damned_institute | Nightshift 27: 2nd Floor Hallway near Medical Reference Library and Railed Area

Soubi almost jumped at Ritsuka's surprise. He chuckled softly and ruffled the boy's hair. He'd never seen him quite so jumpy and, while a part of that made him angry at the things causing it, he couldn't help but find it unbelievably adorable.

Besides admiring Ritsuka, he was keeping on guard, listening out for anything suspicious. Once Ritsuka slowed down a moment, he checked around and, sensing nothing dangerous, tugged on Ritsuka's hand, crouching in front of him.

"It's not like before," he assured his Master. "I'm here now."
He meant every word. The words were never empty assurance. If anything wanted Ritsuka, it was getting through Soubi first and there was no way he was going down without a fight.

Surprised, Ritsuka almost took a step back when Soubi suddenly crouched before him. It was a strange gesture he was all too familiar with. Part of him wanted to protest when Soubi kneeled, but another part was happy for it. For once they were on the same level and he could look Soubi directly in the eyes. While he could never fully tell if Soubi was lying, he always thought it was easier to accept if he could see the man's eyes.

Soubi's words made him feel a bit better and he nodded, trying to smile for the older man. "I know. Just be careful, okay? I don't want you to get hurt."

He'd seen too many people get bloodied trying to help him and he'd been the cause of Alfons' and Miku's injuries once. He never wanted to do that again. Besides, he was Soubi's Sacrifice even if Soubi wasn't his Fighter and it was his job to take the damage while Soubi fought. "I'll do my best, Soubi. I promise."

Soubi was aware of Ritsuka's urge to take a step back. He was the boy tense, tip back just a little. It kind of hurt, but the fact that Ritsuka restrained himself made up for it a little.

"Me too," he nodded. He meant it about everything. Not wanting Ritsuka hurt and wanting to do his best. And it meant a lot to him that Ritsuka was going to try hard, but it didn't mean he'd let Ritsuka get involved if he could help it. This wasn't their world of Battle Systems.

Pulling Soubi back to his feet, he slipped his hand into his and started walking again. He wondered how things would work here now that Fighters were roaming about. He'd felt Soubi enter the room - the ringing in his ears was familiar even if the pain hadn't been. How much more had changed?

As they approached the railing, Ritsuka thought he heard something going on below. He'd seen a fight before, but for now he avoided looking over. The sounds from below were terrifying and he didn't think he needed to start traumatizing himself this early in the evening.

"...I wonder if it even works here," he said absently as he walked along.

Maybe Landels wasn't such a bad place after all. Ritsuka seemed to show a little more affection here and seemed to willingly accept it from Soubi too. Not completely, but a little more than before.

Soubi had been so tense in the car, he could feel his life drain away, he was so uncertain of the future as they headed to Goura. Usually had no need to worry about anything but his Sacrifice, but, with the way events had been unfolding, nothing made sense anymore. If only they could run away. Soubi could belong to Ritsuka forever.

Unlike Ritsuka, Soubi gave in to Morbid curiosity, but he could make much out from where he was and he definitely wasn't letting go of Ritsuka, just to watch people he had no concern about.

"We'll have to wait and see," he said, though he wasn't sure it was much use. He'd tried, when he was alone, to form spells. Small ones. But there was that terrible lack or presence. He didn't want to take away Ritsuka's hope, however, so he wasn't going to say anything.

They reached the end of the railing and Ritsuka stopped, looking up at Soubi. He should know whether or not the spells would work here. It was his skill after all. If there was one thing Ritsuka couldn't stand, it was not knowing the important things.

"Does it work here or not?" he asked plainly, hoping for a frank answer. If he was useless to Soubi as a Sacrifice, then they should stop at the pharmacy for supplies. Although Ritsuka hated the idea of fighting, he was slowly coming to the realization that it was a necessary evil here.

Soubi stopped and looked down at Ritsuka. He hesitated. That was another thing he wasn't used to. Once upon a time, he'd been the perfect Fighter. He could be again if Ritsuka would just take the reigns. But this was a surprisingly good start. It showed that Ritsuka was aware of their duties and relying on Soubi. Not from the position of a child, but a Sacrifice.

"I don't think so," he admitted, shaking his head. "I should have some degree of power, even outside the Battle System, but so far I haven't had any success. It might require a drastic situation, or the company of others from our world, I'm not sure. But it doesn't matter, I wont let anything hurt you."

