Disclaimer: I do not own any aspect of Hunter x Hunter. This is solely for philosophical exploration.
A/N: This story goes kind of slow in my mind. I'm going to write shorter chapters, I think.
An Element of Foreboding
From somewhere in the dark nothing, a small boy's voice whines. "Aniki, aniki, where are you?" He wanders off in a random direction, forgetting the lesson that one should stay put when lost to be found more easily. "Where are you!" he bawls. "Come get me, aniki! I'm scared! Aniki!" He runs off, fading as fast as he is running. For some odd reason, the surroundings were turning red. An unsettling, dark neon, murderous red.
Someone pokes him from behind. He turns to see Hisoka beckoning him with a card between two fingers. "If you want to find your brother, Illumi, follow me." The jester turns, his hair now colored blue, toward another direction, leading him somewhere. However, as he turns around to call Illumi again, he slowly morphs into mother, Kikyou Zaoldyck, in her signature yellow dress and cyborg laser eye.
"What kind of brother and trainer are you? How could you lose him? Losing a weakling like that... Losing your prey like that. No wonder Killua's supposed to be the heir even though you're so much older. He has more spirit, more style, and more talent than you'll ever have! Useless, worthless scum!" The taunts became howls of anger and screams of rage. "It's the isolation chamber for you, darling!" Hideous laughter follows.
Ugh, that laughter. He desperately hates that laughter, even more than the isolation chamber itself. It's immobilizing, hateful, all too familiar. Yet it still rings on, high pitched and unendurable, through the halls of his mind, loosening the threads of his sanity...
He wakes up with a thud. A dream, all a dream... and nothing more.
Bright. Too bright. Though for a moment he thought that this is the light at the end of the tunnel, his fingers feel around on the floor - a carpet - and prop him up to look more attentively as the setting he is in.
Ah. The hotel. Rays of the sun shine through the high windows, lighting the white-washed room and its relatively fancy rosewood furniture. He looks up at the sizable vanity mirror facing the bed that he just fell off of. Hisoka's still sleeping like a pig, and he didn't turn into mother Kikyou. He smooths his own rumpled hair and walks to the nearest set of drawers against the wall, on his right. Roughly changing into a navy hoody and black slacks, he thinks, "The search continues today."
The 'rrrrr' of his new cell phone alerts him to the bedside table. The old one got screwed up in river water, when they fell from - no, got pushed by Hisoka from - the bridge. He strides the few quick steps to pick it up. "Hello?"
"Yo. Horror of the Seven Seas."
"Killua. What do you want?"
"Alluka's here. With me - I mean, us. You come, and we give him to you, but in exchange, you get to tell us what this is all about." Illumi agrees. It shortens the process, to know luckily that Alluka ended up in familiar hands. Killua's friends though... They would be a little more tricky to deal with. He inwardly sighs. Giving them information is the easy part. He doesn't completely know, but can guess, what they're going to do with that information. Well, that's what bargaining is for.
With the location gotten and the deal agreed upon, he hangs up. "Hisoka." He jabs the sleeping figure in the side. No response. "Clown, wake up." Hisoka doesn't hear him. As opposed to simply pushing him off the bed, Illumi spikes his nen level to an angry, brainwashing pitch. The jester's eyes shoot open, reflexively and quickly defending himself. When the assassin stops it, a grumpy joker runs his hand through his own red hair and glares daggers at Illumi.
"Such a friendly wake up call. What is it?"
"We found Alluka."
"What? When?"
"Let's go."
Ending Notes: What will Gon, Killua, Kurapika and Leorio do when they find out everything about the situation? Kikyou will make an appearance the next chapter. Your feedback gives me great ideas, so please please review!