Needless to say, her night was a bust.

It wasn't that Ramona was trying to turn it into an absolutely safe evening in which she got nothing done. A part of her wanted to test the limits of her abilities and see what she could actually do in this place, but outside of the absolute confirmation that subspace was no longer a go, she couldn't bring herself to go much farther. Scott's words hung over her heavily. The fact that he had made it clear that he was going to continue being as affectionate as possible wanted to remove any chance of her dealing with anyone. So, though she hit another hall, she turned back around and headed back to her room. Ramona was the type of person who sometimes preferred sulking with company, but that wasn't on the plate for the night. (And she didn't want to call it sulking, either.)

She wasn't certain when she fell asleep, but when she woke up, she was sure the people in charge here had some kind of fast-forward button that they could hit whenever they got bored. That was definitely not the entire night, nor had it been the night before. Sometimes night just ended. Of course, Ramona could appreciate the need for a scene change. This place was already running on enough lame clichés to last it a lifetime. Sometimes they need to return to the daytime status quo to hit reset.

That all said, she was getting the feeling that her own waking up process was a little boring. Ramona was glad that her hair was short now because it made her feel a lot less neurotic about the lack of allowed primping. She cast a glance in the direction of her roommate's bed before she plodded out after her nurse. The woman was kind looking, which, of course, meant that she was evil. Then again, anyone could be evil. Ramona just wanted everyone to be evil right now.

(Maybe she was still sulking.)

"We've noticed that you haven't been socializing as much, Sandra," the woman said while grabbing her attention, and it was as if Ramona finally clued in that a conversation was supposed to be happening. Great, she was fitting the bill for crazy on top of incredibly irritated already. The nurse was definitely evil. And maybe a bitch, with the way her fingers freed her shoulder and she stepped back, snorted softly, and gave a shake of her head. "It's always when you're new that it's hard," the nurse added. "And we can tell you're rebellious."

"Wow, it's been a while since someone thought I was a punk rocker. Don't worry. I can socialize," Ramona assured her as she hit the cafeteria. But it looked like she was one of the first arrivals.

Ramona decided she'd get the woman off her back by grabbing a tray of food and not sitting too far from it. At least people might stumble upon talking to her if she looked available enough.

(And hopefully, that someone wouldn't be Scott. Even though she highly doubted his ability to get out of bed, he seemed to acclimate to this place enough to make an appearance with his face and his smiles and his stupid "I love you"s.)

[for America]

The intercom jingled at its standard time, with the Head Doctor still in his over-the-top, jovial mood. It seemed not even the evening light could keep down the love he held for his job.

"Good evening, everyone! I hope your soul is filled with music from last shift; I know mine is."

There again was a stretch of silence. When the Head Doctor continued, he sounded marginally disappointed.

"But now it's time to wind down the day with a bit of dinner. Tonight, we'll be serving turkey breasts and quality gravy, with sides of garlic mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, grilled asparagus, and a small salad. For dessert, we will be having pumpkin pie with optional whipped creme. As per usual, we will have our vegetarian alternatives and a wide selection of drinks available. Turkey lovers, be sure to take advantage of the food; it'll be an entire week before you can have this delectable meat again."

He chuckled at the statement. One might have labeled it as dark.

"Anyway, enjoy! I will wish you all a good night momentarily!"

The intercom clicked off.

It wasn't often that Renji felt less like punching people in general as his day wore on. This was a new experience for him. A not unwelcome one, if he was being honest. And the fact that he felt less like punching Fai? Kind of mind-blowing. The sort of thing Zen masters would probably use as a kouan to reach an all-new level of non-punching enlightenment.

So he was back from the dead, almost everyone he'd known was gone, and yet bizarrely his day felt like it was looking up. Kind of. Renji wasn't sure what to make of this. Maybe his grumpy meter was just nearing empty. That was as good an explanation as the next, considering how this place made him feel.

