Chapter 12: One word...
We now see Vexen, our greatest, and only, scientist in the entire Organization. He is responsible for the experiments that take place in the castle, and outside the castle. His genius created the Riku Clone, and even Xion. Today, he is teaching Xeli a few chemicals as well as a lesson in defense. Unfortunately, his laboratory is considered off limits because Xeli was a little curious about three chemicals that weren't supposed to mix. When they got together, it went BOOM! Vexen looked at the area and deemed it a health hazard. So, they had to move onto defense while the radiation wore off. They stood outside in the courtyard of the castle. There were just fountains and statues of the members of the Organization. Each looked majestic. When Xeli looked at the one of Axel, she froze and began thinking about the night of the dance that had a occurred a few days back. It was still fresh in her mind.
Flash Back!
The pointy creatures that moved as smooth as water proved to be rather strong opponents. Xeli definitely thought that they were Heartless because of the way that they moved and attacked. Dive, sneak, and attack from below. It was the classic Shadow Heartless tactic that she had seen a few times when she was sent on missions with the other teachers. Sometimes even a few NeoShadows. Luckily, she was prepared for a lot of them. No matter how much she and the other students wanted to join the fight, the teachers wouldn't let them, leaving Axel, Roxas, and Xion to do away with the vile creatures. Roxas though, seemed to fight rather oddly.
Instead of fighting in his usual Sora type of fighting style, he seemed more straight forward and fast. Axel saw this and smiled from the thought of Roxas getting aggressive. The smile went away quickly when Roxas did the unexpected. He held his OathKeeper keyblade in reverse fashion and began hacking away at the creatures faster than before. This was enough to make even Xion stop for a moment. Seeing this made her eyes widen before falling to the ground and grabbing her head. Roxas continued to fight before jumping backwards and using a move that no one could really identify. He held his keyblade pointing to the sky and shouted, "Tornado!"
A large wind began and the Heartless were collected into it. The damage it was cuasing was unbelievable. The creatures all perished instantly. Xion continued to grab her head and scream as though she were in pain. Roxas then looked at her and suddenly grabbed his head in pain as well. Hexyla saw this and shouted, "Roxas!"
This got Axel's attention and he grabbed them and rushed off to the medical wing of the castle. Xeli was just left with a whole mess of students that were asking the same thing. What was all that about? It was at that moment that Xigbar had returned and said, "The area is secure. There are no more of those things in the castle."
"I thought they were all extinguished though.", Vexen said while walking to Xigbar.
Soon, the two of them started whispering back and forth about the creatures and about someone that they were unable to hear. When the two of them finished talking, Vexen looked to the group and said, "Everyone, return to your rooms and do not leave under any circumstances. A mentor will be at your door to check if you are safe."
"What about Roxas?", Hexyla said, nearly at the verge of tears.
Vexen kept his mouth shut and merely turned to leave the area. Xeli began walking to her room while comforting a distressed Hexyla. Even Extruna and Eraxric began to help. Eraxric said, "He'll be alright. He's a strong kid, remember?"
"Yeah, and he at least took care of those things. What kind of heartless were those, anyway?", Extruna asked.
"They looked like Shadows to me.", Xeli said with a tone of suspicion. She saw what they looked like, but at the same time, they didn't feel like Heartless
When they got to Hexyla's room, the helped her into the bed and before everyone else started walking into their rooms. Everyone exchanged their good nights, and parted. Xeli plopped on the bed with a poof and was beginning to nod off before the knocking of her mentor came. She crawled out of bed and saw a concerned looking Axel looking in the seemed to be searching for something, then asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah, but... what were those things?", Xeli asked.
Axel seemed to hesitate about the creatures, "I really can't say... not that it's a secret, it's just that we are investigating. Till we know what they are, we are to call them Heartless."
"And Roxas?", Xeli asked.
"He'll be fine. So will Xion. They just... need a little rest. No worries.", Axel said and then started closing the door.
