I'm still alive, minna! Sorry, minna for being quiet for so long. If you haven't read my message board, a lot of personal things happened in my life to add on that message that have hindered me from finishing this chapter. A lot of things came up and some drama. Some plans over the summer I have finished, but I also got a job. Yay! Will this affect my writing time? Mmmmaaayyybe. However, I started this story, and I still intend on finishing it with you guys. I hope you all will stick with me until the end of this journey. This chapter is dedicated to tacato1M . Although the world is dark, we can make it brighter.

A dim light blurred into my vision. When my consciousness returned, the first thing I let out was a groggy groan. I lifted my head and rubbed my face from the cold, concrete floor, wiping dirt off my cheek. Everything was dizzy, but overall, I felt fine and confused. I soon realized I was in a cube made of bars, with only Lizz and Alluka lying unconscious next to me. The cage was inside a vacant square room with one door and a small window closer to the ceiling. My guess was that we were in a basement of some sort, but how did we get here? The last thing I remembered was shopping at the mall. Shiki went back inside to get her lipstick, and then some strangers pulled over next to us, and then there was that stink bomb.

Remembering that putrid smell was rotten enough. No wonder we passed out. I turned to Alluka first, shaking her lightly by the shoulder. "Hey, Alluka. Wake up." When she made a sluggish shuffle, it was enough to convince me to wake up Lizz next. "Lizz. Lizz," I chimed, giving her the same wake-up treatment.

Lizz's hat was next to her, which made me think that this meant whoever put us here had seen Lizz's chimera side.

She rubbed her eyes and sat up by herself. She looked at me with half-cracked opened eyes, then she widened them with a gasp as she gazed around the room bewildered. "Huh?" She stood up quickly and grabbed the metal bars, checking their existence. She turned to the door and yanked it. To no prevail, it was locked. Obviously, whoever put us in the cage would want us to stay in it. "What the heck is going on?!"

"Where are we?" Alluka groaned, slowly waking up. I placed my hands on her shoulders to help her sit up.

"Lizz," I called, handing her hat to her. "You dropped this."

"Oh crap," she exclaimed, snatching it from me. She twisted the hat nervously. "Do you think anyone saw me?"

"I think they have," I regretfully answered. There was no telling what kind of people these captors were, and what new intentions they have now after discovering Lizz's secret.

"Ugh! That's just great. Fantastic!" She trudged across the other side of the cage. "Hey! Anyone out there?" Lizz shouted, squeezing her face between two bars. "Whoever did this is gonna be sorry. You people have no idea who you're messing with!"

"Lizz, keep your voice down," I hushed.

"How can you stay calm through all of this?" she snapped back. After she asked that, I questioned that myself. We have just been abducted, so the natural first reaction would be to freak out. But for some strange reason, it did not feel like I needed to panic. I guess I have been tossed into these kinds of situations before that I've grown used to it. Now THAT scared me.

But this time was different. We have no idea where we are, and neither does Killua and Gon. Shiki was left at the mall without any notice of us being taken. Our belongings were nowhere in sight, so no way to contact anyone for help. Killua won't be able to rescue us this time.

I remembered that I still had my hands on Alluka's shoulders, because I could feel her shaking, probably freaking out herself. No, could it be her PTS again? "I'm as scared just as you are, but we have to remain calm." I patted Alluka generously on the back.

"Whatever. Whoever these guys are, I can take 'em." Lizz lightly pounded her fist into her other palm, feeling ready to kick butt. I had almost forgotten, Lizz was a Chimera Ant, and knew Nen. She could break us out of this cage and even defend us from the bad guys.

"Lizz, do you think you can break this cage? Maybe bend the bars?" I suggested.

"I was right about to test that out," she replied, rubbing her palms together. Right at the moment she touched the bars, we heard murmurs and footsteps from outside of the door. They were faint, but they were growing closer.

"Quick, get back!" I said. We wouldn't want our perpetrators to catch us trying to escape. Who knew what they would do if they did? What do they have planned for us?

