Chapter Thirty-four – Inside the walls
For all that it was supposedly the hideout for a psychotic organization that kidnapped and traumatised children, the NOAH building didn't look anything like Kanda had thought it would. That was new, he supposed, seeing as how everything else had played out like a B-rate horror movie thus far. He could work with this.
Rather than being a collective of empty warehouses or abandoned structures that loomed large and ominous like secret hideouts should – according to detective fiction and Kanda's previous experiences with the crazy shit that seemed to plague Allen's life – it was a building of smooth gliding white stone and windowless walls, a large metal shutter in the front. A clean looking storage warehouse that stretched easily and lazily backwards with a bowling alley on one side and rail tracks cutting deep through scrubland on the right, a residential housing development program on the settled next to it.
It was disturbingly normal and Kanda shot Komui a sceptical look from the corner of his eye.
"It doesn't look like the evil lair of an infamous crime organization," Lavi observed by his side.
"They're not an infamous crime organization," Komui said exasperatedly. "They're…"
"Evil," Kanda supplied. "And into human traffic and genetic experimentation. You know what we usually call that? Crime. You know what a fucked up governed body is usually called? An Organization."
"Or a government," Lavi added absently as he squatted down to run his fingers over the asphalt road beneath his feet. "It's all new." He said. "This place can't be much more than a year past finished construction. Two tops. I'd say eighteen months, probably."
Lenalee wrinkled her brow and squatted down next to him, gently folding her skirt into her knees as she did so. "How can you tell?"
"The road doesn't look very worn out, does it?" Lavi smiled grimly. "Barely any tire marks here. Still pretty neat and tidy."
"The bowling alley isn't open," Kanda added. He didn't know why that struck him as strange. It was getting late in the evening now; the sky was cresting a deep blue that verged on purple. It wasn't unusual that businesses should be closed.
Komui shot him a look and trotted over to it, the sound of gravel crunching beneath his feet loud and unnerving in the quiet of the evening. Kanda followed after him as he mounted the steps, trying hard to calm the sense of danger thrumming through him that made his hair stand on end.
Everything was calm and innocent and devoid of any kind of bloodshed – but it all just felt so wrong.
There was dust on the bowling alley doorhandle and the blinds were drawn tight over the windows. Kanda peered in through a snip of clear glass on the panel doorway and what he saw was a room of shuttered shapes and shadows. The interior looked empty but for furniture covered in dirty cloth.
"I don't know when the last time this place was open might have been," Komui remarked dryly, "but something tells me it probably wasn't recently."
"Guys!" Lavi called as he jogged over, frowning deeply. He jerked a thumb over to the tidy looking residential development behind the rail tracks. "It's all empty. The bare bones of construction are finished but it doesn't look like anybody ever moved in."
"They've gone to a lot of trouble to maintain this illusion of normalcy," Lenalee breathed. "Buildings that have been built but never used, businesses that exist for the purpose of display… it's all a sham to keep anyone from looking to close."
It was clever, Kanda had to admit; dangerously clever. If this was the kind of effort NOAH went to to cover their tracks, it was no wonder Allen talked about them with such caution in his voice.
"This is ridiculous," he said flatly. "I didn't come here to play at noir style drama; I came here to find the fucking Beansprout and drag his sorry ass back." He turned to Komui. "This is fair warning; if you don't have some kind of semblance of a plan in the next three minutes, I'm busting in that warehouse regardless of what I'll find."
"Kanda," Komui sighed. "Why are you always so impatient? Just… Just wait a moment. If you go running in alone and uninformed all you're doing is escalating the situation."
Kanda growled and shifted slightly where he stood. He felt like he had too much energy coiled up tight beneath his skin, like it would unwind and choke him at any moment. "If you don't have a counter offer, I'm doing it anyway. I don't care how it fucking inconveniences you."
"I don't want anyone to approach the building," Lavi said, taking control of the situation easily. "Not until I can figure out if there are any security cameras outside. If there's not, we'll do a sweep to see if there are other entrances and exits and if not – well, I guess I'll have to think of something." Lavi grimaced. "I could try hacking into their feed but real life isn't like the movies and that's easier said than done no matter what age I qualified for Mensa at."
