(Although it was never specified in FF: Incarcerated, this RP takes place in NYC. For me, at least. I'll probably leave anyway.)

Callum turned off the TV and looked at his clock. It was 2:00 A.M. He couldn't sleep ever since he learned a powerful game villain was inside him. Vanitas. Ever since Vanitas possessed him (If he did, maybe he was in there since birth, so gained influence) Callum had been a jerk. He didn't have any friends now. I hate you, Vanitas! He heard a scoff. Really? Do you? Callum summoned his keyblade. "I won't let this take me over. Vanitas, you won't win." His void gear looked ominous. Too ominous.

Well, that's partially mine and DiZ's faults. Riku said. "That's true." James said. "After Riku defeated Roxas, DiZ put him in the Virtual Twilight Town and erased his memories, giving him a false past in the Virtual World to hide him while Namine restored Sora's memories. Right Riku?" Right. Riku replied.

(Hey, silver3drago, you should get your character to meet up with some of ours soon! Haha I think Cyrus is the only one who’s alone right now.)

 

Keilani looked at Troy and saw that he was smiling at her. She smiled at him as well, but then looked away sheepishly. Why am I losing my confidence around this guy? she wondered. Naminé laughed a little.

Hey, Naminé, wasn’t the whole point of this originally for you to get to know Ven? So talk to him!

“W-what? But I can’t! Not here. There are too many people around...”

Oh, quit stalling! It’s not like any of these people think a couple of teenagers are interesting enough to listen to our conversations. It’ll be fine. Besides, you should get to know him sooner rather than later if you’re going to help him out, right?

Naminé sighed. “Okay...” She took over Keilani’s body, and the first thing she did was let go of Troy’s hand. “Um, hey,” she said to him. “You mind if I...um, talk to Ventus?” She randomly got an ominous feeling, but she didn’t know whether it was related to Ventus, or something else.

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

Rebekah flinched inwardly. Not that she fully understood this whole apparent love triangle thing, but what Felix said to James had to hurt Joy’s feelings a little, since he was sitting right there.

'Names Alex, nice to meet ya Felix.'

'Nice to met him too, but last time i remember seeing you Axel was when you saved Sora from those Dusks and killed yourself. You and me were on that clock tower till i had to leave. I can understand why you would do those things Riku, to save yur friend, i cant really blame you for that.'

'Well its always nice to forgive and forget, because now we are allies. The question is what do we do now?'

Troy looked at Keilani with a dumbstruck expression on his face for a bit, but suddenly understood what she was asking and let Ventus take over, something he'd gotten used to doing to make Ventus more comfortable at times. "Hey there Namine! It's really nice to meet you," Ven said with a smile that could light up a room. "So you're stuck in this whole situation too? I really don't know what's going on, to tell the truth. The last thing I really remember is defeating Vanitas, and now I'm here. The worst thing is that I can't shake the feeling that Vanitas is here somewhere as well."

“Let’s get your cousin into a bed,” Aqua said. “I don’t like seeing her just laying on the ground like that.”

 

Oh...yeah. Rebekah gathered Mariah in her arms and picked her up easily with Aqua’s help, then addressed everyone else. “Well, first thing I think we should do is go into Mariah’s apartment so we can discuss things in a more private place. Kind of weird, a group of us talking about stuff like Inhabiters out in the open, don’t you think? Besides, I don’t think Mariah will mind our intrusion. Felix, you had some questions for her, right? And James, like we’ve pointed out before, she’ll need to see you. Once she comes to, we can get everything straightened out.” She looked at Joy again and felt bad for him, since everyone was all but ignoring him. “...And I’m guessing you wanted to talk to James,” she said, a little uncomfortable with what that might lead to. “Can you walk on your own, or do you need someone to help you?” She wasn’t sure how well James’s cure spell had worked on his knee.

 

---------------------------------------------------

Naminé blushed a little at Ven’s radiant smile. Of course, technically it was Troy’s smile, but it still reminded her so much of Sora... She smiled back at him. “It’s nice to meet you, too, Ventus,” she said. “Yeah, I’m not exactly sure why I’m here, but I’m starting to think it’s to help you out...and I’m glad for that.” She blinked. Ugh, why did I just say that?

“You’re doing great!” Keilani encouraged her.

Naminé cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’ll try to figure this out for you. I...have connections with someone I think you may have met, and through him, I might be able to figure out why you’re here, and what Troy and Keilani are talking about. So who’s this Vanitas? It’s funny, but his name reminds me a little of yours.”

