Chapter Forty-Six
The Rebirth of the Zoldycks
There are officially 3 chapters left, counting this one, plus a few epilogues. T-T
The hazy ceiling glows gold. A farce, like his life.
Hisoka knows it's made of cheap plaster and clay, like every structure lucky enough to be solid in this wretched city, but the merciless afternoon sunlight casts everything in gold.
He's stuck to the floor, unable to turn his head away from that golden light. He's stuck, perhaps like the victims he entrapped in Bungee Gum before he killed them just because he felt like it.
And he's paralyzed in a room of people who don't like him, who know his darkest secret, who could destroy him because they've learned exactly what happened to him.
And somehow that is less disturbing than his pale, bleeding mother lying atop him.
Creatures – no, ants – an eclectic assortment of chimera ants loom above him, above everyone trapped to the floor. At another time, Hisoka would find them most amusing.
Hisoka struggles, but try as he might, he cannot so much as lift his hands to test his mother's pulse.
A scream rips from his throat. He ought – he ought to at least be able to know when she passes.
I don't want to be helpless again.
"Hishoka," slurs a voice. Illumi, beside him.
"You okay," Feitan says hoarsely, trapped between the clown and Machi, unable to even reach out to protect her stomach. But maybe his words can reach Hisoka, who looks like a frightened child, who suffered the same as his mother, who endured what Feitan wouldn't have wished on anyone.
Alluka sprawls in the entryway to the hall. Her legs won't move, and all the kids are piled behind her, the orphans and kidnapped victims and slaves who just tasted freedom.
No one had better hurt them.
Her eyes flicker to Nanika, who is further into the hall, who moves – slowly, as if chained, but she can still move.
Alluka opens her mouth, but Nanika trembles her head. Don't alert them yet.
In the hall, the Chief Elder scrambles back to the corner.
Alluka bites her tongue to keep from screaming. The elders can still move, can still run – can still be run down. One falls, tripping on those silly robes, with an ant's talon in his heart.
The Chief Elder's wails turn to gurgles. Blood splashes onto the wives and mistresses. Probably his wife, too.
It's so unfair. Alluka's eyes pool.
The hall air grows salty as the elders lie in pools of blood. She sees Big Brother Illumi's fingers twitch for his needles, but he – he can't – move them.
How long are we going to endure this?
A hum breaks into her thoughts.
Alluka's eyes slide to Nanika, who mouths the word, "Nen."
Alluka's jaw slackens. She can speak. "Their nen isn't theirs. It's someone they know."
"Pariston," Nanika says softly. "I thought so."
Behind her, Killua's eyes darken.
The sisters are interrupted by another howl.
The queens are released. They stumble back into each other, forming a circle, as the ants advance.
They're releasing us only to kill us, Alluka realizes with newfound panic.
"Stop!" Oito holds out a hand. She doubles over to shield Woble. "We mean you no harm. We were trying to find you."
Phinks, Phinks is helpless behind the rail. Alluka sees the terror in his eyes – and the recognition that he, too, has caused this terror for others.
"They won't listen." Tubeppa steps in front of Unma.
"It's not their fault. They're hypnotized." Oito's eyes brim with tears. Her nen won't manipulate anyone hypnotized – or perhaps she isn't powerful enough.
Is this really how it ends? She started a revolution only to lead her family into slaughter? Slaughter by ants who aren't even cognizant of their own actions?
"You need to help me," Nanika says, loudly.
Alluka looks at her. What is her twin planning?
She doesn't know. But she knows that if anyone can save them, it's her twin. "'Kay."
Nanika shrieks. Her nen soars out, enveloping every member of Kakin royalty, every mafia wife and mistress and lover, every first floor audience member.
But those in the middle – Illumi, Hisoka – if she strains a bit more – Machi has a baby – Feitan has been tortured – agh, she's going to shatter!
Alluka feels blinded by the tension, by the power.
And then they all vanish.
Nanika gasps. Her head pounds, and she retches. Still, Alluka feels her limbs lighten, and she grabs her sister.
"I can't battle that man's nen for long. We need to get out." Nanika clutches her throbbing head.
"Everyone leave," Alluka screams towards those in the balcony, to Hisoka and Illumi and Feitan and Machi, who were left on the floor.
"Get the kids, Killua." Kalluto grabs Alluka.
"Hey!" Alluka lurches backwards, sending Kalluto stumbling into Feitan's hands. Beside him, Machi holds Hina's hand.
"Alluka, tell Kurapika they need to stop Pariston," Nanika croaks.
"What about you?" Alluka turns back, only for Ikalgo to hoist her in the air. "Got you, kid."
"Just go!" Nanika growls. "Get the kids, and go."
She teeters.
