Chapter XLI; The Grim Future
Yuki sat on the ground watching the clouds roll past in the sky. X was sitting a little ways away cleaning the underside of his nails with his dagger. Y had vanished, claiming she had to check on something. What she wanted to check on in this world Yuki wasn't sure of. They were in Olympus Coliseum, outside the actual coliseum part, and in the town. What Y could want was beyond Yuki.
Yuki looked over at X in thought. He wasn't looking, like always. He had hidden himself in his own world. He was probably lost in thoughts that he would never share.
"Hey X," Yuki said. He didn't respond to her but she assumed he was waiting for the continuation of her question. He always seemed to know when she had one. "Do you know what Y went to check out?"
"We came to this world once about eleven years ago, give or take. She's probably looking for a friend." X replied calmly. He switched which hand he was focusing on, deciding the nails, on the other hand, were clean enough. Yuki frowned at his words. Eleven years ago? X and Y must have been much older than she had ever guessed. Yuki was about to ask how old they really were but was stopped by the appearance of Y, who looked very annoyed.
"Hey Y." Yuki greeted. She glanced at X cautiously before continuing. "What's got you annoyed?" At that X glanced up to see what was wrong with his sister. As he glanced up the reason for Y's annoyance became apparent. Not far behind her was a familiar redhead with gold eyes. X calmly spun his dagger in his hand, preparing for a fight.
"Hello, Aryum. What brings you out here?" X asked. The redhead laughed as she came to a stop in front of Yuki and X. Y stopped beside X, glaring at Aryum.
"I think it's pretty obvious why I was sent here." She said simply, beginning to toss dice up in the air as she spoke like she always did. "But, I don't feel like bothering you three. Considering Hysui lost her life for doing that." Yuki looked away in shame, still feeling guilty about that.
"Hysui's dead?" Y asked. Aryum nodded calmly.
"I guess it was just one of you then," Aryum said. Yuki felt Aryum's eyes land on her. X and Y shifted their gaze to her but didn't speak. X frowned while Y just gave Yuki a sad look.
"I didn't mean to." Yuki said softly. Aryum laughed once again. Why Yuki couldn't understand.
"You did her a favor. She'll get her heart back before any of us do now." Aryum replied. "Anyway, from the looks of it, you were acting in self-defense." Yuki didn't say anything. Just continued to stare at the ground.
"What do you want?" X asked. Aryum turned her gaze to him, smirking all the while.
"Why Xy, it almost sounds as if you don't trust me." She said in a mocking tone. X didn't reply with anything more than a glare. If it hadn't been for the tense situation Yuki was certain she would have laughed at Aryum's nickname for X. Aryum rolled her eyes, still tossing her dice. "I'm not going to force you all back. I'm just going to give you the option to see what the future holds." Yuki looked at Aryum with sudden interest. Y also did, looking confused.
"How can you do that?" Y asked. X rolled his eyes and answered for Aryum.
"Tempus, her set of cards." He said. Y gave him a look of disbelief. He didn't react so she instead turned her gaze to Aryum.
"You don't really have Tempus, do you?" Y asked. Aryum smiled and stopped tossing the dice. She put the dice in her pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. Yuki had seen them before but never given them much thought. Aryum never spoke of them as if they were special. They looked like a normal card deck, with the back of the cards being black with the Heartless emblem on them.
"I do. Would you like me to prove it?" Aryum replied. Yuki didn't really get the big deal about these Tempus cards, but for some reason, she had the feeling they were very important.
"I'll believe you." Y decided. Aryum smirked as if she expected that.
"So, what do you say?" She asked. "Would you like to know what your future holds?" The trio looked at each other in question. Yuki shrugged, conveying she had no clue what was going on and trusted those two to make a decision. X and Y had a silent exchange with their eyes. Eventually, X sighed.
"Alright, fine." He said. Aryum smiled at them. She held out the card deck to the trio calmly. Her gold eyes were accessing each one in turn.
"Draw a card, just one," Aryum said. X was the first to take a card. He glanced at it but didn't say a word. Y followed his example, cautiously taking one card. She looked at it and blinked in surprise. Yuki drew last. She looked at the card in her hand in shock. It was two keyblades, her own keys, crossed in front of a blue shard of what looked like glass. The number thirteen was in two of the corners while the Heartless emblem was in the other two. "Good, now each of you should have your own card, Xy has the twelve of Heartless, Yuki has the thirteen of Heartless, and Y has the fourteen of Heartless. Now Xy, draw three cards." Aryum said. Yuki blinked in confusion. They each had their own card? Why?
