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Fandom [CLOSED] Tokyo Ghoul: Dead Enmity

Daryl had totally zoned out the woman's needless blabbering, if he wanted to listen then he would, and at that moment he didn't. He just wanted to beat the shit out of her for coming into his house, throwing gas, and then attempting to fight him. She wasn't getting away with any of it, he'd make sure of that. 


Her attack with the kagune wouldn't have hit, he was very aware of it heading straight for him and was confident enough that he could get out of the way and counter before it struck, but Jackson just had to move her at the last second, he just had to stop her and ruined everything. The little bastard, did he not understand that Daryl could look after himself? Who cared if he couldn't use his kagune, he could deal with this. 


"Jackson! Fucking stop it!" He yelled, his head turning in the direction of the male just to scowl at him. If he wanted him not to kill her then why didn't he just stay out of the fight and let the man do his job, he could take this woman out no problem. She just needed to pay attention to him for once. 


Getting struck by those kagune was definitely something he had to be wary of, but he was pretty sure he could attack her before she managed to hit him. She'd put them on what seemed like an equal playing field, but inside was small, not the ideal place to be dodging giant appendages, which meant he had to be more careful than she did. He just wanted her to be cocky. Once she got cocky he could end it all. 


Adrian was being dragged upstairs, which was good considering he was one of the people that the woman wanted, and for once he couldn't protest, since he was too busy coughing up his guts. As he'd turned his attention to the boys running up the stairs he felt something cut into the flesh of his leg, which made him jump back almost immediately. Green eyes locked onto Irene, becoming hard and cold in seconds, did she just cut him? She better fucking hope that she didn't cut him. He looked down just to see a tear in his trousers; he liked those trousers. Well, that was fucking it. 


"Come in my house!" He yelled, taking in a breath and holding it, he really needed to end this soon... "Terrorise my family!" Daryl looked to the side, he'd outrun her kagune if that's what it took, there were so many flaws in her style. As long as he looked like he was going to kill her, that was all he took. "Force us out!" He ran forwards, heading straight for her middle again, but then he dipped down onto the ground, sliding to a halt near the woman's legs and attempting to wrap his arms around them and pull them. "DON'T FUCKING THINK FOR ONE SECOND I'LL LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THAT SHIT!" If he pulled her legs from under her and sent her to the ground she might hit her head, or she might not, either way he'd have her in a weaker position. She could jump around all she wanted, but the area was too small for her to avoid forever, and he had to get this over with and get them out before any of CCG members showed up. As if he was going to waste time on her; he didn't have the time to waste. 


There was so much to do, he had to get into contact with Dane, he had to get Bella and Rachael back, he had to move everyone out, sort out food, somehow drag Caleb out of his room... He had so much shit to stress over, he didn't need this. 


The drugs in the air were starting to get to him a little more, he didn't want to fight in this sort of environment, he could, but he didn't want to. Plus he was extremely aggravated, even though Jackson told him not to, Daryl knew he could end up killing Irene if she managed to piss him off to an extreme. "Go. Fucking. Down. Bitch!" 
 
Every breath that Daryl took made him weaker, but he needed that tainted air to survive. It didn't matter how long he could last without it; every amount of time worked in Irene's favour. She sucked in clean breaths through an open mouth and darted backwards, to the sides, swiping and slashing at Daryl as she went to try and keep him busy and far away for as long as possible. A few times she managed to cut through the man's trousers and a ways into the flesh of his legs, and another admittedly unintentional cut farther up left a blood-dotted gash in his shirt.


"Goddamn it, listen to me!" Jackson pleaded from where he clung to the door. One hand left the handle to grab blindly behind him. He could not feel where his chair was or how far it had fallen, but he needed to get back into it before something serious happened. If only he could get in the way of the fight, he could make a human barricade strong enough to give Irene the time to find another way out of the death-zone. "Stop - Daryl, stop, hang on a moment!"


Of course, there was not a moment spare to hang on for. Irene's kagune whipped through the hall wildly, colliding with what little furniture the room had and ploughing holes in the walls. She had not expected to see Daryl disappear and slide up beneath her, but she did not waste any time to gawp and be shocked. Instead a pair of quick feet wrestled with the man's arms and she held out her hands to steady herself. Maybe she could get out of this. Maybe she could do a quick vertical hop and lose her shoes, then dart forwards and in range of the front door, and-


Wham!


Something large, clumsy and heavy hurtled through the passage in front of her. By some miracle - or curse, in this situation - Jackson had managed to somehow throw himself back into his chair and come in to block the way. By the looks of things, it was not intentional, or at the very least the results had gone quite differently to expect; the man's legs were draped to one side and he had his arms out, reaching in Daryl's direction but then turning to grab at thin air as he spun around at the opposite wall.


Irene cursed under her breath. There went her escape route, and no matter how quickly Jackson tried to re-attempt the movement by dragging himself inch-by-inch away from the scene with his feet still trailing on the floor, she knew there was no time to re-adjust before she fell. The surprise had off-balanced her, and she went toppling backwards against the floor. The gas mask cracked and unwrapped itself from her face when her head struck carpet, and suddenly the woman was spluttering and choking on her own weapon.


The kagune sweeping out of her back turned brittle and dull. Its edges started to crumble, and it became smaller and smaller until the last of it sunk back through her coat.


"That was a dirty trick," she rasped through the fumes, but there was no time for her to get up. Jackson leaned over and grabbed at the empty gas canister which had been dropped in the chaos. He raised his arm and hurled it straight at Irene's temple, and it made a direct hit.


The woman was out cold.


"There," Jackson wobbled up at Daryl. "There, that - that's enough, you can gi-give it up now. Daryl, you can stop."
 
Jackson constantly had to get in the way? Didn't he? When the man suddenly rolled past Daryl couldn't help but roll his eyes, Jackson needed to stop trying to get involved, he was either going to get himself killed, hurt, or accidentally manage to sabotage someone. None of the options were good, so staying out of would have been the smartest and best decision for the man to make. However, that was not the decision he had made, and so now he was trying to stop one of them killing the other...or...something like that. 


It was as Irene fell to the ground that Daryl's attention turned back to the woman, he let go of her legs and knelt above her, probably about to find a way to knock her out. He wanted to kill her, she'd seen his face, possibly compromised them all, but that wasn't what Jackson wanted and they were just going to have some sort of massive argument if he did...so he went to strike her on the head. Or...he would have had Jackson not gotten there first.


The same canister that had destroyed his own kagune and power had hit Irene straight on, knocking her cold almost instantly. Daryl looked up, scowling as Jackson started to speak. He'd wanted to do that; why take the satisfaction away from him? What an asshole. 


"Whatever." He muttered, rising to his feet, "Fuck..." Putting a hand to his head, Daryl stumbled forwards, suppressants were not fun...why'd she have to go ahead and use them on everyone here? There were kids in this house. In seconds he'd walked over to Jackson and repositioned the man in his chair quickly, before pushing him away from the door and opening it up. They needed the air, he needed the air. For a moment Daryl stepped outside, taking in a nice, deep breath of fresh, cool, polluted London air. It might have been polluted to hell and back, but he'd take it any day over the shit in the house. 


After a moment of standing and breathing in all the clear air that he possibly could, the man stepped back inside the house. His chest tightened slightly, although it wasn't as bad now that they had the door open, he just had to get it all out. "Diana!" He shouted, knowing the woman to be on the ground floor, "Get everyone down here out! I'm gonna get the others and then message Bella and that lot! We need to leave, now!" There would be CCG all over this house soon enough, they needed to make sure that everyone was outside and ready to leave, because staying would be the worst idea they'd ever had. Everyone would get caught, and even if they weren't, they'd all be compromised. 


As he shouted to Diana he started to back up towards the stairs, already people were appearing from the living room, coughing and spluttering, as they attempted to get outside. Good, Diana had that covered. He could go and get the others. 


In seconds Daryl had climbed the stairs and was making as much noise as possible, "EVERYBODY OUT! WE GOTTA LEAVE! NOW! COME ON!" He was not wasting time, every door got knocked on and he kept repeating himself over and over. Once he knew people were listening he could start to deal with Caleb, which would be a harder job, "UNLESS YOU WANNA GET LEFT BEHIND GET OUTSIDE!" Every now and then he'd cough and choke on his words, but he was doing his best to make them clear. The gas wasn't as bad upstairs anyway.
 
Daryl's shouts were so loud that Jackson would have bet it would have been felt on a seismograph. The whole house seemed to shake with the noise - but that was probably for the best. Even through their coughing and choking, nobody in the house failed to hear the warnings, and in a few seconds there were people piling out from their rooms.


Callum and Tommy-Jones were some of the first to leave. They had dumped Adrian up against a wall somewhere once they had made it upstairs, then forgot all about him because they were so desperate to get to a window. Both boys drank in one last breath of the outdoor air before the youngest grabbed his brother by the wrist and tottered back down to ground level.


"Out!" wheezed Jackson when the two stopped to stare at Irene. They frowned at the woman on the floor for a second more, and then wasted no more time as they followed each other out of the front door. An entire stream of people with hands clamped over their mouths and stomachs staggered after them, and several more people filtered out through the lounge.


He could not tell if there was anyone left, but Jackson was not about to sit around and wait for someone to tell him. The sound of tyres crunching against gravel was already in the distance, and the CCG would be here in a matter of minutes. With one hand the man leaned down and pushed Irene's limp form aside so that he could move, and a moment later he had joined a nervous, chattering crowd outside.


"What's happening?" came one question among dozens of other similar whinnies and chirps.


"There's an emergency, something's happened."


"Did you see the dove?"


Jackson had to ignore all of the questions. These people thought he was their leader for some reason, even all this time after being rescued they still looked up to him. But he couldn't help. He could not bring himself to tell them the answer, because he knew that if they panicked then not everybody was going to get out in time to survive.
 
Getting everyone outside was an issue, Daryl had to go into every room and yell until everyone had evacuated the house. As he was walking around he started to text Dane, his sister, and Bella to tell them not to come back, he explained the situation and told them to meet the ground somewhere else. It would be easier to do that. Better than getting caught by the CCG. They had to leave now. 


