The wait was a bit painful. Genesis sat alone in his office trying to do his paperwork without much success. When the tiny print on the papers started to float off the page and perform little cartwheels in the air in front of him, he set them down with a sigh. Then he sat back against his chair and let out a larger sigh, expressing his anguish to the ceiling.
Scratch that. It was excruciating. Genesis swore the clock hanging on the far side of the wall was ticking slower for the sole purpose of tormenting him. Sundays were the days when they got off work early, but it was still far too long of a wait when he could feel the strange summon materia in his pocket. He fished it out and inspected it again, for the umpteenth time over the past three days.
Holding it above his head, he spun in his swivel chair and admired how the translucent red of the orb caught the light and distributed it all throughout, so that it gave off a little glow and reflected off his fingers.
He glanced at the clock. It read 11:52 hours and he decided that it was close enough to noon that he could just go now.
"Genesis," Sephiroth greeted him when they all met up together at the train station.
"Good afternoon." Genesis, the silver-haired man noted, looked close to bouncing in excitement, which was a decidedly not-Genesis thing to do. Bouncing was Zack's specialty. "Did you bring-?"
"Got them." Zack lifted the flap of the small satchel he had slung over one shoulder, allowing them to catch a glimpse of metal restraints, among other things. He fastened the bag again, and patted it. "Mako-infused, SOLDIER-proof, industrial steel, even Sephiroth won't be able to break these bad boys."
They also had their weapons, including materia and spare potions just in case. After being caught off guard in the training room, they were determined not to let it happen again, lest something major happen this time. Having determined they were each properly prepared, Angeal nodded. "Alright, let's get a move on."
They arrived at lower plate, then went by foot to the outer edges of Midgar's slums, where human civilization dwindled to nothing and low-grade monsters became more frequent. It was a dilapidated warehouse they chose in the end, having a large open area with little obstacles but enclosed so it would hopefully deter any attempts to run away.
It got quiet when Genesis took out the materia and prepared to summon. He glanced at his company, seeing Angeal and Sephiroth nod, settling into defensible positions, and Zack give him a grin and heft his sword. Genesis looked back down at the materia sitting harmlessly in his grasp. He recalled the five minutes of pure destruction it released, breathed in, and gathered his magic.
This time, for whatever reason, it was much easier to activate the summon materia. Genesis hardly needed more than a strong yank at it before there was a faint pop of air in each of their ears, and the white-haired boy from before appeared before their eyes.
There was a moment of silence, then the boy blinked. And chaos assumed.
"Get it under control!" Genesis yelled, backpedalling to avoid a lightning bolt. He cringed and drew his crimson sword. When Sephiroth surged past him like a great gust of wind and engaged the summon, and he hastily tacked on, "Be careful, for goodness sake!"
Masamune sang in the air, too fast for anyone not enhanced to follow but the summon met Sephiroth straight-on. The air exploded at the moment of impact, a cloud of brilliant white-blue electricity surrounding them, the summon's feral claws making metallic screeches against the damascus steel blade. It sounded like the warehouse was suddenly filled with a thousand chirping birds.
The summon kicked off the sword, flipped once in the air and landed before launching at Sephiroth in a single smooth movement, the ground at its feet splintering under the sheer amount of power exerted upon it. Sephiroth's hair was floating in the air from the static electricity, and the General stepped back as he raised his odachi to receive the incoming attack, but this time it was Angeal who intercepted the berserk summon. Following close behind him was Zack, wielding his sword in one hand and the shackles in the other.
Hesitating, the summon seemed to realize the disadvantage, being outnumbered one to four, because it suddenly looked uncertain, and a tad fearful. Zack gasped, while Angeal and Genesis's eyes widened and Sephiroth just blinked in surprise. Because that was the thing.
Summons don't make expressions. Emotions simply weren't part of their natural capacities. Technically, they were more of beings or deities, of creatures and concepts than any other sort. Emotions were a human thing. Zack's eyes went big, then narrowed in abrupt speculation, then widened again as he was brought back to the present, and the glowing electric boy about to run him over.
"Holy moly!" Zack dove for the ground, feeling the charged energy surrounding the boy brush just past his clothes. He rolled with his landing, coming up crouched on his feet, and he exclaimed again, "Ohmygosh, Angeal!"
"What!" Angeal grabbed the handcuffs from the air where Zack had thrown it to him. Now Sephiroth and Genesis were both engaged with the summon, and he was watching them closely.
"I think that's a human!" Zack flailed his arms, feeling incredibly excited and shocked simultaneously. "I really, really think he's human!"
"What!?" And it was just after the word left his tongue that Angeal spotted the opening he was waiting for and he rushed forward.
Angeal grabbed the summon's wrist and it literally felt like he'd just grabbed the wrong end of one of those Turk electric rods set to max level. Surprised, he wasn't prepared for the elbow to his face (that definitely broke his nose), and the swift cuff to his ear that followed it.
Grunting more out of surprise than pain, Angeal ducked and rolled to the ground to avoid any more incoming attacks. Then, through watering eyes, he caught the sight of bare feet and decided to improvise. He reached out and felt another jarring shock wrack through his body but he gritted his teeth and managed to successfully slap the handcuffs on both slender ankles just in time. Then he got blasted several feet off the ground. He saw stars when he was kicked in the gut, and let out another strained 'oof'. That probably broke a few ribs.
Genesis shrieked (later, he would deny ever doing such a thing), almost giddy despite himself that they've finally managed to take at least one step towards containing the summon, already going for his green materia. "Angeal!"
