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"Izumi," Deidara exhaled with desperation as he dropped to his knees beside me. My vision blurred, making it difficult to discern his eyes from the sky above and his hair from the gleam of the sun. The sudden shock of his cool hands against my skin made me gasp, not realizing I had stopped breathing for several moments. Deidara's fingers trailed my hot tears and led them free of my face.
"What's happening?" He asked with urgency distorting his voice. I stared up at him with the spirit of pain in my eyes and uttered two words.
"Save me."
His mouth pulled into a taut line as he looked from me to the man who watched with curious speculation. Deidara's eyes narrowed into jagged knives.
"Deidara," Sasori broke his intense and foreboding gaze. "Take Izumi back, I will deal with this." Before Deidara even had the chance to answer, the man stepped forward slightly to lead into his interjection.
"I actually came to have a little chat with your companion, if it's not too much trouble," he suggested cordially with an air of formality to his usually childish tone.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding! You think we're just going to give her up, un?" Deidara spat back as he lifted me from the ground protectively. I savored the feeling of his arms as cushions beneath my weary head, quickly to be replaced by his chest as he pulled me to him.
"Actually yes, I do," a devious smile could be heard in his voice, and with the snap of his fingers came the snap of my neck. My head jerked back violently as the pain hit me so abruptly it left me gasping for air. Had Orochimaru laid eggs in my brain before, now they were surely hatching. The feeling of something bursting within my head drove me wild with agony. A stuttered cry tore from my lips as my body fell out of Deidara's grip and onto its side.
"That's enough!" Sasori yelled firmly. The man smirked and said, "Okay."
A single sob marked the end of the torture. My body returned to a limp, exhausted state in a tangled heap on the ground. I felt as though I had ridden the most violent roller coaster of my life, my organs still in shambles from the constant jerking that had ensued.
"See how easy that was? I'm glad we have an understanding. Now if you two could just step back, I'd like to speak with Izumi in private for just a moment. I promise I won't hurt her." Every word flicked playfully off his tongue, although not deceptively. For some reason, I could hear the truth in his words. I lifted my head with difficulty to see Sasori take a reluctant step back. Deidara's fists were clutched tightly, his nails biting into his palms just to keep them still at his sides. He flashed me a furious yet apologetic look before standing up and stepping back as though a weight were attached to each foot. His footfalls were heavy and unwilling and his eyes didn't dare move from the man who regarded him and Sasori with patient waiting.
"Good," the man said cheerfully with a smile before sending his attention my way once more. "Izumi, are you feeling well enough to walk?"
My head turned slowly to meet his disgustingly happy gaze. He seemed unfazed by my own that dripped with seething disbelief.
"Are you fucking kidding me? After whatever you just did to her, you want her to walk to you!" Deidara's defensive voice came booming from behind me, however it only seemed to widen the smile that sat complacent on the man's face.
"Deidara, calm down," Sasori ordered in a stern hush. Nothing more but a low growl came from Deidara as he followed his partner's orders, knowing they were for the best.
"Of course not," The man answered Deidara's question with a laugh before allowing one arm to extend in front of him. The sudden movement of earth beneath my body shocked me. I couldn't grasp what was happening as I began to fly towards him, the sand beneath me as my own magic carpet. When it finally stopped, I found myself to be before the man who had beckoned me there with an eerily familiar power.
"W-who are you?" I stuttered, my eyes wide as I began to wrap my mind around his power. It seemed familiar… because it was my own.
To be able to control an element such as earth with no jutsu… he's the same as me…? But Pein said all of the Ten' Yo had been wiped out. Nothing makes sense anymore…
"How did you do that!" I cried as my fingers gritted into the earth, the sand burying itself deeply beneath my nails.
"It saddens me to think that you don't remember me, Izumi," he crouched down as he spoke—the pout on his face making it less chipper than usual—and reached out to tuck a wild hair behind my ear.
"Don't touch me," I growled abruptly while slapping his hand away. This put a smirk back on his face.
"You really don't remember me, do you?" He mused with thoughtful curiosity. I examined him meticulously in search of anything that would quell my uneasy sense of familiarity. He was wrong, I did remember him… kind of. I recalled the smell of his hair, the shine of his eyes, the curl of his lips… yet I didn't know who he was. Racking my brain and blowing the dust from the shelves of my memory, the lines of his face led me like those of a road map to my destination, and when I finally reached it, there was nothing but a name.
