damned_institute | Nightshift 28: East Wing, South Hallway 1-B

Hokuto nodded; I know. If they talked, they might attract attention.

Then the intercom started crackling... she looked up at it, confused. That doesn't sound good. She didn't remember hearing just static from it before...

Momo rolled her eyes in the darkness as Hokuto paused and gawked up at the intercom. She grabbed the girl's shirt and hauled her through the door.
She's a teenager. A regular human teenager. Patience, Momo she though to herself.

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[From Here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/257893.html?view=19139429#t19139429)]

Rangiku followed quickly in the direction that Momo had gone, up the corridor towards the entrance to the women's dormitory.

[To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/258486.html)]

There! Yes! He had definitely heard sound then. There might not be anyone in the halls at the moment, but there had been not too long before!

He breathed a sigh of relief. It had to just be a normal night, and he'd simply slept through everyone leaving his particular hallway. Somehow this made the fact that he'd missed an entire day shift sink in just a bit easier.

Now it was just a matter of finding the right people.

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/257893.html?view=19177061#t19177061)]
Seeing some more women going ahead, Jean followed them. She'd need her flashlight too--the darkness was making it hard to see.

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[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/258625.html?view=19177793#t19177793)]

Now armed, Jean hurried back through the hall between the male and female blocks. The beam from her flashlight bobbed in a frenzy as she ran.

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/254152.html)]

So far, so good. Bella frowned and bit at her lip, trying to see where exactly she was going. It didn't help that there weren't a lot of people in the hallways, and even if there were, there were no lights. Keeping her free hand pressed against the wall so she could try and find the corners, Bella sucked in her breath when she felt the wall fall away and lead into yet another curve.

Turning to give Rika a soft smile, she turned down the hall she hoped led to the female rooms.

[from here] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/258486.html?thread=19220150#t19220150)

Through the door the uniformed shingami and the teenager in the ridiculous clothing entered the hallway. Momo paused and checked both directions. This was where they'd heard that strange static from the intercom, but it had seemed gone once she'd hauled the girl into the other hallway. There were many reasons for this occurring, but the shinigami had no intention of being caught off-guard.

She looked at Hokuto. "Saber-san is just down the main hallway if she's where I think she is. From there we'll go join Signum-kun outside."

Hokuto nodded. "Okay." She'd shifted the strap holding the shovel to her back to just hang over one shoulder; that way she should be able to get it in her hands at a moment's notice, but kept them free when she didn't need it.

She was sure Signum and Saber would be fine on their own, armed or not--but that was assuming they tried to avoid fights. If they saw people getting attacked... she could too easily picture them getting seriously hurt protecting people out there. The only reason she wasn't bleeding was luck, and because when she jumped out of that bus she'd hit the ground running.

[[Slipping off to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/257893.html).]]

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/257893.html?thread=19425893#t19425893)]

There should be a door to the left, he thought. Armand kept tight hold of Anthy's hand.

"Mummy?" The Child had tried to approach a few people, but they all hurried off before they saw him. "Are you my mummy?"

It was dark and he was scared; he needed to find Mummy. He wasn't supposed to talk to strangers, but just this once.

Anthy turned at the sudden voice. Was that- a child? Children didn't belong in a place like this and it made her heart sink to suppose that there could be someone so much more vulnerabl here; it made her feel selfish for having run before. She searched for the source of the voice, a meld of fear and concern pulling her in opposing directions.

Armand heard the child's voice too, and as he turned his head to see who it was, he felt Anthy move. His heart burned with pity at the sight. What was that on the child's face? The child wasn't mistaking him for a mother, but he tried to answer before he got much closer. No point in leading the poor thing on.

"She's not your mother. I don't know where your mother is."

The Child looked up at Armand, registering that he'd spoken but not really understanding the words. "Are you my mummy?" he asked again; stopping short of them, he reached out a hand. It was dark, and he wasn't really sure close he was to them. He actually sensed more than saw, but he wasn't quite aware of that, either.

The hand he held out, palm down, had a y-shaped scrape on the back of it. Not actively bleeding, but it did look recent.

Most who knew Anthy attributed a certain maternal aspect to her, giving notice to her care of animals; there was some truth in that assumption, but in honesty, young children often made her uncomfortable. It was something she couldn't put her finger on; a feeling akin to her fear of large groups, of blatant judgement and unrelenting eyes on her, but with more innocence; a child's blunt honesty. She could not ignore the child's injury, though, and the fact that a child was in this institute in the first place. She kneeled down before him, reaching for his hand to examine the scrape.

