Disclaimer: I do not own I.S. and no copyright infringement is intended.

"Speaking"

I found myself waking up with my arms and legs tied up with some rope. Where was I? The last thing I could recall was that I had entered a taxi in order to get into an airport. Other than that, the only other things I could gather were from my senses. All I could hear was a slow dripping sound in the distance mixed in with the dull grinding sounds of heavy machinery. The room was too dark to make out all of the details of the room with the exception that there seemed to be some lumps and bars along the walls. The air was frigid.

Even as I scanned the room, it was clear that there weren't too many things lying around to help my situation too much. I had clearly been kidnapped by someone or a group. The question was why they had kidnapped me of all people. Just knowing what my captors wanted would tell me how to deal with the situation.

As sad as it seemed, I was clearly not the real target unless they were some slave traders that had posed as a taxi service. There was really only one obvious reason why they would kidnap me. They were trying to get Chifuyu-nee's attention. My sister was going to have an important match in the Mondo Grosso, and the organizers had given me a front row seat for it. Chifuyu-nee was supposed to be defending her title as the Brunhilde, and I ended getting kidnapped. My kidnappers were probably trying to use me to force Chifuyu-nee to forfeit the match, and knowing my sister, she would if it meant saving her only remaining family.

Regardless of how dire my situation was, I couldn't sit around and have Chifuyu-nee lose simply because I became a burden for her. I didn't even know how long I had been knocked out, so I don't even know if any struggling I did would do any good. The only things that told me that it wasn't too late were the facts that I didn't feel pain in my stomach and that I felt as though I could move about a lot if I wasn't bound by the ropes..

First thing I had to do was to remove the rope binding my arms. Fortunately for me, the rope seemed to be using a type of knot that could be escaped if I popped my shoulder. It still sucked because it was going to hurt, but it did tell me that my captors still only saw me as a kid. The only question was when I should try to remove my restraints. I had no way of knowing where I was and how to escape. I didn't even know if people would be waiting right outside the exit of this building. In fact, I didn't even know where the exit was since it was so dark. It probably was a better idea to bide my time until someone comes to check up on me rather than trying to break free right at this moment. Even if I wasn't worth that much, I was still the hostage.

The only question was when someone going to come into this room. Someone had to come to make sure that I wasn't going to starve or to make sure that I hadn't escaped.

I waited for what I felt like was an hour before the room lit up in front of me. The doorway had two shadows stretch towards me. The shadows were connected to one large man and a child that I could only guess was about the same age as me given by the heights. Somehow the image of the other kid made me let out a small sigh. It sounds despicable, but I was glad I wasn't the only being kidnapped. I wasn't glad that someone else got involved, but it made me hopeful that I wasn't being used as a ransom. Plus, more kidnappings would point to the possibility that I was kidnapped slave traders. This would mean that wherever we were stuck at wouldn't have nearly as much security as a base designed to hold off an Infinite Stratos.

The man just tossed the child next to me and proceeded to leave the room hastily. My only guess as to why he didn't come closer to check to make sure that my ropes were still binding my arms and legs was that he knew he was only dealing with a ten year old. I couldn't blame him for not checking though since most kids my age would probably be frantically trying to figure out a way to escape without popping a shoulder.

In any case, I needed to check to make sure my new roommate was okay and try to figure out if he or she knew where we were. There was also the fact that I couldn't exactly leave him or her behind.

"Hey are you okay?" I asked quietly.

My fellow victim responded in a fairly high pitch and with a very confused jumble of words. Normally I would be happy to hear a response, but what she said was very troubling. She was very clearly not speaking in Japanese or English and I had no way of communicating with her. In fact I didn't have too much of an idea of what language she was speaking since I wasn't exposed to much else besides the two that I knew. I hardly even knew how to speak English.

The only useful information that I would be getting from her was probably going to be from her name. Anything else wasn't going to be verbally given. Unfortunately for me, she was not taking the situation quite as well as I was and she was in a position that didn't let me see her face since my vision was obscured by her blond hair.

Popping my shoulder out was going to suck, but I never really had too many options to begin with. I probably wasn't going to find any better time to try to escape since our captors didn't seem like they were going to come in for quite a while. I had my doubts that they were even properly guarding the door at this point.

After managing to pop my shoulder and cringing in pain for a good minute, I started to work on removing the ropes holding my holds together. While I was busy trying to escape, I couldn't help but notice that the girl was quietly sobbing. I couldn't blame her though. If it wasn't for the fact that Chifuyu-nee had taught me how to break out of some situation, I'd probably be doing the same thing.

After managing to remove the ropes restraining me, I proceeded to untie the girl while gently talking.

