The Recapture of AA

Her footsteps pounded against the ground as she moved at high speeds throughout the streets of Kyoto. Brown eyes studied passers-by, her body leaping over any ones that came to close. Normally, she would restrict herself to the rooftops, but she wasn't running for fun. Her breathing grew heavier, and her eyes were wildly searching for anything, anything could possibly help her save her own skin. Dust was thrown up as she ran along the paths of the city, her eyes occasionally glancing back. There was something wrong here, and she knew it all too well. The sounds of rushing creatures was following her with every step, and the screams of the people made it obvious. Gah... Akiha crouched down as she ran, and leaped into the air. Her body hung in the thin atmosphere for a second or so, before landing on some of the tiled, Kyoto roofs. The sound of pounding tiles made it obvious to her; they had followed.

"Kuh... damnit." She tried to jump between roofs over the street, but heard them follow still. Despite her fasted attempts at escaping, she couldn't get away! She couldn't... the first howl came from behind her with rage-filled screeches. Her eyes widened further, and she ducked down, just as the first creature dived over her prone form. She slowly stood up straight, and there it was. Staring at her through dinner plate eyes, with teeth the length of table-knives. Then came the smell. It was the smell of death that came from it's mouth, the drool hanging from it's lips and dripping to the ground. That creature had killed before, and would do it again. She had to end it's life. The beast ran at her, and AA reacted in kind, running for it and forcing her hand out, gripping it's snout with a hand and a rage-filled gaze. She picked it up by the face and threw it into the air, before jumping up and spinning around, sending a leg into it's side. The beast didn't even had time to react, as it was severed into two pieces, blood flying into the air. It's hind legs fell to the earth, and she shook her head, landing on the ground as the front half hit the ground behind her. She turned around to see the landing body, and held in a scream as the next one lunged at her, pushing her down to the ground, snapping at her face. She shouted out loudly, trying to push it off, but to no avail. As she struggled, she kicked downwards, shattering a large number of tiles, and the roof of the building. They fell into the house below, landing on top of a table with a pot of hot tea on it. The searing pain of heated water flowed through her back, and she grunted in pain, picking up the pot with her free hand and using it as a weapon, slamming it into the side of the creature's head and pushing it off into the wall, getting up and dropping the pot as it recovered.

"D-damn... y-you.." It lunged. She reacted, ducking down and forcing a hand into it's chest, the dog-like beast having it's heart gripped by AA's fingers as it struggled to break free. Blood flowed down her chain-mail clothing as she gripped the beating muscle tighter. It was beginning to beat faster, trying to break away from her own push into it's territory. The dog-thing knew it was dying, and AA put a hand onto it's chin and pushed forwards, pulling back with her other hand and ripping it's heart out at the same time as pushing it backwards. The dog-thing landed on the ground in front of her, and she dropped the heart at her side as it's spasms slowly receded into nothing. She shook her head and sighed. Foolish beast. Taking calm steps out of the room, she walked onto the street just as people started to crowd around and recoil from her bloodied arm. She blinked a few times and shook her head, jumping back onto the rooftop, her moment of rest over. She had to get away. Her feet made no noise as she ran along, dodging parts of the buildings left and right, diving when she came across a particularly large distance to traverse. However, it wasn't long before the next Chimera came across her, chasing her along as if there was no stopping it. The beast lunged for her, just as she was about to jump between two roofs, and the pair were suddenly thrown into the air. They hung in the distance for a second, before AA managed to push the beast off and land on her back, shouting out from the pain of her spine hitting the flat earth. Her heart began to beat faster, and she looked around hurriedly for anything that could help her, but she couldn't move.

"Welcome back, my Subject." Her eyes widened. That voice... she turned her head to see the approaching woman in the labcoat, cold blue eyes staring at her as if she was just a piece of meat. Just... a piece... of... meat? "You forget my face?" No. She didn't forget that face. That woman just smiled and watched as they did things to her. They made her what she was. "No, you don't seem to. So I'll remind you, anyway, Subject AA. The first victory of Project AA." She seemed to be taking pleasure from this, those twisted Aerugese words leaving her lips as if they were the sweetest chocolate, or the best tasting drink. As she spoke, she drew out a small pistol, pointing it at Akiha's chest. W-what? AA tried to crawl backwards from this, trying to do ANYTHING to survive, when it rang out. A single bang. And then another one. Two shots to the chest, and AA could only pass out from the pain, fainting into unconsciousness as the world slowly faded to nothing around her...

