Chapter 11: Twilight Town
A/N: Yay! We're at one of my favorite worlds in this game! Now is when things get really confusing for Hikari and the others. I wonder how they'll deal with this new world that they supposedly have been to. We'll just have to read to find out.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, just Hikari.
Enjoy!
/
They group went up to the next level of the castle. There was no other way for them to go but up.
Sora looked at the card that Vexen had given them.
He found it rather odd that this was made from the 'other side' of his heart.
Jiminy studied the card carefully.
"A card made out of the memories from the 'other side of your heart'?" he asked.
"Hmm. I wonder what it does"
Sora looked at the door that stood in front of them.
"We'll find out soon enough" he said.
"It's the only one we have left. No other way to move forward"
Hikari looked at the card skeptically.
She really didn't trust that Vexen.
He had changed Riku to the point where he had forgotten how important she was to him, so why should they use a card that he gave them.
"It could be a trap" she said.
"He could be giving it to us so he can lure us within this clutches and mess up our memories to where we're just like Riku"
Sora looked at it.
"You may be right" he said.
"But how else are we going to move forward? Namine is somewhere within this castle, and there's no other way to go but up. We have to go"
Hikari sighed.
She was starting to get annoyed with him talking about Namine. That's the only thing he talked about lately.
But, she didn't have room to argue. She had to find Riku and beat him to his senses and beat the crap out of Vexen for making him this way.
They walked up to the door and held the card up.
The doors opened for them and they went through their 'other' memory.
/
They ended up in some sort of town.
It looked very different from Traverse Town with the buildings being more opened.
The sunset gave the area a bright glow.
Hikari thought it was beautiful. She never knew such a place existed.
For this being a part of her memories, she didn't remember this place.
Everyone looked around the area.
"Gawrsh, where are we?" Goofy asked.
They watched a ferry pass them by.
"I dunno…I've never been here" Sora said.
He looked at Hikari.
"How about you?"
She shook her head.
"This is the first time for me. I would remember a beautiful place such as this"
Jiminy jumped off of Sora's shoulder.
"That can't be right" he said.
"Up until now, the only places we've been are from Sora and Hikari's memories."
The keybalde masters nodded.
"Maybe so, but we definitely don't remember this" Sora said.
"You might have forgotten this town just like the other stuff" Donald said.
"This is terrible" Jiminy said.
"Our memories are practically gone"
Hikari, Donald and Goofy slumped their heads in defeat.
"We'll be ok" Sora said.
"See, look at this…"
He pulled out Namine's lucky charm.
"Namine's good luck charm?" Hikari asked.
Sora nodded.
"There's a special memory that goes with this" he said.
"One night when Namine and I were little, there was this meteor shower. Namine started crying. She said, 'what if a shooting star hits the islands?'. So I said, ' if a shooting star comes this way, I'll hit it right back into outer space!'. I was swinging this toy sword around the whole time. Namine just smiled and said 'thanks'. And then she gave me this. Namine said she had it ever since she was a baby"
"And she gave it to you?" Donald asked.
"Aww"
Sora nodded.
"Yeah. So I promised her…from now on, I'll bring you good luck. I'll keep you safe"
Hikari giggled a little.
"That kind of reminds me of my lucky charm" she said.
Sora grinned.
"Oh yeah! Your heart pendant. I remember you would always wear it and never let anyone touch it"
Hikari nodded.
"It was the only thing I had when I came to the islands" she said.
"I had no recollection of who I was or where I came from. It was the only thing that I had from my world. It's kept me safe from our previous journey"
Sora nodded.
"And you gave it to Riku when we closed Kingdom Hearts" he said.
"Right" Hikari said.
"Even though it was my greatest treasure and I didn't want to part with it, I was more concerned about Riku. I wanted to keep him safe from the darkness, so I gave him a portion of my light"
"That's really romantic of you" Goofy said.
Hikari blushed.
"It was really hard parting with my charm" she said quietly.
"Someone very dear to me made it. She made it for me so that I would always be surrounded by light and so the darkness wouldn't touch me"
"Who made it for you?" Sora asked.
Hikari thought about it.
"It was my…my…"
She couldn't think of anyone. She tried to picture the person, but it just came out all fuzzy.
She looked at her friends sheepishly.
"Sorry, I don't know at the top of my head" she said.
Sora gave her a small grin.
"It's alright" he said.
"Let's look around here. Maybe we'll find Namine or Riku"
Hikari nodded.
As she was walking, she failed to notice a certain blond girl standing behind her.
"I'm so sorry, Hikari" said quietly.
"All of this is happening because of me"
/
They walked through the town for a bit.
Nobody was really out at this time.
Hikari figured it was because it was getting late and everyone wanted to turn in for the day.
Her mind wandered back to the person who gave made her pendant. She knew that she was connected to that person, but she couldn't think of a name or face. It was like as if a veil was covering her face and she couldn't see anything.
She felt horrible that she couldn't remember. She knew that this person had to be really important.
She even remembered that this person was sealed away within her pendant and was staying with Riku.
That's when something occurred to her. If she saw Riku, why didn't she see that person?
Surely he still had her charm. Even if he was forgetting a few things, he should know who important her pendant.
That made her want to find him even more.
There were so many things that were leaving her confused.
This castle was really getting to the best of her.
She continued walking with her friends as she tried to sort of what memories she still had left.
/
They kept walking until they reached an abandoned mansion out in the woods.
Hikari looked at it and could have sworn that she saw this once before.
"That's not possible" she thought.
"I've never been here before, so why would I remember this place?"
Sora had the same look on his face as well.
"What's wrong?" Goofy asked.
"Something…feels really strange" Sora said.
Hikari nodded.
"I'm sure I don't know this place, but it's starting to feel like it's familiar to me…" she said.
