"Element" - By Hiryuu Chapter 23 - Bad Luck, Part III * * * * * General disclaimer: I will say that this one is a little more descriptive and dark in tone than most others. Be advised. I'll have a juggling clown or a juggling Colin at the end, I swear. * * * * * "What the hell do you mean you don't have any way of helping her?! What the heck have you been doing for the past two hours?!" Erina was about ready to rip someone's eyes out when she heard that. She was so hot-blooded pissed that she could've taken people out with her ears alone, they were that pointed. She caught a glimpse of Elaine only for a few moments when she was attempting to wake but apparently, it wasn't enough for her. "Miss, please...I mean to say that we don't have anyone here or in this area that could but that doesn't mean our options aren't limited to letting her die," said a lead healer in an attempt to make sure that Erina wouldn't end up taking out more people than the one that was currently in trouble. "There's still time enough to have one person have a look at her and we've already contacted him. He should be here later this evening. We're keeping her going as best as we can...she has a better constitution than most people." "I don't...care...just do something to help her. She can't go on like this forever," Erina said, shoulders slumping. "That is true but...please just keep hope. We're doing everything we can." Erina sat down on the chair outside of Elaine's current room. There wasn't anything she could do about it either; it wasn't like she was knowledgeable in the arts of healing, much less for something that even skilled and practicing healers didn't have a clue about. The door closed into her room as the head healer went inside to keep watch on Elaine. "I was supposed to make sure this never happened...I told her I..." She couldn't have been more downcast if she was allowed to be. Erina hoped that whoever it was that they contacted would know what the heck was wrong with her. She had a feeling that whatever Elaine had wasn't something that was going to go away easy...and if it wasn't then she didn't think that Elaine had much time. And that was something that Erina didn't want to think about. She sighed, looking towards the ground in an attempt to find some answers that may be embedded in the tile but to no avail. A pair of shoes got in the way of her view as they stopped in front of her, however, and she looked up. "Is this where they have an Elaine being cared for?" She got a better view. Black hair, cut chin length with a slim build. He wasn't too bad-looking for a guy but she really didn't know if green and white suited him that well for attire. She blinked. "Y-yea but...who are you?" "I believe that I'm the one who's supposed to find out what is really wrong with her," he looked left and right and whispered. "Apparently, they didn't know much about it." Erina arched her eyebrow. She wondered if this guy was for real or if it was something she needed to kick in the jewels. He caught the look though and continued. "I've heard it was pretty serious but I guess lightening the mood won't help things right now," He sighed and continued, "Rest assured, I have a feeling I know what the cause is from what they told me; I just didn't want you to feel too bad about this since it looked like you were staring at that floor for a good long time." Erina looked down after that mention. "Oh, I-I was..." "You're taking care of her?" Erina looked up then nodded, a little embarrassed about not quite doing what he just asked. "Then I'll do my best then. Just have some hope for her, okay?" he turned and walked over to open the door. "W...who are you again?" Erina asked. "Colin. But that's all you really need to know," he said as he walked in and closed the door behind him. "I..." she started as the door closed. "...see." Erina continued to be confused about this but that named sounded awfully familiar for some reason. "...Wait a minute...isn't he that..." * * * * * "How's the progress?" "She's still resisting. I'm not exactly sure how she still manages to get past everything we throw at her but she's still remaining solid." "Physically and mentally speaking, though, she doesn't have the much left. How are we supposed to make sure that there's a body left after he finally crack her mentality?" "I'd be more concerned about the fact that Millia is probably going to be wondering about how we're doing with progress. She hasn't been too happy with us as of late." "You're not kidding." All four of the white suits in conversation turned to see Millia. Every stomach with eyes on her turned when they saw her pissed expression. "So who wants to give me an excuse this time as to why my client still doesn't have what she wanted? It's only been...what...two years now going on today? I thought you people were progressing well and this last month I've heard no progress whatsoever. Why is that?" "We-well, you see..." one of them, a younger man in his 20s, was the first to mention something. "Guess we have a volunteer," Millia turned to him, smirking. "So why is it that this hasn't been done yet?" "She...she's resisted everything that we've thrown at her. Any normal mind would've submitted by now but...we've just...not been able to work with getting her to work just yet." "So tell me..." Millia started and then, in an instant, was across the room holding the man by the throat. "WHY IS IT THAT YOU'VE HELD BACK ON