She doesn't have the energy to move the kids. She can't even fight these creatures, these ants, headed towards her.
"Gon, take the lead!" Killua shouts.
Killua is good with kids. They will like him. Nanika smiles inside, though she's too spent to focus outside.
Her Zoldycks will have to defend the kids. She'll have to trust her family.
"Oh no, you don't!" Killua rushes back to grabble for Nanika, but a card cuts his hand. Hisoka.
Don't think. Just move. That's always what Hisoka has done, isn't it?
But now, that may be just what he needs.
"Let's go." Hisoka grabs Killua and hesitates.
"Nanika!" Illumi stands before her. He trusts Hisoka. He trusts Hisoka to get Killua out of here.
"Illumi." She tries and fails to smile. "I think you can all move freely once you escape the building."
Illumi whitens. Until everyone is out, or Chrollo and Kurapika kill Pariston, Nanika have to stay here.
"Nanika. You are my family." Illumi bends over her. His hair cascades over her like a raven waterfall. "I won't leave you."
Hisoka shakes. If Illumi dies, if Illumi dies, if Illumi stays here, no one will love Hisoka.
No, whispers a voice. A memory. Of Illumi's bloodlust, of Gon's impassioned defense, of Feitan's whisper while they lay helpless.
People will.
So he does what Illumi would want. He takes Killua, and runs.
Chrollo raises Bandit's Secret. In a flash, a third of the Ants have been teleported into the wall, but that merely slows them down. They thunder towards he and Kurapika a second time.
They should be unconscious, but whatever Pariston has done has rendered them with enhancement–like durability.
Chrollo curses. If only he had Black Voice. No; if only he had Shalnark. Of all the times to miss his friend, now is particularly inconvenient.
He can't allow any more through.
Chrollo summons Tserriednich's decay and melts the doors until he and Kurapika are sealed in this tomb, trapped with Pariston and his experiments.
Kurapika guards Chrollo's back, struggling not to give in to the seduction of Emperor Time as he knocks ant after ant back.
Chrollo's eyes fall onto a chameleon ant. "You?"
Meleoron shuffles towards them, eyes blank, as if they were never allies.
If we had arrived sooner – Chrollo catches his breath.
Stealth Dolphin returns to Kurapika's side. His voice is low. "They have been enhanced in all forms of nen. Each ant to varying degrees. And they're following an enchantment not their own."
"They're prototypes," says Pariston, clapping his hands. His sparks have faded to a circle of ash around him. The sealed door bothers him not in the least.
Chrollo feels Kurapika stiffen behind him.
Protoypes…human experiments…
"The children," Kurapika hisses. "You wanted us to bring them here to convict Gyro!"
"And you cooperated so nicely. Fresh blood, indeed." Pariston smiles. Truthfully, should he gain the children, they will be more valuable experiments than these pathetic adults, but they're a distraction from the Main Event.
Kurapika tries to lunge forward, but Chrollo catches him. "Kurapika, he wants you!"
As an assassin, Silva knows death better than most. He can even anticipate it – the smell, the startled comprehension in a human's eyes, the warm splatter of blood.
And now he's about to watch his eldest son and that – that thing – that thing that seems, for whatever reason, to no longer be inside Alluka – die. As unfortunate members of the balcony, Silva and Kikyo Zoldyck have not been liberated from their prison, and, because this is not assassination, they are helpless.
Silva gnashes his teeth. He's grateful Illumi no longer wishes to kill his brother, but this isn't his brother. This thing isn't Silva's child, and it's not human, despite its appearance.
Kikyo whimpers besides him.
Silva has always been willing to sacrifice his family. Always. When Zeno told Silva not to regard his life if a mission's success was at stake, he felt nothing.
He only felt – he only failed when he felt. And he only ever felt for Kikyo, all those years ago.
He's only failed the assassin's path once.
Unlike Illumi. Illumi, who tried to hide his unstable emotions, his fixation on his family, with coldness. Illumi, who broke down and married a man, an effeminate trash clown who suffered that hideous humiliation ten minutes ago.
Illumi is a terrible assassin.
Milluki is lazy. Killua is a philanthropist voyeur. Alluka is weak. Kalluto is a thief.
None of his children are the perfect assassin, or even good assassins. Assassins are so much more than killing. Assassins are a mindset.
Kikyo whimpers again.
Silva clenches his jaw. He hopes Kikyo will forgive him.
He won't ask his children the same, because Silva Zoldyck will never allow himself to consider his wrongs.
He draws his nen around him. The indigo orb grows larger and larger, until the ants are distracted, until Illumi's eyes widen with premonition.
Illumi seizes the Thing as Silva implodes the entire building, including himself.
"You wanted me for science." Kurapika's eyes flash scarlet. Chrollo's hand presses into his chest, restraining him.
