Red and Yellow
AT FUCKING LAST. Don't I know it.
Title: Red and Yellow
Chapter 12: Three Into Two Now is One
Series: Silent Hill/Kingdom Hearts
Rating: R
Summary: Saix, Marluxia, and Demyx are sent on a mission in a quiet place called Silent Hill.
As two men traveling injured, it's been a difficult way. The both of them are lucky they can manage to stumble around.
It's all the more difficult, every moment they hear the hiss of static and monsters jerking their way. Demyx is just glad that Marluxia's got that sickle; it's not the same kind of wickedness as XI's scythe, but it does the job. Demyx, at best, can swat at monsters with the end of his shotgun, but it just makes his side hurt more.
It's been more complicated than necessary, but eventually, the theater is in their sights.
Demyx feels about relieved.
Until Marluxia tries the doorknob.
"Locked," XI says flatly, sounding about as exhausted as IX feels right now.
Insofar, this entire matter has taken a toll on Demyx's patience. He's tired from wandering around of hours -- hell, it's gotta have been a couple of days now -- with little to no food, water, or sleep. Fighting monsters without their powers, jumping at shadows.
Fuck this. Just fuck this.
"Move," Demyx mutters, and surprisingly Marluxia does not question him and simply obeys. He struggles to stand on his own and grips tight on his rifle. He slams the end of it against the doorknob a few times until it simply falls off and the door creaks open.
"I suppose that's a way of doing things," Marluxia remarks, grabbing onto the musician's shoulder to help his balance. "Well, come on, then. Let's see what's so important in here."
To be honest, the interior leaves something to be desired. Of course, the messiness is expected. Papers strewn about, old ticket stubs and the like. Besides looking terribly abandoned, the ceiling is a bit unusual in the fact that it's covered completely with metal grating -- all rusted, of course. Dangling by chains were a series of different kinds of knives, mostly butchery related.
"Can I sit?" Demyx dislikes how he's almost wheezing at this point, but he knows he's still suffering the wound in his side, no thanks to Eddie.
Marluxia wordlessly assists him about midway down through the rows. Most of the other chairs weren't any good to sit in, anyway.
"I don't get it. What're we supposed to find here?" Demyx mutters. "This whole thing..."
"Saix's mess," Marluxia says, annoyed. "We've established that. This entire world makes me think it's his own doing."
Walter did say something like that, Demyx mentally admits. The otherworld -- it was reacting mostly to Saix, obviously, and only a bit of them. But just enough.
He jumps in his seat and winces; he hears the door slam shut and Marluxia curses something foreign under his breath before he hobbles towards the door to try it.
"Locked, of course," he remarks. "It won't budge."
The laugh that escapes from Demyx is weak and... hell, it's just not normal sounding at all, but he can't help but chuckle in this situation. Damn it all, they are so fucking screwed.
He slides back in his seat, still clutching at his side. Still oozing out, still hot, and he's feeling really woozy. But he can still observe a bit.
Damn place is a mess. The screen is tattered up, and it seems like... oh hell, that isn't blood dripping down walls, he hopes, he really hopes it isn't, and that smell is getting worse.
Somehow, the room gets dimmer than before. He hears Marluxia curse something again before making his way back over to Demyx. It's not about caring from the plant-shaper, Demyx knows that; it's about survival, and XI only has the musician to rely on.
Demyx bets that's killing Marluxia. Heh, to rely on IX...
The screen suddenly flickers to life.
"What--?" It's a woman. A female nurse, actually; long blonde hair and a red sweater on. She's looking down at someone. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I was told no one is supposed to be here--"
"But... but 'Lessa's..." Dark hair, dark dark hair. Little boy. With a cross-shaped scar on his face. "I told her I was gonna see her again..."
She hesitates.
"That's Lisa," Marluxia mutters, recognizing her.
"Can you keep a secret?"
The boy on the screen nods eagerly.
"Okay. I'm going to take you to see her. But you can't tell anyone. It's going to be a secret between you and me."
The boy nods again. "Th-thank you..."
Abruptly there's static; the picture goes fuzzy, and there's the sound of flesh being beaten and a female scream.
The picture flickers and the sound is set right.
Demyx shudders; he immediately recognizes who this is on now. It's Isaac Stone -- the man Saix used to be. Still young, but wearing some kind of... itchy-looking white robe. He's hesitating about something, a weird looking sword in his hand--
"Hey, I saw Walter with that--" Demyx blurts out, but Marluxia hushes him.
Isaac is moving. He's stabbing the sword into the floor, then turning it so the blade sticks up from the hole he made. He hesitates before impaling himself--
Right. Right in the heart, what the hell, is that why Saix is bleeding there?
The screen goes fuzzy for a moment. There's the faintest sound of a siren going off before the picture sharpens again.
Isaac is choking, pulling the sword out from his chest. He should be dead -- he stumbles and falls to his knees.
Something... something in Isaac's back is moving around, something unnatural -- and it bursts from the open wound on his shoulder, where he stabbed himself through the chest and out the back. A hand. An arm. Something is dragging itself out of Isaac's body and Isaac is screaming and it starts to sound more like Saix then Isaac.
It's that Red Pyramid thing tearing out from his back.
Isaac... Saix -- whatever. He's shuddering, and something is wriggling at his stomach. He gasps and covers his chest wound. "N-no -- I... I don't want this anymore... God, please-- please have mercy--!"
The Red Pyramid thing breathes heavily, dripping still in Isaac's blood. He turns and grabs him from behind, forcing his wrists away from his wound.
"No! No, stop!!" Isaac is begging, kicking -- he looks sick as something crawls to get out of him, it's somewhere trapped in his chest. "STOP, PLEASE--"
It bursts out, crawling out from the wound. Isaac screams and writhes, and Valtiel is crawling away, head twitching.
The Red Pyramid thing lets go of Saix, his hair now blue -- he's not Isaac at all anymore. He holds onto his chest and stomach and trembles, gagging and coughing and bleeding.
Silently, Valtiel approaches him, grabbing his ankles and begins to drag him away.
The picture flickers a moment until it shows... it shows that pond area. Demyx remembers it; the screen shows it before it began to rot away.
Valtiel is dragging Saix to the bank, then turns and leaves.
Slowly, approaching from the rim of the picture, Demyx can see the back of Vexen's head stepping on screen.
"Well then..."
The film stops suddenly.
There's only audio.
"I cleaved one into two... now there's three."
Distinctly Isaac's voice.
He hears Marluxia shift suddenly, making a disgusted sound; Demyx quickly learns why in a matter of seconds when he feels something drop onto his shoulder. He wrinkles his nose at the maggot and flicks it off--
But more start dropping from the ceiling.
Maggots and leeches.
What the hell is this--
Numbly, Demyx feels Marluxia dragging him out of his chair. They won't find cover that well at all, but they'll try.
Distantly, all Demyx can think of is poor, unfortunate Saix.
...Even though he's still a jerk, of course. But Demyx still sorta kinda really pities him.
-=-=-
...died in a fire accident...
...Alessa Gillespie, aged seven...
...and did you hear, Isa, some man took her...
...don't be sad about that nurse, I'll be right here...
Various notes had been spread about the school, indicating various things. Alessa Gillespie, a former student at Midwich, had been caught in flames at her own home. Newspaper clippings and official reports claimed it all to be but an accident.
The personal notes in crayons and pencils between Isaac, Walter, and Claudia suggested otherwise. That Alessa was chosen for a ritual, to give birth to God. Burning her, somehow, impregnated her with this possibility, but all of it was put to a stop by some pagan man.
From the sounds of it, it was more like they were bringing out a Heartless. A powerful one, of course, but these people were toying with Darkness without a clue as to what they were doing.
Zexion tells himself he's not at all being hypocritical.
There are some things written that he's already aware of, and others he'd been unaware of. Notes about Isaac's closeness with a woman named Lisa, Walter learning about scriptures, and Claudia's father becoming increasingly violent. A ritual being prepared for Isaac, the 21 Sacraments -- some notes were missing, or perhaps just became sparse in their older years.
Regardless, they explored much.
There was little left to find.
Lexaeus and Zexion open the door to a men's bathroom. Like everything else in this forsaken place, it's tainted with rust and blood, paint peeling and the stench of rot more stagnant than ever. His senses highly offended, Zexion wrinkles his nose and covers it.
He is a bit startled at the echoing sound of... of a phone ringing. He glances around, scowling. What would a phone be doing here?
On the wall by one of the filthy sinks, and old-fashioned rotary phone. Still marked off with letters on the numbers, but still...
Zexion hesitantly approaches it, not liking the sound of creaking from the ceiling. Still...
He picks up the phone hesitantly. "Hello?"
On the other side hisses a voice, male and terribly familiar, "Mother One, Mother Two, Mother Three, Mother Four. Numbers are letters, letters are numbers."
Abruptly, there was a dial tone. Whoever it was, they hung up.
Zexion snorts and hangs up the phone, turning towards Lexaeus. "That was rather pointless," he remarks.
The creaking on the ceiling becomes more distinct, and he sees Lexaeus move suddenly, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him away as plaster and wood collapse.
Something dangles from the hole in the ceiling, suspended by barbed wire. A human corpse, the evidence of what smells so badly in the bathroom. The clothing has been ripped to shreds, but the outfit is suggestive enough to a jumpsuit. A janitor, maybe.
The name tag on the corpse reads Colin.
"Well, then," Zexion mutters.
"Wasn't a Colin mentioned in the notes from one of the students in the school?" Lexaeus speaks, though with little interest.
Zexion shrugs. "Someone mentioned him suddenly disappearing one day after an incident with another student. Still, I don't see what that has to do with anything; now what should we do?"
"Perhaps if the ceiling is so weak, then a wall is." Already, Lexaeus is approaching the far wall, touching over it in exploration.
Powers or no powers, knowing the way of how things are constructed is still a bit of knowledge that Lexaeus has. They are, after all, scientists, whether or not they still look like it anymore. There is a comprehension here that even Silent Hill must follow.
Things have weak points.
Lexaeus knocks on parts of the wall a few times before he nods, turning to glance around. Zexion notices it as well, and for some reason they hadn't before: a hammer with a long handle is propped up in the corner of the bathroom, not far at all from the Silent Hero.
The larger of the two Nobodies takes it into hand, giving it a powerful swing at the wall. It breaks apart easily, making a hole big enough for the both of them to step into.
Lexaeus does hesitate.
