Important Note: I changed Hawaii from the previous chapter to Tibet.

This chapter is in Makoto's POV. Notes will be at the bottom.

Chapter 7: Silence and Snow

The mountains in Tibet are magnificent, Makoto thinks. From the helicopter, the white, ragged, but grandiose peaks looked as if they were stretching themselves higher and higher until they vanish above the columbus clouds that hover near the mid range of the mountains. He reminds himself not to look down. The sound of the helicopter propellers muffles his ears.

No words are spoken when they arrive at their destination either. Grey hunks of gravel layered with slate black soot crunches unpleasantly under his boots as he steps off the helicopter, followed by Rin, Haruka, and even Nagisa who were as equally wary of the villager's stares. It's a small coal-mining town they've been sent to. There's no green life anywhere in sight, and the flat rock landscape is void of any colour, made of a spectrum of black, grey, an white. There are only rocks and coal dust. A lonely railway track cuts through the middle of town, while the uniform houses that face the track are flat with steep roofs metal, are as grey and gloomy as the land.

Snow was falling. He waves a signal for Rei, their apparently not only equipment specialist, but also pilot, to depart. There's a large gust of wind, and then, the helicopter is gone.

It's colder than Makoto is used too, and the chilly mountain climate grates uncomfortable into his exposed skin. He pulls the zipper of his jacket to the to very top, and starts moving, leading the other three.

The villager's faces are sunken, and their shoulders are curled forwards. The children, with their ash smeared faces stop their depressing attempt at playing to stare at them, and the elderly who were huddled in thick coats and blankets near the doors of their houses squint disapprovingly as the three of them walk past - it cannot be made more obvious that they are not welcome here.

Dressed in combat armour as black as their surroundings, they can't make it more clear that they're here for a very specific type of business. Not only are they foreigners, but Makoto himself carries a carbine, Haru has a long, sinister looking katana across his back, the size of Nagisa's sniping gun, speaks of threat as it is, and if his facial expressions weren't hostile enough, Rin carried twin glocks, one in each hand. Despite the glares bearing into their backs, Makoto does his best to keep his back straight.

An old man with rotting teeth spits at their feet, but the four of them keep marching on, along the tracks towards the mining caves, eyes forwards. It's routine, really. Focus of the task at hand, Makoto tells himself.

"All mining activity has been suspended. Since last month, the miners have all disappeared after entering the mines, and haven't been seen since." he recalled from Directer Kou's report that she gave from their living quarters, so far away from where they were now. "It's terribly unusual for United Cooperative to be interfering with a local case like this, but the investigators and soldiers sent down haven't returned either. There's something, or rather, someone, down there, and your job is to find out what the threat is and eliminate it. Understood?"

Yes, they had understood. None of them had said anything as they packed their bags. Not only had it been a tense two months since they had all been assembled, but it was also a reminder of who they were, and why they were doing what they did.

That was the way the agents of United Cooperative worked: if authority said something, they did it. They did not ask, they did not question. They simply did as they were commanded, even if that meant they had to kill, if that meant they had to be fucked against their will, if that meant they had to swallow strange pills, if that meant they had to torture, if that meant they had to stab one another in the back, if that meant they had to be hated. They were the hands that did the dirty work of those who held power in United Cooperative, and in return, they got to keep their lives. They had no names or faces, only numbers - 03 was his tag, on earnt based on how well he performed. It's the cruel reality that they lived in, but Makoto doesn't let these facts get to his head as he trudges on.

A small girl with her hair in a tangled braid hurtles a piece of coal at them. He lets it hit is face, and says nothing as she runs off with the rest of the children, who are too afraid to approach. "Makoto." Haru murmurs from beside him.

"I know." he says, before forcing a smile onto his face.

The snow kept falling, and they continued their way towards the mines, their mouths sealed shut. It's quiet.

It takes them approximately ten minutes for everything to start going south as soon as the mission had started.

