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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"Eh? How?" Allen blinked in surprise. Still, he trusted her to know what she was talking about. If she said that she could do it, there was little doubt of that truth.

Again looking around, Allen followed. As his eyes came to a rest on the structure, it was clear; that had to be the Malnosso fortress. Even never having seen it before, there could be no doubt.

She led them as close as she dared; they were still a few hundred yards away, but from that point on, the path there was completely open. As it was, they were behind a large, snow-covered piece of broken rock, which offered little cover. Between them and the Malnosso structure was only pristine, untouched snow...and a very discomforting feeling.

So close, now, Sheena could feel herself starting to shake again. She knew a lot better than Allen what the consequences would be if they failed here, and were caught. Taking a long breath, she stopped her shaking, turning around to look at Allen as confidently as she could.

"I got us this far from memory, but now it's about planning. Any ideas?"

"Ah... Ideas..." Allen thought about it. And thought. And thought some more. Truth be told, he didn't really have any ideas when they headed out, and figured they would just... do it. It was not something they could afford not to do.

"Maybe... a... door?" Allen knew he sounded stupid, he really did. The last place they wanted to go through would be the door, he could bet. "Or... umm... the window...?"

He thought about the Ark, and how they got in there... perhaps there was a magical path in, here, as well.

"As far as I know, there are no windows. ...None with access to what we want, anyway." From the way he acted, Sheena had a pretty good sense of what he'd expected to happen when he got here. Alone, he'd have been kidnapped for sure...

She studied the snow before them again, an idea forming; with a flick of her wrist, a card appeared in one hand. "How about this. I can give us cover, and we make a run for the building. If we can reach it before that cover's gone, we might be able to get inside before anything happens."

It was incredibly risky, but nothing else feasible came to mind.

"You can do that?" Allen eyed her card, wondering just what they could do. First, there was the one that glowed, and now this... it was amazing, to say the least.

Still, it was a good idea. It was probably the only idea that would work. "All right, let's try it."

"Okay. Be ready to run."

She turned back to the snow; the single card in her hand was joined by two others. With an expert motion, she threw them toward the Malnosso base; they sliced through the air along the snow, raising a wind that caused the loose flurries to spiral up around them. It was basically white-out conditions: a Cyclone Seal.

Not waiting for some sort of acknowledgement, Sheena took off running. Without her full power, that cover wouldn't last very long, and it was bound to look pretty suspicious.

Allen followed, though his stomach was already starting to grumble. He had eaten much less than normal, and that fact, coupled with how much they had been walking, was starting to show its toll.

Ignoring -- or attempting to ignore -- his growling stomach, Allen ran on ahead, keeping his head under Sheena's cover.

However, soon, his steps began to falter...

She heard it before she felt him slowing down. Turning completely around, she saw him almost stumble before picking up his pace again. If that continued, the snow would settle and they'd be very exposed in the middle of an expanse of fresh powder. Not ideal.

"Come on!" she hissed, turning to start running again. That noise stopped her, though. ...Was that his stomach?

"H-hungry..." Allen tried to run, really, but he just... couldn't. It was stupid, and it was unheroic, and it was going to get them both killed, but despite his best efforts, he still couldn't move.

"Go on first... I'll..." There was another growl from his stomach.

"You're joking, right?" Feeling suddenly exposed, Sheena withdrew two more cards, starting another Cyclone Seal to keep the snow moving. Just that much more effort started to wear on her, though. "I'm not leaving you here."

Stubbornly, she took his hand and started to pull him along. Or at least to pull him up.

The shift was so subtle, she hardly even registered it. Something slammed into her stomach, and she let go of Allen and went flying, landing hard and rolling through the snow.

"Sh-Sheena?!" Allen gasped and tried to reach for his friend, worry writ all over his face, but before he got very far, something slammed into him, knocking him into the snow. He cringed, looking around wildly for his attacker, and seeing... absolutely nothing.

"Nngh... M-Malnosso?!"

Damn.
Sheena pushed herself to her feet, running back toward Allen again. Something threw her forward, but this time she was ready for it, catching herself mid-fall and bouncing back to her feet in an acrobatic flip. The whirling snow made it hard to see him, though, and she needed to reach him before they did.

Unable to see, Allen did the only thing he could -- he activated his Innocence and slashed at the air around him, as much as he could. Hunger made it difficult, and he had never felt so blind before. Even when fighting Akuma in the cover of night, his cursed eye could pinpoint them. Now, however...

Something clawlike dug into her shoulder, and Sheena held back a cry, not wanting to give away where she was. Such precautions were unnecessary, though, as she felt herself shoved hard once again, right into Allen, whose left hand had been the clawed thing a moment before.

