(no subject)

[freosan]

They’ve come in again. Solan’s trying not to hate them for it. They mess with his vision, such as it is, and they talk about destiny like it’s important, and they refuse to tell him anything useful, such as whether an angel’s ever managed to get out of it. They throw around words like duty and obligation and responsibility, and Solan’s having none of it.

“I can’t even make band practice to save my life and I actually want to do that, you expect me to fly around saving the world all the time?” he asks, about the eighth time he’s rephrased that particular concept. One of the women, the one with the strongest presence and the most irritating voice, answers him. They introduced themselves, but it’s hard to attach names to voices, when there are so many of them; he thinks this one is Leo.

“You will learn responsibility. It’s not as if we’re going to leave you to learn all this on your own,” she tells him. Solan’s eagle agrees, adding that he’s here to help as well.

“Yeah, you still haven’t told me what all it is I’m supposed to learn, but you know? I’d rather you didn’t, since I’m just going to forget it anyway when you send me back home, like you’re going to,” he responds. Somehow mouthing off isn’t as much fun when you don’t get to see the person’s face. That, however, isn’t going to stop him.

“But we can’t send you back, we need you! Haven’t you ever wanted to fly?” one of the girls asks. He really wished he could just start hitting people, but he was finding that it wasn’t in his nature. Maybe he was more like Vega’d been than he thought.

“Yeah, but not this bad,” he says. “Wings aren’t much good if I have to kill for them.” He can practically feel their shock. Apparently they Don’t Talk About That.

“But… the only ones we fight, are trying to take over this universe,” a girl points out, timidly. He thinks it’s the one called Libra, the one who’d been holding him earlier. “They’ll be trying to, to hurt you.”

“Thought the whole point of that whatever- it- was that my previous incarnation did was that they wouldn’t be back again?” he asks. Infinity – he knows his voice at least – sighs, and Solan snaps his head around to glare at him. He’s still got his back to the wall, because if he’s not touching anything solid it’s like he’s standing on nothing, and the strange grid around him is even more disturbing.

He really, really wishes he could close his eyes. That would make everything so much better. But even with the lids shut, he still sees the parallel and perpendicular lines, extending so far into the distance they might be intersecting somewhere. It makes him edgy, and annoyed, and very likely to snap at people, especially people who already have him pissed off, and most especially people who have just let their entire personality go.

“We’ve explained the spell to you, Aquarius. It helped, yes, and the enemy won’t be back for several hundred years, but several hundred years is not that long. Enough time for you to start building up some amount of skill, and not much power at all,” Infinity tells him.

Solan’s found out that Infinity’s the kind of person who likes books better than people and doesn’t hesitate to let people know this. A while back, he’d brought out a book that distorted the lines all by itself and felt like it was bound in leather. He’d handed it to Solan, and before Solan could snap out that he obviously couldn’t read it, it had started talking to him.

He’d handed the book back to Infinity after it’d told him how the spell worked, but just the idea of it makes him uneasy. He wonders if somewhere, there’s a whole library of books like that, and hopes they’re kept in separate rooms.

“And if I don’t want to do that? How about if I start committing serial suicide, what happens then?” he asks. He’s not going to, really, but they don’t know that –she gave up her life so she could rest, no matter what they think, so he knows he’s got the capability. Besides, he’s morbidly curious.

“Then we find a lifetime which has put you in a more rational state of mind, and bring you here then,” Infinity says grimly.

“Solan… we have reason to believe that you are going to accept this offer,” says the one with the voice that sounds like a snarl. Her words are gentle, always, but her tone freaks him out. He heard one of them call her Wild. He believes it.

“And how the hell do you know that? Does one of you have precognition that I don’t know about?” he asks. There’s silence. “…The answer to that is ‘yes’, isn’t it?” he mutters darkly. The eagle confirms this.

A boy’s voice, one of the ones with a larger presence. “That’s me. I’m called Destiny, of Pisces. But I can’t see your future; that’s not how we know,” he says.

“That’s something, at least,” Solan sighs, leaning his head against the wall for support.

“It’s because you exist,” the one with the voice like raw silk says. That’s the woman he kicked earlier, and he’s kind of surprised she’s gotten anywhere near him again; but then Libra had said she’s forgiven him. “You wouldn’t’ve been born if it weren’t for you taking on your powers. Now will you give it up already, this wasn’t fun eight hundred years ago when we had to do it with Kaos and it’s not fun now,” she complains. He hears several of the others shush her, but can’t help but laugh. Even though it’s not exactly funny.

“So you had to do this with her too? Look where that ended up…” he says. “You think I won’t do the same thing?”

“No, we don’t think you’re that self-sacrificing,” she adds. He thinks she’s Aries. Maybe Scorpio. Something.

He can almost feel the reproachful look Leo gives her. “And neither do we expect you to be. We’re simply trying to let you take your rightful place,” she tells him. This again.

