Rays of sunlight fell against the toes of Naminé's feet, casting them a golden hue, different from the shade of her pale insteps and ankles. She was seated with her knees curled to her chin on Cid's old armchair in the living room, staring out the window. It was now a week since she had been arrested under suspicion of operating a business and caring for a minor without a birth certificate. Tomorrow was the date of the trial that would decide if she was fit to look after herself. If she were deemed unfit to support herself, she would be carted off to live with Marluxia. If she were deemed fit to support herself, which she knew to be true, she would be safe. But Marluxia kept creeping into her mind.
The floorboards cracked and Naminé turned away from the window, watching as Xion paced back and forth rubbing the side of her head in frustration. As the dark haired girl passed from one side of the room to the other, her nostrils flared and contracted faster, until she gnashed her teeth in anger, bursting out, "what is it that they have on us anyway?" When she did not receive an immediate answer, she barked, "Our age is a pretty sorry case! That's all they're making it out to be!"
"If we're not 'sixteen' we aren't fit to look after ourselves," Naminé explained in return, adding, "And, if both of us are underage, and I'm acting as your guardian, that's a double offense. They wouldn't let us go until they thought we were eighteen," as Naminé said this, Xion looked at her in befuddlement.
"Why are you so 'chill' about all this? Do you know what type of person Marluxia is?" asked the girl, advancing towards Naminé and gripping the back of the armchair she was curled into. "He's a slime ball!" she hissed. "He'll probably take all the money you earned and use it for himself! He'll leave you in the streets! I mean, I can cope, but can you?"
"He wants more than that," Naminé replied, "And yes. I could cope, if he just took the money."
"How? Do you remember living by yourself?" Xion snapped, but Naminé did not respond, so Xion leaned close to her again, this time with softening gaze. "If you know something, tell me!" said the girl with gentle inflection, grinning as she added, "It could help us!" When she asked if Naminé remembered who her parents were, Naminé winced, hissing, "I don't want to talk about it," before she curled back into her chair, as a rabbit into its hole. Xion blinked down at her, stupefied. But when she recollected herself, a pitying expression took hold of her.
"Naminé, what happened to you?" asked Xion. After a moment's frown, Naminé's eyebrows rose, and she turned to Xion with open mouth just as a rattling resounded from the front room, and Cid burst into the front hallway with the groceries.
"Hey, girls! How have things been?" he hollered, trudging into the kitchen and batting away Xion when she tried to help him carry the bags. Naminé tried to appear cheerful, but her fingers clung to the arms of the window chair. "I'm worried, but other than that I'm okay!" chirped the girl. Cid nodded and threw a newspaper in front of her, and after a slight fumbling Naminé grabbed it up and skimmed over its contents with furrowed brows. What she read dropped her jaw and raised her face to meet with Xion's, which inquired with her eyes. "Xehanort is interested in the case," Naminé breathed in confusion and Xion dashed to her side, reading over her shoulder.
"There's also an article in there about Ansem!" Cid interjected, and Naminé's head snapped up. "What?"
"They said that right before he died there was proof of him being close to patenting a new technology sort of like the pro and anti-erode that you made yourself," Cid shouted amidst converting the yogurt to the fridge. Then he chortled and shook his head. "I still don't know how on earth you created that stuff! You're a smart cookie!"
"I didn't make it, Ansem left the invention for me," replied Naminé. "He kept it a secret because he knew that someday I would need it. He probably left something else for me, too, now," She finished with flashing eyes, but Cid shrugged. "Somehow I can't see Ansem staring past his own nose, sighed the old man. "He was self-centered. Brilliant, but self-centered. I mean can you blame the guy? He was a genius, and he was good looking!" He guffawed, but Naminé did not smile. After Cid buried himself deep into the fridge rearranging the food, Xion escaped to the upstairs hallway and Naminé was free. The living room stretched out before her like the ocean floor, which little pockets of sunshine fell against, bathing its dust particle plankton gold and bright. A stillness which she imagined ruled the abyss of the sea settled over Naminé's arms and past her feet, until time seemed to freeze and float.
Before she knew exactly what she was doing, she was running- out of the house, down the road, and to the train station. She didn't even know where she was going until the train she had gotten on pulled into Twilight Town, and her heart thumped loud as she whizzed forward through the streets to the outskirts of the city. Charging through the line of trees beyond the last buildings, she headed towards the mansion, peering behind her shoulder every once in a while as though expecting a cop to run after her. But no human was around. Every car surrounding the Mansion had disappeared and the area was roped off, so Naminé crawled beneath the reels of plastic and opened the gates surrounding the estate. Once inside, she ran towards the door, where she extracted the ancient set of mansion keys from her pocket and turned them in the lock with shaking hands. Then the soft oak before her pushed forward and a rectangular shaped ray of light extended into the dark foyer, disrupted only by Naminé's black silhouette. Her shadow stepped forward and lengthened as she did, but as the front door slid shut behind her, the glowing light at her back faded until the room in front of her was again cast in shadow. Clumps of long legged spiders had already staked out the wall's vertices for their webs. Naminé chuckled. If Marluxia did get Naminé, he said he would tear the Mansion down.
With labor Naminé slid to the floor, trying to force out tears that would not come. She closed her eyes until they hurt, and felt her face go red, but in her gut and throat she felt nothing. Sighing, the girl was forced to give up and look around for some other direction of thought. Then she remembered the floorboards. She bashed her foot through them with all her might and let out a yelp of surprise as she fell through into Ansem's underground lair, landing on the outer part of her thigh. In pain she cried out and rubbed the bone on the side of her shin. The smell of rotting papers and substances almost overpowered her, but she hoisted herself up and stumbled forward, before halting. Then, she got to work ripping files out of the folders in frenzy, scanning anything and everything in the room. When she reached the third shelf down of a cabinet marked "patents", a groan escaped her mouth, and she pursed it as she reached inside the cabinet drawer and pulled out a folder she'd hoped she would not find. Patent numbers for pro and anti- erode, dated two weeks before Ansem's death.
She tried to hold back tears as she read through numerous transactions on the pro and anti-erode. How a year before he died Ansem had been commissioned to make the substances for a building company that cheated him on his wages- the company Sephiroth had inherited shortly after. In revenge for ill treatment, Ansem must have used pro erode on the company's pipes instead of anti-erode. It was his fault that the company's pipes were faulty- he'd made them that way.