It was strange to think he should be thanking Yohji and Natsuo for anything, but they had been the ones to teach him the most about the roles of Fighter and Sacrifice. Maybe they hadn't been the nicest about it, but he had learned things and that's what mattered in the long run.

So the spells weren't working? That meant they were essentially running around unarmed, and that worried him. "I know, but I'm not going to let you get beat up just to protect me when we can avoid it." He wondered why it was easier to be honest about things like this than about other stuff. Everyone said he'd understand when he got older, but he hated that phrase. "There's a pharmacy behind the door two over from the end and lockers next to it. I got attacked in the locker room before, but the pharmacy had supplies that you might be able to use."

And the locker room might have cigarettes for Soubi to steal, but Ritsuka wasn't sure if he wanted to tell him that. He hated the smell of smoke and being here might be a good way for the man to quit.

"You think I'll get beat up?" Soubi asked, amused. "Spells aren't the only way of Fighting, Ritsuka." He was more than happy to use a bit of brute force if the need arose.

He nodded to this new information. He had the same thoughts as Ritsuka about the locker room. Apart from the bit about quitting. This would be the worst place to do such a thing, he'd be in Solitary in no time if he didn't have something to suck on.
Damn it, Kio, where are you?

"Well try the pharmacy first, see what we can get. Then I'll check out the locker room. Where will your camera be?"

"And you haven't seen the things that are here," he said, trying to save himself from the jumble he'd just made. His face was burning and he quickly looked away, thankful that it was dark here even with Soubi's flashlight casting its dim glow around the area. "...still, it'd be better to be armed."

He tugged Soubi over toward the pharmacy door and tested the lock, not all that surprised to find it locked again. A little force and the door would break open as it had the night before when he'd been here. Taking his flashlight, he held it in both hands and cracked the butt of it down onto the handle. He was more than a little mortified that, despite the noise, the handle didn't give way. He really wished he was bigger like his brother. "...so it's here, but my camera will be somewhere else. I don't really know where. Someone said they'd been there and that it was a room full of boxes that are labeled with numbers."

"It makes no difference to me." He'd fight some random mecha thing in the sky if it was to protect his Sacrifice. It didn't matter if he stood an obvious chance or not. But he couldn't deny that sometimes weaponry was useful.

Soubi had been about to bach the door down himself when Ritsuka took over. he was quite surprised ~~and maybe a little turned on~~ when Ritsuka took the torch and hit it against the handle like a little professional. However, when he failed, it took a lot of lip biting not to laugh. He ushered Ritsuka out of the way. With one hand on the handle and a shoulder against the door, he tested his strength and then pulled back and rammed himself into it.

The door swung open and he stepped back, wordlessly. But the smirk was too hard to resist. He put a hand on Ritsuka's shoulder and listened out. He couldn't hear anything, so he switched his torch on and shone it in the room, taking a step forward (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/229659.html).

[Returning from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/229659.html?view=16194331#t16194331).]

Soubi checked the hall once more, nothing had changed. New sounds were coming from below, but still nothing to concern him. He moved towards the next door, keeping a tight hold of Ritsuka's hand. Stopping in front, he out the bag down.
"What shall we do with these?" he asked, not wanting to take the lead in decisions. Ritsuka needed confidence and he wasn't going to get it if Soubi kept making suggestions. However, he couldn't protect Ritsuka with his hands full.

It wasn't that Ritsuka felt unsafe with Soubi, he just had unpleasant memories that were difficult to overcome. The enemy had been unseen and icy cold, coming out of nowhere to attack because Ritsuka had been careless. Following Soubi out of the pharmacy, Ritsuka tried his best to look nonchalant as they approached the locker room. The creature had probably already moved on anyway, right?

"I'll take them and keep them safe until we find something else that's useful. We might be able to find bags or something in here, so we should try it." There, that sounded confident - not quite an order, but definitely a plan. It was a start, or so he hoped. Taking the bag Soubi put down, he flicked off his flashlight and stuck that into his pocket. The radio was still silent, making Ritsuka wonder if tonight it was just the Doctor who'd be making the clues.

((From here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/230777.html) ))

Their trip up the stairs seemed to go without a hitch, but Claude wasn't about to let his guard down. He kept glancing around as he shined his flashlight's beam onto his map to get an idea of where they needed to go next. It seemed only right that he'd be using Ashton's information, Ashton's sword to come save him. He just hoped they weren't too late.

"Okay, we need to go here," he said, tapping his finger to where it said experimentation hallway. "It's just a couple of hallways to the right." He lit their path with his flashlight and began to lead Dias and Leon forward. "Stay focused, guys. We don't know what's waiting for us up here. I doubt they're going to give Ashton back without a fight."