"My name is Ichika Orimura," I repeated several times since I had no other way to explain to her that I was introducing myself. It might have come off as a tad bit condescending, but I couldn't think of any other way other than to point at myself and speak slowly like in the shows with the over exaggerated attempts to communicate to foreigners.

It took a while for the girl to calm down enough to tell me that her name was Charlotte. The name and the foreign language made indicated that Charlotte was probably French. Using that information, I had to guess that we were somewhere in Russia since our location had to be somewhere between the areas where we had been kidnapped. The building was definitely cold enough for it to be in Russia in the middle of winter.

Although I had managed to calm Charlotte down quite a bit, I noticed that she was still shaking. It wasn't surprising given how cold the room was.

After I had managed to remove the rope binding the girl, I took off the jacket of my school uniform and handed it to her since she seemed to need it more than I did. Strangely enough, she tried to shove my jacket back towards me. She was probably concerned about my health as well, which I found to be very sweet.

"I'll be fine, Charlotte," I said while covering her with my jacket. She gave me a curious look as I thumped my chest to hopefully convey the fact that I was going to be okay without the jacket. Though Charlotte gave me a worried look, she just gave a reluctant sigh over my stubbornness. Despite her pouting, I noticed a slight tinge on her face. Whether it was from the cold or for some other reason was still something beyond me.

As sweet as the moment was, we still had the problem of escaping. Even if I had an idea of where we were, we still had no means of transportation or communication. I could barely communicate with Charlotte, which is kind of detriment since we definitely needed to work together in order to escape from here.

Sitting here and worrying wouldn't get us anywhere though. I stood up and offered my hand to Charlotte to motion that we should be get going. She firmly grasped my hand, and I could feel how soft her hand was. It was very gentle and helped give me a sense of security for some reason. I could only hope that she got a similar feeling from me when she was hoisting herself up from the ground.

We slowly ventured towards the door where Charlotte had been escorted through and tried nudging the door slightly open. I had initially thought that the door would have been locked since we were hostages, but for some reason it wasn't. Charlotte had a surprised look on her face as well since there seemed to be very little security. I decided to not think too deeply into it since it just meant that we could escape more easily.

I took a peek through the opening we made and found that there were no guards around. Instead, I just saw a red sunset hovering over some trees that lined up against a snowy field to the right. To the left there were some other buildings that looked like warehouses and a couple of tents. There even seemed to be a communication tower of sorts.

Normally, no one would even consider heading towards the buildings given the fact that that was the most likely place where our kidnappers would stay. Charlotte had an expected reaction by trying to tugging on me right side. I, on the other hand, wanted to head towards the buildings. Though it was clearly more risky for us to do so, heading to the right probably spelled doom for us. We had no food, no water, no idea as to where we were, and no shelter to keep us warm in the winter. In open honesty, the hostile environment and lack of information were probably the reasons as to why our kidnappers probably didn't even bother to set up security. Our best hope was to try to contact Chifuyu-nee or someone affiliated with an I.S. to come save us.

There was also the chance that other children might be stuck here. I couldn't stomach the idea of leaving behind others just to save my own skin. Whether or not it was a bad habit of mine, it made me who I am. I at least could say that my stubbornness in those types of situations helped two of my best friends out of some serious situations. However, I can't exactly say that I looked forward to Chifuyu-nee's scolding afterwards.

As I tried to walk towards the buildings, Charlotte's gentle tugging became a firm pull. Looking back to her, I began to notice some of the facial features that were too hard to distinguish in the dark. Her irises were a deep shade of purple that somehow scared me and called to me at the same time. Charlotte had a very healthy and even skin tone. She was very cute as well, but she was giving me a frown that, quite honestly, frightened me a bit. If only I could see her smiling, but that seemed impossible given the situation. She was simply frightened and I guess somewhat angry over the fact that I was jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"We need to get help," I slowly said. To this, Charlotte gave a puzzled look with a small frown on her face. She was obviously confused, and I wouldn't blame her for it. This was the best time we could escape without being caught. While I will admit that there was a decent chance of us escaping and finding help, I didn't want to risk a slow painful death. At least with my plan, we would just be locked up again. It would suck, but we wouldn't be dead.

It took me a while to get my point across that we needed to go to the buildings to stay alive. I also ended up having to do a lot of charades to motion the fact that we weren't properly equipped to deal with the environment. Even as I did this, I could never really tell if she understood what I meant since we had no form of communication to truly indicate that being the case. The only thing that pointed in that general direction was the fact that she let out a sigh and stopped tugging on me.

After giving another quick scan of the area, we quickly and quietly proceeded to a warehouse that was close by. I was hoping that there was something we could use in order to escape. Even though I wanted to use what looked to be a communication tower in order to contact someone with an I.S. since I doubted that many in this country could understand Japanese, escaping would still be a better option if there we could get supplies to last us.

