GLITCH
Chapter One
Genesis
There has been a time when in all respect, none is gained and none is lost. There are things that people cannot do to gain their own dreams back. There are things that others wish to have, but cannot. They hunger, they need, they desire and appear to be the most narcissistic of humans anyone has ever seen.
Can one really just lie there and watch it all happen? Can someone just ignore it? Can they just pretend that horrors never existed; that the nightmares of the heartless family members forever lost and dead to the world?
No one really knows or understands the answer to such a thing, but a single man attempted to find out. Some things were better left unknown, as he and his many followers had been taken over completely by the force. They had lost themselves, become a part of what they wanted to know about. It wasn't something they preferred, but now their purpose was lost. How could they do something when motivation lacked?
He fell into the deep void of selfishness, filled with the need to simply know. He and his team of researchers became so corrupted, that things so very precious to them became lost in an infinite bowel of darkness. They surrendered themselves to it, both willing and unwilling. He didn't understand, but he knew enough that it wasn't natural. He resisted, and succeeded. Now, he lumbers around in himself, looking for a place of solace and forgiveness.
She looked around the small room, taking in the various shades of blue. The floor was a strange slate shade with a lighter, periwinkle like color. It glowed with a light akin to the sun, but not nearly as ferocious in small quantities. Riveted, she continued to stare at such things as if they were meaningless, yet held everything within them that she could have ever wanted to know.
Her eyes looked over the small, curved structures. They passed over the mechanical devices, wondering what could possibly be happening as everything seemed to move and blink to life. Something inside of her doubled in palpitations by the minute, frightened by such unknowns. Her breath picked up, her body in dire need of more oxygen with such a fast pace.
She didn't understand anything that was happening, to her, or to anything that was around her. Whimpering, she took a step back and collided with the very thing that had created her in more ways then one. Her eyes looked up, glowing with some kind of negative weariness. Like something you didn't want to come was coming, and you knew it. Only, she did not understand such a thing.
She exhaled, touching the beam of light between two needle-like points of the machine. It glowed brighter, like pearlescent shades of periwinkle reflecting off the surface of the moon. She fell back a step, frightened and unsure of what to do. The surface of her fingers tingled with the remnants of the light. She felt the tiny, multiplying insects crawling around on her flesh. Disgusting the sensation was. Utterly becoming of something she didn't understand; whenever things would begin to make sense.
The screens flickered with their midday sky glow. The light faded into the midnight essence as if a god somewhere was blinking his eyes closed. When the glorious light returned, questions were raised, but didn't have that much of a high priority. They shifting bars returned to normal, and the dormant figure's silhouette undisturbed by it. He relaxed and reclined backwards.
Suddenly the world around her melted into darkness. With a small click, she realized she had no way out. Trapped; all alone in the dark. A sense of fear clung helplessly to her metaphorical flesh. Her arms jerked forward, searching for something to touch. Nothing. A panicked whimper reverberated around her oral cavern. Terror; intense, sharp, overmastering fear.
A wisp of something brushed against her leg. Startled, she cried out, eyes darting without sight. She struggled to think coherently over the large beats in her throat, to swallow her nonexistent pulse. It caressed against her once more. Caught off guard, she found herself prostrated submissively. Everything seemed fuzzy from down there, like a suffocating gas clouding around her head. It was hard not to hyperventilate.
The light returned in the shape of a square-like zero, bright and resembling the summer skies reiteratively. However, the summer skies darkened with the shadows; pure onyx shadows. They had antennae-like things emerging from their heads. Their fingers spilled forth in long, thin claw-like shapes, beady little yellow eyes glaring. At the same time, they looked at her with a sense of longing and acceptance--the thin liquid lemon looking so thick and real. She screamed, hurrying to get away. She fell backwards, another swarm of them coming from behind. They reached out to her, seemingly ready to accept her as one of them.
Then everything became nothing.
One Mistake
Restoration at sixty-seven percent.
"What was that?" A surprised inquisitiveness embraced his tone, stark still from the strange event. His deep amber eyes examined the room, his tone not fit for the sense of innocent curiosity. Everything as back to its sense of normalcy, but a light tension hung in the air from the recent event.
Two Mistakes
"Nothing that wouldn't affect Sora's restoration," the second man murmured, his own voice as shockingly deep as the cloaked figure's. DiZ continued to manipulate the keys and keep a close eye on the screen in front of him.
Everything was perfectly normal.
