Tokyo Babylon Fan Fiction / X/1999 Fan Fiction ❯ Smoke and Mirrors ❯ Double Take ( Chapter 3 )

Smoke and Mirrors

III. Double Take

Seishirou sat down calmly on the black surface, expecting it to ripple. In a slow sort of delayed reaction, it finally did. Kakyou made an amused sound in the back of his throat that Seishirou ignored. Being so aware of being within a dream was something the assassin was not yet used to, but he was sure he would have the hang of it soon.

He always adjusted quickly to new circumstances. It was necessity, for if he did not learn to adapt he would die.

"How may I satisfy your curiosity, Kakyou-san? What is it that brings wonderment to your bleak existence?"

Instead of an answer, the landscape around them changed, glowing like the screen of a projector in a dark room so they could watch...something...with clarity from their dark dreamscape. Seishirou entertained the idle thought of poking the surface he sat upon to see if it would make this new vision ripple, or break it apart, or do anything to it at all. Interesting thought, but a glance a Kakyou convinced him not to try it.

When he recognized the scene before him though, his desire grew to attempt dispelling it, to cast it away somehow.

"This. It's unexpected, Seishirou-san."

Before him, he saw himself standing in the middle of a rather famous and familiar bridge. Or, maybe standing was too strong a word. Slumped against his younger lover, smiling in satisfaction as blood flowed everywhere, sharing a secret...something for Subaru alone as he gave in and--

"That is--"

"--The way it should have been," Kakyou finished with a slight shrug and a negligent wave of his hand. The scene vanished. "It is what I saw, and what their yumemi saw."

So, the future had been changed? But, by what?

The scene played again, and this time the only secret he imparted was what he remembered. "I lied. I've lied about a great many things."

Then there were things he just had not been able to see. How it was Kamui who had pointed out the vital fact that Subaru had missed. And, if anyone would know, it would be the boy who had so spectacularly botched his own chance at killing his opposite star. Seishirou itched to have a cigarette as he realized it was that boy to whom he owed his life. It lead to an interesting question--should he thank Kamui, or curse him to an early grave for this little bit of unwelcome help? While the latter was certainly appealing considering the pain he'd awoken to find himself in, the former would probably be better in some way shape or form in the long run.

"So, what happened? Why are things so different?"

"That is the question we'd all like the answer to," Kakyou said softly, and a rare smile made a hint of an appearance at the corners of his mouth.

"So you brought me here?"

"Yes."

Seishirou laughed. It was a merry sound, a too merry sound, that went on until Kakyou showed an irritated frown and Seishirou's shoulder began to ache. "Unsubtle hint," he accused, wincing. "Still, you have to admit it is funny."

"I have to admit no such thing," came the impassive reply.

"But, it is. You see, it is full of that wonderful pleasure known as irony, as I hardly have the answer you seem to think I do. Ask Subaru-kun, or Kamui-kun. I'm the one, who like a good soldier, followed my fate to meet my end. They're the ones who stopped me." He rolled his eyes and would have continued laughing despite the pain, but Kakyou did not seem in the mood to deal with any more of that.

"Yes. You've always been so good to do what you're told," Kakyou said with a huge dose of the previously mentioned irony. He then gave a long-suffering sigh and turned away. "Nevertheless, you do have the key. Kamui and I intend to find it."

"Good luck."

"Thank you, but that will not be necessary."

Kakyou raised a hand, and the darkness became absolute. Seishirou lost awareness of anything but the vague sense of time passing in a deeply drugged unconscious state. It was somewhere between a moment or a century that he woke up again, in his hospital room, with Subaru asleep in the chair beside him.

"Go on, ask him. He would know better than I would," Seishirou whispered into the unhearing void. He chuckled to himself and laid back. If the drugs allowed him, he had much to think about.