[IC] Final Fantasy: Awakened Souls

[Muttonhawk]

The mercenary was too distracted in his rage to heed Sara's attempt at a warning, even if he wouldn't have the time to see it coming. It was to no avail in the end, he was struck and there was nothing either of them could do. Sara had expected him to become vaporised just like little Erin and everyone else around them, but even though he was thrown with some force, he was otherwise left completely unharmed, just like Sara was.

That didn't stop others being killed. It was happening quicker now. Swathes of people were suddenly silenced in front of Sara's eyes as the Tendrils picked their targets without discrimination. She was horrified. She tried to steady her breathing as she stood on her feet again. Before she realised it, there were only a few shouts and screams left in the room. No more than two dozen, she estimated from what she could see and hear. The comparison to the screams of terror just a minute beforehand turned the room's ambiance into a quiet kind of deafening.

There was also something new from the crystal. Not the killer tendrils of energy from before, but now little motes of red light danced around the crystal. With a graceful flight, the specks moved to surround those in the room that were left. They gave little indication of their purpose. Sara tried to reach up and touch one, but quickly retracted her hand as all of the specks around her shot into her body. After stepping back to regain her balance, she was left at a loss until there was heat from her wrist. With a wince, she frantically took off her glove to try and find its source. It was a bracelet. She didn't have this bracelet on before. It was an odd design; a light blue band with green gemstones on opposite ends. She didn't have time to inspect it before the sound of boots clapping against the floor turned her attention.

Masked men, suited in black, armed with automatic weapons. Sara replaced her glove and clenched her fists, lowering herself to face them. There was still a lot of fear running through her from before, but she wasn't about to give up. Her determined surge was unfortunately short lived once the armed men tossed cylinders of sleeping gas. Sara slowly stumbled to the ground, failing to fight its effects.

---

Dreamless moments passed before Sara came around. She slowly opened her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nose. It was too late before she began to cough as the dust from the floor entered her lungs. She was lying flat and face-down, but the coughing fit motivated her to push herself up from the floor and bring her knees forward so she could kneel. She took a slow breath and coughed harder into the back of her hand, before hawking and... closing her mouth and pausing to looked around at the metal bars that surrounded her. A prison cell? She swallowed her phlegm outright and stood up, dusting herself off with both hands. In one corner she spotted where her hat had been unceremoniously thrown in with her. At least whoever those people with the has were had a shred of decency. Retrieving her hat and placing it on her head, she pondered for a moment. There didn't seem to be any more hints as to where she was or why she was there. Just the same clothing that she was abducted in.

"Wait, including?" Sara's eyes went wide and she pulled up the cuff of her glove to find the bracelet that had appeared in the room with the crystal. A light blue band with two green gemstones. One of the gems was a darker green than the other under this light. Upon seeing it, she closed her eyes and sighed with a sadness and fear. So that was real, she thought, opening her eyes and pursing her lips, Why did that have to happen? She lowered her arms and tried to look around, What is this place?

Sara's eyes quickly spotted movement from another cell, the one opposite from her. It wasn't just anyone, either. "Wait, I know you." Sara said, walking up to the bars and holding them while craning her neck to try and see him, "You're that Miris farmboy from earlier. Were you in the room with the crystal too?"

[Ayleth]

Laecora took to remaining quiet in the crystal room and simply observing. There simply wasn't much else she could do that wouldn't cause panic, so she might as well try to form some kind of hypothesis of what was going on. She watched as the red specks around the crystal would coalesce around the remaining others, and herself, and disappear into their bodies. All the others seemed to stare down at their hands and she did as well, noting that a deep blue bracelet with two gems, clear and pearl, had appeared on her own wrist. She could only assume similar things had happened to the others. Were they some sore of identification? She tried to get a glimpse at the colors of her neighbor's bracelets before guards entered and she blacked out again.

---

Slowly Laecora regained consciousness and she chose to upright herself, sitting with her legs crossed and allowing her mind to find remember where her center of balance was before opening her eyes. She was in a simple prison cell, not that she was really surprised by this. Upon further inspection she noticed two women and a male that she could only assume were from the crystal room as well. Getting up, she trained her eyes on each of them, doing everything she could to from such a distance to check their vitals and see if they were living. There was no sense in trying to wake them. Having them all wake at once increased the chances for panic, instead of slowly helping each one acclimate to their new setting.

