Next Life - Chapter 10
Vexen was grumbling by the time he finally left Xemnas' office. He despised being kept in the poor excuse for a hospital for any longer than he truly needed to- for no particular reason that he could decipher himself, he just hated it. He hated the feeling that came when he wasn't achieving above and beyond his expected requirements. He was used to outshining anyone and everyone when it came to science, yet the things that Xemnas requested barely made sense to his logical mind. Oh, sure, he understood how they worked, it just didn't make a lot of sense. Memories from a past life were one thing, and one thing that wasn't in the least scientific, but heart manipulation and tenuous control of the elements was something completely different altogether.
Not that he minded controlling ice as such, he just wished it made sense scientifically.
His 'miscalculation' had quite possibly stemmed from this wishful thinking. Approaching the problem of awakening one's elemental potential through the medium of science had been nothing short of a monumental disaster. It had been all over the news. Xemnas' connections with the media had barely been enough to cover it up in time this time, and on top of that, Xemnas had been very avid in his attempts of making his displeasure known. Vexen snorted in contempt of that, now that he was safely out of Xemnas' sight and all. Science could not be rushed. How could he have known that his experiment would open the doorway to a gale force hurricane?
He may have hit the jackpot during said disaster however, all thanks to his astute observational skills. The elements hadn't just 'happened' spontaneously, they had appeared with a pattern. Xigbar had disappeared first, much to everyone's surprise, and Xaldin's sudden gust of wind had most definitely happened before the earth had opened up beneath Lexaeus. The link, he assumed, was that Xaldin had been standing closest to Xigbar, whereas Lexaeus had been further away, yet still closer to Xaldin than Vexen had been. It occurred via a chain effect, it seemed. The resonances of one element caused the others to respond. Vexen, however, had felt no reaction whatsoever. Was that because he had already gained full control of his ability, or something else?
When that strange oddity was added to Xemnas' musings it all started to make a bit more sense. These 'connections of the heart' that he was so happy to rant about seemed to actually matter after all. They had all known each other in a past life, after all, and apparently their hearts remembered this. Well, 'remembered' was a bit too much of a gentle word for what had been happening. When someone used their specific abilities the resonances of this would reach the heart of someone else nearby- which would then start to remember what it could do with all the force of a mallet hitting a melon, causing their own ability to come spiriting out in whatever way it could. That was the theory anyway, and it very much explained how being stabbed by Xemnas' sword of 'nothingness' had awakened Vexen's own abilities with ice.
Nevertheless, he would figure it all out tomorrow evening. He had great plans, plans that Xemnas had very much stressed that he did not want to fail. On top of that, it was almost time for the next link in the chain to 'die'.
The receptionist of Pleasantview Hospital was a kind girl and was well loved for it. She was just barely over twenty years of age, she smiled a lot, and she was, rather importantly, very good at her job. Most of the time. While customer service was one of her strong points, she very much lacked a certain flair for punctuality. Luckily for her, no-one had quite yet noticed this.
"Booyaka," she murmured triumphantly to herself, sneaking out of her workspace and very pointedly ignoring the clock on the lobby wall. Six thirty wasn't too bad, not by her standards anyway. She was supposed to finish at four on Thursdays, but as long as no-one mentioned it, she would never admit it. Her friends would have been baffled at the thought of her working late by her own free will, but one of the things Selphie Tilmitt loved most in the world was the chance to organize a party, and so she had very much taken the Hospital's Annual Masquerade Ball under her wing.
Her preparations were almost complete. The guests would be expected to arrive around eight o'clock and the planned entertainment would start up shortly after. She had initially wanted to delay the entertainment just in case some people were late, but these were doctors after all, they practically lived by being on time. Even that aside, the Ball Committee and herself would be spending most of tomorrow afternoon decorating the thirteenth floor in preparation. Masquerade Balls were very serious business after all.
That was, however, something to be thought about tomorrow. In the meantime Selphie had her costume to think about, and that alone would keep her up most of the night. She spent the majority of her solitary drive home thinking about how she would finish it off in time.
Or at least, she had intended to. Her train of thought was completely derailed when she heard the words "Roxas Cain" mumble their way out of the radio. She promptly stopped humming to herself and turned the volume up, very nearly leaning in closely to hear as she did so. The radio announcer was quick to repeat himself, adapted as he was to the habits of his Pleasantview listeners.
