Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter Thirteen

~In which~

The conflict begins

He laughed at me.

My heart was pounding. Blood geysered in my veins.

What now? What was I supposed to do, or say? I was tied up; trapped in these ropes. My friends were off somewhere with an unknown fate. It was likely he'd just kill me now.

So much for saving the world.

I sighed and looked down. Why did we ever think we could do it? We'd been blind to the progress since the start. The darkness… it was too strong to defeat now. Six lights were too feeble in the darkness.

With nothing to lose, I looked at him with wide, unafraid eyes.

On a second glance, he didn't look so strong. Something, something vital, had positively shattered inside of him. There was just an air of utter instability that I had never known in Xemnas.

But he wasn't Xemnas. He was Xehanort. Did names really matter? He was the same person regardless- and he wanted me, for stupid, unclear reasons.

Physically, he looked more or less the same. His hair was still in the same style, but it looked closer to white than its usual silver. He didn't wear the cloak- instead, he wore a black shirt, tight fitting, and gray pants with wide legs. There were bands on his wrists, and a piece of armor on his shoulder.

Then, I noticed the markings.

Once I saw them, it was hard not to notice them, little blue markings all over his arms, jagged like lightning and dark. They were inside the whites of his eyes, too. I didn't know what to make of them. Maybe they were part of his instability.

"Resigned already?" He said, and it was the same low voice I was used to hearing in my nightmares. "That's too bad… I was really looking forward to a fight this time."

I said nothing.

"We should just put the past behind us," he continued. "Things did not get off to a good start, did they?"

I let out an odd gasp of a laugh. "Oh, you don't think? The Organization is almost entirely wiped out- the rest are on my side."

"You think I care about them?" He asked. "My Nobodies were accidents- a mere by-product of my research. No, I don't need the constant backstabbing. I don't need a rebellion. I only need servants."

"Is that what she was for?" The corpse of my original captor was in the corner. I wanted to vomit.

"Yes, and others like her." He casually went over to a table, picked something up and examined it. He brought it over and walked behind me. Fear prickled up my spine. I felt something cold and metallic graze lightly alongside my throat and almost tenderly lift up a piece of hair. "But you… you were the prize."

"I still don't believe that," I managed. "There's just something… so haphazard about that."

"You'd be right. I didn't want it to be you." Xehanort paused. "I wanted it to Sora. It was perfect in my mind- the Keyblade master, young and malleable and so unsure. But the birth of Roxas… complicated things. So I moved to my next brightest light. You."

I took a shaky breath.

"Once I thought about it, it all made sense. I had never meant for you to be anything more than a backup. But I see now you were the best choice all along. Your humanity has only made things better for me."

"Then why did you try to destroy me?" I asked in a low voice. "Remember, when I first became human? It was your goal to kill me. I thought it still was. Why do you need me now?"

He smiled. "I had to give you a reason to fight, and survive. I had to give you a reason to come back and try to kill me." He flipped the dagger. "Believe me, if I'd really wanted to, I could have shattered your soul completely on the spot. But I didn't need it shattered… I merely needed to weaken it."

A thought nagged at me, but I couldn't quite grasp it in my terror. A page of a book floated to mind, in the library where I had first found the key, but I couldn't remember what it said.

"And you are perfect now. Young. Strong. You have potential to be as powerful as a god, Demyx, I daresay it. You're on that path now, even without darkness. But imagine… what you could become."

"I will never go to your side."

"Oh, I know it. Not voluntarily."

What was he trying to tell me? Was there a way he could control me? How, without darkness?

Xehanort touched the dagger to my nose. It was such a light touch, but I felt it resonate through my body with a painful ring. In some deep part of my mind, somehow I knew that sound to be a high A harmonic, though how that would help me at the moment I had no idea.

An icy pain seared through me. Everything went white. The ringing stopped. A spot on the back of my neck burned. My eyes were unfocused. "Then what was Kingdom Hearts for, huh?" I spat, breathless.

"It was just the answer for my question." He set the dagger back onto the table. "I think you're coming along quite nicely."

"What do you mean?"

He stepped closer. "Just go back to sleep, Demyx. Close your eyes."

"What? No!" But I was growing heavier despite myself. Exhaustion tempered my movements, made everything slow down. "…No…"

"Good night, my friend. I hope to see you soon."

I woke with a start, facedown on a dirt road. I gasped and inhaled dust. As I coughed, I realized that Yuffie and Axel were also next to me, both sprawled on the ground as well.

"Did we… fall asleep?" Yuffie asked, dusting herself off.

"It must be the heat," Axel said.

"…I had a really weird dream…"

"About what?" Axel asked her.

