A/N: I'm sorry for the long wait you guys, but with school and everything it gets harder to update now plus I'm growing a bit ill at the moment… But not to worry I'm working on chapter 3 as I post this up.
Rozen-senpai: Thank you very much for your review, and I don't mind that it was late, I'll try and work on the typos as much as I can, I'm doing my best.
Xejicka: Thanks very much buddy for all the inspiration and what not, I'm hope you like this chapter just like you liked the first one.
And now on with the story!
Chapter Two: Intruders
The individual with the mixed hairstyle of a mullet and a Mohawk sat in his designated chair looking at the others around him. The first to speak was number VII on the progress they were making by controlling the Heartless. To number IX this was all boring news to him, he would rather be off wasting time somewhere, or eating some ice-cream. The only members that remained were number 3, 7, 9, 10, 8, and 2 all sitting in that order, with the superior right in the middle of them all.
"So then, what of those that we recruited?" number X asked in that accent of his. "Are you to tell me we should let them run around like chickens?" Xehart looked at the Gambler of Fate as he spoke. "Surely you wouldn't want utter chaos, would you?"
Everyone turned their cloaked faces towards the Superior, who had number II on his left, and number III at his right. He said nothing but looked at number 7, she always seemed to be the one who spoke for the Superior at times, why was so much placed on her? It was a question all of the members asked, but no one could think of an answer. Number VII sighed and looked at the members before her:
"They're still under our control, since we gave them those weapons; thanks to Raxter's meddling with Sora and Amaterasu. We give them some freedom, but they have to remember who pulled them out from the darkness. They are human after all." The Lunar Diviner said, and the others agreed amongst themselves and looked back at the Superior.
"How goes the memory restoration, Melodious Nocturne?" the Superior asked, and all eyes were now on him. He rubbed the back of his head, trying to provide a good answer to the Superior.
"So far, when I checked, it's about 30 percent or slightly higher." Xehart said leaning forward in his chair, he had a little habit of rocking back and forth, it annoyed some of the other members.
"She's still alive…" number VII chuckled and looked back up at the Superior. Everyone within the Organization knew that number VII could be a bit 'fanatical' about the Superior at time, especially when the Memory Witch was mentioned.
"So then, for now she'll be unharmed?" number III couldn't help but ask. "What do we do with her once she lives up to her usefulness?"
"Nothing, for now…" the Superior said, as he looked at three empty chairs. These were once the thrones of Xauqa, Raxter, and Nusvext. "As of right now there is a small invasion of Heartless on the islands of Destiny Islands, so we need not worry about anything small, like the memory restoration. Still, we should not give her so much time to fully restore their memories. I congratulate you, number IX, on your little display with the Dancer and Dusk Nobodies."
"Thank you, Superior." Xehart said, but he still rocked back and forth, not bowing at all.
"By the way, where is your partner in crime?" number X asked, playing with several of the cards he had in hand. "Last I heard she was still in search of Rax during her spare time… And now I hear she's in Castle Oblivion with Ames. But what of right now?"
"I don't know." Xehart said honestly and looked away. He had told her that there was a meeting, but she didn't show. "If I stay with Ames, I'll find her and relay the discussion from today's meeting."
"For right now, I don't think we have much more to discuss." Number II said looking at the Superior. "Unless his highness has something to add…"
With that the meeting had come to a close and all the members disappeared, summoning their oval shaped portals, and heading off to do whatever the task was given at hand.
Destiny Islands
Near the door that connected the islands with all the other worlds that were scattered throughout the universe, a lone black cloaked figure was walking out of the little hiding spot, and took in the first couple of breaths of the ocean air. The figure looked around and noticed that he was on an island. He smiled slightly and took his time as he walked along the sandy area, letting the Heartless around him roam the island as he pleased. The job was simple, go and lead the Heartless to a world so that they swallow the land into darkness, so far this figure's task was on the place where two Keyblade wielders lived.
The figure noticed that in the distance there was a lone raft, or a rather wide boat, making its way to the pier on this side of the island, it came in from the main island, and the figure watched with careful eyes. 'Who is that?' the figure asked themselves as the eyes of the Heartless around him looked at the figure that climbed out of the boat, and onto the pier. The blonde hared teen wore a grey shirt, and blue short that seemed to stop down at the knee. A Keyblade was pulled out, and the figure noticed it right away, as the first two Heartless were slain, releasing their captured hearts, and soon it faded away.
'Damn…' the figure thought trying to keep from being seen. Ventus looked around noticing that there was only Shadow Heartless, the smallest form of their kind. Despite the fact that they moved clumsily they moved swiftly with their claws, able to disappear into the ground as a regular shadow, and then pop out behind the opponent, or next to the opponent. Ventus grabbed the handle of Diamond Dust, and pushed back a claw away from his heart. 'There's no way I'm losing my heart…' he thought jumping back, and turning his whole body to the right, connecting the Keyblade with a nearby Heartless.