What we found was something beyond what we could imagine would be here. We didn't end up finding any food, water or clothing. Instead, we found boxes full of weapons. The funny thing was that the boxes of weapons weren't what really got our attention. Instead, our attention was focused on the I.S. sitting in the back.

While the machine did bring us some hope of getting out, it also spelled out a lot of issues. One being who we were dealing with since an I.S. wasn't exactly something people could get their hands on. The fact that this was in here could only mean that we were in some deep shit.

"Can you try to pilot it?" I asked Charlotte nervously while pointing at the machine.

Charlotte just shook her head and made a heart shape with her hands that she quickly changed into an x shape. Unless she meant that her love died in an I.S. before, I could safely assume that she meant that something the machine needed wasn't there. It figures since it would be ridiculous for any organization to leave an unmanned suit just lying around for anyone to use.

We proceeded to check the others warehouses as we made our way to what I was hoping was the communications building in hopes of finding the supplies we wanted. Unfortunately for us, we were disappointed and only found more weapons. The sheer amount of weapons was startling. Who exactly were these people to have so many weapons and several I.S. suits lying about? The only thing I could be glad about was that we never found other hostages.

After our fruitless explorations, we found ourselves looking for some vent to enter the building with the tower. We weren't going to be as stupid as to just walk right through front entrance. It was already a miracle that we hadn't been caught yet or found anyone in those warehouses. We didn't want to run out of luck now that we had to do this part. As long as we weren't caught in the communications room, we could call for help with a fairly good chance of getting away safely.

It didn't take us long to find a way in once we climbed onto the roof. It was also quite fortunate for me because it was about this point that I could feel the chill really get to move. I was actually quite surprised that I lasted so long at this temperature. I was also quite surprised that Charlotte was able to keep up as well since the jacket really didn't give her too much protection from the cold either.

As we crawled through the steely ventilation, the outgoing air warmed us a little bit. We also heard several footsteps as our kidnappers were walking right under us. Every time we heard the heavy footsteps and the accompanying gruff noises of the kidnappers' conversation, both Charlotte and I would freeze in fear of being found. Neither of us would make a sound or move until we felt sure that our captors moved away from under us. If it wasn't for the fact that our very lives and futures depended on us not screwing up, this would have made a very interesting videogame.

After what seemed like an eternity in that cramped vent, we finally found an exit that led to a vacant room. The both of us were hurrying because we both realized that we were spending too much time exploring and hiding. It wouldn't be too much longer before the group would discover that we had escaped.

Looking around the room, I had to guess that we were in some storage room given the amount of cleaning solutions and spare parts were lying around. I ended up picking some metal pipes propped next to the wall as a weapon. It would have been very unlikely for our final destination to have been unguarded. I motioned to Charlotte to try to grab something off the ground or shelves to use in case we ran into trouble.

After a few minutes of watching her browse through some items and contemplate over who knows what, she ended up choosing the cleaning solution and a couple of blankets. We didn't have too much to choose from, but I was still a tad bit confused as to why she decided to bring the blankets. I would have figured that she would have gone for a pipe as well, but she was clearly seeing something that I couldn't.

We pushed the door open ever so slightly to get a view of what was outside the room and just found a small empty kitchen. The next few moments were extremely gratifying as we quickly indulged ourselves on whatever we could grab and eat at the moment. While the food was still somewhat unsatisfying since we couldn't cook anything, it was still something we could eat. I even saw Charlotte bundling some food into the blankets.

"Clever girl," I said with a small laugh to myself. I hadn't even thought of a situation such as this. I was far too concerned about just getting to the communications room and not too much about what we might have to do afterwards should we not be able to send out a signal for help.

After stocking up and tying the blanket full of food to a second pipe in the storage room, we slowly crept around trying to find something that at least looked like a room to send out a distress signal. The building was too large so it was only a matter of time before we could find the room we needed. The real time consuming part was trying to explore without coming across anyone working in the building or getting into the view of the few security cameras. Because there were so many armed men and very little hiding spots, we ended up backtracking for quite a bit to find another route or some closet to hide in.

After avoiding about a dozen patrol groups, we eventually found ourselves right outside a door with a window. Through the window, I could see one man operating several monitors showing several of the hallways that we had tried to go through before. There was one monitor that really mattered though. The man's attention was focused on one single monitor with my sister's angry face plastered over it. Judging by the man's hand gestures and how my sister was able to respond, it was clear that this was our opportunity to call for help.

