paixaorpg | Time Cuts Cruelest of All [active]

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Time Cuts Cruelest of All [active]

Character(s): Saïx and Ven
Content: A chance meeting
Setting: Out in the streets of the city
Time: Early Evening
Warnings: None (yet)

It should, Saïx had decided, be somewhat less of a requirement for the currently named Lord of the Castle to have to walk among the streets of the city. Of course, he would hardly mention this to Xemnas (one of the reasons he was out in the streets) and he did still have a wayward assassin that would need to be dealt with, but the more common folk of the city? He could hardly care less about them, and it was irritating to nearly the point of being infuriating to have to leave aside his usual cloak on account of what those same, inconsequential, people thought of those who wore it.

For now though, he was willing enough to bend to the whims of the people. Not willing, and the expression on his face was a good deal less then pleased, but he was wearing ordinary clothes. Not surprisingly, both his shirt and pants were blue. After all, he might at least go with the general theme. But that was all that he was willing to do. Xemnas' orders could force him out of his coat. They could not, however, actually force him to pay attention to people and thus, he wasn't.

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Ventus had found himself making a habit out of wandering the streets once or twice a day, often both walking familiar pathways and discovering new ones as he went. There was a lot to see, and Ven couldn't help but be curious.

Besides, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He might as well get to know the place, right?

Unlike Saix, Ventus took in everything he saw like a sponge; he looked in the buildings and around the streets, and noticed the people around him. A lot of the time, he even found someone to talk to. Usually, though, he didn't see a lot of familiar faces.

Today was an exception.

The flash of blue in the corner of his eye made him turn and, though he was surprised, he recognized it almost instantly. Without stopping to take in more detail, Ven spoke up, trying to get his attention.

"Isa?" he asked, not yet noticing the obvious differences.

Even with Saïx paying absolutely no attention to the people around him, he could no sooner miss the sound of the name he used to bear then he could have flown. He had left that past behind. It had died with his world, and to hear it brought up now only further soured his mood. It likely came as no surprise that he turned to look at the person that spoken the name of something he had tried to hide all those years ago.

What he found was only another point against an already sour mood and he made no effort to keep the scowl of his face. Of all the faces to have to see again, it had to be that face. The face of the past that was still reflected in the present. The one thing he couldn't get away from.

"That's not my name."

A mild surprise was reflected in the boy's features when the older man turned around. Though he had thought too quickly to notice the differences from the back, looking at his face made the distinctions painfully clear. It wasn't just that blue-haired man looked older then the boy he had met in Radiant Garden - after all, there were a lot of people from different times in this world. It was the features that gave Ventus pause.

The scar, the yellow eyes...that look on his face. Isa hadn't smiled a lot, sure, but something in this man's expression seemed much darker. But they still looked similar. Isa could easily have been his brother.

But he had probably just made a mistake.

"Oh, I see." Ven said, a small note of disappointment in his voice. It would've been nice to reunite with someone else that he knew. "Sorry. You just look a lot like a friend of mine."

Oh, he had most certainly made a mistake. But it wasn't quite the mistake he'd thought he'd made. Saïx had once been Isa. But that had been years ago, when things had been simpler and he'd only had the doings of one person to concern himself with. Still, he wasn't about to let Ven know that he did know that name; that hit had been his so very long ago, back when he could still about such things as the disappointment in Ven's.

"I heard," he answered tersely, not turning his gaze from Ven. "But you were asking for someone you won't find."

Isa had died. Saïx lived on, and no one could return him to the child he'd been. To be honest, he would hardly have wanted to be him again even if someone had given him the chance. The past deserved to stay buried.

"Right." Ven replied, trying to keep his tone neutral - not something that he could do well at all. "He's not supposed to be here anyway."

Of course, there were a lot of people who shouldn't have been in this world. But it was probably better that as many people avoided this place as possible. It was dangerous, and he had to think about what would be safest for everyone. That was his job, right?

