Here's chapter twenty - nine! Thank you Guila95, surxi25, Confizzledworld, caitlinkeitorin, and a reader of KH and SH fanfics for reviewing last chapter!
Oh, and before I forget: the breakers that signaled a large time change of point of view change kept getting taken out, so now when either of those things happen, the first word of the new time/ character view will be in bold. Hopefully, this will keep people from getting confused.
Chapter Twenty - Nine: Heartless Spawn
Shadow, as usual, was the first awake. "Come on, guys!" she urged.
"We're coming," Angel sighed.
"Not very fast," she pouted.
Shaking his head, Roxas swam between them to try and prevent another argument from starting. "Let's go," he said, swimming forward.
"Yes!" Shadow cried energetically, propelling herself through the cerulean depths. Muttering something that sounded like 'too much energy', Angel followed more slowly behind the two.
They didn't get the opportunity to swim in silence, however. "Under the sea!" Shadow sang. "Under the sea!"
"Shut up, Shadow," Angel said through gritted teeth.
"What?" she asked, stopping to look back at him. "This is a place where music's big! Right?"
"Yeah," Roxas said with a nod.
"So…why is it wrong to sing?"
Angel gave her a look through narrowed eyes. "You don't like swearing; I don't like singing."
"Why?" Shadow asked curiously. Angel flinched slightly and looked away, causing her to give a sigh. "Great. I've hit a nerve again."
"Looks like you're on a role," Roxas commented.
"Was that an attempt at humor?" Shadow asked teasingly. He didn't respond. "Well, apparently it's true." This drew a small smirk out of him. They lapsed into silence for a few moments before Shadow said, "Ok, so, we know Angel's feelings about singing - sorry about that - but we don't know Roxas's yet."
"Uh, well," Roxas said, stalling to think about it. Truth be told, he wasn't sure himself as to what he felt about it.
"Might as well tell her," Angel sighed. "She'll never leave you alone until you do." With a pointed glare at the topic of his words, he added, "Trust me." She smiled proudly.
Roxas shrugged. "I…don't really know. I mean, I don't mind hearing it, but…I've never actually sang before."
Shadow seemed as if she were about to comment on this, but Angel cut her off. "Oh, look, I see Ariel. Darn, you can't sing anymore."
"I know, you're heartbroken," Shadow teased.
"Sure, Shadow. Whatever."
"Hi," Ariel greeted them.
"Hi," Roxas responded in turn. "So, why'd you want to see us?"
"I may know where all the Heartless are coming from."
"Really?" all three exclaimed in surprise.
The mermaid nodded. "Come on; it's this way." With that, she turned on her tail and swam away, leaving the trio to follow behind. She led them through the depths towards an area protected by arched rocks and large boulders. She swam confidently through a gap between the rocks, leaving the three less-confident ones to maneuver their own way through.
What they saw when they emerged, however, caused their mouths to drop open in surprise. "What…is that?" Angel asked quietly. What they were looking at was a large, spire-like object, with dark thorns projecting off the sides, blobs of shadow and dark tendrils covering the remainder of its dark surface.
"I'm not sure," Ariel replied. "I found it one day when I was exploring. But look here." She pointed towards the Heartless emblem engraved into part of it.
"Then you may be right," Roxas conceded to her.
"In other words, a spawning point," Angel muttered.
"So, we just smash this thing, and the Heartless go away?" Shadow asked.
Ariel nodded. "Or, at least, I hope so."
They needed no more prompting. Roxas summoned the Kingdom Key, Angel his daggers, and Shadow donned her claw gauntlets. Roxas swam up to it, and brought his Keyblade down between two thorns to the shadowy surface beneath. When he did, however, there was a sudden rush of water that pushed him away. What? his mind asked in surprise. And suddenly before him were several Heartless. Attacking it must have triggered it! he realized nervously. As the Heartless swam for him, he brought his Keyblade up in defense. He battered them away, then spun around and prepared for the return attack he knew was coming. A shark Heartless was dashing for him. He caught its open jaws with the blade of his Keyblade, and used its own momentum to swing it around into another Heartless. The two flew backwards, right to where Angel and Shadow were waiting to finish them off.
