Of Love and Death.

The Future Chapter 17a: Third Battle! Belfyre VS. Minerva! Pt. 1

We have some warnings today! References to being evil. Possession, fear, manipulation, coercion, threatening, a little bit of self hatred?, attempted murder, poor (non-romantinic) relations. Aggression. Fear of death. Despair and depression. That whole thing with Bel having to deal with a broken Belfyre. Also Mr. Midnight shows up to, you know,  hopefully not rip apart Spacetime.

Payne fiddled with the threads of the armchair. It was one of those ones that was covered by some kind of pattern. In this case, blue with black swirls. Complementing equally dark wood. As a matter of fact, Ashtem's whole office seemed in direct contrast to his personality. Where he was a cheery person, always reaching out, the room was dark and dim. It was underground, so obviously there were no windows. But still, there were only a few lamps that gave the room some light. And it felt very closed in and clustered up. Bookshelves, papers, furniture. All sort of gave an illusion of being swaddled up in darkness.

Normally, Payne wasn't claustrophobic. But he felt almost trapped right now. Probably because he was being interrogated by the leader of the Snake Pit. The well-meaning leader of the Snake Pit. He glanced up a bit at Ashtem, who was currently dealing with Mr. Midnight. The rabbit had broken out of his cage and demanded food the moment the pair walked in. Seeing as neither Payne nor the former number one blader wanted to be cast off into some unknowable dimension, Mr. Midnight was getting his lettuce.

Alright, the rabbit was kinda cute. Especially when he was eating like a normal bunny. "I'm bringing you down to Shu after this, got it?" Ashtem muttered to Mr. Midnight. Then he spun on his heel and turned to Payne. Oh, interesting. This was going to be fun.

As Ashtem took the seat at his desk, he flicked a switch behind him and the lights came up. He knew I was freaking out, Payne remarked to himself. Almost against his will, he clenched his hands into fists, hidden at his sides. Glancing down, he forced his palms to open up again, forced himself to appear calm.

Looking up one more time, Payne realized that Ashtem had taken off his mask. And now the leader of the Snake Pit was just Valt. With centuries of wisdom in his dark eyes. A little bit of a reassuring smile on his face. How kind. It's okay, Payne reminded himself. It's okay. It was going to go fine. He had a plan.

What was a good starting point? What was something Payne could say to start the conversation? And drive it his way? Because if not, Mr. Aoi-Kurenai was just going to start asking questions the blader didn't know how to dodge. Um, uh, "Why did you turn on the light?" Payne asked, trying to keep his voice level. There. A harmless normal question that he could use to stall. Figure out something.

The ruse Payne had set up didn't work however. It was clear on Valt's face. The way he kept his gaze the same, but gave a smile. Like "yeah, I know. I'll play along." But then Valt just shrugged. "I'm kinda like Bel," he shrugged. "Weird magic powers just run in the family, I guess!"

Payne gave a polite smile. He was currently being interrogated by a mind-reader. "I'm not interrogating you," Valt said very calmly. Really? Really. Because Payne kind of felt like this was an interrogation. A shadow slightly crossed Valt's eyes, almost akin to hurt, but then it passed. "I've noticed that you seem kind of jumpy and nervous. Is there something that you'd want to talk about?"

Yes. Yes there was. Payne didn't see much point trying to hide that fact. There was definitely something wrong. Didn't mean he was going to tell the leader of the Snake Pit what it was. But, before Valt could open up his mouth and object to that, Payne shut him out. "Listen. You want to help me. And I appreciate that. But anything you do is going to make things worse, so stay out of it."

With that, Payne stood up, grabbed his bag, and stormed out the door. Not even giving the shadowy blader a chance to respond. Or a chance to reach out again. A chance to break through Payne's shell. A shell that was very slowly cracking.