Title: Saviour
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters here or the material of Gakuen Alice. This work was created for fun and not for profit.
Rating: T, M in last part
Fandom: Gakuen Alice
Pairings: None - Gen
Warnings: Kidnapping (technically), Violence, slight OOC-ness, some Swearing, AU, OCs
Description: AU. The day the Alice Academy caught her, Mikan and Hotaru were seventeen. Told to forget about her childhood best friend, knowing her to be trapped within the school, Mikan sets out instead to do the impossible: sneak into the impenetrable Alice Academy and save Hotaru. Told in three parts.
Author's Notes: Oof. The longest thing I've written, and finished, to date; all of Saviour has been written, I'm just completing final edits at the moment. The slight OOCness of characters comes from what I imagine to be variations in their upbringing and therefore how they've developed, since the canon events of the story don't take place here. Regardless, I do try and retain their inherent characteristics that make them so recognisable. Major warnings in the last part that I can't reveal due to spoilers; reader discretion is advised. I do hope you enjoy reading this.

Saviour

Part I

The day the Alice Academy caught Hotaru, Mikan was sick with the flu. She ran a high fever and felt weak with cold chills, even as she was tucked into her blankets, her futon cradling her. Between her bleary dreams and her blearier reality, Mikan gazed out her window.

She remembered, that day, the curtain swaying in the breeze, and the bright, azure sky that Hotaru must have seen, too. She saw the same winking sun, and she smelled the same sweet scent of flowers in the air as they bloomed in the springtime. She saw all that Hotaru saw in their school courtyard as Alice Academy cornered her for the last time.

Mikan would only find out later, after numerous interviews of her peers, teachers, and even the villagers — who spread the news of Hotaru's capture as quickly as they spread the flu in winter — what happened to her. The way Hotaru looked, calm, and the way the teachers of the Academy approached her, as if Hotaru had had the choice to go with them. She learned from the countless watching eyes that Hotaru knew who they were, and that she went willingly into their car, the windows blackened. She found out from Hotaru's neighbours, who had peeked out from the curtain in their kitchen window to watch what had happened, that the Academy had brought Hotaru home to pack her belongings; it was the only place they stopped at before they stole her away. The neighbours told her how Hotaru's parents fought and argued against the Academy's teachers there the entire time, and how they only stopped when Hotaru had asked them to.

Mikan received the letter, too, that Hotaru must have scrawled for her the last time she had been in her bedroom, the short time the Academy's teachers let her be alone. Hotaru's parents told her they'd found it tucked away in one of Hotaru's notebooks, the kind that held the secret sketches of the ideas Hotaru had about devices she wasn't allowed to make. The letter was scribbled in a hasty, green ink, the pen the only one in her rushed grasp.

Mikan. I'm sorry. They found me. I'm going to be okay. I love you always.

Then, like an afterthought, Don't come after me, with Hotaru's name signed underneath.

Those were the last words Mikan read from Hotaru for six months.

Mikan spent that first month crying and staring at Hotaru's letter every night before she went to sleep. When she woke up in the mornings, she would sit on her futon, the floor cold against her legs, and the paper fragile between her fingers, bent and crumpled as her heart. She would reread every word, memorising the curve of each letter; the way Hotaru connected her "t"s and "h"s together so they looked like a single letter, and the way she sometimes forgot to dot her "i"s... It would make her cry the same way it brought her solace… and it was the only thing to do that, those days.

After the first week spent home, recovering from the flu and her heartbreak, her grandpa made her attend school again. She spent her days moping and forgetting homework, staring out the window in her classes and thinking of Hotaru. Her teachers were kind enough to pretend they didn't notice her not paying attention in class, and her classmates patted her on the back when they saw her, giving her snacks and treats, and letting her copy their homework when she remembered that they were due.

It was when they were talking about the Alice Academy, a month after Hotaru was gone, that Mikan felt something other than sorrow.

"The Academy is for geniuses," Hitomi Suzuki said, the second smartest girl in their school. Hotaru was the first. Mikan refused to think that Hitomi had taken her place with Hotaru's absence. Hitomi was a short girl with mousy hair and wide, thin, frame-less glasses; she stared at Mikan the few rare times she'd spoken with her, but she did that with everyone. Hitomi was staring with her wide eyes at another girl, now — Kimiko, who was pretty and had curly black hair — as Kimiko glanced uncomfortably at her friend beside her, who looked uncomfortable in turn. Hitomi had that effect on people, although Mikan considered herself immune to it.