He whipped around to attack more Heartless when he noticed two more spawn for the two that had been destroyed. He launched himself forward, swiping his Keyblade through them as he passed. These smaller Heartless fell with his first hit. However, as before, more rose to take their place. He tried to avoid their attack, but wasn't quick enough, and got slammed into by the assaulting Heartless. He slapped his tail a few times, trying to right himself in time to protect himself from the next attack. He caught one Heartless, performing a string of blows on it before he was assaulted by two more, allowing the other to escape.
The more Heartless that fell to his blade, their pink hearts floating up through the ocean water, the more he began to feel the strain of his efforts. And they just kept coming. There's no limit to how many spawn, he thought as he parried an attack before quickly jabbing the Keyblade forward to spear his opponent. So that means there's only one way to end this. Glancing over his shoulder, he called, "Shadow! Angel! Ariel! Focus your attacks on the spawning point instead!"
"Ok!" Ariel called back to him, while Shadow and Angel simply nodded their consent.
He whipped around, making a mad dash for the spear of darkness that marred the blue ocean. As he did, however, the Heartless seemed to turn their focus onto him. They swam in front of his path and turned on their tails, ready to attack him. Startled, he brought his blade up to push them back.
What he didn't count on were the ones coming at him from behind. He let out a cry of pain as the claws and jaws of Heartless ripped at him from behind. He flipped over so that his back faced the ocean floor, slashing his Keyblade upward to force back to Heartless assailing him. He quickly righted himself and spun in a circle with his Keyblade out, hitting and destroying the Heartless that surrounded him. As he was about to make a dash for the spawning point, however, he felt searing pain from the newly-acquired wounds on his back lance through him. Great. I was just getting better, he thought, trying to focus through the pain so that he could return to try and destroy the spawning point.
By now, however, the Heartless had spawned once more, and dashing towards both him and his teammates. Taking a deep breath, he struck out, hitting Heartless before whipping around to strike the ones coming at him from behind once more. Using this momentum, he swung around, bringing his Keyblade down in an arc across the angry Heartless. Where some fell, others simply rose, ready to fight him once more.
As he began to deliver another counter attack to try and push his way through to the spawning point once more, the pain from his new wounds lanced through him again. His back jerked into and arch and his hand released the Keyblade, a cry of pain emerging from his throat. No…not now, he hissed mentally as the Heartless converged on him. I have to stop them… He fell through the water, the Heartless sailing over him. He thought he caught snippets of two voices, one of which he recognized as the voice who had guided him before; the one who had given him the seashell:
No! We have to help him!
We can't! We're stuck here!
Roxas!
He clenched his fists, his teeth gritted as he tried to ignore the pain. I…I won't give up! I WILL protect them! The Keyblade returned to his hand in a flash of light as the briefest of forgotten memories flashed through his mind, that of a friend fading away in his arms; I WILL NOT FAIL AGAIN! He righted himself suddenly, drawing on the power of his Limit, his voice calling out something he didn't understand, the name of a friend he didn't remember, "Xion!" Despite the pain that still burned like fire through his wounds, he shot upward, his blade glowing with light as he slashed it rapidly through Heartless. His Final Limit activated, the beams of light shooting outwards to slam directly into the spawning point. He did it again, the light that cut into the spawning point causing pieces to fly off. Drawing on the last of his strength, he performed the attack once more.
That final blast was the one that did it. It shattered the spawning point, and, with it, the Heartless. Panting, Roxas floated where he was. His vision was flickering, and he felt himself begin to fall through the water. "What's happening to me?" he questioned quietly. Then, darkness cloaked his vision, and he knew no more.
He returned to consciousness briefly to hear voices talking. "…pretty nasty wounds."