"The late Roxas Cain," the swazzy voice repeated, "as you all know, was preparing a musical career. While sadly interrupted by his untimely death, his producers have announced that the majority of his first album had already been recorded and so will be released later in the week."
Selphie quite avidly arm-pumped and cheered. She then quickly re-grabbed the steering wheel and swerved out of incoming traffic, but she was too ecstatic to notice. Roxas' music was going to be the best, she just knew it. Maybe if she pulled a few strings she could even get a track or two before tomorrow night. She almost cheered again when the radio announcer promptly begun playing his first single; 'She's no Yuna.' If it was on the radio, then it was surely on the internet, and she could definitely find it.
Her pleasant thoughts were thoroughly interrupted when a man in a black suit stepped out into the street in front of her. Luckily she was in the suburbs by this point, so she hadn't been driving overly fast in the first place, but she still had to slam on the brakes to stop in time. The car jolted to a stop, making Selphie's head bounce back against the headrest. She was uncharacteristically enraged.
"Hey!" she yelled as she popped her head out the window. "Watch it!"
When the man turned and looked at her, however, she immediately regretted it. He had a multitude of long black braids, angular black eyebrows, and intimidating thick side burns. He was also very, very tall. As scary-looking as he was, he merely smiled at her. Selphie gulped.
Moments later Selphie was almost home. She couldn't quite remember why she had stopped the car earlier, or where her sudden headache had come from, but neither really mattered. She had a long night of costume making to attend to, and she would be damned if a little pain was going to get in her way.
It was well into the evening when Demyx's eye happened to catch on something outside his lounge window. A very recognisable figure was standing on the footpath outside his house, seemingly watching the other side of the street. Demyx chose to completely ignore the fact that the man had his back turned to him and ducked behind the window frame just in case, hissing to Zexion in excitement.
"Zexion!"
The receiver of this hiss had been dismally trudging through the lounge in the process of taking out the garbage. Most people held a general dislike of this activity, and more than a few of the inhabitants of Pleasantview were known to pointedly ignore their rubbish bin far past the point where they could be called 'full' in the vague hope that someone else would take it out before they had to. For someone as chronically hygienic as Zexion this task was usually tackled with the aid of rubber gloves, but just moments prior he had horrifyingly discovered that Demyx had already used them all as impromptu balloons. Needless to say he leapt at the first available thing that would distract him from admitting that the rubbish bag felt uncomfortably wet in his unprotected hand.
"What?" Zexion asked.
"It's him!"
Upon sidling up to Demyx's hiding place and casually peeking out the window Zexion discovered that the 'him' was in fact the mysterious man with braids with whom they were oh-so-almost acquainted. Demyx was looking at Zexion expectantly. Zexion met his eyes for a moment.
When Zexion merely turned to continue his most unhygienic task Demyx promptly squawked and grabbed his sleeve, pulling him back behind the window.
"What? Aren't you getting the sudden urge to snoop around?"
"No," Zexion replied flatly.
"Aw, come oooon. You'd be taking out the garbage and all! It's the perfect alibi, not even a little bit suspicious."
"No," Zexion said firmly. They couldn't give themselves away so soon. Too much rested on the fact that Xemnas didn't suspect Zexion of having thought things through at all. They had to seem ignorant, and that very much meant avoiding Xemnas' close advisors for the time being. As long as Xemnas had no reason to even consider Zexion Green in any way, shape or form then they had a chance of slipping completely under the radar. Asking prime suspect number two of his motives would achieve the exact opposite.
"I'll take it out once he's gone," Zexion mumbled to Demyx.
Demyx opened his mouth to argue but Zexion gave him his no-nonsense face.
"No fair," Demyx whined. Zexion almost smiled at that. Calling Demyx 'cute' might be going a bit too far, but he definitely had all the trappings of an over-eager puppy.
"Weren't you supposed to be finding masks?" Zexion prompted, hoping to distract Demyx from any temptation. Demyx blinked at him quizzically before his face lit up.
"Oh yeah!" he cried. Demyx bounded to his feet, rushing off to find something-a-rather. "I figured," he called over his shoulder, "that we should probably have costumes as well. We want to 'blend in' after all."
