Chapter 7: Chris Talonflight: Memorial
I had been going through the castle for a while now. I estimated we were over halfway up. The replica of Yuffie Kisaragi was tired too.
"That's it. I can't keep going." She panted.
"Come on, I thought ninja's were supposed to have a lot of endurance." I shook my head. "Come on, there's the door to the end of this place. I never liked Halloween Town anyway." We had been through Olympus and then through Agrabah and now were nearing the end of Halloween Town.
We approached the door to the next floor. I once again took a measure of my remaining memory: let's see… We still have to battle a few Organization XIII members… and… what was her name… she was… Yuffie!? I struggled to remember her name… the name of the one who I loved…
"What are you thinking about?" Yuffie-Replica asked. Wait… since when was she a replica… Urgh! I'm going crazy! I know that there was this girl with her name, and I know that I loved her but who was she? Could it be that this girl I call the Yuffie-Replica IS that girl? It's just so confusing! I remembered that I had met Yuffie in Traverse Town, and I had risked my life to save her. But Castle Oblivion had wrecked my memory. Hell, at this rate, I probably would end up in love with this girl that I called Yuffie.
"Yuffie, can you remember anything about your past life?" I asked her. She thought for a moment.
"I remember that I was born in Wutai, and that I got mad at this group of people called the Shinra Company for outlawing Materia. I then went out on my own to counter Shinra. During my excursions I met Cloud and Tifa and Barret and the rest of those guys. Then in the middle of my job a huge darkness came out of nowhere and our universe was crammed together into a world called Radiant Garden, and it was ravaged by darkness for weeks. Two of my friends died, but most of us pulled through. Then one day the darkness lifted. We lived in peace for about a year, but then our world was attacked again. We moved to Traverse Town, and we've been there ever since." She looked at me quizzically. "Why?"
"I'm checking if your memory is being affected. From what I can tell, it isn't." I shrugged. All I knew is that we had to find Namine.
"Hey lovebirds!" there was a jeer. I looked ahead, and saw a blonde girl with several Kunais standing there. "You really are stupid." (Cue Larxene's Theme)
"Your face." I retorted. I summoned my dark keyblade, Last Chaos. "Stay back, Yuffie."
"But I wanna help you!" she protested.
"I know that." I said, getting into the Riku combat pose. "But you wouldn't be able to here. This… is something I must do alone." I said this because I knew that Yuffie would most likely die if she tried to fight Larxene.
"Ooh, my hero!" Larxene snickered sarcastically.
"Let's get this over with." I growled.
Larxene summoned a cloud of lighting bolts. I dodged nimbly. I slid behind her, and engulfed her in a wave of darkness. Larxene merely teleported out of the way, and ended up above me. She went into her hyperspeed rampage. I went through nearly twenty different teleportation moves to avoid it. Larxene then started slicing at me. I managed to smack her away with my sword. She swiped at me at blurring speed, and I only barely managed to block the strike. Had not Soul Eater been what it was, I would have died. Then I attacked her, slashing with the power of darkness. My blade broke through the guard of the flying kunais, snapping through metal, and then through flesh.
"You may be a member of the Organization," I said, standing over her, watching her begin to vanish, "But I am a keyblade master." Larxene disappeared, and in her place laid the floor card. (YAYY! WE GET TO SKIP THE STUPID MONSTRO LEVEL!)
I went back to Yuffie. She was stunned.
"Are you… are you really still going through with this?" she asked.
"Yes." I said. "I swore. And I will never break that promise!"
Yuffie smiled. Then she leaned forwards and kissed me. I was surprised. She then slid back, blushing. "I don't know why I did that." Then she ran away, laughing, and we went up a floor. Surprisingly, this time I did not check my memory. I didn't need to.
We stepped out on the next floor. Ahead of us there was a deviating passage that led off to the right.
"Which way do we go?" I asked. Yuffie shrugged. I looked at her.
"Well, let's just go here." I decided, and walked down the deviating passage. Before long we could hear the sounds of a man in pain.
"Watch out." I said, summoning Soul Eater. We rounded a corner, and there before us was a man suspended by electric beams. With a quick slash, I destroyed the beam emitters, and the man fell to the floor.
"You all right?" I asked the man. "These Organization creeps really are bastards, aren't they?"
The man looked up. I instantly recognized the long white hair, the red eyes, and the outfit.
"Who are you, boy?" he asked. "Why did you free me?"
"Any enemy of those black coated guys is a friend of mine." I said. "Isn't that right, Ansem?"
Ansem stood, smiling slightly in a feral way. "True. Now," a huge guardian heartless appeared behind him, "Who are you?"
"Chris Talonflight." I said, unfazed by his power. "Wielder of Darkness." That sparked his interest.
"So you too have a talent for wielding the darkness." He said. "Tell me: where am I?"
"Castle Oblivion." I answered promptly. "One if the fortresses belonging to a group of Nobodies."
"Hmph." He grunted. "Weak fools." He began striding out towards the exit. "I have better things to do then to waste my time with them!"
"Ansem." My voice halted him. "I have a request." A plan had been forming in my agile mind, and now I decided to see if it would work. "Wouldn't you like to get your body back?"
Ansem stopped. "How did you know I am a Heartless?"
"I can sense that you are missing a material body, and have thus been granted one of darkness." I commented lightly.
"And what do you mean by getting me my body?" he asked.
"The leader if this organization, his name is Xemnas. Switch that up a bit and minus the X and you have Ansem. Plus the fact that we already know that he is your Nobody. He's quite powerful, I should say." I said this all in a matter-of-fact tone. "I should expect that even you would have trouble with him."
"And what is in it for you?"
This was where I made my effort: "I want to train my power under you." This was a desperate idea indeed! "Only you have the skill with darkness to show me my full potential. In exchange for your training, I will assist you in getting your body back."
"Hmm…" Ansem seemed to debate it in his mind.
Come on. I thought. I need you to teach me more about the darkness! Every time I go up one level I lose a bit of my skill with this power. At this rate I will be nearly defenseless when I finally reach Marluxia! Come on, Ansem!
"You've got guts, boy, asking a Heartless master to be your trainer." Ansem said with a slight smile. "I like that." He walked over to me and Yuffie. "Very well. I will take you up on your offer."
