Before Ya Read Note: Awww... Yeah, I suppose you all can guess who was effected by Zierra. ;D Tis a dramatic chapter...and you learn about Zierra's crush (I'm sure you're all thinking " 'bout time", right?) Anyway, you start to see a bit of the plot take shape...or at least a bit part in the plot.
Chapter 4 – Facing the Effected
In the 'Woods of Woe'
Two days. Two long days of trekking through the thick underbrush of the Woods of Woe. But, they weren't called that for nothing, and now Zierra even had a first-hand experience. She had encountered many Heartless, however, they seemed to becoming increasingly weak the further from the Dark Domicile she went, which was understandable since that was the nearly the capitol of dark power. And, Heartless tending to be of darkness, tended to hang out around there. But, nonetheless, the Heartless were still fairly powerful and nothing like the easy, pathetic weaklings that Sora had often faced on his quest. The thought of the brown-haired, arrogant, adolescent did not please her, especially since at this rate she'd meet him. Last time she had checked at the Dark Domicile, he had been trying to track down Mickey, and hadn't been too far behind him. In fact, she'd been ready to think she'd see him the next day of her chat with the King. Luckily, she hadn't. The reason? Zierra had not a clue.
Another branch swung right into her face. A dagger she had pulled out while hiking through the brush sliced the limb cleanly in half and it fell limp to the ground. But right as her dagger had struck it, she could've sworn she had heard something… She froze in her tracks and looked around; neon, light blue eyes looking around suspiciously. Clash! Bam!
She did not bother trying to listen to the rest. There was no mistaking that sound, for she had heard it ringing in her ears for the past two days. A keyblade hitting a Heartless. Any Sorceress or even Cierus would've just banished them away with magic. However, Zierra couldn't since they'd be able to sense it, explaining why she was using it and not having the luxury of magic in the woods. And if it was Mickey battling, she would've seen him…then again, he was so short, maybe even with her keen eyes she'd missed him…
However, the likelihood of it being the other three Keyblade-wielders was just too high to ignore. Now bringing out her own ShadowFire keyblade she slashed at a few trees, leaping forward with the agility of a cat to avoid unnecessary injuries. Finally, after a few thousand feet the clashes were so loud that Zierra could almost feel her hands shaking from fighting for so long like those warriors. She could almost feel the perspiration on her face, and could almost smell the coldness of the Heartlesses being obliterated. Was she going insane?
She ripped at the final thicket and came to the battlefront scene. A rather large quantity of Heartless while Sora and Riku tried to defeat them. Zierra scanned the scene for a bit, before a rather disturbing thought came into her head: Two keyblade masters were about to fall to a bunch of Heartlesses. Alas, it was true. Both did have the normal amount of stamina they had, and the fact that Kairi was nowhere to be seen also confused and greatly disturbed Zierra. She was a Princess of Light, after all, and the balance of—wait. Zierra was a Sorceress, because she abandoned her position making 6 Sorceresses, did that mean that one of the 7 Princesses would disappear too? The thought of Kairi being of darkness made Zierra want to laugh, but as soon as that shifted into the thought of Kairi being killed, Zierra sobered.
There was a soft 'pop' of a Heartless disappearing just as two more came upon the scene. Deciding to think later of the consequences, perhaps for feeling slightly guilty for one of the Princesses of Hearts, Zierra slashed her keyblade across a Heartless, ridding it.
For a mid-second, the battle scene overall froze. All of the Heartless glanced over at her, eyeing her pendant bestowing her rank with wariness. A few of them even melted away before even more charged at her for killing one of their comrades, just as the rest of them resumed their attack. Zierra, a bit ruffled that the Heartless hadn't given her more respect being so powerful unleashed a series of powerful attacks that could not only obliterate nearly 10 Heartless per attack, but did not tire her at all.
Just as she decided to go a bit easier on them and resume her normal technique in which was more physically rewarding and harder to evade, nearly all of the Heartless melted aside. A silence hung over the air as a new figure appeared from a shadowy vortex from the forest floor. Sora and Riku remained tense and weapons ready as Zierra, in complete contrast, lowered hers.
"B-tch." Swore the tall figure. Zierra had already pulled out a number of daggers as her ShadowFire keyblade hung limp at her belt. "You dare commit treason to the Shadow Alliance?"
"Show yourself!" Commanded Sora, irritated. The figure laughed and Zierra recoiled.
"He's not talking to you, Sora." She hissed. Sora looked back at her, cerulean gaze mangled with confusion. Probably from both a complete stranger knowing his name and that same stranger knowing what was going on "He's talking to me."
