While he had yet to speak on the matter, Shadow's own logic could be inferred from his own interactions with the closed steel wall. He knocked on the thick panel twice, listening closely before turning around and assuming his role as the senshi's vanguard in the lightless maze.

Their original passage had been barred shut. He voted to seek an alternative path out of Flax's little funhouse without squandering their precious energies on attempting to blast through the thick plate. To Shadow, it was clear that the full capabilities of their adversaries had yet to be seen. For the sake of Ribbon's safety, the sailor soldiers would need to conserve their strength. 

"Keep your ears open, listen for anything unusual. I expect to meet Mr. Ferromancer's friends very soon."

OOC:

Sailor Nocturnus

Their choice decided, Sailor Nocturnus turned her attention from the now-barricaded end where Enyalius stood towards the corridors they had formerly come from, currently lead by Shadow. Her small size made it much easier for her to maneuver in the cramped space. For a moment she considered using it to her advantage and slipping between the group to reorient herself at the other end. Before she moved she remembered that Ribbon--although by no means a hulking giant figure--didn't quite have that same skill. The star-child would not abandon her charge so thoughtlessly. She stayed close to Ribbon as they headed down the dark passages.

Ribbon, glad they would be moving again, turned around cautiously, and was glad for Nocturnus's company as they reoriented in the passage and went back towards the destroyed mechanical monsters. She wasn't eager to return to the room where she had been held captive for days, but if going into the other part of the maze would help them get out... She shuddered a bit, but continued forward despite the fear that gripped her stomach.

DM wrote:

As the passageway leading back towards Ribbon's room was recently traversed, unless I'm corrected/something changes, the group will return directly to Ribbon's room when I return later today.

Quote :

find the map here

Walking carefully, Shadow led the group back down the original hallway, but passed by the opening to Ribbon's room, choosing instead to check out the hallway's westward branch ahead. He saw nothing out of the ordinary in this new hallway; like the others, it was still dark, continued for about ten steps, and turned left, towards the north. 

Following behind him were Aktypris and Zorya, the former of whom was still feeling depressed after the arguments that had taken place. Passing by the room only made her feel worse and, in an effort to reach out to the world around her, she trailed her right hand on the metallic wall beside her, her sun tattoo betraying her sad mood in the faint reflection on the walls. The maze was cold and dark, despite the light of her shield, and she was more tired and feeling more defeated than she had ever believed possible...

Her fingers were cold through her gloves, and she was about to pull away from the wall when the material of her glove got caught in an irregularity of the wall. She pulled back, and the wall quickly flipped sideways, whirling her around and trapping her in the wall.

Her bright eyes were scared as she beheld her teammates whirling before her eyes - first Zorya, then Ribbon and Nocturnus, with a flash of Leviathan between them. "SHADOW!" she screamed in fright, calling out for her crush before the wall clicked shut, sealing her within. 

The floor dropped out below her, and she screamed again, this time without words, as she fell beneath the floors, her voice fading away.

Sailor Nocturnus

In a blur, Aktypris was gone. Nocturnus had met her eyes for a mere second before the wall completed its turn and only the memory of the girl's frightened scream remained. There wasn't even time for Nocturnus to respond. She felt a chill run down her spine as the event replayed in her mind, thinking about the way Sailor Aktypris' voice faded away. How deep did this maze go? Where could she have gone?

The sailor soldier-in-training confirmed that Ribbon was still close to her. She was not surprised to find a trap in this place, and she was sorry that they had lost a party member to one. It would be a serious lapse in her new duty if she allowed Ribbon to disappear as well.

"Um, maybe don't touch anything. Of course, you may already know that," she said to the taller woman, trying not to sound panicked or upset. Obviously she was, to some degree, but Sailor Nocturnus aimed to bolster her own spirits as well by sounding more secure than she felt.

As they went back the way they had come, Soul kept her senses, as much as she could being on this planet, on alert. It's good that Nocturnus is keeping close to Ribbon. It'll help us keep an eye on her in case she's a wolf in sheep's clothing, she thought. 

