Chapter 10: Talking Shadows
'The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.'— Philip K. Dick
Vanitas knew how anger felt. He knew how anger regularly flooded his veins with a hot feeling, while his heartbeat quickened, thundering within his chest. Anger was a strong feeling that could be controlled and turned into an instrument for success. This fact was something Vanitas had been taught and had learned. Master Xehanort had grilled this into his very being.
But right now, Vanitas wasn't feeling anger. Anger didn't cause him to scream to the heavens while smashing apart storm pillars in the 'Badlands' of the Keyblade Graveyard with his bare hands. It didn't cause him to willingly kill Unversed that spawned from his darkness, adding agony upon the feeling storming in his chest. It didn't make him burn through power so quickly, a tornado of darkness roaring around him.
Vanitas was feeling white, hot rage.
Vanitas roared with fury unlike any he had felt before as he brought his right fist into a boulder, which cracked and fractured apart under his mighty blow. Normally, this show of strength would impress even him, but right now, he couldn't focus on anything but this infectious hatred and rage.
Panting heavily, Vanitas surveyed the now ruined landscape around him, yellow eyes darting back and forth erratically. His left hand balled into a tight fist, blood oozing down from deep gashes in his flesh.
"That…goddamn meat puppet! He thinks he's so fuckin' smooth, like he deserves anything! I swear to God, to Kingdom Hearts, if Xehanort doesn't get that bastard as a new suit, I will skin him alive!" Vanitas concluded with a scream, compressing the ground below him with an unrestrained burst of foul darkness. It was even more intense than usual from the being of pure darkness, which certainly quite impressive when taking in the fact he was the embodiment of darkness.
He had never felt foul darkness, after all. Ever!
He needed to try and calm down. He was supposed to be reporting to Xehanort on the progress of Terra, Aqua, and Ventus soon; if he came rolling in with a cloud of miasma around his body and face contorted in fury, then Xehanort would likely start asking too many questions. Vanitas could not afford to slip up here.
He could not lose Aqua because he threw a temper tantrum.
All because Terra was working to take what was rightfully Vanitas's. Aqua was never going to belong with Terra; he was a trash bag. And pretty girls with sound judgement would never lower themselves to being with someone so far down on the food chain.
"Tch…calm down, Vanitas. This is just a minor annoyance, so don't think about it," Vanitas told himself as he closed his eyes and flopped down into a sloppy sitting position. As he began to relax and think about Aqua, her light, the X-blade, the pain he had inflicted on others, and being complete, the darkness that coated him began to recede. Unversed pooled down onto the ground and then slithered back into his form. A sort of peace came back over Vanitas and he exhaled.
After his release of breath, he opened his eyes. He was back in control.
Now that he was no longer about to throw his plans to the wind and go kill Terra, he quickly began to gather his thoughts and the information he had learned thus far. He knew that Master Eraqus was still back on Land of Departure and had become fully aware of a certain blonde's disappearance. But he was hamstringed by his inability to communicate with his allies quickly enough: namely, he couldn't contact his students nor could he leave Land of Departure undefended. He could contact Yen Sid and Arthur, but that still left Aqua, Terra, and Ventus well in the dark.
Master Arthur has proven to be quite brutal: his home world was fairly secured because Vanitas was not willing to generate as powerful of Unversed as needed to bog down the Master in combat. Instead, he had bogged him down by attacking his subjects, making the King race from place to place to chase off the Unversed. Vanitas had no desire to face him in combat either, although he felt confident he could take the Keyblade Master on.
'Still, I think I better get my X-blade before I try and tackle him…' Vanitas mused as he strolled over to a recently overturned boulder, bounding up to his seat and taking his perch.