"Caleb." The man had no problem barging into the worried boy's room and grabbing him by the wrist, of course Caleb had immediately spooked and tried to get Daryl off of him, but he'd kept tight hold. "This is serious! Listen!" His voice was stern, "The CCG is here, fucking listen, they'll take you if you don't come." 


"W-Where's D-Dane?" Caleb whimpered, "I-I don't..." He really didn't like the idea of going outside right now, not with all of those people. 


"Out, look, we're gonna meet up with him. Right, take it like this, either you come with me now or I'm carrying you out." Already Daryl was pulling Caleb towards the door, but the boy didn't really want to come. It took a little bit of a struggle, and Daryl threatening to leave him for the CCG, before Caleb finally made the decision to join him, sticking to his side like glue. 


After running to the third floor to make sure there was no one there he headed down and towards the door again, the two looked around the house one more time, hoping they'd grabbed everything... They had to have grabbed the basics, everything else they could just buy once they were out. 


Once they'd gotten outside Daryl was bombarded with voices and questions, but he didn't answer any of them, there was no time for that... Anyone could be near. For a moment he stood there, looking over everyone, he wanted to check they had everyone, but he really didn't have the time...they were all moving around and talking, it just wouldn't work. He'd just have to hope that anyone with a brain would have gotten out. 


"Alright!" Daryl raised his voice, but not too loud, he didn't want to disturb neighbours, "I'm splitting you up. Diana." With that he ploughed his way through the crowd splitting them in half, "Take the left side. I'll take everyone on the right. We're meeting the others further down and then we'll split into smaller groups, for now this'll have to do, fuck." The woman had moved to ready her own group to depart, but of course she had to talk to Daryl about where they were going. Once that was sorted she started to move her group away, they had to go separately, they couldn't be seen together. 


"Okay, right." Daryl looked to Caleb, making sure he was following, then he looked to Jackson and the other, "Let's go. This way. Don't waste fucking time, we'll get caught." 
 
Anybody trying to keep track of who had evacuated from where was wasting their time, for certain. People had come out from the house in huge waves, stumbling over one another and moving far too quickly to count. They all grouped up and chattered in confusion, then split in two to follow their leaders as they clung on to the promise of a later reunion with those left wandering outside.


Among Daryl's group was Jackson, the mother and child who slept in his room and several of the others whose names he didn't know. Caleb was there too, thank God, and Adrian... Where was he? There were quite a lot of people in Diana's group; if he wasn't here, he was with them, probably buried among masses of the taller ghouls swarming around him.


Safe. Adrian was safe.


"Okay, let's go," said Jackson. For a man whose arms shook when he stretched them out, he was surprisingly quick to move away from the scene. People skipped past him, behind him, guided his way ahead. They just kept going and going for what felt like forever until everyone's legs ached and their feet throbbed with effort. The kids were the first to complain about being unable to carry on, and eventually the weakest runners dragged the group to a halt.


Jackson took a moment to glance around. He was struggling now, too; beads of sweat rolled down the sides of his face. His hair had a slight curl to it. The skin on his face had turned deep red. But his eyes still saw.


The area they were in was not as rugged as the man had feared. Instead of endless networks of dark alleys, the group had fled blindly to the edge of a residential close. At the far end of a wide, low-mown green was a wood-and-wire fence which seemed to mark the border of an enclosed nature reserve. Those woods were probably smaller than they looked, but if they could hide among the trees then the CCG would have a harder time finding them than they would in plain sight.


A couple of children had slumped down by a fence. Jackson raised an arm at them. "H-hey, guys," he called breathlessly. "Over - over the fence, we can rest when we're in there."


People eventually picked themselves up and dragged their heavy limbs over to the edge. Jackson stiffened his arms and boosted them so that they could vault over the top of the fence and drop down at the edge of the woodland. The kids went first, then the elderly, a few more guests and then it was just himself, Caleb and Daryl.


"C'mon, Caleb. You first," he offered as he cupped his hands ready to take the boy's foot. "They - we should be s-safe, in there, the trees can hide us. We'll rest up and talk, then figure out what happened to everyone else. Uh - Daryl?"
 
The entire time they were running Daryl was texting Dane and Bella, the two had met up with Rachael, Bella had the car, and they were heading to the meeting area. Although, he didn't know how long they were going to be, he had to make sure they'd lost the CCG before he headed anywhere near them. So they'd just ran, ran to get as far away as they could. 


Daryl probably could have gone on for longer, but the children and other members of the group were getting tired, so they had to stop. They'd come close to a fence, which Jackson had suggested jumping over in order to hide, it was a good idea, although getting the man over there was going to be more difficult that getting everyone else over there.


Caleb was standing quite a ways away as everyone started to jump, his hands were hidden in his sleeves and his head was down, he looked less than comfortable as he stood there, turned slightly to the side, avoiding looking at anyone that wasn't Daryl. They'd rushed him out of the house so quickly, and he'd had to come, Daryl would have forced him one way or another. There was no way he would have allowed him to stay. 


"Uh." Upon hearing Jackson call his name, the boy jumped, eyes widening and darting to look at the man for a second, before his gaze dropped once more. He rubbed his arm, hesitating to jump over, he didn't really want to...there were...more people over there. It wasn't hard to notice the way his eyes flitted from the ground to all of the people on the other side, his body language screamed anxious. 


"C'mon Caleb, we gotta go." Daryl prompted, motioning to the fence, even then it took the other around thirty seconds to make his mind up, but eventually he did go to jump it. He'd approached, looked at Jackson's cupped hands, and then totally avoiding them, jumping up the fence, grabbing near the top, and swinging himself over easily. He landed on the other side, immediately lowering his head and backing up, wrapping his arms around his waist. Caleb refused to look at anyone around him, he couldn't, they were too close to him. 


"Yeah?" Once Caleb was over Daryl had turned his attention to the man next to him, "What?" He crossed his arms, green eyes darting around the area, if they were seen... They were in big trouble... 


---


The sound of car pulling up onto gravel was unmistakable from inside the house, the gas had started to clear, leaving the area a little better off than before, but the sound of wheels said that it wouldn't stay that way...


There were voices as people got out of the car, slamming the doors behind them. The door to the front of the house was open, so they wasted no time coming in, those uniforms of theirs were all too familiar. Of course, the house was empty...or...should have been...but someone decided to stay behind. 


"Hm?" Grey eyes flickered up to meet the blue of the investigator at the front of the group, Adrian titled his head to the side, grinning as he sat on the stairs and watched Irene from above. So...they were here? He didn't expect this...he'd just come back to see if...well...Irene was awake or not. Quickly, he jumped to his feet, bouncing from heel to heel, "Hello." It seemed that it was time to take his leave....if he could even get out. 
 
Jackson shook his hands together impatiently at first as if to rush Caleb on. The boy was nervous, that much was obvious - in fact, he did not even have to look at him to know that. Caleb always seemed to be bothered about something or another, so instead of rushing him the man took his time and waited.


It took a while for Caleb to finally oblige and join everyone else. Jackson drew his arms in sharply and cleared his throat when he realised his offer to help had been snubbed, and there were a couple of suppressed snickers from observers on the other side of the fence. That was fine. Jackson just pushed up his glasses and ignored it, taking a moment to scan the area again.


There must have been people living around the area, but luckily it was a quiet spot compared to the majority of central London. The investigators were probably swarming back at the house by now, but they weren't nearby. Out of sight, out of earshot... Hopefully they were also out of range. As much as Jackson hated to admit it, Daryl's decision to cut the feed from Irene's camera device had probably saved their hides.


On the other side of the fence, some of the children had gone trailing off into a deeper patch of woods. Their little shapes were barely visible from outside, but they were all sat cross-legged in a circle over dry ground mangled by wild roots and flaky undergrowth. Trees sprouted up from the ground just inches away from each other, and the adults danced through the gaps and wended their way through to join the children.


"We're going to the glade," a young woman announced to Daryl before she went.


Jackson nodded up at Daryl. "They've got the idea," he explained quickly, flicking his head towards the little trail. "W-we can tell them what happened - uh - later, they all saw Irene, you know. We're gonna have to explain about her." His voice had turned somewhat hard. Daryl had wanted to kill the woman back then, and for that he was having difficulty holding himself to reason. "But anyway... You were on your phone, right? Did you get any news from the others?"


***


Cold, echoing footsteps clicked through the street and softened into silence as a shadow melted over the carpet. A long, thin finger traced over the cracks in the paint where Irene's kagune had ploughed gaping fissures in the walls. The delicate silence was broken by the tut of a tongue.


"Ma'am," came the soft, familiar voice of a young man. There was a shuffling noise and a little flicker of the bottom of someone else's coat came into Adrian's view. "Your quinque."


"Ah. Good lad, thank you," the woman said. Her quiet words were light and clear, and yet they felt so cold to hear. They became stronger when she spoke again, this time not to the man, but to a group. "Alright. Graham squad, enter."


More footsteps thunked into silence as another stream of investigators slid in through the door. They muttered little thoughts and enquiries to one another. In a matter of seconds they had filled the rooms, but their leader had not gone to rush to evidence with them. She stepped to the side and a pale hand passed over where Irene was just blinking back into wakeness, a signal for another person to slip into view.


Irene choked, "Associate-"


"You're hurt," the person pointed out. He must have been the man the boyish voice from earlier had belonged to; he would certainly look like a child with his round face, mop of blond hair clumped together in odd places and his pair of round, brilliant green eyes. But the thick padding of muscles which widened his body made him a man. "Can you stand?"


"Yeah." The woman curled up, wrapped her hands around her head and groaned, but eventually her legs straightened and she stood. She and the boy trailed off to join in with the investigation.


For a moment it looked as though nobody would think to look up. But then, as though from nowhere, another person appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Icy blue eyes locked with Adrian's and a sad smile found its way onto the white-haired woman's face.


"Graham squad, come," Minnie commanded her men. "Our target is within range."
 
