Back to the beginning [Antique]

[gene]

Out of all the worlds he could possibly go to why did it have to be this one? I guess this was the universe's way of going full circle. Gene thought this place was destroyed when he was younger but it still was here. How was that possible? This world was consumed by the heartless how was it possible for this world still existed. Gene needed to know how this place was still here, who was responsible for it? This was his home long before he knew how to fight our how to use a keyblade, such a long time ago.

"How is Radiant Garden still here?" He was still completely shocked by the fact that this place was still here and he was standing on it. There was something he had to check, something important. The boy then started running throughout the town, ignoring anyone who would try and stop him. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see if it was there or not, there would be so many bad memories that would reappear. He had to see it though, if this was still there then that would mean there was still hope for the other worlds to come back.

He came to a stop when he finally reached his destination. Gene had ran past a row of houses and came to a house that was all too familiar. "It's still here….," He gasped as he stared at the house. Now he had to decide whether or not he wanted to go inside, part of him wanted to but another part of him said not to. He walked up the steps and to the front door and had his hand hovering over the door handle. Why wasn't he stepping in? Was there a part of him afraid of what he would find in there?

On impulse, the young keyblader threw the door opened and stared inside the house. He could see nothing but darkness as he stood there on the porch. His feet wouldn't move and his body felt heavy and he just stood there looking as if he had just seen something disturbing. Unknowingly, the boy summoned his keyblade and continued to stare. To him he was staring at an endless abyss of darkness and it was trying to pull him in. To anyone else they would see a boy staring at an open door who looked confused out of his mind.

[antique]

It was near the end of the work day, yet still, early enough to see a good deal of people wandering around mindlessly on the streets looking in shoppe doors and meeting with neighbors. Business had been slow today, and on slow, calm days like this, the young baker liked to pack her basket with the stores' leftovers and wander about the town. There were a couple of select spots she liked to visit to give away her goodies--and she always did what she could.

Antique shut off the lights to the bakery and faced the sky which had been fading into a bright yellow. Late afternoon. She quickly locked the doors and began her usual winding walking route through the town. It was never usually the same--but after being a resident of Radiant Garden for so long, she rmemorized every face, every smile, every wrinkled frown. Humming a small tune to herself, she made her way through the market district, into the more residential areas.

Radiant Garden was slowly becoming what it was again. Sure it was hard, but it was a massive step up from Traverse Town. At least it was not always dark--something that had always bothered her. The eternal night was kind and calm, but she had always found herself missing the warm embrace of the sun. But there were houses that were still abandoned here...she remembered as a child holding her mother's hand and just seeing so many faces. There were still so many abandoned houses still.

Did these people just never come back?

Or were they...did they become...

She shuddered.

Something else?

Speaking of something strange, she had spotted a boy staring confusedly into an open door. Tilting her head, she remembered that the house had been abandoned for quite awhile, and that face was not someone she had particularly knew.

"Welcome home," she said in a quiet voice. She knew his expression. It was the same one that she had wore when she first came back to Radiant Garden as well. She smiled in a calm, bittersweet way, holding her basket of bread. That was something that she would have liked to hear when she had came back--perhaps she would extend the welcome to a complete stranger.

[gene]

The boy had began to tremble as he stared into the empty house and his memories raced through his head. He wanted nothing more than to go in his head and turn everything off, then maybe he could get some peace and quiet. Trying to move was a futile endeavor as his body wouldn't budge at all, why couldn't he move?! That's all he had to do was move, just move out of the way and get as far away from this place as he possibly could. If he continued to stare he felt that his entire body and mind would be consumed by the darkness he was staring into.

He thought about his family that was missing and how much it would mean to them if they knew this place was still around. Gene also thought about his master who would be happy to see this place around as well. It would prove that at least Gene was able to find that this place was still around and not still consumed by the darkness. All he had to do was move, please for the sake of god move! There was a voice telling him to just step in and accept the darkness.

Before he would take another step he heard a voice say something to him. He turned around to see a face that seemed oddly familiar. "Umm thanks?" He said softly as he continued to stare at the girl. Noticing the keyblade in hand the boy quickly dispersed the weapon in a flash of light and scratched the back of his head. "By any chance, do we know each other?" He asked, his face a bit red from being embarrassed that he forgot. "You seem awfully familiar," He added with a bit of a chuckle. This girl, why was did she seem so familiar to Gene?

