It had started like any other day in the Castle that Never was, Roxas forced himself out of bed with his head feeling like it weighed a million tons, going about his usual morning, or whenever it was in the World that Never was, (Or W.N as Axel called it) routine. Which consisted of brushing his teeth, making sure his coat was in good condition and ready for the day, and finally, polishing his Keyblade until he realized that it was in a state of permanent sparkle, therefore, incapable of getting any type of grime on it whatsoever.
Marluxia would be jealous.
So that was pretty much Roxas' mornings, but other then the fact he had passed by the Superior in the hallway, nothing really happened yet. Expect maybe for the fact Xemnas looked at him for about one fifth of a second, which was longer then he ever looked at anyone, should they not be a in a meeting. Otherwise the notion onto itself was, totally, completely, impossible. But hey, Roxas lived in a place that shouldn't be, and could summon giant keys to his aide at anytime. The impossible was a regular occurrence in his life and today would be no different.
At least, that's what the Samurai Nobody had figured when he had passed by Vexen's room/workshop/evil lab/madhouse/Vexcave. All things considered, the loud THUMP that went off like a low powered explosion should've been his first clue that today, would've gone horribly, horribly, wrong.
The smoke coming out should've been his second.
Against all common sense, Roxas dared to open the door to the fourth's room and went inside.
What was "inside" consisted of a long series of tables and test tubes, there was no bed, only more and more rows of various lab equipment and notebooks. A scientist work was never done after all. And that was certainly the case for Vexen's room.
Minus a certain scientist, however.
"Vexen?" Roxas called out, a small worry came to his mind. Did the Chilly academic blow himself up? They had a betting pool going on between Axel, Demyx, Luxord(He never missed a game of chance), and Xigbar to see how long it took for Vexen to either, blow himself up, die by one of his experiments gone wild, inject himself with a poison, or get trapped within a pocket dimension from which he couldn't escape. Roxas himself didn't enter, but Axel had promised to share some of the Gil with him should he win, so he was ever so slightly rooting for explosion. Not that he wanted Vexen to die, just he didn't want to loose. Natural instinct he guessed. Not that it mattered, as it appeared Vexen had in fact, blown himself up.
That's when a series of coughs came from the wall on the other side of the room. So he hadn't been killed in a fiery ball of death. Oh well.
"Vexen!" Roxas ran over to the scientist, it was hard to tell at first, as he had been covered in black soot which went wonderfully with the coat, but number IV had in fact, been pushed against the wall when whatever went off. It appeared that the blast wasn't really a blast, more or less a strong push of kinetic energy. So no fire, Axel wouldn't be pleased.
"Wha-" hack "what are you" wheeze, "doing here?" Vexen managed to finish.
"Making sure you're okay." Roxas retorted.
"Well" –hack- "You're assistance is not necessary." No attempt at hiding his disdain was hidden.
"Sorry for trying to help." Roxas replied bitterly. Turning to leave, he felt himself stumble awkwardly over something lying on the ground, blown loose by the force of the explosion. "What the?"
Vexen managed to recover long enough to look at the device Roxas had tripped over.
"Ah," One last cough, "don't touch that."
Too late, Roxas was already holding it. It looked like something one might wear around your wrist, like a cast for a broken arm.
Vexen cursed.
"What does it do?" The blond asked.
"That doesn't matter!" Vexen snatched the device away from Roxas.
"Oh come on!" Roxas pleaded, "Please?"
Vexen took his most solemn glare at the boy and found it blown away. Arguing was never really his strong suit.
"Fine." He took the cast and put it around his left arm, "It's suppose to increase the efficiency of the dark portals, but what I get when I turn it on…" With those words, a white portal was spawned, not the usual black one.
It was different in the sense of something other then color. The usual Corridor's of darkness had a foreboding feeling about them, a sense of dread. This one didn't. Instead, there was a sense of warm about it, like he was lying in a grassy field without a care in the world.
"What…" Roxas was lost for words.
"Exactly what I said." Vexen huffed, "I have no idea where it leads, nor am I eager to test it first hand."
Roxas felt drawn to it, and he was in fact. He was subconsciously moving towards it, "Why not? It feels…nice."
"So glad you've decided to volunteer."
"What?" And the next thing he knew had been pushed into the portal.
The very next thing he knew was the hard ground of a wooden floor that was not there before.