[Krinos Solstice]

Tyme watched as one of the specks of light shot towards him, stopping just in front of his face long enough for him to swing at it. After his hand passed through, he felt intense heat, then saw something form. It was a clear bracelet with one dark green gem and one purple gem. Glancing over at Sara, he noticed she wore a similar bracelet, though hers was a different color. Looking at his own again, he wondered what the purpose of these were, perhaps something to identify them? Maybe something to control them with? The thought of being controlled bothered Tyme, though before he had a chance to contemplate this, men wearing masks and dressed in black showed up. The first thing he noticed were the canisters of gas they shot, lifting his free hand to cover his nose and mouth, Another gassing? I'm not falling for that again. he thought, noticing Sara had collapsed. Several of the men approached him, one motioning to the others, who nodded. Tyme wasn't sure what was going on, nor would he find out until later, when he woke. The last thing he felt was something hitting the back of his head, then darkness.

***

Tyme heard voices, one he didn't know, and another that seemed vaguely familiar. Opening his eyes, he found he had been put in a cell, face down. Slowly getting up, he rubbed the back of his head, feeling a small lump on it. He frowned, trying to figure out what happened, suddenly recalling how he felt something hit him before blacking out. Those bastards! At least I'm a little closer to finding out who needs to pay for murdering those innocents. They'll pay, all of them. he thought. He looked around, spotting Sara in a cell similar to his own, she appeared to be talking with an unknown male. The man seemed to be like them, judging from the bracelet he wore as well. What was this all for? Why gas them again if they were just going to move them into individual cells? It seemed pointless. However, given the fact Tyme had resisted so much during the entire ordeal, it was likely the best thing they did. Without any warning, he started to laugh. When he was done, he remained silent, save for the occasional chuckle. However, the chuckles weren't from humor, they were from from the fact he had lost a bit of his sanity. The loss of his parents, of his sister, and even Erin in front of his eyes had finally gotten to him. "They're going to kill us eventually, you know. We're all just cattle to them now...just cattle...yes..." he said to the two of them, still chuckling uncontrollably.

[CrimsonWarrior55]

As the tendril left him, Mal looked around. Everyone around him was being vaporized into little red specks. Wait, no. Not everyone. Some seemed to have the same thing happen to them that had happened to him. In the midst of his horror was a tiny speck of relief when he noticed Fuu and Rena were still with him, as was the girl who talked to him earlier. Eventually, the tendrils stopped, and the near thousand that once filled the room were reduced to a mere two dozen, the rest just specks of red, floating in the air. It was jarring to say the least. As a speck drifted towards Mal, he took a step back, and suddenly, as if on cue, all the specks stopped circling and charged at the remainder. Mal instinctively put his hands up and felt an intense burning on his right wrist. He pulled of his glove and was met by a strange looking bracelet. Th was a simple red-orange band, except of the two gems at either end. One was purple, and the other light blue. Looking around he noticed the same thing had happened to everyone else, except the colors seemed to vary. As he reached to touch it, the doors burst open, and in rushed a bunch of masked people in all black leather suit, carrying automatic guns. Entering a fighting position, Mal refused to go down like a simple dog, but they didn't reach for their guns. Instead, they pulled out canisters and chucked them into the room, white gas luring out of it. "Ah, what the hell? Oh, no… Sleeping gas! Don't' breath it in!" He yelled, but it's not like they had an option. It quickly filled the room, and people began to succumb. Struggling to remain conscious, Mal burned the image of the masks into him brain, refusing to forget who it was responsible for this slaughter.

---

Floating in nothing, Malachi could hear… something. In danced in his ears as he struggled to figure out the source. It almost sounded like… laughing?

