On Glass Wings
--xxSerenity
Wanted to get one more big chapter out before school tomorrow. Heh. not SO big, but..big in plot I suppose? Anyway.. It's a tad violent toward the end, and I apologize for the errors, seeing as how I'm currently being wrestled off the computer. Meheheh... ANYWAY.. enjoy :)
-35-
the horror of hollow bastion
With Sora watching so closely, he noticed as the man made off with Riku's motionless form, and so he instantly jumped out of his seat and started for the door when Cloud stopped him.
"Where are you going in such a hurry? I thought Riku wanted you to stay put."
But Sora didn't stop long enough to explain. He looked beseechingly from Cloud to the exit and after whining a little, he took off much to Cloud's surprise, who instantly got up to follow him.
By the time Sora had exited the hospital via that emergency exit, he was just in time to see the man toss Riku into the backseat of one of the company's limos before climbing in after him.
Sora had broken off in a fast sprint, but the limo had quickly pulled away then after, and no matter how fast he was on foot, there was no keeping up with a moving vehicle.
Slowing to a stop with hands on his knees, Sora panted and groaned hopelessly, that is until the clearing of a throat redirected his attention to the small girl that had approached him.
"Are you chasing that car, Mister?" The girl asked with all the innocent curiosity that children possessed.
Sora eyed her a little confusedly at first, but in the end nodded, and she smiled happily and held out the roller blades she was about to put on.
"They might be a little small. But they'll make you go faster!" She beamed, and Sora smiled widely himself at the strange, yet incredibly fortunate twist of fate before accepting the gift with many gracious "thank you"s before flopping himself down just to hastily put them on.
The girl was right, they were a bit small, but being small himself he was able to squeeze himself into them, and after buckling them into place he quickly hopped to his feet, thanked the girl again, and took off in a new sprint, this time with the aid of those skates.
He moved ten times faster on those wheels, and it hadn't taken him long at all to catch up with the limo just as it made a final turn onto a strange and seemingly desolate highway.
-oOo-
Meanwhile, in that stolen limo, Xehanort relaxed with a sigh against the back seat, the unconscious Riku still passed out besides him.
In the driver's seat, Xemnas kept his hands tightly on the wheel, his teeth clenched hard behind tightly closed lips as amber hues narrowed.
"Why did you have to bring him again?" Xehanort then inquired, motioning to the red-head that squirmed against the ropes tethering his wrists and ankles and the gag cutting into the corners of his mouth as he flailed in the passenger's seat.
Xemnas cast Axel a quick look before moving his eyes to the side view mirror and then into the rearview, just to eye Xehanort as he relaxed in the back.
"He would've gone back to the orphanage and uncovered the plan anyway. Might as well bring him back like this so he poses no threat."
Xehanort nodded in instant approval and then turned his attention to the unconscious teen besides him. A rough hand smoothed out his outfit, tracing his palm along the bare skin of his muscled stomach and then up some, sliding beneath the vest to his chest and pressing that hand right against his heart, feeling the muscle pumping steadily beneath.
It was a feeling that had him instantly relaxing, uttering a small shuddering exhalation as if on some sort of high.
"Mmm. Won't be much longer now." He murmured, and after having watched him out of the corner of his eye, Xemnas sneered lightly, even though he felt his hold on the steering wheel involuntarily tighten in utter, inward contempt
-oOo-
Bleak greyness. It was all he saw when Riku barely came to, creaking his eyes open and squinting into the darkness that was lit by a few flickering lamps in the corners.
The next sense to return was his sense of smell which he wished hadn't returned given the acrid odor that instantly invaded his nostrils and made him cringe with utter disgust, his head turned to the side just as his blurry vision caught sight of one of his wrists that were secured firmly to the wall in a thick metal shackle. A tug at his other wrist confirmed that limb was also tightly secured., as were his ankles
The sudden chill that raised goose bumps on pale skin then alerted Riku to the fact that he was naked from the waist up and it was then he snapped instantly to attention, his world blurring back into focus as he finally came to notice the wandering figures, and the one that sat tethered to a distant chair.
