Endgame: Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams

[animusnpcs]

Characters: open
Setting: floor 101/hidden floor; June 2
Format: action brackets, please
Summary: Something arrives.
Warnings: psychological horror, physical horror, violence

[The thing arrives on the twenty-third floor where no one is around to see it. But even if there was anyone except the retrieval units there, they would hardly have a chance to spot a single shadow, as the Tower pushes around and caresses the thing, hiding it away. The Tower ripples, then, and delivers the thing up and up, skipping floor after floor.

Floor one-hundred and one goes dark, and the glamour fails entirely. There's a thing lurking about in the darkness, approaching the way to the hidden floor. It can't be seen in this gloom, but it can be heard taking heavy, laden footsteps.]

Comments

[attheclocktower]

[The pain in her knee a scant few minutes ago, couldn't even begin to compare to this. Light, even the pain of most things she could remember in the Tower were nothing.

Maybe because there was something real behind it that there wasn't behind anything else. This wasn't just an injury. This wasn't just torture. This was real. Almost everyone who'd been in the Hidden Floor when the plan had been formed had been warned about the light.

And it terrifies her. She's crying in pain and she's clinging to Riku harder than ever and she's so terrified. She'd fought so hard and won so much, she can't die now please. Please.]

[keybearer]

N-no...

[It comes out in a whimper, and he falls to his knees. No, no, no! This can't... he can't...

But he did.

Just when he thought he'd finally done something right, he just sentenced the others to their deaths. Just when he thought they stood a chance at turnings around, he went and blew it.

And now, all he can do is suffer the full brunt of the pain, even as his dragon staggers close and tries nudging him back on his feet. He can't even look the others in the eyes as shame washes over him.

This is all his fault.]

[warriorscribe]

*He's tugged back when Riku grabs his arm, and then-

Then blinding light and pain, unimaginable pain that pulls a strangled cry from deep in his throat. He had been mentally prepared to go through that light to stop Ruana, but he looks down and the fluid in him is changing, darkening, coming to resemble-

Panicked, he attempts to purify his own arm, but it's not on him, it's in him, and it's not even vileness anyway. A piercing shriek escapes him as his willpower gives out against the pain, and he staggers, a half step towards the elevator and his knees buckle from the pain. He sprawls on the ground, gasping to catch a breath he isn't choking on. Miraculously, he's still holding his Arch, but it won't do him any good.

This pain...that's his soul under there, right there under the film. He's going to be completely and utterly destroyed.*

Lucifel...

*He's failed everyone. And he can't even say goodbye.*

[justabignobody]

[Riku knows pain. Be it physical or even on meta-physical level; he's spent the last few years experiencing pain on various levels and to various degrees, has experienced seven death (none of which were pleasant) and still, until now he's been of the opinion that there can't be many things more painful than having one's heart ripped right out of their own body and discarded into darkness.

Until now. Because this? This may very well be worse.

It takes all of his willpower not to buckle under the strain of it, even with the pain nearly blinding him, he can feel Xion clinging to him and his own grip tightens around her waist; she is depending on him, he can't let her down and that's the only clear thought he can grasp at outside HURT.

At his shoulder, Highwind whines in similar pain, and the crying and screaming in his ears may not just be the others, may be also his own, but he can't tell for sure. They need to get out, they need to get away, they can't let it end like this – Riku refuses to die like this, but all he could do would be to open a dark corridor and that has just proven to be more than a bad idea.

There really isn't anything he can do, is there? They are lost. They will die.]

[prayed]

[It all happens before she can even begin to process it. One of the members of the group (Enoch, she remembers,) runs towards the door. It sweeps open just as quickly as it shut and the next thing Kyoko knows she's sinking to her knees with her arms wrapped tightly around her torso.

The pain that courses through her body overwhelms all thought as she curls in on herself, terror and agony taking it's place as she makes a desperate attempt to somehow hold herself together when it feels like everything that makes her up is rotting out. It's real, not filtered through her Soul Gem, not numbed by magic or any other number of things. It's real and it hurts and she can't stop it, can't dull it, can't even move in the face of it.

She wants it to stop. She's dimly aware that she'll die she doesn't act (a, but the pain is blinding. It holds her in place, and all she can do is tremble and heave as the sharp cries and hitching breaths are torn from her.]

[culbutiri]

[Nesir had watched it all silently, the gore on the door didn't bother Nesir, nor did the corpses. She made sure she was out of the way as Riki was pushed towards the door, not wanting to be caught up in it and be pushed out too.

