Of Starlight and Dawn [completed]

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

Character(s): Mao and Riku
Content: Two people who have faced similar circumstances meet
Setting: Destiny Islands Treehouse
Time: 2 PM
Warnings: Possible angst?

Mao hoped this was worth it. This Destiny Islands placed was way brighter than he thought it was going to be--both in sun and in colors--and he already had sand in his shoes. It was uncomfortable all around. At least they weren't going to go meet by the water. If that had been the case, Mao would have called this stupid meeting off immediately.

Although... he guessed it wasn't completely stupid. Completely.

Mao didn't understand this guy... whoever he was (now that he thought about it, he never asked that guy his name, did he?). Talking about that kind of thing so easily... Or... Maybe not "easily," but easier than Mao thought he ever could. Why did their circumstances have to be so similar? Why did this guy have to have some idea what Mao was talking about?

And why did he have to tell him about that whole heart eroding thing in the first place?

He almost wished he'd never been told. Mao had been fine before. As far as he'd known, his evil mind had been connected to feelings toward the Super Hero. That was when it would try to take over, anyway. Even when that guy had talked about the Heartless, even when that octopus-woman had said he had more Darkness than one of his kind should... He was still fine. As long as he kept it far away, it couldn't do anything to him. That was what he had thought. But if the heart could be eroded by that darkness... What if that had happened? Over two-hundred years of erosion... It would be so easy to push those thoughts out of his head if that guy hadn't mentioned something like that happening to him too, damn him.

Mao wasn't afraid of course. He couldn't be afraid. Something like that was in his heart, wasn't it? That meant he had control. There was no reason for him to keep thinking about it beyond this meeting. And yet... What was with this strange uneasiness? Why wouldn't it go away?

Mao climbed the ladder to the treehouse that guy had told him about and looked around. He had better not have come all this way for nothing.

Comments

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

When Riku stepped through the door, he felt the warm winds rush his face and the warm feelings rush his heart. But the small nostalgic smile was short-lived. Every whiff of ocean air, every sunbeam, all of it was fake. Comforting as it was, it was just another part of a mousetrap. Still, as he sighed and stepped onto the sand, Riku couldn't help but reminisce at least a little.

The island where they all watched the sunset was there. The boat dock rested peacefully right where it should. Riku walked to the spot where he'd met someone once. He looked across the impression of the ocean and wondered if even in this fake world that something could still reach another world on that water. Or if that world would still be just as fake.

Riku turned to head to the treehouse, seeing a hint of movement disappear inside. Good timing. A moment later, the teen had scaled the ladder and ledges and looked inside. The treehouse was always well-shaded and a few degrees cooler, leaving his eyes to adjust.

Funny. The cloth's sill here. The memory must have been before they were very far on the raft. But that wasn't all that was there. Mao had already arrived.

"Hey." Riku stepped in. The treehouse was smaller than he remembered, but there was still plenty of room. He casually took a seat, leaning his back against a wall and resting his arm on a raised knee.

"...So. Where do we start?" Where ever it was, it wasn't going to be comfortable for either of them, he gathered.

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

So he'd arrived first after all. If it weren't for the circumstances surrounding the meeting, Mao might have been disappointed in himself for having been early. The young demon crossed his arms, scowl on his face as usual, and looked Riku up and down.

So this was the guy, huh? Taller than Mao would have figured, and looking way too comfortable here. Mao briefly wondered why this Destiny Islands place had been picked. Was it special to this guy in some way?

"Your name," Mao decided, getting tired of having to refer to Riku as "that guy" in his head all the time. Of course, he wasn't about to be the first one to introduce himself in this situation. Serious discussion or not, the air was too casual for him to stoop to that.

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

The teen raised his brows. After all this, he still didn't know the other's either. Considering they shared a surprising amount in common, that would be a good start.

He looked over the demon. He always thought a demon would be taller.

