paixaorpg | Age is No Boundary [Complete]

Entry tags:

Age is No Boundary [Complete]

Character(s): Zexion and Nina
Content: Nina's turn in Lab B
Setting: xxxxx
Time: xxxxx
Warnings: Experiments

Another day, another experiment. So things went, and so they would always go as long as the Organization ran them. Not that Zexion minded in the least of course. Rather he enjoyed it. It was a welcome change from smiling and lying to the citzenry of Paixao.

And so once again, he sent off the Dusks to fetch his next subject. Waiting would, after all, not accomplish anything useful.

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Nina was expecting to find Marluxia waiting for her when the white thing again took her away. When she saw not the pink-haired man, but one with blue hair, she stiffened for a moment before she panicked, kicking at the white creatures that held her and trying to tug herself out of their grip. They must have found out Marluxia was trying to help her--this man would hurt her!

"Stay away!" she shrieked.

Well. That was certainly an interesting reaction. Perhaps not entirely surprising given who had had her first. The minds of children were all-too-easy to mold, and Marluxia had always been one to take advantage of such things.

"I've no intention to harm you," he answered, although he didn't give the Dusks the signal to release Nina just yet. He'd wait to see if she was willing to believe him first.

"You're bad, you're bad, go away, go away," she chanted, kicking and struggling with all her strength. It wasn't nearly enough. "You're bad!"

She had to go find Marluxia or her brothers and get help. But she couldn't get away and this man was here and these creatures were here. She started sobbing in her helplessness.

"Enough." It was a simple word, but there was a note of command in it all the same, the Dusks twisting away into wherever they had come from. It should be safe enough to let her have free reign of the room; there was little she could do to harm him, and little she could do to any of the fixtures of the room.

Besides, perhaps letting her go would make her more inclined to believe him.

Nina stood still as the creatures left, their curious motions a source of terrified fascination. And then, once she could no longer see them, she looked first at the blue-haired man and next around the room. She settled for crawling under a chair and staying there, covering her eyes and hoping he would just go away like the white things had.

Well, that was certainly an interesting reaction. Not the reaction Zexion had expected, but a reaction. Unfortunately it was an inconvenient reaction. He'd have a hard time getting an anything from her with her hidden beneath the chair.

And so, after a while he did simply disappear. Or rather appeared to disappear. It was little more than another of his illusions but perhaps it would be enough.

After a while, Nina peeked out from between her fingers. She was surprised to find him gone, and waited for a moment longer, slowly dropping her hands and looking around. She didn't see him anywhere.

After a moment, she crawled back out. Could she get out from here? She looked about for a door, and, finding it, made a beeline for the exit. The sooner she was out of this room, the better.

Nina would never reach the door. Not much because the door wasn't real (it was, in fact, perfectly real) but because a hand landed on her shoulders only moments before she reached. Nor would it be Zexion that the hand belonged to should she turn to look. Rather she'd find it attached to familiar head of pink hair.

Of course, even Zexion had to admit that it was an extremely unorthodox use of his clones, to say nothing of his illusions, but it was worth the attempt. He needed her to be at least tolerably calm, after all and if he had to make one of he clones look like Marluxia to so that, then so be it.

Nina jumped, a squeak slipping out of her lips as she turned, guiltily, from the door. And then she saw the pink hair and grinned, relieved and clinging to Marluxia's leg desperately.

"You're back! I was scared but you're back!"

If it hadn't been for the fact that it rather thoroughly ruin the illusion that he wasn't there, Zexion would have laughed at the sight. How easy it had been to influence the girl's emotions. He did, however, still wander as to just what Marluxia had told her.

But that was easy enough to answer, as he simply walked quietly through both the clone and Nina, illusion masking both his presence and his footfalls as the clone itself answered Nina's question.

"I'm sorry, but there were a few things I needed to take care of." The clone's voice, much like it's appearance, was masked by illusion to make sound like it was Marluxia in truth. The fact that it wasn't what it seemed could wait until later.

Nina buried herself in Marluxia's cloak, still clutching his leg for comfort. If Alexander wasn't here, at least he was, and she needed the physical closeness that Repliku was unable to provide in a cell.

"There was a man with blue hair here," she said. "He looked scary."

Though most everyone looked scary to her, in her state. She buried herself further.

So Marluxia had planned to make Nina his puppet. Had poisoned her mind against anyone who wasn't him. Very interested, although Zexion couldn't claim that it was a comforting thought. But if he wanted a puppet that trusted no one then Zexion would give him a pupprt who trusted no one - himself included.

