The Fate of VIII
Isa was confused.
Why were they in the library?
It wasn't the library that confused him - after all, he had been here several times before, either to borrow a book or to do his homework.
What confused him was that it was Lea that had brought them both here. Lea hated the library. He would always call Isa boring for going to the place ('You can't even talk in there! What's the fun in that?') and yet Lea was the one who had practically jumped at Isa, wild-eyed and insisting that he 'needed to see this!'.
"What are we doing here?" Isa asked, eyeing his companion suspiciously.
"Shh!" Lea was holding a finger to his lips. It was ironic how he was doing that, even though he was the one who usually got kicked out for being loud while trying to drag Isa out of the library.
It perplexed Isa as to why they were sneaking deeper into the library.
They weren't in the part Radiant Garden's castle that was open to the public anymore. No, the walls had transitioned from being lined with shelves filled with books to ones that were clinically white.
Alarm bells went off in Isa's mind. He was sure this area was restricted and that they would be in deep trouble if they were caught in here. While Lea had already pulled Isa along into being an accomplice in trouble-making, he usually knew what they were getting up to.
"Okay, Lea." Isa stopped walking and crossed his arms. "I'm not walking any further until you tell me what's going on."
Lea paused. He looked around to make sure no one was heading their way and then relaxed again. "Heh, I overheard that creepy looking scientist talking to one of the guards."
"You were eavesdropping, you mean," Isa cut in, drily. Lea thought that the scientist, Even, hated him, so he took the initiative to annoy the guy whenever he could.
"Details," said Lea dismissively. "Anyway, he was telling him to tighten up the security today saying that it was," Lea imitated Even's voice, "'of utmost importance. Don't let any of the brats get in' - which means something cool must be going on in the labs."
That was Lea, for you. He'd only be interested in scientific experiments if he wasn't allowed to see them.
A thought occurred to Isa. He looked back the door they had come through. "If they're tightening security, why weren't we stopped by anyone?"
"No worries, I took care of them," said Lea with a cheeky grin.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing much. Just a little distraction outside the castle to keep them busy."
Isa wasn't even going to ask what Lea meant by 'distraction'. He may not like studying, but that didn't mean Lea wasn't smart. He probably schemed something elaborate to have gotten the guards to go outside. This would be impressive if not for the fact that they'd probably get into bigger trouble if they were caught.
"I know that look, Isa. Don't even think about skipping out on me. Whatever's going on in the labs must be big. I can feel it," said Lea.
The only thing Isa felt was that if they did go they would definitely get caught. Still, he was admittedly a bit curious.
"...Alright, we'll check it out."
"Now we're talkin'." Lea's grin widened and he continued to lead them down the corridors.
The thought that Lea might have broken in here before came to Isa, as he seemed to know where he was going. After a few minutes of sneaking around stealthily, Lea stopped Isa and pointed at the door in front of him.
Lea pressed an ear against the door. "I don't hear anything. Maybe no one's in there?"
"There's one way to find out," Isa said, and the two exchanged a look.
Carefully, Lea turned the doorknob, slowly inching the door open.
The two froze.
There wasn't anyone who had come to open the door from the inside to reprimand the duo. There wasn't a sudden shriek that had terrified the two. There wasn't a horror movie scene, where a hand would reach out to grab Lea's from the slit of the door.
Yet there was something that made Isa unable to move. Through the small space through the door, there was something horrible leaking out from the room. It made Isa's skin crawl, made him shiver. It felt cold, like a draft coming through, but Isa was sure that it wasn't wind, whatever it was. He couldn't see anything threatening, but his instinct screamed at him to run away.
It would sound ridiculous to say but even in this brightly lit corridor it felt...dark.
"What are you doing?" Isa whispered frantically. A whisper was all he could manage now, and the only reason he had it in him to speak was because Lea seemed to be opening the door wider.
His eyes seemed transfixed to the space, and Isa saw no fear in them. He hoped he was mistaken, but he even thought he saw a trace of...anticipation.
"You!"
Isa had never thought he would be happy to hear Even's voice, but he found himself letting out a breath of relief, as Lea slammed the door shut upon the noise.
They turned to see Even, tailed by two of the guards.
