Ven awoke rather slowly. The entire thing felt like a bad dream. That’s okay though, because that’s all it was right? That meant the burning rage in his body and mind would simmer down pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, the setting wasn’t what he was hoping for. It was familiar, sure, but in a really really bad way. Those white walls and brown wooden floors. The single, small bathroom with the tiny sims shower connecting to the slightly larger bedroom of two beds. He didn’t even have to explore to know the area, he’d been here plenty of times before.

“Ah, St James’ mental hospital.” Of course.

His eye twitched, teeth gritted, and hands clenched with knuckle whitening rage. They ditched him. They found him problematic and ditched him again. Fucking unbeleivable.

“Well you did point a gun at your father.” Ava tried from her spot sitting upon the end of the bed and turning her form to look at him through her ornate fox mask.

“He was making me a prisoner again!” Ven shouted back. That rage may be, but he did manage to calm if only with grief and distress as tears began to slip from his eyes. “They got rid of me again…”

On his bed, he curled his legs, pulling them close to his chest and hugging them tight. Ven then laid his head on them, tears sliding and falling to land on kneecaps and drizzle down his legs.

“Ven, it’ll be alright, it always is. They’ll come back.”

“No they won’t.” His own voice spat in his mind. Ven brought his head up to counter it, but it carried on, even showing itself. Much like Corvus, it was a carbon copy of himself. Although the differences were that he wore black trousers, black dress shoes, and a half white, half black button up dress shirt. Not only that, but more interestingly enough, his own visage staring back at him had moss growing on his face and in his hair. To top it off, he had green hair and there was a crown of branches jutting from the skull and circling the front of his head. Actually, they didn’t look painful, but natural. “Even if they do, they’re just going to keep abandoning you, us, everytime we’re too loose. Whenever we step outside of their boundaries, they’ll throw us away again. They never liked us. They just use us and throw us away when we’re not worth it anymore.” There was so much venom to his tone, but could Ven blame him. He made one mistake to calm down and not hurt anyone, and everyone was mad at him and taking away his newfound freedom. “Get mad, Ven. They deserve it. Release me and I’ll deal with it.”

“Release you?” He asked, misery more prominent than rage, though it was filling up quite well, almost like he would drown in it soon. “Why would I do that? You’re probably Jack.”

“Because you want revenge. I can tell you do.” Motioning off to Ava, he scoffed “And nothing this faker is going to say will help. She’s just going to tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear.” He looked to Ava, but she seemed frozen. Did she not hear that?

He moved, crawling towards her to get her attention. She didn’t budge and his hand went right through her, leaving a sting to his heart and a grimace on his face.

“Face it, you’re all alone.” He crawled up close, practically hissing at him through gritted teeth. If he were real, Ven bet he’d be able to feel his breath on his face. “The only true friends you ever had were poisoned just to test it out, drained of blood for a bs cure to ungrateful bastards, put to sleep because humanity was too dreadful, and finally you, you were burned alive for being a witch when all you tried to do was help people. Is that really what you want to protect?”

The names of the sufferers and deceased came to mind as he spoke of them. Constantin, Tya, Amelia, then himself. What was it he was remembering though? It hurt, he wished it would stop, leading him to fall back against the baseboard of his bed and curl back up in a ball and cry to himself, to the loss of his friends.

“Don’t wallow, get mad, get revenge for it.”

It was hard. Hard to ignore the pain in his chest. The memories seeping in of friends he could barely remember, but even that failure infuriated him.

It was all coming back to him, everything from Serene, New Serene, fucking Theleme and Hikmet. And those bastards in the 16th century iteration that burned him alive. Speaking of which, he finally remembered the passcode to the phone. Obviously, it’s his fucking birthday. Dumbfuck. But not his current birthday, his original one when he was still human.

1695.

Well not much he could do about it now. He didn’t have his phone, because why would they let him be entertained. With his luck, they probably trashed the damn thing because of the whole Jack business. What garbage. Just because Terra had to find those clothes and his nerfed self had to freak per fuckin’ usual. Guess it was a good thing he kept the hoverboard at Mercury’s apparently. Dipshit wonder would get that confiscated too.

It’s fine though, he was probably brought in his outfit so he could probably get it back when he left. Not that it mattered, it wasn’t hard to make. Still that begged the question of what to do while he was in captivity. Not only that, but how long would his memories last before the trauma forced them away again?

