Alas… it has been a while since I continued to write. And again I am sorry.
Anyways here's the next chapter.
Chapter 10
Truth and Desires
Recap: "Wait!" Aerith cried. "Can you tell me where I am?"
The girl turned her head to look at the woman asking her such a stupid question.
Aerith looked at the girl. Her white dress was simple, her shoes were simple as well, and her hair was so blonde it looked yellow.
The girl smiled. "Sure… you're in Twilight Town"
"Twilight town?" Aerith questioned, but before she knew it the girl that once stood before her was gone. "Strange."
As Aerith turned to meet with her friends she let out a scream. Behind her dozens of Heartless materialized into the alleyway. They hissed and clawed the air angrily as they approached their prey.
Thinking quickly Aerith materialized her metal rod into her hands. She wasn't that great in physical combat, but insisted that she learn something to protect herself incase a situation like the one that was facing her at this very moment occurred.
She gracefully swung the rod in circles as she batted the heartless away.
However it seemed as if the more she struck them the more appeared. To Aerith it was a losing battle. By now they had cornered her against a wall, the worst move in combat. As she swung at another wave of oncoming Heartless her rod was forced out of her hands. It clanged noisily to the concrete alleyway.
Aerith breathed hard. This was it. The Heartless had her cornered.
The waved moved close to the defenseless girl, ready to claim their prize.
Aerith closed her eyes and held her breath as one of the heartless impatiently jumped from the crowd toward her, claws raised.
With a swift move a large projectile whizzed past Aerith by inches, and in a flash the Heartless vanished from sight.
Aerith let out her breath with a great sigh. She looked up to see a dark figure in a jet-black cloak standing at the end of the alleyway. It moved, or rather glided smoothly toward Aerith.
Aerith had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that this fight wasn't over yet.
The figure picked up her rod and inspected it. With a nod it moved even closer to her and extended its arms with the rod in its hands.
Timidly Aerith grabbed it and moved herself into position to fight.
The figure didn't move…
Neither did Aerith. She was ready for another battle.
"I'm surprised," the figure said.
Aerith was somewhat surprised that it spoke to her. The deep voice confirmed that the figure was indeed a man.
"Surprised?" Aerith questioned.
It nodded. "That rod is heavy. I'm surprised that a woman as thin and fragile as yourself can hold it in a battle position."
Aerith nodded but didn't say a word.
The figure laughed. "You can put it away… I'm not going to hurt you. I did save you after all."
Aerith slowly lowered the metal rod and looked at the black figure. "Saved me? You did that?"
It nodded. "Now in return I need you to cooperate with me."
Aerith looked at the figure with curiosity. "Who are you?"
It slowly removed its hood to reveal a pale face with flaming red hair. "They call me Axel."
Aerith nodded. "Okay Axel… do you live here?"
He nodded. "Where else would I live?"
Aerith could almost smack herself for practically giving away that she was from another world. "Nowhere I guess."
Axel crossed his arms across his chest. "Who are you might I ask?"
Aerith hesitated. "My name is Aerith."
"Nice to meet you Aerith." He replied.
Aerith looked at the ground and blushed. Abruptly she looked up. "Oh gosh I need to get back to my friends."
Axel frowned. "Why?"
"I promised I'd find information on this town. You see we're far away from home. I don't exactly know where we are."
Axel looked at her with calculating icy eyes. Eyes that gave Aerith a chill down her spine. Axel seemed to be helpful enough, but there was just something about him that she didn't trust.
"You are located in Twilight Town." He said in a near whisper. "It truly is a fabulous town. Do you want me to give you a tour?"
Aerith tried to sneak around him. "Actually I should be going."
She moved around him and started back down the alleyway, when Axel grabbed her wrist. "I can't let you do that… priestess."
Aerith looked at him with furious eyes. "Let me go!"
She struggled to pull away from his grasp, but failed.
"This would be so much easier if you cooperated Priestess." Axel sneered.
"Stop calling me that!" Aerith yelled as she twisted her arm. "Let me go now!"
Axel laughed. "I'll just have to carry you that's all."
Aerith swung her rod into his side as hard as she could. Axel gasped and let go of his prey.
Aerith stumbled out of his grasp and began to run her hardest back toward the town square where they had agreed to meet after investigations.
Axel cursed and ran after her.
Obviously Axel was much stronger and faster than her. He caught up with her in a matter of moments and grabbed her long flowing braid.
