i just wanna know: who broke it?

[summonerd]

[Sheena'd thought she was all done with dimensional travel, now that the two worlds were united. But here she is, having fallen asleep in one world and woken up in a Tethe'alla that's just different enough from the one she knows to be constantly jarring. Her connections to Aselia's summon spirits dangle loose, snapped by distance - not even Origin's power could follow her here, it seems. That's more than a little unsettling.

It takes her some time, alone in a bizarro version of Meltokio as she is, but eventually she stumbles on a lead - an old scientific journal, a mention of the power of something called an Aegis being able to transcend space and time, at least in theory. And a little asking around tells her that Tethe'alla has its own Aegis, though no one's seen it for years. Well. Worth a shot, right?

Somehow she manages to talk her way into the Tethe'allan castle where the Aegis's core crystal awaits being woken up, with a series of smiles and her very best politicking - yes, of course she's got nothing but loyalty for Tethe'alla, of course she's skilled at this, of course it'd be a great honor.

(Zelos would be proud, she thinks, wryly.)

They're dubious, but her persistence wears them down, or maybe they're just desperate enough for a return of the Aegis's power to let her try, and the orange core crystal is offered out to her.

She takes a deep breath, and reaches out to touch it.]

Comments

EVERYTHING WENT TO FUCK AGAIN

[theactingdad]

Malos, actually, is doing somewhat worse than Zelos is right now. He's still trying to breathe around the lingering second of blinding panic that hit the emotion bleed like a train, and though that has ebbed to the quiet, gaping void of unconsciousness from both Anna and Kratos, he's pretty sure that's worse. Nevermind the fact that whatever the hell drugs just knocked Anna out are also affecting him, at least marginally.

"Yeah, uh," Malos says to Zelos, who looks worried and rightly so. Guess that's all three of them who got-- captured? Hopefully just that. It doesn't feel like Anna's in pain at least. "Yeah I can say pretty confidently that things just went. Way south on their end. It's not just you feeling that."

Malos swallows. Takes a deep breath. It's-- fine. It's fine. He knows where Anna is. The general direction, anyway. They can fix this.

"What's going on?" Mithos demands, walking up to insert himself into the conversation. Malos sighs, but lets the kid have this. He's got every right to be worried, too.

"Pretty sure the rest of our party just got captured," Malos says.

"What?" Mithos says, quiet, fearful. "No." And then his tone gets distrustful, eyes accusing. "How can you be sure?"

"Well, it feels like they just got sedated," Malos explains, and to his surprise Mithos recoils with immediate horror.

"Kratos too?" he asks, voice tight, kind of high.

Malos nods. Even with Anna unconscious, he's pretty sure he'd still be feeling something from Kratos, and since he isn't, Kratos must be unconscious, too.

"That's- no. Fuck." Mithos rakes a hand through his hair, then immediately turns on his heel and starts heading in the general direction of their family. "We have to hurry," he declares.

"I mean, of course the plan is to rescue them!" Malos calls after Mithos, turning to send a worried glance at Zelos, then one at Lloyd. "Shouldn't we think it through just a little, though? I'm not against heading in there guns blazing and all, but--"

"The last thing Kratos needs is to be caged again," Mithos interjects, firm and clear. "I'm getting him out of there." And then he keeps walking. (Belatedly, that mountain-moving, soul-petrifying panic from earlier is starting to make sense, even if all Malos has is a vague idea of what Kratos has been through.)

"Well," Malos says, slowly, turning again to Zelos, then Lloyd. "I'm gonna assume you two don't have any objections...?"

WHEN DOES IT NOT THO

[risingfalcon]

Even before the full force of horror and concern slams into Lloyd like a wave during high-tide, Lloyd's standing with his hands around the hilts of his swords, following in Mithos' direction to get answers about the sudden reactions from Zelos and Malos. All he has to hear, really, is that the rest of the party got captured before Lloyd's poised and ready to run in and take some fuckers down, but the knowledge that they're sedated and likely tied up brings anger to the surface of a deep level of concern. He knows all of them can take care of themselves, but without even being conscious -

Lloyd follows after Mithos, content to storm in guns blazing, because how dare these kidnappers take not only his parents, but his sister, he's gonna knock some heads together or he'll die trying. "Let's go," he says to Malos, face more serious than ever, the tinny drum of worry and fury backing up the strong beat of his heart. Determination furrows his brow and makes it clear he's gonna give someone a hell of a fight.

(Silently, and without much thought expended in favor of focusing on the coming rescue, Lloyd takes note of "the last thing Kratos needs is to be caged again.")

[presidentheartbeat]

The situation is dire, sure, and a panicked part of Zelos' mind rattles against his core like a desperate, caged bird, but there's no need to act rashly just yet. Sheena getting kidnapped is already a red flag that harshly tugs at his blade instincts, but it won't take long until the humans realize they've taken a flesh eater and blade eater along as well instead of any other good catch. And even if they could kill Sheena to get at him, since they don't know exactly where the Aegis' core crystal would end up, that'd be completely pointless. Most likely, then, the three of them will be used for ransom. There's not a whole lot of time to waste, but they have time.

That in mind, Zelos takes a few deep breaths while Mithos and Malos argue, trying to calm himself, but then ends up cursing under his breath when the Aegis and his driver walk off on the way to the checkpoint.

No, no-- Damn idiots-- what the hell! They need to plan this out at least a little, lest they too fall victims to these humans! Mithos specifically!

Zelos is just about to let himself give in and walk off behind them when he remembers a very, very important little detail everyone else has completely discarded.

