Of Brick and Stone (open)

Aaly walked silently beside him as he explained Crisis about the Pink Room and talked with Halo. She knew about Shotgun's hate towards the higher Districts and though she shared that hate, she sometimes felt as if she couldn't compare to it. She had been 'blessed' by having been born on one after all, she had had a 'prefect life' till she turned 13 and never knew about the hardships of having been raised on a poor nor even middle Districts. She had witnessed them once she had started living there, but witness and withstand that kind of thing were nothing alike. Still she wondered why did he even spoke to her. Or even was nice to her. He, among all, would have she expected him to hate her because of his great hatred towards the kind of District she came from. That led her to actually appreciate his friendship though strange to her it seemed genuine.


She tilted her head back to them "Though if you want you can always try drugs if you want, don't hold back. Whatever happens here at District 2 stays on District 2" She said with a grin, jokingly.
 
"Yeah," Shotgun agreed. "Maybe it'll lighten you up a bit."


Crisis rolled her eyes.


Shotgun stopped outside the building with a sign that read 'Pink Room' hung on the door. He turned to face Crisis and Halo. "Here it is." he said.


"I thought it would really be pink," Crisis said, a bit disappointed.


"Hey wait here," Shotgun said. "Let me tell everyone that you're coming so their not so surprised." Shotgun motioned with his head for Aaly to follow. He lead her around back to the backdoor that lead directly to the basement. But instead of opening it, he stopped and turned to face Aaly. "There actually is a real reason I came out to find you," he said lowering his voice. Even though the other two were around the building, he didn't want to take a chance of them hearing. "You already know about the meeting taking place tonight, about the ball? Are you sure that you can make it with those two following your every step? Even more, do you think they can be trusted? I've been talking to some of the others, and they don't think it's a good idea to have those two scoping out our district. There is too much risk that they could report back to the government on what they found. Maybe it would be a good idea if they never make it back, you know what I'm saying?"
 
Aaly suppressed a frown at Shotgun's words, yeah she knew exactly what he was saying. He was a nice person.. Sure he was, but as most of the Rebels he could be kinda radical as well. Actually, if she hadn't talked to them and hadn't been really looked after them she could have even.. considered it. But right now, there was something that made her unable to regard that scenario as a possibility, she couldn't just do that and go to sleep peacefully that same night. Instead she leaned forward and lowered her voice as well "I know what the others think but it's okay. I'll send them back to their Districts today. You know today is one of those 'clandestine' escapes, right? Well I got them two spots on that plan. By 6pm of today they will be send back to their own District. I find it unnecessary to do what you say in that case then"
 
Shotgun shook his head. "Aaly, you're playing a risky game. If someone sees you aiding them in an escape they will not be happy. And I'm not talking about me, or Trent, or Tydus even. I talking about people like Nate and Kira. You know their just looking for an excuse to say that you shouldn't be apart of xiii." Shotgun was genuinely worried. some rebels were not happy when Aaly joined xiii because of where she came from. And to tell the truth, they never accepted her even when Tydus said it was okay. Shotgun would always defend her, but he didn't know how to stop the others from going off on her if someone saw her doing this. "You don't have to do this you know. You can leave right now. Their big kids, they found their way in, they can find their way out."
 
Aaly finally showed worry on her eye as it shone with a dark, glimmering blue "I know it, I understand it. But.. But I cannot just leave them like that. I brought them here Shotgun, they didn't find their way in, I cheated them to come here. Help me.." She would usually never ask for help to anyone, she was used to do things on her own. But she trusted him, Aaly actually really trusted him. She felt herself being guilty about dragging them there with her, she felt she was the one to blame, and somehow she knew it was unfair for her to just leave them and walk away, she promised she would help them, somehow she couldn't back on her words.


"Please help me on this one. I just need to take them out today and everything will be alright" She knew the fact that Crisis was attending the ball and she kept it to herself, if they were to know about that they would surely not let them go, she herself didn't know why did she risked her own.. life and fight for them, but as much as she hated that she couldn't just not do it. She would be careful, she relied on the looks xiii would provide her with during her mission, she was confident on her skills to fool Crisis into not recognizing her if they ever ere to meet there. She fought a war but until now she still couldn't bring herself to do any harm to innocents if it could really be avoided and for her it could almost always be avoided, that's the reason why she trained so hard, to compensate for that damned soft side of hers that even if she tried she could not just shut it down.
 
