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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 7, 2017 6:10:06 GMT
The whole medical lab suddenly seemed to grow cold around Anna as Shadow picked up the vial, speaking her name softly into the silence that surrounded them. She desperately wanted to snatch the vial out of his gloved hand, put it in the fume hood with the others, and slam the cover shut. However, it would be too little too late.
Her blue eyes, normally so happy and innocent, now darted between Shadow and Axel like an animal that has been cornered by a pack of predators. It was a guilty look that sat on her face, seeming so out of place. The heat of her anger had already drained out of her and been replaced with a horrible chill that seemed to freeze her in place.
She licked her lips nervously before speaking, trying to sound firm and determined but only managing a soft voice.
"When I was running tests on your blood to make sure you weren't poisoned.... there was some leftover. It seemed a shame to just throw it out, to let it go to waste...."
The words died on her lips as she tried to stand her ground, but she couldn't hide the trembling that had started. Now, she wouldn't look either of them in the eye and instead seemed to be speaking to a space somewhere between the two.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 7, 2017 6:34:07 GMT
Shadow shook his head. No, no...this was absolutely wrong. This had to be some kind of bad dream. Anna didn't need a whole vial of his blood to run tests. This was far more than just a poison check. She had taken a good size to create this...serum. His hand lowered, still holding the vial.
This had to be a bad dream. Anna would never say anything to him that wasn't true. She had checked if he had been poisoned...that had to..
Then why was she so scared to admit it.
He looked at Anna. An annoyance so small was starting to grow. She could have just...but even if she told him the truth, he would have said no the same reasons Axel was afraid of. He gritted his teeth, glaring at Anna.
"What the....FUCK, Anna?"
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 7, 2017 13:38:18 GMT
"Hey, watch your language." Axel said harshly to Shadow.
This had taken a turn. Axel's anger was gone, but it seemed Shadow had taken that place. This wouldn't do if everyone was angry and everyone was yelling at each other. That might bring someone who wasn't as understanding as Axel or Shadow who would arrest Anna for her experiments or worse agree with her. They had to talk her down just like the many drunks who were in his bar and were belligerent, but so far that hadn't gone well for him. She didn't want to hear anything Axel had to say after he had said 'no'. She tuned him out and ignored him entirely. That was infuriating.
"Anna, I know you don't want to hear this, but you need to stop this."
He didn't want to torch her labs or her notes. She would hate him more than she already did, but that serum of hers was dangerous. If it meant saving her life at the cost of... their relationship then he would do it. But there were no fires yet.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 7, 2017 15:38:47 GMT
Anna flinched away from Shadow almost as if his words were a physical blow. The movement caused her to back up against the fume hood, hitting it with her hip so that all the glasses tinkled almost musically as they rocked about.
This was something completely new to the young woman. She had seen Shadow angry many times before, yes, but never had it been so focused before. And never in all the time she had known the homunculus had his anger been directed towards her.
She stood pressed against the frame of the fume hood, unable to move or even speak in the wake of Shadow's fury. Even Axel seemed taken aback by the intensity of his companion's wrath, going so far as to chastise him for his foul language. The Fire Demon then turned his attention back to her, imploring her to stop. The concern that laced his voice and the deep worry that filled his eyes were all too real. Despite the doubts she had about Axel having any feelings at all about her, in that moment she knew he truly did care about her well-being.
And for the briefest of moments, She wavered in her resolve....
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 7, 2017 16:42:19 GMT
Shadow was deaf to the begs of Axel. On the plus side, he didn't have to burn nything like Axel could when he was pissed. He didn't say anything for a while, just clutching the vial in his head. It shook, the life force swishing around. If he said anything else, he knew he'd crack.
And apparently he wasn't the only one who cracked.
Anna's resolve was shattered into a million tiny pieces. Was it because of something Axel had said. He didn't know there was, ell, some osrt of history between them. He'd ask questions after the situation there were in died down. Right now, though, his frustration was taking over. He had trusted Anna all these years. Not once had she led him astray or attempted to do something as dangerous as she was doing. Axel was right to be scared. He glowered at Anna, setting the vial safely on a counter to avoid it shattering.
"You think this is funny?" he asked angrily, "is so, I'm not laughing. You lied to me JUST to get a sample of my blood. You said you were my friend. I...believed you! And you stabbed me in the back." And after she had repaired said back, too.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 7, 2017 19:29:08 GMT
"Anna, step away from the hood."
