"Knives! Knives!" Legato's desperate cries rang out through the hall
as the plant stalked away with former servant in tow, crunching the fragile
glasses in his fist and then dropping them to the floor with a tinkling of
broken glass, smirking as Legato cried out. Pausing to see his distress,
he now realized that the glasses had rebuilt themselves, this time into a
mirror. He snatched this too from Legato's hand. "Let's see how
strong you are when your 'Eden' crashes down around you, just like mine."
Felicity was absent now, which wasn't surprising anymore. Instead, lingering in a doorway nearby, was Midvalley, dressed now in a casual black suit. Sylvia was leaning against the wall - what? Did this thing have legs or something?
Knives angled the mirror to try to catch a glimpse of Midvalley in it and failed, realizing that he, too, was just an illusion. But an illusion you could touch? That was something different. Something Knives could use...
With Legato following after, crying like a stupid child, begging him to stop, he ran up and down the halls, trying all the doors, grunting each time he didn't find what he was looking for, even though he wasn't quite sure what that was. Finally, at long last, he turned to Legato and threateningly poked him in the chest, hard enough for him to cringe. "Show me the heart of this place. What generates all these things?"
Legato blinked now very dull, golden eyes, mouth gaping slightly. Something told him he had just lost all power, that he had reverted back to the way he had been three years ago...and that he was going to do whatever Knives told him.
~~~~~
Midvalley kept along with them eerily, and although Knives never really saw him walking or talking, just standing there from time to time, the Italian man was going through different motions each time. Once he was drinking some sort of soft drink from a straw. Another time he was yawning. Once he even played a few notes on Sylvia and then balked and cried out because someone had destroyed his 'la'.
Legato stopped at a door, the only one that was wooden and plain to the naked eye, and paused, letting out a gentle sigh. Then, looking up at Knives, he murmured, "Please don't be hasty..." and swung it open.
Knives found the room disgustingly plain until his eyes fell upon the mirror, and, surprise surprise, it was highly impressive, adorned with crystal and diamonds, the walls silver inlaid with rubies and the floor of pure gold. A steel chair, much like the last, at the back of the room, became a throne. And standing at the arm was that infuriatingly silent blonde man, the one with blue eyes, the one that never spoke. Tall and thin, his white robes seemed to glow almost, and with his long face tilted, curiously large blue eyes alight, he barely looked human. So....ethereal...
"So, how does this thing work?" Knives was near determined to tear down the place with his bare hands. He hated being weak.
The blonde man responded immediately. "Welcome to Fairlight. This is the land of dreams with no beginning and no end - make of it what you want. There is no truth here. Do you want to be strong? I can make you strong. Do you want someone to love you?" He smiled. "I'll bring someone to you. It may not be real, but if you believe, it can be better than reality. What do you wish for?"
Knives assumed he was being spoken to. "I want to know what you do to stop all this."
The blonde man looked confused, flickering out of existence for just a moment. "Welcome to Fairlight. This is the land of dreams with no beginning and no end - make of it what you want. There is no -"
Knives sighed in exasperation, preferring not to listen anymore. This was obviously some sort of computer system, highly advanced yet inferior. Walking over to the blonde man, he took his chin in hand, raising his eyebrows when warm flesh met his fingertips. It wasn't a hologram. Surprised, he turned the still talking face from side to side, circled him a few times, and then stopped before him. Muttering, he began to pat himself down, wondering if Legato had gone to the trouble of searching him before he had awaken. Jubilant, he drew a dagger from his sleeve. Knives' number one rule - never go without a weapon no matter how great you are.
Legato turned his head away sadly as he saw Knives raise the knife, and flinched and shut his eyes when he heard the sound of that cold metal sliding through skin. The blonde man was silent save a few gasps and his dying words. "Do you....want someone....to love you...? I can...bring you..."
Midvalley raised his eyebrows and elbowed Legato. "Hey, what's going on?"
The blue-haired man looked back to see Knives' victim lying motionless on the floor - no blood, just a gaping wound, mouth and eyes open. "It's over," Legato whispered.
"Hmm?" Midvalley looked raised his hands and inspected his palms, appearing intrigued even as they began to fade out of existence. Along with him, everything else began to disappear, and whispers of an entire world falling into shadows accompanied the destruction.
~~~~~
When the end had come to pass, Knives found himself, along with Legato, in a void of darkness. He turned to the slighter man, smiling evilly, and said, "How do you feel now?"
"Kni - Master...." Legato hung his head.
Knives fell upon the pitiful human with a series of savage blows and kicks, beating him even after he fell to the ground. Blood smeared across his tan skin, golden eyes clouded in pain, and when Knives felt his foot connect with Legato's rib, hearing a slight crunch, he stopped, satisfied. Breathing heavily, he sat down cross-legged beside the limp slave and grunted. Then, his eyes widened.
Felicity was sitting there, her legs tucked demurely beneath her, and gently, she pulled his head up into her lap, brushing slender digits over his bruised cheeks and letting her fingertip run over his busted lip to gather some of the blood. When his yellow, cat-like eyes opened, glimmering up at her, she smiled, and he returned the gesture.
