Ragnarok

By: Aviantei

14

Separate

Colleen hated that she came back to consciousness feeling like she'd taken nothing more than a nap. Sure, it was a nap that had gone on a little bit too long for her tastes, but she still felt rested and her body felt just the faintest bit stiff—not the deeper pain that she should have been dealing with since she'd been on the unfortunate end of her own Reality Alter getting tossed back at her. If she didn't know better, Colleen could have imagined herself popping out of bed and going ferreting for a snack.

But the world was dark and there was the harsh beating of helicopter blades in the air, and she knew she wasn't at home. Hell, she wasn't even the victor of the fight she'd chosen to take on.

How am I supposed to look cool when I can't even pull off the "You guys go on ahead and leave this one to me" shtick?

She almost laughed; looking cool wasn't even close to being her utmost concern. She could feel the restraints on around her wrists and ankles, and any of the familiar weight of the handheld consoles she kept with her were gone. She was definitely captured by the enemy, and they knew her ability well enough to keep away anything that she could use to escape.

So that all sucks. But it's not game over yet. I have plenty of lives left for a continue.

Colleen gave her eyes several moments to adjust to the darkness. The faint glow of lights from the helicopter's control board gave her an idea of what direction to face, and she pulled herself up into the best sit she could muster will still in restraints, taking care to be quiet—for what little it mattered. Out the front window there was pretty much nothing but the night sky and darkness, not a single trace of civilization to give her a clue of where they were.

If they weren't using one of noisiest forms of transportation known to man, Colleen would have tried to talk to the pilot, see what she could figure out, but there wasn't going to be much luck on that front. The longer the flight continued, the more Colleen's worry built. She had to be in CMA custody, which meant she was likely on course for its Headquarters. And while Jarret and Karellen were headed that way, Colleen couldn't make herself relax at the idea of a reunion.

They had a way to counter me, even though Jar and I hid our Chaos levels. It's probably not Oliver, but someone at the CMA knows a lot about us. Even if Kar and Jar infiltrate the place safely, there's a chance they could get caught, too, and then we'd be in big trouble.

Not just because the CMA would want to use them, but then they couldn't get Izaya and Shizuo back home, and that was just asking for—

The touchdown of the helicopter wasn't a crash landing by any means, but the reconnection to the ground sent a lurch through Colleen's stomach; she'd been so busy thinking about worst case scenarios that she hadn't noticed the lights of the building in the dark or the descent in altitude. Reminding herself that there wouldn't be the need to troubleshoot the worst case scenario if she could change the destruction flags on her end.

Colleen sucked in a breath and gave herself the mental equivalent of a smack to the cheeks. Game on.

It didn't take long for the helicopter blades to stop chopping up the air, and the resulting silence made Colleen's ears ring. She could put up with it. The landing area had descent lighting, and even from her limited vantage point it was obvious no one else had come to help with transporting their captive. Stupid, much like everything else the CMA was doing, but exceptionally so.

Either this is my big break or it's a well-executed trap, and I can't let this opportunity to go to waste if it's the first one.

CMA agents had this silly idea that most of their targets weren't harmful in any way other than the latent affects their Chaos had. Even with so-called Chaos Manipulators, the assumption was take away their capacity to use their Reality Alter, and the problem was solved. Colleen's pastel colored wardrobe and overall hyper demeanor tended to reinforce that assumption, and Colleen was okay with that, because it made it that much easier to catch her enemies off guard.

Colleen adjusted into the optimal position to slam her head into the CMA agent's nose at the soonest available opportunity. Bound or not, she could at least make enough of a fuss to let the others know she was nearby. She squinted through the shadows, waiting for the right moment, but just when she was about to strike, she recognized the agent approaching her.

To no surprise, it was the one who'd fought her, but that wasn't what caught her off guard. "Oliver," she said, recalling the name from her Reality Alter display—and from a bit farther back. "Oliver Grewal, right?" Colleen knew that she got it right from the way he stiffened up. Though she was trying to keep her cool, the laugh spilled out of her anyways. "Lucky me."

"What is it with you BUN targets and always knowing my name?" Oliver asked, looking unnerved. Colleen tucked that information away; he must've dealt with Karellen, but she hadn't noticed. Unsurprising, considering how bad she was with names. "No, it doesn't matter. Just please stop talking and let me take you to the boss so I can get this over with."

"Yeah, I don't think I like that option." Taking a moment to adjust her balance, Colleen sat up as straight as she could, leaning towards Oliver's face to make him even more uncomfortable. She succeeded, judging by the way he pulled back. "Besides, are you sure you actually want to take me to your boss? I'm pretty sure you and I have a whole lot to talk about."

"We don't." Oliver reached for Colleen's arm, trying to get her to stand and follow him to wherever was so important. She let him do it, but she didn't have any plans whatsoever to go quietly. "You are dangerous, and I am doing my job, and you're going to come with me. Because guess what? You can't use your Chaos Manipulation to overpower me, and even if you could, my equipment is better than yours."