The man that moved around hummed lightly as if he had been going about simple, menial tasks like gardening, but when he moved to the side, Riku's eyes widened slightly when he beheld the open cooler and the corroded human organs the man was pulling from the half melted ice.
Axel also seemed to tense at this sight, and he pulled at his wrists that were tightly tethered by thick ropes that cut into his wrists and secured him to the chair he was seated in, all the while muffled protests were blocked by the bit of fabric secured tightly around the back of his head, the formations of sores forming at the corners of his mouth from the tightly biting fabric.
"Hey!" Riku finally called, thankful to find that he at least had his voice. "Sora! Sora, answer me!"
But the yelling startled the man surfing through the old, rotting hearts, and thus causing that pungent smell to circulate further throughout the entire room, once more making Riku and Axel cringe.
Even Xemnas held the large sleeve of his coat up to his face to cover his nose, while indiscreetly glancing towards the door that sat atop a flight of stairs of that apparent basement.
"Hm? Oh, you're awake. Good. I was getting eager to try out my new heart. " He murmured before turning around, his face now fully in range of Riku's line of vision, and as soon as he caught sight of those cold, amber eyes, he recognized the face instantly.
"You!" He growled. "You sick fuck. Where's Sora?" He pulled at his chains, but they showed no signs in breaking, and Xehanort chuckled lightly as he moved over to the tethered adolescent, one of those decaying organs clutched tightly in his grasp.
"I have no interest in Sora any more. I gave him to your foolish excuse of a brother."
"Well, I guess that's one thing we can agree on.." Riku spat, while trying not to notice the heart held in that hand. His comment drew another little snicker from the man as he moved to a nearby table that contained a series of medical instruments, and from the choices he selected a small scalpel and a stethoscope, though he had to abandon the heart by tossing it nonchalantly to the side in order to do so.
When he turned around to face the tethered Riku again, the teen had to fight to withhold his fear at the sight of the scalpel, though the stethoscope did confuse him..
"Funny boy." Xehanort commented as he edged closer, until Riku could catch the stench of rotting, decaying flesh that seemed to linger on the maniacal scientist. "Though I'm sure things won't seem so funny much longer."
When Namine came too, she'd find herself propped up against a large pillow, in a hospital gown, and with her bad shoulder secured in a sling, a real sling this time. She actually snickered to herself at the thought, and after being comforted by the fact that she wasn't in as much pain as she had been, she relaxed against her pillow with a long sigh.
"Ah, you're up." Leon murmured as he moved from the window he was gazing out over to her bedside, just to sit by the chair set up there.
She leaned her head back in place, just to return his glance though curiously. Soft blue eyes moved from one corner of the room to the other.
"Where's Riku and Sora?" She inquired with much concern.
Leon eyed her for a moment before sighing and tilting that gaze off to the side. To her, he seemed lost in deep thought, which was true since he was seeking out the best words possible in order to let her down gently.
"They're out in the waiting room with Cloud, but Namine, the doctor told me something today.."
He was about to relay just what it was the doctor said when the door to the room burst open just to reveal Cloud as he hastily entered.
"They're both gone!" He declared, causing the two other inhabitants to look up with surprise as well as concern.
"What do you mean, 'they're gone?'"
"Someone took Riku and then Sora ran after them. I was too late to follow.."
"You didn't see where they went?"
Cloud leaned against the door frame and tilted his head dejectedly, a small shake of that head then offered after.
Leon looked to Namine for a moment, who appeared horrified as well as concerned, her hand not constrained in the sling was at the blanket, and she looked ready to throw it off.
"We have to find them!" She exclaimed, but Leon instantly stopped that when she did start to get out of bed.
"You need to stay here.." He stated firmly before tucking that blanket back under her. Thankfully a nurse had made an appearance to check on her, and when that happened, Leon made sure that she remained to watch the girl.
Nodding, although confused, she moved over to Namine's side just as Leon started for the door, ushering Cloud to follow.
"We'll find them." He reassured Namine before leaving, but she merely scowled as the two left, slamming the door shut behind them.
"Do you have any idea where they could've gone?" Cloud asked, but Leon shook his head.
"Didn't look like they were going back to the stage?"
