Chapter six:
Mello groans slightly and rolls over before opening his eyes. He sees the wall of the cage and curses that this whole thing wasn't a dream. He sits up and glances around till he spots Near sitting on the probably cold floor leaning against the wall while looking at the floor in a lost in thought look. He remembers what Rodger said about killing Near and he feels a hurt deep down inside him but he wonders why….. after all Near is nothing more than his rival…..right? He turns away from Near and the place is silent until suddenly the door leading into the room is slammed open with three people moving in.
All three have lab coats and there is some whimpers of fear coming from some orphans.
The slamming of the door snaps Near back to reality and he looks up as one of the people with a lab coat comes over to the cage he and Mello are in.
Mello clenches his teeth and his hands move to clench into fists as he realizes that they are most likely planning to kill Near.
The one person reaches to open the cage door but then looks like he second guesses himself.
"What are you waiting for!?" The only female of the three snaps at the hesitating male. "It doesn't matter if he took out those three. If you dwaddle then the boss for sure will have fun watching your torture next."
The male nods and opens the cage door going straight for Near.
Near quickly moves by jumping up into the air only to slam the male down as the mostly albino male lands on top of the male.
The other male rushes in and grabs Near but Near isn't going to let them win so the other male slams a hard punch to Near's gut even though Near gets a good shot to his stomach as well. He picks Near up trying to ignore his stomach pains and he uses as much strength he can in restraining Near from escaping. "This one is a damn slippery one." He says and the two males move quickly as they leave the cage then close the cage door.
Mello blinks then curses as he comes to realize he was so focused on holding back from beating up the guy that hurt Near that he missed a possible chance to escape. He watches as the man carries Near out of the room and he moves forward to the locked door reaching up to the metal that makes up the door only to grasp it. He feels so raged as the man with Near disappears through the door that leads to this damn hall of cages.
Meanwhile….
Near starts struggling as the pain in his stomach starts to go away.
The man has a strong grip but Near keeps struggling.
Near manages to make the man drop him like he has a slippery grip. He lands on his feet and dashes to take off. He gets to the other door and opens it only to find two men standing there. He gets ready for a fight.
Two other men both go to grab Near.
Near sends a kick at one man's gut then he grabs the other's wrist. He tugs the man so the man goes falling to the ground just beside Near. He lets go as he man is falling then he dashes through the now open space to get away. He knows that if he can escape he can get help for the others or maybe he can find a way to open the cages to free the others.
Alarms blare.
"PRISONER ESCAPE! USE ANY MEANS OF GETTING THE PRISONER BACK OR KILL THE PRISONER!"
That is what is repeated.
The two in the area with the cages ignore it as they chart how the other prisoners are doing.
Near glances around as he becomes surrounded.
"Freeze and we won't have to do anything drastic." One man says.
Near smirks as the men start to advance. He moves one foot to behind the other as he waits for the perfect moment.
The men all move quickly to try to grab Near.
Near jumps up right at the last second making the men crash into each other. He uses their bodies as ground to run away from the mass of bodies until his feet actually hits the ground. He runs for the door that looks to lead outside.
The door opens and Rodger steps inside.
Near tries to go around him but Rodger puts a hand out so Near's waist hits his arm. He turns to give a determined look then he sends his elbow into Rodgers face making the man's reflexes make his hands go to his face in pain.
The others that are a part of the evil group run to try to stop Near from escaping but he runs through that door only to skid to a stop as he finds a large group standing in the way of letting him go any further.
He looks back and sees the others from that room come to block him that way so he has nowhere to go.
Two men who are some of the strongest ones of the group grab him and he struggles against the strong grips he even tries to kick one of the mens knees yet the way he's being held makes it quite difficult.
The blaring alarms and the repeated message die down to silence.
Rodger glares at Near who glares back. "You are quite the nuisance."
Near shrugs. "Not my fault that you are stupid and weak." He says.