She'd caught Mikan's attention, though, and Mikan paused in the middle of packing her school bag, her hand still holding her book in mid-air. She listened carefully, holding her breath.

"They're national treasures. They say that the terms for their level of genius is Alice. So Imai Hotaru is an Alice, and that's why she left." Hitomi continued, pushing up her glasses. Kimiko's friend glanced at her again, but Kimiko was frowning.

"But Hotaru was hiding her intelligence..." Kimiko said uncomfortably, gathering her thoughts carefully. After a moment, she continued. "Her parents were hiding her."

Hitomi frowned, in turn, and gripped her book tighter to her chest. "They shouldn't have. Hotaru needs to hone her skills. She shouldn't have been so ungrateful! She's lucky to go to Alice Academy." Hitomi gave a wistful sigh, staring out the window.

"She's an Alice. They belong there."

Mikan was staring openly, now, and the gears in her brain were whirring, but Kimiko reached the truth faster.

It seemed to click in her mind and she gasped, facing Hitomi fully for the first time. "Wait… you… you called the Academy, didn't you? That's how they found her," Kimiko whispered, "even though her parents had been hiding her for so long…"

Mikan's book clattered to the ground. The group of girls jumped to face her, and when they recognised who she was, Kimiko's and her friend's eyes widened. They glanced back-and-forth at her and Hitomi, sensing the tension festering.

"Mikan…" Kimiko ventured, her voice falling into silence.

Hitomi pushed her glasses up her nose, nonchalant. Mikan felt herself see red, and the next thing she knew, she was standing in front of Hitomi, staring down at her.

"You were the one who told them?" Mikan whispered, and her voice was so calm, she almost didn't understand why Kimiko and her friend flinched back from her. Even Hitomi was beginning to cringe, to look frightened.

"You were the one who got Hotaru captured," Mikan said, and it wasn't a question anymore.

Hitomi's eyes shifted uneasily until they narrowed, and she puffed up her shoulders, speaking rapidly.

"That's not fair. That isn't. You can't speak to me like that! The people who are Alices are lucky. Imai Hotaru is lucky. You should be happy for her."

Mikan stared at Hitomi. Hitomi flinched back as though Mikan had slapped her.

Another voice spoke up. When Mikan turned to look at them, she realised it was Kimiko's friend.

"I heard that the kids who go to Alice Academy get a lot of money. Their families, I mean."

She flinched when Mikan looked at her and hid her face in Kimiko's hair, who looked uneasy, watching Mikan with sympathetic, but wary eyes. She murmured softly to her friend, and Mikan managed to hear the words "...shouldn't have said that…" in her soft voice.

Hitomi cleared her throat.

"Exactly. The families — and the towns, even — of Alices are very fortunate. I heard that your village was poor… She probably went with them so that you guys could get some money. You're very lucky to know someone who is an Alice."

Mikan swept up her bag and her fallen book. She left the classroom before she could scream at them or do something worse, her heart too heavy to cope with the anger and the despair of her loss.

• • •

What Hitomi had said, as much as it had vexed Mikan, made her realise how little she truly knew about the Academy that had spirited Hotaru away. As a result, on a warmer Sunday morning, Mikan went to the library.

It was a two-hour trip by bus, not unlike the trip to her high school, so Mikan left earlier in the day. She was tired enough that even the violent shuddering of the bus only reluctantly shook her awake. Her curiosity — and her ignorance — of the Academy had kept her awake last night, up until the still-dark morning. When she stumbled out of bed and went to the bathroom, her reflection winced at her; dark-circles graced her eyes and her hair seemed weak and lank. She looked how she felt: lifeless, frail, like someone in her life had died; it may as well have been that way, with the knowledge that she would never see Hotaru again.

But her curiosity and her hunger for knowledge ran hot and deep and relentless, flowing like magma under the earth. What kind of institute stole away their potential students? Why did they give money to their students' families and homes?

What did being an 'Alice' mean?

The bus deposited her in front of the library, and she entered. She quickly found herself a computer and, after a few hapless minutes — she vaguely knew how to use computers because of the ones in school — she found herself on the Internet.

