Warnings: Violence towards children, experimentation, emotion-less children Themes: Magic, friendship, sparring, being remembered,
Memory One
You give the paper in front of you a withering glare and sighed. It is night, and the surface of the desk is illuminated by magical lamplight. Written on the paper are what looks somewhat like formulas or mathematical equations, except for the fact that they involve things like combinations of runes, patterns of magical energy, and specific kinds of crystals and magical sounding substances. There are a number of doodles, bits of formulas scratched out and rewritten, and a half-finished diagram of something that looked rather like a chunky key-chain with a button to press on it.
You sigh and scratch out the last half of the latest formula you've written. "No, that's not right either," you say. "Ugh... why is understanding magic so much harder than doing magic? I mean, you'd think it would be the other way around..."
You glance over at your familiar, Smoke, a mostly gray rat with a few white spots. The rat sits nearby on the desk, contentedly munching on one of several seasoned croutons you've provided for him as a treat. "You're lucky, you know that, Smoke?", you say. "You're a rat; you don't have to deal with this stuff." You grinn wryly, pausing to gently pet the rat's soft fur. "Then again, I don't have to be afraid of cats, so I suppose it's a fair trade off."
Smoke looks up at you, nose twitching, before briefly abandoning the croutons to come over and begin chewing on the corner of the paper of work that has his master so frustrated. You laugh before gently shooing him away from the paper. "Thanks for trying," you say, as the rat glances up at you, "but somehow I don't think that's gonna make this work any better."
Smoke looks at you a moment more before returning to his croutons. You sigh, stretching a bit before turning your attention back to the paper. "Alright...", you mutter, starting to rewrite the formula you'd partially scribbled out before. "Maybe, if I add the powdered magnetite to the mix before I fire it the second time... and tweak the wording of the third spell just a little... hmmm..." You continue muttering over your work and the memory gradually fades out.
Memory Two
It is early afternoon as you walk through the pleasant square with your best friend Isa. The sun is warm, but not too hot, the flagstone surface of the square is dotted with carefully arranged beds of colorful flowers, and in the background the soft rush of fountains could be heard. All in all, it was just about the best sort of summer day a kid could ask for, even by Radiant Garden standards.
You've just headed down into the square proper when something clatters to the ground at your feet. You glance down before bending to pick it up. A toy wooden sword, but one that also was shaped sort of like a giant key? Huh, weird...
A quick glance around reveales the toy's probable owner, a rather dejected looking blonde boy who looked to be about your age sitting back against the stone wall that supported the path you've just been walking on. "This yours?", you ask, indicating the toy sword.
"Lea, we don't have time for this," Isa says. He is already a couple paces ahead and looks impatient to continue on.
"Lighten up, Isa," you say, waving him off. "It'll only take a sec." It wasn't like you were really on a serious timetable, or anything, after all.
You walk over to return the wooden sword to the blonde boy. "You still play with toy swords?", you say as you casually flipped it around in your hand to offer it to the boy, handle-first. "That's cute." It was sort of a neat-looking sword, of course, but you weren't about to admit that. The blonde boy doesn't seem especially thrilled with your comment, though and you casually toss the sword down next to him before whipping out your own favorite: your heavy-duty throwing discs branded with the Cinna-bombs candy logo. "Now these right here... Tada! Whaddaya think?"
The blonde boy looks decidedly unimpressed. "Not a whole lot...", he said.
You, however, are unfazed by his apparently lack of enthusiasm. "You're just jealous," you comment. After all, the discs had been an exclusive prize from a contest the candy company had held not too long ago. ...Second prize, sure, but the point was, you couldn't get ones quite like them anywhere else. "I'm Lea. Got it memorized? What's your name?"
"Ventus," the boy replies, still without any enthusiasm. He seems to be really down in the dumps about something.
Well only one solution for that, in your mind. It was distraction time! And what better distraction, then... "OK, Ventus, let's fight," you say.
That at least seemed to at least get more of a reaction from Ventus. "Fight? Why would I wanna do that?"
"You scared of losing? C'mon," you taunt with a grin, before hopping back several paces to give you both room to go at it. You assume a sparring stance, your discs in hand. "Hope you're ready."