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"The glade?" Daryl looked back to Jackson, raising an eyebrow. Okay...he wanted to talk about that, but soon enough the man in front of him had started asking about something else. Him getting into contact with the others wasn't really something they should be worrying about when they were out here on the run, they were lucky the CCG didn't know who was running, otherwise his phone would be so tapped. 


For a moment he stood there, phone in hand as he waited for his mind to clear up, "Uh, yeah." He muttered, looking across to Caleb, who was still waiting for them on the other side, he wasn't going to leave without them, "Dane met up with Bella and Rachael, they said they'll meet us wherever we need. Bella has the car so she can take people in that..." He started tapping his phone as if it would have every answer he needed just laid out on a To Do list in front of him. "She's also talking about her parents. Says we can probably stay there for a few days or something, she's getting into contact with them, but we'll have to find somewhere else pretty quickly..." With a sigh, he moved forwards and shook his head. "Anyway, what's this? Where're we going?" His brow was furrowed as he finally raised his eyes to the man, did he have a plan? 


There was too much to think about, he hoped that Diana had managed to safely get her group out, but from what he'd seen from the woman, it probably wouldn't be a problem. She seemed pretty good at dealing with people and situations like this, so he wasn't too worried. Still, she did have his little brother with her, whom he'd stupidly forgotten about in all the chaos... 


Shaking his head, Daryl spoke again, "Y'know, we should probably hurry up and get outta here, was there a point to that question or...?" He was getting impatient, if the CCG were still around then he wanted nothing to do with all of this. 


----


Adrian's keen ears easily picked up on all of the noise that had suddenly encompassed the house, he didn't really think he'd ever be faced with the people he once worked with...but...here they were, and he was smart enough to know what would happen if he just sat and watched them... He wished he didn't know, but he did, and so he knew he needed to leave. 


"Mhnn..." The boy looked down, pulling his jumper from around his waist and letting it fall to the ground, there was no point keeping it now...he couldn't put it on, it'd just get in his way. Once he'd done that he met a pair of eyes that he recognised, they were light...like ice... Once upon a time Jackson had looked up to the woman that stood in front of him, he remembered that. Seeing her smile, Adrian smiled back, but he knew that they were no longer on the same team... Even though he could only remember her as an ally, the back of his mind was yelling at him to run. This time he decided to listen to it. 


Without warning, he launched himself forwards, grabbing onto the banister of the stairs and sliding down. Once at the bottom he jumped to the ground and made a mad dash for the door, before that he hadn't made a move, but he did need to get out of that house at the very least. So he'd unexpectedly barged his way through investigators, tripping over his own heel after stumbling outside, he did a forwards roll, landing on his feet once more as he slid to a halt. With a giggle, Adrian grinned and turned to look at the entrance to the house behind him as he bounced backwards on the balls of his feet. Who knew how many of them there were, but there was only one of him... He could get out just fine...so...why was he waiting around? 
 
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His fingers had curled inwards so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and when he finally stretched his hands out again there were four dark crescents that glistened with sweat engraved in each of Jackson's palms. Maybe following Daryl here instead of tagging along with Diana's group had been a mistake; this man was so irritatingly impatient. If his ego got any larger, perhaps his head would swell.


"Yeah, there was, actually," he muttered through gritted teeth. If Daryl had not been a ghoul, the words would be nearly inaudible, they were so quiet. "I thought it might be nice to know exactly how long we're going to have to listen to the shit that falls out of your abnormally large mouth before someone else can take over."


That insult seemed to clear some of the weight hanging on Jackson's shoulders. He sat up straighter, looked past the fence at Caleb and then stared through to the tiny glade where everybody had joined the circle. They were all busily chatting and tearing leaves up from the ground as their hands worked in thought, likely discussing what had happened or making up some ridiculous story about how a ghoul investigator ended up knocked out on the carpet surrounded by a cloud of gas. Jackson wanted to hear what they were saying, and there were no gates in sight. That was fine. There was no need for a gate; he could climb over, just like everyone else. Then Daryl could shove that impatience right up his back end where it belonged.


"Anyway, y-you're wasting time. If we don't hurry up then we'll be visible to the CCG," he said at full volume, surprised by the fact that he managed not to add, 'except that your hair is camoflage enough' on the end. With a pair of hands he brushed himself off, slid up by the fence and then grabbed hold of the wooden bar at the top. "You st-still good - Caleb?" he grunted with just a hint of triumph when his arms pulled his body up so that his stomach pressed against the wire frame. "If you can keep going, go - it's safer in the glade."


***


A dozen and one pairs of eyes widened when they saw the wiry frame of their missing target sliding down in front of them. They had not prepared to run and chase - all of the investigators in the house were folded up over pieces of evidence, little piles of paint-dust, they were craned over scratched furniture. A couple of people were still crowding Irene, and she constantly had to smack away the touch of their concerned hands.


The one person who was not busy, however, was the man from before, the one with blond hair, green eyes and a spattering of freckles across his fair-skinned face. He followed Adrian's descent with lips pursed in thought.


"Ma'am," he said quietly. He gave Minnie a side-long glance, and she caught his eye and nodded. "Should I confront him?"


The woman nodded again, and the man took that as his signal despite the fact that his eyes had turned dull and the cheer had vanished from his round face. He bent down, grabbed at a silver case on the ground and then jogged out through the front in pursuit of the boy.


It came as a clear surprise when Adrian stopped. The suddenness of the unexpected behaviour made the man stumble, but he regained his footing quickly. That was right. He was supposed to be 'confronting' this child, and that meant he had to chase and that he had to fight as well. A shame.


With a click of the thumb, the metal casing of the package hanging from his fingers folded away into a steel bar, around which spiralled a bubbling mass of liquid muscle. The kagune had been well-refined in its conversion to a quinque; instead of the traditional flat blade, the tip of this weapon had been fashioned into an impossibly large set of three vicious prongs: a trident.


"I'm not going to try and kill you," he promised out loud as his hands moved to balance the enormous trident across the back of his broad shoulders. He wore a sad frown on his face. "But if I do it by accident, I'm really sorry."
 
"Oh? That so? Okay." Daryl gritted his teeth as he looked back at Jackson, "Whatever you say m'lord? What else would you like me to do for you today? I mean not like we don't fucking cater to you enough, no no, sorry that everything I say doesn't fucking please you you senseless fuck." He wasn't going to just take shit from Jackson, he was just being moody, like he always was, but Daryl could play that fucking game too. 


Watching the man climb over the fence was decently entertaining, of course, all Daryl's threats were empty, as he threatened to leave the wheelchair that the man had behind, but he didn't, he got it over without much care for whether it actually landed safely. Jackson wanted to insult him, then he could go do that on the floor. Get in it himself, because Daryl wasn't helping the fucker. 


"Yeah, with how slow you are they'll be on our asses in seconds." The man muttered, jumping over the fence himself. Despite what Jackson had said, he saw that Caleb hadn't moved, he obviously didn't want to be left with a bunch of strangers, Daryl understood that. He didn't expect the other to be okay with it, he just expected him to tag along. Dane would kill him if he didn't get him out of there, he'd beat himself up for that one anyway. 


"I'm fine..." Caleb's voice was quiet as he looked over at Jackson, cradling his own arms now, of course he looked away a second later. It didn't look like he wanted to talk at all, he just wanted to get going, to get out of there and get back to whenever. He didn't look like he was having a great time, there seemed to be something he wanted to ask Daryl, by the way his eyes kept flitting to the man and then away again. He was worried, nervous, and somehow managing to hold himself together somewhat throughout the chaos. That couldn't have been easy. 



"Sure about that?" Daryl's voice was a lot softer with Caleb than it was with Jackson, "If you wanna stop we can get outta sight and do that, it-"


"I'm fine." For the first time, Caleb seemed to snap, although quietly, interrupting the other man, "Just...c-can we...go...?" 


----


Adrian didn't expect someone else he recognised to suddenly burst through the doors, he knew that face that didn't match that body... He remembered that once that person had helped him, he knew that he was upset and that person had gotten him away from the situation...but...where were the hair clips? 


He couldn't help but giggle as he saw him stumble, Adrian just jumped from foot to foot, he wasn't making much of an effort to run, even though the back of his brain was telling him he was stupid to stay... He was going to get himself killed. Still, he elected to ignore it and continue staring at the man in front of him. Curiosity over safety. Adrian had always been that way, and right now he was intrigued. 


The case in his hand quickly turned onto a full on quinque, and a trident at that, so they were going to fight? What...a shame. His large grin seemed to falter slightly, before it turned into a smaller, more mellow smile, his body language changed too... He stood almost completely still apart from the slight rocking back and forth he was doing on his heels. His grey eyes never left the other's green...something in the man opposite's eyes didn't look right. It looked wrong, did he feel the same. 


"Oh." The word slipped out of Adrian's mouth before he could stop it, "That's okay." If he killed him by accident... Although he probably should have dwelled on it longer, he chose not to, instead putting a bigger smile on his face, "Don't be sad. You shouldn't be sad." Did he want to fight this man? No... Would he? He had to...or he ran, but something told him running would only get him caught by someone else. Besides, Jackson wasn't there, and he needed to find Jackson, he couldn't just leave the area without him. 


Taking a step back, Adrian released his kagune from his back. Two large, fractured, wing-like structures extended out to his side, but he didn't attack with them, he had no reason to... There was a possibility that man wouldn't attack him, so why should he attack until he was attacked? 
 
Jackson was not built for climbing; that much was apparent as soon as he had left his seat. His arms seared and shuddered with the effort of lifting his body up higher. The back of his neck had turned hot and clammy. Every time he thought he made progress, Daryl said something else equally as stupid as the last and he lost his concentration, which meant that he had to start again.


A moment later, the man saw his chair clatter to the ground and squash a pile of leaves from last autumn as it fell on its side. Daryl had just thrown it over like it wouldn't matter if he broke it, and then decided that it would be a great idea to show off by hurdling the fence perfectly. Jackson's ears burned, and he found that the little spark of fury inside him gave him the strength to finally haul himself over the top. "Goddamn it, b-be careful with that!" he barked when he found the breath to spare. "You know, you're - you're really not doing much to speed things up. But hey, that's fine, you know? Just leave me and-" He pushed himself an inch farther over the edge. "-Go join your t-tea party over there-" With one hand he grabbed hold of a leg and threw it over the edge. "-And when they find me I can tell them all about your adventures as the terrifying Jester."


