Darkness in Zero
Chapter 5 – The Unlocked Door
Radiant Garden had such unique construction, Xehanort thought, how else could you tuck away so much population in one space?
It had been a long time since he'd come out and simply gazed off into the city. It felt as though he were committing a sin by not doing anything productive. There was so much he kept himself shut away doing, and so much that needed to be done. While he wasn't paying attention, he'd drifted out of contact with a number of friends and no longer socialized with Ansem and his family like he'd once done. The void these associations left in him became occupied by his laboratory interests and he never really noticed the disappearance of them from his life.
However, presented to him on this day was a lively city. He admired the endless energy it gave off and he felt like he could channel it into some force to drive him harder.
Xehanort grinned; like he needed more energy to do what he was doing. His tasks kept him energized, not to mention enthralled.
And for tonight, the scientist had handed himself a monumental task…
But then there was this city to look at again. He was always amazed when everyone, from toddler to elder, would come out for the Summer Festival and fill the streets to capacity. The shops would have their week long sales and the streets from one end to the other became decorated with lanterns, lights and streamers. Little booths seemed to pop up everywhere, offering anything from balloon animals to dinner coupons if you could guess the roll of a dice.
'Welcome to summer,' announced Ansem the Wise as the fire crackers sounded at noon on that Wednesday morning beneath a crystal clear sky. Xehanort could still hear the energy of the people as they rang out in response.
It was puzzling to think about how a place with so much energy and life contained so many weak and impure hearts. Too bad that borrowing a person who displayed signs of a quality heart would require significant effort. That was too much of an obstacle at this point.
And yes, Xehanort rationalized, it was all 'borrowing'. His research and efforts would lead him to a solution that could reconstruct a heart; even if it was from nothing. All of these people, not only were their unknowing sacrifices not in vain, they were not finite either. But, he was running out of people that could be slipped under the radar…
His progression through the city was suddenly stopped. Nearly stumbling back into the person behind him, Xehanort startled at the unidentified object suddenly thrust under his nose.
"You surfaced!"
"Huh?" Xehanort's eyes came to focus on the stick of pale blue ice cream shoved in his face before his gaze turned to the origin of the voice.
"I almost didn't recognize you," Isa narrowed a playful eye at his companion, "I can't tell how old you're growing since your hair's grey already."
Xehanort rolled his eyes, "Very funny." Deliberately bumping his friend to get him moving with the flow of human traffic, the pair kept shoulder to shoulder in the bustling streets, "I feel like a broken record telling everyone I've been busy."
"I'm sure you do," Isa shook his head, gnawing on the corner of the frozen bar in his left hand, "once upon a time I wanted to know where you'd come from, now all I have on my mind is where you've gone."
Sighing, Xehanort shook his head and dug his right fist into the shoulder of the friend at his side, "Of all people I'd like to lay off on me, can't you be one of them?"
Isa gave the younger man a curious look, wishing that Xehanort's response would have actually done more to answer the question than elude it, "I was actually being serious. I'm worried about you. All your friends are worried in some way or another. Whatever you're doing, it seems like it's sucking you away."
Looking into the crowds of people, Xehanort glanced over the expressions of the people surrounding them – each person wrapped up in their own little world of excitement from this day. Grabbing Isa at his upper arm, he pulled his friend through the crowds of wanderers, slipping into a pocket void of people near the castle's perimeter.
"Would it make you and everyone else feel better if I told you that I'm completely delighted by what I'm wrapped up in?" the scientist blurted, "it's so exciting and I don't want to stop."
Isa folded his arms in question, "You're enjoying yourself?"
Xehanort opened his mouth to speak, only to find himself hesitant to provide a response. The first time, his lips moved but no sound emerged, the second time his voice came tumbling out drenched in excitement.
"Yes, I am!"
"Seriously Xehanort," Isa shook his head, taking the back of his hand and lightly tapping it against the side of his friend's face, "isn't there anything you can just drop me a lead on?"
Raising his hands in defense, Xehanort continued to deny Isa the information he desired, "It's all Top Secret. I swear. But everything… everything we're doing is for the betterment of everyone here in Radiant Garden," the young scientist straightened his coat, "it's top secret to protect the people, and in the end everyone will be more safe than they were in the first place. That's the ultimate goal. Trust me on this!"
