Night 66: Night, Farwell

[corvus_veritas]

Who: Byrne Faraday
Where: Section 4, Old Courthouse
Summary: The night following his apparent death in the Institute, Byrne wakes up in a place very strange and unfamiliar...

Take heart. You'll be cured of your illness after all.

The last words Byrne Faraday had heard before he'd met his end in that dark Institute hallway. And in a way, those words were true...if 'cured' meant a close range shotgun blast to the body, anyway.

If he'd had even a few more seconds to reflect upon the situation before going under, he most likely would have remembered (beyond the usual 'life flashing before his eyes', and regretful thoughts about Kay) what Badd had told him about Calisto. About how she'd been a liar since the beginning, and that she would have killed Byrne on that day had...well, all of this not happened.

He would have thought about how ironic it all was. Sure, he'd managed to escape his end at Calisto's hands by being sent to Landel's madhouse an hour before he was due to die, but being punished with death for a faulty trust was apparently an inescapable fate. Both deaths were unfair, but at least being betrayed by what should have been a trusted partner was understandable. I got shot to death by a weapon-toting little kid who tricked me into thinking he was scared of something? Yeah, that was certainly something to brag about.

But would-haves and should-haves were pointless now. It was over. He had all the time in the world to think of irony and fate in the afterlife.

...Afterlife...

Speaking of which...where was he?

Byrne's mind was foggy, as if he were waking from a deep sleep; there was a dull ache in the core of his body. Beyond his initial jumbled thoughts, all he knew for certain about his current situation in his first few minutes awake was that, wherever he was, it was cold and he was lying on something flat. Not rock-hard like a floor, but not soft and comfortable like a bed, either. Huh.

After a few more minutes, he struggled to open his eyes.

Unsurprisingly, everything around him was a blur. Sights and sounds made less sense than his thoughts; if there was someone standing nearby, then they were merely a blob in his vision right now. But hey, his eyes were open, his fingers slowly curled into his palms, and that ache in his body slowly became more noticeable. That was progress, at the very least. (But weren't people not supposed to feel pain in the afterlife? Weird.)

Maybe it would all make sense in a moment.

Comments

[corvus_veritas]

While Byrne wasn't exactly happy that someone new entering the room stopped Mr. Kenobi from explaining Callisto's background (perfectly timed interruption, of course), just the sound of this particular newcomer's voice was enough to make him push his Callisto-related concerns away for now. Why? Well, wasn't it obvious? It was Marc. The man over the radio that Byrne had heard so much about? Someone who a lot of people in the Institute wanted to see face-to-face, among other (in)famous names? Yeah. Him. He didn't look exactly as Byrne had pictured him, admittedly, but his voice was definitely unmistakable.

"Uh--Byrne Faraday," the prosecutor replied, his surprise slipping into his voice for a moment. He reached forward to take Marc's outstretched hand - and missed at first, touching the side of the man's hand rather than his actual hand. Wow, that was embarrassing. Why did that happen? Sure, his vision felt off, and maybe that 'offness' was due to his depth perception being screwy or something, but...

N-no, let's not worry about this now. Not with Marc standing right in front of you. Try to play off that mistake like nothing happened.

"So this is where you've all been hiding out?" Initiating meaningful conversation - yes, that's good.

[damned_rebel]

Byrne Faraday. It was a good a name as any, although Marc had of course known about the patient prior to him waking up here. They didn't like to sneak into the institute empty-handed, so they'd done as much research on the man as they could prior to going to rescue him from the morgue.

Of course, Marc himself hadn't been a part of that rescue mission, as it was too dangerous, but he'd overseen as much of it as he could.

"That's right. It's about the safest place for us to be right now, while still letting us keep an eye on the institute," he said. He'd noticed the way that Byrne had missed his hand at first and didn't like what it implied, but decided to leave that alone for now.

"Sorry for grabbing you without your permission, and sorry that we couldn't patch you up better, but... if you want to live out here, there are a few sacrifices you've gotta make." Marc thought it was worth it, if only to no longer be under Landel's jurisdiction, but it was up to the patient himself on what he wanted to do from here.

[braidless]

Obi-Wan, too, noticed how Byrne missed Marc's hand at first. That wasn't good, but hopefully it wouldn't get any worse. They were already keeping an eye on him, although taking note of any other abnormalities would probably be best.