Frustration is a good motivator to make this right. Hands balled into fists, Zelos walks over to Malos. He does his best to ignore the way his own panic echoes and bounces on its own without Sheena's input, expression carefully hidden behind a mask of determination. "You mentioned drugs," the Aegis says to the blade, eyeing him up and down. With Lloyd and Mithos stuck in an idiot feedback loop as they are, they really need to hurry now, but-- "How bad will the side effects be for you? Are you able to walk right now?"

[theactingdad]

It takes Malos a second to realize that everyone's just walking anyway, and then a second more to realize Zelos is talking to him.

"'M," he begins, blinking the haze out of his mind. He reaches over and flicks himself in the forearm, the pain just enough to be grounding. "Fine," he says. "'m fine. I can walk, at least. Just gonna be a little... sluggish. Won't slow y'all down, promise."

He grins, shakily. "Thanks for worrying about me, though, 'preciate it."

His smile gets a little sharper. Guns blazing is the plan, then? Alright. Time to show Slyvarant what happens when they mess with his daughter.

"Let's go."

[summonerd]

Sheena comes to consciousness slowly, the drug still not having quite worked its way through her system. For a minute she just lies there, unable to piece together how she'd gotten to wherever this is or why her body won't quite cooperate when she tries to get up. But then it clicks, the memory of something stinging and sharp sinking into her thigh and then everything going dark, and she curses softly, fighting against the sluggishness in her limbs to sit up, at least, if not to get to her feet.

"Anna? Kratos?" she calls as she pushes herself into a sitting position, squinting out of her cell. She... thinks that's Kratos, in the cell across from her, and that might be Anna, but she can't tell if either of them are awake. Well. Still, you don't throw corpses into cells. That's good.

Alright, she needs to take stock of her own end of things. Not tied up, so there have to be guards, even if she can't see them from here. The weight of her knife in its pocket is gone, and she's sure her smoke bombs won't be there either when she checks, but whoever had searched her hadn't realized her cards are deadlier than the knife ever could have been. No notable injuries, but of course they'd want her alive, at least for now. So long as they don't have Zelos they need her. Speaking of--

She reaches for her bond with him like she should have done the second she woke up, sending - something across it. It's not the clearest, since there's only so much you can express with emotion, but hopefully Zelos will be able to get from the restrained worry-but-not-panic and the inquisitiveness she pushes towards the link that she's more concerned about him than herself. He's okay, right? She's sure she wouldn't even be alive to worry if they had captured him, but there's still a wide gulf between "not captured" and "fine."

[ilivedbitches]

Okay, so, waking up in jail? Not even remotely ideal. But Anna's done this a million times before, so she's fine. She's fine.

Except then she remembers what exactly got them here, and the brief but overwhelming panic that had drowned her as it flooded the emotion bleed up until the point Kratos stopped being awake to feel it. Fuck. Kratos.

Anna's eyes shoot open. She's still laying flat on her stomach, one cheek pressed to the cold floor of the cell. She doesn't move just yet, too distracted by her thoughts and her worry. The emotion bleed... feels alright? Maybe Kratos just isn't conscious y--

wait.

wait wait wait oh fuck wait, fuck.

She can't feel Kratos at all.

Is he dead? Architect, don't let him be dead. He can't- he can't he can't he can't be--

"Kratos!?" she calls out, panicked and her throat tight, as she pushes herself upright. She swings her attention around the room, looking, please, let this be some fluke-- There! On the exact opposite end of the hall, three other cells between them, he's there. Anna breathes a sigh of relief, because he's alive, even if... "Kratos...?" she calls again, more hesitant, concerned.

He's still on the floor, looking much like he hasn't moved an inch, his back to her and slumped on his side. She'd assume he was still unconscious, if only she couldn't hear him hyperventilating.

"Kratos, it's fine, we're gonna get out," Anna says, rapidly. "They aren't- they aren't going to hurt you. You know that. It'll be fine."

Silence, but that's to be expected. Of course getting locked up was going to send Kratos spiralling. He probably has bad associations with getting sedated, too. The only thing they can do is get him out of here.

Anna finally drags her eyes away from him, attention landing on Sheena in the cell across from him. She sends Sheena a shaky smile, tight with both concern and anger. Things were going so good until they weren't. "How you doing, Sheena? Hanging in there?"

She takes stock of the cell in the meantime. Small, no bed-- probably meant for short-term holding. Bars obviously aren't far enough apart to slip through, and they're plastic, besides. So, even if Kratos was coherent enough to try something destructive, it wouldn't work. Anna also has no fucking clue how to tell if the lock is pickable, never mind how to pick it even if it was. One of these days she really needs to learn how to do that. For now, though:

"You, uh, got any ideas?" she calls to Sheena, after a moment. "Because I've got about zero. I mean, waiting to get rescued is a valid option but uh..." She hesitates, eyes darting towards Kratos again. He's moved just enough to curl up on himself, and even from here she can tell he's trembling. "Well, the sooner we're out of here, the better.

[summonerd]

What comes back across the emotional bleed to Sheena is a mess, frankly - a small sea of not-quite-frantic frustration and annoyance, only broken up briefly when Zelos realizes she's awake. That's probably what it was, at least. The relief is nice to feel, even if it pings a little spark of guilt in her about the situation being this bad in the first place. She sets the link aside, not closing it off but focusing her attention elsewhere for the moment.

"I'm fine," she calls back. "What about you? Is Kratos...?" She's not sure what exactly she's asking - he's clearly not okay, but Anna at least seems to have seen this before.

She presses a hand to the bars, testing as she pulls her gaze away from Kratos and the way his breath hitches his whole body. They almost look like glass, but they're clearly not, the way they feel under her fingers. Getting out through these probably isn't happening. Fuck, she really should have gotten Lloyd to teach her to pick locks before now.

