Chapter 35: The Seeker's Mission
Roxas opened his eyes and looked around. He knew where he was. He was in The Castle That Never Was. He remembered this chamber from when he was a member. It was a circular room with several chairs that sat at different heights through the room. This was the room where all the meeting were held. "Revisiting favorite memories?"
Roxas turned around bringing out Oathkeeper and Oblivion to face Xidmun sitting in the chair that once was his. The Purple coated Seeker slowly rose from his spot. "How did you get me here?" Roxas asked.
"That is not important. What is important is this: I knew were strong, but you see, I had to test you first. That Soulz you took out back at that place full of monsters? That test was mine."
"That was your voice," Roxas said, linking the voice he heard at Monsters Inc.
"Exactly, and you proved to be strong. You see Roxas, the Seekers are a growing group. In fact we just added a member to our cause four days ago. So it I bear a message from the leader of our group to you."
"I think you brought the same message to Axel, and he already denied you. Why ask me? You think you think I would have had a different answer?"
Xidmun shook his head. "You apparently do not understand, Roxas. In fact, we were against letting Axel join us. You see, when he double crossed Marluxia back at Castle Oblivion, his reason of trust with members that were there at the time doesn't do very well. We simply told him that if he fought us, he would meet the bitter end. I suppose he got the idea that we wanted him to join us. He was wrong. However, you and Namine are different."
Roxas' grip on his keyblade tightened even more at the mention of Namine's name. Xidmun gave a small laugh. "Look at how long you've been a soulz from being a nobody, and already you have become a slave to your emotions. You are not used to such things. Soon these emotions will control your every will, and will even deceive you. Souls are powerful things, and henceforth the most powerful souls on their own can become soulz. And the greatest of all soulz become what me and other members of the Seekers are. You and Namine are no different. So it would be an honor for you two, to join us."
"You are mad!" Roxas yelled running forward slashing the keyblades and the purple cloaked Seeker. However, Xidmun jumped high above Roxas, landing feet first in the seat the Xemnas once sat in. "Just what do you want anyways?" Roxas asked.
"That, I am not allowed to tell you, Roxas. But I believe your friends will find out soon enough, so I believe it would be a simple waste of time to explain to you. I will, however, give you this warning."
Then out of the sleeves of Xidmun's cloak came two triangular tipped blades that seemed to come from his wrists. They extended until the weapons both extended two feet from his hands. The Seeker then jumped from his high seat and started to fall head first towards Roxas, his wrist blades crossed in front of him. Roxas positioned Oathkeeper and Oblivion so they touched at their tips, and then began to fire blasts of orange light at the Seeker. Five rounds of the energy hit Xidmun, but the Seeker didn't even flinch. He continued to fall towards Roxas and slashed his wrist blades at Roxas. Roxas was quickly able to block the first swipe, but the second hit his left shoulder, tearing his clothes and leaving a small gash.
Roxas twinged in pain for a moment, but he turned back around to see Xidmun coming at him from the side with his blades again. Roxas brought Oblivion quickly blocking both blows and swung Oathkeeper at Xidmun's midsection. The keyblade slightly scrapped the Seeker's cloak, but caused no damage. Roxas swung two more attacks at the Seeker, but he blocked quickly, the attacks almost hitting him. "I grow tired, good bye," Xidmun said.
Then with supreme strength hurled Roxas back so that he flew into the wall of the room and fell to the floor, both of the keyblades falling out of his hands. Roxas slowly got to his knees, but fell again as he felt he couldn't breathe. Roxas tried to cough, but not a sound escaped his lips. He turned to see Xidmun walking towards him, no wait, there were two of him! Now three, now four. Then five Xidmuns stood around Roxas, his eyes blurring not being able to breathe. "Now," all the Xidmuns spoke at once, "you will not bother the Seekers again, understood?"
Roxas then could breathe again by miracle, and spread his arms to his sides, two blasts of orange energy shooting from his hands flying through two Xidmuns, breaking them apart. But the other three swiftly ran up to Roxas.
Before Roxas knew what had happened, he cried out in pain. He looked down in horror to see six wrist blades sticking all the way through various parts of his chest. He tasted blood in his mouth. The three Xidmuns took out their blades as the blood began to pour out and Roxas saw no more of what was happening.
*****
"Roxas! Wake up!"
Roxas could hear something, but it was faint. The voice seemed frantic and desperate. "Roxas! You have to wake up! Please! Don't…"
Roxas could than feel a hand move across his face. And then he felt something else: a kiss on his lips. "Please Roxas…I love you…" said the voice, now recognizable.
Roxas' eyes slowly opened. He saw Namine's face in front of his own, blocking anything else in his vision. Her blue eyes seemed frightened, but overjoyed to see that Roxas had regained consciousness. "Namine…what…" Roxas said slowly.