Aktypris's scream startled Soul, not having expected it. When she looked for the girl in the group, she could no longer locate her. Did she disappear? How could that be? Had she triggered a trap like Shadow had? Her mind filled with the horrible images of seeing Shadow in front of her one moment and then gone the next, and how helpless and scared she had felt. Part of her ached to have Ganymede here with her, so she could feel safe. 

"Be careful not the touch anything," she said to Europa, knowing the girl probably already knew that, but it helped Soul recenter herself. She pushed the traumatic memories aside, drawing her wings as close to her body as she could, less she trigger a trap herself.

Achelois was thinking, her thoughts had wandered away as they traveled down the hallway.  Her thoughts filled with recent adventures and a visit to her home planet.  A scream for Shadow pulled her back into the moment.  She wanted to move forward, get an eye on the situation but found herself blocked by others in the group.  A moment later there was another scream more muffled now.  She gripped her staff, her green eyes flickering and called out to the front of the group.  In a loud whisper she questioned the source of the sound, "What happened? Who screamed?" She waited for a response from anyone.

Sailor Europa stayed silent as they continued down a new tunnel, trusting in Shadow to warn them of any possible dangers ahead. The rest of the group was quiet as well..until someone screamed Shadow's name. Europa turned t face the sound just as she screamed a second time, and completely disappeared. it took her a moment to realize exactly who had gone missing. It was Sailor Aktyptris.

"Sailor Aktyptris is gone," she said to Achelois. Their first loss of a member... She nodded at Sailor Soul's warning, and made sure that her scythe didn't drag on the walls and trigger something else. What if this hall was completely riddled with traps? They had no idea.

As they approached where she had been held captive, Ribbon's attention was more on the floor than the rest of her surroundings; her boots splashed in puddles of water, she stepped carefully over or around large metal chunks of - of whatever - and in the half-dark surroundings she was really glad that she was right behind the girl with the glowing shield, despite how little she cared for her lack of privacy boundaries. The light coming out of where she had been held was almost too bright, after she had started to get used to the half-light, and she squinted as her pupils constricted.

And then something happened all at once.

She could barely see forward, but she caught the flash of movement, her eyes catching on Aktypris's face, her ears ringing with the girl's cry, and then she was gone. Just - just gone! Ribbon's stomach dropped to her feet, her lips parting in horror as the girl's screams faded beneath them.

At first she couldn't do anything. She couldn't speak, couldn't take her eyes off of the part of the wall that had suddenly flipped around to remove one of her saviors from the hallway - she was frozen in place. Beside her, Nocturnus warned her away from the walls; behind her, the winged warrior in purple warned the same - did they not see the girl disappear? Ribbon's paralysis ended as she started to shake from fear, her breathing shallow and quick. Someone from the back called out, the other girl behind her, with the big scythe, answered, sounding calm. How could they be so calm?!

"She--" she stuttered, staring at the wall, "She just disappeared?! She just disappeared!!" her voice raised as she took an involuntary step backwards. "How can you be so calm?! The wall flipped on her!" Panic colored her voice.

"Disappeared? Aktypris disappeared through the wall?" She grit her teeth in disbelief that Ribbon was the only one reacting to this.  Her knuckles turned white as she gripped her staff, using it to push open the space in front of her gently but with haste. Her wings fluttered with tension as she made her way from the back of the group to the front, brushing past the others.  She reached Ribbon and Nocturnus and the others and looked to the wall looking for the spot that swallowed up one of their members.  

"Where was the trap at?" She asked them, her voice was steady and calm but she was ready to break through this wall. They had gotten lucky last time when Shadow had been taken but that kind of luck was very rare when in enemy territory. It was possible that she was already....

Enyalius hadn't seen what happened ahead of them, but she heard everything, Aktypris's frightened screams echoing through the hallway until they became muffled, then faded away. Her pulse quickened and her eyes searched for visual cues in the faint light before her - neither Soul nor Europa fell into a defensive or offensive stance, so it could not have been an attack, but they did shy away from the walls. As Achelois pushed her way forward, Enyalius followed on her heels, gently touching shoulders as she passed, craning her neck to get a better view of the situation.

Ribbon seemed almost in hysterics, staring at an empty section of wall; from what she said, the wall had flipped, and carried Aktypris with it. 