Ansem didn't know much about computers, but he knew a warning sign when he saw one; he saw one. He approached the small confines of the device, looking over DiZ's shoulder. His cloak rippled with his movements, tapping along the back of his boots. Barely visible amber eyes watched the letters scroll across the screen, and simply vanish.
"DiZ, there was a substantial amount of data expelled during the... black out," he said, for lack of a better word. His brows furrowed, and he looked down with a sense of confusion and the need to know and understand something.
"Any place in particular?" DiZ asked, turning to face the solemn helper of his. A man whose name was indeed his own, a man whose name made him want to cry and scream at himself. A person who was in the grip of the darkness, and living under a false entity. A boy who followed in his footsteps, giving into the darkness for all the wrong reasons.
"Hotel Existence."
Hotel Existence
An establishment of data infringement providing a continuance in being or life; existing: To live at a minimal level; subsist. To have timeless or abstract existence, as a number, relation, etc: to provide sustenance or support for; maintain. Raison d'etre.
The darkness proceeds the falling of many empires in tragic tails of the past, with no place left to go but to corrupt the minds of the young ones. They fall into the ocean of darkness, rendering their roseate symbols of purity. From each heart there is born something terrible from the darkest pits of within. Everyone has it. They can't run, they can try to hide, but it's always there eating away at something precious and needed within a hollow body.
Existence.
Without it, anyone is easily overcome by the darkness lurking in the shadows, watching with eager and hungering eyes to feed and accept a new one amongst themselves. A sick family of nothingness. Corrupting the very last limits of light to make it surrender, like in the fairytales of times so very long ago when there was no sun.
Yet it was coming; the darkness was looming over the horizon. It would reign again, sharing and forcing its fear around for plenty to be immersed within. A submissive desire, looming dark within the central cavity of nothingness and just simply waiting...
For that right moment. I am hopelessly lost and confused...! Time skip-thingy. Her thick eyelashes cast a shadow over the honey brown irises, hiding the blatant contempt, her lush tan cheeks contorted with the rest of her visage. For nothing, she certainly possessed a knowledge of things greater than herself. Such things as they were contained in something that cannot be given to the artificial.
"What are you looking at?" she finally snapped, looking over to the tall, grey-skinned woman. Her dark amethyst and onyx attired swayed around her form, grouping collectively around her head. Two horn-like things protruded from the top, a possible semblance of her hairstyle. She didn't know what to think of the malevolent woman. She watched with weary, un-existing eyes as the woman ranted and raved, pausing during the interruption to clutch at her scepter. Her knuckles mottled from the strength.
"Me? Staring?" she asked, incredulous and angered. Her lemon eyes gazed at the mirror nestled by her, watching the darkness of the room ebb and flow with its own current. Her clawed hands reached out to touch her pale, grey reflection. The only thing to be seen was herself, and nothing else. "Why," she began, a new arrogant light in her voice. Her hand fell away to her side. "I am staring at nothing, absolutely nothing."
Something blossomed within her chest, a sense of a flower having taken root and poisoning her insides. She, although she didn't understand it, liked the feeling. It gave her a new sense of authority and physical appearance. She, too, gazed at the mirror just to see a flicker of something show in the light and die away. She immediately understood Maleficent's connotation.
"You take that back; now!" she shouted to the woman, struggling to make herself heard, to make herself just be. She saw the flicker again, the wave of a tan, lithe figure cuddling within herself. Wisps of something akin to hair billowed about her, and nothing else could have been seen. She felt the fire quell and fall silent within her figure. That's what she was, nothing.
Maleficent looked at the mirror again, her eyes darting over to the area where the opposed flicker came from. A small, indolent smile curled at her withering ruby lips. "Who would have thought that emotions were the key to controlling the darkness?" she asked, mocking the nothingness surrounding her. Her eyes stayed carefully focused on the mirror, watching the stillness and the flowing shadows. "Keep doing that, and you'll be able to physically manifest yourself for great amounts of time." she continued, whipping around in a flurry of pomegranate, tainted violet, and obsidian.
The nothing looked around the room, surveying the many things of darkness she had been offered. She wanted to accept, to sustain a physical form more than anything, but logic told her that it wasn't just. It wasn't right, and she couldn't do it even for the longing emptiness of being nothing.
"No," she said, her voice suddenly indifferent as if having said something so very many times. Like it was a bother, or something close to it. She couldn't feel, but she knew that this was a repeat of greater conversations. She could feel the words the woman used so many times prior breathing over her little area. A physical necessity; breathing.