Xeli stopped and impulsively hugged Axel, "I was really worried back there..."
with a gentle smile, he hugged back and said, "We're Nobodies... we don't feel anything."
"I remember what it's like... and I know when it was meant to be felt.", Xeli said with her own smile.
Axel actually had to think and digest those words. It brought him back to an old question that he remembered asking Roxas back then. 'are you sure you don't have a heart?'. He never thought he'd think of that question for himself. It made him wonder... but before he could think further, he decided to release the hug and say, "Sleep well, Xeli. Tomorrow's another day. And be ready for Vexen's exercises. You will see that he is a little... strange."
Xeli nodded, letting go as well before heading over to bed and changing. Thing was, before she pulled down the dress, she looked over to the door and said, "Axel, close the door before I call Eraxric over here."
"Right... got it...", Axel said while closing the door with a red face to match his hair. On the other side of the door, Xeli could here him saying, "Stay down. Stay down. Stay down!"
End of Flash Back!
"Earth to Xeli. You need to drop the flashback now.", Vexen said while waving a hand in front of her face.
Xeli blinked a few times to regain composure, "Hod do you know I was having a flashback?"
"I saw it in your thought cloud when it appeared. Axel has some explaining to do.", Vexen said while pointing up.
Xeli looked up and saw her thought cloud before it disappeared. She then grew a blush at what Vexen saw at the end of it, "Ahem... so, are we going to learn about defense?"
Vexen nodded before summoning forth his shield. It was a cool ice blue with spikes along the curve. It looked like a tear drop, but a dangerous type. Xeli then summoned her staff and held it in both oof her arms in the most defensive ways she could think of. Both just stared at each other while holding their weapons, waiting for one of them to make the first move. Xeli was getting impatient about the whole thing, so she charged forward and readied to jab at Vexen with one of the bladed ends of the staff. Vexen smirked and moved his shield to block. Of course, the attack was repelled. To make matters worse, Vexen pushed her back with out even showing much effort.
"Now, don't you hold back because I am elderly. You should actually fear those with age and an able body, for they hold experiences that you know none of.", Vexen proclaimed before sending the pointed end of his shield into the ground.
Upon impact and puncture, sharp icicles began to form from the ground that pointed up. They moved strait towards Xeli like a creeping slithering snake. Seeing this, she evaded with a cartwheel to the left, thinking it would only be a straight forward attack. How very wrong she was when it changed it's course and followed her. The icicles seemed persistent, Xeli did all the cartwheels that she could stand to do, and still wasn't hit. The icicles finally stopped their pursuit, and seemed to completely melt into the ground. Xeli saw this as an opportunity to test something she learned while training with Marluxia. She did as Vexen did, and stuck her weapon into the ground. She concentrated hard on what was in the ground. The water from Vexen's ice, and the plants that are below. With what she knew, she called forth roots to come from the ground. Surrounding her were roots that were slender and green, and moving in a coordinated pattern that was similar to an octopus that would be fending off a predator. Vexen was a little more than surprised by the attack, so he braced his shield for impact.
The impact never came. Xeli's eyes were closed, so she couldn't see what it was that her roots were doing. The roots were latching on to statues and throwing them around the fountains. Vexen freaked out, "Xeli! Don't you see what you're doing?"
Xeli couldn't hear a word that was said. She concentrated only on making sure to summon the attack. She could not control it how ever. Vexen saw no choice. He pointed his shield to the rampaging roots, and shouted, "Blizzard!"
From uttering those words, a strong gust of wind mixed with snow and ice began to form and hit the roots. Freezing them in their spots. Xeli felt the change in temperature and opened her eyes to see the damage she had done. The statues of half the Organization members were either missing their heads, or in utter rubble. She developed a greatly exaggerated anime style sad face.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do that!", Xeli shouted, bowing her head to Vexen many times to show how she was very sorry.
