Loose Ends [Nadia, Ethan]

[Slash]

I just remembered.
[August 2, 2010]

[/center]

Jericho opened a Corridor. Back in Radiant Garden. Hopefully Clive didn't show up out of nowhere.

In all the excitement, he'd almost forgotten about the man he met here. Ethan, his name was. He could prove to be a very valuable ally.

Nadia was here with him. Of course. They would always travel together. Now Ethan could meet her, and so soon after her completion.

He looked at her and smiled. "We've got to find Ethan. Shouldn't take long."

[Aerith]

You mean we'll have to find him ourselves?
--------

Nadia stepped out of the Corridor and cast a glance around the town. She was an entirely different person from the one who had left here a few days ago.

She had suspected they were here to retrieve Aerith, but then Jericho mentioned that they needed to find this Ethan he had told her about.

Honestly, it didn't matter what they did so long as she was with him. She smiled back.

"All right. Where do you think he is?"
______________________

Ethan was floundering in boredom. Picking off the occasional thug was little more than a bandage trying to hold back an entire river. He had to stay discreet to avoid attracting as much attention as possible. If he was forced to leave this world before he could meet with Jericho again, he would have no way to get in touch.

And he was determined to meet Jericho again. Someone that close to his own mindset was someone he did not want to let slip away so easily.

So, he persisted in this place, somehow managing to avoid his crazed travel partner, as well. Something or someone must have really attracted her attention, which didn't seem too hard to do. Just throw some shiny or red objects or even shiny red objects in front of her and she was set for a while.

On this particular day, however, he had forsaken the town and ventured out to the natural formation the residents called the Crystal Fissure. No one else was here, and if there had been people, they would not have been able to enjoy the sights for very much longer.

A lovely contrast to the filth of that town. All that noise is confined there, at least. This place is a place to make sane men stay sane and the insane become, for a moment, less insane.

[Slash]

It won't take long.

[/center]

Six of Jericho's newly-made Heartless appeared, and Jericho ordered them to search outside of the town.

"I don't think he'd be inside the town after this long. He's probably somewhere in the caverns, and the Heartless will find out where."

_______________

One of the spidery Heartless appeared in the Crystal Fissure, sensing a man there. It scuttled towards the man with erratic speed, looked carefully at him, then let out a great, metallic screech.

Jericho heard it immediately. "There we go. That was quick."

He opened a Corridor and dismissed the Heartless before Ethan could attack them.

Jericho stepped out into the Crystal Fissure, Nadia right behind him.

"Hello, Ethan."

[Aerith]

Well met.
--------

Hm? Some odd creature that didn't look like any Heartless Ethan had ever seen was watching him. He was just about to teach it to leave him alone when it let out a shrill screech. Odd that it didn't move to attack him after that.

Ethan received his answer in the form of one of those Corridors of Darkness he had heard about. More importantly, the person, or persons, who stepped out were his answer.

He brightened visibly once recognition hit. "Ah, Jericho. I see you managed to find me at last."

At the sight of the woman following closely behind Jericho, Ethan straightened a little more and removed his hat. He hadn't been raised in some backwoods village, after all.

"And you must be Nadia." He offered her a bow, moved closer, and gently took her hand. "Jericho told me a little about you, but I find secondhand information, especially about people, to be so very insufficient, wouldn't you say?" He smiled and raised her hand to his lips, then let it go.

"It is truly a pleasure to finally meet you."

Nadia allowed Ethan to greet her in his odd manner. She wasn't used to it. Jericho was so much more casual. But she couldn't deny that she found it all a little endearing.

Smiling back, she laughed a little. "It's nice to meet you, too. And what did Jericho say about me, hmm?"

She looked at Jericho, not Ethan, expectantly.

[Slash]

Discounting the part about you being an experiment...

[/center]

Ethan's formality was quite amusing. Perhaps it was just Jericho's appalling lack of culture speaking, but he half-expected Ethan to begin talking in an archaic tone about her beauty like something out of a bad novel.

Jericho laughed. "I said you'd be traveling with me and that he'd be helped alongside you. Nothing horrible, don't worry."

He looked back at Ethan. "So, you did abandon the girl. I hope this world hasn't been too tiresome for you- I've just been so busy that I had no time to come back."

