Thanks to all of you guys who keep reading this story. I know I'm going somewhat fast for some but it's in hopes to get most of this story out before I have to go back for summer. Don't worry I'll still have time to write it'll just be in the slower pace than it is now. :D
Okay thanks to everybody!
Retrace XXIII: The Only Kindess that Matters is the Truth
"I have it," Alice said coming with the heavy rapier in hand.
"You're taking the thing back?" Lavi asked.
"Not to fight with the Level Four. Cross is right. I'm trying to repent for what I did. I mustn't have that mindset while fighting Akuma. Otherwise Albus will take over again." Celia nodded to Alice who plunged the sword's blade into the cement as hard as she could.
"Can you feel them?" Alice said narrowing her eyes.
"I can," Celia said smirking as she bandaged her wounds with the rip parts of her sweater that Alice made. "But those bastards are sneaky. Who were those guys anyway?"
"Ammit and Prometheus," Alice said coming to her side once again. "They're followers of Janus. I've met them times before."
"That girl clearly didn't like me," Celia said with a sigh at how many people disliked her.
"Ammit is a bone-eater," Alice explained, this made Celia blink twice.
"S-S-So what she drew from her elbow...?" Celia said turning a bit blue.
"It was her bone."
She shruddered. "And...the other guy?"
"Prometheus, is the 'one who sees no evil," Alice said.
"He had- His hands- his eyes!" she said pointing at both things in reverse as she named them.
"That was the virus. When it doesn't successfully fuse with the vessel it begins muttations just like on any other human," Alice added.
"Then why haven't we...?"
"Because," Alice said a little tired of explaining. She took a breath, "You and I aren't normal."
Celia's eyes widened but then narrowed. She scrubbed her head in frustration and rolled her eyes finally heaving a great sigh. She stood up with her pure will ignoring her pain.
"Where do you think you're going?" Kanda called a bit tired.
"That's none of your buisness." She took Xiao in her hands and the tentacles threatened to take ahold of her again. "Do it." Alice nodded and drew on her bow only to shoot an arrow directly at the hilt making the tentacles retract.
"Innocence works on it?" Lavi said seeing what he did.
"It seems so." Celia said turning out to the rubble that was left. "Ready?"
Alice stood between Kanda and Lavi with her bow in place. "Ready."
"W-Wait! Ready for what?" Lavi called confused.
"For them," Celia mumbled. She whistled loudly at the darkness ahead. From it sudden cries began to be heard. The babies were nearing but halted midway. They began to grow a bone structure and began to grow. Soon they were the same height as any human being but had no arms as if they were tied back by a force jacket. "Whew," she whistled. She turned to Alice, "They can do that?"
"They are Ammit's creations. All bone she eats goes back to the flesh that leaves her body. It's up to her when she wishes for them to grow up," Alice said pulling the string.
"Okay. Okay." She pointed at each one of the overgrown babies. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... Ten of you and one of me. Oh," she sobbed mockingly. "What's a poor girl to do?"
"Stop joking around. They're coming!" Alice called opening fire to the things that suddenly charged at her. Going over them like sitting frogs, she avoided the arrows that pierced the first three. Two more came to her and she did something she hadn't practiced in actual combat. Lenalee had shown her once some waltzing. The swiftness of the moves, if only they could be used in combat. What better way to start than here. Taking three steps in a speeded tempo, she swiftly avoided the attacks.
"What in the..." Lavi said watching her. "How?"
"She's dancing," Kanda noticed saying the words along with Alice.
Leaping over another one, she turned a 180 while at the same time igniting Condemning Hellfire and sending an arc of magenta fire that swept away the remaining. She jumped, "Woo hoo! I did not know I could do that!" she said rather oblivious of her attitude.
"What's she so happy about?" Lavi chuckled not noticing his glee about her.
"That she's in control of herself again." Alice's words struck Kanda.
His glance suddenly went behind Celia, "Behind you!"
But before she could even turn a great arm held her from the neck lifting her up and strangling her. She kicked and grabbed the forearm that held her tightly.
"You shouldn't be celebrating just yet."
"It's the big guy from the Ark!" Lavi called recognizing Odin.