"That's right, b-tch! In fact, you're worst then Riku or Roxas for treachery, and more of a goody-goody then Sora, aren't you?" He drawled scathingly and layered with hate.
"Shut up you, coward of a traitor!" Returned Zierra, voice not even slightly stung by the harsh insults, "You're just using me to seem cleaner and get closer to Shikara aren't you—?"
"Shut you mouth, you pathetic—"
"Or have you fallen for some other girl that's far away from your sniveling reach?" Pressed on Zierra. "Get a clue, you hobo, no girl LIKES you. No girl will ever DATE you, so do us all a favor and crawl back into your hole and stay there." The figure lurched from the shadows at her, and Zierra unleashed a hailstorm of knives. However, very few hitting him because of his talent at evading attacks which made him a slightly formidable opponent.
She grabbed the handle of her keyblade and hit him square in the chest, making him fly backwards. But he too had let out his own attack, a large amount of miniature bombs; similar to cherry bombs that did little damage to Zierra but were still very irritating.
"Aww, how cute." Said Zierra, relentless and now smirking as the smog from the miniature bombs melted into abyss. "It seems I've hurt the ugly thing's feelings. You gonna cry now?" Zierra let out a laugh, "That's why you ran away from darkness, isn't it? You couldn't face the harshness. You couldn't face the eerie coldness and merciless fire, could you? But you couldn't go to light since you'd given up so much to darkness that—"
"I wouldn't be talking." He interjected swiftly, his rusty eyes glittering with menace. "You couldn't face darkness either, could you? You fell for light's most obvious trap—"
"Shut up, you, horribly, revolting—" Even so, Zierra could feel herself flushing scarlet.
"Oh, yes, it hurts now doesn't it?" He interrupted, bloodlust gleaming in his eyes "Knowing that you were the most powerful person on the Shadow Alliance, orchestrating everything beautifully. And now, your darkest secrets being unveiled to those who were harmed the most by your deeds," He nodded his head towards Sora and Riku before facing them, "Do you know what that girl has put you through? Everything. Making Sora and Kairi a Heartless, luring Riku into darkness, all that bloodless demon's fault." Zierra felt her knuckles turn white.
"It's not my fault!" She yelled, unable to control it, "I can't predict a Heart with 100 percent accuracy! I can't make anyone else do exactly as I say! And since I'm far more powerful then you, neither can you traitor, so stop stereotyping me, d-mn it!" He merely laughed, as the two other keyblade wielders stood there, stunned.
"Your heart is turning soft, isn't it?" He scoffed, now ignoring Sora and Riku. Zierra felt her face flush even darker. He was so stupid, how couldn't he realize it?—but, then again, it was better this way…. "Don't like facing the mess you've created? The trap you've fallen into? All because your own Heart couldn't bear the—"
"I said, 'SHUT UP!' " Yelled Zierra, swiping her keyblade across him he leapt backwards. In the process, detonating a firebomb which, unlike the ones before, were far more effective. She crumpled to the ground, trying to regain strength.
Smooth move, Zierra. Now you're going to lose to this weakling. This pathetic, weakling of a traitor, because you couldn't evade a stupid firebomb. Have you truly fallen so far into the pits of stupidity? Stupid, stupid, stupid is the only way to possibly describe such an idiotic move! Can't you just ignore the emotions like you used to? Emotions are what got you into this! So stand and fight, and prove to yourself you're not a sniveling coward! She tried, and she truly did. But all she succeeded in doing was nothing. Aghast and desperate, she looked around, frantic. Nothing, zip, zero, nada. So this was how it ended. She loosing to a weak traitor. No…this can't be…I made a promise…I'm going to keep it…
"So this is what has become of the great, Zierra? This pitiful mess of—" Fortunately for Zierra, he never managed to finish his statement for in perfect unison both Sora and Riku had delivered the final surprise blow. Overcome with grate, Zierra let out a long sigh, and just as she was about to thank them, she felt two keyblades press against her throat, threateningly.
"You're the person you made Kairi a Heartless, aren't you?" Accused Sora, uncharacteristically dark.
"And I'm also the person who just saved you from being overcome by mere Heartless, too." She snapped back, although not the least bit worried. Sora didn't have the heart to do such an act; it didn't take a genius to figure it out.
"Yeah, and we just saved you, too." Retorted Riku. Zierra bristled at the statement…then sighed. You didn't argue with a person who could kill you.
