What's YOURS is MINE.

Terra stumbled backwards, off of the dark male, the palm of his hand pressing itself to his forehead while he hunched over in pain. Blood ran from his nose, dripping onto the ground underneath him.

He didn’t have an immediate reply to Vanitas as he was too busy trying to come to terms with the injury he had just acquired. How dumb of him to not hold down his hands. If he had done that, he was sure he could have avoided that but he had been too focused on just trying to get Vanitas on the ground to really make sure he couldn’t do any harm to him.

His eyes slowly looked up at the dark male, his blood stained teeth gritting together. “Whatever.” He said, spitting some blood on the dirt. “You can’t kill me, I’m already practically dead back home.” 

His head was throbbing and his vision felt blurry. The task of just simply looking at Vanitas made his head feel even worse. His eyes closed while his head lowered itself once more. “I will stop at nothing to make sure my friends are safe.”

With that taken care of, Vanitas was able to stand again, his hands immediately dusting himself off as he tried to ignore his own throbbing forehead. An attack like that doesn't only hurt Terra, just to execute it results in himself sacrificing his own skull. Luckily, since it was the him who pulled the counterattack, he didn't have blood running down his face- but a bruise that he could hide with his ebony bangs.

"Are you kidding me? You think you're dead?--"

Woah, okay; get it together, Vanitas. Losing your cool isn't going to prove your superiority. Not to mention adding rage to the current situation would probably make him dizzy, too. The male could at least tell himself he's won half the battle for now, especially when Terra was caught so offguard and looked pretty pathetic for a moment.

"Wake up call, Terra: All your friends are in danger. None of you got your fairy-tale happy ending back at 'home' and here it's no different."

“Bullshit.”

Not once had she cussed in her life, but here she was, doing so anyway. In an incredibly weak voice, at that. All Vanitas was doing was provoking her, but to what advantage? What progress would he make if he did? Sure, he would enjoy it, but that was pretty much it. Doing it out of pure pleasure would get him nowhere. Especially since back home in their world, he wasn’t even supposed to exist anymore.

And by some miracle— rather, it wouldn’t be considered a miracle— he arrived here, alive and whole.

Aqua continued to struggle against his grip, focusing all of her strength on getting out of his grasp. It was the least she could do, her breath leaving her bit by bit. If there was another moment where she would experience being near death, this would be it.

But she froze instantly, when she heard the male speak about Terra. Suspicions instantaneously rose up, as to what he had done to her best friend. He couldn’t just have ‘ran into him’, as he said. 

“Leave… him alone… bastard…” She choked out, eyes blazing. He sure was doing what he came for. Anger, worry, pain— all flooded her, making her the most vulnerable yet, as well as her most strongest. It didn’t make sense, but she was more determined than ever. He just gave her one more reason to keep living.

  [ It's not as if doing anything else /would/ get him anywhere. Time merely continues to pass, another day stuck in a circus, another night of wandering; was there anyone here who could do something that was genuinely productive? Vanitas was fine with staying here for that very same reason-- he was dead back where he came from! The negative energy one feels simply standing in this deserted ground was practically a festival for him! The only thing that could really make it better would be some powers.

But he could work around that for now. ]

"What fun would that be?--" 

[ --Oh. His hold was slipping, his wrist aching at having to fight back her constant slashings to his grip. It reached the point where he didn't have a choice but to let go, so regrettably he did so, jumping back to give back the distance he'd so quickly taken away.

Rolling his wrist about with his other hand, his gaze simply returned to the Keyblade Master, his stare slowly transforming from one of amusement to one devoid of emotion. ]

"Good to know you can still put up a fight, afterall." [ He commented absentmindedly, his mind still turning as to where Aqua had suddenly gotten her boost of power. He could say it was just him that had been weakening from trying to restrain her, but he knew a little bit better than that. ]

"You really never fail to surprise me, Aqua."

