lucetilogs | Rabbit--I mean, Lavi--hunting!

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Rabbit--I mean, Lavi--hunting!

Who: Allen and Sheena
What: Looking for Lavi
When: Early morning the day after Lavi's capture, and spans the few days after that.
Where: All over Luceti. Though, erm, mostly around the Malnosso base, I would assume.
Summary: Well, Lavi got kidnapped, so Allen and Sheena decide to look for him. They encounter more trouble than they would expect at the Malnosso base. No, that's a lie. They expected the trouble. It just sounds more dramatic this way.
Rating: G-PG?

Allen awoke in the early hours of the morning, anxious and not at all rested. He had tossed and turned all night, sleeping only after forcing himself, knowing from experience that it would be idiocy -- if not plain suicide -- to go otherwise. Upon waking to sunlight, however, he found it decidedly more difficult to sleep, and got up, pacing and irritated as he waited for stores to open.

And once they did, Allen was there, grabbing a large bundle of food and two coats -- one for Lavi; he knew Sheena had one already -- before lugging everything over to the house next door, calming himself only barely enough to keep his knocking light.

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Pieces of ice floated down the river as they walked. Not too familiar with wintry conditions, Sheena wondered if that meant the weather was warming up. That could be advantageous.

Scolding herself for letting her mind wander, Sheena turned her attention back to where she was going. Eventually they'd come to the point where following the river would lead to more danger than safety, and she needed to be aware enough to know where that was.

Allen glanced at the river absently, marking it in his mind. That was one of the easier ways to find his way there, he supposed; he just hoped that, should he need to try, he'd follow it in the right direction. Still, the mountains were hard to miss.

"We need to be careful," he murmured, though it was for more than just the obvious. Snowy mountains were not the best place to be, he knew... rather well from experience, too. A false step could be fatal, and if they got lost there and ran out of food... it would be a slow and painful death.

"We're lucky, it's not snowing so badly today." Looking up through the snow-covered trees, she squinted at the cloud cover. "Doesn't look like it'll get too bad later, either."

They could follow the river upstream for another couple of hours without worry, she thought. The problem would come once they turned from the river and had to find a path through the mountains. The water cut a clear one, but it was also the best way to alert the Malnosso that they were coming. That wouldn't be good.

She was a little - but not very - surprised at how he kept up with her pace; it was pretty fast, though slower than normal for her.

"Let me know if you need a break."

"Ah, I'm fine." Admittedly, Allen did most of his traveling in trains, but he was nowhere near unfit; to be such was to invite death, in his profession. Still, he was surprised at Sheena's pace. Even he would begin to tire soon, he knew.

A face flashed past his mind. Laughing green eye, eyepatch, a smirky smile--

No, he was not going to stop, not if they had a choice. After all, Lavi was in danger.

"Sheena," he murmured, more to keep his mind off of things than anything else, "what kind of experiments do they do? I-I mean, if you don't mind answering."

The imagination was always worse than the reality; Lavi himself had told him that, back when he refused to tell about his injuries. So he would not imagine, would not. He had to know.

The question caused her to slow down, but she had to admit she'd been expecting it. Fortunately (or unfortunately?), Allen was one of the perhaps two people for whom she would answer truthfully. Still, the more she spoke, the more her hands started to shake.

"...I-I've blocked out a lot of it, I think...but what I remember...is painful." She glanced back at him once, before turning her gaze back to their path. It would be easier to talk about if she didn't have to look at him while she did it.

"I...I remember that I couldn't move. Something cold s-stopped me. ...The whole thing was cold, really. Th-the whole experience."

"There were...at first, a lot of noises, confusing ones. I remember they...they injected me with things. I don't know what...but it hurt, whatever it was."

Annoyed with herself for still reacting to this, she clenched her hands into fists and shoved them into her coat pockets.

"After that...what I remember next, I could move...but I had to keep moving, there were...it was like I was being attacked. When I couldn't dodge fast enough, it was like...like a shock. I think after a while I blacked out from that.

"...It went in cycles. Between that stuff, and...and being trapped again, and things...sharp things, knives maybe..."

She stopped completely, staring straight ahead.

"It was like torture. I kept hearing...stuff about how much a person could endure."

"I... I'm sorry." Allen looked down, truly regretting asking her. He had not meant to bring up memories this painful, but... then, what did he expect? Still, he had asked, and she had answered; he would not forget her words. He clenched his fists at his side, angry at the Malnosso, angry at himself for being weak, for being helpless. Every day, almost, it seemed, someone went through that. Sheena... and others. None of them deserved to be used in that way.

Shivering, Allen redoubled his steps, thinking about Lavi. Lavi, being trapped. Lavi, being tested. Lavi, being tortured...