"Me neither," she says, making a face. "But - I think the others might be working on a plan, at least? Or that's how it feels." She punches the bars lightly, unsurprised when nothing happens but feeling a little better about it anyway. "Guess it depends on if anyone comes in to check up on us. Do you still have something to fight with? They must've searched me, but..." Careful, in case they're being watched some way she can't see, she pulls her cards out of her obi pocket enough for them to be visible to Anna. They won't do anything about the bars, but if they can get out, at least she won't be useless in a fight.

[ilivedbitches]

"I'm alright, too," Anna answers, first and foremost. Still a little drowsy, but that's either the drugs or... something else. Something she's definitely experienced before but can't remember the name of right now. Oh well. It'll come to her at some point.

For now: "Kratos is..." she begins, and then stops. Chews on her tongue. There's... really no way to explain it without saying too much. Sheena doesn't need to know, anyway. Not if Kratos doesn't want her to. And he's not in a position to be asked, right now. So: "He'll be okay once we get out," Anna says, soft and sad and loving. She hopes his mind is being kind to him, despite the circumstances.

Anna nods along when Sheena offers her opinions about the rest of the party. "Yeah, I have no doubts we'll get rescued," Anna says. "I just hope we aren't bait..." That notion stirs something uncomfortable in her stomach, but she pushes it aside. "Not that it matters. Whatever they're planning, we can handle it." Especially since Sheena still has her cards.

Oh.

Anna hastily pats at her belt but-- of course her dagger is gone. "Fuck," she says, frustrated and sad about that all at once, and it's not like it's the worst thing that's happened today by far, but that was a wedding gift, and. It's fine it's fine. "They took my dagger," she says, for Sheena's benefit. "I mean, I don't need it to hurt someone, but..." It was a wedding gift!!

Actually, though.

"Let me try something," Anna says, pushing herself to her feet. She tugs at her resonance with Malos, a request he'll know the shape of. She wonders if it'll even work across this distance? Might as well try. She fixes her stance, pulls at the ether the same way she always does--

Her skull pounds with backfiring energy. Hissing, she immediately stops trying to summon Malos' sword.

"Fuck," she wheezes, staggering a step back, clutching at her aching head. Her chest hurts, too, right around Malos' core crystal. "That's--" Not a reaction caused by distance. So...? "Oh, fuck. There's not enough ether in here for that, is there?" She can feel it, now that she's thinking about it. Recognizes that's why she feels a little extra out of it. "No wonder Kratos is..."

Well, there being half as much ether in the air could explain some of why Kratos hasn't moved, anyway. Anna prays it's mostly just that, even though she knows it's much more, much worse.

One more thing, then. Anna shakes her head and straightens, rolling her shoulders, sizing up the latch on her cell. It looks way too sturdy for this to work, but assuming instead of testing is for cowards and fools. Anna balances her weight again and then kicks the latch with all her might--

Nope, not that easy. She huffs.

"Damn. Worth a shot, though."

[summonerd]

Sheena nods, accepting Anna's word for it that Kratos will be okay if they can get him out of here. This sucks, and her expression makes it clear that she feels that way as Anna continues. She's... probably bait, on some level, given that she's Zelos's driver. Hopefully the others will work that into their plans.

"Mine too," she tells Anna, about the dagger thing. Hers isn't anything special, a Mizuho knife meant more for throwing than anything she actually uses it for, but she's always liked its weight in her hand. "Maybe we can find them on the way out. They've gotta be somewhere, right?"

And then Anna settles in a familiar stance and puts her hand out to summon Malos's weapon, and oh, yeah, fuck, that's a thing Sheena can do, too. She's saved from actually wondering if she should try it as well when Anna stops abruptly, faint wisps of ether around her hand dissipating almost instantly as she staggers back.

"Shit," she says. "Is that going to make it harder for them to rescue us?" It feels a little off now that she's looking for it, but barely, not something she would've noticed on her own.

"Anyway..." she offers. "If they don't figure something out soon, I can try and catch Zelos in a dream, I guess?" Not that she has any idea how to initiate that contact herself, but she can at least try. Maybe if it does take that long he'll have the same idea. "Still... Yeah, hopefully it doesn't take that long." She swallows, looking back at Kratos. If they both reached out she could probably grab his hand, she thinks, but what good would that do, even if he wasn't currently unresponsive? It'd help Lloyd, in the same situation, but Kratos definitely isn't his son, and she'd gotten the impression he wasn't as big on physical contact anyway. From Anna, maybe, but her cell's too far away for that.

"I guess we're waiting for now," she says, in an attempt to sound cheerful that lands somewhere around manic instead, and starts stretching, trying to drive the last bits of sluggishness from her veins. If an opportunity to escape does come up, she should at least be ready.

[risingfalcon]

If the captured half of the party were expecting the rescuers to have a plan, then Lloyd hates to break it to them that they absolutely do not. The front of the building looks inconspicuously boring, with a few guards scattered around and a chain-link fence blocking off any other possible entrance. It looks like they have no choice but to break in through the front, face the guards, and get through them, so Lloyd takes account of who they're facing.

Narrowing his eyes, he amplifies his hearing from the bushes they're hiding behind, listening for any words spoken between the guards that could hint better at the locations of the rest of the party, or even just their cell numbers, anything, but all he catches past the silence is just the beating of his adrenaline-high, furious heart. With the sort of personal anger and murderousness he hasn't felt since before the Tower of Salvation, the worry and concern for his loved ones and Mithos' own mixing in, Lloyd sets his mouth back into a frown and stands. There's no thinking as he calmly walks up to the guards, hands clasped together in front of him.

