Night 52: West Wing, North Hall 1-A
[From here.]Even though the hallway seemed especially quiet tonight, Zack wasn't bothered. He was used to moving around in quiet areas on his own, from caverns to wide open fields to shorelines. He didn't get spooked very easily, and if anything, he felt like he was in his element. He had a weapon in hand was was moving at his own pace, not
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Not recently, though, and thinking back on that actually brought a smile to the swordsman's face.
"Anise has been telling me about it," Guy started as he got more comfortable in his spot against the wall. If Luke hadn't showed up by now, then it was possible he'd gotten caught up in something and it might be a bit longer. Either way, staying on edge and keeping an eye out every two seconds would only make him more nervous, so he tried to focus on something else; namely, giving Claude his information.
"She found some ruins of a town out there a few nights ago, for one thing. But she also heard from a friend that there's apparently a quarry around, too. So I guess someone was digging for something..." It was all pretty much ambiguous at this point, though. Whether it would lead to anything useful was hard to say, but there was only way one to be sure.
He wasn't entirely sure of where the quarry was, but the first step would be getting over the wall. After that, they would probably stumble upon something if they just picked a direction and started walking.
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"Ruins?" Claude echoed with a frown. Come to think of it, he might have seen something about that on the bulletin at one point, but so much had happened between now and then that details like that were fuzzy to him. Either way, it was interesting to know Anise had been beyond the institute and had even gotten a chance to see some things for herself. And it sounded like there was even more for them to discover, too...
Claude wanted to believe that, whatever it was, it would hold some clues on why they were brought here and how to get back home.
He shifted against the wall, getting into a more comfortable position as well. All this waiting made him remember the last time Luke had been late showing up, but he knew he couldn't dwell on that. Even if it was easy to feel paranoid lately, he didn't want to borrow trouble, either.
"Well, we'll probably just have to pick a direction and hope it takes us somewhere," he said after a brief pause. "Maybe we'll have a better idea once we actually get over the wall." Claude turned and looked at Guy curiously. "Unless you had some ideas?"
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Asch had expected to find a nurse, or perhaps another patient, especially in one of the main hallways. The unhelpful facility workers had been around all day, pestering him when he least expected or when he certainly didn't want their help, for lack of a better word. To not meet up with a single one was somewhat disconcerting, and it made him even more wary than he already was. The person he did find wasn't much better, despite being a familiar face; just down the hall from the door was Guy, standing with another man Asch couldn't recognize. The sight of the blond man made him pause, discomfort joining the irritation he was already feeling. There was no way that this encounter could end well. They had too much history, and Guy had always hated him, after all. He had no desire to deal with any harassment, certainly not considering the mood he was already in.
Then again, if anyone knew where Luke would be, it was Guy. So, steeling himself, he continued forward, hands clenching at his sides. "Hey! Where's the replica?"
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Of course, they couldn't actually get going until Luke showed up, and the more seconds that passed by, the more Guy felt a knot tightening in his stomach. He'd just seen Luke earlier in the day, and the redhead had already been experimented on and brainwashed in this place. What the hell would Landel have wanted him for now?
Even if it turned out his friend was missing, Guy wouldn't have known where to look for him. Luke had mentioned he'd been sleeping a lot. Maybe...?
But Guy was distracted from his worries when he heard a different, yet very familiar voice calling out from down the hall. He straightened, recognizing it as similar to Luke's and yet the complete opposite at the same time. Now he was glad that he'd been warned of Asch's presence earlier in the day, though Claude probably hadn't been.
Narrowing his eyes, he wondered if Asch had just stumbled across him or if Luke had told him to come with them. Guy wanted to think that Luke would have mentioned that at lunch, but...
"I don't know," he admitted as Asch approached, though his tone was closed-off, just like it always was when he spoke with the God-General. "We're still waiting on him." He glanced over to Claude then, giving him a small shrug. It wasn't like he'd been prepared for this, either, after all. Even though he'd been told that Asch was back, he hadn't really expected him to show up out of nowhere like this. Was his room nearby?
Just his luck, really.
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He was about to mention it to Guy, but it was at that moment he heard someone else approach them. For a split second, he almost thought it was Luke, but lately he'd gotten better of telling the difference between their way of speaking. There was usually an abrasive quality to Asch's voice that just wasn't there with Luke's.
This was the first time he'd heard either of them use the word "replica" in front of him, though. Claude looked over at Asch with a small frown. It was hard to know whether he ought to feel bothered by his brusque way of greeting them, or relieved that it looked like he wasn't injured. Had Asch gotten any use out of the knife he and Guy had found for him awhile back?