But try as he might, Ven couldn't shake the feeling that something about this man was familiar. Somehow, he really did remind him of Isa. Could that really just be a coincidence?

No harm in asking, right?

"Are you sure you don't at least know a guy named Isa?" he asked. "You both look kinda alike."

There was more to it then how he looked, but Ven couldn't quite put his finger on what that was, much less describe it.

He wasn't 'supposed' to be anywhere, and only the fact that he wasn't terribly inclined to start something where people could see kept him from telling Ven as much. His face, however, was perfectly indicative of his growing displeasure at this particular line of conversation. The past should have stayed in the past, and yet here was someone doing all he could to drag the past once again into the light.

"He no longer exists."

It was truth in every sense of the word, and even if it wasn't an answer to Ven's question in the strictest sense, it did imply that he knew who Isa had been, at the very least.

"He no longer...?"

Ven takes a step back at those words, his sudden confusion evident in his expression. Had Saix not said any more - had he just brushed the boy off, or given him a more neutral reply, Ventus might have just left; left without suspecting anything amiss at all.

But instead he kept his expression fixed on the man, and raised his voice ever so slightly. Who was this man...and what had he done with his friend?

"What are you trying to say?"

What had he done? He had done nothing. Merely lived, and died. No, what had been done to Isa had been done by other hands. Cruel hands, born of shadows and cast-off parts of people. Of course, he wasn't about to mention that. Let the boy find out about the cruelty of the heartless himself. It would be all the more interesting to watch, that way.

That and he was prying enough as it was. Irritating though it was to have himself be the topic of conversation, it was quite easy to lead him along. And confusion and frustration were excellent vehicles for the truth that would wound a heart.

"The boy you knew is dead," he answered simply, leaving no room for doubt. "You won't find him here - or anywhere."

Dead?

For a moment, Ventus remains silent, trying to process those words. Dead, dead...no way. He couldn't actually mean that! He was just exaggerating, or trying to trick him, or something. Isa was just a normal kid! Why would anyone want to hurt him?

This man knew something, and he had to find out what that was.

"What are you talking about?" he asked. His tone was demanding, but unsteady. "What happened to him?"

There was a moment of silence on Saïx's end, and then very slowly a smile spread across his face. Roxas had been an interesting addition to their number, but he'd never reacted this readily to provocation. It probably came of not having a heart that could be stirred to anger before being shattered. If Ven came here and offered him nothing more than precisely what Roxas couldn't have then he might actually manage to eke some enjoyment out of this after all.

"Did he mean that much to you?" Saïx asked quietly. "So much that you'd fight me over it?"

He'd barely met Ven, all those years ago. That he should have made quite such a profound impression didn't exactly seem terribly likely.

It didn't matter that Ventus hadn't known Isa for very long - he was still a friend, and he couldn't just stay quiet and listen to someone talk about hurting one his friends. Isa hadn't done anything to deserve that. If he was in danger, or if something had happened to him...

...well, Ven couldn't do anything about it. He was stuck in Paixao.

But he wasn't going to give up until he knew anyway.

"I'm not here to fight! I just want to know what you're talking about." This guy had started this whole mess - he had to have answers!

Oh, he had answers. Many answers, about many things. But that didn't mean that any of them were something that he'd simply give out. No, that wasn't how he preferred matters. It was better to let things be, to give out only what he needed. Control the information to offer more injury to the heart before reaching out to snap it in two.

"How much is it worth to you."

For that he didn't inflect it as such it was very much a question and one that implied that if he didn't care for the answer he might not answer it at all. He had better things to do with his time, or so it implied.

Was this guy just playing games? Ven couldn't be sure. Either this whole mess really was just a trick, or the man was withholding information just because he could. There was no way to tell! There was a small part of him that thought he should just walk away...but he couldn't.

