Night 74: M01-M10 Hallway

[envy_the_sinners]

Night number God-only-knows, and Scar was promptly putting on his proper desert clothing and collecting his things to head out. He and Alphonse had agreed earlier to separate for the sake of stealth, so it would only be he and Lust tonight, which was far less objectionable than it would have been two weeks ago.

Two weeks? Had it really only been two weeks?

Scar set out into the night as he always did: alert and tense for whatever he could expect to come. But really, what could he expect here without it coming back to bite him in the ass?

[To here]

Comments

M7

[lighthearted]

The Head Doctor wasn't giving them much to work with this time around, but Sora didn't let that get to him. If anything, that probably meant that he was finally starting to take them as a real threat. Which might mean that things would get even tougher from here on out, but Sora wasn't going to let that scare him.

He'd faced worse dangers than this before. Even if he wasn't at full power here, he had friends to support him, and that was all he needed to succeed.

Sora had elected to keep his normal Landel's uniform on this time around, in light of that metal detector. He had his key safely tucked in his pocket, though, and also had his usual radio and flashlight in hand.

As soon as the doors unlocked, he turned toward Link. "You ready?"

[his_legacy]

Link nodded to his roommate, taking up his sword and stepping out into the night. It was a good idea on Sora's part, avoiding the metal detector problem entirely. He still smirked a bit at the thought.

"We take the same route as last night, then?"

[lighthearted]

"Yeah, those keys we found are going to take us right back to that room with the metal detector, so we'll be cutting out a lot of the work from last night."

So in theory, they would be able to get further this time around. Sora was worried about those warnings Lloyd had given him, but at least he could brace Link and Tsurugi for it.

Speaking of Tsurugi, it was time to collect him. Sora knocked on his door and then stepped back, waiting for his friend to step out.

[his_legacy]

After a half minute or so of waiting, Link eyed Sora questioningly. It hadn't taken them that long to get out, had it?

He rapped on the door again, harder than Sora had. He wasn't about to barge into the boy's room without being certain he wasn't in it.

"Tsurugi?"

[lighthearted]

Tsurugi was usually pretty prompt. In fact, a lot of the time he would be waiting out in the hall and they wouldn't even have to knock on his door.

But not this time. He wasn't even answering them. Sora gave him a few more seconds after Link knocked the second time before he decided to just open the door.

All he saw was an empty room. Frowning, Sora stepped inside and started looking around frantically for any sign of Tsurugi's personal possessions, but the room had been cleared out.

"Maybe... maybe his room got moved." It was possible, wasn't it?

[his_legacy]

"Could be..." Link swallowed as he entered the room behind Sora. He opened the closet and absently kicked at the ball that bounced out.

"His things are here, though." He looked to Sora, lips turned down in a grim frown.

[lighthearted]

Sora watched the soccer ball roll across the floor as a dread grew in his chest, expanding into his lungs, and then he breathed out.

"Maybe he went ahead without us, maybe he's waiting by the Sun Room or in the Library." Tsurugi could be impulsive sometimes, right? Or maybe there had been some kind of emergency. This didn't have to mean anything.

[his_legacy]

"He could be." Link's heart wasn't in it, though. There had been so many disappearances lately that he couldn't hold out hope.

Sora didn't deserve to be led on, though. He looked up at the other boy in earnest.

"Just be ready for whatever we may or may not find."

[lighthearted]

Sora couldn't blame Link for trying to be realistic about all this. It was true -- a lot of people had left lately, and it felt like their numbers just kept dwindling by the day. Maybe the brainwashing technology was getting better. Maybe they'd reach a point where all of them were made to believe they were someone else.

They couldn't let that happen.

"Well, he isn't here." And Sora didn't know where else they could look for Tsurugi, either. Hanging around here wasn't going to help them.

"We've gotta keep going. It's what he would want, too." He nodded firmly.

[his_legacy]

Link nodded firmly. Yes, even if they wanted to hold out hope for his fate, dawdling would get them nowhere.

"We continue as usual, then." He opened the door to the hall once again, casting one last look at the soccer ball sitting still on the floor. There was a sickly feeling in the back of his throat that they wouldn't be finding their friend at breakfast in the morning.

[lighthearted]

When Link sent a final look at the soccer ball, Sora mirrored him, tightening his hand into a fist. It wasn't supposed to be like this. They were supposed to have all put an end to Landel's torture together.

