The Promise of Polaris
Siete preziosi. Il Polaris è sempre là.
Catching Falling Stars
Based on Pearl84's Checkmate. Like Vladimir Masters in his dark world, where bitterness is given unyielding precedence, Dhruva Tara, Polaris, or the North Star, remains forever constant. Though Danny notes that while one leads to a twisted and horrific future, the other glows in the darkness, pointing weary travelers ahead to home.
~(*)~
This update will hopefully come in time for the contest deadline...though I'm not really quite certain of how it will place. Ah, well. Anyway, anyhoo, my fingers are crossed, and I hope all goes well. ^^
Am still at my grandparents' cabin...though I am going home soon, which is always nice. Though I have to ask where the heck Summer went, *Sobs.* I'm going to have to say that this was a good one, all things considering.
Please, take care, everyone.
Quote:
"I thought I saw,
A shooting star...
It did not make a sound.
It was so high,
I can't be sure,
It ever touched the ground.
But I am sure I saw it fell.
And it brightened up my day...
Won't you say that you,
Thought you saw it, too,
So that I may feel this way?"
~(*)~
~A few months ago~
"I-It's….nice."
The words came out before a spellbound Danny could stop them, much as he'd attempted to bite the treacherous murmur back. But the teen could not help the awe pulsating through his veins when his startled blue orbs fell upon a colossal telescope that even a NASA technician might envy.
The truth was, the room WAS...nice. Nicer then he would ever care to admit to the man he knew was smirking at him from across the starry chamber. But Danny refused to look at him, and so kept his eyes on the stars, heart thudding like the pace of a hummingbird's wing as he saw a dazzling flash of silver wink at him as it raced across the sky...or ceiling. He could not tell which.
He swallowed, mouth extremely by this point.
Okay, perhaps he was in lack of a better term, for this place was so much more then simply 'nice,' but...
He slowly turned around to get a better look at this odd utopia, and, at the sinking realization that he was completely surrounded by untold millions of stars, Danny's mouth dropped, mind practically blank. But nevertheless, his feet slowly directed the bemused younger halfa forwards once again, eyes fixated on the multiverses of stars twinkling in this...could it actually be a room?...simulation chamber.
Everywhere, stars littered the chamber, thousands upon thousands twinkling translucently; small stars, large stars, enormous stars, all brilliantly glowing with all of the beauty and majesty the night could garnish them with in the darkness. Danny's eyes flashed back to the scope, fingertips unconsciously twitching. Already, he could imagine peering through one of the many lenses to...
He could feel the other occupant of the room setting cold blue eyes on him, but the teen continued to refuse looking at him. The last thing he needed was for his enemy to realize just how much he liked this room. How could he have missed this place?
...then again, exasperated as he had been with his captor deciding on an impromptu tour of the place after the teen had been here for over a month...he had to admit, there had been quite a few places Danny had yet to see. After awhile, it had become quite boring, but this place...
...this was any aspiring astronomer's dream come true. Danny continued to stare at the huge scope set in the middle of it all, complete with hundreds and hundreds of complex dials and gears set to focus the lens on any given point in a chamber that looked like it had no walls; a room that made one feel as if there were slipping out from Vlad's beautiful birdcage that was, no matter how one looked at it, a prison, and an exile-away from the world, far past the familiar skyline Danny so often called his sanctuary when things became too much...to what had once seemed unreachable and improbable to him...now perfectly reachable for trembling hands.
But the euphoric enchantment was broken with the sound of an all-too familiar voice. A voice that, if the hybrid never heard again, it would be too soon.
"I suppose," Vlad drawled, in answer to Danny's earlier comment. The boy would have scowled at any other time, but blue eyes were still fixated to the star spattered heavens, and thus, Danny spared himself the energy.
Faintly, Danny heard footsteps echo from behind him, heard, but didn't really regard, so absorbed was he in the spectacle still before him, even as Vlad began to speak again.
