ALL THE FEELS IN THIS CHAPTER

ALL OF THEM!

That's all I'm saying

Chapter 26: Final Nocturne Melody

On the path up the steep hill in Twilight Town, in front of the bulletin board, Hayner and Pence were taking as always about where Kairi possibly could have gone. Standing a little way away from them, Olette was kicking at the small stones by her feet.

"I hope Kairi's okay..." Olette murmured with a sigh. She looked up at the sky, and took that munny pouch from her pocket.

The little embroidery was something she had worked her guts out on while her mother taught her. It had seemed like Kairi was going to be a really close female friend to Olette. 'I can't talk to Hayner or Pence about embroidery, but I'm sure I could with Kairi… and maybe we could talk about other things, things you can't talk about with boys…' She thought with a small smile.

"Lazing around like always, I see," came a sudden voice, and Olette looked up to see Seifer and his entourage assembled there.

"What do you want," Hayner replied, disagreeably.

"Don't really want anything from you." Seifer said with a grin.

"Seifer's busy, ya know," Rai butted in from behind Seifer.

"We're busy too so don't hold us up," Hayner said, glaring, and Seifer turned his back on him and began to walk away. "Where are you going?" He asked. "That's not your turf."

Seifer turned casually. "Did you hear the rumor that suspicious guys have been going in and out of the haunted mansion?"

"…Huh?" Olette blinked, the first to react to Seifer's words. "What does that mean? Please tell us."

"Those guys… Do you remember Sora?" Seifer questioned.

"Of course we remember." Hayner returned.

"Those silver guys that Sora defeated… as well as a man in a black coat have been going in and out of the haunted mansion. That's the rumor." That's all Seifer said before he walked away.

In his wake, Olette was lost in thought.

"Suspicious guys at the haunted mansion…? I wonder if this will just turn out like the 'seven wonders' rumor did." Pence said, lacing his hands behind his head.

"The rumor about the girl was a masterpiece," Hayner said, light-heartedly. "Even though it was just a curtain moving in the wind."

"Hey… Seifer said something about those silver guys that Sora defeated, didn't he." Olette, back still turned to Hayner and Pence. said

Hayner tilted his head. "He did, but what of it, Olette?"

Beside him, Pence took his hands from behind his head like he'd noticed something. "And now that I think about it, the guy chasing Kairi was… a man in a black coat," he said, folding his arms. "What are you going on about? Both of you now?"

In front of head-tilting Hayner Olette turned to meet the gaze of Pence, whose arms were still folded, and they spoke at almost the same time.

"The haunted mansion!" They said in unison.

"It's the haunted mansion!" Pence stared looking at the mansion from the distance they were/

They nodded to each other and broke into a run.

"Hey, w-wait a minute you two!" Pence trailed after his friends.

Hayner took off after them in a hurry.

"What do you mean?" he asked Pence, who he had caught up to.

"See, the haunted mansion must be the place that connects to that other world—that other Twilight Town!" Pence explained as he ran.

Hayner tilted his head. "Huh? Huuhhh… We'll check it out in any case," he said, apparently satisfied for the time being.

"Hurry, hurry!" Olette urged, and Hayner and Pence sped up.

Deep inside the Castle that Never Was, Axel was looking up at a small basket-like cage that hung from the ceiling. Beside him sat Pluto, who had come along, wagging tail whapping on the floor as he also looked up at the cage.

"Kairi," Axel called to the girl he knew was inside. As he did, Pluto barked. Kairi's face appeared through the bars.

"You're…" Kairi gasped.

Axel gave Kairi a slightly twisted grin. "Axel," he said, looking up at her. "Got it memorized?"

Kairi gave a small nod.

"This is… my bad, ok," Axel told her. "I'm responsible for you getting trapped in this place. Hold on, I'm gonna help you now."

Axel opened up a dark corridor, and Pluto bounded inside ahead of him.

"I've been waiting, Axel," came a voice from behind. "…I just knew you'd show up."

Axel turned with a smirk. Saïx was standing there.

"It's all good, Kairi! I'm gonna help you—for sure, okay!" Axel shouted, not taking his glare off Saïx.

Behind him, the dark corridor began to close.

"What do you have to say for yourself—you traitor!" A massive claymore rose up behind Saïx. At the same time, Axel clenched his fists around his chakrams.

His body felt somehow unwilling.

'I don't want to be erased… but, it wouldn't be so bad to be erased here,' The Flurry of Dancing Flames thought. Axel blew out a big breath and leapt, as flames jumped up to encircle them.

