Sorry it took so long to update! I've got semester finals coming up, and it's been kinda crazy trying to get ready for it. So…here you go!
Chapter 7: Dreams and Plans
I'm standing on the beach, where we used to play. Everything looks the same as always: the never-ending ocean, the warm sand at my feet, the comforting sunset…and yet its not. It all feels…wrong, like I'm not supposed to be here. I look around, and there's a guy in a black coat, on the small island. I move to start running, and suddenly I'm there, looking into his dark hood as he stares into my eyes.
"Who are you?"
"It's a beautiful sunset. I used to see ones like it all the time."
Suddenly, it's nighttime. The shadows are rising, clawing at my arms and legs, and I can't fight back. The man is still there, always watching.
"Give me my Keyblade!"
"Yours or mine?"
The shadows merge all around me, and suddenly I'm falling. I reach out for the key in his hand as he looks down from above. The key tries to answer my cries, and for a moment it sings its song of light—then crumbles in his hand, torn between two masters.
I brace myself for the impact, but there is none. I blink, and suddenly I'm in a city. It's dark, and a single building looms in front of me. Its light is warm, but I'm still cold, so unbearably cold.
"We have to choose. It won't leave us alone until we do."
I'm on the roof of the building, and he's standing in front of me, holding his hand out. I want to reach out and take hold, but I can't. I can't move. I'm trapped.
"He's coming. The first…"
"Who? Why?"
He steps forward, and the roof cracks, shattering under our weight. We fall together, and I reach out to his hand. He's the one to make contact, and we hold on to one another as the falling stops. A platform appears under us, and we stand up. The floor has a divide; he stands on one side, I stand on the other.
"Hold on!"
"To what?"
I look down, and our hands are gone; just a single arm, black sleeve merging with exposed skin. Our arms pull apart, bones screaming as they disconnect and shatter. I scream, but he just calls out to me.
"We can't give up! You can't lose your shadow, and I can't lose mine! Just don't—"
His voice is lost as the platform shatters below us. The darkness swallows us whole, and we're falling…falling…
Sora's PoV
And just like that, the dream was over.
I woke up to the sound of my own screaming. It took me a moment to look around, find out where I was. It was dark, but I wasn't in my room. I fell from my perch, and from the ground I looked up to see what I had been sleeping in. A giant tree, one that grew sideways…
Oh. Oh, good. I was under our tree, on the piece of land just off of our island. Breathing a sigh of relief, I rolled over and did a perfect Dodge Roll, coming up to my feet almost effortlessly. I didn't come out here often at night, but for once I was glad I did; the starry sky paled in comparison only to the huge full moon, which floated just on the edge of the horizon out at sea. I looked out at its light and used it as an anchor, bringing me back to reality as I rubbed the back of my head for reassurance.
"Man, that was the weird dream to end weird dreams…"
You're telling me.
I'm pretty sure I jumped about a mile high when I heard that. Through sheer reflexes, I managed to summon my Kingdom Key, partly thankful to see its familiar shine of light while also partly scared out of my wits. "Who's there? Heartless? Nobody? What?"
What, you forgot I was in here? Geez, I know I was a Nobody before, but I'd think you'd at least remember your own Nobody…
With that, what he was saying just clicked into place. Satisfied that I wasn't in any danger, I lowered my Key while still making sure it stayed in my hand. I had to be sure before I let my guard down completely. "…Roxas? Is that you?"
Yeah, it looks like it. I'm here, in the flesh. Actually, your flesh…
I didn't know what to think. I hadn't heard a word about Roxas since I got back, and now I could hear him talking in my head? It just didn't make sense…
I know, I don't get it either. I've been in you—I've been you—since I went in.
"You…You can hear me thinking?"
If I try. You weren't giving me anything, so I had to take a peek. Sorry…
"Nono, it's fine, I'm just…" I looked around quickly, making sure nobody saw me talking to myself; the last thing I needed was people thinking the Keyblade master had gone nuts. "How are you talking to me? Did you try to…?"
Break free? No, I don't think so. It hasn't been too bad in here—at least, I don't think so. I remember joining with you, fighting Xemnas, seeing Namine…and the rest is kinda foggy. I was with you…and then that dream just kinda knocked me outta synch.
"Really? That dream did all of that?" He was silent for a minute or two, but I could still feel him in me. It was like having two heads; there was what I was thinking and feeling, and then there was Roxas, the pocket of thinking space that I could sense, but couldn't enter. He finally spoke up, his voice this time seeming smaller and quieter than before.
Yeah, but…that's not all. I'm not just in you, Sora. I can still…feel the nothingness. And something's wrong. I think they're back.
I wasn't quite sure what he meant…and then it hit me. And a shiver went up my spine. "You mean the Organization?"
Uh-huh. I'm not sure, but something's pulling at the nothingness. I can feel it now; something's pulling me somewhere…I'm not sure where…
I looked back to the tree I'd been sleeping in, looking for what I'd been looking at before I fell asleep. It took a second, but right by the base of the tree I found it: a message in a bottle, carrying a green symbol courtesy of the King.
