Chapter 26

I got your back

"Hey kid! Wake up!"

Is this what death feels like? Burning lungs and a hurting body?

"Oh, what should I do, I don't know…"

But who was there with him? Why was he so worried?

"Please don't die…"

Emil suddenly sat and ended up in a coughing fit. For a while, he just sat there and tried to regain his senses. He focused on the sand between his fingers and on the waves that he could hear hitting the shore. The smell of saltwater was everywhere and his mouth was dry, lastly he could finally see again. "What happ-" He was pulled into a crushing hug before he could finish his sentence.

"Oh, I was so worried! First you threw up a bunch of water and then you wouldn't wake up but you were breathing so I didn't know what to do and…" Emil had a hard time focusing on everything Gilbert was saying since his eyes were drawn to the tail connecting to his hip. It shifted in different shades of silver with flecks of pink and purple. That explained why Gilbert had been gone for so long at least. Soon enough, Emil was let go off and could finally ask him.

"What happened?" Gilbert gave him a look of I-would-like-to-know-that-too but told his part anyway.

"Well, I'll spare you the details but, through some turns of faith, I ended up in the middle of the ocean. But since it's me I totally knew where I should go" Emil gave him a doubting glance but Gilbert didn't seem notice "Then I hear this sound, sounded like ukas or something, so I go there and find you!" Gilbert looked thoughtful for a moment. "By the way, why didn't you just swim to the surface?" He had to repeat the question since Emil was still stuck on the fact that the last thing he had been doing was screaming for his brother. Pathetic. "Hey, you listening?"

"Oh, well. I couldn't"

"You can't swim?"

"Of course I can swim! Just, couldn't move" Emil sighed and looked around. They seemed to be on an island but Emil could easily make out the Danish mainland if he looked towards the horizon. How Gilbert could've missed it was a mystery.

"Okay then. Now…" Gilbert turned towards Emil and grabbed his arms to stare at him intensively.

"What are you-"

"WHAT IS GOING ON?"

.

"Good luck"

"You can do it! We believe in you!" Feliciano waved at him but Berwald only sighed and crawled further into the old and dusty air vents. After walking around the building and concluded that it was only the doors that were enchanted they had looked for an alternate way in. It had been Ludwigs idea to use the vents but, of course, it was only Berwald that could fit. The plan was to see if he could open the door from the inside, if he couldn't, he'd promised to climb out again. It was too dangerous to make any moves on his own. He couldn't help but cough as dust whirled up around him, the vents hadn't been used in years. He felt grateful that he wasn't claustrophobic. Though there was another problem.

"What's wrong?" The two waiting nations had reacted to his startled yelp.

"Nothing, it's fine" Berwald couldn't move. In front of him hanged a spider, blocking his path. He felt himself back away slowly but managed to stop himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath which resulted in another coughing fit. Emil might be here and he would not let some silly fear stop him. Besides, he suddenly realised, the vent was probably filled by spiders anyway. The thought drained the remaining colour from his face and made him set of in a fast paced crawl with his eyes closed. Soon enough, he felt how his hands no longer hit anything but air and he fell through a hole. He should've expected it considering that the vent was so old but he'd been occupied focusing on other things.

"How's it going?" Berwald heard Felicianos voice from the vent above him. He didn't bother to answer since he now could see the front door. Luckily, he had fallen through close by. After throwing a rock at it to see if it was safe, he jumped to reach the handle and opened it.

"It worked" Ludwig seemed relieved for a second before he got serious again. "We have to be careful"

"Okay! Let's search this now!" Feliciano skipped by them both into the building.

"Feliciano! You're too loud" Ludwig was whispering but it was loud enough to echo off the walls.

"Sorry" He crouched down next to Berwald "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Berwald only nodded while he regained his composure. He didn't like spiders, never had, but he couldn't kill them either. They hadn't actually done anything except being scary. Feliciano shrugged and stood up. "Where should we start?"

"Maybe we should split up? As long as we stay within hearing distance of each other we should be fine" Ludwig nodded at himself "That way we'll cover more ground faster."

"Sounds good! Then I'll go this way!" Ludwig stopped him before Feliciano had gotten far. He looked down on the ground and whispered something. "What?"

"Just, be careful" Feliciano turned and smiled at him.

"Don't worry! You'll get your body back unharmed!" He walked away to search through the closest room which made him unable to hear Ludwigs answer.