"Xidmun's gone. After Axel heard something terrible, you fell down to the ground. Xidmun then left with a bunch of Droid soulz that tried to kill us. Axel's finishing off the last of them, but you were out the entire time."
Roxas slowly got up, Namine standing up helping him up. Roxas just looked around and saw the forest, no different than it was before. Axel then soon came walking over, out of breath, one of his charklams still on fire. "About time you woke up!"
"You mean…everything I just saw…it was all…an illusion?"
"What we saw, what we heard, what we felt, all illusions," Axel said confirming Roxas.
"So…he didn't practically kill me."
"What?!" the other two said at once.
Roxas than remembered something Xidmun had said in his illusion:
"Just what do you want anyways?" Roxas asked.
"That, I am not allowed to tell you, Roxas. But I believe your friends will find out soon enough, so I believe it would be a simple waste of time to explain to you."
Roxas eyes went wide. "Quick! We have to find everybody else!"
"What's going on?" Namine asked.
"No time! We have to run!" Roxas said starting to run off.
Before he could exit, a gold and red portal appeared in front of him, Axel walking out. "I think using the portal is going to help us move a bit faster, don't you think?"
"How is it you can do that anyways? I knew how to do it as a Nobody, but not as a Soulz," Namine said catching up to the two.
"Samen actually taught me one thing useful, but I doubt I'd have time to teach either of you. Now come on, let go find the rest of them."
*****
Riku and Yami walked through Twilight Town, but had not been able to find any of the others. "Some friends they are of yours. You walk through half of town and you have no clue where they are," Yami said, relatively bored.
"Look, if you ever want the Royal Scroll, you better start behaving because you being impatient is not helping!" Riku yelled frustrated.
They both then a loud chorus of feet hitting brick ground. They turned to see a large crowd of teenagers running up the alleyway. "What the?" Riku said stepping up against a building trying not to get run over the crowd of teenagers running for their lives.
"What's going on?" Yami asked she stepped up next to Riku trying to avoid from being stampeded over.
A girl noticed Riku and Yami and skidded quickly to a stop. "What are you just standing there for? Run before they come after you too!"
"Who?" Riku asked.
"The killer robot things!" a guy shouted running past, grabbing the girl by her elbow and the crowd continued to run off.
"Killer robots?" Yami asked. "Your friends are killer robots?"
"No! It must be soulz, or heartless, or something. Most likely they are attacking Sora and the others," Riku said, jogging in the direction where the teens had run from.
Yami slowly followed behind him. After two blocks, Riku cautiously looked around a corner to see Sora and the others fighting off the Droid soulz. "Soulz all right, we'd better be careful."
"No, they'd better," Yami said, staring up at the sky standing next to Riku.
"What?"
Without warning, Yami spun her right arm and then pointed up. A whirlwind then surrounded the two as they were lifted up from Yami's wind magic and soared to the top of the building they were standing next to. As they landed, Riku saw what Yami was talking about. On top of the roof were three Droid Soulz poised, ready to fire their laser cannons. "Now!" Yami yelled running forward, summoning her keyblade from the darkness.
Riku summoned Road to Dawn and together they ambushed one soulz, vanquishing it. The other two Droids turned realizing they were taken by surprise, and began to retaliate. However, they were no match for the keyblades. Riku threw Road to Dawn in a Strike Raid leaving behind a trail of darkness while Yami shot the other with a blast of darkness that created a hole that went through the entire robotic soulz. Riku looked round, and saw that more were getting into positions across three more rooftops. "Come on!" Riku yelled waving Yami forward.
The two wielders of darkness ran full speed across the roof as they came towards the other one. Using the darkness to help them, Riku jumped over the gap between the buildings, Yami using a strong gust of air. As they both landed, they found six Droids on the rooftop, and they all had their laser cannons pointed at them. "Any bright ideas?" Riku said.
"No. I got some dark ones though."
Yami lowered Dark Whisper and held out her right hand as if she were telling the soulz to stop. The Droids readied their cannon, two of them preparing to rush forward with their swords. Then a dark disk appeared in Yami's hand, and she grabbed onto it, and flung it at one of the Droids. It hit the droid, but seemed to do nothing. "Uh…that was really uneventful," Riku said.
"Oh shut it. It works on heartless and nobodies, I figured it would work on these guys," Yami said.
The Droids then fired their laser cannons, and Riku jumped in front of Yami using Dark Reflect, causing the laser blasts to be fired back upon their owners. Two down, four to go. Riku looked at Yami. "Yami."
"Really, you need my help?"
