Title:Hunters versus Rebellion
Author:superhackaninja5
Rating:T
Summary:see chapter one
Chapter 4:Lost In Reservation
That was the week it would all fall apart.
Zane was unhappy. Anyone with eyes could see that.
He wouldn't talk, he barely ate and he didn't take all too kindly to all of the things his friends tried to get him to talk about what was making him unhappy.
Mercifully, the end of the week came, but it was with a heavy price.
On Saturday night, Atticus ventured into Syrus' dormitory, but found the bedroom part of it empty. The bathroom door was closed, however, so Atticus assumed Zane must be in there and headed straight for it.
"Zane!"he called, "I'm taking you to dinner with the others whether you want to go or not, so it's no use hiding from me!" And he grabbed the handle of the door and twisted it. It didn't open, though. Atticus tried again. It was locked from the inside, he guessed. "A locked door isn't going to stop me,"Atticus said aloud and he slammed open the door but got a nasty shock inside the room.(And I don't mean Zane was going to the bathroom)
He nearly yelled out loud.
Zane was lying on the stone-cold floor, panting, eyes half-closed and his pale arms bare and covered in blood. "Whoa, "was all he could say. Then, without another thought, he hoisted Zane's arm around his neck and began hauling towards the infirmary, grunting with exertion.
Either Zane couldn't walk because of the loss of blood or he didn't have the will to do so in his present state. Either way, Atticus had to half-drag, half-carry him all the way to the infirmary.
When they reached the infirmary, Atticus called out,"Nurse Fontaine?"
The nurse came into the room and gasped upon seeing Zane. "Put him down over there, Atticus,"she said urgently, indicating the nearest cot. Atticus did what she told him.
Once he had Zane settled onto the cot, the nurse asked,"How did this happen?"
Atticus shrugged hopelessly. "I was just going coming to get him for dinner because he hasn't been eating and I found him like this and lying on the bathroom floor of Syrus' dormitory,"he explained solemnly,"Do you mind getting someone to fetch his brother and everyone else who's important?"
"What 'everyone else'?"Fontaine quipped.
Atticus spouted off a list of all of the people who deserved to know of Zane's present condition. She sent someone off to go and retrieve the others.
At that moment, they were all sitting in the Slifer dorm dining room, waiting for Atticus to finish getting Zane so that they could eat, when there was a knock on the door. Jaden stood up to get it.
The door opened to reveal one of the nurse's messengers,Kevin. "Hey, Kevin, what's Nurse Fontaine want?"Jaden asked cheerfully.
Kevin hesitated,
"Z-Zane Truesdale is in the infirmary and the one who brought him there, Atticus Rhodes requested that everyone currently in this dormitory be alerted," "Ehhhh, guys?"Jaden called,"Zane's in the infirmary."
Syrus' eyes bugged out and he exclaimed,"WHAT?" They all blew past Kevin and ran for the infirmary in a clear rush.
The first thing they saw when they got there was Zane lying across the cot, breathing raggedly and his arms bandaged heavily.
"What happened?"Syrus demanded of Atticus."Shhh,"he scolded, pressing a finger to his lips and beckoning the others to follow him somewhere where they could talk. "What happened?"Syrus repeated when Atticus finally halted.
Atticus took a deep breath,"I don't really know. I went to go get him from your room, Syrus, and found him lying on the bathroom floor, barely conscious and his arms were covered in blood,"
Zane stirred feebly. "S-Syrus?"they heard him call out wearily.
Syrus re-entered the wing and stood in front of the cot he was lying on. "How did this happen?"he asked, straining to keep his voice calm.
Zane coughed before speaking again,"Is everyone else here?" "We're here, Zane,"Aster assured him.
"Okay,"he cleared his throat and began, "This wasn't the first time this has happened," "Here?"Atticus quipped. "In general,"Zane corrected him quietly.
Syrus was flabbergasted.
"Why are you doing this to yourself, Zane?How did all of this even start?"he demanded furiously. Zane sat up abruptly and cried,"When I tried to kill myself, okay?"
Everyone was momentarily stunned by his pronouncement.
"What?"Syrus whispered incredulously when he finally plucked up the courage to speak.
Zane sighed deeply.
"I tried to kill myself,"he repeated solemnly, eyes on his hands.
Syrus took a deep breath. "What possessed you to do that at all?"Chazz wondered in a low voice.
Zane looked up again and shrugged, but then winced with pain and stopped shrugging.
"I don't know, I guess I just couldn't bear losing. Not again,"he confessed soberly.
Syrus was at a loss for words.
Here was his older brother, the ultimate tough guy, saying that he'd tried to take his own life. What could he say to that?
"You could've come to us,"Aster suggested.
Zane turned his once blazing, but now dull and defeated, green eyes on him and spat,"Come to you?Let the first person to ever defeat me see just how much damage he really did by doing so?Get real, Phoenix."
