The hospital-like room was oddly silent. The only noise Teioh could hear was his own rapid breath, which seemed to quicken as the seconds passed, and the low, constant rumble of the machine in the far corner. The one that they had started up a few moments ago - 'they' being the three white-robes that were acting as doctors - and had silently went to and drawn a strange, black fluid from a nozzle that seeped into a pair of syringes. Teioh watched the black stuff be squeezed out of those nozzles like toothpaste. It looked thick and not very healthy - not the kind of stuff that would normally go into a syringe: but then again, nothing here seemed normal. Everything seemed to be a bit off center, like a piano with every key slightly out of tune. Now the room had grown silent, and Teioh felt hot beads of sweat crawling down his neck. It didn't help that directly across from him, Marlene was stuck in the exact same position, and if anything - she looked worse. He saw her fingers gripping and releasing the arms of the chair she was strapped into. He also saw her swallowing and blinking far too frequently, like a child awaiting punishment. He wondered then if there was something she knew that he did not, and it scared the hell out of him. Regardless of his fright, he didn't bother focusing on it. At the moment, all he wanted to do was to go to her - comfort her, and tell her everything was going to be fine. But of course, he could not. Both because he couldn't physically get out of the chair he was in, as well as he honestly didn't know if everything was going to be fine. That was the thought that was feeding his fear more than anything. The not-knowing. It was like staring into a black abyss that he knew he was going to have to jump into, and all he wanted was a little light to break a line through the dark.

"Marlene." He whispered, and not intentionally. His throat had gone dry, and his voice had to fight its way through.

She looked up at him, and when her big, hopeless eyes met his, everything in him started working again. The fear had almost smothered all rational thinking, but now he had it back, and he realized he had to at least try to get them out of here. He owed himself that much. More so, he owed her that much.

With a war-cry, he began ripping at the leather straps around his arms again. He continued to grunt and shout and pull and tear, even as the straps firmly held their ground. As his sweat-slicked arms slid around beneath them, the leather squeaked a high-pitched, mousy sound that was a taunting 'nice-try'.

"Teioh, stop." Marlene called over to him.

He ignored her and kept furiously pulling at his limbs. He'd rip them off before he gave up again. The choice wasn't his though.

The three white-robes rushed over - two of them flanking to his sides and getting a hold of his shoulders. The third got a strong grip on his throat and shoved his head back. He kept fighting them.

The irony of the situation - and he only realized it when he glanced down at his arm to see if the strap had given him any leeway (it hadn't) - was that as he struggled with them more and more furiously, his veins had popped out all over his body. It was as if he'd drawn them a road-map of his body with the best 'insert-needle-here' spots marked out. This realization didn't stop him from fighting though. He fought and fought, even as the white-robe leaned in close to his face and jabbed the needle into his throat.

Teioh clenched his teeth and began shooting rapid bursts of air though them. His eyes watched as the man began to descend the plunger, and beyond that, over the mans shoulder, he saw Marlene. His eyes lock on hers, and he decided to focus on them instead of the needle as the white-robe pushed every ounce of black stuff into his body.

All at once the three white-robes backed off, and Teioh's body went limp. He felt his muscles thanking him for giving up as his head slapped against the back of the chair and he began to catch his breath. He still had his eyes on Marlene, and as he watched her and felt his consciousness draining out, he felt something wet fall down his cheek. He couldn't be sure if it was a tear or a bead of sweat. He tried to say "I'm sorry" but his throat didn't work, and his lips were barely better than that. His arm reflexively tugged at the straps once more before he fell unconscious and went limp in the chair like a deflated balloon.

