Nightshift 27: M12

[bond_off_lame]

If anyone had been waiting outside M12’s door they would’ve been sorely disappointed to find out that the entire room was unoccupied. However, there seemed to be several slips of paper poking from underneath the door, all conveying the same message just in case someone decided to take one for any reason. If they choose to pull one of the slips out

Comments

[heavens_too_far]

It was with some relief that, for the first time in several nights, Dias was able to step out of his room without a sling around his neck holding up his arm. His shoulder was - inexplicably, given the severity of the injury - healed up to the point where it was once again relatively usable and the wound unlikely to reopen, and he seemed to have regained enough of the feeling in his arm to be functional; apparently whatever nerve damage he'd sustained had been temporary. Whatever the case, his arm was usable again, and he could once again wield his sword with a semblance of his usual skill

[full_score]

((From here. ))

Claude moved swiftly through the dark, his flashlight beam illuminating his path. With a furrowed eyebrow, he couldn't help but think he'd need to be careful with his only light source in the future. He doubted the batteries were built to last forever. Maybe he could share with Dias or one of the others once they'd set out. He doubted anyone would object, considering it was the practical thing to do.

But first he needed to stop by Ashton's room. He was very grateful to have the opportunity to wield a sword for the night, and yet he couldn't take too much pleasure from it. After all, the only reason he was getting to use it was because his friend had been so injured the night before. There was nothing worse for a swordsman than losing the use of something so important. He knew if he were in Ashton's shoes, he'd be terribly frustrated.

I'll have to cheer him up somehow before leaving, the blond told himself. The drawing he'd made earlier that day was tucked in the pages of notebook. Maybe he could give that

[heavens_too_far]

Dias had deliberately detached himself from his surroundings and the world around him; despite the danger inattention presented, it had been pretty much the only way he could keep himself sitting still, knowing his friend had been taken and was having who knew what being done to him while he waited. It was something like a self-induced fugue state, a technique he'd learned out of necessity in the hours he'd lain waiting to die after the bandit attack. Some things simply could not be thought

[full_score]

Claude was relieved Dias had heard him. He didn't really want to go over and try to shake the taller man out of his thoughts. But the relief was short-lived. He's been taken for experimentation, Dias had said, and the blond's heart almost stopped.

Ashton...taken for experimentation...

"Those bastards!" he hissed suddenly, his grip tightening almost painfully around his flashlight. "Why Ashton? Why him?! He can't even walk properly. He didn't even have a fighting chance!" As soon as he found out who took him, Claude wasn't going to let anyone escape. It was bad enough that they'd all been brought here in the first place, but to take one of their own and torture him

[heraldric]

[please to be ignoring the actual wording of the post leading here - he didn't knock]
[from here]

Leon came rushing into the room at that point, expression curious as he hadn't expected the door to be open when he arrived. The words Hey, I'm here! were on his lips, but never made it out as he stared at the two men who'd made it before him. He hadn't expected to see both Claude and Dias there, either.

"Big brother?" he asked hesitantly. "Dias? Where's Ashton? He... asked me to come see him tonight..." he trailed off, taking in their unhappy expressions. "Did he go out somewhere? He wasn't well enough to go out, was he..?"

Ashton was wheelchair bound. That was the whole reason he'd asked him to come see him in his room anyway. The boy couldn't think of any reason he'd left - unless he'd been forced to leave. The thought caused Leon's heart to drop to his slippered feet.

"Has he been taken somewhere?"

[heavens_too_far]

Claude's outburst of the obvious earned him a condescending look through narrowed eyes from Dias; yes, it was all true, but standing around and ranting about something they were both well aware of wasn't getting them anywhere and it certainly wasn't helping Ashton. Fortunately, Claude shook himself out of it after a moment, precluding a growl from Dias about more effective ways to use his time

[full_score]

Claude wasn't entirely surprised when Leon suddenly arrived, and he looked over at the boy with a soft frown. "What Dias says is true," the blond added. "With every second we waste, something awful is happening to Ashton. But we need all the help we can get, so..." Claude had a feeling Leon would want to come along. Ashton was his friend as much as he was any of theirs, after all, timeline difference or not.

"If you're coming, we need to head out now." Claude situated the sword into his belt and made his way towards the door. "It'll be dangerous, but Ashton is depending on us."

He had faith in Leon's abilities anyway. He wasn't like ordinary kids by any means, and it made Claude feel a little better that they were going out as a team instead of separately. Even Dias looked like he was going to cooperate with them, which, for Claude, was a miracle in of itself.

[heraldric]

"Experimen...." Leon's eyes widened, and he bit his lower lip to stop it quivering. The idea of Ashton being taken away to be used in some sort of science experiment was horrific. He felt his heart drop nearly to his slippered feet. As a scientist himself, even working on animals had never sat right with him. How could they do that to Ashton?

"Of course I'm coming", he half-whispered. He yanked his journal from his pants, snatching it tight as if he might need it any moment. "Let's go, then! We've gotta save him!"

Even if there was hardly anything he could do.

[heavens_too_far]

"No one suggested waiting," Dias growled. More useless statements of the obvious; Claude and Leon both were reiterating the need for haste as if they all weren't perfectly well aware of the necessity already. If anything, their chatter was wasting the very time that they were declaring so precious. "So move." He swept past Claude and only narrowly missed bowling Leon right over on his way out the door, heading for the nearest set of stairs he could think of. Axel's note hadn't actually detailed where on the second floor the experimentation rooms were, but the sooner they got there the sooner they could look for them.

[Moving to here, unless anyone has any objections~]