[Aerith]

Expect the occasional ribbing.
--------

Ethan caught the fact that Jericho did not mention anything about Nadia as an experiment, and he knew enough not to say anything about it, either. Why almost ruin something so intriguing before he got a chance to see it?

"You left? Hm. I haven't noticed any ships coming or going lately."

He put his hat back on his head and leaned against a crystalline wall. "As far as the woman I told you about, I have not seen her around, and I am unsure as to whether or not she will find me again. It's strange without her around but very quiet, especially here."

Looking to Nadia, he smiled. "Don't you think so?"

Nadia did agree that it was quiet, pleasantly so. There was so much color here, mostly cool tones that were soothing. She put a hand against one of the crystals and looked at it pensively for a moment.

"Yes, it is beautiful." She liked these sorts of places. "So untouched by humanity. If only there were more places like this."

Ethan's smile grew wider. "Humans do have the unfortunate capacity to ruin everything we touch. Worse, we do so without any consideration for anyone else and pretend we care."

He paused, thinking. "Of course, I am no different, and neither, I suspect, are you. Deep down, you know this. Therein lies the real difference between us and the rest of the humans. The rest walk like sheep through this life, blindly believing themselves to be good and proper specimens of the human race. We know the truth, do we not?"

Chuckling, he shook his head. "Ah, I apologize. Sometimes, I think I must talk too much."

"Oh, I don't think so. You probably haven't spent too much time with Jericho, have you?" Nadia gave Jericho a mischievous look. "He can talk up a storm, this one."

[Slash]

Well, I like talking.

[/center]

Jericho shrugged. He knew exactly how much he liked to talk. "Maybe so. But hey, we all have our issues."

He looked around, admiring the scenery. "It is beautiful here."

It would be more beautiful infested with darkness, though. Everything would. The light around here is quite annoying.[/color]

Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned to Ethan and Nadia. "Considering how isolated this place is, I think it's as good a time as any for your first lesson. If you're ready, of course."

They had some time. After this, they would have to go get Aerith.

[Aerith]

I thought you would never offer.
--------

That caught Ethan's attention. "I've been ready for the past few days, ever since you first mentioned the possibility of teaching me some things."

Nadia remembered Jericho telling her about teaching Ethan and also her. Maybe she would find out just what her encounter with the darkness had done to her besides give her Azrael. Her curiosity demanded to be satisfied.

"I'm ready, too."

[Slash]

First lesson.

[/center]

He nodded and begun thinking. What to start with?

"There is one fundamental thing that must always be remembered. Everyone's heart is connected. It sounds sappy, but it's true- everyone is connected by bonds. Some are strong, some are so thin as to almost be nonexistent, but absolutely every heart has bonds to every other. What you will be doing is manipulating these bonds."

Jericho sat down, trying to remember the first things he had needed to do. What was it, again...? Ah.

"You must be able to sense these and use them. For a while, you will have to do so consciously, then it will become pure habit. And as for how to do so...well, how I used to do it was picturing a sort of web. You are in one corner, and the person who you are seeking to connect with is on another, and you have to mentally focus in on them, and on the path that you have to take to reach them. When you can focus enough to make it across that path, you've taken the first step."

[Aerith]

Does it go something like this, I wonder?
--------

Ethan listened intently to Jericho explain the principles. They made sense, of course. People did not exist independently of one another, so connections were obvious. Manipulating those bonds, though? Perhaps he was getting ahead of himself. He had been known to do that once or twice.

"So, the first step is merely recognizing that these strands of the web connect everyone to each other? You want us to be able to sense them but not actually do anything with them yet."

He glanced at Nadia and knew he didn't need any special knowledge to know that she was very close to Jericho. Simple powers of observation could tell him that much. Hm. Then again, perhaps this was simply a more intense version of observing people.

Nadia saw Ethan looking at her and returned his gaze with an equally scrutinizing one. There was something about him that seemed off now that she thought about it. Some story sat behind the hatred he had for humanity. She knew Jericho's story. She could only guess at Ethan's.

But if the pattern held, he had probably lost something very dear to him. Jericho had lost his family. She had lost her home and her self-worth. People were quite skilled at taking things away without remorse.

"What happened to you, Ethan?"

The question caught Ethan slightly off his guard, but he recovered quickly. He knew well enough what she was asking.

"Perhaps I'll tell you one day. It isn't important knowledge, and it's not something I share freely."

