AN:/ You guys and gals are great. Seriously, you are. Even if you don't review, you at least read my story and press the Refresh button, that means a lot to me. And since my finals and first college semester are almost over, I get the feeling I'll be typing up a few couple thousand words before my winter break is over. ;) And in homage to a new reader that's still reading the first story, I really must say two words a bunch of the internet and forum nerds are gonna hate me for. The Game. XD
Cheshire's Rat(): Aren't you glad I allow anonymous reviews? Arigatou for the cheesecake :3 Glad you like the story.
Finding Twilit Paths, chapter 3: Silver-Haired Bishonen FTW!
- Basement 11, Castle Oblivion, 7am, Saturday -
Riku drags himself through the doors leading to Basement 11. He woke up this morning to the Disembodied Voice trying to turn him back to Darkness again and he's beginning to think the voice belongs to...
"Sleep well?" The voice says, now not so disembodied. He's a tall and deeply tanned man with long silver hair and amber eyes...amber eyes, wait, that's the color I made Althea's! Shoot! Why didn't I realize this earlier, I could have- uhh, sorry, ignore that. So yes, his eyes are amber and gold with his pupil being just a tiny black dot. He wears no shirt, displaying his chest for all of his fangirls and boys to see, and instead wears black pants, black knee-high boots with silver trim. And a few belts. He has two coats instead of shirts. The first is black leather with red on the inside and trimmed in yellow. It is high-collared and completely unzipped and has black pauldrons attached by two straps. The second jacket is white and also high-collared since he likes showing off those neck muscles in the front. It is buttoned in such way that only his abs are covered. He also has a huge emblem on his chest that's the same as the one the Emblem Heartless have on their bodies. Never forget that nearly everyone in this universe wears gloves or some sort of wristband. His gloves are silvery-white with a grey band around the wrist.
Riku straightens his posture and tries his best not to look dead tired from being chased by Defenders as soon as he left his room. "Well, would you speak of the devil? I was just thinking of you." His hand makes a small side-sweep motion with a mock grin.
"Thinking of how you'll give into the Darkness in order to serve me, again? How kind of you. It saves me the trouble." The man known as Ansem grins evilly
"No, actually, I was trying to think of a reason for why I shouldn't kill you again if I ever saw you." Riku summons his sword, Soul Eater and points it at his opponent. "So far, I've thought of more reasons to kill you."
"Well here I am, take your best shot." Ansem spreads his arms out wide and grins sadistically.
Riku charges at him with a loud yell. Just as his swords swings at Ansem, Ansem holds up his hand and silently calls up a mostly invisible reflect spell. Riku is blown backwards 20 feet away onto his back. "Ack!" What just happened? He can't have gotten stronger, could he? I have to get away and figure out how to get rid of him.
"Do you see what you could do if only you'd give in to the Darkness, Riku? It's easy to do, and that's the only way you'll ever have a chance of beating me." Ansem slowly walks forward and reaches towards the teen that's trying to back away from him by sliding his butt backwards on the floor. Riku completely forgets that the best way to get away from him would be to stand up and run.
"You're not getting him!" A blinking orb of golden light that's about as big as Riku's hand appears before his face, somehow speaking. "He doesn't need to fall back into Darkness to get rid of you." The orb circles around him. "Riku just needs to believe in himself and the Light." The orb sinks into Riku's chest and he gets the distinct feeling he really can do as the voice of King Mickey Mouse said.
Riku nods to himself and stands up with a miniscule determined grin, making sure to have his sword in his hand. Oosama...
"Are you ready to play?" Ansem says, unfolding his arms and starting the battle with a simple (not really) Dark Firaga to Riku's feet. Riku jumps forward, over the spell, remembering what he was told about his species being less resistant to magic than normal humans even though his species uses more of it. When his feet touch the ground again he takes a few quick strides before jumping again, this time to slash downwards at Ansem.
