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Klaus wasn't very aware of the passage of time when he was lost in a Prosfair game at his computer. He thought it would help soothe his nerves after Steven left him alone, and so far, it had done its job in thoroughly distracting him. So much so, that it was only by chance that he overheard the two analysts talking from nearly across the room. They were keeping their voices low, but it was quiet enough in the office that they were easy to overhear.
"Look, I'm starving, you want to just go grab something down the street?"
"But what if Leo's just held up in traffic? He's going through all the trouble of bringing us food, we should wait."
"If I wait any longer I might starve."
That made both Klaus and Steven perk up. Almost in unison, they looked toward the giant clock on the wall, and realized just how long it had been since Leo had left. To their horror, they realized it had been almost an hour and a half. In Hellsalem's Lot, a delay that long always spelled trouble. They locked eyes, wordlessly exchanging concerns. Steven immediately whipped out his phone and dialed Leo's number.
Silently, they both waited for the call to connect. But it never did.
"Keeps ringing, won't even go to voicemail." Steven declared, hanging up and trying once more. Same result.
Klaus stood up from his desk and headed over to Steven's side of the room. He didn't need to say anything; the scarred man was already clacking away at his own computer keyboard. They both watched the screen as a map of the city appeared, and the pulsing green dot that represented the tracker in Leo's phone blinked alive. It was stationary.
"That address belongs to the restaurant." Steven noted. "Looks like he's right beside it…or at least his phone is...and has been, for at least an hour..."
Klaus' knuckles cracked as he made a fist. Without another word, he turned and stalked toward the door, taking his fiery red aura with him. Gilbert, having heard the entire conversation, followed. Steven snatched his suit jacket from the back of his chair before darting after them both. The traffic seemed determined to stop them at every turn, in spite of Gilbert's expert driving. Steven kept trying to reach Leo on his phone with no luck. Klaus just sat in the back of the car, hands fisted over his knees, jaw clenched tight enough to hurt. When they were halfway to the location, Steven finally voiced their fears.
"This looks bad…I don't know what we're going to find when we get there. Let's hope Leo had the wits to keep himself alive, at least."
Klaus gazed out the window with eyes that saw nothing, trying to keep himself contained. Leo had been in danger like this before, but he had actually used his eyes and the rest of the team to get out of it. This was different. Something had happened that had rendered Leo unable to use his phone or escape. The various nasty possibilities of what might have happened to him in this city threatened to break Klaus down into a growling mess. He felt angry as well as worried to death. Though nothing had been confirmed, he already wanted to hunt down anyone who might have hurt Leo and repay them in kind. The urge was so unbearably strong that he felt his muscles quivering with the need to strike.
When they finally pulled up on the street beside the restaurant, both men shot out of the car at once. They broke into a near run on the street, dodging other pedestrians and trying not to bowl them over. They slowed their pace as they reached the alley, however, as neither of them were so concerned that they could rule out the possibility of this being a trap. Klaus thought with a pang of irony, that they really could use Leo's eyes to scan the surroundings right now. They made do with their mortal eyes, and didn't see anyone or anything lying in wait for them.
What they did see chilled their bones, and made the hairs stand up on Klaus' arms and the back of his neck.
Leo's phone lay abandoned, smashed at the base of one wall. Beside it, and surrounding it in an arc, were spatters of fresh blood. It was flung as far as the other end of the short alleyway, indicating the force of strong blows.
They were brought up short by the sight, but Steven recovered first. He knelt down to retrieve the phone, and examined the blood. There was a small pool of it between the wall and the middle of the alley. It clearly meant that someone had rested there and bled out over a period of time. The corner of the puddle was smeared.
"Not enough to suggest mortal injury." He said, trying to keep his voice calm for his friend. "Who knows, maybe it's from one of his attackers."
Klaus didn't say anything. Steven stood up and dialed the office.
"Hey, Kathryn, I need you to do me a favor; you and the others start calling all the hospitals within a five-mile radius from our current location. Find out if any of them have recently admitted someone meeting Leo's description. Call me with the results, as soon as you can."
