Visitors

The day Aqua visited them was warm and sunny, probably the last really nice day of the summer. While he didn't show it outwardly, Demyx could tell that Ienzo was excited. He'd been reading less about the sciences, more about magic and magic theory. The titles he read were more of a guide to his mood than the expressions on his face, Demyx was learning.

Demyx, on the other hand, was an anxious mess.

Maybe seeing Ienzo collapse and writhe in pain had traumatized him more than he thought. He was healthy and well now, and though Demyx knew logically that Ienzo would be fine, in Aqua's very capable hands, Demyx asked if he could come along, "you know, to watch." And to be emergency medical assistance. He bolstered this idea by adding, "I think it might help me with my healing, to learn about the other aspects of magic." This was sufficient enough distraction.

They met her down on the outskirts of town, where the city hesitantly gave way to open expanses of rocks. Demyx had never spoken to Aqua, at least not more than superficially via their phones. She was taller than Demyx expected, and smiled easily. "It's been so long since I've been here," she said to greet them. "It was so pretty when we flew over. I think soon things will be back to the way they were."

Ienzo smiled. "Thanks for doing this."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all. Ven was getting a little stir crazy anyway, so it's good for us to get out of there every now and again." She shook Ienzo's hand, then looked to Demyx. "It's nice to actually meet you in person."

"...You too," he said.

"Are you also my student?" she asked, a playful smile on her face.

"I wanted to watch. There's not much going on today." He shrugged, and felt bad for lying.

"Well then, watch away. Alright. Maybe you should come over here, Ienzo, where the light's better."

Demyx sat and rested on the stone. For a long while Aqua and Ienzo just talked, and Demyx realized that there probably wouldn't be much physically going on in this lesson. He relaxed a little, and looked at Kingstagram for a little while to kill the time. He was pretty sure that they wouldn't appreciate any impromptu concerts.

"Oh, hey. I was hoping you'd be here." The voice was familiar-yet-not, and Demyx's head snapped up.

The name caught under his tongue. Roxas. No, this wasn't Roxas, of course. He was smiling too hard to be Roxas. Ven just looked like him. Or did Roxas look like Ven? A spool of memory threatened in him, but before he could puzzle why, the boy reached for his hand.

"I'm Ventus. Call me Ven. I don't think we've actually really met."

"...No. Not really."

The boy plopped down next to Demyx. He couldn't help but stare. The resemblance was uncanny, but the way they bore themselves was not; Ven's posture was much looser and more open than Roxas's, and his eyes were just a touch closer to green than Roxas's blue.

"I'm sorry, but I'm having some wicked deja vu right now," he admitted.

Ventus laughed. "That's okay. I know you worked with Roxas. It still freaks me out too, a little."

Demyx tried to smile. "You said you were hoping to run into me."

Ven tapped his fingers into the dirt. "Well, I guess I had some questions."

"About Roxas? I don't think I'm the best authority on that. You should ask Lea or Xion. Or, like, Roxas himself."

Ven shook his head. "Ienzo told me you're from the past. Like fairy tale times."

There it was again, that itchy sensation in the back of his mind, uncomfortable and almost painful. "Uh, yeah. I am."

"And that you also remember it."

He took a deep breath. "Yeah, I… I do."

Ven hesitated, his look darkening somewhat. "I'm from then too. That's what Chirithy told me."

Something like a pained noise left his mouth. The memories washed over him, pieces he hadn't previously remembered clearly with the battering ram of trauma. "You were one of the union leaders," Demyx gasped. "After-"

"After the first war," Ven admitted sadly. "You really remember everything before that?"

"Yeah." His heart was beating so fast. "Do you… do you remember any of it?"

"It feels like a dream, mostly," Ven said. "Like… I almost remember, I can see it in my head, but there's… there's nothing. Chirithy has been helping me with that. I want to know who I was. And how it made me who I am now. You know?"

"I do know." Demyx was reeling. "I thought I… I was the only one left." With Lauriam, Elrena, and Luxord's Somebody missing in action, he was all alone, at least in that sense.

Ven shook his head. "You know, I almost think I remember you," he said. "You were in Aced's union, and then-"

"Ephemer's," Demyx said. It was all so hazy, so weird, as if it were physically hard to remember. Which it was, because the Foretellers had overwritten it all; both sets, actually. Perhaps it was only Ienzo's magic that gave him access to this.

"You weren't supposed to remember," Ven said. His eyes were watery. "We wanted to take that pain away-She said it was the right thing to do-"

"It's not your fault, Ven. My mind's probably just weird."

He sniffed. "I know."