Axel offered out his hand but then Shadow had to start raging. This was a mistake bringing the cop. He had lost perspective, just like Anna had. The girl was just trying to help. She thought what she did was for the betterment of all humans. It wasn't funny. This was serious but getting this upset over it wasn't going to get it to stop. They could talk this out after the project was gone. Halted for good and unable to be recreated ever. Well, technically that couldn't happen if there were Others to draw blood from and experiment on, but mass murder of all Others was something those Grey Dawn idiots had tried and failed.
"Shadow, take it easy."
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 7, 2017 23:51:15 GMT
The look of uncertainty was growing on Anna's face as she stood in front of Shadow and Axel, clutching the front of her lab coat so they couldn't see how very badly her hands were shaking. Perhaps.....perhaps they were right after all. She had been so excited about the possibility of what such a serum could do that she had blindly overlooked all the danger and harm it could also create. Maybe she was wrong.
When Axel then asked her to step away from the blood, slowly and hesitantly she took one step. Then another. Indeed, she might have moved completely away from the fume hood if Shadow had not suddenly spoken in his anger. Anna's eyes, which had been looking towards the Fire Demon, turned to the face of Shadow. And what she saw there hurt.
It was anger, disgust.... and the look of betrayal. All the same emotions Axel had displayed when she had first told him of her experiment only intensified. His words cut into her like knives, making her feel like all the warmth was bleeding out of her. And when Anna was hurt, she got angry.
Her expression suddenly hardened and turned into a look of stubborn rage. Any chance they might have had reasoning with her was now gone as she tightened her fists and spoke in a voice far too cold for her, saying only a single word.
"No!"
And suddenly, she turned around and rushed right back to the fume hood, reaching up to grab the cover and slam it down. Deep down a small voice knew that it would be pointless, that they would easily find another way into the chemical chamber where all her samples were, but a much louder and reckless voice drowned it out. That voice said that if she could just slam the hood closed and lock it, they couldn't touch what she had worked so hard to create.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 8, 2017 2:27:43 GMT
At first, it would seem like they had gotten through to Anna. Well, correction, Axel had gotten through to her. Shadow wa too angry to say anything else. If he said anything else, he'd rile him up more and make him do something that he would come to regret later. Unfortunately, it didn't last for long.
Anna had dove back to the fume hood, crying out in defiance. The sadness in her face became a mask of pure rage. Shadow didn't like seeing this side of Anna, not in the slightest. She had shut the hood, but that led him to wonder where other serums were being stored. Rather thanrestrain her and cause a struggle, Shadow channeled his skates to speed.
Wind whipped up papers as he skated past her desk. He was heading for a sotrage room. One quick sweep in case she had forgotten to hide anything. It was better than trying to restrain her. He skated around, the frustration fueling his search. There had to be something, some kind of clue. What would possess her to do something this out of control?
The folder he passed made him stop suddenly. These were Professor Gerald's notes. The notes that had created him. He put a hand on the paper, eyes wide in horror. No...No...this had to be a nightmare.
He skated out back into the main lab, pausing by the edge of the door.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 8, 2017 13:56:54 GMT
Everything was happening too fast. Anna was trying to save her research in the fume hood and was trying to lock it up so no one could take it from her. Shadow was zipping around the lab, trying to find... something? Axel wasn't sure. He pinched the bridge of his nose. This is what he got for getting crossed up in humans. They got too emotional. And Shadow was... Over reacting. Axel didn't get this upset. He had been there when Sapien was created! Now he's there when this serum was created. The only difference was, he could stop this one from hitting the streets. Whereas he couldn't have stopped Sapien if he tried.
"Would you two knock it off?" he asked.
Odd that the demon with the lit fuse of a temperament was the one keeping calm. He had half a mind to grab them both and make them sit on the autopsy table until they thought about what they were doing? Was this what it was like to be a parent? He couldn't say he liked that feeling.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 8, 2017 16:05:18 GMT
Anna ignored Axel's words and instead was about to close the fume hood and lock it when her blue eyes looked down at her work and noticed something was missing. She couldn't say how she knew, but as her gaze took in all the samples and equipment set before her she finally realized what it was that was lacking in the fume hood. Her notes.
Turning around with one hand still resting on the cover to the chamber, she saw a black and red blur disappear and then instantly reappear in the doorway. Shadow had used his speed to search her labs and in his hand were the very notes she was missing. She must have left them out and now....
For the briefest of moments she stared at Shadow and the collection of papers he was holding tightly. The papers held the incomplete notes left behind by Professor Gerald. They also contained Anna's own calculations, all the notes she had written on her experiment, and a rough draft procedure for creating the serum. All the written records of her work were literally in the hands of the homunculus and if it was destroyed...
