Nightshift 44: The Coliseum
[Warped in from here.]
When Guy's eyes opened, it was almost as if he was waking up, and yet he knew that wasn't the case; he was standing, with a weapon in his hand, and somehow feeling far more comfortable than he had in weeks.
His gaze was on his feet, and it took him a few seconds to let everything sink in. He was wearing boots. His boots. ( Read more... )
When Guy's eyes opened, it was almost as if he was waking up, and yet he knew that wasn't the case; he was standing, with a weapon in his hand, and somehow feeling far more comfortable than he had in weeks.
His gaze was on his feet, and it took him a few seconds to let everything sink in. He was wearing boots. His boots. ( Read more... )
What the fuck is this?!
Was this what Sync had been chasing after for the past two nights? What he had dragged her to hell and back for? This? What the hell could he possible get out of this aside from being able to start a fight without consequence? Why was it morning now? When did they get here? What was the point to this stupidity?
And who was that bitch?
"I-I don't know where we are," she answered the new-comer in her frightened kitten voice. She really didn't care if Anise knew how she really was - she was the minority there and if she knew what was good for her, it'd stay that way.
What a loser.
But from the looks of things bellow (and... she had no idea how to classify the looks of those things, so she just chalked it up to the paranormal and calmly left it at that), Syncie was giving himself a headstart. Well. At least she knew who she was cheering for.
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There were voices behind her, and Anise whirled around to see Dahlia, and... who was that!?
"Who are we? I should be asking you that! Where did you come from!?" the girl sputtered in surprise at the woman. She was positive that nobody else followed them into that hallway before the door closed behind them. Then again, she wasn't even sure how they got from the hallway to the arena. Maybe the woman came in during the time she blacked out... but it was still kind of suspicious.
"Good evening, patients."
The bewildered, suspicious look vanished from the girl's face in an instant. "It can't be..." Anise looked out across the coliseum once again, eyes searching until they finally zeroed in on a figure emerging from the south end of the room. The man had a face she'd never seen before, but his voice was one she'd never forget. This was the man who made her friends and her family suffer. He was finally showing himself.
"Martin Landel!" she hissed, a look of hatred on her face.
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And here was Celes, all this space and little more than a paring knife at her disposal. "We can discuss that later, child," Celes hissed.
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He looked like one of those handsome little trolls who paraded around drunk at socialite parties, the type of man who flirted with the girls and boasted to the men about his conquests in both women and fortune. He looked like one of those easily duped tools who couldn't tell his bottom from a hole in the ground if you sprinkled enough glitter on it. And more than that? Right now he looked like a mess, no matter how much he smiled and tried to toot his own horn over it.
Funny. She would have thought everyone's mortal enemy would have been easier to figure out than that, but you just couldn't con a conman.
Whatever. If he was going to put on a free show, who was she to deny him? Dollie slouched back into her seat and kept her eyes on Syncie. He was doing such a good job without any prompting!
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Claude started asking questions, which was probably a good thing, since he got them out more intelligibly than Anise probably could. The Guardian was trembling with anger and fear, and she knew that if she talked to the Head Doctor instead, she wouldn't stop until she finished screaming every last one of her complaints to him.
The man gave a response that was fairly typical, going by the way he acted on the intercom. But when he swept his arm upward...
Anise felt a piercing pain in her left shoulder. Just below her collar bone, it felt like something sharp had dug its way deep below her skin. With a gasp, the girl stumbled backwards, her leg catching on one of the seats, making her fall down onto it in a sitting position. Her fingers brushed across the afflicted area, searching for the weapon that was hurting her - a knife, she thought - but there was nothing there. Just a deep wound, and a growing stain of dark red on the front of her shirt.
"What's happening!?" she cried, her voice strained with panic.
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"We're being attacked!" Celes replied and covered the wound with her hand. She had to stop it, she had to keep her wits about her and bloodloss would not help that in the least. What was attacking them, she had no idea, but she did have a clue to the cause. "It's something that fool," she ground out and glared daggers at Landel, "something he must be doing!"
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If any of those fears were real, Marty allayed them. The patient closest to you, huh? So those were the rules? Kill, be killed, or have your sweethearts die in your place? Well, wasn't Dahlia special? She wasn't close to any of these morons and even if Sync counted, he obviously was having a ball with this! Ha! None of those rules applied to her then! All she had to do was sit back and watch while everyone else had all the fun for her.
This could only be better if she had some popcorn on her. And if those moralistic tools down there refused to fight until their girlies here bled to death? All the better; why cast stones upon the birds when the other fowls were doing a fine job of it on their own? Dahlia hid her smile with a hand and she put on her best scaredy-cat face as she kept watching Syncie do his thing. How exciting!
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If the stranger was right, and they were under attack, she wasn't going to take it sitting down. But it wasn't long until the Head Doctor spoke again, explaining the cause of the sudden injury, as well as the rules of his twisted game. So she was hurt because Guy didn't hurt Sync? And that woman was hurt because she was close to one of the others? And Dahlia... Anise took a quick glance behind her, seeing the young woman sitting around in no obvious pain, putting on what could only be another frightened act.
