Prima Materia
Three.| Out of the Darkness
|A year and a few months later. Somewhere in a forest near Germany.|
Emerald sparks danced at her fingertips eager to be set amok and in response, her hands tightened around her glaive to quiet their rowdiness. Her jaw locked as they danced under her skin, the sensation disgusting enough by itself and the message it wanted to send heard loud and clear. It would not go unheard.
"It's here," she warned out loud.
Not far behind her, General Tiedoll hummed, understanding. "Let us go then."
Celia watched Tiedoll as he rose from his seat on a boulder and started making his way down the dirt path ahead of them. Not far from him, Kanda gripped his sheathed katana and rose to follow after his master. Celia spread her fingers, toying with the energy in them before jogging after the two.
Not far from the dirt path they followed and the forest clearing they had camped out for the better part of a week was a small and quiet town. Albeit not 'quiet and small' by any choice of their own. According to Finders, there had been sightings of Akuma nearby that had already run havoc on the quintessential town, ripping it asunder. Nothing was left of it. Not even a trace of the people that had once called it home.
All that stood in its place now was a somberness that stilled the air around them as they set foot in it. Celia stepped forward into the desolate townsquare, glaive tightly in hand, while both Tiedoll and Kanda stood back beneath the shadow of a nearby building. The breeze brushed stray brunette strands and blocked some of her vision, but she paid it no mind.
One of the good things about not having to rely on her sight anymore was that obstructions weren't an issue.
Twirling the glaive over her head, Celia pierced the granite streets beneath her before releasing the mental lock in her head that kept the green electricity at bay. Sparks shot out from her weapon and stampeded outward in a shockwave at being released. It wasn't that large of a radius in and of itself but it did its job.
It baited out their target.
The earth shook beneath them seconds before the asphalt cracked and burst open. The Akuma bursting through was hard to miss—a Level 1? Not that big of a challenge, but she knew better than to underestimate them. Taking back her glaive, she lunged forward to bait out its attack. The mindless being that it was, it took it and fired away. Not caring about the empty houses that were destroyed in her wake, Celia dodged between buildings and rooftops all the while approaching it.
Bullets zipped past her, some even deflected by the blade of her glaive, but none deterred her from her target. Dodging one last bullet, Celia skidded before leaping onto its head. The machine struggled to reach her there but shook with all its might to attempt and throw her off. Celia held on as tight as she could and twirled her glaive before piercing the blade through its forehead.
The ensuing explosion sent her flying outward in a screeching mess. Thankfully, the decrepit church not far aided in stopping her in her tracks. Her hand caught one of the parapets of the rotting bell tower slipping a few times as she climbed her way up. From above, Celia waited with bated breath for the poisonous gas to dissipate. Once it did, a grin split her face.
Celia made her way down the church and stopped at the wreck that was left of the square, whooping and throwing her fists in the air in celebration. Kanda was the first to step forward, only to stop short at sensing something. A sensation that caught Celia unawares as the emerald energy sparked to life at her fingertips.
Cursing under her breath, she could do little to avoid the explosion that suddenly caught her off guard from the nearby alleyway. Her tiny body was sent flying once more, toppling over itself until at last crashing into a building with a distinctive crack resounding in her eardrums. Damn, there went her rib. Her brain still bouncing in her skull made it harder to focus or even haul herself out of the pit she'd ended up in, but her ears could still hear the ruckus of a fight ensuing.
There was still another!?
And judging by the mocking voice that taunted them, it wasn't a Level 1.
With difficulty, she climbed out of the hole her collision caused only to find Kanda already fighting the Akuma. Celia, ready to join the fray, took a single step forward only to feel her leg buckle underneath her, sending her straight to the ground.
"You've done enough." Tiedoll's voice reached her as she struggled to even sit up from the beating her body had gotten, his hand laying tenderly on her back. "Allow Yuu-kun to finish this."
Though it irked her to do so, there wasn't much else to do except listen. By the time Tiedoll finished testing her, Kanda had already finished the job she so poorly mishandled.
Feeling alright with what treatment she got, Celia stood up, uniform somewhat in tatters as Kanda returned to them. Pouting, she faced him but was thrown aback by the glower sent her way. It was different compared to the ones he'd given before.
This one felt...meaner somehow.
"Quit jumping in like a maniac."
It took a solid second for Celia to burst out into a frenzy at the insult, wanting to knock some manners into that pretty head of his. Sadly, Tiedoll stopped her, a vine wrapping around her waist and holding her aloft a couple of feet, letting her arms and legs flail aimlessly in anger.
"Now, now, Yuu-kun is correct despite his crassness." It pleased her a small bit to see him annoyed at Tiedoll's call, but wasn't the least bit happy about the rest of that sentence. "You must learn to analyze the situation you find yourself in first and foremost, Cel-kun."
