Chapter 4 A Life For A Life
All of the contestants remaining by the den stared at the Adachi twins in a mixture of shock and excitement; if all of them could come out alive, then they could live happily, without the threat of losing their children in the future. They could be free, free from the chains that bound them to Rufus Shinra. They could make the rules. They could change the future.
But could they do it?
"So basically, we're going to throw everything we've learned away and try to find a way out of this thing?" Kairi questioned, pointing up at the dome overhead. Xion nodded brightly, unfazed.
"Yes, but no. we're going to have them come in, and we'll kill them from the inside out. Basically, since Xion here just announced our ultimate goal, we know for a fact that Rufus is going to sick his army on us. But since we were trained by his best, they probably won't stand a chance," Sora whispered, covering his mouth with his hands. The others caught on; he was trying to make sure no one could hear their plan in the outside world.
"Besides, now that everyone knows what we're up to, we're probably going to be the center of attention," Larxene snapped, covering her mouth as well.
"How do we know you're not lying to us, and that you'll kill us while we're sleeping?" Roxas demanded, refusing to cover his mouth. Xion gave him an odd look and laughed as Naminé brought a new bandage to his shoulder. He flinched in response and Riku tensed.
"Why would we kill you? You and Riku are probably our best fighters. We need you out there," Xion chirped, peals of laughter erupting from her stomach as she spun out of Riku's reach. He had swung his switch-blade around dangerously close to her leg.
"But first off, I think we should cut off the cameras around here. We don't want Shinra knowing about our plans, do we?" Kairi piped up, tying the last bandage on Aqua's leg. She sighed comfortably.
"Good idea, cupcake!" Axel exclaimed, scanning the area. Kairi pouted as she moved her supplies to Larxene's side - the blonde was still eyeing her with distrust.
"My name is -"
"Kairi, right? Like the ocean," Sora chirped, smiling. Kairi turned to him and smiled brightly, nodding. He grinned back.
"Ok. Why don't we rest up for a bit before a couple people set out to cut the cameras around here? The strongest can stay behind and protect the injured," Naminé mumbled before gently smoothing out the bandage on Roxas's shoulder. He flinched one last time before finally relaxing. "Better?" she asked him.
"Much," he murmured, and Riku settled down slightly. He gently placed his brother on the clean jacket Naminé had brought for him to lay on.
"Well, since I think we're pretty much safe for now, why don't we get to know each other better? For starters, I'm Xion, sixteen years old, and student of Cloud Strife," Xion shouted, so all could hear. Sora grinned and sprang up.
"And I'm Sora, seventeen years old, and Xion's older brother!" he shouted happily. The others stared at them oddly.
"I-I'm Naminé, sixteen years old, s-student of Tifa Lockhart," Naminé stuttered quietly.
"Louder, Naminé! Louder!"
"My name is Naminé, I turn sixteen in a week, and I was trained under Tifa Lockhart!" Naminé shouted, blushing deeply. Kairi laughed.
"I'm Kairi," she shouted, putting emphasis in her name while staring at Axel, "Naminé's older twin!"
"The Name's Axel. Got it memorized?" the lanky red head shouted in return, pointing a finger to his temple and smirking in Kairi's direction. She ignored him and focused on Larxene's wound.
"Hayner," the blonde boy muttered dejectedly, slumping down in front of the den and grabbing an apple. The group ignored him, mainly because no one had heard him.
"Riku. I trained under Sephiroth," the silver haired teen grumbled angrily. Xion shimmied over to him and pushed his cheeks up for a millisecond before sprinting away as he attacked.
"Smile, grumpy! Say it louder!" she shrieked.
"Fine! My name is Riku, and I swear girl, I want to kill you!" he screamed out in frustration. Xion nodded happily.
"That's more like it!"
"Roxas. Seventeen. Riku's younger brother," the injured blonde murmured, closing his eyes and relaxing, trying to push the pain away. Naminé looked down on him and decided to move slightly over so she blocked the sun from his face.
"Larxene. Eighteen, sexy, ninja assassin," The last blonde grumbled loudly, flinching as Kairi ran water through the hole in her shoulder.
"Aqua, Larxene's twin. Died my hair blue," the bluenette said cheerfully.
"Well, that about sums it up! So let's form our two groups-"
Riku tensed again and leapt to his feet, bringing his switchblade out and holding it at the ready. Roxas's eyes sprang open and he tried to sit up, but Naminé kept him firmly on the ground; silence swallowed everyone in the small settlement, and they all stared in different directions of the woods.
"Looks like our calls brought them to us," Sora muttered, grinning as he flipped his blade up. Xion went to his side, fan at the ready.