That seems to finally rouse Ventus from his doldrums and he chuckles before giving you a fierce smile of his own, getting to his feet and taking his odd wooden sword in hand. His way of wielding it proves to be just as odd, as he wields it backhand, in a way normally much better suited to a shorter weapon. Still he is on his feet, that was the important part. "Yeah!", you grin. "Now we're talkin'!"
"You're gonna be sorry," Ventus says, seeming every bit as confident as you.
Isa, meanwhile, looks on, opting to watch the sparring session from a safe distance a few paces behind you. He gives a chuckle of his own, smiling a bit. He already had a feeling how this business was going to go...
The two young combatants charge each other, cheerfully exchanging blows with your weapons. It wasn't a long bout, however. You get a few good licks in, but soon Ventus proved to be the decisive victor.
You fall back on your backside, trying to catch your breath. "You... had enough?", you ask. "'Cause I'm willing to... call it a draw if you are" You know you are beaten; this Ventus kid had some serious skills. But to admit that would spoil all the fun.
Ventus looked mildly confused for a moment. "Huh?", he says, but quickly seems to catch on, relaxing out of his sparring stance with a chuckle. "Right..."
"From where I stood," Isa says, walking back over to joinyou both, "the only thing you drew was a big L on your forehead for 'Loser'... 'Lame', 'Laughable'...
"Wha-?", you respond, pretending offense. "Isn't this the part where ya... cheer me up or somethin'? 'You're just havin' a bad day,' or... 'That's what you get for pullin' your punches'?" You 'humph' dramatically "Some friend..."
"Oh, you mean I was supposed to lie," Isa says, his tone snarky, but his expression amused. This was about how he figured things would go.
"Ya see what I gotta put up with?", you say, still feigning irritation. You lie back on the flagstones, tucking your hands behind your head. "Sure hope you don't have friends like him." You drop the act there, though, flashing Ventus a cheeky grin. Ventus catches on fully then, laughing a bit, you and Isa join in a moment later.
As much fun as this was though, you had been on your way somewhere. "Lea, we have to go," Isa said. You have plans for this afternoon, after all.
"'Kay," you say, getting back to your feet.
Ventus seems disappointed to see you go. "Already," he asks.
"I'll see ya when I see ya," you say, looking back over your shoulder to talk to Ventus. "After all, we're friends now." You are surprised how much you mean it too. There is just something about this Ventus guy that you really like. "Get it memorized."
"OK, Lea," Ventus says, smiling as you turn and head over to the other side of the square where Isa is waiting.
"What is it with you and picking up stray puppies?", Isa asks as you approach, the two of you now out of earshot of Ventus.
"I want everybody I meet to remember me," you say. "Inside people's memories, I can live forever."
"I know I won't forget you," Isa says, tone just as snarky as before. "Believe me, I try all the time."
You grin, cheerfully snarking right back. "See, I'm immortal!"
Isa smiles. "You're obnoxious," he says, before turning to look up at the castle. It stood tall above all the other buildings in Radiant Garden, and its unusual design was just as striking as its size.
You turn to look up at it too. Today was the day; you were gonna manage to sneak inside and not get caught. What was it, tenth time's the charm, right? "You ready?", you ask.
Isa glances over at you before responding. "Well, I can tell you are," he says.
"Yeah," you say. You keep your eyes on the castle though, only turning away so that you can properly follow your best friend...
Memory Three
Lea and Isa were barely a year older than they'd been on that summer day when they'd met Ventus, but that seemed like a lifetime ago now. The the basement lab was well lit, though it was by harsh florescent lights. And the carefree warmth and cheer of a summer afternoon was replaced by cold terror, as even the normally calm Isa struggled desperately to free himself as a surprisingly young silver-haired man in a black coat approached him with a sinister-looking Keyblade in hand.
"Let us go!", Isa shouted, fear apparent in his voice as he strained to pull away from the man that held him. It was futile though; there was no way the boy could break the iron grip of the huge, well muscled guard that held him. And though everyone there knew that shouting was probably equally futile, he continued anyway out of a mix of desperate terror and stubbornness. "You can't do this!"