"Personally, I don't care for it. In fact," he added, his footsteps unnaturally loud in this unearthly chamber as the billionaire stepped carelessly towards the scope monitor from behind the teenage boy.
"I don't even know why I had this room made."
Breaking free of his rapture, Danny's forehead wrinkled in disgust, but he said nothing, for a moment, his eyes lowering to the unseen floor beneath him, even as the all-too familiar bitterness began to churn up inside the boy's heart once again.
To be honest, Danny didn't know, either. And, whatever the reason was, Danny was quite positive he wouldn't care. The older hybrid probably had so much ill-begotten gain, he carelessly cascaded it into any which way that randomly crossed his mind. And, the moment it became an inconveinence instead of a trophy...
...well, Danielle was living proof of it. Even something part human was so easily discarded in Vlad's world.
Danny swallowed past the lump in his throat, eyes firmly fixated on the starry void beneath his feet. Hopelessness bubbled in the boy's stomach when he realized, with a sense of dawning horror, that Vlad probably applied the same term to him.
But Danny wasn't so fortunate as to have a genuine chance of escape, as his young had. Once Vlad believed he had claimed something, by buying or shackling, he never let it go. Ever. This month, the worst one in his life, was living proof.
It was why his rare slumber periods were haunted by the knowledge that he had sold himself to the man he hated so much. He was no better then one of the countless objects Vlad had shown him around this miserable place.
Feeling sickened, Danny nonetheless answered Vlad's question in a quiet murmur as the man stepped over to a computer simulator near the archway.
"Maybe because you have so much money that you don't know what to do with it."
The boy had not expected the billionaire to hear, but an answer-an almost derisive, conceited reply, floated back to him:
"Hmm…Yes, I think you're right."
The unexpected words fired so casually at him triggered a chain recation; Danny flushed, and bit the inside of his mouth as Vlad began to fiddle around the controls, seemingly nonchalant as Danny finally picked up his head to stare at the billionaire apparently too busy to notice.
The boy's expression darkened.
Vlad could hardly appreciate the good fortune he'd enjoyed for years, when so many had so little in this world. Now that the coils of revulsion were tightening in Danny's stomach, it was a little nauseating, to be honest. Just how many people would kill for such a place to call their own, and be able to watch someone disregard it as if it were an easily discardable piece of rubbish?
But this was Vladimir Masters Danny was-unfortunately-thinking about. The man was so greedy, so grasping, for what simply could never be his, that he never regarded what he did have.
Which, Danny found, at the end of the day, was really nothing. Danny had had a world better back in Amity Park with his friends and family; with his loved ones. The ones who gave his life purpose in its mountains, and its valleys. They were his everything. And the boy wouldn't trade them for Vlad's estate twice times.
Check that, he wouldn't make the trade for a hundred thousand times over this place. At the end of the day, while Danny held so little in comparison...he still had so much more then his arch-enemy would ever hold. Or understand.
...or, at the very least, he had, once. Vlad had taken his everything from him. At the end of the day, this place was as meaningless as anything else here. He wasn't a naive child anymore.
After tugging a series of levers, the older hybrid smugly turned around to face him once again, but his smirk faded into confusion upon noting Danny's fallen expression. But the boy had already shifted his listless gaze.
He wasn't a naive child anymore. Once a star fell, it...fell. It was gone. Just a steaming wreck in some deserted neck of a lonely wood. There was no going back for it, no return. Its world was gone, and glow depleted. No amount of polish or lavishing would change that. The old spark that had ignited its real fire-
Was gone.
And that...
...was that.
*~Present Day~*
A soft chink echoed in the chamber as Vlad lowered the small teacup back to the saucer, and checked the gold watch on his wrist, expression expectant. Just a few more hours until dawn. And then, well...
The young child had offered to look up the statistics for Venus' location, once the planet became more easily visible. Already, the man couldn't deny that he was excited. Saturn had been astonishingly, breathtakingly beautiful by itself...and Mars had been likewise. majestic, in its prime, proud enormity.