Enyalius knit her brows together, her mouth in a concentrated line, and slid around Achelois, towards the wall in question, placing herself between it and Sailor Zorya, who seemed speechless. With a directed thought, her sword and shield disappeared and she reached out, groping the wall with both hands in an attempt to find whatever switch Aktypris had activated, so she could follow her. They hadn't lost anyone before - well, Shadow, but he had years of experience behind him. Aktypris was a fresh senshi - she hadn't faced anything like this, and now she was alone in a maze with unknown enemies, and frightened. 

She pressed everywhere, but nothing gave beneath her touch.

As they started moving back toward Ribbon’s room, Andromeda followed the group, keeping an eye on Ribbon to make sure nobody would snatch her. She had assumed they would go back to the lighted room and explore the exit on the other side, but the line before her kept moving past it, so she figured they must be trying another direction. Everything was quiet for a while, and dark—she really wished they’d gone into the light instead—and then suddenly everything happened all at once.

There was the sound of a scuffle, and then a scream that made her blood run cold, then silence. She heard the questions—what happened?—and an explanation; one of them was gone. Gone? What did that mean, gone?

Ribbon’s outburst was more appropriate given the dire situation, and Andromeda instinctively stepped back from the walls, wary and alarmed. It flipped on her? A trap? Memories of what happened to Shadow in Zenar replayed in her mind. They had been able to find him later at the time, but who knew if they’d be so lucky again? Not to mention it was one of the newer senshi, the one who was already so scared and upset to begin with…

The thought of losing someone made her knees feel weak, but she suppressed her emotions the best she could, knowing that breaking down wouldn’t help anyone. The newer senshi needed their confidence and strength. She watched in worry as Enya tried to find the trap in the wall—what if they lost Enya, too?! That would be disastrous, with her being the leader and all—but nothing happened. As before, the trap did not spring twice.

“Maybe we can still find her,” she said, trying to sound positive. “We’ve done it before, right? She must be elsewhere in the maze. We’ll rescue her.” She sounded more decisive and sure than she felt.

"You're right Andromeda," Soul said, attempting to sound positive. "We've found missing members of our group before, we can do it again." She just hoped in mean time the girl would be alright. She was so new at this senshi thing....

Moving forward really seemed like their only option, now. What are we going to do if we can't find a way out of here? a small voice in her mind said. What indeed.

Sailor Nocturnus

Sailor Nocturnus was really feeling the "in training" part of her designation. Sure, she had accompanied the group on missions before, but this type of scenario felt way over her head. Ribbon's panic at such a close proximity made it harder for her to keep herself composed. She couldn't even imagine what it would be like for Aktypris or what kind of monsters the maze might have flung her into. They couldn't even hear her voice anymore, and it seemed unlikely she would have gone silent... unless she was...

Nocturnus opened her mouth to speak, but only the hiccup of a half-choked sob came out. Tears welled up in her dark eyes that she tried to blink back, hoping that none of the other sailor soldiers would notice. Where was her mother, to offer comfort? She was surrounded by people, but she felt so alone.

"Y-yes, we'll rescue h-her," she said, attempting to agree with Andromeda. The wavering soft voice did not sound very sure at all anymore.

Andromeda weaved her way closer to the wall where Aktypris had disappeared through, but could not get too close due to how crowded that part of the hallway had become. She turned to Nocturnus when she heard the girl half sob. Was she crying? It was hard to see in the darkness, but it almost sounded like it. She couldn’t imagine what kind of fear the girl was feeling and remembered again about how the senshi had come to Crystal Tokyo because she’d lost her mother. And now this. Honestly, she shouldn’t be in danger like this.

She reached out her hand to grab Nocturnus’ and squeezed it tightly, moving close to her. “Of course we will,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “We have never left anyone behind in these missions… we’re not going to start now. No one is going to be abandoned.”

She didn’t want to call attention to the fact that Nocturnus was upset, so she just put one arm around the girl’s shoulder to remind her that she was—and never would be—alone.

It was no use.