"A… Alix?" I whispered almost cautiously as my eyes locked with his, which suddenly picked up an extra sparkle at the mention of the name. "Your memory isn't so far gone after all," he replied with a complacent smirk adorning his whimsically childish face. The more I stared the further my brows furrowed together in confusion.
I had never realized how useless a name was until then. Something so seemingly important, but in reality it's just a label for our convenience. But what good did a name do if I didn't know anything about the person behind it?
"Who are you?" I asked once more while lurching forwards, this time a certain desperation lacing my words.
"Oh Izumi," He said musingly as he pat the top of my head like a dog, "I actually came here to ask if you'd like to come with me."
"Why can't you answer my question?" I cried out and gripped the earth between my fingers roughly once more.
"All in due time… Now, will you be joining me? I'll let you know right now that my lord has a beautiful room waiting for you, and if you choose to come with me, you'll never feel pain again, but…" he paused for a moment and looked down to the ground so that his hair veiled his eyes with ominous shadows and his voice suddenly lost its playful quirk. He didn't look at me when he continued on gravely, "But if you don't come willingly, you will suffer." My body became noticeably rigid at his last word. I knew it wasn't just a word… it was a promise.
"So, what'll it be?" He raised his head and looked at me to reveal his—once again— lively eyes that picked at the corners of my lost memory. He seemed to be back to his obnoxiously and utterly confusing cheerful self.
"I…" trailing off, I glanced over my shoulder to see Deidara restraining himself beside a visibly calm and collected Sasori who regarded me stoically, but I could tell a fire was swirling beneath his strategic façade. The corners of my lips pulled into a pained frown as I thought back to my limited time with the Akastuki. Would it really be that bad to leave them? After all, I was only kept there as a tool… and they did bad things. I even killed for them. Was I beginning to lose myself from being around the Akatsuki?
Turning to face Alix, I gave him a small smile and offered him a hand.
"I will…" I said, his grip tightening around my small hand and pulling me shakily to my feet. "You will?" He asked, surprised yet pleased by my answer. I stared into his eyes for a long, calculating moment before responding once more.
"I will… have to decline your offer." I didn't waver as our eyes connected, and his face dropped. I had asked myself that question over and over I my head: Was I losing myself to the Akatsuki? After searching for the answer I realized how ridiculous of a question it really was. How can you lose something that you never even had? I wasn't losing myself at all, I was finding it. And the Akatsuki? Yeah, they were helping me—something no one had done before, so I would stay with them no matter what. With a somber shake of his head he said, "We'll be waiting." The grip around my hand faltered and disappeared, and without a sound, so did he. I knew what was coming.
Time seemed to continue in slow motion as the pain hit me—right in the face to be specific. As a crash sounded within my head, a ribbon of crimson suddenly shot from my forehead, my cry tore from me simultaneously. The horrible internal pain was now manifesting itself into a physical form. I felt pin pricks across my body as tiny spews of blood burst through my skin at random points. The vibrato of the white noise in my head sent me spiraling to the ground, although I never quite hit.
"Deidara, get her out of here. I'm going after him," I faintly heard Sasori order as I drew near him. But how? I felt as if floating—not serenely however. Nothing could be serene with the violent buzzing inside of my veins that had begun to cause them to pop within me, unable to handle the pressure of such sadistic force willed upon my fragile body by Orochimaru. My neck was limp as I tried to look around in an attempt to answer the question: why hadn't I hit the ground? Perhaps this was what it was like to die, a period of weightlessness before the final blow. But suddenly I was in Sasori's arms, him looking calm and me as bewildered as ever.
"I'm a puppet master, remember?" He said—clearly sensing my confusion— while holding up one hand, the chakra strings glowing at the tips of his finger. I understood but didn't have a chance to say so, something else wanted to make it through my throat first. An incomprehensible wail shook through me as another wave of blood ripped through my skin, bursting through sporadically and gushing from open wounds.
"Deidara, hurry," Sasori's usually stoic voice had a worried shake in it. His grip tightened and pulled me against him instinctively as he stared down at my writhing body.
"I am, un!" Deidara yelled frantically as he threw the small clay bird in the air.
"Give her to me," He rushed with his arms out. I barely felt the transfer, my mind focusing on the pain that had ensued. When the breeze hit me I knew we were flying, and the tiniest shred of light entered into my darkened and bruising heart. If I could just make it back to Itachi… but would he even help me?