"What happened?"

Looking for all the world like a nervous and protective father, Armand stood very close behind Anthy. The child didn't look like trouble in the least, but he didn't recognize him--he thought it was a boy--as a patient either. He trusted Anthy to sort out what ailed the boy. He knew her to be kind and patient, which is probably just what a lost boy needed.

"Maybe we should find something to clean that up for him," he offered.

"Mummy..." the Child said again, taking her hand hopefully.

As before, he made no move to cause it, but as soon as they touched, several of Anthy's ribs cracked and broke on one side and there was a feeling like she'd been hit in the head. And though it was far less painful, the same y-shaped scratch the child bore appeared on the back of her hand as well.

This time, though, whatever injuries the girl had been suffering before--minor or major--healed even as the Child's own were inflicted.

"You're mistaken; I'm-" Anthy's eyes went wide and a rough breath was forced into her lungs with shock and pain, sounding like a backwards scream. She withrew her hands at the sudden onslaught of unexplainable pain, crumbling to one side, her mouth agape in a silent scream.

"Anthy!"

What had the boy done to her? He surged forward, hands outstretched, only meaning to separate them and catch her, if he could. "Don't hurt her! She was trying to help you."

The Child stayed where he was, just watching Anthy; he didn't react until she hit the floor, and then he flinched. Any sort of thud frightened him right now; he still remembered well that he was looking for his mother because a bomb raid had started, and he was scared.

When Armand dashed forward, he looked up at him and said yet again, "Mummy?" This time, at least, he sounded more uncertain. Maybe these people at least knew where Mummy was?

Anthy grimaced, holding herself as her breath came shallow with the pain of breathing against her fractured ribs. The child still didn't change in his responses, still asking for his absent mother. Suffering for the wants of others; it wasn't unfamiliar to her. And yet, even then, a million swords had pierced her body and given her their constant phantasmic ache, but the pain they gave was an entirely different kind from the new sensation of having something actually broken. The pain had been ever present, but never drew blood or broke bone.

As if by instinct, her first mental reaction was not "find bandages", but "Change the world". She groaned in pain again, a sheen of sweat covering her skin. Perhaps she truly hadn't ever gruaduated the old world, her old fate.

"Don't touch him, Armand," She managed weakly.

At her words, Armand drew back. "What did he do to you?" he asked, circling around to what seemed to be her less injured side to put a supportive arm around her, if she'd allow it.

He eyed the child warily then. "We can't help you," he told him.

He just looked up at them; between his fear and overall confusion, he took a long time to really understand anything, and even then not much got through to him.

"I'm scared of the bombs, Mummy," he said, reaching for Anthy again. When his hand brushed hers, this time nothing happened. The nanites that had revived him and kept him alive when he shouldn't be, in a body that hadn't been rebuilt quite right, had already done what they thought they should to her.

She tried to pull back as he reached for her, anticipating further injury, and feeling none. Her head throbbed, as she tried not to bring further damage to her ribs in pushing herself up while she tried to make out the image of the child in the darkness, to see if he was as physically deformed as he seemed spiritually.

Bombs? What bombs? What had disturbed this child so? Who... or what was he?

"There are none here," She said, pushing back tears, not moving her hand from his. She could handle this pain; she'd done it before. Hopefully...

Anthy's stamina amazed Armand. He hovered, completely at a loss for what to do. Eventually, he knelt behind her, out of reach of the child.

In a gentle voice, intended to soothe both of them, he said, "You both need help. Perhaps we should find some." He had none to give, and despised himself for being so helpless.

"Where's my mummy?" the Child asked. Even when words didn't get through to him very well, the gentle tone did. Unlike most of the monsters here, he didn't want to hurt anyone--he didn't even know he was hurting them. All he knew was who he wanted.

And he wasn't even really sure who his mummy was.

Anthy winced again and crumbled in an attempt to push herself up. Touching the child was causing her no further pain but it was impossible to tell when it might happen again. Still, if she'd survived one blow, she could take another. Especially if comforting the child was at hand, it was more important. Utena would have kept the child's welfare in mind more than her own pain. Right... Utena... she had to remember Utena.

"I don't know," She said, at his repeated question. He was obsessed, confused, fixated on something that probably didn't exist, like many duelists that their games had harbored. She turned to Armand and nodded, pushing back the impulse to cry, "I think something broke..." She said, holding her side "Where is your room?"