VI approaches to see why, peering in and giving their new door a look inside. Really, all that Lexaeus has done is provide them with a new room, albeit much smaller than any others they've explored before. In the way that it's been set up, the walls are decorated with drapes and candles -- almost in a way that would give attention to an altar of sorts, or a room for worship. However, there's hardly any indication that this is a room for such.
Up against the wall is, apparently, a giant freezer.
Lexaeus steps inside, grabbing the handle and giving it a tug, but he shakes his head to VI as he follows. "Locked," the larger scientist informs him.
Scanning his eyes over the freezer, Zexion sees a number pad, and words scratched into the freezer above it.
Mother One
Mother Two
Mother Three
Mother Four
123
456
789
0
"A puzzle," Zexion says flatly.
"I'm afraid I don't understand what it could mean," Lexaeus mutters.
Zexion tilts his head. "I do, somewhat. There was a story written in the library that I read before I was attacked. It was a story about four Mothers -- but considering the notes that we've read and what's been indicated, the story was clearly about Alessa, Isaac, Walter, and Claudia. However, I'm still unsure how to solve this puzzle."
"What about the phone?" Lexaeus asks, sounding a bit more curious.
"It said, essentially, what you see written here. ... Though it did mention something about numbers are letters and letters are numbers." Zexion shakes his head.
"Hm." Lexaeus turns to the number pad. "I believe it is a bit more simple than you think. Which Mother is which, would you say?"
VI raises his brow. "Number one was Alessa, two was Isaac, three was Walter, and four is Claudia. Have you figured it out?"
"I believe so." Lexaeus gestures to the number pad. "The phone had written letters corresponding to numbers. Like so."
He presses the keys in order: 2 4 9 2
Immediately there is the sound of the door unlocking; Lexaeus swings it open and Zexion jerks away, shielding his sensitive nose to the smell of rotting flesh.
"For heart's sake," Zexion hisses under his breath, barely able to even squint inside. "Those are organs."
"And as you said -- hearts. Mostly, anyway." Lexaeus lifts a brow too calmly. "There should be something important in here."
Zexion wrinkles his nose at him; there is certainly no way that he's reaching in there, and he knows that Lexaeus will see his expression. Shrugging in return, the Silent Hero leans in and begins to shift through the decaying organs without another moment to question this course of action.
Eventually, he closes his eyes, trying to block out the horrid scents. The body outside, the freezer -- all of it is too much, and it's starting to make Zexion feel dizzy.
"Ah," Lexaeus says. "Here."
Honestly, Zexion has no interest in looking -- but he reluctantly opens his eyes and looks at what Lexaeus is holding. It... appears to be a pink rabbit doll wearing overalls. The only thing odd about it, really, is the splotches of blood around its mouth.
What really catches Zexion's eye is the piece of paper sticking out from the doll's pocket.
He reaches over and plucks it out, unfolding it and murmuring to himself as he reads over words written on the greasy note.
Isa,
When you left Wish House, you left behind something very important.
Robbie and I miss you very much. I hope to return him to you very soon.
Perhaps he will bring you some luck in the near future.
-- Walter
"Not precisely the best place to leave a toy," Zexion growls under his breath.
He dislikes it, but he can't help but jerk when he hears a loud thump coming from behind, back into the bathroom. As he turns to look, he immediately backs away as he sees that the corpse of Colin has dropped to the ground.
What's worse is that the body is moving, crawling towards them, moaning things incomprehensible.
Lexaeus is already moving, tucking the rabbit doll under his arm and shoving the freezer up against the hole, blocking it off from Colin.
At first, Zexion is under the idea that they're trapped -- but he turns to where the freezer was.
A door.
He opens it and refrains from sputtering, but he feels he should. The fog pours in; although it's dark, he knows where they are now.
Back outside.
"I suppose we're done at the school," Lexaeus tells him.
"Wish House was also circled on the map -- and mentioned in this new note. The place where Walter and Isaac grew up." Zexion turns to look at Lexaeus. "Yes, I believe we should start heading in that direction."
-=-=-
Death had been strange, and to be honest, Saix still questions whether or not he truly died -- but he believes it must be so, considering that Valtiel had been in recent company and James seems so certain.
He thinks of little Wally. Walter's Heartless, in the form of a child -- no doubt terribly dangerous with all those emotions. Yet, Walter doesn't seem to care much about it. Not that he would, or could. His mother is what matters, naturally.
He thinks of death again. Would that be twice now that he's died, or should the first time be claimed only by Isaac? Nobodies fade to Darkness, and for Saix, Silent Hill is, of course, as dark as it gets.
Nothing could be worse than here.
Slowly, Saix steps away from the gurney, watching James wait by the door, looking out as if in concern that something or someone will come after them. He doesn't entirely comprehend the man; desperately seeking a dead wife, maybe for meaning or justification. James is a desperate man, desperate to be a good man.
Isaac, really, wasn't much different. Desperate to please a father with incredible standards, and a mother that didn't want him.
He gently pats down his pockets in the robe and finds the steak knife, gingerly stepping over the bodies of dead roaches.
"You do not have to follow me any further," Saix says quietly to James as he approaches.
"I guess not," James agrees faintly. His lips twitch, more like a wince than a smile -- as if he's somehow forgotten how, even if he has a heart and Saix does not. "But I don't feel very comfortable leaving you by yourself now. Even if I did mess up. I still don't get how shooting that red pyramid thing ended up hurting you, though."
Saix does not wish to explain; he's been horridly vulnerable enough in front of this stranger. He waves his hand, dismissing the topic. "This place is full of mysteries and lies," he simply says. "Should you desire to follow me, I will not argue, but I still suggest otherwise. Where I must go now, it... is just within the forest by the town."
"What?" James looks confused. "Why would you want to go there?"
"Desire has little to do with it," Saix replies wryly, turning and stepping away from James, maneuvering over turned over pews of the church. "But what... who I seek awaits me there now. I am certain of that."
They both push at the doors of the church and blink at the dark. James mutters something incomprehensible -- probably an expletive -- before he fiddles with the flashlight on his jacket. The outside still remains dark and foggy -- night time, perhaps, it's hard to say even in this place -- but the flashlight helps dimly.
James spits under his breath, "Damn it -- they're everywhere."
Saix sees what he means; there's a line of live roaches crawling across the stairs and into the church. Some of them skitter over his bare feet; it tickles and scratches, their small feet, but they don't... bother him. They choose to hiss and threaten at James, but are careless to Saix's presence.
Dimly, in the distance, there is a light approaching. A figure. Cloak, hood -- the details are obscured.
Slowly, Saix steps down, his hand tightening over the knife in his hand.
"Hey-- Saix, be careful," James calls quietly after him, following.
"It's fine," Saix murmurs, tilting his head.
There's the sway of long, pale hair, bony arms holding out a lighter offering only so much illumination.
He'd be a fool to not recognize him.
"Vexen?" Saix asks for him.
There's a jerk in his movement and immediately he's rushing over, practically thrusting the flame towards Saix's face; not to burn, but to get a good look of his features. Honestly, heart or not, Saix almost feels annoyed the way Vexen is grabbing his chin and looking him over.
"What," Vexen begins, his voice raising, snapping, "are you wearing, you idiot?"
"An accident, I assure you," Saix replies flatly. "What are you doing here? This mission--"
"Is a complete disaster, I can see that!" Vexen's green eyes dart towards James, suspicious. "Who is this?"
"James," Saix says simply. "A bystander. Innocent to our original intentions, but I imagine in the end, we all have the same desire when things are completed. Leaving."
Vexen snorts. "Oh yes. Not so simple now, I take it."
"Everything's been cut off," James adds. "I... gave a look around before. Somehow, the roads just stop. It's insane."
"Wonderful. And while you've been making friends, Saix, where are the others?" Vexen narrows his eyes. "Marluxia and Demyx--"
"We were split up. James has been assisting me since. Did the Superior send you...?" Saix tilts his head.
"Oh yes. Lexaeus, Zexion, and myself--"
James mutters to himself, "Why do they all have 'x's in their names...?"
"--but unfortunately, I was cut off from them as well," Vexen finishes, giving James a brief look. "You failed to return or report, and I can see why this is. I imagine you must know a way out, since this is your hometown and all?"
Saix doesn't hide his flinch. Truly, he's been pried open to be viewed by everyone here, and it bothers him so. He turns his head away. "If we are to leave, I must complete my path. Confront a matter. And see to who I have been seeking."
"Lovely. That nurse friend of yours, I imagine--"
"No," Saix says a bit more sharply. "Lisa isn't the one. If we're to escape this place, we must go to Wish House Orphanage, to meet with him..."
James rubs the back of his head, looking incredibly lost. "Who, exactly?"
For a long moment, Saix says nothing; he turns and begins to walk down the street, though a bit blindly with neither flashlight nor lighter offering guidance. Eventually, he pauses and glances over his shoulder at the other two.
"My father," Saix tells them. "Jimmy Stone. That is who I have been seeking."
"I was expecting someone a bit more pleasant," Vexen snorts.
Saix raises a brow. "We simply need to get to Wish House. I don't imagine it will be... particularly easy, of course. James, you are certain you wish to--?"
"You can stop checking. I haven't... I don't think I've changed my mind. Just let me do this, okay? I messed up before." James gestures down the street. "Just go ahead and lead the way. I'll be right behind you."
Slowly, Saix nods, his voice lowering. "Thank you."
Somehow -- rather remarkably -- Vexen's scowl increases. "Well? Let's hurry up, then. I want to find a way to put this place as far behind me as possible!"
-=-=-
From the ceiling, the maggots and the leeches continue to drop. There aren't exactly many places to hide in the theater, unfortunately; the doors are shut tight, and no way out. They're completely sealed inside. In spite of this, Marluxia did turn over a table and yank Demyx down with him, but that's about the extent of it. Otherwise, they're trapped with Marluxia being all busted up and Demyx still bleeding out dark stuff from his side.
Not a good situation.
Not that, of course, Demyx really knows if these creatures are particularly harmful, but the way a leech hissed at him with pointy teeth assured him that these critters aren't all that friendly.
"A little girl," Marluxia blurts out suddenly.
Demyx blinks at him, squinting a little. He pauses only to swat away some of the maggots with his empty shotgun. "What?"
"Mer. A world with darkness possessing the water... the man I was, able to bend all kinds of nature to his will. An ecomancer, they called him." This is... this is sound unusually personal from Marluxia. Not at all poetic, sort of spoken in a stilted voice. Demyx is sure he'd like to be concerned, if that were possible. "I had a daughter. Dark hair, just like her mother. I knew she'd grow up to be an ecomancer, too. But I left them both behind. Tula and..."
