damned_institute | Nightshift 35: M111-M120 Hallway

[From here.]

The first thing that Sync noticed was the fact that he wasn't the first one that made it to his destination, grip tightening on his flashlight when he caught sight of a blond head near the door. For a moment the God-General mistook it to be none other than Guy, his face contorting into a snarl at this realization. But the heinous expression melted away as fast as it appeared when he got a better look at who it was. A kinder, but also somewhat confused and worried look replaced it as the God-General took a step forward, pointing his flashlight towards the ground so he wouldn't blind the latter.

"Good evening, Claude," Sync greeted with a smile, looking about the hallway as if expecting the blond to be with company.

"Is Guy here as well?"

Claude turned as someone approached. He was a little surprised to find Ion there, as he'd assumed M120 was his room. Then again, it was true he didn't know all the details behind his meeting with Guy, so maybe it wasn't so strange after all. After grasping his clothes rod, he stood up a little straighter.

He returned the smile, looking faintly apologetic. "Hello, Ion." He knew the boy had wanted to speak to Guy alone, so he hoped he didn't think he was butting into things that didn't concern him.

As for Guy, Claude glanced behind Ion, as if half-expecting him to show up at any moment. "No, not yet," he replied. "We were supposed to meet up after he finished speaking with you privately, so I just figured I'd wait out here in the hall in the meantime. I'm sure he's on his way, though." Guy was usually pretty prompt about these things, after all.

So Claude came here alone? That certainly made things a lot easier, especially since he knew that his plans would've been ruined if they traveled together. Of course, he had to act quick if he wanted this to work out as well as he'd liked. The God-General knew that he was at an advantage, especially if that clothes rod was tall that Claude had. Of course, with the way Sync planned to off him, it wasn't like a sword would be any more useful anyway.

Sync nodded slightly to the latter's words, motioning over to the room as if offering the blond to go inside first.

"You can wait inside with me if you want," He began, giving him a sheepish smile to add onto the effect. "I'd feel horrible if I made you wait when Guy isn't even here yet."

"Are you sure?" Claude asked. He didn't want to impose, but it did seem kind of silly to stand around outside when Guy hadn't even arrived yet. Not to mention he could wind up becoming monster bait, which would put Ion into danger if he got caught up in some kind of fight.

"Well, I guess I could just wait until Guy showed up," he finally decided. "Don't worry, though -- I'll clear out as soon as you two need to talk." He didn't want anyone to think he was nosy, after all.

Without another word, he stepped away from the wall and headed into the room. Just to be safe, though, he shined his flashlight across the beds and around the closet. Looked like the coast was clear!

Sync was mildly surprised; luring Claude into his trap had been so easy that he was almost repulsed by it. Though it wasn't like he gave the blond any reason to be wary of his presence, which was exactly what he wanted until he was ready to drop the Fon Master act altogether. It was almost a shame that Guy was nowhere in sight; it would've at least made things a little more interesting, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

The God-General merely nodded when Claude spoke, eyes following the latter's back as he made his way into the room. The teen didn't take long to follow, keeping close to the blond while he scanned the room as a precaution.

Too bad Claude didn't think to look behind him as well.

It all happened in a flash; Sync wasted no time lifting his flashlight high above his head before throwing it down against the back of the blond's head with all his might.

They were pretty lucky that monsters didn't to get into the patients' rooms! Smiling to himself, he opened his mouth, about to turn towards Ion -- when stars burst into his line of sight, and belatedly, he felt a sharp pain lance through his skull from behind. His clothes rod and flashlight fell from his hands, clattered to the floor, and began rolling away from him. The sound was far away, though -- his ears were ringing too loudly for him to hear much of anything else.

"Ion?!" he choked as frantically groped around for his things. Without realizing it, he'd already collapsed into a heap on the floor. "What the--?!" But he hadn't lost consciousness yet, dammit! His hazy mind was screaming all sorts of things -- an ambush, another one of those doppelgangers, one of Landel's cruel tricks...something!

Something was wrong...! His fingers brushed the tail end of his clothes rod, and he moved to roll it closer in an attempt to get a firm grasp on it.

"I'm surprised Guy didn't warn you about me," Sync began calmly, having already dropped the light and airy tone of the Fon Master's voice and replaced it with his own. He took a few steps forward after Claude collapsed to the floor, absent-mindedly stepping on the clothes rod before pulling it away from the blond's grasp and kicking it underneath one of the beds. With his 'prey' disarmed and falling in and out of consciousness the God-General saw no need to rush. Why not take it another step?