Now this wasn't the first thing he noticed, instead, he noticed the fact wasn't in the Castle. This in turn led to the floor, then, to the rows and rows of books lining an orange shelf. Where was he? A library?
Slowly picking himself off the ground, he noted that he still had his black Organization XIII coat on and he was largely intact aside from the growing headache. So this wasn't a prank pulled by Xigbar and Vexen. Not that the Chilly academic would agree to something so childish but…
"Vexen…" Roxas growled, when he got back, when he got back, there was going to be hell to pay.
"Who are you?"
On second thought…
Turning around to the new voice, what number XIII saw was a tall man in a coat that covered him from top to bottom. It was an almost exact replica of the Organizations', expect for the color, which was pure white while his own was black as darkness.
As soon as he did, the man seemed startled, as if he met him before and had seen him long gone. "What are you…?" He threw his arm up and assumed a battle stance; immanently a sword that resembles a bat's wing appeared in his grasp. The inner part of the wing was black, but the blade was red. A red eye was engraved between the blade and it's handle.
Roxas summoned his own Kingdom Key on a reflex; the gold and sliver blade came to his grip with a familiar weight. It soon dawned on the Nobody that drawing his weapon only increased his threat level to the man.
Not that it mattered; he seemed pretty dead set on killing him.
"That Keyblade…" The man murmured, "Doesn't matter. I don't know how you got out, but I'm sending you to the void!" With a growl, the man swung overhead at the Blond.
Roxas blocked it with his own, creating a blade lock, "What are you doing?" He demanded.
The man pushed against the Keyblade, "Doing something I should've done before!" He growled. Suddenly disengaging the lock, the white hooded one batted aside the Kingdom key and kicked him squarely in the chest. Sent back a few feet, Roxas barely had to recover before the man came in with a lunge. Throwing himself to the floor, the Keyblade master came into a roll a few feet away from the man. At least that's what he thought would happen.
"Where the other one?" A voice like steel said above him.
How did-
Roxas' thought process was cut off when he was punted like a football and landed flat on his back on the floor.
"Where is the second Keyblade?" The man demanded.
Picking himself up, Roxas glared at the man with look that could melt ice, "What are you talking about?" He roared before charging at the imposter. Jumping into the air, Roxas came down at him, the Keyblade screeching through the air.
The man stepped to the side as Roxas slashed at where he was a second before. Jumping a few feet back, The man suddenly launched a pulsing orb of darkness at him. Pivoting, Roxas managed to bring his Keyblade up in time to block, only for the orb to explode and send him flying through an open doorway.
Skidding across the ground, the Nobody struggled to remain conscious. Using his Keyblade as leverage, Roxas rose to his feet and glared at the man who was walking causally through the doorway.
"Why are you…" At this point in the fight, Roxas was beginning to suck in a lot of air.
"Hpmh. The least you could do is put is try to put a challenge, Roxas." The man chuckled.
"We've never met!" Roxas yelled, "Just who are you?"
Again the man chuckled, and then lifted his hood. Reveling middle aged man with green yellow eyes and sliver hair.
Roxas was unimpressed, "I am supposed to know that look?"
The man shrugged, it seemed whatever anger he had melted away. "It should, considering it's the one that beat you."
Roxas growled like an animal, "We'll see about that!" Extending his Keyblade in front of him, Roxas tired to use fire, but it was a futile effort. The man simply threw up a shield as soon as the spell came within striking distance.
"Is that all you have?" The man smirked.
"Riku!" A new voice, one of a elder, "What is the meaning of this?"
The smirk vanished and a sneer replaced it.
"Just removing a pest." "Riku" responded.
The elder came into view, he was wearing black ropes with red highlights. His head was also covered in black bandages that covered one eye with a red belt. Creepy mad scientist came to Roxas' mind.
If the scientist was surprised, he hid it well. "Well well, Roxas. I do wonder how you got out, but you with gone, that's one less problem for the universe." Was that…Regret in his voice? Was he being regretful for an enemy?
"What are you talking about?" If there was one thing Roxas hated, it was tricks. He hated them with every fiber of his being. Deceit was something needed to be expunged from the world. All worlds.
"I'm sorry Roxas. But there is no other way." The old man turned to the young one, "Finish him." Riku nodded, pleased.
Setting into a stance, Riku lunged at the Nobody, his blade brimming against the evening sun.
Roxas threw up his guard, but the next thing he saw was darkness.
Opening theme: Hikari by Hikaru, Utada.