When All Was Lost...
Chapter Twenty-Seven
27
Akarii awoke once more to the sound of buzzing and beeping machines. She moved her eyes slowly around the room.
This room...
Where Sayer did his frequent brainwashings to keep the members in check.
I'm back...
And I remember everything.
Yusei...Jack...Kalin...Crow...
I remember everyone.
She thought to herself.
We fought together, side by side for Satellite...Yusei, Crow, Jack and I...
We grew up together.
She closed her eyes tightly to squeeze out the sting of tears left over from her memories.
And now...somthing bigger is coming to threaten us.
I don't know what yet...but I can't stay here any longer...!
"Ah, Sayer! The subject is awake again!" said Seria.
"We will need a more powerful regiment of brainwashing if we are to keep her under our control." said Sayer," In order to strengthen her resistance when coming into contact with those who knew her well in her past like close friends..."
"...Over my dead body!" the girl snapped, siezing the moment to take action.
She kicked away the I.V- most likely feeding her blood stream with something to numb her body...to relax her while they did their work.
She pulled the wirings attached to her arms and forhead.
"What!?" Sayer gasped darting his attention back to the girl as he took the blunt of the flying rod.
Her eyes were sharp and ready.
"I'm awake now Sayer..." Akarii growled, "And I know everything...which means bad news for you." she said to him.
"What is this!?" said Sayer as he struggled to punch in the keys after freeing himself, "The effect is wearing off!?"
"Looks like it~" she smirked and forced herself up with a hand spring. The systems all seemed to be going haywire as she rose and struggled her way against the machine.
"Speed up the process, Seria!" Sayer snapped,"If she breaks free things could get really messy!" he said," Increase the output! Whatever it takes to make sure the process can never be reversed!"
"But sir- the subject's life signs are still weak-"
"DOES SHE LOOK WEAK TO YOU!?" he snapped as the girl was making a break and he tried to hold her back.
She let out struggling grunts as she fought against the magnetic weight that tried to keep her down.
"Let me go- you glorified cult leader-!" she huffed.
"To a certain extent, I am not worried about the danger." said Sayer.
The girl was fiesty, but it seemed she was still under heavy effects, still, she continued to struggle.
"She's already lost consiousness once!" snapped Seria,"Her life readings on the monitor state that if we press on, she could very well die, I am stopping the brainwashing!"
"No!" Sayer grunted,"With this kind of incomplete brainwashing, who knows when it will be reversed!"
"Too late~" Akarii beamed bringing his attention back to her only to have him be met with her boot.
"Ahhh!" he screamed and held his arms crossed out like a shiel to absorb the blunt of its thick soled force.
Now's my chance!
She thought this to herself and made off like a bullet into her great escape.
"Weak, she may be, but reckless if anything!" said Sayer,"Don't just stand there, Seria make arrangements for her capture! NOW!"
"Yes sir!"
XXXXX
"Man, running through these halls is worse than when I had to make my way through the impound center to try and find the card vault!" Akarii muttered to herself," And what the hell am I wearing!?"
First things first...she was defintely going to look for her actual clothes...
Her deck was missing too.
"Each door is repeated...it's as if this hall way just never ends!"
She managed to finally find her way back to her room.
"Quickly now...gotta move quickly." she muttered and began sifting through the drawers of the provided dresser.
"Bingo." She found her old clothes, "Kind of them to leave them with me~" she snickered.
She quickly changed into her old Enforcers uniform...
This was the outfit she was taken in...
But now it was rather tight...
How log have they had me?
she wondered as she struggled with her clothing that she clearly out grew...
This isn't going to work...
she thought to herself.
I can't move like this...
It would seem she needed to make some changes...
Luckily the desk had a pair of scissors...
Carefully, she cut the straps of her old tank top...they were too tight around her arms now anyway...so she got rid of them. The fabric stretched only so far...so she had to cut away most of the middle area as well just to get it to fit...making a newly form fitting tube top that she them slipped over her chest...
And her Jeans? Her legs couldn't fit through them all the way anymore...so she did away with those too. Turning them now into a denim skirt...
It was a bit shorter than she would have liked-
Defintely not anything her brother would approve of-
But at least now she could move...and actually run.
The Thigh high boots helped...thank goodness those still fit.
She brushed away at the cloth.
To think the last time I worse this...was when I was living back home with my friends...
She thought to herself.
No wonder everything was so tight.
It had been well over three years since then...so of course the outfit would fit a little tighter than before...
she took a glance in the reflective glass and noticed that her hair had also gotten longer...
"Three years since I've been here..." that was what her conscious mind counted even under the influence.
She began twirling a strand of her thick red hair with her finger,"Would Crow even recognize me anymore...?"
Would Crow even be there...?
She didn't have time to hold doubts.
The alarm sounded quickly and she knew that meant they were coming after her...
She had to make tracks.
Quickly she had clipped her deck holster onto her thigh and gave it a pat.
"Welcome home to mommy, my sweet sweet Zombies..."
These cards were her brother's last gift to her before he got taken away...she would never leave home without them.
Speaking of home...she needed to move quickly if she had any hope of making it back there again...
"Heeeeeeeey! Let me out!" a voice sounded from the cell next door.