What had been even more astonishing was the sheer fact that the man was viewing such things...from so far across time and the known, charted universe that was their solar system. What lay beyond, if anything-pardoning cold infinity?
The idea was baffling to the man, but it seemed nothing short of fantastical for the young boy, who had eagerly supplied some of his own theories to the bemused man while the two had played video games just this afternoon...or, well...
The man checked his watch again, and smiled in mild amusement before stifling a yawn with his hand. Well...yesterday afternoon, anyways. Depending on how one looked at it, it was either quite late, or quite early-for either hybrid to be awake. But the idea of seeing yet another planet was far too tempting for the man, and now...
Vlad glanced up at the starry abyss before him, lost in thought as he watched the one star he could now locate-Polaris-twinkle overhead, a crown jewel in a sea of stars, which, to be honest, all looked the same to the man. But already, the excited young teenager had pointed out several stars the man had had to struggle to individualize from all the others, each with a name, each with a purpose, and an occasional story that the Greeks, Romans-or some other Ancient Civilization long since lost had given them.
It had been...good...to hear Danny eagerly tell tales he had read as a child, as the two passed the time talking about nothing. For whatever reason, the man had almost found it endearing, and...easy to talk to the boy. Much more relaxing and enjoyable then talking to his own fellow business executives.
...especially more so then some of his...former 'peers...'
Vlad's face darkened into a scowl, and his fingers slowly curled into a fist as the unpleasant memory of his last encounter with Mark Vazier swam before his eyes once again. He'd always found the asinine, spoiled man distasteful at best, and Stephanie always pulled a few disgusted expressions after she had had the unpleasant task of contacting him to schedule a few appointments or negotiations, but after the little stunt Mark had pulled at the party...
The man's knuckles began to turn starkly white, but the man hardly noticed as midnight eyes flashed red in the darkness.
...oh, how he wished Danny had requested that Carl turn arund after the two had made their exit two nights ago at the engagement. The idea of overshadowing the less-then-sober man and delving the idiot's head face-first into a large bowl of Grape Mango punch and shoving it again and again and again into cold, fruity goodness had its charm.
No one touched what was his. At least, not without paying dearly for it. And Mark HAD paid for it-with his company, his stature-for everyone had seen the man disgrace himself-and estate. But it didn't seem quite enough for the man. Should Mark attempt his revenge-and Vlad was certain he would-by nosing into...places where he wasn't especially wanted, the billionaire would make him pay so much more dearly. As Masters, or as Plasmius.
At last, Vlad glanced at his shaking knuckles, and, with a few deep in and exhalations, forced himself to calm down, and very gradually, release his grasp.
There was no need to spoil the day with such calloused thoughts. Daniel would pick up in a heartbeat, which rather unsettled the man to some degree, but...
At last dispersing the vivid fantasy of leaving Vazier's head overturned in a large serving bowl, Vlad at last glanced at the boy, and the creases in his brow lightened somewhat. Danny was still bent over a small book that he had scurried to fetch from his room, expression impossible to see. After looking at him for a moment or so, Vlad turned his eyes to the star-strewn heavens above, expression inscrutable.
It seemed just yesterday that he had had this room installed after learning of Daniel's fascination with astrology with some...notes the man had mentally taken from the boy's habits after spying on him on an afternoon or two.
But spying was no longer necessary-a fact Vlad appreciated more then he really thought he would. Though Danny still seemed reluctant to speak of...'that fight,' or 'him,' whatever or whoever THEY were...Vlad was patient. He would wait for the boy to come to him. That, or he would gently prod-the man hoped to avoid pr ying, if possible-at impromptu points to knock the boy slightly off his guard. Not especially hard; just enough for Daniel to feel comfortable enough to talk about whatever had shaken him so deeply; to have left so profound a mark on such a young and vibrant spirit.
The idea of Daniel ever confessing his fears to anyone-particularly one he chose to view as his 'arch-nemesis'-was improbable. But never, never-in his wildest dreams, did Vlad expect to have what he now enjoyed with the boy. Had anyone told him of such a thing just months ago, the man would have laughed in their face.
