ASPECT

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 2

Previously in the Blink saga...

"Please explain yourselves," the strange woman says sternly. She looks vaguely disappointed.

Add laughs nervously as he moves to the side of the crate that has finally been opened. "Ehehe… Hey, Blondie."

You gulp in air, unsure of what to say. The blonde woman looks like she could snap your ten year old body in half with her fingers. Ciel grips your hand tightly, his other hand already on his revolver.

The first of your group to move, not surprisingly, is Ara. "Rosie-Posie!" She chortles, wriggling out of the crate to wrap the woman in a bear hug. "It's really been too long! How have you been?"

Behind them, the man practically plated in steel points his assault rifle at Ara, awaiting orders. "Volt, disengage battle mode," the woman commands. "These are friends." You don't miss the way her lips form the words "I think" afterwards, as her bodyguard stands down.

"We've been in that box for a week," Add groans, crawling out and standing up to stretch his back. "The fact that my makeshift waste receptacles actually worked is a small wonder."

"Is that why it smells so bad?" The woman asks, wrinkling her nose. "Yikes, man." She catches your eye and laughs. "Y'all brought a kid? Can you fight?"

You puff up a little bit. Steel still teases you about being a "kid", and you're really not quite over being transferred to another body. Before you can open your mouth and knock her over with a wave of expletives, though, Add speaks up. "That's the Head Librarian. You can call her Lu, or gremlin."

You smack him in the shoulder. "That doesn't make things sound any better."

At least the woman understands. "Gotcha, miss," she says, helping you to your feet. Her hands are calloused, like she's been working with rough materials often. "I'm First Lieutenant Anna Testarossa, but you can call me Rose."

That puts a name to the face, so you shake her hand and grin happily. "Technically, I used to be Lady Luciela Rowena Sourcream, Head Librarian of the Imperial Archives in Sander," you tell her. "Now I'm Lucia Lucas, but everyone calls me Lu." You pause for a moment. "Please don't call me gremlin."

Rose laughs out loud. "Aye. And who's the tall guy?"

"Ciel Lucas. Accidental guardian of one Miss Lu," Ciel says, smiling wryly at you before genuinely smiling and shaking Rose's hand. "Nice to meet you."

"And to you too." Ciel looks stiff, like he was when Ara and Add first barrelled into your lives. His shoulders are tense, like he's sensing a foreign source of danger in Rose. To you, Rose is just a bright, loveable girl who kinda reminds you of a cross of your younger self (older self?) and Ara.

If Ara can trust her, then you figure you can too. Considering the strange kinds of people Ara and Add work with (Ciel being one of them) and can trust, then there shouldn't be many common folk who you can't trust.

Rose doesn't seem like common folk, though. Her unique badge and uniform make you uncomfortable; where is she from? The golden orb and black plaque aren't anything you've ever seen. Perhaps she's a sleeper agent from overseas - then again, a sleeper agent wouldn't wear their own badge so proudly.

"I know you're probably wondering what this badge means," Rose says, cutting through your thoughts. "It drives me nuts too, trust me." She smiles. "I'm Empyrean by nationality, but I'm stationed here for research purposes." She grins. "Sure, I'm part of the army, but I'm an engineer."

She reaches into her pocket, withdrawing a slim stick and holding it out on her palm. Within moments, it comes to life, thin legs unfolding from its sides. "You can hold it, if you want," she chuckles. "They're not real bugs, so they don't bite."

"Are these meant for infiltration purposes?" Ciel queries as the small robotic spider (it's shaped more like a virus though) scuttles from Rose's hands into yours. It feels like a breeze of silk fluttering across the surface of your skin, barely just milligrams in mass. Even as you contort your hand this way and that, the spider dances across your skin to keep its balance.

Rose snorts. "Nah. I built these to slip under Add's door, so I could make sure the Alterans hadn't already gotten in." She gives Add a pointed look. "Your boots are really, really soggy, by the way."

"That's because the ceiling is leaky!" Add protests.

"At least put them in the dryer and give them a cycle or two," Ara chastises, smacking him in the back of the head. "Let's get going. Ciel, please make us some actual food when we get there."

You instantly perk up at the thought of actual food. With the Alteran pantry at his disposal, who knows what Ciel might be able to conjure up? "I second this notion!"

