After cleaning up the unexpected Gate, things settled down within the walls of LO49. For the next few days, Sunny and his cohort did not have a lot to do — they just had to rest, remain vigilant… and above all else, stay awake.
That task turned out surprisingly hard for Sunny. As an Ascended, he should have had no problem with keeping himself from falling asleep for a couple of weeks. However, because of the damage his soul had sustained, he felt weak and strangely lethargic.
Sunny was not under the same pressure as the Awakened stationed at the research facility. He could allow himself to fall asleep without traveling to the Dream Realm, but doing so while his soldiers were struggling to keep themselves awake did not seem like something that a good leader and a man of conviction would do.
Additionally, he had an unreasonable feeling that the moment he closed his eyes, something was going to go horribly wrong.
Minutes and hours passed with an excruciating slowness, but his mental exhaustion did not seem to diminish with the passage of time. Instead, it only grew, aggravated by the insidious pressure of the Call.
Of course, soul wounds were not permanent. They healed naturally over time, and that one in particular was not even the worst one Sunny had ever received. The haughty shadow, too, was on its way to full recovery. The other shadows fussed around it a lot, but the arrogant guy pretended to not care.
Secretly, though, he seemed to be enjoying all the attention.
'Don't sleep, don't sleep, don't sleep…'
On top of the wall overseeing the dark ocean, Sunny pressed his forehead against the lip of the wall, and then lightly struck his head against it several times.
'Ah, how annoying.'
There was nothing useful for him to do in the research facility, which only aggravated the dangerous feeling of boredom. They were disconnected from the network, which meant that he could not access any entertainment or receive messages from Rain. They could not travel to the Dream Realm, making the tiresome isolation complete.
Of course, he could immerse himself in all kinds of interesting endeavors. Sunny could continue his experiments with weaving, or hold an engaging conversation with Professor Obel… he could go and check how much Luster and Kim had improved after saturating their cores…
But all of that demanded mental strain, which would only make him more tired.
That damned ship couldn't arrive any sooner…
As he was resentfully contemplating the situation, a lone figure ascended the wall and approached him. It was Beth, who seemed to be searching for Sunny, for some reason. She was wearing a long parka on top of the usual lab coat.
He looked at her bleakly, and asked:
"What?"
She glowered.
"What do you mean, "what"? Can't I look at the ocean, too?"
Sunny stared at her for a moment, then turned away.
"Be my guest."
The young woman remained silent for a while. After a minute or two passed in silence, she said awkwardly:
"Anyway… about what happened that time… I guess you are not completely useless. For a Master."
Sunny smiled with a corner of his mouth.
"...Is this your way of saying thank you?"
Beth looked down, but then answered with unexpected sincerity:
"Yes. I mean… thank you. From me and all the other scientists. If it wasn't for you… Professor might have…"
He studied the black waves silently.
"Don't thank me. If I did my job well, that wouldn't have happened, in the first place. I was negligent."
The young woman suddenly scoffed, ruining the somber mood.
"Gosh! How cool. You are very full of yourself, aren't you, Master Sunless?"
Sunny simply grinned.
"Naturally. Who else am I going to be full of?"
Beth sighed.
"Still… you are a human, too. Awakened often seem to forget that fact, so don't be too hard on yourself. Just keep the Professor alive. That is enough."
He nodded.
"...That's the plan."
With that, she lingered for a few moments, and then left him alone.
Sunny stared into the distance, imagining the formidable silhouette of the battleship appearing on the horizon.
'When I get out of this place, I'm going to sleep for a week straight. Argh, no… don't think about sleep… sleep… sleep…'
He grimaced, then slapped himself and turned around. It was time to go and find himself a cup of strong, bitter coffee…
The next morning, which was no different from the evening, a familiar figure approached the Rhino. Sunny, who was sitting on its roof and fiddling with a stimulator patch, looked down and raised his eyebrow.
"Verne? Did something happen?"
The tall Ascended looked up and remained silent for a few moments. There were dark circles under his calm, weary eyes.
"...Yes. Something happened."
Sunny frowned, suddenly feeling uneasy.
"Well, what is it?"
Verne sighed.
"One of my soldiers is missing."
***
The missing soldier had disappeared from the living quarters in the middle of the night. The man's absence was noticed in the morning, when he failed to assume his post.
He was one of the hundred Awakened of the local garrison, an experienced warrior who had been on track to becoming an officer. Tardiness was not in his nature.
As Sunny and Verne walked toward the building where the soldier had resided, there was a tense atmosphere around them. Sunny was asking the obvious questions:
"Have you searched the facility?"
The other Master nodded.
"Yes, every area that he could have access to. There is no sign of him anywhere."
Sunny frowned. People did not just vanish into thin air… well, usually, they didn't… especially with no one noticing.
"What about security cameras? Did they record anything?"
Verne gritted his teeth, then shook his head.
"Most of the observation system went down during the blizzard. What little remains is almost useless because of the interference from the Scavenger Gate. There are no recordings that we can use."
They arrived at the barracks and proceeded to the missing soldier's personal room, in front of which a few Awakened were already crowding with worried expressions on their faces.
Walking inside, Sunny felt his unease growing stronger.
That was because there was… nothing.
Nothing in the small room said that something had happened there. There were no signs of a struggle, no drops of blood, no unusual smells lingering in the air. Even with his special eyes and unnatural intuition, he could not notice anything out of the ordinary.
Still, Sunny made a point of studying every small detail, both with his vision and Shadow Sense. He sent his shadows to sweep through the facility, too… with no result whatsoever.
The soldier had, indeed, somehow vanished into thin air.
After a while, Sunny looked at Verne and asked a somewhat awkward question:
"Could he have… deserted?"
Verne stared at him blankly.
"...Where would he go?"
Sunny nodded. Even if someone had lost their mind and decided to run away from the remote station, there was nowhere for them to go.
The other Master, meanwhile, gritted his teeth.
"I hoped that you would be able to notice something that I missed. Have you found anything?"
Sunny remained silent for a while. Eventually, he sighed tiredly and shook his head.
"No. Nothing…"