Honestly, Demyx can't help but be interested. "Well, um. Why did... why did you leave her?"
Marluxia smiles darkly. "Treasure. I was invited to go hunting for treasure. Not that it mattered; I turned my captain over to Bloth for more precious gems."
...Huh. Marluxia, a former pirate. But, then again... it does explain a lot about him. A taste for refined things, knowledge on valuables -- not to mention his power-hungry nature. Figures.
Still, he can't help but feel confused. "Why are you telling me? Not that. Uh. I mind or anything." Demyx shifts a little, wincing at the sensation -- but flinches more as the amount of dropping leeches seems to increase from the ceiling.
"We're all here due to guilt. Of course, we have Saix large to blame, but regardless..." Marluxia glances away from Demyx, glaring out at the grubs showering the floor. "I suppose if we should fail to escape, I'd much rather confess what lingers. Although I never had much attachment to things save for worth, with or without a heart at the time being."
Oh, damn. Now... now this is such bad timing. Seriously, Demyx already thinks someone like Saix is such a poor bastard, what with all he's gone through, the kind of place he's from -- but he. He can't help but think the same thing of Marluxia, even if he is a selfish jerk.
Demyx would feel bad for him, if he could.
He thinks a bit back, remembering how they just viewed Isaac and how he became Saix, the way his Heartless tore out of his body. Two, two Heartless...
"How did you die?" Demyx asks quietly. "I mean, um. If you don't wanna tell me..." He swats at the floor, those critters getting too close. "That's okay if you don't."
"Bloth threw me into the dark water when I fled with his treasure," Marluxia replies.
"Man, no offense, but that sounds really, really simple," Demyx mutters bitterly.
Marluxia narrows his eyes. "And what of you?"
"Well, um... After I, uh." Demyx frowns, swatting at the writhing grubs again. "After I left the kingdom, I wanted to be human. I was just... I was afraid of them finding me, and doing... things to me. I didn't want to be hurt. So I found this guy, this ghoul that served Emperor Ozomu. A, uh. You could say he was a high-ranking demon. Um, anyway... I asked the ghoul dude if he could make me human. He said he could, but he'd need something from me. I told him it didn't matter, I'd give up anything."
Demyx's smile becomes wry. "So he pried open my chest and took my heart." He turns his head away, glancing down at his hands.
His very convincing, very simple, very human hands.
Marluxia snorts. "Humanity is not such a glamorous life."
"No," Demyx agrees. "It's not. But I guess being anything... human or Nobody or merman or whatever. None of it is any better than anything else--"
There's a thunderous sound, wood breaking away and slamming into the floor. Demyx winces and tries to writhe safely under the table, and he hears Marluxia hiss chonga -- whatever the hell that means, anyway.
Dangling from the ceiling is... an enormous monster, just a few feet from reaching the floor. It's monstrous, shaped a lot like a bug might be -- except, you know. It looks like it's got bones and fangs and flesh dangling off of it the way an insect never would be.
When it opens its mouth to shriek, several more mouths emerge from its jaws, hissing and trying to reach for them--
"The Constrictus!" It's got to be the second time that Demyx has ever heard Marluxia about scream anything before, but it just happened.
Weird.
"I don't have any bullets left," Demyx says dumbly.
"It wouldn't matter. No magic, and we wouldn't stand a chance," Marluxia hisses. "No one has ever survived the Constrictus!"
"You make me feel warm and fuzzy inside," Demyx mutters.
The monster -- the Constrictus writhes around, shrieking and knocking the grubs everywhere until it knocks away the table the two Nobodies are hiding under. Demyx groans in dismay and struggles to squirm away, as far from the monster as possible. Marluxia is cursing, far too frightened to be bothered to help Demyx, no doubt.
Great. Death by bug-monster.
-=-=-
Really, it's... almost as if this blasted town is alive or something, the way it behaves. Zexion is sure to follow the map closely, but there are blockades in the way of the easiest route to Wish House.
He knows that it's on purpose.
Frustration is close to setting in, but before Lexaeus, he is determined to remain calm. He breathes slowly, attempting to find relief in watching the dim glow of the larger Nobody's flashlight in the dark and fog, though it does little to quell him.
His eyes dart and he catches the scent of something else in the dark and gore of the town.
Light.
"That way," Zexion suddenly instructs the Silent Hero, pointing.
Without a word, Lexaeus turns the direction of the flashlight; it catches sight briefly of someone... small walking around a corner of the street across from them.
A child.
A little girl.
"We're going that way," VI determines under his breath, without truly knowing if it'll provide a way at all to Wish House.
The smell of Light is strong enough to entice him. Really, it's almost a welcome burn in his nostrils, especially in comparison to everything else in this damned place. To be sure, it isn't complete Light -- even the child seems to retain Darkness in her -- but it's enough to draw him almost blindly.
Planning is hardly permitted in a place like this, anyway.
He hurries, listening to the loud footsteps of his companion behind him. It shouldn't take long to catch up with her, she wasn't terribly far off--
The flashlight wavers, and there she is again, just down the street. A little girl with a ponytail, running along.
Around a corner again. They're almost bound to get lost this way. Zexion grumbles a little.
They turn, and he hisses when Lexaeus stops him from crashing into the girl by grabbing the back of his hood. Not a real preferable way of catching him, honestly.
"Quit followin' me!" the girl shouts at both of them, looking annoyed. "What the heck do you want?"
"Delightful manners," Zexion grumbles under his breath.
"We haven't met with many other people here," Lexaeus speaks calmly; he always had been good with children. "Are you lost?"
"Nope." The girl points down the street. "I was goin' to the movies."
"I see." Lexaeus nods to her. "Why is that?"
The girl frowns at him. "If I tell you, you promise not to tell that big barf-face James?"
Who's James is a question Zexion is sure he shares with Lexaeus, but neither of them ask it. Instead, Lexaeus nods and says, "I will not."
"Okay." The girl looks a little pleased. "I was goin' to find my friend, Mary. She really likes this place, and she mentioned the movies once she went to. So I was gonna go check it out. But the door was locked when I came by, so I got the key from some guy in a blue coat. So I can check it out now."
"Mm." The whole thing sounds insignificant to Zexion, which may be part of his frustration; the way Lexaeus says Mm makes it sound as though he's actually interested in this matter. "The theater is not so far out of the way for us. Is it all right if we go with you?"
The girl takes a moment to think about this, then points at Lexaeus. "Okay, but don't get in my way! I gotta find Mary."
"Of course. We will not interfere," Lexaeus tells her patiently.
She smiles, satisfied. "Good!" Reaching up, she grabs Lexaeus's sleeve. "I'm Laura!"
"Lexaeus. And this is Zexion." The Silent Hero tilts his head, indicating that she should lead. "You are by yourself."
"Mm-hmm." Laura pulls on his sleeve, showing the way; honestly, Zexion finds himself barely listening, indifferent to the little girl. She has no marks on her skin, she's completely fine, and he wonders briefly if it's due to her Light. "Mary was sick, and I was in the hospital, too. That's where I met her, and we got to be friends. But she left, and I didn't get out til now. Mary really really likes Silent Hill, so I think she's got to be around here somewhere."
She frowns. "But that big jerk James is around here. Mary's his wife, but he's just a mean guy. I don't like him. He never came to see Mary or anything."
"Perhaps it's more complicated than that," Lexaeus suggests, as if he's genuinely interested.
Zexion manages not to snort.
"I don't know." Laura sounds doubtful.
"Regardless -- you were heading towards the theater," Lexaeus reminds her. "Shall we, then?"
-=-=-
Hindsight.
Naturally, this is something that Saix should have predicted beforehand -- that Silent Hill wouldn't make it so easy for them to find their way out to his next destination. After all, he knows this place. He knows how it functions.
And he knows that it'll never, ever make anything ever so easy for them, under any circumstances.
Walls and blockades and fences have gotten into their way, preventing any easy, direct route into the forest to get to Wish House. At the rate that they're going, he almost pauses to wonder if they can get to the orphanage at all.
Not that, particularly, Saix is looking forward to being there. Mostly, bad memories plague him when he thinks of Wish House. His father -- Jimmy -- had over loooked and taught the children many things there. It was, gratefully, how Saix had met Walter when they were still children, but regardless, there are still unfortunate thoughts.
Andrew, mainly, comes to mind. The man they hired to "watch" them. Really, all he did was beat them senseless on a whim--
Saix snorts. Whatever became of that man, he's unsure. But he's certain he'd like to kill him someday.
They turn a corner on a street, pausing only to stare ahead.
It's... another wall. Unusual, for several aspects. At first, the way the wall connects with the sides of two buildings, it's made of plain brick -- but towards the center, rust is bubbling and becomes wet flesh, pulsating like a heartbeat. In a way, it looks like a pair of lips -- vertically speaking -- and moves in a way like it's murmuring. The only noise that emerges is gurgling, though.
Slowly, something red and something white dribbles out from the flesh--
Saix turns his head to look away. Obviously, they can't go this way, either.
"Uh--" James manages to stammer out before VII hears it.
A swinging gate suddenly shuts behind them; a chain-link fence, locked, does not permit their escape.
"Lovely," Vexen mutters under his breath.
"So, what -- we're stuck here?" James glances to Saix.
He dislikes to think of it, but. "It appears there is one vulnerable spot on there," Saix says as simply and calmly as he can, staring at the twitching, fleshy part of the wall.
"Oh. Oh, come on--" James starts, looking very disagreeable to the idea.
Vexen narrows his eyes. "I'm afraid I'll agree with him. I'm not very fond of this plan of action.
"Unless you--" Saix begins.
The sharp static of the radio practically burns into the air, screaming into their ears of warning as the wall's "lips" quiver and wriggle, as if... pushing something out. Something vaguely shaped like a human infant, but it's too big, too much blubber and obviously not entirely human looking. Not the way it screams like a mutated child and starts to crawl towards them.
James is the one who vocally complains, making a disgusted noise and jerking back as he prepares to load his gun, but Saix sympathizes. The smell is horrid, and he watches the very wet thing drag itself towards them.
As far as weapons go, Saix can immediately tell that Vexen and himself are not very well armed; he glances in the dark at the scientist and sees only the glint of a scalpel in his hand. The berserker carries with him only a steak knife. It's James, really, who has any advantage at all in this moment.
