This was unacceptable.

But this had gone past unacceptable a long time ago. He woke as if from a brief nap, refreshed and clear-headed, with no idea what day or night it was and how long ago he'd been asleep. There was only the faint stiffness of his bones and the lingering whiff of dinner to give him the faintest guess, the last crackles of the first nightshift announcement fading as he pushed himself out of bed.

There was nothing left to do, here, beyond putting one foot in front of the other. Discover his sword; discover the unlocked door; discover how much time had disappeared; try to discover whether his last remaining contact still had the patience to continue.

[jumping to here]

[From here.]

On his way down the hall, Castiel reviewed what little amount of strategy he could manage for tonight's plans. The main obstacle they'd been facing was some kind of guardian being placed in either the Sun Room or the library itself. If they could maneuver their way around any opponents and not get separated in the process, it was possible they could make real progress.

Castiel didn't know why they'd been given keys that made their search easier, as if Landel wanted them to succeed despite all of his announcements implying otherwise. It was yet another aspect of this mission that made him uncertain, but it wasn't as if he hadn't barreled into fights without all the details before.

Reaching the end of the hall, Castiel took a left.

[To here.]

[From here.]

At this point, the walk from his room to the meeting point that he'd set up with Kratos and Lloyd had become tedious. That didn't stop Castiel from being cautious, something that was ingrained in him from years of acting as a soldier and nothing else.

He scanned the hall with his flashlight and determined it was clear before crossing it to the door that would lead him out of the block. From there, it was a quick right.

[To here.]

[M1]

Once night came Al was quick to pull his things together--though he noticed something he overlooked the night before in his closet. He scanned over the note quickly, gritting his teeth before putting it into his toolbelt, along with the rest of his things. A few pages from the journal went into one of the pockets as well, along with a pen to write down anything he might need later.

With a quick glance to his new roommate, Al stepped out into the hallway and started down the hall. He was not going to miss Edward tonight.

Link's eyes narrowed as the intercom came on and the doctor began taunting them once again. Hope the storm eased up? There wasn't a way that could affect their efforts tonight, was there? The last thing Link needed was to be caught in the rain for some insane reason.

For now, though, he would allow himself a moment to settle himself before the evening truly began. Though he wasn't entirely certain on his plans for the night, he knew exactly where he would be heading. Even if he had to go at it alone.

Link wandered about the game room, picking up a small device he remembered from his last visit here. The lights and sound had given him quite a scare last time. He smiled slightly to himself.

[6!]

Link's foul mood had simmered down somewhat in the time between the library and the call for lunch. Perhaps he was just hungry. If nothing else, he was spoiled by the food here- three meals a day, and he didn't even have to fetch them (or kill them) himself.

Still, it was barely a comfort in a place like this.

Link settled in the sunlight on one of the benches, frowning slightly as he dug through his lunch sack. He settled himself on the seat's edge, hoping it might entice some company.

[Alphonse]

Don't let them snoop? If Lloyd didn't already know the secret the library held, that would have practically been asking him to poke around as much as his nurse would let him. But since he did know about the trick to the secret door, he settled instead for searching for Kratos or Castiel. If he didn't find one of them this shift, he'd have to think about putting up a note on the bulletin, but considering what he wanted to talk to them about, it would probably be better if he kept it off the board and spoke to them in person.

"Here, why don't you settle down with a nice book, Nigel?" his nurse encouraged him as she guided him toward a chair. "Poor dear. I noticed you didn't eat anything for breakfast. Maybe you just need to get your mind off of whatever's tying your stomach in knots."

Lloyd made a face at that comment, unable to hold himself in check. "Maybe if the doctors gave me my Key Crest back it wouldn't be a problem."

His nurse sighed, shaking her head. "I thought you were making more progress than that, Nigel. Here," she said, handing him a book. "I'm sure a good book will help."

Lloyd grumbled, but accepted the book anyway, albeit reluctantly. He should have known better than to expect anything from his nurse. Rather than cracking the book open, though, Lloyd set it in his lap and watched the room. Surely one of his companions would come in soon...

[For Castiel.]

[From here.]

Still nothing. Still silence. If Castiel had been less vigilant, the hallways would have started to blur together. But he had a mental map that he could follow with little trouble, at least of the areas he'd been to often, and so he never faltered during his nighttime travels.

The third floor, however, was one big blank in his head, thanks to those teleporters.

It might be a setback, but it wasn't a deterrent. He was almost to the meeting spot they'd discussed, and so Castiel continued down the hall, taking a right once he reached the fork.

[To here.]

[From here.]

While it had unsettled him at first, by this point Castiel had become used to the fact that he was generally the first one to make it out of the block. He didn't know what the humans did that held them up to such a degree, but it also likely had something to do with the fact that his roommate had been passed out in his bed for the past few days.