"Look—Sora, Riku. Before going off pointing fingers, how about I tell you a bit more? All you guys know about is Organization 13, which is hardly enough to comprehend anything about what I come from." The two boys looked at each other.
"How can we trust you?" Asked Sora, cautiously. "All we know is that you've pulled the strings to our lives, and are extremely powerful. Why should we even think about trusting you when we don't know anything about you?"
Zierra, yearning to simply say 'Because I'm stronger then you and could kick both of you're a$ses', decided to take a more psychological approach:
"Then tell me this much, Sora; do you honestly think you're safer by threatening my life? Do you have any idea how much easier it would be for me to overcome you with power, or at the very least try?" Zierra caught a flicker of doubt behind his sapphire eyes. "And why do you think I came down from my high-and-mighty position? So I could be killed? Wouldn't I probably have done it from a change in heart?" Sora's keyblade wavered while Riku's remained rigid as ever. She sighed again.
"You want answers, fine." She snapped her fingers, letting her keyblade dissolve into air. "No weapons on me, now you have to lower your weapons on me." Sora glanced at Riku, searching for his friend's suggestion.
"You're honestly to make yourself defenseless to us?" Scoffed Riku. Sora looked at him, shocked, as Zierra locked her eyes into his own gaze, feeling like she was looking into her own reflection of her gaze. "I know darkness. Someone of darkness wouldn't do that unless it's in some sort of plot."
Zierra raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. She knew that Organization 13 had some nut-cases, but she didn't think any of them would actually be insane enough to mangle someone's mind that harshly…. However, these thoughts sub-sided at being threatened. Zierra, fighting all instincts to fling the two at mach 5, somehow remained calm.
"I did it because that's how light works. Now you have to lower your own arm. And, although I cannot truly read Hearts like a book, I can already tell you're bluffing, either way, Riku. You were lured by love into darkness at first, but when that couldn't keep you there, so you retreated to light. But you gained so much power in darkness, you aren't sure if you truly want to stay in light because you feel like an outcast, despite your loyal friends. Killing me would be doing darkness a favor—I'm like a fugitive as far as any one of the Shadow Alliance is concerned. And, like you, I gained much power in darkness. So killing me is like killing yourself, Riku. Wouldn't you want to be given a second chance if the situation was turned around?"
There was silence. Sora and Zierra looked at Riku patiently. He was bluffing…he wouldn't kill anyone in front of his best friend…unless he's truly of shadows. But he's scared of them…isn't he?
"How do you know so much about us?" Asked Riku, obviously treading carefully. Even so, it gave away that he was bluffing. She felt her shoulders loosen with this knowledge.
Zierra sighed at his question, concealing her relief. "I was like the ring-leader of darkness when it was overpowering light. I know all of your adventures: yours, Sora's, Kairi's, Mickey's, everyone's. I know all things committed by Larxene, Axel, Roxas, Vexen, Xigbar; all of Organization 13 and majority of motives behind them. But, like I said before, I can't read Hearts. I can make inferences by motives, deeds and conversations, but I can't actually comprehend every dark corner of their mind. I can't pick out every detail of their life in perfect detail like they can, and I can't have the same memories as they do, because memories change as well. But for the most part, yes, I do know much about you. And before you want more answers..." She sighed and ran her hand in her black hair, for Riku and Sora's keyblades had lowered during her explanation enough to allow her to.
"I'm sorry. I truly, honest-to-goodness am sorry. And I probably deserved to be told all of that by Tyfen, the man you just defeated, because of all I've done. And the fact that more mayhem is probably going to be unleashed doesn't make it any better—"
"Wait. More mayhem? As if what we went through before wasn't enough?" Asked Sora, alarmed. Zierra laughed, unable to stop herself.
"You called that havoc? You'll be having one heck-of-a time when the Sorceresses rearrange themselves, darkness gets more keyblades and they unleash a full-scale invasion."
"How can you be so sure?" Asked Riku, clearly not wanting to believe it. "I thought you just said you couldn't read Hearts."
She shrugged. "I can't. But, that doesn't mean that I don't know things. The Sorceresses for a long time have wanted to have an invasion when I was in charge, but there was a balance that must be maintained between darkness and light that I'll explain to you guys later. So I couldn't unleash something like that and I wasn't going to bother to explain it to a bunch of conceited peers that wouldn't comprehend it. The keyblade part is a cycle, which has concrete evidence. And the Sorceresses having to rearrange themselves is obvious, unless they don't want a top-Sorceress, anyways." The two boys both sat down in a stunned silence. But, Zierra couldn't blame them. It was a lot to take in, after all.