As Naminé sifted further through the cabinet drawer, distributing the pro and anti-erode folder back to its original place and pulling out another folder in return, she skimmed down what appeared to be an invitation. It was three years old, and detailed a grand gala for the introduction of new inventions. The inventions Ansem was going to debut were pro and anti-erode, but the other was titled "Kingdom Hearts," which made Naminé chuckle in spite of herself. Then, she remembered something.
It was a tiny, insignificant memory. One of her when she was thirteen years old, newly a teenager. That year, the Orphanage That Never Was wasn't able to afford birthday cakes, or even little cupcakes, so they sang to her instead. Though the files on her date of birth, place of birth, and her parents, had been lost, she felt more thirteen than all the girls her age, who huddled around her with huge grins, singing her name softly.
Then Naminé's mind flashed to much later that year, after Organization Thirteen had adopted her. Until then they had been 'studying' her, observing her interactions with the people and environment surrounding her. That day Zexion and Marluxia had come to speak with her. She had only been in Castle Oblivion a week.
"Do you think that stuff will work?" Marluxia had whispered, with narrowed unbelieving eyes. But in response Zexion cooed, "I have a strong feeling that it will."
"It sounds stupid to me," Marluxia had snapped in response, causing Zexion's nostrils to flare in anger.
"Shut up," he'd hissed. "That was my brother's life's work."
"His short life's work," Marluxia had snickered.
"Remember when Sora was shot with neotenebrin?" whispered Zexion, his eyes glowing with new excitement. Marluxia had snorted, chuckling, "I might remember if I know what neotenebrin is." In response Zexion's eyes fell back to the dull blue that washed over them when they were displeased, and he replied, "Neotenebrin is heartless venom." But the excitement that had fringed his features moments before returned again as he explained, "Just as Sora convulsed in the throes of his heartless transformation, Kairi injected a part of herself into him, a vital light that returned Sora to normal." Then as he grinned, his hands moved in circles and dashes before him, indicating as he spoke. "The remains of neotenebrin in Sora's body was left with both his and Kairi's DNA," whispered Zexion, "If Naminé possessed a part of Sora and the girl he loved the most, she could control him!"
To this Marluxia had snorted, not bothering to conceal his disdain, prompting Zexion to continue, "You already see that the girl has a profound effect on people," and with a sly glance add, "She certainly caught your eye." In reply Marluxia smiled and said, "let's see what happens when we kidnap Sora."
Then, Zexion had turned and walked to Naminé with briefcase in hand, setting it on the white surface of Naminé's table as he reached her side. It clicked open, and as Naminé observed the syringe lying at its center, she'd sucked in a deep breath and reeled back in her chair. Marluxia chuckled in delight as Naminé cowered back, and Zexion glanced at him. "Do you want to inject it?" the younger man murmured.
Marluxia shrugged, but then responded, "Why not?" with glee as he watched Zexion prepare the needle. Beside the device's sharp tooth was a vial of dark gray, viscous liquid, to which Zexion attached the syringe, clicking its large needle down so that the device was ready. Then he handed it to Marluxia, who put on a pair of gloves before he set it in his hands. "Will she go crazy from the poison in this stuff?" Marluxia questioned, but Zexion shrugged.
"We've extracted as much heartless venom as we can," he murmured. "But if it doesn't work, we can always dispose of her."
At this Marluxia's head snapped up painted with a grimace. "I'd rather that not happen," muttered the pink haired man, and Zexion smiled. Then Marluxia moved to Naminé's side, grabbed her arm, and turned the main vein of her wrist face up. "Your skin is so pale I can see the veins perfectly," He murmured, and as the needle and gray liquid pressed into Naminé's arm, she blacked out.
When she had woken up again, she promised herself that soon she would get away from her new 'family'. But over a year later, Naminé was in another white room, this time with a new man studying her, observing her eyes and the way she registered her surroundings.
"A spawn of my work rests within you," He had hissed, and Naminé had been taken aback. Then, the scientist had grabbed her arm with one savage yank, pulling it up and pointing to the black-rimmed scar from Marluxia's needle, a scar that had never disappeared.
Even now, after the remembrance of these interactions had drifted from Naminé's mind, and as Naminé sat in Ansem's underground lair alone, the dark spot still radiated from her skin. In the darkness of the cellar Naminé realized what she had meant to Ansem.
Whatever Marluxia and Zexion had injected into her, whatever connected her to Sora- that was what had been useful to Ansem. Alone, Naminé was just a little girl. But with Sora and Kairi's DNA she was special.
Naminé had never been a person to Ansem, not even at the end, when he regretted how he treated Roxas. He never apologized to Naminé for the long days and nights she'd spent locked in her white room or in a closet, which she had been resigned to when she 'misbehaved'.
Ansem wanted to patent pro and anti-erode for himself, for his own benefit and for his own recognition. And the new device, the thing he labeled "Kingdom Hearts"; he was going to use that for his own good, too. None of it had been for Naminé. As she sat on the concrete floor with broken pieces of floor wood scattered about her folded knees, an intense feeling of loneliness washed over her. The feeling of inhabiting the outer border of a bubble, and looking in at the distorted view of others like herself, but not like herself. As Naminé listened to the silence that permeated the dark room that lay underground, independent of the normal track of time, she began to calm.
It hurt her very much that no one had loved her. What of her qualities were lovable, she wondered. After dismissing these thoughts Naminé searched around every nook, cranny, and old cabinet, searching for any files on 'Kingdom Hearts'. Then, she found an old newspaper clipping.
"Ansem's new invention- said to be a key to the heart of the world!" with a caption that read: "Is it a new version of Planet's mako reactors? Is the heart of our world similar to the Planet's Life stream? Secrets revealed through an interview with the inventor himself!"
The article held no further important information, so Naminé threw the bundle to the side and hunted further about the room, locating a box of correspondence letters between Ansem and his various contemporaries. The man made numerous copies of everything, circling words and letters and scribbling notes on the sides of the pages in a near obsessive manner. A few of the letters held in his memory box were addressed from him to the president of the building company he had worked for before his death. Another group was correspondences with King Mickey regarding his inventions. It turned out pro and anti-erode had never been patented at all. Instead, they had been pending. But the most curious bundle of letters was between Ansem and Yen Sid, and Naminé read them all with fervency.