The aforementioned man groaned as he felt Genesis's Curaga settle over him. He hastily fumbled to yank his nose straight before it could heal crooked and the broken bones in his chest mended themselves and popped back into place.
There was a short cry as the summon took two steps and tripped, the chain connecting the handcuffs much too short. Recovering fast and rolling upright again, it leapt backwards to get some distance, then wobbled precariously upon landing. Looking a bit annoyed, the summon jerked at the metal, but faltered when efforts to break the chain proved unfruitful.
With the summon's legs restrained and pretty much handicapped, they were able to back it into a corner, but couldn't venture any more than a few yards without being shocked with volts of lightning. For all that SOLDIER durability was, even a First class couldn't withstand more than several thousand milliamps before going into cardiac arrest.
For a few seconds, the four soldiers paused and lingered, unsure of what to do next. They watched the summon press tight against the wall, as though to get as far away from them as possible. They watched the fear and flashes of panic that flickered over pale features like the little sparks that danced over its hair and skin.
The electricity slowly dwindled away, dripping out of the atmosphere like wet paint in the rain. The warehouse was deafeningly quiet once the cracklings and pops of electricity that had previously filled the entire space faded. Now they could hear the soft, rapid intakes of panicked breath coming from the summon, who, without the unearthly glow that the armor of lightning it always wrapped around itself gave off, now looked no more than a normal young boy.
One that was evidently deathly afraid and quickly veering towards terror. And one that, now that there was time to actually notice it, was definitely, unmistakably wearing the kind of white garb that belonged to medical patients. A sense of foreboding started to fill the air. They all felt it.
Killua was going to suffocate. There seemed to be something pressing down on his lungs and he couldn't use his legs anymore, and everything was so big and he was so weak, there were people and ADULTS and he didn't want to be here but he didn't want to go back to that awful, terrible nothingness-
He suddenly slammed himself back against the wall, almost cracking his head on it, when one of the people reached out a hand as if to touch him.
Zack flinched a little bit at the loud noise, and drew back slightly. He sent a helpless look to the others.
Genesis looked confused. Angeal was just as puzzled as he was concerned. And Sephiroth... he showed nothing, but seemed to be looking for something in that pale, boyish face that had twisted into something so terrified it was almost painful to see.
Killua was shaking now. His fingertips pressed hard against the cold concrete of the wall behind him, feeling all the tiny nicks and grooves weathered out of it in time but not really. He was so, so lonely and lost and where was Gon? He was supposed to be with him. (And why is everything so bright so loud so big so strong, and where am I, what's happening, who are these people, where is GON.) He was disoriented and fearful and half-crazed from emotional, mental strain (what are they going to do to me, don't let me go back, please don't make me go back to there, the terrible nothingness).
He had been watching the four SOLDIERs unblinkingly all this time, and his breath hitched, then caught in his throat as he finally registered how outnumbered he was, how disproportionate his strength was to these grown men, giants in comparison. They had him surrounded, contained in a corner, there was no escape. (They were gonna, they were gonna-!)
It was... too much. He couldn't take it anymore. His mind refused to do so, no matter what his common sense said. So he broke down. His mind broke down. Everything broke. Just fucking checked out.
Killua sank to the ground, sliding down the wall and curling up into a little ball. He wrapped his arms around and over his head and refused to look at the people in front of him anymore. Let them do what they wanted. He'd lived through worse.
(Both in this time and in his previous life, he jolted as he suddenly remembered that oh, this was his second life, that he had been reincarnated, of all things. Gon was somewhere out there in this new world- because he couldn't stand to think of the possibility that his friend hadn't been reborn with him- and they'd probably never even met yet because he'd spent the entirety of his second life in a cold, sterile laboratory filled with sharp steel and pain and death.)
"...hey," Zack stepped forward again. He seemed to have taken upon himself to comfort the distressed boy. "It's alright. We're not here to hurt you..." He edged closer to the white bundle on the ground and placed his hand on one shoulder. The moment he made contact, the boy reared up with a strangled gasp, and they all saw the resigned look on his face a half second before it morphed into something desperate and deadly.
"Zack!" Angeal didn't even have the time to take a single step towards his former student before the white-haired boy was upon him, small hands wrapped around his neck.
Killua felt something snap inside of him as soon as he was made aware of a touch on his shoulder. A silent roar filled his ears, and he jerked up, saw blue eyes looking down at him, and threw himself at his assailant. His momentum carried them both to the ground, with Killua straddling the man's chest and trying his best to choke the life out of him.
It all but lasted three seconds. All the ferocious determination abruptly fled from Killua and then he just looked dumbfounded, still desperate but with hope this time, cautious underneath all of it, because he realized this was Gon. He wrenched his hands away as if he had been burned.
Zack held a similar expression on his face, because at the moment of contact all the memories of a past life came rushing back to Zack and suddenly he knew he was Gon Freecs in another life, and he knew Killua Zoldyck. In disbelief, he propped himself on his elbows so he was looking at Killua's face, and thought to himself, yeah, this is definitely Killua- this is definitely my friend.
"Killua?" It was more of him trying out the name on his tongue than a question, but it felt just as familiar as all the times he'd said it in his previous life. Zack (Gon?) gave a small, melancholic smile.
Relief took all the air out of Killua like a punch to the lungs, leaving him breathless and struggling to speak correctly. "G-Gon."
The smile bloomed into a dazzling grin, just as bright and radiant as Killua remembered it being and he couldn't help but bask a little in it. "It's Zack now. Zack Fair."
Killua got a strange expression then. He wasn't sure what to make of calling Gon by a different name now. Before he could formulate what to say, another voice interrupted.
"Someone tell me what's going on right now."