Nightshift 26: F-Block Hallway

[haiiro_no_chou]

[From here.]

Shining the flashlight around the corner, Rukia didn't see any other patients around, which was fine with her at the moment. She wanted to get to Colonel Mustang quickly, and hopefully Renji wouldn't take too long to meet her...

Jogging along quietly, she continued on.

Comments

[icy_pole]

[From here]

As she stepped into the second, larger hallway, Ami nervously noticed that she seemed to be one of the only people wandering around. Maybe I should have just stayed in my room? Panic started to build up but she forced it down. Don't be silly! she scolded herself mentally. You're a sailor senshi and you've faced a lot worse than dark, empty corridors. Steeling herself once more, Ami waited close to the hallway she had just stepped out from for Usagi to appear. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she kept the flashlight off, and listened.

[Waiting for Usagi]

[moon_brained]

Usagi entered the hallway and looked around. There were only a few other people moving around, so it only took a second for her eyes to adjust and settle on Ami. After two nights without her friends it was weird to see one standing in the dark hallway, but that didn't mean she wasn't glad for it.

"Ami!" Usagi called out as quietly as she could as she jogged over to her friend, this time without falling on her face. Ami had said they would be meeting up with other people, but Usagi wished they had more time to talk alone.

[icy_pole]

Ami kept a sharp eye out as a couple of people trickled past before she heard a familiar voice calling her name. Two blonde meatballs were coming towards her out of the dark, and Ami had to smile. Typical Usagi, running late.

"Usagi!" Ami greeted her best friend, even more glad that the one person she was in here with was Usagi. "I'm glad we have a chance to talk before we meet up with everyone else," she whispered, so as not to be overheard. "Please tell me you have your crystal to change?" Ami had the horrible feeling she knew what Usagi was going to say.

[moon_brained]

"I don't..." Usagi replied reluctantly, her shoulders drooping. Ami was probably counting on her to still have some of her power, but she was going to be let down.

"I mean, I don't have it physically... but I don't think the doctors have it either. I met someone else who said he shouldn't be able to survive without his power. I would be dead or at least unconscious by now... so maybe it's back inside me?" That made the most sense, and a power block wasn't nearly as bad as someone else having the crystal.

[icy_pole]

Ami heard Usagi's feelings of disappointment in her voice and quickly sought to reassure her, knowing how seriously she took her role as the leader of the senshi. "It sounds like everyone's powers or weapons have been taken," Ami said comfortingly. "So we'll just have to make do without being able to transform. I know you asked me before if everything was...normal...back home. We didn't get a chance to talk about it before, but by any chance do you remember Queen Nehelenia?"

This was the big question. Was this Usagi the best friend Ami knew, or a stranger from a different world?

[moon_brained]

"Eh? Of course I do..."

Usagi remembered Ami asking that question during lunch but the shift had ended before they could continue the conversation. "We defeated her and the rest of the Dead Moon the day before I was brought here. Did something go wrong?" The Dead Moon illusions were hard to break through, but Usagi was sure that they were gone for good.

But what if they weren't? It was a slim chance, but Usagi had been gone for three days now and without the crystal's power protecting Earth who knows what could have gone wrong? With that thought in mind she braced herself for whatever Ami would say next.

[icy_pole]

Oh dear. Not good. Obviously this Usagi had been taken from a different time than Ami, or she was from a different dimension. Ami knew she was treading on dangerous ground now. Anything she said could force the threads of time to shift and change, possibly for the worst. She sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Usagi, I don't think we were taken from the same time period," Ami broke the news gently. This was going to be hard to explain. "I can't really tell you too much about what is happening in my timeline because I'm afraid that it could drastically change the future." Ami closed her eyes, deep in thought. "All I can say is that I'm beyond the time period that you are from...but not by much." That was about as much as Ami could reveal without completely ruining the future.

[moon_brained]

"... what?!" Finding out there was another world where some floozy was giving out her secret identity for a TV show was bad enough! The distant future was one thing... now these jerks at Landel's were taking her friends from closer timelines just to confuse her?!

"Are you sure you can't tell me?" She asked, clutching her flashlight. The idea that something very bad could be happening in her immediate future was frightening. "Pluto and Neo-Queen Serenity broke those rules about time and nothing bad happened!"

[icy_pole]

Ami knew that any information she could give Usagi regarding the new fight with Nehelenia could be vital, but was just as afraid of corrupting the time/space continuum. "I'm so sorry Usagi. I really want to tell you what's happening, but I really can't." Ami gnawed at her bottom lip in worry. She didn't want this version of Usagi to worry about what was happening to her future self.

She tried to comfort her best friend. "Unfortunately Pluto and Neo-Queen Serenity had more of an idea of what would happen if they did break the rules," she said, sorrowfully. "But all I can say Usagi, is that in the time I am from, you are even more powerful than ever, and I have no doubt that your future self is strong enough to overcome the toughest of obstacles." Ami smiled encouragingly. "You just have to believe in yourself."

[moon_brained]

Usagi let out a deep sigh. No amount of pleading would get Ami to give up important information about the future, but that didn't make it any less frustrating. It wasn't fair that her friends kept having to go through fight after fight with no relief. Usagi needed to be strong to protect them, but the constant barrage of enemy attacks was beginning to take its toll on her heart.

She smiled at Ami's encouraging words, not wanting her friend to know how depressed the news about the future had made her. "Then I guess we should be more worried about getting out of here."

[icy_pole]

Ami let out a small sigh of relief, glad that Usagi seemed to have cheered up at her words. Maybe even the small amount of information Usagi had gleaned from her would be enough to help her in the upcoming battle. That's IF we get out of here, Ami thought. What if they were stuck in here until they disappeared or died? Or if more of the senshi became stuck in here? Face it, you're useless without your change rod. You'll just be a burden.... A feeling of dread started to wash over her, and Ami struggled to pushed it back. "There's something wrong..." she murmured, looking around in the gloom. "The air feels....heavy." She wondered if Usagi could feel it too. Mentally shaking herself, Ami's blue eyes caught Usagi's again, remembering there was one very important thing she wanted to tell Usagi.

"Usagi," she said in a low voice. "Kunzite is in Landel's too."

[moon_brained]

Usagi looked at Ami with concern and tried to sense what her friend was feeling. To her there was always a heaviness and confinement to the air of Landel's. Was Ami sensing some danger headed their way? She looked around the hall as a shiver ran down her spine.

Ami's next sentence caught Usagi off guard. Mamoru had the four stones of the generals and she knew that he could consult them in times of danger, but they had lost their physical forms. He trusted them, but if Landel's could take Ami from the future, it could take Kunzite from a time when he was still brainwashed by Beryl.

"Do you think he will help us?"

[icy_pole]

Help us? That would be incredibly unlikely, given that we destroyed him...unless something else happened in Usagi's timeline. Ami sighed again. This was getting really complicated.

"Somehow I don't think so," she murmured, her thoughts returning to what happened the previous night. "There was something...ominous...about his presence." She looked back to Usagi. "But then, this place has been full of surprises." Realising they had been talking for some time, and that thre were people waiting for them, Ami thought it was probably time they made a move.

"We should probably go meet the other three," she said matter-of-factly, smiling at Usagi. "They should be waiting just outside this hallway."

Ami turned to lead the way to the designated meeting place.

[Leading to here]

[moon_brained]

Usagi nodded to Ami and followed, not wanting to hold up the other people they were meeting. What she said about Kunzite was troubling, but she'd worry about that when it came up.

[To here.]