That is, until the lips tremble again, pushing out another deformed creature.
"I get the feeling it's just going to make more of those," Vexen mutters, sounding like he's choking on the air.
In his hand, Saix clutches the knife a bit more tightly before glancing at the other two. "Worry about them, then. Allow me to be concerned about the wall problem."
"Saix," Vexen only says, tone firm; the unspoken words are there.
Don't do anything stupid.
"Hey!" James is calling after VII, just as Saix is running by the two child-like creatures; his bare feet splash into the wet mess on the pavement, and it partly burns into his skin, like a form of acid. The feeling is almost easy to shrug off as Saix reaches his goal.
With the steak knife, he plunges his arm into the fleshy lips, wincing at the slimy sensation he meets with, the faint burning, irritation. The lips almost seem to moan, but no such noise escapes -- just something. Terribly. Wet sounding leaks by, and Saix bends his arm as he cuts into the flesh mounted into the brick wall.
He wrinkles his nose. Inevitably, he finds himself having to keep cutting inside, pressing both his arms in. Blood spurts out of the lips and into his face, splattering across his body -- warm, wet, and horrid smelling.
Saix snarls in defiance of the thing, listening absently to gunfire from behind and the sound of boots slamming down on flesh. No doubt they've already taken care of the child creatures, then.
He continues to stab through the mess, and the flesh stops twitching, eventually -- and it allows Saix to reach the other side of the wall, cutting through with the knife in his hands.
As he steps out onto the street, he's dripping; he spits at the ground, wipes at his face, and spits again. Blood is nothing unusual to him, but this sort of matter is. Slightly different, of course.
Briskly, he's flicking his arms to get rid of what remaining droplets of slime and blood he can, turning only to watch Vexen hesitantly step through -- with his hood up, temporarily -- and James looking a bit less than pleased to follow after the scientist through the dripping flesh on the wall.
"I suppose that's one way of making ourselves an exit," Vexen says flatly.
Saix shrugs, turning his head to observe their location. Just down the street, a path into the forest...
"There," he says. "Down that way, to Wish House."
-=-=-
The Constrictus -- that's what Marluxia calls it anyway, but to Demyx it's still a Bugface -- is still stuck on the ceiling, writhing about and trying to get its fangs towards them.
They can't exactly hide anymore, and it's not like the thing couldn't reach them; really, it's been luck and the fact that the monster seems to be blind that has kept them from becoming the damned thing's dinner.
It shrieks at them and Demyx flinches, but he knows that he isn't going to be moving much anytime soon, even to run away from being maimed to death. He's much too weak, and much too in pain now to move much. He just... stares, sitting against the wall.
Marluxia? Cowering. Unusual for him, but Demyx has seen a lot of things here he normally would not.
"There weren't two locks before," a little girl's voice says defensively on the other side of the locked door of the theater.
Demyx blinks. Is he hallucinating...?
"I see. Stand aside with her; I will take care of this."
No... No way, that was...
"Lexaeus!" Marluxia shouts for the Silent Hero.
The noise catches the attention of the Constrictus, unfortunately; the monster writhes around under it bites at the general direction of Marluxia and musician; it barely misses them, biting and tearing into rotten wood instead of flesh. It snarls at them, moving more violently as it tries again.
There's banging on the door, firm and determined. Damn it. Damn it, hurry up Lex, c'mon--
True to his title (at least partway), Lexaeus barges inside, holding a sledgehammer in his hands as he steps in, glancing around -- then manages to roll out of the way as the Constrictus attempts to bite at him, fangs catching into the wall instead.
"Finally," Marluxia growls under his breath.
Apparently, XI isn't waiting around to watch Lexaeus fling tables and other available items in the theater at the Bugface; he's struggling to stand, and grabbing Demyx by the back of his hood to drag him out of the theater. It makes Demyx gag, but he knows he's much too useless to do much else at the moment but be dragged off.
He's grateful enough that Marluxia is even helping him at this point.
As soon as they make it outside, XI lets go of him, and Demyx feels his head smack against the pavement; he winces and groans, glancing around and spotting Zexion standing over him.
"Uh." Instead of asking the obvious (what are you doing here, where's Saix, what's going on), Demyx instead asks him, "Didn't I hear a little girl out here...?"
"Unfortunately," Zexion says, with a bit of a sneer, "she decided to run ahead through an alleyway much too small for me. And you appear to be injured, IX."
"Yep." Demyx smiles winningly at him. "Go me, bleeding out dark stuff and whatever else everywhere."
Running out of the theater, Lexaeus tosses the sledgehammer aside before he looks around, then eyes a dumpster some feet away. While Demyx watches Marluxia flinch at the sounds of the screaming Constrictus, the Silent Hero moves to press his hands against the dumpster, grunting as he pushes it to block off the theater's door, effectively trapping Bugface inside.
"Laura?" Lexaeus asks Zexion briefly.
"Ran off," VI replies, kneeling down by Demyx, immediately setting to work on looking at the wound on his side. "Said she wasn't going to wait around for us, and went to look for a different way inside. I couldn't follow."
Lexaeus nods. He turns to look at both Demyx and Marluxia. "Saix isn't with you," he notes.
"We were separated awhile ago," Marluxia says stiffly, not quite over the fact that they had just faced off with the Constrictus, apparently. "We're not really sure what's become of him."
"Mm." Lexaeus nods, crouching and giving Marluxia's injuries a glance. "Vexen was with us. I take it you haven't seen him, either."
"Not at all." XI scowls. "And what task were you three sent here?"
"An increasingly failing rescue mission for you, Saix, and Demyx," Zexion cuts in, digging into his bag for whatever medical supplies Lexaeus had been thoughtful enough to bring with him. "We didn't imagine that Silent Hill would be causing this much of an issue -- or that Saix even originated from here."
Demyx grins weakly. "Well, it explains a lot of things about him, I think. Heh."
"I suppose," Lexaeus replies, tone faint as he focuses instead on Marluxia's current status. "At any rate, I don't imagine we can linger here for long. Never knowing what will come out of the fog next."
"We are heading for the Wish House orphanage, just in the forest. Not far from here at all," Zexion explains briefly as he prepares bandages around Demyx's midsection. "I suppose we'll have to drag the both of you with us now, and hope that place will offer some form of conclusions."
"Well, it." Demyx winces at the way Zexion tightens the bandages. "It all really... comes down to whoever it is Saix is looking for. I mean, if he manages to finish whatever he needs to here, then we're free I think. Right?"
Zexion raises a brow. "Who he's looking for?"
"The nurse," Marluxia announces, certain he's correct. "Clearly."
"I dunno about that." Demyx flinches again. "Ow, Zexion! A-anyway. I mean, I don't know; the way it sounds, I bet he really misses her -- or, um. As much as he can, now, the way he is. But still. When you watch him closely, doesn't it seem like he's always trying to please Xemnas or Vexen or something...?"
"Like with...?" Marluxia frowns, not quite connecting it.
"Oh. I don't know, Walter told me about his dad -- but I think maybe that's who Saix is really looking for." Demyx couldn't help but feel proud of himself for figuring that out before Marluxia.
Zexion pulls away, finishing off what he can of the wound that Demyx bears. "You've met Walter?"
"Yeah. He's crazy; he tried to kill us," Demyx replies airily.
"Ah, yes. Certainly a companion of Saix's then, granted his berserker nature," Zexion says flatly as he assists Demyx to his feet, reluctantly allowing the musician to lean against him.
It seems, for now, that Marluxia can carry his own weight just fine now that his broken bones have been attended to; Lexaeus is standing up and opening the map. "Down this way, then a right -- and we should be able to get into the forest and easily make our way there."
"Haha -- he said easily," Demyx mutters tiredly.
-=-=-
Wish House is about as much as Saix remembers it, though it seems a bit... bigger than it logically should be, admittedly. Mostly, it's a glorified mansion, a building that probably has a history other than being a cage for children in the past.
Now, it's empty and uninviting in the haze, like a graveyard. It's already haunting without adding in twisted monsters to the mix.
Saix slowly sits down against a rock, one that he remembers himself trying to climb as a child and Jimmy shouting at him for scraping his knees. He tilts his head, looking up at James.
"You have no reason to follow us any longer," he says quietly. "But my thanks for all your help, James."
"Are you sure...?" James is glancing at Wish House, frowning a little. "I mean, if I just left you..."
Saix smiles wryly. "Don't forget the reason why you're here. You have someone to find, don't you?"
"Yeah." His voice goes quiet, hesitant. "I should go back, but..."
James is reaching into his jacket. "I don't have much for either of you, but. Here. Okay?"
There are two items of offering; a first aid kit, and a handgun. The latter is not one of interest for Saix, though he knows well how to fire one. He nods to Vexen, watching him take it instead, preferring that to a scalpel no doubt; the scientist tucks the kit under an arm.
"Thank you," Saix says, as much as he can mean to, which isn't much at all.
"Good luck, Saix," James tells him.
"And you as well."
There's obviously some hesitance in the way James steps, but eventually, he does turn and he leaves the two Nobodies, returning down the path through the forest.
A few clicks later and Vexen's using his lighter to see through the dark. There's a scowl on his face and he mutters, "Good riddance. We really don't need someone with a heart making things overly difficult for us, attracting those Heartless."
"You don't sound terribly fond of him," Saix comments faintly.
Even through the dark, it's easy to see the scientist's sharp green eyes, narrowed and annoyed with the berserker. "Are you?"
"I couldn't say," Saix responds, shrugging. "Not that it matters."
Slowly, he stands back up, not allowing himself to wince at sore muscles and joints, how exhausted he feels -- and how filthy he is. He shakes his head and slowly steps towards the door, grabbing onto the handle--
Doesn't turn. Locked.
"Wonderful," Saix growls.
"I don't suppose you know another way in?" Vexen asks, scowling.
"I'm afraid my father was sure to make this place particularly secure. Should it be locked, it will remain so. No back door." Saix shakes his head.
He stills suddenly, his pointed ear twitching a little; there are footsteps. Many of them, approaching. Though the radio does not react, still the berserker stiffens, tightening his grip on the handle of his knife. His teeth bare and he turns, watching the bushes and the remaining foliage.
The crunch of branches, but a stream of steady light.
Breaking through, he can see the four figures almost clearly in the dark.
Demyx lifts a hand in greeting, leaning against Zexion as he calls out, "Yo."
Silently, to himself, there may be a part of Saix that is almost relieved.