"Man, he was just healing from before, too!"
"Hopefully, they won't affect him too much."
Then his grip on consciousness slipped away once more. The next time, he fully returned to consciousness. His eyes blinked several times as he tried to figure out where he was, feeling like he had after the Gummi ship crash in Cyrom. "Is this the castle?" he wondered.
"Yep," a familiar voice said from nearby. Roxas turned his head to see Shadow and Angel floating nearby. Shadow, grinning, lifted on object for him to see. "Water proof bandages."
"Thanks, Roxas," Angel said sarcastically, indicating the fresh bandages that now adorned his body.
Roxas laughed slightly, and attempted to sit up. As he did so, however, he felt the strain of the bandages that were now wrapped around his torso and left arm, along with a dull pain from the stretching wounds beneath said bandages. "Hey, take it slow," Shadow warned. "It's a good thing you don't bleed; if you did, you probably would've bled to death before we got you back."
"That bad?" Roxas exclaimed in surprise, sitting up a bit too quickly. He gritted his teeth, his breath hissing out from between them as he felt more pain run through him.
As he fell back, Angel replied, "Well, you were out for a few days, so…"
"What?" Again, his surprise caused him to try and jolt upward. This time, however, Shadow stopped him, forcing him back down. "Hey! You can get out of bed in a few days."
"I've already been in bed a few days," he informed her. "Sora and the others still need me."
"Still need us," Shadow and Angel corrected simultaneously.
The two looked at each other in surprise before Shadow said, "We're a team now."
"At least, for the time being," Angel added.
Roxas felt the prick of tears in his eyes, though, as usual, he didn't understand why. "Thanks, guys."
The two nodded, before turning around to leave. Angel stopped briefly before he left, however, turning around to ask, "By the way, what was that you yelled when you released the Limit?"
Roxas paused, his mind winging back to that moment. He remembered yelling something, but…he couldn't recall what. The whole battle seemed suddenly fuzzy, and hard for him to think about. "I don't know," he murmured.
"I see." Angel narrowed his eyes in thought and…fear? Then the metal-haired boy left him to himself.
"Ok, Doctor Shadow, am I fit?" Roxas sighed.
"Mmmm, fit enough," Shadow replied.
"Then it's time to head out."
"Not quite yet," a new voice added. The three turned their heads to see Ariel swimming towards them.
"What are you talking about?" Roxas asked, not failing to notice Angel's smirk and Shadow's broad smile.
"Well, we wanted to thank you for getting rid of the Heartless," Ariel began.
"And I told her that you'd never sung before," Shadow added, "so we came up with the idea that you and Ariel could sing a duet for the people of Atlantica."
"What?" Roxas exclaimed in surprise.
"We wanted you to get the chance to try singing," Shadow said with a grin.
"Yeah…but…"
"Great! See you in a few hours!" With that, the three were off, leaving Roxas to sigh and fall back onto the bed.
What has Shadow gotten me into? Roxas wondered as he looked out at the mer-people before him. "Relax," Ariel told him. "When the music starts, I'm sure you'll know what to do." When he didn't look too sure, she laughed. "Don't worry! You'll be fine!" Then the music began, and they had to start.
He wasn't entirely sure what he was doing. It wasn't like fighting, where everything came naturally. Here, he'd been given lyrics to memorize in a few hours, then thrown in front of people to do something he'd never done before; sing. Thanks, Shadow. At first, he was nervous, and stumbled over the words. Then, after a time, he began to grow more confident. He lifted his voice, harmonizing with the music, and let his troubles fade to the back of his mind.
There's the end of chapter twenty - nine. Yes, I left out lyrics for their duet. Why? Well…mostly because I didn't know what to make them sing. So…will you review, please?
Before you go though, here's a little teaser for what's coming up: Be prepared. The past is about to collide with the present. When unknown allies emerge and loyalties shift, the dark secrets of the past will be stirred back to life. Roxas's world is about to be shaken to its core.