She screamed in pain as she felt herself being caught again. She tried to pull herself free, but failed. Axel grabbed her around the neck and whispered. "Sorry about this." In an evil way. The next thing she knew, his powerful fist hit her squarely in the stomach and she blacked out.
Axel caught Aerith as she slumped over. He picked her up and placed her over his shoulder. He smiled in satisfaction.
"Hey" a voice screamed. "What are you doing? Where do you think your going with my best friend?"
Axel turned to see a young ninja woman standing behind him. Her eyes were fierce.
"Let Aerith go!" Yuffie screamed.
Another voice joined hers. "Axel! What are you doing with Aerith?"
Axel turned again to see Sora on the opposite end.
"Why hello Sora my old friend."
Sora spat on the ground and materialized his keyblade, ready for battle.
"This girl is a bothersome waste of my time, but she is a priestess, so I must follow orders and take her back to the hideout."
Sora gripped his keyblade harder. "What do you mean Priestess?"
Axel laughed. "How little you know boy. Perhaps one day you will know, but now is not the time. Farewell Sora, Farewell young ninja."
He let a black portal materialize into existence. In a swift movement he backed into it and let the darkness dissolve him. As he disappeared so did the portal.
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Keiko could barely hear herself saying these words. "Rose… and I aren't… from this world."
Ansem sat on the edge of his chair. "What?"
"At least we're not supposed to be from this world. Where not supposed to be from any world." Keiko whispered. "That's what makes us… special."
Ansem couldn't comprehend what was being said. "Where are you supposed to be from?"
Before Keiko could answer another voice answered it for him. " What's it to you? You're always prying in my life aren't you?"
Ansem turned around to see Rose standing at the door of the bedroom. She shot Keiko an angry look and stormed out of the house, letting the door slam behind her. Ansem could have sworn he saw tears in her eyes.
Keiko shifted uneasily from foot to foot. "That memory isn't a good one. She doesn't like to talk about it."
"What happened to her?" Ansem questioned.
Keiko sighed. "Its not for me to say. If you really want to know then ask her yourself."
Ansem stood up. "I will."
Keiko nodded.
"Thank you for everything Keiko"
She blushed and looked at the ground absentmindedly.
"You were a real help." He replied.
"It was nothing" she whispered. "If you need a placed to stay then feel free to come here."
He nodded. "Okay" and with that he turned on his heal to look for his partner.
Keiko began to straighten up her home in thought.
"Strange" she said quietly to herself. "He doesn't seem heartless at all."
Ansem searched through the streets of town looking for Rose franticly. He checked every store, every bench, every place he could think of. There was no sign of her. It wasn't until he decided to give up did he see her in the distance atop a hill that over looked the town. With a smile he walked up to her.
"Um…is anyone sitting here?" he questioned.
She hugged her knees to her chest. Her face was pale and void of any emotion. The wind toyed with her hair as it blew it franticly in the air. She didn't even look at him. Instead she just pat the patch of grass next to her absentmindedly.
He took a seat and smiled. "Its beautiful. The sunset I mean."
She nodded. "The sun never sets here. You can see it all the time."
"It must be quite a sight to see every day."
She nodded again. "That isn't why you're here is it?"
He looked taken aback. "No… its not. I want to know what happened to you … in your past."
She was somewhat surprised at his honesty. "Keiko must have told you it isn't a good memory."
"She did."
"Then you must know it's hard for me to tell. I don't want to get emotional, that's why I never think about it much." She replied.
Ansem timidly placed his arms around her frail form and pulled her close to him. "Some things are hard to accept. But sometimes you need to face them in order to overcome them."
Rose breathed in his deep scent. God it was so comforting to have him close to her.
"You can tell me anything."
She nodded. "Very well. Let me begin in a broad sense. This place is known as Twilight town. An in between world. This is a place where special people live."
"What sort of Special people?" he questioned.
Rose hesitated. "People who were born of no hearts. Twilight town is a place where the heart that casts off its old body creates a new one, in hopes of one day being united with that new body."
Ansem looked shocked.
"Those who live here, all of us have no hearts… we are called… Nobodies."
"Us?" he whispered.
Rose nodded. "Me included. I am a Nobody… and so are Keiko, and everyone else living here. Let me give you some further history about myself though. I'm a special Nobody. I was born on a special circumstance."
"Special circumstance?"
