[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/hvuUP9f.png[/img][/center]

[color=ff4f61]"Huh...?"[/color] Rose frowned, the battered side of her face twinging. [color=ff4f61]"Nah, the Nox didn't, but if you meant the Ravel..."[/color] She forced a shaky laugh, more panicked than anything else to her own ears, as she thought back to the symbol on the wall. [color=ff4f61]"Look, I'm a Ze. It's my job to deal with those wackos. We're gonna get out of here."[/color]

Her trembling voice didn't sound as reassuring as the words themselves. Something was off... well, yes, Nox survivors regaining their minds wasn't an everyday occurrence, but there was something else besides the obvious. It took Rose a moment to realise what it was. When she did, her blood seemed to freeze.

She couldn't hear the others.

[color=ff4f61]"Uh... Listener? Cedar?"[/color] No reply. She removed the earpiece, checked it, and put it back in. [color=ff4f61]"Iris? Fluke?"[/color] Well, this explained Archer's apparent lack of reaction. [color=ff4f61]"Archer? C'mon, say something, shouldn't you be yelling at me?"[/color]

She jumped at sudden voices, but not those of her teammates. A chorus of inhuman hisses filled the air, their message cryptic, although not lost on her. [color=ff4f61]"Don't you dare hurt him! Or anyone else!"[/color] she yelled, brandishing Thorn as she edged towards the doorway the voices had come from, and peered inside. She gasped. On the dust-coated floor lay the still form of a bird, its eyes fading from black to white. There was a Nox in here... Not a surprise, but the undeniable proof turned the situation all the more fraught. She stared around the room and hallway for any sign of it.

[color=ff4f61]"Shit. Nox alert,"[/color] she called, hurrying back to the hidden door and ramming her good shoulder against it. Flakes of paint fluttered down, but the door held fast. [color=ff4f61]"No, no it isn't your fault."[/color] She shoved it again and again. Surely the door had to be old and rotten enough to break eventually. [color=ff4f61]"Please, tell me, how did you end up here? We'll find a way out."[/color] All the while, she kept alert for a glimpse of the Nox, head whipping from side to side to make up for the narrowed field of vision.

A yell from the floor above made her reel back. Arm raised against the shower of drywall, Rose craned her neck. There was no mistaking that fervor. [color=ff4f61]"Ruski? But... The medics, they came for you just now..."[/color]

It was clear she wasn't talking to Jay and Ruskali as she'd known them. Nox were soul snatchers, but what if those souls weren't destroyed? Everything had to go somewhere, right? But why here of all places?