The Child Was Ruined (ficlet)
Title: The Child Was Ruined
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
- Characters: Ienzo, the Apprentices
Rating: PG
Notes: Written RIGHT before I learned it might've been more willing and collective. Whatever. Pre-Organization, true name spoilers.
Their whispers carried up into the stairwell, weary sounds that were nothing new. Ienzo thought nothing of it, listlessly scanning through his collection of notes as he descended into the laboratory. The experiments were apparently going well. He didn't find it fair Xehanort had kept him away while the others got to dabble around more. His age shouldn't nominate him for errands; Ansem didn't treat him like that.
Ienzo didn't realize the whispers had stopped upon his entrance. Didn't acknowledge that five pairs of eyes were watching him with mixed feelings. Didn't hear the soft "Are you sure?" or its answer. Would never see Dilan walking silently upon his turned back.
But he would always remember what happened.
Papers scattered to the floor at Ienzo was jerked into motion, a bruising grip on his arm. He stuttered and gaped, and partially formed accusations barely began before falling apart. Only when he was presented before Xehanort did he finally find a grip on his words: "What's going on?!"
"And that fool called you a prodigy," said Even with a sneer.
"Our data is incomplete," Xehanort supplied. "It's unfortunate to reveal we've been keeping this from you. But I need to know."
With Xehanort's sweeping gesture, Dilan's hauling and Ienzo's loud protests came simultaneously, the boy's fear all but obvious, and no sympathy to be found from the others. Ienzo's mind raced, as he shouted everything he could to make whatever was happening stop.
He was forced inside the resized glass container -- no one had told him why they changed that, when he asked. But he had a sickening feeling he knew why now, and he was panicking horribly. The door closed and bolted, and Ienzo threw himself at it, praying for a miracle.
He was denied. "What are you doing?!"
"We believe there's a limit to how old a person can be before it's possible to have their heart removed," Braig's voice garbled through the container. His watery expression was frowning. "Sorry it had to be you, kid."
"But you can't!" Ienzo was normally rational. Rationality didn't hold a candle to overwhelming fear. He kept hitting the glass. "It's not ready!"
"Of course it is!" Even snapped. "What do you think we were doing those last couple of weeks?"
The need for outside errands had picked up around then, the boy's mind supplied instantly. They were conducting live tests without his presence. Even admitted that, and Xehanort and Braig's strange statements left him to assume it worked. But that required test subjects on a sentient level and who could they possible have been--
It clicked. It clenched at his heart painfully, like it knew what was about to happen, and wouldn't vacate without a fight. How could he not notice the drastic change in his colleagues in the last few days? All of them, so unmoved. Science always had to be taken with a pinch of frozen emotion, but this sudden metamorphosis...it was all in their blank expressions, every one of them. Even's irritation, Braig's sympathy, it was all underlay with a dead zest.
Not dead, but no longer alive inside. A physical change, not simply a mental condition.
Ienzo was shaking, he was trying not to cry (and failing), he was trying to understand why. For all his abilities to root out key components in missing puzzles, to make things work when no one else could....for all the praises he was ever given, by Ansem or other, it meant nothing if he couldn't find a way out of this.
And for all his shock, his fear, his terror, Ienzo turned but one way, with the disgraceful expression of desperation and incredibility. Because of all people, "Elaeus??"
Elaeus looked away, and it was all Ienzo needed. He screamed, right before the machine sprung to life.
--
Braig didn't like it. He and Xehanort had made the breakthrough together, and one by one, the others were quietly inducted to try. Xehanort was first, excusing his thirst for the fruition of their work as, "We can't sacrifice the others if this doesn't work." But it had, and then came the question: were their variables? Age, purity versus defiled, destiny? Braig has gone next. "If it takes my other eye, Xeha," he had said, "don't think I won't come after you."
His light-hearted comment was followed by an unimpressed smirk; Braig hadn't liked it.
Dilan followed; he could keep a secret. They lost a lot of glassware that night.
