A Beautiful Mind pt. 4
A/N: 26 reviews! NOW I'm happy! X3 You really helped me through a bad time here. And GenKirby I'm really sorry for that typo, it was getting late…-- but there isn't any other way to correct it than reposting the chapter, right?
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"Gawd… my head…"
"So you are finally awake."
"W-where am I? Everything is black…"
"That is because you are blindfolded. And before you state that you cannot move I will tell you that this is because you are tied up."
"W-why…?"
Saïx heard an annoyed sigh.
"Let me."
Saïx felt fingers brushing lightly against his temples as they moved to undo the blindfold. They were cold and thin, matching the chilly, cynical and sharp voice perfect.
"Are you sure that's so smart?" he heard a second voice say.
"He is my subject. If I decide I will not have my specimen tied up like an animal, then he will not be tied up like an animal."
Saïx heard a faint laugh.
"What?" the fist voice asked sharply.
"I haven't heard you say 'he' about any other subject than no. 11. Usually it's just 'it' or 'that'."
"Oh, shut up and get out of here!"
"As you wish! At least one of us can do it," the second voice said with a humourless laugh.
Saïx heard a door open and slam shut before the cloth in front of his eyes disappeared. His gaze met frosty green eyes.
"Now that's better."
Saïx stared at the man in front of him. He was tall and very slender; his hair was blonde and reached him below his shoulders. He looked like he was somewhere above twenty years. The most odd with his appearance was possibly is clothes. He was dressed in a scientist's coat, white shirt and pants, and black shoes. On the coat there were several small splatters of different colours as if he had spilled a variety of chemicals, but especially there was one colour reminding sickeningly of blood. There was something familiar with him though.
"Who are you?"
"Hmm…"
The man turned to a counter behind him and found a notebook, scribbling down something. Saïx took this time to take in his surroundings. It was a large, rectangular room, counters and cupboards along one of the short walls and one of the long. Along the other long wall there were doors in metal with small, barred hatches, everyone with a number. The other short wall had an archway into a narrow corridor, probably leading to another door out. All the walls were in steel and there were no windows. It looked like the place hadn't been cleaned properly for decades. The only really clean places were the counters, which were loaded with paper, medical equipment of different varieties, a tray holding several different types of knives, needles and scalpels… and then it was the table in the middle of the room. Not a spot marred its steel surface. It was lower than any normal table and there were no chairs around it. The surface was slightly curved and had a small drain in the middle. In each corner there were fastened chains, as if people used to get strapped down. The once white tiles underneath it were discoloured by what could only have been blood and acid. And at last it was the metal chair, which Saïx occupied, placed in a corner so he was looking directly at the archway. His wrists and ankles tied to the cold metal. If the chair was still cold he hadn't been sitting there for too long.
"Who are you??" Saïx repeated, a bit louder.
"What is the furthest back you can remember?" the man asked.
"Who are you??"
"Hmm…"
The man made another note.
"Any normal being would have asked why it was tied to a chair. But I suppose you care more about remembering than clarifying your situation."
Saïx blinked; not exactly sure he got what the blonde said.
"So tell me, what is the furthest back you can remember?"
"Why do you want to know that?"
"Why do you want to know who I am?"
Saïx gave a low snarl. There was something about that attitude he knew.
"Look, forget it. Can you tell me what the hell is going on here and perhaps untie me?"
The man gave him a measuring gaze over his notebook before he carefully put down his pen on the counter.
"Saïx… I need some cooperation if this is going to work again… You probably do not remember me, but will you be so kind? Your former self would have been ashamed to see you like this."
"You know me…?"
"Yes."
Saïx' eyes narrowed in concentration. This man… who was he…? Saïx could recall that sickening smell of blood, screaming and pain…
"V… Vexen…?"
The man looked up from his notebook again, his expression slightly surprised before he gave the tiniest smile.
"There you go. Remarkable progress already, I wouldn't have expected anything else."
"What is this place? I still don't know why I am tied up!"
"Let us take it from scratch, shall we? But before I can tell you your whole life story I need to know what the furthest back you can remember is."
"Just untie me, will you??"
"No."
"What is wrong with you? What am I doing here?"
Saïx head was exploding with questions. Why did he remember this man's name?
"My name is Vexen, you already know that. Is there anything else you remember?"
"N… no…"
"Fine then. I've worked here as a scientist my whole life, my job is to find out exactly what makes our subjects different."
