[link]

[ Roxas gives the mage a confused, and maybe slightly suspicious look. Although the suspicion is likely in response to the little twinkle of flattery he feels at the idea that Magic is as unique as those who use it. No one has ever put it to him quite like that. Magic in general was so ubiquitous where he came from, there were a lot of questions he's never bothered to ask before... Anders has helped to train him a little, to be able to actually regain the spells he had lost when his memories were erased.

He's learned that magic is like an emotion, and if every heart is unique... Then it must be true that magic is as well.

He chews on his lower lip briefly before deciding it won't hurt anything to show some of his spells. He nods. ]

Okay.

[ He walks up a slight incline so he can look out on the Neraki a little more clearly, picking an angry cluster of them. He uses one of his keyblades like a sighting scope, staring down the length of it as he gathers up the feelings he needs to cast a spell.

For ice, he thinks of Ajna, the frozen planet they had destroyed before Macha, all the months camped there with nothing but a frozen wasteland to look at. For lightning, he uses the tingling sensation of the charging electric shock gauntlet that his juggernaut was upgraded with.

For fire, he thinks about the last time he saw his best friend. That they had fought in a ring of fire as Axel had desperately tried to stop Roxas from leaving, from vanishing forever. ]

Fire!

[ The fireball rockets off in the direction of the Neraki, striking him soundly in the center of the chest. ]

[link]

[ His expression pinches, darkening a little. He had been fine. He was perfectly suited to the task of fighting the Neraki, to helping get the rescue team where it needed to be. What he was not suited for was the front row seat to the fire. He was not suited for that kind of prolonged cruelty. ]

It was really awful.

[ He's still speaking with his eyes down, addressing the floor. ]

I've never seen anything like that before.

[...]

I admit I was not able to see much of it myself.

[He'd been holed up in Medical by then. He's seen the reactions of others, though. And... he grimaces, as the memory of the reproduction of Radiant Garden's destruction that Black Box made him experience flashed through his mind.]

Wanton destruction of such a level... few words can truly describe. I've no doubt it was harsh... even cruel.

[He's... honestly sorry that Roxas had to witness it. Even though he knows they probably both will see as much again, even more, before Macha is done.]

[ His expression is so tight and so grim, and a cold anger is radiating off of him. Ansem knows what he's like when he's angry better than anyone else in the CDC. They haven't seen it, the determined and icy fury that he exhibits when he feels helpless in a situation; the way he detests to feel that way. ]

Why does it have to be so cruel.

[ It is not a rhetorical question. And it is Ansem he wants to hear the answer from, as one of many perpetrators of unforgivable cruelty. ]

[That history, those actions, weigh heavily in his own thoughts as he considers his answer. Because as much of him wishes he could say that he didn't know, that it made no sense... he couldn't. Because the coldly practical part of him could pick apart a fairly simple reasoning after only a few moments' thought, let alone the more complex reasons that would likely come with time and fuller understanding.

Did he agree? No. But he still understood why.]

They likely saw it as necessary. Swift vengeance against those who would dare strike us, and a deterrent against any reprisals. Very likely because, to those above us, the natives are seen as inferior.

[The cold anger almost matches Roxas' own in tone, though not intensity. And it's aimed as much at himself as it is the CDC.

The "those above us" isn't referring to Gliese and the instructors, for the most part, though Ansem still has very mixed feelings. Ultimately it refers to the ones who put them here on Macha in the first place. Who deemed it so worthless as to be so callously destroyable.]

[ Roxas mulls the answer over. It really doesn't satisfy him, at all. He could respond to every piece of it with why. But why, but why, but why. Maybe it's just better that he doesn't understand, maybe it's part of his charm, inherited off of Sora, that such cruelty is beyond his scope of reasoning.

He purses his lips, shaking his head as if to shake all the ugly thoughts right out of his head. ]

It wasn't right.

[ It feels appropriate to assert that one more time, even if he hadn't been challenged on the fact at all. Maybe because it is the whole basis for the reason he's here talking to a man he hates. ]

... I hope you can recover quickly.

[ His tone is a little sour, not dishonest precisely but... well. They're not friends. That sourness is as far as they're going to get today, and Roxas gives him one more frowning look before hurriedly excusing himself from the situation. ]

[Ansem's answer doesn't come until Roxas is already halfway out the room, and quiet enough that he probably won't hear it. Then again, he isn't intending to be heard, not by Roxas at least. He recognizes that this particular conversation has probably reached its limit, especially loaded down as it is by their shared history.]

You are not wrong.

[Because it wasn't right.

But that was part of the whole difficult situation they were in. He'd acknowledged it when speaking with Xion - what they were doing to this world was not right, and yet to protect those they cared for...

Memories. That was all he could save. That was literally the best he could do without putting everything at risk.

As for Roxas' final words, it's not hard to hear the slight bitterness behind them, and yet Ansem knows were he in Roxas' position, he would likely not have had the strength of character to even look one of those who'd wronged him in the face.]

And you are a much better person than I.

[link]

It's okay. We didn't know each other very long just...

[ He doesn't want her to feel badly about it. He knows exactly what that feels like, to have someone staring at you with so much expectation and heartbreak, and you just have no recollection of them. It made you question yourself and your understanding of the world. Maybe it almost would have been kinder to leave her alone, but maybe if he introduces himself, she'll come to him if she needs help understanding. ]

We got assigned to the same unit for a little bit. I thought you were really nice, and you showed me some of your knife tricks. [ That pretty much sums it up, truthfully. ] Our unit's just pretty close. So we missed you.

[ Close from his perspective anyway, he desperately relies on them for a sense of family and meaning in the CDC where both can seem impossible under the circumstances. ]

It can be hard to get used to the CDC....