[from here]

By some miracle, the very door they had been seeking was immediately to their left. Kratos found himself double-checking the wording on the sign posted next to the door to confirm that yes, this really was the Records Archive. After so many nights spent wandering through rooms and physically straining himself in ways that were incredibly healthy, it was just a little anti-climatic to turn the corner and find exactly what they were looking for.

"Finally," he breathed. He tested the lock out of formality; as he'd expected, it held fast. Above the door handle, though, was a little black slot - a card reader exactly like the one that had graced the door to the third floor and many others in Welgaia. Castiel seemed to be in charge of the keycards, so Kratos stepped aside to allow the angel to unlock the door.

[From here.]

As Lloyd peered down the hall, first one way, then the other, he quickly came to the same conclusion the others must have drawn. Turning right would lead them to a dead end. Left was the only option.

There were no doors in sight, just another stretch of hall, walls featureless and oppressive. The silence hung heavy and thick between them. It made Lloyd's skin itch, tempting him to say something, raise his voice and yell just for the sake of breaking the atmosphere that this whole building tried to create. He tamped the urge down. The halls looked empty, but that didn't mean they were safe.

On the right he could see a set of stairs that led down. No, definitely not that way. The second floor wasn't where they wanted to go. In a way, though, it helped him orient himself. Stairs. The only stairs he'd seen on the floors below were...

He kept his voice low. "Do you think that's the Sun Room up ahead?" Had they just come around in a circle?

[From here.]

"I know, I know," Lloyd grumbled. Sheesh, couldn't he just be glad that they might not have to face those traps ever again? Although, it was weird how the door had changed like that, but he wasn't going to bother questioning it. If it worked and brought them closer to their goal, that was good enough for him.

The hall beyond was a lot like the other halls in the institute, dark and foreboding, an air of disrepair making everything seem a little more grim. The only thing that looked shiny and new was the lock on the door to the right of where they stood. In sharp contrast, a door on the left had a lock that looked rusted and weak. Lloyd thought they could probably break through if they wanted. The hall continued on until the dark swallowed everything beyond the edge of their light.

Left through the door, or right...? Lloyd frowned. Which way did they want to go? The door was right there, but what if the door they were looking for was just down the hall? "I think we should look around before we go through any more doors," he said. "We can always come back if there's nothing."

[From here.]

Castiel hadn't known for certain where they would end up. Logically, the last place they'd been had seemed like the right choice, but he refused to assume that. That was the best case scenario, after all.

But here they were, crammed into this tiny space once again, where he had originally found these cards that they had officially proved to be keys.

It was a far better outcome than he would have expected.

Castiel pocketed his key and turned to make sure the others were in one piece. There was only one door to go through, so it wasn't much of a question where they'd be headed next.

[From here.]

At this point they all knew the steps to get up to the third floor's entrance, and so Castiel didn't hesitate to step onto the escalator, expecting the others to keep up as it started moving.

As they made the short trip to the top, Castiel shifted around to look back at Kratos in particular. This area had been safe of any kind of monsters every time they'd been here, so he was willing to let his guard down at least enough to ask a question.

"How are you feeling?" He needed to assess what kind of state Kratos was in, so that he would be able to factor in how much or how little help he could expect him to be if they were attacked. Clearly Kratos could walk fine on his own, but being deprived of oxygen for so long still may have had some lingering effects.

[From here.]

The library was dark and quiet - eerily so, in fact - and the row upon row of shelves would make it all to easy for something to hide in the shadows. Tense, Lloyd gripped his sword and tried to piece the dark with his eyes while Kratos went for the book that would open the secret passage.

He almost jumped when his light abruptly failed, then cursed under his breath. "Hang on." Fumbling for the lantern's crank, he tried to ignore his hammering heart. Damn, he was going to have to get used to this if he was going to use this lantern all that much. At least he had the light from the others' flashlights to see what he was doing.

By the time his lantern sprang back to life, Kratos had the passageway open.

[From here.]