{ If he didn’t need people telling him to change then why bother talking to those who would even mention it? It certainly sounded like he wanted to be told that, arrogant prick. The blonde scoffed at his sudden outburst, rolling her eyes soon after. } Then why bother talking to me? What am I to you then? Hm? Tell me, why not. I’m so interested in hearing what someone like you could think of me.

{ She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes slightly in sudden irritation. She was sure that she’d hear something oh so good come out of his mouth. Really, if he didn’t need any friends— } Might as well isolate yourself, you know. You’ve been talking to me to the point to where most people would consider each other friends. If you don’t need them then chances are you don’t need me.

And it’s not like I even want special treatment.

{ Though, that frown became a firm line as soon as she managed to pick up those words. A puzzled expression made itself apparent as she eyed him suspiciously, if she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought it to be a rouse. Perhaps it was the fact that he seemed more, how was it, denying something? Larxene sighed under her breath, having no idea on how to handle a situation like this. She would handle it, either way, and the first thing was to— }

And what fate is that?

I’m sure you’ve already gone through what I’ve experienced. Take it from someone who got killed on the job, don’t dwell over it. You don’t see me complaining about my ‘fate’, in all honesty, I don’t even believe in that bullshit. Life is what you make out of it, that’s it. No constellation bullshit or zodiac signs are gonna influence you. { She shrugged calmly, walking over to him and hesitantly patting his back before choosing a better approach. Taking a hold of his head, she moved it towards her direction, face incredibly close to his. }

And, please, enlighten me, what is important?

[ Well, here's a better question: Who was there that wouldn't tell or want him to change? Wouldn't that be nice, finding someone who didn't care what he did! In any case, he was quite positive that person didn't exist, or if they did they were mentally retarded, so he wouldn't very well go out and expect anyone to express anything different. He'd gotten so used to arguing that he'd come to enjoy it, anyway. Oh, and isolating himself would just be dull. Especially in a world where he couldn't cause senseless destruction. ]

You amuse me, is all. [ He responded monotonously, contemplating on a proper word to define what she is to him. 'Friend' obviously wasn't an option- and never would be- 'acquaintance' was rather bland, as was 'ally' or 'familiar'. Not to mention most of those terms implied that the two were equals- something he wouldn't dare believe nor admit. ] 

Amusing like a toy. Not needed, but still fun to have.

[ Shrugging those questions off with his one, simple answer, the male blinked at the mention of her death. Well. Oh. There was another point they had in common- they were both supposed to be dead. It appeared that their similarities only seemed to be growing, but Vanitas wouldn't fail to point out their differences. ]

You know perfectly well I'm not about to look somewhere else for something I know only I can control. [ She was just being obnoxious with her words, as calm as she was. This had nothing to do with zodiacs. ] Let me rephrase something for you: My fate is the same as my purpose; something a Nobody like you probably wouldn't understand considering you don't have one---

--- ?

[ His head was suddenly grabbed, his neck forced to turn her way as his golden optics followed to meet hers. ]

What, are you curious? Or do you actually care what matters to me?

[ Ripping his head away from her grip, his eyes narrowed in no particular direction. His voice instantly bitter, he continued. ]

Please. 

That was it for Terra. He pulled his fist back quickly before charging at the male with full force, his hands opening and tackling the male to the ground, forcing his face in the dirt. He took his left hand and pressed his face into the ground, his other hand lifted as if he was ready to lay into him.

Rage blinded him, no longer wanting to rely only on meager threats to try and put Vanitas in his place, no, he was ready to use as much force as possible. “What did you do to them?!” He yelled, his head lowered close to the dark male’s, his eyebrows furrowed in absolute anger.  ”This is your LAST chance to tell me!”

Vanitas soon found his back pressed against the dirt, Terra looming above him in all his damned glory. 

At this point, the other's rage was pretty much contagious. Since Terra was busy pressing his face in with one hand, Vanitas was able to use his own hand to grab his wrist and throw it off-- using his other hand to hold on to Terra's other fist. That way, neither of them could do much of anything. One restraining the other, that was all it was.