"Firaga!" Ven shouted letting the tip of his Keyblade emit a strange orange and red glow. Within moments of calling out the fire based spell, the sphere that was consumed in flames moved forward through the air, scorching the Heartless in its wake. The figure in the distance continued to look at the battle, taking note that the young teen was skilled with that Keyblade. Ventus jumped back avoiding a fatal blow to the chest, and threw his Keyblade in a boomerang like motion, he moved his left arm to the right, and the weapon upon command slammed itself against several Heartless on the wielder's right side. 'That training with Aqua is paying off…' the over zealous wielder thought, jumping back and summoning his weapon back to his left hand.
The numbers of the Heartless were starting to fall, but Ventus still had some work to do. The blonde hared wielder moved forward, bring his Keyblade in front of him, and slashing continuously at the Shadows that got in his way. About three of them jumped into the air, and Ventus followed in suite, spinning his weapon in front of him, dodging the air to air attacks. The sound of metal colliding with mass filled his senses, and he moved his Keyblade to the left, catching three Heartless off guard, and at once he jammed the weapon right through them.
"Blizzaga!" he yelled using his right hand, and out stretched his palm, letting the ice based spell hit the ground, and he created a path of ice. He landed quickly on the ice like sidewalk, and slid across the surface with ease, with his Keyblade at his side he could zip past the Heartless with no sweat at all. The Shadows followed after him, some even following him on the ice. For little creatures with big feet they moved faster on ice.
Ventus jumped off of the magic made structure, and looked in back of him, a mass of black and yellow crowded the space around him. This was going to be tougher than he thought. 'But I can manage…' he thought using a Thundaga Raid. A massive surge of thunder collided with Diamond Dust, and he hurled it forward. The Heartless were more worried about colliding with the object they most feared that they each evaded it with ease, but some weren't as lucky. 'Return!' his mind rang out, watching as the jagged looking Keyblade spun in the air, and back to the hands of its master.
The figure in the distance made a small mental note that he had to watch out for that little guy at all cost. 'If I didn't know any better I'd call him a fruit looking wielder…' the figure though smirking. Ventus panted for a moment, and from his backside something brought him down with incredible force. Two Shadows pinned him to the ground, and Ven felt a metallic taste enter his mouth. 'They busted my lip…' he thought straining to pick himself up from the weight of the two Heartless.
"Aerora!" Ventus yelled out, and a barrier of wind encircled him, knocking the smaller Heartless, sweeping them off of his back like pieces of paper. The figure took notice of the Keyblade wielders strength, so far he found no weakness, this was going to be a tough challenge for him.
In the main island the clouds were starting to collide with one another, and then the rain would come, she didn't have an umbrella for such an occasion. The green eyed pianist watched as the blue hared teen and the silver hared adolescent run down the hallway of the slightly abandoned studio. Selphie gathered her stuff, but something in the back of her mind rang out. 'Don't move…' that was something Aqua and Riku told her twice, but still something didn't seem right. Selphie looked around the studio, drums were in place, the keyboard had been tucked away, and both the bass and guitar were on their proper stands, everything seemed right.
"That's…" something blue had caught her attention. "That's that girl's…" Selphie said softly to herself, and picked it up. She remembered how upset Riku had gotten once, when she had browsed the music from within the device. "He never leaves without this…" and now she knew something was wrong. Selphie took the device into the front pocket of her purposely tattered shorts, and dusted her light yellow blouse.
"All right Selphie, you've got to run like your life depended on it…" she said to herself, letting her hand push the front door violently, and off she went like a rocket.
Riku and Aqua were at least fifteen minutes ahead of Miss Tilmitt, and that was a lot of ground to cover. The rain was starting to slowly fall, and neither teen was prepared for a shower of the heaven's tears. The rain fell as gently as it could, as thunder was starting to set in for the Heartless invasion. Aqua stopped quickly watching the shore from the sidewalk, little black heads were raising up, and they yellow eyes could be seen at least 10 yards away. 'This is bad…' she thought getting her hand ready to summon her weapon.
"Riku!" someone called out, but the rain was starting to descend a bit harder, which meant the drops were falling faster. Riku growled, he remembered how when it was just him, Kairi, and Sora, their plans had been ruined by the Heartless, which he still blamed on himself, despite what Kairi and the others said.
"Not yet…" Aqua said softly standing right next to the turquoise eyed teen. "They haven't moved yet…" something caught the attention of the Shadows and like clock work they all turned their heads to Aqua's right side, there was a girl with a light yellow shirt, and tattered knee lengthened shorts, running through the rain towards the two wielders of the blade of keys.