X drew one card and looked at it. He frowned and glanced up at Aryum.
"I think your card deck is broken," X announced. Aryum arched an eyebrow at him. "I got my card again." He explained. Aryum smiled and shook her head.
"No, it's not broken. Draw two more." She said. X didn't look convinced but drew two more cards. He looked at Aryum expectantly once he had finished. "What are they? In order please." Aryum asked.
"Ten of Nobodies?" X said in question. He turned the card around so Aryum could see it. It was a set of dice being thrown with a ten in two corners and the Nobodies symbol in the other two. Aryum nodded in confirmation. "And the eight of Heartless." X continued. Aryum nodded, turning her attention to Yuki.
"Alright then. Thirteen would you please. Three cards and keep them in order." She said holding the deck out to Yuki.
Yuki reached out and took three cards one by one. The first was a whip laying beside a beaker. There was a four or a Heartless emblem in the corners. She felt her stomach twist. This must have been Hysui's. Yuki shook it off and drew the next card. It was a pendant shaped like the letter x, a popsicle stick with the word winner written on it, and two keyblades, one black and dark blue while the other was silver with bright colors, all laying on bricks that reminded Yuki of Twilight Town. The number thirteen and the Nobodies symbol was in the corners. Roxas' card. The last card she drew was a set of chakrams with flames around them. The number eight or the Nobodies symbol was in the corners. Axel's card.
"Four of Heartless, thirteen of Nobodies, and eight of Nobodies." Yuki listed off. Aryum smirked a little at her then turned to Y.
"I see. Y your turn." She said. Y gave a heavy sigh and drew three cards. She looked sick at the sight of them. She swallowed nervously before speaking.
"Um, six of..." She trailed off in confusion, turning the card toward Aryum. It was a crescent moon with darkness radiating off of it. The number six was in two of the corners while a blue eye was in the other two.
"Darkness." Aryum said simply. Y nodded and turned the card back around.
"Six of darkness, four of..." She trailed off once again, turning the card to Aryum. It had a green charm shaped identically to the pink one Y carried. The number four was in two corners while a crown shape was in the other two.
"Light," Aryum said, with a sympathetic smile. Yuki got the feeling that card was the reason Y looked so sick.
"Four of light, and two of light." Y finished. Aryum nodded.
"I see. Well, you're all in for quite the ride. Xy," She began looking towards X. "The twelve of Heartless means betrayal, ten of Nobodies a chance, and eight of Heartless a mistake. The betrayal is not limited to someone betraying you, you could very well betray someone else. The chance is probably a decision you'll make knowing there are great risks. However, you will go through with it and it will turn into a mistake." She explained simply. She didn't look pleased or displeased by this. Yuki thought it was not looking good for X.
"Cheery," X said sarcastically. Aryum laughed turning her attention to Yuki.
"Little one, four of Heartless is a discovery. Thirteen of nobodies confusion, and eight of nobodies a sacrifice. You will make a discovery, and it will be a confusing one. In the end, it will lead you to a moment you must sacrifice something." Aryum explained calmly. Yuki nodded thinking over what Aryum had said. It didn't make much sense, but Yuki was willing to bet it would sooner rather than later.
"As for you Y," Aryum continued turning to the last member of the trio. "Yours is the most fortunate future. Six of darkness is abandonment. Four of light is determination, and two of light is searching. You will be abandoned or abandon someone. This will spark determination in you to search for something. Answers perhaps, or maybe someone special to you." She explained. Y frowned.
"Will I succeed?" Y asked. Aryum shrugged.
"I don't know, didn't draw far enough." She said. The trio was silent, each one thinking of the future they had been told. Yuki didn't like the sound of hers, but X's sounded worse. Y's definitely was the best, but it wasn't exactly good. Aryum watched them and cleared her throat, gaining their attention again. "Are you all willing to do one more draw for me?" She asked.
"Not like mine can get any worse." X said with a shrug. Yuki sighed and nodded slowly.
"I guess." She said warily. Y frowned and shrugged like X had.