"—Fool!" Saix retorted. The claymore moved to block Axel's attack. Saïx himself hadn't moved a muscle.

'I'm at an overwhelming disadvantage,' Axel thought. 'Well… I knew that even before we started the fight. My power isn't enough to beat Saïx. But, even so, I didn't want to hesitate. I had to clear a path. I wanted to understand… that hope. Yeah, the hope that people with hearts see.'

Saïx smirked. "All will be lost to you!" he shouted, as the point of his claymore went through Axel's chest.

Axel was thrown, his body hitting the ground with force. 'I don't want to be erased,' He thought starting to panic a little thinking that this was where his life would end. 'I can't go down here. I shouldn't be erased,' He stared at the sharp claymore in his face by his former best friend. 'Why am I doing this? For whose sake?' Images of his friends flooded his mind 'For Roxas… for Lira, and Sora, and for myself. He smiled coyly despite the situation he was in. 'There are still things left that I should do. There are things I have to do.'

Axel got shakily to his feet, and grinned. "Never underestimate the Organization's number one at getting away!" Behind Axel a dark corridor opened up once more, swallowing his figure up into the darkness.

"Axel!" Kairi yelled.

Axel looked at Kairi. There was no way he would be able to get her out of here. Not with Saix around. 'Telling Sora is the only way she'll be able to get out from here,' He thought. 'They're going to murder me for what I did to Kairi, especially Lira.' A smile touched his lips. He wanted to see Lira, that much was sure. He wasn't sure if the next encounter with anyone else from the Organization would be his last. He wanted to tell Lira how he felt about her.

"Escaping, are we!" Saïx roared on the verge of going into his berserk mode, chasing after, but the darkness whisped away right before his eyes.

Hollow Bastion was now under siege by the Heartless.

Aerith ran through the bailey with a CD-Rom in her hand, compliments of Cid. The CD had encoded security for the main computer in Ansem's study. This would stop the Heartless from showing up and being man-made by anyone. The Flower Girl gritted her teeth holding her staff as a group of Heartless surrounded her.

"I don't have time for this!" She screamed at the Heartless ready to defend herself. She ducked as the Heartless leapt at her.

A large sword struck the Heartless in the girl's way. Aerith's eyes lit up and smiled seeing a familiar face. "Cloud…!" She smiled and turned around seeing another Heartless get kicked off a cliff. "Tifa!"

"Are you alright?" Cloud asked looking at an old friend. He wears a high collar sleeveless black shirt, black pants and boots, and black cloth covering his left leg and arm; his chest is covered by two straps, held in place by a badge representing fenrir, the animal that has come to be associated with him.

"Sorry we're late," Tifa apologized. "It took me forever to convince Cloud to come and help." She brushed the dirt of her clothes. She wore a white shirt under a black zip-up vest with black shorts that fold at the waist, forming an additional utility pocket at the front and a short duster at the back extending to her heels. She wears fenrir ring on her right hand. Her gloves are black matching her sneakers.

"Where are the others?" Cloud asked nonchantly wanting to get this over with.

"Lean and the others are helping Sora," Aerith replied. "We're glad he and his friends arrived. We need all the help we can get."

"Sora…" Cloud questioned. The last time he had seen the keyblade wielder was a year ago, when he was working for Hades.

"We have to get this to Leon." Aerith urged her friends holding up the disk. "It's the only way to get rid of all these Heartless."

"Not to mention take back our home." Tifa balled her fists again as more Heartless appeared.

'Not again…,' Aerith thought frowning. 'They just keep on coming. Cecil and the others are having such a hard time fighting them too. I feel like there's no end to this.'

Sora and the others ran down the empty hall of the castle in Hollow Bastion. The keyblade wielder swiftly swung his weapon at the Heartless that appeared in front of him.

"Enough Heartless already!" Donald squawked in annoyance.

As Donald spoke, Nobodies appeared. Dusks and Dancers.

"You just made this ten times worse, Donald!" Lira scowled stabbing a Dusk.

"If these lower Nobodies are here, that means so is the Organization!" Leveina gasped.

"Gawrsh what do we do?" Goofy asked as they were surrounded.

"We gotta get to Leon and everyone," Sora said. "They need our help first."

The Heartless that appeared weren't interested in fighting Sora and his friends. They directed their attention to the Nobodies.

"What are they doing?" Levina wondered.

"They aren't attacking us." Lira questioned.