Slightly annoyed while beginning the limit, Riku and Yami both floated inches above the rooftop, darkness and wind supporting them in the air. They glided through the air and slashed synchronized at one Droid, putting it waste, then did so with another, the Droid's swords being blocked by one keyblade, and being destroyed by the other. Then facing the last two Droids, both keyblade wielders jumped to the ground, spun their keyblades as if they were drills, and tossed them towards the two droids. The two keyblades drilled through the Droids, and swung back to their master in the fashion of a strike raid. The two Droids fell down and disappeared. "Really, you needed to do a limit to fight them?" Yami asked again.
"It was the faster option. Besides, we're gonna have to split up to get the other rooftops," Riku explained, and then began to run off to the right to reach one of the rooftops.
Yami shook her head and ran in the opposite direction, but quickly peered down at the ground. She could see a group of people, even a duck, a mouse, and a…well Yami wasn't quite so sure. But they finished taking out the Droids on the main ground and were regrouping. However, they couldn't see from behind them four droids dropping from rooftop Yami was supposed to go after. After deeply sighing, Yami jumped off of the building, using wind to slow her decent so she didn't splat onto the ground. She then ran towards the group, seeing as the fastest way to the Droids was through the group. "Looks like we got all of them," said a girl with red hair.
"Not quite," Yami said running towards them.
A guy with brown spiky hair turned around and gasped, surprised at seeing her running towards them. "A…keyblade!" he said, a keyblade in his own hands.
"That's right, and if you don't move now, it'll be in your face!" Yami said, preparing to swing Dark Whisper.
The group quickly moved as Yami dashed past them and ran for the Droids. Upon seeing her, they began to open fire. Yami jumped before the first blast could hit her, dodging the second in midair with a twirl of an air current. She touched down onto the ground, only to roll out of the way of another. The last blast was unavoidable, but Yami brought a ball of darkness in her right hand, which absorbed the laser attack. She then jumped into the air and blasted four dark laser blasts made from a combination of her darkness and the laser fired at her. The four Droids exploded upon contact of the darkness, as Yami dropped to the ground from midair, a fire burning where the Droids once stood. Yami turned around to see the group of adventures dumbfounded. "You're his friends I'm guessing," Yami said.
"That would be them," Riku said walking from the other building where he had finished off the last Droids. "Geez, you really know how to make an entrance."
Yami shrugged. "I make things up on the spot. It comes in handy."
"Riku, who is this?" the dog thing asked.
"Her name is Yami," said a teen with a fedora that walked forward.
Yami took a double take, but tried not show it. "Well, if it isn't Valdamar the inventor?"
"You know each other?" the mouse with a keyblade said.
"Knew each other when we was kids. Ran into each other a few other times, but not lately. Seems you have one of these weapons like the rest of these guys."
"Guys!!!"
Yami turned to see three individuals running from a portal that was just closing. "We gotta move! The Seekers are here!" said one with blonde spiky hair.
"Yeah, we know. We just had to fend off a lot of robot soulz," said the one with red hair.
"Well, trust me, I don't want to run into that Xidmun again," said a weird looking one in a red cloak.
"Who?" Riku asked.
"Xidmun. He wears a purple cloak if I am not mistaken."
Everyone turned to see a figure on top of a roof, the sunset right behind him making it extremely difficult to see details of his face or clothing. The silhouette they could see gave the appearance of a tall man. "Who are you?" Riku asked.
The man shifted from where he stood. "Someone who wants to change the universe."
From where the man stood, he slowly began to shimmer away in the forever twilight sun. However, the shimmering appeared in front of the group, most of everyone holding their weapons. Everyone except for Valdamar, who shrunk behind Goofy. "Hey, just block me from view, will yeah pal?" Vald said in a quiet voice.
Before Goofy could answer, the shimmering lights revealed a silver portal, where a tall figure in a silver organization cloak strode out, standing at least six and half feet tall. "So at last, we meet, wielders of the mighty weapons known as the Keyblades. I have waited years for this moment."
"Who are you?" Sora said, readying the Kingdom Key, ready to attack the Seeker.
The Seeker held up a hand in defense. "Please, I am not looking for a fight. You expect us to fight at every given instance. Are there not times where we can simply discuss things without violence? Honestly, I wonder if which of the two kinds of keyblade wielders you are at times."
"What kind of keyblade wielder we are?" Kairi asked.
"It is written that the keyblade either brought great peace to several worlds…or their destruction."
The Seeker took of the hood of his silver cloak. He looked older then Sora thought, perhaps maybe 30. His face was slightly rugged, but that the only similar thing Sora had seen in other people's faces. His fair was somewhat short and a deep purple, but kept very straight; crimson eyes showing a determined look. "May I introduce myself to you all so that you may never forget. My name is Banirith, the guider of the Soulz."
"Wait, you're the guy in charge of the Seekers!?" King Mickey said.
Banirith gave a small laugh. "You could say that, 'king' for I lead several and have seen the fall of several others. I have no heart, and what you see before you is a soul that became separated from its original self. Yet I still feel emotion, I can sense feelings. Interesting compared to a Nobody, is it not?"