The expansive room was as dark and as quiet as last night, but that didn't do anything to set Castiel at ease. He took a moment to tilt his head upward, trying to see if he could make out even the slightest sign of the third floor through the skylight. But somehow, even through sun streamed through that window every day, there was no way to make out anything above the second floor.

Some kind of illusion, maybe? It was bizarre, either way.

Castiel refocused his attention, shifting to step toward the library doors. They couldn't waste too much time here and risk getting attacked.

[From here.]

He hadn't seen any sign of Kratos all day. Lloyd hadn't thought his father had looked that badly injured after his ordeal in that chamber, but how did he know Kratos hadn't downplayed his injuries? Maybe he didn't even know the full extent himself. After all, who would have experience with what it did to a person to have the air sucked out of the room?

Maybe I just didn't see him. The thought wasn't as reassuring as it could have been. He knew how much he'd been trying to keep an eye out for the man, telling himself it was just so he could share his theory about the cards. It was still possible he'd been distracted at a crucial moment when Kratos passed by, so he stubbornly continued to deny the leaden weight in his gut as he settled into place to wait. He wasn't worried. Kratos would come just as he always did. He'd probably laugh if he found out that Lloyd had been (not worried) just... just concerned.

Okay, maybe Kratos wouldn't laugh, but still. He didn't need to see anything but Lloyd standing and waiting. Totally nonchalant. He could totally pull that off.

...dammit, he hoped they didn't catch him fidgeting when Kratos or Castiel finally showed up.

[For Castiel and Kratos.]

[From here.]

What's Landel planning? He made it sound like he knew something about what they were up to. If he did, he had to be preparing something to keep them from escaping. He just didn't strike Lloyd as the kind of man who would let his victims go without a fight.

Well, if it's a fight he wants, it's a fight he'll get. Lloyd's expression hardened, and he tightened his grip on his hilt. If he had anything to say about it, he'd make sure Landel knew he'd bitten off way more than he could chew.

First, though, he needed to meet up with Castiel and Kratos. He tried not to acknowledge the worry that twisted in his stomach as he left this hall and entered the next. Kratos...

[To here.]

[From here]

This hall, as always, put Scar at an intense unease. His eyes lingered on the exact point he had stood when... whatever it had been had cut his throat. It shook him more than he would have liked to admit.

Scar picked up the pace, trying his damnedest to deny the jumpiness that had washed over him. It had been getting more and more difficult to stay calm, with one thing happening after another. The sensation was so vivid in his mind... He shook himself, scowled, and told himself that it would be fine once he wasn't alone.

...What an odd sentiment to have.

[To here]

Night number God-only-knows, and Scar was promptly putting on his proper desert clothing and collecting his things to head out. He and Alphonse had agreed earlier to separate for the sake of stealth, so it would only be he and Lust tonight, which was far less objectionable than it would have been two weeks ago.

Two weeks? Had it really only been two weeks?

Scar set out into the night as he always did: alert and tense for whatever he could expect to come. But really, what could he expect here without it coming back to bite him in the ass?

[To here]

[From here.]

The room they reached next was a drastic change in scenery compared to some of the more mundane places that they'd passed through before. The room with the metal detector was interesting enough, though it was only meant as a means by which to access something more important.

They'd made it to some kind of lab, and while Castiel only vaguely recognized most of the equipment here (and he imagined that was the case for Kratos and Lloyd, too), he could tell that it was meant for analyzing biological samples.

That was something he could usually do on his own without any use of microscopes or centrifuges or anything else, which explained his lack of knowledge.

"... We may want to search this area before we continue on, in case there's something useful here," he said as he stepped up to one of the refrigerators. He doubted there would be any food inside...

[From here.]

Maybe during the day the room Lloyd stepped into would have felt homey, maybe even luxurious as far as apartment rooms went. There was a nice, wide bed, a desk with a chair, a boxy item sitting on top that Lloyd vaguely recognized as a computer, though its screen was completely dark. There was a small kitchen alcove and a bathroom adjoining the room, the sinks in both dark with grime. Lloyd grimaced at the thought of trying to get drinkable water from either faucet. He didn't even want to think about the tub, too far recessed into the alcove for him to see. Something about the whole place felt eerie, disturbing. Fortunately, that wasn't what he was here for.