"Very well then." The annoying tap of her scepter on the cold, stone floor reverberated through the monstrous room, and sickly jaundiced eyes returned back to the mirror along the nearby wall. Her eyes breathed over the intricately simple designs, a light curve around the edges. The flicker took place again in a burst of tawny colors. Maleficent elegantly turned around with a step that time, watching the darkness pulse towards that specific point.
"One cannot resist the darkness; it is necessary for existence." Her voice carried over the air, a deeper feminine tone. The sickly sweet words curved around the nothing, stirring up something created by the surrounding corporeal darkness. She continued with her ranting, asking how it felt to have a taste of something so real at her fingertips, just waiting for her to accept it.
"That would be cheating," the nothing stated.
"Is it really? Is it really cheating to accept something you will have to be manifested from later on?" she walked through the sea of shadows, watching the current with amused eyes. "You cannot be a part of the light only. Even the Keyblade Wielder cannot exist without darkness in his childish heart," she continued on, chastising the little statement. She made the point that darkness was absolutely essential for a corporeal interaction amongst organisms and various other life forms. The virulent promises won the timid nothing over within a split second, washing her mind over with dark intentions. She could feel the ebb and the flow surrounding her, whirling into place just for certain, nonexistent thing.
"Give in to the Heartless," she taunted, the mechanical acting of her voice so very usual and typical. It was by those very words that she had gotten so many others to fall into the shadows, to render their hearts and become a pawn in a chess game of things with so much more than innocence and heart at stake.
Existence.
Maleficent watched the girl embrace the pooling, ebbing, and flowing darkness within her metaphorical heart. It swirled around the area the grant of data was estimated to be within, spiraling like water heading down a drain. Only this time, the flickers became something much longer, much more available to humane eyes. She saw the small, petite form of a young girl. Her lush tawny skin glowing within her darkened strands of hair of the darkest chocolate without being flowing ebony. As the darkness settled itself within her, manifesting a corporeal symbol of her shadowed allegiance, the old witch turned her head to the side.
"Pity," she commented lightly, uncaring. Her attire fluffed around her languid movements, mimicking the tide of an ocean. She circled around the whirlpool, watching with a scrutinizing and analytical gaze. And indeed, the young woman was a pity by name, existence, and by damnation.
Alianora. Is that her name? ..; "Tell me, how does it feel to finally be?" Maleficent's cool, lemon eyes gazed upon the small girl. She traced over every delicate curve of her flesh, watching the flawless skin go unmarred. The young girl curled herself into a ball, hiding herself from the analytical gaze of the woman.
She thought that she had been feeling things before, but she was wrong. Her honey brown eyes gazed around the algid, stone room surrounding her. The wisps of the shadows clung to her newly physical appearance, combing through her fingers and tickling along the insides of her bowels. Something in her abdomen ached with a need for energy, the mitochondria of her shallow corporeality drumming along the surface of her mind; asking for pabulum. She looked around her, filled with so many things that she didn't understand. Her eyes widened in wonder, she could only guess, as she experienced so many things. Her bare derrière overwhelmed with a feeling of being made of ice. Her mind screamed at her to stand up, to move and find something that overflew with a fast, uneven paced molecular movement. Alianora didn't understand the command, and just fell flat against the arctic floor. A wave of goose pimples washed across her flesh.
"It feels..." she paused midway, she couldn't think of a single word to describe the sensations she was feeling. The lowly ache, the amazement, the wonder, the cold, confusion, happiness, and worst off all, a hunger for a constant corporeality. Her fabricated dark cardiac organ fell with the thought that this was only temporary, but could indeed happen again.
Maleficent threw a covering over the girl's body, saving her decency for that little act. The ebony cloth fell around her form, contouring and brushing against things Alianora felt shouldn't be touched at all. An inner fire sparked inside her cold, corpse-like body. She watched with amazed eyes as Maleficent hovered over her. The young girl took the initiative to clutch the sheet to herself, and draw to her full height. She felt wobbly, standing on her two feet, and reached out for something to grab. Maleficent backed away, cruelly, to watch her struggle. Her hopes shattered when the girl managed to straighten out. Approaching her again, the witch took a stand and reached her hand out to touch the lush cheeks of her newest creation. Pale and grey hands tensed at the flawlessly silken feel, the imagery of honey and milk coming to mind.