"You want me to blindly trust you?" The questioning look Isa carried only deepened the more Xehanort spoke, as did his tone, "What do we need protection from?"
"Nothing!" the younger man jumped on the defensive, "and I plan to keep it that way!"
Isa finally gave up his pursuit of information. He should have known better to begin with, Xehanort was too stubborn once he set his mind on something to negotiate around it, "Fine, since the world is safe tonight, how about joining the rest of us in the Safe World for some barbeque before hitting the tavern? The best cooking in town hits the streets tonight."
"I… I can't Isa, I'm sorry," Xehanort began to back himself out of obligating himself to anything. He gestured ahead to the deck of the Postern, beneath which the labs were buried, "I have something I need to monitor fairly shortly."
"Pardon me?" Isa did not mean to influx as much frustration in his voice as he did, "tonight's the night everyone is out in the town, even Master Ansem and his wife. There is an unofficial 'night off work' decree. Braig and his brother are throwing a huge swing down at the tavern and all of you mad scientists were invited – and said to be attending. Does he know you're ditching?"
An exasperated tone entered Xehanort's voice in response to Isa's outburst, "No, but I didn't want to bog them down with what I was doing. They wouldn't go if I didn't say Yes, so I said yes, but I didn't plan on actually going, okay? Don't lecture me about it like you're my mother."
"How about I sick Ansem's wife on you," Isa challenged.
"She's not my mother either," came the snippy reply.
Set back by the response, Isa's left hand twitched as he tried not to reach out and grab his friend by to throat so he could slap some sense into him, "You certainly use to show her a lot more respect than that. You use to show everyone else a lot more respect as well. It seems you and your work are far more important than anything out beneath the sun."
"It's too important right now and tonight is the perfect night for all this. You don't understand how everything is now, so back off," abruptly ending the conversation, Xehanort turned looking to make his way back into the crowd and wind his way towards the Postern.
"What the hell…" Isa slapped a hand over his own head, crunching up a handful of hair in the process, "do whatever the hell you want. Just say the word and I'll stop giving a damn too."
Isa's call wasn't picked up by Xehanort, his voice was lost in the myriad of other sounds falling together in the crowds of people. Xehanort shut his ears to the noise; his mind had more important things to focus on.
Yes, this day would be perfect, and the scientist made his way back to his domain.
Every man, woman and child… all of his co-workers, even his master… everyone was out wrapped up in the excitement of life. They'd be out in the day's sun and night's moon doing whatever their heart desired. A skeleton crew of attendants would be on hand in the castle, an easy bunch to skitter around – it would be like sneaking in and out at some ungodly hour long past midnight; which was very easy to do as long as one understood the system.
Tonight, Person X would ask Person Y, 'where is Xehanort?' and if he wasn't even out and about, no one would be any wiser. He could simply have disappeared into the madness of an exciting evening; where anyplace from the eastern wall to western wall was a place to be.
Yet again, locked away in the basement of the castle, in a room known only to him and five others, Xehanort made sure he was the only one present, waiting as the merciless clock sped along. His gaze held forwards to the heavy doors of a chamber that no longer felt like a Container of Sins. Playing with the devil's toys for so long would make anyone immune to the effects.
He was still wary of it though, thus why he still stood in the room unmoving.
"I'll do this…" and as long as he did it alone, no one would take his head off.
Stop thinking about it, stop delaying over it, stop hesitating with obstacles – just go. At any point has your intuition been wrong, Xehanort? No, it's been frighteningly correct. Your judgment has been next to absolute. Your hypotheses have come without flaws or contradictions. Why would this be any different?
Xehanort worked on coaxing himself forwards.
He had to know, it was such a tantalizing question. What would be the behaviour of these little Heartless creatures outside of their confine?
"Just take one," Xehanort spoke to himself, dismissing Ienzo's seal around the chamber that they all had been so careful not to ever release.
There were so many in there now; it was at a point where another chamber would be needed – and they were working on that. Opening the door was too dangerous and all access to the chamber was now top-down. No one dared to even release the seal, there were simply too many to deal with and they could easily slip out from beneath the door; however, that was exactly what Xehanort wanted one to do tonight.
The seal would only be down long enough to let one wiggle out from beneath the door frame, and then go immediately back up.