"Funny, I can't remember now…" She had a confused look on her face. "Demyx, are you okay? You're staring at me funny."

I shook my head quickly. "…Yeah, I'm fine." Had that really all been a dream? It was hot enough for all of us to get lethargic, but to fall asleep in the middle of a road? I gave Axel a significant look. He raised an eyebrow at me.

Yuffie put a hand on my neck. Her fingers were cool and dusty. "Where did you get this? Is it dirt or something?" She brushed away my hair.

"…Where did I get what?" My heart was beating with dread.

"This… mark…" She rubbed at it, trying to get it off. "What is it, a tattoo?"

Axel leaned over. "You got a tattoo? When were you planning to tell me?"

I swatted them both away. "I didn't get a tattoo!"

Axel squinted. "It looks kind of like a swastika… dude, that's just wrong."

Yuffie took her bag off her shoulder and pulled a compact mirror out of the pocket. "Here. Look."

It took a lot of awkward head craning, but finally I had the mirror so I could see. They were right. On my neck, right below my ear, was a blue four-pointed star with the same pattern of the markings on Xehanort's arms. It reminded me of a crack. I gave Yuffie back her mirror and touched the marking. "…Why do you even have that, anyway?" I asked to diffuse the tension.

She clutched the mirror to her chest. "These are really handy, okay? You know… for starting fires and stuff…"

"Oh please, I saw you totally obsessing earlier…" Axel said, then made a kissy face, "'Oh, I don't know if I'll ever be pretty enough…'"

Yuffie slapped him hard and hid the object in her bag.

"Ouch… guy can't get away with anything around here…"

I still had a hand on the marking. It was slightly warmer than the skin around it.

Axel stood, stretched, and dusted himself off. "Well, come on guys, we might as well at least try to get some progress made. Wonder what Sora's going to say if he finds out…"

So I stood too, and we walked off towards civilization. But the dream, or whatever it was, didn't leave my mind.

It was hard to concentrate from there on out. I numbly followed my friends down the path, but I didn't take part in their conversation, nor did I even pay attention along the road.

I kept thinking back to it. I felt very much mindfucked, but it didn't matter whether or not that was a dream. I knew undoubtedly that the exchange had actually happened; the mark on my neck burned.

I didn't like the way it made me feel- vulnerable and exposed. I should know what he was trying to do; he was definitely hinting at something I already knew about, but my mind refused to remember.

Yuffie squeezed my hand, starting me from my reverie. "You've been quiet ever since we woke up. Is something wrong?" I could tell she knew something was up, but I didn't feel like going into it, not now, with the summer sun above us, and the mission ahead of us. I shrugged.

"Well, if you feel like talking," she offered.

"But… it's just… when we were sleeping, didn't you dream?" I asked.

"Of course, I told you I did, but I just can't remember anything, so I doubt it was important," she said, shaking her head. "Why? Did you have a nightmare? You've been having an awful lot of those lately…" she looked concerned. Yuffie knew that bad dreams were never a good sign.

I cleared my throat. "I'm fine. It's not important right now… I'll tell you later." She didn't remember. I remembered the "dream" as clearly as anything. Probably another one of his tricks.

Yuffie trailed off. "…If you say so."

"Hey, look. And I thought we were never going to get there…" Axel said, pointing. I had almost forgotten he was even there.

At the base of the hill was a city.

For a moment, the city reminded me of home. The buildings were similar to the ones at home in architecture. But I could see one major difference from here, well, two, actually. Firstly, it wasn't colorful. Everything was done in industrial shades of gray and brown. Second, smokestacks on top of the industrial buildings belched smoke and pollution. I could see and smell the haze from here.

"That's disgusting," Yuffie gaped. "Don't they know how bad that is?"

"They must be pretty early in development," Axel said darkly. "I hate worlds like these."

I sighed. "Do you think there's time to go exploring?"

"I don't know," Axel told me. "This world might have a different set of hours than we're used to."

Again, seemingly poor planning on Sora's part. I looked at my watch. It was a little after one. "Why don't we have lunch, and then we can figure out a plan?"

"Sounds good to me. I'm hungry." Yuffie stretched.

There were trees closer to the city, so at least we had some shade. Once I actually looked through my things, I noticed the rations were pretty poor for a day- a sandwich and some dried fruit for a snack. Better than the Organization, though, when we'd been given nothing for missions that could last for days. Best to be self-sufficient, they said.

Maybe it was because of Xehanort, but I kept thinking more and more about my Nobody days. They once felt like they happened so long ago, almost like a long-faded dream, but now it was right under my skin again. My wrist itched. No matter how I tried to distance myself from that train of thought, I kept drawing parallels from missions now to missions then. And this was only the beginning.

