Welcome to 2020, everyone! To celebrate the New Year, I'm here with the Seven Days of Updates! Bit of forewarning, some of these chapters are going to be a little shorter than usual, but that's just par the course here. It's easier to work with, you know! And as oppose to years past, I actually managed to write all the chapters beforehand! Go me!b See you guys at the end of the week!
Enjoy!
"He did what?" Jason demanded, his eyes wide with surprise.
"That's what I said too," Takara said, 545 just watching the man quietly. He rubbed his face with his hands in irritation, groaning.
"This doesn't make any sense," he hissed. "Why would he just show you the exit to this damn place?"
"I figured he might be taunting me," 545 offered. "But honestly I don't know what he's playing at."
"He might know what's going on," Takara warned. "What should we do?"
"If he knows then we're already screwed," Jason said quietly. "We should just quit while we're ahead..."
"What?!" Jason looked over towards Takara as she shouted, wincing at her tone.
"If Hades knows we're planning an escape, we can kiss our chances goodbye now." He said. "There's no way he's just going to let us get out of here, it won't happen."
"If he already knows he may kill us tomorrow anyway," 545 offered. "What's the point in stopping now?"
"I haven't waited this long to get out of here just for you to tell me we're screwed now!" Takara hissed angrily, her face right up against the fence. "So Hades might know, so what?!"
"Do you actually want to escape, or commit suicide by escape attempt?" Jason asked. "Listen to me. If we go ahead with this-"
"No, you listen to me, Mr. Man With the Plan!" Takara hissed, gripping the fence angrily. "I've waited almost ten years to get out of this fucking place, I'm getting out! With or without you! 545 just delivered our answer onto our plates and we're going to ignore it?!" Jason watched her weakly before his eyes drifted back to 545, who watched him quietly still.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"I think we should try," 545 responded. "The longer we wait, the longer Hades can spend making sure we never get out. Do you want that?" Jason was silent, just running a hand through his blonde hair.
"Of course I don't," he hissed. "But if he knows..."
"If he knows then it doesn't matter what happens," 545 replied. "We either die down here, die trying to escape or escape. I know which one I prefer."
"So do I," Takara said. Both of them stared daggers into Jason, whose frown deepened.
"Fine...Fuck, fine!" He hissed. "Fine, we'll go for it. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
"Yes," 545 responded, Takara nodding. Jason sighed and cracked his knuckles, looking worried now.
"The next stage is kinda worrisome," he said. "I've never thought we'd find the Doors of Death, so I didn't think..."
"Just get out with it, Jason." Takara replied. Jason nodded solemnly.
"We need to limit how much food we eat," he said. "They lace the food with Magic Canceller so that the prisoners aren't chained up all the time. No magic, no chance of escape. We're going to need our magic to get out of here."
"So, how many days are we going without food exactly?" 545 asked.
"Depends," Jason said. "Do you want to try and escape tomorrow, or in a week?"
"What does it matter?" Takara demanded. "Let's do it tomorrow!"
"Shut up and listen!" Jason replied, silencing her. "If we do this sooner, we'll definitely not be as starved. But in that instance, we'll still have a lot of the laced food in our system. Our magic will be weaker, and thus, our chances go down. If we wait more will leave our bodies, but then we'll be starved, and weaker physically. No matter what we'll be weaker. So what should we do?"
"Depends on what else we need to do," 545 said. "What's the rest of the plan, exactly?" Jason nodded, playing with his fingers.
"The rest is simple, comparatively," he said. "We'll need to get out of our cells. In this case, what we'll need to do is swipe our guards keys when they lock us up. The cell keys are universal, so swipe whoever's. It doesn't matter. Once we can confirm we all have our keys, we can set a date to escape. Whenever that is, we meet up by the exercise yard gates. From there we make our way to the Doors of Death and get ourselves out of here."
"Yeah, sounds pretty simple." Takara muttered.
"Compared to one of us somehow finding the Doors in the first place? Yeah, it is." Jason said. "Look, on top of all of that we'll need to be even more certain of guard postings. That'll fall to us, 545, seeing as we've been here for years."
"Got it," 545 said.
"That's pretty much it," Jason said. "There's not much else that's worth noting, except make sure you don't get caught swiping a key."
"I guess that means we wait to stop eating, then." 545 said. "Or are are we not eating anymore starting now?"
"Do you want to escape sooner or later?" Jason replied. 545 and Takara looked at each other, neither of them quite sure what their answer was.
"Does it matter?" Takara asked.
"Yes," Jason said. "The guards may be dumb, but their not so dumb as to not notice their keys have been swiped. If we're going to do this, it has to be all at once or not at all. So, sooner or later? Do we escape later when we're more starved, or earlier when our magic is weaker?"
545 stopped and seriously considered their options. When she really thought about it later was probably better, as she was more in favour of fighting while starved instead of with weak magic. Even so, neither option seemed very healthy.
"I vote later," she said. "I can fight if I'm starving, but it won't be shit if my magic is too weak."
"I guess I agree with that," Takara said. "So we'll stop eating first."
"Should we wean ourselves off, or go cold turkey right out of the gate?" 545 asked.
"Probably better to stop completely," Jason said. "If Speed is the factor, anyway." Jason made a face. "So, here's what we're doing. We'll avoid eating for three days. We'll reconvene after that and make sure we're all ready to swipe keys. That night, we make our escape." The three exchanged glances, nodding to each other and departing. 545 and Takara walked away from the fence, Jason also walking away.
"You ready for this?" Takara asked. 545 nodded.
"I'm ready," she said. "Although from the sounds of it, we're not doing any sort of confirmation that we all managed to swipe keys."
