animus_network | [video]

[It's very rare that Xion checks the main network these days. Come to think of it, this is the first time she's actually looked at it since the hacking attempt a month ago. It was mainly an idle thing, something to help distract herself briefly from the infiltration coming up - and her own guilt about its necessity. She's already looked at a few of the other posts when she scrolls back up and...

That wasn't a name she expected to see. But one she took sharp interest in almost immediately. Her fingers fumble on the keyboard.]

I'll be right down.

[A few seconds later, and she's logged out of the terminal. She turns. Her powers are supposed to be back now, right? It's been a week. They're just... not strong enough yet. Maybe she has enough for a corridor?

She lifts a hand, tries to form one, and for a moment feels elated as a small black swirl - a real one forms in midair. However, as soon as it gets slightly bigger than her fist, it flickers and fades. She tries again, with the same result.

Apparently her powers weren't quite strong enough yet.

In the end it might take her a little bit longer than "right down." More like a half hour, given that she has to take the elevator from the dorm floors down to the first, then sprint up from there.

All the way down though, she's trying to reign in her emotions. It's not the same one. It's not. It sounds like the first one, the one who was here before you were. She's not the one who knows what you're facing. Who helped you through that. She's not the same one.

And yet there's still an anxious, excited ball in the pit of her stomach as she arrives, a little out of breath, her head twisting left and right as she moves between the shelves to where she knows the terminals are, looking for a hint of Aqua's blue hair. Calling out - not too loud, not too quiet.]

Aqua?

[Xion, for her part, will look older. She's a bit taller, her hair is longer. She has a pouch tied around her waist by a homemade belt; though she'd been starting to wear that by the time Aqua left, the pouch is a lot more filled now. She's still wearing her trademark Organization coat, though now she has a visible shirt on underneath it, a pendant around her neck and a seashell bracelet around her wrist.

She's also being trailed by her Dusk, Sunny, and her retrieval unit, Suna]

All right. I'll be here.

[The incredibly non-specific screenname — X1176980 — doesn't help her much with recognizing who she's speaking to, but she'll wait for them, nonetheless.]

[Though, she ends up waiting for much longer than she expected to. She doesn't mind; though the countdown continues to tick away on the terminal screen, Aqua isn't in any terrible rush, responding to the other comments on the post in the meantime.

The voice that eventually calls to her isn't exactly loud, but in the quiet of the library, Aqua picks up on it easily. She turns in the metal chair to face the source of the voice. She's almost sure she knows it, but she isn't convinced until she sees the girl it belongs to.

It's been a while, and she's definitely grown, but it's unmistakable.

Aqua smiles at first, and there's a definite light of recognition in her eyes, but then Xion's tag-alongs catch her attention, and she stands with alarm, Stormfall coming to her hand out of reflex. Of course, Aqua only knows of the creatures like the one following Xion from the swarms of monsters that have assaulted the Tower, and she's not familiar with the intricacies of the chipped units.

Xion doesn't seem bothered by her stalkers, though, and...she has to be aware of them. It's for that reason that Aqua doesn't attack right away, but she does regard Sunny and Suna with wariness.] Are you all right? Why are they following you?

[Xion's look of relief when she sees Aqua turns almost immediately into alarm when Aqua summons her Keyblade. Her hands fly up, one towards Aqua in a "wait" gesture, the other in front of Sunny and Suna as both a protective and restraining gesture, as Sunny at least has puffed up defensively. He's been on the wrong end of Keyblades - or at least weapons like Keyblades - before, and it wasn't fun.

Xion, meanwhile, is trying to figure out how to defuse the situation.]

It's okay, they're friends. This is Sunny. [She indicates the Dusk.] And this is Suna. [now the retrieval unit] It's... a long story, but they're both friends, I promise. She won't hurt you guys. [She adds to the two behind her, particularly Sunny. Suna hasn't really reacted. Maybe she's just used to these reactions from new returnees.

That done, Xion lowers both her hands slowly. Sunny at least seems unconvinced, and ducks behind Xion's legs.]