Any questions like that fell to back of his mind as soon as he sensed how aloof Guy became. Claude, on the other hand, suddenly regarded the redhead with a curious expression. "Oh, uh, hi, Asch." He scratched the side of his head, unsure of how to proceed. Maybe trying to keep the conversation moving in a civilized way would be good. "Um, did Luke invite you to come along with us?"
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"No one invited me anywhere," he responded curtly, not exactly bitter about his words. Whatever they were doing, if Luke was involved, joining them wouldn't be a pleasure, especially if Guy was going to give him the evil eye the entire time. "Who are you, and why do you know me?"
It was a question asked out of a need to know rather than genuine curiosity; until the other man proved useful, Asch wasn't going to show genuine interest in him.
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"He's forgotten again," Guy explained to Claude before glancing to Asch once more. "Did Luke tell you about how you've been here before?" He was crossing his fingers that his friend had, since Guy didn't have the time or the inclination to get into that with Asch right then.
Though it was at that moment that the intercom went off again. Guy frowned and glanced up toward the source of the sound. So soon? But really, it seemed like Landel was in top form tonight, as he was torturing the poor girl that he'd managed to capture while judging all of them in the same breath. Guy didn't think it was fair for the man to call them hypocrites considering everything he'd done, but at the same time he knew there was no point in getting riled up by the head doctor's words.
Before he could decide whether to respond to it or dismiss it, though, the lights started to go haywire, sparking and cracking above them. Guy blinked up at them, but managed to avoid taking any damage when a bulb broke, sending shards of glass falling to the floor.
"He said he had something in store for us, right?" he asked, looking to Claude instead of Asch. "We'd better be careful." Because he got the feeling this was only the beginning. Then, for a split second, Guy thought he noticed something moving against the wall out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked more carefully -- nothing. He shook his head and put it from his mind. He wasn't going to let Landel's theatrics get to him.
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"Oh, my name's Claude," he quickly told the redhead. "You see, we used to be--"
But the intercom cut him off before he could finish his sentence. Looking up, he listened intently, stomach turning at the thought of Landel torturing that woman in his office like that. There probably wasn't a way to get to them, either. That bastard. Claude opened his mouth to voice his frustration, but it was then that the lights started to go crazy. "What the hell?"
He jumped when one of the bulbs shattered, but thankfully no shards of glass fell directly on him. While it might have been easy to attribute what happened to some kind of accident, the intercom message they'd just heard pointed to something else. Guy was right -- Landel was up to something.
"What about Luke?" he said with a concerned frown. "Shouldn't he have gotten here by now?" Immediately, he turned to look at Asch, but took an awkward pause when he thought he saw something flicker out of the corner of his eye. He shook himself out of it, though. That message had probably just rattled him more than he wanted to admit.
"You're looking for him, too, right?" he asked Asch. Then he glanced at Guy, directing his next question to the both of them. "You think we ought to go check his room?"
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For the moment, their focus was still on Luke, so the best thing to do would be to stay on target, so to speak. He closed his eyes, reaching out with his thoughts, opening his fonons to try and connect once more to his replica's mind. He was met with the same bleak emptiness he'd felt previously; wherever Luke was, it wasn't here. Guy wasn't going to like this.
"He's not here," Asch finally stated, reopening his eyes, keeping them narrowed. There was little sense in hiding his irritation. "He's not in his room- he's not even in the building. Unless the range of our link is limited in this world somehow-" ...He's still not used to considering such an idea- "We're not going to find him anywhere."
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Though when Asch came back with his verdict on Luke's location, it was even worse than Guy had expected. "He's just gone?" he asked, blurting it out before he could reign himself in. How could that be, when both he and Asch had just seen him? It was possible that he'd been taken by Landel after all (for the third time) and was therefore being blocked away from even Asch, but either way, the end result was that they had no way of finding him.
"Well, if we don't even know where to start, I guess..." He hated to admit it, but they were going to have to go on without him. Guy held back a sigh, not wanting to reveal too much of what he was feeling around Asch. "We'd better just keep going." The question now, of course, was whether he asked the God-General along. There was a good chance Asch wouldn't even want to come, but...
"We're heading outside, over the wall," he explained. "You can either come or do something else, but decide quickly." They'd already wasted enough time, and with the way that the lights were going on and off intermittently, Guy just wanted to get out of this area.
Tomorrow, he would try to look for Luke during the day. Just because Asch couldn't sense him now didn't mean that he was completely gone, but it definitely wasn't a good sign. Guy was managing to keep his cool, but he was honestly sick of this sort of thing happening to him. This would be the third time that Luke had shown up only to disappear again, if he was really gone. It was starting to feel like some huge joke was being played on him.