He was never sure. It just depended on how much his brain could handle. Probably too much for a human maybe. That’s all he could think of anyway. Maybe he should talk to Constantin to lose his humanity again. Why the hell was he even reborn as a human anyway. And a renaigse at that. Appalling. It’s alright though, he managed to become on ol menawi again on his own. Connie showed him the place so. Actually, he could always look for more sites to sap power, but then he’d be sapping from Constantin.

“Well what comes around goes around. Did it to my god, I can do it to you.”

“We both know well that you’re not going to kill Constantin.” The woman in feathered robes, fox skull mask, and antlered skull scoffed with crossed arms.

“Gee, mom, of course I’m not gonna kill Connie. It was just a thought to stop losing my memories. Get off my back.”

“Any of us could heal your mind into keeping them, but you like being complacent and ignorant. You hate having your memories.”

“Maybe I should keep them because apparently I’ll get fucked either way.”

“Maybe if you didn’t have a side business of torturing people on camera for money.”

“You killed a man for halting our search for Vanitas because I was worried he was hurting his wife and Amelia was going to get the authorities on it, so I did things right in warning after that vision, but you were selfish and impatient. And then I got blamed for being a witch because he suddenly dropped dead when the freak touched him, so thanks for that.”

“That was millenia ago, Ventus, let it go.”

“Oh you want me to just ignore the fact that you were murdered, I was converted by religious assholes, and all of us got royally fucked because no one could stop fighting for five seconds?” Ven stopped a moment, getting off the bed and prepping to leave. “Actually no, mom, you can’t call me out on getting over it, because every world has been the same. No one has been able to stop fighting. It’s been the same fear mongering and manipulative shit over and over again and Amelia’s never going to wake up because these fuck ups can’t get it right. They can’t just treat the land right or eachother so why should I bother being nice to them any longer?”

“You’re supposed to be a benevolent guardian that watches over the people and observes happenings then reports it to Constantin. That’s your role.”

“Oh Constantin’s a big boy, he can handle me taking a bit of a vacation.” Ven waved off, heading out of the room. “I think after being burned as a witch, I deserve a bit of paid time off, don’t you?”

“Why are you going out there?! We’re talking!” His mother hissed.

“Simple, they can’t see or hear you because you’re an expert illusionist, as am I now. You also control space, as do I, among many other things. So I can talk to you and look like a loon all I want. I always look crazy because when I’m a dipshit, I’m talking to the fucking fakes that stole your appearance because my mind apparently couldn’t remember the real you well enough. Also congrats on being my cat, I’d love to see you hack up a furball one day.”

“Of course I know I can’t be seen or heard! That doesn’t answer the question of why you’re leaving your room. You shouldn’t be around others if your memories are back.” Avarisia scolded.

“I’m scoping out the competition.”

“Competition of what? It’s a mental hospital made to help you. Are you insane?!”

Bringing a fist to press against his chest, he pathetically remarked like a damsel only to get more aggressive as he went on “Oh it’s so nice of you to notice finally that your son has a few screws loose.”

“You’re lucky that Constantin made us observers and told me not to stop your nightly antics.”

Turning to face his ancient mother once again, he brought his hands up beside his head and waved them open handed with pizzazz. “Oh my old decrepit mother is going to stop me. But you’re right, you’re not allowed to intervene with humans. And guess what, I’m human with divine powers so sucks bitch.” He brought two middle fingers up to wave at her then dropped them to proceed once more. “Not that I’ve used my powers on anyone. Haven’t had to yet, but let’s change that.”

“You’re not all the way human, Ventus.” She hisses.

“Oh and who ever heard of nadaigeis attacking one another. I sure haven’t. And if you did, you’d cause destruction that would displease your oh so precious god.”

“I do not treat that idiot as my God!”

“Face it mom, Constantin stole our God’s powers along with us, he’s head honcho now so you report to him. We all do. But as I said, I’m taking a vacation to enjoy my new life.”

“You’re destroying people’s lives!”

“Yeah, before they destroy mine again.”

“And what has Strelitzia done? Hm? I know you’ve hacked her and looked everything over. She’s clean and one of the good ones. Why kill her?”

“To get to her brother of course. He allowed my medical records to get leaked without even trying to stop it, so Strelitzia gets to die for it.”

“Then kill him instead! Him and that bitch Elrena!”

“You know it hurts more if you’re left standing. Sure I hated my death, but it wasn’t the death that did it. It was everything I witnessed to my people, my friends, and myself.” Reaching the door to the cafe, he looked through the window. Seemed like lunch so perfect timing to come in and chat with people. “Now shoo, I have work to do.”