Maybe Jackson would have carried on, but suddenly his weight lurched forwards and he rolled away from the fence. His head collided with a pile of leaves, beneath which was a particularly unpleasant-feeling streak of rainy mud. Was that Caleb's foot he had landed on? God, he hoped not. Daryl had the fine privilege of being honestly called a dick, but Caleb didn't need more scaring. The kid was already terrified as things were, and being kicked was one thing, but being barrelled over by a flying human was worse. Still, at least no real harm had been done. Jackson forced himself to forget about that little mishap and focus more on the task at hand.


Hands clawed at the bottom of the fence again until he could sit up, and through the swirls of damp soil stuck to his face he jutted his chin out at Daryl and sneered. Sure, his descent had been less graceful than the other male's quick hop, but that wasn't the point. Jackson now had a license to gloat about his minor victory.


"You know," he began as he stretched out as far as he could to grab his chair and drag it across the ground towards him. "I never - I didn't notice those r-rips in your clothes before, Daryl. They're still ugly, but congratulations. It - it's an improvement."


***


"Okay, I won't be," the man promised again. The weight of his trident seemed to off-balance him; he staggered sideways as soon as he raised it up in one hand again, but for some reason he seemed less nervous than guilty. Minnie was standing to the side, watching this person's struggles, and only nodding her approval.


"Go," she said quietly, and then everything about the man changed.


He leaned forwards. His green eyes narrowed, and the hair fell forwards over his face where he flicked his head sharply to one side. Instead of hanging loosely in one outstretched hand, the trident apparently became ten times lighter as it was swung easily in front of the man's body like a shield.


This man wasn't staggering anymore. He tensed his muscles, leaned forwards - and then he was gone. Almost too quick to follow with the human eye, he had darted straight towards Adrian, and then whirled behind the boy. The trident twirled in his hands and stopped dead with the three lethally sharp prongs aimed directly at the skull.


But the move itself was a surprise. The man did not thrust his weapon forwards to stab his target; he threw his weight backwards, landed on his wrists and swept his legs into Adrian's feet. It was a hard hit, one which would surely send the boy toppling to the ground or confuse him for a moment at the least, but as soon as it was over the man leapt back to his feet like he had never even fallen. His eyes were trained on Adrian's form, and not once did he allow his enemy to see his back.
 
"Oh, okay, yeah, you do that." Daryl scoffed, "At least I'll be free whilst you're lock up in a little jail cell somewhere." He scowled, "Maybe if they caught me I'd tell them all about Adrian huh? I'm sure they'd enjoy that information." Although he threatened it, it was never something he'd actually do, he wouldn't hurt another ghoul like that... Especially not after what he'd heard about that kid... 


"But y'know, I think I will leave you there. Maybe your sorry ass'll learn a thing or two about being left in the dirt. Grow the fuck up and stop living like a fucking snobby bastard, you're lucky we got you this far." By the end of his sentence he was practically hissing at Jackson, yes, he was pissed. He wanted to leave the man there, just for a few minutes, just to teach him a lesson, and he would have done too if it wasn't for his next comment. "What the fuck did you just say?" He growled, his eyes narrowing, "Okay bitch, okay.  I was gonna help you but maybe I won't anymore. Fuck you, you-" 


"Shut up!" Caleb's voice broke as he placed his hands on the sides of his head, "J-Just....just shut up.." He was shaking his head, obviously already stressed out. Daryl shut his mouth for a moment, looking over to the male just as he started to move. "C-Can't...can't y-you two just...get along f-for...for a day?" The boy walked over to Jackson's wheelchair and picked it up, he didn't need this...they'd stressed him out enough as it was with dragging him out of the house, he really didn't need this as well. 


Seeing Jackson on the floor, Caleb helped the man up and back into the wheelchair he'd placed upright, whilst Daryl sulked behind him. Once he'd done that he backed up again, moving stray locks of hair out of his eyes, "Please don't..." But...Caleb never finished his sentence, instead he just swallowed, shook his head, and turned back around to start walking in the direction of everyone else. Alone. 


---


"Good." Again Adrian giggled, almost like everything was a game. He never did take things very seriously, and it wasn't about to change now that he'd suddenly gotten himself involved in a fight with a CCG member whose strength was unknown. He liked this man, at least, he believed he did, so why should he be afraid? Or upset? Or...anything like that. They should just get on with it, however Adrian wasn't thinking of the aftermath, he wasn't thinking about what could happen to him if he lost... Mostly because he didn't want to. Whatever happened happened, he didn't want to think about something that might not become reality. 


It was Minnie's voice that cause the blond to charge in, he was fast, that was for sure, and whilst Adrian was able to follow his movements he really didn't know how quickly he could dodge them. A sweep to his feet caused him to have to think on his toes, but when it came to fighting the boy was rather good at that. Instead of toppling to the ground, he tucked his body inwards and backwards rolled, using his hands to propel him into a standing position once again. His eyes locked onto the male in front of him and he grinned, quick...quicker than him? Who knew. They'd find out. 


Adrian wasted no time in darted to the side and grabbing the side of the CCG's vehicle, swinging himself up onto the bonnet. As he landed his kagune crystallised, sending a barrage of sharp, purple spikes towards his opponent. "You're not trying to kill me....right?" Knowing that's what had been said not too long ago, he decided to ask for confirmation, jumping up to the top of the vehicle as he did so to watch from above. He needed a moment to figure things out, like how strong the individual he was versing was, then he could properly go in. Stalling was a tactic... Stalling was good. 
 
'Lucky' was probably not the word Jackson would have used to describe whatever mess of an agreement he had managed to forge with Daryl and the others. Just the thought of being expected to show some kind of gratitude for this level of imprisonment made the man's blood boil. Oh, he would have loved to grab this idiot by his obnoxious green hair and hurl him halfway across the city for some entertainment; he could talk big about being top dog when he was flapping his arms like a chicken trying to fly. But there were several reasons why it unfortunately would not happen. Caleb was one of them.


"Thanks," he mumbled to the boy as he was lifted back into his place. He tried to ignore that twisting humiliation which came with the help, focusing not on his annoyance but on keeping calm. A day. Get along for a day, that's all it was, just keep their mouths shut as they tried to work out the best way to hopefully not be hunted down by the guys who had followed Irene's signal to the house. Could they do that?


We have to, a little voice in his head reminded him. It was that same irritating thought as always, but just as it was every time the words were correct.


Jackson stayed still and brushed some of the dirt out of his beard. He stalled until Caleb was out of sight, and then hissed up at Daryl, "See, you're not helping by sc-scaring the poor kid half to death!" Then he jabbed two middle fingers in the air and wound around the edge of the woodland until a clearer path to the glade emerged.


***


Adrian had turned the other man's attack into an impressive stunt - what should have felled him simply went to prove his speed of reaction, his spatial awareness. Minnie's eyes followed the boy to the front of the vehicle, and the man with the trident crouched ready for a counter.


As anticipated, a first attack followed. Spikes streaked through the air in a barrage, flying at what looked like bullet-speed. Not even a man as quick as Adrian's opponent could hope to dodge that, and he knew it; he raised the trident up and swiped it through the air, sending most of the bullets skittering along the ground to one side. The few that managed to hit him sat embedded in the thick padding of his arms.


"No, I'm not," the man confirmed. He darted to one side for cover and tore a spike from his shoulder, put it in his mouth and crunched it into a thousand pieces between his teeth. Eating the weapon was an unusual way of dealing with an attack, but the way he pulled the bullets out of his arms and thrust them into his mouth without hesitation made it look like the most normal thing in the world.


When he was done, the man hesitated.


"Graham squad, surround," called a familiar voice. Minnie stepped in line with around five more investigators, all of whom scattered to form a wide, trapping arc around Adrian. They were shortening the length of the battle field, making it smaller and perfect for more close-ranged combat: ideal for confronting an ukaku.


The man with the trident slid forwards in the direction of the vehicle. His weapon sharpened as he reared it backwards, turning a darker, more evil shade of red, and then he thrust it forwards. Its tip cut through the body of the vehicle and skewered its roof with ease. Adrian was out of sight now, but he wouldn't be for much longer when the floor on which he stood was crumbling beneath his feet.
 
"Shut the fuck up Jackson." Daryl hissed as he turned his head in the direction he'd seen Caleb go. They'd upset him already, and that wasn't good, he knew Caleb was having a hard time and he really didn't want to make it worse on him... But Jackson was so irritating, he just didn't shut his obscenely irritating mouth. "Maybe he wouldn't get upset if you just shut the fuck up for once." With that he looked behind them, making sure no one had seen them yet, if they stood here forever then they were going to get caught. They needed to leave. 


With a sigh, Daryl shook his head, "Whatever." He muttered, starting in the direction he'd seen Caleb go, arms crossed, he wasn't just going to leave him alone. Jackson couldn't just go blaming Caleb being upset on him, the other man had been a part of it too, like hell he was going to take the blame... Fuck that guy. 


They weren't going to get along, they'd never get along, but at least they could get out of each other's faces for a bit, that would be good enough. As long as he didn't speak to Jackson then he wouldn't have to worry about Caleb getting distressed or upset. Honestly, Daryl just wanted to find the others already, he wanted to reunite with them and check everyone was safe... They really hadn't done that back at the house. 


-----


"Okay." Adrian hopped from foot to foot, smiling down at his opponent. He noticed that his attack had mostly missed the individual, which made a slight frown appear on his face as he watched what the other was doing. Was he eating his kagune? Could...humans do that? He'd never really hear of that before... 
 


After a moment of trying to figure out why the male would want to eat the spike that had been shot into his arm, Adrian shrugged and blinked, grey eyes moving to the weapon in the other's hand. "Y'know, if you're hungry you should probably go get something to eat..." He started, "'Cause I heard that's not good for you... Humans aren't meant to do that, right?" His full focus didn't seem to be on the fight, no, it was more on the blond man who looked too young for his own body, but...in a more general sense than a combat sense. He was just intrigued by him. 


