~~~~ 

“Are you scared of us too?” Charlene asked, using a somewhat evil voice that she rarely used.

Danson compressed a laugh as he watched Charlene try to seem evil.

He shook his head. “God, Charlene,” He muttered under his breath.

“Come over here…” Danson whispered to a young girl that looked obviously shaken up by him. Charlene felt herself redden when she saw the little girl blush and walk closer to Danson.

“I heard that the elders are making mistakes these days. From what I know, other Fighters are dying for the cause… and innocently as well. I heard children are crying for their parents, lovers for their partner, and parents for their children. Did you see it? Did you see the way they burn the bodies, the way they take lives away and dismiss it with a simple ‘it’s for the best’? Did you hear the people scream? Because…I did, and I was so far away…let me tell you what they say…’I don’t want to be forgotten.’ But listen to me, do you ever hear of who dies on account for the elders’ missions? Do you hear…of the accidents?” Danson’s eyebrows rose, and his whisper was echoing in the dungeon room, while the horror in the little girl’s eyes grew.

“My…my…daddy was sent on a mission yesterday…” She whispered in horror, tears b her eyes as she clutched Danson’s sleeve and tried to steady herself.

“It’s people like you that kill us…” she screamed, collapsing onto the floor next to Danson.

“No…” Danson started, “it’s the people that send you to us. We don’t want to hurt you if you didn’t come here picking fights. Look at yourself; they are shaping you into a KILLER… and a FIGHTER they call you.”

The dry laugh escaping from Danson’s lips made Charlene squirm from displeasure and guilt; were they really doing this to that little kid?

Danson sensed Charlene’s discomfort, and gave her an icy glance to stop her from disrupting him.

“You want your mother and father back?”

She didn’t answer, but a whimper escaped from her parched lips.

“TELL ME- DO. YOU. WANT. YOUR. FAMILY. BACK.”

“Mom…mom and dad?” She whispered.

“Yes…I can help you…” Danson trailed off, quickly flipping her arm over to expose his pale wrist.

She took one glance at his wrist and gasped in surprise.

“The…the black vein!!! You’re the… the prince of your people…” Her eyes bugged out and she found herself feeling as if she should bow below him, even though she was technically his enemy. His power…his power…was like a spell that engulfed her in its magic, enchanting her into believing he was her prince as well.

Danson half-smiled and Charlene raised her eyebrow; how could his demeanor be so calm… so relaxed?

“Now…let me out before they kill your parents… I can stop them…” Danson said, his voice entrancing, putting even Charlene into a daze.

Charlene shook her head, but she was put into a surreal dream, only seeing through a small crack of her eyelids, not being able to shake the feeling away.

“Let’s go!” Danson said somewhere from beside Charlene; Charlene felt around to grasp for him, but fell forward, only to feel a firm tug on her hand, and then a hang wrapped itself around her wrist.

Before Charlene gained full vision, and escaped from the haze in her mind, Danson was already pulling her out the building, leaving behind a bunch of confused children that did nothing but cry for their leader.

Charlene was processing everything very slowly, and Danson’s face seemed nothing but a blur to her, as the world itself was as well. The only thing that seemed real at this moment was his hand around her wrist, and so she clung on, refusing to let go.

She grasped for him to steady her, but his only reply was tug her entirely into his arms, carrying her on the rooftops, escaping the room before anybody made a sound.

“But-mmmmffhhh,”

“Shh… We’re not safe yet,” Danson whispered, barely glancing at Charlene, but firmly planted his hand over , almost cutting out circulation and respiration.

In the moment of her brain starting to become deficient of oxygen, and she became hazy, she dreamily thought she felt Danson’s hand tighten around her own.

Finally, Danson’s hand left her face and she gasped as silently as she could, as she tried to get as much oxygen circulating in her system once again.

“Onto the roof,” Danson whispered softly, directly into Charlene’s ear, tickling her ear and making her instinctively try to scratch it.

Danson felt the corner of his lips twitch, trying to pull up into a smile; was it how cutely she tried to scratch her ear without looking like she was?

Quickly, he turned away from Charlene and bent down, grasping her waist with his arms and hoisting her onto the roof, avoiding eye contact with her for the moment being.

Charlene’s eyes widened at the sudden motion, but luckily kept quiet, as they were, after all, in a difficult situation.

Straightening up after hauling Charlene onto the roof, Danson was surprised to see Charlene extend her arm to help him climb up. Was this the true loyalty between friends that he had refused to believe in for so long? He had even had his doubts about the prophecy at times, due to its biased need of a strong friendship between Charlene and the others.

He felt as if he was another person witnessing this interaction between himself and Charlene, for, unexpectedly, and weirdly, he grasped her hand with his own and made his way up.

But CLICK, and Danson found himself being tugged back down towards the ground, Charlene tumbling with him off the roof and the two ended up a messy pile on the ground.

“I found you!” A voice said, bending down to smile wickedly at Charlene.

“Wait till I get promoted; I caught the two runaways!”

Charlene scanned the young teenager from head to toe, and noticed the inexperience of this young fighter.

Danson hadn’t even stopped to consider alternatives, or look the young man over; in a split second, before the fighter made any more noise, he had kicked and punched the man unconscious.

“Was that necessary?” Charlene asked, shaking her head like an old woman.

“And you have the ability to joke at a time like this,”

“Hey, being grouchy about it doesn’t help,” She shrugged.

After raiding the man’s pockets for some cash and a simple hand gun, which Danson pocketed, and Charlene objected, as she claimed that SHE was the savior, they made their second attempt over, and onto the roof.

The second time was a lot more difficult, and Charlene struggled to keep up with the pace at which Danson wished to accomplish things; as if there was no such thing as ‘impossible’ or even ‘difficult’ in his vocabulary.

Finally, after sweat and hard work, Charlene and Danson stood shoulder to shoulder on the top of the roof, crouching to conceal themselves. They braced themselves. Everything was just going to become more difficult from now on.

Why?

For starters, they were now handcuffed to each other.

Charlene took one more look at the limp body they had hid behind a bush; why did that person have to handcuff their hands together when she was trying to help Danson up?

Danson sighed, ‘Chun, when I find you, I will kill you for cursing the both of us in the first place,’ he said through gritted teeth, before giving the handcuff a rough tug so that Charlene walked beside him.

They almost fell over when they heard, right beneath them, a youthful voice claiming that he “found nothing…in JJ’s room.”

Charlene paled when she heard the scratchy old voice respond, “Then go bring HER to me!” 

--- 

OMGGGGG... LONG TIME NO CHAT :P Hehe, I know I've been sort of 'hiding' for the last few months, and it's just I've been suffering through exams and recently, summer school :P But I'm back to my regular schedule now: at least an hour of writing every day! Thanks to all of those still subbed to me, and still waiting for my updates!! It's cause of you that I continue to have this motivation! 

~ ICEDCOFFEE 

I'M BACK- quote Danson heeh :) 

P.S. I'll be updating all my other stories one by one over the next few days i think :P 

P.P.S. Sorry for grammatical errors and unfortunate length hehe :P I hope it's not boring!