[antique]

Antique smiled softly, gently, her ruby eyes picking up the boy's unconscious movements--like putting away the odd weapon, his confused expression. Grasping her basket of bread, she stepped closer towards the boy, putting herself in a position where it was obvious that she was not a of any sort. She was not afraid of him; after all, most people that came through here, if they were a danger, would have introduced themselves that way.

"You're welcome," she said, peeking into the abandoned house in front of him. She took note of the closed curtains and the obvious smell of must and dust. Signs of abandonment. Glancing back at him when he asked if she was someone he might have known, she tilted her head, her expression in thought.

"Maybe, perhaps. I don't live too far from here, so our paths may have crossed before!" she beamed up at him, her face innocent, naïve. "I'm Antique. And you are...?" she questioned him, looking rather curious. She was rather familiar with people who came to her bakery, and at least with the people she came across on a daily basis. Raising an eyebrow she studied his face--hmm, that was peculiar--he did have a somewhat familiar profile. Did she know this boy from somewhere? She touched her cheek with the palm of her hand, trying to think think think.

Maybe a customer from the bakery?

Or a classmate?

Maybe someone from Traverse Town?

A look of despair crossed her face because she could not exactly pinpoint where she knew this face. That weapon she would have recognized immediately because it looked so unique. Hmm...

[gene]

Gene was glad to have met a friendly face who brought him out of his dark thoughts. If he had drifted for any longer he probably would have walked into the house and who knows what is waiting for him in there. When she had told him her name there was a click in his head, he had definitely heard that name before. "I'm pretty sure we know each other," He said as he placed a hand on his chin and ponder the idea some more. Where had he seen this face before, something about her was just familiar, maybe it was the hair.

"My name is Gene Kailden! It's a pleasure to meet ya Antique!" He said with a smile as he started to look around. "So you live not far from here right? I don't really have much of a home anymore despite what this looks like," He said as he turned back to the opened door. "I was just checking something," His voice began to trail off a bit as he stared back into the darkness. He shook his head and composed himself and turned back to Antique, there was a question that was burning in his head.

"Say you live here right?" He began as his face got a bit sad. "A long time ago this place was attacked by heartless and consumed by the darkness. By any chance were you here when that happened?" He knew this would probably bring back bad memories, it was for him and It was obvious seeing the fists he was clenched as he spoke. "I'm sorry if this brings back sad memories I just need to know that I wasn't the only one that suffered through that horrible even that ruined my life," The boy was trying to hold back the tears that wanted to stream down on his face.

[antique]

Gene.

And this boy was rather sure they knew each other. She perked up at the name, because it rang a familiar bell in that grass-colored head of hers. She was positive of it, though...where she knew that name from, she could just not put her finger on it. It would eventually come to her, she knew. And once that memory was unlocked...well, who knew what would come out of that?

She smiled in a bittersweet way, her boot kicking at the dust from the open door. "You know, if you do plan on moving back, I'm sure I can help clean this--" she had begun, though her voice was quiet. He had started to ask questions about what most surviving Radiant Garden citizens struggled with. She internally withdrew, the memories piling on like they had been thrown at her. Antique had plenty of time to sort through those feelings, those memories of hurt, of sadness, of abandonment.

It wasn't as if a darkness had come over her, but she did feel melancholic.

A long time ago this place was attacked by heartless and consumed by the darkness. By any chance were you here when that happened?

Her lips moved, but her voice was somewhere lost in her throat. Of course she had been here, but she had been so very young. Defenseless. A mere child. She gulped, the feelings of fear tingling through her limbs just like they were years back. Debilitating. Frozen. Unable to stop anything from happening--if only she had been able to do something--if only, if only!

"I'm sorry if this brings back sad memories I just need to know that I wasn't the only one that suffered through that horrible even that ruined my life."

She was able to move her head to look up at him just momentarily to see his expression, to stop her own shaking. The past hurt, yes. Yes it did. It scared the heck out of her, yes. But she hated seeing people suffering more.