Slowly opening his eyes, Mal groggily sat up, realizing the chuckling was coming from a man in the cell next to him. He had a dark aura about him. Like a man who was starting to lose his grip on reality. "Wait a second. Cell?" Mal thought, all traces of groggy gone. He shot up and bolted to the door, closing his hands around the bars and giving them a good shake. "Dammit! Those bastards will pay for this…" he growled. Realizing there was nothing he could do for now he took a look around. He was in a small cell, with no privacy what so ever. The back wall was pretty solid, and the other three were straight bars. No chance of escape from that. In the cells next to him were some dude he didn't know, but looked like a farm boy, and on the other side was some chick he didn't know. Across the hallway were more people he didn't know, but one appeared to be a guard and she was talking to the farm boy. The dude almost directly across from him was the one chuckling. It would've been unsettling, except Mal was used to that kind of laugh. It was a tamer version of Jade's. Looking again, Mal noticed everyone was wearing the same kind of bracelet he was. These must have been people who were also in the room with him. Coming to the conclusion that there was nothing more to be down, Mal walked to the center of his room and sat down, electing to just wait, and prepare himself. For the second that door opened, he was going to break someone's neck...

[Muttonhawk]

Before the farmboy could answer, there was a dreadful laugh that emanated from another cell near Sara. Turning her head, she saw the now conscious form of the gunblade mercenary. His behaviour wasn't helping the situation at all, but Sara couldn't tell by his words whether he was simply insane, or whether he knew more about the situation than she did.

He's been chewed up all the same. Maybe he was always crazy.

Despite her internal musings, Sara walked over to the side of her cell closest to the mercenary and looked over him with a quizzical yet impatient looking face. She was about to question him but was interrupted when a man in yet another cell gained consciousness. His clothing was familiar, but Sara couldn't quite dredge it out of her memory. Had she seen him before? Nevermind, back to captain optimism over here. "Hey, gunblade. You say they're just going to kill us?" She put her hands on her hips, "If you know something that we don't, you'd better speak up."

[Little_ninja]

Fuyuto saw that Rena survived the light, as she was curled up into a ball. She had shouted but with a weak voice too soft for many to hear if there was anyone else. Fuyuto scanned the room, he saw Mal survived, and about 20 other people. "I'm here Rena, Mal's still alive too. There's about 20 people." He whispered to her. Suddenly, the red specks surrounding the crystal encircled both Rena and himself.
"What the ..." Fuyuto started to speak, but trailed off. Light entered his body, and a burning sensation was felt on his wrist. Turning to his wrist, Fuyuto saw a bracelet. It was midnight blue in color, with clear and black gems in it. He tried to remove the bracelet, but couldn't seem to get it off. Then tried removing the gems. As he was doing this, an army of men came swarming in, equipped with assault rifles, they used canisters to gas the room. Fuyuto started to sleep.
Damn it .... Sleeping gas.... His mind trailed off as he fell unconscious.

---

With his mind slowly regaining consciousness, Fuyuto felt eyes on him. He jumped, in the opposite direction of the eyes, hitting his head against the cell wall. He crouched over, groaning a little. Scanning the room, it was obvious that he was in a prison cell, bars all around except the wall behind him. He noticed the person who's eyes were on him. It seemed like she was analyzing him. Checking how he was. He assumed she had done likewise to the others around him.

Looking around, he could see Rena, still unconscious, and saw another girl. It looked like someone he knew from Miris. Annabel, who was from a line of Chocobo breeders. He had helped her out from time to time, being the farm hand he was, helping out the other farms in Miris. Fuyuto could not confirm from where he was if it was her or not. Also it had been over three years since he last saw her. They had bracelets on them too, of different colors. He then looked at the woman who was previously checking on him from her cell.
"Hey there, the name's Fuyuto. Any idea what's happened at the moment?" he questioned as he rubbed the back of his head.

[Ayleth]

"Morning Fuyuto, I'm Laecora." She mused silently. The man seemed to be recovering alright, except for the head-knock upon wakening. "I haven't figured too much out honestly. I remember the gas from the crystal room but it seems that perhaps we are the only four? Although there may be rooms farther into the building, prisons just usually keep them all together." She motioned towards the bracelet on her wrist and nodded at his. "No idea what these are for, but I noticed ours all seem to be different. Perhaps they could be identification of some sort." She did one more quick look over on the man before nodding to herself. "I would be slow to stand, and careful to start moving. I'm alright, and the girls /seem/ to be okay, but you never know what could have happened to us while we were out."

