In The Garden Below Us

"We belong to different worlds, both of us", someone had said, "And it should be left at that."

Those words came to me as I and Sight tagged along with Grey. Grey looked like a ferocious fighter, just as Bedivere had told me. Unfortunately, he wasn't in the best of conditions. But I was confident that we could take on the sword ourselves, if it came to it.

"Do you have some clue where the sword might be?", I asked but Grey remained silent.

"Don't worry, boy. I've got it", Sight patted my shoulder.

Grey stopped and turned to face us.

"You've got it?"

Sight nodded, smiling excitedly and failing to hide it. I remembered when Sight had helped me find Deli. He was good at finding things apparently, which was ironic. But it didn't surprise me anymore. Sight had the most irony about him than anyone else I ever knew.

Sight started leading the way, while Grey and I followed. He took the oddest turns, and though it might have made me nervous some other day, right then I was confident that he'll get us there.

"Does he really know?", Grey whispered to me, doubting.

"You can count on him", I answered.

We soon turned into a narrow alley, half buried in the rubble. Sight stopped shortly after entering it. He then turned to face us.

"Oh, my bad", he said before quickly extending his hand and casting a barrier around us.

Just then the ground crumbled, and the three of us fell down the slide. If not for Sight's barrier, we'd have been buried.

"We made it, boy", Sight said, undoing the barrier that was holding us.

I looked about me. We were underground but there was greenery all around us. In the middle, stood a strangely twisting and very old tree, and a gravestone right under its shade.

The only way for the light to come in was the hole that had just formed, bringing us down here. Yet, the place looked like a hidden garden. There was a freshness that hadn't even touched a single corner of the city above. I'm sure even if the city wasn't in ruins, it wouldn't have had such a lovely garden anywhere.

I found it rather nice, although it was surprising. Sight looked concerned instead.

"Well...where's Excalibur?", I asked him.

"Somewhere nearby", he answered in a low voice.

Grey was completely occupied by the gravestone in the middle of the garden. He slowly made his way towards it. Indeed, that was the only article in that garden that seemed out of place. But then again, perhaps that place wasn't a garden in the first place. The gravestone was huge. At first it seemed to me to be a memorial stone but upon closer inspection, there was something carved on it.

"~Ah, Grey!~"

A voice came from the far end of the garden, where it was too dark to see anything. The voice might have been beautiful but it sang out his name in such an annoying, repulsive way, that I couldn't help be on guard. Seeing as Grey wasn't fit to fight, I thought I'd go ahead and cover him. But Sight stopped me, silently, pointing to the ground.

The ground was wet. I understood Sight's concern now. I should have paid heed to it earlier. Chopper would be disappointed.

"Huh? Hey, hey, Grey! Won't you even answer?", the voice this time was accompanied by an emerging figure.

"Excalibur...", Grey spoke in his grave voice.

"Huh? Rude! Quite rude of you, dear Grey! And after I was being so forgiving too, even though you...", a fair headed woman stepped out of the dark, with unbelievably dark eyes, "...you killed me."

So that was Silver, I thought, or rather, what was left her. I didn't know it was Grey who had killed her the first time in the city. I couldn't imagine what he must have felt, or what was going through his mind right now. Was it the same as when I killed Prophet? In any case, I had no time to be thinking about it right now.

Silver walked around the tree and stood right opposite Grey now.

"Sight, we need to-"

"Don't worry, boy", Sight said, and I noticed he was ready to deploy a barrier.

"I'm here to kill you again", Grey answered coldly.

"Eh? That's cruel of you, Grey. I've done my duty of dying enough times already. How many times are you going to kill me, eh?", Silver tilted her head sideways, "How many times are you going to kill your beloved Silva?"

"Don't take that name again", Grey kept his composure, "You shouldn't have built this place. It doesn't do you any good."

"Doesn't do me any good? Are you sure?", that was her cue that she was waiting to fight back.

Grey took it, quite eagerly in fact, "You should have left and found a better place to hide, Excalibur. Or should I say, Arthur?"

Silver's mouth twisted into a grin and she laughed aloud, throwing her head back, repulsively, "Full points for you, dear Grey."