Enyalius stopped probing the wall's surface, nodding her head to Andromeda and Soul's assertions that they would find Akyptris, but feeling, realistically, that that may not happen. She had always struggled against being a pessimist, but odds were, in this case... The maze was large, its lighting obviously controlled elsewhere; it held monsters that were difficult for even her to defeat alone, and, from what she had quietly been told about the conversation held while she was fighting outside the room, it was probably made as a trap for Neo Queen Serenity's senshi. She might have a hard time surviving alone; Aktypris, though? 

Nocturnus's half-sob was slight, but Enyalius heard it, and her heart dropped. No one, especially not someone as young as Nocturnus, should have to suffer through losing a teammate; this could leave mental and emotional scars well into her future... and Zorya's, and Panacea's... The worst part was that they may never get closure - they may never find Aktypris, and for the rest of their lives, they'd be wondering what happened to her, imagining far worse things than reality typically provided. 

She leaned her forehead on the wall briefly, feeling its cold surface seeping into her, cooling her mind. That Nocturnus struggled through, attempting to sound brave despite the catches in her voice, pulled even more at Enyalius's heartstrings. Even that close, she couldn't hear Aktypris at all. She took two breaths to steady herself, preparing to go full-force into the bluff that she, too, believed that Aktypris could be found again. "We'll find her," she stated, knowing Achelois would recognize her lie but believing no one else would - she had never lied to them before.

"Aktypris!"

Shadow rushed towards the panel that Aktypris had been caught upon, being unable to reach her before the accursed thing flipped her out of sight. He pounded on the metal plate, but to no avail - the material would not budge.

Damnit.

Why did it have to be one of the neophyte senshi? Why couldn't it have been him? He had managed to hold out under what felt like worse circumstances on the corrupted planet of Zenar. The serpentine servant of Chaos had left a trap which dropped him directly into her lair, which was akin to a gigantic crypt. Then again, for a frightened young girl, a prison labyrinth shaped from wrought iron was scarcely better than a mausoleum.

After checking his hands for self-inflicted injuries, Shadow then spoke up to the group of senshi with a cool and deliberate tone. "We're going to secure an egress for Ribbon. Once that's done, we'll search for Aktypris and get her out of this hole."

Let Flax and his cronies come, he thought. Several more dental plans were going to be pitched before the day was over.

"Shadow's right, we need to keep moving for now. I don't think in this place, remaining in one place for long is a good idea," Soul said. It felt like they were sitting ducks and with so many inexperienced people on the team coupled with the cramp fighting quarters they were in, it was a disaster in the making as far as she was concerned.

Achelois stepped back from the wall when she felt Enya behind move forward.  She had hoped that maybe she would be able to open the trap again.  She heard muffled sob come from behind and turned to see Nocturnus trying to be brave for them.  Her heart thumped in her chest but quieted when Andromeda moved to comfort the young senshi.  She turned back to the wall to see that Enya was unable to re-trigger the trap.  This situation was getting worse by the second.  Aktypris may already be gone but they had now way of knowing at the moment.  The others were voicing their hopes that because they had found Shadow they would be able to find her as well.  

So quickly? If they were unable to recover Aktypris, would these girls ever be able to overcome this tragedy?  Would she be able to recover from this? And what about - she focused on Enya who she knew would feel responsible.  Then she heard the words, "We'll find her," come from her.  Achelois searched her face, that's what we're going with then? Achelois smiled, her features were soft, and her voice was warm. "If we despair here then all will be lost, for everyone's sake we have to keep moving forward and do all that we can."  

"Octopus..."

Leviathan couldn't believe it. How could the others feel so much pain just in the sailor senshi's absence? She was more terrified of the same thing happening to her. So much that she began to cry too, though rather silently.

"No," she said as salt water tears poured down her face. "I want to stay right here. It was a mistake coming here. I don't want to see what's next. This Ribbon girl totally knows what's going on here and I bet she's going to laugh so hard when she's done dealing with all of us here."

While they walked through several paths, Panacea thought about anything and everything. Would they ever get out of there? Would she ever see the sunlight again? Could they defeat Flax and save Ribbon? Could they even trust her?
 
After a while she noticed they didn’t go back to Ribbon’s room. Instead Shadow was taking another path…northwards. A bit confused she slowed down and eventually stopped. Why were they going northwards now?
 