"What do you want?" Yami asked.
Banirith stepped forward towards her, but Sora and Roxas raised their keyblades. "Stay back now," Roxas warned.
"Must I say again that I wish not to fight. However, since you already have your weapons out, it seems to me that you give me no choice."
Banirith then spread his arms out as magic began to weave into a shape from his back. Soon, four silver long appendages that moved like robotic tentacles, but they ended in silver hands that moved around in all directions stretching their fingers. He quickly waved his right hand, and his four tentacles pounded the ground with mighty fists, shaking the ground causing the others to fall. He brought one of his tentacles to grab Sora, but the end of a whip wrapped around the wrist of the tentacle and yanked it back. Banirith looked surprise as he saw Valdamar pulling his whip back, realizing the hold on the tentacle. "Valdamar, you are still alive, and your original self. I realized there was a possibility that you could have still survived, but not as your original self."
"It's gonna take more a couple of explosions and illusions to take me down you scum!" Valdamar said.
"You know this guy?" Axel said getting back to his feet, soon followed by everyone else.
"Ah, I see this group does not know much about you. Perhaps you should act your best behavior and not let lose your temper like you did before. They might turn back on you too," Banirith said, a slight smirk on his face.
"SHUT UP!" Valdamar yelled, running forward with his sword.
One of Banirith's tentacle hands transformed into a blade, and blocked Valdamar's attack. "You think you can fight me so easily, don't you Valdamar? But you always seem to forget some things about me."
The other three tentacles soon wrapped themselves around Valdamar. They twisted around him, chocking him, his sword and whip stuck in his hands, unable to move. But a blast of dark fire hit the tentacles, which loosened their grip on Valdamar, dropping him to the ground. Yami stepped forward, Dark Whisper pointed at the silver coated Seeker's face. "Get out of here."
One of Banirith's tentacles lunged forward towards Yami, but was knocked back by a swipe of orange energy as Neku struck back at guiding soulz with his psych abilities. Banirith raised his eyebrows, the tentacles contracting till they were no more. "So, it seems you have gained some friends Valdamar, but I wouldn't hang out with them too long. They might not be staying for a while."
"What are you trying to do?" Sora asked.
Banirith lifted his arms. "To free the universe from corruption. To free the darkness from men's and women's hearts, bodies, and souls. So that those corrupt from the darkness let go of it or are eliminated. And there is only one way to do that. That is why I come to you keyblade wielders to make an…agreement."
"Don't believe a word he says!" Valdamar shouted to the others.
"In order to rid all hearts of darkness, we must go to where all hearts begin and end: Kingdom Hearts," Banirith said.
"And you need us wielders of the keyblades to open it for you," King Mickey said finishing the Soulz's statement.
"Indeed King. But, obviously why do something for another when you do not expect anything in return, right? So what'll it be, keyblade wielders and friends? Help me and I will help you, or are we destined to become enemies till the end?"
"Sure, you send other Seekers after us kill us first, then you try to get us to work together," Axel said. "You know, I had enough of those others back in the Organization, so you can clear on out of here!"
"Agreed," Kairi said, surprising Sora.
"Very well," Banirith said, turning to leave, but stopped. "Oh, and you might want to go check out that tower away out from here. I hear the place is just a nightmare," The Silver coated Seeker said, laughing as he vanished into a portal.
"Well, now we know what we're up against," Goofy said.
"Not quite. There's more than meets the eye here," Riku said.
Valdamar then started to run off. "Hey! Where are you going!" Sora yelled after him.
Valdamar didn't stop, shouting over his shoulder. "To fix the dang train! The enemy of my enemy is my friends, and friends get repairs for free!"
Quickly, the now large group ran after Valdamar towards the train station.
Banirith (OC)- a.k.a. the Silver Coated Seeker or the Guider of Soulz. Banirith is the leader of the Seekers and seeks to rid the universe of Darkness of all worlds. However, he claims Kingdom Hearts is needed to do so, making an enemy to the heroes. He can use any type of magic in blast attacks or beams, and also can summon tentacles as well as other forms that come from his back to attack others. Voiced by Alfred Molina as Dr. Otto Octavius/ Doctor Octopus from Spiderman 2
Yami's Dark Sweep
*COUGH COUGH* Sorry about not updating, but I've become really sick in the past three days, leaving me stuck in bed for most of the time. Unfortunattly the next chapter won't be up in a week probably due to finals and other things I'm doing. I have however put a bunch of character info on my profile, so go ahead and check that out if you get a chance.
Also if any of you are avid Square fans, Square Enix Members has completely re-vamped their website by adding avatars, groups, and other cool stuff. Go ahead and check it out!
Dezblade