Things were not looking good for Kobayashi, but there was nothing Castiel could do about that.

What he could do was try to find the archive, and that was what drove him out of the room block.

[To here.]

Having changed into his usual outfit for the night and gathered all of his supplies (flashlight, radio, and that bone bracelet just in case), Sora was ready to race his way back over to the library with Link in tow. Tsurugi would hopefully be up for coming along, too. Sora didn't see what else he would be doing with the night, seeing how this was so important -- not to mention Tsurugi also needed to keep an eye out for that gem for Kratos.

"So, ready?" he said to Link, grinning and nodding to him as he walked out of their room, flashlight pointed forward.

The Head Doctor was starting to get annoyed with them, Sora could tell. He still thought they couldn't stand up to his power, but they were all going to band together and prove him wrong. This was the most confident Sora had felt about that in a long time.

"Let's see if Tsurugi's ready, okay?" Sora moved a few doors down the hall toward M3 and then knocked on the door three quick times.

"Tsurugi? It's okay if Link comes with us, right?"

[From here.]

Sora wandered back over to the bulletin board after leaving the showers, hoping that he might run into the person he'd talked to over it yesterday. He remembered the description Sechs had given him: tall, dark hair, yellow eyes. That was the sort of thing that should stand out...

But if Sechs was over eighteen, there was a good chance that he would be in the Arts and Crafts room instead. Sora could try and beg one of the nurses to let him go check, but he didn't know if they'd be all that happy with him after he'd slept most of the day.

Well, he'd wait around for just a little longer. If Sechs didn't show, then Sora was going to ask a nurse anyway. The worst thing they could do was say no, right?

[For Sechs.]

Finally, it was lunchtime. Second shift had gone by way too slowly for Zero's liking, although spending his time sitting and waiting impatiently for the shift to be over didn't help him any. Having a staring contest with his nurse probably helped even less...but it did give him something to do that wasn't sitting or staring at the board, at least.

But that was then, this was now. Another awkward intercom broadcast aside, Zero was very much ready for the next shift to start - and he was welcoming it by standing from the couch he'd been restlessly sitting on for who knew how long and staring at the prisoners leaving the Arts and Crafts room. Ciel had to be one of them. He hadn't seen her come out of the showers at all, and the nurse had prevented him from going into that room for a reason, right? So she had to be there. Had to be.

She better be...

[Ciel-chaaaans]

After eating breakfast, Lloyd gathered up his journal and pencil and followed his nurse out of the cafeteria. He made a quick stop at the bulletin to leave a note for Lee, then let her lead him on to take his shower with the rest of the adult men. Not sure how old Lee was, Lloyd kept his eyes peeled for him just in case, but again he didn't catch even a glimpse of his friend's shiny black bowl-cut hair. Okay, no worries. Maybe he was with the kids in Arts and Crafts.

Cleaning up quickly, Lloyd grabbed a towel and dried himself off, then got dressed and headed back to the Sun Room to wait out the rest of the shift. His nurse hovered at his side until he'd situated himself at a table, then she backed up and withdrew to the edge of the room to keep an eye on him from there. He was fine with that. Of course, it would have been better if she left the room completely, but at least she was far enough back that it felt like he had at least some privacy.

While he waited, trying to catch sight of Lee, he pulled his journal back out. As far as he knew, no one else had been to the third floor before. There weren't any maps yet. That was something he could fix. Picking up where he'd left off, the teen went back to his work on the sketch.

[For Tsurugi.]

They had made it. It had required leaving Tsubaki behind to deal with her brainwashed roommate, but they'd gone all the way up the escalator, and this was it, the third floor--

Good morning, patients.

Sora shot up in bed, eyes wide, and let out a huff of surprise and aggravation. That wasn't fair! They'd made it all the way up, only for it to end like this? He fell back onto the bed and slammed his fists into the mattress to vent his frustration before he realized that Link was still asleep. Whoops.

It was hard to know what to do from this point on. He needed to go back to Farwell, but the third floor was important too. He could probably rely on his friends to handle things here while he traveled back to the rebel city, but he just didn't know.

He dragged his hand down his face and then slowly sat up again, as the door opened and his nurse came to get him. On the way to the cafeteria, Sora realized that the Head Doctor sounded kind of down. Was he upset because so many people were trying to go to the third floor now? Well, that was what he deserved after everything he'd done!

Sora stood in line for his plate of french toast and then peered around the cafeteria, looking for any sign of Tsubaki. He wanted to check in with her first.

[Tsubaki.]

[from here]

Kratos stepped out into a hallway; almost instantly, he swept the entire length with his flashlight, trying to see what their options were. To his right were a few more doors, all closed, and to the left, another hallway.

