Ragnorak Thesis [Ryu]

[Beaver Dude]

At first she thought that they were only

(only. Only. Ahahahahaha... ha...)

manifestations of the disease. Aural and visual hallucinations. Disturbing, but not exactly worrisome in the same way that the end of the world was worrisome.

But no, they were Heartless. And in fifty-five hours, she was alone in a dead city filled with chittering things of darkness wandering the empty streets, mind blank with distress.

[Ryu-star!]

Feet padded silently along the street, moving with a grace that so obviously didn't suit one his size. A phone vibrated within the pocket of his jeans, and with a curse, he put it to his ear, only vaguely heeding the words of his superiors on the other end. "Yes. The target is in sight."

And that he was, a plump man in his forties, staggering in a plainly drunken state across the road. The slightest glint of silver, indicating his pistols being drawn, would be all the warning the man would get, and that was if he even managed to see it, something that Jiro highly doubted.

But then, he heard that ever-so-familiar chattering, indicating that Heartless were near. They were more important. Little did he know, the Heartless would take care of his target for him. How... convenient. He was sure that he would be able to find the man again later. Within seconds he was at the scene, witnessing the creatures surrounding a woman who just stood there, as though nothing was wrong.

"What are you doing? MOVE!" He exclaimed, exasperation clear in his eyes. He only hoped that she would heed his words.

[Beaver Dude]

They couldn't see her.

But no, did they see at all? Glowing eyes made no physical sense. Photoreceptor cells (rods and cones, cones and rods) captured light and turned it into information that the brain could process. Nothing to it - nearly all naturally occurring multi-cellular organisms of a certain level had some sort of rudimentary visual system. Glowing eyes were, not, functionally, possible.

But these-

("They eat Hearts," the SOLDIER'd said said said before leaving-abandoning-dying)

-were anything but natural, weren't they?

She aborted a hysterical giggle that would have broadcasted: "going, going, gone. Shera has left the building." And focused on moving. There might be survivors, remote as the chance was. There might be children.

There might be Cid.

Alternately, there might be another SOLDIER. Or SOLDIER-like person who was busy playing hero in a dead city, on a soon-to-be-dead world, and being far too loud. The Heartless started swarming. Because, even if they couldn't see her, they sure as heck could see him.

"Run," she said simply, desperately, fatalistically - he was dead already, dead dead dead. Too late. Better men had already fallen. The Heartless were puny but many - it wouldn't be long now before the world Ended.

"Worry about yourself."

================

Note: this is Radiant Garden during the Heartless invasion.

[Ryu-star!]

A confused, and generally freaked out look broke the stoic mask that was Jiro Matsuda's face on a normal day. Not only was this woman refusing to move, she was... laughing? She was going to die!But no, her laugh gave way to realization, it seemed, and she began to move, to move... wherever it was she was going. But slowly, miraculously, rather than ripping her to shreds for walking through their ranks, the beasts turned to him, their yellow eyes glinting through the darkness, as if to inform him that his time was up.

And as he looked, they seemed to grow in number, in size, until there was an unimaginable number of them, crawling out of the darkness, sinewy hands reaching for him, hoping to turn him into one of them, to devour his heart. His look of fear quickly turned to rage, and the two guns in his hands were gone, with a larger gun hanging loosely in his left hand. A booted foot raised into the air, knocking one of the disgusting things back, and a bullet to the brain took out another. The sound of gunshots filled the area, but he wasn't even paying attention anymore. No, he was turning the control of the battle and, in turn, his gunshots, to his natural targeting ability, instead looking at the woman in confusion, who was... telling him to worry about himself?

What was she? He wasn't just going to leave her to die. Oh no. That would be wrong. He just had to take care of these jerks first.

[Beaver Dude]

Blood ran down her arm in lazy rivulets - some red, some stained black by the stamp of Geostigma but both mixing and joining as they dripped to the pavement in lazy pebbles. Afterimages left shuddered, jolting trails in the wake of her vision and squabbling voices left her feeling uncomfortably nostalgic as friends and family-

but they're dead, all dead, aren't they?

tried to remind her of things that happened, six, seven days, years, lifetimes ago.

"You're dead, you're all dead," she whispered harshly. "Go - just, go away."

The hallucinations refused to leave, but Shera dared not berate them further: her traveling companion would probably ditch her if he realized that she was both diseased *and* deranged. It would be the logical thing to do in such circumstances. And probably the safe thing to do too. That he had proven himself, so far, to be neither logical nor prone to caution wasn't enough data to be considered noteworthy.

They (they - no, mostly the gunman) had defeated a number of the Heartless. But they kept on coming, waves and waves (Radiant Garden's entire freaking population) of them, neverending. In the end, Shera had run off hoping the gunman would follow. She had theories about the Heartless, theories that time had not been kind to: the invasion had been too quick, too brutal, too fast.

"Are you all right?" She asked quietly. She desperately hoped he wasn't just another hallucination-

(and at the same time, hoped that this was ALL just another hallucination)

-"the safehouse is not too far. We should be fine... for a while. Hopefully."