"Riku. Yours?" The demon looked notably uncomfortable, and he wondered why.

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

"Dean of the Nether Institute, Evil Academy, Overlord Mao," he replied, the statement of his title much more subdued than usual.

And after that, Mao found himself at a loss. He didn't know how to deal with Riku. It was confusing, something he had never faced before. The closest was that girl, Yorda, but that was because she didn't know anything. Riku...

Maybe it was because he knew something of what Mao had gone through. No one had before. Even if Beryl and Princess and Almaz had seen his memories, there was a difference between that and actually living it. It was strange, especially for a boy unused to these kinds of situations to begin with.

And yet one question still nagged at him, something he just couldn't get over. "...Why? How could you say all of that on the journal? Why did you tell me?"

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

"...Another Overlord?" With a title that gaudy and grandiose, Riku's tone was laced with a little doubt. Besides, there was no way he was calling anyone by a title that long, or for that matter, "overlord," whether they were or not.

At Mao's question, Riku turned his head to look straight ahead into nothingness before closing his eyes and resting his head back against the wall. "I guess... I just felt like it." He opened his eyes, gazing up at where the tree grew through the roof. Or rather, where the roof had been built around the tree. "Just because I'm a-- ...Hm." He sighed through his nose. "I may not be proud of my past, but I'm not afraid of it." The teen finally looked back at Mao. "And there's no one who needs to repeat my mistakes, either. So that's why."

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

"Another...?" Mao echoed, confused for only the briefest of moments. "How many Overlords are in this place, anyway?!" Great. Riku'd probably met with that Cockroach Overlord. Well then, after this was taken care of, Mao would just have to show the other boy what a real Overlord was all about.

Although now that he thought about it, having so many Overlords in one place was kind of disconcerting. Himself, Laharl, Pram, the loud-mouthed Zetta guy... Did that "Demon Dog King" he'd seen on the network count? Either way, there were at the very least four of them. What kind of force could bring that many Overlords together? Why? Even a goddess was forced here...

Mao shook his head, deciding that those were questions he could answer later.

He listened to Riku's explanation, alternating between being confused and understanding. Not afraid of his past, huh? Mao wasn't either. Or... he hadn't been before. Except for that but... that was special. And it wasn't fear. It was... a lot of things. Hard to tell where it began or ended or if it had all fused together into one new emotion that he hadn't wanted then and never wanted to feel again now. Was that where this darkness came from?

But this kind of consideration (was that even the right word for it?) on Riku's part... It still didn't make a whole lot of sense. Not to Mao, anyway. "So you just don't want anyone else having it. Is that it?" It was a little too late for that.

Icon is VERY APPLICABLE.

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

Riku shrugged. "I know of two, now." His brows raised a bit a bit. "I'm guessing you know of more than that."

How many ego-centric guys do we have here?

As Mao replied, Riku's eyes narrowed in a quietly intense glare. "Having what?" Darkness? His voice remained as even and calm-sounding as ever. "Having the experience of fighting your best friend? Getting to have someone inside play puppet master with you? Watching your home be destroyed? Feeling your heart be flung from your body and soul to end up in the World of Darkness?"

And with that a cruel smile crept across Riku's face as he lowered his visage, the darkness of the treehouse shadowing his face. "And deny people the thrill of that misery? You bet." And the smile twisted into a scowl.

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

"A lot more."

Mao's eyes widened a little. Why was he suddenly so angry? It was a simple question. And then Riku continued on, and suddenly... Suddenly Mao understood. Too well. Mao's own expression darkened and his gaze immediately fell to the floor.

Why... was he shaking? And all these feelings... He couldn't put a name to half of them, but that was nothing new. Why? Why was this happening so often now? Why? "Shut up," Mao said, quickly, before he could stop himself. "Shut up!" Maybe that would make it stop. If he could just stop thinking about it...

