Shades of Gray

[Sai]

The Nobody among the somebodies was vaguely aware of the heartless sprawling about the ship. The scent was everywhere, but for as much pungency as it had, he was already well aware that it was vastly outnumbered by soldiers. There was a stronger scent, but sweeter, obviously belonging to both the dark knight currently going nuts down among the hallways, and the fox heartless that had joined their crusade in Sherwood.

But then another came along. Darker than most, and more foul. Even Sai, who had a high tolerance for such things from numerous trips to and from places like Castle Oblivion or the Castle of Naught which both drifted dangerously close to where even angels fear to tread, had to lift a hand to cover his nose somewhat. There was something powerful among them.

He could get a vague idea of its motions, feeling it down in the engine rooms and swiftly making a trip to its corridor. There, he would head it off. Based on the fact that pressure was normalizing and controls were coming back online, the being had apparently aided them. He wanted to know why.

Moving silently and without alerting others, Sai slowly stepped backward into his own corridor, entering that sort of sub-world where the shadows dwelled. He could see her even in this subspace, attempting to make a retreat to someplace far off. Someplace they were going. He called out to her by the only name he knew her by.

"Maleficent..." Sai muttered, standing in a seemingly uninterested pose even as he held at his wand within the sleeve of his jacket. Lazy eyes watched her with that strange apathetic stare of his even though his every action screamed that he had questions that he wanted answered.

"Your actions are misleading... I do not understand why you would assist ones that you have labelled as your enemies." Sai stated like this was a casual observation rather than an accusation. "Why help the Red Rose knowing it carries those intending to destroy you? Are you not on the side of my heartless?" he asked finally, ready for a fight should she bring one, but ultimately preferring that she didn't.

After all, all he wanted was answers.

[MeadowSong]

[glow=Purple,2,300]Had the Heartless queen been one to anticipate movements like this, she would have had Faeries' Wrath held in a defensive position. Unfortunately this wasn't the case and she was caught off-guard, and by a TRULY heartless being, at that! A most delicious piece of blackmail, indeed. Perhaps later.

"What an unexpected surprise..." breathed MeadowSong with the air of nonchalance, almost as if she tried to make the Nobody believe he hadn't spooked her somewhat just then.

"Why, indeed?" she repeated, staring down the Nobody with that cocky smirk of hers, and bowed to him. "For the record, Sai--was that it?--for the record, I am now MeadowSong."

She chuckled menacingly and turned, about to leave before Sai spoke again. This time she paused with a gasp--albeit not a surprised one, but more for stalling.

"Atticus knows where I stand for now, Sai. My intentions, however, for later, are my own. I never said I wouldn't allow you to make it to my palace. In fact, I never said I would allow you. But to make things interesting--and challenging, for that matter--I'd rather you all flock to the same place. I believe you'll find the events waiting for you to be rather...entertaining. Far better than that silly performance back on Jidoor."

Another grin and she floated over to Sai, moving so close that her breath would be felt whenever she spoke. She lowered her voice here.

"Your hope and dreams are to be ripped out of your hands at the very last moment, and I wish to be the one to do it...but not here, and certainly not now at the hands of a pompous fool. That captain had it coming, as well as the puppet. A sad loss...but we shall persevere. After all, Kingdom Hearts is won. Ha!"

After that, MeadowSong flew away from the Nobody and exited through the Corridor leading back home.

"I wait anxiously," echoed her voice.[/glow]

[Sai]

He already knew he had startled her. Posture, movement, and the slightest of stresses on her words were the key points which betrayed her. The thing was, he didn't really care if he had or not. His point was to gleen insight, and insight she offered.

"Meadowsong" as she called herself now was simply falling prey to a basic, human emotion. Sometimes being of the heart and only possessing instinct and emotion made you both chaotic and contradictingly predictable. He had determined from her little speech that she wanted to make a show of them, rub it in their noses a little that Kingdom Hearts was viciously poisoned, possibly beyond repair. What better place to do it, than somewhere that they could see the reprecussions for failure?

However, she had given him something else as well. She warned that there were further events awaiting them at the castle. An ambush, obviously. Further, she mused that it would be more entertaining and more challenging when they got there. This implies that tackling obsticles is something she craves, a weakness he could exploit should they reach her.

If need be, he could use her desire for conquest against her. Remind her that if all light were to fail, that she'd have no one left to challenge her. No one who would seek her destruction or rise to fight. She'd be, in essence, left with nothing to do. Fear of boredom could be a powerful motivator should the tides turn against them.

Once the heartless floated out of sight, Sai had to lift a hand to his nose once more, rubbing a little at the irritating scent that lingered. Darkness was a repugnant smell for those that were sensitive to it. Even one without emotion knows when something is unpleasant.

Turning, Sai opened the corridor back to the Rose, thinking on what he had learned, and deciding how much of this he would share and how much he would keep to himself. While remaining open had been his usual policy, they were far too close to victory for him to make any slip-ups.

Everything was at stake here.

[back to the rose]