Chapter Text
It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on when sirens are blaring in your ears. When you see everyone you know running in fear, voices screaming over the intercoms trying to make sense of the situation, and abnormalities rampaging through the halls… your best bet is to just listen to the people that can handle this.
O-06-20 was pummelling a poor clerk while agents desperately tried to shoot it down. Nori raised their gun, aiming at the creature, trying to avoid the others crowded around it. Other weaker abnormalities were running free as well, making their aim even worse.
All they could do is wait for the Manager’s order to fire.
But he never said the word. It was like he wasn’t even trying to help the situation.
More agents were starting to panic, swinging wildly at eachother in hopes of defending themself. There wasn’t a point in suppressing the abnormalities anymore. All they could do was try to survive.
“Nori? Nori, can you hear me.” The radio in their pocket beeped, the voice coming from it barely audible because of the noise. Nori only noticed because of the vibration on their side.
“Ah- Yes, I can hear you.. barely,” They ran away to whichever quiet corner there was, but their heavy breathing wasn’t helping. They didn’t want to die. Not like this. Even through the walkie-talkie, you could hear both sides’ struggling to talk over the noise.
“Barely is still something. Look, Nori, we don’t have time. I need you to do one thing for me.” Yesod’s tone was scarily hesitant, even if his voice was synthesized (you know, because of his lack of vocal chords,) you could tell he was stressed out. “… Please.”
His uncertainty terrified Nori even more than before. Their head felt like it was about to burst from the panic, their heart pounding against their chest as they listened. They only answered with a short “uhuh” to tell him they were alive and listening.
Yesod heard their hyperventilating even in that short response. Why was he doing this? It’d been so long since he cared for an agent this much, even if Nori was his Captain. Hearing their distress almost… pained him, in a way.
“I want you to go to T-09-82’s unit, and stay there until I tell you it’s safe. Don’t leave, no matter what. You remember where it’s located, right?”
“... Y-Yes, I do.” Nori was already sprinting towards the elevator, running to the Safety Department where the Shelter from the 27th of March was. They’d only used it once before, when the Manager ordered them to stay inside for just a few seconds. “Are you sure..? Doesn’t staying reduce the Qlipoth even more-“
“I understand what it does.” He cut them off, as Nori stood in front of the containment unit. “And, I’m sure I want you to hide. I want you to be safe, Nori.”
“W-Well, If you say so…” They opened the door, and before stepping in and shutting off all connection to the outside, they spoke one last sentence into the radio.
“Thank you, Gabriel— For keeping me safe and all.” Nori looked over at the nearest security camera, where they were sure Yesod was keeping watch over them.
There was a short silence where he didn’t answer. Nori’s mind immediately jumped to the worst before he answered, a lot quieter: “It’s.. It’s nothing, Nori. Just get in already.”
The inside of the shelter was dingy, and dark, but it was safe. The muffled screams outside could still be barely heard, giving Nori a guilty sense of peace. They wanted to help their colleagues outside, not hide like a coward. They didn’t want to be the only one alive after this.
They thoughts started to wander to faces of their friends in the facility. Sure, they weren’t particularly close because they were just colleagues, but thinking of those familiar faces gave Nori a tiny bit of relief. Then they thought of Yesod.
At first, they weren’t really too sure about him. They were hard-working, so they never really were on his bad side, but still. He seemed a bit too much like he didn’t care about his employee’s lives.
But spending more and more time with him as the days went on, seeing him every morning made them feel reassured. He felt like someone you could trust. And they got to learn more about them as they worked together. They got even closer once Yesod considered them the Captain of the Information team.
Before they could think any more about their relationship with him, a heavy headache hit them, which was unusual considering the fact they were in the Shelter. The “shockwave” made them drowsy, to the point they could barely keep their eyes open.
How strange. Nori was never sleepy on the job, especially during a breach. Funnily enough, it felt like the sound outside shut off immediately after the headache started. If only the door had a window.
Nori waited and waited. No sign of anyone coming to get them, even after an hour. They were worrying that the entire facility was dead. And they were the only one alive.
‘It couldn’t hurt to take a peek, it’s quiet outside anyways, right?’ They thought to themself. They were tired of sitting here doing nothing, and the pounding headache wasn’t helping. If the situation was over, they needed to run back to the central room to heal any wounds from defending themself earlier immediately.
Peeking out of the door, the halls were clear. There weren’t even any corpses or bodies. Did they call the Rabbits? No, they couldn’t possibly have called them, there weren’t any bullet holes in the walls. Something strange though, is that those walls were yellow. Not green.
Nori was sure they entered through the Safety department, not the Control department. They picked up their E.G.O. gear, heading out the door. First, they should check the halls of the Information Team. They wanted to make sure their friends were alive, if they weren’t, they might as well go fail work on F-05-52 and go work at sea.
Maybe there was a time issue inside the shelter? This could’ve been a new day, right? Though the halls were still very empty. Maybe the Manager hadn’t hired more staff yet.
—
“… I didn’t hire that guy. Why’s their suit blue?” The Manager hovered over them, staring at them through the cameras.
Of course, Angela knew exactly who Nori was. But did she tell the Manager about them? No. She was actually curious about them. The loop should’ve reset again the moment there was an error in erasing everything, but it didn’t. For once, this didn’t follow the script, and Angela surely had to take advantage of this and watch something new.
“Give me a second, Manager.” She walked to the door, looking back at the security footage to make sure it wasn’t just a cognition filter error. “And stay here. I will continue teaching you how to manage the facility after I deal with them.”
—
Every containment unit was empty, other than the one they came from, and the one for O-03-03, but even First Trumpet wasn’t playing over the speakers. This made no sense…
“Hello? Anyone there??” They spoke into the radio, hoping at least someone from their team would answer. There was nothing.
The elevator to the lower level was locked, so going down to the Info. Department was impossible. Nori didn’t have a key or any other kind of special access even if they were a captain. What if the situation on the lower floors was so bad they locked everything below the Control Department?
Their next best bet was to ask Malkuth. She should be around her Team, at least… they didn’t really want to ask Angela, as they always had a weird feeling around her. But before they even made it back to the main room, the AI arrived from the locked elevator.
“Nori,” Her voice was pretty monotone, as usual. “I need to talk to you.”
They didn’t answer with any words, only nodded. They followed her into the previously locked elevator, going down all the way to the surveillance room. “Yesod ordered you to hide in the Shelter, correct?”
“Was that… not allowed?” They asked, fidgeting nervously behind their back. Knowing her, this could just be a plot to kill them with a disposal bullet. “But yes, he did.”
“The Manager didn’t order him to tell you that. He did that purely because he wanted to save you.”
The two exited the elevator, now in the Central Command hall, passing Tiphereth A and… Tiphereth B? Why was he still around? He was put out of his misery a few days ago after A’s meltdown, wasn’t he? The two Sephirot stared at Angela and Nori as they passed by.
“You will learn about what happened soon enough. Due to your… unique circumstance, I will not withhold any information from you. Just for this cycle.” She opened her eyes for once. She was actually interested this time, having someone other than Hokma and Binah remember the loops.
“Cycle? What do you mean, ‘Cycle’..?” Nori asked, but got no answer.
“If you’re curious, go to the lowest layer and ask Binah. Or Hokma, but he’s not available right now. Have fun with your access to everything.”
“What??”
Angela had already walked off back to the surveillance room, not even looking back at Nori as they stood there in confusion.