His attack barely connects, leaving a tiny bloody cut down part of Ansem's chest. Ansem laughs lowly as Riku hops back to put some distance between them. I've seen something like that before. He has a shield spell connected to something he's wearing. It's not a very strong spell considering he got cut, but I'll have to put more power behind my attacks just to have them have at their normal power. Geez, why didn't I pay attention more to Ally when she was having me help her study for all of her tests?
"Well, would you look at how weak you became when you had to remake your body after your last one got destroyed?" Ansem gloats. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I have a shield, but I don't. You're just weak. You're not the type of person to use magic, and yet you did just to make sure you wouldn't die. And you did a poor job of it. You don't have half the strength you used to."
"Shut up!" He's just lying to get to me, I just need to break that shield. Riku charges at the smirking Ansem again, slashing at him from his right shoulder to his left side and turning around and kicking the back of his legs. Ansem blocks most of the slash with his gloves but stumbles badly when kicked at those joints.
Ansem grabs Riku's collar and tosses him aside, immediately blasting him with a more powerful Dark Firaga. This time the three orbs of fiery Darkness connect as Riku is trying to catch himself in the air. Riku hisses in pain and quickly tries to put out the fire on his clothes by first rolling on the floor. He remembers from a spar with Althea that a powerful enough Dark Firaga can inflict Poison, Stop, and Silence as well as shoot three fireballs instead of one. He only remembers this tidbit because she nearly strangled him during the rest of that match. Ever since that specific match, Riku kept to just Dark Fire when fighting her. And he's never been so glad to be immune to Time Magick, otherwise, he's sure Ansem would kill him.
Riku stands up after dousing the flames and runs behind a nearby pillar to search his pockets for any item that might cure him. He knows his old roommate kept all sorts of items in the bureau that he pilfered from, he just needs to remember which one he needed. He then pricks his finger on a golden needle. Ouch! No, that one's for Petrify. Where's the fricken' Antidote and Cure Mute Status thingamajig?
"Running away? Perhaps we should just end this battle now while you still have your pride. But where's the fun in that." Ansem charges up Dark Firaga again while staring at the pillar Riku hides behind.
"You idiot!" An invisible female voice harshly whispers in front of Riku. "If you weren't already getting your butt kicked, I'd do it for you. Why'd you have to go and lose that necklace I gave you anyway? He's about to fry you. Must I do everything by myself? Hold on." Something grabs a hold of Riku just as Ansem releases his spell and Riku gets a strange pulling sensation and a little disorientation as the invisible girl teleports him to the other side of the room. "Seriously, do you know how lucky you are that I'm not bound by the same rules you are? Don't move." Suddenly a syringe appears from about waist level out of a pocket, Riku assumes, with 5cc of a golden liquid inside of it.
Riku starts to silently protest to no avail. She takes his arm and inserts the needle into the vein in the crook of the arm. Once the liquid is inside his veins along with his blood and the poison, the needle is taken out and broken before being tossed aside. She sends a small fireball at the needle to dispose of it. "Ally, is that you? Wait, I can talk again?" Riku whispers to the hidden figure.
"Shh! I gave you an elixir through your veins because that's the only way to get rid of the poison. I'll need to make you a new Dragon Pendant if you're gonna be fighting people with Dark attacks from now on. I shouldn't be fighting your battles so I'll stand by as your nurse, but I do have a lot of things I need to do while here, so call me only if you really need me." Two things appear before him on the ground, a small black leather drawstring bag and a card. Riku opens the hammerspace-lined bag and sees a bunch of injection needles, Antidotes, Echo Screens and bandages. He looks at the card and sees Althea's face.
He gets the feeling as he attaches the bag to his belt that she's already gone. As he pockets the card, he finds another, this one with King Mickey's face on it. He uses it. "Oosama!"
- Vexen's Cloning Laboratory, Basement 10, Castle Oblivion, Monday, noon-
Vexen scribbles on his clipboard while observing the newest clone. It's been three days since the DNA was put into a vat of thick, globular, slightly transparent green non-Newtonian liquid. Vexen at first grumbled about how Ienzo was right, but then he was happy as he noticed his newly reformulated Hyper-Regeneration Potion was working better he intended. The scientist had to transfer the newly created infant after a few hours to the full-sized tube.
