damned_institute | Nightshift 33: F21-30 Hallway

"Apparently he didn't like me asking if his Magical Gauntlet of Woe would match my crown. You know... in case I find it before he does," the princess replied.

Falis did not stop Namine as the girl leaned in to get a better look at the injury. After a moment, the older blonde decided to just get it done and over with, taking Namine's hand and putting it to the injured skin on her neck. It didn't hurt much, so the girl could poke at the welts all she wanted to.

The bounty hunter than grinned up at Namine. "I'm a warrior, Namine. Getting hurt is what happens when we fight. The key is to hurt the other guy more than he hurts you." Preferably killing him, but Falis decided to leave that part out.

Naminé wasn't quite sure how accurate Alita's version of the events went down was, but she guessed it didn't matter. The welts did feel like they were painful, but Alita didn't seem to mind at all, especially since she pressed Naminé's hand against them to make her point.

Even if Alita was a warrior though... What she said was true, but it didn't stop Naminé from wishing her friend was a little more careful about this sort of thing.

"You're right. I just get worried. I'm not a fighter, so it's scary to think of my friends getting hurt." Or killed, which brought pain that she shouldn't even be able to feel. Well, Alita was reckless, but even she could be talked out of it sometimes.

"Oh, what are we doing tonight? Are we going to try to head to the basement again?"

Falis flashed Namine her wild, confident grin. "Don't get too worried; I can't die. I've got too much stuff to do and a kingdom to protect." Besides, she had that demonic... aspect of herself that kept her alive and dangerous when she should be dead. Or close to it, at least.

"Oh, tonight? Kitchen - once Captain-guy stops by and so does my potential client."

I can't die. Naminé had heard that one a little too much to believe it, but she nodded anyway. Alita did have things to protect; she was a princess, after all. Alita may have acted reckless sometimes, but she always seemed to know what she was doing.

"The kitchen?" Was Alita looking for supplies, this time around? Naminé wondered if she was interested in finding better weapons, among the cutlery. Or maybe she was looking for metal, since she remembered seeing a few posts asking where to get scrap metal.

"Alright! Are those people coming with us?" Naminé briefly wondered what Alita meant by "client", but she supposed it was none of her business either.

Falis crossed her leg over her knee, bouncing her foot occasionally, as she laid back on the bed. "I don't think anyone else is, but I'm not sure what the potential client will want." A pause. "And if he can pay."

Oh, Alita was selling something. Perhaps they were going to the kitchen to retrieve whatever this person wanted, though she frowned a bit when Alita mentioned payment.

Naminé understood that this Institute was dangerous, and things did not come without their price, but maybe she had been too influenced by Sora in thinking that good deeds should come without a need to pay.

"Well, if he can't pay, then I'll pay for him," Naminé offered. She wasn't sure if she had anything Alita would be interested in, but she still had some of the medication she took from the Pharmarcy, at least.

Falis raised an eyebrow. "Namine, I am a bounty hunter and that fact is what is leading him to attempt to contract me. He is very much aware that he needs to pay."

She rolled onto her side to face the blonde. "He may be wanting me to kill someone. Are you sure you want to provide compensation for something like that?" The girl was naive, but the bounty hunter didn't think she was this naive.

... Oh.

Naminé wasn't sure what shocked her more: The fact that someone may have wanted to pay Alita to kill someone else or the fact that Alita was willing to kill someone else for the right price. It didn't sit well with her at all and she stood up, a look of disbelief in her eyes.

"But... you wouldn't take such a job, would you?" She understood that people had to fight to protect their friends or their way or life, or to gain something, but just killing for no reason other than to make some money... were there really people like that?

Ah, yes...very naive. Well, Naime did say she lived her life inside a castle. Falis was pretty certain Milano hadn't known about all the things a ruler had to do either when she was still the princess. it took time out int the real world to see the dirt that's around and the things people are willing to do. Everyone had their price.

The bounty hunter did not move from her spot on the bed, continuing to lounge on her side as she looked up at the other girl. "I consider all jobs, Namine, but I don't take all of them. How much I charge depends on the requested job," she said, her voice casual. "Before I became princess, I was well-known across Forland and Grendal as the bounty hunter to hire when it came to exterminating magical creatures that preyed on the countyfolk."

