Night 52: F11-F20 Hallway

[lookitmemama]

Asuka had almost missed the eerie, parting words of the head doctor as she hustled around her room. Everything had been eaten so she would have plenty of energy to burn all night. Her roommate never returned to the room, which was more than fine with Asuka. It gave her free reign to bustle around their compact prison cell, grabbing her baseball bat

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[avengingfists]

She stopped in the middle of her routine and listened. Ilia wasn't sure if that knock was imagined or real until she heard a little voice from beyond her door. She shouldn't have been surprised and yet she was. Anise. She hadn't expected the girl to come this night. If anything, she expected Anise might have taken her note just to be polite. She seemed capable and sure of herself. But Ilia had meant what she had written; if Anise ever needed her, she would help.

"Coming!" Ilia moved quickly to the door, opened it, then stepped to the side to let the younger girl in. She also took a quick glance about the darkened hallway, but she couldn't see if Anise was being followed or had brought any friends.

She gave Anise a reassuring smile. If the guardian had come here instead of running off on her own or with friends tonight then something was probably wrong. Or maybe she just needed help with redressing her bandages. Her wound was located on her shoulder, which could be awkward to redress on her own. But Ilia wasn't going to assume anything. "Anything I can help you with tonight, Anise?"

[gald_digger]

Looked like Ilia was still in her room after all. Anise thought she might have gone out for something, but here she was. She met the woman's smile with a somewhat uncertain look, glanced over her shoulder just in case Tear ended up coming down the hallway after all, then took Ilia's unspoken invitation and stepped inside the room.

"Um... How's your leg doing?" she decided to ask first, evading Ilia's question for the moment. Anise still felt bad about coming to Ilia for this, so if it turned out Ilia wasn't in good enough shape to go out, Anise could act as though she was just visiting to check on her. Then she could just leave without making Ilia worry, and she could go look for Tear by herself. It wouldn't be the safest option for her, but it would be better than putting an injured friend in danger.

[avengingfists]

Anise was preoccupied tonight. That alone was enough to convince Ilia that something really was wrong and this wasn't just a courteous visit. And the way she sidestepped Ilia's question showed she was a little uncomfortable with this. Maybe she had overstepped in assuming this girl trusted her as much as she had led herself to believe.

"I'm doing pretty good, considering," Ilia replied with a shrug. "I can walk, I can fight. I can probably run, but not indefinitely. I'm just a little sore, mostly." Anise had gotten the brunt of the attack, and Ilia still felt a bit guilty about that. Nothing she could do about it now, but she hoped her raised awareness of the true danger of this place would make up for it in time.

"How about your shoulder?" Once again, she felt compelled to ask if Anise wanted help changing her bandages, but she didn't want to push in where she wasn't needed. If Anise was just in for a visit, she wouldn't want to make this any more awkward than it already felt.

[gald_digger]

It was good to hear that Ilia was doing okay, but it meant that Anise now had to decide whether she was going to ask for help... and how to breach the subject.

"It's okay! Still hurts a little, but it's healing," she somewhat hastily replied to Ilia's question. Really, Anise wasn't sure what she was going to do if she had to use her weapon tonight. Her arm didn't have much strength in it, and too much stress could aggravate the wound. She couldn't afford to worry only about herself, though. Tear could be in serious trouble!

Right... it was because Tear was in trouble, and because Anise couldn't rely on her own strength tonight that she had to say something.

"Actually... I was supposed to meet another friend tonight," she finally admitted to Ilia. "But she never showed up. I talked to her just before dinner, so... I think something must have happened to her." Either experiments or special counseling. When was the last day they did experiments? If Anise could remember, she could narrow down the places that Tear could be. Right now, however, her mind was still in a bit of a panic, and it was hard to recall the last few days as clearly as she needed to.

[avengingfists]

"That's good..." She still wasn't sure to think of Anise's hesitancy. She wasn't her usual cheerful self.

And then they finally got to the crux of the matter. If her friend was in trouble, then why hadn't she mentioned that in the first place? Because not everyone here could be trusted? Anise has said so herself that some of the patients were also willing to attack others, but she also had held no qualms the night before about traveling with Ilia. Maybe it was actually because Ilia had let her down. They hadn't been able to really talk much longer after the attack, so Ilia wasn't sure if Anise had really been incredibly disappointed with her performance. But, here she was now. She still hadn't outright asked for Ilia's help, but she seemed to be hinting at it. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on Ilia's part.

"A friend?" Ilia's thoughts immediately turned to Guy. Was he the one she was worried about? But no, Anise specified it was a 'she' shortly after. So, it was probably someone Ilia hadn't met yet. "You mean, like the special counseling treatments or something?" There were certainly many reasons for worry here. This place was despicable.

"Anise, if something really has happened to your friend, then we need to do something about it." Even if she wasn't wanted along, the least Ilia could do was let Anise know she was willing to help.

[gald_digger]

Anise nodded to each of Ilia's questions, feeling as if a knot had formed in her throat, mostly from worrying over what could be happening to Tear as they spoke. But then Ilia said 'we', offering to go with her, and the panic subsided for a moment. With Ilia's help, she had the means to go look for Tear now. All she needed was to decide where to start searching...

"R-right! If she disappeared this suddenly, they probably took her for special counseling or experiments," she explained quickly, her mind still racing to figure out which it could be. "But... that's a lot of places to check. Where would we even start...?"

Experiments happened every two nights, so if she could remember when the last ones were, she could figure out whether they were happening tonight or not. After several seconds of desperately running the last couple days through her mind, Anise's last conversation with Guy came to mind, and she suddenly remembered how he'd let slip that Claude was taken. When his eyes got messed up, that had to be... three nights ago? Then that meant...!

"--Wait, they aren't doing experiments tonight," she said suddenly, her gaze shooting up to meet Ilia's, a look of urgency in her eyes. "That leaves special counseling. If... if we find her, we might be able to stop her from hurting anyone."

With that decided, the girl stepped outside the room, but as soon as she was in the hall, she stopped. "Oh, and I should leave a note in case she ends up coming after all. My room's just two doors down." Anise pointed her mallet in the direction of F-14. She hoped it would turn out that she was wrong and Tear had just fallen asleep or gotten delayed, but Anise knew better than to bet on the best case scenario.

[avengingfists]

From the quick way she was talking, Ilia realized Anise was much more panicked than she was letting on. Whichever friend it was that she was meeting tonight, it was someone she cared a lot about. The scientist also noticed the telltale 'we' Anise also added to her statements, which removed all doubt from her mind. She needed to help the guardian tonight.

"Yes, if we can stop her first, we might be able to save her a lot of trouble later," Ilia agreed. She wasn't sure whether the brainwashing or torture would be a worse fate, but either way it they were needed out there to protect Anise's friend, as well as the other patients.

She didn't want to waste any more time. Grabbing up her flashlight from the desk, she started out to the door and down the hall as Anise indicated.

[and moving down a thread to here]