[Title: One Winged Messenger. Summary: Ansem the Wise gets a visit in his office from an unusual presence]
A/N: This serves as a background one shot of sorts to something else I'm working on. AtW won't be in what I'm working on, but the other character will be. I've always wanted to do a mystery one shot where I've hidden something inside. It shouldn't be entirely hard to piece the clues together…hopefully. This one shot takes place after BBS, but before the fall of Radiant Garden. I've gathered enough information to know that Radiant Garden fell about 9 years before the first Kingdom Hearts, so this takes place...oh, about a few months before that. In between BBS and Radiant Garden's fall. Or, going by my other one shot—just after the one shot I posted earlier in the month (Yes, I am that anal on timelines XD). I considered putting the character I don't name at all in the story as one of the filler characters in the search engine next to Ansem the Wise/DiZ, but I decided against it. I want to see if guessing the character is as easy as I think (and hope) it will be.
A massive thank you to my beta DigitalTart for proofing this and offering suggestions on how to tweak the story a bit. I've used them all, and I like the result. =)
Disclaimer: Square Enix and Nomura own everything. Like—everything.
It was an incredibly quiet day at the Radiant Garden Castle. It could have been because it was around noon and incredibly hot, making everyone both in and out of the castle hunt for cool shelter. It could have just been one of those quiet, lazy days.
Either way, it suited Ansem the Wise just fine.
The serene ruler of Radiant Garden was currently in his office, reviewing all of the reports his apprentices had recently turned in.
He frowned as he sifted through them. Lately, the reports had been...lacking, in detail. This was an odd occurrence. Typically, apprentices like Even would hand in reports that would stretch over seven to ten pages, writing about the most minute of details when it came to the group's experiments on the heart. Now, he was getting two page briefs from Even.
Ansem's frown grew deeper at Ienzo's report on light. It was far too brief. Again, it was not like Ienzo, especially when he spent so much time with someone like Even. The scientist considered the basement laboratory his second home.
He hesitated and sat back for a moment, pen in hand, and let some of his more troubling thoughts come to light. His apprentices were becoming very secretive, and he wasn't sure why. Were they hiding something? If so, what were they hiding? Or was Ansem simply being paranoid?
Ansem shook his head and cleared those thoughts out of his mind.
My apprentices would never betray me.
The ruler of Radiant Garden resumed his work, and decided to review Braig's reports next. Roughly five minutes later, Ansem heard a loud crash, coupled with faint yelling from multiple people. Ansem ignored it and snorted. It was, more likely than not, Dilan and Alaeus catching the two teenage boys Dilan had a habit of ranting about constantly during dinner. According to Dilan, they were attempting to break into the castle to steal their research. Alaeus thought they wanted to become apprentices. Ansem was flattered at the idea, (mostly because of their persistence), but he was also quite happy with the apprentices that he had.
A few more minutes passed, as he read and critiqued Braig's report, with nothing but silence and the rustle of the wind blowing in the trees from his open window. He then became aware of the rapid sound of footsteps heading towards the office, and looked up from his desk just in time to see a tall man with long silver hair march in and slam the door shut. His blood ran cold as the man proceeded to yank apart the decorative swords he had on his wall with ease, and slide them both through the handles of the massive double doors. Dressed in strange garb that Ansem did not recognize, the ruler took shrewd note of the long, sharp katana at his side.
The katana also raised a degree of alarm and panic inside Ansem. He stood up, his eyes narrowed at the stranger.
"What is the meaning of this—"
The man's voice was smooth, deep, and curt. "You are Ansem the Wise, correct?"
"Yes..." Ansem hesitated as he gazed at a pair of calculating blue eyes. "Who precisely are you?"
The stranger's blue eyes seemed artificially bright to Ansem. "That's none of your concern," he said smoothly as he strode right up to Ansem's desk. "You can sit down now."
Normally, Ansem didn't tolerate people like this strange warrior giving him orders. But that katana...it made Ansem decide to sit down, much preferring his life to be prolonged instead of seeing an abrupt end at the hand of the long, dangerous weapon. Slowly, Ansem sat back down in his chair, his eyes trained on the warrior standing impatiently in front of his desk.
Ansem's breath hitched as the silver haired man gave a short, derisive laugh. "What, I'm not allowed to have a little chat with the great Ansem the Wise?"
"Are you of my realm?" he asked carefully.
There was a short pause, as the man's abnormally bright blue eyes flashed, looking unreadable. "Yes," he said simply.
Stay calm. Ansem told himself. "All right, then." He made sure his voice was as even as possible. "What do you want to know?"
