Chapter 14: Chris Talonflight: Countdown to Battle

"Perish in the abyss!" Ansem called, as he fired blasts of darkness at Vexen. Vexen dodged and blocked as best as he could. Ansem had commanded rather then asked Yuffie and I to remain on the sidelines. He was becoming the real leader of this expedition. I only hoped that he wouldn't be killed by DiZ when we finally reached him. We were currently in front of the old mansion in the fake Twilight Town.

"Hey you! Get back!" a voice called. Ansem jerked back just in time. A man with spiky red hair and two triangles under his eyes, and wearing a black Organization XIII outfit sprang forwards, sending one flaming chakram at Vexen. Axel, the eighth member of Organization XIII had arrived. I restrained Ansem.

"He's on our side." I told him. Although it didn't seem like Ansem believed me, he stood quietly.

"Axel…" Vexen gasped. "Why… Why…" Axel merely grinned.

"I always get the icky jobs." He snapped his fingers, and a ring of fire closed around Vexen, ending his existence entirely.

"Hey Lea." I called.

"I have no idea how you know me." he said, scratching his head. "But its Axel. Got it memorized?"

"Duh." I said. "Anyway, you wouldn't happen to have a floor card on you, would you?"

"Here." He tossed it over his shoulder towards me. "Kill Marluxia for me. Make's my job easier."

"Don't worry. I plan to." I said.

"By the way, there's someone here to see you." He waved. A girl ran out of the trees.

"Chris!" she said. "I wanted to meet you at least once. There's stuff about this castle I think you should know."

"I know that I'm rapidly losing memories because of it." I said. Namine was cute, to say the least, but she looked way to young for my taste.

"Yes." She said. "Also, I brought you a card that should get you all the way up to Marluxia. Marluxia himself has the card that will send you onto the staircase that will lead you up to my room, where I can fix your memories." She cast a fearful glance at Ansem.

"its okay." I said. "Ansem is helping me. When I fall asleep, let him go."

"You… you know he's a heartless…" she said.

"Yeah. In fact, my best friend is a heartless." I summoned Nudge from the card. He hopped on my shoulder. He poked Namine. Namine is really really short. Namine giggled.

"See you at the top." I said. Namine looked at me for a moment with what I thought was a wistful look.

"I wish… I wish we had more time." She said. Oh no… Don't tell me that NAMINE is actually going to fall for me because I'm here instead of Sora… Just PERFECT… I wonder who's Nobody Namine is. "See you at the top!"

"uh… Yeah." I said, slightly flustered.

"Namine!" Axel called. "I have to put you back before Marluxia knows you're gone!"

"Yes Axel." Namine called.

"Hey Axel." I called.

"yeah?" Axel responded.

"Take care of you friends." I said. I didn't really want my nobody to have a hard time.

Namine looked at me one last time before following Axel through a dark portal. I shrugged, and walked through the door to the next level.

Instead of another world, here we were inside a square room. There was another door at the other end of the room. The door behind us suddenly disappeared.

"So you have made it this far." A voice said. "I am surprised." The chair in the center of the room swiveled around to face us. Sitting there was Marluxia, the Graceful Assassin. "I take it you have disposed of my minions?"

"Vexen is dead. So is Larxene, and I should imagine that Lexaeus is dead by now too. So it should be just Zexion and you. Pretty soon it will be just Zexion." I summoned my two Soul Eaters.

"how confident." Marluxia's eyes travelled to Ansem. "you managed to defeat me before, but I promise you, your tactics will be far less effective here. While your memories are mostly untouched, you will find that you have forgotten certain moves. And any heartless that you summon here…" he waved his hand, and a group of Dusks appeared. "… Will be dealt with swiftly." He then spied Yuffie. "As for you, you fake, did you really expect to leave here alive?"

"Don't call her that!" I yelled.

"She is a fake, a replica forged from your memories." He said, seemingly puzzled. "Why do you deny the truth?"

"Even a replica has feelings. And I feel for her!" I took up the Riku combat pose. I had learned a few tricks from Ansem on the way up, so I had a few moves that I hadn't forgotten. However, this battle would be decided not by power, but by skill with our weapons. I had taken a careful watch of Marluxia, and knew most of his moves.

"your confidence is underwhelming." Ansem growled. He summoned his heartless guardian. "Where is Xemnas?"

"Xemnas is in our home base." Marluxia retorted. Ansem fixed me with a look.

"you said we would find him." He accused.

"Sure I did. I never said we would find him here." I never looked away from Marluxia. "he's in another world, but I know how to get there. Don't worry. Once I get my memory back, I will personally take you there."