"It's not that I'm worried about" He looked over at Berwald "What are you smirking at?"

"Nothing" Berwald walked away towards the next room and left the blushing Ludwig alone.

"Sure, nothing" Ludwig got the third room which was the middle one. Just as he was about to open the door he noticed something odd. The doorhandle wasn't dusty and there were markings on the floor suggesting that the door had recently been opened. He considered shouting for the others but didn't want to alert anyone inside, then again their loud entrance had probably made them known already. After thinking back and forth about it, considering possible hostage situations and possibility of success, he decided to go inside alone. With caution, he opened the door and was met by a wide room that had probably been used as storage. A single pillar stood in its centre and was keeping the roof from caving in over them. He could see a track starting at the door leading to the pillar but he still looked around as he made his way over, he didn't know when or from where something could attack.

"Mmhm!" A muffled voice was heard as he closed in and Ludwig could feel his heart beat faster. But as he rounded the pillar the confusion that settled within him caused him to suddenly freeze and drop his guard completely. Instead of Emil they had been looking for, he had found Lovino. He was hanging by his wrists that where tied together just as his ankles was. His mouth was covered with a big piece of duct tape and, for some reason, his clothes were ripped in some places. "Mh!" Ludwig had finally processed what he was seeing.

"I'm sorry about this" Quickly, he ripped the tape off. There was no time for being careful.

"DAMN IT! THAT HURT YOU BASTARD!"

"Listen, are you alone?"

"…of course it has to be you who found me considering my luck…"

"Hey!"

"Yea! I'm alone, get me down already!"

"In here!" Ludwig shouted for the others even though Lovinos scream had already brought them to the room.

.

"No way" Shade opened the door to the crashed car. "This can't be" He fought to regain control of his temper. Everything. Everything was going wrong. While he was driving, he had suddenly felt the spell he'd put on the door to keep people away from Lovino get activated. He'd stepped on the gas but as he felt the spell disappear only 10 minutes later he lost it. The car had gone off the road but that didn't matter right now. Either Lovino had gotten out on his own, which was highly unlikely, or someone had gotten inside. That had to be it since the spell had activated in the first place. "It's okay, It's okay" He started running along the road "I can make it, I will make it" If Lovino got out, everyone would be warned and his plans could fail.

"I won't let you escape"

.

"Lovi! What happened? Are you okay? Have you been crying? Let me help you-"

"I can take care of myself" Lovino ignored his brother and stood on unsteady legs while he shook his numb hands to get the blood flowing again. The ropes had been cut and questions had been asked but Lovino had other priorities right now. "We have to get going" He took a step and almost fell over but was caught by Feliciano.

"No! You have to rest first!" Lovino got back on his feet again and clenched his fist. He turned and looked at them with an angry, which was normal, and serious, which was not normal, expression.

"I can feel it. If we don't leave now, we have no future."

"But Lovi what-"

"Let's go then, Feliciano you carry your brother" Ludwig picked Berwald up and headed for the exit. "We can ask questions later, now we'll have to trust him" Ludwig ignored Lovino as he muttered something about 'first thing he's ever done right' and instead focused on his surroundings. He fought to follow his own advice and wait with his questions. But it was hard. He wanted to know if it was Gilbert doing this or if it was someone else. He felt something clench his arm so he looked down to find Berwald seemingly lost in thought and obviously worried.

"Emil…"

"Just wait a little longer" Ludwig glanced back at Lovino that urged his brother to go faster. "He has to have some answers" The door easily opened and they made their way to the road again.

"We've to go back to the town." Lovino glared at Ludwig that gave him a look searching for answers "I'll explain on the way" To the others, it sounded like Lovino could help them but he, himself, could only feel his heart pounding and his head spinning. He didn't know what happened to Emil, he didn't know where Shade had gone, he couldn't control what he saw. All he knew was that they had to get away, right now. He grabbed onto Feliciano a bit tighter and whished for Emil to be safe.

.

"Quickly, we have to find the others!"

"Wait up! What did that bird tell you?" Tinos group made their way towards the hotel again.

"I'll tell you soon, does anyone have a phone?" Kiku looked back at the confused people following him as they shook their heads. They had all woken up and gotten dragged out so suddenly that neither of them had remembered to bring one. "Then we'll have to find them quickly."

"What did it tell you?" The group slowed down and Kiku sighed deeply.