For now, Pariston seems to have stopped the ants from attacking them. Good. Chrollo will hate to kill them, so he doesn't mind the delay. Besides, he might not hate to kill Pariston.
"Well, the children, too. Humans and ants and all animals must combine in the end, correct? To form a super-species? It'd be great if I could catch that Ai Zoldyck, too." Pariston shrugs.
"And what, give them pretty eyes?" Kurapika demands. "Clone me?"
"You know, for someone so consumed with Scarlet Eyes, you're remarkably ignorant on their potential." Pariston scoffs.
"There's risk, of course. But the enhancement you gained by using them was not unique to you. It wasn't just enhancement, of course – you mastered all six nen techniques. All six. Not even Chrollo Lucilfer has mastered all six." Pariston clenches his fist. "Just by the power of your Scarlet Eyes."
Kurapika shakes his head. "I put limits –"
"Oh, pish-posh. You put limits because you hate yourself. You could have mastered Emperor Time without harming yourself, if you hadn't been so rash. But I hear that rashness is part of your charm." Pariston tilts his head. "Am I right, Chrollo?"
Chrollo remains silent, but his grasp tightens on Kurapika. There's nothing about Kurapika he doesn't find charming, and he won't let Pariston's taunts sully his fiancé.
"People call the Kurtas demons because they feared you. You were killed because of your raw power, not your pretty eyes." Pariston's eyes gleam with unvarnished excitement. "Those eyes! People could overcome the world that imprisons them. Imagine a blind boy awakening to the world instead of spending his life draining societal funds. Imagine the villains that would be trounced by your strength. Imagine a world where Kurtas are exalted, rather than a sad blot on a history page."
Kurapika swallows.
"If you are truly righteous, the only option you have is to sacrifice yourself."
Kurapika hesitates. He recognizes the deception in Pariston's words, the possibilities presented as promises, the mockery of his self-righteousness.
But. Is it not true, that just by staying alive, he denies Uvogin and Pakunoda and Neon and all his victims their justice?
That by refusing humanity just for his own sight, may be delaying aid for a suffering child?
"Don't listen to him, Kura," Chrollo pleas. "Remember? Remember what I told you just before we entered these doors?"
Kurapika starts. Oh. Oh.
"No," Kurapika says slowly. "I know why we were killed."
"Oh?"
"We were killed because children were traumatized." Kurapika looks at the ants' faces, anywhere but Pariston.
"So you think you Kurtas deserved to die, is that it? And yet, you won't lay down your life?" mocks Pariston.
"No. You let me finish," Kurapika lectures. "We were killed because the Troupe only learned that – that killing was the Band-Aid on all the horrors they endured. Because they learned to escalate lest they get hurt, even if the situation didn't warrant it. I killed their members because I learned the same."
"Chrollo told me." Kurapika shakes his head. "And I trust him. I've been laying down my life ever since then. I've been sacrificing myself in an attempt to atone since, in an attempt to earn the approval of the dead, and all it yielded was more death! And you know what?"
He screams. "None of them came back, even to tell me they loved me!"
Kikyo Zoldyck has birthed six children, and never lost consciousness. Her training ensured that.
So when she staggers out of the smoking rubble, as light dissolves into the darkness that was her unconscious, this is a first.
The explosion has burnt her husband's crest into her palm. And Silva is nothing but shreds before her.
And she is alive, though she wants to be dead.
Around her, ants stagger awake, sniffing the air. They're not after her, though, no, they're after the kids.
That's what That Thing said.
That Thing. The Spiders. It's their fault.
The Spiders stole her kids.
That Thing stole her husband. Kikyo sprints ahead of the ants.
"If I sacrifice from now on, it will be for the living. I will never lay my life down for you," Kurapika declares.
"That's a pity." Pariston says coldly. "But you won't kill me, either?"
"I will." Chrollo speaks matter-of-factly.
"Don't," Kurapika gasps.
"Kura." Chrollo yanks the cloth off his forehead. Solely for drama. "I love you too much to let him live, and I love you too much to let you sully your soul another time."
"Mmmm." Pariston smirks. "But there's another option, isn't there, Kurapika?" He grins at the chains on Kurapika's wrists.
"I'm past your manipulation," Kurapika says angrily.
"Hmm, but the ants here are not. My Spark of Inspiration can endure for long periods of time." Pariston waves his hand, and the hypnotized ants take another step closer. "And the ants above ground? They're closer and closer to your beloved friends."
"If you kill me, they'll never be free." Pariston winks.
"Don't ask Kurapika to sacrifice himself," Chrollo snaps.
Pariston throws back his head and laughs. "Chrollo, you really are the worst hypocrite."
