He could hear something stirring from within the next passageway - a grim-sounding grinding. Behind the four imposing archways, every few seconds, a beam of laser light would shoot down and the parts of a pitch black pathway would be revealed. It looked like a maze.
"Hmph, I was supposed to be given my most proficient men for this and each one has proved themselves to be completely inept." muttered Bronev. It was typical - at least now he knew what his first job would be to do once they had succeeded - there would need to be some shuffling within the ranks. "Right..." He hesitated a little, looking over to the young woman. "You're next."
"One wrong move here will cost a person their life... And there is only one correct path through. P-Please! Don't risk it!" No matter how many times Aurora reiterated it, Bronev's stance refused to change.
"I-Ugh!.." Why was everything going so wrong? She had no choice. She had agreed to this; pulling out now would only make the situation more dire. She began to walk over. Bronev's eyes followed carefully.
"How can you do this..?" Aurora stared at Bronev, her distant but piercing gaze looking dead into his soul. "She could be lost forever if you go ahead with this... You weren't responsible for losing your other men... but this is different - you're sending her to her death."
"What, does it matter? She agreed that, she would do anything to help our cause." He said in rushed speech, pausing after every few words in an exasperated fashion. "And so she will do."
Layton gaped in silence. There were so many things that his mind should have been thinking about, but instead he could only listen to the ambience of the surroundings.
The slow dripping of water in the large chamber continued, but echoing down, he could hear the sound of running water. The chill of the room had a bite to it that seemed much more bitter than when he had first stepped in.
Layton blinked; clearing his mind.
"He's... your father too."
The words kept repeating themselves in Layton's mind; the meaning still not entirely registering.
Descole could see that his younger brother was finding it difficult to process. There was something about it, however that gave him a feeling of relief. Finally telling him felt... good.
Layton rubbed his temple. It was this man - the one who had fought him, tricked him, stood in his way so many times - that had given him this life he now has. He wouldn't even be Professor Hershel Layton without him - his brother.
"I-I don't know what to..." he began, staring blankly down.
He wasn't given the time to think of anything to say either, as he heard the scream of a woman - one whose voice he could immediately recognise - Emmy's. The Professor's eyes widened and he quickly pulled a hand off the floor where he had been crouching. It was difficult to see what lay on the path ahead and the way it echoed down made it impossible to tell how far away they were.
For a brief moment, he wondered if Luke was okay, if he had heard that scream that had rung through the caverns. He turned to face the doorway that the boy had been taken through. For his parent's sake, Layton needed to prioritise Luke's safety right now - it was bad enough that he had let them run off with him.
"It's okay."
Layton looked back down at Descole.
"Go." He croaked, doing his best to overcome the weakness his voice initially projected. Layton opened his mouth to retort, then stopped. "This is it for me - you go on. You must stop our father before he sees this... madness through."
Slowly, Layton bowed his head - a sign of both understanding and thanks - then brought himself to his feet. He'd known for his entire life that he had family out there in the world - he knew that his parents were not his blood relatives - but never did he think to search for his real ones. Never did he *feel the need* to search for them, either. Then again, never did he think things would turn out like this; end like this - before it had really started.
"Please... do well for yourself, Layton."
Descole-! There was something in his voice, behind the mumble - sincerity. Layton looked back at him and smiled. "Thank you."
Descole didn't watch as Layton left. Him dishing out compliments? What would Raymond say?!
Layton wouldn't let himself look back as he walked through the door the keystone had opened. It was devastating - knowing that he had no choice now but to leave his long lost brother. The memories were vague, but the more that was spoken, the more the fuzziness surrounding them began to fade. At that point it was tempting to try to somehow force himself to repress everything... yet again. But he didn't.
Tearing his eyes up from the bloodstained floor, he could see Luke on the opposite side.
"Professoor!" He met his mentor's glance and the boy's eyes started to well up - again, presumably, as it looked like he had only just stopped crying. Luke shivered visibly, even from where Layton was standing. He hadn't heard the conversation in the other room, but he could see that even the stoic professor had lost some of his composure.
Part of the walkway across the ravine that separated the two was still in tact. The device in front of himself was half-completed, he knew what his task was, yet it still took some time him to comprehend properly what he was supposed to do.
When they were reunited, the boy's voice wasn't filled with relief - it was filled with dread.
"Emmy..." he whispered, "what happened..?"
The puzzles that followed were solved mindlessly, mechanically. Luke didn't question when the professor went on and solved them by himself, instead he simply followed close. They had exchanged few words, but Luke did his best to hang on and stay strong. He wasn't sure how to feel anymore, he was clearly not the usual perky and upbeat boy, but somehow - and quite thankfully for Layton - he managed to feign a determined smile. At this moment, it was the one thing that gave Layton the willpower to fight through his state - if only for the boy's sake over his own.
Why him? Why did fate make it so that the one person standing in his way was his brother? He had thought that it was the loss of his family that drove him to all of the dreadful crimes that he had commited. But was it really? It was impossible to believe - how could he have been so foolish as to be blinded by desire for revenge, to the point where he had turned against his remaining family? Layton hadn't done anything wrong - he knew that.
What was wrong with him? His life was a revenge plan - this should never have been an issue, it shouldn't have mattered...
Descole wondered what Raymond was doing. Perhaps... perhaps with him gone, his faithful companion would be able to live a normal life - a stable one. However that relied solely on Layton's sucess.
What had come over him for that second earlier? Do well for yourself? Layton probably thought it was a joke.
Another surge of pain ran through him, and this time it continued to throb harder. He knew now that there was nothing he could do to subdue it. And so he lay there for a moment, just letting his thoughts pass him by. He felt a slight sense of relief.
Beneath his half-fallen mask, Descole's eyes closed gently. He could hardly admit it to himself but... he really did mean those words.