"I have found the key to the trouble that has plagued us during these last decades. Through my studies I have located a way to puncture the heart of our region and use it to our advantage. We will crush those who trod over us before, and there will be no more secrets..."
"Ansem, I am wary of this new invention… something so powerful should not be exposed to a world so naive… as to your notion that we've kept secrets from our people too long, how could we have told them the truth without inciting catastrophe? The thirst for revenge is self destructive, Ansem... who have you shown the device to?"
"I have shown no one...yet it pains me to think that even you are blinded by fear of the enemy... I must incite justice..."
"If it were my decision, Ansem, I would have the device destroyed. It is too powerful to slip into the wrong hands…"
The majority of the letters dated six months before the gala, when Ansem was still posing as DiZ. But the last three of the pile were written mere weeks before the event.
"I am in trouble Master Sid. I was wrong to use my invention for my selfish revenge, and I apologize for involving you... your student's strong heart guided me to peace, and I am privileged in knowing him... I am fearful of this gala, but my attendance is necessary... after so many years of selfishness, and cowardice, I must represent my people. I will debut Kingdom Hearts."
"Ansem, I am glad for you. But I urge you not to attend the gala. Your opponents lie just inside the stage wings, and with this debut will crawl many who would rather keep your invention quiet. Wait for a council with King Mickey and I."
"I will be going to the gala… if any harm comes to me, I want my reports and research entrusted to your library. I am sure you will keep them safe…"
After reading them once more Naminé set the letters down and pondered Kingdom Hearts. What exactly that was, Naminé was not sure, but she felt as though it were in her memory, which lay like a shrouded corridor extending through the back of her mind.
Wincing at the pain of the splinters in her hands, Naminé hoisted herself through the floorboards and hunted around the foyer for a cart. In the backyard lay an old wheelbarrow, and Naminé pushed it through the mansion until it was positioned parallel to the hole in the foyer floor. Then, she hopped back into the cellar and hoisted files up from the floor into the cart. By the time she was finished the cart was overflowing with various paper and glass odds and ends, and the floorboards creaked with ferocity as she trod towards the bathroom to treat her hands. Naminé flew about with jagged movements, half expecting Marluxia to hop out from behind a chair, or slither out from the shadows to thwart her. But there were only spiders.
After her hands were taken care of Naminé pushed the wheelbarrow out of the mansion and under the police rope surrounding its borders, up to Yen Sid's tower. It took her twenty minutes to get there, and by the time she knocked on the front door she was sweating like a pig. To her surprise Riku answered.
"Hey, Naminé!" He beamed, and Naminé smiled back with raised eyebrows. "What are you doing here, Riku?" she asked, and Riku grinned. "I'm training for the Mark of Mastery Exam," chuckled the boy with pride. "He says that he may be able to get me into the military academy in Palumpolum by next year."
"I need to talk to Yen Sid," Naminé blurted out just as Riku noticed the wheelbarrow behind her. With furrowed brows he asked if it was hers and Naminé nodded. "I need to give it to Yen Sid," She chirped.
"Just leave the wheelbarrow at the bottom of the stairs." Riku responded, but Naminé shook her head and insisted upon bringing them directly to Yen Sid, nightmares of the files being whisked away or disappearing into thin air playing in her mind. After a brief stare down Riku sighed and called for Flora, who poked her head out from the top of the stairs and asked what the matter was.
"She wants to give this stuff to Yen Sid, but she can't get it up the stairs," Riku called up to her, and Flora chuckled as she filed towards them and caught sight of the wheelbarrow.
"Well, there's an elevator right over here," She cooed to Naminé, patting her shoulder, and Riku glanced up to the sky in agitation as the older woman moved towards a metal door that lay behind the stairs. As Riku pushed the wheelbarrow inside the tower Flora pressed the button to open the elevator door, and everyone filed inside. But after the door closed again, the gears inside the elevator started up and the sound of thrashing metal descended over the party's ears. Flora had to scream to talk amidst the sound of the vehicle's machinations. When the thrashing ended, the elevator beeped, and opened directly into Yen Sid's study. Sora lay on the ground engrossed in a book, ignoring the party as they wheeled Naminé's barrow inside, but Yen Sid glanced up just as Naminé stopped before his desk.
"I see that you have something for me?" he announced, and Naminé nodded, patting the papers on the peak of the file pile. "This is Ansem's stuff. I was wondering if you could look after it," She explained, but Yen Sid narrowed his eyes before nodding. Then he turned to his students. "Sora, Riku, would you meet me in the loft?"
Riku nodded with hesitation, but Sora jumped up when he heard his name called. The two filed out of the room, and Flora disappeared downstairs to make tea until the only people left in Yen Sid's study were himself and Naminé. Naminé shuffled her feet, but when Yen Sid pointed to a chair for her to sit down in, she did so. As she looked on, Yen Sid perused the wheelbarrow of files before returning to his desk seat.
"Did you read the letters?" he asked as he folded his hands before his chest, and Naminé nodded. "Then you are probably wondering what Kingdom Hearts is," murmured the old man, and Naminé nodded again, not expecting him to answer. Instead he looked at her and folded his hands behind his back, standing and pacing back and forth.
"Naminé, I do not know you very well, or of the extent to which you were connected to Ansem. But, I have a powerful feeling that you know a great deal more than you think you do, or that anyone else thinks you do. You just need to remember."
Naminé winced at those words, but Yen Sid continued, "Do you know what exactly happened when Sora was targeted four years ago?"
"He was targeted because he was the Investigator's son," replied Naminé.
In return Yen Sid chuckled and peered at her again. "Tell me everything you know."
Clearing her throat, Naminé looked through her thoughts, trying to remember everything she knew about Sora.
"After Sora's father became the Director of the Investigation Bureau," she began, "he stumbled upon a drug that was being manipulated by a massive criminal organization lead by Maleficent, the mayor of Hollow Bastion at the time. Once she found out the Director had a son, she used Kairi as bait to trap Sora, so that his father would be under their control," Naminé murmured in explanation as Yen Sid listened with closed eyes. "When Sora found Kairi in a coma at Hollow Bastion, Maleficent told him that if he injected himself with heartless poison, they would let Kairi go. I think they were going to send Sora back to his dad as a warning not to mess with them."