"you'd better." Ansem began hovering. Yuffie brought out her giant shuriken.

"It's now or never." I growled. (cue song "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed)

Marluxia spun his scythe at me. I spun, my sword clanging off of his scythe. Marluxia pushed me back, swinging his weapon in a deadly circle. Ansem summoned several dark weapons floating around him, and sent them into a spinning attack. Yuffie stayed back, hurling numerous shurikens and kunais. I summoned six balls of energy around me. "Equaled yet?" I asked. I then sent each of the blasts towards Marluxia in a machine gun style. I charged through Ansem's floating weapons, with my two Soul Eaters in my hands. Marluxia responded with a blast of razor edged sakura petals. I summoned a dark shield around me. Then Marluxia slammed Ansem to the floor and sprang towards me, whirling his scythe.

"Ahh!" I heard Ansem yell. I dodged Marluxia's attack, and turned to look. Several Dusk Nobodies had clambered all over him. They were rapidly being decimated, but more were appearing every second. As powerful as Ansem was, he was in danger of being overrun by the army. I rolled towards him and sent out a dark shockwave, blasting back the army, and giving him some breathing room. Another cry from behind me made my blood freeze.

"Well." Marluxia growled. "Now we know for sure. You really were a fake!" Yuffie was impaled on the end of Marluxia's scythe.

"BASTARD!" I yelled.

We met in a clash. I summoned Last Chaos, my dark keyblade. Marluxia backed up.

"What… You can wield the keyblade?" he was stunned. I grinned with anger.

"DIE!" I yelled, and my keyblade shattered Marluxia's scythe. My blade continued forwards, slamming into Marluxia.

"You traitorous son of a-" I broke off. Then, leaving my keyblade inside a rapidly fading Marluxia, I walked over to where Yuffie lay. (Cue song "This One (Crying Like a Child)" by Utada Hikaru)

"Yuffie." I took her hand in mine. "I am so, so sorry."

"Chris…" she looked into my eyes. "it's… all right… I wanted to go with you…"

"it's not all right!" I exclaimed. "I don't want you to die!"

"Its… better this way…"

"no it isn't!" I yelled. "I care about you Yuffie! I love you!"

Yuffie smiled gently. "No you don't. You love… the real me. The real Yuffie. I'm… just a fake. It's better this… way. When I die… I will… merge with the real… me. Then… we will always be together."

"Yuffie." I said her name. I repeated it over and over. Her eyes started to close.

"You must return… to the… real… world…" she said. "I will… be okay… I will… always love you…"

Her eyes closed completely, and she stopped breathing. I cried over her body. I looked at Yuffie, who was beautiful even in death. Sleep well. Your journey is at its end. I picked up the thin chain that this Yuffie had always worn looped into her belt and put it around my neck. A small cylinder with a single rune on it hung at the bottom, against my chest. I cut my hand and let the drops of my blood fall into the cylinder, then did the same thing to Yuffie: our blood mixed together, a symbol of what might have been, of what would have been. Then I bent over my dead love and gave her cold lips one, final kiss of farewell. (Cue song "End of the World" from Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack)

"Ansem." I said, without turning around, "In exactly one year, you and I will meet again. Meet me in Twilight Town, in front of the Old Mansion. I should be there in exactly one year." I looked up at my mentor.

"Death of one close to you is hard." Ansem seemed emotionless. "I can remember that from my past life."

"Then will you wait for me?" I asked. Ansem hesitated, and then nodded.

"I have come to like you, boy. I would call you my friend." He placed his hand on my shoulder for one instant, and for a single instant a human and rabid heartless shared a common feeling. Then Ansem stepped back, and walked into a dark portal. I stood up. I placed Yuffie's body into Marluxia's chair. I placed the dead Marluxia behind the chair. Picking up one of Yuffie's shurikens, I slammed it again and again into Marluxia's fading body. Then I placed the bloody shuriken into Yuffie's cold hand. Retrieving my keyblade, I looked one last time at Yuffie, and then I opened the door to Namine's Stair.

I began climbing the three hundred steps to the very top of Castle Oblivion. I relaxed all the way. The nightmare of Castle Oblivion was almost at an end. One by one I fed my few remaining memories to the silent walls. The memory of Yuffie and I. the memory of Ansem. The memory of Nudge. The memory of my other friends. The memory of Axel. The memory of my heartless. The memory of David Frostmourne. The memory of my past life. The memory of even my name. And the memory of everything but Namine's words:

See you at the top.