Title: Red and Yellow
Chapter 12: Three Into Two Now is One
Series: Silent Hill/Kingdom Hearts
Rating: R
Summary: Saix, Marluxia, and Demyx are sent on a mission in a quiet place called Silent Hill.
As two men traveling injured, it's been a difficult way. The both of them are lucky they can manage to stumble around.
It's all the more difficult, every moment they hear the hiss of static and monsters jerking their way. Demyx is just glad that Marluxia's got that sickle; it's not the same kind of wickedness as XI's scythe, but it does the job. Demyx, at best, can swat at monsters with the end of his shotgun, but it just makes his side hurt more.
It's been more complicated than necessary, but eventually, the theater is in their sights.
Demyx feels about relieved.
Until Marluxia tries the doorknob.
"Locked," XI says flatly, sounding about as exhausted as IX feels right now.
Insofar, this entire matter has taken a toll on Demyx's patience. He's tired from wandering around of hours -- hell, it's gotta have been a couple of days now -- with little to no food, water, or sleep. Fighting monsters without their powers, jumping at shadows.
Fuck this. Just fuck this.
"Move," Demyx mutters, and surprisingly Marluxia does not question him and simply obeys. He struggles to stand on his own and grips tight on his rifle. He slams the end of it against the doorknob a few times until it simply falls off and the door creaks open.
"I suppose that's a way of doing things," Marluxia remarks, grabbing onto the musician's shoulder to help his balance. "Well, come on, then. Let's see what's so important in here."
To be honest, the interior leaves something to be desired. Of course, the messiness is expected. Papers strewn about, old ticket stubs and the like. Besides looking terribly abandoned, the ceiling is a bit unusual in the fact that it's covered completely with metal grating -- all rusted, of course. Dangling by chains were a series of different kinds of knives, mostly butchery related.
"Can I sit?" Demyx dislikes how he's almost wheezing at this point, but he knows he's still suffering the wound in his side, no thanks to Eddie.
Marluxia wordlessly assists him about midway down through the rows. Most of the other chairs weren't any good to sit in, anyway.
"I don't get it. What're we supposed to find here?" Demyx mutters. "This whole thing..."
"Saix's mess," Marluxia says, annoyed. "We've established that. This entire world makes me think it's his own doing."
Walter did say something like that, Demyx mentally admits. The otherworld -- it was reacting mostly to Saix, obviously, and only a bit of them. But just enough.
He jumps in his seat and winces; he hears the door slam shut and Marluxia curses something foreign under his breath before he hobbles towards the door to try it.
"Locked, of course," he remarks. "It won't budge."
The laugh that escapes from Demyx is weak and... hell, it's just not normal sounding at all, but he can't help but chuckle in this situation. Damn it all, they are so fucking screwed.
He slides back in his seat, still clutching at his side. Still oozing out, still hot, and he's feeling really woozy. But he can still observe a bit.
Damn place is a mess. The screen is tattered up, and it seems like... oh hell, that isn't blood dripping down walls, he hopes, he really hopes it isn't, and that smell is getting worse.
Somehow, the room gets dimmer than before. He hears Marluxia curse something again before making his way back over to Demyx. It's not about caring from the plant-shaper, Demyx knows that; it's about survival, and XI only has the musician to rely on.
Demyx bets that's killing Marluxia. Heh, to rely on IX...
The screen suddenly flickers to life.
"What--?" It's a woman. A female nurse, actually; long blonde hair and a red sweater on. She's looking down at someone. "I'm sorry, sweetie. I was told no one is supposed to be here--"
"But... but 'Lessa's..." Dark hair, dark dark hair. Little boy. With a cross-shaped scar on his face. "I told her I was gonna see her again..."
She hesitates.
"That's Lisa," Marluxia mutters, recognizing her.
"Can you keep a secret?"
The boy on the screen nods eagerly.
"Okay. I'm going to take you to see her. But you can't tell anyone. It's going to be a secret between you and me."
The boy nods again. "Th-thank you..."
Abruptly there's static; the picture goes fuzzy, and there's the sound of flesh being beaten and a female scream.
The picture flickers and the sound is set right.
Demyx shudders; he immediately recognizes who this is on now. It's Isaac Stone -- the man Saix used to be. Still young, but wearing some kind of... itchy-looking white robe. He's hesitating about something, a weird looking sword in his hand--
"Hey, I saw Walter with that--" Demyx blurts out, but Marluxia hushes him.
Isaac is moving. He's stabbing the sword into the floor, then turning it so the blade sticks up from the hole he made. He hesitates before impaling himself--
Right. Right in the heart, what the hell, is that why Saix is bleeding there?
The screen goes fuzzy for a moment. There's the faintest sound of a siren going off before the picture sharpens again.
Isaac is choking, pulling the sword out from his chest. He should be dead -- he stumbles and falls to his knees.
Something... something in Isaac's back is moving around, something unnatural -- and it bursts from the open wound on his shoulder, where he stabbed himself through the chest and out the back. A hand. An arm. Something is dragging itself out of Isaac's body and Isaac is screaming and it starts to sound more like Saix then Isaac.
It's that Red Pyramid thing tearing out from his back.
Isaac... Saix -- whatever. He's shuddering, and something is wriggling at his stomach. He gasps and covers his chest wound. "N-no -- I... I don't want this anymore... God, please-- please have mercy--!"
The Red Pyramid thing breathes heavily, dripping still in Isaac's blood. He turns and grabs him from behind, forcing his wrists away from his wound.
"No! No, stop!!" Isaac is begging, kicking -- he looks sick as something crawls to get out of him, it's somewhere trapped in his chest. "STOP, PLEASE--"
It bursts out, crawling out from the wound. Isaac screams and writhes, and Valtiel is crawling away, head twitching.
The Red Pyramid thing lets go of Saix, his hair now blue -- he's not Isaac at all anymore. He holds onto his chest and stomach and trembles, gagging and coughing and bleeding.
Silently, Valtiel approaches him, grabbing his ankles and begins to drag him away.
The picture flickers a moment until it shows... it shows that pond area. Demyx remembers it; the screen shows it before it began to rot away.
Valtiel is dragging Saix to the bank, then turns and leaves.
Slowly, approaching from the rim of the picture, Demyx can see the back of Vexen's head stepping on screen.
"Well then..."
The film stops suddenly.
There's only audio.
"I cleaved one into two... now there's three."
Distinctly Isaac's voice.
He hears Marluxia shift suddenly, making a disgusted sound; Demyx quickly learns why in a matter of seconds when he feels something drop onto his shoulder. He wrinkles his nose at the maggot and flicks it off--
But more start dropping from the ceiling.
Maggots and leeches.
What the hell is this--
Numbly, Demyx feels Marluxia dragging him out of his chair. They won't find cover that well at all, but they'll try.
Distantly, all Demyx can think of is poor, unfortunate Saix.
...Even though he's still a jerk, of course. But Demyx still sorta kinda really pities him.
-=-=-
...died in a fire accident...
...Alessa Gillespie, aged seven...
...and did you hear, Isa, some man took her...
...don't be sad about that nurse, I'll be right here...
Various notes had been spread about the school, indicating various things. Alessa Gillespie, a former student at Midwich, had been caught in flames at her own home. Newspaper clippings and official reports claimed it all to be but an accident.
The personal notes in crayons and pencils between Isaac, Walter, and Claudia suggested otherwise. That Alessa was chosen for a ritual, to give birth to God. Burning her, somehow, impregnated her with this possibility, but all of it was put to a stop by some pagan man.
From the sounds of it, it was more like they were bringing out a Heartless. A powerful one, of course, but these people were toying with Darkness without a clue as to what they were doing.
Zexion tells himself he's not at all being hypocritical.
There are some things written that he's already aware of, and others he'd been unaware of. Notes about Isaac's closeness with a woman named Lisa, Walter learning about scriptures, and Claudia's father becoming increasingly violent. A ritual being prepared for Isaac, the 21 Sacraments -- some notes were missing, or perhaps just became sparse in their older years.
Regardless, they explored much.
There was little left to find.
Lexaeus and Zexion open the door to a men's bathroom. Like everything else in this forsaken place, it's tainted with rust and blood, paint peeling and the stench of rot more stagnant than ever. His senses highly offended, Zexion wrinkles his nose and covers it.
He is a bit startled at the echoing sound of... of a phone ringing. He glances around, scowling. What would a phone be doing here?
On the wall by one of the filthy sinks, and old-fashioned rotary phone. Still marked off with letters on the numbers, but still...
Zexion hesitantly approaches it, not liking the sound of creaking from the ceiling. Still...
He picks up the phone hesitantly. "Hello?"
On the other side hisses a voice, male and terribly familiar, "Mother One, Mother Two, Mother Three, Mother Four. Numbers are letters, letters are numbers."
Abruptly, there was a dial tone. Whoever it was, they hung up.
Zexion snorts and hangs up the phone, turning towards Lexaeus. "That was rather pointless," he remarks.
The creaking on the ceiling becomes more distinct, and he sees Lexaeus move suddenly, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him away as plaster and wood collapse.
Something dangles from the hole in the ceiling, suspended by barbed wire. A human corpse, the evidence of what smells so badly in the bathroom. The clothing has been ripped to shreds, but the outfit is suggestive enough to a jumpsuit. A janitor, maybe.
The name tag on the corpse reads Colin.
"Well, then," Zexion mutters.
"Wasn't a Colin mentioned in the notes from one of the students in the school?" Lexaeus speaks, though with little interest.
Zexion shrugs. "Someone mentioned him suddenly disappearing one day after an incident with another student. Still, I don't see what that has to do with anything; now what should we do?"
"Perhaps if the ceiling is so weak, then a wall is." Already, Lexaeus is approaching the far wall, touching over it in exploration.
Powers or no powers, knowing the way of how things are constructed is still a bit of knowledge that Lexaeus has. They are, after all, scientists, whether or not they still look like it anymore. There is a comprehension here that even Silent Hill must follow.
Things have weak points.
Lexaeus knocks on parts of the wall a few times before he nods, turning to glance around. Zexion notices it as well, and for some reason they hadn't before: a hammer with a long handle is propped up in the corner of the bathroom, not far at all from the Silent Hero.
The larger of the two Nobodies takes it into hand, giving it a powerful swing at the wall. It breaks apart easily, making a hole big enough for the both of them to step into.
Lexaeus does hesitate.