[Blaze Gamma]

Red frowned. Something about the man called 'gunblade' was unsettling, but he couldn't place it. Either way, though, he had a suspicion that the man was simply wrong. He moved back to the wall and sat back on it frowning. Is Annabel okay? Is she worried about me? How long have I been here? What's going on? He raked his head for answers, but continually came back with nothing. Hopefully he'd get out, but until then, he had no idea what was going on. He looked down at the stone floor. "She's probably worried sick..." He mumbled. The possibility that she might have been captured as well didn't even occur to the young man.

For a while he continued to sit there, but listening to some of the conversation, he came to a conclusion. "I... Don't think they're going to kill us..." He mumbled. "I mean... If they wanted us dead, they wouldn't have let us live after what happened in that room... Would they?" It just wouldn't make sense... He thought.

[Krinos Solstice]

Tyme stopped his chuckling when Sara spoke directly to him, though he kept his head lowered, "What do I know, miss? I know what I know, the same as you. But then again, what if what we know is a lie? What if our lives are nothing but a bunch of lies? Take the bracelets, for example. Why would we have these if we're just prisoners? I think...do I think anything anymore? No, we're cattle. Yes, we're all cattle now. We'll be fed and used until we have no purpose anymore." he said, rambling on. After a few minutes, he stood and moved towards her, "What about you, lady? You're some guard right? Maybe you're a spy, yes? Sent to watch us cattle like a good little spy? Maybe you'll even get promoted, yes? Up, up, up you go. Climb that ladder to the sky and be a somebody! Spy. Spy, spy, spy. I spy with my little eye, someone that's a spy! Heheheheh! Bye bye, miss spy." he finally moved away from the bars, returning to the corner. He didn't look up when the male spoke, simply chuckled, staring at his hand. It was then that he realized he was missing one more valuable item, the ring his sister gave him. He jumped to his feet quickly, his personality changing in that split second as he grabbed the bars again, "HEY YOU BASTARDS! GIVE ME MY RING BACK! I SWEAR, I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU UNTIL I GET IT BACK! YOU HEAR ME?! I'LL SLIT ALL YOUR THROATS IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME MY RING BACK! I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU IN THE MOST GRUELING WAY POSSIBLE! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?! HEY! ANSWER ME YOU PILES OF CHOCOBO DUNG!" he shouted as loud as he could.

[CrimsonWarrior55]

Mal listened quietly to the speculation before adding in his two cents "CALM YOURSELF!!! There is NOTHING to be gained from panic. But the Farm Boy is correct. It makes no sense for them to herd us like this only to kill us. Those masked people. They very clearly had guns, as I'm sure you all had seen. They could picked us off with no trouble. I can only conclude that whatever happened in there... WASN'T supposed to happen. And now? They probably want to experiment on us. Find out what went wrong" Mal deduced, a dark anger crossing his eyes "But I refuse to let them do what they want. The only one in charge of me, is me"...

[Little_ninja]

"I see I see" Fuyuto nodded to Laecora's reply. She seemed like a nice person, it would of been nicer to meet under better circumstances. He started to stand up slowly, as suggested by Laecora.
"I think we aren't the only ones. I remember there being at least 20 people. It would be strange that only we are left."
Looking at his bracelet, he could see that his bracelet was a lighter blue then hers, and had different gems.
"I doubt these are for identification. We would only have gotten them after waking up, not from that crystal I think. Perhaps out of the thousands, we were compatible with the crystal or something. But why would they do this? What's so special about that crystal and these bracelets that came from the crystal?" Fuyuto started to think aloud.
He sighed deeply. "Sorry, I was just thinking aloud. I doubt you have an actual answer for those questions. Maybe you have something to speculate though? I would be interested to hear it if you did. Otherwise, let's get to know each other for now. Nothing else we can really do right now."
Fuyuto stood, and smiled a little. It would be good to make friends, they can't just keep them there forever, and if they tried, they could try to escape with their combined effort. His head was still hurting, so his left hand was still rubbing the area he hit against the wall.