"Right," he said, somewhat distracted, before he left the room and turned down the hall.

[To here.]

M6

[ryuuzaki]

L had spent the afternoon resting, conserving energy, going through the suggested motions with a minimum of effort and a maximum of concealed boredom and impatience. When it was time, he'd returned to his room and quietly eaten his dinner, tapping his fork against the plate while he chewed.

The turkey had the advantage of being almost flavorless, and he'd worked through the whole meal in a methodical way. He'd been treating this like a case since they'd brought him here, and he'd held out on certain points of preference now and then, usually meats, but he'd been mostly cooperative for his own reasons. He'd always known that his chances of survival would be higher if he kept up his strength and energy; his aversion to the food was nothing against that necessity. The nurse looked pleased when she took the tray away. He'd had trouble with the corn, but other than that, he'd cleaned his plate. After she left, he ate two fruit cups in quick succession.

Getting ready was easy. He dressed exactly as he had the night before, and a glance showed that the contents of his bag didn't need to change. His precautions were the same as they had been lately, maybe too predictable, but they made the most sense for the time being.

The key card he had taken at the end of the previous night was tucked in with his gun in the box, and he made sure to pocket it, part of the process of checking the chambers of the pistol and the bullets and strapping on the gun. Maybe the key would open one of the doors off of the gallery around the Sun Room... it seemed like that might be a good thing, but he couldn't be sure. It depended on who had left the card and why. Maybe it wouldn't open anything after all.

He couldn't be sure of much at all: the enterprise, such as it was, wasn't exactly well-coordinated. The best he could hope for was that the assignments had been doled out to people who could accomplish them, but their numbers were low, and while they had the new little radios, they had no idea of whether or not Landel could hear their transmissions on them. He didn't know if he would find the Security area tonight even if everything went well, and if he did, it seemed possible that he might have to return to it every night until the others were all able to do their part. On a second or third night, there might be sentinels, or he might have to repeatedly go through the room where he and Lana had almost been trapped. Maybe it would be the end one way or another. So few patients were left.

He hadn't seen Lana all day. It troubled him. She'd behaved as if she hadn't been affected by her ordeal the night before, like it hadn't been an ordeal at all, and that was possible, but after what Lloyd had told him about Kratos, L wasn't so sure. She might have needed the day to recover, might have been able to coerce a nurse to let her stay in bed, might simply have slept. Or she might be gone, or too ill to venture out tonight. If she was gone, he would have to think of something to do... the obvious thing would be to try to combine forces with Castiel, Kratos, and Lloyd, but their goals were different from his. The radio would be useful in the event that she wasn't at the usual meeting point. He could try to contact her, or try to contact someone else, if need be. Or he could go back to his room and chalk the night up as wasted. They hadn't run into much aside from the thing that had locked them into the metal chamber, but that didn't mean he'd be as lucky again if he went poking around alone.

And Landel himself seemed strangely subdued, which told L more than his words did--but not much more. Had his tone been grim or merely calm? He had certainly suffered some kind of catastrophe the night before, something probably arranged by Harrington. It did suggest that there was at least some degree of outside coordination.

He locked away the things that needed to be locked away, shouldered the knapsack, popped a cherry-flavored lollipop between his teeth, and left the room.

[To here.]

[idolism]

Time to go, finally. Aidou met the start of nightshift with a great deal of impatience, straightening and re-straightening the tie of his Night Class uniform until the action lost all meaning.

It wasn't just hunger and sleeplessness that made him restless, it the state of not knowing. Aidou had never been very good at not knowing. He needed to know everything, think ahead to all the possible moves, and the uncertainty surrounding the third floor went against everything he valued, just like each nasty surprise the Institute had doled out so far when information was scarce.

But the only way to find out what was going on was to commit to action. That, at least, he could do.

_{[to here]}

[ever_loyal_dog]

Soushi woke as if from a haze to the sound of the intercom and the grating sound of the doctor's voice. He didn't remember much of the day as it passed, nor how he'd gotten from that coliseum back to his bed, but it was already night.

He went through the motions, though his things were still at his side, his sword he lashed to his waist with a few strips of fabric he'd torn from the sheets. The flashlight held little more than a dim glow, waning into obscurity before flickering back to life again as he readied himself.

Ready for what?

Of that, he had no real idea. The passage Castiel had mentioned was probably his best bet, and he had no way of knowing where he stood with last night's victor.

[to here]