Rose nodded. "Yes. But don't get the wrong idea. I'm not the only one. There is one other special nobody that lives here."
"Who's the other?" Ansem asked.
"A girl by the name of Namine. She was born under special circumstances. Her heart never cast away its old body; instead it was forced to hide within someone else with a strong heart. Because the heart didn't willingly cast the old body away, a special Nobody was born. And that was Namine. She has the ability to leave Twilight town and she has the ability to manipulate memories."
Ansem nodded thoughtfully. "And you?"
"I was born on a special occasion as well. There was supposed to be six different Nobodies born, but since all six hearts were forced as one, I became the result. You see there were six princesses of heart who had their hearts taken away and forced to combine as one to create the dark keyblade. A false keyblade, meant to open the heart, not seal it away."
Ansem grew tense. He knew it was him who had forced the six captured princesses of heart to give their hearts to the dark keyblade. He had done all of this through the boy named Riku. "So you were the Nobody born of the six merged princesses of heart?"
She nodded. "So you see I'm special too. I have the ability to leave Twilight town as well and I was granted the Diamond keyblade later on in my life. But this story gets worse. When I was born I became friends with Keiko, who was a Nobody just like me."
Ansem nodded.
"When I learned of Namine being special and her leaving twilight town I wanted to do the same. I wanted to see other worlds. I wanted to travel places. And so I did, but as I left Twilight town I fell into the hands of darkness. I let darkness manipulate me. I let it consume half of what you'd like to call my fake heart. It got to the point where I wanted to control the heartless… and I could. It wasn't until King Mickey got in touch with me and explained that I was a special Nobody… someone who could wield a keyblade. From somewhere in my darkness saturated heart a light burst through and I was granted the Diamond keyblade. I was so ashamed of what I did, and what I could have done if I had actually perused that course of life. I forced it in the back of my memories and swore I'd never be like that again. Years later I received word from the king again and he explained the urgency of the situation to me, that I needed to help find the fourth and final keyblade."
Ansem's eyes were wide. He was trying to comprehend the fact that Rose was once what he could call a princess of darkness. His princess of darkness.
"Now do you understand that I don't like to relive that memory?" she questioned. "It's horrible. I could have done so much damage."
Ansem held her tightly. She began to tremble. "Why is it then that you were afraid of me when we first met in the Hallow Bastion library?"
She looked at him in the eyes. "I was afraid that you'd reawaken my longing for the darkness. After years with the Diamond keyblade I thought that I had cleansed my 'fake heart' of darkness. Heck I even grew to fear the Heartless in a sort of way, but you seemed so seductive. I'm sorry I've been so nasty to you. I've just been trying to keep you and your dark ways away from me. "
Ansem felt burning passion inside of him. Without warning he kissed her on the lips in a passionate way. At first she wasn't sure of what was going on, yet she leaned into him longingly as he deepened his kiss letting his tongue sliding into her mouth. She felt his darkness creeping into her… filling her very being. And yet she felt very comfortable.
When they parted he gasped for breath and looked at her expectantly. She stroked his cheek as he pulled her closer. "My princess…" he whispered. "Give into me… at least just for tonight."
She smiled. "Ansem…I love you."
He lifted her into his arms and returned her smile. " I love you too Rose." He confessed as he kissed her deeply once more.
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Namine ran cold hard steps, her breath pounded. She knew that she shouldn't have talked to that girl. The one who had asked her that question, yet when she looked into her eyes she saw purity, Purity of a Priestess. How could she deny answering a simple question to her?
She couldn't
And that was Namine's weakness.
It was shortly after she answered the woman's question that she realized that she was associated with Sora. And at all costs Sora could not know about Namine being out and about in the worlds. If he did then the plan would crumble beneath her.
What she needed to think about was finding Kairi. Finding her and leading her back to the true rightful place in Sora's heart.
Now wasn't the time to be dealing with her own affairs. Not with Kairi missing from Destiny Islands. Not with the priestesses being stolen, picked off one by one. Not with the heartless on the loose again. Not with Ansem loosing his powers. Not with Sora losing hope he'd ever find Kairi again.
If things were ever going to become right again she was going to need help. And that help was going to have to come from someone she knew quite well. Her other Half.
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A/N: well that's it for this chapter
A lot was revealed.
And its really long too
I hope you like it
And be sure to review and tell me what ya think
Tee hee
Frosty princess Katie