Alianora didn't react at the tensed touch, but went on with a curiosity of the frigid caress. Maleficent's knuckles mottled again, clutching hard at the handle of her scepter. Her clawed hands cupped the thick skin of her cheek. Her thumb curved and caressed against it, as if entranced with the silken feel. The elongated nails dig into the flesh, rendering the dragoness' facial expression into one of malice and rage. It continued to pry at the seal of the flesh, pressing into it. Alianora's occularies opened to extensive depth, revealing a sense of fear and pain. From between her pale cherry lips came a strangled cry. Her eyes fell shut, squeezing as she writhed to get away from the woman's grasp. Her movement tore the seal, ripping into her flesh.
Tears stung at Alianora's eyes, the thin layer of liquid saline blurring her vision and making her uneasy on her feet. She fell to the ground in a heap of limbs and mewls of pain, knees bent underneath her at an awkward angle. Her hand reached to cup the injured cheek, recoiling instantly when the natural salt of her fingertips dipped into the wound. It seared with a pain greater than the actual movement conceiving and birthing it. She watched with entranced eyes as the thick, bright red liquid clung to the grooves in her flesh. Her mouth was agape much like a fish, and she could only watch with a morbid fascination as the liquid smeared at her touch, her thumb, fore, and middle fingers rubbing at it. She felt the taint of the liquid on her skin. A light sensation of worms crawled through her abdomen, weaving and burrowing holes in places not meant to suffer such things. Alianora wiped her hand against the cloth atop her form.
"It feels... painful," she declared softly, bringing her wide eyes up to the woman who gave her such a physical state. From the malicious look on her face, she understood the woman could both make and break her. What she was belonged entirely to her she could control to the point of being the most malleable resource available. She understood her position as a submissive pawn. No words needed to be said as she vanished into the darkness around her, the time limit having expired.
The silken blanket fell to the stone floor in a fluttering wave of silence, rippling into the sea of shadows with the white noise. Maleficent watched it, mesmerized with the delicate waves the shadows hid beneath, swirling into the fabricated hideout for a short amount of time. As she watched with a silent infatuation, an incorrigibly loud bang touched her door. She jerked her head in, shouting for the imbecile to enter. The fat, grizzly bear entered the room, pulling at the belt loops of his fancy red pants. He skittered into the light, unnerved and afraid by the surrounding darkness of the Heartless.
"Gee, wow, it's really dark and scary in here--"
"Just shut up and tell me what you want, buffoon!" she snapped at him, her voice louder than it had been moments ago with the pitiful girl. She could still feel the lingering presence of her nothingness. Her cold, hard yellow eyes gazed angrily at the lumbering giant. He stuttered, struggling to say something.
"I--uh.. Um... I... Er..." he tossed out incomprehensible syllables of nonexistent words.
"Get on with it," she said, her voice gone calm and low like a whisper. Her scepter rapped against the stone of the floor impatiently, expressing her suppressed rage and need to render him a Heartless as well.
"Well--I..." Her reproachfully murderous look encouraged him to go on, though squeamish in tone. "I located the Keyblade Wielder's location," he finally said.
"And?" she inquired impatiently.
"He's still keeping residence in Hollow Bastian."
Maleficent stomped the butt of her scepter on the floor once again, ignoring the spark of the metal and rock. Her face contorted with a mixture of rage and evident contemplation. She twirled around once, back facing him as she stepped over the silken black sheet in the middle of the floor. She listened to the sounds of her heavy, echoing footfalls in the stark silence. She could still hear Pete breathing.
"Then we'll just have to look for a new castle." Time skip-thingy. "Maleficent, what're we gunna do?" Pete lumbered around the room, his heavy metal-soled shoes making loud thunks along the ground. He paced, walking back in forth in circles, heaving around his body weight with waddle-like steps. He repeated the question several times that morning, his fat little fingers clutching at his chin in thought. Said witch didn't respond, and merely tapped her staff on the floor again. Occasionally, her voice would call out to the darkness surrounding them. Pete's spine would shiver and nearly collapse with her dark whispers. He couldn't hear her, but the malicious quality in her tone. It wasn't harsh in a way that signified admonishing something, but rather of adoration and cunningness.
Needless to say, he was severely unnerved. Oh look, the doorway was only so many feet away--
"Shut up!" she screeched, clearly perturbed by the annoying oddity such as Pete himself. If only the giant teddy bear would close his oral cavern for a single moment, maybe the old narcissistic witch could work something out; answer the question he'd been asking for days on end. Her normal demeanor returned, hand clutched at the scepter in her hands mildly. She drew herself to her feet, carelessly tossing the dress to the side.
