damned_institute | Night 52: North of the Institute (woods)

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Night 52: North of the Institute (woods)

[from here]

Sai hit the ground and rolled as the blasts from their opponent ripped through the air to either side of them. He crawled up onto his knees, pawing around for the flashlight that had been knocked from his hands in the attack. "Naruto?" He hadn't seen if the blond had been hit or not. If he had, this whole venture would have been a mistake.

The robotic man from the field didn't seem to be following them, and as the adrenaline left his system, the use of chakra started to catch up to him. He remained on the ground as he listened for his friend, catching his breath. If they'd truly gotten away, then this was the furthest he'd managed to get in the past several days.

Now if only such luck would hold out.

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Watching as Claude argued with his own shadow, Guy couldn't help but feel some sense of awe. Even with the thing making his situation with Luke even more clear, Claude continued to resist. He wasn't denying it now, but he still believed that Guy would have told him in due time.

Which was true. He'd explained the roots of his phobia to his friends the moment that he'd remembered it, after all. They had traveled with him so long and had been forced to deal with the effects of his fear so many times that it would have been wrong to keep it from them. They had all ended up feeling guilty about it in the end, which hadn't really been the point, but...

Maybe he'd been putting it off, but he would have told Claude eventually, and he was going to have to make that clear to his friend at some point. On the other hand, he realized that Landel may have separated the two of them before he'd even gotten the chance, but he'd done what he could to not think about that.

Honestly, he didn't know why Claude's shadow kept bringing up the idea of him being left alone, but it seemed like that was one of his fears. Guy didn't know why, but his guess was that it had something to do with his parents. Had something happened to them, or had they been neglectful? Of course, in his situation he'd never even gotten the chance to forge either a good or a bad relationship with his parents, but now wasn't the time to be feeling sorry for himself, was it?

The moment that the shadow reached out for Claude and was able to touch him, Guy wanted to run forward and separate the two -- but he already knew that that would be impossible. He was about to order the thing to leave his friend alone (why could the shadows make contact with them, but not the other way around?) when he felt a hand on his arm as well.

"Oh, you two match, don't you? You've still got that curse slot on you, after all. Just because nothing's happened yet doesn't mean that you're not still scared, deep down, that you'll be forced to do something you don't want to do, right?" The shadow was now peering into his face, and Guy had to grit his teeth to try and keep control of himself.

"Except," and the dark figure leaned in -- while its face had no expression on it, Guy was certain it had to be smirking, "some small part of you does want to do it, and that's the worst part."

"Let--go--!" Claude growled between clenched teeth as he tried to jerk his shoulder away. But the shadow's grip onto tightened as it continued staring at him with a simple smile.

He hadn't expected Guy's shadow to comment, and Claude's head whipped around in time to see it touch Guy's arm, too. What the hell! Why was it bringing up the curse slot, of all things? Unless...

No. That didn't make sense. How could he still be suffering from the effects of the curse slot when that had happened before he'd even been brought to Landel's? Still, the though that he'd been keeping that to himself was pretty worrying, especially since Claude realized that wasn't out of the realm of possibility at this point.

His gaze sharply snapped over to Guy. "But you said Ion removed that!"

The last thing Guy had expected at that moment was for Claude to be the one who was piling accusations on him, though he soon realized that it was justified. It wasn't like he'd told his friend about what Sync had done during the coliseum match, but that was because he hadn't wanted to needlessly worry him. If Sync hadn't exploited the curse slot yet, then chances were he no longer had the power to use it.

"He did," he explained with a frown, relieved that he could speak for himself for once, rather than having his shadow jump in and take over. "But in the coliseum... Sync applied one again. I don't think he can actually make use of it, but..."

But there was always that chance, and Guy knew that.

"So you're keeping even that from your friend, huh?" his shadow remarked as it removed its hand from his arm. Guy could have sworn he felt his skin burn with the reminder of the hidden marking that was there.

"I didn't think it would come up!" he shot back, only hoping that Claude would believe him. Because it was the truth. And when they had so much on their plates already, why add to it? Unfortunately, their shadows weren't giving them much of a choice.