Shotgun sighed, then nodded. "Of course. You seen to have your mind set on this, so of course I will help you."


Shotgun let the bartender know that he was bringing the outsiders down into the basement, and the tender slowly spread the word to the others. Now the group of four sat at a table in the corner of the room where no one would come up to them without them seeing. All around, people drank, talked, and played games. But the atmosphere was stained with the underlining knowledge of the two outsiders sitting across from the two rebels.


"What!?" Crisis snapped at three girls who kept throwing dirty looks their way. The girls rolled their eyes at Crisis and walked away, muttering quietly among themselves.


"You shouldn't be so quick to pick a fight," Shotgun said.


"They shouldn't be so quick to look at us like we're aliens," Halo said quickly defending Crisis.


"They're only doing that because they don't trust the higher districts. But hey, can you blame them. Speaking of which, how did you find yourself a citizen of District 5?"


Halo shrugged. "After my parents died, my aunt and her husband took me in."


"You like your new district?"


"It's fine."


Crisis looked from Halo to Shotgun, was that tension she felt?


"So," She said. "This is what you guys do for fun?"
 
Aaly had sighed in relief by Shotgun's agreement on helping her but right now had found herself annoyed by Crisis attitude again. Seriously, could she not restrain herself just a little and stop always snapping at people? She was trying her best there for them to be considered as 'inoffensive' as she tried to get them out of there as soon as possible. She crossed her leg over the other one and leaned back a bit on the old leather couch she was sitting at.


"It's just one of the things we usually do to relax, that's all" Aaly said distractedly as she looked at her side from the corner of her eye, truthfully that it bugged her to be watched upon by so many people who tried but clearly failed to act like they were not doing it so.


She, however, did not snap at them and just sent them a cold glare, a warning. Some of them looked away quickly, trying to mind their own business.
 
Halo nodded. "It must be nice getting this much free time. We barely get any."


A waitress came and placed a drink in front of the four. "Enjoy," she said cheerfully before walking away. Halo and Crisis didn't touch theirs but Shotgun lifted his to his lips and took a sip.


"You two must be eager to get back to your home," shotgun said putting his glass down.


"You have no idea," Crisis sighed.


"So I'm guessing that you two want to put all this behind you and not tell anyone about your little adventure."


"subtle ," Halo said. "Is there something you want to tell us?"


"Yeah," Shotgun leaned forward and fixed his eyes on Halo. "Don't run your mouth about District 2 to your rich higher district friends."
 
"Ok fine. I think we all agree that they won't tell anything, ok? Besides what would they have to talk about? It's not like they have seen any important thing over here. Just leave them be" She let out a sigh as she took a sip from her drink. Great, she was getting a headache. She stood up for a moment "I'll be right back.. Just don't kill each other, will ya?" She made her way through the crowd till she reached the bathroom and splashed her face with water. It was just so stressful, she just wished the time went by quickly and she was able to just get them off her back once and for all.


She took a deep breath and walked out the bathroom to a corner of the basement, at the other side form where their table was located. There was a little like window over there that led to a big storage room.


"What can I help you with?" A young man with maple-syrup colored skin, gold-green eyes and curly black hair asked behind the window like passage.


"Hey Delos, I would like a painkiller" She let out with a heavy breath.


"Right away, Al" Delos gave her a friendly smile before disappearing behind some shelves and came back several seconds after with a little white bottle. "You're lucky this time, it was difficult to get our hands on this little one" He opened the lid and placed two little pills on her hands. "Here ya go"


Aaly nodded and swallowed them quickly, not willing to wait to get back to the table and get her drink to help her with it "Thanks I owe you one, pal" She said before starting to walk back to their table, she just hoped for those painkillers to really ease her increasing headache, it had been ages since she had let something like that get on her nerves, for her right now all of that was just a plain annoying bad dream.
 