Five Hours Later:
"Nngh.." She shook her head slightly, sitting up with a groan from her seat. She was in a cell, it seemed. The dingy walls around her, yet the surgical white outside. This place was so familiar, the scent of it was the same as ever before. She groggily got to her feet and felt her chest where she'd been shot. Yes, she'd been shot, she was sure of it... But there was no wound there. It had healed over as if it was nothing. She took a stumbling step forwards, trying to regain her bearings within the room itself. Turning around, the light filtering through the small barred window. The door behind her was glass, though. And glass could break, right? She smiled softly and lunged forwards, planting her foot through the clear material, only then realizing that she was wearing different clothes. Strange. The girl cleared some of the glass out and managed to climb out, shaking her body off with a groan. She stepped out on the crunching pieces of clear material, and managed to clear some more out of her hair. With a soft sigh, she checked herself over. Why was she wearing these strange clothes? This black outfit was so... new to her. With wide, white eyes, AA started to move through the rooms, looking for a way out. She felt different, too. Faster. Sleeker. Better. As if everything about her had been changed. The girl growled lightly, and moved faster through the halls, looking for a... PHONE! She ran straight for the box and, looking around to see if there was anyone there, picked it up and dialed the only number that she knew. Tears began brimming in her eyes as it rang, Akiha WILLING the person on the other side to pick up.

"Hello?" NO! That wasn't Raistlin! She hung it up quickly and tried again, realizing that she'd mixed up a pair of the numbers. The phone rung for a few seconds, and then a familiar voice spoke out. It was him! The girl tried to retain her composure, trying not to break down, but the tears just began to flow, and it truly showed how she was feeling right now. Akiha Akihiro.... was scared for her very existence right now.

"R...Raistlin... Please... help me... A...A... got me again... They... poked things... she shot me... I can't... it's scary... dark... but bright at the same time... and everything... is the same as last time... Please..." She didn't see them coming. They crept up on her, pulling out the tranquilizer gun, preparing to take her down. "I need you... Rai... Stu... Li--" The gun fired, the dart did it's job, and the phone went dead, Akiha slowly falling into nothingness once more...

The call from Akiha, it had been hours ago, but it was still freshly imprinted into Raistlin's memory. He had just been concluding his business with Shula Brighton when she had called, her voice trembling with terror and confusion. The call was untraceable, but it did not take long for him to figure out the vehemence of the situation, as well as its nature and circumstances. He surmised that Akiha had been recaptured by the very people that created her, Project AA. She was of that woman's, the director's designs, but crafted by his own hands. In a sense, Subject AA, the man made incarnation of the homunculus Sloth, was their child. She was only a stepping stone for Raistlin, but that woman held AA in high esteem, she seemed to expect so much from her work. Raistlin hardly spoked directly to the Director, so discerning her nature, her temperments, and her mind, was difficult. She was not easy to predict, her intentions were never clear, and furthermore, Raistlin had disregarded her, he had thought that he would not cross paths with her again. That was a critical error on his part.

From the time he had met Akiha in the garden of the Palace, she had become emotionally attached to him, he became an object of her affection and unlikely tool of his, and he soon discovered that she was an invaluable asset. In fact, she became more of that, she became a trusted ally of his, the closest thing he had to a friend in the absence of Harumi.....

But now it would seem that she had become the object of The Director's interest once more, and they had reclaimed her before Raistlin had even known what had happened. As expected of such a nefarious organization. However, they had underestimated him as well. The flesh-eater, they called him, for the nature of his alkahestry, and the cold indifference he held when experimenting upon human subjects. He had risen to become the most valuable scientist in the project as others around him vanished without a trace. He left on his own eventually, through carefully planned schemes, they were unable to apprehend him to ensure his silence. His position as general of Aerugo was known well enough, but he was still wrapped in obscurity, a complete enigma, no would could ever find him, he only appeared as necessary for the Empress and the Army, and vanished once more when he was finished. But Raistlin was able to find Akiha's whereabouts and infiltrate the base and infiltrate on his own, undetected so far.