Aghast, Claude could barely believe what he was hearing. "He what?!" Why hadn't he mentioned that back when they'd first discussed his missing memories? Even if Guy tried to sweep the severity of the situation under the rug, that didn't change the fact that he was carrying another curse slot on him, and Sync was the one who'd put it there.

He took a deep breath, trying to will himself to calm down. But between having so many bombshells dropped on him at once and having to confront his own shadow, Claude's nerves were rapidly becoming more frayed by the moment. It was hard to deny how bothered he felt that Guy had deliberately hidden that from him, but losing his cool wasn't going to do either of them any good.

"Aww, look, he's upset!" his own shadow laughed, its fingers digging into his shoulder.

"No, I'm not!" Claude snapped before he could help himself. He wasn't mad at Guy, and he didn't want to give the impression that he was. Still, it was hard to sort out his muddled feelings about all this, especially since before tonight he'd had no reason to suspect that Guy would completely keep him in the dark about something so important. Up until now, his friend had been pretty clear about when he was keeping things from him, even if he wasn't ready to share all the details. That had been part of their promise to be honest with each other, hadn't it? And yet...

"I just...what would have happened if Sync had activated the curse slot while we'd been together, Guy?" he added, knowing he didn't need to justify himself to that damn puppet-thing, but feeling he ought to explain to his friend just to same. Claude looked directly at Guy now, his gaze holding a a confusing mixture of his anger toward what Sync had done to him, and his anxiety over Guy's choice to carry that burden on his own. "I wouldn't have known how to help you!"

He'd already come dangerously close to losing him twice due to his own inadequacies. Claude couldn't bear the thought of being powerless to do anything the next time Guy was in trouble. Because in this place, it wasn't exactly a matter of if.

For the first time during this whole jumbled conversation, Claude actually sounded truly angry with him, and Guy couldn't help but be shocked by it. Considering everything else he'd been keeping close to the chest, why was it the curse slot that his friend was the most bothered by? To him, it seemed like the least significant thing (which he realized was a ridiculous thought on its own), but...

He couldn't help glaring at the marionette when it tried to exacerbate the situation, but luckily it seemed like Claude had the composure to ignore the baiting and instead just focus on him. Honestly, he appreciated the fact that Claude was taking the time to explain why he was so upset about this particular omission, and he could see why... if only because Claude didn't have all the information.

"I know," he agreed, "but the thing about the curse slot is that it can only act on emotions that I've actually felt. Since I've never felt the urge to hurt you, it wouldn't have ever been a problem." At least not in the context of him attacking Claude -- though he had to admit to himself that there were countless other ways that Sync might have been able to exploit it.

"I didn't really want to worry you over something that might never come up," he admitted, somewhat sheepishly.

But that was when his shadow was no longer content with just listening. "Oh, please! That's just the excuse you give because you don't want to have to talk about things that make you uncomfortable. It's that curse slot that brought all of those terrible things about you to light in the first place, right?"

It was awful, how this thing knew exactly where all of his weak points were. Guy tensed, turning to the dark figure for a moment as he shook his head. "Haven't you figured out that I've stopped listening to you?" Even if he could see the truth in the shadow's words, that didn't mean he needed his face shoved in it.

The fact the curse slot operated from Guy's suppressed emotions was good to know, but if Guy thought that was going to make Claude feel better about it, he was mistaken. "'Might never come up' isn't the same as 'won't ever'," he pointed out with a frown. Not only that, but realizing that Guy was keeping those sorts of things to himself despite the promise they'd made to each other meant that Claude was just going to worry about him even more in the future. Hell, in this case there had at least been a practical reason for letting him know about what Sync had done, and he still hadn't breathed a word about it.

Besides, this wasn't about whether he'd wind up hurting Claude as a result -- it was about how Sync very well might have the power to manipulate Guy into doing something he didn't want, regardless of whether it involved him attacking someone or not. That was enough reason to at least be aware of it, even if the chance of it happening was only a small one.

He grew quiet when Guy's shadow pointed out the underlying reason for his silence on the issue, though. It sounded like it had once been used to make him try to kill Luke. Of course that was going to leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth, but Claude wouldn't have necessarily expected him to go into those details. Something like, 'By the way, that curse slot thing I told you about is back, so be sure to clock Sync if I start acting weird,' would have been enough.