As they had headed up into the mountain, the air had gotten thinner, and much, much colder. Makoto rubbed his hands together in hopes to gain some warmth from the friction. Nagisa does the same, Rin dives his hands into his pockets, and Haru just sneezes before nuzzling his chin deeper into his blue scarf, face passive as always. Makoto briefly entertains that idea of looping the scarf around his own neck onto his best friend's, but know Haru, he's probably protest poorly before turning his face away from Makoto. How cute that would have been. Makoto smiles a bit at the thought. But they've already arrived at the mining site.

The snow had begun falling a bit faster, the wind blowing a bit harder, and the amount of soot drifting everywhere increased and grew into small mounds on the ground. Mounds of rubble and discarded rock pile high, their tips white with snow as if they themselves were small mountains. Yellow machinery, rusting from the snow and ice as well as from the lack of use, rest beside crates full of abandoned dynamite on the site straight before the coal mine's entrance. Icicles hung around the lip of the cave entrance.

"This is Agent 03, Tachibana Makoto, permission to commence mission and advance." Makoto had said into his earpiece.

"Permission granted." their director had replied astutely.

Nagisa, taking on his role properly, had bound off on a different path after giving them a quick salute, away from the mines and up towards a higher up cliff ledge, where he could keep an eye on the area surrounding the mines with his sniping equipment.

Few words are shared between the three remaining, as they pursued into the dark tunnels following the railway tracks, Makoto leading at the front, with Haru to his right and Rin a step behind them. The few lamps that light the tunnel shone an eerie red light upon their path, but just enough to allow them to make their way deeper through the veins of the mountain.

What was more disturbing was the fact that, what Makoto had expected to be usually a bustling area of coal harvesting was barren and silent, as if it were abandoned. There's no shouting, no hammers cracking stone. It feels haunted almost. He tries to shake the thought. Though it's a bit warmer inside though, it's still bone-chilling cold the they move towards the heart of the mountain. As they move deeper, not only did the sunlight fade away, and the width of the tunnels become smaller and smaller, but the caustic scent of gunpowder and methane grew heavier, twirling their way up into their nostrils.

Makoto scrunches his nose at the smell, but soon becomes accustomed to inhaling the fumes. For a boy who grew up under the sun in front of the vast blue ocean, such dismal, narrow tunnels aren't exactly his cup of tea.

He glances over at Haru, who had apparently chosen to express his displeasure for the coal mines in silence, chewing on his bottom lip, turning it from a rosey pink to a red. His blue eyes, reflecting bits of purple in the passing red lanterns are still set hard on the task before him. The bruises on his neck from his squabble with Rin had faded, and the scratches on his pale cheek and just about completely disappeared.

Suddenly, Haru shoots him a strange look, and Makoto notices that he's been staring for a tad too long. He forces himself to avert his gaze. The narrow tunnels dug deep into the mountain, and it isn't long until they hit a diverge on their path.

"Let's go left." "Let's go right." Haru and Rin say at the same time.

They've stopped walking, and the red lights hanging above the tunnel casts ominous shadows upon their faces. Makoto can see the agitation spike in both his accomplices, Haru's blue eyes sharpening and Rin's lips pulled apart to reveal his shark teeth in a growl. Since the incident at the pool a few weeks ago, neither of them had been getting along as well as Makoto needed them to for fieldwork. And to say that was an understatement. An uncomfortable silence hangs above their heads.

"Uh, Rei, do you think you'd have any idea of which way to go?" Makoto asks.

The reply he gets is disappointing. "No, sorry. For some reason, the map of the tunnels ends I have ends here. You'll have to pick which way to go on your own."

"Stay together. Director's orders." Kou's voice comes through his earpiece.

"Left." Haru insists, keen eyes sharpening, and turning to face Rin.

"Right," Rin meets with equal adamancy, a growl forming at his lips, "You can't go wrong with right."

"Left is better."