Vexen face palmed after looking at how the place looked. With this, he snapped his fingers and summoned a set of Berserker and Sorcerer Nobodies. They began to perform reconstruction of the area and the statues, putting them together and cleaning up the mess that was made from the sparring session. Vexen began to ponder as to what to do next. Then an idea came to him that made him grin ever so much. He started heading to where Roxas was doing training with Hexyla. She had been better since Roxas and Xion finally woke. Roxas had no recollection of the events of the night. That being said, the tender moment that Roxas and Hexyla had together was but a faint memory in the back of his mind. While this made Hexyla sad, she did think it was nice in one way. The next kiss she would give him would be his first, but her second. And she hopes it is as sweet at the first.
Vexen walked in on Roxas having his own sparring session with Hexyla. Roxas was once again holding the Oathkeeper and using it skillfully as he always has. Hexyla, with her powerful and quick ribbon blade, was moving about through the air as though gravity had no possible effect on her body. Was it that she was light, or was it more? Either way, Xeli and Vexen didn't feel like interfering with the spar, so they continued to watch Hexyla floating about weightlessly with Roxas trying to hack away at her.
"Hold still, you!", Roxas shouted while tossing his Keyblade to her in a strike raid.
Hexyla only giggled and blocked it with her ribbon blade. She did a few back flips in the air, and that was when Xeli really noticed what was wrong. She was never touching the ground. She was literally in the air and never touching the ground. She defied all forms of gravity. Hexyla pointed with one of her fingers to Roxas and said, "Gravi down!"
It was a strange thing to hear, and it was even stranger to watch Roxas be affected by it. The gravity must have been increased and pushing him down a lot because he was gritting his teeth so as not to fall. He raised is keyblade to Hexyla and shouted, "Faith!"
This summoned pillars of light around him, spinning around him before some hit Hexyla and knocked her to the ground. Hexyla was sent flying for a moment and then got back up with a sigh, "Well, looks like we're at a draw, Roxy."
"Roxy? Hehe, thanks for the nickname. And yeah, we're at a draw. Next time I won't hold back as much.", Roxas said while keeping his cool.
This made Hexyla puff her cheeks in a cute kind of aggravation. Those quickly went away when she saw Xeli. She ran and tackled her to the ground while nuzzling her cheek, "Xeli-chan!"
"Neko-chan!", Xeli shouted and purred before they grew their ears and tail.
Roxas and Vexen boh watched while trying not to laugh and then were exchanging a few greetings. Vexen got serious and said, "I'd like to perform a team building exercise. I want to take these two to good old Port Royal."
Roxas blinked and tilted his head, "Why do you want them there? Mission?"
"Something like that. You see, I'm hoping that with a partner to help her out, she can master control of her Nature powers.", Vexen explained.
Roxas put a hand to his chin and assumed a thinking pose while trying to find any downside to this, "Wait, there is someone there doing a team building exercise of their own. What will happen if they get into a fight?"
"Leave that to me. Though, I will be close by. After all, we don't want to have those heartless take them out.", Vexen pointed out.
Roxas nodded. Though he had no real memory of the events, he was filled in on what had happened. Rather, he was informed on most of the events of the night. His sudden battle change and how he used his keyblade was omitted. With a nod, he said, "Alright. I approve, but I'm coming with you so we can observe them."
With a handshake and summoning of portals, they called to their respective pupils. Stepping through into the void where nothing can be seen except for the light of the other world at the end. When they came through, Xeli practically screamed when she found out that she was in Port Royal. The beautiful ocean that faced the dock, the ships with their sails ready to catch the wind and flow, and the men and women working to set sail. Vexen took a deep breath to take in the salty air and said, "Alright, Xeli. Here is your assignment. You and Hexyla here are going to explore this world, train by fighting the Heartless here, and try to master your technique."
"Wait, what exactly do you want us to do?", Xeli asked while looking to Hexyla, who was equally as confused.
Roxas decided to actually put some guidance into the assignment and said, "You two have to locate a Heartless that resides only in Isla de Muerta. It's called a Swash Buckler. Good luck."
Both of them took a portal to get out of sight and just reappeared on the top of a building. Vexen looked to Roxas and said, "There's no such thing as a Swash Buckler."