The Heartless withdrew to their one dimensional form, disappearing into the ground like regular shadows do, and Aqua watched the yellow eyes moved with demon like speed. 'What's that girl doing?! We told her not to move!' she thought remembering specifically that little detail. Selphie watched as several black bodied creatures with beaming yellow eyes jumped into the air, with their claws ready to strike. Her whole body felt numb, 'so these are the Heartless…' she thought watching the event unfold so slowly.
"Move, Selphie!" Riku and Aqua yelled as Riku flicked his left wrist, and his Keyblade, Way to Dawn, appeared in its strange yet hopeful form. Selphie took several steps back, and jumped away from some of the creatures, just in time as well. One more second and one lucky shadow would've turned another human into a Heartless. A weapon fatally struck the over zealous Heartless, and Selphie had her eyes closed the whole time. She opened one eye to find Riku there, fighting against those little yet dangerous creatures.
"Reflectagun!" Aqua's voice was heard loud and clear from the loud pitter-patter of the rain drops. Riku noticed that the invisible barrier had formed, hearing the crrsh sound as the top part of the dome had closed. The Heartless who had tried to stab the barrier were thrown back, getting shocked as a result, this was the strongest form of the spell Reflect known to the Keyblade wielders. Aqua smirked in her triumph, and within moments of using the spell, she used her Keyblade in a flash, sending showers of Blizzaga spells from the sky, and within moments the Keyblade had withdrawn back to its keychain form. For right now, they were safe, the Heartless had been turned into ice sculptures.
The Reflectagun barrier finally broke down, and Selphie was a bit in shock, her eyes wouldn't blink for a moment, but once Riku tapped her shoulder she snapped out of her vegetable like state. She nervously pulled something from the pocket of her shorts, and Riku blinked, something was caught in his throat.
"You left it…" she said softly handing it back to him. "Remember what you told me? You didn't know what you'd do if you lost it." Selphie noticed the small smile tug at corners of Riku's lips, but he looked back into the distance of that one island, where they use to play as kids, something was going on there. "I'll get going now, I can't fight those things anyway, I'd just probably get in your way." She said waving goodbye, and she ran off in the opposite direction, probably to warn the others.
"Thanks, Aqua…" Riku said softly once Selphie was gone from sight, bowing to her, and she said it was no problem. He tucked the little blue device into the baggy pocket of his black shorts.
"Now, we should get going," Aqua said looking back at Riku. She noticed something in his heart had woken up. He looked back at her, turquoise meeting eyes of a different shade of blue, and somehow their hearts exchanged words of encouragement. Riku sighed after a long period of silence, that puzzle in his heart and in his mind was almost complete, the wielder of dawn was close to placing an image to the nickname 'Ammi'. It had been troubling him for sometime, and Aqua along with Ventus, knew it all too well.
"He needs us," the blue hared individual said softly, breaking the silver hared adolescent's concentration. Riku nodded, but as he took the first step towards the pier he looked back. "Kairi…" Aqua said looking back in the same direction as him. "She's still in training Riku, she wouldn't be much help at this stage, she's still learning…"
Riku sighed, and let Way to Dawn withdraw to the side, turning back into its little Heartless motif keychain.
In the other island Ventus pushed his right leg forward, and at the tip of his foot, spun himself to the side, bring the Keyblade up in a quick movement of a diagonal strike upwards. Diamond dust moved with the wielder's command, and the Heartless in front was reduced to ribbons, as the feared weapon sliced through the dark compassed flesh. Ventus was covered in scratches, not to mention his lip was cut as well. He panted and looked around, he felt the grip on his Keyblade soften for a moment, but within two seconds his Keyblade straightened with the tight grip placed on it. Heartless were moving forward, and he jumped back, avoiding some claws that aimed at his chest.
'Ars Arcanum,' Ventus thought quickly, letting his Keyblade moved forward. His body began to emit this strange red tinge, and he could feel some new found strength grow from within in. He closed his eyes concentrating on the energy that was building into the weapon, and at that moment he opened his eyes and let out a battle cry, running forward. The Heartless ran forward ready to bring the teen down, and black bodies moved with swift speed. Diamond Dust moved with such raw power, as Ventus ran with the weapon at his side, the Heartless noticed that somehow the weapon was leaving behind faint traces of snow in its wake. One Shadow ran forward, and the Keyblade took no mercy on it, stabbing it right through its chest, and hurtling it back a group of others.
For right now, Ventus didn't care how many hearts were given up to form Kingdom Hears, as he took some notice at the released hearts from the slain Heartless. The energy was going to give way soon, and he moved faster picking up some sand from the sudden velocity, and all the Heartless could see, upon the weapon striking head on, were several projected snowflakes from the weapon. Ven panted slightly pulling Diamond Dust out of a Shadow, and kicked it to the side, watching it disappear into a thick black mist, this one had no heart. His arms were starting to hurt, and the more he fought the greater the pain increased. He let out an anguished yell and stabbed the jagged weapon into the ground, and upon the sudden burst of command light streamed out of the weapon and touched the Heartless in its path.