She was silent for a moment. "I have been approached about being hired as an assassin before; I have turned down all of those offers - they couldn't pay me enough." That didn't mean she wouldn't have taken the job if there had been enough compensation offered. Everyone had a price.

Alita spoke again, offering Naminé information about her that the witch hadn't known before. Alita introduced herself as a princess, but she was also a bounty hunter, and that was... before she became a princess? There was more to Alita than what met the eye, it seemed, but Naminé didn't pry.

What she really wanted to know, Alita told her anyway. So... she never actually took the job. Although she hinted that she would, this price sounded much too steep. Surely, someone in Landels wouldn't have the resources to pay for it.

At least, Naminé hoped. The thought of Alita staining her hands with that kind of blood made her ill, and she sat down again.

"I'm sorry. I have a lot of friends who fight, but because of that, I have lost so many." Soma came to mind almost immediately, evoking a strange tinge of sadness that Naminé shouldn't have been able to feel.

Falis looped an arm around Namine and pulled her backwards against her in an affectionate embrace. She wasn't quite sure why she did it, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

"Namine... I've done a lot of terrible things in my life, but I've also done a lot of great things. Before I became princess, my name was used to terrify children when parents were disciplining then," she said, her voice low, serious and a bit... sad. "Now... my name is used to terrify the enemies of Forland and to bring hope to the children of my kingdom." Too bad they were two different names; she was certain her real name still was used to terrrify children when they did something wrong.

"People do change, Namine... but they'll always be the same."

It was after she said it that she realized Namine probably didn't understand what she meant by it. Falis was fairly certain no one but herself and maybe Dominikov would have, but there was no other way she could phrase it.

"If you can only ever remember one thing I've said to you, remember that."

Naminé did appreciate the gesture, and she did listen. Now that Alita had told her so much, Naminé thought it was fit to return in kind. Who was she to tell Alita that killing was wrong, when her actions brought death to everyone she knew back at Castle Oblivion? At least, it seemed like Alita was fighting for a just cause back in her world.

"I understand." Well, she thought she did, anyway. People she knew had changed, but they were still the same... yes, perhaps she did.

"No, I'm sorry. I've no right to react like that. I, too, have done horrible things, but I have not done them in the name of protecting a kingdom or anything. Anything that mattered."

She liked to think that she had helped Sora, somehow, but to tell the truth, all she did was delay him for a year while she fixed the mess that she made with her own hands. And what of Soma? And had she not hurt Luxord recently? And Kairi...

"I believe you, Alita. I know you're a good person. That won't change to me."

The princess gave Namine another squeeze of her arm before loosening her hold and flopping once more on her back. Namine was right - Falis was a good person, but she was also a terrible person. Her... other side was proof of that.

"It doesn't matter if you feel you had a right to or not; it's how you felt at the moment. I don't know of anyone that likes knowing one of their friends is very capable of being a cold-blooded killer." One with the nickname Murder Princess... She tilted her head a moment. "Well, not unless you're evil. Then you might like knowing your friend's a killer."

"As for the things you've done... Well, those are int eh past, ain't they? Besides, you had a reason for doing them then, right?" Her lips turned up in a small smile. "It doesn't have to be a good reason, really. Just as long as there was one."

A reason, huh? Naminé didn't think she had a good reason for tampering with Sora's memories like that (she was forced to, yes, but she could have refused to a lot sooner than she did), and ... well, maybe Alita was right. The conversation had ended up somewhere strange, that's for sure.

She nodded her head to show Alita that it was alright. Really, Alita was not a cold-blooded killer. She knew cold-blooded killers.

"No, it's OK. I should be used to this; I spent my life around people who had no hearts. They would destroy worlds to get what they wanted... But they had their reasons too."

She'd know. Naminé was a Nobody, after all.

Falis waved her hand in a dismissive motion. "Pssh, everyone's got a heart - there are some that just seem like they don't have one, either cause they locked themselves away from their emotions so much so they couldn't empathize with the people they are terrorizing," she replied. "Others were just never exposed to certain aspects of life, so they don't know how they're supposed to react."