...It was Road's game, all over again, but this time, it would be played out in the real world. He didn't quite know whether that was better or worse.

Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized he was still walking. However, she couldn't make herself move, aside from shivering that she couldn't control. She wasn't seeing the snow and trees around her anymore, although she desperately wished she was.

For a moment, Allen kept walking, before realizing that Sheena was no longer beside him. With a gasp, he turned back, a worried frown settled on his brows.

"Sheena...?"

Slowly making his way back, Allen put a hand on her shoulder, a gentle nudge. "Sheena, I'm sorry..."

Was the knowledge worth the price, then? He didn't quite know.

She flinched at the hand on her shoulder, taking several steps back before she came to herself and remembered what she was supposed to be doing.

"N-No, don't apologize. It's not like it was your fault, or anything." She gave him a shaky smile, picking up her pace again. "Besides, if it hadn't happened I wouldn't know where I was going right now."

What she had just done was unforgivable, wasting time like that on stupid thoughts. Hardly the hallmark of a ninja. ...Even if it was the first time she'd told anyone. That shouldn't have mattered, it wasn't important to what they were doing right now.

And she was moving quickly again, if only to stop Allen from seeing her face.

"Sheena..." came the soft murmur, though Allen didn't apologize again. To do so would be to insult her, now, he knew. With a soft smile of appreciation to cover the worry he felt inside, he followed her, gazing at his surroundings and trying not to appear absolutely lost.

Now, more than ever, he wanted to hurry, to get stronger. There had to be a way to stop the Malnosso, there had to!

Sheena was silent for a long time. If this world had anything going for it, it was that monsters didn't wait for them around every turn, so the trip was less tiring overall.

It had been a couple of hours when she stopped suddenly, glancing around before nodding once.

"Here. We'll have to leave the river here." She looked back at him, having had ample time to compose herself again. "It's a good time for a break, if you need one."

Because she would never admit whether she needed one or not.

Allen's stomach answered for them, a rather loud answer. Allen gave an embarrassed laugh, poking said stomach and telling it to be quiet.

A break it was, then, he supposed. And from the looks of it, he wasn't the only one who needed it.

"Yes... a break would be good."

"Hmm." Nodding again, she cleared some snow off a fallen tree, creating a place to sit. She'd almost laughed at the sound of Allen's stomach; it reminded her of Lloyd and Genis.

"I guess it's time to eat, then, huh?" She pulled something out of her bag, as well as the utensils to eat it with.

"Yes..." Allen flushed slightly at his much-too-predictable stomach, putting down his pack and opening it to take out the food. A whole lot of it. After all, after that walk, he was getting rather hungry.

She stared at what he set in front of him. He was...going to eat all that?

"Uh...you know, we could be here for a while...you might wanna save some of it for later."

"No, no, it won't take long." Allen didn't know whether this declaration was going to reassure Sheena or make her worry more. But... he supposed she'd see in a moment, anyway.

With a smile, he dug in, his stomach making loud, impatient sounds.

Sheena spent the next few seconds in awed silence, food half-eaten in her lap.

After that, she just shook her head. "I, uh, meant that this trip might be kinda long, and...you won't want to run out of food."

She looked up at the sky again, then in the direction they needed to go. "Their base, or whatever it is, is past the mountains. It'll be hard to get through there by the end of today."

"Ah... right..." Allen eyed the food bag, now considerably lighter, and wondered just how long it would take to get to the base. And even while there, they'd have to spend a long time searching.

With a mournful sigh, he put some of his food back, closing the pack up to help resist the temptation.

Finished with her food, Sheena got up, picking up her bag again and throwing it over her shoulder. They'd have to go pretty quickly through some deep snow, now, since this was away from anything that migt've been cleared near the river.

After a few moments of silent debate, Sheena turned her back to the water slightly. "It's this way. ...After this, we have to keep the mountains in sight, because my memories are...vague, here."

"All right." Allen picked up his pack as well, following her, pretending he had any idea what he was doing. Still, he trusted her, and even if her memory was not perfect here, it was better than what he had to go on. "Lead the way, Sheena..."

There was something about the way he said that that caught her attention. Still walking, she glanced back at him.

"You're lost, aren't you."

"M-me?" Allen laughed nervously. "Wh-what made you say that?"

Of course he was lost. But that didn't mean he had to admit it, oh no.

"First of all, you're stammering, trying to cover for it." She jumped over a thick fallen log, waiting a beat before deciding which way to go from there. "Secondly, you just kinda look it. ...Confused."

"But... ah... I can be lost, can't I?" Allen gave his nervous laugh again. "I--I mean, as long as you know where we're going..."

Because, really, even if he knew where they were going, he doubted he could find it.

Rabbit--I mean, Lavi--hunting!

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