"No unauthorized entry, kid," one of the guards calls out, watching Lloyd cautiously as he gets closer. There are only about seven guards out at this one moment, Lloyd notes, forcing his expression to soften.

"I'm looking for my family."

"Well, they wouldn't be here," another guard answers, and its as soon as he finishes his thought that two blades find themselves crossed, directly below his neck. He steps back, gasping, as Lloyd glowers at him with all of the fierceness of someone unafraid of any risks.

"Really? Because you took them!" Lloyd shouts, forcing the blades forward and into the man's neck, leaving his body to drop before twirling around to meet the blade of another guard. "And this place is going down today!"

[lovedbyorigin2]

Despite himself, Mithos is a lot fonder of Lloyd right now than he has any right to be. But they're fighting towards the same goal, and seeing Lloyd ruthlessly press towards it? Mithos is glad they're on the same page. His own sword weighs heavy and brilliant in his hands, a chunk of the daytime sky that cleaves easily through one guard, and then another, killing both them and their blades.

Unnecessary violence, one might say, but Mithos thinks otherwise. Witnesses can't speak if they're dead. By the time anyone figures out what happened here, they'll all be long gone.

Mithos wonders, briefly, if it's worth keeping anyone alive long enough to interrogate, then discards the thought. If there's one good thing about blade eaters...

"Malos?" he asks, looking over his shoulder. "Which way?"

"Hold on," Malos says, and he's clearly off balance, still sluggish. (And that's why there's only one good thing about blade eaters.) "Sorry. Ether's pretty thin wherever they've got Anna. I'm okay, but. Feeling it."

Mithos' ether boils, all of his worry and terror sharpening into rage that pounds like drums against his core. How dare they do that to Kratos!?

(His mind helpfully supplies Kratos' reaction last time he was deprived of even a little bit of ether, and all Mithos feels is cold cold cold fury. He pushes it aside. No matter what state they're going to find Kratos in, it doesn't matter, in the end. It doesn't change anything.)

"Then we need to hurry," Mithos says, sharp. "Which. way?"

Malos points, not vaguely, but not exactly usefully, either. A straight line will not get them through walls-- though Mithos isn't exactly against knocking walls down, if they have to.

"Dunno if you want me going first," Malos adds with a frustrated exhale as he lets his arm drop. "Probably gonna be useless against any guards we run into. So. Thoughts?"

"I don't intend to leave anyone here alive," Mithos says. "Splitting up isn't exactly the smartest option, but if I draw their attention..."

He lets that offer hang in the air, and waits.

[presidentheartbeat]

Well, scratch out actually working out a plan and being careful for the rescue mission, apparently. Mithos and Lloyd are already busy bringing terror to the checkpoint, killing every human on sight, which--that's valid, actually. They deserved it anyway. It's just such a shame that so many blades have to go down with their useless masters.

Zelos walks over to the three others, not even looking down as he avoids stepping over a charred corpse. Couple of brutes, these two, but--fine, then. If no one else is going to think logically here, then it falls to Zelos to do the thinking in the first place.

This is getting bad, actually. Mithos and Lloyd will probably just continue fighting their way in if nobody stops them, and Malos' sluggishness will grow worse the longer Anna stays in the building. He will be pretty useless in a fight, but Mithos is right in that splitting up is a terrible idea considering they have two Aegises here.

But... two Aegises is a whole lot of power to hold in a single, closed space, though. So, sonsidering that...

"Malos doesn't have to fight. All he needs to do is focus on guiding us through the building," Zelos points out. He quickly walks over until he's positioned himself close to Mithos, fighting off the discomfort the proximity brings, and turns his attention to Lloyd instead, gesturing between him and Malos. "Lloyd, you cover for him at the rear. And meanwhile," he gestures between him and the other Aegis, "Mithos and I take the vanguard. We clear?"

[risingfalcon]

It's a really good thing Zelos could come up with a plan that didn't require them splitting up, because the rush of anxiety that brought about in Lloyd was capable of causing his heart to miss a beat, stopping his breath before he was able to check himself again. Splitting up is a terrible idea, always, and has never done anyone any good unless in groups of three or larger.

But it's fine. That's not going to happen. Instead, Lloyd takes a deep breath and nods, allowing the reminder that his family is being held captive push anger beyond whatever stress the idea of splitting up gave him. This isn't about him right now, he'll be fine, they'll all be fine, just a standard rescue mission and then tearing this place to pieces, not giving anyone a chance to get the jump on them again like this. Just guard Malos, keep him safe, and help his family get out of their captivity. Nothing to worry about.

"Alright," Lloyd says, setting a determined edge to his gaze, tightening the grip on his swords. "Can do!"

oops

[theactingdad]

Malos is still doing: less than okay, but Zelos' plan is good, and they stick to it. He gives directions as well as he can when the most direct route involves going through walls, and doesn't process much else, grateful he trusts his companions enough to let them take care of the rest. If they run into guards, Malos is unaware of it. He thinks he hears fighting, thinks he remembers Lloyd shoving him out of the way once, but it's all in one ear out the other. He's not really conscious of anything other than pull pull pull in his core that tells him where Anna is.

Oh.

"Hold on, hold on," he says, stopping just long enough so he can be certain of the direction of the signal. It's a straight line down the hallway they nearly walked past. He reaches out to grab Lloyd and pull him with, not stopping long enough to let Mithos and Zelos lead like they're supposed to. It's fine, it's fine, the hallway looks empty, and the resonance sings with a closeness that means-- "This way, we're almost there."

He tugs on the resonance for Anna's attention, gets a cautious, hopeful: "Malos??" from his daughter in response. Grinning, he lets go of Lloyd and sprints ahead--

A noise, from behind. Malos spins around and then stops, horrified, when he sees what's just happened. A fortified door coming down from the ceiling has just closed, locking him and Lloyd in here with the rest of the cells, and leaving the Aegises on the other side.