Raistlin held his silence, his breath steady and quiet in the confines of the metal tunnels of the ventilation system of the facility. It had been about fifteen minutes since he entered the laboratory, and he had already obtained the layout of the building as well as a few important archives pertaining to himself and Akiha. That was two objectives to down, three more to go. First and foremost, he would have to secure Akiha without alerting the entire base. He would rather not have to fight his way out of here, between the hordes of chimera, the engineered weapons, the alchemists, and the security teams. Though, if worse came to worse, he could take the entire facility hostage with any of the various biohazardous materials that existed in the base. Afterwards, he planned to find the main computer system and erase its archives and research. Project AA was obviously growing more dangerous, and it was more than apparent that they would be enemies of Raistlin from now on, there was no doubt of it. So now, it was best to cripple them and eliminate the threat. This is where the last objective came in. Once he escaped with Akiha, he would detonate the charges on several bombs placed around the facility. He had set a few already, mainly in the ventilation shafts, but to be certain that his attempt was successful, he would have to set several around the chemical weapons research department.

Well, his plans were already in smooth motion, now it was on to step three, ad liberandum acedia. With the noiseless stealth of the best Aerugese assassins, Raistlin crawled to a barred opening in the ventilation system, an opening that looked down into the sterile white corridor below, where a guard stood near a steel door that, if the schematics he obtained were correct, led to a staircase to a prisoner's cell further below. His field of vision was blocked, but Raistlin surmised that there were other guards nearby, security cameras as well. The red eyed man retrieved a small misshapened spherical device from his sidepouch and slowly lifted the grate out of the way. The device he brought with him as a simple chaff grenade, a device that released a cloud of thin aluminum fragments meant to confuse the frequencies of electrical devices which he altered to also hold a deadly, odorless, fast acting neurotoxin. He dropped it onto the ground below and it detonated with a soft flash, a muffled noise that caught the attention of the guard nearest to it, before he slumped to the ground without a word. In a short span of time the toxin spread, and the others who were further down the hall collapsed as well, no signs of struggle or attack, just a corpse. With the cameras visuals and audio detectors jammed for the time being, Raistlin dropped down from the open vent,his form a dark and ominous shadow within the bright hallway, a specter who seemed out of place. Dressed primarily in black, his red cape not with him for obvious matters of stealth, Raistlin hastily made his way to the guard lying on the floor and reached into his breast pocket, from which he retrieved a security cardkey. With the shrapnel of the chaff grenade disrupting all sensory based equipment, there was no need to worry about setting off any motion detector alarms. Raistlin approached a lock mechanism on the large steel door and slid the card into an open slot. There was a click, and then the door swung open with a bit of an efforted push, due to its size and weight. They really were intent on holding their captive secure. He descended down the staircase of concrete and steel and arrived at his destination, the entrance to the holding cell where Akiha was, the entrance barred by a similar steel door. Once again, the intruder slid the card into its appropriate slot and the door clicked open.

Raistlin found himself in a small, bleak concrete room, housing only a dirty toilet and a ratty bed, and the prisoner that slept on it. The broody man stood in silence for a moment as he gazed upon the girl lying upon the bed with cold, red eyes. There must have been some sort of mistake, this was not Akiha at all. Silvery hair, a buxom chest, the look of an woman closer to his age, unlike the childish Akiha. Where did his mistake lie, that he happened upon this woman instead? This error could prove to be critical......

{Bump~}

"Nngh..." Slowly sitting up on the bed in this room, Akiha looked around and rubbed her eyes. She did not register Raistlin at that moment, instead she looked around her surroundings and attempted to study it. She groaned slightly, and slowly got to her feet, her clothing stripped from her body; her slender and naked form lit up by the pale light. Her azure blue eyes slowly opened fully, adjusting to the light as she stumbled from this rest. Coughing slightly, Akiha gazed down at the pale flesh that was only made lighter by this light, running her fingers up and down the skin to make sure that it was hers. She remembered being this pale, though... there was a difference. It felt like she was in different flesh, and she shivered from the cool air coming in through the door. Stumbling to the side slightly, Akiha looked to walking towards the door, before finding herself walking into something without realizing. Her voice rang out a little, and she stepped backwards, falling onto her butt and tut-tutting in pain, looking up at the man that she'd walked into, her eyes attempting to recognize exactly who he was. "R..Raistlin?" She shivered, and pushed backwards slightly, her face now tinged with a red blush. This wasn't good; if Raistlin was here, then it was certainly not good. Or... was it? She looked down again; remembering that she was naked. Ugh...