"You should know that we don't necessarily expect you to stay here, either," Obi-Wan added in case Byrne feared they'd dragged him out here without adequate supplies to fully care for a gunshot wound. "If you go back to Landel's Institute, we believe you'll automatically fall in line with the rest of the patients again. We'd also try to send you back with useful supplies for all of you to use in that case."

Of course, there was a chance that the man wouldn't be satisfied with either option. Unfortunately, that was all they had for him.

"We can't let you leave the city wall for security reasons, and, to be blunt, the way back to your home isn't out there anyway," he added. "Aside from that, what you choose to do is ultimately up to you."

[corvus_veritas]

It's all up to him, huh. Well, first thing's first: Byrne sure as hell wasn't going anywhere like this. And he sure as hell wasn't going to go crawling back to Landel after these people risked their necks to drag him out of there (although Mr. Kenobi's idea of bringing back supplies to the patients was a tempting one). Venturing out of the city on his own was also a non-option thanks to Mr. Kenobi's news that home wouldn't be found out there anyway - not that it was surprising to hear. Like Landel would make it that easy for people to get home once he brought them here, even if they managed to get out of his maze! Bastard.

Guess there was really only one choice to make.

"I..." The prosecutor paused a moment - mostly to hold back a cough as best as he could. (Hey, they hurt.) After taking another few seconds to think it over, he answered, "I want to stay here."

At least for now. After recovering, he could decide what to do next.

[damned_rebel]

It wasn't much of a choice, and Marc knew that, but it was all that they had to offer for the moment. Getting the patients back home was still a work in progress, and he didn't know how much longer it would be. He tried to tell himself that soon enough they'd make that breakthrough, they'd push past Landel's defenses and snatch the technology they needed to send everyone back from under his nose, but...

Well, as he'd thought before, it was a work in progress.

But it sounded like Byrne wanted to stay, and Marc felt relief at hearing that. Not that he would have judged Byrne for wanting to go back, but they needed all the help out here that they could get.

"That's great. Well, not great, but you know what I mean. Anyway, I'm trying to get the radio patched into Landel's frequency still, so hopefully we can give the others an idea of what's going on soon."

Depending on what happened with the monster virus, it was possible more patients would be waking up here, too. But Marc kept that thought to himself.

[braidless]

While they could certainly use some helping hands out here, Obi-Wan privately hoped Byrne would reconsider going back to the Institute sooner rather than later. It was incredibly difficult to bring patients out here, and even harder for patients to come here of their own accord. They needed people to bring supplies back to those still trapped inside as much as they needed manpower in Farwell itself.

Of course, he knew how hypocritical he'd sound if he said that, even though it was true that he'd been helping the patients in his own way by assisting with the more technologically-oriented projects.

"It might be good for the remaining patients to hear your voice over the radio," Obi-Wan added instead. "That is, if you'd be willing."

[corvus_veritas]

T-the radio? Byrne blinked at that. Not that he didn't know about the radio broadcasts the rebels would do, but now? And including himself in this particular broadcast?

"I, uh." Did he want to say anything? It might be good to let the people who knew him know he was alive (including the smart little brats who caused this in the first place), but would taunting Landel by letting him know what the rebels managed to do be wise...

Hmm. Well, it wasn't like the rebels had all gotten caught yet, right? They had done plenty of broadcasts before without trouble, as far as Byrne knew. They must know what they're doing with this broadcast, too. And Landel? Forget him. He deserved the taunting.

In fact, the only concern the prosecutor wanted to vocalize had nothing to do with any of that. "Do I have to get up?" he asked, smiling weakly. Because moving around too much would obviously be painful, which was obviously not wanted.

[damned_rebel]

"Oh, it's not something we're doing right this instant," Marc said with a shake of his head. "We're still getting the bugs worked out. But once we do, it might be a good idea. To give them hope."

It was true that the patients wouldn't find a way home if they came out here, but that didn't necessarily mean it was the wrong choice to make. They were all working on that as the ultimate goal, and sometimes you had to take a few detours to get what you wanted. At least, that's how Marc had been looking at it.

"For now, just rest. We'll send someone in to try and clean your wound out some more. We can't have it getting infected." Their supplies were limited, but they'd still carved out a good base here, and Marc sincerely believed that Byrne was in good hands. If they could rescue a few more wayward patients from the institute, then they might really be on their way to cooking with gas, so to speak.