"If you think this is all you have to do to get information from me, you're stupider than I thought." he growled, before forcefully crashing his skull against the failed-Keyblade Master's. Vanitas could play the intimidation game with all his limbs cut off, so that tactic just wouldn't work against him.

Glaring back, his black pupils dilated within his golden orbs.

"Pick a retarded fight like this, and I'll kill you." 

A pained expression shot across her face, the moment he began applying pressure to her neck. She knew what was coming for her, and she intended not to let him get away with it. The female was struggling to breathe now, and she began somewhat clawing at the hand that held her neck.

Several options appeared in her head on what to do. First off- she could make her best effort to try and get him off her. That could work, but it wasn’t likely. After all, he was a male, and therefore automatically stronger than she. And that wasn’t even counting the extra strength he had, just because he was Vanitas. It was an option to be considered— but she didn’t have much longer to do so. She had to make a decision quickly, before she actually ran out of breath.

She, too, had heard of the fact that people did not die here at the circus. They either got extremely hurt, on the borderline of death, but never past it, or disappear altogether, with no trace left behind. If Vanitas actually were trying to kill her, it obviously wouldn’t work, according to this… theory. She definitely would become incredibly weak, at the rate this was going, but dying was completely out of the question.

So her second option was to let him do whatever he wanted, with the results of she possibly not being able to fight back for a while- making her vulnerable for him to play around with some more, code name for beating her up even more than she already was.

No.

She had some dignity.

She had to fight back.

“L-…Lies….” She managed to choke out. His hold on her neck was pretty tight by now, her ability to breathe cut in half. 

"Well, Aqua. It doesn't get more pathetic than this." [ He snickered, completely entertained by her clawing at his hand; at his grip that only seemed to continue applying pressure to her neck rather than  back away as she would have liked.

Say that the theory is true- that Aqua wouldn't die no matter what he did- would it matter in the long run? Though he wanted her out of the way, it wouldn't change how things were back at 'home', would it? Not that many still even held on to the possibility of leaving the circus, but all the same, if they should return, his efforts here could just have been useless. ] 

"Giving up already?" [ The male added, quoting himself from back when the two were fighting in the Keyblade Graveyard- when she had done all that she could do to protect Ven's heart only to fail because he took it juuuust for him. ]

"You should be grateful I'm trying to kill you so nicely." [ He commented casually, provoking her all the more as he kept their distance short. Breathing against her ear, he paused before including just one more thing. ]

"By the way, I ran into Terra the other day...~"

"He was so worried that I'd hurt you... ♪"

Terra growled out in frustration, watching the male as he decided to turn his back to the keyblade-wielder. Obviously there was no point in trying to argue with Vanitas, no, he seemingly always found a way to twist and turn sentences into his favor effortlessly, and it annoyed Terra to no end. Ofcourse Terra was attached to Aqua, they were best friends! So was that honestly anything new? He didn’t think much further into the words, his anger building up inside of him like a volcano, ready to erupt. 

“Maybe if you actually made some friends, you wouldn’t be so weak.” Terra muttered, that same snarl still holding a place on his face. “Maybe you wouldn’t be so freaking annoying!” He took a step closer to the dark male, ready to enforce his anger once more. “If you hurt Aqua I’ll be sure to make you regret ever showing your face to me.” He said through gritted teeth, his shoulders tense while his fists shook with rage, struggling to keep themselves under control.

"If I made friends?"

What a riot! Vanitas just had to laugh, turning around to fully face the snarling other. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" he sneered, shaking his head as Terra complained about his attitude.

"The last thing I need are a bunch of idiots in my way." Ventus was the weak one of the two. His fragile heart and pathetic pacifism got in the way of him ever becoming stronger. If it weren't for Vanitas and his Unversed, Ventus would have never gotten to the level he is today.

"The only weakling I see here is you."

Completely embracing the other's anger, he allowed himself to take it in proudly; like pushing Terra to his limit was a success in itself- even if it was incredibly easy. Vanitas narrowed his eyes, his devious, black pupils accompanied by a sadistic grin.