Whatever the reason, he ended up in the music room. And he remembered oh yeah. He'd always kind of hated this damn shift. He grabbed a little book of music and a drum and retreated quickly to the far end of the room. He put the drum down in front of him just so he looked like he was doing something and opened the book. But he had no idea how to read music, and really, he was more interested in the ongoing puzzle of what the hell had happened in the last four weeks.

And brooding. Of course. There was always brooding to be done.

[Okay Tolten, let me lay it out for you. When there's a mommy and a daddy... or sometimes a daddy and a dadddy. Or, hell, sometimes a mommy and a mommy if you buy the right kind of wood cuts (and a third mommy if you go to just the right shop)... but anyway when they love each other very much, or at least a suitably large amount of money changes hands, there are some things that happen...]

It was definitely a good thing that Tear had tracked him down, seeing how she'd had a wealth of interesting information for him. Granted, a lot of it he could have guessed himself, especially the details about Landel's capabilities, but it was always good to have it confirmed by a trustworthy source.

Assuming that Marc was trustworthy, anyway. Guy realized that for all they knew, Marc could be dead by now. That was something they were likely only going to know for sure once night came. The fact that anyone who even claimed to be on their side ended up dead was really not a good sign, and yet Guy realized that they had no choice but to keep pushing forward.

While he was set in his decision that they keep exploring the underground lake and everything beyond it, Guy was still worried that it was going to be another trap. Which would mean that they had fallen for the same trick twice. Still, even that was better than doing nothing, which was what he had to keep telling himself.

The announcement that lunch would be offered as a free shift this time around did take Guy by surprise, though. This was the first time that something like this had been done, as far as he knew, and he wondered what Landel's aim with it was. Maybe he wanted to try and endear himself to them as being more lenient than Aguilar, but he should have realized that that only had a chance of working with the newer patients. Even then, Guy would hope that most people would be smarter than to fall for it.

Still, he realized he might as well take advantage of the option, and so he took his sack lunch and headed outside onto the recreational field. The weather was improving steadily, and Guy couldn't help but enjoy the feeling of the crisp air combined with the sun beaming down on him. He figured he'd take a short walk to get his appetite going before eating.

[For Luke.]

And so it seemed that everything had gone back to normal.

Guy had spent his breakfast filling in a new patient and now Landel was rambling over the intercom like he always did. It made sense that the man would want to act like everything with Aguilar had never happened, though Guy couldn't help but wonder how things would change when night finally came. Knowing Landel, he'd have a long-winded speech prepared for them.

That was something that he could worry about later, though. Guy filed away the information about the doctors, but it didn't matter too much to him. He'd only been forced through that once, and had apparently been deemed a lost cause after that session. Speaking with a doctor here would just be a waste of time as far as he could tell, so that was fine by him.

Being placed in the Sun Room gave him access to the bulletin board, and perusing it gave him some idea of what had gone on last night, at least to the point that he understood that they'd had some sort of outside help. People were being secretive, but that was nothing new. Guy went ahead and put up a note for his friends, wanting to keep it up as a routine (at this point Luke should have been the one doing it, but Guy could talk to him about that later).

With that taken care of, he had little else to do but find himself a place to sit, and before long he located a comfy armchair. He took as seat, but as usual Guy couldn't help but keep an eye out for any friends.

[For Tear!]

[ from here ]

It was only thanks to Chipp's frightening speed that he and his companion managed to cover that much terrain in a single night, finally reaching a section of the mountains that surrounded the Institute that could be traveled on foot - somewhat. Chipp hit the brakes just as they arrived at the base of a narrow strip of trail, kicking up a cloud of dust that obscured the already dark path. Sane, reasonable people wouldn't even think of attempting to take the trail in this kind of darkness, when it looked even difficult to scale during the day. Chipp was only mostly sane and mostly reasonable, giving the mountain trail a challenging look before crouching so Venom could get off his back.