"If you give me enough peace and quiet to think," she began, her maliciously calm voice echoing all around Pete. His skin prickled with goose pimples. "I could work out something, don't you think?" she turned the statement into a question, aiming it directly at him for her own sick, amusing purposes.
"Welp, I suppose..." he trailed off.
"Good," she said calmly. Her greedy golden occularies turned to burn metaphorical holes into his flesh. "Now go," she commanded, back in her normal state of mind. They were losing the war for the darkness' dominance, and Maleficent needed time to think her plan through--to fully examine all possible faults and conjure up solutions in the blink of an eye lest something go drastically while. During that time, the erstwhile apparition chose to make herself known.
Alianora could suddenly see herself again, her nigh immaculate features reflecting in the solidness of the mirror along the wall. She felt the vain narcissism possess her features, a trait indeed "inherited" from the wicked witch herself. She gazed at her dark brown, almost black, hair grazing along the small of her back. The straightness was a blessing, and the silken touch an angel's touch. Her tawny apparel blended well against the same shade of complexion, rendering her overall appearance as stunning and breathtaking. Yet, among all of that pulchritudinous reflection, a single clean laceration marred the flesh of her right cheek. Alianora abhorred it with a searing passion that only the darkness of her corporeal existence could create.
Maleficent turned to see the young woman lying on the floor, basking in the radiant light from up above. A sinister car of thought joined her thinking train, melting her stoic visage into one of a sly, demented smirk. Alianora caught the gist of the narcissist's expression, frowning in a way the darkness had shown her how to. The taller of the two females sauntered over to the one stationed on the floor. She listened to the reverberating footsteps as they grew in decibels, coming to an abrupt stop before her. Alianora looked up to meet the eyes of the woman wearily.
"Alianora," Maleficent cooed, reaching her hand out caress along the curve of her chin affectionately. Unnerved, the said woman returned the gaze, uncaring of the gesture. The gentle look of malevolent intentions reflecting in her eyes was a magnificent display of fondness. Almost as if she were gazing at a lover or a favored child, but instead completely the opposite.
Maleficent continued to roll her mind with the adoration in her occularies. "Would you mind doing me a favor, my dear, sweet child?"
The young woman swallowed thickly, the sensation of the saliva dripping down her throat reminding her how alive she was. "Yes..." she trailed off, debating on whether to add the word or not. Her metaphysical heart thudded loudly inside her bosom, reminding her that she was still there. She allowed the word to roll of her lips, "mother," her voice barely above a whisper. Seemingly pleased, Maleficent nodded and stepped back, removing her clawed hand from her throat.
The witch began to murmur clear instructions of what Alianora was to do. She would go to the place she formerly reigned supreme at, where the Keyblade wielder resided, and keep an eye on him. Perhaps befriending the boy would be an extra bonus for when the young woman got her reward. Alianora hoped, she really did with all that she could, that her reward would be her freedom--if everything was done right.
"The Keyblade Bearer... His name is of the Sky."
Contrary to popular opinion, Leon wasn't drowning himself in the angst of the past. Nor did he brood. He reflected; reminisced on the wonderful parts that he missed so dearly sometimes. He thought about the things before his world was surrounded by darkness, the lifestyle he lived, his family, and his love.
Rinoa Heartilly.
He remembered all of the tragic happenings they had to face at such a young age, though very "Hollywood." He remembered how desperate he had been just to save her, to rescue her and to hold her. Though they had never told each other the three words they were dying to hear from the other, it made everything worth the while. Simply being around each other, holding one another, and just seeing each other was more than enough.
It was times like that which made Leon realize that he could never see himself having a future with her--children, marriage... The whole package.
Shaking his head, Leon cleared his mind of the current thoughts. Sometimes he felt that he shouldn't reflect on things like that; maybe it was keeping him in the past instead of allowing him to move onto the future. Yuffie had been very aggressive and insisting on that once upon a time, but somehow she was proved wrong. Whatever the issue, Squall Leonhart was still himself; nothing would change that.
"Hey, Leon," inquisitive and curious, Sora's timid voice broke through the silent barrier encasing Leon in his own thoughts, abruptly removing him from the sweet sanctuary. The gunblade wielder looked over the small trio before him, taking in the rich brown features of Sora's hair, the innocent and curious glow of his sapphire eyes.
