paixaorpg | There's science to be done

What was all this? Why had she been brought here, wherever here was? NiGHTS struggled hard against the strange, grey creatures which slithered eerily through the air as though they were made of air itself, but it was no use. She pulled and kicked, but it was all for nothing - she may as well have not fought at all. But all of the nightmaren's flurrying thoughts came to a screeching halt when she saw just who she was being brought to: it was the stranger she'd pranked some of the natives with - and later, ended up challenging on a whim when she thought the pranks were going too far.

"You! What's going on?"

Well, now. That was a face Saïx hadn't expected to see. He remembered well the encounter they'd once shared under the darkness of the night, long ago though it was now. These days he so very rarely had the chance to seek out worthwhile opponents, much less find the time to fight anyone of interest. The world was drawing far too close for that.

So instead of offering the proper response to NiGHTS - no need to share the true details, no - he simply offered a smile that held the slightest hint of the fangs he'd worn when last they'd met.

"Perhaps I simply wanted a rematch."

She remembered Saïx well, although they'd only met once. The fierceness of his swings, the odd sort of not-quite amusement she'd gotten from him... and the way he'd not cared at all when the civilians had started getting a little too scared. Oh, yes; NiGHTS remembered, but there was surely something else going on here. There was something wrong - really wrong - and while the Nightmaren couldn't quite put her finger on it, she got the feeling that this meeting wouldn't be nearly as pleasant.

Giving a theatrical roll of her eyes, NiGHTS merely laughed. "You could have asked, you know."

Yes, he could have. But to do so would have been to leave behind the maddening details of making sure the castle ran as smoothly as possible and short of drafting any more people than he already had to deal with the problem of their traitor there wasn't much else that could be done to improve the situation. Gone were the days when he'd taken himself to the streets at night for nothing more than the sake of enjoyment. But this was close enough, for the time.

"Would you have listened if I did?" he asked.

"You're interesting, so probably. Unless I wasn't in the mood," came the reply, NiGHTS remaining relatively calm in the situation despite the fact that she kept struggling against the strange creatures holding her. "But this is putting me off a bit." It was no use; the Nightmaren was held fast, and there was no way she could escape, especially as these things were able to fly as well.

"Why have I been brought here?" she asked, impatient and wanting to deal with this already. "What do you want?"

"As well it should," Saïx answered, sounding quite matter of fact about the whole affair. If NiGHTS was uncomfortable, then he was already doing exactly what was required. Experimentation wasn't meant to be anything but, after all. Still, he supposed he owed her at least something of an explanation.

"I believe people were told not to attempt to leave?"

People weren't supposed to leave. NiGHTS' pupils widened at that as the implications came together. "You mean..." she gasped, trailing off for a moment as the pieces began to come together. "You mean this was all you? All those arrests?" All those people disappearing, that was because of this? "But what about the mayor? And his guards?" Hadn't the mayor ruled about the arrests?

The struggling forgotten in her shock, NiGHTS simply stared at Saïx in shock.

Not him personally, but yes, and as NiGHTS stopped struggling to leave he ordered the Dusks to let go. If he needed them in the future he'd call them back, but for now they slipped quietly back into shadows they'd been called from.

"The city is our city," he answered at last. "No matter what the mayor happens to think."

She was aware of the Dusks letting her go, and equally aware of glaring at them as they slithered away, but most of her attention was on Saïx. "Of course," she breathed, wondering at herself for not thinking of it earlier. "It's you. It's been you all along." Whoever they were, it was impossible for the natives of the city to have any control over what was happening, given how much they'd been hurt.

NiGHTS didn't fight for now - and anyway, Saïx had won their fight when it hadn't even been serious (not that it would stop her from fighting nevertheless). "What have you been doing?" she demanded, rising higher in self-defense. "Who are you?"

Of course it had. It had been them since Paixao had first been 'founded,' them since the Castle had first been known to them. But there was no need to confirm NiGHT's words. She had the right of it, and as long as he wasn't actually denying it there was no need to say anything. The truth was the truth and that was all that matter.

"Nobody you need to know," he answered. "You can call me by the name I last offered you or none at all. It doesn't matter to me."