Rose laughs. "You guys must be starving. I'll walk you guys there, and then I'll need to come back here." She frowns. "Man, how am I supposed to get rid of this box?"

All of you turn to Ara, who shrugs sheepishly. "It's… uh, biodegradable?"

(It turns out it's not. Rose has her large robot guard haul it to the trash depot unceremoniously.)

Even though it's only been two years since your undercover stint in Altera, you're still instantly filled with bittersweet nostalgia of eight years ago when you approach Add's house. You still remember in clear detail every inch of the living room carpet, every staircase where you stumbled, every tile on the kitchen floor that burned your skin when you fell.

He still has all his fancy locks - first the key, then the card, then the fingerprint, and finally the contacts. You know for a fact that yours unlocks the door just as well as his does - then again, you prefer to keep your eyes in their natural colour when you're not working. The unique pigment sequence locked inside ensures that no one can hack into the lock, since it generates a new kaleidoscopic pattern each time.

Ciel goes stiff when Add blinks and his sclera turn black for a second, but then you poke him in the arm and give him a reassuring smile. "That's our key into the house," you tell him, turning on your own contacts for a second. Lu yelps as she catches sight of your red irises and nearly drops the spider, but you laugh and turn them back off. "The contacts are clear normally, don't worry. I won't go pulling any horror movies on you anytime soon."

The front door swings open with a click, and Add sweeps an arm out. "Welcome to my not-so humble abode. Make yourselves at home."

Your first thought is that he should really be repairing the leak in the ceiling, before you realize that the both of you have been out and about, being chased by the Alteran government. Your second thought is that his boots look like they're melting, and everyone's wrinkled noses tell you that you're not the only one suffering in their midst.

"Kitchen's in the back of the first floor," Add says, shouldering off his black jacket and hanging it up on its hook. "There's a washroom on every floor, you'll find one eventually."

"Wait, how many floors are there?" Ciel asks.

"Six." Add shrugs. "The top three are closed off, though. Don't go up there unless you want to try and code a time-rewriting algorithm."

Rose makes a choking noise, but then recovers. "I should get going before my new boss starts barking for me," she says, patting your shoulder. "You know my handle, message me if you need anything. Don't leave the house, I'll be back with groceries since I know for a fact that Add's fridge is home to exactly one jar of pickles and nothing else."

You glance at Add, who offers a sheepish smile. "I'm gonna run and check my computers upstairs," he says, reaching for Rose's hand and shaking it. "Thanks again, Blondie."

"This means you owe me one, now," Rose chuckles. "But, anytime, guys."

She turns to give you a quick hug. "I'll buy some of the spicy Sanderian chips you really like," she whispers, not-so quietly.

"Thank you, Rosie-Posie," you giggle. "Really."

"And you two!" As soon as Rose breaks free from your hold, she's scooping Lu and Ciel into her hug, ignoring the fact that Lu's face is jammed into her chest. "You're part of the squad already. Welcome to the revolution!"

"Yes," Lu squeaks, and you can't help but laugh as she pulls her face out of Rose's chest. "Thank you...?"

Rose laughs brightly. "Then I'll go grab some groceries," she says. "You guys get rested and wash up. Elesis is sending a handful of hers to meet us tomorrow."

She smiles, gives a little salute with two fingers, and turns to go, letting the door click shut behind her.

Add clears his throat awkwardly. He's donned the white lab coat he typically wears in the house, and he's got a lollipop dangling from his mouth, probably from his pocket. "So, uh, do you guys want to go explore the house a bit, check out the spare bedrooms so you can claim one?"

Lu's eyes go wide. "Yeah!" She chirps, dashing the stairs and probably giving Ciel a heart attack in the process. "Catch me if you can, Ciel!"

He sighs and gives you a weak smile. "I'd better go look for her before she gets lost," he supplies. "Tell me when Lieutenant Rose gets back with groceries." He takes off up the stairs after Lu, and you can't help but think he'll get lost before she does.

With the house at your disposal, you're now filled with a sense of immense nostalgia. Add has taken the lift up to check on his computers, so you're the only one left to somehow clean up the mess of his boots. You look around for anything to pick them up with before heading to the kitchen in search of a plastic bag.

