|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2015 7:31 pm
He knew it wasn’t like him to want to go to his Wonder. To need to go to his Wonder, especially so out of the blue like this. But something was calling to Valhalla that night. Be it the full moon, drawing his eyes to the sky, or something else, he didn’t know. But that night he could not ignore the call of Jupiter. The call of Valhalla and his very soul.
They would be late to meet with his parents that evening. They were already kind enough to watch the twins while he and Paris were able to have a quiet dinner before meeting up again. The plan was to stay at his parents house, but Chris ended up pulling the car over to the empty lot just at the edge of a park. He told Paris she didn’t have to come with him, but, concerned as she must have been for the sudden desire he had to go, she ended up going with him.
It was stormy as ever on Jupiter, but that was to be expected. They’d appeared in an increasingly familiar area of the fortress. He hadn’t been able to figure out how to get the fountain to work again, but perhaps there was still more to this place than he knew.
A pulsating orb of energy, about the size of a baseball, loomed before a grove of trees. It danced between the trees in a random circle before stopping between the two. Its glow dimmed and pulsed brightly at slow, rare intervals. It seemed to have a presence—like it was more than just a light. While it did not share the same mist-like appearance as the Code Piece on Olympus, there was no denying that this orb of light was one in the same. Although smaller, it still seemed powerful.
The Code Piece glimmered faintly and seemed strangely pensive, like it was sizing up the two before it.
Was this what was calling to him? This piece of Code that had been kept safe in the sanctuary of his Wonder?
“Can Senshi hear you? Or do you only speak to Knights?” he asked softly, a hand pressed to his chest as if to ease the strange feeling that overwhelmed him and his already damaged starseed. At first he didn’t expect it to respond, but when he opened his mouth to say something else, it did.
"Senshi can hear me. I have a voice. But they are not invited to speak with me. Senshi have their own set of problems. Ones they made for themselves."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 3:38 pm
To say that Ganymede was concerned would be a bit of an understatement. It wasn't like Valhalla to have much of an interest in his wonder. Often Ganymede had to encourage him to go; she suspected that, without her influence, he would have visited far less than he did already. It was unlike him to be so insistent about making the impromptu trip.
In some ways it reminded her of the ache she felt when she spent too long away from Ganymede, that overwhelming need to see her homeworld and surround herself with things long dead. She wondered if Valhalla was beginning to feel like that, and she considered what that might mean.
Or perhaps—worse a thought than that—it had something to do with his broken starseed. That they had not yet found a way to fix it weighed heavily on her. She feared they never would.
The orb of light which danced through the trees of the atrium was new to her. She'd not seen it before. Had it been beyond her notice? Whatever the case, it gave her a strange feeling. Always she'd felt a sense of warmth and comfort from the fortress of Valhalla, but this did not make her feel welcome. Ganymede no longer felt as if she belonged.
“Not very welcoming, is it?” she said. Her silvery wings rustled behind her in an irritated fashion. She didn't like this light's tone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 2:49 pm
No, it wasn’t very welcoming, and he could understand the offense taken by Ganymede. Senshi might have their own set of problems, but they were all in this war together, weren’t they? Not all the problems that arose were from the fault of senshi, and it wasn’t fair to tie everyone in together.
Valhalla held his tongue for now, but only because there were other things that concerned him, and he hoped to get an answer. Insulting the Code by telling it off probably would not be the best option.
“Is there a reason things have felt strange recently? Is it because of what happened to me?” he asked, cautious and wary, knowing he might not like the answer he could get. Still, the fact that the Code seemed so against Senshi was… troubling to say the least. The Code "Of course there's a reason. Everything has a reason. What happened to you was unfortunate…and avoidable. I'm surprised you can feel anything at all. You should be dead."
But the Code’s response was just as troubling as the previous:The Code "Depends how it's broken. Where Order fails, perhaps Chaos will not."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:57 pm
Ganymede, to her knowledge, had never previously encountered the Code, but she'd heard of it from Valhalla. She knew of it and of Olympus, and she had conflicting feelings about both. She hadn't been sure she trusted it before; her opinion of it now was no higher. That it seemed to have such a low opinion of Senshi rankled her. This was supposed to be the Knights' guiding force?