She was proud of the fact that she barely blinked when the doors slammed shut though the sounds were worrying. She didn't have much time to think though, she had taken a couple of steps towards the others as they tried to figure out what to do next when the tear appeared.

The moment the pain began she fled into the emptiness, which shattered within seconds. Barely anything could jolt Nesir out of the emptiness, anger yes. Pain, barely ever. This was worse than anything she had ever felt, worse than losing her fingers. Worse than being set on fire.

She realised she was screaming but couldn't work out how to stop, all she knew was pain as she crumpled to the floor, wrapping her arms around her like she was physically trying to hold herself together.

She should have known, the only thing you ever got from helping others was pain.]

[animusnpcs]

[Though it's safe to say everyone in the room is rather distracted, the doors fly open. It's difficult to see what's happening through the blinding light striking Ruana, though it seems to have no effect on her. She shines like a fallen angel, smiling with oil smeared across her mouth.]

You took my cute, loyal puppy and you snapped his neck. [Her voice is thin and angry, but still she smiles.] But I'm merciful.

[She waves her hand and the boiling calms, fades. The tainted fluid will have to come up, and nausea sets in, but it's rapidly being replaced with untarnished fluid.]

I helped save all of you, after all.

[If any of them collect themselves enough to attempt to approach Ruana, they will find they can't move toward her. They can, however, speak.]

[justabignobody]

[When the pain fades, Riku finds himself with one knee on the ground, shivering faintly, because while the pain itself is gone, the memory of it still echoes through his body and he needs a second to process the things that Ruana said, that she's in the room with them in first place.

They've gone straight from the frying pan into the fire after all, eh?

He keeps his arm tight around Xion as he fights his way back up to his feet, struggling to get his thoughts clear (and still the first thing that slips past his lips is a snort and a quip – he isn't in any state where he can actually consider approaching Ruana even if it was actually an option, but verbal sparring? He'll have to be deader than dead before he'll stop engaging that when need be.)]

Cute, eh? You might want to talk to somebody about your definition of that.

[Eye of the beholder or not, cute and Riki just doesn't go hand in hand, and that Ruana considers him such probably says a lot of things about her.]

[culbutiri]

[The pain faded eventually though it took a moment or two before Nesir risked pushing herself up off the floor. A shorter time than she would have perhaps taken in other circumstances but she would die before she showed weakness to Ruana.

To anyone really, but Ruana is top of the list by far. It's another moment before she finds her feett, taking deep breaths to try and fight the nausea. She entered the emptiness having changed her mind, Diarmuid was an idiot after all. She didn't want to feel this.

She found she couldn't step forward though, she didn't even attempt throwing a knife. She wasn't stupid.

She's wary. Why had Ruana let them live? It had to be more than just what she had said, they had been saved so Ruana could play her games, but if this place was going to lose power in a day, what was the point in letting them live?]

That do be being the problem with loyal puppies. They do be being easy to be breaking, you should have been taking better care of him.

[keybearer]

[At first, Riku says nothing. He's too overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the pain that seized his body. Overwhelmed by his actions, and the way he'd nearly led the others to their deaths. Even when the pain lets up and the fluid returns, he barely moves, though he does at least stand.

His arms hang straight and rigid at his sides. His hands curl into tight fists, and he glowers at the ground.]

Saved us, huh? Right, and that's exactly why our worlds got destroyed...

[warriorscribe]

*He can't speak at first, can't speak through the tainted artificial lifeblood that he's choking on. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thinks it's ironic. He helped Armaros through a similar purge...

When the nausea subsides, and his fluid is regenerating itself, he raises himself up to his knees and looks over his shoulder, panting lightly, a look in his soul-projected eyes that was odd in its lack of anything strong but hurt.*

Saved...from destruction you wrought...

[animusnpcs]

It's still saved, isn't it? [She looks at them with the bright madness of a child.] I save you and you kill my pets and break my toys.

[The world begins to blur around them, shining brighter and brighter white.]

Do you want to leave me alone that much?

[attheclocktower]

It's not.

[Xion had fallen along with Riku, and with his support is able to climb to her feet again. Her voice is still shaky though, as is her body, between the nausea and the fluid and her bad knee.]

Not if you caused it. We wouldn't need to be saved.

[It's hard to cry in this state, but as much as she can, she is. She just doesn't understand - Ruana doesn't, and Xion can't understand how she doesn't.]