There is, in fact, only a lone jar of pickles in the fridge. It hasn't been opened yet. Add doesn't even like pickles, and neither do you, so you're not too sure why it's there. There's a few wads of dirtied saran wrap in the garbage, indicating that Add was probably too tired to actually deal with plates. You honestly can't blame him - a lot of engineering went into the final days before Eve and Chung's escape.

You find a box of garbage bags in the cabinet under the sink and take one, then take another just to be safe. You're not quite sure if you want wash the boots or just straight up chuck them in the trash, but in either case, you're not touching them with your bare hands.

Running back to the foyer, you kneel down next to the shoe mat. If it weren't for the ridge on the edges, the water leaking from the ceiling would have overflowed onto the clean wooden floors long ago.

Gingerly, you wrap one of the plastic bags around your hand and use it like a glove to pick up the boots. They're at least 50% water by mass at this point, but the other plastic bag supports their mass. Grimacing, you tie the bag up and toss the one you used as a glove in the trash.

The boots can be salvaged - anything can be, really, in your hands - but you have to figure out what the source of the issue is. If memory serves you right, the foyer is right under the second floor bathroom. You head up the stairs to the second floor, and turn the corner into the bathroom.

There's an eerie dripping noise that fills the bathroom, probably from below the sink. When you step in, though, there's a thin layer of water that lines the floor, coming up from the leaking toilet. You sigh and toss the bag of boots and water into the tub, not even wincing when they land with a splatter.

The water is starting to leak out of the bathroom and into the hall. You should really get to cleaning that up, before more than just the boots get soggy.

You run back downstairs and grab a mop and bucket from the kitchen before running back up. Ten minutes of mopping later, you're left with one not waterlogged bathroom, one mildly troubleshooted toilet (it turns out one of the smaller pipes inside was clogged) and one bag of still soggy boots.

With your first mission now complete, you grab the bag and head back down the stairs, taking a sharp turn and going down into the basement. It seems dark and dangerous because the railing isn't wood like the rest of the house but metal, but there's a nice home entertainment centre in the back room. You don't head back there, though - your destination is the laundry room.

You throw the lid of the washing machine open and dump the boots in. They make an ugly squelch as they leave the bag and hit the base of the washer. You grimace and reach for the detergent. "Hopefully this will cleanse you of your toilet water," you mutter, pouring one, two, three cups of detergent in the detergent socket. "Be cleansed, toilet demons."

You turn the washer on, set the mode to heavy duty, and hit the start cycle button with some degree of satisfaction. In fifty-four minutes, you'll be rewarded for your toils with a pair of clean boots.

They're not even your boots. You're not quite sure why you went through all that trouble to get them washed.

As you ascend the stairs, you catch a stain in the mat in the foyer that's all too familiar to you. It's been skillfully hidden under the legs of an umbrella stand, but with a severe lack of umbrellas you see its dark edges against the pale carpet.

This stain is two parts the contents of your stomach on the day of your execution, at least one part Alterasia, and one part emetic medication. It used to be closer to the door, except Add turned the mat around and put his umbrella stand over it.

There's little secrets like this hidden all over the house. The breakfast table, missing a corner. A variety of stained plastic buckets under the sink. You ascend the stairs to the third storey, which only reveals more of these little secrets. Another ugly stain, this time on wooden floorboards. The vacuum cleaner's permanent home outside the room labelled Ara's room.

You push open the door of the room where you forced Alterasia out of your body. More memories flood back to you - the curtains, covered in tiny bloody butterflies that can't fly away, because Add tried to wash them off with hot water.

They say that you can't truly appreciate having a clear nose until it gets stuffy, and really, it's the same idea with Alterasia. You remember the feeling of burning Alterasia coursing through your veins, but not the pain. You hope you'll never have to go through that, and none of your friends ever will either.

You run your hands over the items in the room that now becomes your home: the slim frame of the chair, the sturdy desk and all its books, the dresser that still hides some of your most important discoveries. Memories of your time here undercover flood back to you, and you can't help but smile despite the horrors that you survived here eight years ago.

A thin pair of arms snake around you and hold you close to their owner. "It hasn't changed at all," Add says quietly. "I do come in to wipe away the dust, though."

"Thanks." You rest your hands on his arms, in a bit of an awkward embrace. "I threw your boots in the wash, by the way."

Add snorts. "Thanks. I should probably get to fixing the leak."

"I've already fixed it." You smile. "All you gotta do is clean up the puddle downstairs."