"The 'poison' of which you are speaking," Yen Sid interjected in a low rumble, "is called neotenebrin." After he'd said this, the old master sat back and waited for several moments, letting the definition sink into Naminé's head. In reply her eyebrows furrowed, and she asked, "What does neotenebrin mean?"
"Neotenebrin," Yen Sid responded, "commonly known as heartless venom, means "new darkness". It is a byproduct of experimentation on a substance naturally occurring in most human beings."
"Is that substance darkness?" Naminé murmured, and Yen Sid nodded, returning to his desk chair and seating himself comfortably. "When science took an interest in the soul of a human being, it came up with two opposite objectives that drove the human condition. One is named Luciden, for light, and the other is called Tenenbrin, for darkness. They're fancy scientific terms," added the old man with a scoff, waving his hand in the air in dismissiveness. "Luciden and Tenebrin are associated with the highest level emotions of the human psych, because they drive our actions and the way we feel. Until you came along, only seven humans existed with pure Luciden inside of them," added Yen Sid, making Naminé glance up in confusion.
"What do you mean?" she asked after a moments pause, "I'm not a princess of heart."
In reply Yen Sid stared at Naminé for several seconds before he murmured, "Ansem spoke of you," with a nod of his head. "He told me how much you reminded him of Kairi. But there's something different about you Naminé, about your light," he added. "The Luciden within Kairi is strong and reactive. Yours is not. The reason your light became 'unstable', as Ansem remarked, was because you had a piece of two other people within you."
"Kairi and Sora?" Naminé responded, to which Yen Sid nodded, adding, "that is why you had such an effect on them."
"That's what Ansem thought was useful about me," Naminé replied.
For a moment Yen Sid stared at her. But then he stroked his beard and narrowed his eyes. "Do you remember what happened to Kairi when the Light in her heart was tampered with?" Yen Sid asked, but Naminé shrugged, trying, "She went into a coma."
With a nod Yen Sid replied, "Neotenebrin is a mutation. It attacks the deep limbic system of the brain and represses emotions. If left untreated, its victim will never feel," rumbled the old man, flashes of sadness crossing the wrinkles of his face. "Instead, their empathy is erased. They become aggressive and unconscious of their actions. And in addition, Naminé, it was Riku, not Maleficent, who told Sora to inject himself with the poison in order to save Kairi," murmured Yen Sid, making Naminé gape. "When Kairi awakened, she found Sora at her side, transforming into a monster. Yet she saved him."
"By injecting her light inside him?" guessed Naminé, and Yen Sid beamed in affirmation. "The Luciden within Kairi attacked the neotenebrin within Sora and destroyed it. Forever more, the light from Kairi within Sora would exist in separation from his own light. But-" continued the old master, holding up his index finger, "When the different forms of Luciden from Sora and Kairi entered your body, they combined with the light inside you, rather than staying separate, as Kairi's light did when it lay within Sora."
"It's intriguing enough to be called magic," Yen Sid chuckled in addition. "The soul has fueled philosophical and scientific arguments for centuries. It is fitting that, well..." Yen Sid considered the information he was about to slip, and decided against saying it, moving on, "And whereas some may call you fragile and weak, others might call you a hero."
"I'm just a coward," Naminé mumbled in reply, but Yen Sid shook his head and pointed to the center of Naminé's face, right at the tip of her nose.
"Luciden and Tenebrin, Light and Dark, are ancient. They perpetuate the cycle of life. To be a vital part of that cycle is an honor," the old man explained, but though Naminé furrowed her brows in confusion, Yen Sid's eyes sparkled.
"Imagine if the Luciden within Kairi made contact with an organism of complete darkness, a being beyond hope of any sort of life. The ancient, pure forms of light and dark would strive for dominance, destroying the organism they inhabited. But while your light is strong, it is soft," murmured Yen Sid. "Instead of destroying an organism filled only with darkness, your light would coexist with it, save it! The form of Luciden within you represents an evolution!" the master continued, waggling his finger at Naminé with increasing forcefulness. "The eternal reign of the princesses of heart ends with your light, Luciden evolved! You represent the future! Why, the way you were able to survive amongst so many bad intentioned people is proof of your power!" boomed Yen Sid, as Naminé blinked and tried to nod. She wondered if any of the people who interacted with Yen Sid on a daily basis left with a complete understanding of his rants.
"Ansem must have told you about the Hollow Bastion Massacre! And before that! The Masked Boy?" Yen Sid inquired, but Naminé shook her head. With a scowl Yen Sid waved off her response and dived in again, muttering, "It all started with him- a being made completely of darkness, a poisoned being that infected itself and everything around it. Legend had it that a human of pure darkness and a human of pure light, when brought together, would provide the means to control the heart of the world. Mere legend? I think not!" Yen Sid rubbed his palms as he continued to explain with increased intensity, but on occasion his hands would fly away from each other in excited gesticulation. "Yet we cannot prove that Xehanort himself possessed the intention of turning Tenebrin into a weapon because there is something protecting him from detection! Someone is covering his tracks!"
With wide eyes Naminé realized that the Xehanort Yen Sid spoke of was the Xehanort she had read of in the newspaper that morning, the one who wanted to adopt her. As she remembered the article her fingertips ran cold, and when she stared into Yen Sid's eyes she asked, "you think that everything that has happened is the fault of the man who accused Axel?" to which Yen Sid chortled in reply.
"Well, of course!" he murmured. "Who else would want to convict the boy? If we were able to pull out the root of the problem, all of the weeds it has spawned would rot! All the problems it has caused would be solved!" He boomed, causing Naminé to cower back in her seat. Through his spirited sermon Yen Sid had jumped from his own seat and stood banging the top of his oak desk, shaking his fists through the air on occasion. But now, in exhaustion, he took a seat again, sighing in between groans as he rubbed his forehead. "If only we had paper proof of the true culprit, or witnesses! But as I said before… the real evil has covered its tracks…" For a few moments he sat with a curl back, his lopsided frame slumped over the right side of his seat as he rubbed his eyelids again. Then, his hands fell to his side as his eyes glanced at Naminé closely.
