The Potter's Wheel

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Dion acted without thinking. He kicked his weight forward and reached to slide across the metal grate, grasping at Vax's thin wrist. The tower creaked, cold metal grinding against cold metal as their hands grappled to get a good grip. Dion's body began to slide forward, his ankles striving to hook around the poles holding the railing in place.

Vax still gripped the gem in his free hand. He stuffed it into a pocket in his jacket and reached to clap both hands firmly around his brother's. They stared at each other with huge, terrified eyes, until Dion spoke.

"Now why did you do that for?"

Vax took the defensive. "Oh, I don't know, I was bored... thought it was kinda pretty so I threw myself off the tower to get it!" Vax scrunched his face up, glaring up at him before he shivered. "Are you going to help me or not?"

Dion grimaced. His fingers were slipping. Vax's hands were always so damn dry... "I'm gonna... s-swing you over there... and you grab onto that thing sticking out, do you see?"

Vax glanced over and nodded. Slowly, Dion started to swing him to the side, and back again. It was a slow, painful process that took patience, but when his arms and shoulders began to burn, it was difficult not to hurry. He gritted his teeth, exhaling sharply each time he breathed in... the pain became excruciating... nearly to the point where he couldn't hold on, but he'd be damned if he let go of his brother.

Finally, Dion judged the distance and discerned that Vax was in reach. "Okay... are you ready to grab it now?"

Vax turned his head to the side slightly as he swung, nodded, and gazed up at Dion. "I'll be okay, brother. Just swing me over."

"Al-Alright.... Ready? One... two.... thr--" The last vowels got lost in his grunt of strain as he swung him hard, one last time, toward the ladder and the broken metal piece sticking out from the platform. Vax freed his hand, stretching out as he kicked his leg for more momentum, his fingers closing around the cold metal. He was starting to lose feeling in them by this point...

But he was there. He grasped it firmly, his foot swinging out to hook his ankle securely around the ladder's siding. He pulled himself up right, pushed off from the broken support beam and grasped the ladder securely with a loud, gusting sigh. He climbed up, shuddering violently at the feel of solid metal underneath his knees.

Dion knelt next to him. He had gotten back up by his own means, and now rested his hand against his shoulder. "Forget it. No one's going to call, Vax. Let's just get down from here."

The warmth of their secret inner sanctum provided feeling for their frozen limbs again. In silence, after the other youths had gotten to sleep, they huddled together in Dion's bunk bed beneath the blankets, observing the wonder of the gleaming jewel.

"What do you think it is?"

"I don't know..." Vax lifted it in his fingers, and handed it to his twin, his multi-shaded eyes glittering in wonder. "Touch it... it's warm."

Dion held it, cradled it in both hands. In the darkness, it cast an eerie blue glow upon their faces. He lost himself in the depths, infinite and intricate, seeing images flicker like moths near the edges of the precious object. Myriad of colors blurred his vision, blinded him yet made him see. Colors within colors, they coiled around each other slowly, like lazy reptiles.

...me...

He narrowed his eyes and bit his cheek in stern concentration.

Vax frowned. "What?"

"Shh--"

Free me. The voice tickled to the edges of his consciousness. It was deep... almost hypnotic. Obviously male for a voice to be so deep... it was soothing, although sad. Someone was trapped inside of there...?

"It's magic," Vax hissed by his ear. "I know it is. We should throw it away."

"If it's magic, then it wouldn't have come all the way over here! We have guards against magic to keep the north away..."

"So what *is* it then?" Vax reached to take the gem from him, but Dion was suddenly possessed by the desire to keep it. And he did, hugging it to his chest. "Alright, you can keep it, retard... Why are you acting so weird lately?"

Dion squeezed his eyes shut, his face flooding with heat. His hands muted off the light, which was fast fading to a dimmer glow. It still felt warm against his chest, and he tucked it underneath his shirt to feel it strangely start to pound... it felt like a heartbeat, loud against his ribcage like Vax's heart when they bedded together as children. Loud and strong and stubborn. It felt good... strangely 'right' to have it so near.

"I don't know, brother," he whispered hoarsely, too entranced by the heartbeat to give his best friend an answer. "I've been thinking lately... about why we're the only ones who survived. Why this place is so sacred."

Vax merely watched him, huddling close beneath the blanket which was pulled over their heads partway, like a collective hood. Their thighs brushed together, but neither of them noticed their ultimate proximity. "Everyone has left us. Mother and Father.. although Father left us sooner than everyone else... Now our friends are being threatened. Do you think we can actually survive like this forever?"

"No. I-I honestly don't know what to do, I--"

"So we've got to do something. Just the two of us."

"But what about--"

"They're lost, Vax. They're going to get eaten ventually. They need to learn how to survive on their own. That might sound cold but that's the only way..." Dion turned his head toward his brother, saw that his eyes were filled with unshed tears. How cold could have sounded? He bit the inside of his cheek and reached out to brush his fingers through his hair. "Vax... it's not anyone's fault... we can't keep going on like this. We can't take care of everyone."

Vax spluttered at once, his teeth chattering with the weight of what Dion had said. "B-But just give it more time! W-We could teach them, we could do *something*! Are you saying we have to just leave them? That's crazy, no way, I'm not doing it!"