"No..It looked like they were going in the direction of that old highway though..."
Leon paused in his quick paced stride just to cast Cloud a questioning sort of look.
"The highway? But that only goes to one place.."
"Oh I'm so glad we're finally getting out of that dreadful Hollow Bastion. Don't you agree?" The woman addressed her husband who drove the car over that empty stretch of highway, their vehicle disappearing into the thick, blinding fog that would clear as soon they left the seemingly bleak and dismal hell.
The man didn't answer, but that wasn't anything different, or so thought the woman, who then turned a friendly smile over her shoulder into the little boy eagerly bouncing in the backseat.
"Well at least you're excited, Sora."
Sora breathed out a sigh that took shape on the air of the cold, cold night. It was silent, save for the sounds of his wheels on the cement, and as he glanced to the side, he could barely make out the ocean stretched out over the solid, rock wall lining the bridge like road that barely formed a hill.
Eventually, he'd come to roll past that large sign that sparked such memories.
"Welcome to Hollow Bastion"
Sora involuntarily shuddered as he read those words, etched out so elegantly in solid black cursive. But the rest of the sign was old and withered, broken at the edges and seeming as if ready to fall apart at the next storm.
The next offensive attribute of the long since abandoned town was none other than the foul stench that seemed to rise up as soon as he entered, causing him to tilt his head and reach up with his hands to block his air passages. He remembered this place to have been dirty, but to have smelled that bad?
The cold winds that blew only made it worse, and Sora came to pause beneath the flickering glow of a nearby street lamp, his skates clicking to a stop when he heard a series of groans.
The silhouette of a woman and a few smaller figures were huddled up against a nearby building, all huddled together beneath the cracks forming a small alleyway.
The teen's heart instantly went out to them, it really did, but he couldn't stop, he had to find Riku..
Still, as he rolled past, he'd feel a weak, bony hand reach out to grab at his bare ankle, and with a yelp the boy stumbled, breaking his fall with his hands pressed harshly into the hard cobblestone, and eliciting a new sharp sting in his bandaged hand.
"Please..Please help!"
Sora turned onto his back when his ankle was freed, and he shifted back a bit, just in time to see the form of the old, wrinkled lady with wispy white hair framing her wrinkled face, and with straying bangs that fell into the single dark, pupil less socket of one of her eyes as she pushed herself out of the shadows, clutching the body of a dead child in her arms. It was a little girl, and Sora instantly noticed the gaping, bloody hole in her chest where her heart would've been.
He was too frozen in fear to scream, and as he looked on in horror, the woman had finally seemed to notice the eccentric costume that the boy still wore with her one good eye and in her trauma induced insanity, she could make out the heavenly glow around the boy, with the single, white wing protruding from his back
To Sora's surprise she started to mutter something in a language he hadn't understood, before the woman reached out with that free hand to brush the thin tips of her seemingly withered fingers down the side of Sora's face..
"An angel..Oh God, please..Please, help us.. The demon.." Her voice trailed off as she gasped, drawing in breath just to release it in a raspy sort of cough. "The demon has taken another heart. We don't have much longer before he sends us all to hell.."
"W-what..?" Sora shifted back a bit, away from the insane lady's poking fingers, but as he did so, a series of groans, and the intensified odor alerted his attention to over her shoulder, where he saw the withering throng of the living among mutilated corpses of adults and children alike and with the acrid smell overtaking his senses and leaving him with the sudden urge to throw up, he instantly turned away.
"Come away from the window!" Tsukihana called, grabbing hold of her young son and pulling him away from the glass just as a flash of lightning illuminated the hate-laced faces of the mob as they rapidly approached the large manor.
"I'm scared.." The younger Sora whimpered, and threw his small arms around his mother's leg before the woman scooped him up, and started for the stairwell when the familiar voice outside rang out.
"You Godfearing impudent filth will burn for eternity in the Hell you've created!"
"Daddy?" The boy wriggled out of his mother's grasp, despite the protests, and rushed to the door just as it flung open to reveal the silver haired man, and the crowd of people that had appeared to halt and hang back, utterly frozen in fear. "Daddy!" Sora jumped into the man's waiting arms as he leaned back against the door.