"You don't have to do this," he says, and you can tell he's frowning by the way his voice changes. "Really, you should be getting some rest, after you saved my ass and hauled us to Lan-"

"That's my job," you tell him. "I owe you my life, literally."

"And I owe you mine," he replies. You're suddenly reminded of the terrible prison, of killing so many people to try and fight your way to him. This is the idiot you've made your partner in crime, after all. "So let's consider it even."

For good measure, he tightens his hug for just a moment before letting go altogether. "I checked everything, all the computers," he says. "They didn't get in, thankfully. All our work is safe, and no one's identity has been breached or anything."

"That's good." You stretch your arms lazily over your head as you turn to face him. "Show must go on, right?"

"Miss Lu! Miss Lu? Where are you? I think I'm lost!"

You look at Add for a moment before the both of you break into light laughter. "I knew it," you chuckle, pulling him forwards by the sleeve. "C'mon, let's go find those two before they stumble onto the fifth floor and accidentally delete the entirety of Ruben."

The door clicks shut behind you, and you don't look back.

Rose returns later with actual groceries, actual food, and you have to hold back a smirk as Add and Lu fight over the single package of chocolate chip cookies inside. "Guys," Ciel begs, "children, please."

"There's no use," you call out, before turning to Rose and letting your laughter loose. "Man, the crate was brutal. No wonder Add and Lu are going wild."

"I can tell." Rose looks amused, like she's seen this happen before. "I take it that Ciel does most of the cooking among you guys?"

"Yeah, how could you tell?" You snark.

Rose rolls her eyes. "He's shielding the onions with a pot lid. Only kitchen junkies do that."

At that, the both of you laugh out loud again. At long last, you've been released from the confines of the crate. You've spent a week curled up in a ball, your legs are still cramping, and frankly, it feels great to be walking again. Freedom is blissful, in this moment.

But then Rose's expression turns a bit dark, as if she's just remembered something important. "I still need to debrief you guys on what happened," she says, extracting a thin cell phone from her coat pocket. "There's been quite a handful of changes in the grand scheme of things since you guys entered the box."

"We know most of the big details," you tell her. "Add still had internet access from his phone in the crate."

"Yeah, but there's been a lot of planning happening too," Rose insists. "And there's no way you know about that, because none of it has been digitized."

"How about we make dinner first, and then we talk revolution?" Ciel calls from inside the kitchen. "I see you've bought udon and pork, I could make us chashu udon."

Your mouth starts to water against your better judgement. You haven't had good chashu udon since before your exile. "Oh my god, please do," you gasp, flinging yourself dramatically across the kitchen counter (and nearly knocking over a two-litre bottle of cola). "I will actually pay you to make chashu udon."

So you and Add and Lu and Rose sit in astounded silence around the kitchen island, watching as Ciel moves around. He unwraps the block of pork belly, tossing it into a marinade of soy sauce, rice wine, ginger and red yeast rice. "The rice is mostly for coloration," he explains, sealing the pork, sauce and all into a plastic zip bag. "It'll give the pork a really nice burgundy colour once it comes out of the rice cooker."

"You're making chashu in my rice cooker?" Add squawks, to which you have to hold back a smile. "Hey, if you break it, you pay."

"I'll make cake in your rice cooker," Ciel challenges. "I'll make chashu in your rice cooker. Hell, I'll make rice in your rice cooker, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"Actually, there is," Rose pipes up. "There isn't any rice in the house, sorry."

So you continue to watch Ciel cook. He chops green onions and thin slices of preserved ginger, putting them to the side in small bowls and reaching for the chicken stock in the cupboard. You weren't entirely sure that there was chicken stock to begin with, but watching Ciel cook is more than enough to keep your thoughts from wandering to the contents of the refrigerator.

"Alright, while dinner is cooking," Rose says, pouring herself a glass of water, "I'll bring you guys up to date on the current state of events. I'll try to go in chronological order so it makes more sense, but literally nothing is going to make any sense.

"Lady Nasod and her friends from the resistance allied themselves with a few of the staff around the Core, namely Adel, Amos, Agatha and Aida," she continues. "From what I've gathered, the girl named Aisha was able to distract Adam under the guise of a businesswoman long enough that the others could plot their escape by truck."

"Did it work?" Lu asks.