"Explain - now." Knives didn't like being in the dark, mentally and physically.
"When I found this place," croaked Legato, "Felicity came to me...because I wanted her to..."
"So, you never really had a wife. You had a fictional friend you fantasized to be married to you."
"She's real..."
"What?"
"When I was very young...I loved a woman named Felicity...and she loved me. I wanted to marry her, but we were only sixteen...and she was....walking down the street one day..." He gulped quickly, breathing no longer an easy task. "Some men attacked her... I had to learn of the accident from her family...they hated me and told me only that in a letter. I didn't know if she had lived or not, but when I came here, that man...Damuno, he told me she was still out there. But she was almost dead. She had survived only to become very sick some years later. He said I could bring her here - or at least a part of her - but she'd never be able to speak or to stay with me continually if I didn't bring all of her here. I needed a life source - a powerful one - to make her well and fetch her." Tears streamed down his cheeks. "That's why I brought you here."
Knives stared at him coldly. "How dare you..."
Legato shuddered with the intensity of holding back his sobs. "I just wanted...someone to love me... And when he asked me what I wanted... I said, "What do I want? I want was taken from me! What no one would ever give back! I want love! And I want it in the form of...of...Felicity." He closed his eyes. "And so this part of her was brought to me. But her real self...her body...lies in a hospital somewhere. And now I'll never get to her. I think we're trapped down here."
"Well, I'm not going to accept that." Knives rose and stalked towards a tunnel that he could see in the distance, but no matter how long he walked, or how fast, he never seemed to get any closer to it or farther from Legato. He returned to sitting. "Now what? There has to be a way out."
"Only Felicity can get us out now," muttered Legato. "But that's not happening. I'd have to sacrifice her remaining life energy and I refuse. And don't try to take us by force. You have no power down here."
Knives scowled, preferring to prove otherwise. He tried to lunge at the couple, but found a barrier between them. Worried for the first time, he ran pale fingers through his hair. "What now? Do you just expect to lie here for the rest of your life, no matter how short it may be?"
Legato didn't even feel it was worth his time to answer, just lying an arm across his forehead and drifting off to sleep. Or at least trying.
"Tell me how you got here," commanded Knives.
And Legato, too tired to verbally communicate, touched their minds together. Once again, he felt that familiar feeling of being connected with Knives, soothing and disturbing all at the same time. Without lingering on their past lives together, he let the dream sequence begin, playing out before his old master's eyes.
~~~~~
Thanks for the reviews and for the cookie! LOL I appreciate it a lot. Ok, let's see. Summary time:
Big flashback of how Legato found his 'Eden', Felicity, and love. Knives listens intently and says nothing. Felicity has something to say, but it's very difficult for poor Legato to accept. So much for his trying to turn his life around...
Felicity was absent now, which wasn't surprising anymore. Instead, lingering in a doorway nearby, was Midvalley, dressed now in a casual black suit. Sylvia was leaning against the wall - what? Did this thing have legs or something?
Knives angled the mirror to try to catch a glimpse of Midvalley in it and failed, realizing that he, too, was just an illusion. But an illusion you could touch? That was something different. Something Knives could use...
With Legato following after, crying like a stupid child, begging him to stop, he ran up and down the halls, trying all the doors, grunting each time he didn't find what he was looking for, even though he wasn't quite sure what that was. Finally, at long last, he turned to Legato and threateningly poked him in the chest, hard enough for him to cringe. "Show me the heart of this place. What generates all these things?"
Legato blinked now very dull, golden eyes, mouth gaping slightly. Something told him he had just lost all power, that he had reverted back to the way he had been three years ago...and that he was going to do whatever Knives told him.
~~~~~
Midvalley kept along with them eerily, and although Knives never really saw him walking or talking, just standing there from time to time, the Italian man was going through different motions each time. Once he was drinking some sort of soft drink from a straw. Another time he was yawning. Once he even played a few notes on Sylvia and then balked and cried out because someone had destroyed his 'la'.
Legato stopped at a door, the only one that was wooden and plain to the naked eye, and paused, letting out a gentle sigh. Then, looking up at Knives, he murmured, "Please don't be hasty..." and swung it open.
Knives found the room disgustingly plain until his eyes fell upon the mirror, and, surprise surprise, it was highly impressive, adorned with crystal and diamonds, the walls silver inlaid with rubies and the floor of pure gold. A steel chair, much like the last, at the back of the room, became a throne. And standing at the arm was that infuriatingly silent blonde man, the one with blue eyes, the one that never spoke. Tall and thin, his white robes seemed to glow almost, and with his long face tilted, curiously large blue eyes alight, he barely looked human. So....ethereal...
"So, how does this thing work?" Knives was near determined to tear down the place with his bare hands. He hated being weak.
The blonde man responded immediately. "Welcome to Fairlight. This is the land of dreams with no beginning and no end - make of it what you want. There is no truth here. Do you want to be strong? I can make you strong. Do you want someone to love you?" He smiled. "I'll bring someone to you. It may not be real, but if you believe, it can be better than reality. What do you wish for?"