But as happy as Sora was to see his father unharmed, Xehanort didn't appear the same. Larger hands curled around the tiny waist of the boy, just to lift him up, cold, amber eyes narrowed, as if scrutinizing, and Sora's own wide blue eyes seemed to well up with tears, and he squirmed out of the tight hold just to wrap his arms around the man's neck to stop himself from falling. He held himself there, curled up against his father's chest as tight as possible, just bawling his eyes out. The smell hadn't even seemed to bother him. Nor had he noticed when his father muttered the words "So pure.." under his breath.
"This place.." Sora murmured to himself as he continued on his way after having abandoned the crowd of homeless, injured people. Though he glanced up at the pitch black sky in remembrance. "Those people..I remember it now.."
The details had been sketchy, but as he ventured deep into the city, it all came crashing down upon him, like a whole other life that had been locked away in the very depths of his mind, which was exactly what happened. People don't like to remember traumatic events, people don't like to admit that their family members are crazed, psychopathic, homicidal maniacs either.
"But..where..?" Though as he skated down the dismal streets, he'd realize one important detail that he had forgotten, and now wished he was able to recall. Just where was his old house?
"Hollow Bastion. It was supposed to be abandoned after the genocide that had taken place over a decade ago." Leon explained, as him and Cloud ran their way back to the stage from the hospital. "It's the only town connected to Destiny Islands via a single road. But since no one ever goes there, I always thought it was blocked off."
"That's strange. It was never in the papers?" Cloud asked as the two reached the gates of the main building. They instantly moved to the garage then after.
"I guess everyone wanted to pretend that Hollow Bastion just didn't exist. So it was never wrote about, and no one was ever thought to live there after most of the inhabitants were slaughtered. It was almost like some dark magic that wiped out the entire civilization. Or so they thought. I think the inhabitants of Hollow Bastion were a little nuts. They all lived in the past, like it were the dark ages. You know, with witches and demons and stuff."
"How did you hear about it?"
Leon smirked a bit as he hit the few numbers on the touch pad that would open the garage gate.
"It was a rumored story on the internet."
"Of course.."
Nothing more was said on that matter, but as the two made their way into the garage, they'd come to a dead stop when Leon made a particularly detrimental realization.
"The car's gone.."
Riku's head hung as he breathed in and out as slowly and steadily as possible, trying his best not to focus on the blaring pain that racked his body. The incisions that littered his muscled form weren't deep enough to harm fatally, but they cut enough to sting like mad, and in horrible, horrible places.
And after each gash of the scalpel, Xehanort held the stethoscope up to his chest, pressing the cold metal against the heart beneath quivering flesh and feeling the organ pump steadily at first and then increasingly quicker upon each, quick release of blood that fell like liquid silk.
"Mmm. Yes...So afraid..Tell me, Riku. Do you fear death?" The scalpel was moved to just below Riku's ear and then dragged downwards in a torturously slow motion. It hadn't pressed hard at all however, so not even the faintest of cuts were made.
Still, Riku lifted his head and clamped his eyes shut tight in anticipation until he felt that cold steel being lifted, and he straightened his head, merely to spit right in those fierce, amber eyes.
"About as much as I fear you."
Rearing back and reaching with a hand to wipe the wad of saliva from his eye, and even though he appeared disgusted, he snickered darkly.
"And I suppose that's very little, huh?"
"No. It's nothing. I'm not afraid of you."
"Hm. Well isn't that a boldfaced lie." Xehanort chuckled, and turned to face Xemnas and Axel for a moment.
Both of which seemed hopelessly uninterested, though Xemnas had a most emotionless expression while Axel appeared just– hopeless. He twisted in his bonds, but no matter what, he just couldn't seem to break free.
"Why's that? What's there to be afraid of? Some pathetic psychopath on the brink of death anyway so he wants to take down as many as he can before he croaks?"
Riku's world when white for a split second, and instinctively he had closed his eye when he caught sight of the blur that was Xehanort.
It was a lucky thing too, since the elder's aim had the sharp blade gashing right down his left eye all the way to the middle of his cheek.
