"So this is the man who's been terrorizing Central, Mm?" The question earned naught but an icy glare from the hand-cuffed criminal, thus the soldiers at either side of the man replied in his stead.
"Yes sir, Colonel Archer, sir."
"He was apprehended with the help of the Flame Alchemist."
Both Archer and the criminal scowled, though for different reasons.
"Mustang, hm?" Archer murmured to himself. He didn't like the idea of the other busting in on short notice, stealing all the spotlight. It made his bristle. "Well then--" he continued, looking to the two soldiers. "--be off. I'd like to have a few words with the prisoner myself."
The two exchanged worried glances, but did as they'd been ordered. "Sir, yes sir!" they answered in unison, releasing the man. The soldiers didn't speak a word between themselves until the door closed behind them.
"That was a little scary back there..." One of them chuckled nervously, running a hand back over his choppy blond hair.
His buddy rolled his shoulders, nodding."I know what you mean--they're both pretty intimidating."
As then walked, a pause settled between then. Finally, the blond spoke up again. "So...he's an alchemist, right? Don't they have to draw circles and stuff?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"He didn't have any, and he was pulling icicles and shit out of the ground like it was nothing..."
His buddy rolled his eyes, arms crossed. "Don't ask me about that stuff. Maybe he's some kind of magician or something..."
"Maybe..." he blond murmured.
- - -
"I do hope you forgive their brutality. It's just something that comes along with the job." Archer was a calm man, and for that matter, quite used to waiting out prisoners, until their confessions could be extracted. "So your little... demonstration today... you don't deny it then?"
"Why would I deny my own skills?" The apprehended one smirked, looking up through his bangs. Luckily with this man, Archer would get one without a struggle.
"Very well then, do you have a name I can address you by, before they steal that from you, branding you with a case number?"
Still on his knees, the man chuckled, wrists twisting under the chafing metal of the handcuffs. Archer obviously had no idea of how -amusing- his words were. His name had long been lost and replaced, and a number already been branded to his existence. But being a man of some cunning intellect, he knew better than to give away so much. To speak of a number would imply that there were more, therein exposing his Organization. But a name...a name he could do.
"Vexen."
"Hm..." Archer gave a cold chuckle, hands clasped behind his back. "Is there any more that goes with that? A last name perhaps?"
"No." Vexen replied as he shifted where he sat--his long black coat making it a little impractical to keep such positions. Perhaps if he'd just unzipped it earlier at the bottom... "Just Vexen." --to his colleagues, he was also knows as Number 4, the Chilly Academic, and Icicle Dick--and though he'd been trying to beat the last one out of their name-calling, it certainly wasn't the worst they'd made up.
"Perhaps then, Vexen..." Archer said, a safe distance from the other. "If you would allow...I could offer you something, in exchange for your freedom."
Vexen raised an eyebrow, and listened, though not considering in the least. His goals were far bigger, and far more important than Archer's petty agenda. He'd let the man say his part at least. After all, it gave Vexen more time to play escape artist.
"I'm a man with connections that run quite high you know, and I have just enough pull to spare you from execution--what with the mess you caused downtown."
It had been a horrifying mess--a whole block under deep freeze, the streets iced over like a lake in winter, with inky black creatures swarming everywhere. The death toll at last tally had breeched thirty.
"I've done it before, you know. I could slip you out with a new name--"
It wouldn't be the first time.
"--a new identity."
Hadn't that been what Xehanort--no, what Xemnas had done to them?
"Under me, you'll be free to--"
What a contradiction. Even under Xemnas he wasn't free--crushed under a body lacking a heart, always yearning for the completion just out of his reach.
"...are you listening?"
The cold was a terribly chilling, but not at all unbearable. It was Vexen's element after all. He cooled the air, crystallizing around the metal at his wrists, slowly but surely working down into the lock and hinges--freezing it all solid. And if Archer was at all worried that he could suddenly see his breath, he made no indication of such.
The colonel narrowed his eyes, scowling, but fought back the urge to snap at the other. No good ever came from rash judgments and harsh words in negotiations. Though before he said more, Vexen took the lead--the sound of his voice masking the sound of slowly cracking ice.
"You promise a lot for a condemned man..." Vexen said, his posture taking in a bit more of a demure and submissive curve. He anticipated the next few minutes to be humiliating ones, but he would gain it all back tenfold in the end.
When Archer beckoned him to stand, Vexen complied, rising to his feet.
"But really..." Vexen continued, letting himself muse aloud. "--to allow yourself slumming with all sorts of people like myself...one would wonder about your own content. Has your heart as well, been tainted by the darkness?"
Archer gave a low chuckle, taking the time to look the other over head to toe--something he hadn't the luxury of doing before. "You could say that." he nodded, a faint smirk upon his lips.
"Two of a kind then?" Vexen asked as Archer stepped forward, testing the boundaries between them. "Two men doing whatever they can to achieve their goals?" He rolled his shoulders slightly, letting one movement mask another, as he twisted his wrists again, quietly breaking the frozen links of the handcuffs.
"I can relate." Archer answered calmly, edging in just that much more. The man was attracted to those with power, in every sense of the word. It ensnared and seduced him better than any sweet smile or gentle caress. And Vexen here...while not as outgoing or...-explosive- as Kimbly, held a certain air about him that Archer could not help but admire.
Kimbly had been the only other Archer had ever spoken to, that remained so calm. He was obviously speaking to a man of intellect and culture. He liked that. Refined and powerful...it sent a chill down his spine--one that was not all that unwelcome.
Vexen tilted his head slightly, his cool green eyes tempting icy blue ones. In response, Archer stood toe to toe with him.
"Would you have me, then?" The colonel offered, leaning in just so--licking his lips like a hungry hunter about to sink his fangs into his prey. "Work under me and serve? Would you...dear alchemist?"
There was silence as their lips brushed, the room a dreadful cold. And then Vexen began to chuckle, the sound harsh and upsetting.
"Who said anything about alchemy?"
Archer's recoil came too late, feet suddenly frozen in place, iced in up to his ankles. Panicked, he grabbed for the gun, firing with the precision that had taken years to refine.
The bullet ricocheted off of a shield--something Vexen hadn't held before. It was almost as if he'd summoned it out of thin air. A light above them shattered and sparked, the stray bullet doing Archer more trouble than good.
"What? Now you're scared?" Vexen laughed again, the spiky-edged shield deflecting each of Archer's round in turn. "I thought you embraced the darkness! It's taken such a liking to you, after all!" All too literally, the shadows cast by the uneven lighting shifted and morphed--clawed, heavy-headed creatures wobbling forth. Their glowing yellow eyes caught sight of Archer, scared and immobilized...and they pounced.
"A corrupted man of the military, wearing proudly his blackened and stained heart--you would have made a fine heartless, Colonel Archer." Vexen remarked, voice hardly heard over the sound of gunfire, as Archer unloaded another clip into the swarming monsters. Of course, this method would rid him of as many heartless as the amount of bullets as he had left.
It wouldn't be enough.
The walls oozed the creatures out, and soon the room teemed with them--all held back, as if waiting for Vexen's command.
Vexen was practically giddy as a schoolgirl. "If you'd only embrace it, you--or rather, a part of you...might make it out of this alive."
Archer shuddered, eyes wide, with his gun shaking under his grip. "But wh--"
"Forgive my brutality." Vexen interjected, cutting him off. "It's just a part of the job.
The heartless began to slink in closer, and out of ammunition, Archer threw his gun in desperation at the mass of them. "W-what are you?!"
Vexen smirked as the man was overrun. "Nobody."