Night 72: Sun Room

[overlimit]

[from here]

Rita's luck had seen some improvement over the past few nights. After a long string of obstructions and disasters, she'd had some smooth progress. She just hoped that lucky streak was going to hold, and that nothing was going to interrupt her this time, either.

Not wanting to push her luck, she broke into a run soon after entering the room, making a beeline for the Library doors. She could trust that Taura wouldn't be far behind.

Comments

[redcladidealist]

Something was wrong. Lloyd knew that much, but that didn't mean he was prepared to have Kratos grab his arm and physically haul him off. "Wha- Hey! Let go!" He stumbled, his first instinct to twist his arm and resist. "Kratos, what are you- It's just Ed!"

Still struggling to keep his balance with Kratos pulling on him, he threw a look back at his friend. Something wasn't right, but why would Kratos and Castiel be reacting this way? "Ed, what's going on?!"

[fullmetalheart]

Rather than answer, Ed clapped his hands together before kneeling to use alchemy to make a wall shoot up to block the doorway to the library. While he wasn't fast enough to keep Castiel and Kratos from vanishing into the library, it did stop Lloyd.

Then he rose to his feet and charged Lloyd with a snarl, clapping his hands together and forming his arm-blade. Since they were all obviously uncooperative, he wanted to take down the one he could fast and hard. Maybe it'll help assuage the frustration of the night.

[forsworn]

Lloyd was protesting, but there was no stopping now. They were almost to the library, just a few steps away; in fact, Castiel had already gone through, and Kratos had a foot through the door himself when suddenly, the floor shot up, knocking his hand away from Lloyd's arm. Freed abruptly from the added weight, Kratos stumbled forward, but swiftly caught himself and pivoted just in time to see the newly-formed wall slam into the ceiling, neatly dividing their group in twain.

Lloyd was capable of handling himself, he knew that. Unfortunately, after everything that had happened, from experimentation to even the previous night's episode with the metal detector, Kratos's fear of losing his son had slowly grown to the point where, if provoked, very little could defeat it, not even reason.

"Lloyd!" He took one step toward the door, then another, and then suddenly, he was sprinting, throwing his weight against the wall as if to shatter it. "Lloyd!" Naturally, the wall refused to budge, and Kratos was left, head bowed, to try to convince himself that this wasn't his fault - and more importantly, that Lloyd would be alright.

And then the world began to spin again, his vision blurring and his heartbeat beginning to pound relentlessly in his ears as the Exsphere wasted no time in taking advantage of its host's sudden (and prolonged) emotional turmoil. Kratos squeezed his eyes shut and tried to force his body to cooperate, but the air around him was growing heavier by the second, the amount of mana so high, so stifling that it was visible, a cloud of brilliant blue shards flickering in and out of existence as they struggled to coalesce into the individual segments of his wings.

[freewill]

Castiel found it efficient that instead of trying to explain anything, Kratos simply dragged Lloyd along with him. There wasn't time for anything else -- if need be, they could go over it all when they reached the library. He still needed to find out what these "angelic abilities" of Kratos' really were.

He hadn't been prepared for a wall to shoot up from the ground a good ten feet, erecting a solid barrier between them and Lloyd. Castiel paused and spun around as he reached the library door, watching as Kratos tried to ram the wall. But it was thick concrete and there would be no way for them to breach it, not with their powers so limited.

And yet again, Kratos was overcome with a need to protect Lloyd. It was only when the younger man called back to him from the other side that Castiel finally understood: they were father and son.

That meant it would be even more difficult for Kratos to leave Lloyd behind, but there was no other option. Castiel noticed the shining particles that were starting to form around Kratos' back then, and while he had no idea what they were and couldn't properly sense them, he could see that Kratos seemed to have weakened somehow.

Not willing to wait any longer, Castiel moved back over to Kratos, grabbing him by the back of his collar to turn him around and then tugging him into the library by the crook of his elbow.

[To here.]