Though peeved, Celia could not disagree with his assessment. She nodded while pouting and was set down by the vine, sitting down crossed-legged with arms crossed. His hand suddenly settling on her head and ruffling her hair caught her off guard, sending a bit of giddiness about her.
"But you're learning how to use that radar of yours quite well. Another job well done, you two."
"It'd be better if she wouldn't get her ass handed to her immediately after."
"What did you say!?"
"Language, Yuu-kun."
"Don't call me that!"
It took a moment but once the chitchat died down, Celia's bad mood lessened as she picked herself up from the floor using her hands to levy her own weight. As she did so, the emerald sparks that formed anew on her fingertips spread across the floor converging into a straight line towards the fountain. Doe eyes zeroed in on the dilapidated architecture before sprinting to it and digging through the rubble.
There, beneath all the broken asphalt and stone, was what they'd been searching for: Innocence. Taking it in her hand carefully, Celia sprinted back to Tiedoll and held it up to him with a toothy grin.
"Lookee here!"
"Well," he said, taking the shining geared-crystal in his hands. "Their information was correct, after all."
"That means we can go back now, right?" she asked, hopeful.
Tiedoll smiled, placing the Innocence cube with the rest beneath the lap of his coat.
"Yes, child. We can."
|A few days later. Under the canals of Paris, France.|
What a familiar sight this underground canal had become.
The boat swayed back and forth as the Finder ferried them to the underground entrance to Headquarters. Celia, now ten—almost eleven really—leaned over the front of it, one of her arms tucked underneath her head as the other dangled overboard, her fingers just barely breaking the surface of the murky waters below.
"Be careful, Cel-kun. You'll dirty your clothes."
"Yes~" she drawled back at Tiedoll. Her hand, meanwhile, remained in the water.
She fished some carp here a couple of months ago. The random thought made her wonder if there were still any. Alas, they reached the port before she could confirm whether the waters were still fishable. Another time, she settled.
Jumping off the boat, Celia rocked it just as Kanda was readying to step out, sending him sitting back down and not caring one bit that he shouted curses after her while Tiedoll readily reprimanded her in his tender tone to be careful.
"Sorry, General! Yuu!" She didn't fret about the screams that followed after her last word, sprinting up the stairs and bursting through the doors that led into Headquarters instead.
Heading through now-familiar hallways, Celia made her way up through several flights of stairs two steps at a time to reach the dormitories. Skidding to a stop at one of the doors, Celia gently knocked and waited.
Nobody answered.
Perplexed, she knocked again only to be met with the same silence. Without preamble, Celia turned the knob and pushed the door open to find no sign of Lenalee. Her bed was disturbed, surely from the night before, but aside from that and some strewn clothes, it was empty. A pout came to her yet again finding no trace of the girl upon her return, her hand slamming the door shut after herself in a fit.
This again…
After her unpleasant welcome to the Order and subsequent befriending of some of the other Exorcists there, to say that Celia's life had changed would be a huge understatement.
Firstly, she was informed that her tutelage would befall General Tiedoll until Cross 'returned.' Were it up to her, she'd stay with him, too. Seeing as Cross more than gladly turned her into the Order to begin with, Celia would rather have a pleasant teacher than that drunkard priest. To say her chest didn't ache at the lies she kept telling herself however would be a lie in and of itself.
Not wanting to think about that, Celia instead focused on her second favorite thing: Lenalee. The young girl was someone easy to be around and Celia was happy to be a source of comfort for her when she was there. Because of it, it had become routine for her to visit Lenalee after every mission. And as irritating as he was more often than not, those visits oftentimes involved Kanda himself when he wasn't out on a mission of his own. During those times, it usually involved dragging Kanda out of whatever room he'd holed himself in to Lenalee's room where the three could spend time together.
And time spent with them was what made the grueling time outside fighting worthwhile. As the only children at the Order near her age, it gave Celia the tiniest sense of belonging to be together with them.
One that she had to scavenge for if the girl's absence was anything to go by. It wasn't the first time she'd gone missing like this, either.
On any given day, it was more than likely for Celia to not find her friend in her room, spending any sort of leisure time away peacefully. More often than not, Lenalee would not be there or simply be too tired to stay up for long if she was.
And the reason why was as much of a puzzle as to where she was taken.
Celia did know a few things, courtesy of her constant insomnia. Whatever it was, it tended to happen during the night while everybody else was asleep. Though she didn't know where they took her or what they did to her, Lenalee would always return to her room by the next day. All banged up and bandaged like she'd been the day Celia arrived at the Order.
And that was if she saw her at all the next day before they took her away again.
Celia didn't like that one bit.
"Do you know what they do to her?"
It was crazy how well her voice echoed in the meditation room. Even crazier that Kanda had yet to kick her out, verbally or physically, since she was interrupting his precious meditation time. Celia wondered how useful sitting in such an uncomfortable position and being quiet for hours at a time truly was. Judging by how Kanda never lost that scowl of his, not much, she wagered. Finding him there after returning from her missions with Tiedoll or Marie was quite common though, and that was where she found him not long after finding no trace of Lenalee elsewhere in the Order again.