Sunny I got one time when we were getting things from home. He was a Dusk who used to clean up around the castle, and he kept leaving flowers for me after I thanked him one time. Suna is...

[She pauses here. It was hard to say what was safe discussing, anymore. What with the construction of the secret floor, the admins doubtless knew about the rebel units. But still... If nothing else though they should probably be wary of walls, like when they had the chips. A basic overview couldn't hurt though.]

Some of the retrieval units help us now. Suna's one of them. Before, we used to be followed by normal units, because we tried to fight or learn about the admins somehow.

[Aqua is willing to take Xion's word for it; Xion has obviously been here for longer than Aqua has, now, and she would be more familiar with the dangers. She watches as the Dusk quails behind Xion, and spares the retrieval unit another cautious glance. But, ultimately, she relaxes her posture and dismisses Stormfall.]

Sorry. I didn't realize. [Though she can't help but feel wary about the Dusk, her apology is genuine.

The news about the retrieval units is definitely something to consider, moreso than the wriggly white creature at Xion's feet. She didn't even know that retrieval units had started following people in the first place, and now apparently they've changed to help the Tower populace, too?

Aqua's eyebrows furrow slightly, a tinge of melancholy weighing her next observation.] ...things have changed a lot, haven't they? [More than just the retrieval units and the new floors. The people have changed, too; Xion is evidence enough of that.]

Edited 2014-04-20 09:00 (UTC)

[Xion mouth twists wryly]

Yeah... they really have.

[Though Xion's words are more focused on the changes in the Tower than anything.]

We've learned a lot, more than I think any of us would have ever realized there was to learn.

[But at the same time, that knowledge hadn't been without cost. Xion's eyes flicker briefly over to Aqua's screen, where the countdown is still displaying, ticking down, second by second, the time they had left until they either fixed everything, or died.]

Edited 2014-04-20 09:10 (UTC)

There have always been a lot of mysteries about this place for us. [But the biggest mystery was probably just how many mysteries there were, wasn't it?]

[Aqua lifts a hand, her curled fingers resting against her collarbone in a thoughtful gesture as she regards Xion with a small tilt of her head.] Can you tell me what you've learned? [She wants to help in whatever way she can, but she can't do that without knowledge. And maybe Xion can't tell her, for whatever reason; it's not safe to, it's meant to be a secret, or it's just hard to explain. She'd understand if that were the case.]

[Xion nods.]

Yeah... there's just a lot of it, and some of it should wait until we're somewhere safer.

[Thankfully they have that now. Xion sighs. This... wasn't going to be much easier than it was with Ven, was it? She'd left before he had, if Xion remembered the chronology of events correctly. Whale was before the body swap.

First of all, she goes over to tap the countdown she'd been glancing at earlier. Best to start with the most important, right?]

That's how much time we have left. We... some of us... [Xion pauses, suddenly nervous. Not everyone had reacted to this information well.] Dax left us instructions nearly a year ago, to leave chips everywhere. We did it and... if I understood it correctly, we drained the power core. We learned... something very important, I'm not sure how we would have learned it otherwise, but... now the Tower's running out of power. Once it does, if we don't fix things first, we'll die. For real.

[She just hopes Aqua doesn't disapprove.]

That's fine.

[Aqua is patient, and she wouldn't hesitate to believe that it would be dangerous to spread sensitive information in certain areas of the Tower. That said, she watches Xion approach the terminal and indicate the countdown. Aqua had been wondering what it was for — it wasn't there when she left — but she had so many questions that she hadn't really been sure where to start.

She didn't expect it to be nearly so important, though.

Aqua's surprise shows on her face with wide eyes under arched eyebrows. She doesn't really know what to think at first, and the revelation that they could die permanently here when most Tower deaths are only temporary is shocking. And— what was that about Dax? He'd always seemed nicer than Jason and Riki, but telling the residents Tower secrets?

That's what Aqua chooses to focus on first, because it makes a little less sense to her than potentially facing down death. Aqua isn't a stranger to that. There's curiosity, and maybe a shade of something like disbelief in her voice.] Dax told you to do that?