Coming as no surprise to anyone, Ventus was a weak as ever. Sure, he had gotten a bit stronger, but unlike Terra and Aqua, who Vanitas had deliberately sent tougher Unversed after, Ventus was not gifted with such opponents. If Xehanort asked why Ventus wasn't improving at all, Vanitas would simply tell the old coot that the blonde wasn't showing any signs of improving, despite Vanitas's efforts to make him stronger. After all, he didn't want to kill Ventus accidently and mess up Xehanort's plan.
Thus, Vanitas would be setting himself up with a get-out-of-jail card for the future when and if Master Xehanort found out about his plans for Aqua.
Now, Terra was not showing any positive signs for Xehanort's body swapping madness. While he was getting stronger, he wasn't succumbing to his inner darkness so easily. The reasons behind Terra's oddly strong resistance to his dark temptations was his extraordinarily strong bond with Aqua and his desire to prove to Master Eraqus that he was worthy of the title Keyblade Master. After all, the man was his father figure and the only Master who had shown faith in the brunette. And he was falling—no, he had fallen for, Vanitas admitted with disgust—head over heels for Aqua. Hell, Terra was even starting to show signs of channeling his darkness without it totally overtaking him!
Slow progress that could be reversed if given the right nudge, Vanitas did note with a bit of a sinister grin. He'd have to recommend to Xehanort that Terra needed a bit more convincing and they'd have to weaken the bonded between Terra and his loved ones.
Then there came the one who mattered most to Vanitas. The bluenette that made his heart skip a few beats. She was his and only his; he would make it so.
Aqua was getting much stronger, faster than he had expected. She was like the unyielding steel of a battleship in her mentality. At this rate, the possibility of them joining as one and creating the key to everyone's salvation was going to arrive very, very soon. He already had plans to engage her in a fight to test her himself, but he knew he had to wait a bit longer before he could take her light all for himself. He definitely wanted to see what she was capable over; he lusted to see the depths of her power.
But then again, he lusted for a lot more than just her power.
Vanitas groaned a bit, shaking his head back and form rapidly. Now was not the time to think about those sorts of thoughts. He had to go and see Xehanort before the old man came looking for him. He was not going to let the old Master engage him in conversation outside of when Vanitas felt ready. The Keyblade Master was far too observant to make a mistake in front of.
With a careless flick of his hand, Vanitas created a Corridor of Darkness to the cave where Xehanort had set up a base of operations of this dusty world. As the portal to the other side of the planet swirled into existence, Vanitas slipped from his sitting positon to the ground, casually walking to the portal. It was time to put his game face on.
In and out; it was just like that and Vanitas was outside of the rather darkness polluted cave that Xehanort had turned into a base of operations, a lab…a prison. It was everything Xehanort wanted it to be, of course.
He was just about ready to walk inside the cave to speak to Xehanort when he heard a voice that he had never heard before. Someone else was in there with that old coot? What in the hell was going on? Immediately, Vanitas repressed his power and inched to the mouth of the cave, staying up against the edge of the entrance. As whoever it was spoke, this voice did something Vanitas thought only Xehanort could accomplish.
It sent a chill of fear up his spine.
"Heh, heh, heh. This is a brilliant idea. I love it! It's like I have always said, Xehanort. It's kill or be killed!"
Vanitas felt his right eye twitch under his mask, while his teeth gritted. Vanitas didn't mind the idea of killing people or hurting others, but this guy or lady—he couldn't really tell with how distorted the voice was—took it a step too far. Why kill everything when you'd be left with nothing to rule? As Vanitas listened in on the conversation, he heard Xehanort reply to the voice's owner.
"Ah, you must control your desire to kill. After all, we have much grander plans than simple murder and chaos," Xehanort replied with his rough voice, seemingly amused but this person's overwhelming desire for killing. "That our plan sates your killing desires is merely a bonus to the greater scheme of things."
"And that our plan gets us both what we really want is what matters, Xehanort. Golly, you'd better remember that! You've played the game long enough to know we ain't friends," the voice retorted quite promptly before cackling with a such sinister malice that Vanitas could only imagine the sort of nasty character he was going to have to deal with later. There was a pause before the voice concluded, "We're just business partners. I ain't your puppet and you know it."