Well, shit.

THANKS

[presidentheartbeat]

The plan works out for the most part as they traverse the facilities and dispatch guards, at least, and as such many of Zelos' mind hits the sweet spot of needing to focus on the task at hand instead of wandering off to overthink the situation. Malos' state is worrying, but-- it's fine. He's a blade eater, that's to be expected. And, besides, it's not like Lloyd is feeling ill, either, so by proxy Sheena should be fine. They should be fine so long as they stick to the plan.

And then Malos runs off, pulling Lloyd along as they disappear through a hallway together.

If Zelos had a heart, he's pretty sure that this would be where it stops beating. "Malos!" the Aegis calls out, risking a glance at Mithos before following the blade. He feels cold. Oh, Architect, this isn't happening. This is-- "Malos! Malos!"

Zelos' cries go unanswered, choked out by a loud curse falling from his lips as a fortified door comes down where Malos ran off to. Without really thinking about it, with the resonance between him and Sheena full of unadulterated anger and frustration and fear, Zelos runs up to it and begins punching his fists against it, kicking it, anything. He's losing composure. He needs to think logically, but he can't. He needs to get through this door and see the others, but he can't--

A sound from behind stops him in his tracks, accompanied by the tell-tale feeling of the ambient ether in the room shifting dangerously, held tight and concentrated somewhere. But it feels... sick, not right. It gives him goosebumps. Slowly, Zelos turns around to look at the source.

There, at the end of a hallway and surrounded by several guards, stands a blade holding a glowing staff in her right hand.

WE FUCKEDT IT

[lovedbyorigin2]

This. is. bullshit.

The ether's wrong, but Mithos couldn't care less. He's an Aegis. It doesn't matter to him. He growls something wordless and furious-- And then he really looks at the blade with the staff. Her ether signature's not right, not close, but she... A sharp face framed by green hair, even though the majority of it is tied up behind her head. That might as well be the same face as--

Martel.

It can't be. It can't be. He'd know.

"What kind of sick joke is this!?" Mithos spits, his sword burning brilliant in his hand. He's too furious to be curious, really. Doesn't want for a response before he's already pulling ether out of his own core since the ambient ether isn't responding, gathering energy for as powerful of a blast as he dares. He hopes to level the playing field in one go. Collateral damage to the building doesn't matter. Kratos is behind him. He won't be hurting anyone who doesn't deserve it.

But Mithos doesn't get that far.

The blade that looks like Martel raises her staff. There's a sound like a ringing bell.

The ambient ether shifts, polarizes, clings to Mithos and neutralizes everything he's doing. And then it presses down on him, and he feels like he is choking. He has just enough ether that he's not in immediate danger, but he doesn't have enough to think, and he cannot move. The ambient ether-- the blade's ether presses down on him, down, down, forces him to his knees.

"Wh- what--" he gasps out, terror singing loud and clear in his core, drowning out everything else.

He can't do anything to stop it. He can't do anything at all.

[presidentheartbeat]

Zelos is already having a terrible time dealing with Lloyd and Malos becoming separated from him and Mithos when he spots the blade in the hallway. But then Mithos attacks, and something in Zelos freezes over as he becomes too paralyzed to do anything, even react to the ringing coming from her staff.

And so Zelos chokes.

The fight has already been drained out of Zelos, replaced with raw terror, so the pressure of that blade's ether brings him to his knees faster than it did Mithos, leaves him coughing and gasping for air as if it were constricting his lungs. Cold, harsh horror spreads through his whole body when that ringing sound engulfs his hearing, presses down against his temples, the ambient ether around Zelos muddled up and disgusting and clinging to him like restraints--

Despite them being wide open, his eyes are so lost that Zelos still can't see anything. He gasps as if breaking the surface of water, and it brings a flash of light to his sight before it all goes dark again; he is completely on the floor now. When that happened, he doesn't know. Weakly, Zelos moves a hand to reach out to where he thinks Mithos' signal is, but halfway through that, it stops. He tries again, and nothing. So he can't move his hand anymore, either. That's great.

Another gasp brings more light, and-- something lifts him. He feels weightless now, his teeth buzzing as if he were going to throw up, that ringing in his ears almost as overpowering and disorienting as the cannon shot in the caves. Zelos gags. Where is he? Where's Mithos? He can't pinpoint the other's signal as well anymore, either--it feels like the Aegis is to his left, to his right, up, below, behind him, everywhere.

This can't go on forever. It cannot. There's no way it can, it can't, it can't, it can't it can't it can't--

The ringing stops.

Zelos drags a huge gulp of air into his lungs, chokes on it, coughs. He shuts his eyes tight. There's a tingling sensation in his hands, and he flexes his fingers to get some sensation back into them as he slowly regains composure. He can feel some pressure against his stomach, so he guesses he must be lying face-down. Okay, okay. Zelos cracks open one eye, and even if the visuals are muddy, he can still see the blinding white of--

the cannon's pod, small and constricting, blindingly and surgically white,
bright, bright, bright as lights flood in before they're taken away
and he's left with only his ether lines and core crystal to see with
but they have so many cables attached to them and when the lights go out that's when it starts
that's when they take
that's when they take take take take take take--

Every single one of his thoughts come to an abrupt stop as Zelos freezes, body locking in on itself in its current position. He can't move. He can't speak. Eyes wide and mind numbingly static, he simply lays there on his stomach and stares off into nothingness, mind miles away as it waits for the lights to go out at any second now.