"Oh," said the silver haired man in a deep voice, "I think you'll find that I can." He didn't raise his voice above a low monotone rumble, but somehow his lack of expression and tone was more terrifying than any fury could be. There was just something... wrong about him. About all of the adults in the room, really, but with him, it was much more obvious.
"Stop!", Lea shouted, also struggling in the grip of the man that held him. "Leave him alone! If you hurt him, I swear you'll be sorry!" His attempt at bravado was ruined by the fear in his eyes, and the tears trailing down his cheeks though.
Lea's struggles proved equally futile, as did his shouting. Though not quite as tall as the mountain of a man who held Isa, he was nearly as strong, his long, dark hair pulled up in a braided topknot, and his features as impassive as his companion's despite the boys' struggles.
"I wish I could say 'this won't hurt a bit'," said another man in a guard's uniform, a tattered red neckerchief around his neck and patch over one eye, "but I'd be lying. And lying to kids would be just plain wrong, ya know?" Unlike the others, he was smirking as he leaned casually against a computer console, as if enjoying the boys' terror.
"Stop!", Isa shouted again, his desperation increasing as the man pointed that sinister blade at his chest. "Why are you doing this!?"
The silver haired man's expression didn't chance at all as he replied. "The two of you may yet be useful to me." With that, he thrust the blade forward into the blue-haired boy's chest. Isa screamed in pain, then abruptly went limp.
"ISA!", Lea screamed himself making one more futile lunge toward his best friend's limp body as the silver haired man withdrew his blade, revealing not blood, but a shimmering pinkish light in the shape of a heart. The heart drifted up toward the ceiling, vanishing just before it touched it. And a split second later, Isa's body faded from existence too.
Not that Lea was seeing much by that point, his vision blurred with tears. He slumped in his captor's grip, sobbing quietly. "Isa..." He knew what had likely become of him; they'd seen the records of the twisted experiments that had happened here, the rows of cages where innocent people were locked as experimental subjects. Turned into the crawling, black, yellow-eyed monsters that had been cropping up in the city lately, or fed to already existing ones as 'living samples'. Heartless. He'd turned Isa into a Heartless. And now the same fate awaited Lea.
But at that moment, sobbing in his captor's grip, Lea found that he didn't much care. All that mattered was that his best friend was gone for good... and it was all his fault. He couldn't... he hadn't been strong enough to protect him. He hadn't been able to protect anyone.
Lea barely noticed the silver-haired man stepping in front of him, but not even grief could blind him to the pain of being stabbed in the chest. He was distantly aware of himself screaming, but the only thing he could focus on was a terrible tearing sensation, as if he was being ripped in half.... Then everything went black.
******************
The next think Lea was aware of, he was blinking groggily awake, staring at a blank, metal ceiling. What had happened? Was he still in the lab? And where was...?
He turned his head, realizing that he was lying on a bed, and that Isa was sitting on one next to him. "Oh good, you're awake," Isa said. His voice sounded oddly flat.
"Isa? What...?" Lea started to ask as he sat up, before something hit him. Not only was his own voice just as flat as Isa's, but that he should be happy to see his best friend alive. Or scared of what might happen next. Or angry at those who did it. And yet, there was... nothing. He was aware of everything around him, but he felt... nothing. Just a hollow, empty sensation deep in his chest.
Confused at how this could be, he focused on the sensation, intending to examine it, only to let out a strangled noise as the emptiness seemed to yawn wider threatening to crush him, to swallow him whole. Instinctively, he recoiled from it, and it seemingly shrank back to what it had been before. Yet somehow he still wasn't afraid.
"It's easier if you don't focus on it," Isa said in that same flat voice. Lea nodded mutely. The emptiness was still there, gnawing at the back of his mind, but if he focused on something else, it was bearable. Mostly.
"Are we dead?", Lea asked, his own voice still as flat as Isa's. He tried to will some actual concern into his tone, but it was difficult and didn't work very well.
"As if," another voice said, and they both turned to see the man with the eye patch, the one who had smirked at their terror, still smirking and standing in the room's doorway, this time wearing the same sort of black coat as the silver-haired man had. "You wouldn't be any good to us if you were."
"You'd both better rise and shine; you'll be meeting your new boss before long." His smirk got somehow even more unpleasant. "Welcome to the Organization, kiddos."