Knives assumed he was being spoken to. "I want to know what you do to stop all this."
The blonde man looked confused, flickering out of existence for just a moment. "Welcome to Fairlight. This is the land of dreams with no beginning and no end - make of it what you want. There is no -"
Knives sighed in exasperation, preferring not to listen anymore. This was obviously some sort of computer system, highly advanced yet inferior. Walking over to the blonde man, he took his chin in hand, raising his eyebrows when warm flesh met his fingertips. It wasn't a hologram. Surprised, he turned the still talking face from side to side, circled him a few times, and then stopped before him. Muttering, he began to pat himself down, wondering if Legato had gone to the trouble of searching him before he had awaken. Jubilant, he drew a dagger from his sleeve. Knives' number one rule - never go without a weapon no matter how great you are.
Legato turned his head away sadly as he saw Knives raise the knife, and flinched and shut his eyes when he heard the sound of that cold metal sliding through skin. The blonde man was silent save a few gasps and his dying words. "Do you....want someone....to love you...? I can...bring you..."
Midvalley raised his eyebrows and elbowed Legato. "Hey, what's going on?"
The blue-haired man looked back to see Knives' victim lying motionless on the floor - no blood, just a gaping wound, mouth and eyes open. "It's over," Legato whispered.
"Hmm?" Midvalley looked raised his hands and inspected his palms, appearing intrigued even as they began to fade out of existence. Along with him, everything else began to disappear, and whispers of an entire world falling into shadows accompanied the destruction.
~~~~~
When the end had come to pass, Knives found himself, along with Legato, in a void of darkness. He turned to the slighter man, smiling evilly, and said, "How do you feel now?"
"Kni - Master...." Legato hung his head.
Knives fell upon the pitiful human with a series of savage blows and kicks, beating him even after he fell to the ground. Blood smeared across his tan skin, golden eyes clouded in pain, and when Knives felt his foot connect with Legato's rib, hearing a slight crunch, he stopped, satisfied. Breathing heavily, he sat down cross-legged beside the limp slave and grunted. Then, his eyes widened.
Felicity was sitting there, her legs tucked demurely beneath her, and gently, she pulled his head up into her lap, brushing slender digits over his bruised cheeks and letting her fingertip run over his busted lip to gather some of the blood. When his yellow, cat-like eyes opened, glimmering up at her, she smiled, and he returned the gesture.
"Explain - now." Knives didn't like being in the dark, mentally and physically.
"When I found this place," croaked Legato, "Felicity came to me...because I wanted her to..."
"So, you never really had a wife. You had a fictional friend you fantasized to be married to you."
"She's real..."
"What?"
"When I was very young...I loved a woman named Felicity...and she loved me. I wanted to marry her, but we were only sixteen...and she was....walking down the street one day..." He gulped quickly, breathing no longer an easy task. "Some men attacked her... I had to learn of the accident from her family...they hated me and told me only that in a letter. I didn't know if she had lived or not, but when I came here, that man...Damuno, he told me she was still out there. But she was almost dead. She had survived only to become very sick some years later. He said I could bring her here - or at least a part of her - but she'd never be able to speak or to stay with me continually if I didn't bring all of her here. I needed a life source - a powerful one - to make her well and fetch her." Tears streamed down his cheeks. "That's why I brought you here."
Knives stared at him coldly. "How dare you..."
Legato shuddered with the intensity of holding back his sobs. "I just wanted...someone to love me... And when he asked me what I wanted... I said, "What do I want? I want was taken from me! What no one would ever give back! I want love! And I want it in the form of...of...Felicity." He closed his eyes. "And so this part of her was brought to me. But her real self...her body...lies in a hospital somewhere. And now I'll never get to her. I think we're trapped down here."
"Well, I'm not going to accept that." Knives rose and stalked towards a tunnel that he could see in the distance, but no matter how long he walked, or how fast, he never seemed to get any closer to it or farther from Legato. He returned to sitting. "Now what? There has to be a way out."
"Only Felicity can get us out now," muttered Legato. "But that's not happening. I'd have to sacrifice her remaining life energy and I refuse. And don't try to take us by force. You have no power down here."
Knives scowled, preferring to prove otherwise. He tried to lunge at the couple, but found a barrier between them. Worried for the first time, he ran pale fingers through his hair. "What now? Do you just expect to lie here for the rest of your life, no matter how short it may be?"
Legato didn't even feel it was worth his time to answer, just lying an arm across his forehead and drifting off to sleep. Or at least trying.
"Tell me how you got here," commanded Knives.
And Legato, too tired to verbally communicate, touched their minds together. Once again, he felt that familiar feeling of being connected with Knives, soothing and disturbing all at the same time. Without lingering on their past lives together, he let the dream sequence begin, playing out before his old master's eyes.
~~~~~
Thanks for the reviews and for the cookie! LOL I appreciate it a lot. Ok, let's see. Summary time:
Big flashback of how Legato found his 'Eden', Felicity, and love. Knives listens intently and says nothing. Felicity has something to say, but it's very difficult for poor Legato to accept. So much for his trying to turn his life around...