"And here I was, almost convinced you two were close." He'd positioned himself so he was now standing right over Claude's fallen body, using his foot to nudge the latter onto his side before proceeding to drive it right into the middle of the blond's gut.

"I guess he doesn't care whether or not you're killed by his own enemy."

The change in the boy's tone was a stark contrast to what he'd expected, in more ways than one. He sharply looked up, his blurred vision focusing in on his assailant. "Al...kaid?" But it was Ion's face staring down at him, and things were starting to make even less sense. He couldn't believe this! This had to be some kind of nightmare!

One of Guy's enemies? But how the hell?! Guy had never told him anything about this! What this boy was saying, he knew it wasn't true! It couldn't be. So, why...?!

Blindly reaching for a clothes rod that was no longer there, he was about to sit up and give some kind of retort. But his words died in his throat as he was kicked in the stomach, and he fell back against the floor, curling up in pain. He'd lost all of the wind in his lungs, and for a frightening moment, he couldn't breathe, much less make any noise.

This wasn't happening. A trap. This whole thing had been a damned trap, and he'd fallen for it like some kind of idiot! Worse yet, Guy was going to get pulled into it right along with him, and it was Claude's own fault.

He wanted to scream. Instead, he moved to wrap his fingers around the boy's ankle, and, without even realizing it, tried to dig his nails into the skin. "You bastard," he wheezed.

Sync didn't bother to give Claude the satisfaction of flinching when the latter reached over and grabbed his ankle. Instead he looked passively down at the fallen blond, almost like he was bored of the entire ordeal and was ready to just get it over and done with. But that quickly changed when a hint of a smirk poked from the corner of his lips, gradually growing into a sadistic grin as he hovered over Claude.

"I've been called worse."

The God-General chuckled lightly as he lifted his other foot and pressed it over the blond's head, pushing down and adding more pressure as the seconds went by.

"Anyway, I'll just tell Guy I killed you. How does snapping your neck after knocking you out sound?"

He chuckled again.

"Of course, if I was doing it for real I wouldn't grant a babbling moron like you that kind of mercy." But Sync didn't bother to give Claude the chance to answer. Instead he suddenly lifted his foot off the latter's head before giving a swift kick across his face.

Claude's nails dug deeper as the boy's foot pressed harder against his head. Shit, was he going to split his skull open?! How was he going to get out of this mess!?

I can't die like this! he wildly thought. There was unused metal still sitting in his closet, he hadn't found a way out yet, he still had friends who were stuck here! As he took a shuddering breath, his head throbbed, and he could feel his ears ringing in protest. Even though his eyes were wide open, the blond realized his vision was starting to fade.

He was only faintly registering the things this not-Ion was saying, but it was enough to make his heart pound faster. "No," he heard himself moan. "I can't believe this..." He was trapped. There was no way out. And Guy was...Guy was...!

Out of the million futile responses he could have given at that moment, the only thing he could think to do was make as much noise as he could, to warn anyone who might be nearby. He opened his mouth, took in a deep breath--

Something slammed into his face -- a distinct pop, a burst of stars -- and then the pain was gone. There was only darkness.

Sync had nearly forgotten how good it felt to have the upper hand, boastfully laughing out when Claude's body became limp. Of course, he quieted down when he noticed that the force of his blow had been enough to break the latter's nose, making a small noise of distaste when he spotted a few specs of blood on his slipper.

"Can't you do anything right you stupid bastard," The God-General hissed, pulling his foot back to land another, harder kick across his victim's face for good measure. Yet as much as he wanted to break every bone in Claude's body, it obviously wouldn't have been as much fun as if the latter was actually conscious. Plus there was the fact that Guy could show up any minute, which meant he had to get rid of the blond's body before he appeared.

Sync didn't have to think it through, already making his way over to one of the beds and ripped off the sheets before twisting it into a makeshift rope. He was none too gentle about the process as he kicked Claude so that he was now on his stomach, situating himself on top of the latter before pulling both his arms behind him and tying them together. The teen made sure they were tight, pulling hard before he stood up and grabbed another sheet and repeated the same process with the blond's legs.

It only took a minute overall to get the job done, but there was no time to admire his work as he stood up and grabbed Claude by his shirt before dragging him over to the closet. He figured that it was as good a place as any to hide the body on such short notice, practically tossing him inside and smiled when he heard a dull 'thump'. Sync didn't bother to fix the fact that he Claude wasn't completely inside the closet, idly slamming the door shut and rolled his eyes when the object collided with the latter's body before bouncing back into his hand. He repeated the process a few times, merely out his own amusement, before finally kicking the rest of Claude's body in and slammed it shut a final time.

It was like he had no respect at all for a person's body, but why should he? After all, it wasn't like he even had a body to call his own.

