Blade
reached the front door of Hollow Bastion and pulled it open to find
that Beast was carrying Belle across a large puddle that reached
several yards. He entered soaking wet with an equally soaked Belle
upon his arms. Beast made sure Belle was set down gently. "I'm
going to get tea." said Belle, and she scurried off leaving
small puddles of water behind. Beast bore into Blade's eyes with a
stern look but quickly changed into a soft expression. After a
moment, he sighed and said, "I worry for Belle. Each day I think
something horrible might happen to her. Lately, things haven't been
the same around here. I sense a threat or attack coming quickly."
Beast sighed once more and left the room to follow Belle. Blade
walked off pondering Beast's words. 'Nothing seemed strange around
here.' he thought. He thought the continuous rain was rather weird
but passed it off as a long storm. Blade entered his domain (which
Beast had gladly offered to him) and sat upon his bed thinking. He
would always train to try and clear his thoughts or for reckless fun.
He summoned up three Shadow Heartless and stood. He conjured up his
two Oblivions and commanded the Heartless to attack him. They began
to surround him in a triangle and then lunged forward. Blade
immediately took one of his keyblades and jabbed it behind him,
taking out one of the three Heartless. He then took both keyblades
and formed an "X" with them with one crossing in front of
the other. He ran forward and leaped into a very horizontal front
flip. In doing so, he slashed both ways taking out the remaining two
Heartless. Satisfied he was not slacking, Blade stood and
disassembled his keyblades.
Blade breathed in and out slowly, his
thoughts slowly becoming wisped away from memory. He heard a low,
rumbling noise that sounded from higher up in the tower and took it
for thunder. Blade left his room and walked down to the Grand Hall to
try and find Beast to talk to him. Blade heard the same rumbling
noise again but this time knew it was not thunder. It was more like a
crumbling noise within the castle somewhere. He began to worry about
Beast and Belle's safety and knew that somewhere, the place was
collapsing. He took off toward the Ball Room in a dash. Blade began
to get tired as he was running through the corridors. Another crack
could be heard from the same room. Desperately wanting to hurry,
Blade ran quicker and could see the door to the Ball Room only about
10 yards ahead. Blade arrived at the door leading to the center of
destruction and entered.
Inside was the most horrible thing Blade
had ever seen. The top of the dome was cracked and quickly falling
apart. Large boulders continuously fell from the ceiling, only
gaining pace as they hurtled toward the ground. On the floor, Beast
was lying on the ground with long cuts and gashes lining his arms.
His leg was trapped, broken under several large pieces of ceiling.
Belle was nowhere in sight and Blade could only hope she made it
somewhere safe. There was a man standing on the balcony on the far
side of the room. He didn't notice Blade's entrance into the room
because the sound was masked by the continuous rain pouring into the
room. The man had a black cloak on. He had flaming red hair that
resembled somewhat of a mane. His eyes were deep, dark and had two
long triangle markings upon his face. Grasped in his hands were two
large pointed disks. The man's guard was lowered but only to talk to
Beast. He began to say, "I'm only going to ask you one more time
Beast. Where is it?" 'Where's what?' thought Blade. Beast was
giving short raspy breaths and slowly said, "I don't know what
you're talking about." "So be it." said the man. He
raised his arm into the air and a pool of darkness seemed to form on
the room's base. Out of this came countless type of creatures that
resembled Heartless. There were countless Heartless coming from this
pool and each began to surround Beast. Thinking instinctively, Blade
assembled his keyblades and charged out into the battle. As he was
running for Beast, the man who summoned the Heartless noticed Blade
for the first time. A new, different look formed on his face; a
confused one. Blade charged in and instantly began to attack the
heartless. The Heartless began to become mad and changed their
destination to Blade. Blade flipped back wards and spun, taking out 6
Heartless. No progress seemed to have been made so he began slashing
more and more down, becoming more tired by the second. Several more
were taken down and Blade charged forward for the next group. He
jumped in the air and came down slashing with both two Oblivions. The
attack never made it through to the Heartless because they had all
instantly been dismantled. Blade's keyblades struck the ground with a
clang. Blade looked up at the man who invaded the castle. His arms
were rested on the podium and he was leaning forward. He began to
speak, "Boy. Where did you get those weapons?" Blade was
unsure of whether he should answer or not but continued the
conversation with, "A man named Ansem gave them to me three
years ago. Why?" The man had a disgusted look on his face but
then continued. "You're very skilled with those keyblades and no
doubt have been practicing. You seem to be the type of person who
likes to go around helping others. Well you must also know that when
you accepted those keyblades, Ansem also gave you the power to
control the Heartless. Am I right?" "Yes." "Ah, I
see." The man leaped onto the Ball Room floor and looked into
Blade's eyes. "Fight me. Fight me or I shall get rid of that
monster Beast over there and his mate Belle." A sense of hatred
came over Blade for the fact that this guy would hurt them just for
refusing a fight. Instinctively, Blade charged forward with both
keyblades at the ready and began to attack the man. He easily dodged
these attacks and was taunting him. "You can do better than that
can't you?" The man kicked Blade in the chest and he went
soaring across the floor. Once he stopped, he looked up and saw that
the cloaked man was now aiming one of the disks at him. Almost
immediately after looking, a large fire ball came straight at Blade,
hitting him on the spot. Blade could feel the flames cutting him,
burning his skin. The flames dispersed quickly but left the damage
100. Blade slowly stood and began to summon his Heartless out. The
man was not surprised at this but almost looked pleased. Blade
commanded them to attack relentlessly. The man simply swiped his disk
and flames instantly destroyed them all. Shocked by this, Blade
quickly decided it was time to use all the Heartless in his
possession. He summoned a much larger quantity of Heartless and these
ones were different. They were much taller and stronger than the
Shadow Heartless and held great blue swords in their hands. Blade
commanded the new Heartless to surround and attack the intruder. When
they attacked, the man jumped backwards and extended his arms. Both
disks began to glow violently and a giant ring of flames surrounded
the Heartless. The man swiped his hands together and the Heartless
died among the flames just as the others had done before. Blade could
no longer see the man from the thickness of the flames. Looking
closely, he could now see a figure coming from the flames. The
mysterious man emerged with a small, cocky smile upon his face. He
then rushed forward at such an intense speed that Blade was in shock.
The man was right next to him in an instant and he slammed a fist
straight into Blade's stomach knocking him out. The man picked up
Blade and put him upon his shoulders. Beast who had been watching
began to shout. "Axel! Put him down!" The man named Axel
looked toward Beast and said, "Now, now Beast. You should be
glad I'm taking this boy off your hands. It really was a shame we
couldn't have stayed old friends." With that, Axel submerged
into a pool of darkness and was gone.