Even tailed; he was the oldest, to test boundaries. The container had nearly invisible hairline cracks in the base of the container, thanks to him.
Braig had insisted Elaeus be next; Ienzo was too young, what if it damaged him? Xehanort conceded. Of course, what everyone thoroughly ignored were the two craters in the ceiling, from when Elaeus' latency awoke.
That was two nights ago. Xehanort had moved in fast to get Ienzo, desperate to know if youth and purity were factors. Braig hadn't even time to bring up a counter argument before he had convinced Even and Dilan. Three to two; Elaeus would never had agreed to it, Braig was sure. However, their lack of hearts made it hard to care. It was too odd to describe, knowing what it was like to feel anything. And so, all he could do was grab at Xehanort's sleeve and hiss, "If anything happens to him, Ansem will be the first to know everything."
Xehanort's eyes glinted, and he snorted softly. "I advise otherwise."
--
It was a surprise to learn it didn't hurt.
It was like oil, slipping and sliding over you, trying to slacken the body's hold on the heart. With every jarring tug, Ienzo fought it. Something inside him didn't want it to leave. Something strong and frail, determined and weak, desperate and childish. He could feel it well up and try to coat his heart, anchor it and never let it leave, but its strength was temporary.
He felt it vanish from his body with a sickening sense of lethargy, letting it slide out from his grasp and not caring that is disappeared. Something else began to rapidly take its place.
The power a heart must continuously prevent from over-flooding appeared to be an infinite tap into something less known. It spread from his chest to every cell of his body, going blind in a flash of light, and lashing out with a purpose.
He was awake. And their cage was gone. Shattered, mangled, obliterated. It was irrelevant. Without his heart, everything he had missed with his eyes became terrible obvious and transparent. He could see every nook and cranny of the other five's deception, their lives, their secrets. A single movement (a blink, a muscle twitch, and breath) told him so much, and he filtered it in with ease.
Dropping down from the base of the container, he walked right passed the others, with only this to say: "Try something like that in the future, and you will find it possible to regret again."
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts
- Characters: Ienzo, the Apprentices
Rating: PG
Notes: Written RIGHT before I learned it might've been more willing and collective. Whatever. Pre-Organization, true name spoilers.
Their whispers carried up into the stairwell, weary sounds that were nothing new. Ienzo thought nothing of it, listlessly scanning through his collection of notes as he descended into the laboratory. The experiments were apparently going well. He didn't find it fair Xehanort had kept him away while the others got to dabble around more. His age shouldn't nominate him for errands; Ansem didn't treat him like that.
Ienzo didn't realize the whispers had stopped upon his entrance. Didn't acknowledge that five pairs of eyes were watching him with mixed feelings. Didn't hear the soft "Are you sure?" or its answer. Would never see Dilan walking silently upon his turned back.
But he would always remember what happened.
Papers scattered to the floor at Ienzo was jerked into motion, a bruising grip on his arm. He stuttered and gaped, and partially formed accusations barely began before falling apart. Only when he was presented before Xehanort did he finally find a grip on his words: "What's going on?!"
"And that fool called you a prodigy," said Even with a sneer.
"Our data is incomplete," Xehanort supplied. "It's unfortunate to reveal we've been keeping this from you. But I need to know."
With Xehanort's sweeping gesture, Dilan's hauling and Ienzo's loud protests came simultaneously, the boy's fear all but obvious, and no sympathy to be found from the others. Ienzo's mind raced, as he shouted everything he could to make whatever was happening stop.
He was forced inside the resized glass container -- no one had told him why they changed that, when he asked. But he had a sickening feeling he knew why now, and he was panicking horribly. The door closed and bolted, and Ienzo threw himself at it, praying for a miracle.
He was denied. "What are you doing?!"
"We believe there's a limit to how old a person can be before it's possible to have their heart removed," Braig's voice garbled through the container. His watery expression was frowning. "Sorry it had to be you, kid."