Celia looked up at him and only grinned, "I'm not alone this time." An arrow pierced right through his skull which made him stagger back letting go of her. She stepped away but only to charge up at him. Stepping on his reclining body and then stabbing Odin's head with her rapier. She grinned, "And you're not getting away this time either, Oddie." The whole body began to solidify. Taking Xiao away she stood apart from it as it turned to dust. Out of nowhere she fell to a sit exhausted.
"Celia!" Alice called in concern.
"I'm fine!" she shouted back throwing her head back. Alice sighed in relief.
"She's crazy," Lavi mumbled with a smile.
"She's more than that," Alice answered smiling too.
"She's just plain insane," Kanda added.
"I heard all of you!" Celia yelled mad but the explosion from not far took their eyes away. The Level Four had escaped the grip that Lenalee and Allen had on it. That didn't last long though for Cross began his style of execution against the Akuma. "How in the hell..." she hissed pissed at how strong he was. The Level Four got hit by Judgement's bullets and began to mutate out of its form. "That reminds me of something I've seen," she chuckled nervously remembering the countless of mutts. It tried escaping through the shutters but Allen held onto it. Even if he did, Generals Kloud and Sokalo were there waiting. Finally Lenalee and Allen when through the Akuma just as the shutters were closing.
It's head fell from the remains of the explosion. Cross 'accidentally' destroyed it, "Oops. So much for making him my test sample."
Celia scoffed, "You're an idiotic man with no backbone to face authorities."
"That's two, kid. But who's keeping count," she heard through Navi making her chuckle.
The message came through Navi at last, "Komui here. Halt the evacuation." Celia looked up at the shutters that were now closed. "The Level Four was destroyed. The long morning...is over." Celia heaved a breath and fell down to lay.
Alice walked over to her sister holding her injured left arm. "C'mon. We need to go back to get you checked. Celia?" She placed a hand on her chest but felt no rise or fall. Her eyes widened. She turned to yell, "Kanda-san! Lavi-san! Celia's-Celia's not breathing!"
"What?" Lavi called but Kanda won him to them.
He picked up Celia's upper body and put his ear closed to her mouth and ear. Nothing. "Shit." He laid her back down beginning the basic CPR he knew.
"Alice-san," Alice turned to see Lily on top of Bagira.
"Where were you?" Alice called hysteric.
"Protecting Dr. Marcus from harm," Lily answered hearing the disdain in Alice's tone. A coughing took their attention from their fight to Celia who had finally taken a breath.
Her eyes were barely opened but looked up to him, "What happened...?"
"You stopped breathing," Kanda said to her and touched her hand. It was warm. Way too warm. He touched her forehead. "I...I don't feel so good."
"You're burning up," he mumbled. Her body suddenly began writhing in pain as her hand landed on her left shoulder. Blood was leaking out of it. When he put her sleeve and hand down, Kanda's eyes widened at what he saw. The slit that had been the lids of the eye from before had healed but were trying to part again, threatening to reopen.
"It's the virus," Lily said getting closer to her. "Her body's suffering the rebound of using the infected form of her Innocence. She must be treated."
"There's no vaccine for the virus, you know that," Alice said ignoring the fact that her words sounded rather pessimistic.
"No there's not. But blood that has been with the virus for over fifty years has become a treatment for this rebounds," Lily said. She turned to Kanda, "Dr. Marcus has the treatment. Let me take Celia-sama to him."
Kanda didn't trust neither of them but right that moment Lily had what Celia needed. He carried her body and placed it on top of Bagira. "Hurry."
Once secured Lily gave the order, "Go!" Bagira went running away swiftly getting to higher grounds and exiting through thr bridge.
"You shouldn't have done that," Alice scowled at him.
"If she's going to get better I don't see why you're complaining," Kanda said walking away.
"Because the Evernly Family don't do favors!" she yelled after him. She bit her bottom lip, "She'll be in their debt."
Celia slowly opened her eyes again. Her head didn't feel dizzy anymore. Her ears weren't bussing and her heart didn't feel like it was to jump from her ribcage. And that pain, oh that horrible pain was gone for good. She still felt warm but well nonetheless. She sat up slowly holding her head and feeling bandages holding on her left shoulder and arm replacing her pieces of sweater plus her other injuries.