Vlad lowered his eyes from the dark sky, choosing instead to pick up the tea he had retrieved just a little under an hour ago.
He made a promise to himself, and would follow it through to the end, despite the obstacles along the way. So long as he shared the...whatever it was he had with the boy he once loathed past reasoning...he would do whatever that was in his power to make the boy truly happy. Maddie...
The man swallowed.
...Maddie had been placed on hold for twenty years. He could wait-just a little while longer. Just enough to make Danny realize that he didn't need his loved ones as much as he so fervently believed, that he was perfectly safe and well cared-for HERE. With the one who could do more then ACCEPT him-
Understand him. Once Daniel realized that...things could only get better, so long as Vlad tread carefully, and redevised his old plans to shape a new one someday. One that would allow him to keep his bond with the younger halfa, and obtain the love of his life. Then...all would be well. There would be no need for scheming, no more gnawing cravings for love.
Twenty years ago, he had promised to win Madeline back. Now...he could have one better, and have the child that rightfully Vlad's. The man refused to believe that he couldn't have both. Someway, somehow...
...there was a way. He just knew it.
Vlad sighed, and leaned back, as Danny flicked a page. Again, the man glanced at the boy, expression thoughtful.
It was difficult to say what was more baffling, that Vladimir Masters, head of both DALV and VM industries; worldwide dominating chains...had spent the evening viewing unearthly marvels...or had been shown them by a fifteen year old child.
...after playing video games with said child, and being instructed on several star patterns and formats visible upon the holograms, and the scope.
But the boy's adoration for the stars was almost contagious. At times, Vlad could almost feel the magnetic tug Daniel felt radiating from the sky. Endless possibilty. So long as you had your own certainty, your one drive-or chain, as Vlad thought of the boy's absurd concepts of responsibility-it was as if the boy felt no limits, nor any bounds, so long as the skyline was open, and overflowing.
That trait was admirable...and a bit saddening, for one such as Daniel. But one day, one day, when the boy would finally be with Vlad willingly...he'd learn that there was no need for limits, for manacles, for chains to hold him down. His spectral side yearned for freedom; and Vlad could show him how to-
The man broke off in mid-thought as Danny raised his head for a brief moment to check a constellation, and, to the man's astonishment, he thought he saw a glittering trail from one of the boy's cerulean orbs.
Now slightly uncertain of himself, the man awkwardly glanced at the cups of tea beside the two, at a loss for what to say.
...did the boy have something in his eye? Or...
Vlad fidgeted slightly as Danny shifted from his position, once buoyant expression now downtrodden. Unnerved, Vlad glanced back at the thousands of brilliant stars glowing contently around the two like a haze of translucent fireflies, still at a loss. Daniel rarely liked to be confronted on his own feelings or thoughts, and was so often at a loss at sharing any of them. More then often, he strayed to his temper, or shrank back from the subject back to Vlad, which the man found not only annoying at times, but downright disconcerting.
It was enough to make many a teenager insecure, and a little put-on. Was that how Daniel felt?
At last, reluctantly obeying the gentle prodding in the...link, or whatever the world it was he had with the boy, the man cleared his throat.
"Daniel?" he asked casually, hoping he sounded fairly nonchalant, and forced his best poker face on.
The man cast the boy sitting next to him a puzzled glance, but the child suddenly seemed quite preoccupied with the small constellation book in his map, face almost buried beneath the pages. Vlad's brow creased, and, for a moment, he considered tugging at the halfa's shoulder.
As if acting on reflex, his hand uncertainly rose, but Vlad faltered, and drew back as Danny withdrew his face from the book, small smile deadlocked on his face. Vlad's uncertainty deepened into a small frown.
He knew that smile well, and didn't like it, one little bit. It was a horrible, fake smile-a smile that was no smile it all-one the man rarely saw these days, and enjoyed the fact immensely. Danny used that smile when he had something to hide.
And the boy was a wretched liar.