[redcladidealist]

Lloyd never had a chance. Since when do walls shoot up out of the floor?! The solid concrete slammed up between him and his father, breaking Kratos's hold on his arm before Lloyd could so much as give a panicked yelp. "Dad!" The word escaped from his mouth without thought. He tried to gather himself to jump, but it was too late. The wall hit the ceiling, cutting him off.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to process even that. Ed was already attacking, his blade (where had that come from?!) slicing through the air straight for Lloyd. The teen threw himself to the side, barely dodging the thing. "Ed! What the hell are you doing!?"

[fullmetalheart]

"If you just went back to your room, you could have avoided this," Ed snarled. "But no, you had to choose the hard way."

He pivots to take another swing at Lloyd, pressing his advantage. If Lloyd's going to be all shocked and not actually defend himself, so be it.

[redcladidealist]

Hey may be shocked, but he's not that shocked. It has been more than a week since he's used a sword, and the sword in his hand isn't what he's used to wielding, but his instincts still kick in, his arm snapping his blade up to defend. Steel clashes against steel with enough force to make the air ring.

"What's so wrong about leaving my room?" Lloyd shoves back against Ed's blade-arm, confusion melting into frustration. "Ed, you know this is the only time we can do anything! The nurses won't let us act during the day!"

[fullmetalheart]

"Because it's against the rules," Ed snapped as he backed away to look for an opening. "If people would just do as they're supposed to, I wouldn't have to be here!"

[redcladidealist]

"That didn't stop you before!" As Ed backed away, Lloyd took a step back, too, sword lifted warily as he eyed his opponent, his friend. He didn't want to fight, but he didn't want to let Ed get too close with that sword. He had to talk sense into him somehow! "What changed?!"

[fullmetalheart]

"Nothing changed!" Ed charged in again, feinting left before slashing at Lloyd's right side.

[redcladidealist]

Lloyd whipped his sword up to parry again, awkwardly because his other hand moved instinctively to follow through with a counterattack, but all he had was a flashlight in his other hand. At the last moment, he tried to turn it into an attempt to knock Ed back. Hey, it might not be a sword, but the butt of a flashlight had to hurt if it slammed into someone's gut.

"Yes it has! You didn't have any problem going out in the halls before! Don't you remember?"

[fullmetalheart]

Ed's breath shot out with a grunt as he stumbled back and turned the stumble into a flip to get further away in order to give himself a chance to use his alchemy. "No."

Then he clapped his hands together again and knelt to construct a cage to trap Lloyd in.

[redcladidealist]

The last time Ed had clapped his hands to the ground, a wall had shot up to cut him off from his group. Lloyd didn't know what Ed was planning to do this time, but no way was he going to just stand still. Again he threw himself to the left, leaping up and over a table. Dammit, he really wanted to throw a Demon Fang, but he didn't want to waste that kind of energy for something he only wanted to use as a distraction. He didn't want to actually hurt Ed. Not if he could help it.

"You're saying you don't even remember when that monster attacked Al with its hair?" he shot back. "You don't remember when your own brother got hurt?" Come on, there had to be a way to jog Ed's memory. What could have even caused this in the first place? Had the doctors done something to him? Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought he remembered someone mentioning the doctors brainwashing patients. Dammit. Dammit! "Ed, those are your memories! You can't let the doctors win and take them!"

Landing on the ground, he sprinted a few steps before turning and hooking a chair with his arm and hurling it straight at the blond. It wouldn't, couldn't do that much damage, if it even hit at all, but it was the best he could manage to try to distract Ed from throwing up another one of those walls. The last thing he needed was for Ed to try to trap him in here. He also needed time to try to figure out how he was going to get out of this.

[fullmetalheart]

The cage closed without Lloyd in it and Ed spun on his knees and lifted his automail arm up so the blade could meet the chair, cutting it into halves that tumbled to either side of him.

Mention of the attack on Al got a brief look of uncertainty to cross his face before it devolved back into a snarl. "You're lying."

