[011 ☿] Silent Planet Mercury
Unearthly quiet falls over everything. This place is empty and barren; nothing grows in its desolate grey soil. It's a void without atmosphere, but those who arrive here find themselves able breathe normally and withstand the incredible heat of planet Mercury's sun-turned side
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Stars shining down, that he hadn't remembered seeing for quite some time. One arm instinctively reaches up, waving back and forth slowly above him, before he realizes he's no longer confined to a small, trapped area. And with this, he starts to stand, feeling the absence of various cords, IVs, and the breathing tank he'd started to forget he was wearing.
No. This was some sort of barren landscape, coveted by eternal night.
And he wasn't alone.
The sun moves, then moves back, also squinting at the bright light he hasn't seen in so long. Struggling against it, to adjust, he starts to walk forward. Boots thump against the dry dirt of the Planet, slower than what was usually possible for him. Was he that exhausted, or did this dream work in different physics?
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In the lower gravity, her body feels lighter, and she enjoys that sensation as she turns to face Zack.
"Normally, this would be impossible." What part she means, she doesn't specify.
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He has to ask, lowering his hand once the flare dies down, to better focus. It still feels... weird, to be moving like this, and not just from the sudden shift in gravity. His body is still unused to walking for so long.
"Where are we, anyway? How'd we get outside?" He... recognizes the landscape, a bit, but only subconsciously. If one were to ask, he would assume they were out in the wasteland surrounding Midgar, on a one, warm night.
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"We're standing on planet Mercury." She doesn't shy away from looking at him directly as she adds belatedly, "Where I was born."
She remembers this place, in the vague and hazy way she remembers things about her past life, when it was full of life within its dome similar to the Moon Castle's. It had earned its name back then, of the Water Planet. Fountains, artificial streams and lakes, every source of water imaginable had been here. Now, it is dusty and dry like the surface of the moon itself.
Very like, in fact.
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She seemed not to notice him at first. Then, as if pride were a physical force that could draw her upright, she stood straight and tall and betrayed the struggle of a moment earlier only by the tightness of her fist as she clenched it at her side.
"Do you know where you are?" It's a neutral enough question.
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"Nothing could live here now," she says. She is telling him nothing he doesn't know, still. "If humans were to try to populate this place, it would have to be closer to the polar regions. Right now, we're only a short distance away from the Caloris Basin."
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Ami...
Her back is to him and he takes that moment of privacy to focus himself, re-orientating himself in the present. Wherever the present is. The sun slips backward and threatens his grasp on reality in this place so far from the familiar. But at her sound of distress, his mind focuses and he jerks forward, good hand out to catch her if she stumbles, his own eyes liding against the painful light to filter it through his lashes. His voice stays low though, calm.
"What is that?"
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She won't fall; she won't let herself sink or collapse. The struggle for mastery of herself is won, this time, and although the fist at her side stays strongly clenched as she pushes those emotions down, it makes her wild-eyed when she turns around to answer him.
"The light of planet Venus." She does not speculate about its meaning. She can't let herself, yet.
"Where we are now is planet Mercury." To first appearances, there aren't even ruins left to mark the thriving civilization once housed here; they're just a short distance away, and very hidden. "Near the Caloris Basin."
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He hadn't cared at the time because he hadn't recognized them. It hadn't connected to anything familiar until this moment.
He has to resist the sudden urge to sit down.
"Mercury's your home," he can show that he paid at least enough attention for that. "Who does Venus belong to?"
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If she knew it, she'd walk away and refuse to let him even one inch closer. As it is, she can't forgive that friendship. Because just once, she wants Tsukino Usagi to pay for her crimes and to taste loneliness and pain; and she wants to have that comfort and understanding for herself instead. But those words, that second half, Mercury can never bring herself to say.
"If you intend to remain here, look at it while understanding that."
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He hesitates to reach out to her at first; Mercury doesn't seem like the touchy-feely type- but after a moment, concern wins out and he's turning to place one hand on her shoulder, while using the other to protect his eyes.]
You okay?
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The words she wants don't come. Her mouth does not form the shape of 'I'm fine' even though she intends for it to. She does not step away from his hand like she should. Instead, some of the tension leaves her shoulders finally.]
It's passed, now. [As if this means it was nothing to start with.]
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But then, Axel also knew that some of his dreams lately were some kind of weird exception to every rule... and they were also starting to feel like more and more of a reality then the void he was left wandering otherwise.
His lips curl into a half-smile for a moment, but something about his expression remains questioning. Axel's still not entirely convinced she's doing okay.]
Yeah, but that's not what I asked.
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That time had hurt, too.]
It's nothing. [Nothing serious.] Just the light. [She's not being evasive; it's the truth. But pride forbids saying it hurts her. That much was pathetically obvious already.]
If you're here... Is this a dream?
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"You know what this is, don't you?" He says quietly as the brightness flares, his own eyes closed against the bright light almost enveloping everything. Like her, he's dressed in all blue, to reflect Mercury.
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"Planet Venus flared into a new life." She couches it in the half-mystical, half-astronomical terms. It says so much about what this means to her to note she doesn't pull away from that touch.
More than that, she sincerely doesn't know, and that's why, even as the pain of the light recedes, she is disquieted. She asks it more of herself than of him, "What happens next?"
Do they become hunters, perhaps even butchers, of a child? A baby? Unthinkable. Do they allow the girl to become a powerful threat, as surely her regrets from her last life would make her in this one? They cannot.
And so Mercury stands motionless, still.
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"I can't tell."
And they both know that's a lie, to cover something he may or may not want to say.
He hesitates.
He brings a hand up to her shoulder and gently pats her clothed back.
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But it's wrong, for the simple reason that she knows what it is to be wanted only for her powers and abilities. She can't treat him like that. She tells herself the decision is only that, and nothing to do with also being unsure whether her powers would be strong enough.
She grabs at the faint hope that it's irrelevant. Venus was once born on Earth, but once born in the Heavens where her planet still shines, dimmed to its normal brightness now. Perhaps she will be born somewhere else.
If she has been born.
Mercury stiffens as she squares her shoulders, perhaps from nothing more than determination. At the very least, she will have to search and find out.
"Next time," she instructs Riku when she finally speaks, "Just say 'I won't'." Remove the lie.
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