Each second that ticked away on the wristwatch he wore rang out, carrying on for what felt like eternity. Xehanort found that he had unknowingly slipped his hind-side onto the console ledge, his hands and fingers poised to reseal the chamber while his feet dangled over the linoleum floor. He wanted to laugh at himself – yes these creatures could bond with the floor, but this floor was white and they were black, it would not be as though one could sneak up on him. Touching a foot to the ground again, his gaze remained locked to the space where the huge slab door met the floor.
Why couldn't they sense that the barrier was down? Couldn't they sense his heart? Xehanort had essentially set himself up as luring bait.
The scientist's hand suddenly slammed down against the seal. His desired escapee had moved out from within the chamber much faster than he'd seen any of the shadows move before. Xehanort's eyebrow twitched at the first insight of knowledge – the chamber was too confining for them. In the open, the Heartless were much more agile.
He hadn't expected his rewards to come so quickly.
The black shadow on the floor moved fluidly, so much more so than the creatures seemed to move while in full form. Xehanort quickly surmised that the shadow form must be comfortable for them and he figured it was fitting, considering that they were shadows of other existences. Sharply, he staggered away from the control panel he'd occupied as the Heartless made its way closer to him. Stumbling around a console stand, the scientist watched with wide eyes as the creature slipped over the areas his feet had covered. As predicted, it was following him around.
Without warning, the shadows advance stopped. Xehanort gave the creature a wary eye as it suddenly rose from the ground to take shape. His heart leapt to his throat in anticipation for what it would do next. Standing in silence, the scientist watched like a fascinated child as the creature seemed to bobble around in one spot as though it were lost.
Do something, Xehanort wished of the creature, his mouth hanging open as he waited. His heart pounded relentlessly causing his cheeks to burn and fingertips to feel numb. No hand came up to wipe the thin stream of perspiration that had come down from his temple and trailed along his jaw line.
The Heartless kept Xehanort frozen in his place as the creature continued to rock around in one place, momentarily stopping to shine its glowing eyes back into the scientist's gaze.
The man's brow came together slowly as the creature's antennae appeared to come under control. Until then, every part of the creature's body had simply flopped around, but the antennae movements stiffened and began to shift in a distinct pattern.
Scrambling out from beyond the console, Xehanort watched as the creature's attention suddenly took a dramatic shift away from him. The Heartless sloppily made its way towards the room's door. Shaking away the confusion, the man was elated to witness it wanting to strike out into the castle's underground. That had been part of the plan all along. What Xehanort couldn't explain was what was drawing its attention. The experiment was to have been controlled exclusively by him – since he was supposed to have been the only heart for the creature to seek. With that thought in mind he wondered, what on earth could it be that had the creature's attention?
The momentary thought crossed his mind that one of his associates was arriving, but that shouldn't have such a strong draw on the creature's attention, since there was a target that was far more accessible: himself.
Undisturbed, the creature exited the room. Quickly dashing to ensuring that the seal was indeed up for the remaining contents in the container, Xehanort followed after it. Fascinated, he continued to watch as the creature paid no mind to his existence and embarked on its own journey through the castle's deep basement.
Initially, Xehanorts trail behind the Heartless was handled as though he were a stalker not wanting to be caught, but the longer the creature wobbled along, the more Xehanort realized that his presence was the furthest thing from its mind. The Heartless travelled down an endless ramp that Ienzo and Eleus had begun to install, its antennae vibrations creating a hum in the air. Cautiously, Xehanort followed; he had not travelled down into the expansion that they had been installing. The layout of the underground was still crude and far from finished. It felt more like travelling through a mine shaft than anything else. There'd soon be finished walls to take care of this, however.
Barely able to see where the black creature was heading in the darkness, Xehanort searched his pockets for a match, but came up with nothing. Nearly losing sight of the Heartless he followed, the man scrambled as the creature tucked itself into a dark turn-out within the construction.
As he made the rounds to follow his specimen, Xehanort stuttered in his steps, coming to a startling realization: a light source had appeared.
"… Hello?" he'd hesitated calling out, but in the end received the expected response – silence.
The light source did not come from a follower of any sort, since it illuminated from up ahead. Glancing around, Xehanort wasn't about to let any sort of mystery stop this journey.
Tightening his expression, Xehanort slipped beyond the tightened areas of construction equipment and found himself in an opening. His arms slowly came to hang limp at his sides as he stared forwards in wonder. A door, emanating a faint light, stood embedded in the rock wall at the end of the cavern. At the foot of this door sat his little Heartless, like a young puppy impatiently wanting to be let outside. He watched as the creature vibrated, desperately twitching at the door's step.