"Hear me my Heartless," Maleficent ordered her creatures of darkness as she stood in the way of the exit of the castle. "Attack the white husks, sweep them away!" She commanded.

Pete was by her side nervously watching the small battle. "What are you nuts!?" Pete panicked looking around. "We're never gonna win!" He told her watching the Dusks and Dancers dominate the Heartless. "I don't know about you, but I'm outta here sister!" The giant dog ran for his life.

"You pathetic coward," Maleficent sneered as she saw her lackey run. She then looked forward seeing the Dusks surrounding her. She scowled at the empty creatures with disgust. She then noticed Sora and the others.

"Maleficent!" Sora yelled.

The Mistress of all Evil retreated in a blaze of green fire, so that the Dusks would now get be more inclined to fight them.

Sora and his friends fought their hardest out of the castle running out to meet with their friends.

"Where's the king?!" Goofy asked urgently.

"The king's in the bailey." Ceodore told them swinging his sword at more Heartless. "You better hurry."

"Got it!" Sora raced down the large broken pathway to the bailey leaving their friends behind to fight the Heartless.

"Ceodore, where are your parents?" Levina asked curiously.

"In the Great Maw fighting an army of Heartless," The small knight in training replied. "I need to join them." He took the girl's hand gently kissing it. "This could be the last time I see you."

Levina frowned biting her lip. "Ceodore….please don't say that." She quivered. "We'll help you fight!"

"No." Ceodore said to her. "You and your friends have a greater task ahead of you, this world would be lost if anything happened to either of you."

"But…we want to help." Sora protested. All his jealousy aside of Ceodore, the boy was being genuine with his feelings. He would never allow any of his friends to fight a great battle alone.

Ceodore smiled at Sora. "Thanks for the offer, but we'll be alright." The boy rushed off towards the Great Maw, which was an empty land fill filled with Heartless separating the castle and the town.

"Ceodore! Wait!" Levina cried out to the boy. She looked at her friends. "We have to help!"

"Of course we'll help," Lira said. "We're not leaving any of them behind."

"Leon, everyone hang in there." Sora said racing off to help his friends.

A sea salt ice cream was melting in each of Naminé's hands. Riku was glaring, unmoving, at Ansem the Wise, who continued persuading Riku for his assitance.

"Riku…" Just as Naminé was about to quietly ask her important friend for some help, their senses flickered, and the darkness of between opened up in a corner of the room.

"The Organization again…!" Riku took one step closer to the dark hole, Soul Eater in hand.

At that moment, Naminé gave a shout. "Axel!"

Axel appeared from a dark corridor clutching his wound. "Yo." He greeted moving shakily up to Naminé, a hand pressed to his chest, and with a glance up at Riku, bit one of the ice creams she was still holding. "Now that's salty…," he said in a small voice, and sank heavily into the chair. His breath was coming jaggedly.

Naminé rushed over, dropping one of the ice creams in her hand onto the floor. "Axel—are you wounded?" She asked concerned.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it. Look, more importantly…" Axel jerked his chin towards the darkness behind them. "If you go through here you'll go right to where Kairi is. Go, hurry."

"Got it—Come on, Naminé," Riku said, looking back at Naminé as he began to walk.

Naminé looked at Axel, worriedly. "But Axel's…"

"Leave me an ice cream, Naminé." Axel stole the last ice cream from Naminé's hand, and smiled at her as she stood there staring at him. "I said go. You wanted to meet Kairi, didn't you?"

Naminé gave a small nod at those words. Tears were sliding down her cheeks. "What about you?" She asked.

"I gotta bring Sora and the others there." The Flurry of Dancing Flames smiled hiding the pain from his injury well.

Naminé clasped her hands over the hand Axel was holding the ice cream in.

His hand was cold.

"Thank you Axel… See you later," Naminé said with a smile, and Axel nodded quietly.

"See you later, Naminé." Axel smiled.

Naminé nodded in return, and ran into the dark corridor after Riku.

"What are you gonna do, Ansem the Wise?" Riku asked, half his body sunk into the darkness.

But Ansem the Wise shook his head quietly and said, "There are still things I must do. Just as he does."

At those words Riku gave Ansem the Wise a sharp look.

"Go. Save Kairi," Ansem the Wise urged, and at last Riku and Naminé nodded and in turn their figures were lost in the darkness.

The two left in the white room both blew out an almost synchronized sigh. Finding it funny, Axel snickered and ate some of the sea salt ice cream.