"That worked out better, didn't it?! We should travel like this from now on," The ninja grinned, seemingly pleased with himself for finding a compromise to the whole "things keep moving even after he stops" problem. Of course, he was assuming a lot of things, like that Venom liked being tossed around like a potato sack for one.

Either way, they were finally at the last place Chipp could even think of to look for a man who had to hide. Mountains were just the sort of natural protection against enemies that he would have considered, so it didn't seem too far-fetched to assume that Landel had decided to come all the way over here to hide. Even if it was... rather far from the Institute itself, now that Chipp really had time to think about it. Well, they were here, so they might as well look.

[from here]

—They were spilled out somewhere that she didn't recognize. This wasn't a super creepy hospital or anything like that. Or military base. Whatever, she was trying to keep up. But it was hard to keep up with what suddenly presented itself to her. It wasn't like anything he mentioned: not a cute Stepford town or anything similar; it looked like an atomic bomb had gone off. Or maybe about three hundred years had passed without anyone attempting to excavate that happened here.

A shiver ran down her spine as she gained her bearings, pulling her arms to herself as she breathed out. That shiver only continued, though, because of how damn cold it was. She tried to ignore it, because she was supposed to be used to this crap. Canada and all that. But she wasn't, because she didn't get the slow transition into sudden frigid cold that she was used to. This was sudden—and not just because subspace decided to be a dick.

Ramona's eyebrows knit together as she looked at Scott. "What the hell is this?" she asked bluntly. Trying to beat around the bush wasn't going to do either of them any good. The place seriously creeped her out in ways that she didn't want to admit. Maybe because it just seemed so realistic. Realism was pretty present in the hospital, but this looked like someone came in and gutted this place, and the end result was what could've been The Village if the people weren't so damn tenacious. Or cute, which was pretty much Bryce Dallas Howard's selling point.

Another shiver ran through her as she waited for a response.

[ from here ]

In the end, Venom didn't even have to provide directions; there was a dense forest that stood out in the general direction he pointed at, and Chipp managed to put two and two together. Running through the snowy wasteland didn't slow him down in the slightest, though the biting cold of the outdoor wind was far more noticeable then the bloody air of the building they just left. By the time Chipp finally got close enough to the forest, he actually was feeling uncomfortably cold, though it did help numb the pain from his wounds a little. On the other hand, Chipp wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

The ninja had enough sense not to just rush into completely unknown territory in the wilderness, so once again, he stopped short of actually entering into the dark woods, and once again, let Venom go so the man could skid to his own stop. That was when Chipp saw the problem with his methods, as he saw Venom sail right past him and continue onwards.... Oh, shit.

Thankfully, his reflexes were more then enough to make him spring forward and grab Venom's shoulders, forcibly stopping the man from crashing into a tree or something. And Chipp made sure to wait for his feet to touch the ground before letting go for real, satisfied that his "colleague" wasn't going anywhere.

"..." That did explain why Venom just disappeared into a snowbank the second time he tried this. "Uh... Yeah, sorry about that..."

[From here]

"It's this way," the assassin called out to his side, his eyes attempting to focus on the darkness before them. They had made it to the forest fast enough when he had been traveling with Sora, which meant it shouldn't be much an issue with someone as fast as Zanuff was. "Down and to the right."

Somehow, the area felt just as cold and empty as it had three nights ago. It wasn't empty. He wasn't that gullible to believe that--he could feel something here. But the darkness covered just enough of their surroundings to make it appear as nothing more than a desolate, snowy wasteland.

They couldn't stay out in the open for long. Which meant...

Nngh...

It was with great hesitance and great annoyance that Venom found himself moving to grasp onto his company's wrist. "Hurry."

[ from here ]

The cold breeze and fresh air of the outdoors really was a welcome feeling as Chipp barreled outside, only stopping once he was made some distance between them and the door. Just in case something followed, if those stupid monsters were smart enough to push it open. For now, nothing followed them out, and Chipp deemed it safe to stop.