“You don’t shoo you’re mother.” She scolded.

“Sorry, pretty sure I just did.” The boy mocked.

He opened the door then, trotting in like he owned the place. If he had a cane, he’d probably be twirling it like an arrogant jackass. He didn’t though, which was a shame. Still, looked to be plenty of people to mess with. First up was--

“Oh, Ven, you’re awake.”

Apparently nobody because the orderlies had to get in the damn way. But right, he was supposed to act like a shy retard. Fine. Ven switched his approach, changing his demeanor to what he usually showed, a small cowering boy closed in on himself as he feigned looking to everyone with both fear and interest. What bull.

The worker came up to him, a nurse, not an orderly. Fucking dumbass. “Your dad picked out your meals for you. Did you want to look over them to see if they’re right?”

“Oh no, I trust my family.” The boy stated in a sickeningly sweet tone, a smile to match. God it pissed him off. Could he get to something fun already?

“Wonderful! We’ll have your food out in a moment, just sit tight alright.”

“Alright!” Ventus beamed in a high and cheery voice. Once the nurse left, his eager deflated and he groaned, rolling his eyes. Right, targets.

Oh there was a cute girl. What was her problem? Depression? Oh how sad. Time to make it worse.

Walking up to the girl of long orange hair, hey she almost reminded him of Strelitzia. He wouldn’t mind having her in bed sometime. Maybe he could get her doppelganger in bed. Actually better yet, maybe he should make her look like Streltzia. A snap of his fingers later and she did. Perfect match. Of course the voice wasn’t going to fit, but he never had heard Strel moaning so probably won’t be too different.

He sat beside Strelitzia’s doppelganger and smiled as sweetly as he could manage without throwing up. “Hi, I’m Ventus, but you can call me Ven.” She was sipping on a juice box when he bothered her, leading for a lag in reaction time. She turned to notice him though, and surprisingly was happy about it. Did he make her appear happy, or was she truly? He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t care.

“Don’t hurt her.”

Ah his own voice. His own moral compass so to speak. Easy to ignore though

“Hello, Ven.” She returned the cheery greeting. Actually, it almost made him feel bad. Was that his other set of memories tugging at him. No, there was no time to focus on that so he rushed it, moving closer to press a kiss to her lips. She was startled to say the least, but he held a hand up to cup her face and brush a thumb along her cheek.

It set in, and she backed up with a beet red look of surprise and confusion and was that panic? Damn.

He gave another sweet smile. “I’m sorry, you just looked so beautiful that I couldn’t help myself. You remind me of a disney princess.”

Her face reddened further and she turned her flustered attention down. Was she having a panic attack? Her breathing picked up tremendously after all. Guess he broke her with one kiss. That was boring, but who was next if Strel’s clone was off the list already. Not all the way though, he still intended to sleep with her sometime.

There was one, the jittering and pissed off looking girl. She looked easy to break. Much easier than Strel but he’d have to see. He slid next to the gangly looking chick and mused “And what’s your deal?”

“Fuck off.”

“Ooh, feisty. Should I have started with the bullshit intro? I tried it on little miss bo-peep over there, but she seems to have broke after one kiss.” He pointed back with his thumb the girl now in tears.

“You kissed the rape victim? What’s wrong with you?” The girl scolded.

“Oh she’s a rape victim, sweet, I know just what to do to her then.” He smiled with pure glee. Now he had to sleep with her.

“Get the fuck away from me, freak!” The jittering girl shoved at him.

“That’s not very nice.” He practically pouted rather pitifully. “Tell me what’cher in for and I might be able to help you. You look like an addict to me, that true?”

“What will it take to get you away from me?” She just about growled.

“What do you I have to be fucking Lucifer? Just tell me what you desire, bitch, for fuck’s sake.”

“Cigarettes alright!” The smoker snapped back. Ven didn’t even miss a beat in pulling a pack from under his arm quite like a magic trick. Lighter and all. “You mean like these cigarettes?” That made the girl cooperative. Whether they were her choice or not, he wasn’t sure, but she sure as fuck needed one given how fast she grabbed for them. He pulled them away though.

“Tell me everyone’s secrets and they’re yours.”

She seemed hesitant if only for a second. Didn’t take much to breach that security though.

“Honestly, the rest are here because of depression. She was raped, and I have cigarettes. The rest are common.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“Cigarettes, now.”

