eliminating the threat.
WHO: heroinwait, lightyourway, stillseecracks, heavyweaponsbot [closed]
WHAT: Continuing to live will only hurt people, one way or another. Riku and Xanth aim to keep that from happening.
WHEN: Thursday night
WARNINGS: Copious amounts of tl;dring. You've been warned.
Riku couldn’t deny it-hadn’t been able to deny it for a while now, really-he was sick. Originally he’d thought that the headache, the nausea, the problems with his balance and the chills that left him shivering were due to what was surely a concussion from his battle with Varric-but then he’d started coughing, begun sneezing, had come down with a fever and been unable to do anything more than shiver and sweat in turns. He was sick. He’d caught the same virus Varric had carried, and that worried Riku. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when his symptoms began to fade, or even if he’d be able to survive until then. But it wasn’t until the first hallucination that he’d realized how bad it was going to be.
“Pitiful child.”
As soon as he’d recognized the voice, he’d been struggling to sit up, looking around wildly to find where Ansem might be hiding. Even after he’d appeared, even after they’d exchanged threats (well, Riku had threatened; Ansem had been smug and certain of his victory as always), Kairi couldn’t see him. “It’s okay,” she’d said, the first time he’d made mention of Ansem’s name, “he’s not here.”
Nobody else could see him.
But Ansem was always close. Riku could feel him in his heart, feel the darkness encroaching as his condition worsened and he became less and less lucid. The first time he fell to a seizure he could have sworn he opened his eyes to Ansem’s form.
“It will be so easy. Your mind has been weakened, you stand no chance against me.”
Sleep wasn’t much respite. He saw everything in them, all his past mistakes dragged out to haunt him once more. At one point he found himself running, the door to light just beyond the end of the hall. But no matter how far he ran, he could never make it. No matter how fast, the darkness was always eating up the path just behind him, turning the floor under his feet to inky black.
And when he’d awoken, Ansem was still there. Watching him. Smirking. Waiting.
Riku had grabbed for his journal then, seeing through his fevered haze just long enough to scribble out a quick note to Xanth. He’d considered the possibility of taking care of the matter before Ansem could take hold of his mind-had even brought up the idea to Kairi, though he didn’t know if she’d taken him seriously or not. Dimly he remembered the conversation he’d had with Mickey (or had that been a dream as well?), how Mickey had refused to kill him if he’d lost his battle with Ansem. He’d said he’d be right there to save him, because they were friends. Because his friends would save him from himself…
Mentally, Riku shook his head. That was in a different life.
Here, death would be the only way to make sure of anything.
WHAT: Continuing to live will only hurt people, one way or another. Riku and Xanth aim to keep that from happening.
WHEN: Thursday night
WARNINGS: Copious amounts of tl;dring. You've been warned.
Riku couldn’t deny it-hadn’t been able to deny it for a while now, really-he was sick. Originally he’d thought that the headache, the nausea, the problems with his balance and the chills that left him shivering were due to what was surely a concussion from his battle with Varric-but then he’d started coughing, begun sneezing, had come down with a fever and been unable to do anything more than shiver and sweat in turns. He was sick. He’d caught the same virus Varric had carried, and that worried Riku. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when his symptoms began to fade, or even if he’d be able to survive until then. But it wasn’t until the first hallucination that he’d realized how bad it was going to be.
“Pitiful child.”
As soon as he’d recognized the voice, he’d been struggling to sit up, looking around wildly to find where Ansem might be hiding. Even after he’d appeared, even after they’d exchanged threats (well, Riku had threatened; Ansem had been smug and certain of his victory as always), Kairi couldn’t see him. “It’s okay,” she’d said, the first time he’d made mention of Ansem’s name, “he’s not here.”
Nobody else could see him.
But Ansem was always close. Riku could feel him in his heart, feel the darkness encroaching as his condition worsened and he became less and less lucid. The first time he fell to a seizure he could have sworn he opened his eyes to Ansem’s form.
“It will be so easy. Your mind has been weakened, you stand no chance against me.”
Sleep wasn’t much respite. He saw everything in them, all his past mistakes dragged out to haunt him once more. At one point he found himself running, the door to light just beyond the end of the hall. But no matter how far he ran, he could never make it. No matter how fast, the darkness was always eating up the path just behind him, turning the floor under his feet to inky black.
And when he’d awoken, Ansem was still there. Watching him. Smirking. Waiting.
Riku had grabbed for his journal then, seeing through his fevered haze just long enough to scribble out a quick note to Xanth. He’d considered the possibility of taking care of the matter before Ansem could take hold of his mind-had even brought up the idea to Kairi, though he didn’t know if she’d taken him seriously or not. Dimly he remembered the conversation he’d had with Mickey (or had that been a dream as well?), how Mickey had refused to kill him if he’d lost his battle with Ansem. He’d said he’d be right there to save him, because they were friends. Because his friends would save him from himself…
Mentally, Riku shook his head. That was in a different life.
Here, death would be the only way to make sure of anything.