damned_institute | Day 35: Bus 2

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Day 35: Bus 2

Wally woke as the intercom crackled to life and was surprised to find himself back in his room. The last thing he'd remembered was feeling relieved at finally beating off those dragonfly-lizard things. There'd been that weird intercom message, then... he wasn't quite sure what had happened after that, but he was certain it hadn't involved falling asleep. He'd be half-wondering if he'd dreamed the whole thing if it hadn't been for the nagging ache on his back and ankle from where he'd been bitten. A quick check revealed they'd been bandaged, apparently while he'd slept. He wondered if he had Kal to thank for that. Maybe he'd get the chance to ask later.

He jumped as the door swung open to admit the familiar face of the nurse who'd woken him yesterday. "Up already, are we?" she said cheerfully as she busied herself pulling out clothes. A blue shirt and a pair of jeans were passed to him. Wally blinked, he hadn't been here long, but he'd gotten the impression that the grey-and-smiley-face combo was standard.

"Does this mean I'm being released?" he asked, hope creeping into his voice.

The nurse turned back to him, pity etched on her features. "I'm afraid not, dear." She smiled brightly as she continued, "but today's when all the patients get a special field trip into town! Won't that be a treat!"

Wally stared at the clothes, his mind working away. He'd been trying to get into town and to a phone last night before he'd been attacked. But if they were going in today, this might be the perfect chance for him to contact the Justice League. He smiled warmly and thanked the nurse as she left to allow him to change, then happily allowed himself to be led to one of the buses, picking a seat about halfway down and sliding in to look out the window. It seemed like today was going to be brighter than yesterday, at least in the area of possible phone calls and rescues. About the only dark patch he could see was that the contents of his paper-bag breakfast were going to be nowhere near enough to fill the yawning pit that had taken the place of his stomach, and even that was tolerable when he was positive he wasn't going to be here much longer.

"And you say that time goes rushing by, but it seems so slow to me, and you see a blur around you fly, but it takes too long, it seems so slow to me..." he sung absently.

[Oh Captain, my Captain~]

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"Oh no... don't worry about me," Sheena replied. "It's just a little... lonely being so disconnected. I've gotten used to feeling them there all the time."

"I see," Archer replied as his eyes slowly trailed off. It was certainly quiet without Gaia sending him the kill order, but he'd burn in hell before he ever said he was lonely without her. "It is lonely getting disconnected from something that's been right next to you for so long."

He didn't want to tell Sheena it would be okay in the long run, because that would be a blatant lie. Pre-cognition wasn't one of his specialties.

"It's not just next to me, but they..." Sheena searched for the right words. "It's like they envelope my existence. I can hear them and talk to them... except Volt... and they give me a connection to mana like I'd never had before."

She shrugged. "I'll be okay. Raine says I didn't break my pacts and I have them all in the future where she's from. I just have to be patient." Which wasn't one of her strengths.

Luckily, it looked like someone had done the work for him. Archer could certainly appreciate the connection Sheena was referring to, having shared a similar bond with Rin in the past.

"As long as your alive, there's the possibility you'll see them again." Archer didn't mention that Raine could have been talking about an alternate version. The heroic spirit was intimately familiar with alternate dimensions and time lines, but there was no reason to tell her that. "So you know Raine?"

"As long as I hold to my oaths I'll see them again; just being alive isn't enough," Sheena stated. She then smiled. "Yeah... Raine's a friend of mine. We're from the same place. There are a couple others from my worlds here, too."

Archer seemed familiar with Raine. Interesting. "Do you know her?"

"Certainly." It was good that she had the passion, the drive; nothing good could be accomplished with half-hearted sentiments.

Talk of people from their own worlds reminded him of Saber, and the fact that she was gone. Reinforce was gone as well, and Hisoka had been taken. He glanced away, allowing a soft, sad look to pass over his eyes. When he turned back to Sheena, it was gone.

"Yes. I've talked to her a few times, and we've exchanged some ideas about her clinic group," Archer answered.

"Ah." Sheena tilted her head a little. "So what do you think of her? The Professor is kind of an acquired taste."

"Yeah, she is," he chuckled. "But she seems like a good, decent person."

There was the issue with the ears, but Archer didn't know if he should mention it, so he remained silent.

"As long as she doesn't see you as a possible research subject, she is a good decent person, aside from her cold-hearted bitch moments," the summoner said lightly with a grin. "Otherwise, you better run for the hills. If you ever see that overwhelming crazy kinda glint in her eyes... back away slowly and be prepared to escape."