HER?" "Grryyuughh..." "You could have done this a long time ago if you wouldn't have held back..." "Y...your...grraakk..." She tightened her grip. The other three suits had long since left, so they were of no help for him. She dropped him on the ground, leaving him in a heap coughing and gasping for air. "Answer the question: why did you hold back? It isn't like I'm stupid." "We..." he coughed a few times. "If we had...gone any farther...there would've been nothing left of her. We tried many...times...to do that but she would've ended up dying." "I see..." Millia said. She turned around. "Oh...and by the way..." "Hnn?" She was across the room in a flash, grabbing him by the throat, throwing him up against the wall in such a way that the only thing to snap was the man's neck...but just in a clean fashion as both the head and the rest of the body was separated in one clean blow. Gravity caught up after a few moments as both the head and the rest of the body dropped to the floor, leaving a red smear as it went. "You're fired..." she stated coldly as she turned and walked off, leaving two pieces of a body and a bloody smear on the wall. "Hey, I need someone to clean this up in here!" she called. * * * * * Anya knew she was in trouble. She had known for she didn't know how long. Time had literally stopped for her and she hadn't found a way to yet break out of the hell she had somehow found herself in. Just a few things were inhibiting her ability to do so. She couldn't see, since she had gone blind who knows how long ago. She couldn't move. She sure as hell couldn't use any abilities or magic stuck on whatever she was attached to. Honestly, she just wondered when the end would come...but she sure as hell wouldn't let herself be taken in by... "Well, so here's the star of our show..." The door to the torture chamber had opened. That much Anya could sense. She also knew the voice as deep-seated hatred boiled inside of her. She looked up in hopes that she could see where she was and possibly make a break for it, but in her condition, a baby would have a better chance. Anya looked at Millia with glintless eyes, speaking weakly. "I'll...kill...you..." "Not if I don't first, hun. Now why is it that you just keep resisting all of the time? Your body's not going to continue to handle all of the torture that this device can dish out..." She looked up at Anya's head. There were a few red marks around the top of it that showed that the device had done its job numerous times. For whatever reason, though, she still had control over her own body. That machine was supposed to change that long ago. Regardless, Anya didn't respond. "Fine then..." she pressed a button to her immediate left. "Go ahead and start it up again." Anya's whole body went rigid when she said that. A few moments later, a crown-like object whirred itself over her head, placing itself over her head and... "GAAAHHHHHH!!!" Well, the electrical impulses shooting through her were bad enough. "92% at the start this time around, miss Millia," that voice came from the speaker on the side of the room, a woman's voice. Likely one of the dozens of workers that were on this project. "Hmm...not too much left of her. She just needs a little push..." That figure was meant to serve as a means of how much progress in terms of how far a candidate had progressed in losing their mind, essentially, to the Slave Crown that was doing the job of mind wiping. For whatever reason, would never get higher than 98. "Gah...nrrgh..." Anya couldn't get a bare word of English out through the pain that hit every single spot of her body as a killer headache went off in her head. "98..." the speaker said again. Her whole body started to feel a familiar numbness again as her body started giving up to the giant amount of heat and electricity rolling through her being. "N...no..." A warning flashed a few moments later. "Oh give me a BREAK! What now?!" "Miss Millia...her mental state is deteriorating. If we push much farther than this, she's likely to kill herself." "...Dammit...why the hell did she want this one alive again? I put up with way too much of this..." she walked up to Anya, who was jittering and sputtering on her makeshift crucifix. "Won't let...won't let..." Millia had enough. "SHUT...UP!!" she said as she delivered a hook straight across Anya's face. That sent her down for the count, but she was conscious. Barely. Although the blood trickling down her with her hands sputtering were the only real signs of that. "I've had it up to here with your crap. Why don't you just make it easier for yourself and submit. Makes my job a hell of a lot simpler." Anya had absolutely no feeling left in her. She thought to herself. Guys, I'm sor... * * * * * "Hmm?" she looked up after a few moments seeing the warning go away and then a green flash went up in the machine as a giant beep went off. The speaker lit up afterwards with evidence of cheer going in the background. "THAT DID IT! WE GOT 100!" "Heh...figures my method would work." "Her vitals aren't doing too well but she's good enough. We should be able to maintain a hold on her during that time." "Fine," Millia said into the speaker. "Get someone down her and get her worked on. I want progress this time. Two years is far more than enough of a wait for me." With that, she left a disheveled Anya to herself. She was pleased that it only took that much convincing on her part. * * * * * "Nn...n..." She stirred as