Lea | Susan
Themes: Magic, friendship, sparring, being remembered,
Memory One
You give the paper in front of you a withering glare and sighed. It is night, and the surface of the desk is illuminated by magical lamplight. Written on the paper are what looks somewhat like formulas or mathematical equations, except for the fact that they involve things like combinations of runes, patterns of magical energy, and specific kinds of crystals and magical sounding substances. There are a number of doodles, bits of formulas scratched out and rewritten, and a half-finished diagram of something that looked rather like a chunky key-chain with a button to press on it.
You sigh and scratch out the last half of the latest formula you've written. "No, that's not right either," you say. "Ugh... why is understanding magic so much harder than doing magic? I mean, you'd think it would be the other way around..."
You glance over at your familiar, Smoke, a mostly gray rat with a few white spots. The rat sits nearby on the desk, contentedly munching on one of several seasoned croutons you've provided for him as a treat. "You're lucky, you know that, Smoke?", you say. "You're a rat; you don't have to deal with this stuff." You grinn wryly, pausing to gently pet the rat's soft fur. "Then again, I don't have to be afraid of cats, so I suppose it's a fair trade off."
Smoke looks up at you, nose twitching, before briefly abandoning the croutons to come over and begin chewing on the corner of the paper of work that has his master so frustrated. You laugh before gently shooing him away from the paper. "Thanks for trying," you say, as the rat glances up at you, "but somehow I don't think that's gonna make this work any better."
Smoke looks at you a moment more before returning to his croutons. You sigh, stretching a bit before turning your attention back to the paper. "Alright...", you mutter, starting to rewrite the formula you'd partially scribbled out before. "Maybe, if I add the powdered magnetite to the mix before I fire it the second time... and tweak the wording of the third spell just a little... hmmm..." You continue muttering over your work and the memory gradually fades out.
Memory Two
It is early afternoon as you walk through the pleasant square with your best friend Isa. The sun is warm, but not too hot, the flagstone surface of the square is dotted with carefully arranged beds of colorful flowers, and in the background the soft rush of fountains could be heard. All in all, it was just about the best sort of summer day a kid could ask for, even by Radiant Garden standards.
You've just headed down into the square proper when something clatters to the ground at your feet. You glance down before bending to pick it up. A toy wooden sword, but one that also was shaped sort of like a giant key? Huh, weird...
A quick glance around reveales the toy's probable owner, a rather dejected looking blonde boy who looked to be about your age sitting back against the stone wall that supported the path you've just been walking on. "This yours?", you ask, indicating the toy sword.
"Lea, we don't have time for this," Isa says. He is already a couple paces ahead and looks impatient to continue on.
"Lighten up, Isa," you say, waving him off. "It'll only take a sec." It wasn't like you were really on a serious timetable, or anything, after all.
You walk over to return the wooden sword to the blonde boy. "You still play with toy swords?", you say as you casually flipped it around in your hand to offer it to the boy, handle-first. "That's cute." It was sort of a neat-looking sword, of course, but you weren't about to admit that. The blonde boy doesn't seem especially thrilled with your comment, though and you casually toss the sword down next to him before whipping out your own favorite: your heavy-duty throwing discs branded with the Cinna-bombs candy logo. "Now these right here... Tada! Whaddaya think?"
The blonde boy looks decidedly unimpressed. "Not a whole lot...", he said.
You, however, are unfazed by his apparently lack of enthusiasm. "You're just jealous," you comment. After all, the discs had been an exclusive prize from a contest the candy company had held not too long ago. ...Second prize, sure, but the point was, you couldn't get ones quite like them anywhere else. "I'm Lea. Got it memorized? What's your name?"
"Ventus," the boy replies, still without any enthusiasm. He seems to be really down in the dumps about something.
Well only one solution for that, in your mind. It was distraction time! And what better distraction, then... "OK, Ventus, let's fight," you say.
That at least seemed to at least get more of a reaction from Ventus. "Fight? Why would I wanna do that?"
"You scared of losing? C'mon," you taunt with a grin, before hopping back several paces to give you both room to go at it. You assume a sparring stance, your discs in hand. "Hope you're ready."