[lovedbyorigin2]

"No no no NO!" Mithos screams. He fights with everything he has in him, clawing towards coherency, the fight stripped of him momentarily, but-- The sensation, the arte that was suppressing his ether and his ability to move, it fades after a moment and once it has Mithos is on his feet.

The confinement chamber is small. The ceiling average height, the floor only five paces each way. Not much room. But enough room to pace-- around Zelos, who lays sprawled on his stomach and is completely immobile. That registers in Mithos' brain as worrying, but only distantly. He marches to where the door is. There's no way to open it, from this side. Mithos kicks it. Screams. Digs his fingers into the cracks in attempt to pry it open. No use. Work smarter.

The texture of the walls and the door makes him pretty sure what the end result will be before he even tests, but he tests anyway, just to be sure. Summoning a small amount of unaligned ether to his fingertips, Mithos presses it against the door. The ether immediately rebounds, burning his fingertips. Mithos hisses. Snarls. Kicks the door one more time.

"Very fucking funny!" he shouts, even though it isn't funny at all. "You think you can get away with this!? You can't! Someone-- someone will stop you!! Once you open this fucking door I'll stop you!! You just-- You have to-- You can't--!"

He slams his fists against the door, his breaths all coming sharp and quick. This is so stupid. The thought of confinement is making him furious and terrified and he doesn't know what they're going to do to him and they have Kratos and now they're going to--

Mithos slumps to the floor, knees bent under him, one arm still braced against the sealed door, the side of his head falling against it. He sits there in silence for a moment. Breathes.

"It's- fine, it's fine," he mutters to himself. "Sylvarant took us, so it's not like we'll be carted off to Tethe'alla." He shifts how he's sitting, lets his arm fall to the floor, twists his body so his back is to the door instead. "I don't know what Sylvarant will do with us. I mean, kill us, of course. Find us drivers they can control. But-- we'll be closer to Martel, then. That's something. Maybe we can get out, then. Three Aegises in the same place... Not that they'd be stupid enough to let us get close enough to each other. But. Maybe they could be. Humans are very stupid..."

He's just talking. Some of it is to think this through, some of it because he hates silence. He hopes, selfishly, that whoever they pick to be his new driver is also Martel's driver. He knows they would never. But. It would be nice.

"This sucks," Mithos admits, to himself, to Zelos, to no one at all. "But maybe we can make it work out. Like I said, even if we aren't rescued--" And they should be, if Lloyd is at least competent enough to get Kratos out. Kratos wouldn't leave him here. "--well, they'll just take us to where Martel is, after they kill us. It could be a lot worse than that, I suppose. It could be..."

He trails off. Looks to Zelos. He still hasn't moved, or responded at all. Mithos scowls, just a little, then probes with his senses, but... Zelos' ether feels alright, undamaged. So Mithos doubts its aftereffects of whatever the hell that blade did to them.

"Zelos...?" he asks, cautiously.

Ding dong eveything is bad

[presidentheartbeat]

Static, ringing, buzzing.

Pounding ether in his veins, the numbing loss of sensation on his skin. Blinding white and tension pulling at his muscles. Static, ringing, buzzing. A voice barely penetrating the stillness like sound underwater until it reaches his subconscious--he clings to it, trying to listen for the tell-tale tone of 'let's begin' or 'that would be all' just so that he can be ready. Who knows what could happen. Who knows what they'll want.

Static, ringing, buzzing.

Through the cacophony he thinks he hears something sounding like his name.

Zelos, Ze-los. Two syllables, mumbled low, somewhere in this room. That's not quite right. He can't see anything but the stillness of these white walls as they close in on him slowly, the anticipation for pain holding him down in place without moving a single muscle, but the sound pierces through until it forces him to blink. His eyes are so dry. A part of his rational mind that lies scattered like dust particles settles against his temples, provides a fuzzy image of the colour blue. Blue, blue like the sky, like freedom. Right, he... he isn't alone, is he? He thinks he wasn't alone, at least some time ago.

A huff of air through his lips is his response to the sound. The frustration that builds when that's all he can do is unbearable, like a knife pointed in towards Zelos' own core. It's not enough, it's not enough. It will never be enough. He will never be enough. Slowly, Zelos tries again, manages a small groan. It gets caught in his throat though, some pathetic sound that fails to coalesce into actual words.

He is not enough.

[lovedbyorigin2]

Zelos doesn't respond. Mithos blinks a few times, surprised, slowly worried. Again, Zelos' ether doesn't feel sick, so...

Cautiously, slowly, so as not to startle the other Aegis, Mithos moves, crawls the few inches across the floor he needs to to peer at Zelos' face. Zelos' eyes are wide open in an unseeing stupor not disimilar to Kratos on his very very worst nights. The nights where Mithos cannot coax him to move at all, the nights where going out to star gaze and remember their freedom isn't an option because Kratos doesn't trust him enough to move.

Mithos doesn't know what's causing Zelos to react like this, doesn't know what paths Zelos' mind is leading him down. But he's aware he has no idea what Tethe'alla put him through, either, for the hundred years they held him captive. Was it kinder than the cannons, constantly online, constantly active, with no rest in between? Maybe it wasn't.

Not much he can do to help, though, Mithos thinks. Not when he barely knows Zelos at all.

But there is... one thing. One thing he does for Kratos, on those worst nights. One thing that certainly couldn't hurt.

Mithos is anxious, still a little scared, still a lot furious. Underneath all that, he is also a little embarrassed. He folds his legs under him, sitting a respectable distance from Zelos. He puts his hands on his knees and straightens his back. Wets his lips. Clears his throat. Hesitates.

It can't hurt, though. Maybe it'll help.

His face is warm with embarrasment, but Mithos closes his eyes, pretends he is elsewhere, and he sings.