Makoto tries to keep his eye from twitching, tilting his head upwards and pinching the bridge of his nose. He can't help but notice the sinister cracks on the rocky mine ceiling overhead. Please don't do this now. This argument would only serve to amplify the already existent apprehension between the two.

"Rin, Haru, please stop..." Makoto nervously tries to halt the growing hostility, but to no avail.

"Right."

"Left."

"Right."

"Left."

"Right."

"Left."

"Don't be a prick just because you think you're better. Let's go right."

"I don't. Left is where the miner's disappeared."

"Tch. As if you'd know. I'd already be done with this if you weren't weighing me down."

At that, Haru recoils a bit - not enough to be really noticed - and Makoto instinctively shifts a step in front of the black haired boy. "Rin, you can't mean that." Makoto frowns.

Before Rin can retort, Nagisa responds, his voice choppy through his earpiece. "M -zzt- ako-chan's team -zzt- captain, he's the one who should be deciding."

"Logically sp -bzzt- king, Nagisa does have a point." Rei adds rather unhelpfully.

"Listen up you two," Makoto can feel their director's annoyance practically radiating through his earpiece, "This is not the time to - -bzzt- zzt-"

Click.

And Gou was cut off. Only fuzzy static remained, humming from Makoto's earpiece. The other two agents had noticed as well, bodies tensing. Small pieces of rubble flaked off dangerously from above. "Director? Hello?" No response. Worry was starting to creep up Makoto's throat. "Is anyone there? Do you copy? Gou? Rei? Nagisa?"

There's no reply, and they know that they're alone.

"Shitty earpieces. We're probably too far underground." Rin said, sighing out of his nose and turning to Makoto.

"Well then, captain," Rin says, lacing the word captain heavily with bitterness, and Makoto winced, "What do we do now?"

Makoto looks around and tries to retain his good-natured smile... only to notice that Haru has disappeared.

Noiselessness blankets them once more.

Makoto praises whatever gods may be out there enough when Rin angrily complies, following after Makoto through the left tunnel in search for Haru. It's probably because of their fight, Makoto thinks to himself while biting his lip uneasily.

What exactly had happened that night had left nothing but ambiguity on Makoto's side. Rin, of course, had angrily snapped when he and Kou had tried to him to talk. Haru hadn't been much better, and had been completely despondent, refusing to speak, and huddling himself on the corner of his bed with his arms wrapped around his knees.

A part of him couldn't help but be hurt from Haru's reluctancy to speak. They hadn't discussed it since then. There more words were spoken of the matter, and that was that.

At this point, Makoto was reluctant to interfere any further - after all, he hadn't had a complete grasp on the situation, and anything he could say would potentially worsen their already fractured relationship. The mission came first though. Focus, Makoto reminds himself again. Find the threat. This is why you're here.

No words are shared between the two they continue to make their way through the black coal tunnels in search of their companion. Now that they're so deep into the mine, the tunnel has become much more narrow, the crimson lanterns hanging overhead now their sole source of light.

It doesn't take them long to find Haru crouched in front of an a dead end, his palms pressed against an massive-looking iron door he looked as if he was inspecting. "Haru-chan!" he says gleefully bounding over, Rin scowling and leaning back, "You can't just run off like that!"

His friend only looks up briefly, giving them a strange look and continuing the task at hand. "Drop the chan. There's something back here." Haru deadpans, before pointing at the floor.

There's the pale head of a corpse with a yellow miner's cap on, the brown blood on it long dried and crusting off. "Is that..."

Haru nods. "We're close."

He opens his mouth to say something, but the sound of Rin clicking his glocks stop him. He's glancing around, nose twitching ever so slightly. "I smell blood."

" -btz- Hi there, booyyyys!" a unfamiliar, yet sickeningly sugary voice that Makoto doesn't recognize suddenly buzzed through his earpiece. All three of the agents freeze.

"Rin, darling, do me a favour and apologize to your dear little sister later, won't you? It was so, so, so rude of me to interrupt her like that, but well, ha! You know, I have my reasons!" the voice cheers.