She nodded sagely. "She can be scary when she gets really focused on something."

"Yeah, I kinda saw a glimpse of that," the former spirit replied, thinking back to their meeting.

"It sounds like you experienced it first hand. I'm sorry to hear that." A grin teetered on the edge of his lips at Sheena's description. "Thanks for the sage advice. I'll take it to heart."

"Well, I am the first summoner to be born in 4000 years, not to mention my first summon spirit was created by humans," she explained.

"Umm... I don't know how they made Corrine, so don't ask me," Sheena said, a little defensively.

"You must have made an excellent guinea pig in Raine's eyes. My condolences," he stated solemnly. "Who is Corrine, one of your summon spirits?"

Sheena immediately looked down, deep sorrow in her eyes that she couldn't even make an attempt to hide.

"Yeah... he was." She put a hand to her chest. "He sacrificed his life to protect me because I was too afraid and too frustrated to think properly."

The pang in her chest was intense as she didn't have her dear friend's bell. The realization that they'd taken that from her brought a flash of red hot anger that overtook the sorrow.

Archer wanted to say or do something to comfort her but didn't know what he could do. As he watched her recall painful memories, Archer found the words in him. "He was a very good friend, wasn't he?"

He must have been. After all, giving up your life for someone else was no small feat. Note to self: don't bring up Corrine in the future. Fortunately, she didn't stay depressed for long. Archer got the feeling Sheena was a very emotional person.

"Yeah," Sheena said through gritted teeth. "My best friend and the only one I had for years." She just couldn't believe they taken the bell. How did they know to take it? What purpose would it serve?

He could clearly see she was angry, so Archer remained silent. Sometimes there was just nothing you could, and in this case, he could only wait until Sheena calmed down.

It wasn't so much that Sheena eventually calmed down as much as it was she simmered down enough to stuff the hurt and anger away for the time being. Corrine wouldn't want her to get so upset about the bell, even if it was the only thing she was more terrified about not having when she left this place than her losing her pacts.

She leaned her head against the window and looked outside. "Sorry..."

"It's fine." Archer merely watched her. He understood the pain of losing a loved one: Saber, Ilya, Rin, Sakura, the list went on. He also knew that it would never get easier.

"Yeah... great conversationalist - that's me."

Sitting up, Sheena peered into her paper bag again and extracted the orange juice box. She peered at it for a moment before going to stick the straw into it. Unfortunately, she squeezed it a little too much, not familiar with the concept behind it.

"!!"

The orange liquid shot out and Sheena accidentally dropped the container in her haste to get out of the way of the spray where it was well on it's way to landing in Archer's lap.

"Aah! No you stupid... stupid... box!"

Sheena was half perched on the seat, some of the juice having gotten on her pant leg but most of it on the seat between her and Archer. "Where'd it go?"

"That's fine. Talk is seriously overrated."

As Sheena try to pierce her juice box with a straw, Archer saw it slip out of her hands, almost in slow motion, spraying juice all over the place.

"Whoa." He quickly moved out of the way, but there was only so much room. The side of his pants leg got the worst of it, which wasn't really that bad, compared to Sheena.

"Uh, right over here," he said, picking it up with his forefinger and thumb from the floor, where his feet had been. Archer was very lucky. If he was split second slower it would've been all over his pants. That would've been an embarrassing sight.

Sheena's eyes widened as she saw the mess. "Crap. Uh... do you have a napkin?"

Figures, she spits water all over Kratos the day before and she ends up orange juicing Archer. If she kept this up, no one was going to want to sit with her during mealtime.

"Let me check." Archer opened up his paper bag, sifting through the contents in search of a napkin. After a few moments, he had almost given up hope when he found it.

"Here," he said, handing out a few napkins to her, wondering if there were any left inside his bag.

"Thanks," Sheena said, taking the napkins and hoping her face wasn't as bright red as it felt it was.

The summoner started mopping the mess up on the seat first and then tried to do something about the juice on her pants. "Damnit. Why do I have to be so clumsy," she muttered.

Archer smiled, completely stifling a good natured laugh as he tried to look for some more napkins. "Do you have some napkins in your bag?"

"Uh... I dunno." She tossed the bag to him. "Take a look."

Damnit. It looked like she was going to have an orange stain on her pants. "I swear, they made those boxes like that just to see how many people can make them go all explodey on accident."

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