Within Darkness

Summary: After the release of Endless, Elie awakens to find herself captured by Lucia with little hope of escape. However, the longer she remains captive, the more reality seems to bend. [Implied Haru/Elie, hints of Lucia/Elie. Old fic rewrite.]

Something, Elie thought, had gone horribly wrong.

She was certain that her eyes were open, but everything around was black - save for a single beam of dim light in the corner of the room. When she tried to move, however, it became quickly apparent that that would be out of the question entirely. Her arms were locked in place above her head, elbows bent at an uncomfortable angle, while her ankles were numb beneath her. Shifting brought the sound of metal scraping against stone.

Elie tried to remember what happened, or how she could have possibly gone from the Cavern of Star Vestige to whatever this dark room was. "H-Haru?!" she cried, voice weak. "Musica!" The words reverberated around the room.

Nothing.

Panic began rising in her throat like bile, and she struggled slightly against the shackles as she tried to stand up. "Griff! Plue! Haru!" With each name, her voice grew a little more desperate, accentuated with the clang of metal as she fought against it. "Haru!"

Finally, she heard a dull thud somewhere in the distance. Elie froze, breathing still coming in heavy pants. She strained to hear more, only picking up the slight click of boots against stone growing louder. "H-hello?!" she cried, back arching as she pulled on the shackles. "Someone, please!" Elie was not necessarily a stranger to finding herself in bad situations, but this felt different. This all felt wrong, somehow.

The person approaching stopped, and she saw a shadow appear where once there had been light. Her only warning was a soft click before the door was flung open, bringing along a blinding light. Elie recoiled away from it, feeling her eyes burn at the sensation. More footsteps, and then the door was shut again, leaving only fireworks in her vision. "Wh-who -?" she started to say, but a gloved hand grabbed her cheek.

"Hello, child of Etherion."

Chills went down her back, and Elie jerked her head free of Lucia's grip, still struggling to see properly. "What did you do to my friends?!" she demanded instead, squinting up at him. His figure looked less bulky than she remembered seeing, but he still towered over her menacingly, silhouette just as intimidating as ever. "Where are they?!"

"I assure you, I don't know," Lucia laughed. "Nor do I care. I have what I want now."

A single heartbeat was all it took for Elie to realize what he meant. He had her. Somehow, he had managed to snatch her away from the others and bring her to this horrible place.

Lucia laughed, and she bit down on her bottom lip to keep it from quivering. "I assume they're recovering, but I didn't stay to watch once you were secured in my chariot," he added, stepping closer. Elie pressed herself against the wall, but it was useless. "Now, I have a question for you, Elie. What do you know about Endless?"

He had leaned in close enough that she could make out the shape of his scar beneath his eye, and Elie had to resist the urge to spit in his face. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said instead. A hard darted out from the dark, once more grabbing her cheeks to keep her face steady.

"You called him the 'King of Stellar Memories.' Tell me what that means."

All she could do was glare at him, cheeks pressed together enough that she wouldn't be able to form a coherent string of words. "I don't know," she managed when it became apparent that he would wait for an answer regardless. Elie watched as his eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint taking over what had been mild amusement.

"Lies."

The hand on her jaw disappeared and was replaced quickly with a jab to her stomach. Elie guffawed and fell forward, clenching her teeth in pain. "Tell me the truth!" he snapped, grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking her head up. "You are the one who named him! Tell me what you know!" He reared his arm back again, and for a second, she was certain she saw the shimmer of a blade in the darkness.

"I don't know anything!" Elie cried frantically, shaking her head. "I - I don't remember anything after that weird light!" The distinct whistle of a blade through air only lasted a second before Elie felt her side erupt in pain. She cried out, warm blood coating her side. "I'm telling the truth!" she tried, voice broken by ragged breathing and frantic sobs. Lucia's hand gripped her jaw again, jerking her head towards him a little.

He held her like that for what felt like an entire lifetime, yellow eyes glinting between hers as he searched for some sort of proof that she was being honest. Hot tears burned down her cheeks while she stared back, trying her best to muster up a glare. When he finally released her, Elie slumped down a little in her binds, elbows straining under the strange new position. "Very well," Lucia said, stepping away. "I was hoping you would be more agreeable given your circumstances, but I can find my answers elsewhere." Elie managed to lift her head, feeling a bit light headed after everything. "I suggest you make yourself comfortable, as you might be here for quite a while. Until, of course, you can learn to respect me for the King that I am." He paused, and then she heard a soft chuckle. "Don't worry, I'll try to remember to come down and visit occasionally."