He didn't answer. Big shock there. But that didn't deter her either. Coming up to where he was, Celia took a seat just behind him, mimicking his cross-legged posture before leaning back and forth to get his attention.
"Hey, Kanda. Kanda. Kanda. Yuu—"
"Be quiet already!"
Ignoring his outburst, Celia looked over her shoulder for him to hear her better. "Do you know what they're doing to her?"
Exasperation left him in one great exhale, followed thereafter by silence. Just when she thought she'd have to go at it again to get his attention, he surprised her by being straightforth for once.
"Synchronization testing."
Static. Celia quickly scratched the uncomfortable ache that came to her head, ignoring the pain to instead satiate her curiosity.
"What's that?"
"They're testing the percentage that she can synchronize with her Innocence." A forlorn shadow came over his features as he turned his gaze away from her then. "They intend to increment it by forcing her to activate it."
The pain grew. Celia simply scratched at it to make it go away. It didn't.
"That's not good...is it?"
Kanda took one drawn-out breath, his eyes opening briefly before closing once again in resignation.
"No. It's not."
The veil of the night came to them earlier that night than ones prior by a couple of hours. It meant Winter was just around the corner, or so Marie had told her. According to him, Winter meant that the nightly hours would last longer and be colder than before as the new season began to settle in alongside them.
Celia didn't like either the night or the cold. Sleep seldom saved her from the fruitless hours of the night, and the cold...it just reminded her of that night. And if she didn't like it, she supposed Lenalee wouldn't either. Celia, not wishing to be alone tonight, tiptoed out of her room with her own blanket in hand and made her way to Lenalee's room. Fearing she was already asleep, Celia didn't bother knocking and instead did her best to quietly open the door.
It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the blackness but once they did, they widened at what she saw. There on the bed was a trembling bundle of blankets from whence quiet sobs could be heard. Instantly, Celia dropped everything in her hands and rushed in, startling the young girl when she suddenly pulled away the protective cocoon she enveloped herself in.
Lenalee instantly recoiled, cowering into herself as she feebly tried to guard her head with her tiny hands. But that wasn't the worst of it. What truly felt like a gut punch was the sight of her bruised and beaten and covered in bloodied bandages again.
"Le—Lenalee! Are you alright?"
Startled by the sight herself, Celia hurriedly crouched before Lenalee's bed to get a better look at her but only watched as the little girl whimpered at her approach. Her chest twisted at the reaction but she pursed her lips instead to calm her mounting concern, remembering the sight of her when she first arrived at the Order. Taking it a bit slower, she called out to her quietly as she reached out her hand towards her bandaged cheek. This time, her recoiling wasn't as bad.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you." Celia waited until Lenalee lifted her gaze. Those pretty purple eyes watched her, a glint of hopelessness scarring them profoundly. A grimace came over her lips before quickly shifting to a smile that she hoped would give her some sense of safety instead. "How are you? Do your injuries hurt too much? I can sneak some ice out of the cafeteria if you want. It'll help with the pain and soreness."
Lenalee hung to her every word then as if recognizing her suddenly brought her back to the moment in time. In the span of a second, those hopeless eyes took a hint of grief seconds before she threw herself at Celia without warning. Celia, managing to somehow catch her in time before the two toppled to the ground, sat down on the cold ground while holding tight onto a weeping little girl. Her cries echoed in the emptiness of the room and her ears as she held her tighter, twisting her heart as it broke for the girl's pain.
"I want to go home! I don't want to be here anymore!" she cried at the top of her lungs. "It hurts. They hurt me so much. I don't want to anymore. I wanna leave! B-Big brother! Komui nii-chan."
The pain in her desperate cries was crystal clear, and Celia pained for her, but a very remote part of her couldn't understand her desires. How Celia hated that it even existed.
'Home' felt like a very distant and nonexistent concept to her; it hurt her not being able to comprehend that deep-seated emotion Lenalee possessed. That need to return from whence they plucked such a helpless budding flower. But judging from the pain in her cries and desperation in her voice, Celia could make a comparison. It echoed and rumbled in her ears much like her own cries when she found the brothel burnt to the ground the morning after.
Nothing but ashes.
Celia held her tighter.
Compared to hers, Lenalee's home was truly that, a home. One with someone who loved her.
That ever-elusive 'family'.
It took some time, but before long Lenalee ended up spent. With only a hollowness in her tiny chest now, emotional exhaustion adding to her already depleted stamina rendered the girl unconscious and nothing more than deadweight in her hands. Celia was careful as she carried the girl up and onto her bed, laying her down. Just as she was about to let go, however, the little hand holding onto hers for dear life clutched tightly and didn't go. She stared at their joint hands for a moment and before she knew it she was wiggling her way down into the bed to lay next to her.