Aster just stared at him. "So you're reverting to using my surname now?"he snorted condescendingly. "Haven't I always?"Zane growled, leaning heavily against the bed's headboard.
"Okay, would the two of you stop a minute?"Chazz said exasperatedly, "Zane, go back a bit. What exactly happened that made you try and kill yourself?"
"Winning was all I knew. When I couldn't do that without giving up on my morals, I lost all duels after that and with that, the last of my confidence,"
"That's a damn shame,"a sly female voice commented as the person it belonged to entered the infirmary with two men behind her.
She had dark hair that fell just past her shoulders in vague curls, encircling her chocolate brown eyes and slightly tanned face.
The first man that came up behind her had bleach blonde hair falling into his transclucent blue-ish eyes in sharp contrast to the deep green robes that were his current form of clothing.
Behind him came the second man and final person of the group, who bore less than no resemblance to the other two people who preceded him.
If Zane had to think of a word or two to describe him, the words would be dark and/or shady.
"Who are you three?"Chazz asked with an evident suspicious undertone.
"That is a question you should ask yourselves, Princeton. You may just find that our answers are the same,"the girl replied with an enigmatic grin. "What the hell does that-" "Chazz, calm down,"Zane cut across him sharply, shooting him a clearly disapproving look.
"We know everything that has transpired around here,"the girl began again,"and there's more to it than it seems."
"What does that mean?"Zane asked calmly before Chazz could explode again.
"It means you need to decide whether or not you want to take part in the unknown,"the girl answered, still maddeningly arcane in her explanation.
Zane took a deep breath to help him remain calm and said,"What exactly is it that has escaped our notice that the three of you know about?"
The girl gave a barely perceptible sigh before answering,"The war has always taken stage within your world, but there's more than one world to this war."
Zane's impassive expression morphed into one of intrigue,"How many?" "Four, including this one,"the girl replied honestly.
"Tara,"the first man interrupted warningly, giving her a furtive glance.
"Relax, Draco. I'm not telling them anything I haven't told you,"Tara told him reassuringly. "Oh, that makes me feel so much better,"Draco rolled his eyes, his voice heavy with irony.
"Moving on from that,"Zane interjected,"the names of these other three worlds would be?"
"Wizarding, the Land of Fire and Silverwatch, which is currently obscure from knowledge,"Tara supplied dully. "At the present time,"the dark man added tonelessly, his obsidian eyes flashing dangerously.
"Then, what does this war have to do with us, seeing as how we know next to nothing about it?"Chazz questioned, a slightly waspish edge to his voice.
"You've been kept in the dark up until now because the incarnates didn't know about you. The same went for Draco, but now they do and will target you unless you start fighting and receive the proper training that only we can give you. Therefore, it has everything to do with you. You are the last chosen Hunter recruits,"Tara answered.
An oddly satisfied sort of look crossed the dark man's features as she came to the part regarding them becoming targets, as though getting them killed held some sort of strange, twisted satisfaction for him.
"Who are the Hunters, then?"Zane asked, incredibly casually as though dismissing the idea of death like a rotten fruit was every day activity.
It was the dark man's turn to answer a question.
"We are an organization that are going to put a stop to the incarnates' quest for world domination and rebuild our society out of their clutches,"he responded, the fierce pride behind his words taking nearly everyone by surprise.
"Itachi,"Tara spoke, holding out a consoling hand to him, but he shrugged it off. "I'm not getting worked up,"he reassured her,"I'm only trying to get them to understand the perils we've had to face in order to make it this far with our lives still intact."
"Be that as it may, calm down,"Tara said reprovingly, clamping her hand down in his shoulder.
He jerked away from her as if he'd been electrocuted, but then his figure slouched out again, even though his face remained silently fuming.
"It happened again, didn't it?"she quipped with a sigh, withdrawing her vaguely shaking hand from his shoulder. "You still can't control it, can you?"he wondered, sounding genuinely.
Tara shook her head regretfully,"I don't know why it still does this, But, anyways,"she cut herself off, turning abruptly to face Zane and the others again,"Are you going to join, then?"
"I'll do it,"Zane consented before anyone else could say anything. "Zane!"Syrus exclaimed reproachfully with a coating of worry oozing over his voice.
Tara gave him a quick look that told him to shut up.
"It's my decision, Syrus,"Zane reprimanded firmly, his eyes giving away his true feelings. "Well, that's him done. What about the rest of them?"Itachi spoke as if the others weren't even there.
Chazz and Aster exchanged furtive glances and replied simultaneously,"We'll do it."
"I'll do it, but only to keep an eye on my brother,"Syrus conceded. "That takes care of that, then,"Tara observed.
Jaden cleared his throat. "I have better things to take care of,"he muttered and disappeared.
Tara whipped around to face the now vacated spot. "That can't be good,"she commented in an apprehensive undertone.
Draco snorted. "It's his loss,"he shrugged.
How very wrong that observation would turn out to be.