"Naminé," he rumbled, and the girl leaned forward unconsciously, her eyes widening as the man addressed her. "Perhaps now is the time to look into your past," continued the old master. "You must see what lies within its frame to understand what is happening now. Perhaps you know something important," He murmured. Naminé nodded. She didn't like remembering her life, but she felt as if it were her duty now.
"I'll try, sir," She muttered finally, glancing at her white knuckled hands, which gripped the sides of her seat. As she peeled them away from the chair frame she stood and folded them in front of her, bowing before Yen Sid. The old man did not stop her when she left, instead standing and moving to the star shaped window at the back of his room, glancing out of it and over Twilight Town with pursed lips.
As Naminé descended the stairs with soft tread, her head filled up with questions, though she had no one to ask them to. She felt as though Yen Sid had given her all the information he could, and she didn't want to pry at him any more. But so much of what he said she still could not understand. And now, her time was running out again, and she was all alone. So, Naminé let her thoughts go as she opened the tower's front doors, feeling the soft glow of evening sun fall over her face again. As she descended the front steps and moved back towards the city, she heard Flora close the tower door behind her, telling her a soft goodbye.
...
Vanitas stared at the blood in the sink before him, clinging to its sides with shaking palms. The side effects of his trying to wean himself off his medications were causing him great pain. As he glanced at his reflection in the mirror above the white porcelain bowl, he felt his breathing become shallow, and watched the veins of his neck pulse and sink. Then, a horrible burning sensation travelled from his gut into his throat, and he heaved more blood and black mucus into the basin of the sink, his chest curling over and contracting as the muscles of his abdomen pressed in. For what seemed like an eternity, he stayed bent over with eyes shut, coughing and spitting, trying to take in a clean breath. But when he came up for a breath of fresh air, his eyes fell against the bed, centered in the chamber that lay ahead of his bathroom. On its covers, there sat an unopened vial, whose bright gold letters read 'neotenebrin'. It lay five feet away, and the needle that required it was just inside his bedside table drawer.
Tearing his eyes away from the substance, Vanitas stared into his own reflected eyes, snarling, "you will not take it!" as he tried to block the medication from his mind. Then, he began to laugh, and the black dots that clouded his vision traveled down his arms like rays of energy, causing his hands to shake in panic. As his stomach gurgled and burned, Vanitas held it with one hand and clung to the wall with the other, sliding to the floor as if afraid the contents within his abdomen would spill out in front of him if he were not careful. When he could not stand the pain any longer, her crawled to his bed and clawed across its covers for the medicine vial, loading it into the syringe, which he pulled off of the bedside table. The liquid within the vial was molasses thick and tarry, and when Vanitas injected it inside his arm, he could see the veins of his tan skin turn black as the medication ran through his blood. In ten minutes, the panic disappeared. Then the pain subsided and he breathed out in relief, closing his eyes and leaning his head up to the ceiling as his muscles relaxed. With a sigh, he returned to the mirror and wiped the blood away from his mouth, washing it down the sink drain until the porcelain surrounding it glowed white once more. Then, he clenched and unclenched his fists. Vanitas had noted Sephiroth doing it in his jail cell. The boy hypothesized that it was stress release.
Then, with a last look in the mirror, Vanitas examined his face. He was not unattractive. Yet he knew this only because he had been told. Everything he knew, he had been told. "Whenever you feel happy, or sad, or angry, Vanitas, whenever you express emotion, you are hurting yourself. Whenever you are struck with an emotion, the chemicals released react with the tenebrin in your brain, which in turn reacts with the air you breathe. These three sets of molecules create a new chemical called tenebrenzyme, and this chemical causes your cells to lyse. Every moment you feel, a part of you dies. Therefore, until we can save you properly, you must not feel." As these old words echoed in Vanitas head, he shut his eyes and remembered the time they had been said, the conditions and the situation.
It had been years ago, just before Ventus. Smiling. Strength beyond imagination. "When I was born I was a blank book, I had no driving force within myself," Vanitas whispered to himself in a black room, the room of remembrance created when Vanitas closed his eyes. This false Vanitas tutted, and grinned in pity. "I was slow, so slow. I was left behind. Xehanort picked me up. He picked me up and has held me ever since."
The false Vanitas tore apart and became milky, transforming into a hazy picture of a funeral. Two shabbily made coffins laid in the ground side by side, with white flowers thrown over to soften their outline. A sharp slap on the wrist and a wince of pain. "The flowers go on after the dirt is put over them, you stupid boy, you've wasted them." A figure in the distance, bald, with glowing eyes like a snake's, or a hawk's. "I heard about your boy's sad fate," the hawk snake murmured, a voice of cold gravel. "I like to help when I can. The state orphanage is not the place for a bright little boy." Sighs of relief. A brilliant after party and a seat in the corner with little shaped dust bunnies. Being taken to a castle with chimney turrets that billowed blue smoke. A room in the basement with a white sphere. Two trays sticking out of the humming mechanism, waiting side by side. A tiny, pretty blond boy on one of them, waving. Waving back, shy. Then a warm smile, and a question of fear. "Will it hurt?" A perhaps in response, and no further questions. Lying down on the left tray, pushed inside the white sphere. Claustrophobia. A click at the tips of the feet to say the door is locked.
Separated by a transparent wall with tubes like veins circling and entwining, slithering out as sweet mist settled. Two tubes attaching to his neck. Looking over and seeing Ventus with a tube in his neck, too. Crying and not understanding. Breathing in the mist and calming down. Black tar bubbling out of the blond boy's neck, inching forward through the tube towards Vanitas. Watching as it traveled into his own neck, turning his veins black.
Then, lying within the spherical machine, the short bursts of consciousness that punctuated Vanitas' life for so long stretched, and became blisteringly clear. Once his thoughts scuttled around and formed into a transparent sequence, Vanitas realized that the substance invading his blood, his nerves, was foreign. Everything about him glowed, and as he squirmed within the walls of the white machine, searing pain traveled up his arms, and his vision exploded with color. He did not notice Ventus being pulled from the machine. The mist still surrounded him, but he felt it disappear as fresh oxygen was pumped inside the machine. Then, the world went black, and the days passed in minutes as his body adapted.