Zexion barely suppressed the urge to groan. He could already tell that the whole ordeal was going to be much more humiliating than he had bargained for.
Xaldin was very pleased with himself. For once, everything was going according to plan. Well, apart from the hospital's receptionist almost running him over, but that hardly counted. Her memories had been dealt with.
True, Vexen's attempt to reawaken their powers the night before had been an atrocious failure, but Xaldin had managed to salvage the situation by remembering something useful in the process. There had to be some bright side to being blown around a science laboratory like a cat in a tumble dryer after all.
The small tidbit of information that he had recalled was extraordinary to say the least, and he was sure it was something that he alone had recalled. He wasn't about to share this with any of the others, not when it gave him such an upper hand. He needed any and every advantage he could get when it came to the inner workings of their somewhat impractical organization, and surprise was always an invaluable weapon.
Xaldin stood on that one street; that blasted street he spent far too much time on. It had the tiniest hints of un-awakened powers overlapping each other so closely that he couldn't tell them apart. He had already learnt as much as he could by simply watching and waiting, which was exactly why he was no longer playing around. This time victory was in his grasp. The foolish girl on the phone had played right into his hand; getting her name had been simple, and everything had fallen into place after that.
Kairi; the Princess of Heart with direct ties to the very Keyblade master who had caused the Organization's previous downfall. That wielder of the Keyblade in particular Xaldin would never forget, could never forget. The name was imprinted on his soul; he'd been killed by him after all. This time though, Xaldin would triumph.
A white van pulled into the street and Xaldin smiled. It was almost time.
Seconds later Xaldin was nowhere to be seen.
It was with a strong sense of defeat that Kairi parked the van on the side of the road. She sat in the driver's seat for a long moment, not moving at all while her mind dwelt miserably on her unfruitful plan. Try as she might, she hadn't been able to keep away from the flat like she'd wanted. Even as it was she'd spent the last two hours sitting aimlessly at Ma Dincht's Coffee and Cake Emporium with the same cup of coffee before she was finally chased away by an overly eager table cleaner. Kairi was at a loss of what to do next.
Kairi glanced at the rear view mirror aimlessly. Her reflection frowned back at her, straight red hair framing her bright blue eyes. Those eyes seemed slightly accusing, ridiculous as it was. Kairi prided herself on her strong sense of will, it was what set her apart from the rest of her friends after all, but here she was hiding in Riku's van simply because she hadn't been able to occupy herself for half an afternoon. From the looks of it Sora's troupe of crazy stalkers hadn't even shown up yet, so all her efforts had been for naught. She would be home when they arrived, despite very, very much not wanting to be.
On the bright side: she'd probably come off as being more responsible for sticking around.
On the not so bright side: it was entirely unintentional.
With a dignified huff Kairi undid her seat belt and slipped out of the vehicle. She slammed the door shut for the miniscule feeling of satisfaction it gave her and whirled around to come face to face with a complete stranger. She had parked on the side of the street opposite her flat as a matter of habit, all three of them did that, but she had never considered the possibility of encountering the inhabitant of the house they always parked in front of. He didn't seem too thrilled himself.
The man stood there irritably, frowning at Kairi quite openly. It took her a moment longer than it should have to realise she was, in fact, standing right in his way. With a jump, she sidestepped and gave him an innocent smile, desperately hoping he wouldn't question her parking habits. To her relief he simply dropped a garbage bag on the footpath where she'd been standing before turning back around and leaving without a word. He was an immensely anti-social fellow, that much was certain. It might have been because of his hair. Kairi spent the last few seconds before he disappeared inside trying to decipher whether said hair was actually purple or just simply blue. She concluded that such a dilemma would certainly be enough to drive anyone into a permanently foul mood. At the very least, she had been ever so slightly taller than him, so her mood improved by just that much.
No other strange neighbours showed up while she crossed the road and fumbled with her keys at the front door. After finally letting herself inside Kairi found Sora fast asleep on the couch.
She couldn't help but stare at the sight; Sora lying on his back, arm dangling to the floor, eyes shut with mouth wide open. He was so... simple. There was never anything hidden about Sora, and at times you could almost forgive him for leaping to the first conclusion that came to mind. Almost. With a sigh, she shut her eyes and very much tried to avoid forgiving him for letting the crazy people come to their house.