The hallway seemed a little quiet...maybe too quiet. At least there had been a lot more people wandering around the last time he'd visited the second floor. Then again, it was probably better that they were one of the first people up here. It'd probably be easier to be alerted to any monsters that were lurking about, and Claude liked the idea of plowing through before someone else had a chance to interfere with their plans. Not that he had a problem with meeting up with more captives, but...

Ashton was in danger. He had to take highest priority tonight.

"Do either of you know much about the experiments that go on here?" Claude asked suddenly as they made their way forward. "What kinds of things do they do? And does anyone know why?"

This was the third night in a row that Leon had been to the second floor, and yet he had never gone much farther than this first hallway. He really had no idea what lay beyond this area, and that just made him feel worse. Somehow he should have known more than this by now.

Holding his journal tight to his chest, the little mage could only shake his head. He knew nothing about the experimentation rooms or what went on there. He had hardly even heard of these rooms. But the fact that Ashton was being used as a test subject was bad enough.

"I don't know anything," he muttered quickly. "I'm sorry."

Soubi smiled at Ritsuka, who was beginning to sound a little better about the situation. He waited until the boy had the bags and appeared to be ready, before he tested the door. Locked, of course. Taking the position he had with the previous door, he surged all his weight into it and it crashed open, pulling him inside (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/231536.html).

Soubi peered out of the room. Yet again he was greeted by the sight of a dark and dangerless Hall. He stepped out and held a hand out to Ritsuka.
"Where next?"

Juggling the bags and the soda can was difficult, but he sunk one of the plastic bags into the rucksack Soubi had given him and it made it easier. He looked like a hobo. Tamaki had better be able to use this stuff. He sipped the soda again, glad that the hallway was dark because it covered his almost pleased blush. Stepping up next to Soubi, but unable to take the hand offered, he looked ahead and pointed down the dark hall away from the railing. "That way. I've never made it past here, but there's a laundry room up ahead and some other rooms there. That's what I saw on the map Miku gave me earlier."

He needed to update that thing soon. Surely someone else had to know where more things were, right? Taking a slight lead, he started down the hall around the corner of the locker room. So far the night had been relatively productive.

Dias shook his head slightly. "I know Ashton's roommate was taken a few nights ago, but I never asked him about it. I think it involved surgery." Dias, despite having been in the institute longer than any of them, still knew little more than Leon or Claude did about it; but then he'd never cultivated a large group of friends, so the likelihood of someone he knew personally being taken was extremely low.

Not nearly low enough, apparently.

He didn't bother to acknowledge Claude's warning about having to fight with a response; that was fairly obvious. The prospect didn't frighten him in the least, either - at the moment, anything that stood between him and his friend ought to be frightened, not the other way around.

Okay, well, it wasn't that surprising Leon didn't know much about it. Granted, he'd been hoping his friend had gathered a little more information, but it wasn't like he'd been here any longer than Claude himself. The kid was a genius, but it'd be unfair to hold him to ridiculously high expectations just because of that, especially considering the stress they were all under.

Still, he was actually a little stunned that Dias didn't really know much else about these experiments. He'd been here longer than any of them. The fact Ashton's roommate had been taken before was something Claude found out his first day here, so that wasn't particularly helpful either.

"So, you've been here for, what, a few weeks? And you don't know anything more than that?" the blond asked suddenly. It sure was a good thing he was here with everyone, otherwise he doubted anyone would have a clue as to how to find Ashton in the first place!

Then again, Claude had a sneaking suspicion that it was Ashton who knew the most about these experiments. Just their luck for him to be their victim tonight. He couldn't help but wonder if their captors had arranged it that way on purpose.

Ashton...

The fact they didn't know much about what was happening just made it all the more sickening. Claude had to keep a tight hold on his imagination, to keep it from running away from him and painting all sorts of terrible scenarios in his head. These experiments could be nothing more than just cruel torture, done by the whims of these twisted doctors...

He shook his head a little and stopped at a closed door. "This is the hallway they're keeping him in," Claude said. He reached out, grasped onto the knob and turned it, except...it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked," he hissed. Frowning to himself, he tested his weight against the door. "Come on, I think if we put some muscle into it, we can bust this thing open."

It was actually a bit of a relief to Leon that Dias didn't know anything either. It meant that he wasn't the only one left looking unknowledgable about the situation. Of course, he immediately felt bad for thinking this. The less they knew about the situation, the worse off Ashton was going to be. At least Claude knew where to go. They would have been ten times worse off if they'd had to wander the building until they'd found the right place.