Dust kicked up, and Ventus kneeled, his breathing was ragged, and he could feel his head spinning slightly, but he wasn't going to give up, this place had given him a home, and he intended to fight for it. Heartless withdrew, while others welcomed the painful rays of the light, letting out small cries in pain, it was enough to make Ven cringe in pain. He leaned slightly on his erect weapon, and looked around, trying to figure out if some Heartless had survived or not.
"Who else wants some?!" he yelled looking around, the dust was starting to settle. For right now his blue eyes scanned the area ad he found nothing, there were no dark creatures in sight. 'My body hurts…' he thought leaning forward, he was ready to rest. Something shifted behind him and he picked up weapon, moving his whole body towards the back. His ears had become slightly tuned from his previous training. 'Who is that?' he asked himself, and noticed that his Weapon came in contact with something. He expected to hear a grunt, but instead he heard metal his metal.
"Ven…" Aqua said softly. The blonde teen looked into the distance; she was standing behind Riku, looking down at him. The blued hared female noticed her good friend covered in cuts and dirt, he had fought heard, she could tell by the look of exhaustion etched onto his face. Ventus looked at his Keyblade, and noticed that something like an angel's wing was locked with Diamond Dust. The wielder of Way to Dawn had blocked Ventus' oncoming attack, and soon the two of them let their weapons fall back to their sides. The turquoise eyed teen looked around and noticed that the sand was starting to clear up, and he sighed in relief, as he out stretched his hand towards Ven, and he picked himself up.
"I swear Ven… one of these days being too eager will kill you." Aqua said walking forward and pulled something out from her back pocket. Riku looked at the little packet and noticed the word 'Elixir' written in silver while the background was green. Ven stuck out his tongue in disgust; apparently he didn't want the green little packet. The female teen frowned and placed the packet in front of Ven's face, and he took it out of her hands by force.
"What is that, Aqua?" Riku asked watching Ventus pull on the side of the green colored packet. He held the opening over his lips, and shut his eye tightly as the content went into his mouth, and he coughed, tasting the bitter substance.
"It's an elixir packet…" she said noticing that Ven was leaning forward. "Don't spit it out!" Aqua said, noticing that Ven had his tongue sticking out. "Just swallow it already; it's not going to kill you."
"How do you know?" Ventus asked, or at least that's what he wanted to ask, but it just sounded weird, after all his tongue was sticking out, so it was just a series of noises.
Riku was still confused by the fact it was an Elixir packet, he had never seen on before, and he really didn't want to try one now, if Ven didn't want to take it, Riku certainly didn't want to taste it.
Meanwhile, Kairi looked around her house, she had heard something break downstairs, and it had startled her for a moment. She braved enough courage to go down the steps and noticed that several white colored plates were broken. 'But Mom isn't that careless…' she thought looking around, everything seemed quiet, there was an eerie silence. She ran back up the wooden steps, and slide across the floor with her socks. There were little thuds now and then, and she could sense a strange presence around her. 'But… it's been a while…' she thought pushing back some strands of hair from her face. Her blue eyes looked around the upstairs hallway.
"Mom, Dad?" she called out looking around several rooms, she couldn't find either one of her parents. Something ran past her and she jumped slightly, feeling a sudden pressure in her heart. She turned back and noticed something run into her room, leaving the door ajar. Kairi paused before pushing the wooden framed door, and pulled out something from her navy colored shorts. In her palm a keychain of a paopu fruit rested there in her grasp. The red hared figure pushed the door and noticed that nothing was in her room. Her eyes went from object to object, like her bed, mirror, night stand, rug, dirty pile of clothes, and so on.
She moved carefully towards her pink closet doors, and opened them. Everything looked normal, clothes were on the racks, her shoes were sort of organized, and there were some boxes she never opened. Things did seem normal, well only somewhat for that matter. The Princess of Heart looked back at her room; there was nothing on the wall that made her suspect a thing. 'This is weird…' she thought looking around, still holding her keychain firmly in her right hand. As her white socks slide across the polished wooden floor, something moved from behind.
"Huh?" Kairi turned around on her heels and noticed that her pile of dirty clothing was starting to move. She summoned her Keyblade, and the pile stopped moving. 'It's not the wind…' she thought moving closer towards the pile of unclean clothing. The little creature within the pile moved slowly, and it stared through a small crease of thin fabric, watching the red hared teen's slow advance towards its hiding spot. It felt some pressure add to the top part of its concealed area, and as that top layer was removed it jumped out! Kairi shut her eyes as she fell back, and brought her weapon forward, her hand was shaking, causing the Keyblade to move with her loose grip.