Of course, as per Venom's wishes, he let go of the other man before doing so. He immediately turned around, back to looking at the door. Just in case. Still, it looked like nothing came out to follow them and he let out a frustrated sigh. It seemed like this damn place was just frustrating to go through no matter what the circumstances were.

It was still best to keep going rather then linger around. At the very least, maybe they were clear of any annoying vermin. Chipp turned back around to see what was next. Venom ... did know where he was going next, right? Something about looking for Landel... wait, wait a minute.

"Wait, how do you know he's out here an-"

Before Chipp could say anything else, he was promptly divebombed by something big, feathery and nasty.

[ from here ]

The cafeteria was no different then the Sun Room, with the feeling of predators already lurking in the shadows to get the jump on unsuspecting victims. It only took a moment for Chipp to locate a door as he veered to the right on instinct. It was a good choice, because he swore he heard the crunch of bone as something made impact on the wall they were just a second ago. If Chipp were alone, he might have wanted to turn (and possibly laugh), but with Venom in tow, he was quick to just head right for the door.

It wasn't that Chipp had no faith that he and Venom wouldn't be able to take on a few (or a hundred) monsters, but they had bigger fish to fry. Much bigger fish.

"Damnit!" Yet another creature attempted to strike at them, Chipp veering to the left and making a wide turn until he crashed through the door. What was that, a ... a thing? He thought he saw hands, human hands and a mouth, but it too only made a crunch against the floor when it missed.

Screw this shit! Chipp didn't even hesitate when approaching the door, literally crashing into it with his shoulder to throw it open as they escaped into the Courtyard.

[ to here ]

[ from here ]

While the Sun Room was a familiar sight for Chipp, he realized (not as quickly as he ran) that he didn't even know where this Courtyard was. Wasn't the room ahead the Cafeteria? If so, then one of the other doors... Which Chipp didn't even remember going through, even though he thought one of them was that room with the weird games and shit. Wait, so where exactly were they going again?

Even Chipp couldn't justify just running ahead without at least knowing where he was supposed to be, if only because he happened to be traveling with someone who did know, so he managed to hit the metaphorical brakes and skidded to a halt in the middle of the Sun Room, mercifully keeping a hold on Venom's arm so his "colleague's" momentum wouldn't cause him to crash into one of the couches.

"So, uh... Where's this courtyard?"

In retrospect, it might have been better to ask this question before he started running his ass off into places unknown. Even Chipp could vaguely tell that he may have been a little too hasty in his actions. Maybe. Well, whatever, it was only going to be a moment before they could start moving again, right?! Nothing wrong with doublechecking the plan!

[from here]

Kirk ran into the main hallway and found nothing there except more pink light coating everything. His gut feeling said that if something was happening, it should've happened already, but he was a loss to explain what was going on. The system (if he could call it that, vague as it was to describe the whole Landel's torture/experimentation assembly line) had broken down at least once already, on that night when I.R.I.S. had first(?) appeared, and the whole of the building flickered like a malfunctioning hologram. Was that what the glowing cover was for? To prevent... he didn't know. Something. Something bad enough to warrant a Code Red.

(What had killed that creature?)

Waiting around here was already bad enough on normal nights, what with it being an open space with high traffic, but he'd picked it because it was the quickest and most obvious meeting place for all of them. Now with the whole area lit up like the inside of a strip club, Kirk was starting to feel like a lone piece of meat wrapped in a gold ribbon and tossed out for the wolves. He made a face for a second as he considered the unfortunate implication of mixing those similes, then decided that the dumb thoughts which crossed his mind ranked considerably lower in priority than, you know, paying attention to his surroundings and not getting himself killed.

Kirk swung the lead pipe in his hand once, just to focus, and shook his head as pain rippled out from the still-healing gunshot wound on his right arm. Take it easy, Jim, he admonished himself silently. It was still early in the night. Someone would be along shortly. And if not... he was giving his crew one minute. One minute, and then screw it, he was tracking down everyone himself.