But Sync wasn't done yet. Walking back over to one of the beds, he began to stack the pillows together, resting his flashlight on top and pointed it towards the door so that Guy could see the light shining underneath. Afterwards, he picked up Claude's flashlight, shutting it off and walked over to close the door to the room before pressing himself up against the wall next to the entrance, completely silent as he waited for Guy to arrive.

[From here.]

The empty hallway didn't really faze Guy, since he had come across a few of those already. The question was whether or not Ion was even here. He had kind of expected that they would just be meeting out in the hallway, but it looked like that wasn't the case. Guy moved over to M120, frowning when he thought that he caught some light from under the door. So it looked like someone might be there.

He just hoped it wasn't Ion's roommate or anything like that, but he also realized that it didn't matter so long as he explained why he was there. Shrugging his shoulders, the blond drew forward and knocked on the door, refraining from saying anything since he had no idea who was there.

It also looked like Claude hadn't showed up yet, but the younger man would have had to go a long way to get here as well, so that wasn't so surprising.

As predicted, it hadn't taken long for Guy (or at least he presumed it was him) to arrive, smirking when he heard someone knock on the door. He pushed down the urge to clear his throat, instead doing his best to hide the excitement in his voice as he picked up the light and airy tone of the Fon Master's.

"Oh! Is that you Guy? Please, come in." Already he had bent his knees into somewhat of a saddle position, readying himself to jump the blond the moment he made his way inside.

It looked like the coast was clear and any concerns he might have had about going to the wrong place or being late were thrown to the wayside as Guy used the hand that was holding onto his flashlight to grab the knob, give it a turn, and open the door.

He hadn't really had the time to wonder about why Ion's room seemed to be the last one the institute provided, or why the Fon Master couldn't have asked him here personally. He also hadn't really thought about what lengths Sync might have gone to just to get under his skin, and so he wasn't prepared to see anything other than Ion's youthful face.

It was almost a shame that Guy didn't bother to properly prepare himself for the worst, Sync finding this out as the latter casually opened the door and stepped inside. He'd make sure to berate the blond about it at some point in the night, but for now he quietly waited for the perfect chance to strike. The last thing he wanted was for all of this to blow up in his face after he'd gotten this far in the game.

It was only until he saw a streak of blond did the God-General move, rushing forward and angling his foot in a sweeping motion at the latter's shins in an attempt to knock him off balance.

Guy only got a split second during which the other room's occupant was visible under the beam of his flashlight. However, even that was enough time for him to realize what a grave mistake he had made. Well, it wasn't exactly a mistake, but he hadn't thought ahead. He had been too trusting, and he had underestimated the lengths that Sync would go to.

His shock gave Sync a chance to get the first strike on him, and when the God-General's strong foot came sweeping at his legs, Guy wasn't able to dodge. It knocked him to the ground so suddenly that he was left gasping for air and facing some soreness in his side.

Unfortunately, he had landed on his right side, which meant that his right arm (which was still somewhat injured thanks to that creature in the kitchen the other night) took the brunt of the fall.

At least he had managed to keep a hold on his weapon and his flashlight. He glared up at Sync as he tried to quickly pull himself up to his feet.

"What took you so long," Sync sneered as he recovered from his attack, looking down on Guy as the latter tried to pull himself back up. Yet he didn't want to give the blond the chance to recover completely, especially since it looked like he was armed with some kind of kitchen knife. It felt too good, knocking Guy down like that, to give it up so soon.

But it was easy to see that the God-General didn't really care what kind of injury he himself would sustain, rushing forward again after half a moment's pause. This time his target was Guy's sword arm, throwing his entire weight on it in an attempt to to grab the limb with every intention of twisting his body around to try and force the latter to let go of his weapon.

Guy was about halfway up into a standing position when Sync came at him again, and the force caused him to fall into an awkward kneel. He hissed as his arm was clutched and twisted, already feeling the pressure that was trying to force him to drop one of his only chances at getting through this relatively unharmed.

He kept his hold on the cleaver for now, as increasingly difficult as it was becoming, and then strained to reach his other arm up. Gripping onto the flashlight, he used what little range of movement he had to pull back and then smack it against Sync's side. He wasn't sure how much good it did, though, considering the position he was in.

"What do you want from me?" he growled under his breath. Why the hell was Sync singling him out? Why did he always seem to do that? There was no curse slot at hand here, and Guy was pretty frustrated by the thought that Sync was doing this just for kicks.

Seeing as that he couldn't move or else risk the chance of Guy sliding through an opening Sync winced slightly when the flashlight connected with his side. However, he immediately retaliated by forcing the latter's arm even higher, almost to the point where one wrong move could break it.

