Day 57: Sun Room

[bodhiandspirit]

It figured that night would end before Rita and Taura could progress any further. Rita wasn't particularly disappointed to wake up abruptly, as they had reached a dead end. Really, the institute was doing them a favor by bringing them back to the starting point, where they could regroup.

What she didn't appreciate was the loss of valuable time,

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[corvus_veritas]

For the third time in a row, the night ended without warning. At first, it seemed the only difference between this morning and other mornings was that Byrne had a mild headache upon waking up. Oh, back here again, was he? Same old story. Welp, time to see what's in store today. He sat up on the edge of his bed, rubbing his temples in the hope that his headache would go away--

Woah wait. Wait a second. Waaaait a second. Why was he wearing the smiley face t-shirt again? Where was his army uniform? Wh--huh? Over the intercom--was that--was that Landel's voice? He was in charge again?! What the hell was going on?! Again! He was saying that every day now! Was every damn day in this place an attempt to make him go mad from all the unexpected changes? Oh sure Landel, Aguilar, whoever the hell you are, I'll make it easy for you, just let me apply my head to the wall several hundred thousand times until it splits open like a goddamn watermelon! I'm sure that's what you want, isn't it?! You sons of--...Before he could finish his inner tirade,

[corvus_veritas]

Trap doors. Decorative weapons. Trials. Lava, a room of ice. And a sphinx.

"Sounds like a bad dream," Byrne mumbled under his breath, "or like a fairy tale." Yes, that was the kind of stuff you read to your kid at their bedtime. Harmless fairy tales, impossible stories, and therefore hard to believe when applied to the real world. But Landel himself had mentioned it over the radio along with a man that (supposedly) a lot of patients trusted, and Renamon was backing those claims up with her own experience. Logically then, it must be true, no matter how impossible it seemed.

Which, honestly, was a conclusion that applied to nearly everything else he was hearing about.

Byrne shook his head in amazement, but he kept an expression that would show Renamon that he believed her. "All I can wonder is why?" he asked, this time loud enough for her to hear. "What's the point of it all? What do they want from us?" Though a question like that would probably never be answered any time soon.

[yin_yang_fox]

The Digimon only watched him when he spoke up, expression mixed between neutral and understanding. That was the question to ask, after all, and no matter what hints were given, they would never know for certain. Even as the military seemed to make certain aspects clear, it was still something that could change with time--a different arc, a different story, a different method. "Something that we have," she said quietly. "Humans only use others if they can gain something out of it. There's something that we can give to them, and until they are satisfied, we'll remain here. And others will keep coming here."

She blinked downward in thought, the conversation reminding her of when she spoke to Mello weeks ago. "It's possible to gain the upper hand in scenarios such as these. But only if we know what is desired from us. And only if we can deny them that." Nothing else. Nothing more.

[corvus_veritas]

Byrne shook his head, frowning deeply. "We're just their playthings. Running around like lab rats in their maze." Indeed, the sickos running this show were after something that these people all had. But what? Maybe they were running specific experiments on different kinds of people to get some kind of data for some top secret government project. Maybe they were aiming to create a powerful army of super humans or something