"He probably was," his clone answered. "I'm sorry if he frightened you."

"Well it's okay since you scared him away," Nina said, nodding resolutely and finally regaining enough calmness to pull away somewhat. She looked up at Marluxia expectantly.

"Will I get to see Alexander soon?"

"You will," the clone answered with a smile. Or at least, Zexion was assuming she would. He had no idea where her Alexander was, apart from not being in the labs, but no doubt she would find him again once released out into the streets of the city once again.

"But there's something I need to give you first."

Nina smiled at the reassurance, so excited about the idea of seeing Alexander again that she simply nodded when Marluxia said he needed to give her something. After a moment, though, curiosity reminded her.

"What is it?"

"It's a present. To help keep the scary men away."

This was, of course, an out and out lie. It might have been a present, for a rather bizarre definition of the term, it was in no way going to help keep anyone away. It wasn't the way the darkness worked.

"It's going to hurt for a bit though. Do you think you can manage that?"

Nina shivered at the thought of more pain--she was already hurting, being away from Alexander hurt, and something in her hurt from being all by herself like she was here, all by herself away from everyone--but she nodded, slowly, uncertainly. She could do it, if she had to, to keep the monsters away. Then things would be safer, right? And Marluxia was good, so he wouldn't hurt her. He was trying to help her.

"O-okay."

Safer. Yes, things would be 'safer' once Nina was set free again. Or at least, slightly safer. But again, this wasn't precisely any of Zexion's concern at the moment.

"I promise it won't hurt for long."

But almost before Nina had a chance to start actually answering there was a slight pin-prick (the feel of a needle, if she was able to recognize it by feel alone) and then the chill of darkness.

Nina whined at the prick, shivered at the cold, and waited uncertainly. The cold only swallowed her up, creeping into her veins like an infection, and with another, more distressed whine, she kneeled down and hugged herself in an attempt to warm herself up. It didn't work, and, suddenly, irrationally terrified Marluxia would hurt her, or someone was here she couldn't see and they would hurt her, or something was watching her, she crawled, half-blind on hands and knees, to the wall and hugged close to it, choking back a sob.

She was cold and dark and it was scary and she wanted to go home.

Some of her fears, at least, were justified. There was someone else in the room; invisible and silent. He wasn't going to harm her though, or at least not physically. It simply wasn't his style. And besides, there were more ways than simply the physical to harm someone.

"Are you alright?" the clone asked, offering a hand as it drew near.

Logic told her Marluxia wasn't going to hurt her; clawing, terrified instinct told her everything would. She went with the latter, skittering back toward a corner.

"G-go away!" she wailed. "Go away!"

He was scary and this place was scary and everything was scary.

Well, if she wanted 'him' to leave then Zexion would be quite glad to obey her wishes, although perhaps not in quite the way she had expected.

"As you wish."

And with that the clone vanished quite literally, leaving behind (or seeming to leave behind?) its coat, falling to the floor in the manner of any set of clothes that had suddenly been rid of their wearer.

Nina jerked back as if the coat might bite her, scrabbling against the wall in an attempt to climb up it and get farther away. She wanted everyone to go away because--because they could all be bad and they could all hurt her, but she did want Alexander but that was it, Alexander and then the two of them could go hide.

She started to cry.

Could be? Say rather were. None of the Organization were nice, and even outside that people weren't always sunshine and light. Unfortunately, he couldn't simply return her to the streets like this. Most likely the sheer number of people in the streets would have her too terrified to do or say anything.

Which would certainly be interesting, but it wasn't quite the result he wanted. It would be better to tame the beast a little, so as to at the very least keep her from breaking down too soon. Something that would best be served by shining a little light into the darkness. Not enough to counter what he'd done earlier, of course, but enough to tame the darkness the slightest bit.

And if Nina managed to miss the pinprick of the needle, well, so much the better for him.

Nina was confused enough not to feel the needle, though the sudden calm that spread over her was enough to make her freeze, uncertainly, wondering what had happened. And then the paranoia crept back, making her wonder if she'd had something bad or--or been given something bad. But she stayed still, and fairly calm, just waiting and watching for what would happen next.

What would happen next was nothing more than silence, cold and empty and unbroken as the minutes stretched on. But after a while, something did happen, the Dusks swirling back into existence to pull Nina away and out of the room.

They did not however, send her back to the cells to wait and watch. Rather, they brought her out into the city before twisting away like the wisps they were. Time to let the people make what they would of his work.

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Age is No Boundary [Complete]

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