Start: Chapter Ten

I.

Days passed slowly inside the holding center. There was little to do. An endless cycle of meals, practice, sit on your bed, tell stories inside the bathroom. An endless cycle of meetings with Heracles and hoping, praying that soon, we'd all be free. And that is all anything was. It was frustrating and dull and confining.

Days had turned into weeks and I had learned more about my fellow mutties. Arthur's family had the rare happening of not caring that he was a muttie, and they had bounced from country to state to state to keep him out of the hands of any of the creepers. He, of course, had been caught and had so far spent three years inside the same walls. The only constant was his own illusions, and he preferred their company to anyone else.

Elizabeta, the girl who was constantly in trouble and serving out food to everyone had been a late bloomer, showing her ability for speed when she was ten years old. It had allowed her to stay out of the creeper's grasp for two years, after leaving her house to keep her family out of harm's way. They had caught her while she was sleeping.

Alfred had been turned in by his parents when he was six and had spent the longest amount of time here, all of nine years. Despite his family's betrayal, he remained forever cheery, trying to help out everyone around him. Part of the reason for this seemed to be because of his twin brother, who had not come with him. Apparently, their parents couldn't find the other boy. Alfred often joked that you just couldn't see Matthew and I later discovered he meant that quite literally. Matthew spent much of his time invisible. It was no wonder the creepers hadn't found him.

Francis had come around the same time as Arthur and they had a sort of teasing rivalry that could only be described, on Francis' end, as flirting. He had a habit of using his skill of making people feel as if they had been touched for his own entertainment, and this should have made him unpopular. However, he was French and, to be honest, charming. He would tell no one anything of his past except that he had been born in France. I figured that it hadn't been all that wonderful.

The twins, Feliciano and Lovino, were direct mirrors of each other. When they first came into the room, it seemed like there was a tug of war battle going on with your emotions. It would only take a moment for them to balance out each other, but if one left, you were suddenly either inexplicably happy or angry. The only person who seemed immune to them was Antonio, whose mind formed a shield against powers that attacked the brain. This excluded mine.

There were plenty of other people there, from the Neuros who worked behind the scenes and, I grew to realize, knew so much more about what was going on than anyone but Heracles, to the siblings Vash and Lili who stayed by each other and spoke to hardly anyone else, to Natalya who told anyone that approached her that her brother would murder them in their sleep.

Despite everything I learned, Heracles and Sadik remained a mystery. And increasingly, Gilbert, who I had always known better than anyone else, did as well.

I couldn't pretend that I didn't know what he was doing when he left the room at night. It would happen once, maybe twice a week. He would drag me into his room, waving goodbye to Arthur, and make me sit and wait while he left. He was talking to Limatik, I was sure of it. And no matter how much I begged him to stop, he wouldn't. He said it was a matter of my safety.

Going alongside Gilbert's nighttime excursions, I could not shake the feeling that Heracles knew all about them. He would pull Gilbert aside and speak to him in that calm, almost sleepy way of his, every now and again frowning, shaking his head, continuing to speak. Every time Gilbert walked away in a huff, fingers curled into his palms and his arms shaking. He would brush me off when I tried to speak to him. Soon, this became common.

We were caught in time, suspended in the consistent schedule of our day to day lives. I watched friendships grow – especially that of Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio. I watched people fall in and out of love – Alfred and Arthur were perpetually on again, off again. I became in tune to the inner workings of the other mutties, the way everyone learned how to position themselves just so that the cameras could not pick up on their relationships. Relationships were a necessary part of keeping sane when you were trapped in such a way. But they were dangerous.

Every now and again the creepers liked to grab a random muttie and use them for an example. Punishments were brutal and obviously meant to break whoever they were used against. If it was known that you were seeing someone, that knowledge was used to its greatest capacity.

Yet still, everything was calm. Nothing changed. No one new came in. No one new, that is, until eight weeks into my stay.

Everyone could hear Heracles' mutterings before meetings began. "He's parted ways with the Sensory…" "How could they lose him again?" "We are running out of time…" Strangely enough, he often looked at me when he was talking, frowning. The person he talked to about it all, however, was Natalya, an Enhanced agility muttie who most people avoided. They would talk about this mysterious "him". When asked, Heracles would just frown and tug at his hair lightly, green eyes filled with dreams. "The fourth pillar," he would mutter. "Water."

And all of a sudden, one day he was there. Rooming with Gilbert.

I was sitting on Gilbert's bed, letting him look over a scrape I had gotten from training that day against Arthur. He had figured out my fears and even though I knew everything he set against me was an illusion, I couldn't help but duck when a snake that could swallow me whole suddenly struck above my head. I had rubbed the skin raw on my arm and it had bled a little. Gilbert's instincts when it came to me were doubled – that of a protective older brother and lover. When I got hurt, it was best just to sit there and take the scrutiny, no matter how minor the injury.

