Well, I hope you liked the last chapter! Here's 18!!

Chapter 18 – I've Got You

While they were getting handcuffed, Kazuma was glaring at Ryuhou. "Listen," he spat. "I'm all for not attacking these guys, but why don't we just use our Alters and get out of here?" Ryuhou glared back.

"Just shut up and trust me," Ryuhou whispered back.

"Kinda hard to trust something when you don't know what it is."

"Just trust me, I've got a plan," he grinned. That grin gave Kazuma a bit of confidence and they stepped into the back of the truck. 3 guards followed them into the back and locked the door.

"So what are you planning?" Ryuhou asked.

"Whatever Commander Zigmar orders," one of the guards answered.

"I see… so you're no different than HOLY. Afraid to tell you, but-"

"Oi!" The guards in the front yelled. "They just found Commander Zigmar's body at HOLY headquarters!" The three in the back turned their heads to the three Alter Users. Asuka and Kazuma looked at Ryuhou too, who said nothing.

"Oh, you're good," Kazuma chuckled. "Getting onto me for being stingy on the small fry when you took out the big fish all by yourself!?"

"It was a personal matter; I wouldn't have been able to get my revenge if you had been involved."

"Fine… but you better let me have the next one!"

"Fine!"

The guards, who had been in shock from Ryuhou's admittance to being Zigmar's murderer, finally built up the courage to speak. "O-Oi!" they yelled. "One of these Natives just confessed! We got the murderer here right now!"

"….Kill him," the guards in the front responded. The three guards aimed their cocked guns at Ryuhou, who simply glared. They gave him a confused look.

"Draw your Alter!" they ordered. Ryuhou shook his head. "BRING OUT YOUR ALTER!!" Ryuhou shook his head with as much calmness as before. They looked at each other, then lowered their guns. "We'll let the executioner of HOLD do it…" They sat back down again. "I can't shoot someone who isn't armed…" One said, looking at his shoes. "Are you really his killer?" he asked, lifting his head to meet Ryuhou's eyes.

Ryuhou's glare turned deadly. "What do you think?" The guard's eyes widened and he resumed looking at his shoes.

A few hours passed before they finally entered HOLD headquarters. Reporters swarmed the vehicle like flies to watermelon as they unloaded the three Native Alters they had caught. Neither they nor the guards would reply to any of their questions; instead, they ignored them and looked straight ahead at HOLD's entrance. "They will be out tomorrow to answer your questions, for now, please leave," one of them finally answered. They disappeared behind HOLD's entrance and let the tall doors close with a thunderous boom as they left the reporters behind.

Meanwhile, Kazuma had arrived on the Lost Ground where Kanami, Mimori, and Scheris had been waiting worriedly. "Kimishima!" Kanami ran to him. "Where's Kazu-kun?" Kimishima looked at her, then grabbed a box from the passenger seat of his Jeep. Walking past Kanami, he held the box out to Mimori.

"From Ryuhou," he said solemnly. Mimori's gaze was transfixed on the box.

"What… is this?" Mimori asked, putting on an unsure smile. "Where's Ryuhou? Why isn't he giving this box to me?" Before she had realized, tears had welled up in her eyes, and her vision was blurry. After blinking a few times, the tears overflowed and fell down her cheeks, causing a few small fires that burned the ground around her. Why was it that this box that she and Ryuhou had been so determined to get only made her sadder? "Where's Ryuhou…?" She looked beyond Kimishima to his Jeep and found it empty. Still not wanting to believe it, she walked over to the Jeep and leaned over to look inside. Empty. She turned to Kimishima. "Tell me where he is…"

"I… don't know where any of them are." All three girls looked at him.

"What do you mean?" Scheris asked.

"The last time I saw them, a bunch of HOLD members had their guns pointed at us. Asuka used his Alter to get me to the Jeep. I stayed for a while to wait for them. I thought they were going to be right behind me and we were gonna gun it… But…" He looked down. "I don't know…" He clenched his fist. "Ryuhou told me to give that box to you, and that was it."

"What do we do now…?" Scheris asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Cougar, who had just awoken from his sleep, replied. "We go get them back."

"Then let's-!"

"No." Everyone looked at Mimori, whose bangs were covering her eyes.

"What are you talking about?" Scheris asked. "Have you lost it?"

"We can't go. If we do, we'll only get in the way."

"But we can help!"

"No we can't! Look at us! Cougar and I don't have any energy, your Alter takes up most of your energy on one attack, and Kanami and Kimishima aren't even Alter Users! None of us are fit to fight beside them."

"But what if they're dying?! Can you still say that?!" Scheris demanded.

"They're not," Mimori said softly, holding her necklace gently.

"She's right," Kanami agreed, putting her hands over her heart.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can feel it," both of them replied. The other three looked at them strangely.