---

Marlene's eyes darted between the three white-robes that now approached her. She thought for a moment to try a wild fit of rage in attempt to escape the chair, but the image of Teioh giving everything he had to get out and not being able to quickly changed her mind. He'd fought - honorably - and he had lost. They had put the lifestream inside of him, and now it was up to him to fight it back out. Teioh was strong, he'd be able to - she knew it. Herself, on the other hand, she wasn't so sure of. The lifestream did things to you. Things you only had the slightest bit of control over. What had Asmodai told her? It knows what you want and… something else. She'd be damned if she could remember with all the incoherent rambling he did. She had understood though. The lifestream… it was somehow connected to emotions and thoughts and wants. It's why, so she thought, the whole thing had run black. It was all the negative energy, emotion, thoughts and wants that filled this place up to the brim. The lifestream somehow knew (felt) it. Now she would feel it. And she would fight it: like Teioh.

So when the men approached her, she put up no struggle. She simply took a deep breath and waited.

That's when the noises started outside the door. First, a shriek - it sounded like a girl's scream to Marlene. Then shuffling around. Then men's voices. More bangs and shuffling. Then… (wait.)

Those voices. She knew them! It took her a moment to place them, but when she heard one of them again, she nailed it. Loeb! And Putter too! She felt her entire body come to life as if had just woken up from a long nap. She was just about to cry out to them when she felt a meaty hand clamp down over her mouth.

One of the white-robes had gotten behind her chair, the other two had rushed over to both sides of the door and flattened themselves against the wall. They both now held foot-long daggers that they had undoubtedly pulled from beneath their white robes. The shiny steel shot bright lines of light off their reflection.

Marlene let out a muffled cry as she realized the soon-to-be fate of her friends if they walked through that door. The man behind her yanked her head backwards when she did this, causing the back of her head to slam against the chair. In another second she felt something sharp being gently pressed against her now vulnerably-stretched neck, and it didn't take much to realize that it was another of those daggers.

She watched in horror, now helpless to do anything about it, as the door to the room opened and the men on either side got into attack positions.

But the door to the room didn't just open, it slammed open, and from behind it came Loeb - stumbling in backwards, and seeming to be fighting someone. When he tripped and landed on his back, she could see he was fighting someone; Asmodai, who now pounced down on his foe, a long dagger held high in his hands and ready to be thrust down into Loeb's chest. Loeb caught the thing by its elbows and held him off a foot above himself. Asmodai looked insane with rage and was grinding his teeth together behind a wicked smile.

The two white-robes at the doors sides were stunned. Luckily, before they got un-stunned, Putter came through the door along with a strange girl Marlene had never seen before. She was a bit taller than Putter, and had straight, black hair that came down only to her chin.

The two of them rushed in almost side-by-side, but as they did, the shine from the blades must have caught their attention from their peripheral view, as they turned to see the white-robes flanking them.

The one near Putter came to life, taking a long, arcing swipe at his chest. Putter had just enough time to take a surprised step backwards. The white-robe didn't waste any time. He leapt towards Putter with a diagonal slash, and this time the blade skimmed his chest before he took his back-step, and he immediately felt a warm line of blood form above his stomach. He grabbed at the spot, and as he did, the white-robe came jumping at him again - dagger held high in a death-strike pose. Just as he landed though, his downward momentum came to a dead stop. The woman who'd entered with Putter had thrust the heel of her boot into the bottom of the white-robes chin in a high-kick. The collision was brutal, sending the man instantly to the ground unconscious.

Marlene looked at him. For the first time since maybe she had gotten here, she was looking at a robed man with his hood off. The mans face lay motionless and blank atop a pillow of white cloth, and as she looked at it, some of the fear she felt from these people vanished. It was just a regular guy - no different from the dozens that were in the rebellion with her. Just another face on another soldier fighting another war… maybe she would of thought deeper into it on different circumstances, but in this room, there was no time to think.

The white-robe, who had been on the opposite side of the door from the first, had been knocked down and out only seconds before the mysterious girl had taken care of his friend. Whoever this person was, Marlene decided, she could fight. Now the man behind her released his hold on her and took up a defensive stance as he circled around to the front of the chair - the dagger held out before him at a slight angle.

