Holy fuck, sorry it's been so long, you guys. My life kinda exploded for a while there, and then I lost the data for this chapter like three times. It's been really, really rough for me the past few months. ALSO, WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THE SITE WHILE I WAS GONE? I CAN'T FUCKING FIND EVERYTHING, IT'S ALL DIFFERENT!
Anyway. Cue sudden dramatic changes! Now fully betaed.
"What happened today?"
Allen looked over at the side of the room that Link had claimed as his own. It was a bit strange for the blonde man to speak after the candle had been blown out and the two of them had turned in for the night. Of course, Allen could guess what the Inspector was referring to. The white haired boy had essentially been silent for the whole day. It felt like talking too much would give him away, since he was far too terrified to call upon Neah again.
Just thinking about hearing someone else's thoughts in his head, feeling something alien move within his mind, made the merman shiver. It was vile in the most basic possible way, wrongwrongwrong, and left him feeling like something was crawling underneath his skin. Allen pulled his blanket more tightly around himself.
He wasn't entirely sure how to answer the other man's question, so Allen just decided to be as honest as possible.
"I'm not sure. I haven't felt well since lunch."
"I see," It sort of sounded like he didn't believe that, but he continued without voicing any doubts. "And why did Yuu Kanda wish to speak with you?"
"I'm not really sure about that either. My head started to hurt before he could get to the point."
Link asked nothing more and Allen was grateful for the silence.
Morning was meant to be a tranquil time, slightly fuzzy, softened by sleep.
Waking up was not typically the prelude to a life altering, catastrophic event. Allen never ceased to be amazed at his luck.
The white haired boy found himself dragged out of bed by the collar of his nightgown, yanked from an already fitful slumber. Before he could even put together a proper protest, he'd been dressed and rushed out of the room by someone who was definitely not Howard Link.
"W-Who-" Allen began, only to be cut off.
"A member of the Order."
Looking over the form that was now half-leading, half-dragging Allen down the hallway,the merman found he was having difficulty determining whether this was a man or a woman. Their face was obscured by a dark cloak, which billowed out around their frame, eliminating any indication of their gender. The voice that came from within the shadow behind their cowl gave nothing away. Allen instantly didn't trust this person, but he couldn't let them know that.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Away. You are leaving the European Branch today."
'Leaving?' Allen just barely managed to keep walking, but could not contain the flinch that came from hearing another voice in his head.
'Outside! Yes, let's leave.'
Allen batted at the intruder until it went quiet, trying to keep from giving into panic like he had yesterday.
When the robed figure turned toward Allen, presumably to try and puzzle out his sudden convulsion, the merman just shrugged. He was too unwilling to trust his voice, afraid that the syllables would sound as if someone else had spoken them.
After a moment the figure shrugged back and continued to lead Allen down the hall.
He was once again thankful for the silence.
"Psst!"
Allen jumped a bit, thinking that he'd had far too many surprises today and it wasn't even lunch yet.
The merman glanced around, unsure of where the voice had come from in this unfamiliar place.
He'd been brought down several flights of stairs and along many corridors, assuring that he had absolutely no idea where he was.
Two other cloaked figures had joined the first and they had instructed Allen to stand off to the side while they fiddled with some sort of land-ship. A 'carriage', if he recalled correctly.
It was rather dark in here. And a bit cold. There were several doors leading out on three of the walls and one large door that took up most of the fourth. Crates were piled here and there, and there were various unidentifiable things throughout the room. Plenty of places for someone to hide.
"Behind you. Don't turn around. Act normally," hissed the voice, seemingly from over his shoulder.
'Lavi.' Allen breathed a silent sigh of relief, both at the appearance of his friend and at the fact that this time his thoughts were his own.
The merman nodded slightly and continued to pretend to be enthralled with watching the three robed people work.
"Link finally received his orders. They plan to take you away to a testing facility for more...'observation.' It won't lead to anything good. We've run out of time. You need to get out of here. Now."
Allen swallowed, but continued to listen intently.
"If you get on that carriage, it's all over. I doubt you'd ever be able to escape. Now, the Inspector will be coming shortly. As soon as he does, those goons will most likely greet him. That will be your cue. Run to your left as fast as you can and don't look back."
