He is standing in infinite black, and the only semblance of light is standing before him. She's so very familiar, and his arms ache to hold her again, just like that last time he did before she left. Her back is turned to him, hands clasped behind her back, and he wonders if she even knows he's there.
He reaches for her, calls for her, but he grows no closer nor does his voice leave his throat. He's losing her, he feels, and he grows desperate. Even for one such as him, there's no way he's letting her go, not when they're so close to gaining everything they could ever need.
Slowly, she looks over her shoulder. Then, she turns, and as she does, suddenly, it's no longer infinite black. They stand on the green, hazy hills of a mountain town. She stands beneath a tree, smiling at him—that soft, knowing smile that had always greeted him.
"Vexen…"
Her voice echoes around him, and he can only remain silent, captivated by this place and her and all of it. She looks around, eyes finally coming back to him after gazing lovingly at her surroundings—a familiar place to her, he can guess.
"I never had a hometown. My parents were always moving with me… …But this place—Nibelheim—was the closest to what I considered a home."
Her soft eyes close, eyes he'd often found himself lost in. She smiles, and he can feel the faint hints of a gentle breeze. His own eyes close, and he takes in the sweet scent of mountain air and fields of assorted flora.
"…The reason I like picnics so much is that, when we were here, Mother and Father had enough time to do things with me. We would, every weekend, come out here and have a picnic. And it was nice."
She seems so happy, he notes, and something in him swells. He knows it can't be a heart—he lacks that. But still, he's happy for her. Because she's happy. And isn't that all that matters, really?
"…I want to bring you here. All sides of you. Even and Vexen both, and we can sit out under the old tree and have a picnic, just the two of us. And we can let my parents know…"
His arms ache even more. He misses her. He wants to hold her, and something deep down tells him that something is wrong. This isn't right…
"…That I've finally found what it is I've always needed most."
Everything suddenly goes white white white and he can't see. The light is blinding and scathing, and he recoils. He's breaking apart, burning up, on fire and everything is white and there's a Cheshire grin and blazing green eyes and—
His eyes fly open and he's suddenly sitting up, gasping for breath. A dream turned nightmare… And he so rarely dreams, so that makes it not only worse but much more easily remembered. There's a pain in his chest and extremities, like parts of him had been on fire.
Lucrecia's words from the dream haunt him, and he can feel something is wrong. Never before had she appeared in his dreams, and most definitely not in such a hopeful way—almost like a cryptic farewell.
Leather-clad fingers rub his temples. He'd fallen asleep at work, and the dream is sorely reminding him that he's so, so close to being done with all these loose ends. Then, and only then, can he…
Emerald eyes hesitantly glance over to the glass case nearby, where a nearly-blinding white sliver of something rests. The chance to become Even again, trapped within a brilliant white wedge of some inexplicable material.
He's reminded of his friends, and what happened to each of them. Some of them chose to take back their hearts. The main one he can recall is Lexaeus. He had returned to Aeleus and Aerith, and his biological son, Sora, is to spend summers with him in Radiant Garden.
Others, like Zexion, had chosen to remain Nobodies. Their choice, in the end, and he can honestly see the appeal. But Vexen has always been one to stubbornly see something through to the end if he can. Scrapping things causes waste and resources are always limited.
With a sigh, he shakes his head, pushing himself up to stand. He'd tied up all his experiments by now. It had taken almost half a year, but he'd finally managed it. Now, he needs to clean up, destroy everything he doesn't want falling into wrong hands, and then, find Lucrecia.
She had departed to Midgar, her home world. After the disaster of what had happened with her beloved adoptive children the Tsviets, she had chosen to try and right things in her world. Of all of them, only Nero and Weiss' locations are known—working as a delivery boy and a server in a restaurant in Twilight Town with a lavender-haired girl. Rosso had died, victim of her own madness, and the one known as Azul had been lost before they'd found him.
There had been no emotional good-bye. They had promised each other, he and Lucrecia, that they would see each other again. He wants her to be the first thing Even sees, after all, so that he knows that, yes, someone is waiting and he never has to be alone again.
Once more, his mind turns to the dream, and he looks hesitantly around. Usually, he would finish here, but… …The dream still disturbs him, especially the bit about her disappearing and how much like a subtle farewell that had been.
With a frustrated groan, Vexen stands up. Damn it all. She's such an oblivious woman, and she's likely gotten herself into some sticky situation that she needs him to get her out of. Damn that woman to Darkness and back… Such an annoying and delusional and downright beautiful woman.
He shakes his head again, looking back to make sure everything's place is memorized, then he opens a corridor and steps through. Midgar shouldn't be too hard to find, after all. He just has to head to Lucrecia's old ship and reverse the coordinates.
This should only be a quick trip, after all.