As he was about to speak again he heard another voice... Surround? Adrian turned his attention off of the man and towards the grey haired woman he recognised, Minnie. "What're you..." He mumbled, but it was unlikely she heard. They were really surrounding him now? Oh, that was no fun... As he hopped to the edge of the roof he started to look for some sort of exit, where could he go... Though as he was doing with he heard another noise, like the sound you heard when something slammed into metal. 


Once more his attention was diverted and he didn't notice the attack from the blond until the metal he was standing on started to cave inwards. Adrian eyes widened and he looked up, he had to make a decision without a second, any hesitation would cause him to fall. So the boy dived and grabbed the side of the roof with one hand, pulling himself towards it. Once close enough he used it to push off with his foot, falling towards the hard ground only seconds later. He'd tucked in his shoulder and landed on his side, rolling across the ground for a moment, before swiftly getting back to his feet. It was a lot less graceful than his previous save, but at least it had done the job. 


The boy place a hand on his shoulder, rolling it and then cracking it, "That was mean." He muttered, turning his gaze back towards his attacker. Now that there were others surrounding him he knew he had to be careful, but he also knew that he had to keep moving and get out... He knew his stamina wasn't going to last him all that long, but he had to try. Suddenly, Adrian jumped forwards striking out at the human man attacking him, he was aiming for his leg more than anything, his thigh in particular. He just needed to take something out... There were too many people surrounding him... Could they go away?
 
The trees seemed to create a different kind of silence within that fence. Gone were the distant sounds of wheels crunching over crumbled tarmac, as were the cries of the pigeons and gulls circling above. Instead of the chaos, beneath the canopy where golden light filtered through in specks and dapples there was the humming of wind in the branches, the distant tweets and chirps of nestling birds. It all melted together into an endless song, and once alone Jackson found that noise quite soothing.


The man had calmed down now. Being here did not make him like that bastard Daryl any more than he had a moment ago, but it did help him overcome that sparking irritation with rationality. There were things to consider now. The future: when and where would be ideal for reuniting with the others? What were they going to do with the guests who had been roaming the city when Irene stepped in? He would have to blag something when he got to the others, and judging by the chattering he could hear coming from up ahead, there was no time left to plan.


"Hey, you made it," called out the same young woman from before, the girl who had leaned over the fence. "Everyone's here, I think. Ken, have the kids run away yet?"


There was a pause. One of the others, an older man with grey hair twisted around and motioned his hand as he completed a quick head-count. "No, all here," he answered finally. 


"Great," Jackson breathed. A couple of people shifted out of the way to let the man through, and he settled at the edge of the circle with everyone else. It looked like Caleb had made it to the glade safely, too, and Daryl... Well, he was unfortunately present as well. At least the younger boy wasn't alone in a sea of strangers. That was about the only upside. 


The man brushed himself down. He wiped his face again in case there was any mud still caked to his cheek, and then several pairs of eyes turned up from their seats on the ground to meet him. Time to talk. "...Err, okay," he begun, "Everyone here? It - it should be safe here, at least for a while. S-so sit down, rest up."


"We've been resting up for five minutes already," somebody complained. "Can someone just tell us what the hell's going on?"


"Yeah. Yeah, okay, look - basically, there was an... Um, an incident a while ago. A ghoul investigator found the house," Jackson stammered as his face flushed red. A couple of people gasped, just as expected and just as feared. Someone muttered something about being taken away, but the man had to raise an arm to silence anyone's whisperings. "Nobody actually got hurt - it... Basically, it's fine, but we can't go back because they're going to be everywhere. It's not safe."


"So where do we go? You said we were safe in there, you said nobody would-"


"Yeah! I know - I - l-look, it was unexpected, okay? We're working on it, uh, finding somewhere else to keep everyone for a while until we get somewhere better. But first we've got to find the others. Daryl, you were in - you're in charge of that, so why don't you stop keeping everything to yourself and tell everyone exactly what's happening? You know better than I."


***


The man pulled back on his trident and it slid smoothly past the splintered gap in the vehicle's roof. That was CCG property he had just destroyed, but nobody was saying anything, so it must have been okay. All that mattered at the moment was catching the target.


Once his weapon was free from its obstruction again, the man barred it across his body and turned around to look for his opponent again. His sharp eyes found Adrian immediately, but the attack was already upon him. This kid was fast, and he was going straight in for the hit.


The strike came to his thigh and made a hit. Blood pooled around the edges of Adrian's crystal wing, and the man flinched and cried out, as his hand gripped at the wing and tore it out of the gaping hole in his thigh.


Adrian had made a hit, and he had also made a mistake.


The man did not let go of the boy's kagune. Instead, he pulled it upwards, taking Adrian's entire body off the ground until he hung by the wing on his back. And then the man began to swing him, spinning his opponent around and around in the air like an enormous living lasso. Blood from the man's leg was winding up the base of his trident, thickening its trunk and sharpening its prongs.


"I'm sorry about your shoulder," he said quietly. Then the trident went up, and it flew through the air like a javelin. It skewered right through the boy's arm with so much force that the man had to let go of his kagune or else he might have been carried through the air with the boy. He went on and on, and then hit the ground at the 


Minnie put a finger in the corner of her mouth and whistled. Her squad closed in on Adrian and bent down, grabbing the boy by his wrists and ankles and making sure to hold him down ready for capture. The man who had been fighting seemed to lose his balance - he went from his battle stance to the same awkward, clumsy man who had dragged a trident along the ground behind him earlier, but this time he had a wound from his victory. Oddly, though, he did not look happy about winning; he could only watch the people surround the boy and then nod shallowly to nobody in particular.
 
"Tch." Daryl had approached the group just as Jackson as started speaking, he wasn't really listening to the male as he explained things to everyone else, instead he'd moved over to check if Caleb was okay. Although he tried to apologise and say something to the other, he wasn't having any of it. Caleb simply shrugged Daryl off and turned away from him, however, he didn't move away, he was still afraid of being around so many people who had come from the place he feared the most. It wasn't fair to be subjecting Caleb to this, Daryl knew that, but there was nothing he could do about it. 


"Uh." Upon hearing his name he turned his head up to look at Jackson, for a moment he said nothing, then he blinked and nodded. "Okay, fine, calm the fuck down would'ya?" With that he turned his attention to the rest of the group, if they wanted to know what was going on, then he'd explain it, wasn't like he had much choice. "Like you've seen, we split up into groups. Kinda had to y'know? It's easier to find a large group of people that it is to find two smaller. I've been texting the others, Bella has a car she can take some people in, the rest of us will have to go by train, so we'll split up into groups for that as well. She's asked her parents if we can go stay there, they're well of bastards, but they won't be able to keep us for very long, so once we get there I'm gonna see if I can track someone down who might be able to help. If he's not being a piece of shit at that point in time anyway." He sighed, before continuing, "As for right now, we're gonna go meet up with the others around twenty minutes from here or so, they're around the area already, since they have a car, and I told Diana where to meet, so it should be easy to get there. All you guys gotta do is follow, I'll be keeping in touch with the others all the way there. That what you needed to know?" Again he turned to look at Jackson, his gaze stiff and cold, he definitely wasn't in the best of moods with the guy at that moment. 


----


When his attack hit Adrian didn't really know how he felt...it was a strange, mixed feeling, like he'd accomplished something, but also like he'd just hurt someone who'd never done anything to him... Who had only helped him... Why would he do that? Hearing the man cry out cause him to jump slightly, grey eyes moving up to look at his opponent's face, he was...in pain? So...why did he feel so guilty upon being the cause of that pain? 


He opened his mouth as if to say something, but his kagune had been firmly grasped, and before he could do anything he'd been lifted off of the ground. For a moment Adrian was in shock, but he didn't have much time to process what was going on before the world started to spin around him. He wanted to move, do anything to stop what was happening, but there was no time... No time at all. 


An ear piercing scream of agony erupted from the boy as he felt something pierce his shoulder. It was a sharp, sudden pain, originally piercing in three different places but continuing to spread throughout his arm like it was some kind of liquid able to seep through his skin and burn him from the inside out. He didn't hear anything the other had said, it was just mumbles and murmuring, and then suddenly he'd crashed into the ground. 


He was dazed, unsure, hurt, but before he could scramble back to his feet and try to continue fighting he'd been held down. Again there was a scream from Adrian as his wounded arm was grabbed, he tried to struggle, but every movement sent a new wave of that sharp searing sensation shooting up his arm. So he stopped. He stopped trying to struggle with his arms and instead tried to thrash out with his legs, but he didn't know where he was aiming, it was blind, he couldn't focus, his breathing was uneven and...and he was panicking. What...were they doing? 


Grey eyes darted back and forth to every face around him, he didn't know where to look, he didn't want to look at anyone, but he had to look somewhere... So he continued to change the person he looked at every second, there had to be somewhere he could look, somewhere that was safe. Suddenly another person came into view. A woman with brown hair held something in her hand as she walked towards the group of people holding him down, he didn't know what exactly it was, but soon enough she'd approached him with it. Her brown eyes stared down into the boy's grey and she sighed, adjusting something on the side of the item that, now that it was closer, looked oddly like a mask. 


"Don't breath in too heavily." Her voice was soft, yet held some sort of authority to it as she looked down at the male restrained to the ground. Adrian, again, wasn't give the time to ask her what she meant, even though he desperately wanted to, as soon enough the mask was placed over his mouth and nose. He panicked at first, letting out a high pitched wining noise and shaking his head as he kicked and struggled, but the more he struggled the more he was hurting himself, and the less he wanted to resist... He wasn't getting away, was he? They weren't going to let him... That man didn't want him to... But what about Jackson? Where...where was he right now? Did he go with them?