Suddenly she heard a loud scream coming from the front. Was everything alright? The voice which caused the scream was familiar to her. Was it Aktypris? What for Heaven’s sake was going on? The tall blonde tried to stretch to the end that she’d see anything. But, no way. Even though she could look above the other’s heads it was still pitch-black, not even a shape was visible.
Slowly she heard how everyone started talking now. Did something happen? In this whole mess of conversations Panacea couldn’t understand a thing.
 
However, that changed when Ribbon shouted distraughtly and panicked. Aktypris was gone? Because of a wall that flipped on her? It took her some time until she realized what happened.
 
Aktypris, the steadily happy girl, was gone. Trapped. Behind a wall. Startled she arched her eyebrows, her mouth opened. “No…,” she muttered. Panacea was tongue-tied. It happened again. Once again she lost someone. Once again she couldn’t prevent it.

Time to do something about Leviathan, we can't just leave her here. Soul thought. With another brush of her wing against Europa for reassurance and comfort, she carefully made her way over to Leviathan. 

"We don't know what Ribbon knows for sure," Soul said quietly, "But what we do know is its unsafe for any of us to be alone in here right now. We need to keep moving forward which means you need to come with us if you want to get out of here." 

I guess we're doing this the hard way. Placing herself behind Leviathan, Soul grasped the other senshi, placing one hand on her shoulder and the other she used to firmly grip her elbow. She pushed, forcing Leviathan to move forward, only stopping when she was close to Shadow, hoping that he could keep her motivated into moving. She listens to him better than anyone, hopefully she'll keep doing that. Giving Shadow a look, she let go, retreating a few steps backwards to give Leviathan some space.

She couldn't believe how calm they were, how detached some of them seemed. Two senshi pushed themselves forward from the back - one of the leaders and the calming one - and immediately acted like they were trying to reactivate the trap. Ribbon shuffled backward away from them, her hands slowly raising to her ears as though to protect herself. Another senshi joined them - it was starting to get crowded, she wanted to step back but the redhead was right behind her. Her breathing increased. As Nocturnus beside her started to cry - she could see faint tears glistening in the light shining out of the room she had been held captive in - another girl came forward to comfort her, remarking that they had never left anyone behind before. 

Shadow came back, calling Aktypris's name and banging on the panel -- so many people, so close together! Ribbon wanted to move back even farther, but as she turned, her eyes adjusting to the beam of light shooting out of the room, she was still eye to eye with Leviathan, the girl's crying eyes looking as afraid as Ribbon felt. People were talking about moving forward - she didn't want to move forward! She would prefer to stay in that room if the alternative was being flipped into the wall! Shaking, she couldn't help but hear Leviathan's outburst, and the case Leviathan was continuing to make about her terrified her to the bone -- what if they believed her?! She wasn't to blame for this! But what could she say?! 

Soul moved forward, took Leviathan, and pushed her through the crowd of people; Ribbon gratefully moved back, her heart thumping loudly in her chest, yearning for open spaces --

GM wrote:

Too many people are crowded into a small space. Remember, these corridors can fit only three people standing shoulder to shoulder. The map is updated pretty frequently, but based on a layering issue, a new copy is saved and the old copy deleted with every update; you can refresh the file to view the new maps; do not trust the old map to update itself.


In front of the place where Aktypris has disappeared, we now have Enyalius, Shadow, Leviathan, Soul, and Zorya. 


Sailor Zorya, still paralyzed from the loss of her teammate, simply shuffled backward, towards the wall, with each new person. As Soul marched Leviathan forward to meet with Shadow, who had just pounded on the wall around Enyalius, Zorya found her back against the cold metallic surface and her deep blue eyes doubled in size, for as soon as she put her weight against it, the wall around her ceased to exist.


She fell backwards wordlessly, her eyes calling for help as her throat refused to cooperate, but the wall reformed as soon as she was through, and she was lost in the dark.