"It told me what it saw earlier tonight. To quote it:" They passed the hotel and turned onto the road Lukas group had followed earlier "A handsome young man jumped out the hotel window followed by two young boys floating in the air, both seemingly held against their will."

"What does that even mean?"

"Think about it. Who is the only one not searching with us, had a room at the bottom floor and, if he caught Emil, would have two young boys in his possession?" The group suddenly stopped as they realised.

"But he wouldn't…"

"They checked there right?"

"That can't be"

"Enough!" Tino walked calmly through the group but they felt that something was off with him. "Even if it is him, if he hurt Emil he will meet a faith worse than death" They could easily see now what was off. Tino was mad, madder than ever before. The smile was gone and he was emitting an energy which made the others take multiple steps back. "We have to find Lukas and Mathias. They'll need to know" The others followed him on a safe distance as he set of in a jog. He stared intensively in front of him. "I'll find you and if you've hurt him, I'll hurt you too." His feet hit the ground a bit faster.

"Antonio…"

.

"That seems unnecessarily complicated if you ask me"

"Well, I didn't make the spell. Lukas did."

"At least this thing makes sense now" Gilbert waved a bit with his fin. "Though, the Antonio problem is pretty serious"

"Yes, that's why we have to get back" Emil stood up and wobbled a bit, still a bit unsteady both from the hit to his head and almost drowning. He started walking but hadn't gone far before his foot got grabbed and he fell. As he looked back he could see that it was indeed Gilbert that had tripped him. "What are you-"

"You rest for a while. I'll look around the island, it'll go much faster and you won't have to exert yourself" Emil wanted to protest but could see in Gilberts eyes that he didn't have a choice. Instead he sat up, crossed his arms and pouted.

"Fine, you better be quick" Gilbert smiled at him before he threw himself back into the ocean. Emil watched as he did a few jumps just to show off before he disappeared to make a lap around the island. Emil spent the time waiting with thinking over his situation. He was alive, he was free from that person and he had someone here that would help him. Emil looked down at his hands. What had happened back there? It seemed like Shade had gotten hurt when he'd dropped him into the boat and then under the water, where had the ropes gone? The things he had said too that he, Emil, was a mage? Emil couldn't make any sense of it. He decided to focus on getting back for now to warn the others and he knew that they had to hurry. In less than 5 minutes, Gilbert came back and crawled up on the beach.

"Well, there was a cabin on the other side of the island but no one seemed to be home and they didn't have a boat" Gilbert noticed how Emil got even more worried even though it should be impossible to be.

"There has to be another way"

"Well…" Gilbert glanced at him "I could always carry you"

"What?"

"Carry you" He pointed towards the mainland "On my back" He pointed at himself "I'm pretty fast but it's quite cold in the water" Emil stared at him like he was crazy but started to think it over. Right now there wasn't much else to do, time was of the essence here.

"Let's do it"

"You sure?"

"Yes just… tell me were to grab on." Emil looked away, a bit embarrassed.

"Just get on my back, like when someone is giving you a piggyback ride! Also, how long can you hold your breath?" Gilbert wanted to know so he wouldn't drown Emil right after saving him.

"2 minutes and 40 seconds" Emil sighed as he got a very surprised look from Gilbert. He could be so specific since they had competed at holding their breaths during a visit to the beach. Mathias often came up with different kinds of competitions that they all took part in, mostly to make him happy. Though, most of the times it ended with Mathias and Berwald both refusing to lose and almost always doing something stupid. Emil shook his head and returned to reality. "Let's go then"

"One more thing" Gilbert looked him over and nodded "take your shirt off"

"What?"

"It's too heavy, it'll slow us down! I noticed it when I dragged you here in the first place!" Emil still didn't move, he only looked away while he grew even redder. "We don't have time for this, I'll do it for you if you don't-"

"Okay fine! Just…Try not to look okay?" Gilbert chuckled but nodded and turned towards the water while he waited.

"I don't get what you're so nervous about"

"I don't have any muscles or anything like you, it's embarrassing." Gilbert felt Emil wrap his arms around him. "Let's go already"

"Hold on tight!" They entered the water again and Emil felt the cold hit him. For a moment, he felt the panic again. He was disoriented, didn't know where to go to get air. But then he heard a voice. "4, 5, 6, 7, 8" Gilbert counted loudly as they shot through the water. That's right. Emil relaxed as he remembered. He was not alone anymore.