Day 57: Waiting Room / Lobby 1

[oneman_onekill]

Somehow, he'd managed to eat all of his food, and grudgingly, Niikura had to admit that he felt a lot better after brunch. That pink stuff tasted like crap, but it did its job, which was to keep him alive. Still...what did he have to do around here to get some food, short of raiding the kitchen at night? Not that he couldn't do that, it was just

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[thestormishere]

Through use of the 'bulletin board,' Lightning had already heard about this deal where those who had been held before were 'released' and then made to think they were actually the person behind the odd fake names assigned to everyone. In hearing that obvious recording and then witnessing the dance taking place to escort chosen prisoners towards the front of the building, it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that this is what her mysterious conversation partner had been referring to.

How much that was going to help her, however, once brunch had fizzled to its end and she got the rather unpleasant surprise of being singled out herself... remained to be seen, of course.

Problem was, her primary-- no, sole goal for the time being was still unfinished. Continuing to fire narrow-eyed glances over her shoulders, she only went along half out of pure spiteful curiosity. Who would 'visit' her, anyway? The only people she knew in this place happened to be Snow and Hope...

...

Both whom she hadn't seen since the day before. And on second thought, there was also Gambit, who had apparently gone and disappeared without a word several days earlier as well. But-- surely not...?

Lightning shook her head then, agitated. She reminded herself that she couldn't get caught up in what-ifs when she didn't even know the facts. It was one thing to take stock of what you had and try to prepare for the potential future, but another entirely to let those thoughts overwhelm and paralyze. Whatever was going on here? She would just have to face it head-on.

Or so she told herself as she stood stiffly, refusing to move much further than a few steps inside the doorway, eying the people there with prominent suspicion.

[damned_visitors]

Between school and work, it hadn't been easy planning this trip. A legal guardian would have made arrangements simpler, but her circumstances had forced Adela to take legal and fiscal responsibility for herself. As such, there existed no one to turn to for assistance, and consequently, a lot of time and money was spent for the young woman to afford a Sunday's outing to Landel's Institute.

This visit, however, was essential in Adela's mind. Any sacrifices hardly made an impact when she considered the person she would eventually meet with. Elysia might have changed, but the woman was still her sister. Her only family--someone loved and held dear. Studying for finals or losing hours at work for a trip she could barely afford was nothing in comparison to being a presence in a sibling's life. Even if Elysia no longer recognized her sister for who she was...

"Adela?" The receptionist called out, gesturing to the door to the lobby. "Your sister is ready to see you."

She followed the woman to the next room, not wasting precious moments fretting about her appearance or how Elysia would react. That was how the girl saw her instantly, standing at the other side and looking as though she wasn't pleased with her surroundings. It was familiar, enough for desperation to well up in Adela's chest. "Elysia!" she cried out before rushing over to embrace her big sister.

[thestormishere]

For all intents and purposes, whoever was in charge of arranging this meeting may as well have sent an unstoppable tsunami after the former soldier; there was no way they could have caught her off-guard as thoroughly as through the act of sending her little sister to her. Eyes wide, mouth open, as soon as Lightning saw her, heard her voice, she utterly froze where she was, completely incapable of dredging up any sort of proper response.

Serah.

But... it was impossible, wasn't it? She was supposed to be back on Cocoon! In crystal! It wasn't plausible at all... and furthermore, saying that name? Even with what seemed like the night-time intercom's static ringing impossible loud in her ears, it still didn't escape Lightning's attention that the girl had called out that fake name, rather than her own.

Yet still she did nothing, too shocked for words but arms lifting up automatically as the girl closed in for an embrace. She felt real - in that moment, if something was wrong here, it sure didn't seem like it.

[damned_visitors]

Elysia appeared shocked to stillness, and the little sister had to wonder. Was her presence such a surprise? "Don't tell me you weren't expecting me," Adela commented, half-teasing and glad all the same. She tightened her hold for a moment, tight enough to feel her sister's heartbeat. "I missed you."

I miss you. Come home.

After a time, she finally released Elysia, casually wiping at her eyes as if nothing was off. A brief glance told her that despite the shock, the elder seemed fine. Calmer, at least, and less like someone wrapped tightly in tension. Still, Adela had to ask: "Are you okay? Have you been...adjusting well?"

[thestormishere]

"I-- Serah, what in the world are you doing here?" Lightning asked suddenly, the words seeming to explode out of her without thought; immediately afterward, her jaw tightened in reaction to her own reply. Honestly, she thought she just wanted to take in the girl's presence, to just start apologizing for all of the things that had been building up ever since that day before the Purge had started- when she'd messed up so thoroughly, pushing Serah away from her, but...

... At the same time, what was going on?! Unfortunately, it didn't take long for a thread of stark uncertainty to start lacing itself around her mind, for the flood of confusion to start being tinged by suspicion. Lightning had good instincts, so she was pretty sure she could tell whether or not she was dealing with her sister or not. Even given the wrong name, the fact that she was here... everything else the l'Cie's senses told her said that this young woman was her little sister.

And that... that was wrong. This place was awful, and this situation didn't make sense at all. Lightning needed an explanation and fast. If Serah was here...?!

[damned_visitors]

The questions she had presented were ignored entirely, and what came in their place edged toward unwanted. Her sister had yet to come down from her shock. Furthermore, Elysia had to use that name, the very one used by...him. Somehow, her sister was still holding onto that delusion. The doctor had warned her that recovery took time and that Elysia might still fall back to the old habits and symptoms, but Adela could not help but be crestfallen.

