Keys of Destiny
Chapter 7: Lost and found
In the silence of the night, Roxas hurried towards the city centre as fast as he could. Frantically, Roxas darted his eyes around the deserted street, searching for anything that might give him a clue as to the whereabouts of the two people he was looking for. Drawn to his presence, a few NeoNobody emerged. They were eliminated by the impatient keyblade wielder before they had a chance to act.
Tall skyscrapers loomed over him like a steel forest. Despite that his soul was calling out loud to find the other half of him, Roxas didn't have any way of knowing the whereabouts of Sora. He used to be able to open portals that allowed him to travel long distance in a short time, when he was still in Organisation XIII. Right then he wished he still had that ability. Having fused with Sora once seemed to have cost him certain abilities. Roxas gave himself a mental slap. It wasn't the time to think about things that couldn't be changed. He forced himself to calm down and think. It had only been half an hour the most since he last saw Sora and Kairi. They couldn't have gone far.
The earth vibrated beneath his feet for a brief moment. Its magnitude was weak and the duration short, but just enough for Roxas to make out where it originated. It came from below the tallest building in the city. He didn't know the exact reason, but he had a feeling that was where he should go. He went inside and found the lift. The availability of electricity was a surprise. Roxas was further stunned by the number of basement floors on the button panel. There were a total of twenty-four floors below ground level. Randomly he pressed for B8, hoping it was his lucky day.
It didn't surprise Roxas too much to have chosen the wrong floor. It took him another try to get the right floor. Right away he knew it was the correct floor. He noticed Sora as soon as the lift door opened wide. The entire place was pitch dark. If it wasn't the reminiscence of the golden glow from the Light, Roxas could have easily missed him. Keyblade in hand, the brown-hair teenager stood in the middle of the seemingly spacious floor, staring at something above him.
"Sora!" Roxas called out, making his presence known. He stepped forward to make his way to where Sora was.
Sora looked to Roxas direction when he heard the call. "No! There's wat-" Sora cried out urgently. It was too late. He winced at the sound of a big splash. Roxas found himself trying to stay afloat.
"-er in front of you," Sora finished off grimly.
Pulling himself out of the water, Roxas was back to where he was standing a few seconds ago. He was drenched from head to toe. There was definitely something like a swimming pool in front of him and he was standing on the edge. Someone's bright idea to have a swimming pool on basement tenth floor. Before Roxas could ask what was going on, he noticed a huge black shadow was heading his way. He jumped out of the way just in time. It was a gigantic tentacle. The ground where Roxas stood was punctured into the shape of the tentacle.
Eyes adjusted to the darkness, Roxas looked above him. The tentacle belonged to a giant, nasty and octopus-looking NeoNobody. It called itself Octer. The creature's body was white marked with a long zipper, just like the Nobody. It was without a doubt a boss-class enemy. If it had a face, Roxas couldn't tell where it was. There were no eyes or mouth on its head. In terms of height, it must have been at least three storeys high with its powerful tentacles curled up. Its head was close to touching the ceiling.
A tentacle banged on the surrounding walls, causing the entire building to shake. Roxas realised that was where the vibration he felt came from. A second tentacle came smashing down to Roxas. With no more room to jump to, Roxas dove into the dark waters. Sora was busy hacking an attacking tentacle and jumping out of the way of a few other ones that were trying to knock him in the water. He was standing on a large plank floating on the water. There were a number of similar planks nearby. Roxas swam to one close to him and climbed on.
Keyblades out, Roxas stood in his defending pose. It was times like these he was glad to have the keyblade as his weapon, that way he could freely summon when he wanted it and dismiss it when he didn't. While Octer was trying to locate him, Roxas used the opportunity to jump on the floating planks to get to Sora.
Sora managed to hit a particular tentacle enough times for it to recoil. "Roxas," he said when Roxas reached his plank.
"What happened?" Roxas asked, holding back the urge to ask Sora if his trait of drawing himself in trouble was an inherited feature.
"Kairi-" Sora didn't get to finish. At the corner of their eyes, another tentacle whipped towards them. They both rabbit-jumped out of its way.
The plank rocked in all directions as they landed back on it, nearly caused them to lose balance and fall into the water. The two teenagers did their best not to move and waited for it to stablise itself. Roxas gave a sigh of relief when the plank stopped rocking. "How did manage to get yourself into this?" he asked with a frown.
"It's not my fault," Sora defended, his cerulean eyes trying to follow every movement of Octer. It was difficult to watch all eight tentacles at once because of their speed and irregular movement. It appeared Octer was not going to give up until it squashed Roxas and Sora into pancakes using its strong tentacles.