He just wanted a real answer. That was all. He wanted to be a hero, a Keyblade Master - not someone who just forgot about the people that he met on his journeys.

Finding out what this man knew was worth a lot.

"I just want to know."

The determination and sincerity in those words was answer enough - it did matter, and he wasn't giving up.

In a manner of speaking, yes. But perhaps it would have been better to say that that he was gauging how much interest to put into Ven. It was obvious that he cared, but how much did he care? More importantly, was it worth his while to explain further? Information was no longer as free as it had been when Radiant Garden was still radiant, and not a bastion of darkness or a town that was slowly rebuilding.

"How much?" he reiterated as if his intentions should have been obvious long before this. He was neither patient nor well-inclined to do things that didn't benefit him in some manner or another, and even in those two words, he managed to imply at least something of both.

Edited 2011-10-11 04:26 (UTC)

Ven had just about had it with this guy. What kind of answer was he looking for? He didn't have the slightest clue. For a moment he was silent, his gaze was locked on the man who so eerily resembled the boy he claimed was dead. It couldn't be that simple, he thought.

So what did he have to do to find out? What did the man want?

"I'm not leaving until you tell me more." That was the honest truth, and he could take that however he wanted.

Stony silence fell at Ven's words. Saïx had no doubt that he would be able to simply leave the boy behind, should his company prove less then enjoyable. However, that would simply be read as him seeking to avoid the question the boy had asked, and irritated as he was, he had no intention to let an inconsequential remnant of his past out him on the defensive. There was no need to run from a child.

It was merely bothersome to find that he'd found the answer that Sora hadn't to his questions. Especially in light of his similarities to XIII.

"Radiant Garden has fallen. It lives no more."

At first, Ventus didn't say anything...but, despite the silence, the shock on his face said plenty. Radiant Garden had been destroyed?

He couldn't quite believe it. In fact, part of him wanted to think that the man was lying. That something like that would be impossible. But...what if it wasn't?

That only left questions. Who would do something like that? How? Why?

"...when? How? Last time I saw it, everything..."

Everything had been just fine, no more then a few weeks ago. If something had happened to it - even if it was in the future (because Sora was from the future, right? So maybe this guy was, too.)...what could that mean?

There. That was closer to what Saïx had wanted to see from Ven. Despair, not only for a friend but for a whole world. Closer, but not quite yet something that would make the encounter worth it. He hadn't been able to break Roxas' heart - XIII had no heart to break - but perhaps he would be able to get close enough with XIII's mirror.

"It fell not long after you left, I believe. Perhaps your very presence there helped cause the decay?"

Of course, it had been no such thing, as far as Saïx was aware, but the Heartless had come from outside the Garden. Besides surely darkness would have chased after a young Keyblade wielder. The darkness was never far from the light, and he'd never had much of a chance to ask after the inky darkness he'd heard had lurked in the basement of the castle, much less where exactly it come from.

More and more questions ran though the boy's mind, faster then he could even begin to consider answers. Those words bounced around in his head, and the only thing he could think was that they couldn't possibly be true. Master Eraqus may not have wanted him to leave, but he had taught Ventus plenty about how a wielder of the Keyblade should act in other worlds.

Protect the world order. Don't involve yourself unless it was for the sake of all worlds. He and his friends had all followed those rules...hadn't they?

"That's not possible. It can't be." Still, the words were spoken with less conviction then his arguments before. He couldn't help but think that, maybe, even if it wasn't their fault...what if it was something they had brought with them? Something that was following them.

Wait...maybe that really was it.

And Ventus could only think of one thing that might be.

Perhaps to Saix's disappointment, some of the shock began to fade from his expression. Suddenly, the boy was just a little more focused, a little more serious.

"Did what happened to the city have anything to do with the Unversed? Or a guy in a mask?" he asked, desperately hoping for a straight answer.