"At least this makes it easier on us," Axle mumbled, smirking. His chakrams were already in his hands.
Everyone tensed as they zoned in on a crunching sound coming from the right; someone was carefully walking in their direction. If you listened real hard, you could tell there were two people of different weights; most likely a pair of siblings. Indeed, it did make the battle easier on them, since the competition was coming to them. It should be an easy kill; what's two people to ten?
As the crunching sound neared, everyone readied their weapons and hid in various spots that were hidden from the view of their prey; the only people left in the open were Roxas, Naminé, Aqua, and Larxene. If the two people went after their injured, it would make them much easier targets.
When a foot finally appeared in a small opening under a bush, Sora shot his switch-blade into the shrub in one quick wrist movement; Kairi's small shuriken followed suit.
"Gah!" a voice shouted, and a tall man fell out of the greenery, holding a thick piece of wood in front of him; Sora's and Kairi's blades were lodged inside.
Immediately, Axel lunged forward, ready to behead the man; but out of nowhere, a small brunette jumped out.
"No, stop! We don't want to fight you!" she shouted, opening her arms wide in an attempt to protect her brother as he scrambled to get up. Axel hesitated for a second.
"Wait! Axel!" Hayner shrieked, jumping up from his spot behind the apple crates in the den. He dashed forward and grabbed his brother's arm, swinging it down.
"Don't hurt her! She's with us!"
The entire crew stared at Hayner in confusion. Some, like Riku and Larxene, wondered how long he had been hiding in the den; while the others wondered what he could have possibly meant by 'She's with us'. There wasn't necessarily a sign up sheet or anything; how did Hayner know she could be trusted?
"Hayner, oh thank god," the girl cried, taking the boy's arm and burrowing her face in his chest. "Thank god I found you."
Now everyone was beyond confused. What on earth was going on?
"What the Hell?" Axel shouted, chakrams still at the ready. Hayner - ignoring the blush on his face - confronted his brother firmly. "I talked to Olette at the party yesterday when you were flirting with Larxene. I told her we'd form an alliance with her."
"Absolutely not! She could be an enemy spy! How can we know that we can trust her?" Axel screamed. He looked ready to murder his own brother right there. Xion popped up from her hiding spot and peered around, her expression still alarmed. Sora looked the same, as well as Roxas and Riku; it took a while, but soon, Everyone besides the bickering brothers and the new brunettes were looking to the sky in confusion.
Then they all heard it; the sound of something menacing pushing against the metallic doors behind them, the ones they had entered. They opened slightly to reveal a nightmare of a creature; just looking at it was enough to drain the color from your face.
"Oh shit," Axel cursed, turning away from his brother and tensing with his chakrams. Hayner tightened his grip on the struggle bat and pushed Olette behind him with a quiet promise to protect her. Even Sora and Xion looked troubled; Sora was desperately fishing around in the den for something useful to use as a weapon, and Xion was twitching.
Naminé screamed at Riku, and together they pulled poor Roxas into the den; Larxene and Kairi with Aqua in tow behind them. Riku and Naminé decided to barricade them in a deep part of the darkness. While Larxene readied her knives.
Kairi joined Sora in the attempt to find a better weapon, and upon ripping a bag in two, she nearly screamed in joy; a large array of keyblades - Shinra's newest technology, one of the strongest weapons ever created - fell to the ground with clangs.
"HELL YES!" Sora screamed, plucking a silver one from the heap. His confidence had renewed. Kairi, Xion, Naminé, Riku, and even Terra and Olette grabbed one, tensed and ready to battle.
The monster was now completely exposed in the opening of the gateway. It was hideous; completely bald with cold, scaly red skin and deadly gold eyes, it was the size of an elephant but much, much deadlier. Lines of razor sharp teeth the size of a small child pointed out of it's growling mouth, and you could see the spikes jutting out of it's spinal cord. It's claws were long and dug into the ground, leaving giant holes in its wake.
Without warning, Axel made the first move, again; he lit his chakram on fire with one of the lighters he had hidden in his boots, and threw it with everything he could muster. Riku's old switchblade followed soon after, landing a good blow in the shoulder blade; but the monster didn't waver.
Axel's chakram merely bounced off and caused nothing else but a small fire at the monster's feet; it hesitated slightly, and Sora and Xion saw it as a sign to jump into the battle.
"Go!" Xion shouted, sprinting forward, armed with both her fan and her new keyblade. Kairi was right on her tail, and the two girls slid underneath it to it's belly. Sora and Riku both went for it's eyes; with a sickening squishy sound, they dug their blades into the monster's eye sockets and twisted. Larxene launched her knives into its underside as it reared up.