"How about treating that wound?" Ansem the Wise asked Axel.

"…We Nobodies just vanish as we die okay," Axel said, and he put the ice cream in his mouth and stood up. "Besides, maybe now I can finally go see Roxas."

Axel threw the ice cream stick on the ground, and opened up a dark corridor before him again.

"Bye then—Ansem the Wise," Axel said, a smile rising on his face as he gave a leisurely farewell.

Sora and the others reached the Bailey which connected to the Great Maw. Mickey summersaulted in front of them.

"Ok fellas, you guys gotta go find Riku and Kairi." The king instructed.

"But Leon and the others are friends too!" Sora protested.

"Don't worry," Mickey reassured them. "There's already lots of help here. We'll take care of this fight."

"But…" Levina frowned remember what Ceodore had told her. "I don't want to have to lose another friend…! I've lost too many already! We promised Ceodore!"

"Your majesty let us help!" Lira scowled getting angry.

"Donald! Goofy!" Mickey called to his royal knight and mage.

Instantly the two snapped to attention.

"Take Sora, Levina, and Lira, and get goin'!" Mickey ordered.

As much as Sora wanted to see his best friends again, this was more important. "Riku, Kairi, give me a little more time ok?"

Hearing those words out of Sora's mouth, Goofy and Donald frowned. They knew Sora wasn't going to leave a friend to fight alone. The two looked at each other and came up with a plan.

"Your majesty! We understand!" Donald said.

"We'll go search for Riku and Kairi." Goofy added.

"Donald…Goofy, you're not seriously thinking of bailing out on them!" Lira glared.

"Right, watch for danger." Mickey told them.

"You becareful too." Donald told his king.

"Wait you guys," Sora protested not aware of their plan.

"I'm not leaving them! Not like this!" Levina said.

"Sora, Levina, do as your told." Donald told the two children smiling cheekily.

Lira got the gist of the plan her friends had concocted. "They're right, we have to go."

"What?!" Levina pouted. "But…"

"You're coming with us whether you want to or not!" Goofy told Sora and Levina.

"Come on you two, you have to be good." Donald winked at them.

Sora smiled nodding now aware of their ploy. "Gotcha."

"Well then skedaddle." Goofy said.

"Right." Sora took Levina's hand running forward leaping into the entrance of the Great Maw.

Mickey looked at his friends in shock.

"I'm sorry your majesty." Sora apologized.

"We have friends to help whether you like it or not." Lira told him.

"Hope you can forgive us." Goofy said nervously.

Mickey sighed in defeat trailing after them swinging his keyblade as Heartless appeared in his way.

Naminé and Riku ran through the corridor of darkness.

'I wonder how many times I've run through this space now,' The small girl thought. 'With Axel... and with Riku. But that's definitely over now too.' She kept running, but her body kept phasing in and out of existence. I wonder how much longer I'll be able to exist as myself like this. Right from the beginning, I… never existed. I am a horribly vague existence, like somebody's shadow.

Riku looked at Naminé in concern holding onto her hand tighter as they ran together.

'I wonder what Axel will do now,' Naminé thought. 'Axel… he's a sad Nobody. No… all the Nobodies with the misfortune to be born into this world… are sad. Roxas, Axel, and even Xemnas.'

The more she thought about the more questions flooded her head. 'Why were we born, I wonder. We without hearts. In the end we weren't granted hearts. Really? Do we really not have hearts?' She wondered. 'I bet Axel holds the same doubt. But, the thing inside us that feels like a heart… in the end maybe it is nothing more than an illusion we feel because we were touched by Sora.' Her mind kept wandering with thoughts. 'That said… that's right, even if we feel like we have a heart, a Nobody's heart is somewhere else. Somewhere far away.

The entrance of the Great Maw was clear. There were no Heartless or Nobodies around.

"Come on!" Sora ran ahead, but stopped as a dark corridor appeared in front of them. The boy readied his keyblade, but lowered it once they saw it was Demyx.

"Hey," Demyx greeted them with a friendly smile. "You guys are looking lively."

"Scram!" Donald yelled.

"Didn't we catch you messing around in the Underworld and at the Christmas party?" Sora asked. "How'd a wimp like you get into Organization XIII?" Sora asked watching Demyx's scared antics. "I bet you can't even fight."

"But we sure can." Goofy said raising his shield.

"You shouldn't judge anyone by their appearance." Demyx told them with a hint of anger in his voice trying to sound tough.