That seems to finally rouse Ventus from his doldrums and he chuckles before giving you a fierce smile of his own, getting to his feet and taking his odd wooden sword in hand. His way of wielding it proves to be just as odd, as he wields it backhand, in a way normally much better suited to a shorter weapon. Still he is on his feet, that was the important part. "Yeah!", you grin. "Now we're talkin'!"
"You're gonna be sorry," Ventus says, seeming every bit as confident as you.
Isa, meanwhile, looks on, opting to watch the sparring session from a safe distance a few paces behind you. He gives a chuckle of his own, smiling a bit. He already had a feeling how this business was going to go...
The two young combatants charge each other, cheerfully exchanging blows with your weapons. It wasn't a long bout, however. You get a few good licks in, but soon Ventus proved to be the decisive victor.
You fall back on your backside, trying to catch your breath. "You... had enough?", you ask. "'Cause I'm willing to... call it a draw if you are" You know you are beaten; this Ventus kid had some serious skills. But to admit that would spoil all the fun.
Ventus looked mildly confused for a moment. "Huh?", he says, but quickly seems to catch on, relaxing out of his sparring stance with a chuckle. "Right..."
"From where I stood," Isa says, walking back over to joinyou both, "the only thing you drew was a big L on your forehead for 'Loser'... 'Lame', 'Laughable'...
"Wha-?", you respond, pretending offense. "Isn't this the part where ya... cheer me up or somethin'? 'You're just havin' a bad day,' or... 'That's what you get for pullin' your punches'?" You 'humph' dramatically "Some friend..."
"Oh, you mean I was supposed to lie," Isa says, his tone snarky, but his expression amused. This was about how he figured things would go.
"Ya see what I gotta put up with?", you say, still feigning irritation. You lie back on the flagstones, tucking your hands behind your head. "Sure hope you don't have friends like him." You drop the act there, though, flashing Ventus a cheeky grin. Ventus catches on fully then, laughing a bit, you and Isa join in a moment later.
As much fun as this was though, you had been on your way somewhere. "Lea, we have to go," Isa said. You have plans for this afternoon, after all.
"'Kay," you say, getting back to your feet.
Ventus seems disappointed to see you go. "Already," he asks.
"I'll see ya when I see ya," you say, looking back over your shoulder to talk to Ventus. "After all, we're friends now." You are surprised how much you mean it too. There is just something about this Ventus guy that you really like. "Get it memorized."
"OK, Lea," Ventus says, smiling as you turn and head over to the other side of the square where Isa is waiting.
"What is it with you and picking up stray puppies?", Isa asks as you approach, the two of you now out of earshot of Ventus.
"I want everybody I meet to remember me," you say. "Inside people's memories, I can live forever."
"I know I won't forget you," Isa says, tone just as snarky as before. "Believe me, I try all the time."
You grin, cheerfully snarking right back. "See, I'm immortal!"
Isa smiles. "You're obnoxious," he says, before turning to look up at the castle. It stood tall above all the other buildings in Radiant Garden, and its unusual design was just as striking as its size.
You turn to look up at it too. Today was the day; you were gonna manage to sneak inside and not get caught. What was it, tenth time's the charm, right? "You ready?", you ask.
Isa glances over at you before responding. "Well, I can tell you are," he says.
"Yeah," you say. You keep your eyes on the castle though, only turning away so that you can properly follow your best friend...
Memory Three
Lea and Isa were barely a year older than they'd been on that summer day when they'd met Ventus, but that seemed like a lifetime ago now. The the basement lab was well lit, though it was by harsh florescent lights. And the carefree warmth and cheer of a summer afternoon was replaced by cold terror, as even the normally calm Isa struggled desperately to free himself as a surprisingly young silver-haired man in a black coat approached him with a sinister-looking Keyblade in hand.
"Let us go!", Isa shouted, fear apparent in his voice as he strained to pull away from the man that held him. It was futile though; there was no way the boy could break the iron grip of the huge, well muscled guard that held him. And though everyone there knew that shouting was probably equally futile, he continued anyway out of a mix of desperate terror and stubbornness. "You can't do this!"