I opened the door without so much as making a noise, which had become second nature to me after all the practice we received from sneaking around so much. I didn't even wait for Charlotte as I made a mad dash to inflict a solid strike to the man's head with the pipe. I felt a very dull pain grow in my hands and heard a very sickening thud open contact.

The man wasn't moving and my sister was giving a very stunned look over what had just happened. Looking back, I saw Charlotte quickly shutting the door behind us and motioning for the pipe in my hands. Whether she was motioning out of fear of what just happened or out of need was something I may never know. In any case, I slid the pipe towards her so that she could lock the door.

"Ichika, are you alright!" my sister said worriedly with little concern for the man who I might have just killed.

"I'm a bit queasy, but I think I'll be okay. I'd much rather be watching your match though," I tried to say calmly. The key word was tried though as I ended up just sounding exhausted and tired from the whole experience.

She just gave a light chuckle though. I guess she was just relieved over the fact that I was alright and relatively safe. Chifuyu-nee must have been really worried over whether or not I was alive to begin with.

"Ichika, can you keep this transmission going for another five minutes? I'll come pick you up as soon as we can pinpoint where you are," she said sternly with a fair amount of bloodlust dripping in her voice.

"What about your championship title match?" I asked hesitantly knowing that she might become upset over me trying to convince her to send someone else to come get me.

Fortunately for me, she didn't seem to be in a mood to get angry over this. My sister was probably just taking my exhaustion and possible mental state into account so as not to put too much pressure on me. All she stated was that I was far more important than some stupid title.

"Hey Chifuyu-nee, can you do me a favor. Can you send someone else here to pick us up? I don't want you to forfeit the match," I pleaded.

"Ichika…" my sister said before I interjected.

"I know you want to get me to safety as soon as possible, but I don't want to just become a burden for you. These guys were clearly trying to get your attention by kidnapping me, and I can only think that they wanted you to forfeit the match."

My sister tried to say something, but I continued with my childish stubbornness. I knew that she probably wasn't going to listen to me, but I wanted her to compete and retain her title as the strongest. Chifuyu-nee was the greatest I.S. pilot in the world and enjoyed piloting. Though it might have just been me imposing on her what I imagined to be the ideal form of my sister, I knew that Chifuyu-nee had been looking forward to this match. I knew that she thoroughly enjoyed fighting the tough opponents she faced in the Mondo Grosso.

I kept talking and ranting about Chifuyu-nee shouldn't have to suffer in order to take care of me. I kept talking and talking until I felt my throat go sore, and even then I kept trying to convince my sister to take part in the match. The only time I stopped talking was when I started to feel my consciousness waver ever so slightly.

"Okay Ichika. You win. I'll take part in the match," Chifuyu-nee stated with a wry smile on her face.

I gave an exhausted laugh before asking Chifuyu-nee, "I know you can speak French Chifuyu-nee. Can you tell Charlotte to hide in the closet behind me until help arrives? We probably don't have too much time before the security realizes that we… managed to… escape…"

I ended up waking up on a cold metal table with my body bound by metal restraints this time.

"Oh. Good morning sleepy head. You shouldn't have woken up yet. Your about to go through a very special operation, and my boss isn't going to be too happy that you're about to feel unimaginable pain. Well I guess it doesn't matter to me too much since your distress call attracted some rather bloodthirsty Germans here," a surgeon said rather vehemently.

Though the fact that the woman was speaking Japanese in an area far from where I was born, I was definitely more concerned about this operation she was speaking about. It didn't take a genius to figure out that I was screwed if I couldn't find a way to distract her. When I tried to speak, I realized that my mouth was actually numbed and gagged. The only sounds coming from my mouth were a couple of indistinct and muffled words.

"Ohhhh. The little boy can't say anything. I guess that's a blessing on my ears," she said with a sadistic look in her eyes as she drew near to my face.

Whether it was because I started to struggle or showed fear in my eyes, she resumed her taunting.

"Are you afraid that I'm mad? Don't be. Though you have put me in a bit of a tight spot, you have done very well in test. However, I do have to say that I am a little bit disappointed in your choice of a hiding spot for that girl. Typical, but then again you are still only a child. Despite this, my master will surely be pleased with your potential. I can only hope for a promotion after all of this. There is only one remaining question," she calmly monologued only to end it with an insidious look on her face.

"Will you survive this operation?" she cackled while injecting something into my neck.

Author's Notes

#1: For the most part these notes will just be here to clarify some things that may not have been so obvious while reading. Please favorite and follow if you liked this story. Also send reviews of things you liked or disliked so that I can try to improve the work. Send questions and I will probably respond to some of them in the next chapter.

#2: I will be using the Japanese honorifics for certain characters because it is simply how they address certain family members and because I can think of some ways to mess with them or make puns.