She wasn't sure how they would get to safety, or what exactly could be done while there; she didn't have hollow bones like the birds whose wings she'd patched up. She had no idea if she could heal, "Or- on the bulletin, there was a first aid room run by patients mentioned. I can't remember the number of the room... it was in the male block, but-" She had a hard time managing the pain of her broken ribs while she spoke.

"I don't recall the room either, but they meant it to be off the main hallwas on that side." He read the notes, too, but didn't have the best memory. Shamefully, he'd depending on his night companions for such things.

Again, he looked at the poor muddled child, then back at Anthy. "Will he follow us, you think?" He was torn between hoping either way.

The Child just stood there, not making a move to cling to Anthy if she tried to let go. He was looking in their general direction, but no longer really seeing them; he thought could hear someone else nearby, and he was trying to find out more. Not only was his mind fragmented, but his senses, though enhanced, were as well. He didn't always differentiate between seeing, hearing, and otherwise sensing people, but that just made it harder to be sure where anyone else was.

"Mummy?" he asked, and this time it echoed over the intercom. He didn't know where she was, but he was getting slightly more frantic about finding her. She'd said to stay where he was, but just this once...

She wasn't sure how contact with the child had harmed her or whether he could do it again, but her heart still went out to him, and she was hurt at the thought of leaving him behind. Still, she couldn't carry him (hardly herself for that matter) and she wouldn't dare risk hurting Armand. Perhaps they could lead him to the clinic to calm him and keep him safe and perhaps even find his missing mother. If Armand knew the hallway, then they could at least find the right place.

The child was becoming more frantic, and her lack of understanding of the situation all the more frightening. "Let us help you," She said, reaching to the child, not wanting to promise anything, and growing weaker. She tried to rise to her feet, but her head throbbed, and she felt like she was ready to sway out of consciousness.

The child's voice echoing over the intercomm frightened Armand. He didn't like the voices from the air at the best of times, though at the moment he'd trade breakfast for the next week to be taunted by the evil Dr. Landel instead of hearing the lost child calling for his mother. He tried to help Anthy to her feet. "Anthy," he said urgently, "we have to get you some help before you faint. Perhaps he'll follow us. I don't think anyone would try to harm him further." Even if he hurt them. Well, he could hope anyway.

More of that damn forlorn hope. Human nature wasn't so kind, but he had to hope. Anthy was very brave and obviously kind-hearted, even more so than he and that was saying something, but she was now in obvious pain and weakening fast.

"Please try to come now," he said. "I don't know if I can carry you."

In some way, his plea was to the child as much as to the young woman.

"I want my mummy," the Child said again; he was vaguely aware that she wasn't here, and that the other two were leaving. Not knowing the area, that frightened him; he didn't want to be alone. There were bombs, and people who knew children weren't supposed to be here anymore.

He knew there were places here he wasn't supposed to be, either, but until then--or until they found other people--he was willing to follow.

She hoped she wouldn't need to be carried. There was something defeatist about the notion, even after having regressed to running away from danger like a coward not long before.

"It isn't safe out here," She said to the child, honestly deeply frightened of him by now, but still not beyond the aching sense of sympathy that forbade her from considering simple abandonment, "Come with us."

She held her torso, keening as her arms grazed broken ribs and bruised flesh, and swayed on her feet, looking to Armand and swallowing deeply. She held out her hand to seek support and summoned the courage to say what she hadn't even dared ask of Utena,

"Please help me."

It wasn't dramatic or heroic, as she remembered it to be in hindsight, when she had observed Utena's perseverence through then dead eyes and a steel grate of swords, as Utena surpassed her injuries and stood up to walk for herself, for both of them. But it was a step. She was in pain, and scared and confused, but at least it was something to feel, and at least she was no longer stagnant. It was a start.

The pained noises coming from Anthy made Armand wince on her behalf. Despite everything that had happened to him in his chaotic life, he knew he was still far too tender-hearted. It looked as if the child would follow them. He responded to Anthy's request as quickly as he could, taking her hand and drawing her as closely to support her steps as she would let him. If they could progress this way without hurting her too much more, he wouldn't have to test his meager strength.

"We'll have to go over to the other corridor. I hope it's not too far."

The Child reached for Anthy again, but luckily for Armand withdrew his hand and simply followed, a little hesitantly. He was getting tired...

Regardless, he was set on following them for at least a little while. Mummy had to be somewhere close by, and if he stayed with them, they could at least lead him out of here. On his own, he might get lost again.

Anthy did her best not to falter as they walked back to the first male block.

To here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/253623.html)

Nightshift 28: East Wing, South Hallway 1-B

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