VI approaches to see why, peering in and giving their new door a look inside. Really, all that Lexaeus has done is provide them with a new room, albeit much smaller than any others they've explored before. In the way that it's been set up, the walls are decorated with drapes and candles -- almost in a way that would give attention to an altar of sorts, or a room for worship. However, there's hardly any indication that this is a room for such.
Up against the wall is, apparently, a giant freezer.
Lexaeus steps inside, grabbing the handle and giving it a tug, but he shakes his head to VI as he follows. "Locked," the larger scientist informs him.
Scanning his eyes over the freezer, Zexion sees a number pad, and words scratched into the freezer above it.
Mother One
Mother Two
Mother Three
Mother Four
123
456
789
0
"A puzzle," Zexion says flatly.
"I'm afraid I don't understand what it could mean," Lexaeus mutters.
Zexion tilts his head. "I do, somewhat. There was a story written in the library that I read before I was attacked. It was a story about four Mothers -- but considering the notes that we've read and what's been indicated, the story was clearly about Alessa, Isaac, Walter, and Claudia. However, I'm still unsure how to solve this puzzle."
"What about the phone?" Lexaeus asks, sounding a bit more curious.
"It said, essentially, what you see written here. ... Though it did mention something about numbers are letters and letters are numbers." Zexion shakes his head.
"Hm." Lexaeus turns to the number pad. "I believe it is a bit more simple than you think. Which Mother is which, would you say?"
VI raises his brow. "Number one was Alessa, two was Isaac, three was Walter, and four is Claudia. Have you figured it out?"
"I believe so." Lexaeus gestures to the number pad. "The phone had written letters corresponding to numbers. Like so."
He presses the keys in order: 2 4 9 2
Immediately there is the sound of the door unlocking; Lexaeus swings it open and Zexion jerks away, shielding his sensitive nose to the smell of rotting flesh.
"For heart's sake," Zexion hisses under his breath, barely able to even squint inside. "Those are organs."
"And as you said -- hearts. Mostly, anyway." Lexaeus lifts a brow too calmly. "There should be something important in here."
Zexion wrinkles his nose at him; there is certainly no way that he's reaching in there, and he knows that Lexaeus will see his expression. Shrugging in return, the Silent Hero leans in and begins to shift through the decaying organs without another moment to question this course of action.
Eventually, he closes his eyes, trying to block out the horrid scents. The body outside, the freezer -- all of it is too much, and it's starting to make Zexion feel dizzy.
"Ah," Lexaeus says. "Here."
Honestly, Zexion has no interest in looking -- but he reluctantly opens his eyes and looks at what Lexaeus is holding. It... appears to be a pink rabbit doll wearing overalls. The only thing odd about it, really, is the splotches of blood around its mouth.
What really catches Zexion's eye is the piece of paper sticking out from the doll's pocket.
He reaches over and plucks it out, unfolding it and murmuring to himself as he reads over words written on the greasy note.
Isa,
When you left Wish House, you left behind something very important.
Robbie and I miss you very much. I hope to return him to you very soon.
Perhaps he will bring you some luck in the near future.
-- Walter
"Not precisely the best place to leave a toy," Zexion growls under his breath.
He dislikes it, but he can't help but jerk when he hears a loud thump coming from behind, back into the bathroom. As he turns to look, he immediately backs away as he sees that the corpse of Colin has dropped to the ground.
What's worse is that the body is moving, crawling towards them, moaning things incomprehensible.
Lexaeus is already moving, tucking the rabbit doll under his arm and shoving the freezer up against the hole, blocking it off from Colin.
At first, Zexion is under the idea that they're trapped -- but he turns to where the freezer was.
A door.
He opens it and refrains from sputtering, but he feels he should. The fog pours in; although it's dark, he knows where they are now.
Back outside.
"I suppose we're done at the school," Lexaeus tells him.
"Wish House was also circled on the map -- and mentioned in this new note. The place where Walter and Isaac grew up." Zexion turns to look at Lexaeus. "Yes, I believe we should start heading in that direction."
-=-=-
Death had been strange, and to be honest, Saix still questions whether or not he truly died -- but he believes it must be so, considering that Valtiel had been in recent company and James seems so certain.
He thinks of little Wally. Walter's Heartless, in the form of a child -- no doubt terribly dangerous with all those emotions. Yet, Walter doesn't seem to care much about it. Not that he would, or could. His mother is what matters, naturally.
He thinks of death again. Would that be twice now that he's died, or should the first time be claimed only by Isaac? Nobodies fade to Darkness, and for Saix, Silent Hill is, of course, as dark as it gets.
Nothing could be worse than here.
Slowly, Saix steps away from the gurney, watching James wait by the door, looking out as if in concern that something or someone will come after them. He doesn't entirely comprehend the man; desperately seeking a dead wife, maybe for meaning or justification. James is a desperate man, desperate to be a good man.
Isaac, really, wasn't much different. Desperate to please a father with incredible standards, and a mother that didn't want him.
He gently pats down his pockets in the robe and finds the steak knife, gingerly stepping over the bodies of dead roaches.
"You do not have to follow me any further," Saix says quietly to James as he approaches.
"I guess not," James agrees faintly. His lips twitch, more like a wince than a smile -- as if he's somehow forgotten how, even if he has a heart and Saix does not. "But I don't feel very comfortable leaving you by yourself now. Even if I did mess up. I still don't get how shooting that red pyramid thing ended up hurting you, though."
Saix does not wish to explain; he's been horridly vulnerable enough in front of this stranger. He waves his hand, dismissing the topic. "This place is full of mysteries and lies," he simply says. "Should you desire to follow me, I will not argue, but I still suggest otherwise. Where I must go now, it... is just within the forest by the town."
"What?" James looks confused. "Why would you want to go there?"
"Desire has little to do with it," Saix replies wryly, turning and stepping away from James, maneuvering over turned over pews of the church. "But what... who I seek awaits me there now. I am certain of that."
They both push at the doors of the church and blink at the dark. James mutters something incomprehensible -- probably an expletive -- before he fiddles with the flashlight on his jacket. The outside still remains dark and foggy -- night time, perhaps, it's hard to say even in this place -- but the flashlight helps dimly.
James spits under his breath, "Damn it -- they're everywhere."
Saix sees what he means; there's a line of live roaches crawling across the stairs and into the church. Some of them skitter over his bare feet; it tickles and scratches, their small feet, but they don't... bother him. They choose to hiss and threaten at James, but are careless to Saix's presence.
Dimly, in the distance, there is a light approaching. A figure. Cloak, hood -- the details are obscured.
Slowly, Saix steps down, his hand tightening over the knife in his hand.
"Hey-- Saix, be careful," James calls quietly after him, following.
"It's fine," Saix murmurs, tilting his head.
There's the sway of long, pale hair, bony arms holding out a lighter offering only so much illumination.
He'd be a fool to not recognize him.
"Vexen?" Saix asks for him.
There's a jerk in his movement and immediately he's rushing over, practically thrusting the flame towards Saix's face; not to burn, but to get a good look of his features. Honestly, heart or not, Saix almost feels annoyed the way Vexen is grabbing his chin and looking him over.
"What," Vexen begins, his voice raising, snapping, "are you wearing, you idiot?"
"An accident, I assure you," Saix replies flatly. "What are you doing here? This mission--"
"Is a complete disaster, I can see that!" Vexen's green eyes dart towards James, suspicious. "Who is this?"
"James," Saix says simply. "A bystander. Innocent to our original intentions, but I imagine in the end, we all have the same desire when things are completed. Leaving."
Vexen snorts. "Oh yes. Not so simple now, I take it."
"Everything's been cut off," James adds. "I... gave a look around before. Somehow, the roads just stop. It's insane."
"Wonderful. And while you've been making friends, Saix, where are the others?" Vexen narrows his eyes. "Marluxia and Demyx--"
"We were split up. James has been assisting me since. Did the Superior send you...?" Saix tilts his head.
"Oh yes. Lexaeus, Zexion, and myself--"
James mutters to himself, "Why do they all have 'x's in their names...?"
"--but unfortunately, I was cut off from them as well," Vexen finishes, giving James a brief look. "You failed to return or report, and I can see why this is. I imagine you must know a way out, since this is your hometown and all?"
Saix doesn't hide his flinch. Truly, he's been pried open to be viewed by everyone here, and it bothers him so. He turns his head away. "If we are to leave, I must complete my path. Confront a matter. And see to who I have been seeking."
"Lovely. That nurse friend of yours, I imagine--"
"No," Saix says a bit more sharply. "Lisa isn't the one. If we're to escape this place, we must go to Wish House Orphanage, to meet with him..."
James rubs the back of his head, looking incredibly lost. "Who, exactly?"
For a long moment, Saix says nothing; he turns and begins to walk down the street, though a bit blindly with neither flashlight nor lighter offering guidance. Eventually, he pauses and glances over his shoulder at the other two.
"My father," Saix tells them. "Jimmy Stone. That is who I have been seeking."
"I was expecting someone a bit more pleasant," Vexen snorts.
Saix raises a brow. "We simply need to get to Wish House. I don't imagine it will be... particularly easy, of course. James, you are certain you wish to--?"
"You can stop checking. I haven't... I don't think I've changed my mind. Just let me do this, okay? I messed up before." James gestures down the street. "Just go ahead and lead the way. I'll be right behind you."
Slowly, Saix nods, his voice lowering. "Thank you."
Somehow -- rather remarkably -- Vexen's scowl increases. "Well? Let's hurry up, then. I want to find a way to put this place as far behind me as possible!"
-=-=-
From the ceiling, the maggots and the leeches continue to drop. There aren't exactly many places to hide in the theater, unfortunately; the doors are shut tight, and no way out. They're completely sealed inside. In spite of this, Marluxia did turn over a table and yank Demyx down with him, but that's about the extent of it. Otherwise, they're trapped with Marluxia being all busted up and Demyx still bleeding out dark stuff from his side.
Not a good situation.
Not that, of course, Demyx really knows if these creatures are particularly harmful, but the way a leech hissed at him with pointy teeth assured him that these critters aren't all that friendly.
"A little girl," Marluxia blurts out suddenly.
Demyx blinks at him, squinting a little. He pauses only to swat away some of the maggots with his empty shotgun. "What?"
"Mer. A world with darkness possessing the water... the man I was, able to bend all kinds of nature to his will. An ecomancer, they called him." This is... this is sound unusually personal from Marluxia. Not at all poetic, sort of spoken in a stilted voice. Demyx is sure he'd like to be concerned, if that were possible. "I had a daughter. Dark hair, just like her mother. I knew she'd grow up to be an ecomancer, too. But I left them both behind. Tula and..."