"I suspected something was amiss, what with all the commotion outside. I suspected you," Even said, snappily, eyeing the red-haired boy. He glanced at Isa for merely a second before saying, "Have them removed from here at once!"
They were promptly escorted out of the castle, though Isa couldn't say that he disagreed with the action. The further away from that place, the better.
"Well, that was disappointing," said Lea, though he sounded as upbeat as ever. "We didn't even get to see what they were doing."
Had Lea, unlike Isa, not been affected by whatever that was in there? If it was just him, then he would keep his mouth shut. He wouldn't hear the end of it if he told Lea that he had been shaken by simply opening a door.
"It was probably nothing."
"We'll see when we try again, next time."
Next time? Isa wasn't going back there.
Lacking a response, Lea prompted Isa, "We are going to try again, right?"
Isa was saved from answering when there was a whizzing sound that ended with a bang. It was very much like the sound of fireworks.
"...Was that what you did?"
"Heh, everyone likes fireworks," was all Lea said, with a shrug.
"You're a piece of work, you know?" Isa shook his head. "Let's get going. If we're having dinner at my place, we shouldn't be late."
When Isa mentioned dinner, Lea started talking about how much he was craving Isa's mum's cooking and what he hoped she cooked this time. It was a good move to mention food to make sure Lea didn't talk about the castle, Isa thought.
But maybe Isa relaxed too soon, because when they were just about to enter his house, he caught Lea staring back into the distance, in the direction of the castle.
Isa had expected trouble out of their excursion, but nothing like this.
Lea's fascination with the castle would prove to be worse than he had expected.
xxxxx
Over the next few months, all Lea would talk about was the castle.
Isa knew practically everything about it, because of Lea. He would go through lengths to repeat everything he knew about the place, from the knowledge known by everyone ('It's run by Ansem the Wise. He has the say in everything that goes on in there. Got it memorised?') and the less known facts ('The two guards names' are Dilan and Aeleus. Dilan's the one with the black ponytail and Aeleus is the other guy that he's usually on duty with.').
Lea was set on trying to get back into the lab, while Isa refused to step foot even into the library anymore.
His friend didn't seem to understand why, and Isa never told, but he could never forget the feeling of, for lack of a better term, Darkness that he felt. But 'Darkness' as an actual thing was a myth, wasn't it? A fairytale, that he often heard an old lady tell her granddaughter. It was nothing more than a lack of light when the sun went down, right? Accepting the idea of Darkness was just as nonsensical as thinking that there were such things as other Worlds. They just didn't exist.
In contrast, he knew that although Lea always called fairy tales babyish, he probably believed in some of them. His ears especially perked up when he heard tales of the 'Heart'. In Isa's mind a heart was just an organ that pumped blood around the body, the other rumoured meaning never set well with him.
"I think they're trying to figure out what a Heart might be," said Lea one day, to which Isa had almost dropped the drink he had been holding.
"They're scientists," Isa chided. "They wouldn't be looking into things that don't exist."
"They're scientists - exactly! They're trying to prove it does exist. That's what scientists do, isn't it?"
Lea was right on that point, but Isa still didn't like the track he was going on, so he stayed quiet.
"We'll bust in again and find out exactly what's up," Lea said, despite having no reply from his friend.
There was that expression again.
Curiosity that was far too deep and determination that was far too dangerous.
xxxxx
He called Ventus a stray puppy, as if he was disinterested in their meeting. He hadn't even talked to the other boy, leaving it to Lea. He couldn't have talked to the other boy, because then the boy would have been real and destroyed the logic that Isa had built up.
He had never seen the boy in his life.
Everyone in Radiant Garden knew each other, so if he didn't know of him, where could he have come from?
No, it wasn't just the boy.
There had been strange creatures roaming around, and it was rumoured that they even attacked people.
And he would just be ignorant if he thought the one selling them that new type of ice cream Lea liked so much wasn't the a strange creature.
Things had not been normal for a while, but Isa had not wanted to accept it.
If he accepted it, the only answer for all these visitors to have come from was another World. A myth would become a reality. Then that would mean other myths could be true too. Such as the existence of thing called the 'Heart'.
Such as the existence of Darkness.
Isa looked up at the castle that interested Lea so much.
If Darkness existed, was that what Lea was so eager to see again?