The jingling of keys could be heard from the other side. The doorknob jiggled, and when the door opened, I was astounded at the sight of the beings. Three figures emerged through the corridor. One was a scrawny looking fella with the head of a koala, but of a face slightly resembling more of a tiger. He wore a plain t-shirt that displayed sleeves for four arms with joint appendages. To top off his casual look was a red ball cap. "Well, looky here, boys. Our prisoners decided to wake up," he grinned at the sight of us. The one behind him had a shorter stature with big compact eyes that took up half of its head, and a short round beak for his mouth. The last one to enter the room was the biggest. He had hairy hands with claws, and a bear face with yellow human eyes. His familiar size and jacket allowed me to recognize him as the man from the mall parking lot. There was no doubt about it. We've been kidnapped by chimera ants.

"Prisoners? What are you talking about?" Alluka demanded, showing her heart on her sleeve. Her voice did not try to hide any fear. This brought pleasure to the middle-sized guy, because his grin widened.

"Allow me to-"

"We are the Revolutionary C.A.-" The big ant interrupted his shorter companion in mid introduction, which he did not appreciate one bit. He lost his smile in his scrunched face, also losing his cool.

"Hey hey hey! Stinky. Were they asking for you? No. Just leave this to me, okay big guy?" He slapped him on the stomach, which had no real physical effect compared to his size . The bigger one looked down, seeming a little ashamed for acting rude to his friend and embarrassing him in front of us.

"Sorry, boss."

Their leader cleared his throat. "ANYWAYS, allow me to introduce ourselves. My name is Xeno, this giant stink ball is Knox, and this small cadet right here is Dax. We are a secret underground society of chimera ants known as the Revolutionary Chimera Ant Front, or for short, the R.C.A.T."

"Pfftt! Your acronym is R-cat?" Lizz mocked, saying how it would verbally be pronounced. Lizz didn't seem too surprised about meeting her own species, not even afraid.

"I prefer to call it ercat," said Knox, casually scratching his stomach.

"Zip it, Knox," hissed Xeno, this time faking hit, which caused his giant lackey to flinch. "We members of the Revolutionary Front are the former soldiers of the great Chimera Ant and Human War. We are all that is left of our fallen brethren, waiting for the day that we can strike back and reclaim our freedom," he said so with confidence, raising an iron fist.

"What are you bozos talking about?" Lizz remarked. I was surprised that she was using such an attitude toward our abductors. However, since they were all chimera ants, perhaps she felt more comfortable talking to them like this than us. That still didn't change the situation we were in. If Alluka and I were kidnapped by humans, we definitely wouldn't be using that sort of tone. "What freedom? We are already free. The Hunter Society established reserved national parks and secured homes for the chimera ants. We live peacefully with the humans now."

Xeno folded his arms, giving a hearty laugh. "You think we live in harmony among these humans, hiding under the shadows or being caged under careful watch? That's not freedom; that's fear. Just take you, for example, traitor. You're ashamed to reveal yourself in public. You hide yourself and pretend to be something you're not."

This made me stand up. At that moment, I didn't care for what came next. All I wanted to do was punch this guy in the teeth for saying mean things to my best friend. It may be true that we were uncertain that Lizz could live a normal life if people knew, but she chose to hide it out of insecurity. Before I could say anything back, Lizz growled, showing her bare teeth. "Are you really stupid enough to throw away what your King pledged just to start another meaningless war?"

"Our King." Xeno took a step closer. "And meaningless? We are clearly the dominant species in the entire animal kingdom. Our uprising will put you humans back in your place."

Lizz pulled off her hat and threw it to the ground, obviously there was no need for the disguise anymore. "I am not like you, you filthy, heartless, undeserving cre-" I quickly grabbed onto Lizz's shoulder before she could go too far. As much as I wanted to tell these bugs off myself, we still could not afford to get on their bad side given our circumstances.

