"Please help!"
"In here, hurry!"
"Help us!"
Silverton ran through the narrow cavern, following the echoing voices. There was an orange glow at the end of the cave where the voices were coming from. It got brighter and hotter as she approached it. When she finally reached the source, what she saw she couldn't believe…
"We're saved!"
"Thank God..!"
Silverton was in a cave room, lit up with torches. The air was hot and damp. All she saw around her scattered about and strung up with chains…were men; the men who'd gone missing in Rouen, France.
The men pleaded for help and rattled their chains, desperately trying to get her attention. Their voices all meshed together in all their pleas. It took Silverton a moment to act. She ran to the closest man and began fumbling with the locked cuffs on his wrists.
The other men cried out, "Don't help him! This all is his fault!"
"It's not my fault! You all would have done the same thing!" The man Silverton was helping hollered.
Silverton paused, "What are they talking about? Who are you?"
"My name's Matt…"
"Matt? As in Matthew? As in Emeillia's fiancé? That Matthew?" Silverton stuttered out.
Matt shivered. "God, no! I dumped that crazy bitch a month ago…"
"Hurry and free us, before she gets back!" another one called out.
Silverton raised an eyebrow. "Emeillia? Hat does she have to do with this?"
They all seemed to answer her all at once.
"She's evil!"
"A witch! She's a witch!"
"She's insane!"
"She's gonna kill us all!"
Silverton remembered earlier when the akuma had knocked her unconscious. As she was falling to the ground, she'd heard a voice in her head. She recalled the exact words…
Stupid bitch. You don't deserve happiness. If I can't be happy, no one can.
No one…
Can be…
Happy…
~ ~ ~ Kanda ~ ~ ~
"I'm right…behind you…"
There was a loud crash before everything went black. Kanda heard his own heart beating particularly loudly in his chest. His ears were ringing and he briefly lost sight of where he was. Who he was. So when he heard Miranda's frantic voice calling out to him, he barely recognized his own name.
"Kanda! Kanda, please wake up!"
He slowly opened his eyes. Miranda was lugging him over her back, pulling him out from the bushes. They were back by the lake and Miranda expanded her Time Record around both their bodies, healing his wounds and shielding them from the attacking akuma. "I'm awake. Thanks for the help, Miranda." He stood up as she released her grip on him. He prepared to attack an akuma that was outside the Time Record trying to shoot them. Kanda slid Mugen from its sheath swiftly and took his stance.
Just as he was about to lunge at the akuma, he was halted my Miranda as she yanked his ponytail back. "Hold on!" she cried.
Kanda winced and snarled menacingly in her direction. "What the hell is your problem?! Let go!" he yanked his black hair from her grip.
Miranda didn't answer him with her words, but rather, her actions. She shakily pointed her finger outward, right to the center of the lake.
Both exorcists saw the same thing. A human figure positioned at the center of the lake, effortlessly standing atop the water's surface. Although it was mostly a simple, eerie silhouette, a few details could be read from the moonlight glowing off the water's surface, just at the figures feet: A flowing green dress. Curly blond hair.
Emeillia.
~ ~ ~ Silverton ~ ~ ~
There was no time for questions; Silverton knew that. She moved as fast as she could, using her innocence to slash through the men's chains. The ruckus was insane; all the begging and pleading from the men who've yet to be set free, the rattling chains, the clank and clutter. As their chains were removed, the men fled from the cave as quickly as possible, with no concern for those left behind.
"Silverton? Over here!"
The sound of her name caught her off guard. She recognized that voice for sure. "Bookman Jr.?" She looked over the men's heads until she set her sights on fiery red hair.
As she made her way past the other men and towards the exorcist, he sighed and said, "I thought I'd be stuck down here forever…You're a life saver."
She carefully sliced through the locks of his confinements. *"What should I say to him? I don't know him like I know Yu...Maybe I should...What if I just...Oh, fuck it..."* She chose not to say anything at all.
Once free, unlike the others who fled, Lavi stayed behind. He rubbed his sore wrists. "Alright, I'll do my best to help you free everyone. We have to get these people out of here. You with me?"
"Shut up."
~ ~ ~ Kanda ~ ~ ~
Kanda and Miranda stared over at Emeillia, who stood still over the rippling water.
"Emeillia?" Miranda began to wonder if her eyes were deceiving her.
"You shouldn't get distracted!" The akuma surrounded Miranda's Time Record and all attacked at once. Miranda suddenly cried out as the protective barrier shattered.
Just as the akuma broke through, before they could do any harm, something else whipped by: Water. Streams of water whipped the akuma in two, one by one. When all the akuma were destroyed, the water silently trickled back into the lake.
"What the hell?" Kanda wiped the water droplets from his face. He quickly looked out over the lake again, just barely in time to watch Emeillia suddenly sink straight down under the water like a pencil. Her ghostly presence gave him chills. He had no idea what was going on, but he was more than determined to find out.
~ ~ ~ Silverton ~ ~ ~
"This way, everyone! Out! Hurry, don't slow down!" Lavi hollered as he guided the men out from the cave as if directing traffic. "Hurry, before, she comes back!"
Silverton continued chopping apart shackles. *"Before she comes back? If she were to come here, she'd enter the same way everyone is exiting, wouldn't she?"*
There was a low rumbling surrounding the cave and shaking the walls. A few rocks began falling from the ceiling. Silverton struggled to stand due to the massive quake and found herself toppling over. She managed to catch her landing with her hands, only for them to be submerged in green sparking water. She instantly noticed that the water that was, at one point, less than ankle-deep was now a foot deep. *"Where is this coming from?"*
"You okay?" Lavi yelled over the rumbling. He ran to her side and helped her up. He quickly scanned the cave with his eyes. "Hey, I think everyone made it out! Let's get going!" They began running out from the cave, careful to cover their heads to shield them from falling rocks. "Hey, have you found Miranda?" Lavi asked her, just as they reached the exit.
"Yes. She's by the lake with Y-...Kanda." Silverton caught herself before letting her friend's first name slip out.
"Yu's here? Well then, she should be fine. Let's go find them." Lavi extended his hammer up high above the trees. "Grab on!"
She thought, *"I wonder who else knows Yu's name..."* Just as Silverton was about to grab onto the handle of Lavi's extending hammer, something stopped her. She quickly turned back and darted into the dark cavern, following the voice that pierced through the rumbling.
"Don't go..! Please! Momma..!"