The monster wailed; Axel lunged forward and picked up his chakram, which was still lit, and threw it into the mouth before slashing hard with the other one.
Naminé felt useless, holding a weapon she knew she couldn't use. Hayner and Terra looked so strong and firm with their keyblades, protecting the den; even Olette, who seemed like a scrawny deer, looked in better form than her with a blade. Crying out in frustration, she dropped the blade and began digging around in the piles of weaponry at the foot of the den.
Meanwhile, Xion and Kairi each hooked themselves onto the monster's back legs and dug their blades in before sprinting away to safety. The monster let out another wail and crumpled to the floor, making it a much easier target.
The battle seemed like such a joke; the monster looked threatening, but it was so easily beat. Blinded and incapable of moving, it was hopeless; an easy kill.
"Shinra's lost his touch in these monsters," Sora commented, digging his blade into the scaly flesh of its foreleg. Riku grunted in response before slashing the leg clean off. A literal river of blood poured out of the wound.
Xion and Kairi ran back around, meeting up with the two boys at the front of the beast and standing besides them, watching the poor monster flail around in pain, desperately trying to eat its attacker. Axel chuckled from underneath it. Kairi frowned.
"We should put it out of its misery, it's so sad," she murmured. Xion snickered and opened her fan.
"You'd better give me one hell of a good show, shorty," Axel sneered, jumping out of the way. Xion grinned.
"My pleasure," she sneered demonically before leaping into the sky and bringing the fan as well as the keyblade down on it's neck, digging them both in deep. As soon as she was positive her weapons were lodged in the monster's flesh, she forced the keyblade down in a full circle and watched in disgust as the head plopped onto the ground and lay limp.
"Wow, Shinra. You seriously fail!" Xion screamed, laughing loudly as she was spattered with blood. Sora clapped in applause.
"I wouldn't think Shinra failed, look at the prize I get."
The four of them turned around at the voice, alarmed. The raised their weapons and were ready to attack, but all gasped at the sight; Naminé was trapped in an eighteen year old's vice-like grip with a switchblade pointed at her neck.
"Naminé!" Kairi shrieked, running forward. The man tightened his grip in response, stopping Kairi dead in her tracks. Everyone watched helplessly as a small trickle of blood seeped from a small cut on her neck.
"Kairi, everyone, don't worry about me! Kill him!" Naminé screamed ferociously, flailing her limbs about. The boy struggled to keep her contained.
"No! no one attack her, she's our best medic!" Xion shouted back, giving a hard look to Axel. He grunted and lowered his chakram.
The situation seemed helpless; it was a lose-lose situation, no matter how you saw it. The boy was far away from them, his back towards the den - the closest people to him were Terra, Hayner, and Olette, and none of them were fast enough to reach him without Naminé dying. And if anyone made a move, he would slit her throat; the end.
Kairi fell to her knees. She was not losing her sister. "What do you want?"
The boy smiled. "Just some food, and a keyblade."
"You can take the food, but the keyblades stay with us," Sora muttered harshly, coming up behind Kairi. The boy shrugged his shoulders.
"Then I guess Blondie here goes bye-bye," he sang, pressing the blade in. Naminé screamed in pain.
"NO! DON'T -" Kairi shrieked.
The boy grinned; it was obvious, with the glint in his eyes, that he was beyond negotiations. He had lost his mind, probably the same way he lost his sibling. There was no other explanation for the way he was acting.
"Too late, Fujioka! Say good bye to your sister -"
His sentence was never finished; in a deep breath, he exhaled a cough of blood onto Naminé's head before crumpling to the ground, dead; a black keyblade as dark as dark could be protruded from his back.
Everyone looked at the den, where the blade had shot out from; Roxas stood in the entryway, clutching the walls for support, one hand on his wounded shoulder.
"Goodbye, bitch," he whispered before falling to the ground.
Sorry for this filler chapter. I can't necessarilly go just jumping right on into the Shinra war now, can I? alot of people are supposed to die there, and I haven't even developed their characters yet. -.-
So...I'm very pleased to tell you all that I've discovered my writing muse again, and I'm back on track with all of my writing! That's right, ALL OF IT. Expect the final chapter to Cheesecake Topped With Gummy Bears soon! I've just started writing it - I really hope you all like it.
Ups and Downs will be updated as well.
and For all who don't know, I removed White BLood off of FF because I was punched in the face by a major plot twist, but the story I had written up until now didn't fit it. so I'm gonna rewrite it. Again.
yes, yes. technically, I've only finished 1 story. I know, I know. -.-
Reflections is still suffering from a little writers block, but it'll be out soon too, don't worry!
I'm trying, everyone. Seriously, I'm trying as hard as I can - so please support me with a review!