After typing "Alice Academy" into the search bar and clicking on the first link that popped up, Mikan was utterly absorbed in her search. She poured over the Internet for hours, finding Alice Academy's own web page, and read article, forum, news page, and anything else that had a link she could click on. Her mind was spinning by the time it had come for the library to close, and she arrived home in the evening, her head a bowl of water and full of thoughts that swam and darted about like little, curious fish.

She came back to the library the next weekend and read, and read, and read, and she did the same the weekend after, and the one after that, and the one after that, until she knew the stories of Alice Academy as well as she remembered her own childhood.

• • •

It was then that a plan started unfolding itself in Mikan's head, laying out lists of things she would need, where they were, and with further research, what she would do.

That night, when she held and read Hotaru's letter again before bed, the words Don't come after me stared back at her in sharp contrast.

Hotaru had always known her well.

• • •

The next day at school, while Mikan was packing her school bag slowly — her head whirring and buzzing with thoughts distracting, as usual — Hitomi unexpectedly approached her after class.

It was just the two of them in the classroom, Hitomi having waited until everyone else had left. The silence in the air was thick enough to slice with a butter knife. Mikan stared at Hitomi, her face expressionless. A particularly strong wind slammed the classroom door shut, which Hitomi jumped at. With all the windows open, it was chilly, and Hitomi seemed to shiver.

Mikan continued to stare at her, her face as unchanging as stone.

"Listen," Hitomi began, speaking in a rush, her nervousness getting the better of her. "I mean, please, er… I know the students in the Academy don't get to communicate with anyone outside. Not for a long time. Not until they leave." Hitomi pushed up her glasses and ducked under her mousy hair, pulling down her sleeves over her fingertips. "I know you haven't spoken to Imai since she… since they took her," Hitomi interrupted herself.

"I remember what you were like when Imai was still here," Hitomi said, and Mikan saw a light blush spread across her cheeks. "You were like a little bumblebee… so happy. You're different now. You're hurting. And I think that's… No, that is my fault. I'm sorry."

Her last two words rang out like a bell in the silence. A loud gust of wind rocked the room, whipping Mikan's hair across her face. When it subsided, she pulled out strands out of her mouth, grimacing, and saw Hitomi brush aside her curtain of hair as well.

Unexpectedly, warmth touched her face. A wet fingertip came away from her cheek and Mikan realised she was crying.

Hitomi noticed, stuttering, "Oh no I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry..."

Mikan hugged her. She rested her hands between the dents of Hitomi's shoulder blades and hid her face in Hitomi's neck as she cried. She cried the way she had cried when Hotaru was first gone, and Mikan felt her loss as fresh as the day, as new as love. She felt the loss again like a gaping hole, an aching hunger after a day's lack of food, or like a warmth that had gone when she was cold. The pain was different than it would be if Hotaru had died, but it hurt Mikan all the same, and she cried, loud, wailing aches that came straight from the hurt.

Outside, a brown-eared bulbul called. A gentle breeze danced its way through Mikan's hair and kissed her cheek. The sun rose beyond the clouds, and for one brief moment, the world brightened.

• • •

Six months went by before Mikan was ready.

The morning was chill, the sky still dark with sleep. The beginnings of the sun peeked out over the horizon, and a flock of birds flew through the sky, crying out their good mornings.

Mikan softly tiptoed past the sleeping figure of her grandfather, watching the slow rise and fall of his chest as he dreamed. She left the note by his head, where she knew he would roll over and see it immediately.

She hated to leave him with only paper and ink to explain where she'd go, and what she'd do; she wished she could tell him, but she knew he'd tried to stop her.

She didn't want to waste his time, or her own. Or Hotaru's.

She stepped out and locked the front door behind her. She tugged up her backpack on her shoulders, the heavy weight of it and the ache of her shoulders almost making her regret packing so much.

But it was worth it, knowing what the outcome would be.

Mikan looked to the horizon and saw the sun winking at her, the dark fading as day grew. She took a breath and squeezed the straps of her bag tight, stepping away from the door and down into the world ahead.

I'm coming, Hotaru.

• • •

A/N: Thank you for reading Part I. Part II will be going through some final edits before it is released on the 25th of July. See you then.