The Heartless looked at the girl, she was shaking with fear, and the little creature let out a little purr, though whether it was trying to laugh or talk, it was anyone's guess. The Shadow moved forward, and used its antennae to feel the energy around the room, and the Heartless was drawn to the fact that this girl had a pure heart. It found it strange, and Kairi yelped feeling a soft texture pass against her elbow. The Heartless moved back quickly noticing the Keyblade in her hand, and it growled in defense. Kairi moved back, and pointed her weapon towards the Heartless.
"What was that spell…?" she asked herself nothing the creature was getting ready to attack. The Shadow leapt into the air, and brandished its claws ready to strike at her. Her mind was shutting down, and her body was starting to go numb, she wasn't use to fighting Heartless. "Gra…G… Gravity!" she cried out gripping the handle on her flower and heart based weapon. A ball of dark matter appeared from overhead and collided with the mass of darkness that was the Heartless. It was brought down onto the wooden floor, in a daze. With that Kairi picked herself up, and smacked the Heartless across the head, and it disappeared into a thick mist of black, releasing a captive heart.
Several blocks away from the Fonovi residence a small silver furred creature was growling at the shadows around him. 'What's taking Riku so long?!' the silver colored hound thought showing off its fangs toward the Heartless. The creature didn't know where his master was, or where the master's mother was. 'So long as her heart is intact…' it thought turning into its original form. It was the size of a wolf, with thicker silver fur, one amber colored eye and another was turquoise, with horns that curve down at an angle.
Several Shadows moved through the darkest part of Riku's room and the hound swayed his tail to the side, watching for more sudden movements. Somehow these creatures didn't seem that interested in an animal. 'But they take things that have hearts…' it thought sniffing the air; it hated the stench the Heartless carried about them. 'Come on Vieh, let's see if you're rusty…' he thought to himself and lunged forward, sinking his fangs into the cold and soft flesh of its first prey. The other Heartless around him hissed and growled to try and aid their fallen comrade. A Heartless from behind sunk its claw into the backside of the hound, and it dropped the mangled Heartless to the floor. He couldn't fight them off like this; it would just create more Heartless.
"Dark Aura…" Vieh said, without moving his mouth, and a strange concentration of energy began to form in-between the gap of the horns. He growled, as his eyes flashed, the energy was formed, and when he hunched his shoulders the ball of energy moved forward, striking down several creatures like bowling pins.
In the distance somewhere in the island where Riku and the others use to play as children, a figure made itself known, clapping their hands in amusement:
"That's right Nusvext, fight, fight, fight," the figure said laughing. "I never thought I'd see your fairy-self here…" Ventus tried to lung forward, snapping at the fact of the word 'fairy' but Riku held him back.
"Who are you?" Riku asked, still trying to hold Ventus back. Aqua looked at the hooded figure, trying to read their energy level. 'I don't know this guy…' she thought feeling concern rush into her heart. 'This must be a new recruit…' she deduced and growled. The Mystic Warrior, as she had once been known as, pulled out her Keyblade:
"Stopgun!" she said pointing her weapon towards the new figure, and a small growl emitted from the newcomer. Aqua withdrew her weapon as quickly as she placed the advance magic, and sighed in triumph. "You're a new recruit I take it?" she asked. For right now Aqua would try and buy the others some time so that they could leave, or just get to a safe place.
"You must Xauqa…" the figure said laughing. "What the heck have they done to you? To think you'd get your ass kicked by two punks. You're better off de-" he didn't have time to finish that sentence as Ventus was right behind the newcomer; his Keyblade was pressing into his back.
"I dare you to say that again…" Ventus said feeling anger rise in his heart. How dare someone like him talk to her in that manner? "What gives you the right to talk like that…?" he asked, pushing the weapon deeper, just enough to break the surface of the skin, but the new person wouldn't feel the affects until after the spell wore off. To Riku this was all confusing, but he tried to think about what 'Nusvext' and 'Xauqa' meant. 'So, if this guy is wearing an Organization coat and he knows about Ven and A-… Wait no, they couldn't possibly be…?!' somehow the teen with the turquoise eyes had figured it out.
Castle Oblivion
Ames yawned flipping through pages from two notebooks, a black one, and a white one. 'He still doesn't understand… but at least he's making the effort to try and pursue some knowledge on the subject…' the Memory Witch thought, referring to Riku. She remembered from scanning through her "original's" memories, she had come across the little black notebook. Ames stood up and stretched, walking around her confined room, sadly she and the other two were safe here, but at the price of the Memory Witch's freedom.
---
As Sora was drawing on the rocky texture of their secret place he heard something, and looked around, maybe he was just jumpy because of what he was drawing. In a way it embarrassed him.
"This world had been connected…" Sora's eyes widened as he heard a voice, and he tried to act cool but that wasn't his specialty. He stumbled forward and turned his head, looking at the strange cloaked figure.
"Wh-…Who are you?!" Sora asked trying to use his body to cover the image behind him.
The figure in the dark brown hooded cloak spoke once more:
"Tied to the darkness… Soon to be completely eclipsed."
