A day in the life

[pullsheavendown]

Who: Roxas and ??? OPEN LOG-action-style or prose are both welcome, I'll match your preference
When: Sunday January 30, all day
Where: See below cut for locations breakdown
Summary: A working-class Nobody is something to be

Comments

DARKNESS DARKNESS DARKNESS

[theprobator]

How did that text from Baldy read again? "Should you find him alone again, contact me immediately."?

The night had been shaping up to be a quiet one, where Vanitas fine-tuned his abilities in the Darkness, slowly lurching toward back his once top-notch strength before the Pull had claimed him. But once he spotted Roxas doing about the same level of wandering and fighting, Vanitas started to think the evening might get interesting.

He needed a way to keep Ventus Junior in one spot that didn't involve sticking his neck on the line-- at least, he didn't want a fight just yet. He did, however, have a small army of Floods at his disposal. They could keep the kid fighting and maybe put him on edge for a few minutes while Vanitas kept out of sight, and pulled out his NV to shoot Xehanort a quick message.

Enjoy your new blue playmates, Roxas. They're a little bigger than the last Flood that tracked him down mistakenly.

[pullsheavendown]

What the-where had these come from? He'd been fighting the usual assortment of darkness monsters, nothing too heavy, with no Heartless or Nobodies to be seen yet when all of a sudden these little blue things rose up, like the one that Vanitas had sent after Sora before it had found him instead.

They were bigger, though. But just as twitchy.

Did that mean Vanitas was nearby? A quick look around didn't turn him up, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. If he was creating more Unversed, he might well have set them loose on the city, but it would make for an awfully big coincidence if they found Roxas and Vanitas didn't.

Whatever. It didn't matter. The result was the same either way. Roxas gripped a Keyblade in each hand and went to work.

[caliginose]

One of the many benefits to utilizing darkness properly: ease of travel.

Xehanort did spend a few minutes preparing before he departs. He had been in the midst of the last few adjusting to the equipment now spread over the entirety of his basement and it would not have been wise to leave it as it was. Things had progressed much too far for him to allow for any troubles. And he had no doubt that Vanitas would keep the boy in question occupied for as long as necessary.

But he didn't dawdle, no. A portal allowed him to arrive on the scene seconds after he left his home, his arms tucked against the small of his back, as always. He stepped out of the swirling mass and onto the dirt next to Vanitas and gave him an acknowledging nod.

"Thank you for the prompt message. Watch the perimeter, if you will. I would prefer to avoid interruption."

Then, calm as you please, Xehanort strode out into the open, making his way toward the very obvious sounds of battle.

[pullsheavendown]

These things were simultaneously not that tough and really annoying, Roxas reflected as his Keyblades sliced through another Flood, dashing it back to nothingness. They weren't so weak that he could afford to stand there and shrug off their attacks, but at no point did he feel like he was in actual danger. He wasn't even winded. But they had numbers on their side. What made him such an attractive target? He couldn't be the only one walking the dark tonight.

Another thought crystallized in his mind as he tore apart yet another one. They weren't attacking him because they wanted to destroy him.

They were attacking him to keep him there.

Footsteps were a soft sound, hardly audible to someone who wasn't paying attention. But as Roxas whirled around to face the opposite direction, they practically echoed in his ears.

Xehanort.

[theprobator]

Another set of footsteps reverberated somewhere in the darkness-- next to Xehanort, to Roxas' right, to suddenly behind him, taking his position right where Roxas had once faced -- seems Vanitas' only acknowledgment of his orders was silently obeying. If Roxas cared to look, he might have spotted a spiky-haired silhouette darting through the shadows. No helmet tonight meant keeping out of sight for now. Vanitas trusted the old man's ability to defend himself, but there was no need to send Ventus Junior into a blind rate right now like their last two encounters. Not yet, at least.

While Xehanort and Roxas conversed, as it were, Vanitas would be spending his time surrounding the area with as many Unversed as he was capable of, which... wasn't much, but it would deter intruders long enough for Vanitas to catch wind of them and drive them off.

[caliginose]

"Ah. Roxas." Xehanort's voice always did have a way of carrying, despite the gravel's edge to every word. "I was hoping that we could meet in person."

He stopped when there was still some ten or eleven feet between them, far enough that one of them would have to waste motion and energy on closing the gap, should they wish to attack. His eyes lowered, first to one of the young Keyblader's hands, then the other, taking in the very curious (though not entirely unexpected) sight of a pair of blades. One white, one black. Surely not a coincidence.

It never is, is it? "You have time to speak with me, I hope?"

If there was mockery, it was only implied, or imagined. He did no more than smile in what had become, since he had arrived in this city, his mild, unassuming way.

[pullsheavendown]

"I bet," Roxas said in a tone that would have dripped ice crystals if it had been any colder. "You must have been hoping really hard if you got Vanitas to send his pets after me

[caliginose]

"Trapped? Of course not." One corner of Xehanort's mouth turned up into something sharper, something far more calculating. He had never doubted that Terra had wasted no time in informing any and all of just who and what he was. Perhaps not the entire city at large, no, but those individuals who directly had something at stake.