He smiled. "I mean no disrespect, of course. But I have only just met you. Do try to understand."

Nadia nodded and let the subject drop for now. She would not pick it back up unless Jericho pressed Ethan.

[Slash]

You guys should probably tell me how you're doing.

[/center]

Neither of them told him how they did, but it seemed that Nadia was getting the basics down incredibly fast. Well, that wasn't all that surprising. Her new power would certainly help her grasp it.

She seemed not to have picked up an emotion, though. How strange. Instead, she had reached something else, probably concerning that dead girl Ethan was so connected to.

"Did you get anything, Ethan?" He looked at Nadia. "And what did you see? Try to be specific."

[Aerith]

We might dispense with the verbal introductions at this rate.
--------

Nadia couldn't stop looking at Ethan. She couldn't say she had "seen" anything, per se. It was more of a feeling.

"Can you visualize feelings? If so, I didn't get that, but I think I felt something. Some sadness. A lot of hate. But... not directed at the object of the sadness. Those were two separate things. But not quite separate, either..."

Maybe she was just grasping at straws.

Or not. Ethan looked increasingly tense the longer she talked, even if he tried to hide it.

"Well, you are a quick learner, aren't you, Nadia? Nothing more specific than that? You might save me the effort of having to explain myself to you."

His tone was neutral, so Nadia didn't react much except with a shake of her head. "No. Just general feelings."

Ethan nodded, then concentrated for a moment. "You are an even bigger mystery. Are there two of you? Or do you have a sibling who looks very much like you? It's quite odd, really. Do you have a connection to... yourself?"

"Oh, you must be seeing Ash-- I mean, Azrael. My Persona. He's basically me, but he can also be separate from me."

"Ah. That is interesting, indeed." Ethan looked at Jericho. "Are we heading in the right direction?"

[Slash]

Not a bad start.

[/center]

Jericho nodded. "Good. Actually, excellent for a first try. Better than I expected. You two are tracing the bonds of hearts and finding the stronger ones of the other's. But it'll take a while before you can see more than one thing at a time."

He wondered if he should go further, but any more would require more skill at observation. As they were now, they could do little.

"It might seem frustrating, but you're going to have to wait a while before I can help you manipulate them. Just focus on seeing them as much as you can. When it begins to become automatic, then we can work on manipulating them."

He could see into both of them, but not himself. What did they see? Probably nothing too nice.

[Aerith]

Let's try a little experiment.
--------

Understandable, of course. Ethan raised no objections to having to wait. This was not something he wanted to rush, after all. Such a manipulation technique needed time to develop just right, like a fine wine aging to perfection.

He looked at Jericho next. "You seem to have an affinity for... spiders?"

And rare desert flowers, it seems. Although not quite to the same extent as she does for you. A tool only, then? I don't think so. Not enough detachment. And that might make you sicker than I originally gave you credit for.

He couldn't help but feel a spark of envy, but that was quickly buried.

Nadia already knew about the spider, so Ethan's observation came as no shock. She was reluctant to try reading Jericho for some reason. But her curiosity got the better of her.

Aside from the spider, Jericho's strongest connection was to her. She tried not to look too relieved.

"And Aerith. There's something slight in there about Aerith."

[Administrator]

The familiar shows his true self.

Predis, who had been observing those around him for a while, slowly crawled out of Jericho's pocket. He crawled up to stand upon the man's head, reverting from his dime-size to the much larger size of his normal state. Laying himself down, the spider surveyed his surroundings lazily. "What about me?" he sent through a recently formed bond with both Nadia and Ethan. "What do you sense in me?"

He could sense the hearts of those around him, quite strongly, already. And could manipulate them, likely, if he wanted to. Of course, this was because of his connection to Jericho. Their unique bond gave Predis powers, some of which he did not know of yet. "I meant not to startle you, Ethan. I am Predis. We have not met, to my knowledge." If they had met, he had not left a lasting impression on Predis.

Opening a link with Jericho, he said, "They learn well. And it seems Nadia regains her confidence. It pleases me that this Ethan has joined us as well. More allies makes for more strength." Opening a Corridor of Darkness, Predis jumped to the floor, where he grew to about five feet in height. His mandibles chittered, and his leg-claws scratched the ground. "What sense you in me?" The spider looked slowly from one to the other as he waited for his response.