To Sora this was something strange, and he didn't understand what the man was saying, he didn't even know how he got here. To the young boy all of this was very strange, and so was the man in general.
"What…You… You're from another world?" he asked, or it was something along those lines, that's what his mind was asking anyway. "Where did you come from?"
"You understand nothing…"
That was the day when the Heartless invasion began, when Amaterasu and her siblings did nothing, because they had a feeling that the Keyblade master was among them on the island…
---
The Memory Witch remembered the events, and figured that her input valued as well, since there needed to be recorded data for future generations. 'So far it's 37 and running…' she thought smiling slightly, something was hindering their progress. "Maybe the others are having trouble remembering them as well… This could be a problem…" she said softly to herself, pushing back some strands of silver hair from her eyes. "I just hope Xejicka and the others found a place for these two…" she said softly looking up at the closed pods, she wanted things to run smoothly.
There was a knock on the door behind her, and a familiar figure with green eyes walked through, closing the door behind him, and he was humming. In his hand he had a small packaged sandwich, and in another hand he had a small bottle of juice, it looked like it was of a brown texture, meaning it was either from tamarinds or apple juice. The Memory Witch would've preferred the first guess.
"Just thought you might be hungry again…" Xehart said waltzing into the room like always, whenever he made an entrance.
"It's funny…" Ames said softly, as Xehart sat down on a white chair, "I always thought we'd be free once we had them in our hands, but… well right now it's not really looking like that at all." The silver hared witch looked a bit disappointed at that fact alone, but she knew there was hope for the future somehow, even if she didn't know it.
"For right now, you just concentrate on their progress…" Xehart said as she looked back at him. He patted a designated place for her to sit down and eat. Ames walked down the room and sat next to Xehart and eyed the packaged article carefully, and sniffed it slightly. "You always do that…" he said sounding annoyed. "You're worse than a kid."
"So I'm worse than you?" she asked, grinning.
"They sent one of the new recruits to Destiny Islands…" Xehart said noticing that Ames was picking at her sandwich, dumping out the tomatoes, and olives from within the breaded delicacy. She made a face noticing that she was holding an onion ring covered in mustard.
"Great, now the mustard has an onion tanginess flavor to it…"
"And he's on the move again; he's still looking for that artifact."
"This won't taste good…" she said placing he top part of the bread back on the turkey breast sandwich. "I'm going to be tasting onion for months…"
"But it's useless without the key." Xehart said watching Ames bit into the sandwich.
"…Is that why he's recruiting more people?" she asked with her mouthful. "They're all just poor saps…"
Xehart cringed at the sight:
"That may be so, but they can wield Keyblades…" he said feeling a bit uneasy, he didn't like discussing matters such as these with her, especially if she was eating.
"Even if they can, they can't do anything like previous wielders… and he knows that…" she said putting her sandwich down, and she started picking at it again. She pulled out a drenched piece of onion and growled, letting the onion fall on the paper below the whole sandwich. "I thought I said no onions…" she said frowning.
"…" Xehart couldn't help but smile at her for a moment. "What are you going to do if they don't give you enough time?"
The blue eyed, silver haired, dark skinned Memory Witch, thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "Well, if they don't give me enough time there's nothing we can do about it. Well just have to watch them every step of the way… Does that sound good?"
"I guess so, but I don't want to be babysitting…" the sitar wielder said looking down at his hands.
"Cheer up, I'll stick you with Number XIII." She said noticing Xehart's green eyes light up for a small moment.
Radiant Garden
Two older teenagers looked into the distance of the bailey and sighed in unison. The slightly older ninja looked to the side and noticed that a purple eyed individual was right by her side. She smiled and ruffled his hair for a moment; she loved annoying him with simple gestures.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked, watching the figure open his mouth slightly.
"Stuff…" he said simply and looked at the vast emptiness. The Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee still had a long way to go, it would take several years before it even started to look like home.
"Come on Yomigami, it's not healthy keeping to yourself." She said leaning forward. "Tell good ol' Yuffie what's the problem."
Yomigami rolled his eyes and looked away from the ninja's gaze; he didn't want to look directly into her, because he would soon spill the truth out to her. 'My sister…' he thought catching a glimpse of the pinkish hued sky; dusk was beginning to grace the heavens with its calm colors. Yuffie clenched her fist, she didn't like it when people ignored her, especially Yomigami. She asked him again, but still she got the same response. But finally he decided to speak:
"My sister… and Riku." He said simply, and pushed back some of the bangs from his eyes. "I wonder how they're doing…"
"They're doing fine…" the ninja said happily. "I mean… Those two can carry their own weight; they're fine as long at the others are with them."
"So you think they found each other again?" he asked looking up at her. Yuffie Kisaragi thought about if for a moment and placed a slender finger on the individual's chest. "Huh?"
