PandaFlower: Tadaa~! The second but actually the first chapter!
HirokoHana: *Stares at fly buzzing around head*
PandaFlower: This one probably doesn't make any more sense than the last one but it all ties in, I promise!
HirokoHana: *Frog tongue shoots out and eats fly*
PandaFlower: …ew…we don't own anything, particularly Hiroko's mind. What have I told you about messing with the discombulator-anator!
HirokoHana: Croak!
Chapter 1
The image was heartrending.
Allen lay on a bed trussed with more ropes then even a rabid animal is provided with. His clothes were torn and filthy with blood both old and new. There was a hint of bone sticking out of his right arm.
Lenalee gasped, she was instantly at his side tugging on the ropes of dark matter, "Kanda, help me!" she glanced beseechingly at the swordsman.
Kanda swiftly severed the ropes and pulled Allen over his shoulder, Allen groaned and coughed weakly, a splotch of blood hit the back of Kanda's jacket.
"Let's hurry; we need to regroup with Lavi immediately!" Lenalee pulled open the door for Kanda before taking the lead. With Allen on his shoulder Kanda wouldn't be able to draw Mugen if it came to a fight.
There wasn't a fight and the facility wasn't big, they made it to the front door in no time where Lavi was waiting for them. Lavi fell in stride behind Kanda, "Rabbit, where's the nearest hospital?" Kanda asked; he shifted Allen's body with a soft grunt; he'd been starting to slide.
"Take a left, this road leads to a town about half a mile away," Lavi said, "We'll be going downhill in a minute, we'll get there faster,"
Allen whimpered quietly, blinking blurry eyes, calmly he surveyed his new position.
"Allen! You're awake! How are you feeling buddy?" Lavi asked, bending down slightly to peer at the white haired Exorcist's bruised face, "You look awful," he said absently, studying the new scars on his face, though it was rather difficult with all the blood on his face.
Allen gazed at him with blank eyes, nodding contentedly.
"What's the matter Moyashi-chan?" Lavi asked jokingly, "Cat got your tongue?" he smiled widely, expecting Allen to get indignant and retort.
Allen just smiled blankly and shook his head.
Now Lavi was starting to get worried, "Allen what's the matter? Speak to me!"
Kanda and Lenalee stopped, Kanda quickly but gently sat Allen down on the roadside and tilted his face up, "What the hell is your problem?" he asked. Allen seemed to look past him dreamily; slowly his cracked, bleeding lips parted and Lenalee clapped a hand over mouth in horror. Kanda took one look before-gently-closing Allen's mouth. He did not want to see the sight of Allen's missing tongue. He frowned, placing a hand on Allen's bloody brow, "Shit, he's burning up!"
"You're lucky you brought him to us when you did, aside from being delirious with a fever he's suffering from severe internal damage," the doctor sighed, "Also we think something might have been done to his head, drugs maybe, there's some swelling in the back," he held his hand up in a reassuring gesture, "Ah, don't worry the swelling is in a fairly useless part of the brain, we stop using it after we're born. We could probably cut it out and he'll be fine but brain surgery is so risky. We'll try to find a way to fix it without having to cut him open. Also his tongue will grow back, it's one of the few body parts that do. Don't worry."
"Can we see him?" Lenalee asked hopefully.
The doctor smiled kindly, "We just finished patching him up, he's conscious but we're not sure how aware he is. You can have a few minutes while we set up the equipment to finish diagnosing him," Lenalee looked worried, the doctor patted her shoulder, "if you would, could you replace the cloth on his forehead every now and then?"
Lenalee nodded eagerly, she needed to do something not wait around and twiddle her thumbs!
Kanda and Lavi followed silently.
Allen was staring out the window dreamily his features finally cleaned of blood. He was very thin and pale. The room they found him in had a window but obviously the light hadn't been able to reach him. Lenalee traced sadly over the new scars on his face. Most were small and almost invisible but a few still stood out, like they had healed recently.
Allen's eyes flicked to hers and back to the window at the touch.
Lenalee sat carefully on the edge of the bed, "Allen? Do you know who I am?" she asked softly, Allen smiled at her sweetly, almost like a child would, and brushed his fingers against her cheek. Lenalee gasped softly and then Allen twirled his fingers in her hair and tangling everything up, giggling all the while. She glared at him half-heartedly as she untangled his hand; he was once again staring out the window.