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Finally, the redhead opened his eye, and to Claude's astonishment, announced that Luke was gone. He blinked, unable to hide his confusion. Wait...what? But how could Asch be so sure? It wasn't like he thought he was lying, but that was a pretty bold claim to make after just standing there for a couple minutes. Were he and Luke telepathically linked or something?
Either way, Guy seemed to take the information at face value, which meant that whatever method Asch had used must have been pretty solid. That realization made Claude's heart sink. "Oh no..."
If Luke was really gone, then that meant he might have been brainwashed and released like Claude's own father had just last night. That would be the third time now, right? And Guy...Claude turned his gaze onto him, concerned. Even if he didn't show it, finding out about his disappearance so suddenly must have been tearing him apart on the inside.
He wanted to say something, anything, and yet his friend was clearly moving away from talking about Luke. Claude wasn't sure whether it was his way of coping, or if it had something to do with Asch hanging around, but he knew he didn't need to press the subject. Maybe he'd get a chance later, but for now he would just have to focus on the task at hand.
Guy was actually inviting Asch along, which probably wasn't a bad idea. The three of them had already worked together in the past (even if Asch didn't remember). Plus safety in numbers was best, especially now that it looked like things might get dangerous for them tonight. Claude wanted to remind him that if he didn't come along, then he'd need to find someone to stick with, but he decided to hold his tongue until Asch reached a decision.
Man, dealing with these two at the same is starting to feel like walking on eggshells, he realized with an inward sigh.
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"You don't have to come," he said again, to reinforce what he'd mentioned before. "But I think Luke would have wanted me to keep you out of trouble, and seeing how this is your first night, well..." If anything, that was going to cause Asch to want to go on his own even more, but that wasn't really Guy's problem.
"We're heading to a dangerous area, so the more people, the better." They'd aimed for a group of three, but that had been stopped due to Landel and whatever he'd done with Luke. Guy's fist tightened around the hilt of his sword. Asch was about the worst replacement he could have asked for (which was, in a distant sort of way, funny to think about, seeing how they looked almost identical), but he didn't have many options right now.
"Like I said, either come or don't, but either way, we need to get moving." They'd wasted enough time already, and he needed some sort of focus to get his mind off of Luke's possible disappearance, and the fact that it might be permanent. He could always come back again, but there was just as much of a chance that he wouldn't.
Why the hell was Asch here when Luke wasn't? It really rubbed salt into the wound, but Guy tried to keep his composure nonetheless.
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He knew he probably should have stayed out of it and just left this to Guy and Asch, but Claude couldn't help but speak up. "You'll need to find people to travel with either way. Doing this alone isn't a good idea. After what happened just now, it's pretty obvious that Landel is going to try to pull a fast one on us at some point tonight."
It wouldn't have been the first time. Claude just hoped that whatever it was, it wasn't going to be as frustrating as the random portals and language block. Or as brutal as that night Guy nearly died, even if Landel later claimed he hadn't intended for that one to happen.
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But they did have valid points: this place was unfamiliar to him, and something strange was definitely going on. If he was going to venture out and explore more of the facility, he would probably need some sort of backup in case something went wrong. Why chase death when you have willing (...somewhat) companions to chase it for you? Though he didn't see what was so dramatic about mad ramblings, violence, and broken lights, he couldn't help but feel as if something was off. It wasn't a night to be alone and unarmed in a strange place.
If nothing came of it, he would know who to avoid the night that followed, and would have only wasted a few hours with them. It wasn't a huge loss, in the grand scheme of things.
Knowing he had a limited time to decide, he finally responded with a curt nod, pointedly focusing his attention away from Guy. If he was going to be antagonistic the entire time, Asch would just have to ignore him. "I'll go with you. For now."
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Granted, Asch's apparent death had thrown a wrench into that whole idea, and so all of Guy's words to Natalia about how he'd do what he could to forgive Asch had fallen flat. Now that they were all stuck in this place, it had been simple to fall back into old habits; that was the case for both of them.
It was good to see some change in Asch, that he was agreeing to go along when before he would have marched off without another word. Guy nodded, not being able to manage a smile even so. He was putting it behind him more and more every day, but it was a work in progress for him too, and he knew that. What he really needed to remind himself of was that he didn't need to be blaming Asch for Luke's disappearance.
"That's fine," he said. "Both Claude and I have been here for a few weeks now, so we know how to handle ourselves. Just follow our lead." There was probably a very small chance of Asch agreeing to that in practice, but Guy figured he might as well give it a shot.
Either way, it was time for them to stop loitering around in the hall, and so he led both Claude and Asch out of the door and onto the field. It felt almost like a betrayal to be heading out with Asch instead of Luke, but Guy knew that was all in his head. Luke would have been happy about this, right?
[To here.]
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