Here's chapter two. Thank you Hikari no Aijou, The Cloaked Nocturne, Draconet, and caitlinkeitorin for reviewing last chapter!
Chapter Two: Between Times
No sign of it…where could it be? The boy frowned beneath the shadows of his hood as he walked through the empty halls of Time Castle. It should've been here… Everything he had read and heard had led him to this place: a nameless Keyblade in a timeless castle.
But, of course, what he'd read had failed to mention where the desired item was located.
His ears perked at the sound of something moving nearby. Curiosity, instead of fear, pulsed through his heart. I didn't know anything lived here. Actually, if what he'd learned was correct, nothing was supposed to.
Suspicion and a faint hope began to brew in his mind. Slowly, he stalked forward, calling, "I know you're there; come out."
Something immediately shot at him from the shadows. The hooded boy quickly summoned his weapons - twin ethereal blades - and blocked the oncoming blow of what looked like claws. His opponent seemed young, near his age, wearing a uniform of white, blue, and gold. A hood was pulled up over the girl's head, completely obscuring her face in shadows.
The hooded boy pushed her back easily. "That isn't a very nice way to great a guest," he commented dryly.
The girl cocked her head to one side. "Guest? We don't have guests here."
This caught the boy by surprise, but, with his hood up, she didn't see it flash across his face. "'We'? How interesting; I didn't know there were more of you here."
The girl slowly slid into a defensive stance, her right arm sliding to the side as she prepared to drag her metal claws back into the fight. "Get out of here," she hissed, lunging forward.
The boy caught her strike on one of his blades, the other swinging towards her side. "Rash actions will get you nowhere."
He felt another thrill of shock as mist surrounded the girl, and his weapon was left to cut through thin air.
He hardly had time to react before he felt something slice through his back. "Rash actions will get you nowhere," she mimicked.
He felt the blood trickling down his back, and a small smirk stretched across his back. "No matter," he whispered, quickly activating his temporal abilities. For a few seconds, time flowed in reverse, and the strike that the hooded girl had delivered faded away, as if it had never been.
"What?" he heard the girl yelp in alarm.
He spun around, surprised to find that she was still standing in the same position she'd been in when he'd activated his powers. Why didn't her actions go in reverse, too? he wondered, shocked. She should've come back in front of me, if all she did was teleport.
He was jolted out of his thoughts by flashing metal blades that shot towards him. He lifted one sword, easily blocking the blow, and moved the other behind her hand to hold her in place. "That's an interesting ability," he commented as she struggled against him. "What is it?"
"Why the hell would I tell you?" the girl spat at him. In a swirl of mist, she was gone.
Knowing what would soon happen, the hooded boy summoned clones of himself that quickly spread out across the battlefield. When the hooded girl reappeared, she slashed her claws at one of the clones, which dissipated upon impact. She stiffened with surprise, then looked around wildly for a few moments at the many figures that now swarmed the area.
The hooded boy took the opportunity to attack. He and his copies headed towards her, lens flares following behind them as all launched into their long, drawn out combo. He smirked to himself, seeing that the girl was becoming overwhelmed and watching as blood fell from her newly - attained wounds. He heard her screech out in pain as his combo finally drew to a close. He stepped back, allowing his clones to dissipate as the hooded girl fell to her knees in a panting, bloody heap. "I commend you for taking me by surprise," he said, refering to her ability. "But that special ability of yours couldn't save you from my attack then, could it?" The girl, whose hood had fallen down, lifted her head slightly, eyes glittering. "I thought as much. However, I need you alive."
He believed she would submit, since she was obviously beaten. However, in her eyes he saw a stubborn, desperate light. Before he'd had a chance to act upon it, she'd disappeared into mist.
He immediately sent his clones out again, and all of them looked around the hallway in which they'd been fighting. After several moments, however, their search yielded no results. He allowed the clones to disappear again, feeling a flash of disappointment. "It appears I've lost my informant," he commented dryly. He shook his head. "Perhaps, though, there are others in this lonely place who can tell me what I need to know." Satisfied with the idea, he released his weapons and headed off, further down the dark corridor.
It seemed like an eternity passed, but there was still no sign of another living creature or the nameless Keyblade. The hooded boy cross his arms across his chest, trying to swallow the frustration that was threatening to spill over. Perhaps she was the only other creature to live here, he thought despondently.
No sooner had the thought crossed his mind then he heard something heading towards him. He quickly stepped to the side, allowing the arrow to fly harmlessly past him. He spun around, summoning his ethereal blades and looking at his attacker. Like the girl before him, his opponent was young, probably in his late teens, with white, blue, and gold clothing. Unlike the girl, however, his hood was already down, and in the torchlight the brown strands gave off a metallic glint. A cocky grin spread across the boy's face as his brown eyes flashed. "Heh. Heard there was an intruder here."
"Yes," the hooded boy agreed quietly, "but I hope to be out of here soon."
The boy snorted, cocking his head to one side and lowering his strung weapon slightly. "What? You think you can just barge in here for a nice little stroll and then leave? Forget it! Time Castle is our place!"
"Really?" The hooded boy suddenly jumped into the air, sending a streak of magic down towards his opponent. The metal - haired boy, startled by the sudden attack, had just lifted his weapon when the magic reached him. He was jerked off the ground before being thrown roughly back down.