"Not worth the risk," Takara replied with a frown. "If we waited and the guards found out the keys were gone, we'd be in deep shit. Better to risk one of us not making it out."
"I hope we all do," 545 said. "What do we do once we get out?"
"I dunno," Takara said. "I don't know if I want to think about that right now, don't want to get my own hopes up." That made sense. Finding something to hope about wouldn't help, especially if they got caught and didn't get out. 545 didn't know what she was going to do either. Maybe she could try and find her old home? She didn't know where to look. What was the guild called again? Fairy Tail? She could ask around and see what people knew. If they even got out near civilisation.
"Where do you think the exit leads us?" She asked, looking to Takara for an answer. From the looks of it the woman didn't have one.
"Out," she replied. "That's all I care about."
"Here's your slop, prisoner." 545 watched as the small slit in her door was opened, revealing a tray of food the guards expected her to eat. She got up off of the ground and took it, causing the slit to close on itself. She stared down at the brown goop she was expected to eat, somehow happy she wasn't going to be eating it. Taking the bottle of water off the tray, 545 walked to the hole she relieved herself in and threw the food down it. She set the tray down on the ground, already ready to hand it back to the guards.
She'd been ready to sip her water when it occurred to her the water might have been laced too. She inspected the water in the dark of her cell, but couldn't determine if it was purified or not. Deciding she would ask later, she took a sip and felt the frigid water go all the way down her throat and into her stomach. Playing with the bottle, 545 gathered her thoughts. This was the next step. By starving themselves of the Magic Canceller laced food, they could regain some of their magic power and use it in the jailbreak. 545 didn't even know if she was capable of magic, but something told her she could. Just a feeling, maybe.
"We're here"
The cell disappeared.
545 was in a forest, one she did not recognise. Whirling around in confusion, she saw two people approaching out of the forest. Upon closer, inspection, her eyes widened.
It was her. Same face, same hair, same everything. She didn't recognise the scarf she was burying her face in, but she could tell it was her. Was this a memory of hers? Who was that man? The pair approached a small pond in a clearing, stopping by it's edge.
"We are where?" The other her asked the man, who also had pink hair atop his head.
"The site of your first test, sweetheart."
"What the hell?! What kind of training is this?"
"The first and foremost part of your training is building up your internal flame. Without it, you'll constantly have to work at starting it before anything, which could prove detrimental. So, I want you to make the water boiling hot. Without using your hands, feet, whatever. Make the water good enough to cook food in."
Just as the man finished speaking the scene fractured, throwing 545 back into her cell. She looked around wildly, but nothing else appeared. She was alone again. Why did that scene, that memory, spark such a warm feeling in her heart? Who was that man?
The words he had spoken came back to 545, which seemed to be some sort of instructions to her. Deciding she had nothing to lose by trying, even if she was still weakened, 545 concentrated. She didn't really know what she was trying for, seeing as the instructions were vague, but it was worth a go anyway. Concentrating as hard as she could, 545 focused her breathing. In and out, slowly in order to relax.
Before long, she could tell that the cells's temperature was was increasing. She could tell she herself wasn't affected by it, but it was certainly getting hotter inside the cell. Looked like she was able to use Fire Magic of some kind, huh? Interesting.
Taking another deep breath, 545 opened her eyes to see the room was somewhat hazy. Not because it was another one of her weird visions, she could see the difference. The haze was coming from the steam rising off of her body. She looked down and watched the steam rise from her fingertips, getting giddy at the sight of it. She was able to use magic! Once she got giddy the power faded away, her focus broken. Deciding she would wait a bit in order to not draw any attention to her cell, 545 instead focused inward. Why had that memory popped up? That was a memory of Nashi's presumably, so she didn't know where it had come from. Had END sent it to her? That was possible, but if that was the case the demon had to reason to be telling her to let her out. She seemed to have all the power in that regard.
Sighing, 545 fell backwards, staring up at the roof of her cell. Her thoughts went back to the people END had showed her, and the man in general. She could still see him, with his maroon coloured hair and purple eyes. Why did she feel like she knew him? She knew she personally had never seen him, so obviously he was a friend of Nashi's. His name felt like it was on the tip of her tongue, though. Constantly ready to spring out at any given time.
God, this was stressful.
Jason stared down at his hands as he sat quietly in his cell, contemplating what had happened. After years of trying and trying, this new girl had been showed the exit like it was nothing. Hades had taken 545 right there and just shown her the way out like he was testing her. Why, though? Any numbers of reason sprang out to him: It was a trap, he knew they were going to try and escape, he wanted them too, it could have been anything. He still didn't fully trust 545 if he was honest, but at this point it didn't matter. If Hades knew, then they would either die in the escape, or spend the rest of their lives down here and die anyway. And despite the fear he'd felt earlier that day, he wasn't willing to let that happen. He needed to get out of here, and he needed to get his revenge.
On all of them.
Jason gritted his teeth as he thought about it. He hadn't told anyone, not even Takara, why he was down here. It wasn't important, not to her anyway. But it was all the reason he needed to get out of here, and make sure none of them hurt anyone.
"I swear to God I'll stop you, Zeus...I won't let you carry out that plan."
"What should we do next, Hades?" Thanatos asked. Hades made a face at this as he played with his pen.
"I don't know," he replied. "I'm just wondering what I can do to help them out. We haven't had a good escape attempt in so long."
"You want them to escape, then." Thanatos assumed.
"It would be fun," Hades replied. "At least, for those other two. I could still use END." Hades frowned as he thought about what he could do. If the trio were going to attempt an escape, it wouldn't take long for the guards to stop them. What could he do to make this more entertaining?
Suddenly, a plan came to mind. Oh this, this would work well. Hades smirked to himself as he thought this plan through.
"This is going to be fun."
Chapter 350: Return to Form