It figured. The few people in the room who deserved to get hurt were completely unharmed.
Damn it! First she was Sync's hostage, and now she was Landel's? Not that Guy really needed the extra incentive to fight Sync, but...
Guy! Anise looked back to the fight just in time to see Guy take a painful-looking hit to the face. That blood all over his chest... Even though she heard what the Head Doctor said, it was only then that it really sunk in. If that bastard got his way, then between Guy, Sync, and herself... one of them would die.
She couldn't accept that. Those couldn't be their only options!
[heading down here for a minute]
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Even if that child was incredibly foolish in attacking him. Celes shrugged off her vest and moved her hand, groaning when she felt the blood pool out. Her fingers were sticky, but it didn't stop her from folding her vest and pressing it against the wound. Three tries. She only had three tries for Cure to work. First the child, then herself, and then...? Celes's eyes strayed to watch Dias and Claude battle.
She wanted to be impressed, she did, but... it was quite a bit difficult to be rapt when one was trying to stop bleeding.
First things first then, she looked at Anise and quitely began her spell.
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She scooted back a little. She had enough room.
But even now, she couldn't lose herself, no matter how much she wanted to taunt Annie, wave some pompoms for Sy-Sweetie, or congratulate Marty on being a withered ring-leader (he at least knew how to throw a party). She just let the tears flow as she watched the spectacle, hands still firmly closed over her mouth in "shock."
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Looking back to the fights, Anise was relieved to see that the metal clanging and clattering wasn't from anybody's sword, but from the shattered mask that Sync wore. That was the only thing she had to be relieved about, though. Both Guy and Sync were covered in blood. At the rate they were going, one of them was going to...
Anise gasped when she saw a familiar purple glow at Guy's chest. That technique... the curse slot? It was hard to be sure from a distance, but she couldn't imagine what else it would be. If Guy was afflicted with one of those, then what was going to happen to him?
The girl was so immersed in watching the duel that she was completely unaware of what the other spectators were doing.
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Warring Triad, please... please... Celes sucked in a harsh breath and cast, "Cure!". The white light that shone from her body and fell upon Anise made her dizzy, bloodloss, you hardly ate, you stupid fool, but she stumbled to the edge of the spectator seats anyway. Watching, watching, watching...
Dias!
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Guy was still up and fighting, but he was in bad shape. Sync was taking a beating too. If this didn't end soon...
Before Anise could complete her thought, she suddenly found herself bathed in light. She released her grip on the rail and took a step back, startled, but she relaxed somewhat when she felt the warmth that came with the spell. It was a healing arte, she realized, though it was different from the ones she was used to. She could feel the soreness leaving her body - in her arms, her shoulders, and her neck...
But not in the wound just below her shoulder. The one that needed healing. Anise pressed her hand against it to see, and sure enough, it hadn't healed even a little bit. The girl winced, then turned her head to face the blonde who was now standing close by.
"It's no good," she said quietly. "There's something weird about these wounds..." Another clatter of metal, louder than before, silenced the girl and forced her to look back to the fights. It wasn't from Guy or Sync, so it had to be...
Claude's opponent. The long-haired man's sword had been thrown aside, and the man himself was...
"...N, no way..."
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"Can he be any more barbaric..." she murmured. Stupid. Dias was stupid for that half-second pause that she knew he should have seen coming. He wasn't some greenhorn with a blade. The Lady General did not weep, or cry out in alarm.
Men died. It was the way of the world.
But this. Yet another man she nearly called friend was gone, and that smarmy, weak bastard in the box was to blame for it. She would kill him. Slowly. Perhaps with a fruit knife, skinning him from the ankles upward. Each wrong, each death, each wound would be paid for in kind, in agonizingly slow detail.
Celes drew in a slow breath to calm her wicked thoughts before answering the girl, "A pity, that. Then there is no point in casting it again."
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On one hand? This was disgusting. It was messy and crude and, really? Dahlia didn't give two shits about who these people were. She didn't know them, aside from Syncy-poo. So when one keeled over by his boyfriend's sword, she just shrugged her shoulders with an little inward "Well, that's life."
On the other? This could mean so many birds out of her way. If she was lucky, the rest of them would kill each other too and she could be the last one standing, whether it be from pure nonattendance or not. So, again, when the guy keeled over and the two whimps next to her continued bleeding out? Dahlia smiled.
Maybe for just a second, an actual laugh left her throat. Haha, whoopsie. She made sure to cover it up with a few sobs and went back to covering her face with her hands. Getting a little too excited there, Dollie...
Ah, what the hell, it didn't matter anyway. What were they gonna do to her, add more to the death count? What a bunch a losers!
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If Anise hadn't gone along with Sync, this wouldn't have happened. If she hadn't bought Dahlia's victim act, nobody would have come here, and nobody would be dying...
From behind her, Anise heard a brief snicker. It was hastily followed up by sobbing, but Anise knew what she heard.
"You...!"
Full of anger and frustration, and only now realizing she had someone nearby to take it out on, Anise whirled around, stomped over to where Dahlia sat, and grabbed her wrist, pulling one of her hands away from her face. "You think this is funny!? This is where all your stupid acting got us!"
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