We both looked up when the door opened. The creeper pushed in the tall boy, looking almost dwarfish compared to the height of the new muttie. The newcomer shook off his guard's hand irritably and looked over the room, dull purple eyes wandering. He rocked back on his heels, then reached back to close the door before wandering to the newly added spare bed. A smile spread across his face, not quite reaching his eyes.

"Privyet," he said, voice heavily accented. "I am Ivan. Names?"

I introduced myself, then frowned at Gilbert until he did the same. There was a flash of automatic dislike in his eyes, a slight curling of his lower lip. He crossed his arms, shifting so that he was slightly in front of me. "You're water." I suppose it might have been a question. It sounded more like a demand.

Ivan chuckled – a weird sort of laugh, like in the way that Gilbert's was weird except… Sinister. He nodded, smile broadening. "Da. And you are fire. Will be fun."

Gilbert scoffed, rolling over and laying down, glaring over at the wall and muttering something about not asking for a roommate. Slowly, I laid down beside him and rested my head on his chest.

That night I fell asleep listening to Gilbert's heartbeat and the chatter of Ivan talking about his home in Russia that he left as a young child and asking almost timid questions about his sister, Natalya.

It was just before I drifted off fully that I realized that this meant that Heracles' "fourth pillar" had arrived. Things would be happening now. And it scared me.

II.

If there was one thing that Gilbert did not want, it was a roommate. Especially a water Elemental. A creepy, Russian, water Elemental. That would not shut up when it was time for sleep and he was trying to cuddle his Roderich. That happened to be the brother that the equally creepy little Enhanced girl was always saying would come to kill them all. Honestly, he could see no upside to this scenario whatsoever.

What he could tell was that everyone else was interested in his roommate. Well. Limatik was more interested in what Heracles needed with the guy. No one really knew what that was, though. Gilbert didn't really care. He just needed to keep Roderich safe. That was it.

When silence finally took over the room, Gilbert slowly looked over at the other bed. Ivan was just frowning now, staring up at the ceiling. Odd, considering all the cheerful chatter that had been going on. Cheerful chatter after getting captured and put into what was practically a cell. Gilbert liked to think of himself as a bit of an optimist, usually – not that he had been given much reason to be – but even that was a bit strange.

After another moment filled by frowning, Gilbert sighed, fingers running through Roderich's hair. "Don't get used to me asking, but, what's wrong?"

Ivan blinked, then looked over at Gilbert, a smile quickly appearing again. "Oh, just remembering something strange. A dream. Saying that I had to be caught. It was… Necessary? Is that the word?" He shrugged, looking back up at the ceiling. "Didn't really want to. But when a dream from the netherworld is calling you to do so, you don't argue."

Gilbert paused, his petting of his brother's hair faltering for a moment. Slowly, he frowned, then got out of bed, making for the door. He hesitated, looking back at Roderich, before turning to fix Ivan with a glare.

"I've gotten stuck with you. But I don't like water. If so much as one hair is out of place on him when I get back, I will stick a flame up your ass."

Ivan laughed and waved his hand dismissively. "I am too tired now. Don't fear."

Another moment of mistrustful staring passed, then Gilbert was out of the room, walking down the hall and sneaking around till he stood in the bathroom, arms crossed, tapping his foot.

He didn't have to wait long before Heracles came, flanked by Sadik as always. Marching over to them, Gilbert stared down the Dreamer, red eyes narrowed. "You brought him here."

Heracles shrugged and nodded, going to sit down on the edge of a sink. "I did. I brought lots of people here. You, Ludwig, Antonio, Arthur, Francis, Elizabeta… They never would have caught any of you without my help."

"Tch…" Gilbert looked down at the ground, frowning. "You know, if I wasn't so pissed, I would tell you how unawesome that is. Well. I just did anyway. Nevermind." He looked back up at Heracles, eyes flashing. "In case you couldn't tell, I really don't like you right now."

"I don't think you ever did." Heracles smiled pleasantly over at Gilbert. "And you really aren't that angry. You just found out that I can tamper with other people's dreams. I'm a Dreamer. Dreams are my element. No, what you want is information. Information to help your misguided attempt to save Roderich's life."

Gilbert's eye twitched and he looked away. "You're wrong. And even if you were right, it isn't misguided. I've always looked out for my brother. That's what I'm doing."