"There's the next warp pad," he said, striding across the room with purpose. His nerves only twitched a few times now from the memory of electrocution. Shining his flashlight as he walked, just in case there were monsters lurking, he almost didn't notice the small case sitting on top of a nightstand in the corner of the room. He blinked, the red cross on the box seeming familiar somehow. Where had he seen something like that? "Hey..." His footsteps slowed, the memory nagging. "What's that over there?"

[From here.]

Instead of the door leading into another room with another teleportation pad, they were instead let out into a hallway that was lined with doors. Well, that was just great.

Sora let out a sigh and glanced back at Tsurugi and Link. "Guess we should try all of them, huh?" He stepped up to the first one on his left and attempted to turn the knob, but the lock was sticking. There was enough give that he was pretty sure he could break it, but were all of them going to be like this?

"Looks like you might need to use some of your soccer skills here, Tsurugi," Sora said with a small smile as he lifted a leg up and kicked at the door. At least his shoes were hardy enough that he wouldn't hurt himself doing that, but he might end up throwing himself against the door before long.

[From here.]

At least the pattern that the pads took didn't change night by night. It would probably be impossible for them to make any progress if that was the case.

But here they were in the locker room, as he'd expected.

"Through that door, and we'll be at the spot we ended last night," he said, mainly for Lloyd's benefit. They really hadn't made it that far, but with the rebels acting as the perfect distraction, maybe that would be different this time around. Plus there would be three of them to check the doors, rather than two.

He stepped away from the pad, only giving the room a brief glance as he waited for the others.

[From here]

The sensation of being pulled from one point in space to another was one Link had grown well used to. Not for the first time, it dawned on him how useful having Oocoo here would have been.

He stepped off the pad, shining his light about the area to ensure its security.

There was strange machinery in here... Link frowned, taking note of the portal in the opposite corner of the room. He inspected the large machines, searching for switches or dials... Some indication of what to do next. He moved to wander between the prongs of the metal detector.

Doorways didn't exist for no reason.

[ from here ]

.... There it was. One of the pads they were looking for. Which meant the from here on out, they could start making some progress. .... Hopefully, anyway. It was probably too much to ask that it would send them somewhere useful right away.

"It's in here," he called out from the doorway, and approached the teleporter. He was eager to just step onto to it, but he had to wait so they could all use it at once—it would be problematic if they ended up in different places.

[from here]

The door led out to another balcony, like the one on the second floor, where they could see down into the Sun Room below. There was a sheet of glass, however, that meant though they could see down, nobody could see up. ... Too bad for Landel that hadn't been enough to keep this floor a secret.

From here, however, there were a lot of potential places to go. "Normally I'd suggest starting at the end, but I guess it doesn't make much of a difference in this case," he said with a frown. They couldn't methodically check through every room in a linear fashion like that when there was no predicting where any of the pads they found might take them.

[From here.]

After stepping through the door, Sora didn't immediately find himself in another room. There was a few seconds where he felt like he wasn't really anywhere, or in some in between place, before he staggered out into...

Some kind of gym?

He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to dispel the dizziness. Sora had traveled by unorthodox means before, so he wasn't as thrown off as he could have been. Besides, the institute had decided to warp them around before, so this wasn't exactly new.

"So this is the third floor?" Somehow he'd been expecting something more... intense. Not an empty gym. But Landel probably didn't want them to arrive anywhere close to his actual location, so it kind of made sense.

He glanced back at the pad that they'd stepped off of, which glowed with a purple light. "So we have to find more of those, I guess." But for now, there were some doors they could go through, and that was really the only path available to them. Seemed pretty straight-forward.

[from here]

The lights flickered on as Kratos entered; he quietly sheathed his sword and then walked onto the escalator after checking to make sure that Castiel and Lloyd had made it in after him.

"I realize our keys may not match," he said, mostly for Lloyd's benefit, as the escalator began its slow climb upward. "We have the radios, though, so if there are any issues, call." Both Castiel and Lloyd had easily remembered numbers; hopefully, they both recalled his.