"Hasn't it been obvious this entire time," The God-General answered, voice surprisingly calm now that he had the upper hand in this struggle. There was no need to show excitement; after all, it was always the calm ones that were the most difficult to read. He'd have his chance to celebrate once the latter was bloody and battered on the floor.

"I want to hurt you and everyone you care about."

He paused.

"Just like what I did with Claude."

The heightening pain in his arm became bad enough that Guy was forced to gasp, and he could tell that the bone would be snapped if he resisted for too much longer. That sort of injury wasn't one that he could risk right now, and so he released the weapon, allowing it to clatter to the floor.

As Sync spoke, Guy tried not to let the younger man's voice grate on him too much, but it was what was being said that was harder to bear. He was about to question why Sync was so determined to cause all of this pain, but then Claude was mentioned.

Guy clenched his jaw, feeling a mix of panic and anger overtake him. He dropped his flashlight, but only to free up his hand so that he could shove Sync back and then push him down, lurching forward to pin the God-General beneath him.

"What did you do to him?!"

Damnit! He'd been certain Guy couldn't get out of his hold, but the blond proved him wrong as the latter shoved him down in an attempt to pin him to the floor. Yet Sync merely laughed when he heard the anger in the blond's voice, far too amused to care about the consequences.

"HA! Now you care?" The God-General was convinced that he still had the upper hand, suddenly pushing up against Guy with all his strength and twisted his body before angling his elbow right into the swordsman's face. Hard.

"You didn't even bother to warn him about me. Or am I not enough of a threat that you can risk your own friend's lives?"

When Sync's elbow collided with his mouth, Guy was forced to pull back and off of the teen, raising a hand to his face and wincing as he realized he'd bitten his tongue. He tried not focus on the pain, which was simple enough when he was being faced with the possibility that Claude had been hurt by the Tempest because of him.

"I didn't realize you'd still be stooping down to this sort of level, but I guess I shouldn't have given you that much credit," he responded, trying to speak around the blood in his mouth as he grabbed for his flashlight again.

"Van isn't even here, Sync," he continued. "What do you think you're doing?" He would have been able to understand if this was all part of some larger plan, but Sync didn't have any reason to target him specifically, let alone his friends who weren't even from Auldrant.

But Guy knew he should have warned Claude, and he was cursing himself for having been so stupid.

Sync wasn't there to just exchange a few blows while catching up like old friends; he already had his goal for the night in mind, and he wasn't going to get anywhere if he continued to let Guy take all these cheap shots. However, the latter's words were what caused him to lose much of his restraint, glaring viciously over his shoulder.

"Don't give me that bullshit," The God-General spat back, a little more than annoyed at the latter's vain response. When did he ever give Guy the impression that he cared about his opinion? "I don't care what you think about me and I never will."

And when Guy mentioned Van? Sync could feel his eye twitch just the slightest before he rushed at the blond, twisting his body around entirely in an attempt to throw a high round kick across Guy's face to send him to the floor once more. He didn't even bother to respond to Guy's idiotic question, ready to kick him back down if he dared to get back up.

It was around that point that Guy realized that trying to reason with someone like Sync wasn't going to get him anywhere. Any time they had interacted in the past, it had all involved mockery, taunting, and then fighting -- eventually, to the death. But Guy had never seen it as something personal. He had always thought that the God-Generals were opposing the six of them as a group, but apparently Sync got some sick sort of pleasure out of targeting even one of them. Maybe he shouldn't have been surprised.

The darkness made it somewhat difficult to anticipate Sync's moves, but Guy was still able to jump out of the way in time to avoid the kick. He was still busy recovering from that earlier hit he had taken, though, and he took a quick moment to spit the excess blood out of his mouth.

With only his flashlight available to him as a weapon, Guy wasn't sure how he would be able to do much against Sync. He would have to move close to get an attack in, and Sync would definitely beat him out in close quarters.

But the fight wasn't even what he was concerning himself with. He narrowed his eyes at the God-General. "What happened to Claude?" He had to know before this could proceed any further.

Sync's eyes narrowed when he felt his foot connect with nothing but air, but he was already on the move and preparing his next attack. While Guy may have been a threat had he still been holding onto that meat cleaver, it was a threat that had already passed long ago. He couldn't help but smirk as he watched the latter spit out any blood that had lingered in his mouth, but he didn't have time to savor the moment as he rushed forward again.

"Why don't you ask him when you see him?"

The God-General had raised his foot once more, but instead of aiming for Guy's face he took a chance and attempted to throw a side kick on the arm that was holding the flashlight.

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