Ven scoffed, taking two from the pack and handing her one and keeping the other for himself. He put it in his mouth, lighting and taking a drag off of it. That easily calmed his nerves a bit. Not really great to do if he still had things to do, so handed it off to the smoker bitch who eagerly took it to smoke.

It wasn’t a guarantee that he’d lose his memories if he calmed down, but he wasn’t about to chance it when he had one more goal in mind. Keeping the pack of cigarettes secured in his back pocket, he made a new lighter by cupping his hand to the table. When he moved it, the lighter was in the previously empty spot. Ven proceeded to put that with the pack in his back pocket as he moved back over to the clone. She was still panicking, trying to get someone’s attention, but while he was in the room, everything looked normal thanks to illusions. To the nurses and other kids, the smoker was still vibrating with rage, Strel clone was still sipping juice, and Ven was just sitting by himself. It was too easy.

“Lemme’ help you with that.” He practically cooed in her ear. It was more like a hiss in disguise however, and she panicked further. Yelling and crying for someone to help her to no avail. He almost felt bad. As he dragged her off though, he could see his mother’s disappointing glare from beneath that fox skull of hers.

“What? I’m just giving the little whore what she asks for.” She cried further and fought against him. Annoying but amusing at the same time.

“Since when did you become a rapist?”

“Since humans became less than animals and the ground we walk on. They’re simply here for our amusement and entertainment.” Ven turned to the girl who’s name he still failed to catch and grabbed her by the chin to force her into looking at him. “Now entertain me because frankly I’m pissed off that my family ditched me again. So be a good girl and help me calm down will ya.”

“If you wanted to be calmed down, just smoke, Ventus!”

“And since when do you care about renaigse? Never bothered you before when we fought and killed them even when they weren’t hurting us, so why the change of heart?”

“They were killing our land!”

“Those researchers didn’t do jackshit and you know it.” He scoffed. “C’mon, you know I have a rape kink, just let me enjoy myself would you. It’s not my fault they trapped a psychopath in a small place with vulnerable children.”

“It’s entirely your fault. You pointed a gun at your father! I would have done the same thing!”

Dragging the screaming and crying girl from the cafe with minimal effort, thank god for exercising the fat away, Ven huffed. “Good to know everyone’ll throw me away even when I’m being good. Now at least I know if I’m bad, I’ll know why I was thrown away.”

“Is that what this is about?” She scolded. “You’re upset that you’re wronged so you’re wronging others? Then why give the smoker what she wants.”

“It doesn’t take vision to see lung cancer in her future. Who am I to stand between her and fate.”

“Ventus!”

He’d dragged the poor girl to one of the rooms further down the hallway. There were no locks on the doors, but that was okay, they probably wouldn’t take it too seriously that some people might’ve had to go to the bathroom.

Once he was in the room though, he threw the screaming girl onto the bed. God she was perfect. She thrashed and screamed the perfect amount. It was so exhilarating. He could almost die with glee, but that meant he had to hurry up. He could already feel his memories start to fade if only because her reactions were just so glorious.

He couldn’t help but laugh with utter joy.

“Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done?

Dum, dum, dum it's the sound of my gun”

Ven started to sing quite nonchalantly and inappropriately for the situation. A clap of his hands and sway of his hips as he mused to the tune in his mind.

She tried to flee, but the door was steadfast as she tried and failed to open it. Wind was pretty powerful when concentrated. Speaking of which, maybe a bit of fun.

“Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done?

Dum, dum, dum it's the sound”

With a smile on his face, he stole the air from her throat, making her choke and whimper quiet pleas for help. He couldn’t hear them, but he saw her mouth it at least, allowing him to let up. It was jarring, but he stopped being in the mood.

“Fine.” He scoffed, ceasing his tune and releasing them both from the illusion and allowing her exit. She wasted no time in running away from him and screaming for help, no doubt help that would come in seconds now that the illusion was dismantled. It’s alright though, because if he got blamed, then he’d keep his rage and memories. His other self wouldn’t be allowed out. It was perfect actually so he ran after her again.

She made it to the cafe again, but that was perfect. A crowd to bear witness.

By the time he came in, he’d created a gun to point at the occupants of the cafe.

“Ventus!” The nurse from before breathed out in a panic. “Where did you get that?!”

“I have creation powers.” He shrugged nonchalantly. “I’ve had them for millions of years so I know how to use them. Same with the rest of my abilities.” The nurses looked to what now actually were orderlies, probably came running at the screams. “Now hand me the girl and I won’t shoot anyone.”

They didn’t make a move, not at first, but they also didn’t hand the girl who’d hugged the nurse and cried over.