Yeah, it's... [A part of her realizes belatedly she may have given the wrong impression. Uhhhh it's time to backtrack. Which brings them to another important point.] He's dead. He... over a year ago, February before last, he stood up to Ruana for us. I didn't see all of it [Couldn't, really. Couldn't bear to.] But... he said that their job was to save us, and he was going to do it, even if it meant saving us from her.

She didn't take it well.

[Understatement of the century.]

After that, some of the residents got letters, clues that would help them find things he left for us, in case what happened... did. And one of the things he left us were the chips and how to use them.

[Xion hesitates, before adding]

Though... we didn't know exactly what they'd do. He didn't tell us that much, maybe in case the other admins found them by mistake, or something. But because of things like that, some people don't trust him still.

[Overall Xion isn't one of them, though she knows many who are.]

[Aqua doesn't verbalize her shock, but it's evident in the way she raises her hands to tent both of them over her mouth and in the widening of her eyes the moment Xion tells her the news. She could still easily recall Dax's conversations on the network, and his polite requests that they do their best to help him win that competition against the other admins. To know that he had died to help them all, set up systems to ensure they could be saved even when he was no longer around to see to it...

It's surprising, but Aqua has learned by now that people are full of surprises.

She takes a moment to absorb everything Xion is saying, slowly lowering her hands from her face as the shock of the word of Dax's passing subsides. She's having a hard time imagining that there was a secret so urgent that it was worth almost certain death for the residents...but if Dax was killed trying to ensure that it was discovered, it has to have been important.

She's willing to trust in his intentions for now. But, she still has to know:] What did you learn from those chips?

[Xion waits. She knows - on some level - it's a lot to take in. A lot. And what she still has to tell isn't going to be much better. She wonders maybe if they should find a place to sit down. But then Aqua asks her next question.

Xion hesitates a moment, before answering.]

When we drained the power core, it shut some of the systems off. Especially... the glamour system.

This place is called the Tower of Animus, right? I think... I remember hearing somewhere that "Animus" means "soul," in some language somewhere. And... [She slowly, carefully lifts her hands to around where she remembered the ball of light being. She circles the spot with her fingers, thumbs pointing up.] That's all we really are right now. When the glamour's up... everything we see. Our bodies, our powers, even a lot of the floors.... it's not really real. It's made of film. We're all... these wireframes, with our souls in the middle.

I'm sorry. It's... it's hard to really describe. It'd be easier to show you but... it's a Riki month now. He's always been better with the glamour. Unless something big happens, you might not get to see until May.

[And who knew what would happen by then.]

[This, somehow, bothers her more than the news about Dax. The words don't make much sense to her, "Animus" and "glamour system", but she nonetheless listens intently to what Xion is telling her. Aqua tries to conjure up an image in her mind of what Xion describes, imagining her soul suspended in some sort of body made out of wires, but it's hard to paint the proper picture when she barely understands most of the technology of the Tower.

Being just a soul doesn't really bother her, though. What bothers her is that all the torment, all the suffering that people thought they were going through under both claw and knife, wasn't even real.

Aqua doesn't really mean to speak her next question aloud, but it escapes her anyway, almost under her breath in her quiet disgust.] Why would someone simulate such awful things?

[She doesn't expect Xion to have an answer, of course. So, she presses on, with a stronger and more relevant response.] It's okay. I think I understand. That's how they do everything, right? Like making the floors and twisting our bodies. They just...change the glamour?

[Xion lowers her hands, breaking the circle]

Yeah... I think so. I don't really understand all of it. But it makes sense. [She knows some things - like the forms they'd all taken on when Jason had brainwashed them, the costumes after they'd died.... some of those forms hadn't even made sense.] There are some exceptions, though... like the monsters are real. And... [The volume of her voice suddenly goes way down, only just above a whisper.] we've found a way to get our real powers back.

[The volume in her voice returns to normal. As for Aqua's other question...] I don't know why they want to. I know... that Jason wanted to do experiments, and Ruana likes games. And she thinks that it's okay because she "saved" us...

There's also been some weird things we've seen lately that... I don't think has anything to do with the glamour at all but... I don't really understand that either.