"Give those back!"
Before she even knew what she was doing Anna had run across the space between her and Shadow and made a wild grab for the notes, leaving the fume hood only partially closed. She didn't seem to even notice Axel as she tried desperately to get the papers away from Shadow, panic at losing the written records of the work driving her to actions she would have never thought herself possible of.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 8, 2017 19:56:29 GMT
Axel had no right to tell him what to do, He wasn't here to play 'daddy' to them. This wasn't a joke, this wasn't some pointless argument. This was a life or death situation. Without the notes, Anna couldn't copy the serum.
He stared her down silently, clutching the notes in one hand. Her handwriting, in sparkly gel pen which was easy to identify, did two very bad things. The first was she was trying to recreat an experiment that had been forcefully shut down and got a twelve year old girl, an old man, and other innocent scientists, killed; the government would react the same way they had in the past. The second was writing on things that could have been used as evidence.
Basically, in her own stupidity, Anna literally stained the last few pieces of Shadow's past.
"No."
Anger had two phases, hot and cold. The hot part was over, and now the ice hung in Shadow's answer to Anna's cry of getting the notes back. He made a quick dodge from her groping hands, hiding the notes under one arm to avoid them crumbling.
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 9, 2017 0:13:02 GMT
They were completely ignoring him. And still acting like children. He shook his head, wondering why he was even still there when they were arguing like that. Nothing he said or did was going to de-escalate the situation. Neither of them would listen because they were both too angry at one another. All he knew was that after this, he was going to need a drink. A very long, very alcohol heavy drink. He'd mix himself the most potent thing he had in the bar and then drink himself stupid.
"You're not getting anything done by doing this," he pointed out.
Either of them. Playing keep away with Anna's stupid notes. Being angry at each other.
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Post by neverlandlostgirl on Jun 9, 2017 1:30:57 GMT
When Shadow dodged her grab and put the notes under his arm where she couldn't reach them, what little control she'd still had evaporated.
"Screw you, Shadow! I don't need those damn notes anyways! I remember all I need to to make another batch of serum and even if I have to start over I'll do it!"
It was partially true. Anna did remember a great deal from all those long hours she had spent working on her experiment. True she didn't remember it all but she had enough of a framework to make it again. She was certain of that. It was just going to cost her more time.
As long as she had her equipment and her samples they couldn't stop her from seeing this finished.
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Post by Zuyuri on Jun 9, 2017 6:42:31 GMT
A whole new emotion came along with anger. That emotion...was fear. A chill ran down Shadow's spine as Anna taunted knowing the formula well enough to make another batch. The papers slid from his grip, fluttering onto the floor.
The fear of the serum wasn't the only thing keeping him locked in place. He had never heard Anna sound so...so angry. They said he was scary when he was mad, but she was different. Axel muttered nothing was going to get done, and well, the detective agreed. In a way.
"You're right, Axel. Words aren't working at all."
He backed over to the fume hood, glaring at the semi-locked state. Underneath it were her samples of blood. The blood she stole from him. The other person who had taken a part of him was Pitch. Yes, he had asked Pitch to remove those memories, but the reasoning of pain...his clenched hand shook...
"I'm sorry, Anna..."
The apology was choked out. There was no other choice. If Anna continued all this, someone was going to get hurt. He couldn't risk having more people hurt because of him. He might not have been the direct cause, but at least this would keep from burderning others. He lifted the fume hood up staring at all the hard work.
"Can I get a hand in this, Axel?"
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Post by skyeknight on Jun 9, 2017 15:05:00 GMT
Axel had moved from third party to the possible cause of destruction of Anna's hard work and research. Shadow looked at him as nothing more than a means to an end, burn it up and be done with it. Anna would see him as the terrible awful demon he had warned her that he was. It left him rather conflicted. He looked between the two of them. True, he wanted this serum gone. He wanted Anna to stop her research and then she wouldn't be in danger. But destroying it without her permission would cut her, hurt her, perhaps irreparably so. Besides, if she could remake it like she said she could, then destroying what was already there would do nothing.
"Anna," he tried, one last time, "Can't you see that this is dangerous? This drug is like Sapien all over again."
A small flame appeared in his hand, though as he stared down at the hand, he realized it was shaking. He didn't want to hurt her to save her. But if she was past the point of reasoning, of talking this through, he had little choice in the matter. Her friendship at the cost of her life. He'd rather her be alive and hate him than dead and gone. He walked over to the fume hood, blazing hand raised and primed to burn up her work.
"I don't want to do this," he told her, "But you've stopped listening to reason."
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