Below the faded rainbow that marks the circus, a hundred children cry and clutch each other, guarded by weeping assassins, thieves, and a clown.
"They're headed over," Nanika says grimly. Illumi wipes his leaking eyes to push Nanika behind him on instinct. Feitan wraps Kalluto closer to him, and Hisoka stands before Killua and Gon.
Gon shouts, and Killua's head whips round to see Machi doubled over, a needle sticking out of her shoulder.
No – that's –
"You! You're part of the Troupe who caused this!" Kikyo Zoldyck, half-dead, covered in congealing blood, rushes through the door to hurl needle after needle at the pink girl. The girl who stole her sweet Kalluto.
She can't hate Hisoka after that disgraceful display. She can't hate the son of her dead half-friend. So she will blame the other spiders. It's always blame, blame, blame, blame others aloud so that she can ignore how much she truly hates and blames herself.
"Stop!" Killua shrieks.
Machi dives right, but a needle hits her in her chest. She wraps her hands around her belly just in time to stop two more from piercing her.
"I said stop!" Kalluto hurls paper towards his mother as Feitan springs her away.
Illumi dives in between Kikyo and Machi, allowing his mother to hit him one last time. "Mother!"
He yanks the needle out from between his eyes. His mother's emotional pain, a nen without name because it needed none, seeps in through his veins, and it hurts, it really hurts, it always has. But compared to what he just witnessed with Hisoka, Illumi hardly counts this as suffering.
He narrows his eyes. He doesn't need to shout; his words will be loud enough. "That woman is carrying your grandchild."
Kikyo freezes. "What?"
"Oh, it's not his," Machi calls bitterly.
Kikyo's eyes slide to Feitan, that bare-chested, small fool who stumbles over his sword. Kalluto's paper fan drifts towards the dirt floor of the circus.
Kikyo looks up and down. A short man, just like Gyro.
Lanky, like her sons.
With the same jet-black hair.
Those almond shaped eyes she's always hidden behind her visor.
"What does that – " Hisoka turns towards Kikyo, who looks ill.
Feitan begins to hyperventilate.
"Fei." Machi speaks slowly, deliberately, and yet his nickname remains sweet on her lips, sweet enough for him to catch his breath. "Is this woman your mother?"
"Can't be," he says sharply.
"Feitan?" Kalluto's voice cracks.
"What do you think, little one?" Machi asks Alluka softly.
"I – I think – maybe," Alluka stammers. "I think I sense a bond, but it's faint."
"Alluka?" Kikyo wrinkles her nose.
"Yeah, like any person, she has her own nen and all," Killua says sarcastically. "She senses relationships."
Kikyo's mouth opens and closes.
Feitan swallows. He feels Kalluto's desperate eyes on him.
Are you my brother?
"I your better Father," he says stiffly.
"Why not both?" Kalluto sticks out his tongue, and a laugh, partially of terror, partially of panic bubbles up.
"You're my brother?" Illumi looks mesmerized.
All, however, are interrupted by a hacking laugh from Hisoka.
Illumi taps his lips, as if sensing Hisoka's thoughts. "Oh dear."
"Does this mean I am actually an uncle to Machi's kid?" cries the clown.
"You bastard!" Feitan points his sword at Hisoka, because it's easier to face the clown than his mother.
"I can't accept this! You're not – I was never raped! I'm not him!" Kikyo points towards Hisoka.
"Thank God for that," Gon says, to Hisoka's relief.
"Stop looking at me! I never had you!" Kikyo screams at Feitan. "I never – Silva is the only thing I ever had! And he's dead!"
She waves her fingers towards all of them, shrieking. "You all think you'll gain a brother, but your father is dead! You ungrateful –"
A sneaker flies through the air to crack Kikyo in the head. She slumps to the ground.
"Found you." Milluki, missing a shoe, totters in with Palm at his side.
Palm covers one of her eyes. "The others are safe so long as we keep luring them here."
"Can we really beat these monsters? Without killing them?" cries Hina.
Killua and Illumi exchange glances.
Like ants following a scent, the modified Chimera Ants line towards the circus. A bystander – his name and face are unimportant – throws himself at them, and they promptly lop out his stomach. They leave him screaming, dying.
Kill. Kill adults.
Take the children.
But door to the circus opens before the ants arrive.
"You'll have to get past us first." Killua's arms are crossed. Beside him stands Gon, his hands balled into fists. Nanika and Alluka hold hands, smiling eerily. Kalluto waves his fan, and Milluki stands next to Palm.
Hisoka holds playing cards, Illumi his needles. Feitan points his sword, and Machi's threads are ready.
"Who the hell are you, brats?"
"The Zoldycks," Killua says, and for once he feels no burden in the name.