Why was there a door here? Why had no one in the construction efforts mentioned it? Where was its faint light source coming from? Xehanort glanced around the area, wondering if anything might disclose answers. Why was the Heartless drawn to it? What was the meaning of the exaggerated keyhole?
Stepping forwards, no longer concerned with the Heartless' presence, Xehanort leaned in to examine the doorway. Feeling somewhat childish, he attempted to see what was beyond the door by peering through the keyhole – but nothing could be seen. Once again, he glanced down again to the twitching Heartless. The creature seemed to desire what was beyond the door, paying absolutely not attention to him. Cautiously, Xehanort took hold of the door's handle.
The knob turned with ease.
His gaze snapped continuously between the door and little creature, his mind running wild with so many thoughts, in the end he could focus on nothing. The scientist discarded any hesitations and allowed curiousity to carry his actions. With little effort, he pulled open the door.
Before anything could be realized, the little heartless escaped into the world beyond.
It was strange, Xehanort thought while trapped in a frozen moment in time, how the little creature moved forwards so easily while he could only stand there, blown back by a sudden escape of energy. It didn't throw him off his feet or knock him away; for as long as the release of energy pressure lasted, all it did was hold him away.
What an overwhelming, indescribable sensation this was…
As his hair settled around his shoulders and lab coat came to rest around his sides once more, the man's hand slipped away from the knob and came to hang dead at his side.
Beyond the door boiled a massive core of energy that radiated stronger than the sun on the worst of days. The fact it was frightening meant nothing; what meant everything was the mystifying aura it strangled Xehanort with. Taking a staggering step closer to the opening, Xehanort's posture began to degrade as he stumbled ahead and slouched forwards, pushing his wide eyes face first towards the drawing energy.
"Awesome," he murmured.
What was it? Where did it come from? What created it? What caused it to give off such an overpowering radiation?
Something kept Xehanort from falling forwards into the bubbling energy abyss beyond the doorframe. His knees quickly buckled and he found himself on the ground looking lost into the power – his mind suddenly entangled in what felt like a drunken stupor. None of his thoughts seemed to run straight and he couldn't begin to understand how he could clearly see what some of the fragmented ideas meant. For some reason, he felt like laughing.
"Xehanort"
A foreign voice?
He shook it from his mind, whatever it was. The energy filled him to the brim and there was no room for anything else. What lay beyond the door had an untouchable aura that he could find no powerful adjective to correctly describe.
"Come on."
Noisy foreign voice again.
This time, the noise came with a physical force, and it pulled him away from the source of this energy, dumping him flat on his back against the cold rock floor. His eyes rolled to the side, catching the last glimpse of the core before the door was shut.
"Xehanort!" it was the first time he'd registered the influx of emotion in the voice, the other times it had come, all he'd heard was words, "come on, snap out of it!"
A hand grabbed the scientist by the collar of his shirt, hauling him up from the ground.
"Isa?" one of his bundles of thoughts recognized the voice.
Something wasn't right. Something was seriously wrong. Xehanort found himself struggling to identify what it was. He needed to gather himself, and quickly. The power of the energy had completely scrambled and reorganized all of his thoughts. Fighting desperately to snap out of the high, a panic set into his tone.
"ISA!?" this wasn't right at all, "what… how did you?"
Xehanort desperately felt like he should find some way to lash out in some more violent and vulgar manner towards the intruder, but something in his mindset had been set so ajar he couldn't compose himself well enough to do so.
"What the hell was all this?" the friend demanded, much more able to compose himself and ward away the fears that had gripped him until then.
"Why are you here!?" Xehanort hollered, pushing the man's assistance away, "you can't be here."
"It's a little late for that," Isa narrowed an eye, grabbing his unsteady friend by the upper arm.
Xehanort stood a moment against the assisting clutch that had him. The less he moved, the quicker his head seemed to clear. He hadn't realized it until then how out of breath he was. What was it again in that energy core that caused his system to be thrown so off balance? He thought he'd seen that thought strand at some point. Turning sharply out of Isa's grasp, nearly throwing himself off balance again, Xehanort lurched away, "The door!?"
His movements did not get him far. Freezing, both men stood in sudden silence, looking at the blackened rock where the door no longer stood.