“And as much as you’ve been claiming you’re not her, you’re acting very similar,” says the girl called Wild.

“Y’know I’ve been telling you, she didn’t do that for you, but you’re not listening to me any more than I’m listening to you, so we’ll go with that,” Solan started. “So get out, already. I’ll… think about it. Maybe. If you leave now. Otherwise, no, we’re back where we started.”

“Very well. I’ll come back in half an hour; we can both try to have new arguments by then,” Leo says, and her presence bends the lines wildly and then disappears. The others do the same, one by one, until only one is left.

Solan waits for a moment, but it doesn’t disappear. The eagle identifies the presence for him.

“Infinity, I know that’s you, get the hell out of here before I start throwing punches,” he says, but his heart’s not really in it. He’s tired of arguing with people. Usually talking things out works; though he’s not at his most rational right now he doesn’t think his arguments are completely unconvincing. They don’t want him if he’ll just explode in a few decades, do they?

Infinity takes a few steps forward before speaking again, coming too close to Solan’s personal space for comfort. “Here. This is for you. I made it for her, oh, five or six hundred years ago,” he says.

Solan reaches out blindly and Infinity puts what feels like a strip of leather in his hand. “It’s a blindfold. It’ll stop the grid from showing,” Infinity tells him.

Solan reaches up to put it on, but stops halfway. “How do I know this isn’t some kind of mind-control device?” he asks, only half joking.

Infinity answers solemnly. “Because if we wanted to control your mind, we would have done so already. Put it on.”

“Oh. Great. Yeah.” Solan reaches up, and fumbles with the knots. After a few moments, Infinity reaches up and ties it on for him. “Hey!”

When the knot is pulled tight, Solan’s in blessed, blessed darkness, only as far away as the back of his eyelids. He thinks the word ‘blind’, and how it now applies to himself, but it’s enough of a relief to have the infinite sight gone that it’s worth it. He’ll be depressed later, after the relief has gone. “Oh thank God. Um, thanks,” he says, a little defensive still.

“Of course. I have a duty to -” Infinity’s cut off when Solan hits him in the chin. Solan’s a little surprised that the punch landed, a little more surprised that Infinity steps back with a gasp of pain.

“…Next time you say that, I’ll hit you harder,” Solan says. “You didn’t have to, you just did, it was cool, don’t mess it up, okay?”

Infinity’s silent – Solan suspects he nodded before he remembered to say, “Yes. I’ll remember. I – I’m sorry.” Solan feels the magic, like an itch in his mind, as Infinity heals his jaw. Hm. He didn’t know he could hit that hard.

“Whatever, man.” Solan’s eagle adds a comment of surprise at Infinity’s reaction. “Yeah, I was pretty surprised too.”

“Solan. I know you don’t appreciate what we do, but could you see your way clear to at least… call it a trial run?” Infinity says, the very human phrase sounding at odds with his new speech patterns.

But not his old ones. Solan smirks. Maybe McClintock had influenced him more than he thought.

“Look, you can’t just come in here and try to bribe me into staying,” Solan informed him. “That’d be very stupid, so I know you didn’t just attempt it, right?”

“No, they’re unrelated,” Infinity says, after a pause. “You do have the same soul as she does, you know. Eventually, even if you go to Earth, the battle will call to you.”

Solan snorts. “Yeah, sure. If or when it does, I’ll deal with it then. At the moment, no interest.”

“…What did you think she was doing, when she cast that spell?” Infinity asks, his voice tinged with guilt.

Solan leans his head back against the wall. “And for the thirteenth time, she was trying to get out of the fight,” he says. “She was tired. She was confused, and she didn’t want to hurt anyone. She told me that once. Thanked me for keeping her out of a fight.” He remembers her nervousness when she told him that she didn’t want to fight anymore.

“So our keeping you here…” Infinity tentatively started.

“…Is going against her wishes,” Solan finished. Hah. He hadn’t thought he’d get anywhere with any of them.

Infinity pauses, then says sharply, “You can put your wings in just by thinking about it, you know. Then you’ll look normal…”

Solan turns his head to the other angel in shock. “That’s it?”

“Yes. Try.”

Solan does. It feels bizarre, but suddenly, with a whoosh of air, the wings are gone. He stumbles a little as his center of gravity changes.

“Now you have no powers so long as the wings remain in. The vision, unfortunately, is innate to your soul.”

Solan sighs; he should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. But… “Why are you telling me this? I thought all this crap was dependent on me having powers?”

“I’m going to take you back to Earth. I can’t in good conscience keep you here, if that’s not what she wanted,” Infinity explains, thinking about every word. “You should go. I’ll deal with the Lady.”

Solan is, inexplicably, torn by guilt. He’s still mad at this guy, right? He should be. “Finally, someone sees it logically,” he mutters, but feels bad about it.

“We’d best leave now.” Infinity takes his hand, and they spin backwards, falling through space.