The severity of the situation seemed to dawn on Adrian all too late as those large, grey orbs of his suddenly widened out of fear. His head was held in place as something was released into the mask, causing it to suddenly become much harder to breath. Adrian's chest felt tight, he was trying to take in breaths of air yet every time he did he just felt like something was weighing down on his chest, trying to crush him under the pressure. What was that? What were they doing to him? Panicking definitely wasn't helping the situation, but he had so many questions and no answers, they hadn't told him what they were doing... He didn't know what they were doing!


His kagune withered, retracting into his back upon breathing in the gas, and all around the boy just felt weak. His heart had started to pound faster and faster, he'd squeezed his eyes closed out of fear, and now when he tried to take in a breath all he got was lungs full of whatever kind of gas had been released from that stupid mask they'd put on him. He couldn't breathe properly, he couldn't remove the mask, he could hardly even move, and it was scaring him... 


Tears prickled at the corners of his eyes as he made a last ditch effort to struggle again, but he felt numbed, he felt like he wasn't even meant to be awake. Everything seemed to slow down, and when he opened his eyes everything was just slightly...blurry. He couldn't see properly... That wasn't good... That really wasn't good. Why? Why was it doing that? He didn't like it. He didn't like it. Why wouldn't it stop? Why was it happening? No! No! Although Adrian tried to yell nothing came out of his mouth, the only sounds were short, high pitched squeaks as he fought for his own breath. 


Although the ordeal only lasted a few seconds, it felt like it went on forever for Adrian. Were his lungs collapsing? They felt like they were collapsing... In fact...he felt like his chest was going to explode. Were they trying to kill him? But he said that he wasn't going to do that...had he changed his mind? HAD HE CHANGED HIS MIND!?


By the time the mask was removed he wasn't able to appreciate the breaths of fresh air he was allowed to receive, he was only just holding onto consciousness and that was his main priority. The boy felt the pressure on his chest lift slightly as he was sent into a violent fit of coughing and spluttering that made him want to curl up and cry, he felt like he was hacking up his guts... It hurt. His lungs were attempting to take in all the air they could after being deprived of it so suddenly before, but that wasn't doing Adrian any good. He wanted to cry, he didn't want to pass out, he didn't want to...but he felt himself slipping closer and closer to unconsciousness by the second... He couldn't control it. This couldn't be happening...he couldn't really be about to pass out. No, no, no, no, NO! Despite his anguished cries and attempts at causing himself more pain by pulling at his arm in order to stay awake, he simply couldn't hold on. His brain was a mess, he was panicked, and he couldn't make sense of anything... His senses just didn't want to work, this wasn't normal, this wasn't how it was meant to be! And then...


"Ma'am. He's out." 
 
Every pair of eyes turned glassy as their owners pricked their ears and sharpened their minds to follow the meaning of those words. The speech was not especially long, but it carried a lot of vital information, all of which the ghouls were hungry to hear.


A quick, crisp clap from Jackson's palms marked the end of Daryl's speech. "Well, there it is," he declared. "You - you heard it. In a few minutes we meet up with the others, then we can, uh, go to camp with Bella's parents for a while. Or at least that's what I got from that. Err, any... Any questions?"


Blank faces stared back. One woman, a person Jackson recognised as the mother who had been housed in his bedroom for the last few days, took her hand off her son's shoulder and raised it in the air with one index finger pointed up.


"Yeah?" Jackson prompted.


"Do we or do we not have a plan for what happens afterwards?"


"Uh - well, we don't really-"


The woman cut in, "I mean, come on. This is ridiculous. We're getting taken God-knows-where against our will to stay with a pair of strangers who are going to kick us out after a few days, the doves are on our tails, there are children to feed... And we don't even know where to go after that!" Her son curled up in his mother's lap as she flung her other arm out towards Daryl. "Look! He says he can help us but doesn't even know where his friends are. You just - you can't trust that!"


Some of the other, older members surrounding Jackson in the circle craned in to whisper thoughts into each other's ears. Little mutterings of questions and agreement passed through the air, and Jackson's ears burned again.


"It's a good point," the grey-haired man from before piped up. "We can't just go rushing out without a plan, we might lose someone."


"We'd be better off at the house," someone tutted in the background.


Jackson stiffened. "Alright, alright," he snapped. "Just - everyone just calm down a moment, okay? We're not political leaders, we're... People. We're just people, and we're trying to work something out. Daryl said he's gonna look for for help."


"And what if there is none?"


"Then... Well, there's..." He lowered his head again. There was another option, another chance should Daryl's help fail him. The key was in his pocket. "I have somewhere. Uh, it's - it's a little far away from here, but worst-case scenario, there are a couple of other places on the south coast everyone can use for a while if we need somewhere to stay."


***


To Adrian the struggle might have lasted for an eternity, but when his breath was taken away by a cloud of white gas, Minnie could only watch him squirm for a few seconds. Her white face had contorted into a deep-wrinkled frown, and her icy blue eyes turned glassy for a moment. But when she heard those two words, her expression turned stony again.


"Good work," she said coldly. The man with the blond hair flexed his hand again; he had picked the trident back up, folded it into its case and let somebody else take it away. Now that he was no longer needed for combat, he simply lingered at the edge of the scene, his big green eyes blinking curiously.


Most of the investigators had moved away from Adrian now, primarily to make way for a person coming in with a pair of handcuffs. She sat the boy up with one hand, grabbed his wrists and clipped them together behind his back. A moment later and his feet were restrained in the same way. He wasn't going to wake up for a while, but he was going to be immobile for even longer; those suppressants had weakened him significantly, and it would take a miracle to break through quinque steel.


Once she had finished restraining Adrian, the woman addressed Minnie again, "Ma'am, he's ready. Shall I contact HQ?"


"No," the woman said coolly. She could not take her eyes off the boy sleeping on the floor. "I'll sort it later, they can be patient for a few more minutes. Associate special class Wren can call for an airlift if he would like. Does that sound about right, lad?"


The man with the blond hair glanced up. He seemed not to know what to do, but feeling all of the gazes pressing in on him from every angle gave him a strong urge to nod his head. "Okay," he agreed numbly. "I'll call them now, Ma'am."


"Good. Tell them we're taking Sanister to your night-haunt, they should be over in a jiffy."
 
It had taken quite some time to gather everyone back up and calm the down, but Daryl really didn't care if they were on board or not. It was happening. That was that. He'd even told a couple of people that if they wanted to leave then they should just go ahead and do that, no one was stopping them. Once everyone had agreed to leave he'd started on their way to a place which Daryl knew the location of very well. 


Where they'd ended up was on the edge of a district with many abandoned buildings, there a car sat, waiting for them to arrive, along with the rest of the members of their group. Dane had gotten out of the car first, then Rachael, and Bella was already talking with Diana and starting a head count. 


Upon seeing Dane, Caleb had ran from Daryl's side and up towards the older male, almost knocking him over as he grabbed hold of the material covering the other's arm and attempted to come to a stop. Daryl didn't both to try and stop him, no, instead he walked over to his own siblings and smiled at Rachael, before kneeling down to talk to Nathan, who honestly didn't seem too bothered by the entire situation. 


"Oh so you finally showed up." A hand landed on each of the man's shoulders, "I didn't think you'd made it for a second there." The man turned and raised an eyebrow, looking up at the red haired woman standing above him. 


"Ahuh? What? You think I'd get caught huh?"


"Well, I don't know." She shrugged, "Maybe I was hoping you wouldn't make it." He knew she didn't mean it, she was just teasing, but he still swatted her off. 


"Fuck off." He muttered, shaking his head and grunting, Bella only laughed at his reaction. 


"Seriously though. Diana explained what happened, what a day huh?" 


"Yeah... Fucking dove had suppressant gas as well, wasn't fun. You should have been there, you would've loved it." 


"Yeah sure. You just wanted me to share your pain, sadist." Bella kicked at Daryl's side, taking her hands off of his shoulders and walking behind him to tap him on the back, "Come on. We've got people to count." 


---


"How much is that doggy in the window? ... The one with the waggly tail ... How much is that doggy in the window? ... I do hope that doggies for..." 


Grey irises moved their gaze from the ground to the legs of a man sitting opposite, for a few moments there was silence instead of the sing-song nursery rhyme that had been repeated around five or six times by that point. This time, however, the ending was taking a little longer to come around. 


Adrian raised his legs during the silence, they may have been tied together, bound by quinque steel to keep him from causing mayhem, but he could still move them forwards. His eyes were locked onto the man's legs, and seconds after raising his own he kicked the individual in the calf, before retracting his legs quickly and looking up. "Sale." He muttered, his voice having lost all of the pleasant melody that made the nursery rhyme a song. It was the only word that he hadn't sung... 


The male that he'd kicked was the same man who had fought him earlier that day, of course he knew that... That's why he'd kicked him, because he'd brought him there...and Adrian really really wanted to leave. 


The initial shock of suddenly awaking in a small, enclosed space, thousands of feet above the ground, had passed. He'd struggled against his restraints at first and had done his best to try and free himself, but quickly he'd realised it wasn't happening... Whatever they had put into his system hadn't left, he still felt awfully drowsy, plus he had nowhere to go. It didn't take long to work out that resistance was futile...


Resistance was futile, yes, and he had no idea where they were taking him, or what they were going to do with him, nor where Jackson or any of the others were. The latter scared him the most, he didn't want to be split up from Jackson again... Why would they to that to him? He didn't want to be alone.... Suddenly the initial horror and fear he'd felt returned as Adrian closed his eyes, rubbing his knees together out of discomfort. It was a nervous tendency. He really was doing his best not to freak out on them, but his fear and anxiety just kept growing, and growing, and growing, and- The boy bit into his cheek, and soon enough there was a metallic taste in his mouth, which he didn't mind so much, that'd heal...eventually. He'd just needed the reminder. He needed to calm down; he had no choice but to calm down. 


Adrian pulled his legs up towards himself, turning his body slightly to the right and bringing his knees to his chest. He attempted to move his arms, but was harshly reminded by the shooting pain that was sent up one of them as he moved that that was not possible in the way he'd like it to be. The boy winced, his face contorting as he tried to move that arm into a less uncomfortable position, but whilst they were restrained behind his back he knew that wasn't going to happen. He was just hurting himself more. After a few tugs, Adrian sighed in defeat and laid his head on the top of his legs, dulled grey eyes staring down at the floor once more. He was tired...but he didn't want to sleep again, because they were making him sleep. He didn't want that. 


