Chapter One: Fall and Break.

By DeceptiveSoftness [Softie]

He didn't think that he'd ever run as much in his entire life as he had the past few days here in St Mystere. First he had been chased around an abandoned amusement park by a demonic Ferris Wheel (It had to be possessed, there was no other way it could have followed them with such unerring accuracy.) and now he was running for his life down a giant, spooky tower as the building collapsed around him.

His legs ached fiercely, the muscles protesting at the punishing speed they were forced to work at, but he quickened his pace further and pushed himself to make it outside. His legs were shorter than the Professors and Floras so he was determined to keep up no matter what. His arms were wind milling wildly and his satchel felt like it weighed a hundred pounds as he sprinted down the steps but it didn't matter because he was spurred on by adrenaline and fear and the weight of his bag was nothing compared to the thought of being crushed alive.

Luke had an extremely active imagination, it was one of the main reasons he was so good at solving puzzles, but right now it was more of a hindrance than a help as he envisioned the behemoth of a tower crumbling with them still inside it and sending them all plummeting to their deaths. Almost against his will a riddle flitted across his mind distracting him for a moment.

"What falls but doesn't break? And what breaks but doesn't fall."

It was an old one and painfully simple so the answer wasn't hard to find but the familiar process of going through the motions of solving a puzzle calmed him somewhat and brought his mind away from the fact that he could very well die here.

"Night and day." he murmured the answer under his breath as he rounded the corner and started down another flight of stairs. Luke paused for a moment to glance over his shoulder at the Professor ad Flora who where hot on his heels and the sight of the two of them determinedly hurrying down the steps sent a lance of courage through his own heart and he resumed running with renewed vigour.

Of course they were going to make it, the tower might be freakishly tall but they were moving fast and had to be at least half way down by now. His sense of direction was getting skewed by the never ending monotony of grey brick and dull wood that made up the winding staircase but it seemed like they had been running forever so they must be nearing the exit. They had to be.

Suddenly a screeching, groaning noise sounded from above him and Luke didn't have the time to suck in a breath to yell as a large piece of rubble crashed through the staircase on front of him. He couldn't stop, his momentum drove him forward over the gaping chasm, but for a moment he thought that he was going to make it as his feet glanced off the falling steps and gave him the push he needed to grab onto a wooden beam that stuck out from what was left of the smashed stairs at an odd angle.

The beam creaked sickeningly from his weight and he could barely hear the Professor's frantic yell over the sound of the blood pounding in his ears. The wood wasn't smooth and splinters dug painfully into his palms, staining the dirty beam red beneath his hands and his arms shook from the strain.

"Professor!" he cried in relief as he saw a familiar top hat appear above him along with an equally familiar face creased with worry. Layton reached down a hand but the gap was too wide and he was too far away for Luke to grab onto even if he extended his own hand. The beam gave a frightening lurch and began to splinter slowly in the middle, breaking away from the rest of the stairwell.

Luke let out a terrified sound and strained his free arm upwards to try reach Layton's. He swung precariously on the beam for a moment before he managed to get one leg up onto the wood and lever himself into a kneeling position. From here he could almost touch the Professor's outstretched hand and the man gave him an encouraging smile as he leaned over the chasm to try close the distance faster.

"That's it Luke, just a little bit further." the Professor said with his own unique brand of calm and confidence in the face of danger that somehow made Luke feel secure even as he dangled from a fragile wooden beam suspended over endless nothingness. He only had to stretch just a tiny bit further and he would be able to make it. Just a little bit further. Just a little bit and he would be safe.

Luke gave him a wobbly smile as he his fingers brushed the tips of Layton's before the wooden beam beneath him shuddered violently and then broke in half. It seemed like time had stopped for a split second before he was wrenched away from the Professor and the man's calm expression twisted into something desperate as he flung himself forward, almost falling himself, in a futile attempt to grab Luke's outstretched arm.