He'd called himself Sirius, hadn't he? But that seemed more and more like a lie, especially since NiGHTS couldn't feel any Ideya coming from him, save for the Ideya of intelligence, and that was fairly common in this city, at least amongst those who weren't citizens. Something was wrong. "And you're not human," she noted, tilting her head to the side. Maybe it was the general lack of Ideya (and while NiGHTS had noticed it the night they'd met, she hadn't thought much of it), but this man was making her more and more nervous.

"And what do you intend to do?" Certainly not a rematch. No, the nightmaren was certain she had been brought here for more sinister purposes. But what?

No, there was to be no rematch. It would have been counterproductive to the experimentation that would eventually follow. A shame really, but no matter. This was sure to be enjoyable regardless of how it ended. "Is it a surprise?" he asked in response to the question about his humanity. "You are hardly human yourself."

"As to what I intend to do, surely you know by now how we're said to work." The experiments weren't really much of a secret, and NiGHTS has presumably been around long enough to hear the most of the rumors.

At the rather obvious statement, NiGHTS chuckled and shrugged, seeming at ease despite the situation. "True," she laughed. "But you're... different. There's something wrong." She wouldn't say outright, of course, that she sensed no other Ideya coming from the man (and while the Ideya of intelligence was indeed common around here, NiGHTS had learned quickly to be wary of those who possessed it and nothing more), but the feeling of wrongness around Saïx couldn't be ignored.

Cautiously, she drifted down a little. Whoever this man was, it wasn't what he should be. Perhaps he'd had all of his other Ideya stolen in Nightmare - it wasn't unheard of. But then, why would he have been left with even one? If that were the case, Saïx would have been stripped of all of it (save for courage, the one Ideya that couldn't be stolen). What was going on?

Different, he would have gladly granted NiGHTS. None of them were who they had been at first. But wrong? There was nothing wrong with who they were, who they had been forced to become. They simple were and he frowned at the assessment of wrong. "We are as we are," he answered flatly. "No more."

Heartless shells. Empty shells. Both had been terms that had been battered around during the earliest days of the Organization, as well as in reference to the lesser variants of Nobody. But they were so much more than mere shells. They had minds. They could think, and understand, and wound. They could be. But grating though the her words had been, Saïx wasn't about to correct her. Not yet. He'd allow the courtesy of a first strike, this time.

NiGHTS frowned. Saïx might not feel as though something were wrong, but the general lack of Ideya told her otherwise. However, she wasn't about to tell him just what made her feel that way, so the nightmaren merely crossed her arms and frowned at the man, eyes narrowing just a bit. "And how are you different, then?" she asked, curious to know just how different Saïx felt. She knew that the loss of Ideya often led to terrible things, and although humans usually couldn't tell something was wrong with them until it was too late, this was somehow different.

She didn't move to attack for now, remembering how quickly the other had moved last time - and that match had just been for fun. He'd easily been able to beat her. Even so, NiGHTS was cornered, and besides, she hadn't shown him anywhere near all of her abilities. She still had a few tricks up her sleeve.

There was silence as Saïx considered what - or even if - to answer. In the long run, it wouldn't matter much. Anything that he said over the course of this wouldn't be remembered, naturally, but that alone wasn't enough to give him free reign to speak as he would. The secret of the Organization wasn't something to be handed out lightly. If she wanted to know, she could ask elsewhere. Certainly there would be people who knew. "We are incomplete," he answered. "That is all you need to know."

The rest would either come later or not at all.

The Nightmaren's brow furrowed at that, and she opened her mouth to ask before closing it again. What did it matter? It would be no use, anyway; Saïx was clearly not going to answer. Instead, NiGHTS drifted lower, still keeping her guard up just in case. "I know," she told him, looking at him contemplatively. She could feel it. "But if that's the case, then why do you say nothing's wrong? Isn't incomplete just that?" She was pushing it a little, she knew, but her questions sprang from more than simple curiosity. Despite herself, she was concerned for the other - nobody should have to live with an incomplete heart.

Or no heart at all, NiGHTS finished silently as she regarded the utter coldness of the other's gaze.

Had they been human still, it would have been wrong. But for a Nobody, incompleteness was, if not perfect, at the very least something they had been born to. Their hearts were separated; thrown to the wind snd the darkness, and they had grown accustomed to that. If NiGHTS wasn't prepared to understand that simple fact there wasn't any reason to even begin to make the attempt.