Once he was sure that the operative understood, Steven hung up and dialed again. After a few rings, the recipient picked up and started talking.
"Can the sarcasm, Zapp," Steven barked almost at once, "Leo's gone missing and we need your help to try and find him. Looks like he got jumped outside the Asian place. I need you to get down here right away and start sweeping the area."
Klaus heard the shrieking bellow of Zapp's voice, unintelligible over the phone's speaker from so far away. With a few more barking orders, Steven hung up on the man, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Half the time I can't even remember why we keep him on our team!"
"Because he pulls through when we need him." Klaus said, surprising himself with how strongly he felt that conviction. "He's fearless to the point of cocky, and despite all his lip, he's never let any of us down."
"Well, hopefully that'll be true this time, too." Steven shook his head. "What do we do now, Klaus?"
The big man squared his shoulders, and turned his entire body toward the alleyway, and the walls bearing his lover's blood.
"We search high and low until we find my Leo, and the bastards who did this to him."
"Damn right." Agreed Steven. "Let's start by checking those security cameras from the restaurant, and the street cams as well; there's a few I can pick out just from standing on this spot, so they had to have caught something."
Fifteen minutes later they were back at the office, hovering over all of Steven's computers. After pinpointing which cameras and which footage archives he needed to access, the man easily pulled up several recordings.
"I'm starting all the footage at roughly ten minutes after Leo left this building. He should show up on one of them within five or so."
Klaus was too anxious to sit, so he was standing beside Steven, watching over his shoulder. Their eyes bounced back and forth between the dozen or more separate recordings from the various cameras, all showing full-on or partial angles of the restaurant, the parking lot behind it, and the alleyways all around. As they watched, their anticipation rose with each second that passed.
"There." Steven said, spotting the flash of Leo on his motor scooter in another window. Steven clacked at the screen, copying the recording.
One particular camera, focused on the parking lot, showed a clear image of Leo getting off his scooter and walking towards the restaurant. Klaus noted absently that it looked like he was smiling. Then he realized that someone had been trailing him; a vehicle pulled up in the spot just behind Leo, and three men got out. Two were humans, the third a big, multi-armed Alterworld creature. They closed in on Leo with astonishing speed, and Klaus' lip curled as he watched one of them raise a short club and bring it down on the back of Leo's head. As he reeled, they seized him from behind and dragged him back into the shelter of an alley. For a second, they lost sight of anything on a number of windows, but then Steven enlarged one that actually had a full-on view of the alley. Silently, helplessly, they watched the events that had transpired.
The thugs hadn't given Leo any time to defend himself. Blow after blow landed from huge fists, and the small frame was helpless to fight back between the rapid-fire attack. It didn't take long before he stopped moving. At that point, one of the men waved a hand at the other two, and they propped Leo up against the wall. They searched his pockets, and upon finding his phone, smashed it. Then the man who appeared to be the one in charge knelt down, and pulled Leo's head up from where it had been slumped on his chest. Leo gave no reaction, and his mouth hung open. Blood was pouring from his lips, down his chin in ugly rivers of crimson. The man used his other hand to pry open one of Leo's eyelids. Even on the grainy security footage, the blue gleam of Leo's eye shone like radiant blue fire.
"Shit…" Steven muttered.
Once the man had apparently confirmed that they had the right target, he pulled out a phone and made a call. It only took a moment, and then they were hauling Leo upright and stowing him away in their vehicle, before driving off.
"I've got the license plate. It's probably nonsense, but I can always check."
As Steven began clicking furiously through a database, Klaus stepped back and took a few deep breaths.
He closed his eyes, pulling up the faces and forms of the three guilty parties, etching them into his memory. License plate or no, he intended to find and dispose of them. In the meantime, he only had to hope that Leo was valuable to them alive. Though, the more he thought about it, he didn't know if that was better or worse. Leo's eyes were mysterious things; not entirely explainable by science, nor entirely deified by the religious. There might be a number of people who would want to study them, and their owner. Leo had, perhaps, become somewhat recognizable to those in the truly dangerous criminal classes. Only two years ago Klaus had to negotiate away a professional hit that had been put out on Leo. At that time, they'd assumed that someone had studied Libra's team as a whole, but perhaps the results of that investigation had reached beyond the person who wanted Leo dead. Someone who took a special interest in him beyond his threat to any hostile Blood Breeds and their schemes. Information was good currency in the underworld.