Foolish. Foolish, Terra. I would know them because of their caution; only those with something to hide from me would guard themselves against me.

"But I am surprised; I had not thought that you would use such a technique to run from me." He nodded his head toward the portal, which spoke volumes in and of itself. Two Keyblades? Mastery over darkness? And a face so much like his dear pupil, but nowhere near the same. There was a puzzle here, a mystery with many interconnected parts and players that would not show themselves to him

[pullsheavendown]

"Surprised at the technique or that I'd want to get away from you?" He knew he'd revealed something of himself by calling forth the dark portal at all, but it was the best of several bad options. Escaping on foot or fighting his way through them would have been far worse.

He didn't back into the corridor yet, though. Xehanort had to have a reason for seeking him out face-to-face; Roxas wanted to know what it was, and how much he knew. His escape route was still there, a comforting presence in a scene that had all his nerves on edge.

"You know I'm not Ventus," he said. "I've got nothing to do with you. So I have nothing to say to you."

That was an obvious lie. There was plenty he could say to Xehanort, even if he'd prefer to let his Keyblades do the talking. But what good would that do? It would be pointless to indulge himself that way. This version of Xehanort hadn't done most of the things that Roxas hated him for. Not yet.

[caliginose]

"Please, Roxas. Enough of this." Xehanort shook his head, a slow, back and forth motion that would seem weighted if he did not move with such ease. "You cannot expect me to believe what you say, nor can you possibly think I would be deflected so easily."

He could feel it buzzing under his skin like so many vibrating shards of glass: light, what light he had left, far more difficult to smother than the darkness he used so easily. It really had been much too long.

Xehanort flexed his fingers behind his back, bones shivering with the energy he held in growing reserves. "I want to know what you are. To me you appear a mass of contradictions and impossibilities. With...time I could sort them out for myself, but this is my courtesy to you."

He inclined his head toward Roxas just slightly. "I am allowing you to tell me on your own."

[pullsheavendown]

The arrogance of the man wasn't a real physical force, but it might as well have been. The corner of Roxas' lip curled on in response, a mixture of irritation, anger, and disgust roiling in his stomach.

The funny thing, in a way that held no humor at all, was that he couldn't give Xehanort his answers, not the ones he wanted. Not when Roxas didn't know most of them himself.

"As far as you're concerned, I'm nobody," he said, words clipped short. "Nobody you need to think about. Ever."

There was something in the air now, but whether it came from him, from Xehanort, from the darkness itself or just his own tense imagination, Roxas didn't know. He took half a step back, bracing himself.

"The answer's no." He glared hard at Xehanort. "And I'm leaving."

[caliginose]

"I'm Nobody."

Xehanort's laugh was brief, though no less amused. Did they never speak with one another? Did they never plan for his inevitable interest and his inevitable action? Or was simply hiding and lying and hoping the best they could do. Surely not, surely not. They had to know how quickly such plans would fall to ruin. "Axel told me the same thing when I spoke to him, Roxas."

The old man lifted his hand and lances of brilliant white fell from the sky, piercing a wide stretch of ground that, at the very center, the boy occupied. The hummed in the air when they fell, like great birds or machinery.

"How much of a Nobody are you, compared to him?"

[pullsheavendown]

Roxas barely had any time to think about an answer to Xehanort's question, and absolutely none to give one before the light began to fall. He dove away from one that would have landed right on top of him, and realized too late that he was cut off from his own portal. No doubt just as planned

[caliginose]

The shield snapped into place immediately, the action done without so much as a twitch from the man that it protected. The bars split down their centers when they collided with the near-transparent barrier, dispersing across its surface and fading into nothing. The technique was a strong one, or - perhaps the attack had been weak.

No matter; it was of less significance than other things. Light and darkness both, a wielder, a boy with the same face as my dear apprentice.

A nobody.

So many little threads spread like a web in his mind, connecting circumstance with circumstance, weaving around the lies. He followed their pathways even as he stepped forward, through his own barrier, and raised his other hand. There was a ringing sound, more like a bell, and the next onslaught of light thickened and broadened, fewer in number - no more than six or seven - but massive enough to crush vehicles.

These were what now fell toward the young man prone on the ground.

[pullsheavendown]

Roxas wheezed against the ground, most of the wind knocked out of him by the fall. But there was no time to pull himself together and catch his breath. Xehanort and Vanitas were too close, and he could feel the Keyblade Master's power in the very air around him, practically choking in its strength.

Run, hide, avoid. It hadn't been much of a plan and its ineffectiveness was being proved even now, but he couldn't give Xehanort what he wanted. He wouldn't cooperate.

A strange sound caught his attention, and he craned his neck to see the thicker bars of light falling down, ready to crush him. He was out of time. Maybe part of him had really wanted to confront Xehanort, but not at the cost of his life. And with nowhere to run, there was only one way out.

The portal opened beneath him, and he looked toward Xehanort as he sank into the darkness, catching just a glimpse-and then he was gone.