"Growl all you want, Terra; but I'll have you know, I've already done more than enough damage to them both, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it." ♪

Terra remained silent, listening to Vanitas talk. It was pointless to try and combat the male on his opinion… (denial)… however, his body immediately tensed when he heard him utter the last sentence, his teeth gritting together in a snarl. “You what?” He asked, stepping closer again, his hands falling back to their sides, fists clenched in anger once again. 

“What did you do!?” It was really taking all of him to not pummel to the ground right then and there. 

Vanitas didn't move back as the other moved forward, standing his ground as he found himself getting quite amused with this; this is what he did for entertainment when he had no other way of causing others pain, the negative emotions only encouraged him more and more. It was what he was made of.

"Oh, so you are curious?" he mocked, not even putting his hands up to defend himself in the case Terra decided to get violent. If anything, he was only provoking the male further and further, even if he himself knew it could end badly.

"Maybe I did nothing, maybe I did something." ♪

Terra snorted, turning to look at him again. “You’re not Ven…. and it’s not his fault that he was split in half anyway in the first place.”

The fact that Vanitas was here at the circus grounds made his stomach turn into a knot. He could only hope that he hadn’t run across Aqua yet… but…

“So what do people like you do around here anyway? Do you annoy other people as much as you annoy me? Because that definitely wouldn’t be surprising.” His hands crossed over his chest, an annoyed expression lingering on his features. “I feel bad for anybody who runs into you.

"Deny it all you want, the facts still remain." he replied stubbornly, resisting the urge to roll his eyes again. Terra really had a tendency to be pretty stupid. There's even a whole blog dedicated to him for it. "And for the record, it is his fault. The weakling didn't want to fight." Hence, Vanitas was forced to be born. An interesting way to come to life, but it's not like he cared that much. 

"Ooh, Terra you know me so well!" He mocked him, his tone practically bouncing in sarcasm. "Did you want me to go into detail? I know you want to hear about the way I torture the ones you care about."

Terra seized up when Vanitas uttered the last sentence before storming close to the male, grabbing the collar of his shirt. “What did you say!?” He was so engulfed by rage that he didn’t care if others saw his reaction, his anger. The brunette slammed Vanitas against the tree he was leaning on. “I was tricked by Xehanort!” Atleast… that’s what he had felt.

His body wracked with guilt as he dropped the male, turning away from him quickly and covering his face, his mind cycling over and over on the reason Master Eraqus had died… why he had killed him. It had felt right at the time… to protect Ventus… but the Master had not been himself. … was it wrong to act so swiftly?

He grumbled a bit. “You’re disgusting.” The words slipped under his breath, his head looking over his shoulder, his eyebrows furrowed in anger. “Ven is much better off without you.”

Vanitas continued to smirk even as his shirt was grabbed, his expression remaining plastered on his face as he watched Terra become instantly enraged by his one comment. The male didn't reply to him just yet, mostly because when you're being held by your collar, you just want to focus on breathing. If that wasn't annoying enough, he was soon slammed against the tree behind him, resulting in a small 'nnngh' escaping him.

Messing with Ventus and Aqua was one thing, but messing with Terra was something entirely different. Hell, the other was dangerous with that temper of his; but then again, that's the same temper Vani could try to take advantage of.

"Touchy, touchy." he muttered once he was back on his feet, wishing more than anything that he still had the power to create Unversed so he could ambush the other right then and there. Once he mentioned Ven though, he rolled his eyes, crossing his arms once more.

That voice. Terra jerked and looked at the direction from where the male had spoke from, his eyes narrowing. “I didn’t ask for your opinion, Vanitas.” A small hint of disgust slipped in when he said his name. Ofcourse Vanitas was here. Bothersome. Truly bothersome.

The brunette let out a sigh, circling closer towards the other a little. “I don’t enjoy ‘ruining’ other peoples’ lives.” He frowned. “I’m not like you. At all.”