"I love how bothered you are that Guy didn't tell you about this when you have no intention of explaining the full implications of what those doctors did to you," his shadow suddenly spoke up with an amused grin. "Maybe you ought to practice what you preach before getting all huffy."

Scowling, Claude finally managed to rip his shoulder out of its grasp. "That isn't the same thing at all, and you know it," he said in a low voice.

It seemed that even with those extra details, Claude still wasn't completely convinced, and Guy knew that he had every right to feel the way he did. While he was almost certain that Sync was too weak to actually control him, there was still that slim chance -- and he spent enough time with Claude at night that he would have likely been witness to his loss of control.

"I guess I didn't realize how..." But even as Guy tried to form some sort of apology for his friend, Claude's shadow swept in to make his friend feel worse about things. It was pretty much inevitable that it was going to end up detailing some of what had happened to Claude when he'd been taken for experimentation, but that didn't make Guy any happier about it.

While he wasn't sure if it was or wasn't the same thing, Guy still wasn't bothered by the fact that Claude had been tight-lipped about it. "I don't need to know," he directed at the shadow. "Whatever happens, I'll help Claude through it when the time comes." Guy was convinced that there was more to what had happened than met the eye, since some temporary blindness didn't seem severe enough. But he wasn't going to demand that Claude tell him, danger or not.

"Oh, so you're trying to take the higher ground now, huh?" his own shadow asked with a small chuckle. "Claude might be upset that you didn't tell him, but you'll be the noble gentleman who doesn't need all the details. I don't recall you being that understanding when Luke was sick."

Guy didn't even like to think back to that time, as valid as the point might have been. But Luke was Luke -- they were close enough that Guy was able to smack him upside the head when he knew he was being an idiot. While he was close to Claude, it wasn't quite to that point yet, was it? They'd made a promise, but Guy also knew that there were boundaries, and he was patient enough to wait for when the other shoe dropped.

He wondered what it was Guy had been trying to say when the marionette interrupted him, but now probably wasn't the time to ask. As touching as it was to hear him say that he intended to stick with him through thick and thin, though, Claude didn't immediately speak when Guy explained that he didn't need to hear the details about his experiment. It almost made him feel foolish for being so unhappy that Guy had kept the information about the curse slot to himself, but he just had to remind himself that they were two completely different things.

"I'm not the same as Luke," Claude said in response to Guy's shadow. "Of course he wouldn't react the same." There were years of history there that simply didn't exist between him and Guy, for starters. Then there was the whole underlying master-servant thing that came from him working as a servant in Luke's manor. And that wasn't even touching on the once blood-thirsty intentions Guy had apparently once harbored toward Luke. Bearing all of that in mind, there was no doubt that their dynamic was a complicated and close one that had endured the test of time and even possibly the fire of hatred.

"To suggest otherwise would be like saying you're just a temporary replacement, right?" his own shadow cut in with a smile. "You certainly wouldn't want that. No, being Guy's 'Luke' isn't what you want at all. That's why you don't feel jealous whenever you see them together."

"You don't have to word it like that!" Claude said with an irritable tone.

The puppet laughed, glancing over to Guy now. "Anyway, if it were something you could help him with, Claude might have told you by now," it admitted with a small shrug. "But, hey! If you're still willing to put up with all his hypocrisy, then be my guest. I doubt it'll be for long. This place already brainwashed Ashton into forgetting just how close he was to Claude from day one." It paused, looking thoughtful for a second. "Or maybe Claude was brainwashed into believing they were actually best friends. Wouldn't that just be pathetic enough to be true!"

Claude's eyebrows furrowed. "That's enough."

The shadow ignored him, looking rather smug. "Either way, it's probably only a matter of time before one of you winds up forgetting the other, and then it won't matter whether Claude tells you what being a product of foreign technology will mean if he ever makes it back home."