Yeah, maybe he had a point about that, but Colleen felt pretty confident in her chances of getting what she wanted. It's not like I just play fighting games. I know when to use a little diplomacy—or manipulation. "Come on, Oliver, you know that's not true," she said, even as he guided her away from the helipad and towards the closest visible door. From the rooftop, there wasn't another visible building for as far as she could see, which maybe wasn't the best judge since her glasses were askew on her face. "I'm not the most dangerous thing here."

"You're right; your friend has higher levels than you." Oliver kept his voice short and curt, but Colleen just rolled her eyes. "I don't know what you think you can accomplish by talking this over with me."

"Oh, I can accomplish plenty." She just needed the right opening—which she was glad to note had just happened. "Oliver, you already know that there's more danger than just a trio of kids who can manipulate 'Chaos.' Your precious mentor told you all about it." There it was; at the mention of his mentor, Oliver stopped dead short in his advance, though he'd just been about to reach for the door handle. Check. "Are you really just going to pretend what she mentioned was all a lie?"

Oliver rounded on her, trying to look angry, but only coming across as vulnerable. He couldn't have been more than a few years older than Karellen. "You don't have any idea of what you're talking about!"

If it weren't for her bindings, Colleen would have crossed her arms. "Of course I do. Everything your mentor told you before was true.

"Why else would they have discharged her from the CMA?"

When Jarret opened his eyes, it felt like he was hung-over, which was a funny thing to think since he'd never once been drunk in his life. But there was a sense of lethargy and sickness weaving through him, and the headache hurt like a bitch inside his skull, and for all intents and purposes it felt like what he imagined being hungover felt like, which overall just sucked balls.

He hadn't passed out, though. One second, he'd been in the hall with Karellen and the others, then the buzzing sensation of a Reality Alter kicked in, and the grand finale had him lying on the floor. From his vantage point, the décor looked the same as it had been, but the elevator wasn't there, and it didn't look like there were any other doors, in sight, either.

"Trapped in a fucking box with no way out. My favorite."

"You sure do give up easy, don't you?" There was no way Jarrett couldn't know that voice with how many times Karellen had put on Durarara! in the background. Sure enough, when he sat up, Izaya was a few feet away, already standing and scoping out their surroundings. Jarret didn't even bother to conceal his groan. Izaya took the opportunity to pout. "Now that's rude. How unfair. Karellen-chan would have been much happier to see me."

"Karellen also has horrible taste in fictional characters." Jarret was allowed to call her out, because he had to admit he was the same—Orihara Izaya was just not in his range of preference. Standing up, Jarret tried to figure out the best way to go, but all he saw was a bend on both ends of the hall. He sighed and shouted up at the ceiling. "How did you know that trapped in a fucking box with a sociopath is exactly how I want to spend a Friday night?!"

"Well, it's certainly one of my favorite past times that I haven't been able to indulge in for quite some time." Izaya sounded rather chipper, and Jarret would have kicked the man then and there if it wouldn't be a massive waste of time. "But we should at least be productive while we're at it. No sense in splitting up since our numbers have already been divided. We should pick a direction and see where it takes us."

Jarret raised an eyebrow. "And let random chance decide our fate? No thanks." While the Reality Alter had transported them into an unfavorable situation, his MP3 player was still there, headphones and all, and for Jarret, that meant there were options. He stuffed an earbud into his ear and started flipping through the tracks. "I can just dowse for the Chaos readings, and we can take that path."

"As fun as it would be to refuse just to see how you'd react, I'll agree. It's not like I won't have time to play around with humans again once I'm back home."

Jarret tuned out Izaya's chatter and focused on his music. He didn't know how to explain the mechanics of his Reality Alter in concrete details. Karellen used words as her medium to literally write out the changes she wanted on the world. Colleen mapped game scenarios to real life and used the familiar mechanics as a framework for what she wanted to know or accomplish. For Jarret, he just sort of listened and…felt.

He guessed it was similar to using music as inspiration to create new ideas. Different songs had different feelings, and Jarret channeled those into his Alter to get results. As far as he was concerned, it didn't matter how the process worked as long as it had the right result at the end—and it was providing successful directions: going left from the direction he was facing.

"This way," he said, keeping one earbud out so he could hear if anything approached. However, the only sound was that of his and Izaya's footsteps. It was a hard toss up if that was the better or worse result.

They'd continued walking for a few minutes, Jarret reconfirming directions anytime they hit a fresh bend or intersection, whenever Izaya decided that he wasn't going to let the trip continue in silence. "So, do tell me, does Karellen's awful taste just apply to fictional characters, or would you say that applies to reality as well?"