Kanda snorted. "So what then? We just stand here?"
Lavi grinned. "No, we stand here – you can go scope for cameras. You've got good eyes and good instincts Yu-chan – if anybody can figure out if there's security cameras without getting close enough to be caught it'd be you."
oOo_oOo_oOo
The building was massive enough that it took Kanda a good few minutes to inch around the rear of it.
Lavi had been right. There were security cameras tucked just under the over sprawl of the roof. They didn't look quite right though – nothing like the fancy things he'd been expecting. The building was new enough that they'd only had time to install a rudimentary security perimeter, nothing up to their usual standard.
The NOAH weren't slipping, exactly, but whatever Marian Cross has been doing to them had pushed them to the edge of a desperation they weren't willing to admit.
"So, what's the verdict?" Lavi asked when Kanda ran back over. "Go? No go? Wait for Solid Snake to give us a hand?"
"There's a door and some windows, but there are cameras," he panted, "but not good ones. If you can find me some rocks I could probably knock their fucking wires loose without much trouble."
"That defeats the purpose though," Lenalee frowned. "Then they'll know that we're here."
"Chances are," Komui cut in, "they already know that we're here." He looked uneasy and Kanda noticed the way his thumb was rubbing over the screen of his phone in a nervous tick.
"You don't think we can do anything still, do you?" Kanda accused.
Komui sighed and suddenly he looked very old. "Kanda, the only reason you're here right now is because you would have been whether I said yes or no and I'm not quite at that point in my life where I feel comfortable physically restraining children." The implication was unsaid but clear; Komui didn't want to be anything like the NOAH. "I've allowed that you can help but that's only because…" He hesitated.
"Because?" Lenalee prodded, setting one hand on his arm. "Brother, what is it."
Komui closed his eyes. "There is no guarantee what state we'll find Allen in. His been the NOAH's pet project for so long and he's had so much happen to him – but we can only understand the surface of it all. The truth is when we find Allen it… it might not be Allen we find."
The words were out of Kanda's mouth before he could stop them, flying loose from between his lips as his stomach lurching sickeningly. "You're talking about the fourteenth, aren't you?" It wasn't a question, although Kanda desperately wanted it to be. "You think… you think they're trying to turn him into someone else."
"The NOAH use a combination of drugs and mind games on their subjects." Komui's mouth was a grim line. "They pump them full of so many psychedelics and personality inhibiters that most of the time their bodies just give out on them. They brainwash them in the most horrible of ways. They keep on at it until something gives, until their minds begin to slip beneath the drugs and the therapy and another personality develops."
"And Allen's mind is giving," Lavi summarised.
"It's been on the verge of giving for a long time," Komui said softly. "Marian – despite what you all may think – Marian was helping him get better. Eventually, he might have healed. But these wounds were still fresh and this isn't the kind of trauma you just recover from. For Allen, right now his mind is so very vulnerable to the NOAH's influence."
Every beat of Kanda's heart felt like a mini explosion going off in his chest. He wondered if this was how Allen felt every day – one more heartbeat away from disaster. "You brought us along because you need us to pull Allen back," Kanda said, and each word was like acid as it left his mouth. "Because you and Cross can't do it… Because he might not make it out of there himself."
Komui smiled sadly. "The reality of this situation is for all our connections and power, Marian and I are useless to save Allen. At this point, we can bring the NOAH down. That we can do. But the rest? It's sad, but all us grownups can do is depend on you children."
"What do we do?" Lenalee asked, her fingers tight on her brother's arm. "What do we do? We're just buying time right? For you and Marian and how ever else you have on your beck and call to swoop in and take NOAH down. But the longer we wait for that, the slimmer the chances of getting Allen back are."
"It's a catch twenty-two," Lavi said. "Either way we lose."
Komui smiled. "You're not listening to me. Since when did I ever say we weren't going to do anything? That we'd just wait here for the cavalry to arrive?"
"We wouldn't have anyway," Kanda growled.