"Your work here." The man paced the room, glancing at the various photographs, trinkets, and mechanical objects placed on tables all over the room. His massive shoulder armor glinted in the sunlight from the open window of Ansem's office. "What is it that you do?"
"My apprentices and I..." Ansem said slowly, his eyes trained on the man. "...we study the heart. I thought I made that common knowledge to my people."
"You have." the man said shortly, giving him a brief glance while he studied a photograph of Ansem and his prized pupil, Xehanort. "I want details. From what I've been hearing, your studies aren't necessarily of the scientific kind."
Ansem nodded, his mind racing. Where did this man come from? "We deal with the spiritual matters of the heart—mostly feelings. Joy, hope, love, hate, despair, all of it. We seek to understand what makes the heart the way it is, so we can better protect the citizens of this realm...like yourself."
The silver haired man turned towards him, his muscles flexing underneath the black leather of his outfit. A definite glint of interest appeared in the man's abnormally bright blue eyes. "How fascinating. What results have you produced so far?"
"I..." Ansem hesitated. Regardless of the man's threatening stance, he never really gave out information on his findings to the public. As a result, his first reaction was to classify this man as part of the public, and therefore, not privy to such information.
The man placed a gloved hand on the hilt of his katana. But then again...
"Well?" The man's voice had gotten impatient again.
Ansem warily eyed the man's katana. "We have found out many things, most of them revolving around darkness and light. We know that light in the heart brings peace and prosperity. It provides the most protection to the people. But certain situations can...cast dark shadows on one's heart."
Someone rapidly banging on the door abruptly interrupted the tense conversation.
"Who is it?"
"It's Xehanort."
The man shook his head slowly, indicating that he was not allowed to see his star pupil until the conversation was done.
Ansem took a deep, steady breath and made sure his voice was controlled. "Give me a few moments, I'm currently busy with something very important."
"But - " Xehanort paused mid-sentence before giving an audible sigh. His footsteps faded into silence.
The man spoke again. "Tell me more about these...dark shadows."
"Well," Ansem carefully continued, "they produce darkness. An evil sort of darkness. It's brought on by suppressed negative feelings. For example...if a person was jealous of something a friend had, and that person wanted to suppress their own jealousy, that jealousy would cast dark shadows on their own heart."
"How fascinating," the man mused. "Sounds dangerous."
Ansem nodded, eyes locked onto the man pacing his office. "It is. We are trying to proceed with caution. I always warn my apprentices not to get too close to the darkness, for it will devour their hearts whole."
Ansem's insides tightened and filled up with dread. While the man's face appeared to be quite neutral, his eyes told Ansem an entirely different story. They were lit up with sadistic glee. "You're going to want to get back to your apprentices on that."
Now Ansem snorted on what the man was implying. This stranger didn't know his apprentices! If he did, then one of them would have told Ansem about this strange silver haired man, with the cold eyes and his deadly katana. "On what, getting too close to the darkness? Oh," he gave a chuckle. "They know better than that. They know how I feel about experimenting too close to the darkness."
However, the glee in the man's eyes grew even brighter, challenging Ansem. "Do they really now?" he let out a drawl that set Ansem's nerves on edge.
Ansem's eyes narrowed. "Yes." he said firmly, brushing away his concerns about his pupils reports out of his mind.
A flash of what Ansem could only describe as a cross between pity and contempt crossed the man's face in a blink of an eye. "Who are your apprentices exactly?"
"Well...there's..." Ansem hesitated, wondering to himself. Why does he want to know?
The man looked expectant. "Go on."
"Well," Ansem took a small breath, plowing forward. I don't think I have much of a choice. "There's Ienzo…Aleaeus…Even - "
"Even, you said?" Ansem watched the man's abnormally bright blue eyes spark menacingly at the name of his beloved scientist, reminding Ansem of an electricity socket about to overload. The grip on his katana tightened at an alarming rate.
Ansem's nerves, however, compelled him to jump to defend the academic. "Yes, Even. The most brilliant scientist I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. The things he comes up are absolutely extraordinary." Ansem made sure to punctuate the words brilliant and extraordinary.
The spark of angry energy in the man's eyes relaxed slightly and he smirked. "Indeed." Ansem couldn't help but feel there was a cryptic meaning to the man's one word answer. "Who are the others?" he continued.
"There's Dilan, Braig...and Xehanort." Ansem trailed off as his mind briefly wandered to the silver haired apprentice. What did Xehanort want? He figured it had something simple enough to do with his studies, but the rapidly fading footsteps he had heard when Xehanort left sounded more like...