Seeing that not one, but two tentacles came falling down from above, Roxas and Sora jumped off the plank in separate directions. The tentacle smashed on the plank mercilessly, breaking it to bits. Roxas waited until Octer found him. It raised a tentacle and shot it to him. Prepared, Roxas sprang off the plank he was on at the precise moment, landing on one closer to Sora. Octer was getting angry because it missed its target again. "Its weakness is the head," Sora told Roxas as he ducked a tentacle that whooped above his head. An unnoticed tentacle shot out, hitting Sora and sent him flying into the water.
Roxas looked to see if the brown-hair teenager was ok. He almost forgot Octer wouldn't wait quietly while he did so. He barely jumped up in time when another tentacle took a direct hit at his plank. While in mid-air, another tentacle shot out from nowhere and wrapped itself around Roxas' lower left arm. Roxas responded quickly by trying to cut the tentacle with his free hand.
Confused by the number of tentacles around him, Roxas tried to stay focused while tangling in mid air. Another one came from behind and hit his back. Roxas winced. He felt like he was hit by a log. Octer tried to grab onto his other arm but miss and grabbed his feet instead. To his dismay, the two tentacles began pulling his arm and legs in different directions. Roxas swung his keyblade desperately, trying to cut either one. It was no use. His keyblade couldn't reach them.
Meanwhile, Sora wisely used the time the octopus spent on dealing with Roxas to get close to its head. A moment ago Roxas barely escaped a furious tentacle. The next time Sora looked, Octer was tearing Roxas into two. Panicking, Sora began hacking the round head frantically. His mind raced. Roxas was way too high up in the air for him to reach. There was nothing he could climb or jump on. The octopus' huge round head was too slippery to put a footing on. Utterly frustrated, Sora vented out more of his anger on the octopus. That seemed to work. The octopus loosened its hold on Roxas a little but didn't let go of him. Roxas used the opportunity to throw Oblivion up into the air. The rapidly spinning keyblade neatly cut through one of the tentacle that was grasping onto him. Leering in pain, Octer released him.
There happened to be a plank waiting conveniently for Roxas down below. Keeping an eye on the octopus, he reached up and caught Oblivion in a well-practiced manner. In total rage, Octer released its menacing screech whilst pouncing the water madly with its remaining seven tentacles. Roxas and Sora joined each other on the same plank, standing back to back.
"We can't keep on dodging. We got to do something," Roxas said. The NeoNobody boss was so angry it didn't seem to care if it was actually hitting its target or not. It was missing Roxas and Sora but not the floating planks. Sooner or later, they'd have no planks left to stand on. It was blocking the exit so they couldn't get away. Its Soul Shatter was not affecting them because of the protection from the Light. Nonetheless it was still an unpleasant sound.
Sora nodded. "If we can stand on its head…" His blue eyes lite up when an idea came to mind. He told Roxas his plan. Roxas agreed it was worth trying. Right away, Sora went to distract the octopus while Roxas remained on stand-by.
Sora waved and yelled to Octer to make sure it noticed him. The berserk octopus raised all its tentacles and aimed for Sora. Having found an opening, Sora flung his keyblade to the octopus' head. The razor-sharp keyblade buried into its white flesh like a giant dart, leaving about a third out. Octer hit the water around it furiously. Using the chance, Roxas snuck up closer to the giant NeoNobody, carefully avoiding the raging tentacles. He threw his dual keyblades into its head like Sora did. This time, he deliberately threw them higher than Ultima Weapon.
Roxas took a step back and jumped up. Using the ends of the three keyblades as stepping-stones, Roxas made it to the top of Octer's head. With their purpose served, the keyblades vanished and reappeared back in their owners' hands.
The top of the octopus' head appeared to be the weakest spot of its head, which couldn't be better for Roxas. Dual wielding with the two most powerful keyblades, he struck it with everything he had – and ending it with a graceful finishing hit.
A flameless explosion erupted. Roxas braced himself for the heat wave and was surprised to find it harmless. The huge NeoNobody turned into black dust in less than a second, sprinkling over the waters. With nothing to stand on, Roxas plunged down into the water, causing a huge splash.
Sora swam to the spot Roxas fell into. He couldn't help to be amazed by Roxas' strength and power. It made him wonder which of them would win if they were to have a serious match. The thought reminded him of their first meeting was in fact a fight. Roxas burst out of the water surface, coughing out the mouthful of water he swallowed unwillingly. Sora put a hand over his mouth, trying to hide his smile.