"Aside from that," I interrupted. Lizz shot me a look and pulled her shoulder away, turning her back toward the bugs. "I can sort of get where you're coming from all of this, but where do we come in? You plan on starting a war by killing three innocent girls?"

Xeno laughed as if it was intended to be a joke. "Oh, don't you worry. We're not planning on killing you... yet. You're our live bait."

"Bait? For who?" I asked.

"For your two human friends, of course. One of them was the one guilty of wiping out my entire fleet. I watched with my own eyes how he swiftly executed all of them with his bare hands. Only I and my captain survived..." The description of two humans would be vague for anybody's guess, but when you put two and two together, it wasn't that hard to figure out.

"Killua and Gon! This isn't just about reclaiming power. You also want revenge!" I concluded.

"Correctomundo," Xeno applauded. "We have been watching you for a while, long enough to tell that you hold importance to the boys. Once they find out you're missing, they'll have to come, and when they do.. we'll show where we stand kill them!"

"Kill them!" Knox repeated with a raised fist in common agreement.

I looked back at Lizz and Alluka to see if they had anything to say. They both simply had blank faces. Lizz slapped her palm on her temple. "You do know that they're out of town, right?" Alluka broke the ice.

"Huh?" their leader responded.

"Yeah, and how are they supposed to know where we are if we can't even call them?" Lizz added.

Their proud leader stood there frozen for a good few seconds before huddling his comrades up, whispering to them. "I told you we shouldve grabbed their stuff," I heard him whisper. After more discrete discussing, hey turned around and he cleared his throat. "Exactly. You see, this is all part of my plan. As soon as they figure out you're missing, they'll learn that something happened to you lot, and when that time comes, we'll give them a ransom call, telling them exactly where we are. Once they arrive, your friends will be no match for the army I have built."

"Uh-huh, and how do you intend on calling them? Do you have their phone numbers?" Lizz sassed once more, finding amusement to this.

Another pause for thought. "I don't have to answer to the likes of you humans and traitor. We got big plans in progress, so I suggest you girls just sit tight until we need to use you." He started heading back to the door. I guess it hasn't occurred to him yet that he could force us to tell their phone numbers. Thank goodness for that. "Knox, watch over them. Make sure they don't try anything funny." Xeno left with the small fry following him, who did not talk the entire time. When the door closed, we were left with Knox watching us with an intimidated look with arms crossed. He seemed different when his leader is not around.

***

Almost an hour had passed and nothing has change. Knox got tired of standing and simply sat on a chair, his line of attention toward us not broken. We barely spoke the entire time, mostly because we weren't sure if we were allowed to. Even if we could talk, it wasn't like we could discuss any plans to escape with a watch guard in the room. If only he wasn't in the room, Lizz could possibly widen the bars for us. However, even if we had gotten that far, what would we do afterward? We were still unsure what kind of building we were in, and we have no idea how many ants we might be facing. I'm not sure if even Lizz alone could fight so many chimera ants.

Suddenly, Alluka stood up and walked closer to the bars. Lizz and I silently watched. "Excuse me, Knox. Can I go outside?" she asked.

"Huh? What are you talking about," Xeno questioned in annoyance. "You're not going anywhere."

"Yeah, Alluka," Lizz whispered. "Sit back down while we figure this out." But Alluka did not back away. In fact, she did not seem afraid to test him.

"Knox, can I make a phone call?" That time, the request was odd. She knew that we don't have our phones. She should also have more common sense that they wouldn't let us out of our cage and risk us calling for help.

"What do you think this is, some jail?" Knox inquired.

"It might as well be one," Lizz halfheartedly joked. She hadn't noticed that something seemed off about Alluka. She wore this blank expression with a stale smile, which felt familiar...

"Shut up, you." Knox stood up, roughly aroused. Alluka better sit down now before this strong guy starts doing something regretful.

"Knox, can I have your shoes?" she asked another random question. It was right there that it hit me. Alluka wasn't acting like herself because she wasn't Alluka. Something decided to take over. She was down to one final request. What was gonna happen to him if he doesn't take it?"

