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Lauriam stepped out the elevator into the dark room that boasted its many screens, each one showing a different world in the universe. The glaring light from them being the only thing illuminating the dark room. The static noise coming from a few blank screens eerily filling the silence.
Brain's lair.
It was actually called the control room, but it felt much more like it was his lair than anything else. He spent so much time up here, and no one else ever entered much.
"Brain, you called me?"
Brain stood beside the table, flipping through the Book of Prophecies. His long messy bangs hung over his face and eyes shaded by his hat caused him to feel shifty, and Lauriam wasn't sure how many secrets he kept behind that mask.
Brain nonchalantly glanced up at his comrade as he flipped another page before closing the book and straightening. "Oh, yes. Congratulations, Lauriam."
"For what?" Genuine confusion on his face.
A smile snuck on his face and he chuckled quietly. "I forget that you guys don't keep track of these things." He slid his hands into his pockets and took a few steps forward. "It's time for your moment."
"Brain you're not making sense, and I do have other things to do."
"No no, you don't understand. It's your moment in history. It's in the book," He gestured with his head at the table, "and you can't get around it."
"Well, what is it?" Lauriam didn't like the way the light from the screen hit Brain's face, the way he couldn't see his eyes. He didn't like the raspy hum of the computer and how it filled the back of your mind.
Brain pulled his hands out his pockets and tilted his head towards him. "You remember what I said before about following the book and making sure the events happen?"
Lauriam nodded slowly, his gaze flitting to the book on the table and back to the fellow union leader.
"Well that's what I've been doing." He turned around and strode up to the table and opened the book. Without looking up at him he gestured for Lauriam to step up next to him as he flipped through pages. "I've been making sure that the events recorded here happen, that all this happens right. And look," he pointed to a section of text and looked up at Lauriam. "right here it talks about you."
Lauriam squinted at the vague rhyming lines, flowery descriptions, and old or odd words. "It's talking about dead flowers, Brain."
Brain shrugged and made his way over to the chair in front of the large screens, leaning against the back of it. He chuckled as he shook his head at Lauriam. "You gotta read between the lines. I suppose it's kind of an art, but seriously. It's rather obvious."
"So, why are you telling me this?"
"So you can be ready."
Lauriam suddenly didn't feel like he wanted to actually be in this room anymore. He didn't like how small it felt. He didn't like the face Brain was making, or that he couldn't actually see much of his face to begin with. The bright screens right behind him lit up his silhouette and cast heavy shadows on the rest of him. The glare hit Lauriam's eyes and caused little dots to spring into his vision and a veil of black around everything else. He didn't like this, and he wanted to leave.
"Well um, I'm actually busy so I'd better go now…"
The bright glow around Brain's hand drew Lauriam's attention as a keyblade came to rest there in a flash that lit the dim room for an instant. Brain took a few steps forward as Lauriam glanced from his keyblade to his face. Worry and fear sprung into his heart and rested in his stomach like a weight.
"Brain. What are you doing." He tried to keep his voice even, tried to stay calm. But it slipped into his voice like a sharp high edge and his eyes darted about but never fully left his comrade before him.
"I thought it was obviously clear. I'm doing my duty." He leveled the blade's tip to Lauriam's chest as a dark cloud formed around it, pulsing and smoking. The purple glow highlighted his shaded face and dimly lit his golden-cast eyes as he cocked his head and smiled. "I'm just a hand helping fate along."