Adrian didn't seem like Adrian, he just seemed like a very quiescent and depressed version of himself. And who wouldn't be at least a little upset, they weren't exactly the kindest to him....they'd got someone to hurt him and then they'd put a mask on his face that stopped him from breathing... It wasn't nice. 


He'd felt his whole being drop when he realised who it was who got the squad to come to him, directed the attack, and directly attacked him... They were all people he knew, people who, once upon a time, he would have never expected to hurt him in such a way. He felt even worse after that realisation, he felt...betrayed... He guessed overall though it wasn't that feeling that was causing him the most distress, even if he somehow wasn't showing it. It was more to do with the fact that the CCG had restrained him after attacking him and were now taking him somewhere he didn't know without any explanation. He knew things about the CCG, having worked with them, he wanted to know why he wasn't dead... What were they planning on doing with him? 
 
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It had been a split-second, last-minute decision to take shelter in a plot of woodland when they found it, but luckily the glade had kept everyone as close to safe as it was possible to be anymore. The sounds of that little patch of nature had shielded their voices; they could speak, discuss, ask and answer questions and occasionally shout spiteful words at one another without worry. But then it had been time to go, and once more everybody had to make their way back over the fence and start on their way to a place Daryl insisted he could find.


Luckily, this time the man had not been bluffing. He had managed to bring everyone to a ghost town of a district, and there was everyone else. Jackson tried to ignore the exchange between Daryl and Bella. Those two were distracting enough when they were on their own, but now they were threatening to take his attention away from the most important task of all: finding Adrian.


People seemed to move in a swarm, nobody wishing to stray too far from the core of their group as they edged from place to place to check their new surroundings. Occasionally somebody would insist on sitting down cross-legged on the pavement, which briefly made an opening in the group to see a couple of new faces.


Jackson counted a few familiar faces. The young girl from before, a couple of children, that mother and her son who had sat together in the glade. But no, there was no Adrian... At least not until the man caught a flash of some round grey eyes blinking curiously back at him. A small, skinny body stumbled out from the crowd.


"Adrian!" Jackson called out. He stretched his arms out to meet the boy, a smile growing on his face as his heart swelled with relief. But that joy quickly dissipated when he noticed that the boy had the wrist of an older male held tightly in one hand.


Callum's face turned pink and that scowl came back. His mouth opened like he was about to protest, but Tommy-Jones tugged his arm for attention and then eye contact was broken. It wasn't Adrian after all. Stupid, he shouldn't have said anything until he was sure. Now Callum's poor brother was looking frantically from side to side in search of the boy whose name he had learned to avoid, believing the real thing to be an imposter. "Where is he?" he whined. "Where's the other Callum gone?"


The real Adrian was nowhere in sight, which was odd now that everyone was beginning to calm down. People were sitting down on the path in rows, likely waiting to be counted or picked as a number to go with Bella in the car.


"Hey..." Jackson cleared his throat and spoke up. A couple of times, he clicked his fingers together at the group leaders. "Are - are you sure that everyone's here? I'm looking, I've been watching, b-but, ah, I'm not seeing everyone. Where's Adrian? Diana, Diana, he's in your group, isn't he? T-tell me he didn't get lost."


***


The man with the blond hair, or 'associate special class Wren' as he had been called, dipped his head at Adrian when something collided with his leg. It wasn't the spot where he had felt a kagune scrape the lining of his bone; no, that wound was higher up on the other leg, wrapped up in a thick wrap of linen dressing. This kick didn't hurt.


"You've been singing that for a while," Wren commented. He had to speak up now to be heard over the headache-inducing roars of machinery and propellors spinning somewhere overhead, but somehow even when shouting he managed to maintain a level of curious calmness, like an inquisitive child quietly pointing out the obvious to the nearest adult worth acknowledging. He pressed his hands in against the earmuffs cushioning either side of his head. "Are you bored?"


The end of the question was cut off as the floor beneath their feet seemed to lurch and tremble. A quick glance through the darkened windows on either side of the vehicle showed that they were far above the ground, travelling through the air and shuddering through wisps of cloud every few seconds. There was no ground in sight; only a deep, churning ocean of blue where the land had fallen away into water.


A tiny crackling noise seemed to distract Wren again. He pushed one pad on his earmuffs in and nodded to himself, as though hearing a speech through headphones. Shortly afterwards he leaned forwards and blinked those green eyes back up at the boy sitting opposite. "Sir - Mister Sanister, I'm going to ask you a question now. Did you have a reason to evade the CCG when you went missing?"
 
"Huh?" Diana had turned around as she heard her name, diverting her attention from Dane and moving on to Jackson, "What? You mean the little cretin with the black hair?" She asked, eyebrows furrowed, "No, haven't see him. He wasn't with me..." Whilst she didn't want to upset Jackson, she couldn't just straight up lie to him. "Why? Was he not with you?"


"No?" Daryl had stood up upon hearing the commotion, "He...wasn't with us..." It seemed to dawn on the two of them as they stared at each other, and suddenly Daryl's eyes widened, "Don't tell me him..." 


"No way... Kid's not that stupid." Dane had come over now, shaking his head, "He wouldn't stay back at the house after all of this, hey, Jackson he follows you around like a lost puppy... Sure if he was here he'd be with you..." It seemed no one knew where they boy was last seen, there were a few people missing, but most of them had been out at the time of the CCG member coming to their house... Adrian had been in. "Someone look around for him." 


"I'll do it." Bella hastily made her way into the group of people, checking everywhere to see if she could find the boy, surely they couldn't have lost him again... There was no way they did that. 


"Holy shit that kid needs to be kept on a leash." Daryl muttered, putting a hand to his head, "I swear to god... Where the hell did he go?" Now, the man knew what Jackson was like, he knew if he lost Adrian again he was going to panic. They couldn't go back, not yet, there was no way he was going anywhere near that house to see if Adrian was there, nor was anyone else. If he wasn't with them and he wasn't roaming the streets the he'd either fought the CCG and gotten away, or fought the CCG and lost... Either way, they were never going to find him...he'd have to find them... This was a nightmare.... 


----


Upon hearing the man's question on whether he was bored or not he shrugged, he guessed he was bored, but he was mostly singing to distract himself. That way he wouldn't think about where they were taking him or what was going to happen. He didn't seem too nervous, maybe he was just sulking, but he honestly felt like shit...and being restrained didn't really help his situation. He hated it when his movement was limited, people always did that to him, no one let him move, everyone wanted him to stay still. He didn't want to stay still. 


Adrian didn't really plan on even looking up at the other male, he didn't want to speak, not until he decided to talk again. Another question, he was asking another question. Weary eyes moved up from the ground to stare into those green orbs, the boy must have been thinking about something or other since when he did raise his eyes there was an odd hopelessness that seemed to have filled them. However, upon realising that he was being asked a question he seemed to blink and shake his head, almost like he'd been in a trance. 


"Mmng..." He groaned like he'd just been woke up, moving his head on his legs to hide his face, originally he didn't look like he was going to answer the question, but he did...in a very odd way. "Are you gonna kill me?" Whilst his question didn't really answer Aaron's, he wanted to know, anyway...he wasn't about to just tell them everything, he couldn't do that... Jackson might get into trouble as well if he did that. Anyway, he didn't want to answer questions, he felt so sick...why did he feel sick?


Adjusting his arms again, Adrian fell silent, his body seemed to jolt as if he'd hiccuped, or held back a sob, or...something, but he still didn't say anything else. He just waited for his answer. 
 
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"No, he's here. Adrian's here, he has to be. Earlier, before we left, he'd just gone upstairs with Tom and Callum, he was up there with everyone else hiding from Irene when she took the gas out. They all heard Daryl sh-shouting to get out, Adrian was up there, he heard it, he can't not have."


Jackson tried not to let anybody see the way his hands trembled when they gripped so tightly at his wheels that the bone in his knuckles jutted out through his clammy skin. He tried not to let his glasses slip down too far, constantly wrinkling his nose to push them back up, because if they fell down then surely someone would notice the way they widened to circles and shook with fear. People were looking at him now, the same people who had somehow thought that rescuing them made him their leader. They couldn't see him like this, petrified by fear over the loss of a single person who had probably just taken a wrong turning along the way. But he couldn't get those thoughts out of his head.


What if he got lost and the CCG found him first?


What if he tried to escape out of the back and ended up running into their arms?


What if he had gone straight to them, believing that they were still his friends?


A flicker of movement caught the man's eye, and before he could even realise what he was looking at there was something gripped in his left hand. It was another person's wrist - cold, small, the fingers short and twig-like with loose skin like they had the potential to be chubby. Callum stared back when Jackson looked up.


The differences were still there. The wider nose, longer eyelashes, the slightly different shade of grey in the eyes, but for some reason the man still said, "You're definitely Callum, r-right?"


"Yes!" the boy whined. He tugged desperately at his hand to try and free himself, but Jackson held on tight, which made Callum struggle even more.


"You're sure."


"Yes!"


"And - and he wasn't in your group with you?"


"Ye- no! No, I didn't see 'em, what are you asking me for?"


Jackson dropped his arm to his side again. His head seemed to dip down, and he was looking at something that he couldn't see far below the ground. The skin on his face had turned white. Luckily, Callum didn't seem to notice, because he was too busy pinching Tommy-Jones whenever the older boy tried asking a question.


"This is bad," Jackson said shakily. "God, this - this is just... It's bad. He's got lost somewhere, he's out around the city looking for us right now. We're not moving until we find him, got it?"


He didn't bother to look and see who it was, but somebody called out, "There's no point panicking - he could still appear if we wait!"


"Yeah, well..." The man swallowed and nodded. "I don't want to wait. The CCG are out there, there are other ghouls... If he doesn't show up in the next t-ten minutes, I'm going to look myself. He can't have got too far, we'll have to find him at some point."