Honestly, Demyx can't help but be interested. "Well, um. Why did... why did you leave her?"
Marluxia smiles darkly. "Treasure. I was invited to go hunting for treasure. Not that it mattered; I turned my captain over to Bloth for more precious gems."
...Huh. Marluxia, a former pirate. But, then again... it does explain a lot about him. A taste for refined things, knowledge on valuables -- not to mention his power-hungry nature. Figures.
Still, he can't help but feel confused. "Why are you telling me? Not that. Uh. I mind or anything." Demyx shifts a little, wincing at the sensation -- but flinches more as the amount of dropping leeches seems to increase from the ceiling.
"We're all here due to guilt. Of course, we have Saix large to blame, but regardless..." Marluxia glances away from Demyx, glaring out at the grubs showering the floor. "I suppose if we should fail to escape, I'd much rather confess what lingers. Although I never had much attachment to things save for worth, with or without a heart at the time being."
Oh, damn. Now... now this is such bad timing. Seriously, Demyx already thinks someone like Saix is such a poor bastard, what with all he's gone through, the kind of place he's from -- but he. He can't help but think the same thing of Marluxia, even if he is a selfish jerk.
Demyx would feel bad for him, if he could.
He thinks a bit back, remembering how they just viewed Isaac and how he became Saix, the way his Heartless tore out of his body. Two, two Heartless...
"How did you die?" Demyx asks quietly. "I mean, um. If you don't wanna tell me..." He swats at the floor, those critters getting too close. "That's okay if you don't."
"Bloth threw me into the dark water when I fled with his treasure," Marluxia replies.
"Man, no offense, but that sounds really, really simple," Demyx mutters bitterly.
Marluxia narrows his eyes. "And what of you?"
"Well, um... After I, uh." Demyx frowns, swatting at the writhing grubs again. "After I left the kingdom, I wanted to be human. I was just... I was afraid of them finding me, and doing... things to me. I didn't want to be hurt. So I found this guy, this ghoul that served Emperor Ozomu. A, uh. You could say he was a high-ranking demon. Um, anyway... I asked the ghoul dude if he could make me human. He said he could, but he'd need something from me. I told him it didn't matter, I'd give up anything."
Demyx's smile becomes wry. "So he pried open my chest and took my heart." He turns his head away, glancing down at his hands.
His very convincing, very simple, very human hands.
Marluxia snorts. "Humanity is not such a glamorous life."
"No," Demyx agrees. "It's not. But I guess being anything... human or Nobody or merman or whatever. None of it is any better than anything else--"
There's a thunderous sound, wood breaking away and slamming into the floor. Demyx winces and tries to writhe safely under the table, and he hears Marluxia hiss chonga -- whatever the hell that means, anyway.
Dangling from the ceiling is... an enormous monster, just a few feet from reaching the floor. It's monstrous, shaped a lot like a bug might be -- except, you know. It looks like it's got bones and fangs and flesh dangling off of it the way an insect never would be.
When it opens its mouth to shriek, several more mouths emerge from its jaws, hissing and trying to reach for them--
"The Constrictus!" It's got to be the second time that Demyx has ever heard Marluxia about scream anything before, but it just happened.
Weird.
"I don't have any bullets left," Demyx says dumbly.
"It wouldn't matter. No magic, and we wouldn't stand a chance," Marluxia hisses. "No one has ever survived the Constrictus!"
"You make me feel warm and fuzzy inside," Demyx mutters.
The monster -- the Constrictus writhes around, shrieking and knocking the grubs everywhere until it knocks away the table the two Nobodies are hiding under. Demyx groans in dismay and struggles to squirm away, as far from the monster as possible. Marluxia is cursing, far too frightened to be bothered to help Demyx, no doubt.
Great. Death by bug-monster.
-=-=-
Really, it's... almost as if this blasted town is alive or something, the way it behaves. Zexion is sure to follow the map closely, but there are blockades in the way of the easiest route to Wish House.
He knows that it's on purpose.
Frustration is close to setting in, but before Lexaeus, he is determined to remain calm. He breathes slowly, attempting to find relief in watching the dim glow of the larger Nobody's flashlight in the dark and fog, though it does little to quell him.
His eyes dart and he catches the scent of something else in the dark and gore of the town.
Light.
"That way," Zexion suddenly instructs the Silent Hero, pointing.
Without a word, Lexaeus turns the direction of the flashlight; it catches sight briefly of someone... small walking around a corner of the street across from them.
A child.
A little girl.
"We're going that way," VI determines under his breath, without truly knowing if it'll provide a way at all to Wish House.
The smell of Light is strong enough to entice him. Really, it's almost a welcome burn in his nostrils, especially in comparison to everything else in this damned place. To be sure, it isn't complete Light -- even the child seems to retain Darkness in her -- but it's enough to draw him almost blindly.
Planning is hardly permitted in a place like this, anyway.
He hurries, listening to the loud footsteps of his companion behind him. It shouldn't take long to catch up with her, she wasn't terribly far off--
The flashlight wavers, and there she is again, just down the street. A little girl with a ponytail, running along.
Around a corner again. They're almost bound to get lost this way. Zexion grumbles a little.
They turn, and he hisses when Lexaeus stops him from crashing into the girl by grabbing the back of his hood. Not a real preferable way of catching him, honestly.
"Quit followin' me!" the girl shouts at both of them, looking annoyed. "What the heck do you want?"
"Delightful manners," Zexion grumbles under his breath.
"We haven't met with many other people here," Lexaeus speaks calmly; he always had been good with children. "Are you lost?"
"Nope." The girl points down the street. "I was goin' to the movies."
"I see." Lexaeus nods to her. "Why is that?"
The girl frowns at him. "If I tell you, you promise not to tell that big barf-face James?"
Who's James is a question Zexion is sure he shares with Lexaeus, but neither of them ask it. Instead, Lexaeus nods and says, "I will not."
"Okay." The girl looks a little pleased. "I was goin' to find my friend, Mary. She really likes this place, and she mentioned the movies once she went to. So I was gonna go check it out. But the door was locked when I came by, so I got the key from some guy in a blue coat. So I can check it out now."
"Mm." The whole thing sounds insignificant to Zexion, which may be part of his frustration; the way Lexaeus says Mm makes it sound as though he's actually interested in this matter. "The theater is not so far out of the way for us. Is it all right if we go with you?"
The girl takes a moment to think about this, then points at Lexaeus. "Okay, but don't get in my way! I gotta find Mary."
"Of course. We will not interfere," Lexaeus tells her patiently.
She smiles, satisfied. "Good!" Reaching up, she grabs Lexaeus's sleeve. "I'm Laura!"
"Lexaeus. And this is Zexion." The Silent Hero tilts his head, indicating that she should lead. "You are by yourself."
"Mm-hmm." Laura pulls on his sleeve, showing the way; honestly, Zexion finds himself barely listening, indifferent to the little girl. She has no marks on her skin, she's completely fine, and he wonders briefly if it's due to her Light. "Mary was sick, and I was in the hospital, too. That's where I met her, and we got to be friends. But she left, and I didn't get out til now. Mary really really likes Silent Hill, so I think she's got to be around here somewhere."
She frowns. "But that big jerk James is around here. Mary's his wife, but he's just a mean guy. I don't like him. He never came to see Mary or anything."
"Perhaps it's more complicated than that," Lexaeus suggests, as if he's genuinely interested.
Zexion manages not to snort.
"I don't know." Laura sounds doubtful.
"Regardless -- you were heading towards the theater," Lexaeus reminds her. "Shall we, then?"
-=-=-
Hindsight.
Naturally, this is something that Saix should have predicted beforehand -- that Silent Hill wouldn't make it so easy for them to find their way out to his next destination. After all, he knows this place. He knows how it functions.
And he knows that it'll never, ever make anything ever so easy for them, under any circumstances.
Walls and blockades and fences have gotten into their way, preventing any easy, direct route into the forest to get to Wish House. At the rate that they're going, he almost pauses to wonder if they can get to the orphanage at all.
Not that, particularly, Saix is looking forward to being there. Mostly, bad memories plague him when he thinks of Wish House. His father -- Jimmy -- had over loooked and taught the children many things there. It was, gratefully, how Saix had met Walter when they were still children, but regardless, there are still unfortunate thoughts.
Andrew, mainly, comes to mind. The man they hired to "watch" them. Really, all he did was beat them senseless on a whim--
Saix snorts. Whatever became of that man, he's unsure. But he's certain he'd like to kill him someday.
They turn a corner on a street, pausing only to stare ahead.
It's... another wall. Unusual, for several aspects. At first, the way the wall connects with the sides of two buildings, it's made of plain brick -- but towards the center, rust is bubbling and becomes wet flesh, pulsating like a heartbeat. In a way, it looks like a pair of lips -- vertically speaking -- and moves in a way like it's murmuring. The only noise that emerges is gurgling, though.
Slowly, something red and something white dribbles out from the flesh--
Saix turns his head to look away. Obviously, they can't go this way, either.
"Uh--" James manages to stammer out before VII hears it.
A swinging gate suddenly shuts behind them; a chain-link fence, locked, does not permit their escape.
"Lovely," Vexen mutters under his breath.
"So, what -- we're stuck here?" James glances to Saix.
He dislikes to think of it, but. "It appears there is one vulnerable spot on there," Saix says as simply and calmly as he can, staring at the twitching, fleshy part of the wall.
"Oh. Oh, come on--" James starts, looking very disagreeable to the idea.
Vexen narrows his eyes. "I'm afraid I'll agree with him. I'm not very fond of this plan of action.
"Unless you--" Saix begins.
The sharp static of the radio practically burns into the air, screaming into their ears of warning as the wall's "lips" quiver and wriggle, as if... pushing something out. Something vaguely shaped like a human infant, but it's too big, too much blubber and obviously not entirely human looking. Not the way it screams like a mutated child and starts to crawl towards them.
James is the one who vocally complains, making a disgusted noise and jerking back as he prepares to load his gun, but Saix sympathizes. The smell is horrid, and he watches the very wet thing drag itself towards them.
As far as weapons go, Saix can immediately tell that Vexen and himself are not very well armed; he glances in the dark at the scientist and sees only the glint of a scalpel in his hand. The berserker carries with him only a steak knife. It's James, really, who has any advantage at all in this moment.