"Hey...That's...Carly, isn't it?" Akarii moved a little closer to listen-
"Please let me out! if I dont get my story out, the editor in chief will have my hyde!" she sighed,"I've just gotta get that exclusive on Jack Atlas before the Fortune Cup starts!"
Fortune Cup? What's that? Was that what Sayer wanted me to investigate before?
Akarii's body twitched as she said his name.
...Jack...
She had a feeling deep inside...that whatever was coming was coming for him too.
He might be in danger... and it might just be tied to this "Fortune Cup" in the plannings...
But Akarii couldn't leave that reporter here.
She was-after all- still a person... and she didn't deserve to be held as a captive.
She quickly darted out and began to work her magic on the door.
"Huh? is someone picking the lock?"
"Yeah, growing up in Satellite taught me a thing or two..." Akarii said to her as the cell door began sliding open.
"Huh!? Hey!" she gasped as she pointed at her,"Y-You look familiar...weren't you at the event hall?"
"Yeah I was..." she said softly," But not for a pic nic."
"I knew it! It's you! But why was an Arcadia Movement Duelist thrown into a cell?"
"I'm not an Arcadia Movement Duelist." Akarii said to her,"Not anymore...right now, I'm on the top of Arcadia's most wanted and unless you wanna get caught all over again-? I suggest not sticking around." she flashed grin, startling the stammering Carly Carmine into a blush.
"O-Oh, Right...g-good idea."
"This way, hurry and capture her!"
"Oops here they come~" Akarii giggled,"Get runnin' Carly! I'll hold'em off for as long as I can!"
"Y-Yeah you got it!" she said to girl,"Thanks a million!"
Not long after Akarii let Carly get a lead on the escape route, she was soon greeted by Arcadia Guard Dogs...
"Crap, this isn't good...if I get sucked into a duel with them I might not make it out..." Akarii quickly ducked for cover behind the statues and tried to think.
As she leaned her back on it she noticed it was wobbly.
"Hmm...I might be able to use that..." She said softly, peeking around to see the Guard's position.
"Got it..." she said , "OOPS~!" and gave a good hard kicking to the statue making a lot of noise until it fell over.
"The intruder!" the guard cried and she quickly ducked for cover, sneaking around behind him while he was distracted by the statue.
She made it all the way to the elvator.
"A Card key? Crap!" she muttered and began tinkering with the control panel. "Good thing Yusei and Crow know a thing or two about this type of thing..." she said to herself,"I can't wait to tell Crow I escaped using tricks he taught me." she chuckled when the door opened and dipped inside.
That is...
If I ever get to see him again...
"Well well well..." A hand stopped the elvator door from closing and Sayer managed to force it back open with his strength," I came to trap a mouse only to find that she is more clever than I anticipated..." he chuckled," You almost got away too..."
"Bold of you to think I won't" she snapped and took a step back against the wall.
"My... quite snippy, aren't we?" Sayer chuckled,"You should know that escape is futile...you can't get to the exit without this elvator and I seem to be blocking your way...what will you do?"
He was right.
No matter how you looked at it...Akarii was trapped.
She quickly darted her eyes around, annalysing the area.
The elevator was large...he had space between him and both sides of the door...there were no stairs but they were on a higher floor...which means there's...
"A balcony..."
"What? What are you whispering about, little mouse?"
Her eyes fixated on the balcony ahead...
There were no stairs...but that didn't mean there wasn't more than one way to go down.
He probably had guards only on the upper floors, since she couldn't escape to the exit he would have built a wall so that there was no way she could possibly get there...She would be taken care of before she even made it to the bottom floor...which means...he had no one on the bottom floor...because they were all scrambling around up there to catch her.
She smirked.
"What's so funny, little mouse?" Sayer gruffed and she shot her amber eyes sharply at him.
"Catch!" She said quickly tossing her old vest at him in full force.
"What!?" he cried out as he reached his hands to guard against the brown mass that distracted him, allowing the girl to duck and roll between his legs, causing him to fall as she went and leapt to the balcony railing.
"What are you doing!?" he called out,"Don't be reckless!"
"Reckless..." she laughed,"I've been called that once or twice~" she flashed him a grin before taking the leap of faith below.
"NO!" he tried to reach out for her but didn't manage to scramble up in time.
This was a risky move, but she had faith that she would make it out,
Albeit not without a few bruises- Sorry Crow!
She just had to tuck and roll and then...She was gone.
"Dammit..." Sayer gruffed,"She got away...this isn't the end, Akarii!"
"Sayer!?" Akiza called to him,"Sayer what happened, I can't find Akarii."
"Hmph...Akarii is no longer with us." said Sayer.
"What!?" Akiza gasped,"What do you mean!?"
"She betrayed the movement, Akiza..." said Sayer," And you know what we do with traitors..."
Akiza felt her heart stop.
She was shaken...a person, who she thought of as a friend...
Why would she ever want to escape the Movement...? Was it her? Was she the reason?
I guess...even Akarii wanted to get as far away from me as she could...
Akiza narrowed her eyes and sighed sadly, mourning the loss of her friend for the moment before changing her face.
"Yes Sayer..." she said firmly,"I understand."
To Be Continued