"I still say we should go…" Scheris sighed.

"Nope!" Kimishima smiled. "I've seen what that one can do!" He pointed to Mimori, and his smiled changed to a scared grin. "What she says goes!" Scheris put her head in her hands in defeat.

Ryuhou, Kazuma, and Asuka had all been placed in different cells with maximum security. Normally, Native Alters were HOLY's affairs, but with HOLY's current condition, HOLD had no choice but to take on the responsibility. Ryuhou sat in his cell staring at the walls. There was no window for him to look at; that would give him an easy way to escape. It was the same with the other cells in the maximum security division. He had been staring for an hour, maybe a few more. He had no idea how long he had been in there, but that didn't matter to him, for he was immersed in his own thoughts. Looking back, after everything he had been through, how much closer had he become to his revenge? Sure, Zigmar had served as a checkpoint in his goal, but beyond that, he had no idea where the man in black and white was, or how exactly to defeat him. "Am I strong enough yet?" He asked himself. He tried to answer the question logically, but couldn't think of an answer. He asked the question again. After asking himself this question, 2, 10, maybe 100 times, he laid back and looked at the ceiling, which looked no different than the wall. "Definitely…" He finally answered. "I know I can… Because… My feelings are strong enough, right Miri?" He closed his eyes and thought back to just before Mimori had moved.

Mimori and Ryuhou had gone back to the place where Ryuhou had given Mimori the necklace. "This will be the last time I get to see this place… won't it, Ryu?" She asked sadly.

"No it won't!" he replied, giving her a serious look. "You'll come back here for sure! I'll come steal you if I have to!"

Mimori laughed. "But then you'd get arrested, Ryu!"

"No I wouldn't! That's only if you steal someone who doesn't want to be stolen! And besides… even if I did it'd be okay!"

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I have you!" He grinned, trying to look confident, but he couldn't hide the blood rushing to his cheeks. "I'm sorry," he said politely. "That was-"

"It made me happy," Mimori smiled. "And besides, I know you'd be able to get me and get away from the police!"

"How?" He asked, finally turning to look at her with his red face. What he turned around to find was that Mimori had put her hand over his heart.

"Because your feelings are strong enough, aren't they?" She asked. He nodded slowly. "Then that's all you need to make it," she smiled as her face turned red as well. They stayed quiet for a moment before Mimori breathed in. "And, if nothing else, you could always use Zetsuei to get away!" she laughed, breaking the silence. Ryuhou laughed as well, and they momentarily forgot the sadness that had previously surrounded them.

Ryuhou laughed in his cell, making the guards outside wonder what he could be doing that was making him laugh. The peered inside to find him lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling. The guards looked at each other and gave each other unsure grins. "Maybe he's losing it…" One said. "I wouldn't doubt it…" replied another. "I wonder if the other two have cracked yet."

"RAAHHH!!" Kazuma yelled, punching the wall and making his guards cock their guns. "I can't stand this!" He complained, running his hands back and forth through his hair in frustration. "Everything's the same! I can't tell the difference between any of the walls or even the ceiling!" He looked up, and then began to chuckle. He then looked at the door, which was only noticeable by the small line of light that was coming through it. "This is what you want, isn't it?!" he gave the door a deranged grin. "ANSWER ME!"

Asuka had been quiet for hours, which almost made his guards worry that he had somehow escaped silently. They too peered in to see what the prisoner was up to only to find him glaring back. "What do you want?" he asked, and they shut the door quickly. Through the door, Asuka heard them say, "If looks could kill….!", and then grinned. He leaned his head against the wall and sighed, thinking back to what Ryuhou told them when they were first captured. 'What are you planning?' he asked mentally.

'Just a little longer,' Ryuhou told himself, sitting up on the edge of the bed and resting his elbows on his knees. 'If they're so much like HOLY, then it won't be too much longer…'

Kazuma, during this time, had given up on getting an answer from the door. He sat in the same position that Ryuhou was in as he began thinking. 'It's just like the cellars in HOLY… Too bad I don't have Mimori here to bail me out again,' he laughed. 'That was the first time I experienced Ryuhou's Alter…that night…wait!' His back, which had been hunched, stood up straight. He then grinned from ear to ear, then resumed the position he had been in before coming to the epiphany.

Asuka looked around his room, still wondering what Ryuhou was planning. "I wonder if the cells at HOLY look like this… No wonder Kazuma's so crazy; I would be too if I had to stay in a cell like this… and not to mention then…then!" His eyes widened, and he too grinned and relaxed. He now sat in the same position as the other two. "So that's how it is…"

Yay!! Done with chapter 18!! Hope you liked it, sorry it sucked . But don't worry! 19 will (hopefully) be good!