Kneeling forwards, she slowly got to her knees, before attempting to stand up slowly and get her back against the wall. She bit her tongue softly and growled, trying to affirm things if she was here. Her head leaned back up, and was placed against the cool concrete. She breathed out, and finally got completely into focus. The drowsiness faded from her mind, and she could only chuckle in slight embarrassment. "Rai...stu...lin..." One's mind was still out of it, even if she was no longer drowsy. Her palms placed themselves against the cool concrete, and stepping forwards now, her bare feet slapped against the ground. "Rai...stu...lin..." She slowly walked forwards, stumbling and swaying, making pained winces with each step. Forwards, slowly towards him... and then she fell. She fell forwards, and onto the man's body, closing her eyes as her long silver hair fell around her head. "Thank you, Raistlin... you came for me... I'm glad..." She chuckled softly, and closed her eyes, listening to the beating of his heart as her head was against his chest. "It hurt, you know? To think that... I might've lost everything.... I wanted to see you again. You, Yuuko-dono... even Miss Tsukino. I was scared, Raistlin... So very... very scared..." A small tear dropped from her eye, dropping to the ground as she pulled away from him, staring into his eyes with a slightly new-found fire. "Shall we?" That question was one to lead onto their escape, at least she hoped...

Raistlin observed silently from the entrance to the cell as the women awoke and rose from her bed. She did not seem hostile. Not immediately, anyway, as it would appear that she was fairly disoriented. The fact that she was in a holding cell meant that she was either a prisoner or a test subject. No, that was a redundant statement. She was both. Countless times, he had people like this dragged from their cells, so that he could run this organizations experiments on them. Countless people, countless experiments, countless screams, all for their science, all for his ambition. This woman was just another test subject in their stock, and that was no concern of his. He'd leave her hear, Akiha might have been moved to another cell-

The stumbling silver haired woman had tumbled right into him, effectively knocking herself onto her back, whilst Raistlin stood motionless, perhaps only a bit surprised by her awkward clumsiness. Completely unclothed before him, it wasn't hard for the crimson-eyed man to observe her features with mild interest. Pale skin, petite frame, silver hair. What an odd combination of features. If she was in his custody, he might have probed into her genome and isolate the base pairs that were responsible for her features, as they were likely rare mutations. She gazed up at him, her eyes filled with confusion, and fear, perhaps, the man noted. Wait.....those eyes.....pale and blue, by all rights, unfamiliar. Yet.....they seemed familiar. He couldn't place his thoughts together well....perhaps it was the nature of the way they looked....maybe.....their expression.

"R..Raistlin?" inquired the girl in a quivering voice. That voice...."Akiha?" replied he. His dull and cold tones hardly made his question seem like more than a emotionless statement. Like a child lost in the dark, she continued to call out his name in a meek, stuttering voice. Raistlin merely looked on in continued silence as she stumbled back onto the wall, struggling to grasp a hold of her conscious though and physical surroundings, it seemed. And finally, muttering his name once more, she fell forward, stumbling unto him. Be it out of reflex or obligation to her personal safety, Raistlin caught Akiha's naked form as she buried her face into his chest, his hands grasping her shoulders, though her softness and warmth could not reach him through his gloves and gauntlet. Even the feeling of her supple bossom pressing against his centre did not faze the stoic man. "Thank you, Raistlin... you came for me... I'm glad..." murmured she, her words resonating against his chest as she spoke. "It hurt, you know? To think that... I might've lost everything.... I wanted to see you again. You, Yuuko-dono... even Miss Tsukino. I was scared, Raistlin... So very... very scared..."

So even homunculi felt fear....and longing.