All three watched as Aaly walked away after her speech.


"Great," Shotgun sighed. He was suppose to be helping Aaly with her issue and here he was making it worse.


"You two act like such children," Crisis said shaking her head.


Both Halo and Shotgun gave her the same look.


"Okay," Shotgun said. "Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Let's just get this last day and we'll never have to see each other again."


"Fine by me," Halo said.


"Hey she's coming back," Crisis said and they all turned to Aaly. Each of them had a sheepish look on their face.


(Hey what are they going to use to get back to District 5?)
 
Aaly raised her eyebrow as they looked at her and crossed her arms above her chest as she sat down on the coach "You can wipe that expressions of yours from your faces you know? Let's just make things clear. What Shotgun said was true, you two should really leave behind everything that happened over here as soon as you go back as, thankfully, for all of us including both of you you won't ever be coming back here" Though she said all of that and wanted to sound demanding, she had a rather tired tone into it.


(Just a normal hovercar, nothing out of the ordinary)
 
"Why would I want to brag to anyone about coming here?" Crisis asked. "Besides, if word gets out that we crossed borders without perdition, we get sent to re-education."


"Well, it's almost six," Halo said pinching the bridge of his nose with his pointer and thumb. He hadn't slept in two days and it was getting to him. "Almost time."


(Do you mind if I have a raid on the escape?)
 
Aaly for once smiled at Crisis words. Yeah right she wouldn't talk about her 'little adventure', at least she wasn't planning on doing it. She glanced at Halo and nodded "Good. We should get going then" She felt as how the weight on her chest slowly disappeared and her headache seemed to fade away, maybe because of the painkillers or maybe because all of that situation would finally reach its end soon.


(Nah, S'Okay, be my guest ^^)
 
The clock struck five fifty.


"Okay, I think it's time you fill us in on just what we're going to be doing," Halo said. "Is there anything special we need to do? A password?" it was safe to say that Halo had never done this before. He and Crisis were following the rebels to the escape site.
 
"Is there?" She turned her gaze to Shotgun, actually she didn't know and expected him to know more about that than her.
 
Shotgun shoot his head. "Nope, if you're there everyone pretty much assumes that it because of the escape, why else risk it to come. You two just wait with everyone else and then three hover cars will drop by and pick you up. But you should push to be in the front, who they can't take they leave. And they wont come back."


The small group was walking through an abandoned part of the district. The buildings were very old and run down. They looked like they might even had been pre-war. But even if they were no one would know because no one lived here in quite a long time. In fact, nature was starting to take the place back. Vines grew up the sides of buildings and moss covered what could once have been a fountain. Grass grew in patches through the streets and a few trees grew from the ground.


"What happened to this place?" Halo asked.


"There's a river close by that's very toxic," Shotgun replied. "No one's ever lived here because of it. The toxins cause growths in the body and that are very dangerous and can spread."


"You mean Cancer." Halo said, it wasn't a question.


"Yup."


"But there's a vaccine for that," Crisis cut in.


Shotgun shook his head sadly. "Not here there's not. C'mon, we're almost there."
 
Aaly blew her bangs out of her face as she looked around. May it be that the river was toxic and dangerous but she liked the place. It was old and run down, yeah.. But she liked how the nature was starting to take back what belonged to her since the beginning.


Somehow at bad feeling ran down her spine as she glanced up at the meeting place, a bad omen. She would usually listen to her instincts and follow them but right now there was no time to screw all that up because of a mere 'hunch', at least that's what she wanted to believe.


"Just try to blend in, we don't want them to find out who you guys are when we are so close to send you back" She suggested as she shook her head from side to side, looking for irregularities.
 
Up ahead a large group of people stood huddled together waiting.


"Don't worry, we're not going to screw this up," Halo said glancing to the side. Over on his left was a row of rundown storage units rusted with age. He started to slow his pace when he notice the writing above each unit. A116, A117, A118... Halo stopped suddenly.


"What are you doing?" Crisis asked.


Without a word Halo took off for the units. He found A119 and grabbed the key from out of his pocket. Although the unit was old, the lock was new and the key went right in.