It took Mao a moment, but eventually, he managed to calm down a little. But soon his anger spiked and he whipped his head back up to glare at Riku. "Just because you've had that happen... You think you have any right to talk? At least for you it was just one of the Heartless! I...!" he trailed off, deflating. "Dad..."

The word slipped out unbidden and Mao froze, suddenly realizing that he had now said more than he had ever intended to say.

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

"...Sounds like fun."

Riku's eyes narrowed, then widened at Mao's initial response. His lips parted, about to say something when he found his old glare reciprocated. The initial anger that showed in his face slowly dwindled away like the tide, leaving instead a look of mild concern.

His quiet tone changed from aggressive to assertive, letting the sharp edge to his words grow blunt. "We both have a right to talk. It's why we're both sitting here. But it sounds like there's one really big difference between us. I got lucky. Real lucky. I didn't lose anyone along the way."

Riku laid his arms over his propped-up knees, leaning forward and looking at the floor across the treehouse. "Tell you what. I'll... I'll spill first," he offered hesitantly. "Or do you want to explain that first?"

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

Mao's stomach twisted into a hard knot. Riku didn't know the half of it. What he had tried to do... His dad had just been the start of it all, but... At least his father hadn't blamed him for what happened.

"You first," Mao said quickly, almost choking on the words. He wasn't ready yet. He'd said enough. He needed more time to think about what he wanted to say and what he didn't. Maybe he'd hear what Riku had to say, too.

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

Riku raised his brows at the fast response. The expression didn't last, and he stared off into the shadow left by the tree growing through the room. He didn't reply at first. Frankly, he didn't want to. Mao was practically a stranger, and he was about to tell him about a mistake bigger than most people make in their entire lives. Riku sighed as he figured out how to make good on what he just offered. His voice started off almost as soft as the incoming tide.

"...I searched the World looking for a friend. I needed to be stronger. I was offered darkness, and I took it. When I found her, her heart was gone. It was just her body. I... had to fight harder. I had to find it." It was clear Riku still remembered the desperation he felt back then. Still, there seemed to be some things left unsaid by his tone. "And I was offered more and more power. The person who gave it to me told me to get a weapon to save her. ...I failed and ran. I met up with someone who told me I could get it if I opened my heart to darkness." He closed his eyes and sounded pained. "When I did, he possessed me. And eventually threw my heart into the World of Darkness."

Riku clutched the cloth of his shirt over his chest. "And even when I got my body back, Ansem was still there, deep in my heart..." He looked away as he trailed off.

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

His friend's heart was gone? The thought sent a shiver up Mao's spine, especially the way he had said it. Just her body... Not even one of those Heartless. Just an empty shell. Even if it did leave some questions he wanted to ask later. For now, however, Mao kept quiet, listening to the rest of Riku's story. The longer he listened, the longer it delayed his response, after all, and any requests to give his own story.

Mao stared at the hand Riku held over his heart and thought about his story. Someone who offered him power, huh? Almost sounded familiar. Not quite the same, no, but... pretty close. Uncomfortably close. Which was about par for the course as far as this whole situation was concerned, wasn't it? Looked like listening to this story hadn't really done all that much in keeping him from thinking about that after all, had it?

Maybe if he asked questions... He did have a few. "What's this 'World of Darkness?'"

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

A quick glance was given to Mao before Riku stared back into the darkness. He released the grip on his shirt.

There are three Worlds. We're sitting in the World of Light. Well... Castle Oblivion is pretty close to the World of Darkness. And then there's the World Between. Each 'World,'" he motioned, "is made up of smaller ones. Like... Hm." It was strange trying to explain. "Each greater World is made up of worlds like yours and mine."

"The World of Darkness is just that. A collection of worlds blanketed in black. From what I've seen, it's made up of eerie landscapes and winding roads that lead off to a pitch black horizon. It's where hearts are born and where Kingdom Hearts is."