Riku let out a yelp, but tried to bite it back so that it sounded more like a low growl, though his head was leaned back against the hard wall in agony.
"You shut your fucking mouth! You don't know anything about what it's like– "
"Heh, oh boohoo. What? The whole "I'm near death and you don't know what it's like to know you're going to die" speech? Please. How horribly overdone can you get?"
Though he cried out anew when the tip of the scalpel was plunged just barely into his chest. Maybe less then an inch pierced his skin, drawing a tiny bubble of blood.
Xehanort twisted the tip, opening the tiny hole a bit wider as he did, and the rise and fall of Riku's chest quickened as he tried to merely go with the pain, rather then sit and focus on it.
"No, actually I was going to say "you don't know what it's like to have a perfectly good heart just sitting right here and no one else with enough medical experience to put it in me. But at least I can take it out of you.." Xehanort sneered and removed the scalpel tip, allowing a steady stream of blood to pour from that tiny hole.
He lifted a gloved fingertip to the opening and pressed down hard, drawing a wince from Riku who had turned his head to hide the small flicker of fear at his words.
Xehanort twisted his finger and then drew it downward, smearing the blood and then curving it to one side.
"You're sick.." Was all Riku could say as the elder drew his finger down his chest diagonally, and then up in the opposite way until he curved it again to meet where his bit of art started, just beneath that tiny wound.
"Mm, yes well. This isn't anything new, and it's why I must take this from you." He dotted his finger against the tip of the heart he just drew with Riku's blood and then lifted the bloody scalpel up for inspection.
The blade was tainted with blood at the tip, and it trailed ways down the steel a bit, tauntingly, temptingly. Xehanort smiled lightly and brought the instrument to his mouth where he then licked it clean.
Riku's stomach instantly churned and he turned his head off to the side once more, biting back a small whine of pain as well as fear..
"Don't worry, pretty little thing. Your heart is not ready to be harvested yet. I can't believe I never found you sooner. Imagine, an acrobat such as yourself. All those fancy moves, and falls. It must be such a rush, yes? Oh the adrenaline.." The newly cleaned blade was returned to his chest and merely scratched lightly down to his stomach, where the body paint from his costume lingered.
Meanwhile, Riku tensed and shuddered violently, feeling as the tip of the scalpel pressed slightly harder against the top of the moon shape sketched out along his side.
"Hm.." Xehanort hummed thoughtfully, and when the instrument was pressed just a tad bit harder, enough to draw blood as he started its descend down his skin, Riku let out a pained yell that fell on deaf ears as the scalpel tip curved against his stomach, following the paint decorating his pale flesh. "Aw, don't cry, baby. You look so pretty like this. I think you'll like my art when I'm done."
But right as he finished speaking, there was a loud crash like the shattering of glass from upstairs, and when Xemnas moved to investigate it, Xehanort stopped him.
"Don't worry about it. It's probably just one of those stupid townspeople. They all refuse to die on their own. Let them come. I'll send them to the hell they've created."
A sneer, and Xemnas returned to his spot by Axel's chair, Axel, who had redirected his eyes away from the teen's battered, bloodied body after being ransacked with guilt over being unable to step in.
And as expected by Xehanort, the sound of wood shattering would be heard as the basement's door was roughly kicked in, letting in a flow of light into the bleakness that made up that makeshift dungeon.
But what Xehanort wasn't counting on was the possibility that it wasn't one of those withered townspeople, and when he turned around upon hearing the yell that echoed off the walls, he'd be instantly surprised to see the smaller form of his own son leaping from the top stair and landing with a thud, though still perfectly balanced, upon those skates.
The others were equally as surprised, and Axel started struggling a new, flailing in his bonds and yelling out obscenities that were muffled by his gag. Xemnas moved a hand to the back of the chair, though he looked just as concerned, as well as surprised, strangely enough.
And although expressionless at first, Xehanort's lips curled upward to form a small, dark smirk, and that then paved the way for the dark chuckling that followed at the sight of his own battered son, who, for the moment, looked a tad bit maniacal himself as he scowled, especially given the costume, and furthermore, the small shards of broken glass that protruded from portions of bare skin, gained when Sora threw himself into that glass window in order to break into the manor.