Already, the Replica appears to be 3 years old. He has feathery silver hair reaching down his back and floating around in the green goop. His skin is very fair with tiny hints of brown pigment; the type of skin more likely to burn than tan. His eyelashes are long. His eyes are shut and have never once opened. But the most distinguishing thing about the Replica is that in the center of his chest, right where his physical heart is, is the Dragon Pendant that Vexen found floating around the Darkness outside of Castle Oblivion.
The pendant is embedded so much into the child's body that the skin appears to have grown over, around, into, and fespecially rom the metal. The orb in the middle of the pendant is the most visible, but small bits of metal can be seen too. It is the very life-source of the Replica. The chain that was connected to it seems to have become his bones, according to the scans done every hour. It's really quite remarkable, Vexen thinks as he scribbles some more. He doesn't know what exactly allowed this Replica to form from such an anomaly, but he'll figure it out. After all, he's a scientist, it's what he does.
Zexion portals into the laboratory. "Hello, Vexen, I see I was right." He walks right up to the tube and de-gloves a hand before putting it on the glass. He focuses a little magic into his hand and scans the contents of the tube in his own way.
"Keep your hands off the glass!" Vexen snaps as the projected magickal energy travels through the gel and reaches the boy. He twitches and curls up in an effort to hide.
"My apologies, I was just checking a theory that was formed after witnessing one of the real Riku's battles." Zexion, satisfied with the results of his impromptu experiment, removes his hand from the glass and puts his glove back on.
"And what, pray tell, was your theory since you just ruined everything! I wasn't going to expose him to magic for another few days! And even then it was going to be in small doses." Vexen writes down the bias that just occurred in the experiment.
"Riku is part fay. My suggestion is that you introduce his Replica to magick and Darkness today or else he may die. Magick is a part of every fairy's life and without any exposure within the first few days, many a fay has died."
"What about the necklace? It has magick weaved into it." Vexen says coolly, putting down his clipboard and going over to a machine that controls what goes into the container the Replica is in. Despite the fact that he sometimes "hates" Zexion, Vexen knows that whenever he opens his mouth, the next words are usually something of crucial importance.
"Yes, but an enchanted item does not do the job like actual magick does. Besides, we don't know what type of magick it even has besides invincibility and detection charms." Zexion says, gazing at the boy strangely with crossed arms
"Detection charms? Why would someone put that on a necklace?" Vexen reaches into a lower cabinet and pulls out a large vial of Darkness. He connects it to the machine and starts the injection process.
"To make sure no one else could use it."
- Basement 1, Castle Oblivion, Zexion's Room, Monday, 9pm -
Althea is sleeping on Zexion's bed when he comes in. He sighs and sends a small Blizzard at her bum. She immediately wakes up and sends a small Fire in his general direction, completely missing him and hitting his dart board. He sighs again and puts out the fire before the smoke alarm goes off and Vexen or Axel are sent to investigate. She glares at Zexion and sits cross-legged on his bed.
"So what was with the wake-up call? They called you polite in my universe, but you're not very polite to me."
"With my counterpart's memories, I know that that was the only way to wake you up without a hassle on my part." He states simply, sitting next to her. She glares some more and grumbles under her breath about a perfectly good dream now forgotten.
"Anywho! Was anyone able to tell? And what do I even call you now? First it was Sentinel, then it was Ienzo, and while here I have to say Zexion, right?" She cheers up a bit.
"I think, once we're done here, I'd like to go by my old name. And no one could tell the difference. I'm still Zexion, the Cloaked Schemer to them all, even though I have my Heart back. And with that, I am even more convinced that you will become the Grey Queen Lady Jezzebel spoke of." The apparent ex-Nobody says.