He got up again to charge at Lloyd. Since it was obvious that Lloyd wasn't going to stop on his own, he wanted to make him stop talking himself.

[redcladidealist]

That brief look of uncertainty was enough to give Lloyd hope. As Ed rushed toward him, he preemptively swung his sword, fully expecting the other to block.

"Why would I lie! You could ask Al yourself and he'd tell you the exact same thing!"

[fullmetalheart]

"To get to me and make me stop. Go to your room!" Ed blocked Lloyd's sword and aimed a kick at his knee with his left foot.

[redcladidealist]

The kick forced Lloyd to pull back, though it still grazed his shin with enough force to make him bite back a curse. It took him a moment to recover, but when he did, he struck again. This time, while his sword was slicing toward Ed, he followed it with another jab at Ed's gut with the butt of the flashlight in his hand.

"No!" he snapped. "I don't want to fight you, Ed, but I will if you don't let me go! If you've been brainwashed, that's only one more reason why these people need to be stopped!"

[fullmetalheart]

Ed didn't bother responding this time, blocking Lloyd's sword and taking the hit to his gut, getting bent over.

[redcladidealist]

It wasn't the same as dual wielding two swords, but doing two things at once with his hands was something Lloyd could do. While Ed was bent over, he shoved hard with his sword, not back, but to the side, trying to push Ed's blade out of his way. His other hand came up, swinging straight for Ed's head. Maybe if he could just knock Ed out, he could end this here and now.

[fullmetalheart]

"No! I'm not losing to someone else tonight!" Ed exploded as he struggled to keep his arm in place before giving up and letting himself drop and roll to the side to avoid being hit again.

[redcladidealist]

Lloyd felt a burst of frustration when Ed dodged his attack, but with Ed on the ground, even briefly like this, he was given an extra moment to think and plan his next move or attack. He took the opportunity to back up and shine his flashlight on the wall Ed had erected. Did it extend all the way, or were there any gaps? Dammit, how could he get past?

"If you'd just let me go, you wouldn't have to lose," he tried to reason with Ed. "Why do you care anyway? Since where are you working for them?"

[fullmetalheart]

Nope, it's completely blocked. Maybe if Lloyd was say, an ant, he could get through.

"If I let you go, I'd be violating my orders," Ed snapped as he rose to his feet again, twitchy and watching Lloyd to see what he does next so he'd know how to counter.

[envy_the_sinners]

[From here]

The low light of the moon cast outlines barely strong enough for Scar to realize what was going on. There was the sound of a struggle, definitely, and a voice he could not entirely make out. Edward? But why would he be ahead of Alphonse? There was no way they had passed him...

Unless the boy was under the same trance as that girl from last night.

Scar reacted, but immediately froze. He jerked forward, prepared to rush in, but his arm tightened around Lust's. He was silent. Hesitating. Turning on a light would make their presence known, but would also weed out the possibility of an ambush from whatever else could be waiting in the shadows.

[a_sin_for_him]

Lust paused as well, head cocking and eyes narrowing before she felt Scar's grip tighten on her arm. She was plagued by the same indecision. There was a chance they could slip through undetected, or so she felt at the moment.

But...

Damn it all! Nothing could ever be simple in this place. Nothing could ever be easy.

[redcladidealist]

Focused as Lloyd was on Ed, he didn't notice the near-silent arrival of the two who'd just entered the room. They wouldn't fail to notice him though - not with the flashlight in his one hand still on and his voice raised as he tried to talk to Ed.

"Why do you care?" he tried again. Adjusting his grip on his sword, he shifted his stance, trying to prepare for whatever Ed was going to try next. Despite his reservations, he even began drawing on his mana. He didn't want to drain himself of his energy, but he knew he might not have any choice. Not if he wanted to keep going. With no outward sign of the gathering energy, he pressed on. "You weren't taking their orders before! Ed, can't you see this is just a trick!? The doctors are using you!"