"You ready?" Lea breathed out, the image of the castle burning into his eyes.
No, no he wasn't, but he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
"Well, I can tell you are."
But if it was Darkness Lea was going to find, Isa wasn't going to let him go alone.
xxxxx
The second try to get into the castle failed, as Isa hoped it would. They were both thrown out by their collars, Lea looking extremely irritated.
They got themselves sea-salt ice cream, but that didn't seem to lift Isa's flame-haired friend's mood by much.
The look in his eyes did not go away, though.
It was not their first attempt and it would not be their last.
xxxxx
Getting into the castle this time was way too easy.
Isa couldn't count how many times they had tried to get in, anymore, but he did know that their closest try didn't come anywhere close to this success.
Lea thought it was a miracle while Isa thought it was a warning sign.
Depending on one's point of view, they were both right.
Neither of them agreed on what exactly happened, when they both looked back on it, but they do know that somehow, Xehanort and Ansem the Wise's other apprentices overthrew him, and he was ruler of Radiant Gardens no more.
What they did know was that Xehanort did not get rid of them the same way he did with Ansem. He offered them a place with him and the rest of the apprentices.
Lea accepted immediately.
Isa understood what he was thinking - if he was able to stay in the castle, then fine, he would side with the traitors.
The blue-haired youth himself took longer to consider, under Xehanort's watchful gaze. He wasn't liking this at all, but he couldn't just leave Lea with these people by himself.
Perhaps Xehanort sensed his misgivings, because he brought them both down to the room. To that room with the Darkness.
Lea was struck in awe, eyes lighting up as he walked into the room.
Isa understood then that it was Lea's fate to be here.
Lea needed to be here in the Darkness for some time. He knew his best friend, he was not evil. So was Darkness not evil? Perhaps Lea was needed in this Darkness for the future. That somehow, Lea was bound for a greater destiny, even if he first had to go through Darkness to get there.
At the same time, he understood why he was so afraid - yes, afraid of this Darkness.
Unlike Lea, he was scared that once he stepped in, he might never get out. That it would engulf him. That it would change him.
Yet if this was the path that Lea chose, he had to follow.
All the logic he knew had already been ripped away from him and he had no intention for his best friend to be taken too.
Xehanort, or Ansem as he wanted to be called, asked him again, what his choice was.
"...I accept your proposal."
Lea flashed Isa a grin, as if they hadn't just joined up with a shady group of people.
Isa offered a smile back - who knew how long they could keep smiling for?
xxxxx
Isa was too busy trying to protect Lea's fate, that he couldn't save his own.
Lea's eyes were the ones that had followed the castle but Isa's eyes were the ones that the Darkness stained gold.
A/N: Tadaa! This is part of the Twelve Shots of Summer Challenge~
Since the start of the challenge, because I set myself the task of using the number of each week of the challenge in my title in some form, I was always keeping in mind fandoms/characters with numbers that could be tagged to them. Naturally, Organization XIII came to mind. I've held back writing a KH fic because I always wanted my first to be about my KH OTP (Terra x Aqua -shot-) or my favourite KH character (Terra -cries-). But of course, somewhere along the line I got hit by a train of feels I also decided that a Lea/Axel and Isa/Saix friendship (-cough- BroTP -cough- ) fic would also be completely fine with me. That meant it had to be Week 7 or 8. Week 7, I couldn't resist writing for another fandom, but I told myself if Week 8 had a prompt that could fit, I would do it.
So, with Week 8's prompt being 'Too Far Gone', I instantly went: ';-; You know what this means. Lea/Isa friendship angst. (Why do I do this to myself!?)'. That being said, it didn't actually turn out angsty. I think. (I never did understand what exactly qualifies as angst…)
You don't need this fic for any feels. Just (re)play BBS to get it. -insert me dying over TVA friendship and Isa/Lea friendship and little Sora and Riku friendship and just everyone's friendships in general-
I may not have got the sequence/details of events in KH precise since I kind of just blasted through this, so if there's anything extremely in jarring contrast to the canon feel free to let me know, for future reference (and maybe editing if I don't feel lazy). Mind you, this was a bit of a rush, since I'll be gone this weekend, but still...Ahem, alternatively you could just review anyway, haha. -shot-]
- Dina (26/7/2014)