Everyone readied their weapons causing Demyx to take a step back hoping they would have fallen for his fake anger ploy.

Lira grinned. "I'll wipe the floor with him." She raised her sword.

Demyx quivered in fear groaning, "I knew they were sending the wrong guy for this job." He pouted.

"He's trying to trick us." Levina blinked confused.

"Remember, the Organization is made up of Nobodies so they can't feel anything." Goofy reminded his friends.

"Right, they don't have hearts." Sora said.

Demyx turned looking at Sora and replied, "Oh we do too have hearts." He told the boy.

"You can't trick us anymore." Donald said.

"Yeah," Sora taunted knowing perfectly well Demyx was no match them. "Go back to the Organization it's safer for you there!"

Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Demyx's silly, playful nature dropped. He pointed his gloved finger at Sora. "Silence, traitor." He said with a hint of genuine malice and rage in his voice.

Everyone gaped at the Melodious Nocture in shock trying to register what just happened.

Demyx raised his arm in the air making his sitar appear out of a bubble of water. "Dance, water, dance!" The Melodious Nocturne summoned lethal dangerous musical notes made of water as he strummed his sitar.

Sora swung his keyblade at the water musical notes attacking with all his strength.

"They're made of water! Our weapons have no effect on them!" Goofy frowned.

"Like it?" Demyx grinned sending a pillar of water at everyone.

"Yipe!" Donald fell backwards into the ground.

"Uh Oh!" Goofy screamed getting slammed into a cliff.

"You little…!" Lira jumped at Demyx raising her sword at him in frustration.

"Come on, just stick to the beat!" The Melodious Nocturne strummed his guitar hurling gigantic bubbles of water at Lira causing her to fall over.

"F-Flare!" Lira roared about to summon her strongest fire attack, but she was surrounded by more water getting pummeled into the ground.

"Lira!" Levina screamed, she rushed at Demyx with her Starlight keyblade and screamed as Demyx manipulated the water with his sitar to attack her. Water surrounded Levina in every direction he turned. Demyx was trying to drown her.

"Stop!" Sora yelled. He saw all his friends injured, struggling to stand up.

Levina gasped and choked for air as the water rose to her mouth. She held her breath as the water covered her from head to toe.

Sora's knuckles turned white as he tightly gripped the handle of his keyblade. "No….!" He screamed. "Leave my friends alone!" In that instant a terrible darkness filled his heart. A darkness that had been dormant inside his heart for a long time. The darkness inside his heart began to consume him. His heart was filled with a terrifying sense of anger, hate, and fear.

"S-Sora…" Goofy gulped.

"Are you alright?" Donald asked groaning.

"What's with him?" Lira wondered.

Sora's skin and hair became ink black, his eyes glow yellow like a Heartless, and his clothes become black with blue and gray accents. He was emitting darkness from his arms and back in the form of misty black and violet wisps. The keyblade in his hand disappeared. His feral appearance terrified everyone.

"This is new." Demyx spouted interested. "I never saw that befor – AHHH!" He screamed in agony as Sora dug his claw-like fingers into his chest like he was trying to rip the Melodious Nocturne's heart out. "O-Ok…," He winced backing away holding his wound. "I-I'm sorry I hurt your friends…" He trembled in fear trying to get away.

Sora, now consumed by darkness let out a feral growl before raging at Demyx attacking him with such animalistic behavior. All everyone heard were Demyx's screams and his cries for help as Sora continued attacking him with his bare fists and feet. He snapped Demyx's sitar in half causing all his water spells to disappear.

Levina fell to the ground gasping for air as the water disappeared.

"Levina!" Lira helped the girl up holding her.

Levina choked out water and coughed. She looked at Sora seeing him such a darkened state. "I-Is that Sora?!" She asked horrified.

"M-My sitar!" Demyx yelled upset. That was the only thing that kept him tethered to this world as a Nobody. The Melodious Nocturne slumped to the ground falling to his knees. The last thing he saw before he knew his time was up was Sora's menacing, merciless yellow eyes. The Melodious Nocturne allowed death to welcome him as the darkness took him breaking his body apart until there was nothing left.

"S-Sora…." Levina called to him gently.

The boy slowly turned around looking at his friends. He was on all fours growling ferociously at them. The taste of murder was now etched in his heart and he wanted more.

There is your taste of anti-form in the fic. I have a special head cannon I may reveal soon :)

v_v I'm sorry, it had to happen T_T I'm going to gross sob forever now.

Until the next chapter :)