"Shall we try these?" He motioned to the nearby doors with his flashlight as he walked to the opposite side of the hall to take a look at what lay below. The space was covered in glass, and seemed to be some kind of giant window overlooking the Sun Room. Kratos frowned as he tried to make out what was going on two floors down. Was it possible to see up to the third floor from there? He'd never even entertained the thought, but now he wondered how many times the staff and doctors had watched them from this place.

...Peering down at the faint outlines below, he realized that they seemed more and more like those of ants.

[From here.]

After walking through that door, there was a shift around him, and for a split second Castiel felt as if his body had turned upside down. When the world righted itself, he stumbled forward into an unknown room.

It was not what Castiel would have expected or prepared for. What he saw by the beam of his flashlight was a set of exercise machines. With the way that the machines were shaped, they reminded him of silent monsters, turned to stone, gathered here in this room to collect dust.

As he turned himself around, he realized that what he'd stepped off of as they arrived could only be a teleportation pad. Set up on the floor, it was made of metal and it glowed with a dim purple light. There was wiring coming off of it as well, so it was clearly powered by some kind of energy.

Castiel drew closer, crouching down slightly to look it over. "I take it we'll need to find another one of these." At this point, the only way they could go was through the room's door. Castiel had no idea where it would lead, but they had to find another pad soon. He didn't want this to end up being a waste of time. They needed to get to that archive.

[from here]

Shortly after Kratos closed the library door, the intercom came on abruptly. For some strange reason, though, the voice that came through was not Landel's, and it was soon joined by several others who also were not Landel. The rebels? How had they accidentally hijacked the intercom? And more importantly, where were they broadcasting from and what were they doing? Those questions, though, had to be saved for later: their goal tonight was very clear; they had their own mysterious lead to decipher.

He began to move again once the broadcast turned off, heading straight for where they'd found the switch the previous night. "Check the right side of the center aisle," Kratos said as he passed Lloyd. "We're looking for the Oxford Book of English Verse."

[From here]

Now this place, he remembered intimately for a number of reasons. Goku couldn't feasibly count the number of times Taura, Birdy, and he had come through here to get to the basement. Most of the time they had been stopped by someone or something lurking in here. The memory started his heart pumping with excitement. It had been a long time since he had a proper fight!

The one with Birdy didn't count. Goku thought back further and stopped on the time he had attacked Kibitoshin in this exact room. He tried, but he couldn't remember why he had wanted to defeat the man... Either way, it had been a great fight. It was also the night he had truly met Taura and everything she was capable of. Yeah, those were all fond memories!

Welp. Goku flicked his gaze back and forth within the spacious room, but nothing seemed willing to assault him. That was a real drag!

"Ah well..." Technically, he had a job to complete. Reluctantly, he peeled his feet off the carpet and moved to the doors that lead into the main hallways. He could there'd be a lot of people out there to throw these bricks at.

[to here]

[From here.]

While Castiel and Kratos had only spoken briefly during the day, he felt he could assume they would be meeting in the same place as before. If not, he could always contact the man by radio, but he wasn't going to make use of the technology unless he needed to. He and electronics didn't often get along.

With information dispersed about the third floor, Castiel wondered if it would be guarded even more closely. He had no idea if anyone else had received a note like his, but he would find out before long.

It wasn't a long way to the meeting spot, and he could move more quickly now that he was no longer wounded. He exited the block and turned to the right.

[To here.]

Like most of the nights he'd been here, dinner ended up silent for Kyousuke, though it was hard to say whether that was a good thing. He ate quickly, and after that, he had nothing but his own thoughts to keep him company. ... That, and a certain photograph that had been resting on his desk for a while now, of the whole team after their national championship. Usually, it had been encouraging, but at the moment, seeing himself holding up the trophy with Tenma right in the center of the picture was a little much, and he had to gently tip the frame face down so he didn't have to look at it anymore. ... That Tenma was gone now. Or at least, until he could find a way to save him somehow. He didn't have a clue where to even start, but that didn't matter. All he could do was keep trying.

He began to sort through his things to leave for the night: radio and list of numbers in his pocket, flashlight in hand, and the ball in a net over his shoulder. He started to reach for the crowbar he'd collected the last night, when he came across a folded piece of paper he didn't remember having, and moved to open that instead. ..... Was this from those rebels Sora told him about? He wasn't sure how they'd managed to get this to him, but he had no real choice but follow its advice. He'd been planning to go to the third floor anyway, in hopes he'd find something up there he could use to help Kratos and Lloyd. Maybe there would even be something there that would help him save Tenma, but he didn't want to entertain that idea too much; he had to put his hopes in something real, not his own wishful thinking, or he'd be setting himself up for disappointment and failure.

For now, the best thing to do would probably be to talk to Sora about this note, since he was only meters away, so Kyousuke decided to step into the hall and rest his back against the wall to wait for him. The crowbar, he left behind; from the sound of things, he probably wouldn't be needing it where he was going.

[ Sora ]