The hooded boy landed not far off from his opponent. "Truth be told, I'd rather not fight you," he told the other boy as he hefted himself off the ground.
"Yeah, right," the metal - haired boy replied sarcastically. He rolled over, releasing an arrow towards him without warning.
The hooded boy countered with Barrier. He summoned pillars of fire around him, running towards the metal - haired boy. His opponent was caught in the first strike, but when he turned around to attack again, the boy was disappearing in a wall of mist.
The metal - haired boy suddenly reappeared and tried to slip through the flaming pillars, but only succeeded in getting himself burned. As the boy fell back with a cry of pain, the hooded boy allowed his fiery defense to fall. "That ability again," he commented aloud. "Your friend used it, too. Why?"
The boy spat on the ground. "Friend? What friend? I don't have any friends."
"Really?" the hooded boy commented, trying not to let his surprise show. "But I thought there was more than one of you living in Time Castle."
"There are," the boy agreed, "but that doesn't mean we like each other."
Seeing an opportunity to possibly get the information he wanted, the hooded boy pressed, "Why, then, do you all live here?"
"We have nowhere else to go, idiot!" the metal - haired boy spat at him.
"Why?" the hooded boy asked. "Surely with your teleporting abilities you could-"
He was cut off as an arrow flew towards him; he used Barrier to deflect the attack. "It's none of your business!" the metal - haired boy shouted at him, brown eyes now gleaming with fury.
The hooded boy felt another flash of frustration at realizing that he may have just ruined his chances. Hoping to salvage the situation, he commented, "Do all of you live here because of your ability?"
"Yes and no," the boy replied, seeming to realize a few seconds later he hadn't intended to tell this stranger anything. "But it's none of your business!" He lifted an arrow to shoot.
The hooded boy had one of his blades at his opponent's throat in an instant. "Enough games; just tell me what I need to know, and I'll let you go."
The boy just grinned at him. "Go ahead and try! I'll just teleport of here."
"But can you do it," the other boy asked quietly, "before I cut off your head?" His opponent fell quiet at that, the smile slipping from his face. "I thought not."
The boy eyed him warily before asking, "What do you want to know? About why we're here?"
The hooded boy shook his head. "No; I was just hoping to get what I wanted to know from you by asking about that. What I really want to know is this: where is the Keyblade that's supposed to be here?"
He realized belatedly that the boy might not even know what a Keyblade is, only to notice that his captive had a thoughtful look on his face. "Keyblade, huh? I don't know about one being here or anything, but I did see Zylen carrying one just before the…incident."
The hooded boy wondered idly at what this 'incident' could be, but decided not to press the matter. Instead, he asked, "Where can I find Zylen?"
The boy grinned at him suddenly. "Nowhere."
"What?" the hooded boy asked, shocked.
"That's right; you see, he tried to travel back in time, but the machine malfunctioned. He never came back."
"And the Keyblade?"
"Went with him."
The hooded boy absorbed the information silently. He tried to travel between times…a power that is like mine. He released his ethereal blades. Perhaps, then… He nodded to the metal - haired boy. "Thank you; that information is helpful."
"Ok, I'm not sure how, but-" he cut himself off mid-sentence when the hooded boy disappeared between times.
Empty. That was the closest he could get to describing how he felt. It was an effort to remember the word. It was an effort to even remember his name.
Zylen. His name was Zylen.
The area he was in was confusing. It felt as if an eternity passed at every moment, but at the same time it felt as if time never moved at all. The distorted space pulled at him, made it feel like he didn't exist.
But that was crazy, wasn't it? After all, he was here.
But where was here? He couldn't remember.
There was a weight in his hand. What was it? Keyblade. It's a Keyblade. Ah, yes. There was something despicable about that weapon, but something comforting, too. What was it? Nobody. Nobody…Nobody…Nobody? His mind couldn't comprehend the thought.
What did it matter, though? Nothing mattered. Nothing at all.
Suddenly, the immovable space, the space that lasted forever and no time at all, shifted. Zylen lifted his head slowly, the motion surprising him; he hadn't realized he was capable of it. He saw a figure walk towards him; a young man clad entirely in black. "There it is; my Keyblade," he commented as he reached him. He looked down at the man. "So that means you're Zylen?" How did the words this boy was saying make sense? He didn't understand how to emulate them; he didn't know how to respond. The boy seemed amused by this, though Zylen didn't understand how he knew. "Well, I don't believe you'll need that anymore, with the state you're in."
He felt the Keyblade being pried from his hand, and immediately struggled against it. No! You can't take that! The boy seemed surprised at his resistance, then sighed tiredly. "If you were stronger, maybe you could've resisted falling and stop me," he told him, successfully retrieving the Keyblade. "But you're not; and I guess that's the end of it."
The boy disappeared, which struck Zylen as odd, though he couldn't understand why. After a moment's thought, he decided it wasn't odd, but completely wrong.
Why? Why was that? And what did he mean by 'resisted falling'?
Zylen closed his eyes, using all that remained of his strength to try and come up with an answer. I…I am Zylen…
…leader of the Time Racers.
That's the end of chapter two. Reviews would be awesome, please!