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

It... sort of made sense. It was like if Celestia, a netherworld, and a human world all had other little worlds crammed into them. Sort of. It was a pretty loose connection, but it was close enough for him. Although it seemed this World of Darkness didn't have anything in it except for, well, Darkness. It did kind of sound interesting, though, and if there were any particularly interesting beings in there, they might be fun to dissect.

"Kingdom... Hearts?" he asked confusedly. What the heck was that?

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

"It's where all hearts are born." Despite his quiet tone, there was almost a sense of wonder in his voice. Almost. "Yours. Mine. Everybody's. It's the light within the darkness."

"...But it's also a source of power. Hearts are powerful, if you know how to follow them. ...Organization XIII is after it to get their hearts back."

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

"Huh..." Mao almost sounded a little impressed, too. He'd never heard of such a thing before. He always figured that a heart came into being along with the person. It was interesting. He'd be interested in figuring out a little more about it.

"So... that's all they want? To get their hearts back?" he asked. "Why not just let them have it if it'll shut them up? If they get it back, they'll leave us alone and go back to feeling, right?"

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

"Organization XIII wants power. They're not going to leave us alone after that when they can have more. There'll probably be world domination. Chaos. Death. You know, the usual." He sighed, the snarkiness subsiding. "Truthfully, all I know is that we won't be left alone. It has to stop here. Before they get more powerful."

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

"I'd take a heart over anything that cliche," Mao muttered under his breath. What would the point be in it if they couldn't enjoy the fact that they took over the world, anyway? Wouldn't it all just end up being boring? Though that did lead to the question of how they were going to use some kind of weird, heart-making thing to take over the world. Unless there was some kind of loyalty clause they could insert into every newly made heart. Haaahhh... That almost made Mao want to learn more!

"Mm," Mao nodded. "Sounds about right to me. Like in a video game. Defeat the final boss and stop them from taking over the world and everything gets put back to normal." Although that put them in the hero position, didn't it? ...Great.

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

"A video game?" Riku raised his brows, then gestured melodramatically. "Great, you've just solved all our problems. We'll go level up to 99, unlock the special weapons, then go flatten the final boss, Xemnas. Perfect plan." He sighed, shaking his head.

"This is no video game. I wish it was that easy. Right now we're not even in a situation where we could just fight. We're stuck playing mind games instead."

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

"99? What kind of games are you playing? I mean, sure it's enough to beat the final boss, but that's still pretty weak in the long run." And it wasn't like levels weren't real anyway. Probably something different in Riku's world.

"Why not? We just go through each world in here and beat up what we need to, right? Violence solves a lot more problems than you think."

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

Riku just paused. "Last game I played was a few years ago. you couldn't get higher than 99, and that flattened even the special bosses." He shrugged. Why are we still on this topic?

A look came from Riku that spoke all on it's own. You're a weird, insane little wise guy, aren't you? "Maybe on your world. But here? Violence solves only some problems and can make a lot of others worse." After a thoughtful sigh, he continued, "but there will be fighting along the way. And hopefully gain strength along the way."

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

"Tch, the limit in the games I've played is 9,999. One of the highest level bonus bosses starts at 4000." And they were on this topic because Mao liked video games of course.

...What was that look for? Of course it worked for him in the Netherworld. That was how most problems were solved, anyway. "...Humans are weird," Mao decided.

*reference for the lawls*

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

Riku gave Mao an odd look, replying softly, "Guess you never played Phantasy Star."

"...Funny, coming from you," he smirked a bit. "Whatever. In the end, I couldn't rely on violence alone to fight my darkness. A friend helped -- no, saved -- me more than once." He actually made a concerted effort to make eye contact with the demon. "How'd you deal with you darkness, then?"

[madsciencemaou.livejournal.com]

Mao gave Riku a confused look. He'd never even heard of that game before. ...Though he wondered whether or not Riku knew about Super Hero Quest or Super Hero Fantasy. Well if he hadn't, at least there was Almaz.