"Do you think that pulling will help, to 'free you from your torment'?"
I wanna say yes, but I don't know. Something's…off about it. Sora…can you do me a favor?
I wasn't expecting that; then again, I wasn't expecting a lot of what was happening tonight to ever happen in the first place. "Well yeah, sure, anything. After everything you've done for me, it's the least I can do."
Good. I need you to go back to the Organization's world. Whatever's calling me, it's coming from there, and I need to check it out before I answer it. Ok?
I answered without any hesitation. "Ok, I'll do it. If it'll get you where you need to be, I'll do whatever it takes. I promise." I looked out to the moon, plans whizzing around my head. Despite Roxas' concerns, I was excited; I had another adventure ahead of me. And I couldn't wait.
Axel's PoV
"What's the prognosis, Vexen?"
"Yeah, is he going to be ok?"
It took forever for me to realize that they were talking about me: even longer to realize that I had no idea where I was. As my thoughts began to solidify into something useful, I noticed that I was in a bed—and I hurt like hell all over. Man, it was like a sledgehammer had slammed all of my joints, running all the way up and down my arms and legs. What happened? I remembered fighting the Dusks with Luxord, and then…it was like a memory hit a wall.
Wait. Slam. Wall. Roxas. I groaned more from heart pain than any physical pain as it all started to come back to me. I opened my eyes, and in a daze I could see at least three figures at the end of the bed; two of them were looking to the third, which was looking down at something in his hands.
"Well, if you two would stop pestering me, you would see that he's regaining consciousness even as we speak. I'll leave you all alone; he'll still be a bit sore from the strain of Cura we had to give him, so just try not to do anything stupid."
He left the room, still writing on what I finally figured out was a clipboard. The other two, Luxord and Zexion, ran to either side of my bed to check up on me. Seeing their looks of concern, for my safety…well, it made the pain a little bit easier.
"Axel…I'm so sorry that I didn't come sooner." Luxord put his hand on my shoulder—which oddly enough was one of the few parts of me that didn't hurt—to reassure me. "I don't know why I didn't think to freeze time after I saw that beam of light come out from the alley. I just ran, and…"
Zexion jumped in before Luxord could say any more. Literally, he jumped on the bed, shaking me and knocking a few of my recently healed ribs. The blow was enough to provoke another groan of pain on my part, but Zexion…didn't seem to notice. His eyes were darting around, and his eyes were scrunched up like he was moving a million miles an hour. "You were in really bad shape when he brought you in. Are you alright? Because, you should've seen the rocks Vexen had to pull out of you before he put the medicine in. He couldn't even use a normal Cura, those jewel things just ate it up, and he had to make some Cure stuff special for you, and even with that, you still wouldn't wake up, and—"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down Zex, I'm still a little achy, remember?" He finally stopped twitching around long enough to make eye contact with me. He looked like a deer in the headlights, only this deer was hiding behind a bush of steel-blue hair. What happened to him? Zexion used to be one of the Organization's most adamant and clear-headed members, the guy who always worked solely in the Organization's interests. Ever since we came back, it's been like he's forgotten everything that makes him him. "So, can one of you tell me how I got out of that city in one piece?"
Luxord was the one to speak up. "I was the one who brought you back. I knew something was amiss when that…thing came whipping out through the streets. It had left a trail of purple rocks in its wake, and at the end of the trail, I found you. You were encased in those rocks, and it took me an hour to excavate you from its core. Vexen believes that the rocks have some sort of magic in them, and that they took you as a host in order to—"
"I believe he understands the circumstances now, Luxord." Zexion slid off the bed and glared at Luxord, the kind of glare that tells you to move or be moved. His voice was so cold and abrupt, he sounded like his old self again. "Now if you don't mind, I think we should let him rest. Please leave the room; I can monitor Axel's vitals alone."
"Now Zexion, Vexen told me that—"
"Vexen is far easier to manipulate than he has been led to believe. Now please, leave."
With a tone like that, anyone would have gotten the hell out of Dodge. For me, his voice sent chills up my spine, and Luxord's look of confidence faded away as he, in his usual dignified manner, backed out of the room and walked out of sight.
I looked over at the guy in amazement; maybe he hadn't changed so much after all. "Damn, Zex. That was cold."
He hadn't moved since he last spoke, but my words seemed to break him out of the spell; his body crumbled as he sank into the nearest chair, his breath exploding out of his lungs as every tensed muscle in his body melted into the chair. He brought his hands up to rub his temples, and he was muttering to himself something over and over.
"Zexion…?"
"I'm fine. I just...need a moment…" Once he'd finally relaxed, he lean forward to look at me and asked, "How're you doing? Does it hurt?"
"How am I…how are you doing, man? Ever since we came back, you've been special needs one minute and cutthroat the next. I mean, I get that we were never that close and I don't know you and everything, but c'mon, what the hell is wrong with you?"