Rodger growls and punches Near's cheek. "You should shut up. You seem to have forgotten the position you are in."
Near is blind folded then he is being carried off somewhere. He tries to get free but the grip on him tightens obviously not caring if it hurts him.
The two men put Near so his back is against a pole of some sort then his arms are tied so his wrists are just barely touching on the other side like he is hugging the pole backwards.
Just in a hug your wrists don't have rope on them making you unable to get free without assistance.
Then they tie him so his waist and arms are tied with more rope like how people tie another up so their arms are against their sides but Near's arms are just not at his sides.
Near can't get his hands or arms free from the ropes and the blindfold is removed by Rodger.
"Well how does it feel to be so defenceless Near?" Rodger says with a smirk.
"Oh I don't know. Maybe you should try it yourself." Near says knowing that maybe if he makes Rodger angry or annoyed he might slip up telling him something that may be helpful.
Rodger's lips drop to a frown. "I am starting to see the resemblance in you and your sister." He says.
"Oh really?" Near responds and his lips curve up into a small smirk as he knows that Rodger is in much more trouble than just with the law when they find this place.
Especially if they dare to try anything like killing him or even hurting him.
"That doesn't matter." Rodger gains his smirk again. "You won't be around much longer anyways."
There is the sounds of some sort of machine moving then the wooden pole Near is tied to is lifted into the air.
Near glances down and sees water that looks to be deep. He struggles as the pole he is tied to is lowered towards the water.
The pole starts going into the water and continues going.
Near moves his feet away slightly as the cool water touches his feet. His feet enters the water as he continues to be lowered into the water until his head is under water and there is a decent sized, maybe a little bigger than needed, gap between his head and the surface.
The machine gripping the top of the pole stops moving so it is still.
Near looks back as he tries to get out of the binds trying to struggle as little as possible so he keeps as much air as possible in him for as long as possible.
The ropes are not coming loose.
He glances up to the surface to see the blurred faces of the people who were there when they put him under water are standing there watching the best they can. He looks away from them and looks around at the water around him wondering if they just planned on drowning him or if there was a shark or something in the water. He spots nothing and concludes that they most likely are just trying to drown him so he focuses on trying to escape again as the need for air starts to build up. He struggles a little harder as his survival instincts kick in telling him to get out of the binds as fast as possible. He is losing air and needs to get out of the water! He stops struggling and he glances down to his chest.
There is another way out of this but he was hoping he didn't need to use this so he could keep it a secret.
He looks back to the binds wanting to use his secret as the last resort. He struggles as hard as he can while keeping his eyes closed tightly then a little bit into that he feels power coursing through his veins. He can't hold it back as his bodies instinct to survive has kicked in so his body is using his secret.
The necklace he had kept invisible since the time he was taken now becomes visible.
He stops struggling and his eyes open to reveal they are glowing white like when someone is unleashing a powerful magic.
The necklaces rectangle blue crystal gem, that has a silver metal protection casing that can't come off, that has his N in black in the middle of the gem nicely visible, starts glowing as well starting with the N then expanding.
There is an explosion but with white light that seems to have come from Near as water goes everywhere, making the pool like place that the water once filled turn into empty area with a few puddles here and there.
The explosion shakes the building slightly and all the evil ones rush away from what they are doing to find out what that explosion is after questioning what it was with one other evil person.
Near seems to be unconscious and the people that were originally there when Near was being put into the water including Rodger peer over the edge to look to Near to try to figure out what happened.
"Is he still alive?" Rodger questions.
Near starts coughing as if answering Rodger's questions. He gets himself back to breathing normally then stops coughing. He is still pretty much out of it.
"Apparently." Jeremy says.
"This doesn't make any sense." Rodger hisses under his breath then turns to give his next orders. "Get him onto the table! We'll need to try to figure out just what the hell happened! And hopefully before he comes too."
They nod and the evil people get work.
A little later Near, who is still coming too from the attempted drowning, is strapped to the metal table again though no one bothered even trying to dry Near.