She completely failed.
Murmuring to herself in disappointment, Kairi tiptoed quietly out of the room. How was Sora supposed to learn if she herself couldn't even stay mad at him for an entire day?
Reaching the doorway, she glanced back at the form of sleeping Sora once more. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad for her to be here when the crazies came after all. With a shake of her head Kairi went back to her room, mentally willing Sora to never change.
Sora was falling.
He did not remember how, he did not remember why. All he knew was that he was here, and that he was falling. It hadn't occurred to him that he might have eyes here, but upon realising that he did he opened them. Blue surrounded him on all sides. A deep, dark blue that seemed to fade to darkness. He fell for what seemed like forever, yet in just an instant there was a flash of light, and the falling stopped.
He was standing on a beach. It was a perfect beach. The sand was exactly how sand should be, the sky was the perfect tint of blue, and the sea stretched out before him as far as the eye could see. It was a very familiar beach. It was his beach.
Riku was in front of him. He hadn't been there before, but that didn't matter. Riku was there now. Sora shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun as he tried to get a closer look at Riku standing knee deep in the placid water. His white hair seemed to glisten in the sun light, but he was looking the other way.
Sora grinned despite himself and took a step forward.
Immediately the water rushed backwards, away from the island, and before Sora could react a monstrous wave was hurling itself towards the shore. It was immense, the kind of wave that could engulf him completely without even pausing. It was mere seconds away, and yet Riku hadn't moved. He would drown if Sora didn't do anything.
As if his thoughts had triggered something, Riku turned around and smiled at Sora. The wave was looming ever closer, but Riku just calmly considered him as if nothing was happening. Then, he held out his hand.
Sora didn't even pause. He leapt forward, sprinting towards Riku, reaching out to grab his outstretched hand. The wave did not scare him, not as much as losing Riku did. In the tiniest instant before Sora's hand would have met Riku's, Riku was gone, and Sora was engulfed by the water. Water collided with him on every side, spinning him around carelessly and regardless of direction. Darkness swallowed his vision.
Other things happened, all blurring together and inseparable from each other. Riku was underwater while Sora was pulled away from him by the currents. Sora was falling through the sky, then on the beach with Kairi, and then slipping through the sand to fall through the sky once more. In the end, Sora was still falling, falling through the dark blue water until it turned completely black.
Eventually he turned and landed on something solid. It was all dark until he took a step forward. At his first step light exploded from beneath him, shining up in the form of a stained glass window as a multitude of doves flew off all around him. He watched them fly off in wonder as he was left behind on the pillar of coloured light.
Things happened. A voice spoke to him and things happened. He could barely recall them as they happened, but he felt more awake each time they did. There was a door, Sora distinctly remembered the door. And there was Darkness. Not the normal kind, but definitely Darkness with a capital 'D'. Huge, hulking darkness that somehow attacked him. It attacked him and reminded him of...
Riku.
Sora jolted awake. He looked around quickly before remembering he was only in the lounge, sleeping on the couch. He had no idea how he had fallen asleep so quickly, nor was he precisely sure how he'd managed it so early in the evening, but apparently sleep had taken him by complete surprise. It was bad enough that it was past seven and Leon hadn't even turned up yet without him having weird dreams in the process. He couldn't even remember them, which was odd. They had happened literally less than a minute ago. Something about Riku...
With a shake of his head he tried to forget it. Dwelling on a dream seemed a silly thing to do at the moment. He was supposed to be waiting. He didn't want to be caught off guard when the strange people came, especially not with Kairi still mad at him about it. Pulling himself up into a particularly uncomfortable position on the couch, Sora tried very hard to stay awake.
It didn't work. Within minutes he was back in the darkness, watching Riku hold his hand out to him once more.
Woah, unexpected sudden chapter much? As usual, a parade of thanks goes to BlueAcidRain for Betaing the chapter with all her usual amazingness. The wait for the next chapter will be much shorter, I can assure you. In the meantime, Happy Holidays and stuff! I bet a lot of you are getting snow. You guys are lucky. It's so hot over here it's not even funny. Enjoy it while you still can, for I will steal that cold weather some day!
And now I'm curious. What time of day do you usually settle down to read fanfiction?
Also: Bombsauce.
That is all.