"Are you making fun of me, little girl?" He reached in through the cage and grabbed Something by the shirt, pulling her closer to the bars.

"Hey! Let her go!" Lizz started hitting his buffy arms, but I held her back, shaking my head.

"Something is about to go down," I stated.

With that still smile, Something held out her cupped hands. "Knox, can I have the keys?"

Without warning, Lizz wrapped me in an arm-lock and turned me around, pulling me closer to her body. I couldn't see anything. "Listen, you-" Knox's speech was abruptly cut short, replaced by the sound similar to that of a thick towel being squeezed, having its viscous fluids spilled on the floor.

"What was that?" I asked. I couldn't hear Knox anymore. It was as if his presence disappeared in the room. "What happened?"

As I slightly turned my head to peak, Lizz pulled me closer. "Don't look!" she urged. I could tell how much she didn't trust me to see the scene by her tight hold of me. So it was true. Something had the power to kill anyone in an instant. Knox was killed right outside of our cage. How did she do it? On second thought, I would rather not think about that graphic detail.

Though I was scared to look, my eyes couldn't help but to be curious and wander around the floor. From my peripheral vision, I could see Alluka bending down to reach for something beyond the bars. She stood back up, jingling the keys in the lock and a rusty creek stretched in the air as she opened the door. "Let's go," she said.

"Trust me, you don't want to see it," Lizz warned me. Placing my faith in Lizz to guide me, I closed my eyes as she led me out of the cage, her hands holding my arms. As I sensed the cage bars passing my sides, I stepped on a wet puddle, and this putrid odor overcame me. I gagged, and out of some stupid curiosity, I cracked my eye open, then widened the windows out of shock to see the full picture. In the center of the dark purple pool of blood was a large chunk of meat in the most distorted shape. The corpse of Knox was pressed, pulled inside out, then twisted until the muscles reached their limits, squeezing all the juice out of his flesh.

The ugly sight mixed with the disgusting smell made my stomach queasy, too much to bare. Something lurched in my stomach, rising up. I quickly faced away from Lizz so that I could throw up, adding my own insides onto the floor. Lizz patted my back, cooing me in assurance as I let the mush run out of my mouth. I thought I could handle it. I thought after everything I've experienced in these past few months, I've grown at least a stronger stomach. But clearly, I have still lived in a sheltered reality. There were still so many horrific things in this world I have yet to imagine. In fact, this was my first time witnessing death. My hands couldn't stop shaking. How could Lizz and Alluka still be standing after what had happened? How could Alluka pick up the keys off a distorted corpse and not be scared?

I coughed after it felt like I emptied out everything. When I wiped the corner of my mouth, I looked up at Alluka, who had this solemn look in her eyes, something I've never seen her portray before. "Yuki," she said softly as she held my hand. "I'm sorry. I know this is a lot to take in, but we need to get moving." Of course. How could I have been so arrogant and inconsiderate. Alluka has watched death before her eyes countless times. All those times when she was a kid, never meaning to kill anyone. Today, she intentionally ended someone's life just to save ours. I turned to Lizz who shared the same tired sadness in her eyes. Lizz was equally guilty for the murders she had been involved with, denying it for so many years. They both carried a heavy burden on their shoulders. I never knew how strong-stomached my friends were. What I've seen so far is nothing compared to what they lived through.

I'm nothing like them.

"Yuki, are you okay?" Lizz asked, bending over to look closer at my face.

I nodded my head and deeply inhaled. "Y-yeah. I'm fine. Let's just get out of here."

Holding the hands of both my best friends, we quickly exited the room into the unknown hallway. There were cracks drawn along the paint-chipped walls. Light filtered through the transparent mulk on the windows. As I suspected, we were inside some sort of abandoned complex. A run down place fit for the cockroaches. We wandered aimlessly like rats in a maze. We had no idea where we were going. Our best bet was the stairs so that we could get to the first level.

"Crap," Lizz muttered. "We've been found out."