He flinched at every rise in my tone, but once I was done he stepped right into his speech; every word was sincere, but he still managed to speak in a simple, concise, calm manner. "Axel…I'm alone here. Alone. Do you have any idea…I was six years old when the darkness took my heart; as it is, I'm supposed to be only about seventeen. I'm still a kid, but…without my heart, I became this cold, detached, cruel person. I became a whole other person."
He stood up from the chair, pulling his old book out from inside his coat. He flipped it open and sped through the pages until he hit a page close to the very back. "I looked it up at one point, in the library in Hollow Bastion, a long time ago. Adolescence is when most people's brains develop, when they make the transition into full awareness…but I never when through that. I had no emotions, so how could I develop any 'emotional maturity' at all?"
He stepped to my side and showed me the section in his book. On the left page, there was an orderly, neatly written set of paragraphs that detailed an experiment into the nature of darkness; on the right, there were multicolored scrawls of random words all over the page, of every size, angle and curve imaginable. The whole thing was a mess, a schizoid of opposites clashing against each other to the point where it almost hurt to look at it.
"Zex…what is this?"
"The first page was from the last day I spent as a Nobody. It represents all the growth that my mind has made over the years. The other page…is from yesterday, when I realized that I had a heart again. Emotionally, I'm still a lot younger than I look, and I'm not quite sure how to…wed the two sides."
It was starting to make sense, but it took me a bit to put it together; I still felt hazy from the pain and the meds, and I was never a scientist like the top six. "So…what are you? Are you a kid, an adult, a nut, what…?"
"I still don't know. But…I think I find being a kid more comfortable. And so far both sides seem to be useful, so…"
He took the book back into his coat and strode over to the window at the other side of the room, looking outside with his arms crossed in thought and his eyes squeezed shut in frustration. I felt like I should console him or something—his head must have been an absolute train wreck—but something still didn't add up. Like I said, we were never close. "Why are you telling me all of this? Is it a play for…sympathy?"
"No. I trust you, Axel, because you were always different from the rest of us. More…put together, more human." He turned back to me, the look of seriousness back on his face. "I'm also telling you this because I can't stay here, Axel. I…can't stay in this cold emptiness anymore, not the way I am. I need your help to get out, and I think you may be the only one able to help me."
Suddenly I could feel this burning in my chest; everyone always needs my help, don't they? "Oh yeah? And why would I should I trust you? You just told me that your head's split or something, so how am I supposed to know that you aren't just trying to lure me into some trap? Because, if you haven't noticed, I've done the whole 'rebellion' thing before, and it's just landed me right back at square one, hasn't it?"
"You don't have to trust me; I have information you need." He walked over to his chair and reached under the cushion, pulling out an old tattered book. "I did some research in the library. This book describes something similar to what Xemnas used; a surge of yellow energy capable of simulating and instilling fear in its victims. It goes on to speculate on the existence of other such energies, or 'colors', which can correspond to other emotions."
He stopped there, letting me take a glance of the book: Emotions and Their Unversed Ways, by Master Xehanort. Seemed old and fancy and all, but I opened the thing up to a random page and I could already tell that it wasn't for me; it was all just some clinical, overly-wordy scientist stuff, and I didn't even try to make heads or tails of it. "Alright, and…?"
"Axel: Luxord reported sighting a beam of purple light in the city streets. He brought you in riddled with giant purple crystals. Don't you see the connection?"
I looked up from the book and asked him point blank, "The point, Zex, what's your point?"
"My point is that you have experience with these colors, and if we combine that with my connections in the Organization, we can find how Xemnas has access to the yellow and neutralize it." He, all of a sudden, winced and looked away; when he looked back, he had a big grin on his face. "Then, it'll be a piece of cake to walk outta here. So…whaddaya say?"
No question about it; Zex was off his rocker. But then again, he did have a point; any craziness on his part would just get worse under the Organization's thumb. He was also right about it not being a coincidence, or at least I hoped he was. Whatever made that purple stuff knew about Roxas, so maybe it could help me find him. "I say fine, I'll play along. But on one condition."
"Oh yeah? What?"
Pulling myself up so I was sitting up in the bed, I looked him dead in the eye and said, "What we're planning here, it's not gonna make the higher-ups to happy. If the time comes that we have to take them on, we're gonna need more than just your illusions and my flames to make it out alive. We need to bring someone else in."
He was hesitant of course, but he knew enough to trust my instincts. "Ok…who? I don't really have any friends here, not anymore. And you and Saix…"
"Forget him, I've got just the guy." I smiled. "And don't worry, I'm positive that he'll stake his game on you. After all, he's got all the time in the world for us."
Ahh, foreshadowing. How I do love thee.
Still, I'm starting to feel like my writing style is getting repetitive. Please let me know if this is the case, and I'll try and work on it.
Please review. Reviews to me are like accents on Southerners; you expect them occasionally, and love them always.