With a loud bam, the red lanterns went out, and darkness engulfed them. Suddenly blinded and hyper aware of the space around them, the three all reached towards their weaponry, sensed heightening. Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck bristle, Makoto's green eyes dart left and right, seeing nothing in the pitch black.

With both feet planted on the ground, he already had his hand on his carbine, index finger resting on the trigger. A small drop sweat drips down the side of Makoto's already perspiring temple, and off towards the ground. Without his vision, he can feel a mix of adrenaline and anxiety building up inside of him like a spring, ready to pop any time. In addition to his lack of sight, he's acutely aware that there's not much space down here, and if they'll have to fight, it'd be rough.

"Who the hell are you?" Rin growls from somewhere in the dark, confusion seeping through, though just barely.

"My, my, mean as ever, Rin! You weren't always this abrasive! What a shame, what shame indeed - you were such a cute kid. But that's not why I'm here!"

A slimy, warm.. tongue slides across the nape of his neck - panic spiked in his chest, and with one motion whipped out his carbine, loaded and rapidly fired shots into the dark. The sound of bullets cracking on stone resonated in his ears. "Oi!" he heard Rin shout.

The sound of his own heart pounding was deafening in his ears as he tried to still his arm from shaking. He turned his head over and over again, but saw nothing. "Makoto." he heard Haru's concern from his left, and in saying his name alone, it's just ever slightly more calming.

"I-I'm fine." he manages to say, his breath still heavy from the surprise.

Maniacal laughter burst forth and echoed around them. "Look at how wonderfully you reacted! 03, wasn't it? Your parents would have been proud! Your little brother and sister would have really admired their big brother. Too bad they had to die!"

Who are you? What... What was happening? Why was the Iwatobi incident from eight years ago being brought up? Too many questions race through his mind. "H-How do you ... M-My parents..?" Makoto whispered in disbelief under his breath.

"And lookie lookie, Rin's rank is 01! Splendid, splendid! How do you feel, finally walking in your father's footsteps? Not even nearly as good as him though. Haru here beat you again, didn't he?"

"Wh- Shut up. Shut. Up!" Rin's voice raged through the dark, and it's quivering just a tiny bit, "Come out you coward, and fight!"

"With due time, I will, but not today." The voice chuckled. He could feel the breaths against the shell of his ear with every word the voice utters, but when he blindly swung the butt of his gun, it met nothing but air. It was useless to try to fight this way. If he made the wrong move, he could not only injure one of his teammates but also cause the brittle build of the coal mine tunnel to collapse upon them.

"What's this? 00? As expected of the prodigy of the group. Haruka, Haruka, Haruka, how much I've missed your pretty face, Haruka! Look at all these scars on your body, what a shame it is!" Leave him alone, Makoto wants to scream, but he keeps quiet, and he keeps still.

"Too bad you had to end up working for people like this, you could have been such a dirty, dirty slut! It's been far too long since I've seen your body this close up. I haven't been able to admire your build properly since the swim club- " a lewd moan echoed from around them.

The beating in Makoto's chest picked up another notch, and he tries to blindly reach out for the Haru, but to no avail. He's too aware of their dire situation, and he feels so, utterly, helpless. Whoever was talking was definitely here though, in their presence - it wasn't just through there earpieces, the speaker was here, in front of them. And he was having fun too, dancing around in their confusion.

The sharp clang of metal clashing and a blade cluttering skidding across the ground sounds through the darkness, bht just to his right. There's a grunt of pain from Haru, but Makoto can't see what's going on, he can't help Haru -

The voice giggles crazily for what seems like hours, and there were no more sound from Haru. "Nice try, nice try! Don't get too cocky just because you're the top lapdog of United Cooperative, Agent 00, Nanase Haruka. You can't win against me."

There's only more silence from Haru's end, and more insane laughter. "Haru, are you alright? Haruka!" Makoto howls, fear biting at his gut... but there's no response.

