The Sound of Silence

[Albert Wesker]

His amusement was short-lived.

Only moments after he stepped out into the true force of the downpour, he practically felt eyes watching him. Just moments before a voice drifted his way through the sheeting rain. "An interesting way of gathering information you have, mister...Wesker."

Despite his short association with its owner, the sound was unmistakable. Wesker slowly turned his head around, looking down the street. Back toward where he had come from, before his detour. There stood Xehanort. The old man, hunched over with the weight of his years. Arms folded so casually and calmly behind his back. The young girl at his side, holding an umbrella over the both of them; only moderate protection against this downpour, but it was better than nothing.

"I have little taste for wasting time on such trivialities as polite conversation with a drunkard," Wesker said dismissively. "The information that piqued my curiosity has now been attained; its presence will serve me quite well." He turned and started away, pacing into the gloom and damp. "Now, please do excuse me. I have...an appointment to see to."

Despite the finality of his words, there came a plodding step behind him, lightly thudding on the cobblestones and splashing through already growing puddles. A slow pace, even and measured, clearly in no rush. Wesker could have easily outdistanced such a thing.

Again, Xehanort's words drifted toward him, the knowing grin plastered on his features a near-tangible thing lurking among his tone. "And where exactly is this appointment of yours to be scheduled? I didn't gather you were much of a doctor, and your business doesn't seem to be stationed here."

Looking back over his shoulder, the former Umbrella executive could see the reflection in the old man's golden eyes as lightning flickered overhead. Unnatural, inhuman, some might say evil. Whatever they were, though, they were set in the face of a schemer. A different league of predator to the one that Albert Wesker had been cultivated and built himself up to be, but no less dangerous. A much more thorough schemer and planner; not the cunning hunter and clever organizer. He was a man who could see a false pretense and an underlying plan when it was set in front of him, even if he couldn't tell what it was kept behind the speaker's back. He knew there was something in both hands; just not which one was the coin.

"....perhaps you can find out for yourself," he finally spoke, the faintest hint of a smirk curling at his face. "I suspect it will be quite a long trip, however. Are you certain you can keep up, old man?"

There was an amused glint that flashed through Xehanort's eyes, as he shifted his posture. Straightening up and standing tall as he could with a brief outbreak of pride. "Don't go thinking a little roadtrip through some foul weather and terrain will be the end of me, boy." The grin on his face, bared teeth and all, spoke enough that said the threat was only mostly false. "I've been on longer roads than you can wrap your mind around. This won't even register."

"Well then. At least your confidence will survive the trip."

Post Word Count: 535 // Total Word Count: 1,195
Post Character Count: 3,113 // Total Character Count: 6,787