"Survival isn't something you teach!! It's something you're born with. It's the will to live and these kids... they just don't have it." The pain was mounting. It was starting to hurt to say these things. But suddenly he knew that they were the awful truth.

Still, Vax was not to be easily put aside. "No, that's not true! They still can, no matter what, you can't just give up on th--" He choked suddenly, his alarmed cry muffled by a firm hand clapped over his mouth. The boys tumbled over each other on the mattress, as Dion pinned his brother roughly against the tattered, scratchy wool blanket.

"Just shut up!" Dion hissed, tears dripping onto his brother's face. "There's nothing we can do for them! We have to go warn other people... maybe this damned crystal can help us do something about it. If it isn't magic, then maybe it's something that can actually stop the shadow walkers. The rest of the kids will just have to get along without us, do you understand?"

The look of hurt, betrayal, disgust pierced like rusted knives through the tender flesh of Dion's soul. He avoided that look, rose from the bed, tossing the blanket onto him as he backed away. "I don't want them to depend on me..." And he turned away, vanishing beyond the curtain that seperated their room from the main sitting room.

The darkness was comforting. Warmed by the boilers, which had been fixed as requested, it was a place he could escape to when things got too crowded in his mind. He sat quietly on the chair reserved for himself and Vax, staring at the crystal which had remained in the palm of his hand the whole time. Its surface was smooth, like a marble..but it was partially egg-shaped. He would have to figure out a way to tie it around his neck or something...

The thought of leaving this safe haven behind terrified him, he wasn't afraid to admit that. But he was curious of this things whereabouts - of the voice that begged to be freed. He reached down near the edge of the couch as he thoughts, pulling a length of strength off of it. He tied it around the jewel, criss-crossing it in the front and back, securing it tightly so that it wouldn't slip out.

He fastened it behind his neck, letting it hang down underneath his shirt.

There.

He could feel it again. That constant, on-going drumming against his chest. Yet as much as the gem's warmth comforted him, he wanted more than anything to sleep beside his brother again. He hadn't done so in weeks... he was starting to miss their closeness, their times together. Now Vax must hate him... hate him for the decision he's forcing him to make.

But if Vax wanted to stay...

He shuddered. His brother was his strength. His wall of security to fall back on, should any of his plans fail. He couldn't leave without Vax. No. Vax would have to come willingly, or they would both stay. Even if it would kill Dion to do so.

~~~~~~

The fighting style was a thousand-year perfected art, utilizing mainly swords and agility, not so much as strength. Strength was only useful when it was applied properly. These combined in the right proportions created a deadly skill, the skill that a young white-haired boy learned when he was first learning how to walk on his two legs.

The skill was permenantly ingrained in his memory... should he ever experience amnesia, the most likely thing that would remain would be his killing instinct, the ability to defend himself.

In time, maybe he would have entertained the thought of training others. Yet he would not damn them with the knowledge to kill. There were ways to win without killing, without death, yes, but for Sephiroth, he could count on his hand the times he had won a battle without resulting in death. Sadly, it was true for many of his kind.

The darkness in his soul was too powerful to resist at times. Bloodlust drove his sword straight to the heart of his victims, rage and hatred his eternal allies in the battle of life.

Even now he fought against his helpless agony at his failure. Ansem was vanished, the light that was his soul long gone. Who in the hell knew where it could have gone? Often he would not sleep at night as they battled again and again the demons. The closer they came to the north, it seemed, the more hungry and deadly they became.

He began to see flickers of intelligence in their actions, human intelligence. A sort of patient cunning that was far deadlier than the blind, raw hunger he had felt burning from the lesser beings. Toward the north, toward familiar industrial civilization, crude looking vehicles, and more so, electricity, the Heartless frolicked in the modern playground like children.

The north was a cold place. There, it was wet, cold bitter winter. A dangerous season to battle, but beggers were hardly choosers.

The city of choice was the capital of the country Kanzellon (the name *sounded* modern, even futuristic in Sephiroth's terms). Kanzellon's capital was the main power center for all of the country's energy needs. It pumped out nearly a million units of energy each day to provide for every technological wonder available to mankind.

This was exactly the kind of place Sephiroth was used to. Kiriel, apparently, was not atuned to technology and the likes of its nature. The closer they came to the border, the less her magic effected her. The only thing immune to the anti-magical field was the sword, which still seemed to hold some sort of sway over her consciousness now and then.

The streets were not as empty as they appeared. Gloomily, the pollution-choked clouds hovered close to the surface of the ground, blocking off much from their sight. Sephiroth walked forward, his step taking him onto the well-managed black-top streets. Behind him, Kiriel struggled to keep up with his grueling pace.

"If you can't keep up with me, you should go back across the border and wait for me there," Sephiroth said sharply when he no longer heard her footsteps. He turned around, watching her as she was bent double, resting her hands on her knees.

"Fine," she hissed at him. "But I'll wait for you, keep that in mind. We're definately going to get help... and be careful." She rose again, turning to walk away... yet she stopped, reaching into her cloak pouch to remove something golden. It caught the light of a muted yellow lightbulb from the shopping mall nearby and glittered like a star. It vanished into the palm of Sephiroth's hand.

"Hold onto that for me. Just in case. Come back when you find enough information." With that, she turned and left.

Thus, the travelers parted. Sephiroth's way was alone again, and alone it would stay. He hardly minded... he would rather be alone than put anyone else in danger.