"But you can't!" Ienzo was normally rational. Rationality didn't hold a candle to overwhelming fear. He kept hitting the glass. "It's not ready!"
"Of course it is!" Even snapped. "What do you think we were doing those last couple of weeks?"
The need for outside errands had picked up around then, the boy's mind supplied instantly. They were conducting live tests without his presence. Even admitted that, and Xehanort and Braig's strange statements left him to assume it worked. But that required test subjects on a sentient level and who could they possible have been--
It clicked. It clenched at his heart painfully, like it knew what was about to happen, and wouldn't vacate without a fight. How could he not notice the drastic change in his colleagues in the last few days? All of them, so unmoved. Science always had to be taken with a pinch of frozen emotion, but this sudden metamorphosis...it was all in their blank expressions, every one of them. Even's irritation, Braig's sympathy, it was all underlay with a dead zest.
Not dead, but no longer alive inside. A physical change, not simply a mental condition.
Ienzo was shaking, he was trying not to cry (and failing), he was trying to understand why. For all his abilities to root out key components in missing puzzles, to make things work when no one else could....for all the praises he was ever given, by Ansem or other, it meant nothing if he couldn't find a way out of this.
And for all his shock, his fear, his terror, Ienzo turned but one way, with the disgraceful expression of desperation and incredibility. Because of all people, "Elaeus??"
Elaeus looked away, and it was all Ienzo needed. He screamed, right before the machine sprung to life.
--
Braig didn't like it. He and Xehanort had made the breakthrough together, and one by one, the others were quietly inducted to try. Xehanort was first, excusing his thirst for the fruition of their work as, "We can't sacrifice the others if this doesn't work." But it had, and then came the question: were their variables? Age, purity versus defiled, destiny? Braig has gone next. "If it takes my other eye, Xeha," he had said, "don't think I won't come after you."
His light-hearted comment was followed by an unimpressed smirk; Braig hadn't liked it.
Dilan followed; he could keep a secret. They lost a lot of glassware that night.
Even tailed; he was the oldest, to test boundaries. The container had nearly invisible hairline cracks in the base of the container, thanks to him.
Braig had insisted Elaeus be next; Ienzo was too young, what if it damaged him? Xehanort conceded. Of course, what everyone thoroughly ignored were the two craters in the ceiling, from when Elaeus' latency awoke.
That was two nights ago. Xehanort had moved in fast to get Ienzo, desperate to know if youth and purity were factors. Braig hadn't even time to bring up a counter argument before he had convinced Even and Dilan. Three to two; Elaeus would never had agreed to it, Braig was sure. However, their lack of hearts made it hard to care. It was too odd to describe, knowing what it was like to feel anything. And so, all he could do was grab at Xehanort's sleeve and hiss, "If anything happens to him, Ansem will be the first to know everything."
Xehanort's eyes glinted, and he snorted softly. "I advise otherwise."
--
It was a surprise to learn it didn't hurt.
It was like oil, slipping and sliding over you, trying to slacken the body's hold on the heart. With every jarring tug, Ienzo fought it. Something inside him didn't want it to leave. Something strong and frail, determined and weak, desperate and childish. He could feel it well up and try to coat his heart, anchor it and never let it leave, but its strength was temporary.
He felt it vanish from his body with a sickening sense of lethargy, letting it slide out from his grasp and not caring that is disappeared. Something else began to rapidly take its place.
The power a heart must continuously prevent from over-flooding appeared to be an infinite tap into something less known. It spread from his chest to every cell of his body, going blind in a flash of light, and lashing out with a purpose.
He was awake. And their cage was gone. Shattered, mangled, obliterated. It was irrelevant. Without his heart, everything he had missed with his eyes became terrible obvious and transparent. He could see every nook and cranny of the other five's deception, their lives, their secrets. A single movement (a blink, a muscle twitch, and breath) told him so much, and he filtered it in with ease.
Dropping down from the base of the container, he walked right passed the others, with only this to say: "Try something like that in the future, and you will find it possible to regret again."