Once warm, Celia held onto Lenalee's hand as she laid on one side of the pillow and Lenalee now slept on the other, sniffling here and there in her dreams. A slight frown creased her brow and Celia did her best to soothe her in her sleep, stroking their joint hands under the flimsy blanket.
The sight of her there reminded her of herself the day she arrived and how Kanda had done the same for her, and her heart ached at the sudden realization that only had her scooting closer to Lenalee's warmth.
They were alone.
Even when people like Tiedoll and Marie existed, they were vastly outnumbered by those who sought to use them for their own purposes. Them; mere children.
Here they only had one another, and Celia wouldn't allow what happened with Red and the others to happen here. She finally had the power to protect those she cared about and she'd be damned if she wouldn't use it.
When she heard the familiar scurrying of the CROWs as they ambled through the hallways that night, Celia scampered off after them without a second thought.
It was worrisome that they were taking her back so early. The intervals between them taking her and her coming back were always at least a couple of weeks. Now it hadn't even been a couple of days.
It truly worried her that this would hurt the younger girl more than they claimed it benefitted. And she wouldn't just lay down while they took advantage of her in the state she was in.
Lenalee was so out of it and exhausted still that she didn't even react when she saw Celia following after them. Her dark purple irises only reacted with a brief jerk before lowering altogether.
She's deadbeat.
Her concern mounting by the second, Celia made her way a good few steps behind the CROWs and eventually found herself in those dark foreboding hallways from before. The ones that took her to that very place where she'd witnessed those horrible things. Swallowing her dread braced her as she followed after their quiet footsteps.
Relief washed over her the moment they went right past the door she remembered having peeked in, but it was short-lived when they took her into a separate room at the far end of the hallways instead. Celia counted to ten under her breath before hurrying after them and just barely catching the door with her foot before it closed behind them.
Careful to keep the noise minimal, Celia brought the door ajar just enough to squeeze through. The room she was now in wasn't any different than the other room she'd seen. It lacked a chair but there was still a somewhat higher dias where red-hooded CROWs already stood ready around the small figure Celia recognized as Lenalee. The girl could barely hold herself upright, her chest heaving as her body pushed itself through its exhaustion. The sight pained Celia but she bit down on her lip as she crawled underneath a nearby table to hide within its shadow.
Amethyst eyes were fixed on the rather ominous circle as she waited. For what, Celia wasn't sure. Her plan hadn't gone any further than 'follow them' and 'find out what they're doing to Lenalee'. The latter had yet to be accomplished seeing as not much of anything was occurring, though she didn't have to wait long to find out.
To her surprise, a familiar and brilliant green hue emerged from the depths of the darkness and towered over what was truly a tiny room. Celia scooted back, her back going as far as hitting the wall behind her to blend into the shadows that suddenly shrunk at Hevlaska's appearance.
"Now, Hevlaska, let's begin."
The giant woman hesitated at the sight of Lenalee. "She has yet to recover."
"We were close the other night, Hevlaska." That voice. Celia felt her skin crawl at the sound of Inspector Lveille's voice resonating in the small room. Out of repugnance, she hugged the wall to keep from being seen by that hissing snake. "If we can have Lenalee sustain the synchronization levels she did last time, she should be able to finally join the others out in the field."
Out in the field?
"To fight Akuma."
Her head rang with those words forcing her to hold onto her ear at the sudden buzzing that accompanied it. Through the noise, Celia couldn't hear the argument that Hevlaska got into with the inspector, but whatever it had been, she lost it. That much was obvious by how her appendages lowered to Lenalee with a cube in a hand. Innocence.
Sparks of green shot from her wrist at the sight, the light well hidden behind the cube Hevlaska placed on Lenalee's legs. The light from her own reacted, Hand of God revving to life with uncontrolled sparks shooting every which way as the synchronization began. Celia bit down on her lip as the energy crawling underneath her hand shot through the pores of her skin tearing through tiny bits of it. What electricity spun out of her wrist shot out towards Hevlaska, almost as if reaching for her.
As if urging her to reach out and touch Hevlaska.
S-Stop!
Whatever had possessed her Innocence was not listening to her. And whatever was happening before her wasn't helping. Tears spilled from her eyes at Lenalee's pained screams and somehow made her Innocence act out further. Her hand jerked violently even as she held it with her right and more green energy shot out in tendrils this time, reaching out towards the circle and catching more than one pair of eyes.
Her breath hitched as red-hooded CROWs and the inspector turned to find her in her hiding spot. Before the adrenaline shot through her at being discovered, Celia froze, becoming deadly still at the sight of them. Amethyst eyes surveyed them all for a second before landing on Inspector Lveille who simply gestured her way with a nod. The CROW answered faithfully, stepping away from Lenalee and Hevlaska to head for her.
Adrenaline took full control of her body then.
Not self-preservation though.