Before he had entered the turreted mansion, before he'd met Ventus or the former, life had been a soft dream that detached Vanitas from a peripheral world. When this haze subsided, extreme sadness was his first disabling emotion. Life became painfully real, and the gravity that clung his feet to the ground pulled his body down with it. Things hurt to look at, sharp edges and dark colors jutted out farther, and his sensitivity to pain increased. The brush of a feather was searing pain. A month after the machine, he was forced to visit Ventus. The boy had lain on a hospital cot in front of him, pale and comatose, his chest rising and falling in a slow, plodding rhythm. "What's wrong with him?" He'd asked; his hands folded in front of him. Ventus' own colorless palms lay folded over one another in front of his chest, ice cold and tiny. "He is dying," the former had responded, and Vanitas asked why. "Because the experiment did not work. You are still slow and weak. Because of you his death will be in vain." After this, Xehanort spit on the ground and trudged away, leaving Vanitas alone and heartbroken, staring down at his dying companion.
Catapulted back from the flashbacks, the now nineteen-year-old Vanitas sat down on his small wireframe bed and closed his eyes, dispelling the memory. These visions from his past were returning more and more nowadays. But a dull twinge of sadness crept through his chest as his old memories fled to the back of his mind. Vanitas despised when he was in this strange sense of being.
Sitting up taller, Vanitas tried locating the first time he'd felt this way. It had been after Ventus- and that was the way Vanitas categorized his life. Before Ventus, during Ventus, after Ventus. After Ventus was the worst. Vanitas was still deciding the other two. After he had incited Ventus to battle, and after his companion had betrayed him, he fell rather ill. Weeks after the incident, he was due to meet a creature which Xehanort's son had named 'heartless'. Xehanort's son, the latter, was a scientist. Master Xehanort was the former: the first and the last. The heartless was the infected being spawned through the latter's scientific pursuits, and it was supposed to cure the plague of emotion that crippled Vanitas.
"Today is the day you are cured," the former had announced, taking his hand. They returned to the same room that had held the white machine. But this time, the room's center held the Latter, tired and old, with sunken cheeks. The Massacre of Hollow Bastion had taken its toll. Behind him he wheeled the cage that held his 'pet', a monster that stood five feet, with shiny black skin and yellow eyes. In curiosity, it glanced up at Ventus and tilted its head, like a baby.
"It won't hurt you," the former had hissed. "Touch it."
Vanitas obeyed, sticking his hand into the cage. The beast inside its bars stared at Vanitas' tan, scarred flesh with yellow hungry eyes, and in the blink of a moment, it lashed out, sinking its black rimmed teeth into the wrist of Vanitas' arm. Until it broke its toothed hold Vanitas was forced to punch its head with his free hand, until the creature let go. The deep marks the monster left bled black tar, and the cuts burned like fire until Vanitas' whole body had numbed. It was then that his emotions receded, and in their wake, there was left only the remnants of feelings, like a rubber ball dropped in a distant room.
As a knock rapped against the door, Vanitas snapped back to the present, and turned to face the room entrance.
"Vanitas, may I come in?" It was the former.
Dashing into the bathroom, Vanitas cleaned his mouth out and brushed his teeth, washing out the sink once more before hiding his bloody towel behind the bathroom's trashcan. When the former walked inside Vanitas' room, the tall young man was already standing at the room's backside, parallel to the window. He watched as the former trudged forward and sat down on Vanitas' small wire framed bed. The old man sighed as he set his cane across his lap, while Vanitas stayed standing, his arms crossed behind his back.
"You have taken your medication, am I correct?" Xehanort asked, and Vanitas nodded, looking back at the empty vile on the side of the sink. Then he glanced about his surroundings, around the small bedroom he had inhabited now for many years, in silence.
"That is good," Xehanort continued. "In any case, Sephiroth is enlisting his son for help. Once the BI targets Sephiroth, we will dispose of him and have Kadaj take his place as the puppet head of Shinra. And with my son out of jail, the country will question the BI's validity. Then, using Xemnas' expertise on his brother's work, we will develop new technology regarding Kingdom Hearts in Shinra's labs. In essence," the former continued, "things are turning out as planned. At this rate, everything will be sorted out within the next month after all," he added, setting his cane firmly on the ground and standing. But Vanitas blinked up at him in wonder.
"And my condition?" chanced the boy. In reply Xehanort stared back at him, before chuckling, turning, and advancing towards the door. "We will see how things play out," he murmured. "I will attend Naminé's trial on my own. It is tomorrow. While I am there, Sephiroth will meet with Kadaj." As Vanitas nodded, Xehanort turned to him once more, murmuring, "I am glad you are taking things well." Then, he departed, shutting the Vanitas' door with the hook of his cane.
Vanitas remained silent and smoothed out the covers of his bed as Xehanort walked down the hall. Then, he stood and circled his living space, settling before his chest of drawers. He opened the first, taking out his keepsakes box. It was a cardboard case for flowers. In it was a button from his good funeral coat, a shell from the road to the Indian reservation in which he'd met Aqua, a shard of wood from the frame of the mirror over his bed in the Land of departure. A piece of Ventus' wooden sword. Vanitas moved into the bathroom and took the bloody towel from the bin, wringing it out and ripping it to pieces before setting the shreds back at the base of the trashcan. He tore apart the keepsake box and set its cardboard pieces in, too. Then, he lit them afire and watched as the flames flicked up through the bloody material, burning it black.
The air smelled of iron and flesh. After the flames reached a good height, Vanitas emptied his keepsakes in one by one, resting them with a gentle caress amongst the flames. The sword piece died first, sputtering and hissing as it glowed red and then collapsing to ashen pieces, disappearing under a blue tongue flame. The mirror frame wood disappeared soon after. But the seashell resisted, glowed pink before it popped with small limestone cracks. But a few moments after, it exploded. Vanitas held his hand over the fire to catch the pieces that flung themselves at him, which seared his skin before returning to the bottom of the bin.
The plastic button melted last, and bits of it oozed out over its metal base, which was softening. Even the button floundered, disintegrated into black slop and caked in ashes while its metal base burned red but did not break. Ventus brought the trash bin to the sink and ran water in it, and as the fire drowned it gasped for breath, its ashes traveling up and resting against the water's surface. Then, the ashen liquid was dumped down the bath drain while the bin was washed out and set back beside the sink.