"Let your heart answer that for you." She said smiling, and somehow that made Yomigami smile. For right now he felt at ease within his heart. "You know it's hard to believe it's almost going to be about a year since that old bald guy was defeated…" she said looking off into the distance.
"It's not really hard to believe because it happened." He said softly, and messed up her hair in the process. Yuffie giggled slightly, but it wasn't because of that, rather something popped into her head.
"Hey you know if you rearrange the words in Xemnas…" she began with that discovery once more.
"No…" Yomigami said covering his ears. "I can't hear you!"
"You're no fun 'Yuki'…" she said pouting. For right now, she was glad he didn't hear her. 'Yuki' was his nickname, and he didn't like being called that, especially if it was Yuffie who was saying it. She opened her mouth:
"M-A-N-S-E-X…." she smiled.
In the distance there was a strange looking creature, with mahogany tinged fur who stared off into the distance, and the sound of footsteps caught his attention.
"There you are, Nanaki." A girl said, she appeared to be around the age of ten years old, but that was just her outer appearance, her heart was by far older, as was her mind. The creature greeted her formally, and she gave a small smile, patting the animal on the head. He sighed and looked off into the distance once more; he longed to see this world back to its original state. "Cait Sith was looking for you." The girl with amber hair and blue eyes said softly, her voice was starting to show emotion since they had last spoke with one another.
"Did he say why, Shelke?" Nanaki asked looked up at her, and the girl in response shook her head. "Where's Vincent?" he asked, and the girl felt her mouth gap slightly. That was a good question, she had not seen Vincent for a couple of weeks now, since the wedding of Tifa and Zack.
"I am sure he is fine." Shelke replied looking off into the distance with Nanaki right by her side. She sat down pulling her legs closer to her. Shelke wore a light colored purple tank top with blue capri shorts, and light pink shoes. "The whole group is leaving… Reno, Rude, and Mr. and Mrs. Fair are leaving for Midgar today…"
"I thought they were going to help…" he looked at her, and she shrugged in response, they didn't give her so much information as to 'why' they were leaving. "The good thing is that Midgar is within walking distance of Radiant Garden." Nanaki said smiling slightly.
"I think, that's where Vincent Valentine went. Something, in here…" she pointed towards her chest. "It tells me he's there." Nanaki smiled at the gesture, and felt some ease within his own heart.
"How do you think Sora and the others are doing?" he asked. For some reason the name just popped up, and he felt the need to ask the question.
In the distance Leon was busy checking up on some of the files relating to radiant Garden. He pressed the 'enter' key, finishing the last update, and paused looking around. He heard a voice within his mind, and closed his eyes trying to think about what the voice had said. A young female watched him for a moment as she passed through the doorway holding two closed bottles of water. 'He's at it again,' she thought regaining her balance, the water bottles were slippery. Squall, or Leon, as he prefers, was meditating once more on a subject that only he could understand.
Rinoa Heartilly sighed and continued her approach clearing her throat and thrusting the bottle towards him, but he didn't stir. She tried again, nudging the bottle against his arm and he opened one eye and looked at her curiously. Rinoa sighed in relief:
"I thought I'd find you here." She said, her brown eyes watched as he took the drink and twisted the blue cap off of the clear plastic bottle. "How's the computer doing?" Rinoa asked leaning forward. "Was it a virus?"
The brown haired individual shook his head and drank some water for a moment. Something in the back of his mind clicked, which was at a good time considering he was drinking water, and as he gasped in surprise, he coughed. Rinoa blinked noticing the man cough, trying to clear something from his airway.
"Are you…?"
"I remembered…" he said stifling a cough. "Sora and Amaterasu…" Leon gasping for air as Rinoa patted the Gunglade wielder on the back. He cleared his throat, and tried to act calm and natural, but that was hard to do considering he was chocking on water because of a memory.
"Come to think of…" Rinoa paused as she drank some water. "I remembered them just now…"
"Weird…" Leon said rubbing the side of his head. "I wonder how they're doing…"
Traverse Town
"Xejicka!" someone called out. A huge bulk of darkness rushed forward and threw the figure into the air, and twirled them about making the contents from their stomach move about in a frenzy. Abedo rushed forward pushing off of a falling platform, and pulled his weapons back ready to strike it down. Terra followed in the same manner as Abedo, his replica, and threw Two Across with enough force to knock the Heartless back down to the ground. This was a chameleon type of Heartless that tangoed with Sora a while back during his adventure.
Xejicka noticed she was soaring through the air, and she summoned on chakram, and threw it in a downward motion, watching the flames ignite from the object, ready to strike its foe. The Heartless turned around quickly and brought its black colored tail up, and hit the chakram like a baseball, sending it higher into the sky. The chakram wielder growled for a moment and brought out her other individual weapon and let lose some Firaga spells on the creature. The chameleon like creature ran around in circles trying to dodge the fire based spells, and Abedo ran forward, using some leftover momentum, bring Soul Eater into the air, and throwing it forward.