A million thoughts ran through Allen's head all at once, faster than he could really keep up with. Only one truly mattered right now though.
"What about you?" He murmured as quietly as possible.
There was no reply for quite a while, so long that Allen thought perhaps the redhead had not heard his words.
"I'll be fine," Lavi whispered eventually. "You just worry about getting yourself out of here."
Allen wanted to say something more, but it was already too late. One of the many doors opened.
There were so many things the he needed to address with his new friends, so many things that had been left unsaid, but there just wasn't any more time.
Link came in, his eyes immediately alighting on his charge. Allen gave him the best smile he could manage, ignoring the pang of sadness at the thought of never seeing the man again.
The cloaked figures turned and bowed. The Inspector's eyes flitted over to them for just a moment, a single second of lax attention.
Allen ran.
The way was surprisingly clear. All the doors Allen came across were closed, except for a choice few left strategically ajar, all of which he went through. It was Lavi's work, no doubt.
His instincts told him that he was being pursued but he could hear nothing but the blood pounding in his ears, felt nothing other than the burning in his limbs and the constriction in his chest.
After the first couple of doors, Allen found himself in a long hallway and he knew they could catch him when they no longer had to navigate turns and corners. The white haired boy lunged at the first closed door he saw, thanking Neptune when he found it unlocked. He dove through the doorway and shut it behind himself, leaning against the sturdy wood and silently gasping for air. He couldn't even take in his surroundings, so focused was he on getting air into his lungs.
Allen hoped that they would run past and aim for the open door further down the hall, hoped they would be foolish enough to follow the established pattern. Swiftly, the sound of heavy footfalls grew painfully near, so close that the merman's heart stopped-then they sped away down the hall.
Allen waited a moment, trying to catch his breath, listening for others. When he heard nothing else, he cracked the the door open and took a peek.
Empty.
His pursuers had been in such a rush that they hadn't bothered to close any doors behind them so Allen's path was still clear to him.
He jogged the rest of the way at a slightly less frantic pace, keeping an ear out for any others that may have fallen behind.
Eventually Allen began to hear shouting from up ahead and slowed even more, trying to discern what was going on. As he approached, the smell hit him. Acrid, choking and foul, smoke was flowing out from the next open door. He knew what that meant.
Something was burning. Several somethings, judging by the sheer amount of billowing death before him.
Allen hated fire. He hated it. There was no fire underwater. Good thing too, because flames genuinely scared the merman. Even the little ones on candles put the white haired boy on edge.
But, the door was open, so...
Against his better judgement, Allen went through.
It was even worse here. The smoke made Allen cough, so he held his breath and put his marked hand over his mouth. He ran into the murky air, looking for the next open door. There was light coming from this one, orange and flickering, bright enough to be seen through the smoke.
The roar of the fire and intense heat made his steps falter for a moment.
'I can't afford to stop here,' Allen reminded himself.
It was hell on the other side of the doorway. Flames licked up the stone walls, trying to find purchase. Allen couldn't really identify what this room had been used for because everything in it had been engulfed in flames. Horrifying, awful flames.
The yelling he'd heard was coming from one of the cloaked figures, who's robe was currently aflame.
As Allen watched, stunned, the cloak was cast off to reveal a woman the he vaguely recognized but he couldn't quite remember how.
She somehow spotted the merman through the chaos and pointed his way, shouting something that Allen couldn't quite make out.
The white haired boy ignored the impulse to run away from the fire and propelled forward, trying to pick his way around the burning wreckage. This was especially hard now that Allen's eyes had started to water so badly that he could barely keep them open.
He quickly found his way to the wall and felt his way along it, even though it was very hot. Fortunately, the room wasn't horribly large, so Allen swiftly found a place where the sparks and smoke began to thin a bit. It was yet another open door, which was allowing the smoke to funnel out. The only problem was that the entryway was ablaze.
Allen hesitated, unsure what to do, both about the fire and his rapidly decreasing air supply. Trying to breathe smoke in through lungs was almost worse than trying to breathe air through gills.