"Shul harum noy'him,
Ar jaruk noy'sing..."

It's quiet, and his voice soft, a little halting due to his embarrasment. It's... the words are meaningless, as far as he is aware. As good as gibberish. But it was something Father would sing, sometimes. It's soothing, even when most of Mithos' memories of his father are tainted with disdain. This song... well, it's still his favorite, despite everything.

[presidentheartbeat]

Static, ringing, buzzing.

Static, ringing, buzzing.

Static, ringing...

Humming.

It's like ripples in water before it is like actual sound, quiet and shy notes and words carried along the edges of Zelos' subconscious as he stares off into the void. Immobile, it takes him a few minutes. This is... a song, held by a young, rippling voice. Another flash of blue across his mind brings forth some clarity, but--what does a colour even help with? What's the significance of blue against white...?

Why would anyone sing before the cannon--?

Why those colours? Who's singing, who? Why? It takes Zelos a few tries before he can cling onto any of the aimless words, and when he does, he finds himself slowly frowning. They feel like water through his fingers, formless and quiet. Muffled by static. Sluggish. Why? He focuses on the words, trying to pick anything he can recognize among them, but to no avail. These aren't words he's heard before, and they keep ebbing in the shores of his subconscious like cold water, white noise against the ringing and buzzing of his own stress. Harmonious, melodic, but utterly nonsensical. Why? Why would anyone sing? Why sing? Why sing?

Zelos exhales harshly. His eyes don't close, but at least they aren't so wide anymore. The song carries with it a blue glow against his eyelids, held there before the blinding white of the room's walls.

[aurions2]

If anyone was wondering how Kratos was doing, the answer is not great.

He's sluggish and his mind is static. It's hard to hear anything over the maddeningly constant thump thump thump of a heart he never asked for, pounding incessently in his eardrums, filling them up and drowning out everything else. Horror grips at his chest and plays a cacophony of fear in the echo chamber of an empty resonance.

He feels

so small

A distant part of him recognizes that he is safe,
that anyone who wants to experiment on him is long dead,
that the worst that could happen to him at this current moment is that he's killed.

It is a very distant part, though. It cannot scream loud enough for conscious thought to grab onto.

Footsteps.

He only hears them because he trained himself for it, to make sure he'd always know when they were coming, so he could be prepared to resist. Which is why quite suddenly after being completely immobile for the hours they have spent here, Kratos shoots upright and scrambles across the floor so he might press his back to the far wall of the cell away from the door. He breathes, heavily, terrified, and he trembles, watching, waiting, steeling himself. If they want him to move, they will have to make him.

He does not recognize Anna's voice. He does not recognize Lloyd. He does not recognize anything.

[risingfalcon]

The moment Malos grabs Lloyd's wrist and pulls him forward, Lloyd tries to protest against it, digging his boots into the ground as he resists against the bigger blade. "Malos, wait, the others -" Lloyd gets out, cutting himself off as he stumbles when Malos lets go of him in his rush. The boy turns, tries to get back to the Aegises, but jumps back when a wall slams down in front of him, nearly slicing him in half as it comes down. It takes only a second of realization before he feels fear leak directly into his heart, which beats so heavily, so hard, that Lloyd is sure the others can hear it.

"No!" He yells, immediately searching for a lock, or some sort of mechanism he can break, some way to pull up the wall. Zelos and Mithos are out there, separated from the rest of the party, separated from him, and they're the most vulnerable out of the rest of them, the most powerful but also the most in threat, they need to get to them -

The others. The others need to be freed, first. Before anything, they need to free the others, and Malos can't do it on his own. Lloyd swallows down anxiety fear anxiety fear not knowing if the way it grows is his or Mithos' and don't think about it or you will start to freak out Lloyd take a deep breath count to ten like Kratos said -

Kratos. Okay. He can start with him.

Taking a deep breath to stop the way he's beginning to hyperventilate - (he can't see Zelos and Mithos, can't know they're okay, and he can't help but think about the gauntlet, about being separated and knowing that they one by one fell to their deaths stop stop stop THINKING) - Lloyd turns to face the others, face the cells. He does his best to look them over from his position, and. Okay, they all look a bit dazed, but Kratos - Lloyd can't tell if he's genuinely hurt or what, and that's worrying, but he can't do anything from outside the cells. So he reaches up to his hair, pulls a bobby pin out from the side of it, and gets to work.

"Y-you're gonna be alright, Kratos," Lloyd says, trying to hide the tremble in his voice as the terror rears it's ugly head louder and louder, and he's certain something is happening to Mithos, but he can't - not in front of Kratos, Kratos can't realize something is wrong with Mithos, not like this, so he stays strong. "I'm gonna get you out, don't worry."

The lock is deceptively tricky, with hidden slots and key recognitions, but Lloyd is sure that under normal circumstances, he'd be able to pop it open within a minute. However, with the way his hands tremble, his movements become less precise, more erratic. The bobby pin snaps.

"Fuck," he mutters, staring at the lock. He could try again, pull another bobby pin and try to break the lock open in what is probably the less messy way of handling things, but he doubts he'd be able to get any sort of progress done with how useless his mind is becoming as time passes. And for all the experience he has at busting out of jail, there is little that could be done from outside the cell without keys, and Kratos is obviously unresponsive, so.

He makes up his mind.

The ether in the area is weird, completely choked and limited from how it felt outside, and Lloyd doesn't notice it until he closes his eyes, gathering as much of it as he can around him. He can feel it enter his body through the crystal on his left hand, feels the way it travels into his bloodstream in such a heavy current it burns at his insides, powerful and foreign. He gasps in pain, breaths coming out sharp as he doubles over, the ether finding its way to his shoulder blades and staying there, furiously swirling, gathering shape and form, a scorching mess that sets his nerves aflame. Biting his tongue, he holds in a yell as his wings come alive, flickering into view before taking up the expanse of the room, cyan lighting up the cold of the cells.