[KIRK TO ENTERPRISE]

[from here]

Just like last night, Vino turned the bend to find that he was first in the main hallway again. He couldn't decide if he preferred it or not. Patience wasn't his favorite virtue, but he supposed he'd have to wait. The two meeting places he would have to be at were right next to each other, right? So that was fine. If he had to wait a while, perhaps he could do some hunting while he was at it.

Vino waited, but tonight, his patience was wearing thinner at a faster rate. He didn't settle on leaning against a wall to wait. He paced, swinging the railing all the while. It was still bloodied from the night before. In his excitement, he'd quite forgotten his intention of stopping by a restroom and cleaning the thing off. Obviously, there were more important things he could be doing. In his mind, there was no time for anything else.

He was impatient. I wanted to be somewhere, he wanted to see everything, he wanted to explore, to experience, to hunt, to destroy--

But all in good time. Tonight was his night. Every night was his night. He owned all this. All of it. It would be fine if he bode his time. He had all the time in the world. He controlled it.

The shadows whispered and scratched. And Vino listened and watched. But stayed where he was for the time being. For the time being.

[Neku]

[Coming from here.]


Daemon glided out into the wider corridor and paused for a moment, letting Renji join him, taking a moment to probe the shadows with his senses, looking for anything out of the norm. There was a tingle down his spine, the sensation of being watched, though he couldn't find its exact location, just the knowledge that it was there. He paused, debating on whether it was worth the effort of searching out, or leaving it to others while he and Renji kept heading for the stairs. He could see them from here, the door illuminated by his witchlight just off to his right.

He waited for Renji to join him, figuring the Shinigami would want a say.

"There are things moving in the shadows," he murmured to the redhead as the male moved out from the corridor behind him. Daemon didn't look at all disturbed by this statement, floating a few inches above the ground with a relaxed grace that was utterly foreign for their situation. Looking almost bored, he studied his black-tinted nails with a sleepy, hooded gaze.

Code Red. Initiate—

The sudden sensation hit Riku hard. Just as he stood up to grab his sword in preparation, the power overwhelmed him and made his knees buckle fast. What was happening? It wasn't right. The feeling of this place had never been this intense before, and the stinging in his leg was still there. That feeling wasn't one he was unfamiliar with. Before, it was a faint stench—always there and unavoidable, but now—now he wasn't so sure. His fingers curled as he drew in sharp breaths and dealt with the overwhelming Darkness of this place. He always thought it was strange, how muted and subdued it was, and now it was like it was right there, swallowng him whole—

Focus.

He blinked through it. After all he'd been through, he couldn't let a little Darkness stop him. But it was strange. Though the pain in his leg remained, mere seconds before that all hit, it was stinging a lot more, and now it was fading. At his fingertips, he felt stronger, at peace with himself. Just beyond, he could feel his keyblade right there. That wasn't normal, because usually, he couldn't summon it unless something was about to stab him. That was what happened last time, anyway.

He looked down at his hands in askance, and thought fast. This place had limitations, but right now—

A smirk covered his lips as he held out his hand, and bright light swirled around it. A moment later, his keyblade appeared. Just like that. "Guess it's not all bad." Whatever happened, he was glad for this place's Darkness, at least for this. It meant he got his power back. It was just too bad he really had to smell this place while he did it. In a way, the intensity would disrupt a lot of his action tonight, but he wasn't someone who would let himself be held back that easily. Riku unsummoned his keyblade and stored away the short sword he won. Things would be a lot easier tonight.

But there was one more thing to check. Riku hesitated, remembering his fatigue from before, and then he cast cure on himself. It wasn't too surprising when he felt fine right after. In fact, he felt invincible.