Then the yelling behind him reminded the merman that he was not alone. Glancing over his shoulder, Allen could just barely make out a familiar head of blonde hair moving toward him.
Once again, he was out of time. Allen put all his hope into braving the flames and took one last leap through the abyss just as a ear-spilting crack rang out. Something slammed into the boy's shoulder, knocking him forward and away from the fire, causing him to gasp in a lung-full of smoke. He didn't bother trying to identify what had struck him, just clambered to his feet, violent coughs wracking his frame. The merman careened forward blindly because it was simply all he could do.
Everything was a little fuzzy around the edges. Allen knew he hurt everywhere, but he was removed from the pain.
After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only about half a minute, the smoke began to clear and Allen's burning eyes began to make out light that didn't have the eerie cast of fire. He could barely form coherent thoughts at this point,but Allen knew sunlight when he saw it. Just the notion of being able to get out of this hellish place, away from the flames and captivity, had the white haired boy running with new found speed.
Pain, smoke, and burning continued for a few fiendish seconds and then-
Freedom.
Allen felt it run through his whole soul like a summer breeze, dizzily reveling in the sensation.
'How much blood can a body loose and still be safe?' the other voice mused, intruding upon the moment.
Allen thought about responding, but suddenly the ground was pressed to his face and he figured that the retort could wait until he woke up.
To My Reviewers:
*Christ I have like a zillion to respond to*
sammi117- He was a mask, but not so much anymore, eh? Hehe.
Hanashi o suru- Yep, poor Allen. Things always get worse before they get better.
River Flows Backwards- Lol, it's been about a billion years since I updated, so it's okay. YOLO is You ONly Live Once.
silverskies87- Well, realism is always nice. BAM!sexonthefloor! is a thing that may happen later though. Yeah, LTIS is still a thing I just had to slow down and only focus on one this at a time. Now that I've finally gotten this pathetic little update out of the way, I'll get back to Ed. Jesus, both my stories are drama central right now.
Lalalalala-Land- Spoiler Alert: Link does have feelings (just friendship feelings though). Though whether or not he cares for Allen or Neah...well, that is the question, isn't it?
TotalAmuto- HE KIND OF ALREADY HAS!
Queen Yana- The Order is a rather mysterious entity. I think being cryptic is a requirement for supernatural fighting.
Fireotaku18- More like he dicked around enough to make one. You can only pour so much magic into something before something goes awry.
scrletfyre- Kanda is obviously hunting for bitches to pimp on. I think the chapter answered the other questions.
maristhesealatin- N-e-v-e-r. He likes to pretend that he's unaffected by things most of the time. Silly rabbit.
AzureKurashin- I want the threesome too. (Fandom secret, I wrote it months ago and I'm just waiting for the story to catch up to it.)
ShizakiKuro- It was Neah.
Tintaglia In Flight- Link is just a little strange as a rule. And yeah, I had to squeeze those moments in that chapter because we got virtually none of that in this one.
lil' fayri grrl- Neah is meant to be rather disturbing. ALSO, I'M SORRY, LTIS IS STILL MY BABY I'LL GET RIGHT ON IT.
Angel Fantasy- Glad you like it. Also, I love that you guys throw around conjecture and questions like this thing is a scientific theory or something. Best readers.
blackirishawk- Yeah, he's confused all right. And once he finds out about this latest debacle he will be confused and pissed as all hell.
Prussia's lover- I'm glad!
anicraze009- Losing control over who you are is the best way to find out who you could be.
Kinkylittlewolf- I absolutely love your reviews!
dimidium draco- Sugar-coating just isn't my style. For instance, mortally injuring my main characters seems to be a bit of a habit of mine.
Keys Studio- Link isn't so much falling as fallen. It's mostly a friend thing though. Still, that kind of lave can hurt just as profoundly, and really, why bother writing fanfiction if you aren't going to rip your reader's hearts out once or twice?
FantasmeDarkHeaven- I'm really happy you find it interesting.
*Not gonna respond to the note chapter reviews because it wasn't a real chapter and I sort of addressed some of that stuff individually already.*