"What the hell, it's gone!" Isa blurted.
Swinging around like an elder, drunken soldier, Xehanort's fists grabbed handfuls of his companion's shirt, drawing the man in to face him nose to nose, "Do you realize what you've done? Why are you here? How did you get down here?"
Isa's response was hollow, "A big glowing door with a massive power core and a little black creature all just vanished and you're more worried about me?"
"Answer me…" Xehanort's voice shook.
Isa pushed his friend back, giving a little distance between himself and the snarling man, "I came after you to apologize for my earlier remarks. Seeing as I'm the elder of the two of us, I figured I'd show you up and be the more mature one." He watched curiously as his words didn't seem to give Xehanort any reason to back down, "I've been in the studies before so it's not like I don't know my way around, but I was a little surprised to actually witness you go down the stairs, then not be able to find you once I'd arrived. So, I went looking for something 'more'."
Shaking his head over what felt like unbelievable actions, Xehanort threw his voice out in frustration, "The labs are marked as off limits. Classified. Top Secret. No foreign entrants because all the experiments are so sensitive!"
Narrowing his eyes, Isa watched his friend attempt to grapple with the situation in the most uncollected manner he had ever seen him, "It was quite the trick to get in, honestly. I can't imagine Master Ansem has anything to do with this, it doesn't fit him."
The comment finally stopped Xehanort and his movements. Slowly the younger man straightened himself, his gaze not carrying over to Isa.
"I figured as much," Isa sighed, glancing back towards the wall where the door had once been. He considered the idea for a moment: was his curiousity even worth it? Did he really want to find out what he had just witnessed? Xehanort may have been right to an extent; did he realize what he'd gotten himself into? Silently, he calculated his next course of action before going forwards once again, "what the hell were you doing?"
"Long story," Xehanort grumbled shoving his hands into his lab coat pockets like a spoilt child. He was at a loss to describe feelings that had engulfed him – he was beyond words for how infuriated he was at his friend, "how long have you been down here?"
"Since you and that little black thing scooted out from one of the rooms. I was up around the corner at the top end of the hall," Isa said, relaying an honest answer.
Sighing, Xehanort's hands charged through the hair on his head, finally gripping tight against his scalp. He wished he could find the strength in either one of his arms to turn around and rush his fist into Isa's jaw.
"Xehanort…"
Through narrowed eyes, he finally turned his attention to his friend.
"… You nearly fell through that door," his words came out flat and abrupt, "if I hadn't grabbed you, you would have gone in."
Still filtering out the sensation, and trying to come to grips with how out of sorts his head felt, Xehanort glanced back to the empty wall space, "It was fascinating, wasn't it?"
"What was it?" Reaching out, Isa again took Xehanort at the shoulder, giving his friend a shake, "You opened that door and it scared the living shit out of me. All you did was stand there. I thought it had petrified you."
Raising his brow, Xehanort's mind repainted the image of the sealed door on the wall's empty canvas, "It didn't frighten me."
"And then you stumbled towards it…" Isa's attempt to coax the 'whys' out of Xehanort was proving futile.
Tightening his expression, Xehanort stepped away from Isa, moving towards the empty space in the wall. He wasn't listening. His hand came to rest on the cold, damp, dark grey clay. Sliding his hand over the wall where the door once was, he slowly crouched down, trailing his fingertips into the dust along the ground. Taking a handful of sediment into his hands, he rose to his feet, letting the shards and dust trickle through his finger tips.
It didn't frighten me at all…
Tipping his hand to dump the rest of the dirt back to the ground, Xehanort turned back to Isa, brushing his hand off on his lab coat. "It felt very familiar," his gaze looked back into the concerned expression Isa responded with, "and I don't know why."
Silence eclipsed the cavern the two men occupied. Xehanort stood in the opened door's wake, his body draining away the sensation that he would have given anything to understand. He could tell by Isa's clear and concise reactions that whatever he had felt, it was not the same thing his friend had – even though they had both witnessed the same event. Was there a reason for the differences? It was sort of unsettling, though mostly exciting, to think about how he was not turned off by this occurrence beyond a secret door. Even more curious than that, why were the after effects so severe on his mindset, whereas Isa showed no instability from it at all.
"You said you wanted me to trust you."
Xehanort refocused his attention to Isa.