Riku, whose air was completely the opposite of Sora's, stood behind his Keyblade bearing friend. The gentle waves of silver hair curved around his pale face, highlighting the wondrous aquamarine eyes he possessed. Kairi, too, stood behind Sora, crossing her arms in front of her. She held her hands together, leaning forward and whispering something into Sora's ear. Her innocently devilish grin made him return the gesture, dripping with uncertainty.
"Go on," her light, encouraging voice whispered.
"Yes?" Leon spoke.
Sora cracked open like an egg, spilling everything forward into Leon's brain. He started off by babbling about how he had went through all of the worlds, saved them, and made plenty of friends with those who helped him. He then babbled on about how he had missed so much in the past two years while doing this for the world, and his friends wanted to make it up somehow with his new friends. The big thing he wanted to make up... His seventeenth birthday.
"Sora, you can't possibly do that with all your friends in one world at once," Leon began, crossing his arms over his torso. A frown marred his rough, angular features as he stared down at the two. Was Sora really so innocent as to propose such a thing? As he looked over the two, he noted a subtle movement on Riku's part, bringing himself so much closer to the young brunet, brushing his fingertips along the hem of the Keyblade bearer's black top. Leon turned a blind eye to such an action.
How contradicting.
Sora's suppressed whine made Leon twitch in the slightest, watching as he struggled to stop his "friend" from doing anymore obscene and crude things.
"Stop it, Riku,"
Twitch.
"Oh come on...!"
Another twitch.
Really, Leon didn't mind the two were in that sort of a relationship, he just wasn't comfortable with the public displays of affection.
"Sora." Calm and even, Leon dared to turn his attention back to the two teenage boys. They were in their normal positions, acting like nothing had happened between the two of them. A light pink hue lingered on Sora's tawny facade, and a rather pained one on Riku's. He was bent over as if he'd ran into something. Kairi, with her bright smile, looked rather proud yet apologetic. Leon guessed she came to his rescue; he could only imagine how uncomfortable he appeared.
"Sorry," Sora mumbled an apology.
"It's fine," Leon amended stiffly.
"Anyway," Riku commented, his voice thick with a tinge of pain. He drew himself to his full height, wincing and throwing a glare in Kairi's direction. Silver strands of hair fell into his face, and without much of an acknowledgment, Riku brushed them away. "If we can't do that, what do you propose?"
"We could always just throw Sora tons of birthday parties, one on each world!" Kairi said, smiling enthusiastically with her idea. Riku chuckled and Sora laughed nervously. He didn't really like the sound of the idea, to be honest. Sure, he'd made a lot of friends in all of the worlds, it just didn't sound too good to him.
"It could work," Riku mused. Leon noticed Sora's unnerved look.
"I'm not so sure about that." The relieved look on Sora's face was enough for the moment. Leon stared the two down, watching as Kairi put her hand to her chin in thought, holding said arm up at the elbow with her other arm. Her reddish brown hair clung to her round face, falling over her shoulders with a smooth wave. Riku, with his blue-green eyes clouded over, also thought about the predicament. Sora, rather then contemplating the matter, looked at Leon as if he were a divine savior. It must not have been his idea to make such a big deal and celebration out of his seventeenth.
"The bloody hell!?" Cid's heavily Australian accented voice came out of nowhere, surprising the debating group. Riku, calm and collected, turned to the direction from which he heard the sound of the engineer's confused voice. Sora, nervous and paranoid, summoned his Keyblade in a burst of white light. Leon merely grasped the handle of his gunblade, swinging it over his shoulders from pure habit. The other three sauntered off behind Riku.
Their feet made the sounds of rain pitter-pattering along the smooth flooring of Merlin's domicile, varied paces of breaths loud and erratic against each other's ears. Whilst Kairi and Riku were the only ones weaponless, they were poised and ready for the brief second they may need to summon their weapons respectively.
"Cid?" Kairi called out, coming to a stop and peeking her small head out the door. The said blond man swivelled his head to gaze back at the timid teenage female. His mouth was slightly agape with the toothpick almost read to fall out.
"I think I just saw a huge fucking crow," he stuttered out, words painted heavily by the scare he just experienced.
"A raven?" Sora asked, curiosity piqued.
"No, no," Cid shook his head. "It was bigger than me."