"I didn't do much, I just remembered what Sora and Kairi did according to my old universe. Heartless-Sora was hugged by a Princess of Heart that knew his true form and he turned back to that. I couldn't do that since I'm not a Princess of Heart and I wasn't even sure if both halves of you had to be in a humanoid form for you to combine back together. Lucky you, it seems both halves of a person just need to be in close proximity and agree that they should become one person again."
"So it seems." Zexion and Althea stare at the smoldered and iced dart board. "Are you sure the Replica needs to exist? I could have nipped the problem in the bud when I visited him today and did as you asked."
"Yes, Repliku causes problems, but he was a major factor that caused Riku to accept his own Darkness. And I want to save him. Back home, I remember watching his death scene over and over again. His story was so sad. I don't think anyone else in this universe has such a short, sad life. I want to at least take away one of those adjectives. I watched your death scene too. As a Somebody, you can't die the way you did anymore. All you have to do is time everything right and you'll be able to get away with everyone else thinking you died. The only Organization members I really don't want to save are Xemnas and Xigbar."
"Why? Is there something you know that I don't?"
"No, I just get this feeling that Xigbar has fallen as far as Xemnas has and that there's no chance of them stopping their evil."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, before I left my old universe, there were rumors about the game that has probably come out by now. I heard Xigbar's Other lost his eye and got that scar and that silver streak in his hair after a fight with this guy named Terra. And that this guy named Xehanort tried everything to tempt Terra into using the Darkness. Remember that guy calling himself Ansem? The one that possessed Riku? His real name is Xehanort."
"So that wasn't my father? Good. Do you know where he is?" Zexion's newly remembered anxiousness shows easily, although his words are steady.
"Well..." Althea looks up and swings her feet off the side of the bed, trying to decide if telling Zexion would drastically change things or not.
"Please," he asks quietly, reminding her of small and quiet child, "tell me, both halves of me have sensed someone in this castle that was similar to my father, but we aren't sure. The presence is so different at the same time. Almost like the similarity and difference between Xemnas and Riku."
"Well, why ask me?" Althea decides it wouldn't hurt anybody to tell him. "You seem to have your answer. He's here, but he's busy trying to make Riku his pawn in his path for vengeance against Xemnas and every other of his apprentices that betrayed him. And that makes his signatures different from what you remember."
"Even me?" He says slowly.
"I don't know. I hope not, you were just a kid and your curiosity got the best of you. A true father would realize that and instead punish the ones that pushed you too far." She shrugs.
"I am still a 'kid' emotionally. Don't forget that even though I can think faster than most occupants of this castle and with more accuracy, I became a Nobody when I wasn't even a decade old. My emotions will still be getting the best of me until I can gain control of them. Being a Nobody with no feelings for the past decade doesn't help. My position is very...frustrating, all things considered." He chuckles shyly.
"You don't need to get rid of your childishness. I think it's cute." Althea smiles and laughs a little, punching his arm. "Even though I act sometimes like a mature adult, I'm still just a teenager and I'm childish at times. Heheh!"
Zexion rubs his arm and nods with a small smile, then he remembers his family that he left behind. "I miss my sisters, I think you'd get along with Yuffie more than Kairi. When do you think I should risk going to see them?"
"Huh, that's a good question. Wait, Yuffie? You never said Yuffie was your sister!" Althea groans, remembering her first and only meeting with the ninja and knowing that social customs dictate that she'll have to confront her once more. Bloody cheesecake-swiping granny and darned ninja that can't tell the truth for why she returned empty-handed that night.
"Really? I thought I made it clear that Yuffie preferred to play with Kairi instead of helping Papa and I. She's my blood sister, Kairi is my adoptive sister, Naminé is a sister as well although that's a little more complicated."
"Tch, you're telling me." Althea says before falling backwards on his bed and snuggling the blanket, trying to fall asleep again.
"Get out of my bed." Zexion says, annoyed.
"Heck no! It's mine now, you can take the couch." She shoves his arms away as they try to grab and move her.
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