She stood to the side and a little behind Valhalla, watching the ball of light with a narrow-eyed gaze. So far, she liked it no better than the Moon Queen.
Then again, at least the Moon Queen wasn't around to insult their allies.
Ganymede let Valhalla ask his questions, not entirely sure she understood how he was feeling. What felt strange? Nothing seemed particularly odd to her, except perhaps Valhalla's behavior. Unfortunately, the Code didn't seem as if it was inclined to provide a straight answer.
“What is wrong with this thing?” she wondered. The look she gave it darkened when it seemed to imply that Valhalla should turn to Chaos for assistance with his damaged starseed. Then, as if it came to her as an afterthought, she said, “Since I'm not invited to speak to it, ask it how we can destroy the Negaverse. If we can't do that, ask it how we win the war. If this thing knows so much, it should be able to tell us that, shouldn't it?”
Not that she believed it would.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:08 pm
If Ganymede thought that Valhalla was in something of a daze, she would be right. He didn’t feel like himself. His chest throbbed with the constant pain of the cracked starseed. He was doing things he normally wouldn’t, like going to his Wonder instead of meeting up with his parents for Christmas eve with the rest of the family. Instead, he was being drawn to this ethereal orb that insulted his wife and surely his other senshi friends.
While he didn’t think of Ganymede as the violent sort, her views of the Negaverse were obviously a bit different than his. He rephrased her questions to “How do we achieve peace?” instead.The Code The Code flared with the senshi's question, clearly disturbed. " Leave it to a senshi to ask such a bigoted question. Leave it to a senshi to abuse any power they are given. And she asks how to destroy the Negaverse—do you see how you have to pander around her desires? You ask for peace, but she asks for war. Therein lies the problem with Order and Chaos, Valhalla. You walk the line between them. But the White Moon seeks blood. What sort of hero does that make?"
“Who… or what is Metallia?” he asked, his voice softer, more wary than previous questions. The Code Silent for a moment, the Code collected itself and seemed to take on a gentle glow once more. "Why do you ask? Do you seek to understand an enemy, or to truly know her? Perhaps you should ask her yourself. She'd like you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:28 pm
It was a good thing Valhalla lifted his arm between Ganymede and the orb of light, because she was two seconds away from launching herself at it and... well, she didn't know what she expected to do with it, given that it was just a floating ball of light, but she would have made sure it knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she didn't appreciate the way it spoke to her.
Not that Valhalla's arm was really much of a deterrent. She could have ducked beneath it or moved around it in an attempt to confront the Code, but the strange way Valhalla was acting gave her pause. This wasn't like him at all.
“I ask for war, do I?” she muttered to herself, shooting the Code with a glare she usually reserved for Negaverse agents. “I hate to break it to you, Code, but there's already a war going on. I didn't ask for anything.”
As for whether or not she was out for blood... she wasn't entirely sure of the answer to that. She hadn't been the type for it before, but after New Year's...
No one could go through what she'd gone through and not want to retaliate.
Except for maybe Valhalla.
She bristled again at the Code's response about Metallia. “She'd like you? What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:54 pm
Want to understand her, or truly know her…? Perhaps it was his own naivety, but part of him didn’t think that was such a bad idea. There had been officers of the Negaverse he’d met before and they weren’t all bad. Wolframite had recently been purified into a knight of Ganymede, after all. And there were others who had the potential for good, as well. Not all Negaverse officers were like Schorl, and even then he wasn’t convinced that she was impossible to get through to, either.
Valhalla heard the question Ganymede grumbled behind him, but choose not to respond to it for the moment. He knew what it meant. He was sure she knew what it meant as well. His starseed was already damaged. It probably wouldn’t take too much effort to completely corrupt him, or destroy it in the process.
“Why can't I remember everything about the past?” he asked. With so many of his memories gone, whether he was asking about his life as Chris or his life as Serge, he wasn’t entirely sure.The Code "You don't deserve to know everything. You can't be trusted with it."
