White Rabbit

Chapter 51: No Safe Haven to Hide

ESSENCE

Clattonia called and checked in with Lucian to see how Aeryn and the others were doing while we were on the train back to Shibuya and she informed them on what happened. Lucian offered to come back to offer any help that we may need, but Clattonia told him to stay at the hospital with Aeryn, Ryouichi, Mitsuko, Rai, and Daemon. Meanwhile, Reece called Ink and informed him of what happened and now him and Katsuro are preparing the infirmary, with help from Indigo, while Labyrinth is setting up cells in the training room. Also, apparently Lucian already called Valentina and informed her about what happened to Aeryn, and she's making her way to the hospital.

As of right now, Clattonia and Juniper are working on carrying Jace while Reece looks out for any possible threats as we travel back to the hideout. I join Reece in being on guard while doing so, throwing occasional glances around and being ready to summon a weapon at any point in time. Upon arriving at the hideout, Katsuro runs up to the door and opens it before hurriedly guiding Clattonia, Juniper, and Jace back to the infirmary while Reece heads down to the basement with Caliber and Kazuki as Caliber marches Cassidy down the stairs and Kazuki struggles to carry Azriel down the stairs with Raphael.

I decide to follow the others to the basement instead of following Juniper and Clattonia, figuring that it would be more helpful to have less people crowding the infirmary.

"Well, what do we have here?" Labyrinth muses as she leans against one of the cells she set up with her arms crossed and one of her feet kicked up, "I just love getting new prisoners. It means that we get to interrogate them. And I especially love it whenever I get to do it."

Cassidy scoffs as Caliber shoves him into one of the cells and he goes flying past Labyrinth, who shuts the cell door behind him.

"So," Labyrinth says as she turns around and narrows her eyes at Cassidy, "you may not be the one who hurt Aeryn, but you were working with them, so that's good enough for me."

Meanwhile, Kazuki and Raphael place Azriel in one of the other cells and close it, Kazuki sighing in relief that he's still unconscious.

As for Genna...

Antillies comes down the stairs with a chain in her hand, yanking on it carelessly as her eyes widen as she scans the training room in awe. Behind her, Genna is stumbling along with the chain wrapped around her and a cloth tied around her mouth as she protests violently.

"Wow," Antillies gasps out in awe as she gives a particularly hard yank on the chain, her gaze never stopping from looking around the room in happiness, "so, this is where you guys have been training...it's so cool!"

Antillies leaps and hops down the last stairs, jolting Genna along as she marvels at the room before her and eventually leads Genna over to the final cell before shoving her in and locking the door behind her, wiping her hands on each other with a sigh before she smiles and places her hands on her hips.

"Well, I'm glad that that's taken care of," Antillies gives us a lopsided smile, "anyway, I'm sure you'd like to know the story of what's going on, right? Well, I'm Baelyne Bayette's cousin and I work in one of the testing departments. They send me samples of different Shifts in vials and I conduct tests on them to see how they react. They extract the Shifts from dead Supernatural somehow. I'm not quite sure how that works, but Genna might know. Either way, I was promised that all of the Shifts I were testing were from Supernatural who were found dead, not murdered. But I'm beginning to sincerely doubt that's the case. I began to feel a bit uneasy whenever doing my testing. I thought that I was supposed to be helping people by making all of these lab reports and seeing the reactions so that the public would know how to protect themselves, including members of White Rabbit, who could invent new technological advancements to protect against these elements from my research. However, I began getting strange requests back at HQ, which was why I began to feel uneasy. And the news certainly didn't help my opinions, half of it being torn between propaganda for White Rabbit and creating fear by showing horrible news stories and the other half showing the stories of Supernatural. During my Tokyo trip, Baelyne contacted me and told me to be careful about working with Genna, and whenever I questioned it, she finally revealed to me everything she knew. That was when I uncovered what was going on with Azriel and I learned that the Tokyo trip was conducted to improve something in regards to Azriel and to test his abilities further. The trip itself was supposed to include Daylen Athens, but I didn't see him around much, except for whenever things were discreet and almost appeared normal. It was mainly Genna who was working on stuff. I can tell you whatever I know about her later on, whenever the time is best."