The Heartless looked back using its eyes to keep its attention on two things, and the massive tail came forward and whacked the weapon to the side treating it like a paper ball. Terra ran forward bring his Keyblade into play and jumped into the air. Xejicka summoned back her wayward chakram and descended at top speed from the air. Terra spun to the right and brought his weapon down at hard as he could. Xejicka gripped the handle of her circular weapon and jabbed it with enough force to stab the back side of the chameleon like Heartless. It let out a howl in pain and Abedo regained his weapon and stabbed the lower part of the creature's right hind ankle.
Terra growled and gripped the handle of his weapon with both hands, and with a sudden yell he summoned enough strength and stabbed the forehead of the Heartless. The dark colored chameleon screeched in pain making those within the area cover their ears. It flayed around stomping at the ground and its rampaging attacks caught Abedo and Xejicka slamming them to a crumbling brick wall. The wielder of Two Across watched as his friends were pushed back by the massive tail. The yellow eyes of the Heartless turned on Terra and he ran forward trying to avoid the slashes and sudden dark spells that the creature began to cast as a last resort. 'Reflect!' he summoned the barrier quickly, but it broke apart when the Heartless sent forth a Gravigun, the highest form of Gravity known to man.
Terra felt his body hit the ground with incredible force and at once the Heartless pounced on him, and the man yelled out in pain hearing something break from around his chest. 'My rib…' he thought moaning in pain. Xejicka and Abedo made it out of the ruble and they looked around hoping to find the Heartless gone, but they found something else. Abedo ran forward watching his original squirm with pain, and Xejicka snapped watching her friend in such a helpless state. The replica turned around and noticed the pressure in his heart, as well as the heat. Flames danced around the chakram in the Soulless' possession and her eyes flashed in anger. Xejicka threw both of her circular weapons and upon commanding them with her mind, she made the weapons dance around the Heartless.
"Burn, baby, burn!" she said laughing, commanding the fire to burn the flesh of the yellow eyes Heartless. Terra struggled to move, and luckily he was out of its grip as the Heartless howled in pain. He rolled over to the side, and pulled his face back, avoiding a scorching chakram from the right side. Abedo called him over from a clearing, and Terra made a mad dash, dodging and rolling from harms way. Terra's blue eyes looked back and noticed the Keyblade still lodged into the Heartless' forehead. He tried to summon it back, but he was out of range. Xejicka was laughing watching ashes slowly form from the bottom of the Heartless.
Red, orange, and yellow tinged flames danced around yellow eyes and a huge black body, accompanied by some of the noise a Heartless made when it sounded defeat. The flames arose, and stretched higher into the sky, and as the pillar of fire fell so did the Heartless. The yellow eyes began to grow dim, and it began to sway to the side, finally touching the light grayish floors of Second District. In the distance from the Gizmo Shop a bell rang out and Xejicka looked behind her, feeling the area shake a bit from the shockwave of the chime. The Heartless dispersed into its dark colored mist, but no heart was sent into the void.
Castle Oblivion
"So… where's Xejicka?" the Memory Witch asked the two hooded figures. She tapped her pencil that she placed in her left hand. The two explained in detail about the event that had occurred, how a Heartless had appeared within Traverse Town. Her blue eyes noticed something on the collar of one of the hooded Organization robes and she frowned. "You guys are gone for three weeks, then I hear Xejicka's gone, AND you ate ice-cream?"
"That's from two weeks ago…" one of the figures said clearing their throat. The other one looked away and Ames muttered something. "We would've brought you some but… we ran out of munny…" the figure said a bit upset.
"You two can get me some next time, it's all right." She said tilting back in her chair. Ames yawned loudly, sending some echoes across the white colored room. "I'm just really tired…" she said softly closing her eyes. "I can't sleep… or the sha--…"
The other two figures watched from their covered eyesight. The slightly dark skinned Memory Witch was growing tired, and her blue eyes would droop from time to time. The figures said that she could sleep since they were there for protection against whatever it was she was afraid of. One figure removed his hood and looked back at the other figure and smiled sadly. It was the young man with brown colored hair and blue eyes, Terra. He walked forward to try and make the Memory Witch a bit more comfortable but the other figure was ahead by two steps. Terra smiled and watched as the other figure placed his robe on her like a blanket.
"She can't get sick… or else their memories would take longer to restore." Abedo said softly. "If she doesn't get enough sleep they don't restore so much of their memories…" the replica said looking back at his original. "Am I right?"
Terra nodded and poked at the table for a moment watching a screen come up. So far the two individuals had 64 percent of their memory back, which was a good sign for the others as well. "They rely on her, just as she relies on them…" Terra said softly patting the silver haired female. "We can't let any intruders enter this place while she's at her most vulnerable."
A/N: You know what to do one review please!