"I know," Komui said fondly, and reached out to mess Kanda's hair. "God, do I know."
oOo_oOo_oOo
For all that people thought of Lenalee, they never realized that she was impeccable under pressure.
Kanda actually winced at the splinter of sparks as her rock collided heavily with the wires tucked behind a secret camera near the back window. Beside him Lavi let out a low whistle. "I will marry her one day," he said softly.
Kanda snorted. "Good luck with that."
Lenalee skipped another stone in her hand and after a moment of aiming tossed it at the next camera. That one went out in a flutter of colour as well. The one after that stood no chance either.
"How long until someone come out here and stops her, do you think?" Kanda asked. "Or are they as useless as they are fucked up?"
Lavi's eyes flickered to the windows even though it was difficult to get a proper view with the way they were crouched behind the bowling alley wall. "Not much longer. They needed to make sure she actually meant business before trying anything."
"Come on out you bloody wankers," Lenalee shrieked in a brilliant impersonation of British slang she could have only picked up from one person. It was good to see that even with Allen locked tight and secure away from them, the evidence of him couldn't be so easily erased.
Kanda gritted his teeth. "This is ridiculous. I can't believe we're fucking doing this."
"I know," Lavi said, and his hands were white knuckled against his thighs. "But she's the only person who can do this."
("It's got to be me, doesn't it?"
"What, shut the fuck up. Nobody said that."
"It's true though, isn't it Lavi? Brother can't do it because he's the only contact we have with Cross and the others, you can't do it, Lavi, because you're the smart one. You're the one who needs to make up the plans on the fly. And, well, obviously Kanda can't." She smiled. "He's our best chance at pulling Allen back."
"No," Kanda growled. "No we're not doing this. We have no idea what'll happen when they catch her. Absolutely not." He looked at Komui for support, but for once the man was silent.
"They won't have time to do anything more than lock her up," Lavi said. "She'll be fine if we're quick."
"And besides," Lenale said before Kanda could even say anything else. "If you're not quick we'll have lost Allen anyway and then what's the point in worrying about me at all?")
Lenalee tossed another stone – this time at the largest of the windows dead centre beneath the rows of broken security cameras. The window shattered on impact in an explosion of glass.
The door to the left of the windows burst open with a loud clatter and Lavi and Kanda only caught the briefest glimpse of two strangers in suits striding forward to grab Lenalee by her arm.
They weren't NOAH – that much was obvious, not in the same way that Tyki and Rhode were NOAH.
Lenalee's shouts tapered off as they dragged her towards the door where another man was waiting, guns holstered at all their hips as they hauled her over the threshold and slammed the door shut.
The whole thing took less than a minute and went exactly according to plan.
Kanda shuddered in a deep breath and went to launch himself out from where he hid only to have Lavi's hand grab his shoulder and yank him violently enough back that the injuries that hadn't yet healed flared up angrily.
"Not yet," he hissed. "They might still be watching."
Kanda shot him an icy glare. "The longer we wait, the longer Allen is in there."
Lavi's expression was nothing but calm. "I know it kills you to have to stay here like this, but just wait. Two minutes; that's all."
Kanda closed his eyes to contain the angry snarl rising like a dragon for blood and settled himself back against the wall. "Two minutes," he said vehemently. "Then I'm going in whether you come with me or not."
"I wouldn't expect anything else," Lavi said.
A minute dragged by – agonizing and slow – and then another few seconds.
The sound of glass crunching loudly on tiles echoed over from the building and whoever had been lurking just behind the shattered window finally strode away down the hall.
Lavi let out a breath. "They needed to make sure," he said, but Kanda was already swinging angrily out from behind the wall and sprinting as fast as he could manage back to the building, his ankle rolling painfully with each silent footstep.
"Jesus fuck," Lavi grunted as he chased after him.
The window Lenalee had smashed was large enough for Kanda to climb on the sill without trouble, pausing to look at the patterns of sprayed glass beneath it for a moment before choosing a clear spot to land in.
Lavi was equally silent as he climbed in after him.
They were standing in a hallway – no doors on the wall and only one of two directions to go. Kanda shot Lavi a look. "What now, genius?" He hissed.