I felt paranoid, and unsettled instead of ready for this mission, despite the training I'd already undergone. My Organization skills would be more than helpful in this case rather than detrimental. Still, several hours into the journey and already I wanted to go home.

Axel nudged me. "Cheer up, okay? This could be fun."

I shrugged. "I'd rather be home."

Yuffie scowled. "And I'd rather they not burn coal. Ew."

"But it seems like a good place to hide. A small city like this, crime's bound to be through the roof. Everyone's just going to be surviving. They're not going to be curious or trying to better things for themselves." My recon skills were rust. True, my white magic training had only refined my deduction skills, but I felt like it wasn't going to be enough. I stuffed the sandwich wrapping into my bag and shoulder it with a sigh. "Let's go now. We haven't got much time left before we have to turn back."

We continued into the city. It seemed, to me, to be towards the very end of its own Industrial Revolution, full of technology and ideas but still ignorant to the effects on people and the environment. When we saw the people from a distance, it only confirmed it- they were dressed in clothing I had only seen in Radiant Garden's history books.

It was amazing, I mused, how similarly the worlds could develop. It was true, a whole lot more were entirely different, with different languages, different religions, even different properties of magic, but most of the ones I had been to carried an aura of utter familiarity. I never felt like I was truly on an alien planet; but true, I had never felt at home.

It was a simple explanation- the worlds were once one. Still, I was amazed anyway.

As we came in closer to the city, I first became aware of the chaos.

The city was in upheaval. There was so much going on that no one noticed us in our outlandish, modern clothing. We all sunk into the shadows. Axel and I had been trained to do this sort of thing; Yuffie had learned as part of her ninja training, so she was actually better than both of us at blending in.

"Hey, you! Stop! Thief!" Someone yelled. I heard footsteps, too. They were running.

"They speak English," Yuffie whispered. "Where are we, anyway?"

Axel shushed her. We poked a little more into the street; we were able to see what was going on, but were essentially invisible to anyone who wasn't looking.

Venders' crates smashed as the thief struggled to jump over them. He or she was dressed from head to toe in thick, oriental-looking robes. Nothing of his or her face was visible aside from a slit for the eyes, and even that looked dark. The thief held its prize above its head, a stupid idea if you asked me.

The object the thief had was what appeared to be a large glass orb, maybe about as big as a grapefruit and perfectly round. Something shimmered inside the orb like liquid glitter.

I was taken back to two years ago, when Yuffie had showed me the white materia. "Déjà vu," I murmured. I knew immediately the object was important- it was more than just some bauble to pawn.

I noticed then that the hands clutching the orb weren't covered, and more than that, they weren't normal. The fingers didn't even have knuckles, or nails- the whole hand was jagged and claw-like, and the skin was black, black as darkness.

"It's a Heartless," I realized.

"You could see it that quickly?" Yuffie asked, impressed.

"Come on, we have to go stop that thing!"

"Demyx, wait…" Axel began, but it was too late. I crashed directly into someone who had been passing in front of the alleyway.

I was mortified. "I am so sorry."

The man stumbled. "Not a problem," he told me quickly, and was gone, chasing after it.

"No! Sir, you'll get hurt!" I called after him.

"Who was that?" Yuffie asked.

"I don't know. Don't care. We have to go after them!" Axel said unnecessarily.

We took off. The whole exchange had happened while the Heartless was going down the street.

The heavy, polluted air clouded my lungs, but I kept pushing myself forward. What was it about the orb? If the Heartless wanted it, it had to be valuable to the person who was leading it… obviously it was being controlled by Xehanort or his lieutenants, because anything with intelligence would realize that the orb needed to be hidden…

My mind wheeled with all the deductions and I kind of wished I could stop thinking.

I caught up before my friends did. My training had taken over- I grabbed what I assumed was the Heartless' shoulder. We both fell- the orb clattered to the ground. I expected it to shatter, but it glowed brightly and emitted a high ringing sound.

I saw Axel and Yuffie reaching for me in my peripheral before everything disappeared in a flash of white.

-Giggles-
Well, I don't know what to say, other than the fact that I'm only a day late this time. XD
I'm really going to have fun with this world. I don't think that anyone can guess what it is. I've already mangled the beginning somewhat, so I hope I can keep it canon for the remainder XD.

I also have a Tumblr now, if anyone's interested- my username or whatever is The Lantern of Alice.

Thank you Wolven24KH, Mystical, littlev123, IenzosShuggoCharra, TheChel, SoraIsMyHomeboy, and Anna for reviewing last chapter.

I hope to update again next week!