Those with Zorya in their sights would have been:
Nocturnus, Ribbon and Andromeda (possible full view)
Achelois, Soul, Leviathan, Shadow (possible peripheral view)
Europa (maybe, through people)

Those that could not see, or choose not to see, what happened, might still have felt a change in air pressure as the wall disappeared and then reappeared.

And then another one of them disappeared.

Screaming for her, Ribbon launched forward, aiming not for the missing purple senshi or the cursed wall she had touched, but for the room just within her reach. She moved around Nocturnus and Andromeda and back into the light, where she sprinted for the bindings that had once held her captive. She knew that wall wouldn't twist backwards, or completely fade away. Nearly hyperventilating, she fell to the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest, and rocked back and forth, her hands over her ears and her eyes wide.

She wanted to go home.

Still too focused on her own fear to talk much, , Sailor Europa had barely noticed that Sailor Zorya had also disappeared until Ribbon reacted. She watched as Ribbon ran back to the original room she was held captive in, probably terrified. Now that she was paying attention, she could see that a few other senshi had also started breaking down. Under the hood of her cape, she frowned at her own indecisiveness. Why wasn't she helping the group out? They didn't need another person panicking, crying, or going mute. More determined than before, Europa slipped through the group and after Ribbon.

She slowed down as she reentered the room, and found Ribbon curled up and rocking in place. She definitely needed to calm down. Europa slowly approached her before going down on one knee next to her.

"You know, staying in here forever is about as safe as being out there in the hallway," Europa said. "That man that attacked us can come back any time. Don't you want to find the exit?"

Everyone was losing their minds, and Andromeda wasn’t surprised. This situation had escalated quickly. They shouldn’t have brought so many newbies… and yet how were they supposed to know that it would be this dangerous? It was just supposed to be a simple distress call.

As Leviathan once again declared she would rather stay where she was, Andromeda felt a sense of increasing panic overwhelming her. Staying was not an option—it wouldn’t save anyone.

And then there was movement from her side. She turned, and like in a dream, watched the silent disappearance of Zorya. One minute the wall behind her was there, the next second it was not, and she was gone with it. It was almost literally blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. She actually did blink to make sure she wasn’t imagining it—it had happened so soundlessly, as if in a vacuum or a hallucination—but Zorya didn’t reappear. Cold fear struck her heart at the thought of yet another new senshi being lost.

Ribbon clearly saw it too, though, judging from her reaction. She weaved around Andromeda and ran off back towards the room where she was held captive. Andromeda took one step after her, but then saw Europa already following her. She returned her attention back to the group.

“Everyone stay away from the walls!” she said in a firm voice. “We should move away from this corridor. Immediately.”

She kept a tight grip on Nocturnus’ hand in case she had seen Zorya’s disappearance, wishing so hard she could shield the younger girl’s eyes from everything that was happening. She needed to tell Enya about Zorya, but she didn’t want to alarm the rest of the group if they hadn’t seen it yet. They were already teetering on a tight line of sanity as it was.

Sailor Nocturnus

This reminded her of a story--one of the stories that her mother used to tell her. One of the "scary" stories that she only requested because nothing could really frighten her when the words were spoken in her mother's low and calm voice. A slow count down as people disappeared, one by one, until everyone was gone. Zorya's expression as she disappeared didn't look anything like Aktypris's, but it would haunt the young sailor soldier-in-training just the same.

Her hold on Andromeda's hand was like a drowning person clinging to the edge of a lifeboat. Sailor Nocturnus didn't even know that she was holding anyone's hand, but her stiff fingers had frozen that way as she tried to work through what was going on.

The tears in her eyes were sliding down her cheeks now, although she refused to acknowledge them. She glanced up at Andromeda, confusion and fear evident in her eyes.

"I... I have to protect Ribbon..." she muttered, the voice dampened with emotion. Her eyes moved towards the room that the older girl had run into, and Nocturnus wondered if she could make it past the others to head that way. What if something happened in there, now? They couldn't trust anything in this maze.

It seemed like nothing was going to go there way on this mission. Just as she delivered Leviathan to Shadow for safe keeping, chaos erupted once again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zorya hit the wall. As if in slow motion, she watched as she too disappeared. 

