Night 48: West Wing, South Hall 1-A

[inherited]

[from here]

Another hallway, which meant that he needed to slow his steps to a jog and turn on his flashlight. His light shifted over the walls quickly, up, down, around him, and even toward the floor, as if little black heads with yellow beady eyes would suddenly pop out and attack him. Though he didn't have any idea what most of the monsters looked like here, Riku doubted that he would see anything like the heartless. They may have the Darkness to change Kairi completely, but it didn't seem like the type of thing they would use against their patients. Making them into heartless would only be useful in the situations where Nobodies might be involved. Some people here might be strong in heart, much like Sora had been, much like Kairi had been, but he doubted that would be the intended result of their experiments. No, they were probably going for something else.

But what?

Riku shook his head uncertainly before he picked up his pace again. Nothing seemed to be clear. Not even the Darkness of this place seemed like that Darkness, even as he tried to see if it was the same way. But with every aspect of him feeling relatively weaker, it was no surprise he couldn't really check, couldn't really differentiate to tell for certain. He also knew there was a possibility that his senses were weakened. That would slow him down more, but they didn't bother to remove his experience or knowledge. Those were still things Riku pocketed and kept. They were what would help him help his friends.

[to here]

Comments

[idolism]

_{[from here]}

As they made their way into the southern corridor that connected to the main hall, Aidou began to explain what made the basement so unique, his words made for Zack only as at the same time he extended his senses up and down the hallway.

He started with the basement’s location, following with a description of the ballroom they’d find once they’d passed beyond the trap door. And they would make it there--he’d do everything he could to see it done.

But if it meant a repeat of what’d happened with Naruto…?

The thought was irrelevant for now, and instead Aidou focused on bringing Zack up to date enough to not be surprised by what he would initially find down there. Since Sasuke had had no say the man’s involvement, Aidou considered it more his responsibility.

[zack-fair.livejournal.com]

Keeping stride with Aidou, Zack had to pay careful attention to the huge amount of information that the boy was giving him. If there was one thing the kid seemed to be good at, it was rattling off large amounts of stuff all at once. It was a good thing that Zack could go on auto-pilot when it came to where they were walking, since it would have been tough to split his focus between where he was going and what Aidou was saying.

While he didn't much like the idea of this being some kind of game, he realized what Aidou was getting at. That was how Landel saw it, even if this was all very real and very serious for them. Not that Zack wouldn't take any opportunity he got to lighten things up -- that was just how he was. The mention of challenges sounded up his alley, and while he wasn't being promised a way to escape, going to the basement was at least going to be a step in the right direction.

Hearing that there was some ornate ballroom under their feet at this very moment wasn't as much of a shock as it could have been; once again, it went back to the Shin-Ra mansion. All sorts of things could be hidden underground, after all. He didn't know how far it was to the kitchen and the trap door that Aidou had described (once again, this felt way too familiar), but he imagined it was somewhere near the cafeteria. Hence why they were meeting in front of the Sun Room, right?

By the time Aidou had finished his briefing and Zack had a chance to respond, they had made it to the connecting hallway.