"They don't know that. It's similar to the Snipe Hunting prank. It's to get them frustrated, but I will provide them with a reward for getting there.", Roxas said with a small smile.
Vexen caught on and laughed to himself. Meanwhile, Xeli and Hexyla looked up at the building where Roxas and Vexen were standing on and both said at the same time, "We can totally hear every word you say and see you."
Vexen looked down and said, "We no speeaky your language!", and then disappeared from their sight.
Hexyla laughed a little bit and then said, "Say, if we're going to Isla de Muerta, don't you think we should get a ship there?"
Xeli nodded and started to walk around the dock. The moon looked incredible in the sky. So big, mysterious, and ever so white. Then, she saw the ship that she had dreamed of coming aboard on since she played the game and saw the movies. The elegant and majestic Black Pearl. She ran and jump to the ships front area and gave it a hug, "Oh my gosh! It's here! Meaning he's here!"
Hexyla saw the ship and Xeli glued to it and said, "This is... wow. We could ask him to give us a ride, right?"
"Well, you could, but he's giving us a ride too.", said a voice from behind.
The duo turned around to see the grinning face of Eraxric. She was accompanied by her brother, Daxch. The two of them seemed to be dressed more appropriately for the area than Hexyla and Xeli were. Eraxric was wearing a pair of comfortable pair of pants that were black in color with a loose fit blouse. Her Claymore was on her hip by a string. Daxch was dressed in a similar manner, but he had no shirt and his knives were all on his belt. Eight knives in all and they had a gray rose where the handle was. The siblings looked like a nice pair of pirates that were ready for adventure.
"So, you invited another band of cloaked peeps? They better be as good as you are in a scrap.", a voice sounded from the ship.
Sure enough, standing before them was a raven haired man with many trinkets in his mane, open white shirt, brown pants that went in his boots, and of course his hat. He had his Cutlass at his side and had a smirk that suggested adventure. Eraxric and Daxch stood up straight and gave a salute, "Aye, captain!"
"Allow me to introduce myself, ladies. The name is Captain Jack Sparrow. This, is the Black Pearl. Now, if you lot are going to join my crew, you better put on more suitable attire.", Jack said.
"But, we can't. We're on a mission. We need to get to Isla de Muerta as soon as we can.", Hexyla said.
Xeli nodded in agreement, keeping her excitement bottled up to at least talk to the pirate himself, "Yeah. We need to fight those Heartless across those waters."
"Oh? Well, we're on our own mission. Some poor excuse of a pirate has been sinking ships, turning people into those little pests you call Heartless, and has been ruining my reputation. I can't allow someone to do that you see. I'll take you to Isla de Muerta, you can be sure of that. And you will also help me find the ship of the one who shames piracy.", Jack proclaimed while pulling sword out in a dramatic fashion and pointing it to the sky. This would have been better, if he weren't swaying from side to side after consuming large quantities of rum.
"What a light weight.", Eraxric chuckled while taking a bottle of rum from behind her and taking a swig.
This all being said, Hexyla and Xeli agreed to join the party to go and search for this pirate ship. The moment they were aboard, they found out that they weren't the only ones accompanying the group. Extruna, Srixjav, Oraxtyl and Orkyxe were on board. Everyone exchanged greetings and began explaining why they were all there. Turned out that Xeli and Hexyla weren't the only pair on team building exercises. Oraxtyl was to be paired with Orkyxe so that they could work on their elements a little bit. Of course, Oraxtyl didn't really want to be partnered up with anyone at all, but he had no choice since his teacher said it was either this or face a thousand heartless with a downgraded rapier. Orkyxe would have rather been paired with someone a little more loose, like Xeli, but he needed the grade.
