Chapter Four

          Ellie always had skeletons in her closet. But she had never expected them to come out of the closet and come haunt her, especially not this far into her life, since everything that had happened took place a long time ago. She had thought she could outrun her past.
           My mistake, she thought miserably. Apparently Bianca Cloade still existed.
          And now Apollo was here to get her, for reasons beyond her comprehension, and because Eduard was her friend, he was suffering because he happened to be unlucky enough to associate with her. Eduard was going to die, almost literally by his own hands. And she was too helpless to do anything except watch. And maybe scream at Apollo.
           "You bastard!" she screamed. "Leave him out of this! He knows nothing about us! Let him go! I'll follow you back to the Outer Arc if you want; just leave him alone!"
            Eduard was on his knees on the ground, and Ellie could see that all the fight was abandoning him; his struggles had ceased and he was already slipping into unconsciousness. A few more seconds and he might ...
            "I said stop! Didn't you hear me? I said I'll go with you! Just leave him alone!" she cried hysterically.
            Apollo's unusual eyes flicked to her, and his grip on Eduard relaxed. Ellie shot a glance at Eduard, who had regained control of his own hands. He was coughing and gasping as he took several gulps of air. He leaned against the T-Bird behind him to balance himself, and as soon as he had regained enough strength, he slowly rose to his feet, eyeing Apollo warily.
          "Your ... companion here knows enough," Apollo countered. "Even the slightest bit of information could risk the exposure of the existence of the Outer Arc to the filthy mortals here. You know how these vermin can't keep their mouths shut."
          "What do I care?" Ellie spat. "The Outer Arc exiled me, remember. The Organization kicked me out after constructing their lovely dystopia called New Secron. And even if the people here know, what's the risk? New Secron isn't a place they'd want to go. Case closed."
          Apollo's cool gaze was deadly. "You wouldn't know about that, Bianca. Now, are you coming or not? I've spared your friend ... for now."
           "When do we leave?" Ellie asked. She heaved a sigh. Apparently, she was going to be Bianca Cloade again. But ... why was she going back? She frowned, and then shot a glance at Apollo. "But why am I going back? As I recall, they'd exiled me ... They wouldn't want me back. Won't they ...?"
          Apollo opened his mouth to answer, but stopped short when his tie suddenly caught on fire. Ellie jumped at the sight of the pale yellow flames shooting up all of a sudden, but Apollo was calm. He seemed merely annoyed as he patted the flames out and undid his tie. He discarded the burnt garment on the ground nonchalantly.
          "Quite unexpected," he mused as he raised an eyebrow. "Spontaneous combustion is interesting."
          Just then, a wall of blue flame sprang up from the ground, forming a barrier between Apollo and Ellie. Ellie drew back, not wanting to be harmed by the fire. She shot a quick glance at Apollo, who looked a little bit surprised. He tried to sidestep the flames, but the flames seemed to spread around him, forming a circle keeping him from Ellie and Eduard.
          A hand brushed against Ellie's arm. Ellie turned to her side and saw Eduard at her side. His face was dark, the expression unreadable. His ocean blue eyes were fixed in a glare, and he was aiming his death stare at Apollo. For a moment, the intensity of his expression frightened Ellie ... and for a moment, Eduard looked strangely familiar, like someone she'd known back at the Outer Arc. But she couldn't quite place the face and the name. She frowned. What was going on?
          "Let's get out of here, Ellie," Eduard muttered. His voice was a low growl, and sounded strangely menacing ... and unlike him. It was as if he was being possessed by some other being.
          "Ed," she whispered. "God, I think I'm being Punk'd."
          Suddenly, the flames went out, allowing Apollo to move freely again.
          "Right," said the irritated man. "I'm starting to get very, very angry."


          Eduard suddenly felt very sick. It hadn't been a very nice day, considering the fact that it started out with a weird dream, one that got Ellie all freaked out and acting weird, and now a strange man who called Ellie 'Bianca' was attacking them. And he didn't look normal. To make things worse, something strange had happened ... his own hands had strangled him. And yet, somehow, it was the strange man who had done it.
          He massaged his throat, coughing and gasping as he drank in fresh gulps of air. He stared down at his hands for a moment, regarding them the same way one would look at an alien. That was what his hands felt like for one moment. Alien. Unknown.
          He put his hands behind him, grabbing hold of the damaged car, and pushed himself against it to balance himself. He sucked in more air, allowing himself to get stronger. When the wave of dizziness had passed, he slowly rose to his feet. Once, his knees buckled beneath him, almost forcing him to his knees. But he was persistent; he was back on his feet a few seconds later. He eyed the strange man warily, feeling a wave of anger run through him. His feelings of anger and hate were so intense, it disgusted him. He was disgusted with himself for feeling such malice toward another person, disgusted with that Apollo person ... He was so angry and full of hate and contempt, he wanted the man to burn.
          Go burn in hell, he thought disgustedly. Go to hell and just fucking burn there.
          To his surprise, the man did burn. Well, just his tie, actually. And he handled it pretty well.
          Damn it, you asshole, Eduard fumed inwardly. Go to hell, go fucking burn. Just get the hell away from Ellie and me. Just ... go ... and ... burn!
          All of a sudden, a wall of blue flame sprang up, engulfing Apollo and catching the man by surprise. Eduard felt a strange satisfaction in seeing the man try to move away from the flames. He was filled with a strange sense of power, and he liked the idea of burning the man to a crisp right there and then.
          "Let's get out of here," he muttered to Ellie. "We have to go."
          "I think I'm being Punk'd," was Ellie's response.
           Then, almost as quickly as the need to see the man burn came, all the feeling of power, the need to see fire and all the emotion seemed to ebb away, leaving him feeling weak and drained. Wasted. It was like getting a really bad hangover after a night of drinking, except worse.
          "Right," Apollo snarled. "I'm starting to get really angry."
          "Ellie-" Eduard began to say as he tugged on the sleeve of her t-shirt. He was beginning to feel really sick.
          "I don't think it's a good idea, Apollo," Ellie murmured, ignoring Eduard. "We're in the middle of daylight here. There are people watching. You're sure as hell exposing us right now."
          "That," Apollo replied, "can be easily taken care of. So, are you going to come willingly, or do I have to use brute force?"
          "Ellie-" Eduard tugged on the sleeve more urgently. He was feeling really sick now. He felt like throwing up, or something. He was dizzy, so dizzy and dazed the world seemed to spin. Everything around him began to blur ...
          And then it was dark.