"Halo what are you doing?" Crisis asked impatiently once she caught up to him. "You heard what Shotgun said, if we're last, we wont go."


"Just give me a second," Halo said lifting the door to the storage unit.


"Guys it's six. we don't have tome for--" Shotgun stopped speaking when he saw what was inside the unit. "Are those...?" he began.


"Hoverbikes," Halo finished.


Sitting in the storage unit was two sleek black, brand new hoverbikes. Both looked as if they hadn't been ridden once.


"These aren't just any hoverbikes," Crisis said going up to touch one. "These are the new Helfire's, they aren't scheduled to hit the stores till next month." She turned to face Halo. "How'd you know they were here?"


"I didn't. This guy just gave me this key," Halo said holding it up. "The number on this unit matched up with the key."


"There's something tapped to the seat," Shotgun said pointing.


Crisis reached over and grabbed the paper from the second bike. "A tic for a tac," Crisis read. "I do expect my kindness to be paid back. But for now, you and your friend enjoy the bikes. If it's six 0' clock and you're reading this, then you're going to need them." Crisis flipped the paper to the back, then looked at the front once more. "That's all it says."


"What the hell does 'you'll need them' mean? How did this person know we'd be here at six?" Shotgun asked.


"I don't know," Halo said shaking his head. "He just gave me the key the first night I came here. I've never seen him in my life."


"Well Whoever he is, it looks like he wants something back," Shotgun said. "Do you two know how to ride one of these?"


"Yeah," Halo said.


"I can lean," Crisis replied.


"Then let's get moving." Shotgun said. "Since you have these, then you can just tail behind the hovercar, you don't have to rush for a spot."
 
Aaly shifted anxiously, not liking the turn of events. She did, however shrugged it off, she just wanted them gone! She cleared her throat quite loudly.


"Yeah well just take them and get moving" She shifted her weight to her other leg. Whoever that guy was... She didn't the fact that he knew about their plans but hey.. Most of the times those kind of things happened at District 2, even walls had ears over there.


(Sorry, kinda doing something else, will post longer posts later! > <)
 
The group was at the rendezvous point by six o' five, just at you could see the lights of a hovercar in the distance. They lingered to the back as to attract the least amount of attention. The light grew brighter and the air buzzed with talk of finally getting out of District two.


"I guess I owe you two a thank you," Crisis said kicking the ground with her foot. "So, thank you."


"Yeah, thanks." Halo piped in.


"No problem..." Shotgun said, eyes fixed on the approaching hovercar. It was bigger then he expected. And the black exterior of the car blended in with the darkening sky. The two other hovercars that followed close behind the first looked the same.


"This does teach me one thing though," Crisis said. "I'm never skipping school with you again."


"Oh I keep your life interesting," Halo grinned.


"Something's not right," Shotgun said. His eyes never leaving the cars in the sky.


Both Halo and Crisis turned to him.


"What?" Halo asked.


"Something's wrong, these cars... they look high tech."


Halo and Crisis followed his gaze.


"High tech?" Crisis asked.


And then it hit him, but a moment too late. All three cars landed and out of the first one stepped a blonde haired beauty with icy blue eyes and a cold smile. After her was a fleet of officers with guns pointed and ready. Everyone froze with shock.


"It's a raid!" someone yelled.


That got everyone moving. The group dispersed, erupting into screams and terror. The blonde watched them for a moment, her smile growing, before she gave a wave of her hand. That one motion sent the raid squad rushing after the people.


(Oh it's fine ^-^)
 
"You've got to be kidding me" Aaly spat as she somehow managed to push the group back "Run, now" She whispered to all of them, it was an order and they had to follow it now. Her eyes didn't give a chance to argue and her tone was as firm as it ever was. By the old street's side the woods started and she couldn't really understand why the people would run as a group of frightened sheep down the the streets instead of scattering all over the place and run into the woods were it would be more difficult to get them, maybe they were too afraid for even to think. She did, however, pushed her little group of four towards the woods as her mind tried to process the information and think fast.