Celia didn't hesitate in summoning her glaive and sprinting head-on at the CROWs that stepped towards her. Most of them dodged out of the way but what caught her eye the most were those quick enough to wield those seals of theirs. The same ones she knew would mean the end to her little escapade if they touched her. Rushing through with the speed and agility only her tiny body possessed, Celia crouched over Lenalee to protect her with her glaive out to one side.
Instincts she didn't know she had took over when the CROWs launched their talismans. Without a second thought, Celia stabbed her blade to the ground before sending off the incredible amount of energy that had been going berserk from the moment Hevlaska appeared. The impact dispelled the talismans and shoved all those around them back, the artificial light around them crackling and flickering from the intensity.
The liberation of so much energy at once was like a punch to the gut, though. It left Celia struggling for every breath as she hung over Lenalee while leaning on her glaive. Their groans brought her back to reality quickly and before Celia knew it, she followed the same instinct that allowed her the chance to escape. Forcing herself up, Celia struggled to put Lenalee on her back and hold her one-handed before running out of the room.
Her bare feet slapped loudly against the cold ground but despite the pain that began swelling within her, Celia didn't think of stopping. Not now when all that drove her was to get Lenalee and herself as far away from this damn place as possible.
"C-Ce...lia…"
"Le—Lena!" Her breath came out in gasps as she ran, her gaze coming over her shoulder to see a barely conscious Lenalee over her shoulder.
"W...where…?"
"It's okay—Lenalee," Celia panted. "We're leaving this place. I'm—taking you home. I'm taking you to your brother!"
For some reason, saying what she intended to do aloud invigorated her resolve. It became easier to ignore the pain under her soles or the way her muscles were beginning to burn from carrying Lenalee on her back as she ran. Taking every turn she could and every set of stairs downward, their safest bet to get away before the CROW caught up to them would be the canals. If they could sink in there and let the river wash them out, they would have enough time away from those damn scavengers to lose them.
It wasn't much of a plan, but for being thought of on the spot, it was the only thing she would have to go with.
Another little bit of hope rose within her when she found herself at the main foyer of the castle. From here, getting to the stairway leading down to the canal system was as easy as a turn and a dive. But just when she was sure they were out with the few steps she took toward the exit, that little bit of hope was snuffed out the instant a flash of golden light shot out from either side of them.
By the time she recognized what they were, it was already too late.
The talismans wrapped around her and thrust her to the floor with a strong enough impact to make her see white. Coughing up from how suddenly the air left her lungs, Celia blinked through the white bursts in her vision and caught the glimpse of Lenalee lying on her back after having been flung out from her grasp on impact. Celia struggled against her bindings, but nothing she did wedge even the tiniest of openings in them. Cursing under her breath, she even started to bite into the talismans nearest to her mouth but stopped when the frightening sound of footsteps suddenly echoed through the halls.
It was hard to see at first, but soon enough, three figures came into her field of vision: two crimson-robbed CROWs and Inspector Lveille. How she hated the sight of that damn snake. That cruel, calculating gaze fell on her first, and Celia did not hesitate on returning it with a hateful glare of her own.
"I thank you, Celia," he spoke low and with venom in his words. "You have finally given me a reason to properly discipline such a rowdy disciple. Whatever brought you to this, be it arrogance or stupidity, it will not go unpunished a second time."
Having said his piece, Celia could only watch helplessly as Lveille turned his attention to Lenalee instead.
"L-Leave her alone, you—you bastard!"
Lveille stopped for a moment and waved a hand at one of the CROWs who swiftly approached for his order. "Take her to solitary."
The CROW bowed before turning to Celia. Dread filled her at being picked up so easily even as she struggled with all her might to be released. But not even that helplessness compared to the one brought on by the words she heard echo through the walls of that horrid, dark castle. Words that Lveille spoke to Lenalee as she laid there utterly defenseless.
"You troublesome children. There is no way for you to escape the Order. None."
Unceremoniously tossed into the tiny room, the door closed behind them with the resounding thud and clank of heavy metal before Celia could even fight to keep it open. Her fists banged against the cold iron door as she shouted to be let out at the top of her lungs. She banged and screamed for as long as she could and even further. It wasn't until her hand and throat turned raw that she finally slid down the door in defeat.
Eyes dry from tears but burning with anger scanned the room she was now in, something not hard to do within a minute or two since all was pretty much insight. With only a bed and toilet, it was more of a cell than a bedroom. Appropriate for what they called solitary. And with how thickly reinforced the door appeared, there wouldn't be a way to brute force her way out. Not without the hairpin they so promptly removed from her person, anyway.
But even without it, Celia would try.
The emerald sparks ran rampant for once as Celia allowed them to fester unhindered within her. The sensation was disgusting but with so little to work with, she would need to create a sturdy enough weapon to break through that door. Stepping forth, she laid her hand on the iron bed frame before letting the energy explode from within her.