Why? Why do all of this? We just want our worlds back, the way they were. To be able to go home.

[prayed]

[Kyoko pulls herself up, fighting off the sickening nausea. She can barely tell if it's an aftereffect of the pain, or just the disgusting attempts at guilt and the pretense of salvation and kindness that this girl is spitting out at them.

It's probably a mistake to talk back, but her gaze hardens, one arm wrapping around her torso. She won't bother mentioning the tower. Somebody else beat her to it.]

Yeah. That's exactly it. Even death would be too good for a person like you...

[She coughs, swallows the bile that runs up her throat continuing,]

You started this entire mess. You go around throwing your companions to the wolves as soon as they start to be an inconvenienced. Jason and Riki both died 'cause you sent them to their deaths, y'know... And you killed Dax, spat on his corpse and called him disgusting. What the Hell was that supposed to be?

[She's practically spitting out venom, but her voice strains at the end. She's angry, terrified, a little hysterical, too much to even think about what she's saying,]

Being alone in this Hell is exactly what you deserve.

[warriorscribe]

No... *Enoch shakes his head, a movement with a slight stutter at the start. He takes a deep breath.* No.

*And now the pain that had been confined to his eyes comes out in his voice, in filmy tears, and he seems to tear free of the numbness that had been setting in from all that had happened so suddenly, unable to keep himself from speaking, letting loose all his thoughts, some even before he was aware of thinking them.*

Nobody deserves to be alone, Ruana. But you destroyed everyone and everything we knew and loved... You'd seen other worlds. Worlds that took people from their own. Could you not have waited for Zo's powers to mature? To follow him to another such world? Let us restore our worlds, and follow someone who will have you. Somewhere you can live a peaceful life, a real life...

...or do you want us to suffer as you have so much?

[keybearer]

Besides, some people actually wanted to stay here.

[He shakes his head, trying his best to contain the rage boiling and bubbling deep inside his wireframe body. A dry smirk crosses his lips, and he finally looks up.]

Look, we've got reasons to be angry. All the experiments, the games, and the fact that all our friends, our homes got completely wiped out. Was this really the only way?

[Somehow he doubts she'll understand, and he hates to mince words like this, but at this point, he's just tired. Tired, guilt ridden and wholly unimpressed.]

[justabignobody]

[Riku helps Xion stabilize herself before he draws to full height; with every second that passes he's feeling less shaky and more confident in his ability to hold this conversation and defend himself if need be. He can taste the spark of anger of the others in the air, can feel his own temper and frustration rising to match and really... it is about time that they are blunt about their feelings to Ruana, isn't it?]

Regardless of the 'whys' or 'hows' or 'what if-s'... None of us asked for this, but we've endured to this point.

[They've endured pain and death, experiments and power struggles - between the administrators and within their own ranks – and they've made it this far.]

We lost everything... our worlds, our homes, our lifes... And a lot of us have left people waiting for years now.

[Roxas at the foot of a skyscraper, rightfully angered by the cards that he's been dealt, the fate that might not be avoidable. The memory of Xion, lost and forgotten, but the impact of her existence will surely remain. Naminé within the confines of the White Room, surrounded by the drawings of memories that are not her own, determined to restore what she was forced to take. DiZ surrounded by his computers and books, scheming and forging plans for his own ambition surely, but right now at least on their side. Mickey in the woods around the mansion, anxiously waiting for news of his return, wondering, worrying. Kairi alone on the islands they call their home, with no idea what happened to him since he'd protected her in Hollow Bastion and no memory of Sora at all. Sora, Donald, Goofy safe within the confines of white glass, slumbering peacefully, unaware of the passing time.

They are all dead right now, but they are not lost. Not yet. Not ever. Riku refuses to believe that there is nothing to be done.]

One way or another... we are taking it back.

[And if that means going through Ruana, then well... they'll do just that. Or die trying.

There no longer is any alternative.]

[animusnpcs]

None of you understand. [Ruana's voice rises in pitch, losing its calm tones in favor of slowly growing hysteria.] I'll make you--I'll make you understand!

[The entire Tower ripples like water, though it's something felt rather than seen with the blinding light all around.]

Just wait--just wait! I'll show you.

[The light grows more and more blinding, until none of them can see anything, not even each other. Perhaps more alarmingly, lightheadedness sets in. Everyone--not just here, but in the entire Tower--passes out.]