But what if they still didn't make it in time? What terrible things was Ashton going through even as they stood there? What if he died?

He thought briefly of trying to cast a spell right there - something to knock the door off his hinges, but then realized this was irrational thinking. Casting the spell might actually take longer than simply ramming into it, and he would surely need the energy for later. Who knew what could be on the other side of that door.

Instead he moved next to Claude, palms and shoulder against it, ready to run back and throw himself into it with them - as little good as his weight might do.

Part of Dias - the angry, antisocial, competitive part - wanted to give Claude the kind of glare that would leave scorch marks on the wall beyond the boy's head in response to his pointed, condescending question. He was making it extremely obvious that he thought Dias under-informed for the amount of time he'd been here, that he was more or less wondering what the hell Dias had been doing all this time.

However, the part of Dias that was currently in the driver's seat of his psyche - the guilt-ridden, frantic part, faced with the prospect of losing someone else he cared for and being helpless (yet again) to do anything about it - couldn't find any argument against the fact that if he knew more, he might be able to do more for Ashton. What sort of excuse could he possibly offer? How could he excuse himself at all, if his failure cost Ashton?

So there was no glare, no snap of a comeback. In fact, Dias couldn't even look Claude in the eyes - though in a way, their thoughts were running in parallel fashion. If it had been up to Claude, Ashton would have been better off. Claude would have made friends with half the institute if he'd been here anywhere near as long as Dias, would probably have heard five or seven first-hand accounts of experimentation and would have all that knowledge to draw on. Dias had nothing.

Still, brooding would help Ashton even less than what little Dias was capable of. The mercenary had long ago learned that there was a time and place to dwell on his shortcomings, and a dangerous place when there was work that needed to be done was neither. "Move, Leon," he instructed the boy as he approached the door, testing it himself to judge its frailty or lack thereof. "...You and I together could probably knock it open." This was to Claude.

If Leon still had his real ears they would have flattened down in submission at this point and he backed away like a scolded puppy, expression downcast. Right. The limited force he could offer would probably do nothing against that door and there probably wasn't enough room for all three of them anyway. Better to let the stronger two handle it.

Once again he had to suppress the urge to try and help with a spell. The way he was limited here was so incredibly infuriating, and he hated it more than any place he'd ever been to - even the headquarters of the Ten Wise Men on Nede. At least then he'd been able to defend himself.

[ From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/229036.html) ]

He stuck close to the wall as he turned right from the stairwell. Kain didn't have a goal in mind anymore; the chances of him finding his cousin were decreasing as the night stretched on, and the radio hadn't said anything useful when it crackled to life.

There was a small group that he bypassed, still as silent as ever, on his way to the railing he could see in the distance. And more doors. His attention fixed on the scene below, eyes narrowing as he watched, crouching down to be less of a target. After a while he looked across, seeing larger, wide open doors. Kain couldn't -- quite -- see what lay beyond those doors.

He could watch the fight as he checked each door to circle around to the other side. He wasn't doing anything else, after all.

The lack of glare from Dias wasn't lost on Claude. Actually, it surprised him a little. He'd expected some kind of reaction at the very least. Granted, it was probably for the best, seeing that Claude might have felt the need to retort somehow, and they definitely didn't have time for that sort of thing right now. Still...

I must have touched on a nerve, he thought to himself with a small frown. He knew how Dias didn't trust himself to protect the people he loved. He'd left Rena in his care back on the front lines, after all. Was he blaming himself for what happened to Ashton? Did he feel guilty for not knowing a better way to help him?

He hoped not. As irritated as Claude was that he didn't have more information, he certainly didn't blame Dias for what was happening tonight. If anyone deserved the blame, it was Martin Landel.

But now wasn't the time to focus on who was at fault, or who wasn't. They had a door to break down. As Leon moved out of the way, the blond patted him on the shoulder. "I really appreciate your being here with us, Leon," Claude said, though not entirely because the boy probably felt frustrated by his dampened abilities. It was mostly because there was no telling what was going to be waiting for them on the other side of that door...or what was going to happen to them once they barged into the hallway.

"Okay, then," he said, glancing towards Dias. "On the count of three, we bust in together." He licked his lips. "One. Two. Three!" As soon as that last number left his mouth, he slammed his body into the door, sure that Dias was doing the same.

Nightshift 27: 2nd Floor Hallway near Medical Reference Library and Railed Area

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