"O… kay…?"
"You came here for the first time when you were four. This laboratory is simply a smaller branch of a large corporation. This corporation discovered your powers and murdered your parents so they could take you in as a specimen without anyone's objection."
Saïx gave another blink. How could anyone come with such facts and remain so… stoic… as if such were just normal…
"H…how…? W-why me…?"
"You have the power of a divine. You are nothing but a puppet in the eyes of the Sky Corporation."
Hot tears welled up in Saïx eyes. All this time he had thought he had a family out there.
"No… No! You must have gotten the wrong person! Let me go!"
"You see the door with the number seven on it? That is your home now. It has always been. When you ran away two years ago I believed I would never see you again, but the leaders insisted that they would find you again, and so they did. I hoped they would not be able to but it seems I was wrong."
"Oh, spare me! You are nothing but one of their henchmen, getting paid for lethal experiments!" Saïx cried, pressing his eyes shut.
Vexen's eyes narrowed in fury.
"If you remembered correctly, you would see exactly how wrong that hypothesis is."
"Oh yeah? Then why are you doing this??"
"I was born into this corporation. My mother was one of the subjects down here. I was taken in as an apprentice to the current scientist. When he died, I was forced to take his place. They even used my own invention to keep me locked up. You see, this laboratory is my prison as well, seeing I am also but a subject in their eyes."
"I… I didn't know…" Saïx muttered.
"Yes you did. You just didn't remember. You always knew, because we both grew up here together."
"Is that really how it is?" Saïx asked. Vexen merely pulled up the left leg of his pants, showing a metal anklet.
"You see this? If I move anywhere outside this basement it sends a signal to the top floor so they know I have escaped, then it blows my ankle to smithereens. The same result if I try to take it off. Every subject has one. I invented them when I was eight without any knowledge of what they might be used to."
"Why? Why are they so horrible??"
"Have you had any seizures recently?" Vexen asked, picking up his pen again.
"Any what?" Saïx asked, puzzled at the sudden change of subject.
"Seizures, convulsions, fits, paroxysms etc."
"Wha- no…"
"Are you certain? Any symptoms of narcolepsies?"
"Narco-what?"
"Narcolepsies," Vexen repeated. "It's a common phenomena among my subjects. It means you fall asleep when you get stressed."
"Uhm… no… Well… there was this one incident right before I came here but… will you just untie me??"
"Tell me about the incident. When I am sure there is no need to keep you tied up, I will free you."
Saïx gave a low grumble.
"It was more like a flashback or something. I went nauseous and thought I had fallen."
"Did you see anything?"
"Anything of what?"
"Images, things that reminded you of something you have experienced in the past during the seizure."
"It was not a seizure! And no. I only heard footsteps and I could smell blood," Saïx said, trying to remember as best as he could.
"So what is the furthest back you can remember after your amnesia?"
"Uhm… five weeks or something… everything before that is just black holes…"
"Hmm…."
The blonde returned to his notebook, taking long time to scribble down something.
"Exactly why do you want to know these things?" Saïx asked after a long silence. He was scared and wondered where Xemnas could be. Was he looking for him? He wasn't sure whether he could trust Vexen either. That red haired girl had already tricked him once. If what Vexen said was true, there was still no guarantee he wouldn't hurt Saïx. He knew he had done it before even though it was on someone else's orders.
"You were always a different subject. You were even more special that the others. While the others usually got narcolepsies as an after effect of the medication they were given, you had no signs of it at all. My hypothesis is that the medication didn't work on you at first, but when you ran away two years ago and didn't receive your daily doses, all the drugs stored in your body gave you a convulsion that eventually resulted in amnesia. It makes sense. The medications should have calmed you down but you had several fits every day."
Saïx stared at him for a while, trying to take in what had just been said.
"So, generally I want to know if you still have fits of rage or if it's safe to untie you."
"Well… no, except from that flashback-like thingy there hasn't been anything… I really think you've gotten the wrong guy…"
Vexen gave a small sigh before he moved to untie the boy.
"Well, I know you are the Saïx they've been looking for. Perhaps your powers have gone in hibernation. I have seen such before."
"How do you know it's me…?" Saïx asked, massaging his wrists as he was cut loose.
"The hair… and the scar," Vexen said. "It's been two years, but I can never forget your scar."
"Oh…?"
"It was the first thing I ever asked you about when we first met. Such childish curiosity."