Extruna and Srixjav were together to work on defense. Turned out that Extruna was similar to Srixjav in the sense that she lacked a good defense. Then again, with her sound as her weapon, who really needed a shield. Unfortunately, both of their teachers didn't see it that way. The only student that they actually knew of that were missing was Byxur. Whom ever she was partnered with, everyone had pitty on their soul. Everyone was either in their cloak, or in a suitable outfit considering the world that they were in. Xeli, with her always available disguises, dawned a full pirate outfit for herself. It had a kind of gypsy look to it with the way the skirt was wrapped around her pants, and her hair jingled with the trinkets she had in it. Not like Jack's but good enough.
"Alright, children, get ready to set sail. Everyone should be at a station. Orkyxe, I want you on the crow's nest to keep a sharp eye out for the ship. Eraxric, you are in full charge of the canons, and the rum. Can I trust you with that?", Jack asked while looking a little suspicious.
"Naturally.", Eraxric said with a mischievous grin.
Jack let out a sigh of relief and continued on, "Xeli, you are work the sails. Extruna, I know that you really want to sing, but if you are going to do it, at least supervise this temporary crew while you are at it."
"I will, sir. I'll do my best to balance both.", Extruna said with a smile so sweet, you could almost taste the strawberries in the air.
Jack looked to his crew and said, "As for the rest, whom ever you were partnered with before getting here, you must assist the ones I have assigned jobs to in every way. I'll be steering the ship. Now get to work you lazy bunch of sea monkeys!"
"Yes sir!", everyone yelled and they rushed to their stations.
With in a few minutes, the Black Pearl was setting sail. The sails were beautiful in the night, almost camouflaged by the moon and the waters below. The air was cool and filled with the salty scent of adventure. What could make this a little less than good? The fact that for the last two hours was spent doing nothing. No sign of a ship was ever seen, and it was getting a little annoying. The only one who seemed to have his vigor was Jack Sparrow as he steered the ship, and looked at his compass every thirty seconds.
"Oraxtyl, what exactly is the captain doing?", Orkyxe asked, taking his eyes of the moon for a moment.
Oraxtyl had his hood over his face and was nearly asleep until he groaned, "He's checking his compass. He's got to keep us on course after all."
"But we keep moving from one direction to another. Hoe are we on course? And I can see his compass from here. One minute, it's pointing one way, and the next, it isn't. The rest of the time it isn't moving at all.", Orkyxe pursisted
Oraxtyl did all he could not to growl a little, "Look. His compass points to the thing he wants most. Who ever holds it will have it point to their heart's desire. That being said, Jack wants to find those pirates. That compass is taking us straight to them."
Orkyxe seemed satisfied with that answer and continued to look through his glass. Thing was, he didn't look to the waters or Jack. He seemed to be enjoying his view of Xeli. She and Hexyla were doing a lot of bending over to pick up ropes and move what ever was on the ship around while adjusting the sails to the captains preference. All he did was watch her with a deep sigh. This sigh was not as quiet as he wanted though, and it woke Oraxtyl up from his near sleep.
"What is it, Orkyxe?", Oraxtyl asked while stretching and taking his spyglass out to look to the waters.
"Nothing, so far. Just checking a few things out, "He said while watching Xeli move her hair with her hands in a way that made Orkyxe just enjoy the view even more.
Oraxtyl saw that Orkyxe wasn't doing his job and mentally noted that he was a slacker. That being said, he looked to the waters and saw something move through a cloud of mist. It was faint and for a moment, but it was long enough for him so see it was a ship, "Captain! There's been a ship spotted!"
Jack took out his glass and looked to the mist. The faint shape was seen again before disappearing. He checked his compass, wishing only to find the ship that was causing the problems at Port Royal. The compass was pointing into the mist. No doubt that it was the ship. If it weren't, the compass would have pointed away from it. Smirking with his prey so close, he whispered to himself, "About time I got close to you. Now then, let's play cat and mouse."
Xeli, with her neko ears out, heard the captain say this and nearly squealed like a fan girl at being around and in person to hear an epic moment with Jack Sparrow. They began venturing into the mist, their eyes pealed to see if any danger was about. So far, there was nothing. Just en endless mass of mist. This wasn't the most comfortable sight that he had seen, not since he took out Barbosa. Then, he felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. This was the same feeling he got when...