We turned a corner and stopped to catch a breath in a moment of discussion. "What? How did they know?" I asked. "And how did you know about it?"

Lizz pointed at her ears. "Chimera ants can communicate with each other telepathically through our antennas, amplified through Nen. It's like listening through a radio, and I've just hacked the channel. They're saying someone is killing them. We need to get out of here, now." She grabbed a hold of Alluka's hand and ran, me quickly following them. After Lizz said that, our turns seemed less randomly guessed and more coordinated. I've noticed Lizz's ears flickering before making a decision on which direction to take, so maybe she was using her senses now to guide us. Perhaps she could hear other chimera ants nearby, so she was making sure we avoid them as much as possible.

"Wait a second..." Lizz said. "Something doesn't seem right.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The number of chimera ants in this building keeps decreasing. When I used En earlier, there were too many to count, like dozens of them. Now they're knocked down to about less than twenty."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Alluka questioned.

"In retrospect, I agree, but it still seemed... weird. Why would so many ants leave the building so suddenly? Wouldn't they try to capture us instead of leaving? Unless they're all hiding their presence and they want to ambush us."

The thought of being caught made me gulp. Not only would they throw us back in that cage, but probably punish us for not only escaping, but for killing one of their own. I didn't even wanted him to be killed.

We turned one final corner to see the glorious staircase at last, but was not celebrated due to the sight of a dead body at the bottom of the stairs, covered in blood. We were confused at what happened, but looking at it made us even more frantic to get out of here as soon as possible. As we skipped around the corpse to walk on the stairs, I noticed that even though it had four arms and crumpled fly wings, he had a somewhat human face. It was extremely disturbing, making me more sick, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for him, and wonder how he met a tragic fate.

When we reached the top of the stairs, it was even worse than we imagined. The walls and floors were painted with purple goop, dead people-like mutants lying on the floor or sitting against the walls, stiff. There limbs, even their heads and half of their bodies were severed off. I gagged once more and covered my nose, fearing that putrid smell again, but eighteen times stronger. I thought we left death in the basement, but instead more death awaited us. Lizz linked her arm with mine and gently urged me to move forward. This was survival time. No time to stand and be disgusted. I wasn't sure if I could walk through this, so I sunk my gaze on the floor to avoid looking at them.

Alluka stayed by my other side so that they could block both my side views, so that I could only focus on moving forward. I took brief glances at the bodies around us. I noticed a few of the detached limbs still twitching out of reflex. Almost none of the dead's eyes were closed. They blankly stared at us with those frozen expressions of fear and anguish. What happened here?

The other hallway was just as the same. It was like moving through a haunted house. Suddenly, a scream broke from a distance. The anonymous shrill grew more gurgling terrified as it got closer, until another man-looking chimera ant turned the corner, running toward us. Lizz moved in front, forming a fighting stance while I hugged Alluka tight out of impulse. He ran like a madman until he choked, then fell forward with a lipstick pinned to his back, revealing multiple stab wounds. We looked forward, and calmly standing at the end of the hallway was Shiki, with her arm extended out from the throw.

"There you guys, are," she spoke so casually that it made me think that my ears weren't working. "I didn't appreciate your ditching act back there. 'Had me worried there for a sec." How could she be calm at a time and place like this? It then just hit me. Why didn't this thought enter my head the moment I saw Shiki kill that poor ant.

"Shiki... did you do all of this?"

"Yeah. Thank goodness you guys escaped while I already took down the majority of them. And don't worry about the leader, I already killed him. I think there's still one alive, though. I'll take care of him, and then we'll get the heck out of here."

I always knew Shiki was capable of so many things, but this... what we witnessed was massacre. Before I knew it, Lizz clenched onto Shiki's shirt and forcefully pulled her close to glare deep into her eyes. "Are you insane?! Haven't you thought for a second that you might've overdone it?"

"Tsk." Shiki pushed Lizz off her and fixed her shirt. "Wouldn't you do the same? They're the bad guys. I've just increased your chance of escaping. You should be thanking me."