"Indeed…we are partners in this endeavor. All three of us know what we must do to ensure the X-blade's creation. Vanitas knows his role as well; he will not fail us." Xehanort replied to the two other figures that were within the cave with him. Three people and the masked boy hadn't even heard of them once!? Vanitas knew Xehanort wasn't one to trust completely, but how far did this old man's reach go? How many people did he have employed in this Keyblade War plan?
Vanitas was going to have to tread very lightly…
As Xehanort dismissed whoever was in the cave with him, Vanitas elected to wait a good while before he'd go speak to the old man. It would be too suspicious to waltz in there right after he dismissed his 'partners.' He'd just have to deliver his message to Master Xehanort a bit later.
As Vanitas sulked away, his face contorted in anger as he thought, 'Just you wait, old man. You're not the one who's gonna save this universe!'
Land of Departure just wasn't the same without the laughter and faces of his students—with one now being a former student—Master Eraqus had concluded. With Terra and Aqua out trying to defend the worlds from darkness that was now trying to choke everything it touched and Ventus having run away, the old Master found the castle to be a rather lonely place.
Oh, how Eraqus wished he could rush off after Ventus and bring him back. While the blonde had shown remarkable leaps of improvement under his tutelage here, he was fair from really ready to face the horrors of the universe. He was naïve and young; while one couldn't learn everything about life via teaching alone, there was a certain stage where all people had to go out and be free.
Ventus was not at that point in his young life. Aqua and Terra were still considerably older than him and had been training for far longer. And while Ventus wasn't weak, he was not as powerful as either of his peers. He was putting himself in danger; Eraqus knew this well. He also knew his young student had no idea what worry he had caused his Master, nor could he understand the worry he'd place on Aqua and Terra once they both learned Ventus was not under any protective care.
The blonde boy, without even realizing what he was doing, would be an ever-nagging distraction in the backs of his friend's minds. Something like that, while showing the capacity of love and friendship, was also a dangerous way to fight. Distractions caused slip ups.
And those could lead to death.
But, alas, Land of Departure could not be left unguarded. There was no one else to protect this safe haven from darkness aside from the experienced Master himself. But while Master Eraqus might be stuck on this world, he was not totally hapless.
As Eraqus entered the Great Hall, mind weighed down with Ventus's disappearance, he knew he had to try and contact his allies and friends. Sadly, he would be unable to contact Aqua and Terra. He had no technique to easily contact them, despite the powerful bonds they all held with one another. Until they either returned to Land of Departure or happened across one of the allies Eraqus could contact, they would be in the dark about Ventus.
The same went with Master Xehanort, due to his missing status. However, Master Eraqus was starting to feel more suspicious about his friend's sudden disappearance. Something didn't add up with the entire situation.
But the list of those he could reach out to was long. Master Eraqus could reach Master Arthur, Yen Sid, and a few other points of contact the Master had gained during his travels and own adventures of days past. While he was normally not one to break the rules, this time was wholly unique. Sitting back and staring at the approaching storm while doing nothing to prepare for it was unacceptable behavior of a Keyblade Master.
Finding himself standing before the pink crystal, Master Eraqus began to call on his powers to open a channel to Yen Sid.
Hello, hello everyone! I hope everyone has seen the new trailer for 2.8! I am so friggin' hyped up right now! It looks so damn awesome!
Anyways, excitement aside, it has been a long time since I posted a chapter. This one is much shorter than the last ones, but I can assure you the new few will be longer. I had to take a break from writing due to life forcing me to move again due to a furlough with the company I worked for. So I really do apologize for the massive delay!
I really appreciate all the reviews, favorites, and views this story has gotten thus far. I am really looking forward to continuing this story and I hope all of you enjoy it!
Thanks so much!