"You must have come here sometime before" Donald said.
Sora and Hikari shook their heads.
"No, and that's what's strange…" Sora said.
"It could be like with Namine" Goofy said.
"You forgot lots of other stuff-and that's why you remember this place now"
Hikari didn't think so.
It just didn't seem right.
She remembered that someone once told her that there were two different types of memoires, the memory of the mind and the memory of the body.
Even of the mind forgot something, the body would always remember.
Her mind was telling her that she had once come here before, but her body was telling her the opposite.
Since she couldn't really remember anything, she stuck with what her body was telling her.
"No…it's different" she said.
Sora nodded.
"With Namine-my memories…sort of came drifting back to me, a little piece at a time" he said.
"But not now. It's not memories-just this idea that I must have been here before"
"So, feeling nostalgic?"
Everyone whipped around to see Vexen standing in front of the mansion gates.
Hikari growled at him.
She was going to get her revenge for Riku.
Vexen smirk coldly at them.
"I have a question for you, Sora" he said.
"Your memories of Namine or your feelings here- which of the two of these is more real, I wonder"
Sora glared at him.
"Namine, of course!" he said.
"Whatever it is we're feeling , I bet it's just another one of your mean little tricks!" Hikari added.
Vexen laughed cruelly.
"The memory's wiles can be cruel" he said.
"In its silence, we forget. In its obsession, it binds our hearts"
"Cut the riddles!" Hikari snapped.
Vexen sneered at her.
"I told you- this place was created solely from another side of your memories. It is on the other side of your hearts that the memories of this place exists. It is your hearts that remember"
Sora stomped his foot in frustration.
"You're wrong!" he cried.
"We don't know this place!"
Vexen sneered at them.
"If you remain bound by the chain of memories and refuse to believe what is truly found inside your hearts…then throw it away. You are not the keyblade maters- just slaves to twisted memories"
He grinned darkly as he summoned his shield.
"Yes...just like my Riku. Your existences are worth nothing!"
Hikari's heart stopped a moment.
His Riku? What did he mean by that? Riku didn't belong to anybody.
"Like YOUR Riku?" she asked.
"Worth nothing?"
She growled at him and drew her keyblade.
"That's enough!" she cried.
"YOU'RE the one who changed Riku! Every word you've said is a lie! How dare you use him as your little puppet?"
Vexen laughed at her.
"So it is true that love blinds us from reality" he said.
"But no matter. I just put you out of your misery"
Sora and the others summoned their weapons.
"As if we'd ever let you defeat us!" he cried.
"We're going to defeat you then save Riku and Namine!"
Vexen grinned darkly at them.
"Go ahead and try"
Hikari threw herself at him.
After hearing him call Riku worthless, she simply couldn't let him live.
As long as he was alive, Riku would never be freed.
She blindly sent fire spells at him while Donald and Goofy attacked him.
She was going to make him suffer slowly for what he did to her beloved.
She didn't know why she was acting or feeling this way, but it didn't matter to her. She just wanted revenge.
When she noticed him getting weak, she cast her strongest fire spell at him while Sora landed the finishing blow.
Vexen yelled in pain and fell to his knees.
He breathed hard as he tried to regain his breath.
He never knew these children could wield such power even with parts of their memory missing.
"You have such strength, even at the mercy of your memories" he rasped.
Hikari glared at him.
"None of that matters!" she snapped.
"Just put Riku back!"
Vexen laughed.
"Just put him back?" he asked.
He slowly got to his feet.
"The Riku you speak of…has but one fate, to sink into the darkness-and you two share the same fate!"
He held his side.
"If you both continue to seek the girl, Namine, the shackles will tighten, you'll lose your hearts…and end up become Marluxia's pawns!"
Sora raised an eyebrow.
"Marluxia?" he asked.
"What does Namine have to do with-"
He was cut off when a flaming Chakram zipped past him and hit Vexen square in the chest.
The scientist went down for the count.
Hikari whipped her head around. She knew who owned that weapon.
She saw Axel standing a few feet from them.
"Axel!"
The red head gave them a cocky smile.
"Yo, Sora and Hikari" he said.
"Did I catch you both at a bad time?"
Vexen painfully stood up and held his side.
He glared at Axel.
"Axel, why…?" he rasped.
Axel smirked darkly.
"I came to stop you from talking too much" he said.
"By eliminating your existence"
Vexen's eyes went wide with panic.
"No…don't do it!" he pleaded.
Axel didn't seem fazed.
"We are just nobodies who have no one to be, yet we still 'are'" he said.
"But now you can be nothing instead of just being a Nobody. You're off the hook"
Vexen back away.
"No…please don't!" he cried.
"I don't want to-"
"Goodbye"
Axel snapped his fingers and set Vexen into flames.
Everyone watched horrified as he disappeared into black particles.
Sora looked at Axel in horror.
"What are you- what ARE you people?"
Axel wore a sad grin.
"Don't know" he said.
"I wonder about that myself"
He disappeared through a portal and left them.
Hikari couldn't believe what she saw.
True, she wanted Vexen gone, but not like that. No one deserved to die like that, no matter how cruel they were.
She looked at Sora.
"L-let's just go" she said in a shaky voice.
"There's nothing left for us here, so why bother staying?"
Sora nodded.
They slowly left the mansion.
Hikari looked at the spot where Vexen once stood.
"Now that he's gone, Riku will be free" she thought.
She slowly followed after Sora and the others.
"Riku" she thought as she walked.
"When I see you…please let you be back to your old self again"
/
A/N: Woo Hoo! Vexen's dead! But it's not over yet. Now Hikari has to deal with Riku. Will he be back to the way that he was? Or will it be too late?
Please review and tell me what you think.
Ja ne