As Vanitas washed his hands, he examined their scarred frames in silence. Right now he trusted the former. But he was adaptable. Staring at his ugly hands, he wondered if his body was too damaged to be cured. Vanitas could not tell whether his master mocked or cared for him. He was not good at picking out people's emotions; he learned by facial signs but could be led astray. But he still hoped that his master would find a cure, and he hoped that the cure would show itself within a month. To ensure this, all of the former's plans would have to be carried out with perfect care. All of the pieces that held together Vanitas' life were laid atop each other in a balanced pile, eternally close to tipping. Now, there could be no more missteps, and no more surprises.
….
Axel laid spread out across the living room couch with his hands rested across Ventus' shoulders. The boy was sprawled over his torso, reading a book he had set on Axel's chest. As the red head peered down at him, he caught the boy's glance, but averted his gaze to the ceiling. Deep dark rings were set under the greens of his eyes, and after noting them Ventus sighed and rubbed Axel's stomach, before setting the book down and kissing Axel's eyelids. As the boy stroked the man's chest, he kissed Axel's forehead and played with his long red hair.
"What are you thinking about?" inquired, but Axel shrugged. "Just the lawyer that you're bringing over," the red head mumbled, adding, "Is he good?" to which Ventus chuckled. "It's a girl, and I don't know if she's good or not. She's an old friend," he added, which got Axel thinking. The day before, Ventus had mentioned that a friend of his was coming into town, and Axel had wondered whom he meant. Ventus told him that the woman had called him two days after Axel had stormed out of Roxas' house on him. Then, the boy had slipped that the person could be a potential lawyer.
"Does she work for free?" Axel chuckled, but Ventus shrugged. "I could probably get a discount out of her," He murmured, kissing Axel's neck. Thinking, the red head shut his eyes and furrowed his brows, and the boy in front of him watched the man as he lay limp, deep inside his head.
"Why don't you do anything?" Ventus suddenly hissed, and Axel pursed his lips. Then, the boy pulled Axel's shirt up and trailed circles around his chest with his tongue, moving his mouth over the man's nipples. As he sucked on one, he pressed the other between the tips of his fingers. Without warning Ventus bit Axel's nipple hard, and the man gasped in anxiety, before launching Ventus off the couch and onto the floor, which made the boy yelp in fright. With stooped frame the red head stood over Ventus and glared at him, casting the boy's face in thin shadow. "What the hell was that for?" he hissed. In apology the blond kneeled before him and kissed the man's stomach, but the red head squirmed from his grasp, before sitting back on the couch. Ventus watched the man as he massaged his chest, but in exasperation he folded his hands in front of him and whined, "What's wrong with you? For the past few days you've been a fucking vegetable." Saving Axel from response was a sudden knock on the door, and with a bright spring the red head lunged towards it, throwing his shirt back over his front as he reached the knob.
When Axel turned the knob and pulled the door towards him, what lay outside of it caught his breath. A woman in a black high-necked shirt and pants stood turned away from him, but stepped around to glance at him when he opened the door further. Dark lashes framed her aquamarine eyes, and her short navy hair tousled around her ears in a messy bob. She was tall. And as Axel looked down at her chest, he remembered why he needed to start dating women his own age. But the woman's eyes softened as she looked inside the house, and Axel froze in surprise as she wet her lips and sighed, looking into the distance as if caught in a trance.
"Is that you?" murmured the woman, gulping back tears, and Axel felt something well up in his chest. Did he know her from somewhere? Suddenly, she held her arms out to him and rushed forward, and without second thought Axel returned the gesture, watching as the woman flew past him in slight confusion.
"Ventus!" she cried in delight, hugging the boy close to her as though afraid he would slip away. The woman rocked the boy back and forth, who closed his eyes as he was held, and sighed. "I'm so sorry." Added the woman in a whisper.
"It's okay. Xehanort made you leave." Ventus mumbled in return. But the woman shook her head and leaned towards the boy in front of her with hard eyes. "No," she murmured. "I shouldn't have left you alone."
As Ventus' eyes grew big, and then crinkled with an uncharacteristic, childlike grin, his companion remembered where she was and stepped away, brushing herself off and blushing. "Well, what is it that you wanted me to help you with, Ven?" she snapped, and Ventus pointed to Axel. It then became apparent Ventus' friend had not noticed the red head as of that moment, but when she did glance at him her cheeks pinked. "Hello," She muttered, and Axel nodded, vocally incapacitated. "I'm Aqua," she added, holding out her hand. Axel shook it, still dumb.
"Axel needs a lawyer," Ventus announced for him, and Axel nodded again, to which Aqua smiled and shrugged.
"Well, I'll try my best," explained the woman. "I've only been at it for one year, but I think that I'm pretty good. So I may be able to help you," She said in a strong voice, and Axel closed his eyes, listening to her talk.
"After my completion of the Mark of Mastery Exam under Master Eraqus I attended the Guardian Academy in Palumpolum for four years. I was going to return here, but then the war began in Pulse, so I escaped and entered law school in Free Gestahlia. Four years later, I was back in Pulse for a year, and now I'm back here!" she finished with a sigh, and then waited for a response. But there was a moment's silence as Axel scratched the back of his head. "I don't have any money to give you," blurted the red head finally, and Aqua pursed her lips. "I can't work volunteer. I need money, too," She murmured, but Ventus waved her off. "He'll get the money. And you can stay with me and Roxas for the time being," He explained, and Aqua nodded to herself, taking it all in.
"That would be great." Then, Aqua waited for a response, but when it did not come, she chirped, "Well, shall we get started?" and plunked herself down on the couch. As she thumbed through paperwork Ventus crawled into the crook of her arm and snuggled into her, while Axel sat awkwardly on a chair across from the couch, twiddling his thumbs.
"So, Axel, you're being convicted because of your involvement with the Organization 13 scandals, right?" she asked, and Axel nodded.
"Do we have any witnesses? Any tapes?" She tried, and Axel nodded again, immediately thinking of Marluxia. "I know a few people," he mumbled, and Aqua smiled. "Can I have their names?" she tried, and Axel pursed his lips.