It probably wasn't good to think that, though. He knew that much. Invincibility could only get him so far, but maybe—maybe "so far" wasn't that bad. Riku grabbed his flashlight and stepped outside.

[for Sora ... and Venom]

Guy's head was still spinning from finding out that his friend was back once again. He realized that he'd done a good job of keeping his cool while explaining everything to Luke, mainly because nothing would have been solved if both of them had been reeling, but...

What exactly was he going to do now? Tear and Natalia being excluded from the basement group was one thing, but Guy felt a duty to Luke that he was going to have a difficult time divorcing himself from. He realized he wasn't really Luke's servant anymore (Luke had said so himself), but with how often Luke had left this place only to return again, how could he not feel as if he needed to keep an eye on him?

Granted, it was something that they could split up among their whole group. Luke wasn't going to like the idea of being babysat, but Guy didn't know if he was comfortable with anything else. Tear and Natalia could stick with him when he headed off with Claude and Anise, but getting all of that information transmitted in the small time left before night came seemed impossible. In any case, if he made it sound more subtle -- like they were all just taking care to stick together -- then Luke would probably accept it.

The soldiers forced them apart when lunch ended, however, meaning that Guy's only option was to put up a bulletin notice and hope that things worked themselves out that way. He was pretty sure Claude still had an extra sword for Luke, so that was one weight off of his shoulders at the least. But he really didn't want Luke going off on his own at night, so any chance of preventing that was his priority.

Once a note had been posted, Guy finally agreed to go into the Game Room with most of the patients. He realized he had the ability to wander elsewhere, but it seemed pointless when there were barely any others who had the same privileges. Still, he couldn't help thinking of Sai; he still needed to track the man down at some point.

Upon entering the room and finding that it was still relatively empty, Guy started to wander in search of anything interesting to play. He could always check out one of those portable game systems again.

[For Edgar.]

By the time lunch rolled around, things still weren't getting any better. The voices hadn't gone away; instead, Firo was pretty sure they were getting more frequent. Ennis had been silent since last night, but Czes's voice had been an insistent buzz in his ear all morning.

He'd spent the morning alone, trying to ignore any cutting remarks from a boy who wasn't there as he puzzled through things. Were the drugs responsible after all? A note on the bulletin had confirmed that someone else who'd been forced into the trial had been hearing things too, but Hakkai...

The call for lunch had been welcome; the day was barely half over, and Firo was already feeling exhausted. At this rate, maybe it would be best to just wait it out instead of trying to figure out what was causing it. If it was the drug, it should wear off after a while.

He accepted his gruel quietly, looking it over as he headed across the cafeteria—Hakkai had said it looked spoiled, but he couldn't tell any difference from what they'd served morning, noon, and night every day. Maybe the man was still seeing things after all, or maybe he was the one seeing things. It could have been bad and only looked alright. Or maybe it was just the color after all...

As took a seat, a new voice called out to him: "There's no point in you trying to figure it out, Firo. You're a real idiot, you know?"

Firo scowled. "I don't want to hear that from you, Berga," he growled under his breath.

[For Peter Petrelli ;_;]

Erika stood back to survey her work, and she had no idea why no one seemed to care.

By 'no one', she was referring to the soldiers who were on guard, who should be looking particularly anxious due to the atmosphere of this place. It didn't make sense in her mind. Someone who just took up a large chunk of the middle of the Sun Room to build a blanket fort of all things should have prompted some sort of reaction other then asking what she needed the blankets for. In the center of the room, a couch and several chairs had been stolen from the tables to make more "support" for the blanket to stretch across both. In fact, Erika was finishing up preparations for another layer of blankets to be laid out and still, she got no reaction from the soldiers. At least, not any reaction that matched with her expectations. A lack of a reaction was still a reaction, but not the one she was expecting.