"Duck!" he suddenly hears Rin shout, and instinctively, Makoto is moving.

He forces himself to fall to the ground, a sudden pain thwacking his back as he made impact. For a moment, his vision returns with an intense flare of light. He can't close his eyes fast enough when the bright flame shoots right past the bridge of his nose, and off into the tunnel until it fades away. Haru, thank god, is alright, but looks equally shocked with his back pressed against a wall - a small dagger ejected from his sleeve is lying on the ground - marine eyes widening, as Makoto watches him as he falls back to just barely avoid getting shot as well.

Quickly tracing back to the flare before he is once more encompassed in darkness, he sees the maniacal gleam of white shark teeth against red. In Rin's hands is a gun with a large but short barrel, no doubt a flare gun. "Rin! Are you trying to kill us?" he hisses, but is ignored.

"Where the fuck are you!" Rin yells as the light fades, "Show yourself! Show yourself, bastard!"

A fourth figure cannot be spotted in the dimming flare. Once again, they are engulfed and the blackness. There's more crazed laughter. "Today was only an introduction. It was good to see you all again. Goodbye, Rin, Haruka, Makoto. Until next time. I'll be waiting."

And with a loud buzz, the red lamps flicker back on and they are alone. The iron door has disappeared, and there is no sign of anyone else except for the two he entered the coal mines with. The miner's head has disappeared as well. The three of them look at each other, still unmoving, blue, red, and green eyes glancing at each other with uncertainty. They're all still dazed, unsure of the events that had just passed.

"-btz -ello -This is Nagisa, does anyone copy? Hello? Mako-chan? Rin-chan? Haru-chan?"

"Y-Yeah. This is 03, Tachibana Makoto. Copy. There's nothing in here," he says, Rin and Haru both giving him a quizzical look. "We're pulling out. Requesting transportation at the mine entrance."

"Why did you lie?" Rin accuses him immediately as they turn off the microphones of their earpieces and start heading back the way they came.

He just shakes his head in response. Haru gives him a lingering stare with his intelligent blue eyes, before nodding. He understands.

"Hey!" Rin says.

"We'll talk about this later." Makoto replies.

It comes off a bit colder than he had wanted it to, but now was not the time. There were too many things that they didn't know. On their way out, notices something a dash of brown and blue lying on the black coal floor of the mine. Bending down, he quickly scoops up the object. In his palm is a keychain of a bird: specifically, an Iwatobi-chan keychain that Haru used to make when they still lived in Iwatobi. But like the rest of Iwatobi, the collection that Haru had created had been burnt to ashes.

The helicopter is waiting outside the mines when they step out into the freezing mountain air, Nagisa already on board and waiting with the door open.

Outside, the snow had stopped falling.

Next Chapter:

(I haven't written it yet, I'm sorry)

Look at that. I actually updated. Even I didn't think I was going to.

Please do tell me what you think about this chapter though, because I felt rather... detached, perhaps, and the flow of my story telling died out a bit as it went on typing it up. Um, I don't really know, I mean, it just felt... off. Most of it was really to just set the stage, but after the next chapter, things should really start moving.

Thanks a bunch to hitomi65, Guest, brojaxeh, Chinkonka, PheonixShadow, Noitalapsi, vakiromi, ashira23, Guest, USAK 4eva, RebornArchangel, EclipseKura, O.O, and especially cutekitty5597 who reviewed all of the chapters I had previously posted! You don't know how wonderful you made me feel, and how helpful your comments were. I tried to keep them in mind while writing this chapter, but I can't promise you that I kept them up to the standard you were expecting. I apologize in advance :(

It hasn't been edited yet, but I'd love if you could tell me what you think? Constructive criticism is always welcome! There might be an update in the next week or so.

Thank you for those who are still reading. Really, thank you.

Happy holidays, everyone! ʕ•̫͡•ॽु✚⃞ྉ*✲ﾟ*｡⋆