she got her bearings straight. She opened her eyes, focused them and then got one heck of a welcome when she saw the state her body was in. She was bandaged, for the most part. She couldn't feel much of anything below a point her back and what she did feel was mostly dull amounts of pain that felt akin to her getting run over by a truck. She was confused. Where was she? What was she doing in this place? Then a more important question entered her head as she painfully moved herself to sit on the side of the bed. Who was she? That did nothing to help her nerves at this point or at least what she could feel. "Oh! Don't get up!" She turned her head slowly to see a girl with... ...wait, girls don't have rabbit ears. She stared at the girl incredulously, not quite getting what was going on here. "You've been out for weeks. I'm surprised you got up this fast. You really need to lie back down." "But...n...I..." she complained. "No buts...lay back down. You're in no shape to move around right now," said the young girl and she slowly pushed her back into bed. "Aiya...didn't think you'd be giving me a heart attack this quick," she said as the injured and older girl was set back down on the bed. "By the way, do you know what happened or what you're doing here?" "I..." she shook her head slowly. "No..." "Hmm..." the younger girl thought to herself. "What's your name then?" "...It's..." the older girl thought to herself and started getting a headache. "Ah!" Something flashed in front of her for a moment. "R...gh..." A few more flashes. "...ain...are you..." "E...l..." The flashes stopped. She couldn't make much out of it other than... "E...Elaine," she said after a few moments. The younger girl blinked. "You know anything else?" she asked. Elaine shook her head. "Well that's not uncommon," Elaine groaned a little bit to turn her head to see the younger girl more clearly. "Why's that?" "None of us know much past what we've done over the past month or two. In this village, no one seems to know what went on before it. It's really odd. I know my name, I...think I know how I grew up but it's all cloudy to me...and I know what I did for the past few months but...I don't really know anything else about myself. It's really weird." "Even my granpa and gramma are the same. Although, I don't know if they are or not...I kinda just got taken in by them." "I see..." Elaine said, not feeling too reassured overall but at least she knew she wasn't in this situation alone. "My name's Erina, by the way. That's nice. We both have similar names!" she stated cheerfully, with a smile on her face. Elaine couldn't help but smile and laugh a bit herself in the face of this innocent girl. "Heheh...yea I..." she stated as another heat swell raced through her body as another headache came on. "U-ugh..." "Oh no..." Elaine heard before she fell back against the bed, collapsing. "GRANPA! GRAMMA!!" * * * * * "Look...she's coming around..." That was Erina's voice, Elaine remembered, as she woke back up from whatever it was that happened. She saw two new people added to the room this time around. "Thank goodness. We didn't know if we had lost you or not," an elderly woman said, relieved, with an elder man next to her. Elaine felt a wet and damp object on her head. "Well, I guess that show's over. Call me if you need me, okay?" the elder man said, walking out. Elaine watched him walk out. "Oh don't mind him. He's just been busy with a lot of things as of late," the elder lady asked. This must've been the 'Gramma' that Erina mentioned. "Are you feeling better?" she asked, walking next to Erina who was currently nursing Elaine's forehead. "Y...yea, a little," Elaine said weakly, at best. "Well, you rest up. I think you're going to be fine but you did take quite a beating before we got you looked at. I'm glad we had that healer fellow here or I doubt we would've been able to help you as well as we did," she said with more relief. Afterwards, she turned and patted Erina's shoulder. "If there's any trouble, just call me. Okay, dear?" "Yes, gramma," Erina said. Gramma nodded then walked out to catch her husband. "Deeearr..." Erina returned to dabbing at Elaine's forehead. "Th-thanks..." Elaine said, actually feeling a lot better with the hospitality alone. "Oh don't mention it. I don't mind helping out and I think a lot of people are like that right now, since we still don't really know what it is that happened. I like to think that we..." She stopped when she noticed where Elaine was gazing and frowned. She sighed once and shook her head. "They've been there for as long as I remember. They're just ears, you know." "Oh I...didn't mean to sta---" Elaine said, shifting her gaze down. "It's...alright. It's not like I haven't had to deal with that for months anyways. I'm used to it. I seem to be the only one in this family with these. That's why I don't think they're really my grandparents but..." She stopped dabbing and shook her head. "They feel like it to me so...why not, you know?" she continued back to dabbing at her forehead with the damp rag. Elaine nodded and yawned. All this bed talk and dabbing against her slight fever was making her tired. "I need to change this rag. You just relax, okay?" Erina said as she got up. "Right..." Elaine looked up at the ceiling. Considering how she felt, she certainly hoped that she wouldn't be a paraplegic or something when this was all done. She felt something down there but it was all