Why was she going out of her way to antagonize her captors in the first place? In truth, it was because Erika was hoping to stir up some drama and suspicion after the military was stupid enough to make it blatantly obvious that they were in a tough situation regarding their little traitor. But perhaps Erika overestimated just how serious the situation was. Even so, she seemed outright disappointed and grumbled quietly to herself as she started to lay out the second blanket after stacking some more chairs up to make another wall.

"What a waste. All of this trouble and no one even wants to look at it," The ex-detective grumbled to herself, but she didn't bother dismantling what she already put up. No, it seemed more like Erika was determined to ruin someone's day and if she could annoy some people by making it more difficult to find a place to sit, then it was all the better for her. After setting the blanket in place, Erika watched the fabric settle for a moment before scowling and crawling underneath the fabric, poking her head out from underneath and glancing around again to be met with no reaction whatsoever.

Why did no one care?!

[ hay Sync it's time for a secret evil league of evil meeting get in here. ]

Billy surfaced into wakefulness. Sleep receded like an inky tide, and it didn't say anything to him before it was gone. His dreams had been nothing but the sensation of water, rocking him restlessly in his bottle. There seemed to be an ocean beyond his confines, but he couldn't see it and couldn't reach it. He pawed at the glass, but any progress he'd made had been washed out of his memory.

He tried not to be disturbed by the deja vu, but it wasn't the sort of thing one was in full control of. And yet, his heart didn't race. His nose didn't bleed. His hands were shaking, but with a different tenor than the last time he had concentrated on them. Everything felt still, and whole, and maybe not right, but for the first time in weeks Billy breathed without trouble. There was no weight of a terrified, dying universe crawling over his shoulders and clamoring for attention. He laid there in bed for a long time. Victory. Not his victory, but someone else's, and that was good enough. He hadn't needed to be the one who saved it, he was just doing what he had to. Truthfully, he was glad to have not seen it. There was a lot Billy wished he hadn't seen.

He couldn't bring himself to react much to the fact that he was still here. Billy glanced around a couple times, vision blurred without his glasses, but saw that the room was basically the same. This time lit up, of course, although it didn't help him to gather many precise details. He would have almost said his aimless adventure with Captain Kirk during the night had been a dream, but it was all wrong, thematically speaking. Maybe if Kirk had been a squid dressed in gold lamé, he'd believe it. It really didn't matter what his dreams meant anymore, though.

( Kraken spoiler cut for those who mentioned wanting to read it. )

Any further thoughts were interrupted by a soldier he hadn't noticed entering.

"Get dressed."

Billy stared at the military blues from the night before. Clean and fresh, no sign of any blood, not that he'd been the one injured. There was even a little hat that he had missed the night before. He was going to look ridiculous, he could feel it.

"I think you'll probably find I'm not actually registered here," he tried to tell the guard, who was not impressed by Billy's claim. The soldier wasn't even moved by Billy pointing out that the dog tags didn't have his name on them. (Frederick Aldrich? An eerie coincidence that made Billy quietly comply with demands for a few minutes.) The man spoke in nothing but orders, which were easy to follow when you weren't particularly attached to any final aim. Billy was listless. Flotsam and jetsam. Getting back to London was an eventual goal, but he'd put in a call to someone later, and go back to whatever. His life, he supposed. He was already exasperated by the taciturn and far too serious military man. Once upon a time he would have wanted to gain purchase with him through inoffensive smiles and falsely friendly comments. Today, he could only give the man a tired look and equally brusque answers that didn't hide his irritation. Did he really look young enough to be pressed into a military academy?

He was led down cleaner versions of the hallways he had seen the night before, and into a large cafeteria, basically devoid of anyone beside himself and the assembled guards. Billy uncomfortably found a seat, and took a few seconds to just hide his face in his hands and block everything else out. The tray he had been given was immediately forgotten, just to the side of him, and he blamed his turning stomach on the adrenaline that was still working its way out of his system. It was so fantastically quiet in the large room, he wanted to drown in it. He only peered through his fingers when someone else in powder blue passed close to his table.

[For Castiel.]