“Your loss.” Again, he shrugged. He aimed it at the sobbing redhead. “I always did like corpses anyway. So obedient they are.”

Steadying his aim, he began a new song

“Ra-ta-ta-ta Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta”

He pulled the trigger, only for the gun to be moved and shot at towards the ground instead, just narrowly missing his foot.

With a scowl, he turned to find another orderly behind him. Well fuck, maybe he should have paid attention to how the air shifted. Got too greedy he guessed.

Said guard tore the gun from his hand and hugged him tight to her body, restraining Ventus’ arms and pulling him off the ground for him to kick pathetically at his assailant.

The nurse that greeted him earlier reluctantly let go of the crying girl for another nurse to handle and came up to him then, much calmer now that some bitch had to restrain him. “You are not Ventus. I know that boy, and he’s sweet and caring. He would never do anything like this so who are you?”

“Sorry not sorry, but the Ventus you know is nothing but an illusion. I’m the real Ventus. He’s just an imposter. He might as well be the annoying voice in my head.”

“No, you’re the one that comes out when he blacks out.” She hissed. He knew her. Her name was Maria. She was usually his caretaker in this place. Real nice, but real dumb. “Now let him come back.”

“Well gee, I would return to my retaded self, but I’m too high strung to. That’s why I was trying to fuck that bitch. Endorphins and shit.”

“You were just trying to hurt me!” The girl cried.

“Well,” He cocked his head “You’re right about that, but if I did fuck her, I’d be back to the Ven you know so just let me do it and we all win.”

“We will never let you hurt anyone here.” Maria hissed, hands balled into fists at her sides. Real sexy when she was mad.

“Alright, how about you fuck me then. I do love a good rape, but I guess since this asshole has me restrained, I’m a bit outta luck huh.”

“No, we know how to handle Ven when he’s acting out and dangerous.”

“Oh you mean by drugging me like my family? That’ll make the trust issues go away. But by all means, drug me. I’ll stick around and the Ven you know’ll keep getting lost in my infinite rage.

Maria moved closer to stand before Ven and his asshole assailant. She stood right before him. “You can let him go.”

“Are you sure?” The guard asked.

“Positive.”

She was reluctant, but did as requested and let the troublesome blond go. He immediately went for the gun, but Maria grabbed his arm to stop him. It’s alright though, working out all the time made him stronger than her.

“It’ll be alright, Ven.” She assured softly. It sounded genuine too. He never doubted Maria though, she always was genuine.

Ven stopped his chase and turned to give her a scowl, one full of fresh tears that threatened to stream down his face.

“It’s never alright though. Nothing’s going right even in this life. I’ve lived for lifetimes and I’ve never seen it go right.” He cried. He used his free arm to wipe away tears from his eyes. He supposed such a phrase was just a sweet spot for him. How annoying.

“Then help me understand what’s hurting you.” She insisted calmly. “I don’t know if you are Ven or not, but you’re hurt so let me help you.”

“I am Ven.” He muttered, head hung. “But no one wants to accept that because they see me when I’m normal so they separate me from my rage.”

“Alright then, Ven, how about we go to my office and you can tell me what’s wrong.”

It was tempting, and he really wanted to do it, but she wouldn’t understand anything so would there be a point? She’d just think he’s delusional. He supposed he could show her magic, but that might make her afraid of him and he didn’t want that. She was too special to lose.

“Drug me, I don’t want to remember anymore. I want to be ignorant again.”

“I’ve heard about your addiction, Ventus, we’re not going to drug you.”

He gritted his teeth at that, scowling. “Fine, then let me go to bed. I want to calm down more first.”

Maria looked to the orderly and nodded. They released him. He didn’t even bother looking towards the gun this time. Instead, he did as he said, walked out with an escort and to his room to lay back down. The escorting guard pulled the blankets over him which he couldn’t help but be softly thankful over. Gave him the guise he needed to create a syringe fill with valium. He waited until the guard had left without a word though, taking in the air to note that she stood in the door for a moment to watch him. Once she left though, he wasted no time in injecting the drug into his arm.

Plenty for a rush of much needed euphoria. It was so calming. So peaceful. So nice. Something he needed very much after the day he’d had. A shame, he didn’t actually get to take his anger out on anyone this time, but that was okay, he still felt good even without the drug or assault. Actually, he felt a bit bad for the assault. If he still had his memories when he woke up, maybe he’d apologize. But later, for now he’d hide the evidence of the needle under his pillow and sleep.