The last thing Guy had expected to be dredged up was the possibility that Claude was some sort of replacement for Luke. Honestly, the thought wasn't one that had even occurred to him up until now, mainly because he and Luke had been through so much, both good and bad. His interaction with Claude as opposed to Luke was also totally different, so it bothered him that Claude's shadow was even trying to make that sort of claim.

"It's nothing you have to worry about," he quickly told Claude under his breath (though he expected the shadows could hear even their whispers, seeing how they could apparently hear their thoughts). "You and him are completely different." And meant different things to him, naturally. He glared at the puppet for a moment, but that expression soon turned into one of confusion.

He didn't know what the thing was going on about at first. Ashton, brainwashed? Guy knew that he'd disappeared and come back once, but that involved memory wiping, not brainwashing. He didn't know something had been done to him upon first arriving! Why had Claude never mentioned it? He shot a glance at his friend, frowning, but realized that maybe it had just been too difficult to discuss.

The mention of them forgetting each other caused him to clench his fists. It didn't have to end like that, even if the chances were high. If they both stayed strong and resisted Landel, maybe they would get out of here and back home. And maybe they wouldn't be able to see each other again, but neither one of them would forget. He realized he was being unreasonably optimistic, but right now he couldn't accept another option.

Granted, it was probably the last part of that comment that was supposed to stick with him. Guy was curious, of course, because when it was phrased like that it sounded rather serious, but he wasn't going to fall for this creature's bait. "It's not like we have to share every single one of our thoughts and worries with each other," he pointed out, his expression firm and unmoving. "If you think this is going to pit this against each other, then you've got it all wrong."

"Maybe not pit you against each other," his own shadow spoke up, "but it'll certainly make things a bit tense for a few days, won't it? And we'll silently be watching how you two handle it."

The implication that these beings -- their darker thoughts embodied -- actually existed in their shadows on a normal basis... Well, it was more than a little eerie. But it also could have been a bluff, and so Guy did his best to ignore it.

"I'm not worried about it," he responded with a frown, frustrated at his shadow for making Guy think that it could possibly be an issue. But it wasn't a problem at all, and that didn't stem from any sort of denial, either. The shadow hadn't been lying when it said he didn't feel jealous when he saw Guy and Luke together, and since it didn't try to contradict him on that matter, hopefully Guy would accept it for the truth that it was. There were other ways its words could be twisted, though, and quite frankly, they had enough to deal with as it was. "Look, don't think too hard about what it said just now, okay? I'm pretty sure it's spouting stuff off just to be difficult at this point."

That partly went for the stuff about Ashton and his experiments, too. It had been so unnecessary to bring up, and yet his shadow had done it as though it got some sort of entertainment out of spewing his personal secrets everywhere.

The thought that these...things would be literally watching them from the shadows was kind of sickening, but Claude wasn't going to buy into it so easily. Instead, he glared at the two shadows. Did they see this as some sort of joke or spectator's sport or something? He just didn't understand...

"Considering how you needed us to spell out just how much you hide from each other, I'm looking forward to seeing you two bumble along after this," the marionette said with a smirk.

Claude's glare turned into a narrow-eyed gaze. "If you're done, then, we'd like to be on our way."

If Claude was insisting that he wasn't bothered by it, then Guy was going to do his best to believe him. Honestly, that wasn't as simple as it should have been after everything that had been said tonight, but he wasn't going to let these shadows get to him. Besides, some possible jealousy really didn't match up to the other issues that had been brought up. "Got it," he said with a nod.

Of course, it couldn't really end there, with both of them having to get one last jab in. After Claude spoke, Guy's shadow laughed and shrugged. "If you want it that way, then fine. I'm not sure if anything we said got through to you after all. I have to admit, I'll be pretty shocked if you two change at all after this." It sighed and glanced at the puppet. "But we tried, right?"

Guy rolled his eyes. These two were clearly drunk on their own egos (and while he didn't know what that said about himself and Claude, he didn't think it was worth thinking too hard about), and so he simply waved them off.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the shadows flickered and were sucked back into the ground, returning to the spots that they should have never left from in the first place. And while they were now alone, they weren't even given a second to say something to each other in relative privacy, because in the next moment everything went dark.

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Night 52: North of the Institute (woods)

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