The electricity was blinding the moment it exited her, filling up the space in its entirety ten times over before she forced it to focus on the bed frame she clutched in her hands. The white feathers that burst from her touch transformed it in grotesque ways as some kind of weapon began to manifest from it. A smirk rose to her lips at the disgusting sight.
Yeah, this could work.
Wielding it was tough with its size, but Celia managed to do so long enough to swing at the iron door that came off of its hinges outward with the single hit. A grin split her face before she sprinted out through the dust cloud that erupted from the mess she caused.
Her hairpin was next. If she could get that, fighting the CROWs was possible. Doable even. Luckily for her, the two guarding her cell had thankfully been taken aback by her sudden jailbreak with one of them actually having her hairpin at hand.
Great!
At her first step, however, talismans surrounded her faster than she could dodge them. Without warning, instead of bringing her down, Celia cried out in pain at the sudden electricity that shot through her body. The pain bloomed in an instant and was gone just as fast, but the effects didn't leave. Her body fell onto the ground limp, her limbs twitching from the excess electricity coursing through her. Through the haze of the pain and confusion, Celia barely made out the voices of the crimson-hooded agents quarreling until another halted them.
The Inspector's.
"What happened?"
"S-She used her Innocence, Sir. Even without the conduit, it was strong enough to break through the plated door."
Silence. Her arm twitched painfully and wrenched a soft cry from her lips.
"Reinforce it and shackle her with talismans. Clear the room of anything she could use as a conduit to avoid the risk of a repeat of this."
"And as for her stay, sir?" one asked.
Steps reverberated in her eardrums a little too loudly until they stopped seemingly closer than before. Something pushed her from her side and over onto her back, a grunt and cry escaping her at the pain that rose from hitting the floor so suddenly. As her vision cleared, the horrid sight of that man appeared above her.
"She will remain here indefinitely." Rage festered in her almost instantly at the wicked smile that appeared on his face. "Someone must teach this mongrel obedience."
|Day 1.|
Celia fought against the shackles around her wrists. Pulling for hours on end, however, only gained her sore and bloodied wrists. Wounds that didn't dull the disgusting light of her Innocence any more than the chains dampened her need to leave.
And she would. To hell with the people here. If this is how they treated Lenalee and her, they didn't deserve her loyalty nor her blood and sweat. Fighting in their name? Pfft, what a joke. No, once she found a way out of here, Celia vowed to find a way out and take Lenalee and Kanda with her.
They wouldn't die in this place. Much less for these people.
Grinding her teeth, Celia began pulling away from her chains yet again, letting the iron dig deeper into her wrists.
|Day 9.|
It was difficult to sleep while kneeling, but with how the chains held her, it was hard to find anything remotely close to a comfortable sleeping position.
Celia sighed. Not like she was getting any sleep anyway. The damn CROWs outside her door whispered too damn loud for her to even catch a wink of sleep even if she found a way to be even the slightest bit comfortable.
From how they started up again, she guessed this would be yet another sleepless night. The chains rattled as she tried pulling them once more only to feel them biting against calloused skin. Too tired to try any harder, Celia resigned herself to find any comfort in what little rest she managed to get for the moment.
|Day 20.|
Bastards weren't feeding her.
Given, she did try to bite the hand from one of the guards that tried to feed her a few days ago but still. Wasn't she one of their precious accommodators? What the hell was the point of starving her to death if they needed her so desperately?
They even stopped letting her drink water.
Ugh, her throat was so dry.
|Day 29|
They figured out how to feed and give her water without her noticing. It seemed they found it easier to simply shock her unconscious with their talismans and feed her whatever they needed to keep her healthy enough to withstand this twisted punishment of theirs.
Cowards.
Celia regretted not having bitten off the last guy's finger.
|Day 32|
Their whispering was so fucking loud.
|Day 46|
The emerald sparks were moving on their own.
Celia hadn't noticed it before when she controlled them, but now when she could barely move from how exhausted and famished she was, it was obvious. It almost seemed to bleed from out of her pores and dance around, illuminating the dark corners of her cell that she hated so much.
The light never reached those parts.
Out of the blue, the talismans on the chains reacted to the bright sparks, shooting electricity through her body and wrenching a scream out of her.
She panted from the pain, and could only gaze upward at the emerald sparks that now barely peeked from under her fingernails.
"Don't come out..."
They hurt me when you come out. So, please…
The sparks peeked out just far enough before receding into her once more.
|Day 60|
The whispers.
It wasn't them.
It's you.
Celia could sense the electricity crawling under her skin in response.
She wasn't sure when she noticed it. Maybe it was the fact that the voices tended to be female. Maybe that they never made sense whatsoever, their sentences a jumbled mess of sounds that she couldn't quite decipher from how soft they were at the start. But now that they were louder than ever, she could finally discern from where they came.
They were in her head. Just like that lady's voice.
It was difficult to understand them, but Celia could make out a single word that the voices kept repeating under their breaths.
'Revenge.'
What for?