There was a long silence.
"Who was that girl? Kairi? Why do I remember her name?" Saïx asked.
"Was it she who brought you here?"
"Yes…"
"Very well," Vexen muttered. "She is the personal assistant of the one who rules Sky Corporation. I do not know much else about here, though she has been down here a couple of times since she joined just to survey the situation. That is probably from where you remember her."
Saïx thought back, trying to remember anything else from his past.
"You were… eleven, when we first met, right…?" Saïx asked, getting to his feet.
"Yes, I was still just an apprentice and-"
"Saïx!!"
Both heads turned towards a young figure in the doorway to the cell marked eleven. Whether it was a young girl or a boy was impossible to say. The person had unruly, pink hair, like autumn leaves, reaching to its shoulders, slightly tanned skin and a huge smile plastered on his or her face. It was dressed in a huge, tattered dark green T-shirt and dark jeans. Neither of the clothing looked like it had been changed for some time.
"Uhm…" was all Saïx managed to say before the short figure almost knocked him down as it run into him, hugging him.
"I thought I'd never see you again!" it wailed.
"I am sorry about that," Vexen said, grabbing the child's collar, pulling it away.
"She sure is strong to be so little…" Saïx mumbled.
"Excuse me?? I am a boy and I'm seventeen! Saïx, don't you remember me?" the small figure said annoyed.
"Be nice, he's had an amnesia-"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm just glad to see you again Saïx."
"M… Marluxia… right…?"
"You remembered??" he asked, clapping his hands and close to jumping in excitement.
"Y-yeah… actually I do…" Saïx said with a grin. It was something about those magnificent heavenly-blue eyes. Who could ever forget them?
"Hmm… Looks like we are doing progress already. That's a good sign. We better run some tests to see exactly how damaged your memory is."
"Oh, don't be such a joy-killer, Vexen," Marluxia said with a small pout.
"Joy? Think about Saïx! He finally manages to escape this place as the first one ever only to end up here again!" Vexen cried out. The other two looked bewildered at the scientist. "I do not see the reason to escape only to get a small taste of freedom."
"I'm sorry Vexen…" Marluxia said, bowing his head. "But you haven't seen anything but this building your whole life. I came here four years after Saïx; I had nine years out there. What wouldn't I give to have just one more day?"
Vexen gave another sigh.
"We all grew up in this place, and so we will die in this place. Saïx was lucky once, but the chances he'll manage to do it again are too slim."
"Exactly how did I escape…?" Saïx asked.
"You got help from one of the guards who probably knew the code to your anklet," Marluxia said.
"But why didn't you two also get help…?"
The two looked at each other with grim expressions.
"We… we had our reasons…" Marluxia answered. Saïx arched and eyebrow.
"Like…?"
"Well, you heard me," Vexen said, shooting Marluxia a sharp glance. "I didn't believe it was possible to escape, so I did not want to take the risk."
"And Marluxia?" Saïx asked, not quite believing him.
"He was in isolate at the time."
"Isolate…?"
"The cell door to the most left there," Vexen said, pointing. "If any subject has been disruptive it is placed there. Of course, only you and Marluxia is still sane enough to be wandering around in the basement so all the other cells could be considered isolates as well nowadays."
"Oh… Well… I am glad I got to see you again… I suppose, you are as close as I can come to a family," Saïx said with a smile. "We'll find a way out of here again."
"Oh, don't start with the talk about escaping again!" Vexen said frustrated. "It's no use!"
"It's better to try than to stay cooped up in here, besides… I think… I hope that someone is looking for me this time…" Saïx said, fingering with his pentacle.
"You really think so?" Marluxia asked hopefully.
"Forget it! No matter how clever this person is, there is no way he'll be able to find you," Vexen said.
"Well, it can't hurt to hope, right? I've dreamt of seeing the outside again world for so long now…" Marluxia mumbled.
"I know, Marluxia… I know…"
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O.o A whole chapter an entire dialogue… Damn it, I am having too much fun writing this. And of course I had to use Vexen and Marluxia for this fic as well, they're just so loveable… I'm sorry if this chapter was dull and only confused things even more… I promise you, if you're not confused now you probably will be later XD
I am forever thankful for your reviews and I'll be just as mean and say 10 reviews before I update again, though perhaps I'll be nice and update sooner if it takes long time because this was perhaps kinda dull chapter. And sorry for any typos I might have done u.u