"Oh," said the silver haired man in a deep voice, "I think you'll find that I can." He didn't raise his voice above a low monotone rumble, but somehow his lack of expression and tone was more terrifying than any fury could be. There was just something... wrong about him. About all of the adults in the room, really, but with him, it was much more obvious.
"Stop!", Lea shouted, also struggling in the grip of the man that held him. "Leave him alone! If you hurt him, I swear you'll be sorry!" His attempt at bravado was ruined by the fear in his eyes, and the tears trailing down his cheeks though.
Lea's struggles proved equally futile, as did his shouting. Though not quite as tall as the mountain of a man who held Isa, he was nearly as strong, his long, dark hair pulled up in a braided topknot, and his features as impassive as his companion's despite the boys' struggles.
"I wish I could say 'this won't hurt a bit'," said another man in a guard's uniform, a tattered red neckerchief around his neck and patch over one eye, "but I'd be lying. And lying to kids would be just plain wrong, ya know?" Unlike the others, he was smirking as he leaned casually against a computer console, as if enjoying the boys' terror.
"Stop!", Isa shouted again, his desperation increasing as the man pointed that sinister blade at his chest. "Why are you doing this!?"
The silver haired man's expression didn't chance at all as he replied. "The two of you may yet be useful to me." With that, he thrust the blade forward into the blue-haired boy's chest. Isa screamed in pain, then abruptly went limp.
"ISA!", Lea screamed himself making one more futile lunge toward his best friend's limp body as the silver haired man withdrew his blade, revealing not blood, but a shimmering pinkish light in the shape of a heart. The heart drifted up toward the ceiling, vanishing just before it touched it. And a split second later, Isa's body faded from existence too.
Not that Lea was seeing much by that point, his vision blurred with tears. He slumped in his captor's grip, sobbing quietly. "Isa..." He knew what had likely become of him; they'd seen the records of the twisted experiments that had happened here, the rows of cages where innocent people were locked as experimental subjects. Turned into the crawling, black, yellow-eyed monsters that had been cropping up in the city lately, or fed to already existing ones as 'living samples'. Heartless. He'd turned Isa into a Heartless. And now the same fate awaited Lea.
But at that moment, sobbing in his captor's grip, Lea found that he didn't much care. All that mattered was that his best friend was gone for good... and it was all his fault. He couldn't... he hadn't been strong enough to protect him. He hadn't been able to protect anyone.
Lea barely noticed the silver-haired man stepping in front of him, but not even grief could blind him to the pain of being stabbed in the chest. He was distantly aware of himself screaming, but the only thing he could focus on was a terrible tearing sensation, as if he was being ripped in half.... Then everything went black.
******************
The next think Lea was aware of, he was blinking groggily awake, staring at a blank, metal ceiling. What had happened? Was he still in the lab? And where was...?
He turned his head, realizing that he was lying on a bed, and that Isa was sitting on one next to him. "Oh good, you're awake," Isa said. His voice sounded oddly flat.
"Isa? What...?" Lea started to ask as he sat up, before something hit him. Not only was his own voice just as flat as Isa's, but that he should be happy to see his best friend alive. Or scared of what might happen next. Or angry at those who did it. And yet, there was... nothing. He was aware of everything around him, but he felt... nothing. Just a hollow, empty sensation deep in his chest.
Confused at how this could be, he focused on the sensation, intending to examine it, only to let out a strangled noise as the emptiness seemed to yawn wider threatening to crush him, to swallow him whole. Instinctively, he recoiled from it, and it seemingly shrank back to what it had been before. Yet somehow he still wasn't afraid.
"It's easier if you don't focus on it," Isa said in that same flat voice. Lea nodded mutely. The emptiness was still there, gnawing at the back of his mind, but if he focused on something else, it was bearable. Mostly.
"Are we dead?", Lea asked, his own voice still as flat as Isa's. He tried to will some actual concern into his tone, but it was difficult and didn't work very well.
"As if," another voice said, and they both turned to see the man with the eye patch, the one who had smirked at their terror, still smirking and standing in the room's doorway, this time wearing the same sort of black coat as the silver-haired man had. "You wouldn't be any good to us if you were."
"You'd both better rise and shine; you'll be meeting your new boss before long." His smirk got somehow even more unpleasant. "Welcome to the Organization, kiddos."