"You're awake."
She turned her head slowly to face Marcus in a wheelchair. "Doctor..."
"Don't speak. You're still weak," he said patting her hand. That's when she felt the small tube that was feeding her a red liquid. Blood. "You needed a transfusion. I also gave you something for that pain."
"Painkillers?" she said.
He shook his head, "My blood."
"What?" she said turning her head to him to fast making her hold it.
"Easy there child. My blood is also infected with the virus but since I have survived countless of rebounds from that infection I have become immune to them. My blood may be no cure for it but at least it alleviates the pain of those horrible rebounds," he said rolling his wheelchair to the table and pouring some water. "And if my memory does not fail me, I believe you are in need of water."
"Thanks," she mumbled taking the glass and drinking, to her surprise, all of it. Grasping the glass to her hands and without raising her head she asked, "How come you're not delusional anymore?"
"It seems that ridding myself of some of the virus lessened the pain therefore I don't need that many drugs to calm it. I still need blood, the Matron gave me a transfusion. Although that blood, too, will get infected it will take some time," he said.
"How long have I been out?"
"No more than an hour. It seems your body intakes blood quite fast," Marcus commented.
"My body." She began thinking and about many things. One of them Alice's words. "You and I aren't normal." She turned to the him. "You said you're infected too," she said as a fact more than a question.
Dr. Marcus smiled weakly and showed him his wrists. On them were small slits that were healed like wounds but that looked pinkish. "I have had the mutations for over forty-seven years. I was infected when I was still a teenager and under the Order's care. My father was the one who created the virus. He named it the Progenitor. Because the Order saw his virus and research futile they denied him to further his research. He, however, did not stop."
"He infected his own children," Celia said predicting this story.
"He dealt it with his hands to us, his three children. Even after he died, the experiments continued dealt by my own," he said sounding disappointed. "I was a fool. But I never expected for the virus to continue it's life through the offspring of my sisters."
"Will I die?" she asked the most dreaded question in her mind.
"There's no telling. Although mutations are a sign of rejection, there is no say. Some don't live much more than days while others like you, Alice or I have lived for years. There is just no saying for certain," he said sadly. She remained quiet.
"Alice..." she said catching him by surprise. "Alice said that she and I weren't normal." She turned to him, "What did she mean by that?"
Marcus sighed apparently dreading this question. "Although my brain fails me greatly, I regret that it did not help me forget what I did. I will tell you...all I can recall."
Alice ran through the Order vigorously searching. When she bumped into someone she apologized but at seeing who it was she quickly regretted it but said nothing. "Kanda-san, have you seen my sister?"
"Didn't that girl take her away an hour ago?" Kanda said.
"She did but when Marcus took her eyes off her for a few minutes she was gone," she told him.
"I haven't," he answered he original question.
"Dang," she hissed and kept on going searching for her in the great midst of injured and nurses and others.
Kanda stopped and thought for a minute. Where did the brat usually go when nobody found her? The place came right to his head which made him sigh. Ignoring the nurses who called to him to get checked he finally reached the rooms which were somewhat undamaged. He opened the door to his own and he saw something curled in the corner covered by white sheets. He could barely hear it, a faint sobbing. He closed to the loud enought to let her know someone had entered. The figure startled began to shuffle apparently wiping its tears away and trying to stop her sobbing.
"Your uncle and sister are looking for you," he said not getting an anwer from her. Only quiet choked sobs. "You ran away even when you're injured. Are you stupid or something?" Still no answer. He was starting to get pissed. He approached the ball and forcefully yanked the blanket away. Celia only curled in on herself, hiding her face and Navi stumbling off from her head. Mr. Jingles was on her feet with her ears low and his tail curled around is body, his head gently stroking against her ankle. Navi flew up again and landed on her head curling its wings in as if stroking her head.
They were consoling her.
"What the hells with you now?" he asked imprudently sitting on his bed. He couldn't stand her crying but he couldn't just let her be either.
"N-Nothing," she hiccuped.
"You've been bawling your eyes out, haven't you?" he asked straight out making her gasp.
"I have not!" she yelled at him finally raising her head making Navi roll down her back and fall once again.
