical look, the two make an agreement to follower her.
She leads them down the hall to the small sitting area. Once there, she runs up to her parents and gives them both a short hug before running off and into one of the other rooms scattered throughout the hallway.
Fai and Kurogane gesture for Kanda and Allen to sit at one of the few remaining chairs. Once they find seats, no words are spoken as though they are all waiting for something, even if they do not know what that 'something' is.
Moments later, one of the doors is thrown open so hard that it crashes against the wall shattering the previous silence. Sephiroth storms out, his eyes are narrowed as if daring someone to stop him, or come near him. He makes his way to the only door out and bangs loudly on it. "Hey, I need to see Hojo. Something's wrong with Cloud."
Kanda and Allen shoot each other questioning glances, each one not sure exactly what is going on, and yet sharing worry for their new friend.
The door opens almost immediately and Sephiroth continues to storm down the hallway despite one of the guards trying to desperately catch up to the much larger neko.
A few minutes later, after everything seems to have calmed down some, the same door that Sephiroth slammed against the wall opens once more and a blond head carefully looks up and down the hallway, seemingly checking to see if the coast is clear.
A moment later, Cloud dashes out of the room and over to the small sitting area. He quickly takes a seat on the floor slightly behind Fai and Kurogane. This spot gives him an advantage to see if anyone is coming down the hall, but mostly blocks himself from view unless someone looked closely.
Cloud keeps his voice soft and quick. "He'll see what he can do. He says that he can't guarantee anything, but if it can work on the other side as well, we by the end of the week before something will happen. If nothing happens, then it means that somewhere along the lines we were compromised, and we'll have to start over from scratch again."
Fai releases a small sigh. "Well it can't be helped I guess. I mean it is rather short notice, especially with circumstances being what they are. Thank you for doing this, I just hope it wasn't too rough to try and sway him to try and see things our way."
A dark chuckle fills the air. "It wasn't so bad this time. Sephiroth hasn't been to see Hojo in a couple of weeks, meaning that he has regained some of himself, but I don't know for how much longer he can escape that maniac's grasp."
"Who is 'Hojo'?" Asks Kanda, his voice fairly even, but some concern still manages to linger.
"Hojo," Cloud begins, "Hojo was initially the 'doctor' assigned to the mates of each of the bearers here, however, once the Noah began to influence how things are run around here, he has been demoted to working much more behind the scenes as it was found that much of his work could be considered unethical and potentially damaging to the purpose behind the Breeding Program."
"What do you mean by 'potentially damaging'?" Kanda's words are staring to pick up a slight blade in them, cutting into the air with each word.
Another dark chuckle. "To put it simply, nothing good ever comes from Hojo, especially when he manages to 'experiment' on us. Personality and violence are just the tip of the iceberg of what can and has happened. I fear what might come if he is allowed to continue his work."
Allen's voice softly conflicts with Cloud's darker one. "Is that what happened to you and Sephiroth? Did this 'Hojo' person cause the two of you to become the way you are now?"
Kanda shoots Allen a sharp glance that clearly says that was rude. Cloud merely shakes his head. "I'll just say that we have never had a very good relationship to begin with, and none of this has helped. I'm at the point where I worry about his stability. He may have seemed fine today, but at any moment he might snap. And I can't afford to let anyone get caught in the cross fire, least of all the kittens and cubs. Some of them may be his, but that means nothing when he isn't himself."
Allen grows silent, and Kanda's expression darkens. "So how do you know if you can trust him if he is so violently unpredictable?"
"Because I know that he wants out of here just as badly, if not more so than the rest of us. And he's not capable of doing anything to jeopardize that chance of regaining his freedom."
….
Sephiroth finds himself in Hojo's lab, waiting for the maniac to come bursting in at any moment wanting to know what is going on. He does not have to wait long before the hunched over 'doctor' with greasy hair comes in looking agitated.
"This had better be of some importance, so of us do have better things to do than jump every time you tell us to."
Sephiroth merely rolls his eyes, sticking to the lie he and Cloud had agreed upon. "I think you'll find this to be rather important. Cloud doesn't seem to remember having his heat in the last few weeks and since I haven't been allowed to see him I have no doubt that he is correct. And that either means that he's been wandering around with cubs for the last few weeks without proper care, or something else is wrong that is preventing him from going into heat."
"Sephiroth, as much as you know that I would love to go and check on Cloud for you, you know better than anyone that he has been assigned to that idiot Hollander, and is not my problem. However, seeing that this may be vital for the good of the original project here, I can see about getting him a pregnancy test. If it comes back negative you tell Hollander in the morning and leave me out of issues that don't concern me so I can get back to more important things." The 'doctor' steps out of the room in search of the test for Cloud.
As soon as Hojo leaves the room, a guard enters, seemingly there to guard Sephiroth and make sure that he doesn't touch anything. However, Sephiroth knows better and speaks quickly and quietly to the newcomer. "Things have changed. We now have three more to get out, one has been separated from the rest of us, and another is a bearer that is currently in the early stages of carrying a litter. As soon as they find out about him, everything will collapse. We might be able to hide him for a few more days, but we need to get out by the end of the week."
The guard gives a small nod and starts heading back to the door as Hojo reenters the room. Hojo slams the small test in Sephiroth's hand. "Now leave so that I can deal with more important matters."
….
Many miles away in a secluded location a meeting is being held. Members and friends of the Dark Order from all across the globe gather in a single room eager for any news of the goings on in the Breeding Program facility.
A clock ticks on the wall, and as soon as it strikes the hour the room falls deadly silent. No one dares breath for fear that they might miss something. Suddenly a hushed voice crackles across the room.
"It's just as we thought, only we need to move sooner than expected. One of them has been separated from the group and is being held elsewhere in the facility. And one of the bearers is now carrying a litter. We only have a matter of days at best before they find out and make our work up to this point mean absolutely nothing."
The voice disappears and murmurings begin to spread across the room, some louder than others.
One voice shouts out over the rest. "Well, what are we waiting for? If we have so little time we need to get moving now or we won't be able to do anything. I'm not leaving my friends in a place like that."
A hand gently but firmly grasps the shoulder of the girl. "Lenalee, I know that you have friends there, I have someone important to me there too, but we can't just go in with guns blazing. We need to make some adjustments now that there are more people to rescue, and to make sure that we don't jeopardize the health of the pregnant bearer."
"I know all of that, but it doesn't mean I want to just wait around, I want to do something! I just got one of my friends back only to loose him and another right away. I can't just sit and do nothing!" She turns on the neko holding her arm. "You just wouldn't understand." She storms out of the room, her frustration causing people to part before her.
Zack Fair hangs his head and slightly shakes his head. "I understand far more than you know."
Are all of you throughly confused now? No? Yes? Well hopefully things will be much clearer soon.
For those of you who do not understand why Zack is there, it is all explained in Like Footprints in the Snow, I highly encourage you to read it to better understand the ending of this story.
Now, if all goes well, another chapter should be up soon, and I can guarantee that one to be much longer and more exciting than this one.
Until next time, remember to watch out for ferrets!
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