The voices grew louder, but there were so many that it was difficult to understand any single one of them. They became loud enough to make her head feel like it was about to explode. Unable to keep it in any longer, Celia shouted at the top of her lungs for them to shut up. Somehow it worked. The voices quieted down after a moment, leaving her ears ringing from how silent the room suddenly became.
"Help me."
That voice again. Celia recognized it as the one she'd heard so many times before this.
That lady's voice…
...who?
"Help me," it simply repeated.
Figuring she wouldn't get anywhere without first hearing it out, Celia played along. How?
"Kill them all."
|Day —|
"Kill them."
...
"Kill them."
…
"Kill them all."
"Shut up!" Celia bit into her lip, tasting the blood that suddenly coated her tongue. "I'm not...I won't…"
"You want to."
"...not all…" Celia confessed. Even with all that fury festering within her, she knew now that it wasn't directed at everybody in the Order. Only a select few, by which she meant that man and his murder of crows. "...not all of them…"
"All. It must be all."
"No."
"Kill them all. You must."
"I don't want to." By this point, Celia couldn't help the tears that pooled in her eyes as a sob wracked her chest. "I don't…"
The voice was quiet for only the briefest of moments before speaking two words that sent a terrible chill down Celia's spine.
"You will."
|Six months later.|
Light.
It's blinding and it hurts to see, but it warms her to see it as it peeks through a slit made by the screeching door opening. Celia doesn't lift her head to see what was happening. She can't. She was too weak to even form a conscious thought at that point.
Whatever strength she had, she saved it to fend of that horrid voice that kept repeating the same thing over and over.
Voices suddenly bombarded her ears without warning. So loud. But at least they weren't the whispers in her head. The voices talked amongst themselves and before long Celia heard something click mere moments before her body began falling. Falling? Oh, that's right. The chains...they were holding her upright. She'd been hovering over the floor, her knees inches from it, the chains just loose enough for her to hang on while kneeling to sleep.
Huh. How did she forget that?
Before she could fall onto the floor, a pair of strong arms caught her. Although massive, they were gentle with her, their warmth painfully palpable through her skin as her head fell upon something soft. Before she knew what was going on, a new warmth enveloped her. This one was soft and fluffy and made aches she didn't know she was suffering ease ever so slightly. The sensation engulfed her so completely that it was hard to keep conscious. But she had to. There was no telling what they were planning on doing. Celia focused then on the voices, trying her best to decipher what they were saying through the fogginess in her head.
"—gentle with her, Ma-kun."
"—conscious, General."
Ma-kun? General?
Could it be?
"...I'm...out?"
"Shh." That gentle voice. She'd almost forgotten how General Tiedoll's voice sounded. "Do not worry, my dear. You're safe now. Everything will be alright."
Through the blurriness in her vision, a small figure came into her limited view. It stood in front of the open door that bathed them in light and obscured their features.
Who…?
"Yu-kun, don't." Yuu? It was him she saw? "Please, return to Lenalee's side, my boy."
"Get off me." That rough tone. Yeah...that was him. Somehow the sound of his voice filled her chest with something much warmer than whatever held her. "Marie, let me see—"
"Kanda, no."
"...Yuu." Baffled at first, Celia couldn't believe that's how her voice sounded. So raspy. So broken. But it didn't matter. "Yuu…?"
Celia couldn't quite hear what he shouted, ironically. Did speaking really take that much of what little energy she had? Geez. Her own weakness was almost laughable. Despite not being able to discern whatever was said, she could tell that they were moving. That much was obvious from how the air brushed so harshly against her skin. It hurt.
More voices. Lots of them. But none of them were any of the ones she'd heard in that room. That by itself was good.
Celia felt herself be lowered onto something soft and soothingly cold. She felt pricks on her arm but funnily enough, they didn't hurt. Curious how the air hurt more than whatever pricked her. Little of that mattered though. Whatever they were doing seemed almost inconsequential with how comfortable she was now. It felt like it'd be easy to just close her eyes and fall asleep.
She was so, so tired.
"...don't die...please…"
Celia couldn't tell whose voice that was from how sleepy she'd suddenly become, but what she couldn't deny was the feeling of someone holding her hand. It hurt, the touch, but at the same time, it didn't.
It was warm. How she'd missed that feeling.
Soothed and lulled by it, Celia felt herself fall deeper until she finally drifted away.
The dawn of a new day welcomed her when she opened her eyes.
Through the open window, a gentle breeze came in, bringing with it the sweetness of fresh air. Blinded by the warm light at first, Celia took a moment to instead breathe in the clean air that kissed her skin. A groan escaped her at doing so, however.
Her chest hurt. It hurt to breathe.
"Easy, child. You're still recovering."
The quiet whisper caught her off guard but with no energy to react, all she could do was slowly turn upward. A stern woman's gentle gaze met hers, her features strained from the tight bun that rested on the back of her head. The uniform she wore told Celia more than anything else that she was a nurse at the hospital ward and since she didn't recognize her, a new one at that.
