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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"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.

"Yes and no." She sighed, catching sight of the mountains and turning that way. All at once she found herself waist-deep in a snowdrift.

"But if it comes up, you can just get back by following the river downstream."

Another step - a misstep - and she disappeared into the powdery snow altogether.

"Sheena?!" Allen widened his eyes, frantically digging around the snow, trying to find a trace of his friend. "Sheena, where are you?"

She emerged from the snow a minute later looking frustrated and slightly amused. "Sorry. Couldn't tell what was under there, I tripped on a stick or something. Watch out, you don't want to fall too."

Brushing flakes from her hair and shoulders, she continued through the loose snow, slower this time. Soon it evened out again, returning to its former depth, somewhere around her shins.

"Thank goodness..." Allen breathed out a long sigh of relief when he saw that she was safe. Taking her words to heart, he picked his step carefully... well, as carefully as Allen generally did things, anyway.

There was more relief forthcoming as the snow thinned, and Allen looked around again, finding him, of course, completely lost.

[[ooc: That's not very carefully at all...]]

She studied the mountains in the distance again, frowning slightly. "If nothing holds us up, we should get most of the way through there by the time we have to stop. ...Does that sound okay?"

She looked back at him, still amused at his complete lack of knowledge of where they were, but more worried about what he'd say. Allen was certainly prone to be slightly less than sensible, in this case.

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moonstone-curse.livejournal.com - 2007-12-23 19:35 (UTC) - Expand

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Rabbit--I mean, Lavi--hunting!

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