***


The man named Wren pressed his lips forwards in thought. A finger went up to poke at the middle of his round chin, and he watched Adrian intently with the utmost intrigue. Outside the window, another white cloud obscured the view of the ocean and the floor lurched and bounced again until they were out. The view cleared into the same crystal blue as before, and in the distance was a tiny speck of white amidst the tide: a little concrete island.


Wren tapped at his left ear again and nodded. "Please don't be scared, Sir," he insisted in that same voice which was somehow calm despite being raised above the whirring of the helicopter. "You won't be killed. I told them not-" He paused mid-sentence and winced, jolting in his seat as though shocked by an unexpected noise. Again he continued to nod, and then the subject changed entirely. "I'm sorry. Is anybody else aware of where you were whilst you were in hiding? If so, we're going to need their names."
 
"Jackson." Daryl snapped at the man's irrational decision making, "We can't go look for him. If the CCG are still back there we'll lose more than just the kid." He knew that Jackson cared about him more than anything in the world, but if he was there then he was lost to the CCG, or somewhere random. "Do you really think he'll stay in one place? He'll be god knows where by now! We ain't gonna see him, even if we go back to try and get him. There's no point. You're not gonna go." 


"He has a point." Dane muttered, although he didn't want to say it, Daryl really did have a point about that. Jackson seemed panicked, worried, and rightly so, they'd lost someone important to him...and it wasn't the first time either. "If he's there he won't get him back. If he's not we won't get him back. He'll have run, if he managed to get away, and going to check the house is too dangerous." 


"We could...uh..." Bella had appeared again, holding her arms worriedly, "Maybe drive past when we set off, see if the CCG is still there..." She turned her attention back to Jackson, smiling apologetically, "He's not here... I'm sorry." 


"Goddammit..." Putting a hand through his hair, Daryl sighed and spun around out of annoyance, "Seriously. Why don't we keep him on a fucking leash? Trusting him to come is a pain in the ass, what the hell was he thinking?" Nobody could really blame him for being annoyed, he was upset with himself for not double checking, upset with Adrian for not doing the sensible thing and following, and generally just pissed off with the situation. They wouldn't have to be dealing with this if he hadn't let Jackson and Adrian into the house in the first place...but it had happened now, and they had to deal with it. 


"There's no point dwelling on that, okay?" Dane looked towards the green haired man and shook his head, "We need to focus on getting everyone to safety, then we can focus on finding people... If we just go running around for Adrian now more of us are going to get caught and we're going to have an even bigger problem. Be smart about this." It was hard to think of how to deal with the situation, on one hand he would want to go and find them if it was Caleb or Kedin, but...on the other he knew that a part of him would still tell him they had to wait... They couldn't risk barging into god knows how many investigators... That would cause mayhem and hell. 


---


At first Adrian felt like lifting his head, the man's voice was oddly...calming... He didn't know what to do, he wanted to talk to him, but he didn't want to talk about what he was trying to talk about. His questions weren't calm, nor reassuring, they were just trying to get information out of him... Information he wasn't willing to give. 


"I won't tell you." What was the point in lying? He wasn't going to lie, he was just going to tell them that he refused to answer, they'd hurt the others if he answered. "You're gonna hurt them. So I'm not gonna tell you." Becoming uncomfortable with his position again, Adrian raised his arms behind him, soon enough it became apparent that it wasn't too hard for him to get them over his head. Although it seemed to cause him quite a lot of pain, due to the wounds on his arm, he'd managed to get his arms in front of him and now had them wrapped around his legs. Being double jointed had finally come in handy. "Leave me alone. I don't wanna talk to you." 
 
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Jackson had no idea where to look or who he should listen to; people were firing their opinions and suggestions left, right and centre with barely any space to breathe between. They all seemed to be saying the same thing, though. Adrian was gone. Adrian wasn't coming back. They should just abandon him, leave him to wither in the hands of the world if the CCG had not found him already. It was all so definite, like there was no hope left or like they didn't care.


It made Jackson feel sick. Adrian could be hurting now. He could be lost and cold and so goddamn scared, but now even Dane of all the people here was turning his back.


'More of us are going to get caught,' he had said. 'Be smart about this.'


A couple of people had to scramble from their seats on the ground when they realised Jackson was going to run over them with the speed at which he was advancing on Dane. For a moment the man simply glared into the other's eyes, but then he sat back and swept an arm out to gesture to everyone here. He paid special attention to Daryl and the other permanent residents of the house, although Bella was spared the worst of his sharp looks.


"You're serious," he muttered as his gaze swept over them all again. "Y-you're actually serious, what, you're just gonna give up? No! No, you can't y- l-listen to me, we can't just leave him on his own. He's out there with all kinds of bad shit - it's not just the CCG! What about other ghouls, huh? Or just people, in general. We don't know what the hell's gonna happen, they could hurt him, they - look, if we don't find him in time then he's just gonna get himself killed looking for a way back!"


Again, some uncomfortable shifting of weight made shuffling noises around them all. Tommy-Jones was trying to whisper in Callum's ear, but the boy kept swatting his brother away with a hand. "No, drop it and stop asking already!" he hissed at the older male.


Another woman who had been close enough to hear put a hand on Tommy-Jones' back. "It's too dangerous," she insisted sweetly when the boy jumped and curled his whole body inwards. Jackson flinched after receiving an unexpectedly sour look from the girl.


"Okay, fine, it's too dangerous!" he roared suddenly, making himself as large and loud as possible to mask the way his voice was splintering in fear. Everyone, even Callum's brother, sat bolt upright to look. "If - you know what? I don't care if you don't care. Be scared, like I give half a damn, and st-stay here with the rest of you goddamn cowards. If I'm the only one who's concerned then I'll look for him alone."


"But-"


"No," he growled over some crowd member's protests. People were parting again as he began to move out of the street, tracing the group's footsteps back in the direction in which they had all come. "Just go and - ...Nevermind. Nevermind, just carry on."


***


For a while, it looked like Wren was not going to respond to the blank of an answer Adrian had passed back to him. It was more than a snub; it was downright refusal. 'I won't tell you,' he had said. That was okay. Adrian didn't have to say anything if he didn't want to, it was only the questions which had to be said, and Wren would not have minded if things had stopped there. But as soon as the boy asked to be left alone, it was like the man sitting opposite had become petrified.


He did not seem to even notice when Adrian's hands wormed their way from his back to his front. In fact, he didn't seem to be much aware of anything, like he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. Then his mouth opened and his pale lips twitched.


"But..." A pair of green eyes squinted up at Adrian like he was too bright to look at. Wren's head snapped around to stare at the door behind which the pilots were busily tapping away at an array of control panels. He flinched at another noise in his ear, which from afar would only sound like crackling white noise, but after a moment his entire body convulsed. "Oh! I'm sorry, I'll go now!" he yelled out in a much less calm tone than before. The seatbelt fell away from his abdomen and he staggered to the door and disappeared into the pilots' cabin.


More shouting from the owners of unfamiliar voices led to a heavy thump against the door. Wren cried out with something inaudible, and then something else crashed into another wall. A murmur followed, and then the pseudo-silence of whirring engines and spinning propellors took over again.
 
"Jackson." Dane snapped at the man as he insisted on moving away from the group, how stupid was he? He knew better than this. "You know you're not going to find him! Face it, if they have him he's either dead or somewhere else by now? What do you really plan on doing to help? You can't help him!" He yelled, taking a few steps forwards as if to chase after the man, but Diana was already on it. 


The woman had made her way after the male in the wheelchair and grabbed the back of it, he wasn't going anywhere. It was suicide to let him return to the house. Without looking at Jackson, she started to pull him the opposite way, back towards the ground. He wasn't thinking straight, he needed some time to calm down, if he wanted to help Adrian then this definitely wasn't the way he should go about it. 


"You're upset, I get it." Diana started, never looking back at the man, "But running off like that isn't going to help anyone. Suicide isn't going to save your friend." She sighed, shaking her head, "God. You people are a handful." She continued to speak, "You're only thinking of him. I get that. I've done it. Believe me. You'll regret acting like that. Someone will die and it'll be your fault, then you'll have lost two people instead of one. If you really want to get him back you'll sit down and think this through. For him, for yourself, and for everyone else in this goddamn household." She stopped and spun the man around, grabbing hold of the arms of his wheelchair and leaning down. 


"If you want him back you have to find out where he's gone, if you want him back then you'll make sure everyone is safe and you're in a position to fight for him. You're weak right now, we're weak right now, if you fall straight into their hands all you're doing is hurting him." 


----


Upon hearing the blond apologise and get up to leave Adrian's head shot up. He was really going? Nobody did that... When he told them to leave him alone they never left him alone, he didn't want to be left alone, he wanted the man to stay... He couldn't leave him! He couldn't! The boy whimpered, wide eyes focused only on the door that the other had disappeared through. Would he come back? Was he just going to be left alone forever? 


He was gone... He wasn't coming back was he? He- ... Adrian tensed up as the noise from the other room started, shouting, loud bangs, a cry... The boy jumped at every single noise, what was going on? He didn't understand... Did someone get hurt? Was it his fault? What were they doing? They couldn't do that... Maybe he was panicking a little bit, overreacting, thinking the worst, but all he knew was that those noises meant something bad...and that it was his fault. He was scared, he couldn't be blamed, he was just scared...


Adrian whined, struggling and moving his legs up to push at the steel that held his hands together, but it wasn't doing anything. Why did they have to do this? He wanted to be let go! He didn't want to be tied up! His breathing had become unhealthily quick and uneven as he continued to panic, anxiety had bubbled up to his chest, making it tight, and now he couldn't stop thinking about all of those bad things... He wanted Jackson, he couldn't do this, he was sorry! He really was! 


After yelping and removing his legs from between his arms, Adrian's head dropped down to his chest. Yet again his eyes had welled up, he didn't want to cry, he was trying not to, but he just...wanted...Jackson... "I'm sorry..." The boy whimpered, wrapping his arms over his legs once more, "I-I'm sorry." He was biting into his cheek to avoid crying, anyone could come in...and they wouldn't like it if he was crying...but that was all he wanted to do... He just wanted to cry...
 
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