"If you think it's funny, you should try it," said Roxas, giving Sora a dirty look.
"I don't have to now that you've done that in my place," Sora grinned. Roxas pointed at something behind him with a surprised look. Sora turned around to see what it was. Just as he did so, Roxas shoved Sora's head under the water.
Sora surged back up, grasping for air. "What was that for?" Sora glared at Roxas, who was grinning mischievously.
"Now we're even," Roxas smirked, satisfied.
They swam back to the lift, splashing water at each other on the way. The lift was miraculously working. How it managed to survive those furiously bashing tentacles was a mystery.
It didn't feel safe to them hanging around the basement, so they went back up to the lobby. They took their turns telling their story of what happened after they parted. Roxas was shocked by what Sora told him about Kairi. After she pushed him down, Sora plummeted into the water below. The next thing he knew, he was being attacked by the eight-legged NeoNobody.
"I'm sorry, Sora," Roxas lowered his head. "If I didn't tell you to believe in her…"
"No, it's not like it's your fault," Sora refused the apology. "What happened to you?"
Roxas decided not to mention Kurix to Sora yet for a number of reasons. He didn't want Sora to recklessly go searching for Riku's Nobody after knowing Riku was in deep trouble. He knew better than anyone an angry Sora was unstoppable. They decided to inform the King about what they knew. Sora pressed one of the two buttons on his badge-shaped communicative device. At the other end, the King picked up the line almost instantly.
After hearing the story, they heard a long sigh over the communicator.
"Are you ok, your majesty?" asked Sora worriedly. The King sounded exhausted.
"Things are a lot worse than I thought. You did the right thing by letting me know. Donald and Goofy have just found the hoax of Omega in the world they were looking in. I'll tell them to head over to your side once I've confirm this one I have in front of me is fake," King Mickey's tired voice came from the other end.
"Don't be reckless, King Mickey," Roxas directed his voice to the badge. Sora thought if Donald was there, he'd be definitely angry with Roxas for speaking to the King in such way. The King answered he wouldn't. Leaving instructions for the two to stay where they were, he said he should be able to meet up with them within a couple of hours.
There was nothing for the two teenagers to do except to wait. Sora found a couple of sofas that were still in good enough condition to sit on. Out of boredom, Roxas collected some bottles from broken vending machines and began stacking them on top of each other for fun. With no calls from the King about change of plans, they assume he found a hoax. But that also meant Omega was on this very planet.
After watching Roxas doing his bottle stacking for a while, Sora felt bored though not sleepy. He tossed and turned on the sofa but couldn't sleep. He wondered how his friends in the other worlds are doing. Though he knew they were strong, he couldn't help but worried about Jack, Mulan, Hercules, Ariel, Beast and their companions. He didn't realise he was saying their names aloud until Roxas asked.
"Who's Tazan and Jane?" asked Roxas, puzzled at Sora's antics.
"You don't know Tazan and Jane? But I thought you have my memories," Sora asked back, more surprised than embarrassed.
Roxas shook his head. "It doesn't work that way, Sora. I only had fragments of your memories. So I don't know everything that happened to you in the past. I know who Jack and Sally are, but Tarzan?"
Surprised by the fact, Sora began telling Roxas about his journey starting from Destiny Islands one year ago. Roxas appeared to be quite interested. He listened and occasionally made comments about places he thought was funny or sad.
In the middle of telling his story, Sora heard a noise that drew both their attention towards the main entrance. It was dark inside and outside, so they couldn't see clearly. They ruled out the possibility it was some NeoNobody. Those creatures were smart enough not be make any noise when they were near. So it had to be something else.
A shadow moved. The way it was lurking told them it wasn't the King or Donald or Goofy. Roxas sprung up from his seat and sprinted out, nearly crashing into the automatic sliding door when it didn't open quickly enough. Sora chased after him. Roxas could hear footsteps ahead. The person he was chasing had a head start so it wasn't easy to catch up quickly. That person made a turn into a small alley. Vaguely, Roxas caught a glimpse of light blonde hair. That person continued to run away from him. Roxas was in no mood to run a marathon. Stepping on a nearby trashcan, he jumped high into the air and landed right in front of that person. That person skidded to a stop, startled to herself facing Roxas.
It was just Roxas thought. "There you are, Namine."
Author's rambling: I just had to add a fight into this chapter. I think this story has been lacking some action. Besides, battles are actually quite fun to write. I hope I didn't put everyone to sleep. There'll be much more story development in the next chapter.
Thank you thank you and thank you to those of you who reviewed, add this story to their favourites or add this story to their alert list. You guys are wonderful.