[Shurikai]

After she opened her eyes and stopped screaming, Annabel realized she was still alive, in the same room as before. With a quick glance around, she saw that from the few hundred that were in there room a scant twenty were left. Why? That was all she could ask herself.
A moment later, little red light started floating around. In another situation, it would have been utterly beautiful. Another moment, those same light started to swarm around who ever was left, seemingly disappearing into them. The same happened to her. It wasnt as frightening as the beams of possibly the same light earlier and Annabelbonly let out a small gasp when they entered her boby. There was a strange hot sensation around her wrist as a... was that a braclet? Annabel wasnt really one for jewelery, and it didnt look like this one was coming off. It had a pleasant pearl colored band with a blue stone on one side and a yellow one on the other.
"What in the world...?" She mused not noticing the gas that now surrounded her as she drifted into a sleep.

A moment of bliss. No fear. No pain. Nothing she felt earlier. Was that a dream? She could see Red off in the distance with Elizabeth. Annabel ran to them, but as she reached them, her eyes snapped open. This wasnt the flowery meadow she had been in. It was a cold room of metal.
Now she remembered. The crystal, the light, the braclet.. she looked down at her hands. It was still there, barely consealed by her glove. She sighed and sat up. Her hands immediately went to her head as she experienced a headrush. A few seconds passed and the sensation faded, so she decided to look around. A few people had already awakened and were talking amongst themselves. One in particular looked familiar, but she couldnt quite put her finger on who he was. She walked to the cell door to hearbthe conversation a bit better. They were talking about the braclets and why they were here. She wished she knew.
"You look familiar." Annabel said looking at Fuyuto.

[Muttonhawk]

Sara's head turned to the farmboy at his comment. It made enough sense. They wouldn't have bothered to lock them all up if all they wanted were their lives. The mercenary's rantings continued as Sara slowly turned her head back to him. As he continued, she brought her arms around her chest and settled them into a crossed position while she wore a cold scowl. She had seen plenty of people like this courtesy of the various poisons sold in the Gamma district. Part of the reason she preferred to work in those parts was to stop the people that sold them and prevent more instances of the man in front of her. She wouldn't have liked to admit that she flinched when the man burst out in anger at discovering that ring was stolen from him, or something. She wondered if the man used to be sane. What happened to him?

The man in the coat tried to get the mercenary to shut up, then explained his opinion. It caused Sara to sigh through her nose and start pacing around her cell for a time. Experimenting on us? Great, just great. Knowing that she probably wasn't going to get any useful information from the nut yelling in the other cell, Sara turned her attention to the other two. From what they had said, she concluded that they had all been in the room with the crystal as well. Sara started by walking to the edge of her cell closest to the farmboy. "You two," she addressed both the farmboy and the man in the coat, then took off the glove that covered her bracelet and held her wrist up, "Did you get bracelets as well?"

[Blaze Gamma]

Seeing the bracelet snapped Red back to the crystal room for a moment. He couldn't help but remember the intense burning he'd felt right before it appeared. He looked at his left wrist. The pearl colored bracelet sat silently on his wrist. There was something unearthly about it. "Y-yeah," he said, honestly still unnerved by the man's ranting and raving. He was simply glad that there were two sets of bars and a hallway between himself and that man. "What are these things, anyway?" He asked, digging his fingers to the bracelet. Even though it hadn't felt tight on his wrist, he couldn't even get his littlest finger in between the object and his skin. "... It won't come off..." He looked for something, a seam, a latch, but there was no sign of anything of the sort. Against all logic, the object appeared to have no sign of construction by human hands, and as fitting as it was to his hand, the only way that would make sense were if the bracelet were a part of his body.

[Ayleth]

Laecora nodded, listening to Fuyuto's musings and pondering them herself. No one really had any way of gathering how correct or incorrect they were until something else happened, IF anything did. After a moment she shifted her emerald eyes over, noticing one of the girls starting to awaken. Just like with Fuyuto, Laecora watched the girl for any obvious health problems, but the girls seemed to be pretty well off all things considering. And.. apparently they might know each other? She looked towards Fuyuto with a little surprise on her face.