"Where…am I?" It was hard to speak still. Her throat hurt from how parched it was, but it wasn't as bad as before.
"You're at the infirmary," she explained as she took a seat at the foot of her bed. "You have been unconscious for the past five days."
"...really?" The nurse nodded. "W-What...happened?"
"Nothing that you have to worry about now, dear." Despite not liking the answer, Celia wasn't up to arguing. The nurse reached out her hand and gently stroked her hair, brushing back strands of hair that had been tickling her face since she woke up. "For now, all you should concern yourself with is recovering."
"Mm."
"Is she awake, matron?"
Celia didn't recognize that voice.
It rang through the room despite being nothing more than a whisper and reached her tired ears before she could see them. It was a man with long dark hair held back in a ponytail. Rectangular glasses framed his face and he wore a funny hat that would've garnered a chuckle or two had she had the strength for it. The fact that they started speaking about her while she was there didn't bother her in the least. What did was that there was no explanation for what she wanted to know. And if they weren't going to give it to her, she would have to get it herself.
"Who...are...you?"
Both of them stopped and gave a brief knowing glance to one another before the man walked towards the bed to take the seat closest to her bedside. His smile was genuine and calming as he looked down at her, something Celia found comfort in, strangely enough.
"My name is Komui Lee. I will be taking care of all of you here in Headquarters from now on, Celia-chan."
Lee?
"Lena...lee's?"
The man, Komui, merely nodded, his smile never once faltering.
"Things will be much different from now on, I promise. For now, rest and recover. Once you're better, you can see Lenalee and the others."
Could that really be the case? Was this man lying to her? Celia sensed no malice from him though. If he was lying, he was damn good at it. But what she thought was more likely—what she hoped was real—was that he was being truthful.
"M'kay…" she groggily replied.
Different? At the thought of that Celia felt herself sigh as the hint of a smile pulled at the corner of her lips. Yeah. Different sounds good.
A/N:
Yo! I know it's been a hot minute since I last posted. Been on the end of burnout, getting back on the writing grove and just life in general. Worked on myself a bit bc lord knows I needed that xD But aside from that everything is going well enough.
Now, I know this chapter is a wee bit shorter than the previous two but there's a valid reason. Originally this was supposed to be double the length, surely would've been more since I hadn't really finished that other half either. But the reason I cut it in two was bc as I was editing I realized how despite being similar, the two parts were slightly different in theme. And since I base my chapter length mostly on that, I decided to do this instead. Thankfully it means that I have almost half a chapter already written for next time which means less work for me, yay!
This one was a bit tough to write, ngl. Not because of the subject matter but because i had to think really hard about how i wanted to rewrite certain aspects of the old story that had a lot to do with how it goes in the future. So don't be surprised if once i'm way ahead in this story I end up retconning a few details here and there. Hopefully not :3
As for the next chapter, I am excited. Not only bc of what I have planned but bc it marks the end of Celia's child arc. There's gonna be lots of things in the next chapter that I'm so hype to write but sadly I won't be getting anything done till maybe after mid to late May. School got extremely hard this semester and I want to focus on that still before coming back full force to writing.
But anyway, let me thank you lovely bunch that have been favoriting and following this whole time I've been gone! Here's a thank you to: natsukashii-higeki, Ho4qin, pendora59, M1LK T3A, wolfsilver438, Denysse Faith Ebo, pushpahana94, BlueCampanula, April Marciano, Sp1c3M0nste3r,KatHBT99, 1, Sonata Fuling, Monkey D. Umi, Nonexistent Existence, bobbig216, Volpiko, and DemonCats! And a huge shoutout to DemonCats who literally followed/favorited just as I'm writing this out. I saw the notification pop-up and thought "yep, it's a sign".
Also let me thank the lovely folks who have reviewed it since last chapter as well!
SAM - I'm glad you like it so far! Especially with it only being 2 chapters. Don't worry, my uploads may take long af but I won't abandon this! Tysm for reading and taking the time to review~! 3
Aviantei - Girl, i look forward to your reviews regardless of length or messiness, yknow that. Glad to know your alarms getting set off by the tiny mention of a little someone. Haven't decided if I'll change her role yet in this story but I'm highly inclined to think so the way this is going in my head x3 As for Lveille, I'm sure this gave you plenty of more fuel to want to kick that particular bitch's ass. And yes! The fucked up thing about the Order is something I want to explore very much! I kinda touched on it before when I first wrote this story but never went really into depth about it. I tried a little bit harder just to give a taste but rest assured there's plenty more fucked up shit coming up in the future. Thankful for the luck with school, I'm gonna need it TwT
That's all I got for today, folks! Again, sorry I've been MIA for so long, but I gotta take care of what I gotta take care of first and foremost. For now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you stay tuned for the next one!
Sending hugs
*Evie*