Elie watched as light burst into the room once more, door slamming shut behind him. For a few seconds, she couldn't look away from it, eyes building in her eyes. He was just going to leave her down here? With her side slashed open?

She managed to maneuver around a bit, angling her body a bit to get a better view of her side. The cut wasn't particularly deep from what she could see, but it would be awkward trying to heal if she wasn't able to sit down. Judging by the length of the chains holding her arms up, Elie guessed that sitting down was probably not much of an option.

More bile threatened to rise in her throat - Lucia had left her down here in the dark, with an injury, knowing that she would have no choice but to dangle by her wrists when she wanted to rest.

"H-Haru," she gasped, not bothering to stop the tears as they fell freely once more. Her captor hadn't given her much information about her friends, though she had to assume Haru was alive if Lucia was worried he would cause trouble for him. There was no doubt in her mind that Haru and the others would come for her. She would just need to be patient. But as she sobbed and felt pricks of pain up and down her side from the movements, Elie wasn't sure if she would be able to hold out long enough for them to find her.

Did they have any idea where Lucia was? King had destroyed the original Demon Card castle, that much she remembered, so where was Lucia's base? Had he built a new one? Taken one over? Elie had no idea, and she couldn't be sure the others would find any better clues.

For now, she would simply have to hold onto the faith that Haru would not leave her here. He'd come for her as soon as he could, and he would rescue her. Elie was certain of that. It was Haru, he always found a way to find her. In the meantime, she would do her best to stay strong and not let their greatest enemy shatter her spirit. Whatever it was he needed Etherion for would be useless if she was too weak to properly control it - assuming her first attempt didn't break apart the timestream or something outrageous.

There must be more to his plan, Elie realized. He must realize that if she got truly desperate, she could theoretically fight her way out of here. He had not fixed any sort of magic breaker to her as far as she could tell - did he think she wouldn't use it out of fear? A safe bet, certainly, but Elie had been reading up on magic use. She did her breathing exercises before bed and immediately after waking up, she had learned to meditate and feel Etherion within her. Sure, she hadn't really attempted to use it herself beyond a few accidents while they helped Celia, but that didn't mean she couldn't use it.

If she was careful, she could break herself out of here before Haru and the others had the chance to save her. Give Lucia a reason to drop his smug little smirks next time he came down to torture her.

A shiver went down her back, and Elie forced herself to take a slow breath. He wasn't going to kill her. Whatever his plan was, he needed Etherion, which meant he also needed her alive and capable of using it.

His arrogance would be his downfall.

Elie wasn't sure how much time she spent meditating, trying to block out the throbbing of her wrists or the stinging pain in her side. It was difficult to relax enough, but with a plethora of steady breaths, she was able to lull herself into something resembling calm. It wasn't much, Elie knew that, but at least it would keep her head clear to formulate a plan. Once she was feeling a little stronger, she could try playing around with tiny amounts of Etherion, see if she could at least break the chain keeping her arms up.

It felt good, having a plan in place. It wasn't a great plan, of course, but it was something. She'd certainly had worse plans that worked out well enough. Elie closed her eyes again, letting her thoughts drift to her friends.

Were they alright? How much time had passed since Lucia stole her away? She had so many questions, and no one around to ask. Lucia didn't seem likely to answer anything, and Elie doubted that he'd be letting the guards speak much to her when they came down to deliver food. If they came down to deliver food. Elie felt her stomach rumble a little at the thought, hanging her head.

Wouldn't that be just her luck, Lucia keeping her in a state of starvation to keep her too weak to fight back?

Elie lifted her head again, leaning back until it rested on the stone behind her. There was no point worrying about that, she told herself. Food or no food, she would need to stay strong and keep herself focused on controlling Etherion. If Lucia caught onto what she was doing before she could properly escape, there was nothing stopping him from using the Decalogue version of Rune Save to seal her magic behind another seal like Haru had. Or worse, depending on how far along in the escape plan she was. Another shiver went down her back, and Elie sighed.

This would be difficult. But Haru had taught her the importance of not giving up. He was waiting for her now, and there was no way she was going to just hang around and let Lucia use her as his own private punching bag.

She just needed to stay strong, Elie told herself. She repeated it again and again, trying to will it into existence through repetition. It wasn't much, but it was enough of a thread to cling to in the dark.

Author's Note: Hello hello everyone! As you can probably see, I have decided to continue reworking my old stories! This one, especially, is one that I have really wanted to explore and, honestly, I don't know if I did it justice during its' initial run. So, here we are! I won't try to stick to an update schedule, but I do have the entirety of the story planned out, so please look forward to seeing more! Thank you for reading, and please leave a comment if you enjoyed it!