That is, until the lips tremble again, pushing out another deformed creature.
"I get the feeling it's just going to make more of those," Vexen mutters, sounding like he's choking on the air.
In his hand, Saix clutches the knife a bit more tightly before glancing at the other two. "Worry about them, then. Allow me to be concerned about the wall problem."
"Saix," Vexen only says, tone firm; the unspoken words are there.
Don't do anything stupid.
"Hey!" James is calling after VII, just as Saix is running by the two child-like creatures; his bare feet splash into the wet mess on the pavement, and it partly burns into his skin, like a form of acid. The feeling is almost easy to shrug off as Saix reaches his goal.
With the steak knife, he plunges his arm into the fleshy lips, wincing at the slimy sensation he meets with, the faint burning, irritation. The lips almost seem to moan, but no such noise escapes -- just something. Terribly. Wet sounding leaks by, and Saix bends his arm as he cuts into the flesh mounted into the brick wall.
He wrinkles his nose. Inevitably, he finds himself having to keep cutting inside, pressing both his arms in. Blood spurts out of the lips and into his face, splattering across his body -- warm, wet, and horrid smelling.
Saix snarls in defiance of the thing, listening absently to gunfire from behind and the sound of boots slamming down on flesh. No doubt they've already taken care of the child creatures, then.
He continues to stab through the mess, and the flesh stops twitching, eventually -- and it allows Saix to reach the other side of the wall, cutting through with the knife in his hands.
As he steps out onto the street, he's dripping; he spits at the ground, wipes at his face, and spits again. Blood is nothing unusual to him, but this sort of matter is. Slightly different, of course.
Briskly, he's flicking his arms to get rid of what remaining droplets of slime and blood he can, turning only to watch Vexen hesitantly step through -- with his hood up, temporarily -- and James looking a bit less than pleased to follow after the scientist through the dripping flesh on the wall.
"I suppose that's one way of making ourselves an exit," Vexen says flatly.
Saix shrugs, turning his head to observe their location. Just down the street, a path into the forest...
"There," he says. "Down that way, to Wish House."
-=-=-
The Constrictus -- that's what Marluxia calls it anyway, but to Demyx it's still a Bugface -- is still stuck on the ceiling, writhing about and trying to get its fangs towards them.
They can't exactly hide anymore, and it's not like the thing couldn't reach them; really, it's been luck and the fact that the monster seems to be blind that has kept them from becoming the damned thing's dinner.
It shrieks at them and Demyx flinches, but he knows that he isn't going to be moving much anytime soon, even to run away from being maimed to death. He's much too weak, and much too in pain now to move much. He just... stares, sitting against the wall.
Marluxia? Cowering. Unusual for him, but Demyx has seen a lot of things here he normally would not.
"There weren't two locks before," a little girl's voice says defensively on the other side of the locked door of the theater.
Demyx blinks. Is he hallucinating...?
"I see. Stand aside with her; I will take care of this."
No... No way, that was...
"Lexaeus!" Marluxia shouts for the Silent Hero.
The noise catches the attention of the Constrictus, unfortunately; the monster writhes around under it bites at the general direction of Marluxia and musician; it barely misses them, biting and tearing into rotten wood instead of flesh. It snarls at them, moving more violently as it tries again.
There's banging on the door, firm and determined. Damn it. Damn it, hurry up Lex, c'mon--
True to his title (at least partway), Lexaeus barges inside, holding a sledgehammer in his hands as he steps in, glancing around -- then manages to roll out of the way as the Constrictus attempts to bite at him, fangs catching into the wall instead.
"Finally," Marluxia growls under his breath.
Apparently, XI isn't waiting around to watch Lexaeus fling tables and other available items in the theater at the Bugface; he's struggling to stand, and grabbing Demyx by the back of his hood to drag him out of the theater. It makes Demyx gag, but he knows he's much too useless to do much else at the moment but be dragged off.
He's grateful enough that Marluxia is even helping him at this point.
As soon as they make it outside, XI lets go of him, and Demyx feels his head smack against the pavement; he winces and groans, glancing around and spotting Zexion standing over him.
"Uh." Instead of asking the obvious (what are you doing here, where's Saix, what's going on), Demyx instead asks him, "Didn't I hear a little girl out here...?"
"Unfortunately," Zexion says, with a bit of a sneer, "she decided to run ahead through an alleyway much too small for me. And you appear to be injured, IX."
"Yep." Demyx smiles winningly at him. "Go me, bleeding out dark stuff and whatever else everywhere."
Running out of the theater, Lexaeus tosses the sledgehammer aside before he looks around, then eyes a dumpster some feet away. While Demyx watches Marluxia flinch at the sounds of the screaming Constrictus, the Silent Hero moves to press his hands against the dumpster, grunting as he pushes it to block off the theater's door, effectively trapping Bugface inside.
"Laura?" Lexaeus asks Zexion briefly.
"Ran off," VI replies, kneeling down by Demyx, immediately setting to work on looking at the wound on his side. "Said she wasn't going to wait around for us, and went to look for a different way inside. I couldn't follow."
Lexaeus nods. He turns to look at both Demyx and Marluxia. "Saix isn't with you," he notes.
"We were separated awhile ago," Marluxia says stiffly, not quite over the fact that they had just faced off with the Constrictus, apparently. "We're not really sure what's become of him."
"Mm." Lexaeus nods, crouching and giving Marluxia's injuries a glance. "Vexen was with us. I take it you haven't seen him, either."
"Not at all." XI scowls. "And what task were you three sent here?"
"An increasingly failing rescue mission for you, Saix, and Demyx," Zexion cuts in, digging into his bag for whatever medical supplies Lexaeus had been thoughtful enough to bring with him. "We didn't imagine that Silent Hill would be causing this much of an issue -- or that Saix even originated from here."
Demyx grins weakly. "Well, it explains a lot of things about him, I think. Heh."
"I suppose," Lexaeus replies, tone faint as he focuses instead on Marluxia's current status. "At any rate, I don't imagine we can linger here for long. Never knowing what will come out of the fog next."
"We are heading for the Wish House orphanage, just in the forest. Not far from here at all," Zexion explains briefly as he prepares bandages around Demyx's midsection. "I suppose we'll have to drag the both of you with us now, and hope that place will offer some form of conclusions."
"Well, it." Demyx winces at the way Zexion tightens the bandages. "It all really... comes down to whoever it is Saix is looking for. I mean, if he manages to finish whatever he needs to here, then we're free I think. Right?"
Zexion raises a brow. "Who he's looking for?"
"The nurse," Marluxia announces, certain he's correct. "Clearly."
"I dunno about that." Demyx flinches again. "Ow, Zexion! A-anyway. I mean, I don't know; the way it sounds, I bet he really misses her -- or, um. As much as he can, now, the way he is. But still. When you watch him closely, doesn't it seem like he's always trying to please Xemnas or Vexen or something...?"
"Like with...?" Marluxia frowns, not quite connecting it.
"Oh. I don't know, Walter told me about his dad -- but I think maybe that's who Saix is really looking for." Demyx couldn't help but feel proud of himself for figuring that out before Marluxia.
Zexion pulls away, finishing off what he can of the wound that Demyx bears. "You've met Walter?"
"Yeah. He's crazy; he tried to kill us," Demyx replies airily.
"Ah, yes. Certainly a companion of Saix's then, granted his berserker nature," Zexion says flatly as he assists Demyx to his feet, reluctantly allowing the musician to lean against him.
It seems, for now, that Marluxia can carry his own weight just fine now that his broken bones have been attended to; Lexaeus is standing up and opening the map. "Down this way, then a right -- and we should be able to get into the forest and easily make our way there."
"Haha -- he said easily," Demyx mutters tiredly.
-=-=-
Wish House is about as much as Saix remembers it, though it seems a bit... bigger than it logically should be, admittedly. Mostly, it's a glorified mansion, a building that probably has a history other than being a cage for children in the past.
Now, it's empty and uninviting in the haze, like a graveyard. It's already haunting without adding in twisted monsters to the mix.
Saix slowly sits down against a rock, one that he remembers himself trying to climb as a child and Jimmy shouting at him for scraping his knees. He tilts his head, looking up at James.
"You have no reason to follow us any longer," he says quietly. "But my thanks for all your help, James."
"Are you sure...?" James is glancing at Wish House, frowning a little. "I mean, if I just left you..."
Saix smiles wryly. "Don't forget the reason why you're here. You have someone to find, don't you?"
"Yeah." His voice goes quiet, hesitant. "I should go back, but..."
James is reaching into his jacket. "I don't have much for either of you, but. Here. Okay?"
There are two items of offering; a first aid kit, and a handgun. The latter is not one of interest for Saix, though he knows well how to fire one. He nods to Vexen, watching him take it instead, preferring that to a scalpel no doubt; the scientist tucks the kit under an arm.
"Thank you," Saix says, as much as he can mean to, which isn't much at all.
"Good luck, Saix," James tells him.
"And you as well."
There's obviously some hesitance in the way James steps, but eventually, he does turn and he leaves the two Nobodies, returning down the path through the forest.
A few clicks later and Vexen's using his lighter to see through the dark. There's a scowl on his face and he mutters, "Good riddance. We really don't need someone with a heart making things overly difficult for us, attracting those Heartless."
"You don't sound terribly fond of him," Saix comments faintly.
Even through the dark, it's easy to see the scientist's sharp green eyes, narrowed and annoyed with the berserker. "Are you?"
"I couldn't say," Saix responds, shrugging. "Not that it matters."
Slowly, he stands back up, not allowing himself to wince at sore muscles and joints, how exhausted he feels -- and how filthy he is. He shakes his head and slowly steps towards the door, grabbing onto the handle--
Doesn't turn. Locked.
"Wonderful," Saix growls.
"I don't suppose you know another way in?" Vexen asks, scowling.
"I'm afraid my father was sure to make this place particularly secure. Should it be locked, it will remain so. No back door." Saix shakes his head.
He stills suddenly, his pointed ear twitching a little; there are footsteps. Many of them, approaching. Though the radio does not react, still the berserker stiffens, tightening his grip on the handle of his knife. His teeth bare and he turns, watching the bushes and the remaining foliage.
The crunch of branches, but a stream of steady light.
Breaking through, he can see the four figures almost clearly in the dark.
Demyx lifts a hand in greeting, leaning against Zexion as he calls out, "Yo."
Silently, to himself, there may be a part of Saix that is almost relieved.