With his enhanced strength, Lloyd straightens himself back out, wipes a gloved hand over his clammy forehead, and finally turns back to face the lock he had tried to pick. Brute force it is, then. He makes sure Kratos is out of the way - (he's in the far corner of the cell, well away from the door) - takes another deep breath, and then angles the side of his body towards the cell door, on the furthest side from the hinges. With a moment to gather his wits about him, Lloyd throws his shoulder into the door, ramming his full strength into it.

One.

Two.

Three.

The door goes flying with a squeal as the hinges break. It smacks hard against the inner center wall of the cell, falling flat to the floor as soon as it does. Pausing for a moment to steady himself, Lloyd hesitates to leave Kratos as he is, but -

"Please do not touch me without my consent. Triggers bad memories, sometimes, if I am not expecting it."

- he should trust him to find a way back to shore by himself, if only for right now. Setting his jaw, he walks over to Sheena's cell, sends her as steady a smile as he can force with how his emotions are a jumbled mess of horror and dread, eating at the cracks in his shaky demeanor, threatening to distract him the moment he thinks of them and he needs to stop right now. "Careful, Sheena. It'll go flying."

Giving her a second to position herself away from the door, he repeats what he did to Kratos' cell, knocking it off its hinges in no time, and then fixes himself in front of Anna's cell door to do the same. All three cell doors open, all three hostages freed, Lloyd properly looks them over best he can, concern etched into every part of his expression. With the immediate distraction out of the way, his heart begins to pound irritatingly fast again, a desperate "we need to find Zelos and Mithos we need to save them we need to help them" drumming to the same tune. He's itching to leave this cellblock. "Anything we need to worry about here and now?"

[summonerd]

Sheena had given up on her plan of waiting on her feet for someone to come in pretty quickly - at the least, the door was far enough away that she'd have time to react, and it doesn't seem like Sylvarant has much interest in its prisoners at the moment - instead settling back down towards the front of the cell. Kratos is nonresponsive, despite either of their best efforts; she leaves Anna to it, for the most part, tunes out of what she's saying because it feels uncomfortably private to be listening in even if Anna's just trying to vent her anxiety. She jolts to her feet the second she hears noise outside, the second Anna calls Malos's name hesitantly, pressed up close to the bars to get a better view.

The four other members of their party approach, and Sheena's face lights up, opening her mouth to call out, and--

A door comes down, splitting Malos and Lloyd off from the Aegises. Okay. That's bad, but - there are five of them here, now, and the others are just on the other side of the door. There's no way one door can keep them separated for long, Sheena reassures herself to push down the fear and restless frustration that's gathering in her heart. Instead, she pulls that grin back onto her face, calls out "I knew you guys had it handled" to Lloyd before shutting up so he can focus on picking the lock. She sucks in a sympathetic breath when Lloyd's wings come out, but, alright, that makes sense. They don't have the time for lockpicking.

She gives him a quick nod as she gets out of the way, letting him do his thing. They'll definitely have everyone in this base in here after that level of noise, so they'll need to be fast, but that's fine. It's going to be fine. "Thanks," she tells him, grateful, as she makes her way out of the cell to join him and Malos. "You guys probably know more than we do, though. We've been--"

That's as far as she gets before the emotional bleed crashes down on her, and it'd been heavy before but it's crushing now with something every word she has is too weak for. Sheena gasps, doubles over as she fights it unsuccessfully for even a shred of space to breathe.

[aurions]

Kratos snarls as Lloyd approaches the cell door, still not quite recognizing the boy as his son, but then--

With a slam and the ringing of crashing metal as Lloyd breaks the cell door off its hinges, everything slots into place.

It's still fuzzy, terror gripping him too tight, muscles not wanting to move, but Kratos realizes-- this is a rescue mission. He watches as Lloyd turns and sets about freeing Sheena, then Anna. Breathes. Breathes. Breathe, Kratos, just breathe. He's fine, it's fine. They're going to get out of here. That's all he wants, isn't it? Freedom?

Something nags at his brain, though, as he counts the people in this room, recognizing them vaguely, but more importantly knowing some are missing. Who's missing? Who's--?

Sheena collapses, suggesting something on her blade's end. On Zelos' end. Oh, Architect, where's Zelos? Where's Mithos?

"Shit, fuck," Malos says, sharp and somewhat despairing. "Sorry, I shouldn't've-- Shit." It's like water in Kratos' ears, barely understood. Kratos focuses on stepping out of his cell in the meantime, as Malos keeps talking. "We need to get out of here before anything else. Ether's all fucked in here. Me and Kratos are both gonna be useless. I- could probably carry Sheena though, if I gotta. Lloyd? Anna? Any ideas?" After a second, he sends a hesitant, cautious look at Kratos. "Kratos? What about you?"

Kratos shakes his head. He has no ideas, and his voice isn't somewhere he could voice them even if he had them. He wants the ether to go back to normal, though. And maybe once they're out of this ether suppression field, he can sense Mithos' ether signature and lead the way to saving the Aegis.

That's all that matters. Getting out. Saving Mithos.

(Zelos, too. It's just hard, through the haze of panic and bad memories and lack of ether for Kratos to think about anything that isn't Mithos or getting out of here for longer than a few seconds.)

"I don't have any ideas, either," Anna says. "Lloyd..." She begins, almost like she's going to ask a question, but doesn't commit to it. "Well? What can you do?"