Falis hooked an arm underneath her massive mane of hair and pulled it out from beneath her shoulders. "I knew a couple evil wizards that were so caught up in their mental games that I wasn't even sure if they could feel their own body." She got quiet for a moment. "And then there are the people that can rationalize the destruction of whole places just to see how powerful a new toy is," she said, eyebrow twitching a little.

"But still... when pushed just the right way, they can feel. Even if it's only pain and humiliation, they'll still feel."

Once again, Alita sounded like she understood a lot more than Naminé did. Yes, she knew that they had no emotions, technically... that they were truly heartless. But she was sure that the Organization had felt pain. Maybe desperation. Why else would they fight so hard for their own hearts back? She, too, wanted nothing else to be complete, sacrificing her very existence (however empty it was) for that.

It was a complicated matter, one that Naminé never quite figured out. She herself was confusing, being born from someone so pure. Naminé decided to show Alita what she really was - the girl had a right to know that her friend was just a shell, after all.

"I agree, but not everyone has a heart." The witch leaned over and took Alita's hand, placing it over her chest where her heart was supposed to be. Landels had a funny way of expressing just how empty Nobodies were.

She held her breath, and Alita would feel... well, absolutely nothing, where she should have felt a heartbeat.

Falis wasn't quite sure what Namine intended on showing her when the girl took her hand, but then she pressed it to her chest and held her breath. And there was nothing there. No heartbeat. No... heartbeat.

Falis reacted in a flash, rolling her body as she pushed Namine flat backwards onto the bed with the hand on her chest. In the blink of an eye, the bounty hunter was straddling the girl, the crimson eyes of a killer and... something else... staring into Namine's. The stake she'd had on the bed was in hand with the pointed tip meeting the captive girl's chest between two of the bounty hunter's fingers. Putting the stake through the girl would have been easy with Falis's strength, like piercing rice paper and yet, she stopped herself after the initial contact.

Falis did not move, continuing to pin Namine to the bed, stake a mere muscle twitch away from impaling her, as she stared into the girl's eyes. Not a word was said.

What happened next happened so fast that Naminé didn't even have time shriek before Falis had her pinned against the bed, a stake aimed right at her chest. Gone was the kind, sometimes mischievous look in Alita's eyes; it was replaced with something cold and hard, a look that Naminé had seen before.

She was not... expecting this. Of course, Naminé was too terrified to properly chastise herself for showing Alita what she meant when she said "heartless", because all she could do was think about begging for her life.

"I... I..." Even then, the words failed to form. Naminé was just too scared. This was literally the closest she had been to death in her entire life.

N-No! Weren't they... friends?

"Should be dead," came the low, cold response from the bounty hunter as she continue to pin Namine, not a muscle moving. Again, it was almost as if something other than the teasing, brash princess was staring out from the crimson eyes, something that had once been bathed in the blood of the innocent, as for a few moments, her pupils flickered between normal and slits.

In the back of Falis' mind, she was certain she was hurting the girl; even with her strength sapped within this place, she was stronger than most men and she was holding her captive down with all that available strength. Why, then, had she not yet put the stake through this girl? There was a very real possibility that she was a vampire and had been manipulating the bounty hunter into complacency. Perhaps she was a thrall or something else sent to interfere with her plans. If any of these were the case, she should just exert that tiny bit more needed to send the stake plunging through her.

Why wasn't she doing it?

Her eyes. That was why. Falis had seen fear in another's eyes directed at her many times; in fact, a part of her used to like seeing it. But... this time, it bothered her. She remembered her own words then - People change, but they'll always be the same.

Falis had always trusted her gut.

The stake clattered the the floor as the bounty hunter closed the fingers of the hand that'd been holding Namine down around the girl's shirt. Falis pulled the girl up into a sitting position, shifting off of her in the same motion and then let go. She huffed, letting out a heavy breath as she released the... thing inside her.

"Okay," she said, sitting back. "What are you?" She met Namine's eyes once again, only this time the killer was not to be seen.