Instead, he decided to take advantage of the fact that NiGHTS had drifted lower, as he stepped forward - and then through NiGHTS. It was time and beyond that this was brought to the next stage.

"What the..." NiGHTS was cut off as she tried to dodge Saïx. But he was fast, faster even than the nightmaren had prepared herself for, and even her own natural speed wasn't enough when caught off guard. Mentally cursing her inability to get out of the way, NiGHTS whirled up and out of the way. It was too late to dodge, but she wasn't hurt in any way. Just what did Saïx try just now?

"Whatever that was," she told the Nobody, frowning, "it doesn't seem to have worked." She crossed her arms, drifting higher - for all that she was confined in this bothersome space, she wasn't about to allow Saïx the advantage of having her close to the ground again. "What did you do?"

Oh no, it had worked quite well and Saïx turned to grin at NiGHTS, once again showing a faint hint of fang as he did so. Appearances could be misleading and while NiGHTS might not have seen anything in his stepping through her, he had. A life time of memories were now his to pick apart. "Tell me what you think, nightmare, and perhaps I shall tell you the secret of what is now mine. You didn't think I showed you everything last time we fought, after all?"

True, the situation was quite different this time than last, but the general idea held. Different things for different times, and this was hardly the same as the darkened streets of the city.

NiGHTS' heart stopped when Saïx referred to her as "nightmare." How did he know what she - but no. It could just be a reference to what they'd done together. The Nightmaren whirled around, glaring despite the chance that it could only be a cruel joke. "Like I'm going to tell you anything!" she scoffed, shaking her head. She knew that in close combat, Saïx had her. If she could manage to Paraloop him... but did she want to try and injure him, or send him somewhere else? She didn't want to risk him hurting anyone else, especially since she still wasn't sure what he was really up to in here.

So she waited, watching the Nobody to see what he would do.

It could have been. But this was nothing so tame. Not by a long shot. It had been a carefully calculated shot, and he was glad to see the anger that resulted from it. A creature of darkness that had decided to become kind, or at least less cruel. It was almost intriguing, really. "Perhaps we should see about returning you to a proper nightmare?" he asked, as a pair of Berserkers stepped out of the nowhere-spaces to stand behind him. He wasn't quite sure about what she intended to next and he wasn't taking his chances.

Not when it would mean having to go to the trouble of re-catching her.

Saïx's actions just settled it - he knew. He knew what NiGHTS was, and he clearly wasn't intending to let her go. NiGHTS' only choice was to fight. She couldn't just wait for whatever Saïx intended to do; she had to move fast. Kicking off the wall to gain some speed, NiGHTS dove for Saïx - she wouldn't bother with his minions unless she had to, though she kept an eye out for their movements. "You can try!" she snarled, whirling around in an attempt to catch him in a Paraloop. She wouldn't try and teleport him, but she would try and injure him - not even Reala could stand up to more than a few at a time.

She'd left Nightmare of her own will, and she'd resisted Reala's attempts to bring her back into Wizeman's fold. She wasn't about to let someone else try to do the same, especially when it was clear that, Nightmaren or not, NiGHTS had changed for the better.

He could try? Oh, he would do far more than try. For all that he and NiGHTS had fought before, he had far more at stake now. This was no game. This was for real, and NiGHTS had barely started to move before a his sword jumped into his hand. Moments later, the Berserkers also summon their own weapons, although theirs much more resembled hammers than proper swords.

It was Saïx who swung first, blade swinging up and around without even so much as appearing to require a second thought despite the apparent weight of the blade. Nor was he pulling the blow and mere moments before NiGHTS would have struck him, his blade made contact, knocking the Nightmaren out of the attempted Paraloop. There was no time here for care or tame play-fights. Not today.

"That's quite enough. Or must I restrain you once again?"

He was fast - too fast. NiGHTS tumbled back, the breath knocked out of her lungs as she struggled to maintain her balance. She clutched at her stomach, glaring at Saïx. It might be impossible for her to win, but she couldn't give up. She just couldn't. She'd come too far and fought too hard to go down now. "I'm not giving up!" she snarled defiantly, and attempted another PAraloop. This time, though, she moved faster, spinning in the air like a drill.

If she was going down, she was going down fighting.

There's science to be done

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