"Your eyes are red and you're snotting. Tell me that again," he said condescendingly.
She wiped her eyes out along with her nose and burried them again, "Just leave me alone!"
"That's a new one. You've told me countless of things. 'Fuck off', 'douche', 'scumbag', 'asshole', plenty others that I can't recall. But you have never once told me that you want to be left alone," he said. "So either you're really insane or something is wrong."
"Marcus told me..." sh said slowly and nothing above a whisper. "How I was born."
"Really?" he snorted. "You're pathetic. Everybody's born the same way. Hasn't anyone told you that babies come out a women's-"
"Not like that!" she yelled shutting him up but giving him a frown. Tears ran down again, "My mother, Cecilia Evernly, was killed in battle. Marcus couldn't safe her. Alice and I were months early. We were stillborn." Kanda listened intently though he didn't know why. "My father was the one who told him to do everything he could to safe us. He was the one who did this to us!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" he called tired of her whimpering.
"Marcus forcefully fused our weak cells with Innocence!" she bellowed in anger but renounced to tears nevertheless. He was astonished. Did he just hear right? But those experiments, the ones of forcefully making accomodators by placing Innocence in them, didn't work. How could they have worked on those two? It would've killed them.
"How aren't you..."
"Dead?" she scoffed knowing well of those experiment for Lenalee couldn't just keep to herself. "I don't know. Marcus just said that it was because the Innocence cells that were fused with ours grew with us. 'It successfully created a living weapon of God'," she said full of sarcasm on the last one. "That's why the Innocence was infected with the virus. Because the Innocence and I are one being. Albus and I are both infected and that's why I turned to that thing." She spat out the last word. "Even he said it, himself. When he created us, he thought us nothing more than abominations. Something nature didn't even want alive that he had to send us off to be incubated in an artificial womb."
"Artificial...?"he thought to himself. He'd seen wombs like those before. A long time ago. Could she have been born from one of those as well? But...when?
"You can't possibly believe that hoard of bullshit," he tried getting more information off from her.
"Alice said so herself. She remembers our birth but vaguely." She scoffed, "At leasts that's more than I do." She ran her hand through her thick hair to reveal the great scar that remained from that nasty head concussion she had suffered when small. "She does but at the same time doesn't, she says. All is just bits and pieces but it's all the same. We didn't complete our birth from our mother's womb but we still look human. We're human but we're still freaks. Who the hell can tell me, then, what the fuck am I?" Her cries were loud and filled with panic. She was starting to go crazy from having to understand so many things of herself and not knowing the answers herself. Only what other people told her.
He knew what that was like. "Kanda, can you still that flower? You mustn't dwell on it. It's just an illusion. That's all it is, an illusion." He clenched his jaw. What a lie. That was an 'illusion' that even now as he stared at the girl crying before him, he could see. Not one but countless of lotus blossoms scattered about his room and shrouding her figure. Almost drowning her completely in all of their beauty.
He couldn't stand this anymore. He got up and knelt before her while patting her head with his great hand. This took Celia by surprise making her head snap up.
"You shouldn't cry." His voice was the same low scowl of always but something in her told her that he was trying to console her. "But if it hurts that much that you need to cry then... I guess that for today I'll let you stay. I won't tell nobody that you're here." He stood up and was about to leave.
"W-W-What are you saying?" she called confused.
"You can stay here and cry and feel sorry for yourself," he said harshly. "Or you can let it all out now and try to find out what, how, and why you happened to be. That's all I'm saying." He closed the door silently leaving her there standing. She sniffed and looked about only to see the lotus hourglass. She wiped her face away only to go to the bed and lay down.
"I don't get you..." she mumbled. "Were you, just now..." her eyes began to blur and her eyelids felt heavy. "Being nice to me?" So...tired... "Thanks...Yu." She couldn't have fallen asleep any faster. Kanda only stood for a few minutes against the door and waited to hear her soft snoring before actually leaving.
Heehee. How many chapters was that? Two, right? Woo hoo another duplex! XD
Okay. Next time, another arc begins! :D What's gonna happen now? Should I keep you thinking until next week or just write right now? Nah, I'll keep writing and post it later. :) I'm not that mean. X)
Please review!