"Well, there are Roxas and Xion, and Naminé…" murmured the red head, immediately feeling bad for roping them into his affairs. "…And some others," He added with hesitance, making Aqua glance into his eyes. "You don't have to withhold people's information. I'm going to have to talk to them, anyway," She reasoned, making Axel squirm as he snapped, "I know, I just want to take care of him by myself," in response. "I need to know his name," pursued Aqua. After sighing in agitation, Axel growled "Marluxia," to which Aqua nodded, scribbling the note down amongst the pages of her files. "Do you know anyone who may be testifying against you?"
Axel shrugged, scratching the back of his head. "Xemnas. Maybe Larxene. But I doubt that," He added. "She used to like me a lot." Aqua tilted her head and looked at him closely. "Still, you never know what people will do," She murmured, looking down at the ground. Her eyelashes fluttered in front of her eyes as they moved over the pages in front of her, and Axel felt his face going red in strange embarrassment. With sudden intensity he jumped up and aired out the inside of his shirt, muttering about the heat as he escaped to the kitchen and clicked on the electric fan at the side of the counter. After standing in front of it for a few moments, he returned to the living room and sat down, causing Aqua to stare at him. In that moment, Axel had the idea that she thought he was strange. Ventus' expression was unintelligible.
"Well, I'm going to contact the Director and ask for his help on this case," Aqua sighed as she reached for her cellphone. In response Axel gaped. "You know Sora's dad?" asked the red head, causing Aqua to avert her gaze. "A long time ago," muttered the woman, brightening as she continued, "But I think he'd be willing to help us out." Then, she walked into the kitchen and made a call.
Once her tall frame moved from the living room into the confines of the kitchen, Ventus grinned at Axel, snickering. "What is it?" snapped Axel in reply, but Ventus shrugged, responding, "I've just never seen you so head over heels before."
"You haven't known me that long," muttered Axel.
"You're usually so cool and collected," murmured Ventus in response, but Axel sighed.
"I've never met a woman like her!" He mumbled. With a pitying smile, Ventus leaned towards him and hissed, "she's mine," making Axel scoff in discomfort, his eyes growing wide as he mulled over his numerous predicaments. For a moment, Ventus stared at him, but then the boy broke out laughing. "You look so damn sad!" he snorted, folding his palm over his open mouth as he laughed. "Aw, poor Axel. All of the people he likes are with me now," added the boy, making a pouty face. In response Axel looked down at his hands in bitter vehemence. The boy knew nothing.
"I don't think we've been sharing properly," Ventus then hissed, his face forming a grimace. "I give you everything but you never return the favor," To this Axel folded his arms over his chest and gritted his teeth, replying, "I've given all of myself to you!" in bated whisper, but Ventus shook his head.
"If you'd given all of yourself to me you'd be in love with me right now," He mumbled, adding in a less emotive drawl, "If you share yourself with me, I'll share my friends with you," making Axel blink twice.
"But you've got to give everything of yourself to me," Ventus restated, but Axel scowled. "What do you want me to do? I'm trying my best," snapped the red head. Ventus shook his head again. "Get a damn back bone, for a start. Stop feeling so sorry for yourself."
"Whatever," Axel mumbled, refusing to look Ventus in the eye. Disgust and hopelessness was dragging him into a careless stupor, and instead of speaking, Axel sat with his hands folded before his chin, which rested into the crook at the center of his collarbone. It was then that Aqua returned with her hands on her hips, standing behind the armchair Axel was seated in.
"Well!" she beamed, and patted Axel on the shoulder, sending a tingling sensation down his arm. "He said he'd help! He was delighted to hear from me. Axel, can you tell me again who is convicting you?"
"Xemnas," Axel muttered, and Aqua frowned. "I thought he was in jail."
Axel shook his head. "Not anymore. His dad took him out."
"You mean Master Xehanort?" Aqua breathed in a strangled voice. Axel nodded, asking, "You got a problem with that?" With shuffling feet Aqua replied, "We had a couple of run-ins in the past," but soon she strengthened and waved it off. "But that's alright. I'll deal with it. This needs to be done," She finished with a murmur that made Axel purse his lips and wonder what had happened to her. He gathered that she had personal ties with Xemnas' family.
The ensuing conversation between Axel and Aqua bored Ventus, and as they spoke he stood and mumbled that he was going to the bathroom. Aqua's eyes followed his frame as it left the room, but when he was gone she turned a cold gaze on Axel, growling, "Did you do something to him?" In response Axel snorted in derision. "What are you talking about?" he drawled, but before he could elaborate Aqua darted in front of him until their noses were inches apart.
"Something is very wrong with that boy," She muttered. "He was never like this when he was with me. He's changed."
"I've changed since I was a kid, too," Axel snickered, shrugging when Aqua shot a glower at him. "I don't know what happened. He was like this when he came here," Axel muttered.
"When did he come here?" Aqua asked and Axel thought about it. "A few weeks ago, I think," He replied. In response Aqua tilted her head to the side, whispering, "I wonder," with a look of worry. With relish Axel traced the contours of her face and took in her profile. His eyelids lowering as he was lost in thought. But finally Aqua pulled herself from her anxieties and glanced back at Axel, forcing him to avert his gaze. "I think that I'll be on my way in a moment," she murmured, frowning in concentration before adding, "I need to talk to the Director. Take care. Once you get that other witness of yours, tell me so I can talk to him."
Then, she got her things together and headed for the door, calling up the stairs to Ven as she hurried for the front hall. "Bye, Ven!" she shouted as the boy poked his head around from the upstairs hallway. "I'm coming back with dinner!" added the woman, and Ventus waved at her from the top of the stairs. Then, Aqua was out the door, down the hallway, and gone. Silence pervaded his surroundings as Axel fell into a pout, folding his hands into his trouser pockets and slumping his shoulders.
"You really like her, don't you?" Ventus sighed, moving towards the couch, and Axel glanced at the ground, deliberating on what Ventus had told him before, about the sharing. With hollow inflection the red head mumbled a yes in reply, and Ventus grinned.
"Come 'ere." Murmured the boy fondly, and after a moment's pause, Axel trudged over to him and crawled into his arms.