True, Ven's response hadn't been quite what Saïx had expected. But the answer he'd given was just as interesting, albeit for entirely different reasons. Had he stumbled on a grain of truth perhaps? Or was it merely something the boy had reason to feel guilty about. Either way, it promised potential, further down the road.

Of course, as far as he knew, the fall of Radiant Garden had absolutely nothing to do with masked men and Unversed. But if that was where Ven's thoughts turned to, who was he to disabuse the boy of them. The important part was that Radiant Garden had fallen, not so much the hows of it. The darkness came at the light and then it had been no more. Did it matter how that darkness came to be?

"What if I were to say it did?"

So much for that hope.

But Ventus couldn't give up now. If the Unversed really had gotten a chance to do so much damage - to destroy a world outright - and if Vanitas had something to do with it, then it was more important than ever that they fix this mess. Somehow, they had to do something about the threat before it got any worse. Knowing could make a huge difference.

"I have to know. It's important!" Again, the shock was absent from his tone, and he didn't quite sound desperate anymore, either. He was just determined. There wasn't any time for what-ifs or messing around.

Important. Of course it was important. So many things appeared to be so when one had a heart to care. So many, many useless things. But if this was what Ven deemed important, so be it. All it did was give Saïx more information that could be put to good use later. In this case, that Ven had a deep and abiding personal grudge against the Unversed, whatever those were. Monsters of the darkness perhaps? A fallen kindred to the Heartless? No matter. He could ask if it became truly important.

"This is not your world," he answered, after a moment of silence. "Nor is it the world in question. What good will it serve you to worry about what has already been?"

True, it wasn't dead and gone in Ven's time. But die it would, despite anything he did. One person couldn't be anywhere and the darkness was ever patient. There wasn't anything knowing the truth would do for him.

If only Ventus knew how true that was, in so many ways - no matter how much he knew about the events in his own future, or in the future of the worlds, there was very little he could do to change their fate. If only he knew how much was beyond his grasp.

...but in truth, if he knew, it would have made no difference in how much he wanted to try. How much he wanted to keep his friends safe, and keep the worlds as intact as possible. And whether or not knowing the truth really was better, he still wanted to know.

"There's more to it then that!" Ventus replied, though he was starting to wonder if it would do any good. "Other worlds are in danger, too."

But did this man care? It really didn't seem as if he did, and that just made Ven wonder all the more who he really was.

More to it. What did Saïx care about more? The other worlds in the sky weren't his, and even if he had any connection to any of them he'd been already in the habit of not caring about most things. Worlds fell all the time. Whichever ones Ven was worrying about were unlikely to stay as they were forever.

"You can't save the worlds."

Not on his own and most certainly not while he stayed in Paixao.

It was so...strange.

As he watched the man say those words, he couldn't help but think that something just didn't fit - not about the words themselves, but about the person saying them.

You can't save the worlds.

It wasn't true - it wasn't - but that wasn't what had caught Ven's attention. It was the way he said it as if it didn't matter at all. As if it didn't make him feel anything.

Maybe it was just Ven's imagination. But he had to ask.

"Who are you, anyway?"

Why should he have felt anything? He hadn't the heart to care about much, these days. Isa might have cared, yes. But Isa was dead and gone. As for Ven's question, that he also cared little for. Who he was wasn't something to be shared lightly. There were too many secrets involved, too many things that were stepping far too close to the truth of the Organization. No, it was for the best that Ven not know what he truly was. He didn't need to share that to make sure the boy didn't poke his nose further into matters.

"No one you need to concern yourself with," he answered.

"You're hiding something, aren't you?"

There was no other explanation for why he was dodging his questions. He wasn't even willing to give Ven his name...there had to be a reason.

Had Saix said nothing about Isa no longer existing, Ventus may have just walked away long before without thinking that anything was strange about him. But now Ventus was sure that this was a man who was up to something - someone to keep an eye on. Somehow, he had to find out what that "something" that was going on was.

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Time Cuts Cruelest of All [active]

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