Astounded and surprised, Sora clutched the handle of his Keyblade tighter. The purity of the light it stood for send a wave of comforting through his blood veins, calming down his erratic pulse by only so much. He swallowed thickly, squeezing it tighter once more.
"Where did you see it?" Sora questioned, looking around the area, giving each crack and crevice in the street unnecessary, but careful and observant attention. His blue eyes hardened with the sudden concentration and unnerved emotions he was feeling. He hadn't fought a major heartless in so long... and giant raven-crow things didn't appear out of nowhere. That was if he were to agree to Cid's abnormal proclamation, and knowing Sora, he did one hundred percent.
Cid unceremoniously motioned to a place not too far away from them, regaining his tough composure in that single instance. They all took a moment to examine everything they could with their different hues of eyes, turning over every grain of dust in the cracks of the pavement.
"I don't see anything out of the ordinary," Kairi said after a moment. Riku concurred.
She didn't. Alianora didn't think there was anything that wasn't out of the ordinary about her. She wasn't supposed to exist, yet she did. She wasn't supposed to be a physical apparition, but she was. She wasn't supposed to exist, she wasn't supposed to have an affinity with the darkness. Yet she did. She crossed her arms over her chest, showing an emotion similar to contempt. Falling to her bottom, she folded her legs neatly beneath her form. Tawny brown eyes watched the five people below them interacting, two of them brandishing weapons. She was noticed; good. Hopefully her little stunt would reveal the Keyblade Wielder to her hungry eyes.
"His name is of the sky."
Belonging to the sky.
Owned by the sky.
The meaning of the sky.
Of the sky.
His name meant the sky.
His name meant the pure, genuine hue of the sky.
Would his eyes be that color; of the sky?
Would he bare something to show his allegiance to the sky?
Was he of the sky?
No.
It was only his name.
Only his name was of the sky.
Meant the sky.
His name was the sky.
She watched them with her darkened eyes, reflecting the inner darkness of her soulless body from within. The eyes, as she had learned from observing Maleficent, were the window to a person. They showed their innermost thoughts and feelings. She had never looked at herself other than that one time, she hadn't the time to understand if hers were as dark and empty as she felt; as she truly was.
The timid boy spoke up, giving his agreement with the male and the female prior to him. In a burst of blinding light to Alianora's darkness, she watched as some kind of weapon slipped away from his hand. Spots of green and purples gleamed in her vision, blinding her. She tried to cover her eyes futilely from the bright glow, but nothing could. She could feel herself in an immense pain, her eyes burning and aching with a sudden wetness it was hard to describe with mere words. She attempted to use her arms to cover her eyes, but nothing helped. And by the time the purple and green splotches had overtaken her vision, the light vanished completely.
As she stumbled about her current area, blinded and unable to identify with her current location anymore, she flailed out with her hands. Soft whimpers of something akin to pure terror scalded the back of her throat, forcing her to release the sounds into the sky. She continued to throw her arms about, searching for something solid beneath her lithe form. Nothing but air. Then, as she continued to wobble about, the solidness of the rooftop below her vanished. She walked over the ledge without sight, she let a frightened screech emit from her oral cavern. That most certainly was a stupid mistake on her part. Alianora's mind warped into an infantile state, causing her to cradle her form and hold herself.
The ground never came. It never impacted her on her side so hard, knocking the wind out of her. It didn't send her into oblivion, making her blind and unable to breath. It never came. Instead she felt the double curves of something catching her form. The impact was rough, and most of her body wasn't getting any leverage. With one curve at the bed of her knees, the other cradling her shoulder blades. Her eyes opened timidly, still besieged by the green and purple mottles. The most luxurious of sights greeted them.
The strong angular, masculine features of a man looked down at her. Solemn, unmoving and hard blue eyes clashed with her own, and light brown hair framed his wondrous face. With full lips and a pointed nose, the only thing to mar his features was a scar running diagonally downward. The mark only added to his enticingly exotic appearance. His wonderful eyes continued to stare down at her, hard and igniting the flames of something inside her that she knew shouldn't be touched. She could feel something inside her moving and settling in her cheeks, changing the hue from a peach-tawny to a sunset pink.
And that was how she fell into their lives.
The next week or so passed by in a complete blur. Alianora used that unfortunate meeting to her advantage. She had no past, she had no identity, she had no known persona. She was nothing, and because that was so, she could make herself something. She tried to change so many things about her, to give her a sense of being, but over time, she forgot the truths she fabricated. Realizing that had forced her to sit down, to write everything on a scrap of paper she wanted to stick to. A birth date, a name, everything that they had and she didn't she created. The only thing, however, she didn't change was her name. If she could be anything, her name would be the beginning.