"By the way, name's Zierra, since it's sort of unfair that I know most of the facts about you guys." She added, trying to break the ice.
"If so much is going to happen, Zierra." Began Sora, "Why'd you leave darkness? Wasn't it better that way?" She flushed a dull pink. So Tyfen doesn't realize something that Sora does? How insane life was…
"Few things can…umm…let's say 'truly upset' the Shadow Alliance. Most of those having to do with things like wanting to go to light—"
"So you wanted to be of light?" Interrupted Sora.
"Nooo…" Drawled Zierra, face reddening. "The other things are…well…err…emotions…"
"Like happiness?" Clarified Sora, still curious.
"No." Sighed Zierra again. "Everyone in the world can experience happiness, even the darkest of people. Just like everyone can want vengeance, even the brightest of people—"
"Like Sora." Muttered Riku.
"But then why were you kicked out?" Pressed on Sora, rather rudely and ignoring Riku's comment.
"Well…put it this way. You, Riku, and Kairi do it too." The duo gave her a 'WTF' look.
"An emotion we've all experienced…and are doing…?" Sora and Riku looked at each other, puzzled.
"Love?" Asked Sora, finally.
"Bingo." Replied Zierra, face a thorough red. "All the Sorceresses hate it and find it as…a weakness—it's mainly hated and discouraged severely in higher ranks though," She added at Riku's face, "Either way, I'm still out of it just because of emotion…originally I wanted to fix the mess I created forever, but old rat-ears said I should 'follow my heart'."
"Rat-ears?" Echoed Sora. Zierra smiled a roguish grin.
"AKA, King Mickey." Riku laughed and Sora peered at her like she was insane.
"So, now you're following your heart?" Asked Sora.
"How smart you are," Replied Zierra.
"By any chance anyone we'd know?" Sora's tone, as always, curious.
Zierra, by now, was beyond blushing and looked as if she had suffered bad sunburn. "There's such thing as being too curious, ya know." Shot back Zierra.
"So, we know the person…" Concluded Sora, now having a smart-allek grin on his face.
Zierra rolled her eyes and looked away. "Well?" Asked Sora again. Zierra glanced at his awaiting, pleading face. Riku's gaze was elsewhere but Zierra could tell he was still mildly interested.
"Oh fine." Snapped Zierra, not enjoying the lack of control in the situation. "Yes, it is someone you know….'course, it'll be rather hard for you to guess him considering you know a lot of people."
"Yeah, I guess you have a point there." Said Sora. Momentarily deep in thought about it, "But, I'm not a quitter, and I'm going to figure out who it is!"
Zierra snorted. "Good luck, you'll need it."
"Let's see here…is it anyone of Organization 13 or someone who's dead?"
She laughed. "Yeah, Sora. I'm in love with a corpse. Get real." She replied, sarcastically.
"Hey, ya never know…" Shot back Sora, sounding rather stung. "Let's see here…guys we know…. Hercules, Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Jack Sparrow, Will, Beast, Hades, Cloud, Leon…"
As Sora named them all off, Zierra simply made little comments like "Nope", "Yuck!", "HA! They wish.", or, "Not in a million years!"
Nearly ten minutes later of this, Sora was stumped.
"I've named EVERYONE we've ever encountered, Zierra! I'm telling you, we DON'T know him." Sora whined.
"Yeah, you do." Replied Zierra, "And I already told you, good luck with it."
"You're lying…there's no one else Sora or even I know." Spoke up Riku, unexpectedly.
"You're forgetting someone…."Sung Zierra, which only fueled Sora more. "And, yes, I WILL admit it, but you gotta think of him first…"
"What? Is it Sora then?" Asked Riku, clearly sarcastic. Zierra fumed.
"What is with people thinking that? That's what Mickey thought, too! I HAVE BETTER TASTE THEN KAIRI, JESUS!"
"What about Roxas?" Added Sora, either out of desperation or just to annoy her.
"Wow, what a difference. All Roxas is, is Sora, but even messier hair and moodiness. Pass."
Sora rolled his eyes. "Fine. The only last person we haven't said is Riku. So, there's no one else! I'm telling you, we DON'T know him!"
Zierra's neon eyes avoided his cerulean gaze, as she mumbled. "I wouldn't quite say that…"
The two boys goggled at her.
"So," Began Sora, slowly, "The person you love is—?"
"Me?" Completed Riku.
"Would you like me to spell it out for you?" Offered Zierra.