She had hoped for a measure of improvement. This was far from her criteria.

"I'm here to see you," she said in a small voice. "What other reason would I have?" A part of her wanted to chide the elder for the name, but doing so held the chance of an argument. And the last thing Adela wanted was to provoke stress during the one time they could be together. They each had enough of their own issues to deal with. One more to the pile was not something either would want--of this, she was certain.

[thestormishere]

Lightning's anger suddenly flared- a spark starting in her stomach, then surging through her body like wildfire, clouding her head and burning her limbs until she had to pull her hands back - to avoid grabbing at the girl again in her agitation. To avoid hurting her, if even only unintentionally.

Because part of Lightning wanted to say that this wasn't real at all- that somehow, that it was a trick and the fal'Cie or this military or whatever else was just messing with her. That as fervently as she believed that there was a better option to her sister's crystal being held by the Cavalry back on Cocoon, that she wasn't really here down on Gran Pulse, under the influence of this place, saying things that stung in what they indirectly implied.

She couldn't have thought that it could get much worse after finding Hope here with his head all messed up, but apparently, she had entirely underestimated where things were standing. Confirmation either way for her theories was something she thought she wanted, but seeming to have it handed to her in this way... to mar a reunion that should have been beyond joyous... was terrible.

"Of course," she muttered, furious, confused... and abruptly, completely blank in her demeanor. If Serah was here, then something had gone wrong on Cocoon. And--

'Brainwashed.' They'd brainwashed Serah.

[damned_visitors]

Fury was an element easily read, but the reasons, Adela found, were ambiguous at best. Her sister couldn't be so angry at her visit--perhaps the woman was still upset about her having to stay in the hospital as opposed to the younger's presence. But that itself made no sense when Adela had seen how Elysia had been moments before. Everything seemed to point to Adela being the cause.

If true, how could she handle this? Elysia was (once) the stalwart, dependable rock in their lives. Having her be so quietly distressed like this was almost beyond Adela's comprehension. It was frightening in a sense.

The young woman reached out, a hand aiming to hook into her sister's and give it a shake for attention. "Hey," she said, tone and expression serious. "If there's something wrong--even if it's about me--tell me, okay? You can tell me anything. I'll listen."

[thestormishere]

Lightning was far too preoccupied at the moment to do much else but stare, every beat of her heart seeming to send another wave of an odd, nameless, numbing sensation through her body. She'd hugged the girl already, but now it just felt cheap- like a veneer of dull paint spread over what was already made of something precious. This entire situation? It had entirely robbed her of something that could never really be replaced.

And Lightning's guilt laid on her so heavily at that moment it was like a cape made of stone across her shoulders. If she'd just been like Snow had been when Serah had tried to confide in her back on the day of her birthday... would any of this have happened?

At the touch her eyes, caught facing downward, shot up to the girl's face. And here she was again, ignoring the girl even when she was standing in front of her. But... this was--

It's a hard task to manage really rocking Lightning - even aboard the Palamecia, when their entire view on things had been so thoroughly shattered, she'd still been in control. Stunned, but willing to face forward and keep going. If she hadn't, Serah would remain a crystal forever, and more importantly, their world would thoroughly fall apart, and-- what then? Lightning knew there was no future in store for anyone, if they couldn't figure out some way to throw off the plans of the murderous fal'Cie.

But it was harder to put things in perspective, when the one thing she'd been so adamant in protecting and fighting for was stolen and broken and presented here as some sort of... sick way of either amusing someone in charge here... or for deliberately upsetting her.

It was working. At the realization, Lightning put a hand to her chest, already worried about the Brand laying there already so near its final stage.

"What do you remember?" she asked - in a way demanded, really - though her tone was oddly subdued at the same time. "Where were you, before you came here?"

[damned_visitors]

She appeared to...settle, which could be the beginning signs of another set of negative emotions, but one Adela had to accept nevertheless. A less dumbstruck sibling could be spoken to and understood; the younger could not know what would possibly cause the reaction, but she was not so unobservant to miss that something was terribly wrong. And continued to be as such.

Adela watched Elysia for a long minute, one half of her mind processing the question while the other tried to pick apart the possibilities. There were too many to be something so specific. She finally attempted to smile, as though the query was nothing unusual. That nothing was wrong. She could do this.

"I remember falling asleep on the train and smelling horses," the girl offered with an uneasy humor. She folded her hands at her front. "And you should know I was at school. Don't tell me you forgot already..." Although, Adela would not be surprised if she had, especially given Elysia's current state. "Maybe we better sit down. You look a little ill."

like... a month later......

[thestormishere]

Horses? And school?

"I'd rather stand, Serah." The former soldier's voice was quiet, but she was far too wired to even imagine attempting to take a seat right now. Her hand fell from her chest, wrapping around the other again to press both against her ribcage in a posture that was at once loose and absolutely tense. She was still distantly aware of their surroundings... but they were like a dull buzz in her mind. Her attention was filled completely by the young woman in front of her.

And after a moment, her gaze drifted, to the girl's arm: where her own Brand was-- or had been, before she'd turned to crystal inside the Pulse fal'Cie's Vestige. Of course, she just had to be wearing a blouse with sleeves at the moment... which was in a weird way jarring all on its own. That wasn't really the sort of fashion either Farron girl prescribed to, even in the times Lightning could be convinced to wear something a little more casual than one of her uniforms for work.

"And your Brand?" she asked, but already felt oddly nauseous at the thought of what she was going to receive for an answer. If it was still there, somehow... would Serah even know what it was for?