'A raid!? Do you hate me for God's sake!?' She didn't have the time to keep thinking about that though as she felt herself being pulled from the group by the arm and the painful feeling of it being twisted behind her back. She bit her lip to stop a scream of pain come out from her mouth and tilted her head to the side to see an uniformed guy trying to drag her back with him.


Aaly hit the floor with her heels and twisting her arm even more by the jump she managed to land a kick on the man's face, who let her go as he tried to hold his bleeding nose in pain. Aaly winced though, feeling the broken arm hanging painfully at her side. The man looked at her with rage as he tried to reach for his weapon. She did, nevertheless, reached for her pocket with her good hand faster than him and threw a dagger at the guy's chest, making his eyes go dull and then, as his knees buckled, he fell to the ground with thump.


"You b****" The heavy punch reached her ribs out of the blue as she writhed a little, holding the spot that had gotten hit. The man had not been alone. Aaly's sight got blurry as he saw the other man approaching her. Thankfully, she used all her remaining energy to reach for her other pocket and take out a gun that she used to shot the guy on the head, a buzzing sound ringing on her ears as she felt the adrenaline running through her veins. The guy crumbled to the ground as Aaly backed down slowly, stumbling a little. That punch had affected her. Fortunately for her, the other men seemed to be so busy with chasing after the other District 2 citizens to notice the two fallen men and the girl who had killed them who tried to get away unnoticed.
 
"Shit! Aaly your arm," Shotgun said coming over to her. His cheek was bruised from just finishing up a fight with an officer.


"What are you doing!" Crisis hissed. "You can't just kill them!" The girls palms and knees were bruised and bloody from being pushed down by the running people. She tried to make her face look hard but fear showed through her eyes. All the screaming and running made it hard for her to think straight. And the armed officers weren't helping either.


"We have no choice," Shotgun shot back. "Hey where's Halo?"


Crisis's eyes grew wide. Did they get him?


"Here," came a voice from behind, and Crisis relaxed. Strapped around his chest was one of the officers guns. On either side of him was the two hoverbikes, both turned on and hovering a few inches off the ground.


"Are you okay?" Crisis asked. Halo's bottom lip was was cut and dripped blood.


"I'm fine. I think someone elbowed me in all the chaos." Halo then turned to Aaly and Shotgun. "You guys take one of the bikes," Halo told them realizing that this must have been the reason that guy left him the key. Halo just wanted to know why he did it. And why not just send out a warning to everyone? "I doubt that you two can out run the squad now. Just remember to stay low to the ground and keep to the woods."
 
"I'm okay. It's just broken" At least for her, her ribs hurt a hell lot more. It had caught her so off guard that she had been careless. She took a deep breath and taking advantage of the adrenaline that was still being released on her organism she stood straight and kept her body moving as if nothing was wrong, however, without using by no means her right arm. She hopped on the hoverbike and pulled Shotgun by the forearm "Come on, get on"
 
"Oh no," Shotgun said shaking his head. "You are not driving. Not with that arm" He got on the hoverbike and turned to look at Halo and Crisis who were already on their bike. The bikes faced opposite ways. "Not how I imagined it, but this is where we part," He said.


Halo nodded. "Be safe."


"You too."


And with that, both hoverbikes rushed away. One heading for District 5, the other for the rebel base. Behind they left the sound of screams and the smell of fear.
 
Aaly woke up to the strong smell of meds and the blinding light of a white room. She darted her eyes from side to side, though her sight was blurry and she couldn't make out anything of what she laid her eyes upon. She tried to shift to the side but a faint twinge shot all over her right arm to her neck, only that was enough to make her stay still. She closed her eyes in frustration and took a deep breath.


Her memory was fussy but she managed to recall some fragments of what had happened the day before. She remembered the raid and the fight with the officers.. Then her memory changed to the moment she and Shotgun had arrived to the rebel base and she had collapsed to the ground. Then there were those voices:


"She's got a broken arm and two broken ribs"


"Look at this nasty wound, no wonder she fainted"


"The infection spread, we need antibiotics"


That's right.. She had been rushed to the hospital soon afterwards. So that was where she was. "Ugh.. What time is it?" She asked with a hoarse voice, hoping to find at least someone on the room who could tell her the time.
 
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