buzzing and numb. She didn't want to mess with it, either, so just let her mind wander off that subject entirely. She might've let it wander too far as she began to feel sleepy again... * * * * * "Hmm..." Colin said. "I guess we were meant to see each other again, weren't we?" "What was that, master Colin? Someone you know?" He nodded. "An older patient I couldn't really forget. It seems she's was doing better too." He took a look at Elaine, who was currently breathing slowly albeit a little shallow. She had a few drops of sweat on her face, which was red, indicating a fever. Looking down at the affected ankle, he nursed an open spot in the wound that refused to close with a piece of cloth. He closed his eyes for a moment. "Hmmrn..." ... "Galtz venom. Whoever got to her did a fine job obtaining something illegal. I'm more impressed that she's still in somewhat fair condition." One of the healers continued with his statement. "We did find that she was taken in after a few rogue thieves were spotted around town. One of them seemed like they had taken a rather nasty beating and he was near her at the time both were found. We figure it was probably a murder attempt to have her keep quiet about something but we're not sure what." "I see. What of the other person?" Colin asked. "He's...no longer with us. Apparently, when he was still conscious, he killed himself," the healer said, a bit saddened that people still did things such as this in this day and age. "After all this that we've been through, you figure that people wouldn't act like this," he sighed, looking at Elaine. "Such is human nature, I suppose." He turned and opened the door slightly. "I do have a way to fix her, but it will take a little bit of digging here locally on my part to help heal her. I don't have everything I need to cure something like this. I'll have a few sentries with me to help and should be back later tomorrow to help her through this. Keep her stable for now. If something comes up, have someone get in contact with me." "Yes, master Colin." He nodded and closed the door. He turned his head when he noticed that something or someone had grabbed him. "You know you're taking me with you, right?" Erina said. Colin shook his head. "Young lady, if I were to take you with, I would be getting you into a large world of trouble that I don't want you to be in. I'll be back tomorrow t---" That was the last thing he uttered before a flash of light occurred and a much older Erina stood in front of him at eye level with an even tighter grip on his hand. "I said...you're taking me with." It was her all right. The pissed eyes and ears said it all. "Ow ow ow! OKAY! Okay! I get it," he said as she released her grip. Another flash happened and she was back to the child self that she came in as. Colin blinked a few times, refocusing, making sure he saw what he just saw. "When are you leaving?" she asked. Colin got his bearings straight and then continued. "I'll be leaving around dawn tomorrow. I would do it tonight but my sentries and I are rather spent traversing the distance we have to get here." "I'll be out front. Let me know when you're ready to go." Erina said more than seriously. "I will...you had best get some sleep yourself," Colin said. "It's going to be a big day tomorrow," he said, walking off and shaking his head, internally going 'sheesh'. The door re-opened and the head healer was walking out. "You can come back in if you want. She's doing a little better now." Erina got up off her chair and bolted past him, making a bee-line for the bedside. He closed the door afterwards, leaving her to Elaine. All lights were off but one above Elaine's position on the bed which would need to be turned off when Erina was done. She cursed silently to herself, seeing Elaine's expressionless form on the bed not doing much of anything. She had been covered up, except for the top half of her body. An audible beep in the background signaled that her heart was beating stable, albeit a bit slow. They must've put something in her to help her out. Maybe it was just how she was when she slept. Maybe she was in more trouble than the healers had said? She didn't really know. All she really knew is that her promise was breaking. If Elaine died, it would shatter. Erina was supposed to be the one to make sure that she never got in a position like this ever again. "Elaine...please come back," Erina said, dropping her head on the bedside, immediately breaking out in tears. Crying her eyes out wasn't going to fix the situation, but she had to let out all the stress that she had been accumulating all day as it slowly left her with each heave in and out of her session of tears. Erina stopped herself a few moments later and used her left hand to wipe her eyes. She was going to make sure that Colin would help her if her life depended on it. She wouldn't let Elaine up and die over something this stupid. She also vowed to kick the ass of those who would do this to her. She wouldn't let one of the only friends she had in this world end like this. She reached up and gave the best hug she could to Elaine. "Just hang in there, okay?" Erina broke off the hug and walked over to the light switch that operated the light directly above Elaine's forehead, turning it off. She turned and walked out of the room, opening the door, looking back and then walking out, shutting the door behind her. Tomorrow then. * * * * * End of Chapter 23. No clowns. I lied.