To her right, she saw Loeb locked in a power struggle with Asmodai - only she didn't see Asmodai, she just knew it was him. To her what actually was there was Loeb, fending off someone she thought she'd forgotten about. Someone from years back that had broken her heart and more importantly betrayed her trust. A guy who used to be a rebel, but now wore Shinra garb.

"For us Marlene. For all of us."

She saw Denzel, and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. Why would a backstabbing, piece-of-trash like him be shown to her. Asmodai… he said you see what you want to, but… she didn't want to see this.

Right?

Loeb flipped Denzel (Asmodai.) off to his right, carefully dodging the wildly-swung dagger that went with him. He leapt to his feet just in time to see Denzel (Asmodai!) grabbing the legs of a nearby table and yanking them towards his body and swinging it around him. Loeb hopped the table as Asmodai swung it beneath him. It crashed into the chair Marlene was in and cracked. Before he could get another idea, Loeb bent over, yanked his body upwards by his shirt collar, and drove a hard right jab into his nose. Asmodai fell limp to the floor, a thick red line trailing from his nose down the side of his face.

Now the only standing foe was the white-robe to Marlene's right, who was slowly making his way towards the far side of the room. Loeb now met up with the Putter and the girl in the center of the room and the three of them faced him. The robed mans line of sight drifted between the trio.

"For Neodeity." He suddenly said in a low voice and stood fully erect. He flipped the dagger around in his hands and swung it out in front of himself.

"Wait!" Loeb called out and took a step towards the man.

It was too late, the robed-man thrust the blade into his own stomach with such a force that Marlene recoiled a bit in the chair. He stood frozen in time for a moment - a statue of an insane man who believed he was a martyr - and then he began to tip forward like a falling tree. Marlene caught a brief glimpse of the mans face as he was going down, and what she saw terrified her. On his face was a smile. Marlene grimaced at the expression, but instantly had a thought that eased the terror. The white-robe hit the ground. The white-robe was dead. The man inside was free. Maybe that was worth smiling over.

Loeb and Putter were suddenly at her sides, and she found herself smiling. Loeb reached up and put a hand on her shoulder and grinned.

"Good to see ya lady." He said, laughing a bit. They got her out of the chair, and when she stood, they came together like magnets. Putter, Loeb and herself locked into a three way hug that felt better than better. Over Putter's broad shoulder she saw the mysterious girl moving to Teioh.

"Wait." Marlene called to her. They dissembled their hug and broke into a line facing her.

"It's OK, she's with us." Putter said as he put a hand on Marlene's shoulder.

"What's wrong with Teioh?" Loeb asked with a serious tone, now noticing that he was unconscious in the chair.

Marlene walked over to him. Putter and Loeb followed after sharing a concerned look.

"The injected him." She said, kneeling before him and putting her hands on his legs.

"Injected?" Loeb repeated angrily. "What the hell does that mean!?"

"Relax Loeb, it wasn't a lethal injection. They gave him lifestream."

"Lifestream…" Putter whispered as he stared down at Teioh.

"What does that do?" Loeb questioned.

Marlene glanced back over her shoulder at him with a face he read as 'Nothing good'.

"But he'll be OK?" Putter asked.

"It's up to him." Marlene answered. "He's got to fight it."

"I thought lifestream was supposed to be a good thing."

"Not here it's not. Look for yourself." She said and nodded towards something behind Loeb and Putter. They traced her eyes and saw a syringe lying on the floor. It was filled to the top with something black.

"They put that in him!?" Putter cried out.

"He'll be fine. He just needs… time."

"Hate to break it to ya Marlene," Loeb began. "But Time isn't something we've exactly got."

Somewhere in the universe, there must have been a god of some sort. One who played mean tricks on people for his own amusement, because at just that moment - as if on cue - the door to the room burst open. Tifa stood in the doorway.

"Leney?" She said to Marlene and began moving towards her. "You've been very bad."

Marlene saw the crazy look in her eye, and just as she was about to stand up, that mean god must have been at it again. Teioh woke up. And Teioh looked just as crazy.

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