"Klaus," Steven's slightly high-toned voice reached his ears, "you're bleeding."
Klaus jolted back to reality, having been lost so deeply in his thoughts that he hadn't realized that he'd lifted a hand to his mouth. He hadn't even felt his fangs piercing his own skin as he bit down in anger, frustration, and concentration. Gazing down at the small puncture wound, and seeing his own blood seemed to bring some sense to his brain. At the same time that he thought it, Steven said it aloud for him
"Keep it together, Klaus. For Leo."
Klaus grunted, and nodded his head, immediately pulling a tissue off the desk and staunching his small wound. His thoughts were rarely derailed this much, but it had been all he could do to keep from hauling off and punching the wall. That would do nothing to help Leo. Klaus took a few more deep breaths through his nose, determined to focus.
For Leo.
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Pain registered to Leo before anything else. Pain that contradicted itself by numbing much of his body to the point where even thinking of moving was a monumental task. He felt the vibrations of something mechanical around him, and as his consciousness flickered back and forth, he realized he was in a vehicle. The rough carpet of the floor was abrasive to his swollen face.
Through the pounding of his head, he tried to listen and pick up on any clue as to where they were going or what they wanted with him. This hadn't been a random attack like all the countless times he'd been robbed on the street. This had been precise, strategic. They'd hit him hard and fast, and he hadn't had time to react even if he'd wanted to. So many of the thugs he'd encountered had enough of an ego to buy him some reaction time with their touch speeches. This had been different. They obviously wanted him for something. A ransom, perhaps? Or maybe they'd discovered his link to Libra and were trying to exploit that?
Leo's brain went watery as he tried to observe the surroundings with his other senses. Everything felt heavy and far away at the same time, making focusing difficult. Over time, he heard a few voices speaking, but he couldn't catch what they were saying over the hum of tires and the passing traffic on each side. It took several long minutes of cautious breathing and attention for him to make out a few words.
"Definitely thought this would be a lot harder than it was." One voice was saying. Another answered,
"For a kid with so much power, I did expect more of a fight."
"Didn't really give him time for that, did we?" The bass voice replied. "Boss' orders were right on the money; knock him out fast before he has a chance to run or fight back."
Leo felt the toe of a boot nudge his leg harshly.
"He doesn't look like he'd offer much of a challenge anyway. We wouldn't have had any problems."
A third voice called from a bit farther away, the driver perhaps.
"Hey, you two, don't let your chit-chat distract you from your jobs. One twitch, one inkling that he's coming to, and you put him down again."
There was an irritated grunt from what sounded like enormous nostrils and Leo felt the floor creak when someone shifted above him.
"We know our jobs, here, shut the hell up and drive!"
The driver didn't respond to that, and it went silent. Leo felt fear snake its way around his heart. He'd been in dangerous situations before, he'd even been captured by criminals more than once before. That didn't mean he wasn't frightened out of his mind when it happened. All he felt capable of was lying there and playing dead until he formed a plan.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just cut the eyes out of his head, if she wants them that badly?" The higher voice muttered quietly a handful of moments later. "Just seems a waste of manpower and drugs to keep him alive and unconscious."
The fear clamped down on Leo's heart where it had settled, and he had to focus to keep his breathing from going erratic at the words.
"Don't you have brains in your skull?" The bass voice condescended. "If he was conscious, he could use them, couldn't he? Then he could escape, no problem. She needs him quiet and compliant."
"That doesn't make sense. If she needs to study how he uses his power, why keep him from doing it?"
"None of our affair, why do you need to know?"
"Don't really, just curious."
The driver spoke up again, sounding firm and commanding.
"Curiosity in this line of work can get you killed, just stick to keeping your mouth shut and following orders. Easy road to profitability."