Rose grimaces. "Yes and no," she says cautiously. "On one hand, the four staff members escaped with Elsword, Aisha and Chung."

"So Eve didn't escape?" You gasp. "Oh no, poor thing."

"On the other hand…" Rose purses her lips and makes eye contact slowly with each of you. "As far as I know, they were escaping through the kitchens when Adam Nasod burst in. Lady Nasod and her bodyguard took off in separately to divert the guards chasing them from the truck. They were able to make parachutes out of sleeping bags and bungee cords so they could jump down the cliff into Elder. Only the bodyguard made it down, though for reasons unknown. Lady Nasod was captured shortly afterwards.

"Somewhere during their run, they encountered Adam Nasod. I haven't finished reading the full report yet, but… The autopsy came back with the reason of death being a laser shot through the head."

The room immediately falls silent. "She killed him," Add says flatly, gripping your hand tightly. You inhale sharply, keeping your breathing level as Add begins to panic beside you.

"Add," you say softly, "he would have destroyed her if she hadn't killed him."

"That's not what I'm worried about," he says. "If Adam is dead, then who's running the country?"

"Currently, because Eve is on death row and to be executed, control of the affairs of Elrios are in the hands of Earl Ran Haan in Sander," Rose says, and your blood instantly boils. Add grips it tighter, and you realize with a start that he wasn't so much scared for Eve as he was for you. "However, as the Earl has to sort out his own affairs in Sander, he currently has a representative here in his place."

"How long can we stall Eve's execution for?" You ask quickly, thinking of all your contacts across the city. You really don't have many. Most of your friends aren't from priss city. "Or at least, how long do we have?"

"One or two more days, tops," Rose admits. "I'm trying to slow things down as much as I can, and of course Lady Nasod has essentially gone catatonic to refuse to give up information on the resistance, but there's only so much we can do. Earl Ran is demanding her execution as soon as possible."

She seems to want to say something else, thinks again, and chucks back the rest of her water before speaking again. "I was part of the jury at her trial," she says hoarsely. "I thought I could tilt things in her favour. I was the only one who voted against executing her."

"Well, that won't do," Ciel finally says, breaking the heavy silence. "We can't just sit around while Lady Eve is in danger of being executed. Rose, you did say that Elesis was sending some of hers to help us, right?"

This noticeably gives Rose more energy. "Yes. As far as I know, she is sending her brother, as well as Lady Nasod's bodyguard and former handmaid. They will know the Core the best, and I've been told that Elsword was responsible for blowing out all the electricity in the Core with nothing but half a crowbar."

"Then after that, we'll have more people to work with, and we can properly plan out our next move." Ciel hesitates. "Ara, I know this isn't my place to ask this, but if there's any way you might be able to delay your brother-"

You shake your head. "Unless you can physically get me to Sander so I can beat him up, I can't hijack him from here," you confess. "But if we can start by taking down his representative… That would be a good place to start defying his so-called authority.

"There's no way Eve isn't in a complete cone of silence, unless you have a way to get information to her in person." You glance up at Rose. "Who are her retainers right now?"

"The Arkwright sisters of COBO," Rose replies. "They're working closely with Feita and us right now. There shouldn't be much fuss with them, they know who we are."

"Then we'll alert Eve of our presence through them," you decide, brushing your free hand across the counter. "From there… I have no idea how we're gonna bust her out, but I hope it'll be awesome and no one will die in the process."

The rice cooker beeps. "Chashu's ready," Ciel announces, moving over to open the machine and retrieve the meat inside. "I'll start boiling the udon."

As Lu shuffles off to watch him cook, Add grips your hand tightly again. "Are you going to be okay?" He asks softly. "Don't go off trying to vigilante your brother."

"He isn't my brother anymore," you respond. "He stopped being my brother the minute he tried to hurt my family."

Add doesn't say anything more, but squeezes your hand one final time before shuffling off his seat as well.

The chashu udon is delicious, but in the end all you can feel is sawdust clogging up your lungs and threatening to choke you.

A/N: it has been seven slutty, slutty months since i last updated this fic

the honest real reason i updated it is because i don't have anything else prepared and this was the only thing i had close to completed so i just cleaned it up and capped it off

the honest real reason i haven't been updating is because i just keep making new ideas for new fics? someone stop me

~Marg