“Where is Valkyrie?” he asked softly, almost as a plea for her to be okay, for her to return to him. But the Code just responded with: The Code "…Did you really lose her? No wonder we're losing this war." His arm lowered from in front of Ganymede, realizing then that the entirety of their visit, he’d been staring at the orb, wondering one thing. He didn’t know if he could manage to get the words out. His throat seemed to tighten, and his voice shook. “Am I going to die?” The Code "Yes. Death claims all things. You are no exception."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 8:09 pm
This wasn't how Ganymede had expected this conversation would go. She wasn't sure exactly what she'd expected, given how little experience she had with the Code, but she certainly hadn't thought it would be so... malicious.
And that's what it sounded like. “You should be dead” and “She'd like you” and “You can't be trusted” and “No wonder we're losing this war.” It was all ridicule, as if Valhalla had done something wrong. It mocked him—it mocked them both—as if Valhalla were some insignificant spec in the universe. This was nothing like what she'd heard of the Code before. From what Valhalla had told her, she'd thought it would be something peaceful, some guiding light in the darkness.
This wasn't that at all.
“To hell with this,” she said.
Ganymede grabbed onto Valhalla's arm, tugging at it as if she meant to pull him back. She watched as the ball of light drifted away from them. Good riddance. They didn't need some disembodied voice giving theme direction.
“Don't listen to that thing,” she told Valhalla. “You don't need it. It's no better than the stupid Moon Queen. That thing acts so high and mighty, but it's not the one fighting this war. We are.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 8:18 pm
Valhalla finally turned to Ganymede when she pulled on his arm, but he couldn’t seem to focus on her, instead staring at some unknown point behind her, as if looking through her. While he’d never spoken with the Code before, he’d always known it was there. Or maybe it was only a recent feeling that seemed obvious. What it said to him was hardly comforting, but then again, he wasn’t sure what he’d expected.
Maybe something to help him? Something that would point him in the right direction? Now he had too many questions that he didn’t want to ask in front of Ganymede. But without Ganymede, he wasn’t sure if he could pull himself away from the lure of asking more about the Negaverse.
Not necessarily to corrupt, but if they did have more answers than he could find from those he knew on the side of Order, then why not seek out more help…? What if Metallia knew how to fix his starseed…?
“Right,” he said dully, but could barely hear the word coming from his mouth, even though he knew he said it out loud. “Let’s just go,” he prompted instead, although if he were honest, it was to keep him from starting to wonder just what else he could find out from the Code and the Negaverse.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:01 am
Ganymede didn't like the way Valhalla spoke to her, as if his thoughts were somewhere far away. Nor did she like the way he seemed to look trough her, as if she wasn't even there. The Code's answers had rattled him, she knew that much. As for what he was thinking now, she couldn't hope to discern. His face looked blank, and from his demeanor she got the feeling he wouldn't answer even if she happened to ask.
She took the bare parts of his arms into both of her hands and tried to catch his eye, but Valhalla continued to look at something beyond her. Ganymede turned to glance over her shoulder just in case. She didn't know what she expected to see—perhaps the Code had moved and returned, or perhaps Valhalla was seeing a memory? But nothing of the sort greeted her, just a lot of empty space in the old, mostly dead Atrium.
“Alright,” she said, and she rubbed at his arms in a manner she hoped was comforting. “Alright, we can go.”
Ganymede wasn't sure what they'd even accomplished by being there. They hadn't gotten a single straight answer out of the Code, just a bunch of cryptic nonsense that led to more questions than answers. But that was always the way of it, wasn't it? When they went looking for answers, they found so few. They always ended up wanting to know more than they did.
Gently she took one of Valhalla's hands and tugged until he began to follow her. Ganymede turned to make her way toward the exit of the Atrium. They could have left from there and returned home, but after the Code's responses it felt sinister. She wanted to get as far away from it as possible.
Still, before they left the room she glanced over her shoulder again to seek it out. It remained there, silent, among the trees. Just an innocuous ball of light. But she felt as if it were watching them still.
It's gaze was not kind.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