There were a few agreeing noises, and then the three men were quiet again, leaving Leo to hear nothing but the rushing blood in his ears and the rattling and shaking of the van. He was fighting very hard to keep calm, to think rationally. He'd picked up a lot on how to break down a situation as factually as he could, even under pressure, since he'd joined Libra. Through the screaming pain of his head, his limbs, and his torso especially, he forced himself to consider the upsides to this predicament. His advantages included waking up quietly, and in time to hear them discussing their plans; if he hadn't, then they might have drugged him like they'd said, and he never would have been aware again. He'd be a lab-rat for some criminal scientist out there, probably tampering in all kinds of illegal experiments. Leo had the sense that he'd avoided that fate by an inch, which was more than lucky. They also needed him alive, which meant his greatest immediate danger was being knocked out rather than killed. Whenever he made his move, he'd have to be deathly fast. They were keeping such close watch on him that his window for action was minuscule.
Lastly, Leo reflected on a truth he only fell back on in dire scenarios like this one; he was never completely powerless. While the inspirational thought gave him a sense of strength, reality reminded him of how this kind of situation normally ended. Severe injury. Every single time. Even with the use of his all-seeing-eyes, he'd always ended up badly hurt, and that was usually in spite of the rest of the team being there to assist. Whatever he did, he was not coming out of this unscathed. Inwardly, Leo chuckled to himself. He was already in so much pain that it barely mattered. He'd already been bruised up before this even happened.
That thought brought Klaus to mind; how would he react when he found out about this? Did he already know? If he did, he was probably worried sick and trying desperately to rescue Leo right now, setting the whole team on the case. Leo's heart twinged, loosening the fear's vice-grip as he felt perspectives lining up in his mind. If he'd had any idea that something like this was going to happen to him, he would've...
A surge of conviction overtook Leo so strongly that he couldn't think of anything else. Klaus. He wanted to get back to his Klaus. He needed to tell him...
In the literal blink of an eye, Leo's symbols shot out and sent blinding neon light exploding over the vision of the three men. There were pained cries of surprise and shock, and one of them even struck downwards blindly, punching the floor with a giant fist, missing Leo's head by a hair's breadth. As he recoiled, feeling every muscle scream in protest, Leo scrambling the men's vision with each other, quickly, before they could orient and try to beat him with their memory of where he was.
"What the hell?!" One of them shrieked.
"It's the kid! He's doing it!" The booming bass added to the fray, while another voice just wailed over and over. Some people took the shock of having their vision tapped worse than others, Leo had found.
Leo didn't have much time to decide what to do next, but from what he saw in the driver's vision, they were on the freeway, in the middle lane. Leo took control of the driver, and began making him steer sharply from side to side, trying to shake off all the surrounding cars. He hoped it would be enough to make them give the vehicle a wide berth. He heard the screech of scraping metal as some cars were too slow getting away, and collided with each other.
"Stop him! He's gonna kill us!" The driver yelled, trying to fight against the motions of his own hands on the steering wheel. Leo wouldn't let him.
The other two men stumbled around as the van continued to swerve, disoriented from the scrambling of their vision on top of it all. Leo himself scrambled to gain his footing, hunkering down behind the front seat. He winced as his head began to pound like a gong, and he felt his stomach threaten to empty itself with the pain and the motion of the van. He fought hard to keep himself together, but it was becoming difficult. The effort of controlling so much, while he was so injured, caused his eyes to overheat abnormally fast and start scalding the inside of his sockets.
Leo tried not to panic when steam began rolling out from under his eyelashes, condensing into hot rivulets that dripped down his cheeks. He needed an out, soon, or he'd pass out before he could manage to do more than inconvenience his kidnappers.
Then, like magic, Leo saw his opening to the right of the van, where the lane had cleared from the insane driving. He took his chance, braced himself, and turned the wheel sharply toward the cement divider in the middle of the freeway.
There was a screech, a horrifyingly slow moment or two before impact, and then the van smashed head-on into its target at top speed.
They were all thrown violently forwards, and Leo screamed as a heavy weight crashed against his bracing arm. There was a cracking sound, and a shock of pain so drastic that Leo's eyes blinked out. He only had a second or two to hear the squealing brakes of other cars and the tinkling of broken glass, before he was fading into darkness.