Dammit! What kind of place were they in? Who else where they going to lose, and would they always be able to get them back? Gritting her teeth, she forced her turbulent emotions off to the side. It was getting harder and harder to do this though, and it took her a moment. 

When she looked back to do a quick headcount, she could no longer see Ribbon nor could she see Europa at the back of the group. Soul could only hope that her friend had gone after Ribbon and would bring her back. They couldn't have gotten to far though. 

"Is everyone else alright?" she called out.

As Nocturnus looked directly at her and Andromeda saw the tears glistening in her eyes, and how terrified she felt, yet how brave her words sounded, Andromeda’s heart broke for her. She also felt admiration at the younger senshi’s determination. This was a girl who wouldn’t give up easily or break a promise. “Okay. Do you want to go into the room? I can go with you,” she offered in a low voice.

At Soul’s question, she spoke slightly louder, “We’re fine. Ribbon’s back in the lighted room with Europa.”

Things were getting tight now, even though she had stepped back away from the wall to allow more room for examination people were still rushing the area.  Leviathan was freaking out and Soul was determined to get her to move forward.  She watched curiously as Soul pushed Leviathan towards Shadow in an attempt to keep her calm.  But now there were way too many people and-she saw it just out of the corner of her eye.  Zorya who had remained quiet bumped the wall and just like with Aktypris she was swallowed up into the darkness.  Achelois's heart caught in her throat as she jumped forward to the wall, slamming her fist against it.  

She heard Ribbon lose it and run into the room, Europa ran after her.  Nocturnus was trying so hard, she could hear the quivering in her voice. Through grit teeth she called out, "Enya! We just lost Zorya to the wall!" She pulled away feeling defeated but there was another situation that needed to be calmed.  She needed to catch them before they went into the room.  It only took her few steps before she was next to Andromeda and Nocturnus.  She moved to rest a hand on Andromeda's shoulder, intending to convey some peace and relaxation.  Then she knelt down in front of Nocturnus and moved to brush away the tears that fell down her face.  She offered a gentle smile and some calming energy flowed from her.  "Nocturnus you've been so brave," her voice soft and sweet.  "But you don't have to keep pushing yourself, it would not do well for you to ignore the feelings that you have."  She moved to gently pat Nocturnus's head, "Enya and I are here, we will do everything in our power to get everyone out of here safely, so please, acknowledge the feelings you have and then decide what you want to do next." 

OOC:

Sailor Nocturnus

The feeling of terrifying isolation had passed. Her mother might not be here, but she was not alone. There were team members ready to support her if she could not manage on her own. In some way that she couldn't yet put her finger on, she thought of her mother's words: "You are never alone. The stars will always guide and safeguard you."  Maybe these sailor soldiers and other people were stars, somehow. She could almost see, faintly, the different stars glowing brightly within each of them.

Achelois' touch was comforting. Not only because the woman literally radiated calming energy, but also because Nocturnus trusted and admired her. The blonde and her green tattoos bore absolutely no resemblance to the proud dark figure of her queen mother, but she had an undeniable maternal presence. It could never take the place of or make up for the lack of her mother, but she clung to anyway it for what it was: reassuring and safe.

She shook her head and rubbed at the tears with a black-gloved hand.

"...I'm scared," she admitted, embarrassed to hear the words mentioned aloud. She wanted Sailor Andromeda and Sailor Achelois to think of her as another competent sailor soldier. She knew that others felt fear in this situation, but she wanted to be stronger than that.

"But... I want to keep going. We're all stuck in this maze. It's not safe for anyone. We have to do something."

"Ribbon was trapped here, and then she thought we were going to save her, and then that guy appeared, and then he was gone, and then it looked like we were leaving... but we couldn't. I want to save her. That's why I am a sailor soldier: to change things other people can't change."

She fidgeted, blushing slightly. It was a lot to confess, especially to someone like Achelois who had fought so many powerful evil forces in so many places. Pamina heard those stories of the duo during her time in Crystal Tokyo, and she wished she could have stories like that told about her someday. Andromeda, too--there were tales of her feats. She had put so much time and effort into training and learning so that she could fight against evil. This was preparation so she could go back to help her mother and face Sarastro.

Sailor Nocturnus hoped they would understand.