"You psychopath! Y-you just mass murdered all of them! We could've escaped without getting caught and reported them to the Hunter Society."

"Call me a psychopath one more time, and you'll be joining the rest of your kind-"

"STOP IT YOU TWO!" Alluka screamed. The two immediately dropped the argument. Alluka looked at them both, almost about to cry. Her lips quivered as her fists shivered by her sides. "We shouldn't be arguing. We should be getting out of here."

[Press Play]

Lizz and Shiki showed little signs of shame, but Shiki quickly put on her previous tough persona and started leading the way. "The exit is this way." With no other choice, we followed her, walking passed each half insect, half animal, and half human carcass.

When we reached the atrium, there was somebody standing in front of the exit. It was that short fry from earlier. Dax, was it? He was so short that he couldn't reach the doorknob, even while standing at the tip of his toes.

"This is the last one," Shiki said, as she pulled out a sword from the sheath of one of the dead bodies. Dax heard her as he frightfully turned his head around. He panicked since we were blocking the only hallway of the room. There was nowhere to go. A desperate attempt to stall time, he ran into a corner and simply sat there with his knees buckled in and arms covering his head. He was whimpering and shaking like a child. He sounded like a child. I looked side to side to see what Lizz and Alluka felt about this. They simply looked away, knowing what was going to come. Were they seriously not going to stop her? Killing to survive was one thing, but there was no need to kill them all. This chimera ant was obviously harmless and could not stop all three of us if he wanted to.

When Shiki made the first step, my protective instincts kicked in and caused me to move fast. "Don't!" I swiftly ran past her and threw my arms over the small chimera ant. He was so shaky, but not as much since I've embraced him. I could feel his shell body underneath the fabric, but he felt warm.

Shiki did not look impressed. "Yuki, you're in my way."

I glared at her straight in the eyes, giving her the I will not budge look. "We're free to go. We don't have to kill him."

"Think, Yuki. We can't leave a survivor of an underworld rebellion. He'll gather more members and plot revenge on us. That's why we can't leave a single one alive."

Dax shriveled even smaller, quaking again in cold fear. I looked down and I could see the tears at the corners of his bug eyes. For some reason, holding him reminded me holding my brother. When he was little, I used to hold him just like this whenever he was afraid. "You don't know that. He's just a kid. He can grow up to be good."

"Are you even hearing yourself? That chimera ant isn't even a child. It was just genetically born that way. Why do you even insist on defending that insect? Would you give a big speech if I were about to step on a cockroach? It's no different from when we kill actual bugs."

"No, you're wrong!" I shouted. I refused to think just like her. Yes, we demonstrate no sympathy for the normal, inferior insects in our daily lives, but these were actually people before they were reborn as mutated crossed species. Somewhere in there, they still have a choice, and still have their humanity. I still have my humanity. "I see these beings as people. If I just look at them as mindless, worthless insects... then I would do the same to my best friend," With every word leading to the end, my volume grew softer as I looked upon Lizz. Her eyes widened as she turned toward me with a gaped look of astonishment. "And my best friend means the world to me."

Lizz's expression wrinkled as her frown quivered, her eyes so glossy that tears gushed out. "Yuki..." Lizz sobbed. She wiped her eyes across her arms and sniffled, then puffing her chest and arching her back, she marched over to my side and faced Shiki. "If you're gonna get to him, then you're gonna have to get through me too."

Alluka soon joined us, standing in between me and Shiki. "Me too."

Shiki held her stance for five more seconds, but seeing how pointless it was to fight all three of us for just one ant, she sighed and lowered her blade. "Fine. Do what you want with it. It's your problem now, and not mine."

She turned around and retrieved the sheath from the dead body earlier, sliding her new sword in. I deeply sighed in relief. This was the first wave of actual relief I felt. I looked down at the chimera ant, who was staring back at me with those big bug eyes. I smiled, saying, "Don't worry. We'll take care of you."