Kanda and Lavi watched from the doorway, they made no move to enter the room though in truth they were as worried as Lenalee was. Allen had disappeared on his last mission five months ago, it was supposed to be an easy thing not even a 10% chance of Innocence but after he boarded the train he just disappeared. After a week of gnawing their nails they finally learned that he was being held hostage by a Noah supposedly for information.
Looking at Allen now Kanda just wanted to wring that bastard Noah's neck. To see Allen reduced to this…it was just so wrong. Allen didn't even seem to be aware of what was going on around him.
Allen's gaze suddenly flicked back to Lenalee, he sat up abruptly, "Allen don't you're hurt!" Allen ignored Lenalee's attempts to get him to lie back down and grabbed a clipboard that had been left on the side table. He struggled to get the pen unfastened from the side until Lenalee pulled it and the cap off.
Lavi and Kanda quickly made their way to his bedside as he scribbled franticly.
I don't know how long I'm going to be lucid, quick ask me questions!
"What are you talking about Allen? This can wait for later you need to—
Allen shook his head violently, silencing any protests.
This can't wait. I'm fine for now.
"What do you mean for now?" Kanda asked incredulously. He stared down at the younger Exorcist with no small amount of skepticism.
I'm going to have a bad headache very soon. I probably won't be lucid again until I'm completely healed, please ask better questions.
"Lavi why don't you ask the questions, being a Bookman you'll have experience getting the most information out of a short period of time," Lenalee said, glancing between the two elder Exorcists standing by the bed and the younger one sitting hunched over the clipboard and refusing to look them in the eye.
"'Kay!" Lavi said determinedly, "Alright Allen, who captured you?"
A Noah by the name of Wisely. You won't know him.
"What's his power? Have you seen it?"
There's nothing to see it's all in your head, all your thoughts parading past ready to be read…
"Allen? I don't understand what you mean,"
I feel all fuzzy…
"Shit, don't try to get clear answers out of him, just get what you can before he can't write!" Kanda said, "We'll puzzle it out later, got it?" Lavi nodded.
"What did he want you for?"
Riddles.
"Riddles?"
Riddles. Every day it's four riddles. The numbers don't change but the answers do. Never the last, no answer for the last. I can't answer myself, can I? Can't I?
"So he wanted riddles,"
Not riddles. What the riddles meant.
"You got new ones every day?"
Never the last, no answer for the last…
"Was he trying to get information on the inner workings of the Order?"
Of course not. Wisely doesn't need to ask for information. It's all there, clear as day like a normal conversation.
"What is?"
Thoughts. Wisely reads your thoughts. The ones you're thinking right now. The ones you know your thinking, the ones you don't know you're thinking, the ones buried so deep you forgot you even thought them. They just rise to the surface like a puddle full of silt. You only need to stir things up.
Allen's hands began to shake, Lenalee wrapped her arms around his shoulders, "I think that's enough, this can obviously wait," she said.
Allen shook his head again, he pushed Lenalee back just enough to write.
My head hurts. Not enough time.
"Does he know everything you know?" That was bad, the Earl—!
He can't tell, I won't let him. Wisely made me hurt if I didn't have an answer. I could answer some but not all. Never the last, no answer for the last. But I got my revenge. Knowledge exchanged and knowledge silenced.
"What do you…?" Allen wasn't even listening anymore. He seemed to be having trouble breathing if his ragged pants were anything to go by.
Have you ever wondered why Dark Matter comes from humans but White Matter comes from crystals? It's so odd. My head hurts, it hurts a lot. I don't like it but Wisely is stupid. So stupid…stupid…
The pen slipped through his shaking fingers, leaving a black smear across the paper. The boy didn't seem to care; he clutched his head, fingers snaking through white locks. He fell backward with a cry.
By the time the doctors burst into the room Allen was screaming and thrashing as his friends held him down. They worked fast, hooking him up to sedatives and various machines, they pumped him full of painkillers but he wouldn't stop screaming. He had no tongue but he didn't need it to cry out his pain and it just kept going until the Exorcists were pushed back into the waiting room and the door muffled his cries.
PandaFlower: Yep, we're mean, we give you plot and it comes out like garbled nonsense. On the other hand after eating that fly Hiroko is now a fly/frog/human/thingie/monster. I'm writing this from her stomach.
HirokoHana: *rumble*
PandaFlower: Nooo! Not the digestive fluids!