Jarret snorted. "What, you worried she'll be less obsessed with you since you're flesh and blood now?" Though he'd been meaning to be snarky, Jarret rounded on Izaya seconds later. "Listen, if you even try to think about doing anything to Kar—"

"You'll not follow through on whatever threat you were about to make since it would probably disrupt the universe that you're trying to put back together by sending Shizu-chan and I home?" Izaya asked without needing to pause for breath. Jarret hated that Izaya was right, and the smirk just intensified the feeling. "While it's adorable that you're worried, I'm actually far more interested in what the three of you do to each other. I can't decide if you're all a collected unit, or if you're just dancing around each other's feelings and making things awkward for yourselves." Jarret started enough to press the 'next' button on his MP3, skipping over the song he was using for the base of his Alter and losing his sense of direction for a moment. He fumbled to get back to where he needed to be, Izaya's laugh adding an unwanted layer to Jarret's soundtrack. "Should I take that as the latter?"

"No, because you pulled that out of your ass right now to mess with me, and I'm not playing along." Fuck listening for any approaching enemies; the place was pretty much deserted, and if something did happen, Izaya was more than capable of taking care of it. Jarret went to shove the other earbud in, but Izaya wasn't about to let Jarret have the last word.

"Are you sure about that?"

Jarret paused the track he was listening to, since it wasn't doing much good, and stopped walking, turning to face Izaya. "Sure about what? That you're a sociopathic prick? Why, yes. Yes, I am."

"Now, now, you know that's not what I mean. Are you sure that I just made that scenario up to mess with you?" Jarret tried not to let his frustration show any further; Izaya lived off of seeing people's reactions, and Jarret wasn't about to become another plaything. Unconcerned, Izaya continued, "I'm pretty sure that Karellen-chan has mentioned how she can't use her Reality Alter without mine or Shizu-chan's permission, hasn't she?"

"You were literally in the same damn car—"

"How do you suppose that condition got set up?"

Jarret stopped halfway through coming up with a retort. While it had been essential to mention the restriction, the how it had happened was a lower priority, especially in comparison to getting the rest necessary to raid the damn CMA's Headquarters. Of course, it wasn't that hard to figure out. Karellen had mentioned that she used her powers as a bargaining chip, which meant she'd put it into place, so then—

"When she used the writing for the Alter," Jarret said, all the nausea from their earlier scale up the side of the building coming back in full force, "you put something in there. Something else besides having control of her powers." Izaya grinned, and that was all the confirmation that Jarret needed to get pissed. "What did you do? What did you make her do for you?"

"Whoops, you're close there, but not quite right." Izaya skipped backwards down the hall, tauntingly right out of Jarret's immediate reach. "'Cause you see, Jar-chan, it's not about what I made her do for me—

"It's about what I can make her do."

Karellen had transported herself enough time to know what it felt like, and she was able to shake off the adverse effects pretty fast, all things considered. She only needed the nearby wall to stand for a few moments, and then she was up on her feet, glancing around the hallway for any signs of where the hell she had gone.

"Heiwajima-san!"

"Huh? Oh, it's you." Though most people in Karellen's experience tended to feel somewhat nauseous after getting teleported with a Reality Alter, Shizuo was made of tougher stuff, and he seemed to have no issue at all with regaining his bearings. "Where the hell are we?"

"That's a fabulous question that I don't have an answer for." Going off of appearances, they were still in the CMA's basement level, but almost anything was possible when Reality Alters got involved. "For all we know, this is an illusion, but I'm going to bet on it being real. I'm not getting that buzzy feeling, plus it would take a shit ton of energy to actually pull something like that off, and the CMA would rather use its resources on more worthwhile things than trapping us in something fake." Oh, sure, it was a trap alright, but not one that depended on constant Chaos Manipulation.

Shizuo grunted, not sounding very convinced. "You mentioned that before, but you never got into what exactly these people are aiming for." Karellen wandered up and down the hall, poking around in hopes of discovering some sort of hint of which way to go, but all the walls were unmarked, without anything to distinguish one from another. "Why the hell do you know so much about what's going on, anyways?"

Karellen held back her sigh. "Heiwajima-san, I get where you're coming from, but this really isn't the best time—"

"I'd say after dragging us this far we deserve some answers, don't we?" Though beginning to sound irritable, Shizuo wasn't all out annoyed yet—but he could be. And while his anger-fueled super strength would have been satisfying to see tear through the CMA's HQ, it wouldn't help in the bigger picture scheme of things to have him pissed off at her. I don't want to be on his bad side, and I know he hates getting angry. If explaining things is what it takes—

Decision made Karellen turned around, plopped herself onto the ground in a sit, and gestured to the spot in front of her for Shizuo to do the same.

"Alright, Heiwajima-san. Let's talk."

[Author's Notes]

Heyo, folks, happy holidays and such! We're here at the end of 2019, so here's an extra update to celebrate things~. Hope you enjoy and that everyone's doing alright as we move into the new year.

There's nothing like separating the cast for some interesting interactions. I decided on this combination to stir up the most trouble. We'll see how those things will go moving forward, yeah?

Anywho, next chapter is actually time for some of the backstory things I've been hinting at, so that'll be coming up. Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[12.30.2019]