[CrimsonWarrior55]

Mal said nothing, merely raising his right hand. Just like the others, there shined a bracelet. "I, too, can not help but wonder what these are. There is no visible latch or even a indication that it CAN come off. My greatest concern though, is what these mean. You all remember how they just appeared on our arms? I fear to say it, but it was almost like... magic. But that shouldn't be possible. Only monsters can use magic, bar none. But no technology could do what we just saw. It is.... disturbing to say the least" he finished, dropping his wrist as his examination came to a conclusion. These two seemed to at least posses enough intelligence to remain calm, unlike that gunblader, who was still screaming his head off. To be perfectly frank, he was getting on Malachi's nerves "Grrrrr... SILENCE!!!! You keep screaming you'll kill our captors. We get it. You're angry over your ring, but there is nothing you can do about it right now unless you can miraculously bend these bars and get out. Even if you could, they would shoot you dead before you even got close to them. Use what little brain you have. So for right now, calm yourself, take a seat, and SHUT THE HELL UP!!!" he roared, despite maintaining an air of calm...

[Little_ninja]

Fuyuto could see Laecora nodding and listening, she seemed to contemplate what he was saying. Seeing Laecora turn her head away from Fuyuto, towards Annabel, Fuyuto turned too. Seeing her face properly and hearing her voice telling him he looked familiar, he knew it was Annabel.
"Annabel? It's me Fuyuto. It's been years. Wish we could of met under better conditions." He looked around, indicating the conditions he meant.
"Wow, you've grown. But wait ... if you're here, that means you ..." His voice trailed, he looked at her wrist. She too had a bracelet, it was a pearl color, different from his.
"So, you were in that room too huh .... With the crystal and the people ..."
He started to look down at the floor, looking sad for the many lives lost.
After a quick moment, he looked up again. "Well, other than that, it's good to see you after all this time. Ah...." Fuyuto turned to Laecora.
"This is Laecora. We only just met now. This is Annabel, she was a Chocobo Breeder in Miris, I used to help out when I lived there." Fuyuto said, turning to Annabel, introducing the girls to each other.
"What were you doing in Miris Annabel? How's Red, Elizabeth and my Gramps been? Is Kuroko okay? Hasn't been causing too much trouble?"Fuyuto rapidly was asking about home. Kuroko was a black chocobo he had found years back, which he asked Annabel to raise and keep, since he could not take her with him.

[Muttonhawk]

They both showed their bracelets, and Sara inspected her own some more. It was secured tightly, but it didn't seem to cut off her blood flow, thankfully. It was more like it was glued to her skin. She turned around and leaned against the bars of her cell, before sliding down them until she sat on the ground with her knees up. While the man in the coat got angrier, She had her eyes down on her bracelet confirming what the others explained. It wouldn't come off, it wouldn't even slide one way or the other. Yup, Glued to her wrist.

At least the colour suits my damn uniform, She thought sarcastically, I wonder why their bracelets have different colours?

Still looking down at her bracelet, Sara spoke up to the others in their cells. "If we can get out of this place, we should help each other out." She recommended. Her eyes glanced up sideways to see them again, "What are your names? You can call me Sara." Sara pointed her thumb behind her toward's the mercenary's cell, "Chuckles back there uses a gunblade, but his name is... Tyme, I think? Yeah, that's right. He was in the room too, we were nearby each other. We, uh..." Sara took a breath, "... there was a kid next to us. A little girl, she didn't make it. I think it's hit him hard. Just leave him be, trenchcoat." Sara's tone wasn't exactly cheery, but it was part of her job to stay strong in tragic situations.

[Silver Carrot]

Rena finally awoke. She backed up against the wall and took a good, long look at the rest of the room. Three people were talking. One of them was Fuyuto. Rena didn't know the other two. She didn't say anything to them yet. She wasn't ready to talk yet. She tried to recall what had happened in the previous room, but all that entered her mind was death. So much death. And she survived. And there was a burning sensation on her wrist. She looked down at her wrist. There was a dark green bracelet on her wrist, with two gems in it. one pale green and the other white. So it wasn't a dream...

She looked back up at the other inhabitants of her cell, including the two new girls. "Hello," she said weakly.

[Blaze Gamma]

Red looked down at his feet. He wasn't sure he'd be able to be much help in this kind of a situation, after all, the others were a soldier, a (somewhat broken, but probably still passable) mercenary, and a... Very impatient seeming person. He was just a farmer, and nothing more. "Red," he mumbled, curling up and feeling completely overwhelmed. Even with the yelling, those two seemed to be far more composed in this situation than he could possibly be, and if they found a way out, he would doubtless just be a burden on them.