It sounded like he was running.
"Hm." The man in front of Ansem appeared to be deep in thought for a moment.
"Is that all?" Ansem asked.
Brief amusement flashed before the man's eyes at Ansem's curtness. "Yes. But before I leave, I want you to do something for me." He was drawing a thick sheath of papers out from his leather coat.
Ansem's hackles rose, eyeing the packet distastefully. "What might that be?"
"Keep a closer eye on your apprentices." With that, the man promptly strode up to Ansem's desk and dropped the packet in front of him. "Read this. I think you'll find some enlightening information in there very quickly."
Ansem glanced at the title and scoffed. The Ansem Reports.He blinked, and looked incredulously back up at the leather and silver clad man that was staring at him with a trace of a smirk on his face.
Ansem's insides gave a lurch at the title. I didn't write this. "Is this some kind of a trick?" Ansem snapped.
The man was clearly amused. "Why? Just because it has your name on it?"
"Exactly," Ansem sneered. "No apprentice of mine would be foolish enough to write a report titled with my name."
"And written by you." The silver haired man was becoming more entertained by the second. "Take a look yourself."
Ansem instead proceeded to swipe out a rough draft of his own report—titled by the same name. The second the man saw the title, he looked like he was about to burst out laughing.
Ansem seethed. The man in front of him was uprooting his authority and accusing his beloved apprentices of treason. It was time for the man's visit in his office to end.
Apparently the silver haired man thought so as well. "I see I have worn out my welcome." He slid the swords out of the handle of the door and laid them against the wall nearby. "Consider yourself lucky, Ansem the Wise," he added with a slight sneer. "I normally don't leave my visitors unscathed. And remember my warning. Take a look at that report."
Just as the man was about to cross the threshold, Ienzo appeared. Looking anxious, the 12-year-old boy was about to speak to Ansem before he realized who was exiting the office. He looked at the silver haired man, and the color began to noticeably drain from Ienzo's face. The silver haired man smirked. Ienzo looked like he was starting at a ghost.
Ansem stood up and frowned. He put the rough draft of his own report that he was working on down on his desk. It looked like Ienzo recognized the man.
When the man vanished out of sight, Ienzo turned to Ansem. His visage morphed into one of panic and anxiousness. "Master Ansem, come quickly!"
Ansem looked at him, worried. Ienzo was the most stoic and composed boy he had ever met. Not once had he ever seen Ienzo this scared. "What is it, my dear child?"
"The basement—it's destroyed!" Ienzo exclaimed, rushing up to the desk. "The halls are burning, no one can get into the main lab, and Dilan's inside! Braig said he was able to get inside somehow, though—Dilan's sprawled out on the floor and there's blood everywhere—"
Ansem studied Ienzo for a moment, the gears in his head starting to turn rapidly. Earlier, Ansem heard a loud commotion coming from downstairs. He was far away enough to not really hear what was going on. The basement was notorious for having walls that were jokingly considered to be soundproof. That meant that something Ansem previously dismissed as a small scuffle between Dilan and two innocent teenage boys could have really been something more severe, like a violent attack in the basement.
Where did the strange man with the katana come from before he entered Ansem's office? Ienzo looked at the man like he had seen a ghost, and he had seen the man somewhere before. On top of that, the man's strange eyes had glowed brighter at the mention of Even.
Ansem was suddenly starting to feel a little ill at the thought of the many conclusions he was drawing in his head. Regardless, he strode over to the glass case where the fire extinguisher was kept, opened up the door, and snatched it. He paused for a moment, holding the fire extinguisher in his hands.
How desperate am I if I take this with me? It sounds like the damage might be beyond my control."Lead the way, Ienzo," Ansem said briskly as he strode out of his office and down the hall. Ienzo followed in hot pursuit. "Is everyone else down there?"
"Yeah," Ienzo nodded. "Alaeus went to get Even. Maybe his new ice spells can douse the fire?"
"Let's hope so." Ansem said swiftly, as he forced all thoughts about the strange silver haired man and any possible suspicions about his apprentice's betrayal completely out of his mind. He had to focus on the well being of Dilan and anyone else that might have gotten hurt in the basement. "Stay close."
And there you have it! This is another one shot that has characters in the Kingdom Hearts Franchise that are smaller role side characters, so I don't see many people stumbling upon this XD. If you do, feel free to shoot me a review. Tell me what you liked, what you didn't like, etc. I'm a big fan of showing more than telling, and I really wanted to show more than tell. Especially with this fic. Showing more things than telling the audience about them is something I really want to perfect in my writing.