[Psychoradiation, she thinks it was called? But she's getting ahead of herself here, probably. Not to mention she feels like she's said those words a lot, even in the past few minutes.]

... I'm sorry. I know... that that probably doesn't help. I wish I did understand, but...

Edited 2014-05-11 10:45 (UTC)

[The monsters are real? What an awful thought. And it put the residents at a terrible disadvantage, if all they had were their souls.

Xion's sudden secretive whisper, however, is fascinating. Aqua knows immediately that she'll be trying to get her powers back as soon as possible. But the way Xion says it is indicative enough that it's not something to be spoken of casually; it will probably have to wait until they're somewhere safer. Instead, she addresses the matter of Ruana and Jason in passing, her voice quiet with thought.] She was really excited about that competition between the others. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. [Though it somehow seems sad to only enjoy such cruel games.

Aqua lifts her eyes to meet Xion's gaze again.] You don't have to be sorry; you've been a lot of help. Thank you.

[And then, though the situation is certainly grim and the mood heavy, she manages something of a weary smile.] It's good to see you again.

[And here's someone that Aqua won't recognize, but definitely recognizes her.]

Aqua! You're...

[And then he pauses, thinking.

No, this can't be the same one he knew. This one is talking about things that happened before he arrived.]

Sorry.

[How depressing to think about how many different versions of people are forever trapped on dead worlds. Maybe more will get pulled, but with their time running so low, and with how Zo reacted...

Well. That's actually incredibly heartbreaking to think about.]

I'm Neal Cassidy. I knew a... different you who was here before.

[At first, Aqua receives his reaction with a reserved kind of confusion, shown in the slight downwards arch of her eyebrows. She watches the feed of Neal in this manner until he introduces himself; the explanation resolves her unspoken question and her expression relaxes, first into a smile, and then into a look of apology.]

It's all right. I'm sorry— I didn't mean to cause any confusion.

It's nice to meet you, Neal. [Despite what she's sure must be considerable disappointment, she regains a hold on her smile again, easy and welcoming.] I guess you already know my name, huh?

[He smiles.]

I'm sorry for the mix-up.

It seems like there are a lot of people who were here before returning. I hope it's not an omen.

[Well, it kind of is but you know.]

Don't worry about it. [She's not bothered; she just hopes the Aqua he met made a good impression. She adds, with a hint of amusement:] It's almost like we're already friends.

[Neal's pondering is met with an expression of contemplation, but eventually, Aqua comes up with a response.] We couldn't help much if we weren't brought back here. It'll be difficult, [very, if the Tower is still as cruel as she remembers it being] but I'm happy to have the opportunity.

Wow, you too? I had also left after the whale attack, but not very soon like you. I hope you were not hurt during that fatal time.

Really? I guess we've both been gone for a long time, then.

[Though it's not the best situation to be in, Aqua is glad that she and Ven aren't strange outliers in this way. She shakes her head in denial.] No, I wasn't hurt. What about you?

Me neither, although I did lose a whole lot of items that I had cherished.

Let us hope this new situation turns out better for both of us, Miss Aqua. [Even though she had a feeling it won't be...]

[Quark never knew any Aqua, not as far as he could remember and he liked to think he had a good memory, but something very important catches his attention in this network post that he can't stop himself from responding to.]

A whale attacked the tower? A real live whale? I didn't know that!

[How come nobody told him about that? Gosh! That's a really big thing to keep quiet about! He had so many questions!]

Aren't whales supposed to be friendly? Oh! Was it a killer whale? Wait, how did it get out of the ocean? I didn't think they could fly!

[The boy's excitement draws a small laugh from Aqua, muffled behind the polite cover of her hand. She doesn't recognize him, so he must have come here after she left. Still, she doesn't mind answering his questions, as well as she even can.

She lowers her hand and takes on a thoughtful expression, trying to remember what Dax and Riki said about the creature on the network.] I don't think it came from the ocean. Dax said it was native to this world, and it was a kind of ship for other monsters that could break through barriers.

Whoa...

[That's a lot to swallow. But then, maybe it wasn't, considering everybody was from different worlds here. But a whale that was also an alien space ship?]