"Everyone, ready for battle! Heartless are coming on board!", the captain shouted, and drew his sword.
Oraxtyl was raising himself from the crow's nest and said, "About time. I was getting cramps up here."
Orkyxe followed with his giant Shurikan summoned as well. Xeli put down her ropes and summoned her staff while Hexyla had her ribbon blade uncoil from with in her sleeve. There was no Heartless appearing, but Eraxric and Daxch were still drawing their weapons. Eraxric held her blade out and her arm out in a similar fashion to Riku, and Daxch juggled his knives while keeping a stance ready. The air was so dense, you could cut it with Daxch's knives.
That's when they heard the sound of something moving through the air. It was like a glider. Then a pair of Air Pirate Heartless appeared, with their fists ready, and their wings stretched as they glided around their prey. Xeli remembered seeing them in her games. Easy to take out when they are low, or you can jump high. Since no one could really jump high except for Srixjav, they were all at a disadvantage. Extruna, luckily was serving as Srixjav's back up.
"Remember, we got to work on defense. So let's start by defending our crew.", Extruna said with her Singer's Blade showing up.
Srixjav chuckled with his Great Sword showing up, "You don't need to tell me twice. These guys aren't even going to touch the crew."
Before the fight could start, a ship materialized from the fog. It looked a little whacky in the sense that it seemed stereotypical. The banner that was being flown was holding the Heartless Emblem. This must have been the ship that Sparrow was looking for, because the compass pointed directly at the ship. From what visibility they had, they could see a swarm of Heartless all working together on moving the ship. That in itself was out of character for them. Heartless ran on instinct, not on thought or strategy like Nobodies. So, who or what was leading them. That's when they heard a strange voice calling from the mast of the ship, "Well, this looks like a rather unsightly bunch. Why would someone of the light be working with vermin like you?"
Everyone looked to the mast to see a hooded figure. The cloak was a vividly dark shade of green, and it didn't have sleeves, so it was worn like a poncho. The hood made the figure look like a druid almost, and the darkness in it's voice was simply filled with venom.
"Who wants to know?", Sparrow asked.
"I'm just curious is all. After all, no one would ever be with a Nobody. Something that shouldn't exist in the realm of light or darkness, yet there they are.", the figure said. The voice sounded rather feminine.
"Wait, we aren't vermin! We don't try to infest worlds like you Heartless!", Xeli shouted while pointing to the figure with her staff.
The figure laughed loudly, pointing to Xeli directly, "Please. Spare me that load. After having to endure the fact that empty space like you even try to fit in was enough to make me vomit what ever hearts I consumed. Now, I shall let my little friends devour the heart of that pirate, and then make you all fade into the darkness as all Nobodies will."
When the figure said that, it disappeared, making the Heartless go into a frenzy to attack the captain and his crew. Sparrow chuckled as he said, "She got it wrong. I'm not one pirate alone."
"What do you mean?", Hexyla asked as the swarm began to come onto the ship.
Jack held up one finger as he said, "One word, mate. Pirates."
Author's Note
I have to say, this is the first time that I have ever done a chapter that was a lesson and then have to separate it into two parts. It's not that I don't enjoy writing long chapter. It's that I wanted to do another cliffhanger for you all to cling on to. That being said, I'm happy to say thank you all for your reviews in the previous chapters. A big special thank you goes out to you all from the people that I have based my characters off of. They all say thank you for supporting them with your views and reviews. Xeli appreciates the attention you all give her by admiring her Nobody Character. Same with everyone for that matter. And keep tuned in for the next chapter that will conclude this lesson. I hope you enjoy the surprise later. This is your loyal Author, sprx777, saying to never stop smiling, laughing, or any of that. I also would like to apologize for not having any momentary interruptions. I figured that this chapter needed to be a little serious this time. Then again, you will find that this story in general will get more serious as time passes on, and as the characters change over the months they spend in Academy XIII.