The basket of bread slipped from her arms and onto the floor, a couple of more highly decorated pieces rolling into the building. She found her hands on his face, cradling his cheeks in the warm palms of her hand.

She smiled through her own tearful face, trying to look cheerful. Because though she couldn't have done anything back then, this was all she could do.

"Yes, yes I was. But hey, the important thing is that we still exist, right? That's very important. The people that loved and took care of us would have wanted that the most!"

She ran her tiny thumb across his cheek to stop any tears from falling and smiled up at him, even though she was too crying. Maybe it was from sadness? Or maybe it was from relief that she had finally found someone brave enough to face the fear of talking about it? Who knew?

[gene]

Gene couldn't believe that he was about to cry right now, he was too old for this, or at least that what most people would say to him. He started to grit his teeth and repeatedly told himself to not cry, it was a sign of weakness. Just take all of your sadness and push it down and ignore it, yeah just keep doing that Gene and you'll end up just like that masked kid. So full of hate and anger, might as well be a heartless at that point. Heartless….the more he thought about the angrier he got, how much he hated the beings of darkness.

"I've trained so hard to be able to fight the heartless and prevent what happened so many years ago from happening again but I failed I-," His words were cut off when Antique placed her hands on his face. There was a surprised expression on his face as she wiped some tears off his face and she spoke. She had a point but it didn't sit well with Gene, there was so much more he wanted to do, so much more he should have done. His family, his master, everyone of destiny island was depending on him to do his job and he failed.

"What's the point of existing if your existence is to protect everyone but you constantly fail? Why should I still be standing here when others suffer and there's nothing I can do because I'm too weak?! I shouldn't be standing here, I should be the one consumed by the darkness and others should be alive not me," He couldn't stop the tears at this point, as they ran down his face he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Gene knew that somewhere the masked kid was grinning at his tearing.

"There's no silver lining in this, I have to find my family, my master and I have to destroy the heartless and the darkness for what it's done. By any means necessary I must!" By this point Gene's hands would be on Antique's wrists and he would remove them from being on his face. There'd be a lot of pain and anger in his eyes along with a strange case of them being darker than normal. "I'm sorry……I just don't know what to do," He said as he calmed down a bit and his eyes went back to normal.

[antique]

Weapons and lashings and knee scrapings were more merciful than this. The things he had said stung a lot more than any of those. Her heart felt heavy for Gene, but she was in a predicament where she didn't know exactly what to do. She understood feeling powerless, yes--she knew that entirely too well. But she didn't understand how one could simply just do nothing.

When he grabbed her wrists and removed them from his face, her face flushed with embarrassment. His words hurt--if he couldn't do anything, then she was as good as the dirt on the ground. His eyes had become dark--and it...well, it kind of scared her. She lowered her eyes to the ground because it was the only thing to do, only to see that she had dropped her basket.

"No, don't apologize," she said, ruby eyes cast to the ground. "My fault for being so forward," she said, and lowered her body to pick up the basket, and some of the bread that had fallen out. She grasped the pastries with her small hands and set them in the basket, one by one, quietly. In this task she regained some of her sensibilities. It wasn't easy being a coward.

"My mother died protecting me. If it weren't for her I wouldn't be alive," she said quietly, setting the dirtied bread into a separate part of the basket. She was hard up to waste things because supplies used to be so hard to come by. Perhaps later she'd feed the dirtied leftovers to the ally cats. "I can't let her sacrifice ever be in vain...At least you have the ability to do something with your own hands."
She looked up at him, and smiled, tears falling down her cheeks. All she could do was smile.

"Me? I'm just a baker."

[gene]

"No, it's not your fault. I shouldn't have brought any of this up," Gene was still hurting from what happened so long ago. He wasn't sure why it hurt so much, possibly because he still felt it was all his fault despite being a little kid at the time who couldn't do much. Now he had the power, or well the potential to make up for everything. No more time should be wasting on loathing and whining about the past, it was time to move forward. How stupid he was being, he had told himself these things already and kept coming back to this point.

What Antique had said next completely took Gene completely by surprise. "I'm so sorry for bring it up……I'm sorry for your loss," Now Gene was separated from his family, none of them were dead, well at least to his knowledge at least. "I'm sure you could do something as well! I mean if you try and put everything you got into it I'm sure you can help even if you are just a baker," He said, this time whipping tears off her face with his thumb. He knew what this feeling she was experiencing was like.