I let out a whining sob at the thought of his possible desertion of me, howling at his feet and nowhere else to turn. The thought seemed to only spur on the pain within me, causing it to spread even faster, with even more malignancy. That's when the convulsions began.
"Jesus Christ…" Deidara muttered while laying me out across the bird. I felt him position my head so that it rested in his lap. Although rest wasn't quite the term I would use, forcibly held might be more accurate. The seizures picked up, my chest arching up violently every time I lurched forward. I let a cry escape from me as I suddenly delved my nails into the soft flesh of my chest, ripping and tearing as if trying to dig to my heart.
"Stop that!" Deidara's yell sounded as if he were standing at the far end of a tunnel, I only caught the echo of his voice. His hands swiftly pinned my wrists away from me, causing me to struggle weakly against him.
"Please, just kill me," I whined desperately as I looked up at him with pleading and pain-ridden eyes. The glossy sheen expelled itself from the corners and down the edges of my face. I had never wanted to die so much in my life, and I swear to you, if he hadn't restrained me I would have ripped my own heart out just to stop its mad beating that seemed to drive the rest of the insanity that filled me. It was needles in my eyes and a squeezing of my head—so much pressure in my mind and within my veins that I just wanted to explode. I felt as though my vessel of a body would not be able to contain the thriving agony for much longer before it burst. The open wounds from before just oozed steadily now, and I was just wishing it would dry me out and make me numb. Impervious to all things pain. I was beginning to miss Pein stabbing me in the leg, it almost sounded fun at that point.
"Shut up! You're not going to die!" Deidara shouted. I would have pinned it for anger had I not noticed the spike in his voice that told me otherwise. It was the first time I had really seen his age come through. Sure he could be immature, but when it came to battle or anything like that, he was a professional, and now at the ripe age of 19, he didn't know what to do… and that scared him. Another tremor ran through me, causing me to clamp my eyes shut in an attempt to ease the throbbing that resided behind them.
"Izumi, stay with me, un," Deidara said while slapping my cheek lightly. I didn't respond.
"We're almost there, just stay with me!" He slapped harder this time. A surprised look washed over him when I suddenly grabbed him, my bloody fingers locking around his thick wrist. My eyes now open, I stared at him intently during my moment of clarity.
"I'm not going anywhere," I said, my voice quaking with conviction before I was washed in anguish once more. My stuttering lips produced pained noises that I couldn't explain if I tried. My eyes gritted shut and my body writhed like a worm in the hot sun, fated to be tortured until death slowly consumed.
"Izumi…" Deidara said softly, more to himself than to me. He stared like a helpless bystander, unable to do anything but watch as the scene unraveled before him. I felt myself being gathered into his arms and I reveled in his warmth, clutching his cloak desperately as if I could pull myself against him even more and melt into him.
"Make it stop… please make it stop…" I whispered harshly over and over again like some sort of mantra that would relieve me of all pain if I just said it enough. This of course was ridiculous, and did not work. But Deidara must have heard because when I opened my eyes next, I was home, and his booming voice was not helping.
"Uchiha!" Even in my condition I could tell it pained him to have to call on Itachi for help, but he knew there was no other way. "Hold on Izumi, we'll find him," Deidara comforted before racing down different corridors, all the while screaming Itachi's name. My body bounced in his arms, making my tremors seem less apparent for the time being.
"Uchiha, get the fuck out here!" Deidara shouted while jiggling the locked doorknob to Itachi's room. It was more of a rhetorical request because he didn't wait for him to open the door anyway. His foot crashed into it hard enough to send it flying from its hinges.
"Wha—" The initial annoyance on Itachi's face didn't last long once he caught sight of my body that dangled helplessly in Deidara's arms.
"He has my blood, I'm sorry," I managed to say almost comprehensibly through my gritted teeth.
"Look at me," Itachi's smooth voice was soothing against my ears. I did as he told.
Oh my! So now we know a little more about mystery dude, yeah? Not too much of course, cause I'm evil like that ^_^ Thank you to all my lovely readers and reviewers, I wouldn't be able to keep this story going for as long as I have without such great feedback, so please continue! (Even if it's crappy feedback! At least it's something XD) Questions, comments, suggestions, flaming, give me whatever you've got :D Also, I hope everyone has been enjoying their summer! =O