"This wasn't there when we changed him." The man who changed Near says as they spot the necklace.
"Then get it off." Rodger growls.
The man reaches for it and grabs the gem with its protection case but then his hand starts burning. He lets go of it quickly and jumps back with a yelp of pain. "It burnt me!" He whimpers and looks to his hand confirming it actually burnt him.
"What the hell is that?" A ginger female says as she looks to the gem. "It isn't burning Near."
Rodger clenches his teeth. "Whatever it is we need to get rid of it." He grabs a scalpel and lightly runs the blade across a corner then stops when he notices something on Near's arm.
Near also got a cut that looks like the one on the gem but sized to be the same size the small cut, that's more like a scratch, is on the gem if the gem was sized to be the same as Near.
The cut even looks to be about as deep as the scratch Rodger made on the gem.
"Interesting." Rodger says taking a step back and brining the scalpel away from Near. "Seems that gem is attached to his life." He observes. "Whatever happens to the gem happens to him."
"Is that even possible?" The ginger woman gasps.
"Of course it is." The man who changed Near when the boy first arrived says with an eye roll. "He is coming too. Should we put him back into the cage or do something about that gem?" He asks Rodger.
"Put him back into the cage until we figure something out to do with the gem." Rodger orders.
So that is done and just as Near is thrown into the cage he has mostly recovered from the attempt at drowning.
The cage door is locked and Mello realizes that they actually did try to drown Near but something must have gone wrong.
He looks down and notices the necklace as the door that leads into the room is closed behind the man that just left.
Near sits up and knows Mello saw his necklace. His eyes flicker to the camera and Mello's eyes follow.
The two look back to each other.
"What is that around your neck?" Mello asks in a quite whisper.
Near makes sure his back is to the camera. "It is a family heirloom." He explains just as quietly. "It is given to me at birth and the letter you see in it changes to the first letter of the new owners name. It becomes a part of me and I can use it's magic." He explains. "I was keeping it a secret from those that are here."
"You should bust us all out of here with that damned thing." Mello says still quietly.
"Unfortunately that wouldn't be a good idea. Even if we all got out then we wouldn't be strong enough to face the others and we wouldn't even know where to head." Near tells Mello still quietly.
Mello growls softly. "Then is there anything useful you can do?" He asks still keeping quiet.
"I can make it so every orphan can share their thoughts but I will have to hold the spell up so anyone in this room can let their thoughts be said. That way we have a way to communicate. But keep in mind that no matter how much you want to fantasize on how much I can help in our escape you should already know this but even with my necklace my powers are limited." Near whispers.
"Fine fine. Can you put the connection up?" Mello whispers.
"Not right now. Unfortunately in that explosion, I'm sure you heard, my power right now has been used up to the capacity my body can take. If I try to set up the connection then I will faint causing the connection I tried to put up to shatter." Near says. "Sorry."
"What about opening locks?" Mello asks as they continue to talk quietly. "Maybe when your magic replenishes or whatever."
"I've never tried such a thing since I never needed it before so I don't know." Near responds honestly. His body starts to feel weak and he puts a hand on the floor to try to keep himself up.
Mello notices this and looks to the mattress only for his eyes to flicker back to Near. He sighs and makes sure none of the others will see. He then picks Near up and places him to be laying on the mattress only to move away as Near watches the blonde in curiosity. He just sits by the door to the cage not looking at Near.
Near smiles softly. "Thank you." He says quietly but loud enough for Mello to hear. He closes his eyes and uses his magic straining his capacity even if it means he'll faint. He casts the spell then he faints.
Mello blinks as a white ball of light floats down to by him but no one else seems to notice it. He looks back to Near only to see the necklace's glow die out like Near cast a final spell for now before fainting. He glances up as more balls of light come down until he becomes surrounded by them only for a flash of light to suddenly happen making the light all he can see for a few moments.
But no one else seems to notice anything different or strange.