"Hey, I'll even help you out with anything you need. Name it and I'll do it, we've gotta stick together ya know? Children of the Garden and all that jazz right?" The smile that grew on his face was genuine and was intended to make her happier. He would do everything in his power to help this girl. "Maybe the more time we spend together we can remember how we know each other," That was a mystery that was yet to be solved and Gene was keen on getting to bottom of it. Though that question wasn't really important all that matter was them getting through all of this.

[antique]

Antique had been embarrassed from crying. Though she smiled, she rubbed her eyes with the back of her arm, and chuckled. Years of being weak left her feeling helpless, and she figured the only thing she could do was laugh or cry--she had no real talents. That's what the weak could do. After rubbing her eyes, she continued to pick up her bread in a desperate attempt to do something with her hands.

"It was a very long time ago now, I'm okay," she said cheerfully, albeit rather quietly. She had been separated from her only family, and for that, she had lived on. Sure, it wasn't that easy, but she had met plenty of friends along the way to make it possible for her to be self-sufficient. Being thrown out of childhood so much earlier than most was a bit of a difficult transition. She remembered seeing so many families together, but then again, so many children just like herself.

He had wiped her tears in a mirror action that she had done earlier, causing her cheeks to flush. Facing him, in the middle of picking up more bread, she couldn't help but laugh. Not a condescending laugh, but something much more jovial than that. Because that was all that she could do.

"Don't you know that's all that bakers do, is cook?" she chuckled, wiping off her eyes with the back of her hand. This all felt very familiar, like something like this had happened before. The feeling was very fuzzy, but the feeling in her heart told of deja vu. A long time ago, someone had comforted her like this.

Plucking a piece of clean star shaped bread out of her basket, she stood up, and put the pastry in his mouth--as if telling him she didn't want to talk about sad things anymore. She shook her from left and right, sending her green hair flying about, and jumped down onto the road, offering him the most radiant smile she could offer.

"Have you been---"

A loud explosion was heard in the distance. Her head immediately snapped in the direction of the sound.

[gene]

Gene still couldn’t put it together, how did he know this girl. She had made him feel better about things and at the same time sad. Here he was wallowing in self pity about not being able to find his family and she had lost her mother. Gene had taken his family for granted and felt terrible about it. He was acting like a bratty kid and his constant crying wasn't going to help. He was going to change all of that and make sure no world, or anyone suffer from the heartless or the darkness. Gene always told himself that but now he swore it.

There was more he wanted to say but Antique had shoved a rather tasty piece of bread in his mouth. At first he wanted to be annoyed but all he could was smile at her as she smiled at him, such a beautiful smile. "This taste so good," He managed to mumble as he chewed the bread. Seriously, this was the best tasting bread that he had ever had. Whatever Antique's secrets were it tasted like a gift from the heavens. Maybe he was overreacting because he hadn't eaten in a while but he loved this bread.

Again he was about to say something but the sound of an explosion took his attention and made the teen turn his head in the direction of the noise. Was his home world under attack again?! Gene had to move, he couldn't let his world be taken away from him again. "I'm sorry Antique but I've got to check out what caused that explosion," He said as he started to move toward the sound. As he moved he took more bites out of the bread. If this was the last thing he was going to eat it was damn good.

[antique]

"I'm sorry Antique but I've got to check out what caused that explosion."

It felt as if all the blood had flushed out of Antique's face, and it looked as if she had just seen the ghost of her dead mother. Soon, she saw his back to him, and, without thinking, she quickly followed him, grasping her basket of bread to her chest as she ran, her yellow scarf trailing in the wind behind her.

"I...I have to..." she huffed as she kept up next to him. Normally she would have ran and hid to find some kind of shelter, but there was this terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. In the distance, she could hear the sizzle of what she knew was magic and the clanging of weaponry. Seeing something, she ran ahead--ignorant of the fighting that was going on, and around the corner--just out of Gene's eyesight.

It has to be here. I'll turn the corner and it will be there just like it always is...

But it wasn't.