So it was kind of like a...a...cyborg whale.

[That would be kind of cool of it wasn't for the monsters.]

I hope none of them got in...oh! I'm Quark, by the way. It's nice to meet you, Miss Aqua! I'm sorry that you had to come back to such a scary place though.

A lot of the monsters got in, actually. [She delivers this correction in a careful tone, trying not to alarm Quark with the news.] But it's okay. We fought them off, and everyone was very brave. [People have to be, to survive here.

Despite the grim tale, Aqua looks pleased to make Quark's acquaintance.] It's nice to meet you too, Quark. It is a little scary, but I don't mind coming back. [There's a certain weight of responsibility in her words as she says this; she already doomed her universe once by setting Xehanort loose. She owes it to the worlds to try to save them now.

But Quark looks very young, so she doesn't want to burden him with something like that. Instead, she tries a different approach.] I made a lot of friends here, so I'm glad I'll get to see them again.

[Quark can’t help feeling a bit embarrassed, and it shows by the red flush that fills his cheeks at Aqua’s correction.]

Oh. Well, that’s good then.

[That’s all he can really think to say, though he does manage a smile when she mentions her friends.]

That’s good, too! It’s nice to have friends--they make things a whole lot less scary, huh? I made some friends, too, but most of them are gone now. I hope all of yours are still here.

[That way she wouldn’t have to be alone. It wasn’t fun to be alone.]

[Truthfully, this isn't something she expected. She was acquainted, at least briefly, with another Aqua, but-- this one....]

[It almost seems too good to be true.]

[Maybe that's why Naminé looks as though she's still a bit surprised when the feed clicks on and she stares into it, blinking. Her eyes shift briefly, toward where the original message was, then--]

It's good to see you again, Aqua.

[Tempted though she is to go running down there, she remains as careful a girl as ever.]

[Aqua's reaction to Naminé's response is quick and clear; her smile broadens from polite to genuinely joyed. After Neal's response, she can't help but think that maybe Naminé is thinking of a different Aqua too. And...that would be all right, but she hopes it isn't the case.

First thing's first, though.]

It's good to see you too, Naminé. [She lets out a small breath, not quite a laugh, and continues:] Have you kept up with your magic studies?

[Even the confession she must make doesn't seem to dampen her gladness by much, although there is a hint of guilt in it.]

Not always as well as I should, but I've been trying. It's much harder without a teacher...!

[Memories helped, of course, but they weren't really a proper substitute.]

I'll have to do better.

I bet you've been doing well. You're very talented. [Naminé's admission doesn't disappoint her. Aqua knows she's been gone for a while, and...well, she remembers how reluctant Naminé had been to learn in the first place. She's proud of Naminé for even trying in her absence.]

I'm sorry I haven't been here to teach you. [Truthfully, she's sorry she hasn't been here for more than that. But she doesn't want to sadden the reunion.]

[She's flustered into a quiet,]

Thank you...! [Before she has time to properly deflect the compliment.] But I... had a good teacher. [Not that that replaces talent, but.]

[She shakes her head firmly at the rest of Aqua's words.] It wasn't your fault. You didn't have any choice. And-- you gave me enough to start with. I'm not helpless anymore because of you.

[Or helpless in the broader context than the one in which her own natural powers apply.]

[ An armored helm looks into the camera, and the voice within it rumbles ]

Aqua. Now that's a name I remember... So let's find out... do you remember Cerberus?

[Cerberus? Aqua doesn't recognize that name at all, and it's obvious in her thoughtful and slightly confused expression as she searches her brain. She doesn't know any Cerberus, and she's sure she doesn't know this person, though maybe they were acquainted with another Aqua at some point.

She shakes her head.] No, I'm sorry. I don't know about any Cerberus.

It's all right. The aqua I knew was a friend.

Oh, that's good. [Aqua wants to think that no other Aqua would try to make a bad impression on anyone, but when she recalls the other Ventus from long ago, she can't help but be a little relieved to hear that she was no enemy to this person.]

Maybe we can be friends too. What's your name?

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[video] This is like 3 weeks old, but I couldn't leave this unanswered. Sorry!

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