"...You said Chirithy is helping you. You still have one?"

Ven frowned. "You don't?"

"They were… killed." He'd been so overwhelmed when his memories returned that he never properly mourned that loss.

"I'm sorry." He seemed at a loss for what to say. "Do you want to see them?"

"I think I do."

"Alright. Can you come out?" Ven asked the open air.

There was a puff of white smoke… and there they were.

The Chirithy looked exactly like Demyx remembered. Its blue, quasi-embroidered eyes. Its shorn gray fur.

Demyx felt tears against his face, hot and insistent.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you okay?" the Chirithy asked.

"Yeah, it's just… it is so good to see you. I didn't think I'd ever see one of you again."

They were nonplussed. "Well I'm here now."

He laughed. "I guess you are."

They toddled over to him. "I remember your Chirithy," they said. "We were… we were good friends."

"I miss them."

"I do too." They seemed to think for a minute. "But don't be sad! Think about how amazing it is that we're all here together now."

"I guess it is something." He dabbed at the tears. "Ienzo would say it's mathematically impossible."

"Not much is impossible if you're determined enough," they said.

Demyx nodded. "Yeah. You're right."

They must've talked for hours.

The more he spoke with Ven, and with the Chirithy, the clearer things were becoming. Hidden in all the pain were odd moments of joy, friends in common. They reminisced about the old worlds, talked at length about the Foretellers, the way Ven's eyes would flash as the pieces came together. Demyx didn't realize how much time had passed until a shadow fell over them.

"Look at you two, getting along like a house on fire," Aqua said. She smiled. "Ven… is something of a friend collector."

Ven shrugged. "We have a lot more in common than we thought."

Ienzo joined them. He was a bit mussed, a bit sweaty, and Demyx stood. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"No headaches? No chest pain?"

He squeezed Demyx's hand. "I assure you I'm fine. I told Aqua about the situation."

"She's nothing if not practical," Ven added.

She rolled her eyes. "Only because I lived with you two goofs for so long."

Demyx noticed Ienzo's gaze, which had fallen onto the Chirithy sleeping on Ven's lap. He caught Demyx's eye, then nodded once in understanding.

"Are you two hungry?" Aqua asked. "We're taking a dinner break."

Aqua and Ven stayed for little over a week. There was plenty of room for them at the castle, and Demyx found they were more known than he thought-Aeleus and Dilan both recognized them. Even shared the same fascination with Ven as he previously did with Demyx, running his DNA. Seeing it there, on paper, that they were from the same time-that this wasn't some huge lie he'd subconsciously come up with-felt weird, to say the least.

Demyx's paranoia about Ienzo's health had thankfully been misplaced-Aqua was exceedingly cautious. There were a few days in that clearing of centering exercises, days where he and Ven continued to get to know each other. Sometimes the Chirithy also hung out with them, but for the most part Chirithy did what they wanted.

"I'm bored," Ven said after the third day or so of this. "Come on. Let's spar."

Demyx froze. "What?"

"It'll be fun!" he insisted.

"Fun." Demyx shook his head. "I'm okay, thanks."

Ven frowned. "We wouldn't hurt each other."

"I know, I know that. I just. I try not to summon it if I don't have to."

Ven sat back down in the dirt, thinking hard about this. "Why?"

"I don't… I don't like it."

The more he tried to explain himself, the more Ven seemed confused.

"It's just…" Demyx swallowed some excess spit. "I can't help but associate it with violence. With people dying. I didn't get to forget, like you. I didn't have a Master Eraqus."

Ven thought about this for a long time. "It's like… any other symbol," he conceded. "Like… it's an object that could be awful or great, or just in the middle somewhere. But it… it is part of you, whether you want it to be or not."

Demyx felt his eyes watering and blinked it back. He was not going to cry in front of a sixteen-year-old. Again.

"I think you can make it into something good," Ven said. "Another part of yourself that's worth liking, instead of ignoring. You know? And that doesn't mean you have to ever summon or use it."

He said it so simply, but to Demyx it was a revelation that months of therapy hadn't been able to penetrate. "Oh god, you're right," he said. He'd been working too hard to ignore his past, to write it off, to create himself without it. But he just couldn't. "Wow."

Ven cocked his head. "You okay?"

"No, I'm… I'm good, actually. It's just…" He chuckled weakly. "You have no idea how long I've waited for someone to tell me that."

He smiled. "Happy to do it."

Demyx glanced over to Ienzo and Aqua, and found Ienzo staring back at him, a simple fire spell crackling around his hands. He gave him a thumbs-up, and Ienzo grinned.

It seemed like they'd both found something they'd needed.