It didn't take much for her to figure out that they were surrounded. Likely, the Malnosso had known they were there the moment they left the mountains, if not before. There would be no getting in to rescue Lavi like this, although if they hesitated much longer they would probably join him.

This time, it was Sheena who held onto Allen, eyes serious as the snow started to fall away. "Hold on tight." She made a motion, one quite hard to make out, and they were surrounded once again, not by snow but by a smokescreen. It was the last-ditch attempt she always hated to use, but kept finding necessary: turn back.

By the time the smoke cleared, neither Allen nor Sheena would be anywhere near that empty snowfield.

"Where... are we?" Allen looked around, disoriented. He could barely tell what happened. There were the attacks, and then Sheena, and now they were here. Wherever this "here" was; it looked vaguely familiar, but he wasn't quite sure.

It was, however, not the Malnosso base. That much, he could guess.

"Lavi...?!" With a gasp that came with that realization, Allen pulled away, glancing around frantically. There had to be another way to get in, there had to...

Sheena dropped to her knees, breathing hard. That was too close.

"I-I'm sorry. ...There's no way we're going to get in now. It...didn't work." She looked up at him, trying to convince him with her eyes that continuing just wasn't possible. "If w-we try...they know we're here, that we're coming. We'll just be heading into a trap. ...Lavi wouldn't want you captured along with him."

"But... Lavi..." Allen knew she was right, but he couldn't give up, couldn't. This was his best friend they were talking about, his dearest, most trusted companion. He had to save Lavi, no matter the cost, even if that cost was himself.

"I'm... going to try again." If he could find the way, anyway. "I have to. I... Lavi is..."

She understood his desire to try again, but she also knew he couldn't now, not with how hungry he was. She looked up at the sky for a moment, considering; if they started now, they could probably get back to the village...before midnight. But that would be better than staying out here for another night.

With a long breath - or as long of one as she could take, her ribs were sore from that attack - Sheena stood up again, putting one hand hesitantly on Allen's shoulder.

"Come on. We won't get anywhere near Lavi this way." She knew better than to tell him not to try again. "...Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." Allen looked down, fists clenched. Truth be told, he was far from "fine", after the sort of beating they just received, but then, it was no worse than any normal injury. The one who was not fine, he knew, was Lavi. "I... just need some food. I'll go again. I... I'll go by myself. I won't slow you down like that again."

Just this once, she didn't call him out on his lie.
But that didn't mean she thought he wasn't lying. Still, she knew he'd bring it up, in his own way, if it became a hindrance to their travels.

"Right now what we need to do is get back to the village." Her eyes and voice hardened. "You weren't slowing anyone down. Don't even start thinking you were."

Back to the village? Allen stared as if she were insane. He couldn't go back to the village before they saved Lavi! After all, what else did they come here for?

"I... I'm not going back..." Allen looked down, chewing on his lower lip. "Not until I save Lavi..."

"So, what, you're just going to sit here, waiting for it to maybe be possible for you to try again?" She knew he didn't want to hear it, but that was just too bad. "I know how much you want to rescue Lavi, all right? But you can't do it hurt, cold and hungry, and you don't have enough stuff with you to stay out here much more than another day."

Staring right back, Sheena dropped her voice instead of raising it. "No one is saying to not do it, but if we try now or anytime soon, we'll be as helpful to Lavi as if we'd just walked up to them and said 'take us too!', because that's what we'd basically be doing.

"And I just plain refuse to let another friend be captured."

"I'll fight them..." Allen whispered, his voice trembling, knowing fully well that it was pointless. He could no more fight them then than he could a while ago; less, really, as injured and hungry as he was. He knew he had no choice but to go back, but knowing and believing were two different things.

However, he would not resist, could not, he knew, if Sheena took him back. After all, she was right.

"We just tried to fight, didn't we? And look where it got us." She looked away for a long moment, appearing to be fighting with herself over whether to say something or not. When she looked back at him, Allen would see something quite rare: what Sheena looked like on the verge of tears.

"I'm sorry we couldn't do anything this time!" Her voice was steady, at least, even if her expression wasn't. "We can always try again. ...Just not now, not today. ...Please."

"...Nn." It wasn't agreement or disagreement, merely a sound. Allen knew he couldn't do it alone -- couldn't do it at all -- and had no chance at all without Sheena's help. He could not force her to go back again, to face his mistake again. He had not the energy to do it himself.

"Let's... go back..." Allen shivered, biting his lip against the threat of tears. It took all he had to turn his back on Lavi, and it broke his heart.

Rabbit--I mean, Lavi--hunting!

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