Sniping the sixty-fifth target.
[ voice ]
--this still working?
[The device shuts on and off a few times. For a moment, it switches to video, revealing this scene. Then it's back to voice.]
See? We aren't so trapped. We can still communicate. That's important, isn't it?
[More loudly:]This is Lockon Stratos of the Curse Brigade, calling off this effort to rescue those trapped ( Read more... )
--this still working?
[The device shuts on and off a few times. For a moment, it switches to video, revealing this scene. Then it's back to voice.]
See? We aren't so trapped. We can still communicate. That's important, isn't it?
[More loudly:]This is Lockon Stratos of the Curse Brigade, calling off this effort to rescue those trapped ( Read more... )
[He's still taken aback by how real it had looked-- Veda, a machine impossible to duplicate, is identical to this vision right down to the background streams of accurate data. It's enough to almost anger him, adding insult to injury now that he knows the connection wasn't terminated, but stolen. If these surroundings are all drawn from memory, though... he isn't surprised at all. There is a frustrated sigh, barely audible, before he shifts closer.]
All they can do now is continue guarding the perimeter.
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[It's unsettling, to him, to be back in what looks like a world he never wanted to return to. But he hides it. Tieria must be unsettled too; that's more important.]
Let's focus on getting out of here.
[He drifts up to the ceiling, searching for the hatch.]
Even if what's beyond isn't so pleasant, it'll give us a chance to get out. Maybe we can find some of the others who got trapped.
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Sitting idle is not an option.
[Then he notices.]
It's here, Lockon. Allow me to help you.
[Floating toward the doorway and keypad, he enters in the same code he submitted countless times before. No response. Again he tries, and again, until he's very nearly pounding at the keys in what he knows is a useless and redundant course of action. A vaguely panicked expression settles on his face, though he tries his best to hide it for Lockon's sake.]
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Hey, hey, no panicking. This isn't home--
[Without thinking about it, he lets his free hand stray to his throat to check his nonexistent pulse, just to be sure. He hides his relief.]
--so it might not work the same way. We can try forcing it physically. Together.
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[It comes out automatically, a reaction that always seems limited to the time he spends around Lockon. How could he be so calm about this? Tieria understands that he wouldn't act any other way-- it's why he's grateful to have him here, and yet wishing more than anything that Lockon had stayed behind. He'd become used to these contradictions.
Even if the unanticipated touch on his shoulders is more of a relief than familiar anti-gravity, it's impossible for him not to give Lockon a skeptical look.]
Veda's sealed chambers were meant to withstand considerable force at all times. Are you sure?
[But not for a moment does it escape him that Lockon is reaching for a pulse.]
It would be unreasonable to expect that this can bring you back, now. We both knew the offers were false, but even so--
[Cancel that. Getting off the subject won't solve a thing.]
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[Lockon smiles at him and gives his shoulders a squeeze before drifting free again. He makes his way to the hatch--it's not comfortable, suddenly, to be so close to Tieria, now that Tieria noticed what Lockon was doing, what he was checking.
He knows he'd better move on to less dangerous topics. Even if something in him now murmurs, You owe it to Tieria to tell him how you feel.]
This isn't Veda's sealed chambers, remember? It's a fake. It might take us a little while, but let's try.
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[That tone Lockon took would earn a little exasperation, no matter what the circumstances were. Flustering a bit at the squeeze is something he can't avoid, and it oddly keeps him grounded at the same time. He can see that Lockon doesn't want to press the last issue, which suits him for now. This just isn't the place for it. Instead, his voice takes on a new determination as he braces against the hatch.]
Being a fabrication does not necessarily mean it isn't as structurally sound, but you're right. I am ready.
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Ready? Push.
[It's difficult in zero gravity, but Lockon manages to brace against one of the walls as he strains to push the hatch open. It's not easy: like he said, it might take them a little while.]
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There's an encouraging creak after some time, followed by a series of clanging noises. He can feel support give way behind him, and tenses instinctively.]
Keep going.
[It's said through unavoidable gasps for breath, not that he plans on recuperating any time soon.]
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He puts his last strength into shoving a way through as he feels support start to give--and then with a crash it goes. Gravity reasserts itself abruptly, and Lockon falls right out--
--landing, tumbling, on stone, startled and bruised, instinctively reaching out to try to catch Tieria and spare him the same rough landing.]
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I can't identify what this place is supposed to be. Are you injured?
[But he has no time to wait for an answer, because one glance behind him reveals that the hatch and now-empty doorway are fading rapidly into stone wall. Scrambling up towards it, predictably, does nothing.]
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[Because reassuring Tieria that he wasn't hurt at all would be suspicious, and he doesn't want to make Tieria worry like that.
Lockon sits up, turning to get a good look at the space around him as his vision adjusts. He's spent enough time in cemeteries, if only on the outside, that he gets a faint idea of what it's supposed to be pretty quickly...but he doesn't voice it. Instead, he comments on something else.]
There's another door.
[But though he gets up and tries to open it, there's no give at all.]
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Perhaps we need to force it open again.
[The only experience he's had with grave sites, of course, has been visiting Lockon's, but the material used for their new room is beginning to seem uncomfortably familiar even if he doesn't quite recognize the inside of a mausoleum.]
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[But Lockon looks a little dubious at the prospect. As he tugs and shoves at the door some more, he can make out that it's stone, and that it's sealed tight.]
If we can't get out, the rest of the Curse Brigade will figure out how to stop this soon enough.
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I have every confidence in their abilities. Regardless, I wish you could have stayed with them.
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Unfortunately, that means treading into subjects he'd normally ignore. He treads carefully.]
There's no reason for that, Tieria. I'll be fine here with you for a little while.
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