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The notion of remaining calm and rational proved to be difficult for Klaus to maintain, as the top Libra footmen did their searching to try and find where Leo had been taken. Steven was working hard to try and pull up enough security footage of the vehicle to follow its path, but that broke down once it reached a zone where there was no footage to be had. With much cursing, Steven began trying to pull up the next possible group of cameras.
Right as the language was becoming more constant for his fruitless efforts, Klaus' mobile rang. He glanced at the caller ID before immediately picking up. He hit the speakerphone button so that Steven could hear the conversation as well.
"Chain, any news?"
The woman's voice came onto the other end, sounding hopeful.
"Yes, Klaus, I think I may have found him."
Steven looked up from his tampering with the computer screens, and they both held each other's gazes in silent hope for a split second.
"Where?" Klaus asked, doing his best not to sound desperate, as if that would fool anyone.
"Someone matching his description was brought into St. Giles' ER about a half-hour ago. They didn't get a name, because he wasn't conscious, but they reported that he might have mechanical eyes on unknown origin, and there are burns around them."
"Sounds close enough for me." Steven said, and Klaus nodded. "Good work, Chain, we'll check it out."
"Thank you, Chain, if you hear anything more before we get there-."
Klaus' words were cut off by Steven's gasp. Klaus looked at him to see what had caused his reaction. The screen displaying several windows of security footage from the freeway, showed a violent crash. It was the vehicle from the earlier recordings. They both watched in horror from one window to the next as the van wobbled, grazing other cars for a moment or two before turning purposefully, and smashing into the concrete dividers. Klaus' eyes widened as he fixed on the scene.
"Was it a car crash?" He asked Chain softly. The woman paused for a second, checking her info.
"Yes, they dug him out of a pretty bad wreck, and an ambulance took him to St. Giles. He's been in surgery since they got him there."
Klaus closed his eyes slowly in fear at that news, and pressed his lips together for a second before managing to say,
"Thank you, Chain."
Without another word, Klaus hung up the phone, and immediately began striding toward the door for the second time that day. Steven followed right on his heels. The elevator ride down to ground level seemed agonizingly slow.
"They have him, at least." Steven said finally. "We know where he is. That's a relief."
"That crash was so very dangerous" Klaus said quietly, and actually lifted both huge hands to rub at his face. "It's no wonder he requires surgery…"
"They're probably patching him up better than he was before." Steven tried, attempting to focus Klaus on the positives. "Surgeons in Hellsalem's Lot might as well be miracle-workers, you know that."
When Klaus didn't reply, Steven gave up. It was no use trying to ease his worries with empty encouragements. Klaus wouldn't believe a single word of it until he'd seen Leo alive and breathing with his own eyes.
When they arrived at the hospital, they had to sit in the specified waiting area for nearly another hour. Steven did all the talking; he spoke with the nurses and received enough details to confirm that it was Leo that had been brought in. They were able to put his name on his file. Steven handled every other encounter for them both; with the front desk, with nurses, and when the time finally did come, with the surgeon as well. Steven stood up just as eagerly as Klaus when the man in blue scrubs came through the swinging doors, and made a straight path toward them.
"Mr. Reinherz?" The man asked, putting out his hand and waving it between them, as he didn't know which one of them he should be addressing. Klaus took his hand and shook it.
"How did it all go, doctor?" Steven asked, at the same time as Klaus spoke up for the first time since arriving, saying,
"How is he?"
The surgeon looked amused at their eagerness.
"Leonardo is going to be just fine." The man assured them with a warm smile. "He came through surgery like a champ; we put a stop to the internal hemorrhaging, treated the burns around his eyes, and micro-knit his broken arm back together. With the work we did, and the immune-boosting medication we're giving him, he should be out of here in a few days."
They both let out sighs of relief, and Klaus again clasped the surgeon's hand between both of his.
"Thank you, so much, doctor. Please, can we see him?"
"He's in recovery now. Once he starts to come out of it, they'll move him to his room, and then you can see him. I'll have one of the nurses take you there when he's settled."