It did hurt, but Naminé was too afraid for her non-life to whimper. Alita started to mutter to herself, something about how she was supposed to be dead (which was correct, in a way). But Alita somehow came to her senses, or decided against killing Naminé for now. Naminé might have remained too scared to speak she hadn't been jolted by the sound of the stake falling to the ground, and she became aware of Alita pulling her up.

She then let out a long, rattled sigh as she gulped for air. That was close. Naminé looked at Alita, staring for a good while to figure out if this was an interrogation or if Alita was simply asking for her own benefit.

Those eyes didn't look as cold now. Nor cruel. Naminé took in another breath to calm herself down. This was her fault anyway; she should have known that Alita would have been scared. Alita hunted things like vampires down; a Nobody is probably the same kind of creature she would kill.

"I am a Nobody. That's what the shell of a person who lost their heart to the Heartless are called," Naminé began, and then realized this would require... a lot of explanation.

"Where I come from, there are creatures that prey on a person's heart, called the Heartless. Sometimes, the victims left behind are strong enough to continue existing, in a sense. That is what I am."

Heartless? That was a new creature to hunt; she'd never heard of it before. Falis scooted back to lean against the wall and propped her chin up in her hand. Why the hell Namine was calling herself a nobody was beyond the princess; Namine was definitely somebody to Falis.

"...so, these Heartless beasties are the nasty things that ate your heart?"

In a morbid sense of curiosity, the bounty hunter wondered if there was a big hole there inside Namine's chest or if an actual heart existed there that just didn't work anymore because the Heartless ate the... stuff out of it? Maybe Namine's cell thingies hadn't properly armed themselves.

Oh boy. Now how to explain to Alita that her birth was completely different... Or did she really have to? Regardless of how Naminé was born, this didn't make her an exception when it came to the eventual fate of Nobodies. It just meant that she was even more of a shell than everyone else.

"Yes, I suppose. I didn't remember anything about who I was, when I had a heart." This was the truth, she didn't remember until she met Sora... "I only realized who I was after I lost my heart when I met with my other self's friend, Sora."

She laughed despite what she was telling Alita.

"It's a little ironic, isn't it? I can memorize anything, but when I woke up, I had no memories at all!"

"Well, yeah," Falis replied, "of course that's why you can remember everything." She leaned forward to tap Namine gently on the temple. "You've got all this empty space you needed to fill up. A person can only hold so many memories in their heads before they start forgetting stuff."

Falis threaded her fingers through her own hair on top of her head and rubbed her scalp. "So... these Heartless beasties are evil things?"

She flinched at the touch, still a little... well, she wasn't afraid of Alita, she was afriad of what Alita could do. But that actually made some sense; maybe that was why she could manipulate memories like she could. But even then, it only worked on Sora... and Naminé couldn't even do that here. Not that she wanted to.

"I must have a lot of empty space, then. I haven't forgotten anything yet." She smiled again, but then blinked when Alita asked her another question. Well, to most people, the Heartless would be evil, but...

"I guess one could say that. I don't think the Heartless are evil, they are merely acting on instinct. It's the same with the Nobodies. Even if a person leaves a Nobody behind, the Nobody isn't sentient. It's just another creature that attacks people, because that's what it does. It's actually very rare for a person to have a strong enough will to leave behind a human Nobody, like me."

Well, Naminé was an impossible case, but... she wasn't going to get into that. She only knew what DiZ told her, anyway.

"But regardless, they bring harm to people. I guess it doesn't matter if they are good or evil, they must be stopped."

"Aa."

Falis was very accepting of the not-evil-but-needs-to-die explanation of the Heartless. Acting on instinct and feeding when they need it just put them into the same category as half the magical creatures she's hunted over the course of her life and Namine was just the unfortunately victim of them. She could handle that.

Shifting off the bed, the bounty hunter located the dropped stake and then retrieved the spear that had been left on the bed. She leaned the larger weapon against the side of her desk and set the stake on top of the desk as well. Returning to the bed, the older blonde sat down and looked away from Namine. She hated this part.

"Umm... Namine... I'm..." She paused and scowled at a spot on the floor, fidgeting her hands. "Sorry. You know... 'bout the stake thing." She totally sucked at apologies; this is why she rarely ever gave them. They were so awkward.

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