"So, if you want me to trust you and your insane actions, don't forget that trust goes both ways," the man finally challenged Xehanort's motives, using the silence as a time to carefully compose his words, "if you want me to trust you, you need to show me that you trust me with what you're doing."
The scientist lifted his gaze up, wondering if he could still draw a line.
"Tell me something, anything."
Casting his gaze off in thought, Xehanort ground his teeth as he contemplated the situation. For some reason, sharing his work with Isa did not carry the mass amount of sheer terror that disclosing his work to Master Ansem carried. But, if he were to disclose anything, would there be any place left to draw the line…
Perhaps not.
At the time Isa had entered the facilities, the sun still shone brightly over the cityscape. Children were still out with their parents, and the world was still in full swing. The contrast was like light and dark between the world above and the world below. By the time the two men finally emerged from the underground, although night had set it, the people and town's radiance was still a startling contrast to the world Xehanort had nurtured below.
"It feels… powerful. Everyone's radiance, that is," beneath the night's sky, Isa stood atop Master Ansem's castle staircase next to Xehanort, both sets of eyes looked into the lantern-lit streets bustling with life and excitement, "how can our hearts really be that weak?"
"Frightening isn't it? Not one of us has a heart free from darkness," Xehanort's voice came out smooth, sweeping over the landscape of the world, only heard by Isa, "you can understand, can't you, just how dangerous the darkness is? And, if darkness ever chose to assert itself, we're no stronger than brittle autumn leaves."
Grinning slightly, and huffing away a faint chuckle, he couldn't argue what his friend said, "You're right, that is frightening."
"So," the excitement of life burst back into his voice as Xehanort's hands came down on his hips, "I'm going to protect everyone here from it, even if Master Ansem approves of it or not."
Barely able to process the volume of information Xehanort had sent his way in mere hours, the one thing Isa couldn't argue with, was that there was a good reason to keep his friend's information out of the public's mind, "Living in ignorance may be the safest way to live for now. I can't imagine some people living in fear of that sort of enemy. It would be overwhelming."
A sly, thirsty grin made its way into Xehanort's expression, "I think it's time you said it!"
His expression falling, Isa looked back at his companion, not certain what he meant, "Say what?"
"You know," the man's expression grew devilish.
"Oh for goodness sake," Isa exhaled, laughing at the demand Xehanort had given him, "very well: I was wrong and you were ri—"
"Tha—" although he'd moved to fold his arms in triumph, hearing Isa's voice trail off ended up leaving the younger man standing somewhat awkward. He glanced to his friend, wondering why he had drifted off, but the man's attention was drawn to the heavens. Xehanort quickly curved his gaze upwards, following the direction Isa had taken his focus.
Not only did the sky now carry both men's attention, but soon it enveloped the township as well. The sky had lit up with not only one, not only a handful, but what looked like hundreds of shooting stars. The city's chatter exploded and the noise bounced around in the air for a few moments before everything came to hush. Not all the stars appeared to burn up in the atmosphere and the fragments crashed down to the earth beyond the city limits. But, those occurrences seemed to concern no one, everyone's attention held focused on the stunning display of lights in the night's sky – it was a spectacular event.
"Isa…" Xehanort tightened his expression, carefully observing the spectacle above. There was that feeling again, that something wasn't quite right. This time, the sensation wasn't generated by how out of sorts he felt, but by how familiar the event in the sky felt. It carried the same feeling of familiarity that he'd felt standing in front of the door. He could somewhat identify the sensation, and it was far too surreal; like witnessing a waking dream, but having no idea what the dream had really been about, "… for now, don't bring up the door to anyone."
"You're expecting someone to actually believe me if I told them?" Isa's shoulders fell, looking up to Xehanort as though he'd lost his mind.
Finally straightening his posture, holding his gaze to the sky, he responded, "Five… no, six 'someones' might believe you."
"Oh," Isa turned his attention back to the sky, now realizing what he'd meant by the statement, "I think there'd be too much trouble for both you and I if it were brought up. Consider your escapade today something that I'll hold in confidence."
The devilish grin that Xehanort had taken on reentered his expression while he continued to watch the sky come crashing down around them, "Thank you."
To Be Continued…
Author's Note:
No notes, really, just that I wish insights would stop popping up that changed how I view the progression of the story. It makes this more challenging LOL (but I like a challenge!).