"Sure." She agreed. Aryum nodded with a smile. She looked down at the card deck.
"No suites please." She said as if talking to the card deck. For all Yuki knew she was. That wouldn't have been the strangest thing to occur in her life. Aryum held out the card deck to each in turn. Each drew and studied the card in their hand.
"Xy?" Aryum prompted. X sighed and turned the card towards her. It was an image of five circles of stained glass, each with a different animal. A fox, a leopard, a bear, a unicorn, and a snake. "The foretellers," Aryum said. "A story of betrayal and distrust." X groaned.
"I take it back. It got worse." He said. Yuki looked at him with pity.
"Yuki." Aryum said. Yuki glanced at her own card, a blue heart-shaped moon with a strange sword that had two crossed keyblades as the hilt. She turned it towards Aryum who smiled broadly. "Ah, the eternally enigmatic card." She said. Yuki frowned.
"What?" Yuki asked.
"Kingdom Hearts. Even I don't know what it means, or rather it means too many things for me to decide which meaning it's referring to. Life or death, light or darkness, love or hate." Aryum explained. Yuki frowned, turning the card over and looking at it again.
"That's encouraging." She said annoyed. Aryum snickered and turned to Y.
"Y?" She asked. Y didn't waste a second before turning the card towards Aryum. It was a yin and yang symbol. Aryum smiled as if she had been expecting that card. "The fated twins. Another story of betrayal." She said. Y sighed heavily.
"Well our lives are all going to hell." Y said. Yuki felt inclined to agree. Even if her last card gave no definitive meaning. Things weren't looking too bright for them.
"Perhaps," Aryum said, putting her cards away. She made no inclination to get the cards they had drawn back. "But who knows, maybe I'm wrong." She said with a shrug. Yuki found herself hoping she was.
"Aryum, you're never wrong," X said quietly. Yuki frowned hearing that. Aryum, however, smiled turning to walk away.
"I suppose that's true. Well, good luck. By the sounds of it, you'll be needing it." She said leaving them with a wave over her shoulder. Yuki watched her go before turning to X and Y. Both were still staring at the cards in their hands. Yuki looked at the five cards she held. Her own card, and the cards of her future.
Y dropped her cards and turned away. Where she was going she didn't say. She just walked away. Yuki saw the fourteen of Heartless was Y's keyblade and the pink charm she carried. The other card, the two of light was a blue charm just like Y's. X knelt down and picked them up.
"Looks like you guys got the cruel irony cards." He said softly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Yuki asked. X showed her his own cards. The twelve of Heartless was there twice. It was two daggers crossed on a pitch black background. The eight of Heartless was two crossed sai's surrounded by flames.
"Both of you got friends. Lost friends for Y." X explained. "And the worst I got was my own card twice." He continued bitterly. Yuki frowned.
"Yours was the worst though." Yuki said. X nodded standing up.
"Yeah." He agreed. "But I'm not surprised." He stated. Yuki didn't bother to question him on it. He was usually cryptic and now was no different. He sighed walking in the direction Y had, slipping the cards into his pocket. "Come on, let's find Y and get the hell out of here."
"Right." Yuki said nodding in agreement. She slipped her own cards into the bag she kept her potions in before following X to look for Y.
*3*
Aryum looked down at the trio from the top of a hill smiling sadly. She brushed her bangs aside with a sigh. Those three had a lot coming. But who could say. She looked down to the deck of cards in her hand.
"What's going to happen to them all?" Aryum asked. She drew a card from the top of her deck. It was four wayfinder charms. One blue, one green, one orange, and one pink. She smiled at the card. "Well, I suppose they'll be alright then." She said softly.
A/N: This is one of my favorite chapters. I love anytime I get to write for Aryum because she's so much fun to write for. I love her carefree attitude and the way she messes with everyone. I also got to show what her card deck can do. Of course, it does more, like actually fight, but this is my favorite ability of those cards. The one thing I'm not sure about is the design on the cards. Do you guys think I should change it and make them more like actual tarot cards, or should I keep them as is?
P.S. I'm sorry. You'll know why soon.
Guest- Great job on get the ultima weapon, I wish you luck against Sephiroth! Thank you for your continued support.
Chirithy564- Thank you for all of your kind words. It really means a lot to me.