"The opposite direction they took Lenalee," Lavi said, quick as a whip. "They'd keep them as far apart as possible." Without another word he took off to the left and away from where they'd heard the crunching of shattered glass beneath heavy boots.
The wall whizzed by them in a steady spray of whiteness and when they finally reached the end where it opened off in a T Lavi shot at an arm our before Kanda could pick a direction at random, winding him in the progress.
"I swear you want to fucking die," he grunted, grasping weakly at Lavi's arm with one hand and his chest with the other. "I'll do it I swear. Nobody will find the body."
"Will you shut up?" Lavi snapped. "I'm trying to figure out where to go from here."
Kanda rolled his eyes. "For god sakes, stop being a drama queen," he snarled, before grabbing Lavi's arm and turning down the left – if ever in doubt it was always the left.
The fact that Lavi didn't even argue with him showed Kanda just how fucking out of their depth they were here.
They passed by several doors, all of which opened to empty rooms devoid of any kind of furniture or person. The first door they'd tried they'd gone for subtlety, but after the sixth Kanda just took to flinging them open and hoping nobody had a gun.
"He can't be far," Lavi murmured. "They would want to keep him as close to the centre of the building as possible – an even amount away from threats at all sides. We're nearly there, just keep going."
Kanda did, turning yet another corner – everything looked the same, white and beige and smelling of sickly chemicals – to see another scattering of doors and he almost exploded from frustration.
They were taking too long. They didn't have the time to check every room they came across.
The echoing groan from Lavi at his side told him he wasn't the only person to realize this.
Kanda closed his eyes for a second. Just pick one, he thought, don't worry about things like statistics and probability. Lavi always said you had good instincts. Use them.
"Kanda?" Lavi asked. "Kanda what are you –."
Kanda's eyes flew open and without pausing to explain how he knew but didn't know, he picked the third door on the left and flung it open so hard the frame shuddered.
It was as empty as the rest of the room they'd past so far – except for the single chair sitting dead centre with none other than Allen Walker in it.
The breath rushed out of Kanda all at once and his vision blacked for a moment. All the stress, the worry, the fear – all of it came rushing to a head so hard that his knees literally buckled like the maiden in a cheap love story and it was only Lavi's arms under his that held him up.
"Allen," Lavi cried. "Oh my god, do you have any clue how big this place is? Hold on a second; I've just – I'll put Kanda down while he gets his land legs back."
Kanda could hear him speaking like at a great distance and felt himself being eased so he was leaning against a wall – but all he could focus on was Allen's down turned head, the messy sprawl of his hair and the way his arms were resting thin but whole against his knees.
(something wasn't right.)
Lavi shimmied into his vision, kneeling down in front of Allen to tilt his head up and fuss – make sure he was okay. "Your wrists are bleeding, Allen, oh my god. Are you alright? Did they hurt you? Are you –."
Crack.
For a second, Kanda thought he was hearing things – that the relief of finding Allen had broken him irrevocably.
And then Lavi fell – backwards, backwards, backwards until Kanda caught the blankness of his shocked gaze and the round O of his mouth when he hit the floor in a spray of blood and fabric.
Allen was holding a gun and for the first time since they'd entered the room he lifted his head to look at him.
Kanda's breath caught.
"Hello, Kanda," The not-Allen – the fourteenth – smiled as Lavi's blood dripped slowly down the red curve of his scar. "I was starting to wonder when you'd show."
oOo_oOo_oOo
A/N: Oops. I cliff-hangered again.
Okay, so I am done with neglecting this story. I've recently hit a well of inspiration for my writing, and I can guarantee that you won't have to wait months on end for the next chapter. I swear, this time it's the real deal.
I've had so much support from readers and friends alike that I've decided to buckle down and have this story finished as soon as possible. No more unintentionally stringing you all along because I can't update for the life of me.
This story only has a few chapters left as it is. It's nearly through – and a huge thank you to everyone for reading it. I honestly don't think that anybody remains who was here from its birth – and if you are I commend you, because it's been four long years – but every single reader who has joined along the way is the reason this story exists.
Thank you so much for your support!