Akiha peered into Raistlin's thoughtful gaze with glass-blue eyes, now brimming with hope, returning from the edge of despair. "Shall we?" Said she, expectantly

"Yes" said he, with an assuring certainty in his austere reply "Let's go now, Yuuko is waiting for us. Harumi too.....soon enough"

[BUMP]

"Yes. Let's go now, Yuuko is waiting for us. Harumi too.....soon enough" Yuuko-dono... and Haru-Haru? Would she no longer have to answer to the whims of Miss Tsukino? Nodding internally, Akiha turned away from Raistlin and looked back up the stairs, staring at the length with gilded intent edging her eyes. Slow footsteps began to take her up the length, and as she continued to walk, she started to see that light of which she would finally be able to embrace once more. That darkness of which she had walked within, it would always be anew. She smiled softly, and her foot slapped onto the ground outside of the higher-placed cell door, causing the guards watching the portal to recoil suddenly. Yes, they were faced with a woman, one who was completely in the nude; all bared for them to see. However, they were not expecting one such as this. Her silver hair framing her face, the blue eyes changing from childish worry to confidence. It was all there for her; she was now... "Tch." As if she was taken over by that which she had no reason to be, Akiha's body moved without hesitation. Men flew every which way but south, and Akiha moved as if she was a flowing river down the lands.

She grinned slightly, raising her leg into the air and bringing it down with a single ax kick. He fell quickly, blood splattering onto the cool floor. It was then that they all realized it--she was serious, and she would kill them all if left unattended. For that reason, their attacks became more erratic and powerful, Akiha simply moving through them as if they were standing still. They were only humans, after all. This one didn't need to worry about them. There was no need to worry--it was a simple act that was unneeded, after all. She didn't do anything unnecessary any more. If it was something that she had no need to do, it was something that she refused to do. Men continued to fall before her; whether by their own fault or her attacks remained to be seen. Her fist plunged into the chests of men, and her feet planted themselves on the sides of men's heads. Their security armor held no use for them, and as the resistance slowly fell, Akiha turned slowly to look at Raistlin as he slowly followed behind. "I have cleared out the drabble, sir." It is unknown why that word 'sir' had a small tinge of sarcasm tipping it; it is unlikely that Akiha would even know the meaning of 'sarcasm' itself at this time. Turning her head away from him, she looked down the corridors with narrowed eyes. Now that Raistlin was here, she couldn't be that scared little girl anymore. She had to be strong, fast and powerful; she was his sword, and he would guide her as such. She had to; she owed everything that she held dear in her life to the man that approached her naked and lithe form.

So they were already on alert then? This was unfortunate, thought Raistlin, as Akiha had already set to greet their resistance in a flurry of rapid motion. While it was certainly not in their favour for the entire base to be on alert, there was a silver lining. Raistlin had the opportunity to observe Akiha in action, and it would seem that she was being more brutally efficient and unhesitant than one might have expected from the childish girl. She tore through the guards, through their armour and flesh with relative ease. Such inhuman strength, the strength of Sloth. Wild bursts of blood splashed across the floors, walls, and ceiling as this group of armed, trained men, were torn apart by Akiha's bare hands. And the speed in which she moved, not even Raistlin could effectively keep up with his altered eyes. The slaughtered guards must have not even realized they had died.

"I have cleared out the drabble, sir." said Akiha, after the last of the men had stopped breathing. Raistlin noticed the tinge of insubordinate sarcasm at the end of her statement, and while it may have been notably unlike her to speak in such a tone, he paid it not mind. He was certain this was Akiha, and not a decoy. To begin with, a true decoy would have been made to look like her, not lead him to believe she had changed appearance. Besides, he could tell it was her without a doubt, but it was likely that they might have done something to tweak her personality. He would have to look into that when they returned to his own laboratory. Also, Raistlin noted that he should keep a wary eye on Akiha, its possible they could have reprogrammed her through brainwashing. If this was a ploy to capture or kill him, and Akiha turned against him......well, it was easy to say that was a worse case scenario, and luckily, not too likely. He would prefer it if he didn't have to fight a homunculus. He lacked sufficient data as how to kill or incapacitate one. It might not be as easy as removing the stone inside them....