And did he have to get back on that? Mao had been kind of hoping Riku would forget about that entire thing. He would have been happy just hearing Riku's story. Well, maybe not happy, but better than he was now. And he had to bring that whole "friend" thing up, too.

As much of an effort Riku was making to make eye contact with Mao, Mao was making to avoid it. A bargain was a bargain. He had to tell, didn't he? No. No he didn't. He could just jump out the window right now, make a break for it, head back to his lab and hide out there until everything was forgotten. And yet, the more he thought about doing that kind of thing, the more something at the back of his mind kept nagging at him to tell. Did... Did that mean he really wanted to? The more he thought about it, the more he realized that the person in front of him was one of the few people who would understand. Would he have another chance? That question bothered him more than anything else. The pause while Mao collected his thoughts seemed to go on forever.

"My..." he stopped there, hung up on the next word. Deep inside, something filled in the word "friend," but he shoved that far away. Just because his True Feelings didn't mind that ugly word didn't mean he was going to say it himself. "Rival," though, he didn't mind. He'd let that slide. Maybe...

"The Ex-Fake Hero and my rival stopped me. Before I... Before I did something only scum would do." Mao stared at the floor, lost in his thoughts. "And then, he... Almaz, he..." The words stopped, caught in his throat. What was with this sudden choking feeling? Why was this even harder to get out than starting had been? It was over, wasn't it? It was fixed, but just thinking about it... Just thinking about it!

"That 'darker half' came out after that. And he didn't care," Mao continued, brow furrowing. Slowly, he looked up at Riku, finally meeting the other boy's gaze and searching... For what he didn't know. "He just laughed at him. He laughed. That kind of evil... That hate and rage. That's what it was. And it was... It was all that damn Super Hero's fault!"

Mao's hands balled into fists and his head dropped again, quaking as everything Aurum had done flashed across his memory again. That autograph, the promise, breaking that promise... Everything... "Everything!" he snapped.

"Dad... Even Almaz... And trying to make me destroy the Human World. All just for an Overlord to fight. What kind of Hero does that?" But slowly Mao calmed down. He'd gotten his revenge already, and the brainwashing was going nicely enough back home. That was taken care of. But...

"I thought that since he wasn't here, those feelings wouldn't come out again. That he wouldn't. They wouldn't have any reason to. But... You say they can." Mao scowled at the thought. "That it's eating away at everything. That it will come out on its own."

This is your heart. This is your heart on darkness. Any questions?

[halfdarkened.livejournal.com]

As he listened, Riku narrowed his eyes in concentration. Try as he might, he couldn't completely follow Mao's story. He looked away a moment, trying to combine the fragments of information he'd been given. Considering Mao's reactions to things, he'd have to tread carefully. The topic was clearly on sensitive ground just as much as Riku's past.

Okay, he was stopped before soing something really bad. There's a... hero? Or did he mean someone dead who tried to be one? And a rival and someone named Almaz. Someone he obviously cared about. And when Mao's darkness overtook him, he just laughed at his friend when something happened? And... This is a super hero's fault?!

And suddenly, Riku began to question if he was getting mixed up with the wrong crowd. Again.

So something happened to both his dad and his friend, and someone was trying to make him destroy... Does he mean the World of Light? Or just humans? And is Mao THAT overlord? Or someone else? Who isn't here? And what feelings? The hate and rage?

After a long enough pause to think, he looked back at Mao. "Just using the power of darkness briefly I guess is like scratching your skin." Riku demonstrated by scratching the back of his hand hard. "But keep scratching and it starts looking like this." He held up the back of his hand to show Mao. The back of his hand had grown bright pink. "This is your heart. The more you scratch, the longer it takes to heal. And the more likely what's underneath will show."

"I'm not sure I get everything you said. But looks like your life hasn't been a party either. ...And it sounds like you lost your dad and a friend along the way, too."