Part 1

[walk_ins]

There's a bump and a lurch felt through the entire Academy as Serenity docks, unwelcome. Claxons blare. In the main dining hall the Students stir and murmur, confusion more than ever writ large on their face. The Advanced Students in their special cafeteria have less of a reaction; the outside world matters less and less for them.

In the staff dining hall, the doctors, teaches and nurse exchange looks and outbursts of confusion and consternation themselves. Theories fly around; a meteorite, maybe, or an unexpected docking. Or something gone wrong with whatever madness the Doctor is up to. Only Dr. Sergio Lin actually bothers to leave the room.

In the Special Wing, the Doctor and the Graduates wait for their door. Whatever it is, the guards will take care of it.

It only takes a few of the Blue Hands to guard the dining halls, under normal circumstances, and the rest are here in the Security Lounge. It's a narrow space, with a sterile stink to it; some indefinable imprint of their inhabitancy. Crowded tonight; there're guests in town. The room is decorated with watercolor paintings, all turned upside down. When Serenity arrives, their heads all swivel as one in the direction it came from, and as one they stand and move towards the doors, drawing pistols and slim blue wands from their jackets. They meet Dr. Lin as they come out, and he confuses the situation with semi-hysterical and self-contradictory orders.

And at the docking point, the doors burst open, and with no further ado quite a lot of heavily armed people burst into the skyplex.

Things have begun.

Comments

[walk_ins]

"No. No. They're all at dinner. The Graduates."

"Graduates are leaving today. Not in the dining halls. Special Wing. The Doctor. Ohhh tian a."

She whimpers.

"S'l-locked. Can't. Can't open it please qing ni. I don't have the keys. I don't want to die."

[lastgunslinger]

"Everyone dies. But you won't die by my hand. Not today."

He jerks his head. "Give me your key and go. Back the way we came. And if you ever see my face again it'll be the last thing you see."

[walk_ins]

She flinches, and tosses a ring of magnetic strip-keys to him.

And flees.

[river_meimei]

The door to the dormitory wing is unlocked. River eases it open, and glances up and down the hallway before slipping through.

She's never been in this space station. The Academy moved here from the planet-based (and therefore less secure) facility on Setebos, after she escaped. But consistency is important for the Students. Routine. It's built as close to the same plan as possible.

She makes her way, silent and flinching and unerring, towards Room 2-7.

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

And inside Room 2-7, Anthy sits curled up and motionless beside the cooling corpse of Margrethe Juarez.

It's been a while. She's not in the cafeteria with the other students; how are they supposed to find her?

She should go find them.

She doesn't get up.

[lastgunslinger]

Roland makes his way down the hall, keys at his belt next to the Horn of Eld. His gun hasn't left his shoulder yet.

And he follows River, eyes always shifting. Conning his vantage. Seeing it all very well.

[river_meimei]

They're nearing the room. River's old room, transplanted across planets and into space but just the same, just the same --

Her breath is shaking, now, and her face twitches and then pulls back into the neutral mask.

"Anthy--"

And then they're at the room and she's on her knees, gun holstered, and it's hard to say whether she's kneeling next to Anthy or Maggie or both. Her eyes flicker between them, back and forth, and she's pale as salt.

[young_tmriddle]

*The vampire holds Tom against the wall as he struggles and flails in its grasp. He is terrifed, an emotion Tom despises in himself.

Somehow he manages to reach a hand back to the wall. He recalls Ingress, the adult Ingress, telling him to remember his love for their family, and as his mind descends into a bleak panicked blackness, he remembers -

Door laughing and reclining in bed, calling him to her, the children running in the meadow, sitting in the family room reading a story to Ingress

*He slaps his hand on the wall and focuses all his thoughts on Opening, getting away. He feels the door waiting for him, Opens it, and kicks the vampire as he falls back into empty space.

Standing up shakily, he looks around him. He seems to be in a dormitory of sorts. He shakes his head, trying to clear it, and then heads for the door, looking for someone, anyone he knows.*

[lastgunslinger]

Roland's concern is for the one who's alive.

"Anthy." Hands on her shoulders, both strong and reassuring, though it's debatable whether or not it'll do any good. "Are you hurt?"

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Anthy flinches, and then she lifts her head and stares, a little down and to the left of his eyes.