With another round of 'thank you's', they were once more left to wait. Steven let out a sigh of relief, and watched his friend slump down beside him, most of the tension having gone out of his huge body. The dark-haired man chuckled a bit as his own release of tension.
"Leo's a tough one, huh?"
Klaus grunted, not even mustering up the energy to nod in agreement. Steven went on, a small, proud smile forming on his lips.
"Pretty badass, too; you know he was the one who crashed that van, while he was still inside. Damn…didn't even slam on the brakes, just drove it into the wall!"
Klaus shook his head, eyes rolling to the ceiling.
"What was he thinking?" He muttered. "So reckless…"
"It might've been his only way out. Leo wouldn't do something like that unless he didn't have a choice."
Klaus said nothing more, and they sat in a more relaxed silence than before, just waiting for the call. Barely ten minutes later, a nurse came over to them and let them know that Leo had come around and was in his room now.
"He's still not very coherent," she told them both, "he's in and out, but he woke up enough for us to move him to a room. I'll show you the way, if you'll follow me."
When they stood up, Steven hung back a few steps.
"You go on and sit with him." He insisted, when Klaus looked at him questioningly. "I'm glad to hear that he's alright, but I have to head back to the office and do some digging on these fugitives. I hear they were taken to a different facility. When Leo wakes up, say hello for me, ok?"
Klaus studied him, and an understanding passed between them in the silence. The determination to make the criminals regret their actions had not left either of them, but Klaus' had been tempered by his desire to be there for Leo instead. Steven, however, had the clear mind and resources to punish the guilty for them both. Leo's suffering would be repaid.
Klaus reached out and gripped Steven's shoulder.
"Thank you, Steven." He said quietly.
The dark-haired man nodded, and then left Klaus to reunite with Leo alone.
Once he was shown to the doorway of Leo's room, Klaus entered and approached the bed very slowly so as to not disturb Leo. When he passed the curtain and finally saw Leo lying in the hospital bed, his throat tightened.
Through the gaps in the hospital gown, Klaus could see the wrappings over his ribs and shoulder. One of his arms was in a cast, and the knuckles of his other hand were wrapped as well. The thin blanket concealed his lower half, leaving any other potential injuries to Klaus' imagination. But his face…one half of it was completely covered by bandages, only one of his eyes visible along with his nose and mouth. There were three stitches in his bottom lip where it had split open, and the skin around it was ugly red and purple. On his visible cheekbone, there was a darkening bruise with a cut running through it, though it hadn't been bad enough to need stitching.
Klaus absorbed the sight, aching for the pain Leo had gone through, but unable to suppress the intense relief that flooded him, and he sank into the chair at the bedside. It was surprisingly comfortable, and he intended to sit there for as long as he needed to, watching over Leo. As he studied him, moment after moment, he listened to Leo's deep, steady breathing. In, and out, without fail, calming Klaus down the longer he heard it.
Once he began to accept the truth that Leo was out of danger, Klaus began to relax more fully. He lost track of time entirely as he sat there, watching Leo, even with a clock ticking softly on the opposite wall. A nurse came back in to check on his vitals at one point, assuring Klaus that everything was fine and Leo was recovering well. She also brought a pitcher of ice water and two cups for them to use. Once the nurse left and all was quiet again, Klaus heard a change in Leo's breathing. It fluttered for a moment, before speeding up a little. Leo began to mumble quietly.
Klaus sat up straighter in his chair at the sound, and leaned in to try and catch the words. But they were nonsensical, and didn't last very long, dying away into silence after a handful of seconds. Klaus sighed gently, and very cautiously reached out to cup Leo's bandaged hand in his own, cradling it on the bed. He let his other hand very softly brush up and down Leo's bare arm, only avoiding the bruise at his shoulder. He was afraid of hurting him accidentally, but couldn't keep his hands off of him, needing to confirm with touch that Leo was there with him, whole.
As he rubbed his thumb across the heel of Leo's hand, his bandaged fingers twitched.
Klaus looked up, and saw Leo's eyelid flutter. He held his breath, and the next second a sliver of bright blue appeared.
His Leo was finally back with him.
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