Luke's face was ashen with pure shock and his heart thumped unsteadily in his chest as he wondered why the Professor was getting so far away. The wind whipped his cheeks and pulled at his clothes and it felt as though his stomach was being pulled in the opposite direction. Lanterns flashed an eerie green in his peripheral vision as the sound of Floras distant scream filled his ears. He was falling. Comprehension hit him like a battering ram and Luke barely managed to choke out a mangled, helpless cry because the air was being stolen from his lungs as soon as he breathed in.

His decent was brought to an abrupt and painful halt as he crashed through something, he couldn't tell what it was, and slammed into something else before being thrown to the floor like a discarded rag doll. A wet, hacking sound filled the room and it took Luke a fuzzy minute to realise that he was the one making the noise. The taste of copper filled his mouth and blood bubbled past his lips to drip onto the dusty floor beneath him. He hurt everywhere and the sheer amount of pain was bewildering.

He blinked in incomprehension at an arm which was flung out on front of him. It couldn't be his arm because he couldn't feel it. It was bent at an unnatural angle and most of it was trapped beneath some fallen debris and he couldn't so much as make the fingers twitch. So, obviously, it wasn't his hand.

Satisfied that he'd cleared that up Luke's gaze slowly drifted away from the strange arm and landed on a crumpled blue object that sat around a metre away. His thoughts were becoming agonizingly slow and it took him another minute of blinking to realize that the object was a hat. It was a nice hat he supposed and it was a pity that the soft blue fabric was splattered with blood. Perhaps he'd get himself one just like it when he...when he...

He blinked slowly, his eyes took a while to re-open, and whimpered quietly at the fire that lanced painfully up and down his chest. His heartbeat was loud and erratic in his ears and his eyes were oh so heavy. Every thought was like pulling teeth and every breath sent spikes of red hot flames through his chest and he wanted to cry because everything, oh everything, hurt.

Black spots began to fill up his vision and the smell of copper and machine oil filled his nose, sharp and pungent. The sound of a door creaking open and startled, whispered curses were faint as though they had come from far away. Luke didn't bother to open his eyes as he felt someone kneel at his side.

(Open his eyes? When had he closed them? It was dark and cold and oh oh oh oh oh god there was pain)

He was numb to the press of frantic fingers against his wrist but the agony roared anew as he was pulled urgently into someone's arms and the fire in his chest was too much to bear as it burned his heart to ash and filled his lungs with smoke. The dark spots bloomed into sweet, black flowers that took up his vision and Luke let out a pathetic moan as he felt a pressure building behind his eyes.

The temptation of sleep was a powerful thing that dulled the edges of the inferno that threatened to erase his entire being and soothed the terror in his mind. Luke felt himself being lulled into slumbers dark embrace even as a gruff voice ordered him to stay awake. He didn't want to. Awake was where the pain was he was too frightened and too confused and too tired to do anything to fight off sleeps clutches.

He couldn't find his eyes any more. He couldn't open them even if he wanted to. His body was a dead thing outside of his control. His mind was a jangled mess and he was swiftly falling under the comforting darkness of oblivion. Compared to the pain that wrecked his body, the cool nothing was a blessing and Luke gratefully succumbed to unconsciousness.

A/N: Um... please don't hurt me?

I adore Luke and writing this is killing me (Although I do like writing angst and pain...) but it's necessary for the plot. It really is!

Personally I blame Layton and his catlike reflexes for this one. I just remember playing PL and the Curious Village and being awed and a little sceptical of how quickly he caught Flora when she fell. Then I got to thinking about what would have happened if he didn't catch her but I don't really like Flora much (I don't dislike her either) so I wondered what would happen if someone I did like fell.

Naturally I ended up imagining poor, adorable, English little Luke plummeting to his death. But that made me cry a little so I imagined him falling, surviving, and loosing his memory and, thus, this story was born!

If you liked it then please review and heck, if you didn't like it then review anyway and tell me why you thought it sucked. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

- Softie.