When Xehanort's chuckling stopped, he turned away from Riku as the teen tried to keep his focus, even as his vision became blurry, and he could feel himself on the brink of passing out from the pain as well as the blood loss.
"Well, well, look who's crashing the party."
Black paint mixed with blood on Sora's small body as well, though he seemed to ignore it, or maybe he was just unaware at the moment, but either way he plucked a particularly large shard from his stomach, barely wincing when a small stream of blood followed the shard's release and he clutched it in his hand as he gradually advanced forwards with the glass held threateningly outward.
But as he did so, Xehanort was quick to move the blade to Riku's neck, and Sora instantly came to a halt.
"Now, Sora. You have a very important decision to make." Xehanort remarked, pushing the blade tightly against Riku's neck.
"Don't listen to him, Sora. Just go! get out of here and save yourself.." Riku muttered weakly, tensing every so often when he felt that blade threatening at his jugular.
But Sora ignored him, and when Xehanort motioned with a jerk of his head off to the side, Sora cautiously peered over his shoulder, just in time to see Xemnas with his own knife pressed against the neck of Axel, and Sora's eyes widened slightly.
"Lets see..We have..The one that's always taken care of you ever since you arrived at the orphanage, the one that's always been your friend. Or the one that you've only recently formed a bond with, and perhaps more some. But he wasn't always as nice and caring to you as Axel was. Was he? Hm, what a choice it seems. But if one has to die, which one will it be? At this point I guess I could take any of their hearts. Though I would prefer this one's." To accentuate that last part, Xehanort put a slight bit more pressure on the blade at his neck, causing Riku to grimace and tightly clamp his eyes.
Completely torn, Sora directed his gaze from one side to the other, and when his eyes settled on Xemnas, he offered a weak, whispered "why.."
But Xemnas was silent and unflinching, and Sora watched in horror as the blade of his own knife was trailed threateningly, yet lightly along Axel's throat, and for all he could do, Axel merely rolled his eyes up to the ceiling in fearful anticipation.
"I'm losing my patience, Sora." Xehanort's growl redirected his eyes back toward him and Riku, and Sora clenched his fists while closing his eyes tightly.
"How can you make me choose that?" he whimpered, and Xehanort only laughed.
"Simple. I tell you to choose, and you choose or else they both die, and then you do too."
As if struck with a sudden though, Sora's eyes barely opened, and as he glanced up, Xehanort took note of the small tears that pricked at the corners, just barely starting down the sides of his face.
"But– it's me you've always wanted, right?" Sora then interjected with a reasoning tone of voice, though his arms dropped hopelessly to his sides.
Strangely enough, Xehanort seemed to perk at this, and the scalpel was gradually lowered from Riku's neck.
Seeing the interest sparked, Sora smiled a little, and then idly tossed the shard of glass to the side in a sign of defeat, though he it slid a little until it sat a few inches infront of Axel's chair.
"Then you can have me. Just let them both go, and I won't fight any more. You can take my heart if you really think it'll heal you."
"Sora!" Riku jerked against the shackles tethering him to the wall, but he was forcefully shoved back against the hard rock when Xehanort pressed his hand against his bloody chest.
But after, he left the teen, just to close the distance between himself and his son, and Sora stood weakly, unflinching despite the intense fear that had him visibly trembling.
When he was close enough, Xehanort moved the tip of the scalpel to just below Sora's chin and he used it to tip the boy's face up, just so frighteningly dark amber spheres could stare into those gentler blues.
"You're heart is so pure." He commented. "So untainted and beautiful. Your light will heal me. Aren't you proud?"
Xehanort sneered, and Sora closed his eyes in anticipation.
"Just let them go.."
Another small chuckle, and Xehanort's free hand was moved to rest against Sora's costumed chest.
"I will. I don't need them.."
Meanwhile, Xemnas felt his hand tighten around the hilt of the knife that was gradually venturing around Axel's throat.
This is my faaaaavorite cliffie. -snickers- xD But sigh. School..;-; alas..Until next chapter