Her home had somehow been smashed to rubble--She could still see some of the barebones of the internal structure. Eyes scanning over the destroyed home, she stood there like a deer in headlights, absolutely mortified that her mother's home was nothing more than rubbish in the middle of Radiant Garden. The other structures around it had been destroyed, though it seemed as if the movement wasn't intentional, but a mere casualty.

"...Mom...!" she said under her breath, her face pale, her movements automatic.

[gene]

Despite what Gene had told the girl Antique ran with him toward the noise. He was at first frustrated but he let it go seeing as this was her world too and she would want to help anyway she could like himself. No matter what they were going to end up running into Gene would protect her with his life and make sure nothing harmed her. The boy's attention was taken by the sounds of fighting going on not far from where they were running. He stopped for a moment and tried to pinpoint where the noises where coming from.

It didn't take him long to realize that he had lost track of Antique. The boy cursed under his breath as he started to move again, looking for the green haired girl. How could he have lost her?! If something had happened to her he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. There was no time to sit around and wallow in self pity so the boy increased his running speed and ran around a corner. A small smile grew on his face as he spotted the girl but it quickly went away when he saw all the destruction. "Antique! We've gotta get moving!" He called out to the girl as he ran up to her.

That look on her face, it was the same look Gene had when he lost his home. The young keyblader looked in the direction she was and knew exactly what had happened. "I'm so sorry about what happened but we can't stay here, it's not safe we gotta go somewhere else," He said as he hugged her tight, trying to comfort her. As he moved from the hug he grabbed her hand and started to move, dragging her along if she didn't move. Gene wasn't sure where they were going but getting her to safety was his top priority.

[antique]

The home she had grown up in was utterly destroyed. When she had come back to Radiant Garden the first time, she had put her heart and soul into rebuilding the place in some desperate attempt to grasp normality. She had restarted An Elegant World all by herself--and to see all of that work destroyed so easily was much more overwhelming. Everything that she was externally was now a pile of rubbish. It was like seeing her mother being devoured once more.

"Antique! We've gotta get moving!"

His voice was nothing more than an echo at the very edge of her sub consciousness. Her mother holding her, telling her bed time stories...cleaning up the scratches on her knees when she fell, singing lullabies to soothe the easily frightened child to sleep. She took a step closer to the rubbish--perhaps this was nothing more than a bad dream. Perhaps if she went closer she'd really touch stone walls and not rubbish. Perhaps. Perhaps.

"I'm so sorry about what happened but we can't stay here, it's not safe we gotta go somewhere else."

And suddenly she was pulled into a hug, and she was torn back to reality. Her eyes were wide, and they looked at him in a state of shock and utter disbelief and confusion. She did not budge initially, turning her head to look once more at the building that she had called home, but was eventually lured to move along, her heart heavy.

[gene]

Why did something like this have to happen to people who don't deserve it? Gene knew what it was like to lose a home and felt Antique's pain. He wasn't sure what to do in this situation but all he could do was run and get as far away from all the danger as he could. Part of him wished he could go back and help, put everything back the way it was but there was no way he knew of that could do something like that. His master would know how to, his master would be able to fix all of this with no problem at all.

Gene wasn't him though, hell, he didn't even finish all of his training since his master left. The boy shook his head to get all of those thoughts out to clear his mind and focus on what was going on. As he turned a corner, dragging Antique along with him, he looked around for a place that they could possibly hide in. The first thing he spotted was what appeared to be an abandoned building, that would be perfect. When he made it to the door he found it was locked and wasn't budging, this was the worst possible time for something like this to happen.

Quickly, he summoned his keyblade and pointed the tip of it toward the door handle. A thin beam of light shot from the tip of the blade and into the door handle, unlocking the door. Gene then dispersed his keyblade and brought himself and Antique into the building. "I figure in here we'll be safe and have some time to figure out what was going on," He said as he let go of Antique's hand to look around the building to make sure it was safe. The main thing he was making sure of was that there were no heartless around.

"How are you holding up?" He asked Antique as he confirmed the building was safe, despite it being old and a bit dark. Gene pretty much knew the answer to his own question but figured it was still good to ask her how she was feeling. He was still beating himself up on the inside about not being able to help the way he wanted. The only thing to do know was to make sure Antique was safe and figure their next move, how did this happen?