Sequel: Escape the Madness
Status: Completed ^-^

Method to the Madness

High-End Training...

I didn’t wait long outside the infirmary door before trying to leave – first because I didn’t want to count the minutes that Mouse spent there or wonder what they were doing and second for the fact that I didn’t want to be scolded. Part of me wished to wait Mouse out, hoping her time in there alone with Elias was short, and sneak back in. Everyone demanded I give him space when all he really needed to make amends with his memory was to be around the one thing that he lost… That was me. Was everyone seriously not worried about the way that he had forgotten his Selva?! Sure, we had been making progress by our little discussion not even five minutes earlier, but why couldn’t we keep going with this high dosage treatment?

I made my way through the bowels of Purgatory in a zombified daze, slightly unaware of the things around me except for my thoughts on Elias. Oliver passed me at one point and I heard him say something to me, but it was nothing more than an incoherent mumble to my ears as the ringing of Elias’s voice in my ear kept me distracted.

I almost contemplated going back to my room and skipping the training with Cat that I was supposed to be attending now. Cuddling with Binx and being able to think about Elias seemed like such a smarter plan, but I couldn’t let it happen. I was too much in my head already and I was losing sight of reality – in the very back of my mind, I still realized that Elias had no memory and was only beginning to be my friend, but the belief that Elias was with me now, smiling and laughing as if nothing had happened, was coursing through my veins, propelling me forward and giving me all the more reason to go to trainings. I had to just get out of my head. Maybe being a good little Selva girl would influence whoever committed this cruel act to give me back my friend anyways. One could only hope…

“I didn’t think you would be coming,” Cat addressed me as I walked in late to the training, though a smile outfitted her face instead a grimace. “Word’s out that Elias was requesting he see you. Did you talk to him?”

I could only nod my head smile, not trusting my voice to hide the slight annoyance that I wasn’t still talking to him. At least I had something to smile about that Cat was equally as happy for me – instead of yelling at me for being late to training. At least I knew that I had one person I could trust that cared about my well-being more than my “loyalty to the tribe.” There were just times I hated being a Selva.

“Well?” Cat asked, “Should we get started?”

Just then I saw the familiar dark hair and tall posture walk by the room. I heard the skid of shoes stopping and turning around and my eyebrows wondered at why he would be up and walking the halls. Hadn’t I just left him at the infirmary where they were basically tying him down to keep him from leaving too soon?! Apparently, he had escaped…

“Elias?” I called to him before he had even made it back to the doorway. At least, I hoped he was looking for me; the fear of his friendship with Mouse was always such a clear one in my head. Still, he appeared in the doorway wearing a smirk on his mouth and his gorgeous brown eyes sparkling in mischievous amusement. “What are you doing? Aren’t you supposed to be in the infirmary?”

“Got out,” he answered, “and now we need to talk. Sorry for interrupting class, Cat.” I scrunched my eyebrows together as he easily remembered Cat’s name. They hadn’t been around each other since before he had lost his memory, yet it still only seemed like it was me who was erased from his memory. The rest seemed to be coming out in fragmental memories, and my hopes soared as I wondered if we were getting closer to tapping into everything he had lost.

I didn’t wait very long before hugging him once he approached me, knowing it caught him off guard yet too happy at the way that his smile seemed to be his again to care. He didn’t necessarily hug back, but I expected that – no matter how much I hoped that he would, I didn’t expect him to hug back like he knew me again.

“What’s going on?” I asked him curiously. “Can it wait until after training?”

“No!” He exclaimed. “Crimson wants to talk to you!” His voice shared that same acidic flavor that I always remembered when he spoke of Crimson and I had to look at him curiously. It seemed his brain was finally “coming to” from its short leave of absence but I didn’t say anything about it right away. I didn’t want to be upset when he said that he still couldn’t remember me – or possibly that he had wanted to forget me. I wasn’t ready to hear that.

When Cat let me go, I followed him back down the hallway, watching the way that he navigated the place like the expert he was before. I watched him out of my peripheral vision and wished that I could reach out and grab his hand, but I refrained from doing so. Under normal circumstances, we would be walking down the halls hand-in-hand like best friends or racing each other down the halls and causing a big ruckus for the rest of the Selvas and Guardians around. I really wished that he would look at me with that mischievous smile again as if the real Elias was inside, calling to me secretly and telling me that he was still inside there… somewhere. I was still going to find him.

~~~

When we approached Crimson’s office, I told him that I could go in by myself. Sure, he was my Guardian, but I liked having feats of strength for myself every once and a while – even if Crimson terrified me.

The smoldering-haired woman looked at me with the slightest amount of annoyance as I bounced my way over to the seat across from her, unable to hide my excitement at the way that Elias was acting. “I see you’re happy with the way that Elias is recovering,” she started, carrying some of the same acid in her voice that Elias had. “He’s the reason I’ve brought you here again today.”

My heart sank slowly into the floor, sagging with the diminished hopes and dreams that she had just stomped on. I had heard this speech before; she wanted to tell me that he wasn’t going to make a good Guardian… She wanted to tell me that I was getting reassigned to a more “fit” Guardian. I opened my mouth to rebel against this before she even said it, and she held up a finger to stop me.

“No, 0074, I will do the talking,” she answered my unspoken words in an assertion of her authority. “It seems your Guardian there is making a full recovery. He still seems to exhibit those natural skills he possessed when he first became a Guardian, and we expect that a little high-end training is all that is needed to jump start his recovery to its fullest.” I understood what she meant and my breath caught in my throat.

When she paused, I couldn’t help but sigh in annoyance. “Well?! What is this high-end training that you have in mind?”

“A mission,” she answered with a nod, confirming my excitement. “If you can pass a few assessments that the Elder Selva will test you with to make sure that you are fit for the challenges of a mission, you will get your name – and then a mission. On this mission, we expect you to both be on your best behaviors, so don’t screw up!”

With that, she turned back to the work on her desk and I took this as my dismissal. I walked out in a daze and met with Elias who was still standing at the door, smirking as he waited for me to return.
“We’re going on a mission!” I whispered, more to myself than to him since I had to hear the words once again to obliterate the disbelief.

Everything might have just turned for the better! …As long as I can pass those tests…