For now, it was imperative that the two of them escaped as soon as possible. It would be more difficult to try and fight through the waves of security, even between the two of them. The best choice would be to move away from the security center and guards quarters and towards....Raistlin retrieved a mental image of the facilities layout with scrutiny for detail. He had worked her for quite some time, it wasn't hard to determine that the direction they had to go was- "The main laboratory" said Raistlin, aloud. "Akiha, break the doors, make sure they can't get through. I know of another exit we can take." He pointed towards the door nearest to them, the one that led to the closer exit, and, unfortunately, the center of security functions and personnel for the laboratory. Raistlin withdrew his modified SIG Sauer P226 semi-automatic pistol from a concealed holster at his belt as he approached the door to the research and development complex centers. Even through the quickest route, they would at least encounter a dozen security guards, other than that, there were only scientists. The heads of research, the lead scientists, held direct command over the guards. He had planted several explosive devices before arriving at Akiha's cell, one of which was near the complex's power grid and generator. If he detonated it, the facility would lose power until they turned on one of the backup generators, which might take five minutes, plenty of time. But that was only if it came to that. The best tactic was to use a bluff. The researchers did not know where the bombs were located, but they would likely assume it was either on his person or somewhere nearby. Fear would make them guess that they were in the most immediate danger. They would fear for their lives and their work, all the equipment and research data in the various rooms of the research wing, and then the senior scientists would call the guards off. And if not, well, he and Akiha could handle themselves.

Raistlin reached for the control panel, gloved fingers inching towards the numbered keys in the center and began to punch in the security code he had obtained prior to infiltration. 7-7-8-1-3-....Raistlin's fingers suddenly stopped their dance across the keys; Something had caught his eye. He had noticed the status indicator light at the top of the panel, a dim, illuminated green rectangle. Something was amiss...the light should have been red, the green indicated that it was...unlocked? Though this might have meant that Raistlin didn't have to take a chance with his code being outdated, the fact that the door was simply unlocked felt....foreboding. In all of his time spent working here, this door had always been locked, and only members of the research and experimentation team were given the code. For it to be unlocked....

SMASH! The sound of Akiha breaking the sliding door's control panel on the other end of the corridor broke his inner thoughts. Despite the risk involved and the possibility of a trap, they had no choice. The only way to go was forward. If anything else, his trump card in the form of set explosive charges would have to suffice if they were cornered. Raistlin jabbed the 'OPEN' button on the panel and the metallic door slid open with a slight hiss in turn. "Let's go, now!"

The two of them ran down the long, sterile white corridor, Akiha's bare feet slapping the ground, Raistlin's boots echoing loudly, for what might have been two minutes, if Raistlin had counted correctly, which he certain he was. They taken several turns down more and more corridors, through a labyrinth of endless white, gray, and black. They passed several doors, entrances to various labs and rooms used for experimentation, but each of them would be a dead end. To get to the exit, they would have to cross through the main research center of the department, which happened to be where he had previously worked, were Subject AA had been 'conceived'.

It came into view, a large, white, metallic door, at the end of the passage. Raistlin glanced at the control panel at the side as they drew closer. Green. Unlocked. This was too convenient, this couldn't have been a coincidence. Under no circumstances would this particular door have been left unlocked. And it was stranger still, that they had not run into anyone while they ran through corridors of the research wing. There should have been lab workers running back and forth between rooms, even if they were on high alert, and at least a few guards. Yet.....it didn't even appear as if they were on high alert, the alarm wasn't sounding off, everything was silent...still. But there was no turning back now.....as frustrated as it made him, he was not in control right now, he had not other options. But they were not in control either. They had no idea how far his alkahestry had progressed, how capable he had grown. And Akiha too, she would not be so easily captured. He would set the bombs off and let loose wave of shock and flame through the vital points of the entire facility. With the power knocked out, they would still manage to escape. It was risky, but it wasn't impossible.

No turning back. Raistlin pressed the button on the panel and the door slid open, hissing as it vanished into the door frame and the wall. This was the main laboratory, a large cavernous room, as wide and tall as a grand auditorium. The room was dark, the lights were off, and it was devoid of any human activity. Everywhere his red eyes darted he saw various machines, desks lined with empty beakers, vials, and stacks of paper. There was another level to this room, a catwalk and several alcoves that lined perimeter of the walls. There was nothing up there either, Raistlin noted. Though the room was only illuminated by the faint blue glow of several giant test tubes, the type used to hold human subjects in a liquid stasis, Raistlin's modified eyes compensated. The room was indeed empty, it seemed. No guards waiting in ambush within the shadows, no guns being trained on them from the higher catwalk. He had at least predicted a trap......

[BUMP]