Troy's face, once bright and cheerful, suddenly darkened. Ven answered, his words coming out in a pained voice. "Vanitas is my dark half. When I was younger, Master Xehanort, my teacher at the time, tried to make me use the darkness within my heart to fight. Failing to do that, he ripped the darkness out of my heart, leaving me a broken mess. That is, until I was able to link my heart to a new born heart like my own. A simple, friendly heart, willing to do whatever it could to help me out." At that point in his memories, he brightened up. "After that, Xehanort took me to train under Master Eraqus along with Terra and Aqua, my two best friends. When Terra left after not being promoted to keyblade master, however, I chased after him. A lot happened after that, but it ended with me having to face Vanitas, my dark half, just because Xehanort wanted our clash of equal light and dark forces to create the X-blade. We ended up joining, where I had an inner struggle, but I managed to defeat him. After that, I'm not really sure what happened. If he's here, though, then he's my responsibility."

"Alright." James said. He held his hand out for Joy to help him up.

"Well, I'm thinking we should sit her up in her room, that way it can be a nice, and familiar space. She'll feel comfortable, at peace, and then we can slowly get her used to the fact that James isn't dead," he said calmly.

 

"Wow, that was actually pretty smart!" Axel said.

 

"Thanks! I read a lot of books on stuff like that....I used to want to be a head shrink, but then I realized that I'd be stuck in an office. So instead I became a..." he started, but was cut off by Axel shouting, "Hey Roxas! Wanna get some icecream after this??"

Edited April 10, 201213 yr by Damion Strife

(Rebekah is carrying her right now)

(Edited)

"Yeah, just like old times huh?" Roxas shouted. Alex covered his mouth. "If this I how you are going to be then this will get annoying." Alex looked over at James. "So... You are supposed to be dead, but you came to life. That really is enough to freak someone out. But good to see you alive and ready for anything."

"Thanks." James said. "I'm just glad to be rid of Sephiroth."

"Yeah!! It'll be great!!" Axel yelled.

 

"Actually...from everything in Marcus's journal about James I'd expect nothing less. The guy seemed invincible! It was like watching FFVII Advent Children all over again!" Felix exclaimed, "I'm also glad you got rid of Sephiroth...it wouldn't have been fun to fight him..."

"I was only that good because of Sephiroth. He gave me all his abilites, but also warped my personality. Although, it seems some of his abilites have been left behind in me, which may prove useful later on."

"I wonder what Mariah will say when she wakes up...probably something like, 'I must be dreaming. That's it, I must be! That's the only logical thing!' Then she'll start throwing water at her face and telling the truth, and we'll never let her live it down. It'll be great!" Felix said with a smirk.

Naminé listened intently to Ven’s story, especially the part about the darkness being ripped from his heart. As scary as that sounded, she also found it interesting. The way she saw it, it meant that, in a way, he was only half a person like she was. Probably not a Nobody--it didn’t sound like Vanitas was a Heartless--but still, he was incomplete. Then he mentioned the newborn heart that helped him. Could that be...Sora? No wonder Ventus is so much like him! Or...he is so much like Ventus... She looked at him sympathetically. “I’m sorry about what Xehanort did to you. I...I know how it feels to be used like that. Anyway, let’s just hope that Vanitas isn’t here.” Hearing about Vanitas made her concerned for Ven--what exactly was the χ-blade, and how was that supposed to affect Ven if they fought? Keilani, you’ll need to explain all this to me as soon as you can, she thought.

 

“Sure thing.”

 

-------------------------------------------------------

 

"I wonder what Mariah will say when she wakes up...probably something like, 'I must be dreaming. That's it, I must be! That's the only logical thing!' Then she'll start throwing water at her face and telling the truth, and we'll never let her live it down. It'll be great!" Felix said with a smirk.

(Hahaha that made me laugh! )

 

Rebekah shot Felix a warning look. She knew he must only be teasing, but somehow, she also had the feeling that now wasn’t the time to be joking around about Mariah’s emotional state. She turned to carry Mariah up to her room.

 

(What do you guys say we wait and give Number XV a chance to post now? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to know about Joy’s reaction to all this. But we can’t give him too much to react to, you know? ;P)

Edited April 10, 201213 yr by Always

(Yeah, but he hasn't been on for a while, so I don't know how long we'll have to wait for him. If we have to wait too long, I think we should just say he was unconscious as well, just so we can continue on.)

(Sure thing I can wait a bit. He's on right now...maybe somebody could PM him?)

 

Felix looked down...he felt kinda bad. It was weird, he'd never felt so ashamed, and he knew he'd have to say sorry. However, he probably needed to wait, and see if he and James would need to help Joy inside.