"You are dealing with a Parasite." Getting off the sink, Heracles moved over to Gilbert. "Parasites dwell in the art of manipulation. They feed off the bodies that others used to inhabit. Many have lived for centuries by passing themselves from host to host to host. They kill off the person living inside the body's shell and keep the corpse functioning as it should for as long as they can, stuck in the point of life that the original person had died at. And when that body dies, they find another."

"As cool as that is, it's not true. That's impossible. It goes passed mutation. It's a fantasy story in our world of science fiction." Gilbert shook his head, staring at Heracles in front of him.

"I wish it was fantasy…" Heracles murmured, eyes growing faraway for a moment. He shook the vision off and fixed Gilbert with a stare. "You are dealing with Limatik. He is the oldest of the Parasites. His claim to fame is that he killed his own brother to take his first host. From this, he grew attached to having young, Sensory gifted bodies. He has said to you that if you go along with my plan, Roderich will not come out alive. The truth is that if you don't help me, he will take Roderich's body for his own."

For a moment, Gilbert felt as if he couldn't breathe. He slowly shook his head, frowning. "That isn't possible. And really, the mental image is disgusting."

"It is. And it is all true. So either you are going to play nice with the water and help me get everyone out of here… Or everyone will stay stuck behind these walls and you will get to watch your lover be killed and taken over by a monster."

Gilbert stepped back, looking around at the other two. "You never gave anything straight…" he murmured. "I didn't realize that was because when you did, you were crazy."

Frowning, Heracles shook his head. "Please. Listen. You're the third pillar. You need to…"

"I don't care about your goddamn pillars!" Gilbert's eyes flashed and he put a shaking hand on the door. "I just care about my brother. And you say that you are trying to help everyone. But obviously you don't care about him!" He tore open the door and rushed back to his bedroom.

Keeping a safe distance from a certain sleeping Russian, Gilbert dove into his bed and pulled Roderich back into his arms. His red eyes smoldered and he curled his fingers into the other's shirt. "You're safe, Roddy…" he murmured. "That's all that matters."

III.

Outside the creeper's base, a boy sat. He didn't hide in the bushes or watch from a safe distance. No, he sat at the front entrance, hands folded on his lap, blinking behind rounded glasses. Every now and again creeper passed by him, coming off of their shifts. He found it odd to see them walking by in jeans and t-shirts, some male with close-cropped hair, some female with ponytails or braids.

He sat right by the door, watching all of the comings and goings. Nothing escaped his notice. But no one saw him.

After a while, he got to his feet and waited for the door to open. As one creeper left the building, he stepped inside, worrying his lip and running a hand through his blonde hair. He wandered over to where he knew the break room was, one of the few rooms without cameras, and made himself a cup of hot chocolate. When a creeper came in, he sat in the corner and sipped at the cup.

Still, no one saw him or the cup and he drank in peace, defrosting from the cold winter outside. He had been in worse weather, of course.

As he drank, he watched the clock. It was nearly midnight and most of the residents would be asleep. No one should bump into him when he wandered the halls.

At midnight exactly, he left the room. Walking down the halls, he peeked into several bedrooms, checking in on old friends and acquaintances. Eventually he made it to the men's restroom and, with a sigh, let himself relax. He winked into sight and glanced around, then shrugged and leaned against the wall.

Eventually Heracles came in to join him, a slight smile around his lips. "You did make it."

The boy rolled his shoulders and tapped his head. "You called."

"And you are always on time, Matthew…" Heracles glanced around, then sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "Things are getting twisted. The timelines are almost unable to be saved. You've always been a wild card… Can I count on your help?"

Matthew looked down at his hands, then nodded. "I'm getting Al out of here, Heracles. We are all getting out of here. And we are going to fix this world that hates us so much."

"So, whatever I need you to do?" Heracles' voice was lightly probing, peering at Matthew as he spoke.

Looking up, the blonde smiled and nodded. "Will get done. It's good to see you out and about, so you know."

Laughing quietly, Heracles nodded, heading back for the door. "Oh, we've known each other for quite some time now, Matthew. You knew they couldn't keep me chained to a wall forever. Stick close."

Matthew inclined his head, winking out of sight again. "I always am," came the whispered response.

End: Chapter Ten

Well. This took a bit longer than expected. But it is the longest chapter so far, I believe. And it introduces two more characters. Yay? But I'm ashamed to say that there is no chance of this being finished over the summer. I have so much planned out. I've got a lot in store for you, my dear readers, if you will stick with me.

Status update? My word document is now 63 pages and nearly 30,000 words.

Answering some questions in the reviews... Since I don't believe it will come up in the story, I will tell you that Limatik's host body is that of Egypt. For those asking about Ludwig - he will have a larger part, I promise.

So. Until next time... Less than three. Please review!