She never told them about the time limit. Alianora spent so much time alone; being nothing.
To them, Alianora was a strong silent character with a small crush on Leon. She didn't like talking about herself too much, and hesitated answering whenever she did. She had a soft, pleasant voice that Sora enjoyed hearing. It reminded him of a younger version of Kairi, though she appeared so much older than that. Her intelligence about certain things lacked, but she made up for it. She always made up for things. Her easy going nature made things easier for her and others to understand.
To do what her "mother" said, Alianora began with making friends with Sora. She didn't pay much attention to everyone else, but she made sure to pay special attention to him. She often caught herself gazing at him like someone with a sense of adoration, infatuation; a look a lover would give to their significant other. When the time limit evaporated, she reported back to the woman. Nearer and nearer her reward came.
That was when she noticed it, the corporeal veil that clung to them all. It wavered whenever she was near, like a shivering sheet of silk. Alianora hated it. It reminded her that she was a nothing, a being on the brink of existence and darkness; she didn't have a place in the world. The irony of her situation pained the lowly, dark pulse of her bosom.
It hurt.
"Oh, Alianora!" the Keyblade Wielder's voice prodded at her eardrum, vibrating and beckoning. From the mediocre printed words of the book, she dared to look at him. The whirl of colors from black and white to browns, periwinkle, red, and various others unnerved her the slightest. The ticking clock inside dwindled on time.
"Yes?" she asked softly. The veil cast out an ethereal, shimmering silver glow about Sora. He smiled.
"We're going to Beast's Castle for another celebration. Do you want to come?" Sora inquired. Alianora blinked, setting her book aside gingerly. She appeared stunned for a moment, allowing the words to sink in. She opened her mouth to answer Sora's question with a negative affirmation when a sudden thought occurred to her: what of Leon? Alianora didn't know why, but she felt she needed to be around him. Maybe she was hoping that he would be there to catch her again when she fell. Or perhaps it was the way his eyes raked through her very being so intimately.
Biting her lower lip, she inquired, "Is Leon going?"
Sora understood, "reluctantly."
"O-okay..."
Upon arrival in the world, the duck and the dog tossed some tops for everyone to wear. The world, covered in white, frosted over the transparent glass of the window of the Gummi ship. Alianora, perplexed, she mishandled and twisted the thick ployester-cotton fabric in her hands. The long extensions of the sleeves confused her. She poked and prodded at them, brushing it against her cheek. Long strands of dark hair fell to frame her face.
Sighing, the reluctant brunet reached over to explain things to her. He grasped the sleeve, pulling it away from her face. Discombobulated, she watched him.
"It's a jacket," Leon said. He motioned to his own, a thick leather one that was zipped. Alianora looked between her own jacket and his before completely understanding it. From there, she understood it. "Oh..." Quickly, she righted the attire into a position she knew and slipped the extensions over her shoulders and pushed her arms through the sleeves. A blush lingered on the flesh of her cheeks, revealing her embarrassment. Sora and Riku hurried to the door of the transportation vehicle, a blast of cold air pilfered the warm air instantly. Recoiling from the shock, she zipped up the bodice, following after Leon. The algid touch of Winter's breath convinced her to cling tightly to Leon's arm.
Ahead of them, Sora clutched at his lover's pale hand.
The pearlescent sprinkles colored the bright lands with a thick blanket of snow. Cold and shivering, Alianora clutched at the thick covering over her shoulders. Her arms pulled against Leon's tighter, bringing herself closer to him, "it's really cold out."
"It is," he concurred. She felt herself shivering again at the mere sound of his voice. Leon cast his blue eyes at her, watching her clutch to the jacket tightly. Her arm interlocked with his own didn't really bother him, but was more as if they had been doing it for the longest time. He made no movement to say he denied to appreciated the gesture.
"I-I hope this doesn't bother you," she stuttered from the cold, teeth chattering. She tightened her grip on his arm, telling him that's what she meant. Her legs lit with a cold fire as the wind whipped sharply against them. The blood seemed to freeze in her legs, making it burn and ache to take another step. Somehow she managed to continue on.
"No, not really," he replied. His voice tickled along her darkened heart. Alianora allowed herself, the monster, a content and serene smile for the first time.