"And do you plan on working with us?" Reece raises a brow, "I presume you're going to, considering your actions and that you've just told us a pretty decent sized piece of information and plan to tell us more."

"Yes," Antillies nods and I stare at the eccentric girl, "I wouldn't want to work with people like her anyway. I wanted to help humanity, not hurt it. And it's clear to me that most Supernatural aren't doing anything wrong. Granted, I had nothing against them in the first place. I wanted to protect everyone who was good, no matter what or who they were. So, that's what I intend to do -- to the best of my ability, of course."

"And what can you tell us about Cassidy?" Reece inquires.

"Hey--" Cassidy starts to protest and leans forwards slightly in his cell as he sits there, his eyes growing slightly wide as his eyebrows arch down in irritation.

"Shut it," Labyrinth says and bangs one of her fists against the front of the cell as she leans her back against it, her foot kicked up once again.

Cassidy sighs and leans back, seemingly defeated as he relents.

"Cassidy," Antillies purses her lips and presses her index finger to her bottom lip as she tilts her head to the side, thinking, "he doesn't really talk much about himself. Nobody knows a whole lot about him and he seems frankly off putting."

Cassidy scoffs and glances off to the side, seemingly annoyed.

"As for Azriel," Antillies starts, glancing over at his sleeping figure, "I believe that he can be subdued by Raphael."

"Yeah," Reece nods, "we know."

"Look," Kazuki says as he walks in front of Cassidy's cell and bends down into a squat, "if you cooperate and help us, we'll protect you."

"Us?" Reece raises a brow, appearing amused while Caliber seems slightly surprised, "did you just say us?"

"Shut up," Kazuki snaps, "I was making a point."

"Why would I ever help you?" Cassidy's eyes flicker between Kazuki and Reece, but they seem more hostile whenever they watch Kazuki, more defensive.

"If this is about what happened three years ago, look, I'm sorry, but he had it coming," Kazuki bites harshly.

"Hold on, what happened three years ago?" I ask.

Cassidy glances off to the side once more, evidently angered, and one of his fists clenches.

"Yes, do tell," Labyrinth says with a raised brow, seemingly interested.

"It doesn't matter," Kazuki breathes out as he stands back up, shoving his hands in the pockets of his pants, "my point is, we should utilize him and in return, protect him for his efforts."

"I'm fine with that," Reece says somewhat hesitantly, his eyes flickering between Kazuki and Cassidy, "but, we'd have to know whether or not he's attempting to trick us. Besides, he has to want to cooperate, either way. Good luck with that."

"W--what?" Kazuki stammers, his eyes growing wide as Reece turns to leave, "you're leaving it up to me?"

"Well, of course," Reece waves a hand, "it was your idea, after all."

"But--" Kazuki starts to protest.

"Or are you too weak to accomplish such things?" Reece asks as he glances over his shoulder, his eyes intensely boring into Kazuki's.

Kazuki clenches his jaw and lets out a frustrated breath as Reece goes up the stairs, followed by Caliber, who sends Kazuki a somewhat sad, somewhat caring smile.

"Don't worry," Labyrinth grins in a feral manner as Antillies and Raphael leave as well, going up the stairs, "I'll take care of it."

"No," Kazuki shakes his head, "I'll do it."

"Fine," Labyrinth shrugs, "but I'm still going to help. It'll be...interesting."

"Both of you are nutcases, you hear me?!" Cassidy snaps, "there is no way in hell that I'm helping any of you."

"We'll see about that," Labyrinth says with a smirk before sauntering off.

Cassidy's eyes meet mine in a plea of help, but I simply shrug and head upstairs after the others. Although, the thing that bothers me the most is how do Kazuki and Cassidy know so much about each other and even seem to despise each other? It's...strange...