Laughing quietly to himself in amusement, he raised an eyebrow at the other, his eyes locked on to his as he spoke.  "Oh, sorry." he replied sarcastically, not moving from his previous position one bit. "I should have just let you talk to yourself like you're senile."

As the male circled closer, Vanitas simply let out a shrug. "Really? At least I didn't kill my master with my own two hands."

Terra looked around the circus grounds curiously, unable to really wrap his mind around this odd place. Even Aqua had mentioned that she didn’t quite understand this circus’ purpose, so the brunette gave up on truly trying to figure out his whereabouts. Instead, he figured it was time he met some of the people who vacated here because… he had nothing else to do.

His legs slowly took him through aisles of food stands and stores, his eyes skimming each place boredly. “….there really isn’t anything to do here, is there?” He asked himself quietly, sighing. 

Vanitas hadn't really planned on much since the second he got stuck in this place. Ironic, considering someone who's been resurrected usually wants to do everything they can; this boy was just content in inventing things as he lived his newly given life. Mostly living off the entertainment of torturing others to stay 'sane', of course. There wasn't much fun in having nearly all your powers taken away from you.

Regardless, it was no surprise for him to be casually leaning against a tree, his golden optics shifting and blinking once or twice once they fell upon Terra.

Now he's here too, huh? Xehanort's little slave?

"Depends on what keeps you busy." he replied with a small smirk, the only further movement he gave being that he crossed his arms.

Her mind spun in circles, round and round, trying to find a solution to this… this problem. But for the first time in pretty much her whole life, she had no clue what to do. Her intentions pushed her to find an answer, find a way out of his trap, and she tried. Desperately. With no luck, unfortunately.

She flinched when his arm was placed— rather, slammed— above her head and his forehead pressed against hers, her resolve hardening more than ever. She had to find a way to outsmart Vanitas. It was her only hope to survive in a world where he had access to her whenever he wanted. Especially since she didn’t have her Keyblade with her… it was a complete inconvenience not being able to summon it. She probably would have stopped him a while ago if she could.

Sadly, life isn’t fair; she’s experiencing it the hard way.

‘I want you to die.’

Oh, that was it. She was not going to take this. Sure, she realized what his intentions were when he got that much closer to her, and taking all her knowledge of him from the first battle they had to now, it was pretty obvious he wanted to end her life. But in that moment of ignorance, causing her to fall into his trap, it secured her future. She was once again going against the enemy, the one long-time enemy she had here. And it was her duty to stop his goals, like the good side always does.

Her eyes blazed, glaring directly into his bright golden ones. He might think that there was no one to stop him, but he was dead wrong.

Aqua herself, the one who stopped him the first time, was still here, and ready to do whatever it takes.

“I’m afraid you’re not going to get what you want, Vanitas.”

[ Figures. It seemed impossible to tear her apart or show a weak point again, her resolve very much clear to him. Funny how she had done what he wanted when he wasn't even trying, but when he tried, she did everything in her power to go against it. Goddammit, just break already! 

Her glare was returned with a bit of an annoyed gaze, eyes narrowing as his smirk faltered. Hn. She could say whatever she wanted, the reality of the situation was that he had manged to trap her, and therefore /he/ had the upperhand. Well, the male decided not to waste any time! Placing his free hand against her neck while his other remained above her he gradually applied pressure; purposely choking her s l o w l y ♪ ]

"Let me guess, you think you can save yourself?" [ He paused, before snickering at the thought and replying casually. ] "Honestly, Aqua, we've been over this:" 

"You're useless to everyone. You realize that does include yourself."

[ What good was a Keyblade Master if their fate resulted in them drifting off into darkness, anyway? Maybe Vanitas wasn't aware of that /particular/ detail since he died before it, but he could easily argue that she hadn't been able to do anything once Xehanort's plans came into place. ]

"Oh, wait. It must be hard to defend yourself when it's hard to breathe, too." [ And that was how he liked it, a silent, choking defeat. ]