Her own move to River, and to Maggie, and she licks her dry lips and says, "She suffocated me. I'm sorry. She was your friend --"

A tear rolls down (River's) Anthy's cheek, and she stops without finishing the question. It's a moment before she has control of her voice.

"I didn't think you'd come for me."

[river_meimei]

River looks at her at that, and her lips twitch in a tremulous and suddenly teary smile.

"Then you're a dummy."

She reaches out to Maggie with gentle fingers. Slides her fingertips across Maggie's eyelids, closing them.

"Didn't kill her." Her voice is a little more audible, but only a little; still soft and tear-choked and gentle. Almost a croon, now. "Maggie's dead. She graduated. Got her -- got her diploma." A tear overflows now.

We don't have time for this. Ninety-six minutes -- and less, now. Do the job.

Another tear, as she looks up at Roland, and reaches out to put her hand over Anthy's. They're still perfect mirrors, except the different clothing. Like identical twins, here in this Discordia-school.

"Okay."

[young_tmriddle]

*Tom wanders about the stark empty corridors. He is lost, and he hates to admit it. Maybe if he had a clue which direction to go, it would help.

He sets his wand on his hand.*

Point me.

*The wand spins. And spins. And keeps on spinning. He stops it with a scowl on his face.*

Bloody outer space.

*He looks around again and walks towards the branching of another corridor.*

[lastgunslinger]

Maggie.

Roland knows that name...but there's not time for that. Not now.

"Anthy." Quietly. "Would you change back?"

Crouching beside her, hands dangling between his knees, now.

"We don't have much time. We have to get out."

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

There's no transition. One moment there's River Tam, curled up and crying and dressed in the blue uniform of the Academy, and River Tam with a serape and a holstered gun and calm focus, holding her hand.

Then there's Anthy. For a few moments she's rigid, choking; then the tears stop and she starts to climb to her feet. She's expressionless, and her breathing is too quick, and her control is brittle, but it's there.

[lastgunslinger]

He looks up at Anthy, still crouched.

Then he straightens.

"You did well."

He's not looking at River.

"Thank you."

And then he's going to the door, gun raised again, looking both ways. It's clear.

"Come on."

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Anthy follows, looking more confused than expressionless now.

It's been a long day.

[river_meimei]

River rises, and follows. At the door, Roland waves her forward, and they string out along the corridor: River, Anthy, and Roland last, in drogue position. Silent and swift, and if River's face is tearstained and her eyes red she's not crying now.

The too-bright almost-blue lights bleach them all to sickliness, highlighting circles under eyes and hollows of cheeks and turning skin tones an unhealthy grey.

Backtracking, now. Through the dorm hallways, back towards the others.

[young_tmriddle]

*It's vexing to wander the hallways, feeling lost and out of control. He hates it, and moves quickly in order to find the others as fast as possible.

As he rounds a slight arc and turns a corner, Tom spots River, Anthy, and Roland and hurries over to them.*

There you are, finally. I've been looking everywhere.

*No one's visibly hurt, and they're all there, but the grim looks on their faces clearly show that something's wrong. As if anything about this place could be right. Troubled and a little confused, Tom falls in with the rest and follows along with them.*

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Anthy looks at him with dreamy surprise.

"Hello, Tom. The things in the blue gloves aren't basilisks, are they?"

[young_tmriddle]

No. No, they're not.

*He's very worried now, but this isn't the time. Still, Tom stays protectively near Anthy as the four of them continue to make their way along the too-bright hallways in search of the others.*

[lastgunslinger]

"Can-toi," says Roland from behind them. "Keep moving."

They do. And now -- now they're up to the locked door that the nurse let them through.

Roland reaches for the keys, and begins to try out different cards.

[walk_ins]

Just beyond this door, the Graduates walk past, silent and eerily blank; their minds tuned into violence and violence only.

They can kill you with mathematics; they can kill you with their minds.

A few moments after the last one passes, the door slides open without a sound.

[river_meimei]

River's head snaps around to stare at the wall between the two hallways. Her eyes are huge.

Her mouth opens, but not a sound comes out. They're silent, in that other corridor, and they're listening.

She grabs Roland's wrist, pulling him back from the door -- not an urging tug, this, but a yank. She's shaking her head, back and forth, tiny motions: no, no, don't.

[walk_ins]

As a body, the four Graduates all stop, stock-still.

[lastgunslinger]

Roland looks at her.

And lets his hand drop, eyebrows raised in question: Why?