Edited April 10, 201213 yr by Damion Strife

Calder looked back towards where he heard voices. "Is that?" Callum looked back too. "Who?" Calder's face paled. "It is. You wait here." Calder then ran. Callum summoned his keyblade and stuck it in front of Calder. "Uh uh uh. Who are you looking for?" Calder sighed. "Never mind. Come on."

***

Joy's eyes opened groggily. "Urgh." He didn't seemed to have gone unconscious, but everything was blurry. He only caught snippets of the conversation, and honestly, he didn't care. He knew it was a mistake coming here. So keeping his leg in a position that didn't hurt, he jumped up, and sprinted as fast as he could go. He ran faster and faster, ignoring the pain. It didn't hurt that much compared to what hurt inside anyway. He promised he would come back, and he was just running again.

***

Joy arrived back at the cave, and collapsed on the ground. Tired.

(You can have someone follow Joy if you want.)

(Yeah, I don't want to bug him about it right now, but one of you can PM him if you want. I just figure there may be a good reason he's not posting here just yet.)

 

(Never mind. )

Edited April 11, 201213 yr by Always

"Well...I guess that answered the 'can he walk?' question. James, what should we do? I know we've got buisness with Mariah, and he can't be too far off. If anything we could spend time taking care of our buisness, and then track him down later. What do you think?" Felix asked.

 

( I know right?)

Edited April 10, 201213 yr by Damion Strife

"You go after him, I'll stay here with Mariah. He'll most likely listen to you more than me." he said. "For all we know, he may still think Sephiroth is in me, and try to attack me."

Rebekah heard Joy’s footsteps, and turned around just in time to see him running off. “What’s his deal?” she mumbled. She shook her head and carried Mariah up to her room, where the door was still wide open, and laid her on her bed. After a few moments, Mariah’s eyes finally fluttered open. She looked a little disoriented at first, but then recognized Rebekah and smiled.

 

“Hey, cuz. Fancy seeing you here. It’s been a while,” she said.

 

Rebekah smiled back. “Yeah, it has. How have you been?” She wondered if Mariah remembered anything that had just happened.

 

Mariah laughed wryly. “Well, not so great, to be honest...” She felt something in her pocket and drew at the now useless cure materia, and her eyes went wide. “What...what is this doing here?” She looked at her nightclothes, which still had traces of dirt and leaves on them, then clutched Rebekah’s hand and looked straight into her eyes. “What happened?” she demanded, terrified.

 

Rebekah was surprised. She remembered Mariah being so calm most of the time. What had she been through? “Mariah...I’ve been told that you killed a man Inhabited by Sephiroth about a year ago.”

 

Mariah nodded slowly. “James,” she said, her expression unchanged.

 

“Well, you see, James was given a chance at redemption by the Lifestream. He’s come back, Inhabited by someone named Riku. Do you remember seeing him?”

 

Mariah let go of her cousin’s hand and buried her head in her hands. “Yes,” she whispered. “I...I thought it was all a dream. But where is he?”

 

“He’s just outside. There’s someone else, too. He’s the cousin of someone named Marcus White, and he wants to ask you a few questions.”

 

“Okay...” Mariah seemed to recall something else. “Joy... Where’s Joy? Was he really there? Did I really see him?” she asked, her voice desperate again.

 

Rebekah looked down for a moment, considering. Since Joy had run away, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to tell Mariah about him. She answered as honestly as she could. “I don’t know. I’m not entirely sure who Joy is.” After all, the man hadn’t confirmed to Rebekah 100% that his name was Joy. She knew deep down that it was, but what else could she tell Mariah right now?

 

“I see...” Mariah said, sighing. I guess I didn't see him, after all, she thought sorrowfully. He must be dead. He wouldn't have needed a chance at redemption like James did. She laid back on her pillow. “I want to see James,” she whispered.

 

Rebekah nodded and got up from the seat beside Mariah’s bed, then went out of the apartment, calling softly for James.

Edited April 10, 201213 yr by Always

Joy woke up, feeling drowsy. He got up, and got ready to jog when what happened to him came crashing down. His hand held on to the wall for support as memories that he tried to ignore came back. Everyone dying. James. He promised himself he would talk to James, but that was enough for one day. He was about to grab his Buster Sword when he realized he left it back in town. He sighed, and ran outside of the cave. He arrived back at the place he lost it, and waited until everyone would leave.

***

Calder's stomach growled. "Urgh. I'm hungry." Callum was about to respond when they ran into the people he saw in the car. Callum stared at them. "Oh. It's you people." His eyes then looked towards the shadows. Something was moving there. He shrugged. "So, you're all Inhabitors too, right?"

James heard his name called and made his way inside. He went up the stairs and saw the open door. Going inside, he saw Mariah sitting up. "Mariah!" he said, running to her bedside and getting on his knees. "I missed you so much."